skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think people are missing the whole point.

The author is not suggesting not having quality design. He isn't even saying design isn't an itegral part of product development.

he's saying everyone is skipping step one, namely figure out what problem you're going to solve. No one asks the proverbial question 'How is my product going to get them laid' (to paraphrase jwz) They just skip straight to having a great way of doing the same exact thing everyone else does just as well.
Internet Explorer: Microsoft plans 'silent' updates
Well, since you helped me to find an awesome webhost last time, I figure I'll bite on some more generosity. :)

I have a product that will be completed soon. I do not plan on selling this product through my site, but I do want to drive traffic there before and after release. I have kept myself socially detached on the Internet in the past and I do not have a Facebook and only recently embraced Twitter and G+. I am slowly trying to build a brand around my name so that I might have traffic for future products.

Since launching my site, I have been working on learning HTML/CSS and it has slowly come together between work, school and children. Now I am venturing into the world of PHP. I built a little script that I use for people to register for my newsletter. It is driven by a form with one text box and a submit button. It takes whatever is in that box, throws it in a flat file, then redirects to a thanks page.

I like working with flat files, I always have, but I am currently up against a wall where I either need to dive deeper into PHP or look into a service like MailChimp. What I need to know:

I'd like for there to be more feedback to both the user and myself that their submission was okay. I'd like to generate a subscription email that is sent after the completion of the form which would also CC me. I am really not interested in a service that convolutes this process if it is something I can manage myself. What do you recommend? If you say PHP is the answer, are there any resources out there that you suggest that would put me on the right path?
I couldn't find a way to control affinity with the C++11 thread feature. That seems like a good reason to stick with pthread.
9 Benefits of Online Accounting Software for Small Businesse
How to improve this tutorial:

- Use lambdas

- Use std::scoped_ptr or std::shared_ptr

- Use std::vector instead of C Array

- Use references instead of pointers

That would prevent unnecessary pitfalls.
I was debugging a php memory issue yesterday, and noticed that at some point my get_memeory_usage() value became much, much smaller than the memory footprint recorded by top (20 MB in get_memory_usage(), 500 MB in top RES). It was a sudden jump during a loop execution according to top. Does top give accurate memory estimates for php scripts?
Occupy.
The problem is not the engineers. If the executives of the companies are obligated by law to build this system or go out of business/be fined, they will pass that pressure down the chain.

I know this bill upsets people, but getting fired would be more upsetting to those programmers/engineers.
Yeah ditto on when I came to vim (also why I leave it almost completely unmodified on my own machines). If you do all your coding on one machine there isn't much difference between emacs/vim/textmate/jedit/sublime and if you do it in mostly one or two languages IDEs are fine.

Vim isn't compellingly more useful until its ubiquity becomes compellingly useful.
But you can get physical hardware on EC2 if you pay for the big instances...
+1 for Vico. It's basically all I use at this point. It's still getting started, but I'm fully productive in it at this point, and have already written a couple of plugins for it.

Caveat emptor: it works with TM bundles, but cannot do vim plugins.
> But the teacher is not really giving you a gurantee that x is a random variable from the set {1,2,3,4,5}.

Why? Even if X is always 1, it is a random variable from {1,2,3,4,5}, with distribution {1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0}, which I don't know so it is unknown for me.

For me teachers method of choice is not important - he can throw the dices, he can set it to 1. For me it's still random variable, because I don't know the result.

If the real space is {1,2}, because teacher will throw a coin, I can still think about it as variable on {1,2,3,4,5}, because it's all the same, when the probabilities are {0.5, 0.5, 0, 0, 0}.
RIM is done. Only a true miracle can save them.
Landsburg actually addresses this in his next post! Regarding the Liar Paradox you bring up:

"""One of Kurt Godel’s great insights was that you can go a lot deeper by considering a slightly different sentence: “This sentence is not provable”. If that statement is false, then it’s provable. But surely no false statement should be provable! So maybe the statement is true. In that case, it’s true but not provable, which says something about the limits of logic. It says that not every true statement can be proved.""" [1]

fn 1: http://www.thebigquestions.com/2011/12/13/a-tale-of-three-pa...
The irony is that if SOPA passes, Rep. Steve King's experience "surfing the internet" to "kill time" would likely be significantly less interesting with less content available to view/read.
Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012
I don't think Raytheon or SAIC would feel very threatened by a consumer boycott.
Hi,

Some time back I started working on a DIY learning solution for Computer Science. It is based on the concept of peer based social learning.

