skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hi politician,

we're more of a small business than a startup. We've been going for 6 years and are nicely profitable. The issue is the prices quoted were more of the level for large corporate multinationals - hundreds of thousands of dollars/year just for our UK service (one of eight that we operate).
5 great iPad 2 cases that make it look great
Surely one can a) minify b) remove 'unwanted' services from the file in order to speed things up?
I agree wholeheartedly. Viewing drug usage as a medical problem and funding free treatment seems to be a no brainer. That pesky problem seems to go back to Congress.

I can just imagine the headlines: "Senator Blabla wants to release druggies who solicit behind YOUR KIDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!!!!" Citizens already appear to want harsher and harsher punishments for crimes.

And then is the open question about what we do with the whole lot of people who work on the governments side. It appears to me in the medium term a fat job loss across the US. Especially in this economy, that kind of job loss, even if countered by a hiring of social workers, still looks nasty.
Uh, you might want to look up the word "literally". I don't even find them terribly similar.
I believe that it is pretty common and the leading argument.

True motive may be way different, but the convenient fact is that the stated goals of proponents of war on drugs are more efficiently achieved by decriminalization.

To my knowledge pretty much all of the fears that are voiced in opposition to decriminalization have been shown to be unfounded in practice.
The Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos (also an entrepreneur), recently called for the legalization of many drugs, including cocaine: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/13/colombia-juan-sa...

I'm a NYC-based, Colombian entrepreneur. My step-brother died piloting a Black Hawk helicopter in Colombia that crashed while executing an anti-narcotics operation. The helicopter was "donated" by the US as part of "Plan Colombia" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Colombia ). Plan Colombia is a periodic subsidy sent by the US to Colombia to help with the war on drugs. The program is lobbied in part by Sikorsky and Monsanto. The subsidy includes some cash, but it also comes in the form of helicopters (built by Sikorsky), glyphosate (banned in the US but used in Colombia to destroy coca plantations), and weapons.

You can say that the "war on drugs" allowed my brother to realize his dream (flying a helicopter), but it also killed him.

I may be emotionally charged with the topic and may not exercise good reason about it, but I've seen enough to realize that the "war on drugs" is just a big mess that won't be won, no matter what.
If you have to ask a bunch of strangers on the Internet, the answer is probably "no". If you ever get to "fuck you, I don't give a damn about your lame, irrelevant opinion. I know what I'm doing and win, lose, or draw, this makes the most sense right here, right now", that's the time to do something "crazy" like that.
Companies such as Monsanto and DuPont (not to mention a host of others) are among the ones that were glad to see hemp made illegal back in the 1930's.

Any hemp-based economy is a threat to centralized industrial concerns. With the invention of the hemp decorticator in the 1910's (the cotton gin of hemp) by George Schlichten, hemp's potential as an industrial crop to replace petroleum was unlocked.

Large, centralized industries have no interest in seeing their monopoly threatened.

Remember, hemp is illegal, not just marijuana.
How to sum from 1 to 10 in Common Lisp
Appending `cache:` to the url works. Example:

cache:www.renaebair.com/2010/08/11/my-husband-is-a-programmer-i-have-no-idea-what-that-means/
Less clutter, an easier way to choose with who I want to share, a dislike button, possibility to comment on page likes (they removed that feature), an algorithm that filters the stuff that's irrelevant to me (f.e. farmville spam, fanpage posts, ...), a cleaner frontpage, a better distinction between groups and lists, no flood of e-mails, better family relationship options, ... The list is endless.
If drugs are legalized the United States will be forced to dream up and create other reasons to keep its military outposts in hundreds of countries. This is why we maintain a war on drugs. A war that is impossible to win. The United States will never legalize drugs.

PS I'm with richard Branson, but he is being naive or he is not mentioning these elements on purpose as a strategy.

Edit; Forgot to mention the United States Prison-Industrial Complex- that is even more anti-legalize momentum that would have to be addressed.
A Literary History of Word Processing
There's a soft-libertarian guy who runs some private UK collage, who claims that public R&D (which would include defence) does nothing but crowd out private R&D. If Bill Gates could have made more in a cushy job writing cruise missile code (or supervising contractors doing it) than running a scrappy little coding shop, he probably would have so.

Edit - here he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_PVI6V6o-4
The problem is that we're going the other way in The Netherlands right now.

The red light district is being slowly dismantled [1], new draconian laws are being introduced to shut the coffee shops down (with a Think Of The Children argument) [2] and foreigners are being banned from using coffee shops [3].

I blame the ageing population: the "boomers" [4] have had their fun, but they're getting older now and young people getting high only "disturbs" the peace. They're the biggest voting block, so they get their way (yet again).

So yeah, I don't see the Western world changing any time soon.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-15/netherlands-stop...

