skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If you need to wait for wide adoption in the hosted server market place, this seems like a sensible concern. You can install CouchDB by hand of course, it's really not that hard.

The API changes occasionally, as is natural. The project is improving as we get more popular and people suggest new and better ways of doing things. This is part of having a healthy free software community. It's important to point out that the API is so simple it's crazy, and it changes very infrequently - so it's really not much of an issue.
If you don't do any Mac development, don't use any "rare" apps that have no Linux counterparts, and don't mind some nagging compatibility issues (admittedly, driver support gets better every day and Ubuntu is really on top of this stuff) I highly recommend giving it a try before diving into a much more costly solution.

Worst case scenario, you still aren't a huge fan of the Linux desktop and you can give Mac a shot. The Linux desktop has come a LONG way in the past 3 years, though. Just use KDE ;)

Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge Mac fan, just not a traditional fanboy. There are viable alternatives.
If you don't like it, why haven't you turned Aero off, or replaced the theme? Windows doesn't force you to live with any defaults.
Putting more space between the up and down could help -- for example putting the down vote on the other side of the total or even further right.
One summer, I interned at a think-tank where there were a lot of Go players. One of them invited a Go master (7+ dan) to play 15 separate games against 15 people. He never delayed: he would take his turns in each of the games during the amount of time that his opponents would use to take one turn. He won all of the games, but none by anything that would seem like a blowout margin.

After he left, people began discussing and comparing scores. He had beaten every single one of them by exactly 13 points.
It's not that Windows (XP SP2+) is bad per-se, it's just that the alternatives (OSX, Linux, BSD, etc.) are much better for nearly all use cases of the technically savvy. Unless you're doing Windows development, of course. Or own a Zune.
I just say "I run a small web design business," although it lacks the edge now that I'm employed as well :^)

I do think that it sounds a little off-base to call oneself an entrepeneur at least in the DC area...very self-important.
Out of curiosity, what attribute could you not change in URLConnection?

I don't consider Java-style any more "real" as any other, but if something is private in a class and doesn't provide methods for modification, there is either a reason for it, or it is poorly coded... If you mess with private variables, you could be jacking up the way the class works and not know it. If you instead write 3 additional classes, you're at least ensuring your URLConnection state is consistent.

> Anyway, if you think Java-style programming is "real programming", that's great. We don't need to work together, so you are free to waste your time however you like.

Sounds like you're a lot of fun to work with in any language.
The URL has "GNU" in it, I knew better than to click.

Respectfully, waaaahhh.

From the article:

I still think it's extremely weird that you actually buy a device, and then don't own it. I would have no problem if the device is rented from the manufacturer or the mobile network operator. Sure, then in this rented device, only they control what kind of software you use. But this is not the case. People buy it, pay money, legally own the device but technically don't.

You absolutely do own the device. You're just not capable of getting the software you want onto it. I own my house, even though I have no idea how to move walls and put up new drywall (in my case, I did but it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped).

If you really can't live without the kernel of your choice, perhaps you should desolder the IC that contains the crypto keys and install one that has keys you created. Worst probable case is that you're out an integrated CPU/EPROM device. As mentioned by sayrer elsewhere in this thread, the route this guy would be better off taking is to get a Developer one.

I'm sure the GNU "I hold my nose at your lack of freedom" attitude provides many mutual high-fiving opportunities for The Free. Unfortunately the real world, particularly as it concerns security, is made up of endless compromises and trade-offs. Practically speaking, the decision to outsource security of the device to a group of people who are paid full time to do it makes the devices safer for the five orders of magnitude of people who are unable to or unwilling to understand the decisions they'd otherwise be asked to make.

Sorry to get lathered up about this, but statements of this nature sway uninformed geeks in dangerous ways. There's a ton of legitimate value to having a solid crypto foundation within devices, and one man's open certificate authority access to the device's firmware is ten million men's malware attack vector.

I agree with the guy in some aspects, in that I'd like to be able to control the boot loader and other fundamental aspects of a mobile device. At one time I had an idea to create a micro/mini-payment application that would live within your telephone. With the computing resources of even a free-with-contract phone you could greatly reduce the risks that credit cards are increasingly facing. This could prove a very lucrative business for someone who could out-efficient Visa. Unfortunately, as noted in the article, the keys to the device are held by the carrier, and this, for me, would be insufficient to trust my banking information with, so I never pursued the idea.
For me, older relatives are way more impressed if you get a full time job at a established/well known company (Google, Cisco, etc...) than if you're a business owner.

I was employed at a small company (under 10 employees) and my Aunt wouldn't stop calling me about Cisco.

"Cisco is a really great place to work at... it's stable, good pay. Even though your Uncle just got laid off, I still think it's a great place."

