skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
HN Suggestion: Virtual downvotes
I understand why it requires some karma to downvote something, but I've been a long-time reader on HN, and still don't have the karma needed.

I think this is a shame, because I do care about the quality of the site, and I'd love to be able to downvote stuff.

In any case, you're ruling out a data vector here-- wouldn't it be interesting to gather how users with little karma would vote, if they could?

I'm suggesting that people with low karma be able to click a down-arrow without any tangible effect, other than to let them feel better (and possibly hide the item from their own view). Over the long term, you might be able to use the voting pattern's similarity with the high-karma population in order to grant real votes, and the crossover point wouldn't be broadcast.
I think Sanford would do more to bring the meetup back to a hacker type event

That would be a welcome change.

So far as hacker event in NYC go, the best that I have found is lispnyc.org , by far the brightest room I have ever been in.

I agree. I'm looking forward to the lispNYC party next week.
No, it's because you provide a choice between "we have a process that includes threat modeling..." and "we have no process", thus excluding the vast middle ground of people who care about security but don't hire consultants.
>>And yet most of them are not hacked in that manner

The guys at Wordpress and Jommla beg to disagree.

It depends on how popular it is. If the open source version of Reddit becames as popular as Wordpress, then it certainly would get hacked in that manner.
Not that I have used it much, but my impression was lately that such things have moved to IRC (rather than usenet)?
Awesome. I'm really excited to be able to write DLL's in pure python for the CLR, and then hook them up to run in Windows as native-looking apps easily.

Now that there is a Python2.5 equivalent version, they can focus on getting performance out of IronPython, which is already really good:

http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython/Wiki/View.aspx?title=IP20...
Kickbee: The Twitter Fetal Kick Monitor
http://www.debugbar.com/
Steven Chu's Nobel Prize Lecture
Insulin from eating immediately shuts down growth hormone production, as well as various anabolic gene expression. The latest research shows the common practice of eating immediately after lifting is actually incorrect. You want to wait a couple hours and allow growth hormone levels to stay high, and working out on an empty stomach is best. The appetite suppression is synergistic with what your endocrine system is trying to do.
Do we have to spend time pointing out the differences between WordPress and indie startups like Backtype, Songkick, and Adpinion? Microsoft spends a lot of time on security too, and I'm not saying they're dumb for doing it.
The story of the "Wanted List" guys might be of interest: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/porn_pr.html
http://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2007/webcast/stev...
Cool. Just curious, which non-YC startups are there? Is it just as social? We (Dabbleboard) are a non-YC shop that could benefit from moving there.
Isn't this kind of a model Google is approaching?
Either documentation or the mailing list (if not in the docs). Forums if the problem isn't specific to the project.
For what it's worth, they've improved branching and merging (on the backend) not long ago. Of course it's not inherent to the platform like most DVCS.
Gee, One Bold Storm coming up... - Stephen Fry on the state of the mobile industry
I haven't read the article, but Isaac Newton once fell prey to the South Sea bubble, showing that even geniuses get hit.
You don't need to hire consultants to have a process. You just need to buy a book or read it for free in the internet.

You just need to think about the security implications of what you are going to to, do it keeping in mind all that could go wrong, check again what you have done, and keep a spreadsheet registering how well you are doing. And do it systematically.
Fighting pirates sounds like a fun life.
I'm not saying process is bad, I'm saying you've equated process with a bunch of consulting buzzwords. You've asked leading questions. I'm just answering your question, about why I think the poll is poorly constructed.
Firebug Lite:
http://getfirebug.com/lite.html

They've gotten it to come further along than I expected it would ever get.
You lead the topic to a very big question. If you think here computer is not doing any interpretation, what you actually say is computer learning methods don't mean computer can think. In this article, scientists do make computer do some "interpretation" because the training data and test data are different. (NEW images and reconstruct).

People here have much more to do to fulfill the goal of "reconstructing high resolution, color image", but the problem is not computers do think or not.
I totally agree with this suggestion. I think it allows you to get the best of both worlds!
I think there is a difference - the British do recognise it through satire and humour - "taking the piss" out of themselves - I haven't observed that in the French (but perhaps it does exist, just not as obvious to the rest of the world).
uh, yeah. they can also fail just like "web startups" - it's just you have a more obvious business model.

Me, I've been running a Xen virtual private hosting company for the last few years. I sold backup space before that, and was utterly crushed by amazon S3. By the time EC2 was in public beta, I had been selling Xen VPSs for some time... they were cheaper than me for a while... but these days I'm rather a lot cheaper. Still, the competition is fierce.

Sure, you don't need to get venture capital (one of the main reasons why I chose it, also, because I already have an important asset: I'm a pretty good SysAdmin, and I'm good at finding .) but there's no guarantee that you will make money. Margins are pretty thin, and like everything else, people still want to see you advertise.

I would argue that it's not something 'anyone can do' any more than writing a webapp is something 'anyone can do' - either way, you need some technical skill, or the money to buy some technical skill, along with business and marketing skills.
Supposedly you can hear what people are thinking by sampling the nervous signals sent to the larynx.

http://www.thinkartificial.org/machine-interfaces/audeo-neck...
Yes it makes for some great laughs. I am a fan of "Yes Prime Minister":

Humphrey: "If the French have the bomb, we must have the bomb"
PM: "But isn't the Russians we are worried about"?
Humphrey: "well yes, right now, but what about the last 1000 years?"
Siong, I was going to e-mail you this, and then I came back to find the link and realized you posted it. This is a really cool idea!
My guess is the presentation was originally given to a live audience, and then the slides posted online. However, an online-formatted version would've been much more helpful.
Tech talk: Mining information from english using CRFs (generalizations of HMMs)
The market is not rational (whatever that means) but rather efficient.

