skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I probably could, but in this case there were other issues which lead me to move to JSON. Speed being one of them json_*code is about twice as fast as un/serialize.

I know igbinary exists to solve that, but it would make debugging something using psql even worse.

Also, there is no formal specification for the output of serialize() and there is some talk about changing the format sometime in the future. While they could have unserialize() understand both formats and serialize only write the new one, it would mean that I have to play catch-up and fix my code as the format changes.

As I would probably never really have time to do it, this would crate a fixed dependency on an old version of PHP which a) would preclude me from using new language features and b) would get me into trouble as distros update and the last version which writes the current format falls out of support.

Then there are also some encoding issues which are too complicated to explain here but basically force you to store the output of serialize() in a bytea column which again sucks for quick psql-based inspection and for PDO access which converts bytea fields into streams. See http://pilif.github.com/2011/09/serialize-mistake/ if you are really interested in how I f'ed up.

No. JSON only had advantages for me and now I get one more huge additional advantage without having to write even a single line of C code.

On a related note: do have a look at the sourcecode of unserialize() - it was generated by some parser generator and is completely unreadable on casual glance, forcing me to dive even deeper into PHPs build system were I to rebuild unserialize() as a Postgres extension, which I don't want to do anyways for all the other reasons.

PS: no, looking at the output of serialize() and kinda sorta inferring the format and then building a quick parser is a recipe for disaster. Think escaping. Think arbitrary data types, think nesting. Are you sure you can hack together a parser which is guaranteed to be correct in all cases?
Even if that happened, wouldn't you think Backblaze is less likely to be dismantled by a potential purchaser than some free social doodad? (I'm not saying it's impossible; just that the incentive to kill a profitable product is less than the incentive to kill one that's still feeling around for a winning business model.)
The Android Market already does this for some carriers, for example T-Mobile.
I agree. Something like a full-on VPN would be safer.
breaks the first rule of cryptography

That would be the "don't bother encrypting that which is not authenticated"? ISTR a free DNS resolver company (I think it was OpenDNS) doing a MitM on my friend's Google searches when he used them.

Or are you just against anyone deploying new crypto protocols?
But that also doesn't really ring true either because a "lack of profit" doesn't necessarily mean that an acquiring party will shut said service down either.

I doubt Friendfeed makes Facebook any money, and was clearly a talent acquisition (Bret is their CTO now) but they still keep it running.

You're right that anyone using any tool/service with an unsustainable model needs to be cautious. But there's a lot more to it then is being proposed by the OP.
1) By default new technology is broken (until proven working in tests). There are virtually no examples of new complex technology working without prior testing and improvements.

2) You are extremely optimistic. Life expectancy improves for about 1 year in every 5 years (I'm quite optimistic with that estimate too).

So if you are 30 now, then by the time you are 80 life expectancy would change from 78 years (today) to 88 years(50 years from now).

So basically you have about 60 more years to live if you are lucky.

No way that freezing technology would improve into something meaningful by then.
Wait...so are you saying we don't have a Knowledge Base? Because that's inaccurate...we do have a KB...get your facts right my man.
Anti-free software? I don't think free software is antithetical to the movement for charging a leg and an arm.

The hard part is figuring out how to charge an arm and a leg for open source software. However, everyone take the easy way out by closing down on mission critical and open source the rest.

I thought of a possible solution that allow everyone to charge an arm and leg while still being open source, or even public domain. Mainly, I am inspired by the kickstarter idea, but I am less interested in curating projects for one time event and more interested in business model automation.

Here how it would works:

You have a webcomic and you have an ever expanding archive of past comic strips. However, the next comic strip, already finished, is not available. To make the comic strip available, you ask for a collective donation of 100 dollars. Some donate 1 dollars, others 20 dollars, until the money is raised. This ensure that you will get paid every step of the way while your comic archive acts as advertising.

The value for my users is the automation of numerous drudgery involved with the business model. That included tracking who donate what, tracking the deadline, the release, and so on. With an API for the service, people can get especially creative with how they release, or how they incentivize their customers.

Another twist to this idea is sponsorship by advertisers and allowing advertisers getting involved with the fundraising process. They can aid the fundraising in either matching user donations or offering discounts.

Of course, this will be just another idea if nobody took any effort in building the service and nobody will attempt this business model, easily. I am working on it, but it's more of a half-baked project on some private repos somewhere rather than a serious startup.
You should ask one of the devs whose app is being featured, don't know if Google allows them to answer though
Is the DC Startup Scene Taking it Back to the ’90s?
Hey Greg,

The challenge you have mentioned is real, and is hard to crack. I certainly haven't solved the problem to my satisfaction yet. However, I'm rather far along the way. A lot of errors are classified as being irrelevant (I call it "muted", but that's a terminology thing), and the ones that are in your face are based on relevance and frequency. This is a very rudimentary way of deciding importance, but it's something. At least it's not a raw list of logs.

