skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
No. Santorum screwed up by defaming 10 percent of the people on Earth, who replied in kind. Dan Savage just got them organised.
> But Google's overall politics happen to be the same as my politics, so Santorum gets unequal access to the 2012 Internet.

I doubt if Google are manipulating their search engine results based on a dislike of Santorum; do you have any evidence otherwise?

> Savage's prank actually discredits the Internet. Surely nobody's mind is going to be changed by that disgusting link. Instead, it just serves to associate Internet content with the culture wars.

The internet contains the totality of the uhman experience, so it is associated with the culture wars (and with everything else humans do).

> Google should penalize the shit out of it.

It should be up to Google how they run their website, provided they doing do anythning dishonest.
I think you're probably wrong. It's only a few years, it's respected for decades after that, and it's a shortcut to telling people who are considering hiring you that you're somewhat responsible/not totally flaky.
You don't get it. Google routinely modifies search results. There isn't a coherent "algorithm" that determines all SERPs. The whole site is carefully calibrated to adjust to user expectations. I think that gives you a choice of two conclusions:

(a) Google believes that most of its users really are looking for Dan Savage's prank when they search for the name of one of the best-known national Republican figures of the last 30 years.

(b) Google is deliberately choosing not to adjust this particular search result for reasons of ideology or pragmatism.

Please understand that I could give a rats about Rick Santorum. I find him odious. I firmly hope he does win the GOP nom so that Obama can win 2012 in a walk.

But [santorum] does not return that particular SERP because the word "Santorum" organically became associated with that particular idea. A group of people decided to rewire, well I guess the Internet, to force that association. If they can do it, anyone else can too. Google's search results should be more credible than that.
If so, bring it to the polls on election day as a reminder to vote them out.
Real Estate Exchange- a solution for the bulk purchase of foreclosed real estate
He said that Prozac is one of the milder anti-depressants (not milder SSRIs). That's true. Prozac is coarse compared to the later SSRIs but not compared to the other categories of antidepressants (MAOI, tricyclic).
By the way, if there WAS a centralized spam filtration somewhere, as you seem to be proposing, there would still be "a giant" snooping everyone's mail. Or did you not realize that.
This doesn't really intersect with doctest as far as I can tell. That is a rather simple feature, while this is complicated.

You might be doing something wrong when your comment-specific syntax _itself_ has comments, but I'm probably not the target audience for this tool.
I've been on a number of times (occasionally in a hoodie, which their producers really seemed to like and I'm certainly comfortable in) and decided I should dress a little better after my grandfather told me I "looked like a bum." He watched BloombergTV 24-7, so I figured he's a good representation of the demo.

She's just teasing - she's the one who invited me on as their tech contributor in the first place: http://search1.bloomberg.com/search/?content_type=all&pa...

I don't believe anyone should be judged on their attire, but if it'll get some people to listen, so it goes.
I find it a bit baffling to see so many comments defending commissioned salespeople with claims that most of the major problems with commission are due to improper management or pay structure or this or that. Where are all of these magical salespeople in enterprise software sales who are knowledgeable, ethical and do not overpromise? One might even argue that this type of sales process leads to worse software as it becomes bloated with promised features, half of which are never used.
Increase Web Traffic Easily And Effectively: 11 Awesome Ways
While they didn't measure neurogenesis directly in the study, they did measure BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which can induce neuron growth[1]. Essentially they took two groups of mice: regular mice, and mice whose BDNF levels are believed to not respond to Prozac (Flx). They found that in regular mice, Prozac plus retraining reduced anxiety. In those mice in which Prozac doesn't increase BDNF, the Prozac effect went away.[2]

I know it's hard to read the actual study all the time, but sometimes it helps. :)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_fact...

[2]Because mice heterozygous for the BDNF null allele (BDNF+/−) are insensitive to Flx treatment in behavioral models of depression and anxiety (3, 26), we tested whether BDNF+/− mice (C57Bl/6J background) responded differentially to Flx in the fear-conditioning paradigm. Flx again prevented fear renewal in the wild-type mice, but in BDNF+/− littermates trained to fully extinguish the fear response, the Flx effect was absent as indicated by elevated levels of freezing 1 week after extinction (Fig. 4B and fig. S7). To test whether BDNF was acting predominately in the amygdala, we used doxycycline-regulatable lentiviral infection to overexpress BDNF locally in the BLA from the end of extinction onward (figs. S8 and S9). BDNF-overexpressing mice did not show fear renewal, whereas control mice did (Fig. 4C).
Turns out that the UK has its very own Dan the Man with a Van: http://danthemanwithavan.com
I missed the fact that the timestamp is the link.

"Dad is ruining this family." That's a way to get people in the door, and there are substantive arguments waiting when you get there.

Isn't it a bit too negative, though? Dismissive? Whiny? Dishonest? Trollish?