I'm a recent graduate, just moved back to my hometown in Silicon Valley. All of my old buddies are so eager to land jobs at BigCo. I'm completely shocked that no one wants to work at a startup, do their own business, or even work for a small company.

Since when did "I work at Google" become a damn pick up line?

I think being an entrepreneur is only impressive after you're successful (ie. get RICH). I'm pretty sure the Reddit guys had a hard time impressing their family/friends with their startup, until they got filthy rich.
You can relive the game here:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252350
I usually just say I'm a drug dealer.
Ha, you're lucky. My grandpa managed a few programming projects in the accounting industry during the 70's/80's. Every time I tell him about something I'm working on, he tells a long story about how he either invented or pioneered the concepts behind that project.
The whole article is a comparison to relational databases.
Watch House M.D. online |
I'm especially excited to see what kinds of crazy things people figure out how to do with p2p offline replication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Lotus_Notes
I used to live in DC. Entrepreneurs were few & far between; paper shufflers abound.
Greenhouse Gas from Solar Panels
I think the best advice from that article came from Rick Cattell: Good Technology Is Only 10% of Success
please provide examples of totally useless eye candy in OS X.
How can you get to dislike a programming language without learning it first, at least well enough to have things you don't like about it? If your reasons for not liking it are "riddled with inaccuracies", then maybe what you don't like about it isn't that language but something else that you have mistaken for that language?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it
Speaking of poker, I was once playing poker in vegas when the guy sitting beside me asked me what I did. I replied that I was a "technology consultant". He looked confused. I tried to explain that I wrote software to solve problems in the home automation industry. He thought hard for a moment and a light bulb went off in his head and he sat up and said, "oh computers!". I resigned that I did "computers", and the moment was over.

Just goes to show how the whole world isn't technical.
Another half hour, and it's just above 900,000 after 43,000 steps - it still looks nothing like the FF logo though.

That is, it looks nothing like it. It has, for example, no dark blue, orange, yellow or white - and only a smidgen of pale blue in completely the wrong place. The whole square is shades of hessian brown/pale green/caucasian artificial limb with a blotch of pink.
For my free time, I want a system that stays out of my way. When I'm done with work for the day, and I want to hack on fun projects in languages from C to Smalltalk to Lua to Scheme, or communicate over various chat protocols and IRC, or do any kind of reading or writing, i do it in OS X.
Wierd. Was I the only one who confused this with the Hotspot JVM's new garbage collector?
Are you kidding? Brownie points are old hat.
The first time I encountered FP was in an undergraduate PL class. I remember how easy it was to use, how beautiful the language was, and how many cool things could be done with it that were utterly foreign to Java at the time. I remember the thought: "Functional languages are so cool. It's too bad that you can't use them for anything serious." I guess this was a case of the cage door being swung open and the monkey staying inside.
Microsoft stock holder information site: http://www.microsoft.com/msft/default.mspx
> I never understood why, since I never ask for favors from them, but shrug.

This happens to practically everyone - Doesn't matter if you're a Doctor, Laywer, Mechanic, Banker...
To start this thing off:

My best received, at +23: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=292930

This was my worst, at -8, and probably deserving of even more punishment than it got: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=288268
Nope, it's really not meant to be. But it is intended as a primer for those coming from a relational database background. CouchDB is NOT a replacement or an alternative to relational databases. CouchDB is fundamentally a different way to model data. That may work for you, it may not. CouchDB is not a panacea.
If you're going to learn a new office suite (and even MS Office for Mac is going to feel different), use OpenOffice. It's exactly the same where ever you go.
I like Transmit for FTP/SFTP. It's worth the price.

I also like iWork over Mac Office. If someone really needs 100% perfect Word documents, the company can buy it.
Cool. You must know HTML then.
don't talk about whats. talk about why's.

it's good practice for your marketing. you need to talk to your market in terms of how you're going to help them kick more ass. if you talk to your relatives in terms of whom you help kick more ass, they are more likely to give a shit.
He couldn't buy one when he wrote that, but it's also sort of beside the point. Software freedom is about other people having the ability to modify the software they depend on, not about me having the ability (if I spend enough money and time) having that ability.
> you can use Emacs-style Ctrl-A, Ctrl-E

Most people don't know this, but yes: any Cocoa text view responds to many Emacs c-key shortcuts.
I think they're trying to say how they differ from relational databases since most people know and understand relational databases. It's like telling someone in America how cricket is played and using baseball as a base point to explain it.
I know about this problem, just I'm getting too tired to be able to debug it. It's almost 5am here.

If it does something weird, just reset it by forced reload (Ctrl-F5).

Stay tuned tomorrow for DNA import/export, it's like 80% done.

[Edit] DNA import/export is done. Just please be gentle with it, for the moment it's very fragile (e.g. whitespace matters).