Improving the quality of "actionable information" as you put it will be the biggest (and most interesting and fun) challenge at Errorception. It'll get better over time.
I'm really only seeing damage control as Paypal's motivation behind this statement on their blog.

I wonder how many other folks have had the same problems with Paypal's inconsistent application of their policy (when not just outright obstruction), who don't have the same resources to make noise as the woman running Regresty. And whether they will get similar resolution.
It doesn't need to be in the same league. Getting a "real" multipurpose tablet for the price of an e-ink reader will be compelling enough for many consumers, assuming performance is not abysmal (meaning not a heir to the Maylong M-150: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2010/11/worst-gadget-... ).

If actual battery life 5+ hours (when watching videos) and it is just fast enough for e-reading, light browsing and most small games, I don't see why people wouldn't buy them unless build quality is really low. Then again, dubious build quality doesn't stop people from buying crappy TVs or bluray players.
Paid apps are permanently associated with your Android Market account, unlike free apps.
"you don’t need to understand how the Inhuman Microphone works in order to use it. Just like democracy."

It's shit like this...
For what it's worth, they open sourced some version of what they have deployed. https://github.com/opendns
Closed now.

I'm actually surprised that someone hasn't gone through all the older questions looking for stuff to close, given how rigid their mods tend to be.
Linguistic hack: how to catch a Russian spy
From the article:

But free web services are not like free software. If your free software project suddenly gets popular, you gain resources: testers, developers and people willing to pitch in. If your free website takes off, you lose resources.
Wow there were a lot of bad suggestions in that thread. I was just waiting for 'C Programming for Dummies' to pop up posted by E. Trollguy.

If you work in an object oriented language, I think one of the most useful books you could read would be Kent Beck's Smalltalk Best Practise Patterns. The reason being that the lessons and tricks Kent discusses in his book can be applied to Ruby, Python, Java, C#, C++, Delphi, and any other language that I insultingly forgot, where you are working with objects and polymorphism.

But it certainly wouldn't be useful for _every_ programmer to read. Those would be much more abstract like the already listed ones (mythical man month, sicp, code complete, gof, pragmatic programmer)
If anyone wants to get a hold of her and let her know just how wrong and narrow minded she is:

http://www.tc.columbia.edu/academics/?facid=js3676
How Bank Practices Increase Overdraft Fees (interactive tool)
> Why would they go public?

Sorry, my bracketed "(ex-)employees" wasn't really clear enough. I was trying to suggest a vengeful motive after they had been fired.

> What is your basis for estimating the probability of such blackmail as "very likely"?

Basic human nature. If you're directly employing people whose job is clearly unethical then you're painting yourself into a corner. Either they do in fact actively blackmail you or else you will feel unable to fire them in case they start telling people what you're up to - I'm regarding this implicit threat as passive blackmail here.

I agree with you that there are lots of people who seem perfectly happy to do unethical or illegal things in order to make a living. They calculate (if not always very accurately) that the potential gains outweigh the potential costs.

However, a lot of these people make such a decision in light of particular circumstances e.g. their low intelligence, or their lack of employability (due in part perhaps to an existing criminal record), or their unwillingness to work.

Someone who has established a business that is making enough money to pay the bills should clearly be reaching a different conclusion to these sorts of people (at least most of the time). Their potential losses are much higher (i.e. loss of the business) and the potential gains are actually not all that favourable compared to doing things the "right way" - for example, by hiring a developer who can boost your business in other ways.

> But even the business receives many positive reviews in a short period of time, that's not proof the reviews were fake.

It's evidence. What a business owner might do if they suspected a competitor had hired someone to "opinion spam" is up to them. If they though a competitor was paying someone to post negative reviews of their own business then they could very well sue, and request access logs etc. from the review site in order to further the investigation.

> Are there any such services which claim to be able to detect fake reviews?

I haven't looked. But it would certainly be possible to create such a service without too much difficulty.
The video is online! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg17e_vvxtA
Adobe Warns of Critical Zero-Day Vulnerability in Reader & Acrobat
And you actually pay cheaper per hour, because full-time tuition is invariably flat rate, but STEM majors (especially engineering) tend to have higher than normal credit hours per semester.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: An American Agenda for Education Reform
Awesome. Can I contribute somehow by building a unicode character tab? Leave a reply, I'll contact you if you are interested.
Thanks, we'll take a look. In the future you should use https://www.facebook.com/whitehat/ though, as I unfortunately don't catch every HN comment :-).
I know I'm showing my age by saying this, but I really don't see the benefit of AJAX in this case. It's basically a frameset powered by javascript, so why not just use a frameset to begin with? It would work in more browsers without issues with back-buttons and take advantage of their built in functionality.

