skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
To be fair, its one of the biggest success stories that you know of. In interviewing for a CIO from some top companies, I was a little surprised to discover how many large sites you are using on a daily basis that are .Net with IIS / SQL. Personally, where I work, we have been very very successful with our MS stack. We have been in the Inc 5000 for the last 4 years and in the Inc 500 (top 20) 1 year.
Maybe technically, but the word doesn't really add anything to the statement if someone uses it anytime they didn't observe what happened. Supposedly is akin to saying "Assuming what this person said is true, ..." which in many cases implies doubt (why not just say "so and so said she went into town").

I think his point was that it makes literal sense, but it doesn't help the process of communication, which is why he's torn on the issue.
I find the title of the post misleading, technically.
I don't talk in technical terms with people who won't understand them. I would never get in that kind of semantic debate if I were the friend who had lost weight. I would however most definitely get into a discussion like that if we were both translators, linguists, behavioral scientists or something like that.

Consistency means self-discipline in his case. But many 'consistent behaviors' in living and non-living agents mean something else entirely.

That said, this made me think of one particular type of "technical smartasses" that have pissed me in the past: Lawyers and their legalese.
This is interesting, and in general Clojure interop with Java is really nice. For me the biggest pain point comes when you are working with a Java framework, where you generally have to extend Java classes (abstract classes, often), and that gets pretty unwieldy. In general, I think, Clojure often tries to be too dynamic for what you generally want in this case, or at least what I did. For programming Android or IntelliJ plugins (which is what I tried to do) I'd prefer a mechanism to write the code with Clojure but generate "normal" (i.e. non-dynamic) bytecode AOT, like Kawa does.
Not really. Contrast the cluttered mess that is PoF to OkCupid, which has decent usability and reasonable information architecture. OkC's design is also better at extracting the right information from more users more consistently, meaning the resulting corpus of data is more complete. Which makes for a better product, since it's easier to find the sort of people you'd be into.

PoF is successful in spite of its questionable design, not because of it.
Samsung chooses TouchWiz over Ice Cream Sandwich
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I took the free class, and have looked at the material for CS 229, and there's no way that I would ever claim that I had mastered CS 229. CS 229 looks to be brutally difficult, and I have an MIT degree. Yes, we had our brutally difficult classes too, but I'm not particulary enthusiastic that some of my MIT classes that were so difficult. I think that I could have learned just as much if I had had more time to sleep.

There was one "brutally difficult" class at MIT that I loved, though: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It would be nice if all brutally difficult classes came in a less brutal version, though. That level of difficulty is great if you adore the subject matter, as I adored SICP, but if you only like it instead, this type of class can give you a permanent aversion for the material rather than transform you liking into love.

I feel that MIT's Signals and Systems did this to me. There's no way that having to do ten pages of algebra (e.g., Laplace transform, inverse Laplace transform, simultaneous equations) to solve a single homework assignment, multiplied by ten for the entire problem set, was ever going to do anything but give me a permanent aversion for the subject matter.
I do find it interesting that over the same period the obesity epidemic developed standards of public dress, and arguably behavior, deteriorated badly. People got fat at the same time flipflops and cheesy t-shirts became suitable public attire. Pure coincidence?

Everybody wants to write about the biological science of the obesity epidemic, but it's pretty hard to argue that people nowadays are just less disciplined in various respects.
I thought about google wave when I was typing that. I actually use google wave pretty regularly with friends. We're setting up a server to house our personal apache Wave deployment now that google is shutting it down.
As it stands I have little (actually zero) incentive to stay here after January. I'm distanced from my partners, friends, family, and investors who actually spend their money. I'm also not interested in spending 3 months, and a lot of money, incorporating a company here when I already did it in less than 24 hours back home in Canada.
I think bad support for the Galaxy S will, in the long run, decrease sales of future devices from Samsung.

If customers are interested in long supported devices, then the companies who provide them will come out on top. And if customers don't care about updates, then they won't buy a new device just because it has a newer version.

There are already some device vendors who provide good support: Google and Apple. Others, like Sony and Asus, seem to be willing to improve their reputation.

Samsung itself has already improved a lot since 2010. It's disappointing that the Galaxy S is abandoned now, but it already got a great deal more support than Samsung's 2009 lineup.

Also, don't forget that Motorola is going to be part of Google soon. For obvious reasons, future devices from Motorola will run AOSP-Android and get Android updates for as long as possible.

tl;dr if customers want long term software support for their devices, someone will give it to them. No matter what software platform the software is based on.
The only one missing is "Encryption Automatically"
I appreciate you playing devil's advocate on this, but the argument just does not hold water, the masses have it right.

