skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I have seen some of da Vinci's paintings in real life. Among them his famous Mona Lisa. I didn't find them particularly extraordinary among the other paintings in the Louvre, though I already said that he was a good painter.

What are his important discoveries in anatomy, optics and civil engineering? What did da Vinci discover about optics that Euclid hadn't already discovered 1700 years earlier? It seems to me that his contribution in those fields is mainly as an illustrator. Which of his "inventions" actually worked? How do you explain his nonsense engineering like flying machines?

Perhaps the case that da Vinci was an illustrator-wannabe-scientist/engineer is overstating it a bit. I'm not saying he made no contributions whatsoever, just that there are other people far more deserving of the deification that Leonardo da Vinci enjoys, like Newton, Galilei, Gauss, etc.

When people talk about da Vinci's contributions they always talk in vague terms. Now take Newton and we can easily find numerous contributions that are still extremely important even in our age:

* Calculus - the basis of physics, engineering, and a large part of practical mathematics

* Newton's laws of motion

* Newton's law of gravity

* Major contributions to optics

* Newton's method - one of the most important algorithms

The trouble with these is that they require far more effort and study to appreciate compared to a bunch of drawings, especially if you don't try to look critically at the drawings and try to determine whether the machines depicted actually work.
That sounds like chain bookstores where I'm from (the US). Independent bookstores are usually different.

This also reminds me of an old joke from a friend: You know the bookstore is bad if the Philosophy section is filled with copies of The Tao of Pooh.
Pedantry -- that isn't Moore's Law related, aside from the loosest interpretation that computers as a whole get faster.

This is so true, though. Much of the horizontally scalability need comes from the land of extremely underpowered VPS machines on platforms like AWS. Yet the mind-boggling scale of performance you can inexpensively* (*-term used relatively) acquire for database servers is astonishing. SSDs (and plug-in flash drives) and boundless memory have changed everything.
I'm going through the rails tutorial on arch linux and I haven't run into any issues. Definitely use ubuntu, I think it'd be pretty painful on windows.
not yet, and there's a chance it won't because certain points violate EU's charter of fundamental rights
Author here. I think we're talking about two different things. By "nothing works out of the box" I mean that you need to set it up yourself. For example, the Beginner's Guide leads you through setup of your video driver [1], ALSA [2], Xorg [3], and wifi [4]. These are all things that require manual work. Maybe there's a more appropriate term for this than "doesn't work out of the box" (?) but it's the first term that came to mind.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide#Install...

[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide#Sound

[3] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide#Install...

[4] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup
Pyro 4 - Python remote objects
I've tried Slackware and I like the Arch-feeling better. I also like the "pacman" package manager.
For some reason, I don't imagine BaseCamp's use is really exploding like some other startups might in terms of database usage.

It could very well be a case of their growth is scaling in-line with Moore's law, so it just happens to work out well.
I like Arch as a whole but I've found that for my purposes it is a time sink compared to Debian for example.

Debian has lots of sensible well thought out defaults. Arch has lots of disparate defaults each provided by the package vendor (as they don't customise packages).

It's not a criticism, but a difference to bear in mind.
the last minute or so is brilliant. shows how easy it is. its actually quite painful sometimes to upload pics to various online albums. one easy solution would be good. I actually thought that dropbox would be doing something like this in the future.
The claim that living things could use the usual molecules, just with arsenic switched for phosphorus in their DNA, was an extraordinary claim, and such a claim requires extraordinary evidence.

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2008/01/extraordinary-c.h...

But the first report about "arsenic-based life" was no more than a preliminary research finding announced in a press event by the study sponsor, and such an announcement is not enough to establish a new body of scientific fact.

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

The specific preliminary finding was criticized right away for sloppiness of technique and a rush to reach an unwarranted conclusion,

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/12/its_not_an_arseni...

http://rrresearch.fieldofscience.com/2011/08/first-evidence-...

so the journal slated to publish the preliminary finding had to invite in critiques of the finding to save its own reputation.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/science-publishes-...

