skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
New censorship measures which a lot of people believe violate due process.

I can't quite decide which option would be better in the long run:

(a) stop SOPA, only to have similar ideas come up every single year, or

(b) let SOPA pass, then build a case and take it all the way to the Supreme Court hoping that measures such as SOPA would be ruled unconstitutional once and for all. If this succeeds, it would set a precedent to seriously discourage similar ideas from coming up again. The anti-SOPA camp definitely possesses the financial and legal resources to mount such a challenge, too. But it would take years, and there's no guarantee that the Supreme Court will be any more reasonable than Mr. Lamar Smith.
Ah, reminds me of another search trick that doesn't work any more -- make fart noises and voice recognition recognizes it as New York.
theoretically it shouldy as twilio has recently expanded to UK, Canada, and are in beta for a few others... http://www.twilio.com/faq/international
http://www.twilio.com/international-sms
One word: Skirt.

Apologies for the imprecise terminology.
why not, what's the worst that someone can do with your shoe size?
Nothing from the conversation (or other things Stallman has said) supports the claim that Stallman believes charging money is evil. He believes that it's not good to restrict users' rights in certain ways, and perhaps that makes it hard for you to earn money with certain business plans that inherently depend on those restrictions, but there's no "right to earn money with all business plans", and that's nowhere near equivalent to a general belief that charging money is evil.

For example, as an opponent of large classes of patents, I don't believe that charging money to license patents in those classes is a business plan that should exist, which doesn't imply that I oppose charging money for things in general.
"Being that the right to modify, use and redistribute."

....except using it in a proprietary application and not redistributing your changes. Just ask the Thesis theme owner about this.

"He associates evil with charging money for software but not letting the buyer having his basic owner rights. Being that the right to modify, use and redistribute."

The problem with what you said here is that he things its evil to not allow someone to be able to share an application with all of their friends after they bought it once. I suppose he's not directly saying money is evil, but since you pretty much can't make money on an app this way (eventually it will be shared and you will lose any hope of making a profit), he's indirectly saying it.

Sure, you can make money on support, but this rules out most small companies because most simply don't have the support staff.

Eventually, this will catch up with the development community. We've all seen bookstores, newspapers, and many other traditional businesses go under in the past couple of years due to the Internet.

Business owners are getting more tech savvy as the older generation dies off. Why should I hire a college-educated software engineer that can write complex apps when I can get all of those difficult parts for free in an OSS app and hire a less-educated software mechanic for less money?

We aren't there yet, but as more and more things are released for free, we will be. My prediction is that the prevalence of open source software it will devalue developer wages over time.

I've already seen it happening. Not necessarily devaluing, but hiring one developer instead of three because an open source app can be used.
Yes, I do assume no-one pays for the missed call. But as you say, the receiver pays for the subsequent return call, whereas otherwise, the original sender would have paid. Either way, assuming a call happens, someone pays, so if the article is implying this costs the Indian cell industry as a whole money, I'm not sure it's really true. Sure, increased overhead on the system is an issue, plus the exceptions I noted.
Why The iPhone has a 3.5" Screen
I like the fact that the author brought up these two points.

1. "Facebook is a mini-Internet. It’s an organized Internet. We’ve all moved our home pages to be our Facebook pages. Companies flash their Facebook page on their commercials now instead of their own websites. So imagine the value of the entire Internet."

2. "In 1999-2000, the public was given the chance to have a venture capitalist-style portfolio. It didn’t work."

1 has some truth to it but not entirely correct. Facebook has done a great job on social graph capturing but as far as mapping the internet, it has not done well nor did it intend to act like a repository of web in the first place. There will be services like that in the future, very soon. For 2, I think he has a point, but of course the general public's investing pattern is different from a VC's. It's the average Joe's preference. If you ask a 90 year old to drive a porsche, she'll come back and complain how bad the driving experience is and how close she was to have a heart attack from it.
On first look I thought it was a rainbow penis sticking out of the ground. It took a second or two before I realized what the picture was.
I noticed that he switches between the keyboard and mouse so fast it seems like he always has one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. How is he so fast at switching? For me, touching the mouse is the slowing thing I do in a text editor.
For an incredibly candid interview done by out-of-character Stephen Colbert, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXh9RQCvxmg

It's extremely worth it and mentions a lot of the same points he makes in the two AMAs.
Open source is nice but its not a silver bullet. Most young hackets are free to view UNIX crud well state of the art features in OS design like single address space orthogonal persistence remain mostly unknown.
Find Hackers Near You
"Techies" who relish their own political ignorance are not making laws that regulate the lives and jobs of other citizens.
If you didn't notice, this also ties into an orientation sensor if you've got one. On my MacBook Pro, for example, just tilt your laptop left or right and the snow will fall that direction.
Anyone know what third party Java libraries he's making use of (if any)?
Definitely, I use NX myself daily at the moment. The Windows client sucks (slow, no free resize as in the Linux client, lots of clipboard problems), but Linux-to-Linux is quite awesome.

