skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I prefer the Vulcan way. I eat everything with utensils. I will spare no finger food the stainless steel.
The Problem With Seeing Things As 'Just Opinions'
I understand what you are trying to say, but strongly disagree. iTunes is ridiculously easy to setup and use. Paying cable + DVR box is ridiculously easy to pay for and use. People are just incredibly selfish and feel entitled to free stuff.

A few select services (Netflix, Steam, uhh that's it?) are more convenient than piracy. Piracy rate on a $1 iTunes games is often 50 to 90 percent. It doesn't get any cheaper or easier than that.
RIM CEOs to Give Up Top Posts in Shuffle
In Japan, most of the country (well, mountain) roads are illuminated by street lights charged by a PV panel on top.

All 4-way stop intersections also have a blinking red light embedded in the road, once again charged by a PV cell.
Squeeze Pages to Help Promote Costume Wigs
I'm sorry, what? I'm a man, I made a statement about men which I do not find offensive. You edited it to be offensive to women, and that's supposed to make me feel offense?

No. I'd recommend you also ask a woman for her opinion, though, in case my male-ness has prevented me from seeing the obvious.

For future reference, statements made about privileged groups are not, generally, as offensive as those made about the unprivileged. For example:

My general view: if men are avoiding childcare due to the stereotypes and intolerance as you describe, then good riddance.
If you are at the border (i.e not in the US) Do those rights still hold?

I thought that was the point of guantanemo? Because the US doesn't want the prisoners there to have any rights.
Dotcom's lavish life of parties and luxury
Why not just tweet magnet links instead? Surely that's better than killing Twitter with base64 encoded files? Especially images where you already have twitpic and the like.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't see what you could do with it that you can't already do better with other services.
They aren't mutually exclusive, but you can't infer one from behavior unless you eliminate the other as a possible explanation.
For the humans.txt, there is an add-on for Chrome that let's you see very easily when a website has one. I do read them when I see one especially if it's a site that I go to often.
"Zynga makes games that create no value." - I don't think that's true. They create games that I don't particularly enjoy, but some people do. And according to an earlier article, they do extract a pretty significant amount of revenue from those users.

I don't really think most startups are based around a paradigm shift either. Google = a better search engine than was available. Facebook = a better(?) social network than was available. Intel = a better semiconductor manufacturer.

I agree that there are harder problems out there that need to be solved. But most of those can't be solved by a couple of programmers in their apartments. Better music discovery and photo organization can.

I don't think denigrating success with hyperbole is a good way to make a point about what startups should be focused on.
I don't think the Toastmasters style is for everyone and everything. Its good for subjective stories in front of large audiences. However, I've seen people come across like self important asses talking like this about something reasonably technical in a small personable room full of equals.
Profile of Thorsten Heins, new RIM CEO
It’s Time To Go On The Offensive For Freedom Of Speech
I'm confused. On the account creation page, it says that you can have private and 'password-protected' files. Is this still true? Is the sharing that they disabled for files that had no password (i.e. publicly accessible)? Or have they just not updated that page yet?

If you can still send files with a password, then this still be an alternative for 'sending large files to clients.'
The difference would be that files would be hosted by Twitter directly and would not use third parties' services.
Sorry but this is just more Facebook-style slacktivism, but worse because it's not even easily discoverable by mere mortals.
The SOPA debate was hardly a controversial topic for HN/Reddit.

Websites like Reddit definitely have great content, but as parent commenter pointed out, this content is necessarily the kind of content that appeals to the average user, and there is no room for outliers.
Too little too late? If we start seeing tons of "expense cutting" measures with no innovation, they need to

a) hire from the outside for a fresh perspective

or

b) get acquired
Bowing to Critics and Market Forces, RIM’s Co-Chiefs Step Aside
Maybe. On the other hand, the trapped rat might be safer as a predator might not be able to get into the cage.

