skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I never really meant to imply that App Engine doesn't make it a lot easier to build and administer your code.

It's more than just a price/stability tradeoff. The problem is, as an App Engine user, one is totally at the mercy of any future price changes on App Engine because it is nearly impossible to seamlessly migrate away.

The DNS aliases (appspotchat.com, for instance) can only point to Google, and the API does not really work well on any other platform such as AppScale. So, as we discovered, at any time in the future, one's service could suddenly cost 10x as much, and one won't really have the option to move quickly. If one intends to scale, it's better to never get into that state in the first place, and develop on AWS instead. If EC2 raises its prices (highly unlikely since computing power is increasing and costs are decreasing), one can always move to rackspace or just get a private server.

It's of course true that writing stuff on App Engine can sometimes require a lot less engineering work. But the difference is not really that substantial when compared to the possibility of being stuck on a platform that all of a sudden makes your company unprofitable in unpredictable ways. Changing a running service is very hard. Avoiding the problem by not getting stuck on App Engine is not trivial, but in my opinion the right call.
Please don’t lobby
tl;dr I stopped at "our democracy."
gcc uses the ABI on x86 and x86_64.

msvc doesn't use the IA64 ABI.
'You' is the plural, or at least, it was. 'Thou' was the second person singular pronoun.
Hello, I´m European as well, and I often thought about doing something similar (i.e. moving to US for a period of time looking for work). I have already been in Silicon Valley for an internship (with a researcher visa) years ago and loved the place, but I always thought that getting a working Visa would be hard, since the company basically has to petition for your visa and pay all the associated legal expenses.

In your experience then, is it something that can be done (I guess so given that you had 3 interviews already).? Or do companies gives you a hard time if you don´t have a work permit to start with ?

Thanks.
I started work on a "somewhat" similar project* around the beginning of the year. This was for the state level, not the federal level. There were quite a number of issues. The most annoying being that the state archives only went back so far. Checking it now, it goes back to the mid-70s (very encouraging, 9 months ago, it only went back to the mid-90s). If you need a reference on why this is important go back and read the Patriot Act (hint, without access to the legal code going back very far, it is futile).

As far as your bullet points, we already do much of that (ok, not in "real time", not with commit messages (you could have it, but everyone would quickly fill it in with "cause it's good for America"), but much of this is publicly available). Anyone who adds or votes for or against is very well documented. For my state it is a real PITA to parse out and apply but that information is provided and in a usable manner. The only thing missing is the speed and pretty ui.

Also, Sunlight has already done a great deal of work in this area (when I last checked they were still working on the API).

*Since, I've let the idea lay dormant for months now, I'll share it. The original idea was to setup a Facebook type "game" where bored housewives or whoever get a list of 5 random bills. They get the summary and it links to the bill's text and any current laws that will be affected by that bill. What they don't see is the bill's name and who the sponsor and co-sponsors are. After reading the summary they fill out a short survey of who and what party they think the bill came from, do they think the bill is a good or bad idea and any tags they think are appropriate for the law ("pork","insurance","nice", etc) and even add their own notes. After they do that they find out who the sponsor/co-sponsors are.

The idea was to give people an incentive to read pending legislation without an instinctive bias.

Though my code is ugly, I may GitHub what I have so far.
The problem is that you upgraded. I did the same and got the same result but a clean Xubuntu install works like a charm.
I just realized that the title is misleading. It should have been "Getting knowledge worth a CS degree without going to school - An unusual challenge". I have changed the title in the blog, but cannot change it here. Sorry for the confusion.
>And how do you plan on getting Congress to agree to use a system in which vast swathes of them will "look like an unelectable crypto-fascist in the eyes of the public"?

Maybe they'd be forced to do so in order to compete with the new cohort of younger, technology-embracing politicians which will sweep to power on the crest of a wave of louis ck-style "OMG finally someone who understands" sentiment from the reddit generation, bumrushing congress in much the same way that the tea party has done.

I fully admit that these ideas are not workable in this form. I'm trying to "dream big." That's why I used the phrase in my imagined utopia.
Fascinating account of post-7/7 behavioural trauma, and how hard it was to do the right thing; it shows up both in Daniel's reaction and those of other commenters who've been in similar situations. It's not just bombs ...

Accounts I've read of what happens immediately after a [survivable] plane crash are similar. Many physically uninjured passengers will just continue to sit in their seats, waiting to be told what to do, even if the plane's on fire. Another sizeable minority act through their roles as if the plane had made a successful landing; stand up to grab their carry-on luggage, then form an orderly queue. Only around 10-20% actually behave appropriately (that is, follow the emergency evacuation drill, without guidance: pop the emergency hatches and get the hell out of the danger zone without encumbering themselves).