One problem is that NX 3 doesn't support newer X extensions like COMPOSITE and DAMAGE, though. NX 4 does, but is no longer open. So the future viability is kind of starting to break down already, if you ask me.
Here's my post from 2008 where I ask my readers to help me define what a startup is - I also list some companies wondering if they are startups:
http://www.centernetworks.com/startup-definition

If we go with the TC definition, Facebook is still a startup :)

What I really want to know is what is the difference between "startup" and "small business"?
Steal your shoes.
I agree with you that there's no real imperative for a sports league to need to "keep up" with technology.

But one possible way to look at this is as a regulation on what technology coaches can or cannot use currently as they please. E.g., defenses playing against teams who run no-huddle offenses usually have no time to call plays or change the defensive scheme, and thus allowing the defensive captain to update and change plays at the line could be a huge plus for teams that _wanted_ to do this but currently cannot.

Forcing coaches to use iPads on the sideline for the hell of it is silly; prohibiting teams who want to analyze film in realtime on the sideline or instantly communicate plays on the fly who wish to do so is a bit different.
This isn't a problem in other languages.
It might not be entirely accurate that it's specifically the employees who don't care (though that is also often true), but the company as well. With these kinds of customer-service runarounds, that's often the explicit goal of the company's policies, to stall and exhaust complaints as much as possible. Bored employees are just executing the "stall customer and don't deviate from policy" script that they're required to execute, often with very little leeway to make exceptions even if they truly did want to help you out.
So basically Universal lied to YouTube and said the video was copyright infringement when it wasn't, and basically if SOPA passes Universal could do this to entire websites and not just single videos?
Great idea. It gives me that "duh" moment that I hadn't thought of it before!

While I think the visuals are beautiful, I did notice that your current call to action on the page appears to be the description itself. The actual form action has the least weight to me visually, as the button hovering above the example draws the eye.

If your intention is on conversions of the form, perhaps you might consider shifting the focus with some very small re-work.
LIFE's 2011 Pictures of the Year
Taking down a video produced by a competitor is exactly the kind of problems that come about when the "weapons" to stop piracy are handed over to corporate interests. This is just the tip of the iceberg, it will be 100 times worse if SOPA passes.
Thanks, I had heard about that shortly after the initial release but since lost sight of it. Sure reads like the authors have made a lot of progress and the repo looks pretty active, too. Will give it a try.
I am very aware. This is exactly why I picked pants for my example.
"My opinion is right because I say it is. Anyone who doesn't hold the same opinion is either bad, or needs educating"

Well, that's me convinced.
A better example would be something like this: most PhDs of UIUC in the field of Science use the same vocabulary, despite having PhD in different fields. Hence, a team of PhDs in different, adjacent fields of Science, from UIUC, might be able to both complete each other and hit the ground running faster.

Of course, adding new member(s) to such a team should not require "PhD from UIUC". Rather, the team must also be able to absorb a member and teach him the vocabulary required to collaborate and contribute effectively.

Personally, I work as a technology/security expert in a team that consists of PhD, machine-learning experts. I've been taught enough vocabulary to understand and follow the conversation and be able to contribute and feel purposeful and innovative from my - very different - perspective.
They just asserted that the government should not be working towards helping pornography producers because the material is distasteful.
This is easily applied to software but not necessarily services, which cannot scale the same way. Unless you mean to say that no services company could ever count as a startup.

I think it has more to do with the current state of a company - that is, immature: still figuring out internal roles, processes, possibly no finalized monetization strategy, etc.
VNC can be used to "remote control" a system.
NX can be used to WORK on that system.

I have written thousands of lines of code with NX, Eclipse and latencies of ~100ms! There is no way to do something similar with VNC or anything else.

http://freenx.berlios.de/ FreeNX is a great service. Also NoMachine NX Client is a great client. If you use them once, you can't even hear about VNC and other remote control services.
He wore a kilt, which is actually an interesting addition to my point. Despite the strong masculinity of a kilt, they do not appear to be very popular in modern society. I would suggest without evidence that this is in no small part due to a potential association with "feminine" skirts.
neat idea, did you conceive it at the hackathon or bring it in?
Did anyone care about the health of the gladiators?
"From the AMAs I've seen on Reddit, trash collection is not dangerous--just a low-status job, albeit a high-paying one with short hours."

A quick Google turns up information like this: http://earth911.com/news/2011/08/26/dangerous-jobs-garbage-c...