AJAX has its place, but I don't see it here.

Edit: I find it amusing that the documentation for the <frameset> tag is missing :-)
Sorry, that's utter bullshit. Blue Label is a perfectly delicious scotch.
Innovator's Dilemma would be a pretty good option for those who want to get into business with the software they make.
Khan academy’s material is mostly useless to me, as someone who has gone through high school and college taking a wide variety of courses, and read up on the basics of many fields; I could probably get something from the finance and organic chemistry sections, if I decided those were important to learn about (though I think I’d start with a book or a set of university lecture videos first).

MIT’s OCW by contrast is a gold mine.

The two are just aimed at entirely different audiences.
Amazon has to ship its merchandise twice: first to their distribution centers, then to the customer.
I wish verizon would just stick to being a "pipe." As much as I would appreciate a competitor to netflix, it just seems like there would be an enormous temptation for verizon to throttle down netflix (or other media services) while throttling up their own offerings.

Don't forget that this is a company that is happy to shamelessly rake-in pocket change selling stupid overpriced ringtones to kids and thinks nothing of permanently installing annoying crapware on their android phones.
Show HN: Fire.js: Visual Node.js Development with JSON, MongoDB and Cloudfoundry
That's a neat suggestion, though it may be hard to distinguish between developer errors and library errors. It's definitely something to aspire for.

Great to know you are liking the service. Cheers!
Show HN: Facebook Likechart
Author here. I'm not a native english speaker, so I apologize if you you can understand some of the things I say.
Slides available here: http://www.slideshare.net/thepumpkin/introduction-to-firejs-...

Any feedback will be highly appreciated :)
Gamification is a gimmick that can add value when the people are already engaged, but you can't make people interested in education because you can get points or win a badge. They had to want to be there in the first place.

Some fields lend themselves to domain experts who can write software making large leaps in productivity, but many do not. There are a lot of desirable skills I'd prefer the education system teach before Python. In the end, I think you want a society where anyone with the need or interest can go learn it on their own. This presents a huge educational challenge that we should try to fix as best we can, but this problem will never be completely solved. We should use our resources to improve things as best we can.
JENNIFER LOPEZ Wearing Tom Ford LILLIANA TF131 Sunglasses
So... er how exactly would you bootstrap this business model? Yeah, this might (with a very small probability) work if you're already an established, successful webcomics author. If you're starting out, though, you have no chances of success. Who's going to chip in for a comic that may or may not be good when it is finished?
Nic.io stores administrative passwords in plaintext
Useful Network Marketing Tips
its a big cycle, the service will sell everyone cashes out, some other team picks up where the last service left off.

Delicious -> pinboard anyone ?

I think theres a pattern of products deteriorating after purchase for one reason or another, either not enough attention or founders leave or consumers find another product from a hot startup thats in the same space. While having a paid option should be encouraged, no service yet is something that I can't absolutely live without where theres a free alternative, and if theres something worth paying for, someone will build a free service.

I'd rather encourage users to turn off ad block on sites they like, and click on links that are relevant.
What does Zappos do with returned shoes? Do they resell them at a discount? They must anticipate higher returns for shoes than online retailers selling books and music.
If people submit via that whitehat feature, do you publisize "XY was possible until 20XX-XX-XX"? I consider that important information.
UIUC charges more in tuition for students that are in technical majors.
$10,000 debt out of undergrad isn't really that big of a burden. $115 per month for 10 years, or $200 per month for 5 years.
Taking Khan Academy to Mongolia, in a Wireless Routers
Try searching for something
I would have thought a domain registry wouldn't do something so egregiously stupid.

Oh, wait, a domain registry seems like exactly the sort of org that would do something so egregiously stupid. :-(
I will probably start paying for his page archival service within the next month. I'm more comfortable with it not only because of his track record so far, but because I know I am his customer. If it were a free service, I'd be far more concerned about how many concessions he'd be willing to make for his real customers -- advertisers or metrics companies or who-knows.

