skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
scala> import org.apache.commons.math.distribution.{ExponentialDistributionImpl=>expo}

//pc = process customer, with a mean time mu per customer

scala> def pc(mu:Int):Double= new expo(mu).sample

// q = queue of n customers with mean process time mu

scala> def q(n:Int,mu:Int):Double=(1 to n).map(_=>pc(mu)).sum

scala> // put 3000 people in 1 queue with mean process time 50

scala> (1 to 1000).map(_=>q(3000,50)).sum/1000

res43: Double = 83107.37275937156

scala> //now put 1000 people each in 3 separate queues with the same mean process time as before

scala> (1 to 1000).map(_=>(1 to 3).par.map(_=>q(1000,50)).sum).sum/1000

res45: Double = 200010.29627921886

200010 = ~3x83107, so yeah, single line to 3 cashiers is ~3x faster than a separate line for each cashier.

// Now make 1 queue that feeds into shortest of the 3 queues

scala> def qq(n:Int,mu:Int)=(1 to 3).par.map(_=>{(1 to n/3).map(_=>pc(mu)).sum}).sum

scala> (1 to 10000).map(_=>qq(3000,50)).sum/10000

res70: Double = 141824.974765643

So our single queue feeding into 3 separate queues still beats 3 separate independent queues.

edited to address MaysonL's question.
De-emphasizing direct messages makes sense. Twitter is accepting its role as a mostly passive service. Having a conversation through DM requires both parties to be following each other, a frankly rare scenario when most people are following companies, organizations and celebrities or notables. You may not like it but if you make any real use of direct messages, I'm pretty sure you are an atypical user now.

In most situations, people use Timeline mentions to achieve the same thing, but without the secrecy and limitations direct messages introduce. I don't have a problem with this at all, frankly. It leaves a big opening for 3rd party clients to fill the gap, while repositioning the Twitter for iPhone app as the best choice for the mainstream Twitter user (which it wasn't previously but is as of 4.0).

It may not be in your best interests, but I think it's a smart move that's in the long term interests of the service. Twitter, from the beginning, has always been about learning from the community and observing how people use the service rather than telling them how to use the service. This is just one more lesson learned from actual users.

The rest of the UI changes are quite painful, though. I support the previously discussed changes, but overall the 4.0 update is a regression in terms of the UI.

EDIT - I write all that, then I see this in my timeline: "Twitter for iPhone pro-tip: swipe up on Me for DMs and swipe left on Me to switch accounts." I guess they found a compromise. Actually, that's pretty amazing. Nobody else has to think about DMs if they don't want to, but power users still get instant access. Great job, Twitter.
The plane did have the air speed information, at least at the time it made the stall warnings. Starting at time 2h10m17s, the pitot tubes started working again, the air speed was available, and the Flight Director came back online [page 89 of BEA report]. That is why the plane was able to make the stall warning in the first place.

I also wonder if, once the FD was back online, could the pilots have just re-engaged the auto pilot and the plane would have fixed itself? This is just such a tragic accident when there was nothing at all wrong with the plane for most of the incident!
To add to your examples, there's also the case that you've already unloaded your cart, but the idiot in front of you sends the cashier on a wild goose chase to get cigarettes for him and they spend ten minutes sorting that out. Or you're behind some "extreme couponer" who splits their order into six separate orders to maximize their coupon savings, and you have to resist the urge to just pay for their entire order just to shame them into being less of a goddamn miser.
'Capital Efficiency' doesn’t exist
Google+ now lets you share pictures effortlessly from Gmail
I was really bothered by this too. I like to have whatever I'm reading be near the middle of the screen so I have context; the forced pagination makes you keep a finger on the screen at all times fighting it.
You (and everyone else who feels this way) need to take a look at the startup scripts for your favorite Linux distro.
The solution to the problem patent trolling lies in making defense of infringment allegations _inexpensive_.