We are creatures of habit; we have great difficulty accepting the existence of an immediate and potentially lethal threat to our existence, so some of us behave as if it simply isn't there. (Which is why it takes training to instill the right reflexes for dealing with abnormal situations.) And even among those who unfreeze and start moving again, the impulse to revert to "normal" behaviour can be overwhelming.
Ask HN: Anyone hiring part time remote non-developers?
On Friday I got an early Christmas present - being laid off from my job. I was doing technical/customer support and html/css work for an IT services company but they decided to eliminate my position.

I guess this is a long shot but I figured I'd ask: is anyone looking for part time remote help? I'm currently a student and I live in a small city, so I'm trying to find something flexible & remote.

I have several years of full time technical/customer support experience, and I'm fairly good at html/css. I also enjoy writing and I'm interested in marketing as well.

If you know of any positions like this I'd love to talk to you.
Ninja Unboxing 3, a YouTube video...game
To avoid confusing newbies, str() does not concatenate a list (or generator, etc.) of strings into a single string. You probably meant to call ''.join() instead.

>>> import itertools
>>> def f2_1(list):
... return str(itertools.imap(chr, list))
...
>>> f2_1(range(10))
'<itertools.imap object at 0x10048e850>'
>>> def f2_2(list):
... return str(chr(c) for c in list)
...
>>> f2_2(range(10))
'<generator object <genexpr> at 0x10046b780>'
Am I really alone in thinking that the Internet Quorum UI isn't really that bad?

Before my startup days I spent years working for the local government, and before that for a large (formerly public) gas pipelining company. I've seen so many horrendous Access/VBA-based frontends, or worse, Excel spreadsheets with macros that this system doesn't seem so bad.

In a way I'm actually surprised that Congress even has system to collate all the emails, letters, phone calls and visits into one single database. That sounds really useful, and I'd love to hear from someone that has actually used it.

"this world of We've Always Done It This Way and You'll Need The Proper Authorization For That."

I don't think this is the product of "We've Always Done It This Way", it's the result of "We Have A Strict Budget For This And User Interface Is Difficult To Quantify". As for "You'll Need The Proper Authorization For That.", well, that's the stuff of government. I agree that it's overly restrictive, but I wouldn't want to see the government tip too far in the opposite direction.

I'd be all for donning a Guy Fawkes mask and changing the world if there was even the slightest assurance that the system replacing it would be better. I don't think there is.
Skip lists is such one that I wasn't taught in school. I did not learn about them until a friend brought them up in a conversation. They are probably taught in upper level algorithm courses.
You may "quit at the drop of a hat" as well so it works both ways. In the US, it's called "at will employment" so if you get stuck somewhere you don't like, you may leave. But if you want to use the company as a reference for future jobs, be nice to them and provide a few weeks notice, etc.
Ask HN: Why does the new Galaxy Nexus have a "NFC Battery"?
I've bought one of these and I've noticed two things about the battery. Firstly, there is four connectors on the battery, and secondly, the battery is branded "Near Field Communication". Why would the battery need that ??
Hey, well I've been married to an American citizen for 5 years before coming over here so I got my green card recently after applying about 6 months ago.
Because I don't require any sort of sponsorship I think I have more opportunities than someone who does.
I'm afraid I can't really say for sure if you will have a harder time trying to get interviews when requiring sponsorship, but my opinion would be that yes, you will find it more difficult.
Damn, I feel for this guy and it makes me proud. I know from experience how hard that situation can be. I'm a recovering addict and I've been to jail. Luckily I completed a treatment program that allowed me to have my record expunged. But the criminal record isn't the only thing standing in your way. There's a whole host of issues having that sort of path brings with it that aren't obvious. In my case it was the debts I incurred while addicted (it's amazing what bills you decide aren't important to pay and how you use credit when you're an addict) that ruined my credit and have forced me to do things without funding. In Duane's case I'm sure there's some sort of past following him besides his record. I'm willing to bet his former "colleagues" in the gang come around to try to mooch or shake him down from time to time. That's just a thought and my only evidence is my knowledge of how that world works but hopefully his old buddies really are gone forever.

I think the message to this story should be less about "if a dealer can do it, so can you" and more about trying to figure out what it really was that sparked the change in Duane ans try to apply it to other convicts, especially in the US where the prisons are overcrowded and we just don't see much of any real reforms out of prisoners who are released. They're mostly on an in and out of prison rotating cycle. Is there something in Duane's case that we can learn from to help other inmates or is Duane a special case of a guy who really did just get mixed up in some bad stuff but had no real criminal bent.
Seeking Advice for Video request API. 
I will be building an API for one of our products which displays videos our customer website.

The API will be private to start with. Only partners will have access to the api. The api will give them access to our video library and product registration.

I'm trying to think of the best way to make the video links and widget secure as posible. Limiting access to those who have an API key and whose websites have been authorized to show the videos.