[2] (sorry I couldn't find an English language version) http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/onderwijs/publicaties/ar...

[3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8961513/Amsterd...

[4] They've even got their own party: http://50pluspartij.nl/
Steve Jobs describes iCloud -- in 1997
> Excellent work, Dick.

This isn't reddit.

http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#downvoted
> Check logs - [...] get something to look for suspicious patterns or you will go insane.

Any suggestions for this? Thanks.
There are quite a few open-source Ada projects, though I'm not sure how many of them qualify as quick-moving:

http://www.ohloh.net/p?sort=users&q=language%3Aada
Maybe it is just me, but overstating anyone's impact to this extent is disrespectful to that person.

"....wealth of ideas that have transformed and reshaped 20th century mathematics"

"His work has had a fundamental role in the development of 20th century mathematics"

Maybe someone who has delved deeper into math can shine some light here.
Just ignore anything that any executive of any million+ company says about anything to do with their business that isn't strictly about their financial statement. Because they're always, always going to pronounce anything that their business needs as axiomatic.

I suppose you could pay attention to these things if you want a read on the direction of manipulation.
I've always thought of that as backwards.

In most cases, a prostitute is forced to work as slave labor by the controlling pimp. That makes her the victim. Without customers to pull money in (the Johns), she would make no income for her pimp.

Once one instead follows the money, we realize that we can starve this trade by punishing the ones who have money (the Johns) and can dissuade prostitutes by making their somewhat forced career choice legal.
0, 0L, 1 - 1, (((1 - 1))), (void )0 and (void )(1 - 1) are null pointer constants

...

if one operand is a null pointer constant, the result has the type of the other operand;

This is quite possibly one of the most idiotic semantics I've ever seen specified for a language. Why does the type of an expression depend on the partially evaluated result of one of its subexpressions? This by itself is enough to throw out the window any sane reduction semantics (an important mechanism in language design whereby semantics are defined by specifying how to transform any program into an equivalent but strictly smaller program), though I'm sure there are plenty more such constructs in C.

Ridiculous semantics like this are not only the definition of C99; they're the definition of designed by committee.
It's worth noting that DOM4 spec makes third argument in addEventListener() method optional.

It will default to false if you skip it (which is almost always preferable):

element.addEventListener('mousedown', callback);
What Is Calculus and Why do we Study it?
Wow, so we are making McCarthy style blacklists now? This seems a little too far.
Privacy. Thus a business model that doesn't require crushing it.

Truly separate groups.

Easy file sharing.

That's all folks.
Even now in the US, moneyed interests don't necessarily get everything they want --- AT&T couldn't push through the T-mobile merger, to cite a much less controversial example.

In this case, there would be money on both sides. The drug war itself is a massive industry at this point --- look at the power of prison guards in California. There are also a whole lot of politicians with a massive ego stake in the existing set of laws. And Monsanto, the tobacco companies, and agribusiness all have much easier and less stressful ways to preserve profits by lobbying. (Maintaining agricultural subsidies, for the first two, for starters.)

So, don't expect this to happen really soon.
Good point and since I was curious, a quick count yielded 2 of the "jobs" variety, 6 of the "Jobs".
There seems to be a lot of confusion on this thread about exactly what Portugal did, and the ramifications for the U.S. in terms of time-frame and difficulty.

What Portugal did was decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs. They did not legalize them. There is a huge difference. Decriminalization essentially means that possession of small amounts of drugs is no longer an offense that warrants an arrest and jail time. In a decriminalized system an officer can still stop someone for drugs, but they can only write them a ticket- similar to speeding, jaywalking or illegal parking.

This makes a huge difference for a number of reasons. First, it's easier to implement politically because the substances are still illegal. Second, it's less costly because people caught with small amounts are not caught up in the justice system for years, and only pay a small fine. Third, it decreases the adversarial nature of the "war on drugs" because being caught with drugs is no longer a life-changing event.

Marijuana possession is already decriminalized in many states in the U.S. (California, Colorado, New York and Oregon off the top of my head). It is clearly not an impossibility to implement politically, and in fact the trend in the U.S. is already on its way. An important hurdle is that we do not have any states that have yet decriminalized "harder" drugs like heroin and cocaine, but it is simply a matter of time. Pressure on lawmakers in the form of education, money and votes will in fact work. It just takes time.
Exactamundo. It's not like it takes a genius to know what is and what is not a regular expression as defined in theory. It's CS 101 (well, usually more like CS 3xx, the class where you learn about lexers, parsers and compilers).

And you can get similarly informed comments in Reddit, Slashdot, heck, with enough eyes reading a thread even CNET...
Personal cloud goes to just home cloud or in-hand cloud by SelfCloud
What is a personal cloud? It is your content, secure at your home and under your control.
Unlike public clouds, a personal cloud allows you to keep all your content in one safe place on your home network. Share files, stream

media, and access your content anywhere. No monthly fees. No mysterious location of your data. Keep your media and files safe at home and always with you.
A Glimpse Into Future of Social - Apple is Positioning
Did you catch the Facebook (conceptual) integration?

