skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hm, site is down, so I hope I'm not repeating what's in the article.

I've got 2 really smart boys in elementary school. My wife and I are amazed at how bad the math education is. Our observations, based on a few kid-years of school across both a public and a private school:

- In an attempt to make math easier to learn, they're teaching math really abstractly. "skip counting" and a bunch of other stuff. It's basically all the tricks you figure out after you understand what you're doing, but they're teaching the tricks and not the math itself.
- Further to the last one, they don't teach things like times tables. Rather than just getting kids to memorize the times tables, they make them go through all these hoops to get them further along. I realize that times tables are no fun, but neither is struggling through every problem.
- Most teachers are not good at math. One teacher would send problems that didn't make any sense. I sat through a presentation by the teachers on the "new math" and it was clear they really don't know what they're doing, they're just teaching an algorithm.
- Most teachers don't like math. How do you instill a sense of love for something that you hate?

Many of these things go for other subjects too. It's just that it's more obvious in math.
Funded startups tend to spend money too fast (from what I've seen).

Maybe another reason to bootstrap/self-fund with consulting (what I'm doing right now).
Different types of office folders
That doesn't work for me (Chrome on OSX). The label is draggable, but I can never get it to be droppable (it always returns to its original location). I also have more labels than can fit in the "always visible" section.

EDIT: Ah! But you can drag the cut divider itself. Sweet! All my labels are on the screen again. Thanks!
Ordered List Acquired by GitHub
Especially when it pertains to oneself.
I understand this critique, but I also think there are times where jargon, abstract expressions and acronyms make communication a lot faster and clearer for people who share the same context and domain knowledge.

Trouble is, if you don't have the domain knowledge it's really hard to tell if what you're listening to is really condensed, specific info or meaningless blather.

A lot of times I might say something like "we did data analysis with Python, NLTK and R. The stack is on EC2 running Django with memcached and varnish serving up json and the frontend uses jQuery, underscore and backbone to render it"

To some people, that's a ton of info. To others it probably sounds like gibberish.

The same even applies to the "valley-girl" talking. It sounds like meaningless half-sentences to someone listening in, but to people who know all the social relationships being discussed there might be a lot of information going back and forth.
My favorite part about this is how awesomer the Internet is going to be.
I had a friend in college who never thought he was good at math. Then one day in 10th grade he started going through math books. He is now an extremely talented mathematician at Harvard. Insert lockhart's lament, I suppose.

Part of the problem I think is that we assume that people who don't get math early on are just "bad at it" as opposed to people who don't get reading. If a student doesn't learn to read, we think "how can we better teach them? Do they have dyslexia? What are ways we can teach dyslexic children to read? We don't ask the same questions when a student doesn't get math, we just say "oh, well, they suck at that then."
Eleven Maverick Startup Tips From Mark Cuban
I'm pretty sure I actually spend less on Xbox Live than I would if everything were done with straight money transactions because it is virtually impossible to buy enough points to cover things you want to buy without having leftover unspent points, the existence of which (even if temporary) makes me feel wasteful.

eg. Ok, I would like to buy this indie game for XXX points, but I need to buy points in blocks of YYY dollars which means after I buy this I'll have 200 unused points sitting in my account for who knows how long... screw it, I didn't really want that indie game that bad anyway.

Granted this is just one view of the situation and I may be an anomaly, but for me the whole point<->money system causes me to think too much which pretty much kills off any potential for impulse purchases.

Straight up dollar values and a click-to-buy system as streamlined as Amazon one click is what gets my money.

YMMV.
Using real words that made sense would vastly decrease the grandiloquent feeling of self-importance that puffs up these enemies of clear communication.

I sentence them all in absentia to ten readings of "The Elements of Style" by Strunk & White.
One of things that I have found to be a disappointed with the US education system is lack of statistics courses in High School. In most cases, the extent of stats/prob education is limited to AP Statistics, which most students will not take and probably scares off many otherwise bright students because of the "AP".

I find this particularly troubling since I remember as a student that my peers would constantly complain about math courses using the rationale "Am I ever going to really use this?". Both sides are arguable for certain subjects (I can't remember the last time I really used trigonometry, but I do think that learning it helped me to reason better in other domains). However, I find it troubling that statistics is not mandatory/highly encouraged, yet it is something that applies to an incredible amount of everyday activities.
Yahoo bracing for employee exodus?
Have you guys considered that the test could have been written by someone who does not understand math at all? My wife is a teacher and occasionally I look at the crap questions that come on standardized tests and I am appalled.