As long as defending against infringment claims, regardless of their merit, is _expensive_, there will be patent trolls.
Or perhaps they lured it to a known location, spotted it in the daytime with binoculars, intercepted it with an old-fashioned human pilot in a jet, who blasted it with turbulent jet exhaust until it went into an unrecoverable stall. Sure it's probably a long shot, but we don't know how many times they may have tried and it didn't work either.
Agreed, it's a simple application of Occam's razor.

The only possible scenario I see where they actually managed to take control of it is if they have good inside information. That's not impossible, of course, but then they wouldn't give it away like that.
> I'm sure you'd want to have a Big Flashing Warning Light telling you that ground speed <> air speed

That light would never stop flashing. :)

Once you get up a couple of thousand feet, even if the flag is hanging flush against the pole on the ground, you're going to have some type of air movement. The higher you go, the higher the windspeed (in general).
The Art Of Just Being
Heh, interesting. I can't believe it didn't occur to me that an overzealous algorithm might be to blame.

FYI, you'll probably also want to add "closure" itself if a lot of people are using it in that way, since there's a Google library called "Closure" that might get added to your skills database at some point.
Yes, but that's not the point. How do you allocate the extra cashiers? Do they just take customers one by one from the existing queue, or do they split the queue awkwardly and encourage customers to form additional queues?
They (we) do. Fortunately, no one appears to have scooped me yet. Its actually much worse in academia though, as someone could be winding their way through publication for a year while you're still collecting data, and by the time you're done, its too late. Contrast with startups where they tend to be promoted from day one, and it makes for a much scarier experience.
Meeting notes, shopping lists, todo lists, whiteboard photographs, names of people I've met at parties so I can remember who they are later, cigars and whiskey I've enjoyed.

Every other list maker I've ever tried has suffered from either local storage - it won't be with me after I flash my phone or if I take the idevice to the store instead of the android or if I'm at my computer and left my phone downstairs - or else poor searching. Evernote makes all my info show up everywhere I am and be very well searchable, so it's become my go-to 'jot something down' system. I particularly love that they did a great job on search.
This was great and very motivating but my only little squabble with it was where he talked about excuses. I'm one who firmly believes that there is no room for excuses I'm anything you do but when you fail and try to point out why, that isn't always an excuse. We need to try to understand everything as humans and sometimes our theories on why we fail are off base and can sound like excuses. Some things are just out of our control. Those who are making excuses know it deep down inside but sometimes you fail and you really jus can't control it.

we let the decisions be taken by the faceless system of default behaviours that composes the world.

I love that line. Not sure why but it really got to me.

The default outcome for life in the western world is being normal, unremarkable, unnoticeable.

This one got to me more. So well put. So many people who want to cry about life not being fair and things not going how they want and it's because they accept the default. I find myself having to tell people something similar though far less eloquent all the time.
"Innovation" doesn't please shareholders because it doesn't sell games It's for the same reason that P&G or Nestle shareholders don't prioritize "innovative" food products. Games are a mature market. To first approximation, buyers want better versions of what they already like.

Sure, there's the occasional innovative hit (Portal, Minecraft, Angry Birds) that drives a bunch of profits for an lucky (usually independent) developer. But the overwhelming share of revenue in the industry goes to the rehashed genre pieces like CoD or Skyrim. If you want to blame someone, blame the buyers.
That's so dodgy, did they run out of legitimate businesses to run offers with, so they have to create new entities?
Ask HN: Review my latest project, DialShield
In reading his description of the inevitable black border, I was thinking about Philips Ambilight[1] and how useful it would be for the border to be page color (white or black) when reading, or even to pick up the bgcolor or background from web pages.

It's not that much of a stretch to think of it working for black or white borders. Perhaps it could even be done with a type of e-ink so it wouldn't need power except when changing state from light to dark or back.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCrKVKT-b1k
and a slimmer tool inspired by jsawk (in node) https://gist.github.com/1053262
So what is the functional difference between a shared-ownership, driverless car, and a standard human-driven taxi?