If somebody wants to play with it, DNA format is very simple (all INTs except for ALPHA which is FLOAT):

NUMBER_OF_VERTICES NUMBER_OF_POLYGONS R G B ALPHA X0 Y0 X1 Y1 ... XN YN ... R G B ALPHA X0 Y0 X1 Y1 ... XN YN ...
I think you misunderstand, because I'm certainly not arguing with me. I'm arguing with your methodology. Scouts do a solid job of picking the QBs that are the best.

Passer rating does not measure QBs skill accurately, therefore scouts may not pick the QBs with the best passer rating. That's because their job is to pick the best quarterback, not the one who has the highest number in some goofy equation that takes many other things into account.

QB rating is bunk. Chad Pennington has a better career rating than Dan Marino. Dan Marino is an all time great, Pennington might just barely crack the top 10 current starters.
The animation that happens when Expose is activated, the "Genie Effect" for minimizing windows, and the reflections of dock icons that show up when the dock is at the bottom of the screen are examples that come immediately to mind. (Arstechnica enumerated some of the UI regressions in their Leopard review.)
On-world as well.
Generally it's just "I write web software for X industry"

Funny story: I was on plane and got to talking to the guy next to me. He asked what I did and I told him (the above line basically). He was thoroughly enthusiastic and kept asking all sorts of questions. I finally got around to asking what he did. He said "Oh, I'm a test pilot for Lockheed Martin" ... Never could figure why he thought my job was cool.
Mobile, phones, mobile news, latest mobiles, nokia, samsung, pocket pc, pda, handset
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I would argue that your social connections are very much based on your competence (albeit in an often different skillset).
Yes, and yes.

Wrong and wrong. If it's so easy then tell me when you are CEO of a fortune 500.

No more excuses. You say just about anyone can do it, so do it.

... that's what I thought.
I own my house, even though I have no idea how to move walls and put up new drywall (in my case, I did but it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped).

You can hire someone else to put up new drywall. If you can't, you don't own the house; you're just renting.

Outsourcing your security to a group of people makes you vulnerable to that group of people, and anybody who can lean on them. As you point out yourself, mobile phone carriers have not proven trustworthy in that way. The guy who buys the phone has the right to choose who they want to trust; mobile carriers blackmailing phone manufacturers into giving them backdoors into this most personal of devices is a violation of that right, and it imperils us all.
But if you look at the top picks and the bottom picks, you find almost none of the bottom picks starting in the nfl (you named a few who did it in the last decade) and a ton of the top picks who are, or are at least second strings to superstars. I would say that means that what separates them is far from anyone's guess. There's certainly some variance there (see Tim Couch) but it's not unpredictable.
Yep, cartoon images seem to be tough for this particular algorithm to optimize.

The first velociraptor I tried was a stop sign from XKCD and it failed miserably.

Though you never know, I also thought black&white Darwin image was hopeless, and it did managed to start converging eventually.
The fundamental difference is that Perl doesn't think itself beautiful. There's plenty to hate specific to Perl: sigils for types, noisy syntax (not even the #$@%, just the structure is ugly), nested lists always being flattened silently (as a design choice, Larry is crazy).

I never end up using Perl, the niche it occupies between shell and python is empty for me. I never have a problem with a shell script where I'm wishing for more control structures or builtins. The few times I've written long-running resource-intensive shell scripts (like brute-forcing an MBR partition scheme), reducing the number of forks wouldn't make them more than a few percent faster.

The major ray of light shining down on Ruby is that it is a Perl that people want strongly to write better looking code in. That's a pretty big accomplishment, I think. It seems like a lot of the classic Perl webdev shops are moving to Ruby, and I think that's pretty great.

I don't hate Ruby, I'm just disappointed in it.
Well, at $100 per month there's no real scaling. You're running everything on one inexpensive server. Scaling would be just getting a better one. (Can you even get a dedicated for that low?)

I guess maybe you and I define scaling differently. I'm thinking like adding in web servers, load balancing, replicating db. You may be just talking optimizing code and caching or something.

Curiously, can you serve even some simple dynamic content like a Wordpress blog to a million somewhat frequent users a month?
Yes we're all informed people, but we're also mere mortals suspectible to the same psychology as everyone else. Including instinctively downvoting something that doesn't fit with our worldview.
Thunderbird 3 Beta 1 Now Available
Quite right. In fact, I'd go further and suggest if you are not in the top half of your class after the first year, quit.

In my grad class at Rutgers, 3 are solidly on the tenure track (read: postdoc at good school), 3 did not finish (one is now in his 7'th year), the remainder are unlikely to get a tenured position.

I'm told that even at that other NJ school, only about 50% go on to get a tenure track job.
Tackle Projects One Quick Simple Problem at a Time
Why Twitter will Kill Digg and Why That's Good for Democracy
You say just about anyone can do it, so do it.