Science is all about reproducible results, so much so that there is a humor magazine for scientists called the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

http://www.jir.com/

The headline in New Scientist, a British popular magazine about science (something like Scientific American in the United States), which has been published since before I was born, is correct. There isn't any reliable evidence of arsenic-based life living anywhere within reach of scientists on earth. Not now, and not last year. The best summary of the current evidence, after the efforts of many more careful researchers, is "arsenic life does not exist after all," period (as an American would say), full stop (as a Briton might say).
To save someone else a few seconds with a calculator, that's an average of just over 24 million per acquisition. Not that each was acquired for an equal amount.
My favorite thing about running on an Arch system is I know what's going on all the time. If an Ubuntu system breaks I'm generally dealing with a mass of preinstalled things, it's hard to know what's relevant.

Similarly for increasing boot speed, I really like knowing exactly what I need to be running at any one time.

I appreciate it's not for everyone, but I imagine most coders around here who run a Linux system would benefit a lot by taking the time to set up an install and having it work how they like.
Given all the problems they've had with AWS, I wonder what the overall cost/benefit would be for someone like Reddit moving from the flexed-EC2-servers model to just one high-powered db server and some caching webservers in front of it.
Great idea and beautiful execution. I just copy/pasted a few photos from Instagram to Facebook. I will definitely use this.
Yeah, what's with the noncanonical URL in the submission here?
http://m.urbandictionary.com/#define?term=red%20headed%20ste...

You are right, the "redheaded" part of the phrase is simply meant to imply the child is obviously not a legitimate child of the parent (who is assumed to be a non-redhead). So I was way off base, my apologies.

That's what you get for posting immediately after learning your flight has been delayed two hours :-(
Being able to run it without GUI, on a server or NAS, as you mentioned, would be great -- better connection, always online, perfect fit for a software like that.
I was driving along the left lane of the interstate one day, a hundred miles north of Chicago, 20 mph over the limit, passing many cars. I noticed a car behind me in the left lane, not terribly close, but who hadn't been there before. I assumed he was catching me quick, and started looking for a gap in the right lane. I checked my mirror again a second later, he hadn't gotten any closer. I thought this odd, but continued in the left lane - the right lane was packed, and he was still a solid ten or fifteen car lengths behind me. After a minute of this I found a three car length gap in the right lane, and pulled over anyway. He was past in a flash. Canadian plates. Not that he didn't want to get around me, he was just too polite to tailgate. :)
Larry Page's Commencement Address [2009]
There are two risks if you start the consultancy firm first. Both of these can be discussed with all 3 of you to make sure they do not become a problem later.

The first risk: when you are making money from consultancy, building the startup becomes easy to ignore. You might think "I could code today and earn nothing, or I could charge customers today and make real money". In 1 year you might all be running a small consultancy business making OK money, but not having done much on your startup idea.

The second risk: What if 1 of you works more on the startup than the others? Maybe you agree to share the consultancy money three ways - but that can feel unfair if two people are bringing in money while the third only does the startup. Or maybe one of you decides to do the consultancy only - what happens if the startup becomes really big just after they leave?

So there is no reason not to do the consultancy to bring in money while you build the startup. Just be aware of the risks and discuss them together (and write down any decisions, in case you need that later). Good luck!
How to get in to Y Combinator [Interview with Interviewstreet]
I really don't like Elsevier, but the alternatives don't exist

Most open Access databases are of dubious quality and don't provide an interface for peer-reviewing. Even worst, the harvesting standard (OAI) is implemented in many different ways depending on the site. Scopus also extract references, citations, addresses, etc. which are necessary to compute influence and impact.

Microsoft Academic and Google Scholar are starting to look as an alternative, but I'm wouldn't be surprised if they licensed their data from Elsevier&Thomson.