The website has courses which are a collection of material, forums, and activities. Participants consume the information, ask/answer questions, submit responses to activities, and even review other participant's responses.

There are no certificates, but whatever a participant does is made available in their profile and is their credentials.

I will really appreciate if you can take a look at the website and offer me suggestions on how I can offer the participant's a better learning experience.

http://diycomputerscience.com/

Thank you very much for volunteering your time.
Yes. I realized recently that a big reason I'd end up eventually drifting away from vim was the inconsistent vim config/plugin options on different machines (work, home, etc). Or worse, starting on a fresh environment and having none of my config/plugins available.

Now I've started to keep my vim config / plugin files in a git repo and deploy them whenever I'm on a new machine. Also as I'm slowly adding new functionality it gets reflected across all environments. I'm hoping this helps this time around.
you are correct so you have to low-ball your bid and say you can do it for less, say 50 million. A total steal. Then you delay. Delay delay delay. When they fire you, get your friend to promise the same thing you promised. Incompetence is not a failing, but merely a tool in need to the right time.
Mushroom Plastics: Startup and Hackers of Another Kind
Ask HN: Worth of Algorithm Challenges and contests?
I'm interested in knowing whether it is advisable for computer science students to spend their major chunk of time on the online judges practising programming(like Topcoder and codeforces) or it's more worth to develop a software or contribute to open-source ?
Note: I'm not asking from the perspective of job scenario. I'm asking from the perspective of being a better developer.
On 99% of the projects I've been involved with:

Boss: So you can do <anything> in two weeks then?

Me: No, what I just talked about is a multi-month endeavor.

The reasoning behind this is probably formed from a multitude of influences. Executive desire, manager's attempts to look good, and a complete lack of comprehension of what building software is about all rank high on the list. The one I, for the life of me, cannot understand is why programmers insist on pushing the "I can hack that together in 48 hours" mythology. Surely it has had an effect on the management psyche and influenced the mental math used to conclude that the maximum time it should take any feature to be developed is fourteen days.
i wouldnt say brillant
the CA model is still a pita where you've to pay for certified authorities that are backed up by the vendors

and then, those certified authorities still fail to secure themselves

it certainly made a lot of sense but in reality its not that good
A non-technical boss managing technical employees can lead to problems. It is rare to have a non-technical manager who 1) knows what they know/don't know, and 2) can effectively manage a technical team.
Yes, they were more specialized. Still better than a 'kit' though, in terms of creativity.

I think I still have all my Tente, sure would be fun to pull 'em out!
Make WebSocket Work 2x Faster on Node.js
Hmm, while I agree that it can be hard to keep on top of you emails in that kind of volume, if you're a boss, and you're bothered enough about being kept up to date on a project, perhaps some email rules that filter emails about that project into a seperate folder so you can see, quite easily that there are emails about that project, might be a good idea?

I occasionally get similair situations to this at work, which is why I request read receipts. Makes it even more satisfying when an account manager is having a go at you for not emailing them something and you point out they sent you a read receipt for it, they just obviously didn't actually read it. My account managers hate my read receipts :)
No problem, just install mingw. Or install msysgit and you get git-bash which comes with it. CMD.exe is a pile of garbage. I would understand if you wanted to learn about powershell, though. That's definitely on my todo list.

Also, CMD.exe has copy + paste, you know? You can right click to start a mark, then left click and drag. Enter performs the copy. However, it doesn't understand newlines or line wrapping, so you end up getting artificial newlines where the end of the terminal is (which is unfortunately capped at 80 chars, so if you wanted to make it bigger, you couldn't)
Daily Mobile Minute #74: How to use mobile for market research
"Foreign keys don't buy you anything - I leave them out. If we program right, we'll never have inconsistent data anyway."

"Superclasses don't buy you anything - you should just copy the code everywhere that might need it."

"Unit tests are nice, but we should be able to write code that works and not need to rely on tests to tell us that."

No, I'm not there anymore.
Aren't there scenarios where this would be ok?

Say 1,000 people are subscribing each week, 100 are opting out and 90 are clicking links.

What matters is opt outs per subscriber, not opt outs per link clicked.
Before posting that there is an easy or obvious resolution to the “paradox”, please read at least the first couple pages of the literature survey that Landsburg links to [1].

"""
The meta-paradox consists of two seemingly incompatible facts. The first is that the surprise exam paradox seems easy to resolve. Those seeing it for the first time typically have the instinctive reaction that the flaw in the students’ reasoning is obvious. Furthermore, most readers who have tried to think it through have had little difficulty resolving it to their own satisfaction.