It involves working amongst traffic on a regular basis and operating dangerous machinery with very little in the way of safeguards, so the danger level shouldn't be terribly surprising.
Fab + Bonobos Looks More Like Groupon than Gilt.
#D17 Time to Assemble Once More: Here’s to the Year of the Dragon
Super simple and neat idea, awesome job!
Breakthrough could double solar energy output
Same. I sadly used Chrome to post that comment, but I'll be back one day.
Inside an Indie CD Release
Agreed with a lot of what he was saying about corporations controlling government and society. SOPA seems like a good example of that.
It's absolutely awesome that he questioned them in such detail.

So far I've had mixed feelings about Franken's performance as the defender of electronic rights of citizens, but I have to admit, he picked up the ball here. (Or maybe someone smart on his staff. ;)
It always amuses me how the avowed capitalist tone of HN changes when it comes to a start-up cashing out. I wonder why "Wall Street" getting the money didn't bother pre-IPO investors and VCs in all the previous tech IPOs or stop them from investing on the same terms again and again. After all, it couldn't be that the same "Wall Street" later rewards those playing by its rules.

I'm very skeptical that all participants of this IPO, from the VCs to the CEO and board to the underwriter, weren't on the same page regarding how the system works and how IPOs work in this system.
Zynga COO John Schappert On Going Public, And What’s Coming Next
I've already seen it happening. Not necessarily devaluing, but hiring one developer instead of three because an open source app can be used.

How does that devalue developers? Heck, why would you consider this a problem at all? Do you consider it a problem as well that you can use free libraries as well instead of having to write your own implementation of everything? Or think it is problematic that people can use an operating system that works out of the box instead of having to program their own kernel and abstractions?

Avoiding redundant efforts and duplication is good. Whether that means not having to re-write the same code or not having to hire more developers to solve a problem that's been solved before does not matter.
I only got 10 friends on FB... so i doubt this would be useful for me, right?
Holding a Galaxy Nexus in my hand right this instant, I can hit every relative green part that the author shows on the iPhone on the Galaxy Nexus.
> programmer-turned-philosopher Richard Stallman.

Oh boy. I guess if you have steadfast beliefs to the point that you can no longer keep yourself from sharing those every time you turn around, you become a philosopher.

RMS doesn't have a problem with software. He has a problem with capitalism. Stallman's approach to software is one to which I don't subscribe. Software is not something I see as needing liberation, like those of oppressed individuals in a society.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I would love to avoid some of the proprietary black boxes that I have to deal with in my job. However, I knew the situation going into it. Many times, I've not had the option of avoiding a black box.

That's a customer service and/or product problem, not an industry problem. If it's a problem that actually impedes innovation, I have a solution -- it's called the free market. We've never been in a better position to provide software solutions to problems not addressed by the market, and we can charge for them, give them away, do whatever we want. There is nothing holding us back in this scenario.

I find ironic his insistence that I cannot control software I create -- because no one should be allowed to control software -- is, in and of itself, controlling.
What if the following line is executed after the hidden canvas's context has been modified?

canvasElement.setAttribute('style', 'display:inline !important');

According to you, non-stupid browsers should have ignored the previous updates to the canvas to save CPU time. Maybe the browser could keep a record of all of the calls made to the canvas API while the canvas is hidden and then execute them when the canvas element becomes unhidden, but that seems clever to me. I certainly wouldn't call implementors of the canvas API that don't do this stupid.

In fact, there are probably good reasons not to do this. For example, if a web app makes frequent updates to a small hidden canvas, keeping a record of all the calls instead of simply executing them could end up using way too much memory.

If a browser simply ignores updates to the hidden canvas, it would be breaking standards.
Ok, so they sent them a text.. then what? Does it pick out the gift for me as well? Does it send the gift to that person for me? Or it just gets the shoe size, ring size, or whatever?
'Confirmed': Apple Building 3.5-Inch Tablet Computer
Too bad there's no NX server for Windows yet...
It should be feasibly possible. All the US carriers maintain email to SMS gateways, so with a sufficiently large amount of computers spamming one email address, you could cause some harm.
I'm not sure why this is phrased as iPhone vs Android like there aren't 3.5" Android devices. I own one, in fact, and chose it over the larger Samsung phones for the same reason. It's nice how the Android ecosystem caters to those who prefer devices of any size.
Code Optimization Techniques for Graphics Processing Units
Can I register my UK number with them. The standard way to avoid the UK Do-Not-Call registry appears to be to enlist an Indian call centre to make the call for you (and spoof the number too - though why the phone company even routes calls with spoofed caller ID I'm not quite sure.)
Darcs merits a nod, as well.
You could expand this and have it work on clothes and ring sizes.
I'd recommend checking out Firefox Aurora (http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/) - Firefox is really looking great these day. The new native developer tools are coming along nicely and hopefully will prove more stable than Firebug.
Oh thanks, for some reason I thought I tried that before and it didn't work. Awesome.
If I hadn't heard of the service before I wouldn't reply either. It's not that I think someone is going to steal my identity with a neck size measurement but an unknown questioner asking for any kind of information would raise my spam/phishing/scam spider sense.
I can't answer the "versus Kubuntu" part so I'm not sure how happy this comment will make you, but I've been using Fedora KDE since fall 2009 and personally haven't had any problems with stability.