I saw a 8th grade textbook that explained how compute square roots by hand - but the algorithm was wrong. It only worked for examples in the book.
StumbleUpon rolls out a major update: new logo, Stumble bar and channels
Bandwidth limits of the human brain shape the internet.
Aparate fitness in aer liber, pentru exterior
I would rather say that article says that the trace jit they build is only faster for tight, non-branchy code. I would say that the generall JS programmen has this property but Mike Pall has showed that in the end trace-jit are better. He wrote LuaJit 1 witch is a method jit and LuaJit 2 witch is a trace-jit and his conclution with luajit one was that he hit a performance wall.
Proofs are boring. Who needs proofs?
You either know what you're proving is already proved, then what's the point?
Or you know it probably is false, then there's even less reason to.

People want math to be able to make things with it, all the math which doesn't help making things should be confined to 0,5% of population who really want this kind of punishment.

And responding on the title: the answers starts with "bo" and ends with "ring".
Oh christ, where to even start..

First, it downloads and installs a non-checksummed i686 binary version of mongodb. This is outrageously anti-social and one should be embarrassed for releasing that. Ditto ez_setup and all that crap. This is 2011.

I'm only looking at the Debian script now, but it's littered with other bugs such as not calling update-rc.d for amon (it is called for amond). The suggestion to run "curl uninstall.amon.cx | sh" is particularly unsafe as the script has a Bash shebang and /bin/sh could be anything.

A glance at the rpm script suggests bugs fixed in one have not been copied over - for example, you use pgrep correctly in the debian script but in the rpm script you essentially do [ "$(ps aux | grep -c mongo)" = 1 ] which gives you completely the opposite result to what you want.

The uninstallation scripts are perhaps worse, riddled with typos ("/etc.init.d/amond", "torando", etc.) which demonstrate the code has never once been tested, deleting /usr/bin/mongo* even though you install it to /usr/local/ (and screw anyone who had their own version running), deleting any systemwide versions of jinja, and. It won't even uninstall on Darwin due to "[ "$(uname -s)" != "Darwin" ];". And you call "set +e" (a no-op as it's the default) so that if the site_packages shell expansion fails you try and delete "/jinja2", etc.

I'm going home now. This is just what I see on my first glance but I think I've seen enough, frankly.
I feel silly wading in after tokenadult has gone diploma waving and you've shouted expeliarmus, but it's worth noting that TIMSS data suffices to show a performance gap between two groups, but doesn't seem to suffice to show that, ceteris paribus, there's a performance gap.

It seems that tokenadult believes there's a mimicable or replicable non-genetic factor, and you believe there's a genetic or otherwise 'unique' factor that indicates a gap that can't be closed. It's probably some combination of the two, but it'd be nice if we could talk about that instead of this other stuff.
I think the author missed one of the motivations behind some of the behaviors: Pure unadulterated bullshitting.

Some folks figure out early in life to talk past their listeners, and some listeners will be intimidated. I found this out by simply playing stupid a number of times (it comes quite naturally for me) and making them explain it fully.

You will be surprised at the number of charlatans exposed by this tactic.
I'm pretty sure they're moving at a slow-ish walk, not running. The point is regular low levels of physical activity, not hard core cardio during your meeting.
I don't get it. My wife is on her feet 12 hours a day, so her feet just hurt.
I can't tell if you're just randomly anti-MS trolling here or if you're confusing a 360 with a PS3? Because PSN updates all the damn time, and Xbox 360 dashboard updates no more than every 6 months.
Is there one iota of research to support any of the proposed remedies? In particular: kids need more word problems. Do they really? Would it make any difference to the outcome? What is the desired outcome? One reason education isn't better is it is by and large pre-scientific. Teaching approaches are based on opinions, anecdotes and cherished beliefs, but precious little data.
Record yourself. Playback.

The course correction will happen quite quickly.
Sure: I wanted to make an application that has some GIS capabilities. It should be able to get a user's current location, create waypoints on a map (say for nearest burrito restaurant locations), then return a list of the waypoints ranked by distance from the user.
It seems that you've built your self identification and self esteem on your assumed aptitude in math, which is a problem. The fact that you don't see it only makes it worse.
How to Choose Hot Topics for Your Kindle Books -
Never make counter-offers
FatBurning Furnace – A Honest Review about FatBurning Furnace
Facebook's Adqui-hire of Gowalla Confirmed
It may be possible, but I can imagine that it would be very very difficult for us to grasp since if this research is verified we'd likely have so little in common linguistically. It strikes me as kind of like "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra".
Sounds like you'll need Objective C!
IDC: Windows 8 will be 'largely irrelevant' to traditional PC users
Sometimes, we invent buzzword laden “features”
SLA

SLAs are buzzword nothings? Man, the naiveity is simply oozing out of this post.
A sea change in SEO is very clear when you consider this stat
Google now graphs mathematical functions
J Valentine Clubwear
GitHub acquires Ordered List
Dirt Napster: After 13 years the music service is finally finished
If you're using this 1Password for everything, how do you log in to your Dropbox?