There are plenty of possible ways things could work out. For instance, if the rats have figured out that the humans can identify individual rats and treat them different (which they might figure out if the humans have done several kinds of experiments on the same rats because each experiment would have a control group that gets different treatment), the rat outside might think "the humans but this other rat in the cage--if I let it out, then when they come back they'll be distracted putting it back in, and might leave me alone".

Or maybe it would be good to let the other rat out so that if danger arrives, you can go hide in the cage.

Or it could make sense to have the other rat out so that the two of you can more quickly explore the environment and find a way to escape.

The main point is that you can't really attribute letting the other rat out to empathy, as there are many other possible explanations for why a rat might let another rat out.
This is just a shim on top of imagemagick command-line tools:
https://github.com/vdemedes/magician/blob/master/lib/magicia...

I would prefer full in-memory API bindings as rmagick does.
Five tech predictions for 2012 - UC Berkeley Blog
Just last week I watched a demo day for a local incubator (PiePDX). Here's someone trying disrupt distribution, but it doesn't sound like they have theaters in the mix:

http://m.youtube.com/?rdm=4pauejn01&reload=3#/profile?us...
I understand "empathy" to mean the ability to feel someone's emotions/pain/etc. What this demonstrates is that rats will go to another rat's aid, and nothing about their internal models for doing so.

It is oversimplifying to say something like "oh it's helping the other rat for selfish reason X", but it is equally misleading to apply human models of mind, which we have due to our unique ability to introspect and share that introspection with other members of our species.

Models such as kin selection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_selection) attempt to explain altruism within an evolutionary model, but even if there is a totally different cause for this particular altruistic behavior (and even if it is shown to be almost wholly altruistic, rather than just indirectly self-beneficial, assuming such a distinction exists), there are very few grounds to assume empathy.

The most interesting result to me is that the rats demonstrate distress at seeing the suffering, and cease upon release. But before talking about empathy again, we must show that the distress is its own separate thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voight-Kampff_test#Voight-Kampf...) rather than mere frustration at failed attempts of rescue.

So, sure, we've learned something, but I don't think we've demonstrated empathy.
Boycotting Hollywood
> many years ago there was some general bipartisan agreement to freaking leave the internet alone. I'd like to know what happened to that.

It wasn't a threat at that point. It was a novelty. It's easy to agree to leave a novelty alone. It's difficult when it's threatening the revenue stream of the guys lining your pockets.

> that both parties supported the bills by large margins (or they wouldn't have been reported out of committee) until they got caught

Look, as much as we want to believe that our representatives actually read the stuff they're pushing, the truth is, they don't. I would be shocked if a singe member of the committee responsible for the bill actually read the damn thing. Each of them is on quite a few other committees, responsible for quite a few other bills, have speaking engagements, businesses, books they're writing, etc etc.

They decide on what to vote for and push based on who's supporting it. Some members of the GOP saw the Chamber of Commerce as a supporter and jumped on board. Commerce = Business = Good. Seriously, that was the thought process.

Once they saw the push-back, they realized things were more complicated than that, and dropped support.

Can the GOP be a strong ally for leaving the Internet alone? Absolutely. As long as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, etc. line their pockets right before re-election time. If that happens, I promise you, they'll vote for whatever bill the "Internet" endorses. Without reading it. It's a promise.
The most innovation and the largest growth in distribution for video in the modern world has been in the many professional YouTube channels that exist. EpicMealTime, FreddieW, RealAnnoyingOrange, have literally millions or fans that watch every single one of their videos and they are currently making millions of dollars.

In fact FreddieW has raised over $270K on kick-starter for to create a movie, all donated from his fans http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freddiew/video-game-high....

Now, beyond just the individual YouTube channel owners, there are currently (start-up) studios that professionally manage and assist YouTube channels (for a cut of course). Some of these start-ups are http://machinima.com/, http://makerstudios.com/, cloudmedia, http://fullscreen.net/ http://www.thecollective-la.com/ http://break.com/

All of these companies, either have millions of dollars or have raised millions of dollars. Now they are currently in a land grab for all the top YouTube channels, because if you control the top YouTube channels you control distribution. And currently top YouTubers are some of the only people on the web, that can effectively and consistently distribute to millions of fans.