I said that at least 1% of the population has the capacity to do the job. I didn't say that I'm in that 1-10%-- although I probably am-- and I didn't say that I have the social connections necessary to get a F-500 CEO position-- I don't.

There's a difference between being able to do a job and being able to get the job. I will agree with you so far as that far fewer than 1% of the population can get a F-500 CEO position, but that's not because they lack the necessary competence.
50 Most Beautiful Icon Sets Created in 2008
That's slightly horrifying.
The people you meet at mid-limit poker tables are the most genuinely reflective sample of the middle-class and up segment of our country that you'll ever find. It's weighted male (though less heavily than it use to be) but you definitely run into all types.

There's a huge digital divide among poker pros. Most tend to either be younger guys like me who use computers as a tool to improve our game (ICM Calculators, equity calcs, stat tracking, etc.) and the old road-gambler types who still think poker is just about reading people. Of course poker is such a mathematical game that the second group is at a tremendous disadvantage, except for the few who've adapted.
Facebook’s fbFund Names Winners of $225,000 Grant
Rich Hickey presents Clojure at JVM Languages Summit
Oh I'm fully aware people do do this all the time and it happens to pretty much anyone with any kind of job. I'm wondering why people believe their relatives would be willing to do a favor in the first place purely based on relation and even sometimes with the assumption they wouldn't mind doing it at a discounted rate because of that. I'm sure anyone who's spent enough time with family talking about what they do have encountered that before.
Spouse 2.0 day! Gee, I hope I can find a babysitter and dinner reservation on this short of notice.
I just looked on Apple.com, that was the starting rate for a Mac Pro. It was a beast though, with 2 Quad Cores. The rest of the specs were woefully unimpressive, but I guess it's like a Lexus where they know that if you're spending that much money, you'll have no problem ordering the upgrades, and they just put the base price there to lure you in.
Unless you need it for gaming (direct x mainly) then yes, go mac.

I have gone mac for lots of my development but still roll with vista mainly for games and some development mainly game relates.

With the rise of consoles and even Microsoft's own XBOX 360, it is removing the "gaming machine" deciding factor as well with lots of games going online, multiplatform (blizzard), mac ready.

I switched for Unity3D as it was only available as a dev platform on macs and it is a good thing that happened. Having *nix as the base of your desktop OS is really nice. Unity3D, XCode, iPhone dev, and all the goodness of language support like python, ruby, c, etc working as it should is just good.
"Competitive advantage" means roughly "doing things your competitors can't". You can't do that with off-the-shelf tools unless your competitors are in Nigeria and can't afford them.
Thats why I like FVWM. I can tell it to get rid of all the tool-bars and window borders because I don't normally use a mouse and so all those things are utterly useless for me.
I'm saddened by how real this thread got to me.
My highest and lowest comments were purely smartass remarks:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=318690

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=165130

I posted my #2 highest remark earlier today, and that one actually has some information content: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=391396
"Strong" and "Weak" are not useful nomenclature.

What To Know Before Debating Type Systems:
http://www.pphsg.org/cdsmith/types.html
Very nice explanation, thanks for your input.

I have read a little about the Filter/View system of CouchDB and I didn't really get the point as it just felt overly complex. Your blog/comment example helped though.
"Higher-Order Perl" available for free download
I want to add to the chorus of "What experience are you comparing Visual Studio to?" You're sort of damning it with faint praise by touting things like "evolving towards concurrency" and Microsoft's alpha-quality OCaml clone, F#, as a selling point. Obviously .NET wouldn't have a future if it wasn't doing cloud, functional, concurrent, and support online, but it's sort of chasing the taillights of the open-source community there.
I guessed that this was a Malcom Gladwell article before I clicked on it. He's got a formula.
That's incredible. Go has always fascinated me on principle, though I have yet to find the time to learn the game. Thanks for this.
It's amazing what drawing a paycheck can do. Once I started making a respectable living as a blogger, my family stopped pestering me about getting a real job or going back to school.

Of course, next up might be the startup thing... that'll be a whole new battle.
Yes. Saying how something differs is called a comparison.
The single most well-reasoned talk on Global Warming that I have ever seen - Lomborg
Luckily for my ego, I am also not how much money I have in the bank. Or the contents of my wallet.
Highest scoring comment, at +132: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=372606 .
Probably only rated so highly because lots of people agreed with the position I was arguing for.

Lowest scoring comment, at -3: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32150 .
Probably only rated so lowly because of the five words "Yes, I am a genius".

Interestingly, both of those were direct responses to comments made by pg. I wonder if this is just coincidental, or if bringing pg into the picture tends to polarize people more.
YUI 3.0 PR2 Released
You want to know how a computer works under the hood, you should prefer OS X

no, i should prefer linux or freebsd, which i do, ON (SANITIZED AND LIBERATED) APPLE HARDWARE.