skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
All sorts of politically-popular restrictions have been applied to any institution that takes a single dollar of federal funding -- as project grants, student scholarships, or even student loans that have to be repaid. So there's hardly any fully 'private' institutions left which have the freedom you describe.
I'm both curious about living for 1000+ years, since no human has ever lived so long before, and about what happens after death. Given the chance for a 1000-year lifespan, I'd readily take it knowing that I will die, Singularity or no, given the very long but finite lifespan of the universe, and taking the long lifespan would allow me to experience both.

Although a "healthy fear" is certainly in order, I don't understand the reflexive hatred of death. I think it's more likely that consciousness is nonphysical and that there is some form of spiritual survival. Ian Stevenson's reincarnation research is pretty solid. (If I'm wrong, I'll never know.)
Is there any reason why these companies need to be based in the US? It seems like more trouble than it's worth.
"Singularity" doesn't entail "paradise" or anything like it. That would be why Eliezer Yudkowsky, the author of the piece linked up at the top there, has dedicated most of his adult life to the question "If we figure out how to make artificial intelligences, what do we need to do to have reasonable confidence that they aren't going to do awful things?".

(It is not at all clear that any answer exists.)
I landed on the page and got lost. Its fine if you haven't setup your sign up yet, but there's not even marketing copy telling me why I'm there, and what I'm supposed to do.

What is unique about this photo sharing? Why would I use this over flickr, or any of the dozens of other photo sharing tools?
Clojure: Trampoline for mutual recursion
Finding Cancer in a drop of Blood
Sharing badges is borderline. 1 badge = 1 person (not a specific person) is seen as reasonable by some and unreasonable by other conference organizers. Personally I don't have a problem if the conference organizers don't.

I do have a problem with the ends justifies the means argument. The child was hungry so it should have stolen the candy. Really?
There are a lot of tricks to modern architectures and things that modern compilers can figure out. There's more to making things fast than using the right instructions -- modern optimizers also try to keep the CPU pipelines full, unroll loops where appropriate, try to detect operations that don't do anything, etc.

Note that I'm not so much comparing against Python as comparing to calling a C function from Python (which is easy).

The cases where you tend to want to do things in assembly are usually where there are assumptions that you can make about the execution that the compiler can't know.
Are you more interested in relational theory, or in implementation techniques for database systems? If the latter, the Ramakrishnan and Gehrke book (the "cow book") is really good: fairly broad coverage, but very well-written and precise. I haven't read the Date book.
needs more information on purpose/benefits/features/signup/etc..

i understand what its for and what it does, and so will most hackers, but this isn't really an app for hackers. you have to let the people know, on that first page, exactly whats happening, or they'll pass it by.
Not at all. That's the Emacs crash course: How do you move by charcters/words/lines/sentences/paragraphs/function definitions/..., how do you open/save files, what does 'C-x M-c butterfly' mean, how do you browse the main help system, etc. It probably takes about half an hour to go through.

Emacs is largely self-documenting, but since it was written decades (and several OSs) ago, it's IMHO worth reading through the basics. For one thing, it tends to use different terminology than most people are familiar with.
CTRL+A, Del. You are never going to catch up in time anyway.
It sounds similar to work I did on an Energy Trading floor. We had a system that would price out financial contracts and energy assets over various time frames to manage the investment risk.

Unfortunately we didn't use Ruby, we were stuck with Java and Matlab, but the HPC Computing Cluster was cool.
Researchers culture rat neurons, which control remote robotics when electrodes applied
Novel Rediff.com service to bypass restricted Internet access
A very valiant effort. I am concerned about the false positives/negatives though, and the article dod not say much in the way of that.
Use the "noprocrast" profile feature.
That's a good argument for repealing the Federal Reserve Act.

Did anyone else listen to NPR yesterday morning and hear the open admission that they were printing to fund their new failout package?
TechCrunch’s New Search Engine: Powered by Yahoo BOSS
Why Microsoft Fails to Win Online
That's code you don't see every day...
Agreeing it works great. But if you're relying on it for keeping your files safe forever, watch out for the free account policy:

"Dropbox reserves the right to terminate Free Accounts at any time, with or without notice. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, if a Free Account is inactive for ninety (90) days, then Dropbox may delete any or all of Your Files without providing additional notice."

And I can't find the actual pricing for non-free accounts anywhere on the site, which isn't increasing my trust level.
Sorry, video game critics: Nobody's listening
I'm glad this is posted again.
CSSEvolve: guided stylesheet evolution (release inspired by recent evolving A/B testing post)
And their support and sponsorship page is down.

This is the crap I'm talking about. It has to be easy, it has to be well executed, it has to inspire confidence. Fail, fail, and fail. I wouldn't entrust my $$$ to this group at this point.
There seems to be some Sun-focused FUD and Linux-focused fanboyism flying around here and on Kirk's blog. Obviously, that's no way to evaluate competing solutions. We need facts. We need apple to apple comparisons of hardware and operating systems, where we can get them.