There are people who want what's best for me, and there are people who attack me without reason. What are your feelings for Google+, Jon? As far as I can tell, you hate it, and you think it's ruining the internet.
I thought that iOS and/or Android gave each App its own user account in order to sandbox permissions between apps, so that they can't overwrite each other's files. If all of the user data for an app is owned by that app's uid, then wouldn't this allow someone else running that app to somehow gain access to user data from another 'actual' user?

E.g.

App1 has uid 100
User1 has uid 101
User2 has uid 102

If all userdata for App1 is owned by uid 100, User1 or User2 could potentially used App1 to gain access to the other user's app-specific user data.

(I'll admit that I'm not an iOS or Android programmer, so I may be a bit out of my depth here.)
Sounds really cool, but I'm not sure what problem it actually solves. Typical ATM robbery today probably ends with the cash coming out of the machine and the robber running away, hopefully without injuring or killing their victim. Victim calls police, they take a report, get the video from the ATM cam, bank refunds the stolen cash, done.

In the scenario that you're proposing, the only advantage is that police are called about 30 seconds sooner. But my guess is that in the vast majority of cities in the US, that 30 seconds won't be enough to catch the criminals.

Not to mention that if this became widespread (and therefore known) you've now given the victim a crude weapon that the robber may feel warrants more violence to convince the victim that they better not type in their duress code.
> Should a [X] have to be skilled at SEO to get their site listed first for their name?

Yes. The internet should work the same for everyone, whether they are running for president or are merely John Q. Citizen.
Black is white. Pants are shirts. Minitrue called, "Santorum" is a substance and not a person.

The fact that this particular association is notorious almost entirely on the Internet, and that any notoriety it has achieved outside the Internet falls directly from its success on the Internet... well, that's not relevant. We have always used the word santorum as a common noun.
Since most people who support Rick Santorum are probably not gay, it's not surprising that some/many have never heard of this term.
What History Teaches us About Startup Incubators
That is awesome. Thanks for pointing it out. Science!
Hi Benregn,

Sorry I didn't see your response earlier. I ended up doing YC with the Summer 2010 class.

Continuing to work on the startup day-to-day. :)
As a regular reader, I've actually been wondering about that.

Has anybody talked to Paul recently and/or can confirm whether or not he's still moving forward with it?
You'll be modded down for being so direct about it, but this is in fact the logic that I think underpins virtually all the support for [santorum].
This article presents good arguments why Google shouldn't intervene: http://searchengineland.com/should-rick-santorums-google-pro...

which boils down to trust (in Google results) and free speech/censorship
I agree with the general sentiment that more natural approaches are healthier and generally more rewarding, but some people really benefit from medication. Yoga, meditation, diet and exercise are really good at improving a person's mental health in the 4-10 interval. But people who are down around 0-2 can't "meditate their way out of" depression or anxiety, and they often struggle even to get out of bed, much less exercise on a daily basis. For these people, medications can really help. To say that SSRIs are bullshit just because exercise and a decent diet can clear up mild depression is folly.
It drops back down to 35% at $9.99.
Here's the pricing table from the Kindle Direct site:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A301WJ6X...
Over 40% of Americans (not me) believe that first trimester abortion is a form of murder. You sure you want to play this game?
Very new in this book publishing thing. What software do you use? Word/Pages? Do you do the layout in that program too along while writing?
It's a lot of work to do it well.

Strong cross-currents between e-books, online course content and the programming paradigm also seem to be e/merging.
Hi Mbrzuzy,

Here's my story that I used to answer a similar question a few days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3414135

Hope this helps.
I personally find this article a little confusing...it seems to lack technical details.
Sadly, I live in Canada, so no Kickstarter for me.
Fantastic job. I have three suggestions on how to be even more fantastic next time. These are all about presentation; I'm not suggesting any changes on position.

1. At 3.27 she asks, "..where's the compromise in-between, is there one?", and you reply "Unfortunately, the way this technology works....", so three seconds into your answer, applying a binary filter, your answer is "no". Assuming your objective is to move the 'swing voters' towards your position, that's probably not ideal. A more politic thing would be to say "Yes, there is.. <details...>". Even if those details don't pertain to legislation at all, you can still present it as a compromise in the sense that it gets the other party the thing they ultimately want.

2. Distance yourself further from the real bad guys and the prime targets of this legislation (some extreme example like counterfeit manufacturers of safety equipment). You did this once or twice, but I think this point needs hammering. Most people don't know that Reddit isn't some sketchy movie sharing site. Do this in a way that demonstrates empathy for the other side. I want to help solve their problem, but this isn't the way

3. While I love what Louis CK did, and it is a good example of the type of innovation big media should be trying, I don't think it's a great example to bring into this debate - it's just too complicated for most people to understand.
I think you guys had a distinct advantage as you guys are copy-writers in the first place and you have someone to edit it for you.
A similar campaign can be held for any word, personality, or cause. This is more like a political campaign than any form of manipulation. Google shouldn't be in the business of picking and choosing which popular movements should be "penalized" and which shouldn't.