My point is this, innovative people are already challenging hollywood and are off to a great start. In my opinion, if someone is serious about killing Hollywood they need to first study whats already out there and figure out how to work with the people who have already made some serious progress!
/r/python, r/linux, r/programming, r/askreddit, r/askscience
Quote from The Globe and Mail article[1] I read earlier:

"...new chief executive officer says the company is doing
everything right and does not need a change in
strategy..."

oh boy!

[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/at-researc...
The most innovation and the largest growth in distribution for video in the modern world has been in the many professional YouTube channels that exist. EpicMealTime, FreddieW, RealAnnoyingOrange, have literally millions or fans that watch every single one of their videos and they are currently making millions of dollars.

In fact FreddieW has raised over $270K on kick-starter for to create a movie, all donated from his fans.

Now, beyond just the individual YouTube channel owners, there are currently (start-up) studios that professionally manage and assist YouTube channels (for a cut of course). Some of these start-ups are http://machinima.com/, http://makerstudios.com/, cloudmedia, http://fullscreen.net/ http://www.thecollective-la.com/ http://break.com/

All of these companies, either have millions of dollars or have raised millions of dollars. Now they are currently in a land grab for all the top YouTube channels, because if you control the top YouTube channels you control distribution. And currently top YouTubers are some of the only people on the web, that can effectively and consistently distribute to millions of fans.

My point is this, innovative people are already challenging hollywood and are off to a great start. In my opinion, if someone is serious about killing Hollywood they need to first study whats already out there and figure out how to work with the people who have already made some serious progress!
RIM Co-CEOs step down
I'm curious as to why? Is it licensing issues?

I don't think tmux and screen have a feature disparity, since tmux is basically feature complete when compared to Screen.
Two things that Megaupload didn't do. I think the moral of the Megaupload story is not to trust sites run by guys convicted of credit card fraud.
FUNNY ILLUSTRATIONS
I wish I could upvote this more. It's what would change the landscape more than just about anything else.

As I mention below, there's examples of companies that crank out product quickly and very cheaply (UFO, Asylum, etc), but they really don't care much about quality.

But set up something like this with some people who could aim high on low budgets, and with say 5 million bucks over 2 years turn out 100 films. None of them would be blockbusters, but some of them would find substantial audiences.

Self-distribute online, set low per-film purchase prices, and maybe some sort of subscription for the true fans. Work hard to get the breakout films to wider distribution. You would break even in time, even if only 1 in 10 films were hits.

Experiment. A/B test. Set a culture of innovation. Invent processes, gear, whatever was needed to produce the films faster and cheaper. Be the lab.

You could actually hire pretty pro crew for below the line work since you'd be spreading the cost of any individual over say 20 films a year.

You'd lose above the line people along the way. The super talented would get picked up for more money elsewhere. That would be factored in, though, you'd just bring in new people. And the films that brought the people that left their fame would just be worth more then.

There's nothing I'd rather do more than exactly this, personally. It'd be fun and full of great challenges and rewards.
The former is what Megaupload was doing, though. They had software to download YT videos and upload them on Megavideo.
As a designer, I protest. It's always okay for other industries but when it hits home, people cry foul. Spec work is spec work.
Ask HN: How do Anonymous and Lulz hack so many sites?
I'd like to ask how does Anonymous and Lulz gain access to so many systems? Obviously this could be due to unpatched systems, weak passwords, poor security, etc but are they really doing anything advanced to gain access?

I have to wonder with proper security practice would as many of these hacks occur?

Are these places running proper firewalling?

Are they running vulnerable services like SSH on an obscure port?

Are their database servers more exposed than they should be?