Don't underestimate the price difference. It's one of those things where a large enough quantitative difference becomes a qualitative difference.

In the US it costs around $15-$20/hour to hire a taxi driver (median wage is $11.20 per hour). Over the course of a month (24/7) that starts to approach the cost of the car. Granted, the taxi isn't used 24/7, but the operator still has to recoup the cost of having it available all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if about 90% of the cost of a taxi is due to employing the driver.

Even if all you do is reduce the cost of a trip by a factor of ten, you're going to see big changes.
Google+ Introduces Automatic Face Recognition To Photo Tagging
The problem with learning even basic queuing theory is that, for the rest of your life, you will think "There is a much better way to do this, and I can prove it" after having to choose a single line.
If you can jam the control signal long enough, does the plane go into some kind of failsafe mode where it tries to land? What happens if it runs out of fuel?
This guy's argument seems to lead to, "Apple has designed the ultimate possible tablet shape," which I don't believe in the least. Samsung obviously copied their design concept, and didn't even try to improve on it. How about a rubberized, textured back, like the Kobo ebook reader?
Yup, intentional stalls give plenty of warning in a trainer.

It's the stalls caused by uncoordinated flight during a steep bank or snap spins caused by exceeding critical angle of attack, regardless of speed, that will kill you. The first is easy to get into in a trainer like a C172. The second won't happen (safely) unless you're in something with a bit less lift and more power, like a Pitts.
Malfunctioned and landed itself neatly on a ground for the hostiles to pick up. Not much of an Occam's razor, is it? :)
Here is one possible theory:

* majority of technology in US is outsourced to China / India

* China is a good friend of Iran and India has a very close relationship

* some info about technology might be passed to Iran

And joke is: when they open the drone, they will see "made in China" sign somewhere.
Having one combined line can increase stress for shoppers too, especially if the line isn't clearly marked by barriers.

What happens is, another customer comes along, sees three cashiers and one queue (in the middle) and decides to join the "empty queue" in front of the cashier at either end.

Of course they know there's only one queue and that they are queue jumping, but they calculate that they can pretend they didn't know.

I assume there's a cultural factor here. I'm in the UK and have seen this many times in one store nearby, but I imagine that in some parts of the world you would be beaten or shot for it. I have never seen anybody complain about it, they just temporarily disperse into three queues (which is awkward because there is not really enough room.)
At a walmart in Canada, they had an express line which had 6 cashiers and one line. A LCD screen chimed with the number of the next cashier when they were ready.
I want these people who are running around saying there's no other way to design Samsung's stuff to explain to me one thing.

Why, of all the devices on earth, does Samsung's tablet exactly mimic Apple's USB connector?

I've got a Galaxy Tab sitting right next to me, here. The design isn't just similar, the dimensions are nearly identical.

Explain it to me. Please. If you can offer a compelling case for why Samsung isn't a shameless industrial design thief that can also account for their USB connector, I will be very impressed. It is, to me, the smoking gun. Don't tell me it's the only way to design a low-profile USB connector. It's the only way when Apple does it – everyone else has been doing fine with USB mini and micro.

Samsung: http://i.imgur.com/eyqGw.jpg

Apple: http://i.imgur.com/nh0eI.jpg

Everyone else: http://i.imgur.com/vpPhZ.jpg

Oh, and for thoroughness, how Amazon designed a beautiful USB micro cable that looked nothing at all like Apple's: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Replacement-Display-Generation-...

Maybe Apple had a time machine and traveled into the future, stealing Samsung's wholly original USB cable design?
Embedded Tweets Documentation
Tell HN: Got a pending US patent app? Read this.
Besides the sibling comment point here, its power button is placed for the right thumb in landscape mode. The icon on it tells you which way is "up".
Self-checkouts are not just about speed. They also appeal to specific kind of people.