In general I'm quite happy with how Fedora distributes KDE. They don't patch it very much and leave it mostly vanilla, focussing their work on system integration instead of modifying to differenciate their offering. That's reflected in the work they've contributed upstream, like PolicyKit support or PackageKit integration for widget installation in the desktop shell (for automatic dependency installation). Nothing flashy, more under-the-hood work, but somebody has to do that as well.

Their KDE packaging team is very competent, and the leader, Rex Dieter, is one of the nicest fellas I've encountered in FOSS. Others can be a bit stubborn at times, but are still useful and supportive, making #fedora-kde on Freenode one of the better user support channels I frequent.

Very nice for me as an upstream developer is also that they explicitly strive to support KDE development, so they will generally swiftly package any new dependencies required by KDE's development branches.
I'm sure people will interpret this article which is essentially a job ad in many different ways but here is my take away from it...

In my opinion, 2 of the most prevalent contributors to a toxic work environment in tech are micromanagement and long hours. Now in regards to this ad...

Micromanagement - To me this reeks of micromanagement. Firstly they depict an environment where you seemingly have a step by step plan as to how you need to go about your day. They even have a culture to manage and work you during your lunch break... "we all eat together; this is another opportunity to keep up to date on what is happening outside your team". Also, the "talking to a pre-schooler" tone of the ad doesn't help either - saying thing like "grab your buddy" are not how you address a professional.

Long hours - So at lunch you essentially are at a work meeting with food and then at 7 you have dinner which based upon how lunch goes is probably also a work meeting. And not only that when a company serves you dinner it usually is because they are expecting that you are staying to do some work later. So just by the ad you have no real breaks and are working 9-8 (11 hours) and probably more after dinner.

Now I'm not trying to say you are wrong - just the way that I personally interpret this, it epitomizes many of the things wrong with many tech companies. I'm glad that they are upfront though - most employers mention this kind of stuff after you've taken the offer.
It's really sad how so many people invent this whole world around Ayn Rand and her beliefs. Every time someone says the following about her philosophy I know he has not read her books and only heard things second hand from other people: greed, selfishness (in a bad way), and having no pity for humanity.

You have to understand that Ayn Rand came from soviet Russia her whole philosophy is exactly the opposite, it surrounds it self with the question: How to make humanity survive longer, and what was the root of all evil until now?
And her answers are:
1. Scientists, business men, engineers, artists, doctors, etc basically men of ability are the ones who moved society a step further and made us live longer and better.

2. "These" people of ability were driven partially by the profit motive, and don't take this in a negative way, all it means is it's been proven that when "profit" is taken out of the equation usually these men of ability produce a lot less. Compare free democratic countries like the US and look at the inventions we produced compare to non free countries where your inventions are owned by the GOVERNMENT. Look at Silicon Valley why do we invent so much, why are soo many engineers here? because we are free to do and profit as we please, it's not greed and NO it's not wall street. Wall Street is not an example of a free market at all, it is a corrupt system that is so regulated and connected to the government that it CANT fail this is not an example of something that Ayn Rand will approve or any capitalist.

3. Religion, Communism and altruism basically the whole idea that one man is not as valuable as the whole society or god has led to many deaths and wars, because if you can and justify sacrificing one person for the "good of humanity" whats to hold you back from killing another million or 2? therefore she sees people as individuals which gives more meaning to each person.

So when she mentions selfishness she means HAVING A SELF, having a brain, thinking for your self and not letting the government or some brute tell you your owned by him and your life is meaningless. She does not mean selfishness like most people use the term, a guy that has no heart and is an asshole.

Anyways I perfectly understand why people hate her she is an atheist philosopher who champions the individual, praises less government which goes against almost every philosopher out there. This is why a lot of people hate her, all I ask of people is to stop judging her second hand read her stuff and then judge.
Great, yes, that only changes the entire argument (exception to the rule here being kilts). Thanks for getting me 5 fresh downvotes ;-)

(Also, guys: Continuing to downvote me? Come on!)

[seems like we have reached the maximum depth here, so as a reply to the below:

Nope, sorry. The item of clothing in question makes all the difference here. A dress is a very particular choice of word.

And what kind of arguing is that you are suggesting, where I try to make your point for you in my own head? Sorry, I have no problem discussing whether men in skirts have their sexuality judged, but I'm not willing to discuss how I should have discussed that instead of discussing your actual wording - which was very different.

I mean come on - you made a bad choice of words, own up to it.]