Of course, every /serious/ business can and should get into the details, but for the sake of argument, I invite you to compare a couple apples from the barrel: Sun Microsystem's Sun Fire X4150 (used by Kirk's site), and Dell's PowerEdge 1950 III.

They support /very/ similar hardware options (rack units, CPUs, memory, network, internal storage, out-of-band management, power, expansion slots, etc.), have roughly the same price depending on options (~$7500), and run roughly the same major software (Linux, Solaris, VMWare). Based on that one example, I don't see how Kirk justifies decrying Sun.

I could go on with more hardware or a light comparison of Solaris vs. Linux, but you get the point. Stop with the hyperbole and try presenting facts in a digestible format.
"We have already passed that point for Chess..."

No we haven't. Computers play chess by examining all possible outcomes, then choosing the optimal one. That seems to be how humans play chess too. But if you think about it, humans are much more spontaneous than that. We haven't succeeded in coding "spontaneity" yet.
Google to Cut Contract Workers
I know! Read a long article about how not to procrastinate.
Looking back on news recommendation sites
"The problem is, your making that argument is countering your claim that there isn't any subjectivity to humor."

I'm not claiming there isn't any subjectivity to humor, I'm claiming that it is objective as well as subjective.

When I say that humor is objective, I mean there are several patterns underlying what can make something funny. (You yourself said you enjoy discovering new kinds of humor, and kinds of humor implies underlying patterns.) I believe that it is possible to discover these underlying patterns, and then make a determination as to whether a statement falls into one of these patterns or not. This can be done independently of whether or not a person exists who can see that the statement falls into one of these patterns.

But I also believe that humor is subjective, in terms of the feeling we get when we hear something funny. I don't believe that this can be quantified or measured-- when I say that humor is objective, I simply mean that a binary determination can be made as to whether or not a statement falls into some underlying bucket.

"And your original point wasn't about humor. It was about interest. The two pertinent definitions: 'The state of 'wanting to know or learn about something or someone," and 'The advantage or benefit of a person or group.'"

My belief is that the first dictionary definitions you list is a symptom of interest, but not what makes something interesting.

The Baillargeon paper I cited talks about how babies look longer at impossible events. For example, if you create an illusion whereby you drop a toy and it appears to fall through a table, the baby will look at that longer than if the toy lands on the table like its supposed to.

Interesting is very easy to define: Anything that violates our expectancy of how things are supposed to work. (Insight and humor are specific subsets of 'interesting'.) In practice you wouldn't describe something that was insightful or funny as interesting, for the same reason you wouldn't call a senator a congressman even though a senator is a congressman.

Anyway, it is this violation of expectancy that makes us want to know or learn something. In other words, when our expectancy is violated we naturally want to either find some new schema, or else amend our previous schema to make it more accurate.

Anything that violates our expectancy is interesting in an objective sense. And things that violate expectancy do generally hold our attention. But not always. The reason being that insightful writing is even more compelling than writing that is merely interesting, so it tends to steal our attention away.
It's a new site, so it's still very much in development. However that being said, I agree that I need to make the frontpage a little more inviting... Why would you use my site vs. flickr or picasa etc...
1. You keep 100% ownership of YOUR media, you don't have to sell you soul in exchange for a free service. That's why I created this site... those are my pictures and I refuse to give up my rights in exchange for a free service.
2. The other sites I tried are so clutered with "web 2.0" garbage that they are annoyingly slow or loaded with all kinds of ads or offensive material.
3. We try to make uploading and managing your videos and photos really easy... ie: mom approved

So try to find a photo/video hosting site that is easy to use, fast, not loaded with ads or not loaded with offensive material.... hmmm !

thanks for your input
This doesn't do anything to dissuade me of the notion that the space race is a religious movement. The comfort of hope in ascending to Heaven and hope in engineering feats seem quite similar. While research into aeronautics and rocket motors could be better funded, I'm not sure why we need to 'believe' in these things or make sure we join the correct aerospace company.

Besides, unless the universe is infinite we're just arguing about distances. I prefer not to think about death as annihilation because I'm afraid of turning into worm food.
Ask HN: Ideal startup office environment?
Please give me your list of must-have office features.

I have the ear of a VP at my company concerning the layout and use of a whole new area of space in our building. He wants it to be "startup-like", and I believe he's sincere. I've already suggested a nap room, a reading area, ping-pong, and walls made of whiteboard. :)
Embedding C or C++ into python is no big deal with scipy.weave and gcc. Just try it:

http://albert.rierol.net/doodle_programming.html#1
I love the idea! I think that implementing all the content in HTML and then selecting it in Javascript though is a horrible idea for a number of reasons. Performance and accessibility would be my top two. Maintainability would be a close third.
Pumping Iron: Dynamic Languages on .Net
Thanks. I don't like the way that one works though.