Throwing away 5 years experience of your founding team, and throwing in a new language for everyone to learn is simply insanity. Doing so just for the sexiness of the new language makes it doubly so.

Nitpick: Why assume PHP is not a "modern" language? Last time I checked interpreted, typeless, trash collected languages were pretty modern.

Nitpick 2: Why should execution speed benchmarks matter? In that case, write everything in assembler. I'm not being facetious, execution speed is far down in the list of priorities.
2011 Cinescape vs Filmography
Enjoy two amazing retrospectives of the year at the cinema.
Not to disparage anyone but actually see this technical smartass stuff in the comments on HN all the time. Someone makes a good point then someone else nitpicks the most irrelevant detail or pulls out the dictionary definition of the word even though the person's point is clear as day.

I agree with the author on a lot of this and personally feel that this sort of thing is a sign of poor social skills and an inability to see different perspectives or the bigger picture. It can get pretty exhausting.

It's funny that a number of comments on this story exemplify the author's point perfectly. Don't get me wrong though. Please don't take this as me complaining. I'm actually really happy with this community but you've got to admit that what the author is talking about goes on so often around here it's not even funny.

Most of the time focusing on the technical details will get you nowhere but missing the point, totally off track, and arguing something very much unrelated to the original topic. Case in point: see the comments on the post about SpecialForces.com getting hacked. People started missing the point and talking about the user's password strength instead of what was really at issue (the security of the admin's access methods and credentials).
I'm surprised you think being in a structured class is equivalent to being treated like a child. What school did you go to that did this?
This post is so militantly, toxically out-of-place on HN I have to wonder whether it's a deliberate trap set by the moderators. If so: be more subtle next time, please.

Flagged.
Which one of these things is not like the other one?
ComScore: U.S. Online Holiday Spending Up 15% To Record $35.3 Billion
I'd be happy to pay, especially for the higher levels.

But it would be nice to explore topics at the most shallow level for free or at a low price to see if it covers what I expect in a manner that I find useful. Basically, a funnel.
The author isn't saying that you need a big customer, just that you need a customer. Once you identify a possible customer, the boot strap approach should be used to get your product up and running. Just make sure that the customer for your product is more than just you.

The internet also provides a false sense of security, due to the large level of feedback. You may incorrectly associate users with customers, developing a product that meets their demands, but does not meet the demands of the people who actually purchase.
New York Times Hacked? NYT Users Were Just Spammed About Home Delivery
Can't the same be said for Samsung and the Focus (since they are selling the Focus S)? Why did they provide that upgrade promptly?
Sure, "Evil AI" was just a quick and sloppy way to describe an AI acting detrimental to humans, I didn't actually mean evil. Sorry, my mistake.

The thing is - in order for a true AI to act independently it has to have a purpose. Humans act the way we do because we want to have some sort of positive experience and want to avoid negative experiences. If we couldn't experience anything either positive or negative we wouldn't have a reason or motivation to do anything, we would just be. At that point we might as well be static dead objects. For AIs to act intelligently & independently and not just as algorithms solving a single task they need to have some sort of purpose/goal to reach. An independent AI can't be indifferent - it needs a basis for taking decisions.

I don't see how the purpose we give the AI could be detrimental for humans without severe negligence. In addition - for an AI to be useful for humans it needs to understand humans. We obviously create AIs to serve us and in order to serve us independently it without needing manual input of tasks (which would just make it an advanced computer) it needs to understand us.
My Take on Lean Startup Development
The human body is an adaptive organism and will fight any drastic changes trying to stay in balance.

You do realize that's pure speculation on your part. It's nice to be able to just say things like, "the brain is so powerful that if you imagine eating it will be like you did". But you actually need the science and data to back it up.

Furthermore, where is the line? Is 500 calories too much? What about a 50 calorie per day deficit? What about 1 calorie? Is it better to lose the calories per day, or in a single sitting? Does it matter the food composition? Does it matter if the deficit is paired with exercise? What if the deficit is purely exercise (no reduction in caloric intake)? Etc... You use the scientific method to try to understand this. Not just speculation from random Joe's on the corner, because frankly everyone and their mom has an opinion. And that's why everyone and their mom has a new diet they've just introduced.
Ag - a faster ack, written in C
> The primary hypothesis of the book is that humans have a store of "willpower", which is depleted every time we exercise it (including making tough decisions)

That's pretty interesting. I wonder if this says something about the inevitability of a level of corruption in government (government, by definition, makes tough decisions, depleting willpower, but willpower is necessary for resisting corruption).
Read the article. The point remains that somebody who has lost a lot of weight must still eat fewer calories than somebody who naturally maintains the same weight. There is something else going on that's not fully understood yet, it's not just being lazy.
Also known as 'conversationally anal-retentive'.
So he makes about a tenth of a penny per pageview?
Many of these things are great ways to improve forums in general (hence google wave, perhaps).

