skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is really, still missing the point. “adding methods” is trivial.

The real complexity is when you add method M to collection C and expect that class A which does not have any relationship with C also gets the method.

It has been shown that it is possible in Scala, without all the unnecessary complexity shown in the authors post.

Still, I fail to see any statically typed language even coming close to what is requested from Scala.
Privilege Escalation using MySQL User Defined Functions
> communicating with peers via whiteboard is a skill that is actually handy in day-to-day work life; it's not just some artificial interview skill.

Exactly.
Ask HN: Using emotion to make visitors share a website
Any ideas?
Python has full-featured closures (they must be named functions). But like you said, lambda is the neutered, anonymous version of these.
That works even better with an Xbox and a KVM switch.
1. I know definitions are a little hazy, but your definition of a "beta" is not really the traditional meaning. In a beta, core functionality should mostly be there, but it's expected to be buggy. Beta is the point at which most bugs are expected to be worked out, because that's the point when the software is mostly feature-complete. That's why people who use the beta are called "beta testers." I mean, you're welcome to your definitions, but it seems unfair to curse out free software developers for not adopting your personal jargon. (Here's a handy reference for the anonymous downvoter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Bet... ) At any rate, it is certainly not meant to be an end-user release, so if that's the worst accusation you can find to throw at them before you start swearnig, you're really being unfair.

2. The article is a bit vague (which doesn't help its case), but if the bug is the one I'm thinking of, saying that "the main menu didn't work" is a bit of an exaggeration. I believe the actual issue was that the main menu didn't work in Explorer. Broken Explorer support is very common among beta software unless they're specifically targeting Explorer specially.
I know this is a rant, but I get tired of companies with $750k worth of "department heads" and "managers of x" all balanced on re-purposed open source software that was never meant to do what they're trying to do.

Listen: fire a pair of "department heads", hire a pair of very good coders from the community surrounding the project you're trying to use and make the changes you want. Bonus points for giving back those changes to the project when you're done.

Bitching that the free software you tried to perch your business on isn't meeting your needs is just bad form.
If you want a CMS and know what a full fledged CMS does, you wouldn't even mention wordpress in the same sentence.

Ease of install and being able to run on a $3/mo hosting plan is not the game CMSes play.
I'm a full-time linux user, but the touchpad + gestures support of Mac OS are truly superior and do affect my overall computing experience in a big way.
Sorry Ed, but the best preparation for any interview is not simply getting good at what you do. Being good at what you do is a given. But there is an art to interviewing. I have bombed interviews not because of a lack of ability, but because of my failure to understand interview dynamics.
>> is a tremendous asset

That is also essential for the applied position?
Moreso than that: there's a fundamental break from free market assumptions in that use decisions and cost decisions are divorced. Health care recipients (patients) and primary providers (doctors/medical personnel, though to a lesser extent facilities which are more aware of costs) don't bear and/or often don't know the costs associated with a given therapy or intervention. Instead, these are born by and/or negotiated by insurance providers. Even at a given facility, compensation rates for a given therapy can vary widely by insurance carrier, or even by plan within a given carrier.

More broadly, this is a problem at other areas of what we consider to be "free market" economies. Healthcare and defense are classic instances, but many group-negotiated services (utility contracts, broadcast media, "free" online services, even Microsoft's software sales channel (mostly OEMs and corporate site licenses, not individual end-users) violate base assumptions of free market economics.

While microeconomics is hugely useful describing behaviors in which it applies, I'm increasingly coming to believe that only a small fraction of what we consider to be free market activity in fact meets the core assumptions.

But yes: US healthcare is hugely inefficient.
WVIL - Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens Concept Camera
Bringing everyone’s data as close to “computable” as possible is an all-round win so I hope this takes off.

A big problem is how to ETL these datasets between organizations, and I think Hadoop is a key technology there. It provides the integration point for both slurping the data out of internal databases, and transforming it into consumable form. It also allows for bringing the computations to the data, which is the only practical thing to do with truly big data.

Currently there are no solutions for transferring data between different organizations’ hadoop installations. So some publishing technology that would connect hadoop’s HDFS to the .data domain would be a powerful way for forward-thinking organizations to participate.

Another path towards making things easier is to focus on the cloud aspect. Transferring terabytes of data is non-trivial. But if the data is published to a cloud provider, others can access it without having to create their own copy, and it can be computed upon within the high-speed internal network of the provider. Again, bringing the computation to the data.
I've found WordPress to be perfect for small-medium sized things. Blog posts/news, static pages, image galleries, easy Youtube, dead simple social addons, etc, etc.