"The apps run on a virtualization layer on top of the OS..."
If so then this sounds like a good opportunity for blackberry to sell a secure spread-spectrum device to the government and/or military that would work on restricted frequencies. Surely Obama isn't the only political figure with a blackberry whose conversations need to be kept secure.
The only time I find myself procrastinating is when I am not working on something meaningful or "new" (to me). Thus I use the technique of having my procrastination actually be more productive than trudging through the mundane. i.e. if I am working on something rote or repetitious yet it HAS to be done that way (deadlines, client spec etc.) I spend my procrastination time implementing a class, a library, a syntax, dsl.. language.. .some more clever way of tackling the problem in the future. I will seriously do the boring stuff and then beneath in a comment block write my musing version of a syntax that I wish I could have used instead which later on I may try and implement etc.
I wish email had a 140 character limit like twitter. Or that it allowed nothing but subject line.
I just did an install of Solaris 10u6 yesterday and it was dead simple. During the installation, the installer asks you what software group you want to install. Select the "Core" software group or the "minimal networking" software group.

I agree the documentation is confusing. That is because (1) Sun documents everything so there is a lot of it to weed through, (2) most installs of Solaris are done over networks using install scripts to ensure every installation is identical, (3) Solaris can do things like install a new OS on a remote system that doesn't have any OS on it, and the documentation for those things drowns out the smaller, simpler documentation for the simpler installation methods.
They definitely need to launch the paid version, but I wouldn't worry too much about your files getting lost. Pretty much by definition you should always have at least one backup of your files. Worst case and they close tomorrow, you still have all your stuff.

Update: They already have paid plans, $99/year for 50GB.

https://www.getdropbox.com/plans
cool topic, surprised google reader doesn't do more of this stuff.
It depends on how much they receive from those legacy families.

Just being a "legacy" doesn't entail that one receives a massive boost in admissions. There are a lot of "legacies" out there and they can't all be admitted. The Ivy League legacy whose father sends a $100 check each year only gets a small bump: maybe 50%, or the difference between a 10% vs. 15% chance of admission. It's much more advantageous to come from a brand-name East Coast prep school, which brings the chance of admission, even to Harvard, well north of 50%.

Children of five- and six-figure legacy families are auto-admits, but they have so many advantages that this shouldn't surprise anyone. Most people who complain about academically mediocre "legacy admits" at elite schools are describing students who come from such privileged backgrounds that they would be attending elite schools even if legacy admissions were abolished, because of all the other socioeconomic factors in the admissions process.
This makes no sense to me:

> I cannot leave without their consent either

What does that mean? Have you signed something saying that you can not quit?

Regardless, the correct framework to think about this is BATNA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiate...

If you can't get the deal you want, and you're forced to abide by what you've already signed, what do you give and what do you get? It sounds like either
(i) you work for 1 year and get 1/4 of the company, or
(ii) you walk away today with 1/4 of the company, but no ability to sell the shares.

(We need more data on what that means - are sales of the shares restricted until a certain date? Forever? What?)

You are absolutely (both legally and ethically) entitled to some sort of compensation for your work. If you've already got shares, the company can't take them back (unless you've signed a repurchase agreement). The company can, both legally and ethically, dilute you afterwards. They can't issue everyone else 1 million shares each, thus diluting you to 0.00001%, but they can pay each person 2,000 shares per month, in lieu of salary. Over time, you'll end up with a smaller percent ... but that's fair. If they work for no salary for an additional year, they SHOULD have more stock.

It's really hard to say more without knowing exactly what you've signed.
My personal problem is focus. I have no problem with procrastination, other that the side effect of not being able to focus for a long time. The last few days I've been thinking a lot about my habits and the way i work, trying to find an answer to my problem. Since then I've redefined that problem from "how to cure procrastination" to "how to be more productive in general". This redefinition helped a little bit, because now i have a general strategy. I simply have to train my self to focus. Its like learning to touch type, or edit in vim, its hard in the beginning, but then, after repetition of the proces your subconscious kicks in and you learn to focus. The specific tactics are the standard anti-procrastination tricks, unplugging my internet, eliminating as many distractions as possible, make work a little bit more interesting, reward your self for good work, at least try to focus for some amount of time, etc. I've managed to get to 3 hours of focused work(by work i mean either code, read a book or write a long blog post, and edit it a few times), and i hope to improve. Its been only a few days since i started doing this. I would like other ideas and suggestions.
I've also found out that i need procrastinotion, some of my best ideas came when i spend the whole day not working, good thing i write them down, but I've realized very few, which is what I'm trying to fix.
That's the best idea I've read here in ages.