Until these services are duplicated in the Open Access community, Elsevier will still be needed.
Is he reselling them on Craigslist or somewhere else? I seem to be missing that part.
> Pedantry -- that isn't Moore's Law related

Actually, RAM would be the perfect application of the exact meaning of Moore's law: more RAM is an almost direct function of more transistors, and Moore's law is:

> the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years

Moore's law precisely predicts you can double your amount of RAM every two years for the exact same price. Which is pretty much what TFA is about.

SSD storage size is the same thing.
Facebook demands journalists sign NDA before press conference
Actually, to a large extent you can have access to the browser environment. See e.g. the ClojureScript One video and guide: http://www.clojurescriptone.com/.
And that's only counting the acquisitions that closed...
Link to paper FTA:

http://research.google.com/pubs/pub36632.html
Good point; I've used it as language resource for IR applications many times. What sort of clinical trial IR are you guys doing- storing and retrieving trial protocols themselves? Or is it about managing ongoing trials? Or something else entirely?

> With terminologies like SNOMED-CT, you run into coverage issues and end up pre/post coordinating lot of knowledge.

Well, yes, SNOMED is a post-coordinated vocabulary, so that's sort of the point- it's a feature, not a bug. Of course, there are so many ways to do post-coordination that you can easily end up in trouble when you try to exchange data with somebody else...
So I don't get this - who authorizes a diplomat to go forth and sign the treaty?

The country's government? So this issue was discussed in all 22 countries that signed it? When?
I agree. Especially since Bill has always been quite modest as well about his interactions with Steve.
If I have the same 100MB file set on multiple social sites through SocialFolders, does that mean I have the set on my local hard drive multiple times as well?
Bandit : The Special Robot That Designed to Communicate With Autistic Kids
Why 6AM Works For Me
This morning: http://twitpic.com/8cb1rc

My typical habit up until 3 days ago was to wake up around 10-11AM and start working around 2-3PM, until I got tired or burned out.

After seeing several posts on Hacker News about waking up early, I thought about trying it, but never had the drive to follow through.

On Wednesday AM I woke up at 6 naturally for an unknown reason. I got my giant cup of coffee and watched the sunrise from the fire escape. As a designer mind, I found a unique sense of comfort in watching the morning unfold. From foggy, cool, quiet streets to warm(er), busy streets in under an hour. The colors, the sounds, and the smells are refreshing and inspiring.

I can honestly say that I've had some of the most lucid moments of my entire life the past few mornings. If you haven't given waking up early a fair shot, you definitely should. Of course, I doubt it's right for everyone. But I was shocked to find out that it was very right for me.

Thanks goes out to all of the HN members who have pushed this in several recent posts. Seriously, you've changed my life.
Very interesting feedback. So we should spell it illico ?
Apple is where it is because they see "where the puck is going" and high risk, blockbuster-driven Hollywood is not that. If anything, they should be looking to the far more complementary game industry. Exclusive games would translate directly into iPhone and iPad sales (ie their main profit centers!) in a way that's hard to imagine with movies. An acquisition or exclusivity deal with the increasingly desperate Nintendo would be money well spent.

I'll be surprised if there aren't a round of game company acquisitions to this effect in the next few years for exactly this purpose, as blue chip game makers struggle to compete with increasingly rich $3 smartphone apps, and as games are the main beneficiary of increasing smartphone power. Microsoft understands the value of a well timed acquisition (buying Bungie basically made the XBox an instant success), so I wouldn't be surprise if they initiate.
Isn't it really just fashionable at the moment? Saying 'it just works' is a bit like saying 'Hush Puppies will always be cool' in the 90s.

I'm already getting tired of bootstrap sites to be honest. I think it's going to end up backfiring on twitter in that their design will look very generic and boring because everyone's using bootstrap.
2011 was the year that Google gobbled up drop.io, and buried it deep in the room known as "Stuff We'll Never Use, And Neither Will Anyone Else".