I use them because I don't want to interact with someone just to get some groceries. I know, it's kind of sad, but I don't want to say 'Hi' and 'Thank you' and I don't want 5 bags when 2 would suffice and don't want to explain that, so I just do it myself.
that is more probable than anything else and matches Iran's electronic capabilities
China was able to gain full access to an American satellite (or at least blamed for it [http://informationweek.com/news/government/security/23190190... ]). I would bet that Russia has similar capabilities. Iran isn't working in isolation, and if either Russia or China decided to crack their knuckles in this situation, the likelihood of the craft being downed is higher than one might initially think.
Glory be to Jobs!
... sure, it depends. But there are even more reasons than over-propagation of change events to avoid strict two-way model/view binding.

One of them is that the data often isn't the same. The view displays a computed value from the model, and the model should receive the "real" value upon a change. For example:

<span data-value="<%= feed.get('kind') %>">
<%= feed.entitle() %>
</span>

... becomes ...

<span data-value="article">
NYT Article
</span>

When the DOM element is chosen, the model's value should be "article", not "NYT Article" ... and perhaps the change should happen immediately, and perhaps the change should happen only after a "Save" button is clicked.

With concrete two-way binding, you may spend more time configuring all of your DOM elements, and configuring when your models should be considered "changed", and when they shouldn't -- than you gain by tying them together in the first place.
Honestly, this whole episode sounds like the Americans allowed the super secret drone to fall into Iran's hands. Think about it, we're being told that there are no contingency plans to scuttle sensitive drone technology when it goes rogue? That this rogue drone landed itself in hostile territory when we know full well that it has GPS and probably a detailed map of no-fly zones? We scuttle everything that is abandoned: subs, stealth choppers. This capability was certainly not overlooked in these drones.

This is either a super fancy way of getting a new version of Stuxnet into Iranian research facilities, or a proxy play to deliver crippled/broken stealth technology to China.
Look up Clipboard Manager by Jan Zeman. It runs in the Windows sidebar.
Godaddy parking page results in a disgraceful UDRP decision
Instructions for disabling Flash plugin...

in Chrome browser:
http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans...

in Mozilla Firefox:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Macromedia_flash#Enabling_and_disa...

Really no reason to have it enabled anymore.
6 Dirty Reasons Why You Suck At WordPress Theme Development
"Twitter for iPhone pro-tip: swipe up on Me for DMs and swipe left on Me to switch accounts." /via https://mobile.twitter.com/bhaggs/status/144846707925061632

Not the most discoverable gesture, but it's there, though it's only a little weirder than "swipe across tweet for secondary actions" (though on that topic I'll miss using that to quickly save links to Instapaper).
I go to Fry's a ton, and it always seems to go much quicker, but I agree, psychologically standing in a tremendously huge line feels worse.
This is one of many side projects I started years ago and just this week decided to get off my todo list by finishing it properly and releasing.

DialShield is an embeddable widget and API for adding phone verification to a website or app. It calls/texts the person right from your website with a code they repeat back to prove they own that phone. Now you can tie a unique/traceable piece of identity to the anonymous web user.

It can be used to stop:

- Spam/duplicate registrations. Craigslist requires phone verification before posting in a high-spam category.

- Payment fraud. I registered this domain and built the API in 2008 (intending to eventually have people other than myself use it). I had a website with so much fraud from eastern-european countries using stolen credit cards that I lost a merchant account and was at risk of not being able to accept credit cards for the rest of my life. Adding phone verification to checkout cut the chargebacks from 15 a month to 5 all year.

- Two-factor authentication for login or password resets.

I'd appreciate any feedback. I don't have a friend outside the US so haven't been able to do much testing of international calling. I'd love to find out there's an easy way to get a phone number in another country that forwards to me for testing at little/no cost.

Built with Symfony, Twilio and Twitter Bootstrap.
From BigCo Software Engineer to Entrepreneur - 1 year in.
I'm not convinced that trade-off would exist. It can't possibly be hard for a driverless car to kick control over to a human driver.
When I say it compares in performance to other systems I mean other high level more-than-a-socket systems like XMPP servers, which I spent a lot of years benchmarking and optimizing. Of course to-the-metal binary packet systems will be much faster as you're doing the buffer management and choosing your copies wisely.