For example, integrating async and real time is an interesting problem. I've also thought about this with respect to my gmail account. Some emails are one-off questions, but others are an ongoing dialogue which start to blend with chat. There is a continuum there.

Something else I've wanted is the ability to easily, within the site, branch off a discussion with a specific person on subgroup. Sometimes you want outside input, but it can be easier to get into a deep discussion if you are both reading responses carefully and following up. However, in that way, anonymous wouldn't work.

Considering 2 and 7 - I'd love to have such a system used in any course. Blackboard tries to be this, but is clunky, and others I'm sure exist. I imagine, rather than an outline, a real-time web/map (in fact, a sort of hierarchical tag cloud representing importance and relationship) that grows as ideas are added, with more detailed discussions under different headings.

For the most part, I wouldn't worry about spoilers. The most valuable discussions I've had regarding literature have been: read the book first, then read it a second time, together in pieces, and discuss along the way.
For me HE IS the technically dumb ass.

Wow!!, writing in his blog that his friend is a dumb ass because he wants to be right all the time!! My passive aggressive sensor just goes off scale. He NEEDS to be right because his internal insecurities so he gets angry with his friend and then ridicules his friend in his blog.

BTW, his friend is totally right, consistency has nothing to do with self discipline(discipline means you have to do constant effort against something), you really do not need that much effort to change something once you integrate it on a routine, he is the one that does not get it, but is in denial, because he does not want to be wrong.
"Technical smart asses often have a narrow view of the world. They only see what’s in front of them."

I find this to be a tremendous leap in logic from the rest of the author's narrative. Some of the most technical, rationally driven people I know are also some of the most open minded, willing to judge new concepts on their own merits rather than deferring to culture or tradition.

Being a stickler for semantics does not mean you're incapable of objectivity, empathy or lateral thinking.
I have no doubt that Badger likes elephants and opposes SOPA, but their SSL certificate appears to be issued by GoDaddy.
Don't make me think was the best book I made someone else read in 2011. It changed my boss's view of our web site, and now he's on my 'side'.
Likewise, though their mobile app appears to let you see the products without signing in.
Clojure and Java interop works and that's great. What's really interesting about this situation is that there's one guy committing code in a completely different language from everyone else. Not only that, but it's a language that most would consider "weird". How well is that received by the rest of the team?

Is anyone else picking up Clojure or is it "that one guy's crazy code that no one can understand"? I think we've all seen latter situation even when everyone's coding in the same language and it's a huge red flag.

I'm all for new and different languages seeing business use, but doing it this way seems potentially harmful. But maybe it was a huge success here; I'd love to hear more about it.
The book does address the incongruity between the level of self-control required to rise to a high level of power and the shocking lack of self-control and forethought of a Spitzer type person.

It doesn't tackle corruption per se, but does address politicians and power. (although IMO, it wasn't the strongest section in the book)
With so many incubators seems like a solid idea, will be a huge time saver. There a monetization model?
The biggest thing to learn isnt in the patches. It's in the process -- don't be afraid to break things, and dont let "I don't know everything about this" stop you from learning one small corner of it.
When commanding the high energy technology necessary to transmute elements in useful quantities becomes widespread, then all resource contention is going to be about energy. Those with access to more energy will be more powerful. People will covet the bottoms of steep gravity wells and proximity to suns and black holes.

Others will value their freedom more and try to get by with less, and will avoid such political and literal hot spots. The vastness of space will be their most valuable resource. They may well be the final nomads and the last vestiges of humanity.
Harpers Magazine: Stop payment A homeowners’ revolt against the banks
That's good to hear. Maybe one step at a time government will come to idea of using open source software everywhere. Working with government organization I see how deep proprietary software is embeded into this sector. This comes with two problems:

- Shrinking budgets. As result - no support and crappy websites. (and I bet desktop apps as well, we just do not see these)

- Very hard time with open sourcing software developed with public funds (read - our taxes). Because most of the time software delivered in compiled form and vendor not obligated by contract to give full rights or source code on it to governmental agency paid for this work.