Assuming you have a passphrase for Dropbox, as well; then, I didn't know it had a web ui, and that ~does~ make things convenient --- assuming SSL or similar for security.
I'm also suggesting https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods. Better solution, better support from the community, actively deployed.
Too bad I already blocked all of these social news readers a while ago, for all of same reasons this extension hopes to solve.
Amazon Gold Box, BOGO, and Music and Dance Video Game Day
I was surprised that this acquisition includes Ordered List's products (SpeakerDeck and Gaug.es specifically). Assuming they don't get shut down, now Github can host your conference talks and provide analytics (built-in repo analytics anyone?) - in addition to hosting your wiki, bug tracker, code repository, and blog.

I think this could be HUGE for Github as they position themselves as the one stop shop for developers.

I can see six months down the line that every major conference is posting their collection of slide decks on Github. I can see tight integration with your repos and analytics ("See how this commit affects your conversion rate") and maybe even a "Start A/B test between these two branches" button.
Testing unproven hypotheses requires, among other things, money.

Pivoting requires, among other things, money.
Here are sample 10th grade math tests from MA and TX. Unclear where this person is from, but this will give you a decent idea: http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/2011/release/g10math.pdf http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/o...
Agreed. Unfortunately the businesspeople the author is talking about don't seem to be making the insider/outsider distinction that you're pointing out. Combine that with the fact that most businesspeople have the compulsive need to make their ideas sound more complicated and profound than they really are, and you have the recipe for misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Vendor hasn't been updated in almost a month: https://github.com/keithpitt/vendor/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

Compare this to CocoaPods:
https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/commits/master/
I've been on a conference call where everyone was banding around acronyms that I didn't know, so I jumped in and asked if they could define a particular TLA that was coming up frequently.

It turned out that not a single person on the call knew what it stood for.
What a brilliant acquisition. Five talented individuals with a proven record of building beautiful software together. Congrats to both parties.
Changing Demographics of Tablet and eReader Owners in the US
Actually, the encrypted key is stored in localStorage, not sessionStorage. If you choose "keep me logged in" then the UNencrypted key is stored in sessionStorage (which automatically goes away when you close the window). There are no cookies involved (unless the site using DSSID for login gives you a session cookie).

Packaging PKI so that a non-technical user can use it is the central challenge here. There's actually quite a lot of functionality that is hidden in order to keep things simple. To see it visit:

https://secure.dswi.net/dssid/auth
What phantom limbs and mirrors teach us about the brain
Splitting equity in a software startup
Strange coincidence, but I was playing with the idea of a 3D game of life a few weeks ago and put the quick-and-dirty project up on GitHub. https://github.com/jl2/LifeAutomata

One interesting version I came up with was to have the 2D version "grow" upwards: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6461000807_8c06428bb1_b.j...

I remember having similar scaling problems with the "real" 3D version, but don't remember off hand if I came up with a solution.
Quality over quantity. In some of my past work, my team was rather "remote"; various members located elsewhere and/or working significant portions of their schedule from home.

I really liked many of them, and catching up for a few minutes on the phone far surpassed most of the semi-random office socializing that took place on-site. And at times, we'd work for a while together wearing headsets and sharing network resources. I found that every bit as good as physically sitting next to them. Actually, it was less distracting, not having someone physically a foot away from you, staring at your screen.

Make sure your voice communication is uncapped, and feel free to use it. (I'm not one for web cams; most of the time, there's no real point to having an image of the other duffer sitting at their keyboard.) And focus on those people you enjoy talking with. Take time to get to know their personality; you'll end up sharing the same humor and small asides that you would in-person.

(One fellow I got along well with and worked with frequently, I never -- over the course of a few years -- ended up meeting in person. Nonetheless, I feel that I got to know him fairly well, in the friendly co-worker sense.)

I'll add: Establish trust. Do what you say you will, and expect the same from the other person. Don't let physical separation be an excuse for not following through. This is more important than physical presence. And, if you are using physical presence to, um, "influence" (coerce?) people into getting things done, you already have a problem that is not really a matter of physical presence (or lack thereof).

The real world isn't perfect in this regard, but over time, you can emphasize the people you can trust and de-emphasize those you can't. It's a useful aspect in making career decisions.
This is a really interesting take on the subject.

I am almost completely opposite in how I evaluate these emails, phone calls and messages.

I was raised with an "I can do anything" mentality and so i reached out to probably dozens if not hundreds of people when doing my first couple businesses as nothing but a kid.

Truth be told the only real thing I had going for me is that I was too dumb to know I should have failed and too stubborn to give up when for all intents and purposes I already had.

When I get emails these days asking for help I usually try to gauge one thing.

How bad does this person want it?

