skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think tutorials just follow what's hot and what people are using, not necessarily what people have trouble understanding. Git is central to HN as a community, so we upvote things like git articles, and other HNers are more likely to try to learn git because of exposure. Coding projects on HN generally link to a github repository. Someone might create a new git cheatsheet tomorrow, but it doesn't indicate that nobody can understand any of the other git cheatsheets you can find in a google query.

See, we also incessantly upvote the latest oneword.js "gimmick", and it'd be inaccurate to assume that these javascript weekend projects fill any sort of demand half the time just because they're so prevalent. I think the community just tends to circulate things that it uses and has an interest in.
I'm pleased to see that this extension sends only the hashed URL to its server, so you're not giving away your full browsing history in real time:

var url_hash = hex_md5(tab.url);
xhr.open("GET", "http://hnd.mfairley.com/" + url_hash, true);

https://github.com/michaelfairley/hnd-client/blob/master/bac...
Don't expect anything but a canned response. Something like, "We reviewed all the available options, and feel that Microsoft is the best solution for us."
On non-competes - because the potential for abuse far outweigh the benefits for employers. It is also a way to subvert the free-market rules.

In California non-competes are not valid, except for equity stakeholders. Silicon Valley is in California and clearly the lack of this privilege hasn't done much harm to businesses - quite the contrary, if the correlation with their success in the software industry says anything about it (the same argument could be made pro software patents, however software patents have only began to be seriously accepted / enforced recently - and I feel like Silicon Valley will see a decline because of it).
Managing haproxy connections
It's probably better not to bring up any of the traditional wedge issues (guns, abortion, etc.) during discussions on SOPA. We're incredibly vulnerable to them due to the diversity of our little coalition and they'll just derail the discussion (and even if they don't half the readers won't understand your point).

EDIT: fixed italics.
Turn any form into a powerful, yet simple mini-CRM in seconds
Poll: Do you own Apple devices?
The recent This American Life piece on the Apple factories sparked my interest.
"Makefiles usually work"

1. _usually_: if you have the same system, yes. However, try building stuff on a different OS (say SunOS) and/or CPU, and that 'usually' becomes 'more often than not', at best.

2. Have you read such makefiles recently? Portable ones, especially, are not ones one writes in an afternoon (not even when using a meta- or meta-meta makefile).
Perubalsem it's not à requirement per se, but would you call 12 tracks recorded on an iPhone in someone's basement, without any post production, a professionally produced album?

The same is true for books. Anyone can write some texts amounting to 300 pages of characters on pages. That doesn't make it a book, IMHO.
>I don't have to actually type commands into a command prompt like some bearded guy from the '70s

Really? I mean, really?

Kids today!
Efficiency is probably a better descriptor. How about The Internet allows us to make those connections more efficiently, and each generation of communications technologies increased both the efficiency and quality of our interactions.

I don't disagree with your assertion the internet has diminished the quality of our relationships. I'm a luddite in many ways, but that mindset is part of what has led my thinking down this path.

(1) Human beings are meant to connect, (2) the internet is a tool to facilitate connections, (3) each generation of connection technologies has improved upon the previous, (4) social networking is just the natural evolution of Internet communication technologies, (5) there is still significant room for improvement.
Cool article. Two issues though:
1. The author assumes America's decline is a done deal. But anything can happen.
2. All three of the regional powers mentioned (India, China and Russia) have developed extensive trade links in the last 10 years or so. Yeah they may still decide to flex their military muscles but generally you don't fight with someone you're doing business with.

I think there will be heated arguments about natural resources, but I just can't see India, China or Russia going to war over them in this day and age.
IMHO, these are not the only reasons you should be worried about. Pushing more microsoft proprietary software into local government means more your tax dollars will go to usa (not to usa government, probably, since there are so many tax schemes available).