Also, some pretty straightforward comments at the bottom.
The article has a very ingratiating tone towards Google. The summarized version is: Google started charging for Maps usage, their sales team sucks and their pricing is too high. All of that could have been said without the unctuous praise of Google's work on geo technology.
Instant Press - an appengine ready CMS developed with Web2py
ugh, securing ubuntu is like using a fishnet to carry water.
why just not use a distro that was meant to be used on the server, and not userfriendly desktop with server label glued as an afterthought?
Secrets of the Accidental Entrepreneur
Great article. I would like to further suggest we end the use of the word "war" in contexts that do not involve mandatory conscription and the deaths of large numbers of combatants until one side totally surrenders. (This implies there is a "side" to be able to surrender.) Politicians have so destroyed the word "war" that it's impossible to have a reasonable discussion about any use of violence by the state. Perhaps that was the goal. Don't know.

Drug use is a health-related issue, whether it is a doctor prescribing medications, a patient taking meds off-label, a person self-medicating, an addict, or some kind experimentation. All of these situations are much more personal health concerns than public safety concerns. Yes, addiction is a terrible tragedy and sometimes danger for the rest of us -- but it's a personal disaster a long time before it affects any of us. I'd argue that in the aggregate most addicts suffer a lot more personally than any damage they inflict on society.

We have a caricatured view of the drug addict -- the unwashed, illiterate, toothless junkie hiding out in a crack house. Yes, addiction ends up that way for some, but by and large addicts are middle-class, educated, and live in houses with their friends or families. Hollywood and moralists have done us a great disservice by putting these horrible outlier pictures in people's heads when they think of drug use. Take for instance the word "addict", which like the word "war" is such a broad term that it doesn't have much meaning on it's own without further clarification. One side wants you to believe that all drug use consists of PhDs smoking pot while talking astronomy. The other side wants you to believe that all drug use ends in addiction and death. People need to stop with the histrionics.

I support legalization, although I am extremely cautious personally when it comes to drug use. I might support criminalization of dealing hard drugs. I'd have to think about it a bit. But declaring "war" on our own population is a pretty idiotic way to spend our social resources if you ask me. Just like the "war on poverty," the "war on illiteracy," the "war on obesity," and the "culture war," enough with the wars already.
Actually, the part where he details the stats is practically verbatim. There are some nuances between both articles, but he could have provided a link to his sources. It always helps to learn more.

Edit: After completing the Times article and rereading R. Branson's, I can confirm that the general flow is the same. In some parts, he only just paraphrases or summarizes, but the information is really the same.
about time someone stood up to all these unconstitutional things.
Compiz is cool, but ... Since moving to an LXDE-based environment, I have really enjoyed not seeing my desktop. All I see is what I'm doing.
Public web-based preview of Kotlin will be opened on Jan 10th, 2012
What does the inability to pay for the data have to do with their take on the sales team? Their experience with the sales team is invalid because they can't afford to pay for the data?
I suspect #3 Google introduced charging for map usage - was the catalyst over noble points 1 & 2.
500px goes after Flickr users
New PRS Reed Electric Guitar Goldtop
Price: $407.90. Save $20 off Christmas Day Sale. Free Shipping Worldwide. So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too. Stevie Ray Vaughan
Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs 2011 (BusinessWeek)
Not saying it's right, just that it's done. Routinely.

I'm not real political. I haven't studied it too thoroughly, so I am disinclined to make strong recommendations one way or the other. But I'm female and I have some difficulty wrapping my brain around the idea that a man can spend gobs of money on an expensive restaurant and movie and gifts to try to get into my pants but can't legally give me cash up front after asking nicely if I am amenable to such an arrangement. I generally think it would be best if prostitution were decriminalized. I am hesitant to speak to that overly much in public because my views on such topics tend to go over extremely badly with both genders.

Also, if I saw compelling data indicating that decriminalization would cause worse problems, I would be inclined to go with "whatever works for the greater good". However, I doubt I will see such data. Most studies are pretty poorly done. I find few of them all that compelling. For the moment, that leaves me with "This makes no sense to me." as a simple personal opinion.

Suffice it to say, if your recommendation could be implemented and did not turn out to have unexpected hidden social costs (in terms of causing problems), I would support it. With the proviso that I see no reason to actively try to dissuade prostitutes from making their living that way if they so choose. However, it would make it more feasible for them to change career paths if it were not illegal and I am for that. I have seen some things that indicate that difficulty in transitioning to other (legal) work is one of the things which keeps them trapped. Admitting you are a hooker doesn't exactly look good on a resume.
I do not have a family but I have yet to be a in a good relationship with a girl that didn't understand (or cared enough to try) what I do. I also have to be highly interested in what she's passionate about.