NOTE TO SELF: Startup Idea: Create a new drop.io, and combine it with some of the features of MegaUpload. Call it MegaDrop.
This artwork is not stunning.
Neat! Though the image was slow to get loaded and it took me a minute to realize the title was "cpp" and not "cccp" :-)
After trying to run an ebook marketplace, I can empathize with #14.
I had the hardest time convincing anyone to use the wiki, possibly because several of the people who needed to be using it weren't technical and didn't really understand the benefit.

But then we moved away from our ISP's awful email service to Google Apps for Business and people started using Google Docs. Docs is now our de-facto wiki.

I think the reason people use it is a combination of familiarity (everyone understands a word processor), constant reminders (everyone gets an email when a new document is added), and peer pressure.
More direct, permanent link:

http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/oxz9b/arsenic_life_...
I agree. Without any figures this is a pretty meaningless blog-post...
How do you get it to do a random thing? For me, it goes back.
You can do all of that without the filter though. There are very low tech products that already do this. http://www.celsias.com/media/uploads/admin/watercone1.jpg
is this a joke? if so its funny... when i click the link i get: "Error establishing a database connection", haha
Perhaps my tinfoil hat isn't fitted correctly, but wouldn't creating a second account for "private stuff" solve this problem with the same overhead as signing up with a 3rd party site (i.e. one more username/password to remember)?

Disclaimer: that's probably against Google's TOS, or maybe it's not, I don't know.

edit: actually it appears Google allows, even recommends, multiple accounts for e.g. private and business use.
The death of the master builder
Find a Cheap Hotel
If you are looking to Find a Cheap Hotel all around the World, this is the site I use. Here you can find the Best Prices every time.
This Is a Billion Euro House. Literally.
Yes, I am this way as well, but I think of it as a kind of allowance of irrationality that I have to make up for in other ways. I love dead-tree books, but eBooks are better in pretty much every way. The bright side is that there are plenty of used books that will continue circulating through stores and private collections for many many years, and they'll be cheap.
Webinar: 2012 Information Security Forecasts
Is your Phone Better than your Friends Phone?
Patent troll sues against Hadoop HDFS use
I think most "other startups" would LOVE to be in the ballpark with BaseCamp in terms of usage. No BaseCamp is not big like Facebook, but you've heard of them right? Most "ordinary" business people who do project planning work have probably heard of BaseCamp too. Most people never hear about most startups, fewer try their services, fewer than that become regular users.

The point of the post is that in many/most cases, it's still easier and cheaper to throw hardware at a performance problem than to devote scarce engineering effort to optimization. And it's only getting more and more so. If you are a startup and you can throw $10,000 of hardware at a problem you can then keep your $100K engineers working on things that hardware alone can't solve.
Facebook brought drop.io in October 2010
Appreciate your advice on the risk, I will well put a note on it, from at the first time whoever join and start code on it, i'll ensure all parties understand of what focus exactly are our target, which is not becoming the firm itself, but more like for bootstrapping on our soon becoming products.

I like your advice on the second risk, despite of what i think, other people and circumstance can get effect. i'll more hardly note about it.
Thanks for the correction. I had this nagging feeling that it might have been 2010, as I tend to lose track of time, and I could have sworn that drop.io's announcement said "Google". Anyway, we could use another drop.io, for people who don't want to be tied to Google's ecosystem.
The fact that there is any pressure whatsoever. Of all the countries in the world, China is the most able (from an economic and political standpoint) to tell a western company to take their service and shove it.
Cool Robot Violinist.
I was hoping for emergent beauty rather than intentional doodles. This art is mildly charming but I do not believe the term "stunning" is applicable.
In other news, Firefox 12 will also bring URL autocompletion to the Firefox address (née awesome) bar, ala Chrome.