I'd argue that WordPress is extremely solid and mature for these uses.
tldr; (exactly from the article): "The driving force behind all this, according to Aetna, is the way hospitals and the government do business. The rates that insurance companies pay are negotiated based on what they believe a hospital’s true costs are. But then those rates are jacked up an average of 30% to 50% to make up for money that hospitals lose in treating patients who don’t have private insurance - which is the majority of them. So to make up the difference, they overcharge patients who are insured. This practice is called cost-shifting. In a typical hospital, upward of half the patients are covered by Medicare and Medicaid - neither of which pays the full cost of treatment. Another 10% to 15% of patients are uninsured; maybe they can afford to pay, but more likely they’re broke and can’t cover their bills either. Any profit the hospital makes must come out of the remaining 40% - patients with private insurance."

----

Considering that the per capita medical costs in the US are about twice that of the other OECD countries, clearly there's more than just cost-shifting going on.

Whatever your views, as a matter of law (well before "ObamaCare") we are still going to subsidize medical care for the old, poor, children, and the irresponsible through our taxes and direct payments.
I develop mobile game software (Android/iOS), but what kills me (and keeps me on Windows, unfortunately) is the fact that I can't find an editor that keeps me as productive as the one I use on Windows (Visual SlickEdit).

It's honestly not perfect, but for C++ and Lua it's unequaled in getting references and autocompletion correct.

And since I also have a Windows target, I can take full advantage of the very clean debugger that Microsoft Developer Studio provides (for the cross-platform code). I spent a year with Linux on my desktop, trying every debugger tool available, and nothing comes close to working as well.

Yes, I've tried vim and emacs. I even use vim when I need to edit over an ssh link to a server. And I could imagine getting my fingers used to the many-more keys I'd need to hit to do everything I do in SlickEdit in vim, but vim is STILL is missing two of the most important features I use (the cross-referencing/smart completion I mentioned above, and an auto-completion from the same file that I get by hitting shift-ctrl-< or ->). The features vim does support require more keys -- and keeping track of editing "modes", which is something else I don't want to have to do. And since I can write code much faster using those features (and fewer keypresses), I can't imagine switching.

I used SlickEdit on Linux for the year I was there, but it's based on X, and doesn't integrate with modern desktops as well as a result. It even has a built-in gdb wrapper, but unfortunately it can't do as much as Developer Studio on Windows. :(
None of what you just said is particularly true.

Python has closures.

Lambdas are anonymous functions which support only expressions, like all functions they can form closures.

Named functions also form closures and can contain any number of statements or expressions.
What's with the current trend of using 18pt font for body in blogs? It's unreadable. Choose a more reasonable font and make the margins bigger.
I must admit, that I am guilty of being a double-spacer. Your argument and sources however seem to be sound, so I think I shall give a go at doing it the correct way from now on. I've been becoming more and more interested in typography lately, so let's bring this movement to the forefront and starting single spacing after punctuation again!

(Notice: The double-space has been so ingrained in my typing for so many years, I even did it in this comment without even realizing it!)
Looks great, as long as you don't mind working on top of a dirty/unattractive pallet and have no writing to do.
That's a strong statement. What languages other than PHP are you comparing it to?
I'd love to run Linux at home, but gaming keeps me on Windows. Sure I could dual boot, but it's such a pain for little gain. I tend to hang out voice chat programs while gaming, and interrupting conversations to reboot to Linux after a gaming session is an inconvenience.
Same story for OS X.
It seems a lot of what he's talking about is how to deal with anxiety. One way to do this that I've found extremely useful is just to say "I've gotta be honest, I'm feeling a little anxious about this." Not just in interviewing, but in anything in life. If you are willing to be vulnerable, oftentimes that allows you to breathe and the person you share the vulnerability with will come to your rescue (i.e. help to set you at ease).

That said, don't be needy. Just acknowledge your anxiety.
Use python even if you're a c++ systems guy. Or, you know, you could use the language that's most likely to be used in the job you're applying for. If you're a c++ & systems guy, interviewing for a c++ & systems job, c++ is far more likely to be the language of choice for an interview rather than buzzword-language-of-the-week, be it python, java, ruby, haskell, etc. Of course, if you're interviewing at a place you KNOW uses a lot of python, then yes, python would be a good choice.

Besides, most interviews I've had end up being a phone interview for knowledge and skillset, followed by the lunch interview where they're more concerned with finding out how you'll fit in with the existing team.
He then proposes a wholesale change to function semantics in the language.

Actually, I linked to a proposal by Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript.

I mean, come on, this is the same guy who wrote a reopenClass function in Ember.js

JavaScript's open prototypes suffer from the inability to define a number of new properties at once using an object literal. reopen (not reopenClass), provides that functionality.