Are they using horrible passwords?

Do they not review logs?

Get what I am asking? I mean for even my home internet circuit I run a dedicated firewall, dont run ssh on 22, deny everything except what I need.

Can anyone provide any thoughts?
Full article without ad: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142405297020462420...
Video: http://youtu.be/QUFwhpcrCTw
You see, I live in country where iTMS is available since maybe two months (Poland). Since then, I've spent some money on music - maybe $20 or $30, but I don't think that really matters - and that was the first time I actually paid for music. Before that, there were few times that local start-ups tried to fill this gap in this market, but they inevitably failed - mainly because they content sucked, but also because it was inconvenient as hell.

You see - that thing is happening all over again with TV Shows and Movies. As far as I know, there's no legal way for me to watch latest episodes of shows that I like. There just isn't. I would be happy to pay $5 or maybe even $10/month and be able to stream HD episodes to my PS3, without having to deal with eztv.it, RSS feeds, rtorrent and all this crap. I really would. But I can't. I simply can't.

Now, for movies it's another thing - I think I can buy/rent movies from iTunes, but they're just too expensive, compared to what movie ticket or DVD costs - Apple (or any digital-media store that I know of, for that matter) doesn't adjust their prices to different markets (hell, they even show prices in Euros, which we don't use!) - and unless something magical happens to our economy, I doubt it'll ever take off over here.
The first thing my mom said when I showed her StarCraft was, "but why do you want to kill the aliens, why can't you be friends with the aliens."

That's the kind of game we need.
The simple fact of the matter is that when a sociopath is discovered, the discoverer will avoid the sociopath but WILL NOT WARN OTHERS due to fear of retaliation.

This is false.

Nothing bothers me more than people making statements as if they are fact, especially with no evidence whatsoever.

I am living evidence of the opposite of your statement.

I played in a band professionally for a few years, and got to learn a few sociopaths very well: my ex-bandmates, of course, some worse than others. There came a point where I could not idly stand by while they manipulated and harmed unknowing people day after day. Not all of it was terrible but it really adds up after a while.

So I decided to leave the band, and the night before the last show on a tour, I let everyone in the band know exactly what I thought of them; and after I left, I told all of their friends and some fans who wanted to know why I left what they had been doing to people.

There was no fear of retaliation. And to this day, a year and a half later, no attempt at retaliation has been made.

I'm not aggressive, but I am dominant. Aggressiveness, sociopathy, and dominance do not go hand in hand.

My old band has accomplished nothing since I left, and I bet they've learned a little something from the experience. We may not be able to lynch sociopaths anymore, but we can sure teach them lessons if we use our brains and refuse to put up with it. Calling them out on any and every occasion is probably the best thing one can do.
This is interesting. A large challenge in videoconferencing systems is encouraging use, since many of the legacy systems have 42 button remote controls, complicated scheduling, and quality problems. So there's been a huge push to make it as easy as possible to drive adoption of the technology.

That said, there would likely still be indicators that there was an active video. Unless they were able to compromise the firmware also, which is less likely than simply port 5060 being open. Many of the systems are on a URI/IP dialing system and the port may be left open intentionally. So it's bad - but not 'dozens of listeners listening at all times without anyone having a clue' bad (hopefully).
I suppose that's true, but they have liberated topics that would have otherwise been ignored by larger media companies.

I think the Amazon model for deciding is still a better sample of an audience than a bunch of grey-haired men sitting around a board-room table whose first question is "will this be profitable?"
I really do wonder what they would do if they saw a linux laptop, especially if you are using a simple window manager, and only had a terminal available. Would they flag you for being 'suspicious'? Dual booting handles most of it though, changing it to boot instantly while going through the airport.
No, it was just another mouse. My original comment wasn't very clear, but I saw it running away when I came to check on the trap. My wife thought that was really gross, but then I reminded her of the time that we saw a seagull eating another smaller seagull while it was still alive and still walking. That topped everything I've seen.
Maybe make it more useful by providing a set of DNS lookups for major sites? Since SOPA tries to compromise DNS it would be useful to evolve a decentralized variant.
Soon emerging market for edible micro-SD cards?
RIM’s Co-Chiefs Step Aside
This link explains the discrepancy: https://www.facebook.com/IndieGameTheMovie/posts/35236881810...