On the other hand integrating open source software in organizations usually done with help of local companies, meaning your tax dollars spend on work your neighbor do. Since in this case you are not paying for "product", you are paying for integration of open source software. (as a bonus, it often also saves bucks on software products, even if you pay more for integration/training).

ps: not saying that during process of integration of open source software often changes/bug reports/feedback contributed back to open source community, which benefits all people...
12% of Hacker News job listings offer remote work
The fact the code uses those kinds of comparisons, doesn't mean, that it uses it properly.
<quote>The author mentions Ruby, Python, Perl, and Node (I'd also add Apache, Nginx and PHP) as examples that more or less "just work" on any platform... But not Windows. You have to jump through hoops and use alternative software or (very different) methods to get these things working</quote>

This is a very 21st-century perspective, in that all of these non-Windows platforms are basically Unix. If you look at the platforms that existed in the early 90s -- things like MVS, VMS, TOPS-20, OS/400 -- these were even less Unix-like than Windows was. Windows is an anomaly only because it's the last non-Unix OS standing.
In the example where you `git checkout -b feature_x`, I believe you also want to `git merge feature_x` after you `git checkout master`, as the `-d` flag on `git branch -d feature_x` will only delete the branch if it's been merged.
I found it essential to read Martin Odersky's Programming in Scala book - if you haven't then I recommend it. It makes many things clear that can be hard to pick up using only the free online resources.

There's also a new docs site and it's getting better all the time: http://docs.scala-lang.org/
I think it's a good post as well, but filterMap is a contrived example. It comes out of the box: flatMap can be used as a filterMap, because Option[T] is an acceptable substitute (through implicit convernsions) for Iterable[T]. (An option is a collection type; just one with 0 or 1 elements.)

The existing collections functions in Scala take you very, very far. If you need to write your own primitives for performance reasons, it can get tricky, but that's really uncommon. Odersky's book (chapter 25) explains how to do that.

Collections libraries are hard in Scala because of what you get. Once you define a few simple functions and possibly implicit conversions, you get all 50+ sequence methods "for free", and if you do it right, your map type functions will return collections of the same type (runtime and static) as the original-- without explicit typing. You get a lot of leverage, but you have to work a little bit for it.
Still, it may exclude false positives. Which is half the battle.
You've hit the nail on the head. This is exactly why Matlab is so pervasive in science. Not because it's actually good, but because it has so many handy libraries. The Mathworks is the Microsoft of science.

I had to use Matlab for seven years in neuroscience, and it's a terrible language for everything other than matrix math, data plotting, and (if you cough up for the Parallel Computing Toolbox) easy parallelization.
>I disagree, and I wish people would leave room for discussion

Discussion about what? You're "disagreeing" with things that are absolutely established and verified fact. Hell, they admit it!

Here's two articles from a half a second spent googling. I'm not making this stuff up!

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/01/oops-mpaa-ad...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111003/12283916184/former...

I absolutely can (and do) make the assumption that everything an *AA group says is a lie, because 1) They've done it multiple times in the past, and 2) they don't care about anything but their own interests.

And as far as "with ease" - you're forgetting that torrenting is still a fairly involved operation. It's accessible to anyone with an internet connection in the same way that programming is accessible to anyone with a computer.

It's not just click a link and download. It's more like:

1) Download and install a torrent client
2) Configure their firewall to allow the connections through
3) Browse a tracker site and select a file
4) Download it
5) Apply whatever cracks are necessary to bypass the copy protection
6) Do all of the above without infecting yourself with some form of malware.

Furthermore, there are at least two studies (and many more industry success stories) that suggest that people prefer the legal option when it's presented to them reasonably.

Reasonable meaning, a fair price (and don't give me any of that "free market" BS either, fair meaning non-insulting), no anti-consumer crap (because DRM inconveniences nobody but paying consumers.. bought a DVD recently?), and no draconian license terms (there is absolutely no good reason that I can't legally rip my DVD's to my computer for my own fair use)

There is no room for discussion or nuance on this matter. The RIAA/MPAA are a threat to freedom, culture and as a result, society at large. They've shown their willingness to lie to pass absurdly horribly legislation - why should anything they ever say be trusted again?
evolution is not about adaptability of a species, it's about adaptability of individuals (it's not a centralized decision taken for the well-being of a species, but rather a consequence of individuals having more chances to pass their genes than others. The lucky ones are more adaptive).