Good news - this happens slowly not only in defense, as in this example. Few governmental agencies managers start to pushing to open sourcing work done for agency. Which for me means mental shift happens.
Your comment is a perfect example of this author was saying. The point of the post had nothing to do with the definition of self discipline or consistency. The point was that his friend was, as you say, being anal about this. There's no reason to be hung up on definitions in that case at all. They were both very obviously meaning the same thing and in contex it made total sense no matter what word you choose as correct. When I say you're a perfect example, I'm not trying to be insulting so please don't be offended. I'm just pointing it out. Can you see it?
I know of one company designing a ruggedized phone for military use that happens to be based on Android (it's free, it's easy to port and get it running). I don't predict Navy SEALs will be carrying Dell Streaks on their missions.
I'm not sure you've understood the poster's arguments.

The worst a pirate captain could do with a single ship in the 1700s was to sink a few merchant ships.

The worst a pirate captain could do with a spaceship is to destroy an entire continent.

In the 1700s, a pirate captain could hide his ship from government navies, and take merchant ships by surprise.

The location of a spaceship is public knowledge; it cannot take anyone by surprise, and the authorities know exactly where it is.

You can see how there might be a little bit of a difference? There's a considerable incentive for any planet-side government to make sure pirate spaceships don't exist, and there's nowhere the pirate can hide.
I've heard Sachin from Posterous say good things about http://startupcpa.posterous.com/
You're probably getting downvoted for the first phrase - there does seem to be some genetic component, albeit it's not clear how important it really is.

I agree with everything else you said.
Reddit's just increasingly making me hate people. r/atheism is bad, but so are most of the large subreddits. Even the relatively good r/askscience needs to be heavily moderated, with at least half the comments deleted.

Two or three years ago when I first joined reddit, I was impressed by the level of discussion (granted, I came from 4chan). Even then, people were complaining about how bad it had gotten, but I just didn't see it.

I just did a little experiment. Being generally disappointed with all but the top-level comments on the Kahn AMA [1], I decided to find two other popular AMAs from a couple years ago:

[2] Roger Ebert, and
[3] Steve Vai

Ebert's was generally very good, with the level of discussion being decently high. Vai's, OTOH, had pretty marginal comments on it. Both were better than Khan's. Now, a sample size of two isn't much to go on, but it does suggest to me that my experience of degraded quality on reddit is at least partly due to an actual degradation, and not simply my changing tastes.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ntsco/i_am_salman_khan...

[2] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a0zbk/roger_ebert_ask_...

[3] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9mrtp/i_am_a_grammy_aw...
A Dying Artist Named Phil
I am not at all disturbed by this toxic decline of a once thoughtful place because I understand why exactly it has taken place.

Gresham's law of trolls.

Trolls want to get their jollies joining thoughtful polite forums of high intellectual discourse. Trolls do not want to spend time in forums full of other trolls because the troll gets trolled. Non trolls do not want to spend time in troll infested forums.

It causes a curious cycle: Forum starts, thoughtful people join, it grows mightily, trolls join, thoughtful people decline, trolls increase, forum saturates with trolls, forum loses 90% of it's former size. A predictable cycle that happens in all forums that don't take huge efforts to stop it.
So, his friend is not entitled to believe that consistency and self-discipline are different things?

What's the key to your success?

Consistency!

Ah, you mean self-discipline!

No, I mean consistency - they're different.

PEDANT!

Why is it pedantic to believe that two words are different, but it's not pedantic to ignore your friend's choice of words, and to try to substitute your own words in - and then get so pissed about it that you call your friend a "dumb ass" on the internet?

...irony missed.
It takes like a minute or two to do a pourover cup or an Aeropress cup, and if you're bottlenecking on that, just buy multiple pourovers and Aeropresses; they're cheap.
Care to provide these scientific studies? Pubmed? Links?

Your post can only make me think of this: http://www.leangains.com/2009/02/low-carb-talibans.html
FTA "Vaidyanathan alleged that Seagate
knew that the position for which he was hired did not actually exist, but falsely represented that it did so
in order to use Vaidyanathan’s credentials to better market one of its divisions to be sold to another
company."

I wonder why his employment didn't transfer to the acquiring company if Vaidyanathan was so important to the success of the division being sold.
Or alternatively, you could just say what you mean instead and avoid the whole discussion in the first place.

But that would mean admitting that you were wrong...
I don't think it is. When I started reading it, I was thinking, oh, man, this is just someone else who can't take a joke, then I started thinking what if I was a woman whose views weren't being taken seriously simply because I was a woman?

How awful would that be.

But, then again, this happens so often in the IT world.
I would like to hear the "silly question" referenced at 10:55 but can't seem to find a link to Simon Peyton-Jones's keynote.
Free course on Python based web development