The second (astonishing) fact is that to date nearly a hundred papers on the paradox have been published, and still no consensus on its correct resolution has been reached. The paradox has even been called a “significant problem” for philosophy [30, chapter 7, section VII]. How can this be? Can such a ridiculous argument really be a major unsolved mystery? If not, why does paper after paper begin by brusquely dismissing all previous work and claiming that it alone presents the long-awaited simple solution that lays the paradox to rest once and for all?
"""

fn 1: http://www-math.mit.edu/~tchow/unexpected.pdf
This kind of threaded for-loop processing is precisely what OpenMP is designed to take care of without having to control threads directly from your code. Making sure your code is thread-safe is good practice anyway, and running the for loop in parallel could be as easy as using:

#pragma omp for ...

Disclaimer: I haven't found that OpenMP is too useful outside of pure computation, but it is worth mentioning if all you want to do is run loops in parallel.

Current spec (pdf): http://openmp.org/mp-documents/OpenMP3.1-CCard.pdf
I commented before but guess it hasn't showed up, so I'll comment again lol.

I need an idea for an Individual Project Proposal.

Details: Studying Business Information Systems -- this is Database oriented at the moment but also includes Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence next year.
I'm also becoming interested in programming and web scripting although the idea of a web site was not approved by my tutor.
I want to do something with gaming or an app; something that I can easily learn.
The project should be original or an improvement of a system/ combines existing technology to create something useful.

Thanks a lot!!
I was excited to read this, and the main site is still down... but I'm at a coffee shop and OpenDNS says "Sorry, but www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net is blocked on this network."
Mobile Morning Coffee (12/16/11)
Hey, Mike -

Do you know anyone who needs a software developer? I was just laid off out of the blue from my latest gig, and I'm looking for something else. I live in Denver right now, and have had a couple of interviews in the past few days, but I'm looking to spread as wide of a net as possible. They say it's easiest to find a job when you have a job, and while the subject of my current employment hasn't come up yet, it's bound to eventually. I'd just as soon have many eggs in many baskets in the event that this reflects poorly on me.

My wife has been asking me if we can move to Florida, where I believe you're from, so I'd be open to relocation as well. My e-mail address is located in my profile.

Thanks!
I can't read the article at the moment, but I was thrilled when I found out that the programmers, musicians and artists who made most of my favorite Sega Genesis and Master System games were using Amigas.
Show HN: ST2 Community Packages Web Interface with Instant Search
Coase Conjecture
Was this response really such low quality that it warranted a downvote? Or are we just not allowed to voice any criticism of Apple on HN anymore?
Firewall uptime and security with iptables
Why don't we just build a new internet?

They're blocking DNS records and IP address? Then why don't we design and build a new system. Using the knowledge we've gained from the Internet v1 we'd be able to do a much better job with Internet v2.

We have to do a lot of work to switch over to IP6 anyhow, so why not just go the whole hog and built a new infrastructure?
IMO dictatorship is the inevitable result of Marxism. I once had a girlfriend who was a Marxist. She used to talk about how when the revolution comes, the mean capitalists would all go to prison. I pointed out that mean people don't disappear. They adapt to the system. So a meanie who is adept at scaling the corporate ladder to the commanding heights is equally adepts at scaling the government ladder. Only now he controls the entire economy, education system, courts etc, not just one entity.
FCC doles out $100K to open source community apps challenge winners
I'm not sure you read the article or pg's post. Consumers aren't boycotting. Programmers and those building SOPA would quit, so Raytheon and SAIC wouldn't have an employees to build it.
you can use the email you like
you select which of your registered email you want to use at first sign in (sign in that doesnt require password)
Not a consumer boycott; an employee boycott. It might make a company think twice before touching this type of work if they knew it would make it impossible to hire or retain good programmers.
If you're just picking up Vim and using Chrome, I suggest installing Vimium to get some extra practice. Ignore recent blog posts, for the most part, that tell you to start from a vanilla config. Training wheels help.

On another note, what's the vim-org mode clones looking like lately?
Beta Show: Ep1 Mobile Groove + UNTETHER bring a global view of mobile
But obviously Christians don't believe that heaven is like North Korea or the Movementarians. They see it quite differently from the inside.

I take Hitchens as trying to find a common ground for argument by appealing directly to the text. So it is on point if his interpretation of the text does not do it justice, especially if the Christians interpret it differently in a way that is more internally consistent.
PayPal support lands on the Ubuntu Software Centre
There are very few details in this article. Much more information in the linked source: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/12/superfl...
That conveniently glosses over the fact that it is your fault if you have bad credit. There are systemic causes of poverty. But nobody forces you to take credit you can't repay.