Now if content farms, SEO or other forms of manipulation are involved then I agree 100% with you.

But I don't like the idea of a corporation suppressing a popular cause, which is really what this is.

Is there evidence of a real SEO type manipulation going on here? If so, your point would be a lot stronger if you provided some links (I am going on the principle that the accuser should provide the evidence which is why I haven't provided evidence of the nonexistence of manipulation).

I would sincerely like to know if there is evidence of widespread manipulation of search results here.
But if the whole family could share it, they might only buy one instead of four.
I would be interested to see if someone did the same thing with Obama.

My guess is that since Google is in bed with the Obama administration, we would never see anything like this.

The majority of people are supporting it because they hate rick Santorum and don't want him to become president.

It also makes me question the validity of the opposition. Rather than trying to win with logic and reason, many resort to mud-slinging, rumors, and false information. Tactics I despise.
Import M2TS to iMovie on Mac-
Sounds like a pretty cool idea, hope it goes far.
That "we" means industry in general, not Fog Creek.
Not to knock the work that's been done or disparage the author of this code or similar work that's hosted on github.

But these link's to a github repo with minimal documentation and no instructions on how to use the code are frustrating.
They tweak a myriad of other ranking anomalies, sometimes for PR, sometimes to combat spam. They choose not to tweak this one, every though the ranking comes from a deliberate and artificial boost in link quality.

I wouldn't want Google to attempt to squelch the culture wars, but I would hope that Google wouldn't allow themselves to become a part of the culture wars.

I don't think Google is being dishonest.
Thanks! I prefer the constructive stuff.

1) Yes, you're absolutely right - it matters and I've gotta break the habit.

2) I actually had a really productive set of meetings with a bunch of reps, sens, and their staffs back in Nov. One of whom, Chaffetz [R-Utah], has been a good voice of reason in House Judiciary Committee Meetings: https://plus.google.com/113164038788726940319/posts/ab9eFgmo... I'm doing everything I can to go back - and early signs are looking promising.
Hell, I'd be happy if iOS had a way to lock down the Springboard so my kids can't screw up my home screen every time they get their hands on a device. Does anyone else come back to find all their apps dragged into countless random folders?
We need a political litmus test for tech and SOPA isn’t it
I see. In that case, your heart is in the right place. But it doesn't have to be all or nothing. The sweet spot is really the "formal" university education, combined with independent/group projects.

Of course, it's absolutely instrumental to spend a lot of time coding on your own "for fun." Just learning the proofs and such does not prepare one for the real world at all.

This was somewhat harder maybe 10 years ago. Fortunately in modern days, there are many APIs to play with, open source technologies, and so on. Communities like GitHub used to be much harder to find in the past. HN rocks.

But you'd have to know the theory too, to understand the concepts on a deeper level. Yes, some people are entirely self-taught, but it requires the person to already have the "drive" and to already know what they want.

Finally, a good university (like UofT is) can bring life-long friends and experiences and expose one's mind to more ideas. It's great for opening doors, and generally establishing a foundation for learning. Can't miss that!
What's going to happen to all those retirees? There aren't any 401ks to fall back on are there?
Credit unions are better.
"Well all these incubators ended up flaming out. Why do I feel that the history will repeat itself!"

I don't think they will all flame out. We don't seem to be. The model is different this time. The old model was practically an adverse selection filter. That's why we've always resisted being called an "incubator." Though frankly we may as well give in to that, because few people now remember the previous generation of them.
This often baffles me, as a foreigner in America (currently in a position where I occasionally hire people).

The American employee is probably the least protected in the West. Firing is about as simple & cheap as it gets outside of an Indonesian sweatshop. Many start as contractors anyway. The upside should have been that companies would be quicker to hire. Instead sprung a weird culture of "the four hour interview" (sometimes several of these).

There's actually not that much you can find out about someone before hiring them: "Show me a piece of code you've written" - hopefully it's on GitHub or similar, ideally forked by some other people too - "Tell me about some design decisions you made when building this". You should also try to gauge personality, motivation, curiosity and chemistry.

That's about all you'll know, regardless of how convoluted your process. But fortunately you're not in France, so if it doesn't work out you can always go your separate ways.

When companies take too long to hire it usually indicates fear of making decisions. Interviewers are afraid to say someone's a good/bad fit. The CTO is afraid to look bad for hiring the wrong person. It's probably not going to be a fun place to work if you want to create new things.
Have you tried Graffiti analogy?

Imagine you are a shop owner and someone writes something offensive on the outside of your building without you even knowing about it. This bill would allow the government to shutdown your store before you even knew the writing existed.