If you take 2 individuals and one dies sooner than the later, the alive one will have had more chances to pass his genes, so it's not adaptive to have mechanism to ensure our deaths.
One has to be willing and open to learning to be educated. Often, people discussing politics or economics feel that their understanding is already good and have no desire to learn. This is the main reason that these topics tend to turn into a cesspool of a discussion.
America vs Europe.

In America most houses are wood, and I don't mean log houses.

And there is no way wall plugs would work in that kind of American wall.
What is the Cost to Get a Degree Online?
The chance-of-death plots should be logarithmic, so we can tell if this exponential is really a good fit. On linear plots, it's hard to distinguish exponential decays from 1/x^n decays.
Like maeon3 pointed out, we deal with pollution, spoilage and waste heat by modifying the process, not the laws of physics.
Show me a sample output of what you expect a trail to look like and how your analysis is more then a google/git/linked in search.

Basically, why should a hiring company use you over tools all ready available?
Ask HN: Teaching Ruby on Rails on a Macrolevel 
I'm looking for any recommendations on books, videos, tutorials that teach ruby on rails on a macrolevel. I.E. They explain the entire frame work first in the first few chapters, detailing each aspect of the framework as you progress (zooming into the microlevel). Thanks!
>> Google engineers have public open source projects?

Probably much lower than for comparable skilled developers. I would expect that the push to show a productive 20% time project (in addition to your other work) would make it really difficult to do more projects on the side.
28 days later: Our improvements after Ask HN
I would actually love to see a better tiered Netflix model. $5/mo for TV shows that have been released on DVD, $5/mo for movies that have been released on DVD, an extra $10/mo for new release DVDs, an extra $10/mo for TV shows delayed a week from broadcast, an extra $10/mo for getting those released DVDs mailed to you (broad spectrum). So for the full gamut, you're paying a lot (but less than cable), but you can pick and choose which of those matter to you.

If you wanted just what they have right now, you'd pay $10/mo for released movies and DVD releases of TV shows streamed. If you wanted just TV shows including recently aired, you'd pay $15/mo. To get those released DVDs mailed would cost $25/mo, and to get it all you'd be paying $40/mo.

If you think about a music subscription service, you'd basically paying the cost of 1 album per month for songs you're going to be listening to over and over. With this structure of Netflix, you'd be paying for two DVDs per month but movies are generally only watched once or twice.
You make it sound like it's totally insecure. Look at all the alternatives, and I am pretty sure we are the more secure.

Most still use a fax, which is incredibly insecure (how can you be sure who signed?). Other online solutions either use simple email reply or a hand-written signature.

Just to clarify the process, once you uploaded your file and chose the signatories, Signsquid sends a link to each signatory. Each one of them has its own unique link. Then, the sender (you), gain access to the list of codes assigned to each signatory. Again, each one of them as one unique code. You have to call them by phone to tell them the code.

If someone wanted to "hack" the process, he would have to gain access to the inbox of the user and also fake his voice over the phone.
I remember similar science kits from the early '60s. I had my eye on a set that had a cloud chamber, but I'm pretty sure it was not this set. Science toys were all the rage. There were several series of science kits I would buy, my favorite was one that built a small electric motor that could also be re-ranged into a generator.
Canonical has to make money somehow. The Ubuntu "music store" sales probably don't net much (cf. Linux Mint earnings [1]); I don't think that Mr. Shuttleworth has an infinite cash reservoir to sink into Ubuntu, either.

Canonical can and should try to monetize Ubuntu the best it can. Tablets, TVs, and other 'thinner' clients seem to be the market trend, and I think that Canonical could stand to make some money here. Even a little is good.