As the old saying goes, "If you're not paying, you're not the customer. You're the product." Kudos to Pinboard for asking you to become a customer, rather than settle in and be sold like a product.
Yes, I was playing with js and left it incomplete. Should be fine now.
That's the claim that I'd like to see some data to believe: are, in fact, paid cloud services more long-lasting than free or freemium services? My guess would be no, that a large number of them also go bankrupt, are acquired and shut down, pivot to other lines of work, or otherwise fail to stick around.
I agree with you, but Apple does the same thing. They add not only the downloads since 2008 when they had the App Store for the first time, but also the money they've given since then to developers, as if that would be relevant anymore. What's relevant for developers now is how much they've achieved in the last few months at most.
Google and Facebook are counter examples of how free can be resilient. I guess it depends on the vertical. If you are aiming to scale up to world scale being free is almost essential.
If you're technical enough to set this up, you're technical enough to add a special rule in /etc/hosts or local equivalent to fix the problem.
It's not nasty but it's a drink that's blended to taste reasonably bland, designed for drinking alcohol not designed for enjoying the taste. Its target market is people who don't want anything particularly interesting.

Don't get me wrong, it's much nicer than a £20 bottle of blended stuff, but nowhere near good enough to justify the price tag, and is the huge majority of scotch drinkers (at least a huge majority of those who buy by taste not price) would rate a much cheaper single malt over it, yet alone an equal-costing bottle.

Don't get me wrong, when I get given a bottle I enjoy drinking it, but not as much as the bottles I spend £30-£80 on, yet alone the bottles I spend more on. So that's personal opinion, but it's shared by most people who have drunk and enjoyed a decent range.
The music is over
You are confused. They didn't invent a new cryptographic system, just implemented it. Just in the same way Internet Explorer didn't invent SSL, they just dropped in a library.

The crypto under the hood is Curve25519. http://cr.yp.to/ecdh.html
I haven't looked at the source, but the most likely library for them to use (curve25519-donna) was written by the guy who does crypto for Chrome.
I was one who donated to your Kickstarter for early access, and I am pleased with your results so far. I just wanted to comment and thank you for your hard work.
How The "Internet Of Things" Is Turning Cities Into Living Organisms
From the submitted article: "The top-performing nations boost the quality of their teaching forces by greatly raising entry standards for teacher education programs. They insist that all teachers have in-depth knowledge of the subjects they will teach, apprenticing new teachers to master teachers and raising teacher pay to that of other high-status professions." This is a basically correct description about teacher selection and teacher professional development in several countries with schools that outperform schools in the United States. One way that teachers have the time to meet with more experienced teachers during the school day for mentoring and discussion of lesson plans is by setting higher class sizes. If the staffing ratio of a school (total teachers hired per enrolled pupils) is roughly the same in two countries, but in one country class sizes are larger, the teacher will have time during the school day to do lesson preparation in collaboration with other teachers. That better lesson preparation can result in more engaging lessons that deliver better education to the larger classes.

I've read a longer article by the same author (Marc Tucker) called "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: An American Agenda for Education Reform."

http://www.ncee.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Standing-on-t...

I just tested to see if that had been submitted to HN before, and it had not, so now it is linked to from a new thread.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3321124

Tucker underestimates, in my opinion, the importance of learner choice, but based on international comparisons he correctly identifies several management practices that would make the school system in the United States better for most learners. I have rather more fondness, based on life experience, for learner choice in schools because I live in a state with statewide public school open enrollment,

http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/StuSuc/EnrollChoice/index.h...

http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/JustParent/SchChoice/index....

which has encouraged Minnesota school districts to offer innovative programs to draw in students.
30 weeks for $100k and 25 weeks for $40-$75k... but also 30 weeks if you're over 55 years old, and 21 weeks if you're not. And I'm guessing that industry and education level would have even bigger effects.
I love Pinboard, but it's a one man operation. Maciej is extremely susceptible to get hit by a bus tomorrow, leaving me without my $9.23 and all of my bookmarks.

You're telling me that if someone offered you $1-5 mil to lead a team at insert huge tech company here you'd turn it down? Bitch, please.

That chart is overall correct, but it's not like paying is suddenly going to be a panacea. I give flickr $25 a year, but I'm actively looking for replacements because it's obvious Yahoo!'s not gonna keep running it forever.

Do you get what I'm trying to say?
Xtranormal is looking for full-time Senior Web Engineers to join our seasoned team at our San Francisco HQ (near BART). We're a consumer story-telling company. We have a web-based app as well as desktop.

The candidate must be a strong individual contributor with lead potential, collaborative and takes pride in their work while delivering quality software on time. The candidate will report to the Director of Engineering and will participate in cross-functional projects.

Required Technical Skills:

HTML5
jQuery
CSS
Python or Ruby

Additional Helpful Skills:

iOS / Objective C
Flash
Sql
Django
Unix

Interested candidates please submit your resume to jobs@xtranormal.com.
Don't you think getting a loan to buy something you couldn't have been able to afford in the first place is irresponsible? With that said, tuition is artificially high because of these readily available student loans, reducing the pressure to innovate in education.