More importantly, your premise is wrong:

The average credit score in the US is just below 700 (690ish iirc.) And the median is above 700. This comes from numbers from the CRAs and is supported by the stats reported by CreditKarma.com.

That is not bad credit.
Are such briefings classified, or is there some chance of a citable reference?
Reminds me of the Zen story which recommends just focus on doing the next thing, no matter how chaotic or absurd the situation. "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."
Schools grab .xxx sites to protect names from porn
A Big List of Interesting Programming Books Released in 2011
This sounds like a distracting Unicorny problem, how about you guys finish what you need to do, launch, see if gets any traction and then worry about this.

Unicorny -- something so early in the planning stages that it might as well be imaginary.
Armed revolt?
What? No. That's rubbish.

The failure of the Occupy movement has been that it is primarily been driven at an emotional level, and (if my own experiences have shown anything) has lacked serious thought.

So, here, we're all designers/engineers/entrepeneurs, let's talk about this.

Goal:

Fix what is broken with the US federal government.

Constraints:

Any proposed solution cannot disrupt current economy significantly (avoid riots, breaking public services, hurting people. etc.).

Any proposed solution must be straightforward in implementation and simple in explanation (average Joes and Janes need to be able to get it--no GNU cat() implmentations, please).

Any proposed solution must gracefully integrate or deprecate existing systems where possible (see defense, messaging [postal service], FCC, IRS, etc.)--this need not include existing legislative organs, however (those are command mechanisms, which probably would need to be replaced wholesale anyways).

Any proposed solution must allow active participation by the governed and allow for expression of their will. This implies any solution must allow for equal, open, and easy access to the functioning of the government.

Suggested starting point:

1. Identify what is actually wrong with the government.

EDIT: Updated example list of existing systems example. Added constraint for "expression of governed's will".
'I got invited to taco bell HQ'
I have a kindle, and I have yet to buy any books for it and wonder if I ever will. To tell you the truth the whole DRM thing is a complete put off for me.

Though I do love reading from the e-reader. I have it loaded up with the classics, but still buy in books in print.

I love the idea of electronic books though. But it should be easy for me to just hand one over to say a partner to read.
> And this is precisely the way our legal system is designed to work. Underlying it is the idea that it's better for 100 people to go unpunished, then to have used the state's monopoly on force to injure one innocent person.

It's not really that simple, though, is it? Different kinds of law require a different burden of proof to be met before the legal system will punish or compensate.

In criminal cases, the standard in many places is "beyond reasonable doubt" or something roughly equivalent. This echoes the sentiment you described.

However, in civil cases, where we are talking about damages being assessed if and only if the case is lost, the burden is typically much lower, often something resembling "on the balance of probabilities".

And on the balance of probabilities, anyone trying to weasel their way out of being punished for infringing copyright who has no case stronger than the form arguments I mentioned before is guilty as sin.
The French had an interesting way of taking care of corrupt government: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine

This is being downvoted, but I do really intend a real point that isn't in jest. Politicians have zero potential of repercussion. Even in cases of corruption, fraud, etc... jailtime is minimal at best. Seizing assets or punishing those funding and conspiring with them never happens. Once you're a politician, you have free reign for corruption. Much of the US and much of the world even believes that our last President and his cabinet were likely guilty of wrongdoing on several occasions.

We do need to have some method of holding stringent accountability. These men fear nothing, and respect no one. If they get voted out of office, they'll just go work for a lobbyist for 4x the salary. I don't think we have to go as far as the guillotine, but let's face it, the French Revolution was a lot more effective than the Occupy Movement at reshaping France and influencing a great deal of Europe. Find something to add weight to their decisions. Don't let them do wrong with no repercussion.
I think a committee meeting in the House is quite a different environment than an "engineering meeting". While King's tweet was obviously not offered in a respectful attitude, I don't think that's something that should be sufficiently problematic to stop real "important business". I find it interesting that this comment focuses on the impropriety of King's tweet instead of the impropriety of making a fuss about this, though obviously both are applicable to your main point that the people in charge are grossly incompetent.
Except: the Occupy protests mainly caused problems for city and local officials.

Cities and localities have issues, too, but are far more representative of and responsive to their own residents' needs than Congress. (None of the cities blessed with Occupy camps proposed censoring the internet, for example.)