Currently we are small and do not have a CDN but im sure this will change real soon.

Currently with out the API I am displaying the videos and widget through Iframe.
The Iframe has a token that is checked to see if the website displaying the video is registered with us.

For each video, in the Iframe I have a token that indicates which video to display the token created by using they domain name. Once it has been authorized I push out the file and I do not directly link to it.

In the event we switch to a CDN I really do not know how to securely stream our content.

I know if someone really wants the videos they will get them but I'm just trying to make it as secure as posible. With the videos directly on the server I can put the videos in a none web root and push it out if needed.

Any advice would be appreciated.
All the freaking out about SOPA reveals something very interesting about the technology crowd in general I think. Whatever happened to all those people who were always crowing about how legislation would never keep up to technology? Are there experts going in front of the committee explaining how technology will make circumventing these restrictions seamless for end users? Or are we admitting that this legislation has caught up and that technology and innovation has been defeated.

Is not the way to defeat SOPA and anything remotely resembling it just to let it become law and then kick its ass in the real world. Congress would never take it up again once it has failed and a system put in place to ensure it can not be regulated in the future.
I've interviewed people in the US, and the first time I asked candidates to reverse a linked list, I was shocked by the results.

Candidate A had a long track record of success, at least on paper. He was obviously motivated, responsible, and likable. He had done a lot of hardware work, and claimed to be a decent (but not top-notch) C programmer.

Candidate B was straight out of college, and he had a weak résumé. We suspected that he had some coding talent, but he didn't have much experience, and we had no idea whether or not he was reliable.

We were leaning heavily towards candidate A. He interviewed brilliantly and seemed like a good fit. Then I asked him to reverse a linked list, and he responded, "Do you have a copy of K&R? I don't remember what kind of braces C uses for functions." After about 30 minutes, he was still trying and failing to find a solution.

When I asked the same question to candidate B, he shrugged, and wrote out a correct solution without stopping to think. So we hired candidate B, and he did excellent work for us for years.

And this is not a one-time incident. It's amazing how many people can bluff their way through an interview without knowing how to sum the numbers in an array. Résumés are full of lies, phone screens are hard to do well, and references are hand-picked by the candidate. So I'm a big believer in coding questions.
> If Red has made 3D more common then I regret that part happening

I don't think Red is to blame for this. At the end of the day, it's all about the money, so if we as consumers keep going to watch things in 3D (and pay even more money to do so), it's a no-brainer for the studios to keep making crap in 3D.

Given how many films are converted to 3D in post-production, it's hard for anyone to argue that it's about the aesthetic.
http://railsforzombies.org/

Gamifying rails learning
> I can say that I spent the 25 years of my life in Israel without seeing anything like a terror attack, or gunshots or anything.

...but how? Did you never spend significant time in Jerusalem (before they finished the separation wall)? I only spent a total of a few months in Jerusalem and saw one suicide bombing and was a few blocks from a shooting. Have you never been to the west bank? One of the two times I went to Hebron I saw soldiers shooting at...who knows? But they were shooting. If you live near the northern border or near Gaza you must have been exposed to rocket attacks at some point. The only way I can imagine you don't encounter violence over 25 years is if you live in a safe area and don't venture out much. Still, you must have friends or family who are exposed to violence. I find it incredible that you think it's just 'hype'.
Ask HN: Going to SXSW? Would you take "startup train" from CA to TX this Spring?
Going to SXSW? If so, are you interested in taking the "Startup Train" to the event in 2012 from California to Austin? Here are the tentative details:

* This would be a one way experience. Many people leave at different times, so this is the way to get there, but you are responsible for the way back.
* The format will be similar to "Startup Weekend" in a lot of ways. Some will present their ideas and the teams will be formed into the groups before boarding the train. Food, drinks (beer?), supplies, Wi-Fi, etc will be provided. The trip will take 40 hours on the train. As a result, you will have ~ 36 hours to build new startup before you arrive to Austin!
* We will be departing from LA as that is the only straight train leaving from CA to Austin.
* We will arrive in the morning on the first day of Interactive portion of SXSW
* It is going to be fun! (I envision this to be more of a laid back atmosphere with opportunity to socialize with everyone present rather than only within your team)

What I want from HN community is CONSTRUCTIVE feedback (like why this is not a good idea or why you would do it), questions, suggestions in the comments here AND (if you would take a train yourself and want to know more) to leave me your email via google form below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGRQdG52enJTMzBMdFlSU0d3ZExMb0E6MQ#gid=0

What do you think?
Possibly. I upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04 without a hitch and was hopeful that they hat sorted the standard upgrade issues. I personalize my installs so much that I really hate fresh loads, but I'll be doing only that in the future. Maybe I'll stick to long-term releases only.
Aside from a fundamental misunderstanding of how politics actually works in modern governments, yeah, there's no reason.
Ah, that explains it :)

Thanks for the answer anyway...
I have never once used the 'is' keyword in python.
6.172 Performance Engineering.
After doing this for a while, we begin to realize that we should just get rid of the server side templates and handle rendering on the client

This is the only way to flatten the technology stack, anything else just created a bigger ball of technical debt. The advantages of REST and JavaScript applications over the old model are not apparent until you make this mental leap. Once a person does the simplicity of the architecture becomes apparent.