It's possible to pursue a different form factor and still make a compelling desktop OS. If Canonical is able to grow, they can afford to spend more on building an across the board experience for all types of devices. Maybe they're slightly distracted from their original mission statement, and maybe this results in a slightly lessened desktop experience, but someone has to pay the bills. Maybe they'll even turn a profit. I'd certainly love to see them grow and flourish as a company. How awesome would it be to have Ubuntu-powered devices that run on optimized hardware and can sync, share, etc?

[1] http://installubuntu.net/linux-mint-diverts-banshee-revenue/

edit: Why the downvotes? I'd appreciate it if you let me know what I said wrong so that I can analyze and possibly correct.
I went back to the link and couldn't find that disclaimer. Can you tell me where it is? Edit: never mind, it's not on the linked page, it's on the parent page. And how was I supposed to know that?
Phillip K. Dicks' Delusional Reality in 1977 Similar to The Matrix
Helping Animals in Need
I have been using Git for a couple of weeks for my personal projects and got frustrated with it. I literally just finished moving all of my stuff back from Git to SVN before checking HN and reading this. The link you posted is making me have second thoughts and now I want to give it another go. Thanks... I guess.
Hehe, sorry. The "doo-doo" was used sarcastically - meant to show exactly how out-of-place it is to talk about excrement (using any synonym) in the context of a git tutorial.

Next time I'll be sure and add in my <sarcasm/> tags for clairty.
I was trying to say that guns will never be cheap enough or as easy to distribute. From the point of view highlighted by you, the comparison is even more flawed.

Downloading a file doesn't threaten anybody's life. Killing for the sake of killing is also not about money.

Before refrigerators happened, I'm sure there were companies selling ice to rich folk for a nice price. And if you lived then, I'm sure you could come up with all sorts of reasons for why refrigerators should be outlawed.
How about HOI - happiness on investment. If you're happy with your social life, don't change it. If you aren't, then why the hell are you repeating the patterns that got you there?
I followed cloud pretty closely at the conference.

My biggest take away was that: if I'm going to do public cloud... I'll contract out a company to deal with the details of bringing up the cluster/images.
If you can, ride the CalTrain down to Mountain View. There are lots and lots of places to visit there, including the GooglePlex.
B&N Offering Free Nook With NYT Subscription
Daruino embedded platform wish list - Viva La Evolution
Hi Hacker News!! The Daruino team here, working on making the world a smarter, more connected place....

In preparing to launch our Minumum Viable Product, we'd really like to know, which of these would you be most likely to use or to fund on kickstarter?

All of these are projects which I have found to be personally useful and I would definitely purchase and use if they were available on the market as described, but I am a "special use case" so I thought I would throw this out to the HN community and see what comes back!

Please answer either (I,II,III,or III+IV), and include any additional info that you want to! I Have all of these projects prototyped , but trying to decide what the market needs more...Thanks for checking this out!

I) A tiny, lightweight 14 pin DIP Package that costs <$8 with the following specs:
ARM Cortex M0 processor, 50MHZ
32KB Flash, 8KB SRAM
4 channel 10 bit ADC
10 GPIO lines
16&32 Bit timers
1 Uart, SPI
Pins optional for stand-alone integration
Programmable in C/++ using readily available open source tools over serial port

II) A tiny, lightweight Dip28 Package that costs <$15 with the following specs:
ARM Cortex M0 processor, 50MHZ
128KB Flash, 16KB SRAM
Pin compatible with ATmega328p / Arduino Uno, plugs into arduino board if desired
Drop in to "Arduino" circuits to give a big boost in capability
16&32 Bit timers
2x Uart, SPI, 2xI2C
Pins optional for stand alone integration
Programmable in C/++ using readily available open source tools over serial port, could probably be readily made compatble with the Arduino DUE IDE

III) A 4cmx6cm systemboard that costs <$25 with the following specs:
ARM Cortex M3 processor, 100(120)MHZ
512KB Flash, 64KB SRAM
8 channel 12 bit ADC
10 bit DAC
70 GPIO lines
16&32 Bit timers
4xUart, SPI, 3xI2C, I2S, CAN (tranciever not on board)
USB Host support (HOST connector not on board)
Ethernet MAC (PHY not onboard)
Pins optional for stand alone integration

III+IV) This unit would also optionally include a daughterboard (<$25) that provides Ethernet PHY w/ RJ45, USB Host connector, uSD slot, CAN transceiver, possibly other functions.