I'm not that 40-hours type of guy (right, no family). Programming & stuff is my job but also one of my hobbies – that probably makes it far more important for me than non-passionate geeks.
Peter Kasting's follow-up to his "Making the web awesome" post
This is an interesting discussion..

I was watching a YouTube demo made by the 3d mapping company Apple recently bought. During, I caught on to some new developments that are quite astonishing (e.g. social embedding).

You can read the HN post here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3393011
> hemp's potential as an industrial crop to replace petroleum was unlocked.

Could you clarify this statement? Are you saying hemp can be efficiently used as a fuel?
I read the post and it's mentioned many times that OSM is as good as Google Maps. Others argue "its just about the money". Why would someone want to pay for a service that you have to pay for and its just as good as the alternatives?

I think the key factor here is something Google does very, very well: UI. There is just something about google maps that makes it more appealing to the eye. And that's crucial to create a great service. I saw a post long ago (i couldn't find :/) that compared the graphic style of Maps, Bing and others. Google just nails layout, ease of understanding and other factors. I believe it is this key factor that makes the difference.
Expanding Your Horizons
"The domain "boxsocial.fm" doesn't appear registered with GoDaddy."

Another one to test against as I've not moved it yet.
Zuckerberg’s Vietnam Trip Might Unblock Facebook There
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123535114271444981.html
Cardoso (former president of Brazil), Gaviria (former president of Colombia) and Zedillo (former president of Mexico) also share the opinion that the War on Drugs, a term first used by Nixon, has failed.
There are people who think stoning their daughter over dating someone outside their social group is the honorable thing to do. So concepts of "honor" are wishy-washy at best.

Well, given that we're allowing the statement, "society was never based on honor," to stand, we can assume that we're restricting ourselves to Western or simply American values, since the Japanese provide an obvious counter-example. There aren't many Americans who have ever been into honor killings of family members.
Thanks, fixed in master. Also updated so only uses colors via a -c argument.
And if you piss them of to much you might end up dead
Agree, Google does very well with their UI. But so do others. Check out Leaflet for example http://leaflet.cloudmade.com/

More importantly, with OSM you can do whatever YOU want with the actual underlying data. A great example are these beautiful maps: http://mike.teczno.com/notes/osm-us-terrain-layer/foreground...
Not gonna happen. Two key passages from Article 1:

"Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members"

"Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member."

The power to determine who is a member of Congress, and to remove a sitting member of Congress, is vested solely in the two houses of Congress. There is no precedent for removal of a member of Congress by any other mechanism, and several precedents to the contrary (e.g. attempts to impose term limits on Congressional candidates).
This is something that I think about a lot, actually.

If you love writing and history and art and like talking about them with your friends, would it make sense to marry someone with no interest in those things?

Maybe! Obviously, some people marry complements, differences can attract, and so on. But please consider the other viewpoint.

Isn't it often the case that people choose to be in a relationship with other people who can understand their passions? If your passion is starting a business, or political participation, or world travel, or teaching, or surfing, what would your friends tell you about getting into a relationship with someone who doesn't value those things, and whose expectations of a normal life frankly preclude you spending quality time with that passion?

My passion is programming. And I really enjoy doing it with others.

Is it unrealistic to want to end up with someone I can have an outside chance of sharing gists with?

I think the 'few women in tech' issue affects us personally a lot more than we let on. Writers can marry readers and speakers and thinkers, artists can marry people who appreciate art, entrepreneurs can make the business a family endeavor, but engineers are usually out of luck.

Edit: 'out of luck' if what we want to do is share our specific passion with the person we spend the rest of our life with. If that doesn't matter to you, or the definition of sharing your passion doesn't involve talking code or coding with your SO, then you're lucky!
I can actually see quite distinct similarities in the general flow of the article i.e. the sequence of subjects he touches.
"Open letter to sites with annoying interfaces"?!

Maybe I'll write an open letter to traffic. Or an open letter to waiting in line at the post office. Or an open letter to humidity.
The parallels between the current war on drugs and the prohibition in the early XX century are staggering. Can we learn from that experience? The cost in USD and lives ruined that the war itself creates is greater than the cost of taking the profits a way from a few and running educational campaigns so people can take responsibility of what they do.
For those of us living in countries where the front line of this war is being fought, is clear we are loosing a war that is not ours, neither worth fighting. But we keep on doing it because the US "pays" for it.
Someday a future generation will look back and ask themselves how come they didn't realize it was a stupid war? were they less intelligent in those simpler times? And they will probably be right.
Per a friend who overheard Steve Blank say this once:

"If you have to ask or second guess, then you already have your answer. You're not ready." (paraphrasing)