This is nothing but a post glorifying Ruby and bashing JS for not being Ruby

Nope. It's a post glorifying the correspondence principle, which Smalltalk and Lisp had before Ruby, and arguing that JS would be better with it.
E-Interactions & Real Names, When Pseudonyms Drive Online Communities
_ He then proposes a wholesale change to function semantics in the language._

Actually, I linked to a proposal by Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript.

_ I mean, come on, this is the same guy who wrote a reopenClass function in Ember.js_

JavaScript's open prototypes suffer from the inability to define a number of new properties at once using an object literal. reopen (not reopenClass), provides that functionality.

_This is nothing but a post glorifying Ruby and bashing JS for not being Ruby_

Nope. It's a post glorifying the correspondence principle, which Smalltalk and Lisp had before Ruby, and arguing that JS would be better with it.
Live TV for Comcast Subscribers on Tablet PCs
Ask HN: made in a single weekend and profitable project examples?
Please, share your story of your own project/site/app built in a single weekend and generating you some positive income. Those stories are the most inspiring part of HN to me and i would like to hear more of them!
The Bill of Rights was proposed as part of the original constitution but was left out as a compromise. Most of the opponents weren't against the rights, on the contrary they thought the bill would be redundant and unnecessary.

When it was clear that the rights would be presented as amendments to the original constitution, James Madison broke them up into 12 individual amendments. Only 10 were passed, several years later. An 11th was ratified in 1992, 203 years after it was proposed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-seventh_Amendment_to_th... The 12th (which was actually the "first") has never been ratified. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_the_First
No, blocks are not a hack around first-class functions. Let’s talk about “what we’re making first-class.” A first-class function is something we both understand: A thingy with its own variable scope, its own notion of “this,” some parameters, and some executable code that may or may not return a result.

So what is a block? That’s easy in JavaScript. Here’s a block:

if (foo === bar)
// The block starts here v
{
return foo;
}
// The block ends here ^

Blocks are the chunks of executable code living inside of a function. They aren’t functions! They share their enclosing function’s scope. They share their enclosing function’s notion of “this”. You can’t “return” from a block, if you execute a return form a block, you return from the surrounding function.

Blocks already exist in JavaScript, but at the moment they only exist for built-in keyword construct like “if” and “for." Yahuda is simply explaining why it would be valuable to create a way to pass blocks to functions. The blocks would continue to be associated with their enclosing function invocation, unlike passing a function.

To summarize, JavaScript already has first-class functions, and it already has blocks, this proposal concerns a way to make blocks first-class. Blocks are not a hack around first-class functions, they’re something else that JavaScript already has.
"Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong."

The funny thing is, when I read this article, one space after a period looks wrong to me.

"Everyone—everyone!—said it was proper to use two spaces."

Language and usage evolve. If everyone thinks it's proper, eventually it will become the norm. Even if you personally feel it is wrong. In this case, Most people have been taught to use two spaces after a period.

"Typographers, that's who. The people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences."

Alexander Graham Bell originally wanted us to use "Ahoy" when answering the phone. It doesn't make it the standard or wrong if society decides use something different.
Suggested using EE before for a few clients. They turned down because of the license and hassle to renew it.
Well, the above descriptions of shell prompts are the defaults.

If you strip out all configuration files, this is the behavior you'll see.

Of course, it's better to explicitly check to see what shell you're running ('help', 'ps up $$', grep $UID /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f7').
Do you think that some on-boarding tutorials can help fix this "intimidation factor" or we need to simplify the UI?
The Google Gospel of Speed
- No namespaces. Two letter prefix hack from the old C days
- Still makes use of a preprocessor
- Slow compilation times
- The way properties are declared just feels like an hack
- Automatic memory management extensions (GC & ARC) feel like an hack
- You need a Mac to properly learn it. gcc+GNUStep don't really count.
I get "permission denied" as the only content on this page.
Cialis as 3 result in Google search of Romney, Is it just for me?
Billionaires Car of India
It's a nice thought but tried many times before, never with success. http://lawreview.law.pitt.edu/issues/65/65.2/McGowan.pdf gives a nice review.
Disability.gov
I wonder what % of HSA policyholders actually have that amount sitting in savings at the ready. How many took the HSA policy because it was cheapest, not knowing the obligation at the other end of the day?

And even if you did, one incident would wipe that account and you would need to replenish it ASAP.
> This is nothing but a post glorifying Ruby and bashing JS for not being Ruby.

People would like JavaScript to be more like Ruby, idiomatic Perl 6 resembles Ruby… Maybe we need a new law: «widely used programming languages are modified until they resemble Ruby». :)
Making the world a better smelling place
I'm sorry, but where does the OP reference anything about practising interviewing? In fact, his point seems to focus more on fundamentals than anything.