Today we already have in place a mechanism to notify the store owner, but SOPA changes that. It makes it possible to shut down entrepenuers, the store owners and wealth creators on the internet, before they even have a chance to get started helping to revitalize the American economy.
Speaking as a father of a 3-year-old, a separate profile for him would save me an immeasurable amount of frustration. "Figure out which folder the program I want is in" becomes really tiring after about the 600th time.
As far as I'm concerned the only 'Guest Mode' I need on my phone is the emergency call screen. I'm totally willing to be the 'weirdo' who won't let someone use his phone.
I have to seriously doubt this. Being good at programming requires a very similar type of brain as the one required to be good at mathematics. The argument is often "if only programming were to become standard curriculum which everyone is required to learn in some capacity, more people would be programming-literate."

Mathematics, in some level, has been required at all levels of education for quite some time and yet very few people can become proficient at anything at the college algebra level or above. If programming were to become as commonplace in our education system as math is, I believe you would see much the same thing. Many people would be able to memorize enough rules to get through the basics, but once it comes time to show that these basic concepts are understood in the form of applying them to more advanced concepts, you're going to see more people failing to get by, just as you do in anything other than basic math classes.

I certainly couldn't imagine a career becoming mainstream that requires mid-level calculus, or even algebra, and certainly not advanced analysis and proofing. By the same token, I find it hard to believe that any profession that requires understanding more than basic computer science concepts (simple looping and conditionals, no OO) will become mainstream. However programming today (writing a Rails app) is significantly different than it was 10 years ago (writing massive programs in C/assembly), so it's possible that programming becomes much easier than it currently is.
That's the only reason anybody I know that has ever googled "Santorum" also.

And seriously, given that The Daily Show has pumped this gag several times (the Mitt Romney v. Santorum chocolate box thing last night being the latest), with its millions and millions of viewers, to say nothing of all the other publicity that this gag has gotten, I think it's reasonable to say that this "gag" -- the collective redefinition of the word Santorum in response to perceived bigotry -- is actually a bigger deal than Rick Santorum the (fringey, extreme, minor) Republican politician.

That would likely change if Santorum actually began to be a plausible contender for the presidential nomination, but that's extremely unlikely.

I think the maximum response from Google appropriate to this issue would be one of those explanatory disclaimers in the sidebar, like they put next to the photoshopped gorilla photo results when you image-searched for Michelle Obama.
This thread depresses me; I just read every comment.

As an American, the visa stuff makes me sad, because it tells me that the system is broken. But what really gets to me, as a newbie developer, is the interview and hiring commentary. It makes me feel like there's just no hope for somebody like me-- I don't have a CS degree and come from the world of humanities and liberal arts. The furthest I went with math in Uni was Discrete. I don't take tests well, and I'm no good with heavy duty algorithmic methodology (though I do know some of them). I don't have any formulae memorized. I tend to think of programming like I do writing: I have great grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

I'm afraid I would fail miserably at these gauntlet-style tests applied by big SV companies. I love technology and I love building things and what I'm doing now, but the path of achievement and improvement professionally from novice to indispensible pro often seems cloudy to me. I think our culture needs to spend more time and money on apprenticeship and helping less experienced developers reach that next rung on the ladder. I'm happy that there seems to be some movement now in that direction, with Khan Academy, Codecademy, Code Year, &c.
1) Gah, yes, I'm no politician, but there are better ways to pitch compromise.

2) I need to stress that this is well-intentioned legislation that is a problem I want to help solve, just not this way.

3) Sigh. Yeah. I didn't expect that question and through out the first example from recent history that came to mind.

Thanks! I hope there'll be a round 2.
Since most of these laws are written by politicians and not economists it's more likely that they want to appear tough on immigration to avoid "dey took our jerbs!" style anger from the electorate. It's sort of like how clubs force people to wait in line outside even when there is room. If they let everyone in, it might start to feel crowded and less fun.
U.S. based pricing is here: https://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main

And it's truly ridiculous. A single ISBN is $125. In lots of 1,000, they're a dollar apiece. I can't think of any principled way to justify this, other than as a way of sticking it to would-be self publishers and very small presses just because they can.
US Gov't to close 1,200 Data Centers
Amazon Silk browser ported to other Android devices
(Devil's advocate)

"But how would you not notice someone graffitied your wall?"

I dig this analogy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3426990
Learning to believe half a dozen impossible things before breakfast I'd say is the most illuminating. It informs us how easy it is for our views to be shaped and cautions us to act with more humility and more tolerance for people who believe in something different.

Another one is to learn the transformative power of environment on a person. (see recent article on heroin addiction among Vietnam war soldiers). If we are so easily influenced and changed by our society, then what kind of society do we need to shape to create a better self?
Ooh yeah fluid dynamics