Is this the same functionality they've been testing in the (first-party) addon "Speak Words"? Because it works really well, it's one of the addons I have to put in every install of FF because it's so annoying not to have. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/prospector-sp...
Hosted on Sourceforge... seriously?
Question: What do you suggest to best avoid for the 2nd risk are? about how we run it with along?
Having just come in to work at an independent bookstore, I find most of it accurate, particularly the part about checks. We have an abnormally high-quality customer in that regard.

The one gripe I have is the thought that when people ask for historical-fiction they want romance, that's hardly the case here. That probably comes with the fact we're primarily a niche store focused on the sale of West Virgina History, and related, and West Virginian Authors. We rarely carry supply of Best-Seller list titles, with the exception of children's titles, because Amazon has severely undercut that business. We handle special-orders in this case, which take on average about 4 days.
People are getting rid of bookshelves. Treat the money you budgeted for shelving as found money. Go to garage sales and cruise the curbs.

I found this amusing as the first bullet point, since it pretty much screams, "Don't open a bookstore."
Twitter to censor messages Country-by-Country = Free Speech is dead
I'm running arch and home and have a love / hate (mostly love) relationship with it. It's certainly taken up a lot of my time, but I learned more about linux just by installing it than I did in months of using ubuntu. Getting something to work is so satisfying, as it usually involves learning quite a bit about how it works, but there are times when you just want something working and it can be frustrating.

Being forced to make all those choices was the best part about it for me. I'm sure it's possible to customize Ubuntu to look like my arch set up, but if I hadn't been forced I likely wouldn't have tried. I'm currently running i3 as my window manager and I love it. I use a macbook pro at work, and It's nice but going back to a non-tiling window manager after getting used to i3 is pretty painful.
> Most "ordinary" business people who do project planning work have probably heard of BaseCamp too.

I don't think so. Maybe we just have a different opinion on ordinary, but I come across people all the time that would think Excel is the normal thing to use for this (and pretty much any other task...). Using web applications for day to day workflow is still alien to a lot of "ordinary" business types.
I was running Gentoo before. In Gentoo, you could configure everything up to the smallest details, and you had the system that worked exactly as you want it too. The cost was frequent recompiles and a bunch of time lost playing with the things.

After I swithced to Arch, I found it much easier to configure, and it required almost no maintenance. It is a great balance between ease of use and full power.
Submit this as an article next time, maybe?
I find Archbang to be a good compromise. It presents a minimal Arch install with X+openbox (a la Crunchbang, hence the name) pre-configured. It has a live CD too, so really, it' s just like plain old regular Arch except you don't need a 2nd computer during install ^^
LOL! Here we go again. Now I can't even comment to praise somebody. Flame away guys :)
> it limits my thought process when i have to think what the variable's type is after every line of code

Why do you feel the need to think about the variable's type on every line though? Since they're typed, you should pretty much know exactly what they are, instead of trying to figure it out. Since they're not dynamic, they're never changing.
The first rule of the cloud is : If you think your data requires a high level of privacy, don't store it on someone else's platform.

The second rule of the cloud is : Paying for a service to get a "private" option doesn't mean the data you store is and always will be 100% unreadable/unusable by the company providing the service. Targetted ads is based on exactly that.

Finally, the most important rule of the cloud is : If you're sad/annoyed/chocked when you realize that companies like Google, Facebook, GitHub, Dropbox, and thousands others have priorities that could conflict with yours at some point and threat your business or your privacy, just don't work with them, just don't rely on them.
A new drop.io would be awesome, it was a very good product and I haven't found anything else like it yet. Has anyone found anything similar?
It's likely a result of a cheap host server not being able to handle the traffic. Not a reflection of OP's programming abilities.
The fundamental question is: How compatible will PyPy ever be? Which kind of applications can be run with PyPy?

http://pypy.org/compat.html mentions compatiblity according to the standard library. This is fine for (web) servers and command line applications.

But what about desktop applications? Can I (someday) take a PyQt or PyGTK code and compile it with PyPy without modifications?