My takeaway was along the lines of removing the junky presentation layer (whiteboard, etc.), and making sure that you SHOW your fundamentals. Working on Project Euler helps build those fundamentals, writing code comfortably during your interview helps show your fundamentals. In terms of presentation, I didn't feel like he was doing 'window dressing', you definitely want to show your interests, projects and your opinions, these are part of the fundamentals.

No matter what, there is always a base line of presentation that you must meet in an interview to show your fundamentals. I feel like this post is encouraging you to meet that base line, as well as increase your fundamentals.
How to Read a Scientific Paper
> Actually, I linked to a proposal by Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript.

Naming names doesn't change the idea: It is surely a wholesale change to function semantics in the language.

> JavaScript's open prototypes suffer from the inability to define a number of new properties at once using an object literal. reopen (not reopenClass), provides that functionality.

Sure, that's why you use a general-purpose merge function, prototypes just being objects themselves.

var merge = function(o, o2, force) {
for (var p in o2)
if (o2.hasOwnProperty(p) && (!(p in o) || force))
o[p] = o2[p];
return o;
};

var C = function() { /* ... */ };
merge(C.prototype, {
foo: function() { /* ... */ },
bar: function() { /* ... */ }
});

In any case a name like reopenClass() sounds very much like an attempt to make JS smell like Ruby even if all the function does is perform a merge.
Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions Of 2011
"and strictly they don't allow you to run that on custom firmware"

That is strictly incorrect. I have all of Google's proprietary software on my rooted devices with custom roms, and didn't have to do anything special except get them from the Market after installing the roms. Just like I did when I got the phone from the carrier in the first place.
Exactly. The OP argument is too cute by half. Basically the 1st Amendment protects "the freedom of speech", not all speech. Courts have routinely ruled that the freedom of speech doesn't extend to libelous material, and I'm pretty sure they would conclude likewise about copyrighted material.
>I cringe now when I write PHP

Duh. Every single real language (not deliberately painful languages like brainfuck) makes PHP look terrible in comparison. That says nothing about objective C other than "it is not the worst language ever made".
>There is no practice that simulates anxiety.

Ah, but there is. Once you go through few interviews you get less anxious about the next one. Which means, that if this is a serious problem for you, and you expect some important interview in the future, then you have to go and interview with some other companies before to gain practice, and may be even get some job offer you'll like more than the one you are hoping for.

The whole point of the parent argument is that there are conscious steps you can take to make whiteboard writing not stressful for you. Just practice for ten hours solving problems on it and it will be as natural as writing on paper.
And you do realize the reason that the two custom ROM projects still exist today is because not many people are using them, right?

This sentence makes no sense at all. Care to explain?
The Hierarchy of Hackers
I doubt it. If evolution really needed death then why does an immortal jelly-fish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula) exist? Granted their final life stage is a polyp which creates a new young medusa, but there theoretically could be a specimen that is 7 millions years old. Either way they wouldn't need to change for number of generations.
You don't like implied political correctness. OP doesn't like implied gender bias. I don't like grammatical convolutions like using "their". What's to be done?

How about focusing on the message?
It's been useful for me. Back in high school, I raced to 50 problems against a friend and learned a lot along the way. Sure, you can get problems elsewhere, but the site has a nice way of continuously upping the complexity to enable self-learning.
Making your Drawings Smart – Review of SmartDraw
They still cookie you
A lot has changed over the past month:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1800727/former-bing-product-lead-...
Microsoft Office. LibreOffice is pretty good as a standalone product, but when I used it regularly I had nagging document formatting problems when exchanging files with my work colleagues.
Seeing Red?
Other commenters have noted that this statement is incorrect, but also note that the release of MPL 2.0 does not (and cannot) invalidate the continued use of MPL 1.1, even for new projects.
I read that. Surveys are fun, but such data shouldn't be taken for measure.

Number of job postings vs average number of offers submitted is one of the first factors that come to mind when seeeking a supply/demand number on the job market, not twitter popularity contests.
I would focus on just one aspect that you do uniquely well.

Take Rapportive's landing page: http://rapportive.com.
They provide much, much more than just Twitter / Facebook widgets but they purposely restrict what they show. As a potential user, I see that one feature and decide it is cool enough for me to install.

Providing a single, simple, salient advantage I've found works much better than trying to market your solution as the all-in-one Swiss army knife.

What is the one cool feature that you feel differentiates your product?
This sentiment is probably why there is such a proportionately low number of devs who take the time to learn Objective-C, which in turn makes those who do learn it even more valuable.
How the brain spots faces
This is a bit chicken-and-egg, but every account I've been given on shared UNIX systems at universities (n >= 7) has used (t)csh as the default shell.
I can't take Katz' suggestions for JavaScript seriously.
...
Naming names doesn't change the idea.

I’m confused! Are we judging ideas by the source or by their merits?