Programmable in C/++ using readily available open source tools over usb port
Out of the box Programmable in structured scripting language (BASIC-Like) with built in IDE via web browser, telnet, serial(USB), or composite video (or vga) / keyboard (stand alone retro computer action set capability!).

Note that III / III+IV are in the price range of the Raspberry Pi, which is -much- more capable computer, but as an application processor, not a microcontroller, it is not optimised for low power battery operation (months of operation from a few AAA's or lithium pack) and is not equipped with a similar range of analog peripherals, nor a similar quantity of GPIO.

Viva La Evolution!
Have you checked www.intermediair.nl/salariskompas?
Yes, they are mostly plastered brick.

By the way : concrete isn't bad as you think. There are different type of concrete.But... While it's strong and resistant to fire, if you live in somewhere where the earth quakes are common, concrete is a bad choice. Also metal frames in the concrete is problematic, they have to be resistant to the water (galvanized etc.) or in time they will rust and tear apart the concrete.
according to the writer, it's to demonstrate the ease of use of the driver: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/500#comment-7659

still doesn't seem like a good example to set though.
First of all, the things he shows aren't inherently complex: adding an additional function to the existing collections library is something that's possible in other languages in less confusing ways (see other examples in this post).

It's very easy to write a new function for your particular case. You can write an acceptable map function for your new collection, or a new list-munching function, just as easily as in ML. It will be a top-level function instead of a method, but that's usually just fine (if inelegant).

The long-term risk you are taking is that you might want this list-munching function to apply to other collection types and will now have code duplication.

What Scala offers is the ability to write new methods that apply to all collections (Strings, BitSets, Lists) if you wish... and to create new collections types (with a little bit of work and comprehension, but not as much work as is involved in writing 50+ library functions by hand) that automagically end up with all the collections functions.

This impressive and quite radical code reuse is the part that's hard about Scala, but that's only relevant if you want to write libraries at the L2/L3 level of quality and beauty.
Does anyone know the definitive patent status of OpenType?
If the batteries are dead/discharged, the pH is fairly high.

In any case, you can easily neutralize it with a little baking soda.
They use prefixes for experimental features. It's not part of an official spec yet, so each browser is implementing different features with different syntax. Eventually, when they agree on a feature set and syntax, they will move it into the common namespace by dropping the prefixes.

Also, please use normal English.
Уже в нескольких регионах Обосрали билборды с Янеком
It's almost too bad microsoft squandered any credibility they had on web standards years ago.
I think the dual extruder is cool, but I'm more excited about the larger build volume.

You might consider trying to buy a used Makerbot less than full price, and then buy the new Makerbot in a year when the kinks are worked out.
he knew better, but it's to 'demonstrate ease of use' : http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/500#comment-7659
COLOURlovers (YC W10) Announces Creative Market for Mousemade Design Elements
Ask HN: Can someone from Google please pass on a message to the Feedburner team?
Dear Feedburner Team,

Please go to your support forum and read the messages posted there: your account migration system is broken.

http://groups.google.com/group/feedburner-services/topics

"Another acct that can't be migrated"
"Can't Migrate Acct"
"Forgot username and email"
"lost my FeedBurner ID"

And mine: http://groups.google.com/group/feedburner-services/browse_thread/thread/e6f6eb3e436126e3

There is no way to retrieve your feedburner user ID. I have successfully reset my password, but I am still unable to log in because "The username or password for your FeedBurner account was incorrect."

Please fix this! I have been trying to log in and turn off feedburner for months.