If they truly care it comes off in their tone and if there is passion in what they are doing they are very likely to succeed whether the odds are stacked against them or not.

If they seem less passionate I typically dont really bother meeting with them or discussing anything much further.

But in kind of a pay it forward mentality I realize that I could never give back to the people that gave to me at least to the extent some of them contributed. So the best I can do is help those who are in need now.

Often someone will ask me to go to dinner and pick my brain about certain things or get my opinion on a subject, some just simply ask for help, but when I take those dinners I usually buy.

And then I spend the time with them telling them everything that other people spent their time telling me and some things I wish I would've been told.

What the author of this post should know is that you get out of life what you make. and sometimes the obvious answer to "What's in it for me" is the least helpful part of that entire equation.

I have learned so much by giving others advice and learning from their downfalls and strengths. Most of us can.

But some of us never will if we walk around worrying about what we will get out of it.
Thanks a lot for that.

First, it downloads and installs a non-checksummed i686 binary version of mongodb. This is outrageously anti-social and one should be embarrassed for releasing that. Ditto ez_setup and all that crap. This is 2011.

Amon is language agnostic, so there is enourmous chance, that a person who has 0 python knowledge could use it. By default none of the Linux distributions out there have pip or
easy_install, so I thats why I have to install it.

I'm only looking at the Debian script now, but it's littered with other bugs such as not calling update-rc.d for amon (it is called for amond)

That is for reason. Some people, especially on small VPS's prefer to keep their memory usage low, so that's why the web part is running on demand only.

It won't even uninstall on Darwin due to "[ "$(uname -s)" != "Darwin" ];"

It's not running on MacOS at all at the moment, that's still work in progress.
I did the same, but with just hiding them from the timeline. It was becoming obvious that Facebook was trying to shove these new apps down our throats since even with only a friend or two using them, they would stay at the top of the timeline.
I get that Lockhart thinks math is beautiful. I don't think the average student agrees, though, and not just because they were taught it in a poor fashion. Similarly, I personally think programming is super-nifty, but most people don't agree. They find it difficult and tedious.

The fact is that we can't convince someone to find programming (or math) beautiful. So we teach them enough that they can hopefully 1) pass the tests, and 2) absorb enough to be useful. We do that through repetition and exercises. This is why beginning CS classes are often so tedious. They are aimed at a fairly general audience. In contrast, later classes are aimed at students who are specifically interested in CS, so the teaching methods are different, and better for those students.
Just skimmed the scripts on my mobile and obviously I cannot claim to know the GP's thoughts, but one thing that stood out was a habit of using rm -rf a lot, sometimes with wildcard arguments or environment variables passed on.

I cannot judge the safety in general, but can you list a single reason for using the -f argument here? I'd bet that this is 'just in case' combined with muscle memory gone bad.
Not to mention how uncomfortable you feet might feel after lots of walking in dress shoes.
Credit Repair
I noticed the fonts always render poorly in Windows. But apart from that, the actually css design should look the same (unless of course you're using IE).
Agreed. It's not being stupid that makes you vulnerable to bullshit. It's not wanting to look stupid. Lots of people will silently nod as if they understand when they have no idea what's being said. I've even done it myself in some circumstances. Unfortunately, this allows the speaker to gloss over critical issues make nice-sounding ideas unworkable in practice.
I agree. I hate this concept of making it feel like an app... if I wanted an app, I would use the (awful) tablet interface.

To me, the innovation of gmail was that it made a usable webpage, that worked the way a website should, and yet was still efficient and user-friendly. Part of this was done by copying the better aspects of the app world (keyboard shortcuts, eager fetching of messages, fast performance, etc). But it still fundamentally felt like an efficient, intuitive, information-delivery system (the web).

Copying the worst aspects of the app world (multiple scrollbars per page/screen, massively higher cognitive load due to all the scrolling, etc) is not an improvement.
I think some modules are far more important to know about than this one. Seems to me that it's more about marketing their startup (last 2 modules you should know about was from his cofounder with a paragraph on testling). Don't get me wrong, I agree that these are useful libraries but there are others that are definitively worth knowing about even though they aren't related to browserling. </end of me being grumpy>
I wanted to build a place for myself where I enjoyed coming everyday and build stuff. Pretty simple idea, but hard to do.

It's interesting, and sometimes scary, how connected my life happiness is to making things. But at least I know that if I can keep doing that, life will be good. So that is my biggest goal.

PS. I'll count on you to remind me once in a while Nini :-)
>"we did data analysis with Python, NLTK and R. The stack is on EC2 running Django with memcached and varnish serving up json and the frontend uses jQuery, underscore and backbone to render it"

This sentence has actual data in it. The author, I think, is talking about people whose statements have almost no substance, so they fill them in with buzzwords.