Basically, HBO has a "half hour" department, which does basically all comedies, and a "one hour" department which are generally dramas. This show will be a drama, but since it's in the "half-hour" department, it's organizationally known as "comedy".
Here's a possible implementation of your idea that could help get the ball rolling.

1. Get a group of wealthy investors to select a well-known director and film that they would like to support. Ideally the people in charge of the creative side would be open to trying alternative business models.

2. Try to work out a reasonable budget to produce the movie. The overall cost should be much less than usual due to the complete lack of middle-men.

3. The investors provide funding to create an awesome trailer for the movie.

4. Using this trailer, the movie producers crowd-source funding for the movie. If this funding falls short, the investors are obligated to cover the difference. However, if the funding exceeds the movie's budget, the investors are rewarded accordingly.

5. The movie is completed and released into the public domain.
So, I know a few developers at theknot.com, the life events site whose entire market is women. Apparently, most of the ~40 developers are men, yet they seem to serve the needs of their target market successfully.

The idea that men can't write code which women can feel comfortable using is absurd.
Perhaps Ballmer will step aside at Microsoft for Qi Lu, next?

HP would be the other company in my "management-impaired former titans" portfolio which might benefit from a change (they'll probably want to wait a bit, and Meg Whitman is definitely an improvement over some of their other CEOs.)
Official press release:

http://press.rim.com/release.jsp?id=5358

and more info:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/jim-balsillie...
Tim Berners-Lee and the W3C would disagree: http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/issues.html#siteData-36
The bubble sort has an off-by-one error: The outer loop has i go from 1 to A.length and then references A[i+1].
I'm a huge fan of the Fair Tax and am rather surprised at the lack of discussion about it.
How are you defining 'a significant cut'?

Via morningstar.com, in 2010 Apple had 65,225,000,000 in revenue.

Total operating expenses for 2010 were $7,299,000,000, just 11.2% of revenue.

Executive compensation was $148,424,291. That is 2/10ths of 1% of revenue. That is just for the the top five execs and Jobs only took $1 in compensation. Still I don't think it is accurate to say that a 'significant' cut of revenue goes to 'the executives'.
Yes, and no. Like someone mentioned humans.txt has an addon. Similarly, you can have one for freedom.txt. Its not to protest a bill, or to think that we are making a change. But to clarify our stance. This isnt activism, but saying that your online identity supports free/uncensored internet.
I've used screen for 15 years, am happy with the functionality, and don't see the need (yet) to switch to tmux. Given that, I would rather that iTerm2 not use more system resources supporting a vterm multiplexer that I don't use. It's not going to keep me from using iTerm, though.
Color me dubious. Just check out Rudin's work on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0748784/

That's a lot of solid movies. I have a hard time believing he'd take something so solid and totally screw it up.

HBO series have a lot of credibility, in general, as well. So I'll hold my breath that it doesn't paint indie/startup developers as total screw-ups.
Wrong, we don't have abundant solar power because of science, not financing. Go build something using solar power, the technology just isn't there, but most importantly neither are the physics.
I spent a couple of years building an industrial product that ran off of solar power. We are in the sun belt, which is a region of the U.S. that has the most sun relative to the rest of the country. What I learned is that solar power is a joke. There just isn't enough solar energy arriving at the surface of the planet to make it worthwhile to use. It's a fantasy, get over it and invent something new, like a 600cc nuclear reactor.
BlackBerry maker CEOs step down as pressure mounts
RIM is one of those rare companies that have the ability to gloat whilst having their ass handed to them.