It would be super-awesome to see a profile of node.js when you run this test to see where the CPU is going. Is it something low level like the string parsing, buffer copying, socket writing, or maybe something higher level like some inefficient algorithm somewhere. As I read below that socket.io is focusing on performance now, I guess we'll know soon. :)
5 Free Easy Ways You Can Do UX Design Testing
Maybe, but how successful were those Microsoft tablets.

"the only possible way for a tablet to look"

He never said that, he is claiming that most of the properties Apple is disputing are the best way to design an object like this, which is a perfectly reasonable argument.
Another change: As soon as there are three or more people waiting in a line, the retailer deploys "line busters," employees who scan items in shoppers' carts before they reach the cashier, says Mr. Carey, who works closely with the retailer's operations team on line speed.

This isn't really news. WalMart's been doing this forever.
I think most of the stigma has gone away now. Admittedly I run in tech heavy social circles, but many of the people I know either still play video games or stopped due solely to lack of time and envy those who do still play.

Of course, you can have more than one hobby. I still play video games when I have time and the mood strikes me, but I also play Go and that is what I bring up when asked. (Not due to concerns about social stigma, I am just hoping they will also play Go and we can arrange a game.)
Greylock And Benchmark Lead $15M Round In Edmodo
Love this blog post by Evan Jacobs reflecting on his first year as a entrepreneur and what he's learned.
Thats why OAuth2.0 protocol is limited to HTTPS and is said to never be implemented over HTTP.
Nice. CRM for your mom.
You're right, they did try. But unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I expected more from the "Number One Company in 2011"
The OPEN Act: An Alternative to Protect IP and SOPA
If you swipe left on the "Me" button at the bottom of the iPhone app, it brings up an account selection screen. That seems like a mind-boggling UI decision to me - a swipeable button with no affordance for the swipe and no indication of why it reacted differently to a swipe than a press.

Update: apparently if you swipe up, it shows you DMs. So once you touch that button, you're probably going to some screen, even if you don't want to.

I can imagine the product meeting now: "You're getting rid of the DM icon?" "Yeah, but we'll figure out a way users can get to it directly."
If you mean the repetitive spaghetti of pseudo text processing in init.d, then yes I've seen it. Everything tries to do the same stuff in a different way, there's lack of one framework, error checking is present only in random places and any script can hang because there's no real timeout handling. They're also different in almost every distribution and some are incompatible between sh/bash and very few people can tell the difference. The whole idea is one level too low and we're finally growing up to use something simpler.

That's one of my "favourite" examples of using scripting where it's not needed. Have a look at what's actually keeping critical systems working -> inittab, supervisord, etc. Lately upstart also migrated from scripts to something more declarative.

Edit: forgot the bit where everyone "parses" the output of commands like `ifconfig` and pretends they will never change, or will never fail, or will return the information in the same format. How many scripts relied on grepping ifconfig output for "inet" before "inet6" broke the startup?
I think you're potentially overestimating how competently the military protects these drones. Video from drones over Iraq were intercepted by insurgents using a $26 piece of software:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/world/middleeast/18drones....
Actually, the article did mention one strike against using one line (albeit briefly):

And they prefer to choose their own line rather than wait in a single-file line for the next available register—even though that set-up has proven to be faster, research on queuing shows.
Sort of off-topic, but does anyone know anything about the software the Airbus (or any commercial aircraft, really) runs? I'd be really interested to know how abstracted the code is from the hardware.
If we were to take the concept of a VR "thought is action" simulacrum seriously, I think that maybe current standards for what is seen as socially good can still apply there- it is better to "produce" so that others may "consume", than to primarily consume yourself. So maybe VR actors, musicians, and coders will still be seen as doing something worthy of more prestige than typical VR gamers. The only difference between then and now is how much physical activity your body needs to spend to accomplish that.
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