Well, not so fast. Not all pages should be rendered client side. Some pages need to be indexed by search engines, and they need to be rendered on the server.

This is not a concern if you do a little browser sniffing, if you run into a search bot, you send it to a server that has a headless web-browser script on it, that pulls the content from the primary server, and delivers it to the bot as a single unified page. Further most of the major search engines are fairly far along in their ability to index client side dynamic content, some you have to give a little help with #! and such, but for the most part, search is not a valid reason to hang on to the legacy of server side views.
Arguments like these can be used for pretty much any other technology, this is not NoSQL nor Node.js specific.
Inspired by that, someone else has made "svn-bisect" http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-SVN-Bisect/bin/svn-bisect Does the same thing, and is a godsend when trying to track down bugs in a svn project.
Optical Effects of Relativity [video]
Startup Metrics: Key Indicators vs Data Mining
I support Citizens United's case, but my issue was with the ruling. It was too broad and went beyond the scope of the original case.
Tinkering withevolution: Ecological implications of modular software networks
> to know all the facts that pertain to the situation

While I agree, I can relate as to why this will never be the case. Think back to when you first started programming, or were otherwise involved in technology. It was near impossible to know what you didn't know. And every now and then, that ignorance gave you the belief of being more of an expert than you actually were. This area is an uphill battle of constantly being reminded how little you actually know.

I think it'd be dangerous to have them learn just enough without being actively engaged. It would give them the false belief of being an expert since they'd stop once they feel they have a firm grasp on the subject.

> They HAVE experts talking to them, or at least trying.

This may be the case. However, they can't tell the difference. To them, any "nerd" using technical jargon may or may not be an expert, and there's no way to know which. Dealing with so many unfamiliar subject areas, I'm sure they're experienced enough to know people lie. So ignoring the advice may just be a defensive measure, realizing they have no idea what's being advised or even how true it really is.

It's a bad situation. I don't know how to solve it, but I believe trust is the key quality. More important than expertise.
I love this response. :)
I'm no expert, but both roquetman's and mattdeboard's stories sound like they might be Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (symptoms include "Having an exaggerated response to things that startle you", and "Feeling more aware (hypervigilance)") [0], for which treatment exists that's apparently effective at least for some people. Continuing the recent suicide-prevention theme on HN, "Going through a trauma may increase a person's suicide risk. Studies also show that suicide risk is higher in persons with PTSD." [1] So please, if people find themselves having symptoms like this, consider getting help.

[0] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001923/
[1] http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/ptsd-suicide.asp
Another point is exhausting pedantic analysis is not political --sometimes your gut instinct tells you more of what's going on.

Sarah Palin, is that you?
Attractive Emo shoes snaps for girls
One big missing feature for me is the wall post from Facebook or the @at message from Twitter. I didn't realize at first how much I use the 'open direct message' features on these other networks until I started messing around with G+.
If your going to define fascist as something that apply's to more than just Italy then, Great Britain got a lot closer to fascist than you might suspect. For example, agricultural subsidies use public funds to prop up private enterprises which is fascist. They also went into public surveillance, and indefinite detention without trial etc.

PS: It's a slippery term, but originally it had nothing to do with Germany.
Startup argues: don't use MP3 audio in HTML5 games
أصالة لن ترد على مي حريري
FYI this is a secondary purchase (ie it was not an investment in twitter directly, but rather he purchased shares from other investors):
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-deal-...
Yes, but in very few cases are the server- and client-side languages the same one.
I also believe in coding questions but the linked list question in this situation wasn't a good one to use for both candidates.

Why? Well of course the kid straight out of university would answer a question on data structures correctly, he probably did the class for that only a few months prior.

In your example, Candidate A was obviously a no-hire after not even knowing what braces a C function uses but a lot of people similar to Candidate A who can actually code are being presented with questions about linked lists and similar structures no-one who has written code for years would remember, let alone use in their daily work lives.

I want to say again, I'm 100% for coding questions but I think they should reflect more on the type of work you need the candidate to do in the job rather than some academic examples you feel you must ask just because Microsoft/Amazon do.
Zynga below $9.00 after 2nd day of trading
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AZNGA
BT sues Google over six U.S. patents allegedly infringed by Android