Now what's the next step?
I always override. I'm weak. :(

We need a "disable override" function.
Who cares how many people wrote it when it should only be about who reads it?
This site is unviewable on an iPhone. It redirects to mobile.portfolio.com with no option to go to the "full" Portfolio site. Lame.
Black Friday at Passion Parties - 25% Off ALL Products | Passion Promises
A few months ago, Lewis visited Princeton University, his alma mater, "to find out what the kids who were going to be investment bankers were now going to do with their lives." He says he was "so frustrated with how unimaginative young people had become in choosing their path in life that I thought that someone should establish a kind of 'Scared Straight' program for Ivy League students." He'd require them to spend a week with a hedge fund manager in Greenwich, Conn., "just to see how miserable" they'd be after 20 years.

That won't work. Wannabe bankers suffer from the same bias as young grad students. They expect to be exceptions. Everyone knows that the academic job market has been a toilet for the past 25 years, but people still pile into that industry expecting to be that 1 in 10 who gets a decent tenure-track job. People who are used to beating the odds, and winning constantly with little effort, generally haven't fully realized yet that failure also happens to people exactly like them.
the article says the bridghe is that high -above- the ground. The depth below is not factored in, at least as I read it.
I would presume most countries have an SEC equivalent.
In Praise of Bad Times: What we can learn from the last downturn
This really goes to show that the chinese can and do innovate, contrary to the preconception.
easy money, here i come!
Zoetrope: That is the Web that Was
My constant reminder that I should have told myself this more was the horribly depressing Marley quote I chose for my senior yearbook:

"Think you're in heaven but you're living in hell"
Only the latest versions of my stuff, that I haven't deleted. Previous versions and deleted files are only on their servers.
On October 25, 1854 sub ordinates of Russian General Pavel Liprandi looked on in horror as a mass of allied cavalry charged positions they had lately taken up in and around an area in the Crimea known as Balaklava. Initially, believing the cavalry men to be intoxicated, the Russian response to this threat was delayed several moments. Regaining their countenance, Russian commanders ordered the enemy cavalry charging towards them destroyed. Russian artillery subsequently opened fire, raining destruction on the enemy cavalry. Les Chasseurs d'Afrique, as shocked and surprised at the developing scene as the Russians, hurriedly organized themselves and rode to the assistance of their bumbling Anglo counterparts, providing cover for the retreating cavalry men.

At the end of it all, the attacking cavalry was devastated. Less than half of the allied cavalry men committed to the initial attack made it back to their lines. Of this number was their commander, a man by the name of James Thomas Brudenell. He returned, and considered himself to have given it 'the old college try', went to his yacht, waiting in Balaklava harbor, and ate a champagne dinner.

This cavalry unit is known to history as the 'Light Brigade'. It was commanded by wealthy men who had purchased commissions that more capable, but less wealthy men could not afford.

We bear witness to the results of our modern day 'Charge of the Light Brigade' daily in our newspapers, on our favorite internet news sites, on our favorite blogs, and via Fox and CNN.

My point is that the current crises will necessitate some rather unpalatable structural changes for the United States. The abandonment of legacy admissions may be one of them.
look, lets not get too fancy here. these are the basics, in my opinion:

* good chairs
* big monitors, multiple monitors if necessary, and computers powerful enough to do your work smoothly
* windows, greenery and open spaces
* aesthetically interesting offices that are well designed and laid out
* a fun, but not too fun break room, perhaps with a wii, darts, or ping-pong table. the key is movement.
* free snacks/drinks.
* no helicopter management

edited to add:

* casual dress code

there are some other "standards", but i don't know how much i agree with some of them. also, there's a lot to say about the structure of the company and management style/practices, but thats not really going to change with office space. i included helicopter management because it relates to the physicality and atmosphere of the space itself.
I am interested to hear about how often you've actually tried to beat a c compiler with hand optimized assembly code. In my experience, this statement is only said by people who have never tried.

For example, numerical calculations that are highly SIMD can be improved substantially by using SSE instructions. Autovectorization is ok, but not great. Furthermore, a programmer who is familiar with SSE instructions can alter/swizzle data to make things easier to use with SIMD instructions. Yet further, a programmer can take advantage of things like non-temporal storing which compilers will not do on their own.

Now, granted, you can massage gcc into giving you "good" code with alot of hints but to do it "right" you are still peering at the assembly and making sure gcc isn't doing anything "stupid". Highly optimized C code is so dense with compiler directives as to be unrecognizable to someone unfamiliar with the underlying architecture.

The belief that your naive for-loop computation is somehow transformed automagically into perfection by the compiler is a pure and unadulterated myth.
Why isn't virtualization software interesting?
That was just cruel.
I was thinking the same thing. I'd like to set up a 3000 watt system in the middle of the forest, right now it's looking like $35,000 for solar & misc parts. If I could get it from trees though... I'm tempted to take an ohm meter to work tomorrow.