Oh boy. Careful to whom you say that.
DevCentral Weekly Roundup Episode 65 - Fake Jeff
Really? I've seen it do some pretty impressive things. You have some examples of what didn't work? It might help them improve it. It's one of their core capabilities, of course.
While I am sure we can all relate to your viewpoint, I think it's basically destructive to yourself and others.

You claim to "have too much of a conscience", but then you seem to be alright with working 2-6 hours and being paid for 40. Now if you were spending the remaining 34-38 hours doing something of value to others, society, etc. then I might be able to accept your stance. Are you? What exactly are you doing while you are getting paid?
It doesn't take that much karma to downvote. In fact it looks like you crossed the threshold with this post. :)
You used the word indie at the first comment, but I interpreted it as startup, because this discussion is about startups.

Most startups aren't indies.

For instance, Plentyoffish.com was a ONE person startup not so long ago with revenues of 1MM and 1B pageviews. Just imagine what a news recomendation site with TWO persons would be able to do. :)
I'm not so sure about FBConnect. The author says that it makes it easier to launch since you don't have to build a registration system. Well, that's true, but you do have to hook into FBConnect which (for me) would be just as much if not more work.

The author similarly leaves out what I think are the most important pitfalls. Namely, that Facebook can simply decide to end FBConnect at anytime or make it so much less usable (like they did to applications) that it essentially kills you. The more users you get, the more valuable that data is, but with FBConnect you only have that data so long as you're on Facebook's good graces. Since you don't have any identifier (email, username, etc.) if Facebook terminates FBConnect, you may still have the rows in the database, but now they're not mapped to anyone since you no longer have access to Facebook.

Likewise, the more data you give Facebook, the more of a business advantage you give them should they ever decide that your time is over. They can easily track what sites are hot, how users use the applications based on what gets posted to walls, etc. Then they can run you out of business with something better integrated - like they did with some apps.

Without email addresses, you can't contact users. I hate sites that constantly spam me, but some email is valuable.

Finally, you're saying that your site isn't good enough for users to spend the time to open an account there. If you've made something good, your pitch shouldn't be, "well, it's really only worth using because you don't have to put in a new password." If you aren't getting an email from that person, then a registration is no-hassle (like here at HN). I put in a username and repeat a password twice (nearly as easy as logging in).

FBConnect really just looks like an attempt by Facebook to lock out competition both in the social network arena as well as the application arena. They can easily target your users for their own replacement of your site, they're getting your data on what's popular, they're in a position to shut you down should you impact their business plans.
To summarize:

Why are they unable tell the obvious difference between General Motors and Chrysler? GM is broke, can't get a loan and is actually facing an emergency. Via Cerberus, on the other hand, Chrysler has access to loads of capital, and the only thing collapsing is its credibility.
I don't think people will pay for it though. Streaming high quailty content requires both good source material and a lot of infrastructure - none of which are cheap.
Facebook Connect is fantastic if you want to build an app that requires access to a user's social graph without being obtrusive. Anything else and it feels a little pointless.

That said, there are a million good reasons to access that social graph. We wanted to use it so that when you signed up to our site, we could see which companies your friends had worked at in the present/past, and thus show you jobs your friends may be able to refer you to. Since FB didn't accept us to their program, we had to build the connection infrastructure from scratch which a) sucked up a lot of time and resources and b) will never be as successful as using an existing network.
Do you think so?

Do you think Western Europe and the US will be able to get through the next fifty years without a radical and extremely painful forced upheaval of its energy infrastructure, and the knock on effects on industry and transport that that would entail?
Google goes without saying...

As Tichy alluded to, I make heavy use of IRC in what I have learned to be are some polite and efficient channels. It takes a while to see which channels are going to help you and which are just going to waste your time, although the latter is easier to spot.

Sometimes I find forums to be too slow and good only for search purposes - in IRC, if I have a problem with Linux, Windows, or a programming language that can't be easily found in a timely search session, then there are an abundance of folks willing to help out in real-time. A lot of folks knock IRC for the shit that tends to float around, but I just keep my client open all the time and then go to it when I need to ask a question. It's kind of like my own support team that I haven't paid for in terms of currency. If you've served your time over the years, such as helping others out, then your service will be answered in kind when you have a problem - it's almost like a respect has been built upon, folks remember you; some channels have karma points to increase the reputation of active helpers.

Some of the best professional working relationships I've built have come from IRC, which these days I talk to and consult via direct IM, say with Pidgin instead of clogging the channels.

If you decide to use IRC, I have the same handle there too. :) Hope to see you there!

Mailing lists that are specific to the larger issue, such as a list for a framework, in my experience have shown to be more helpful than forums... your results may vary.
I wouldn't say 'lately', thankfully IRC has been around for quite some time.
Latest version of Qt also implements MapReduce patterns (only for multi-core, not across the network). There's also good old MPI, which isn't terribly sexy, but gets the job done. I found this post rather interesting when I ran across it:

http://jaliyacgl.blogspot.com/2008/07/july-2nd-report.html
when anyone is willing to make regular sex videos and upload them for free the future is in sites like kink. find highly specialized niches and serve the people willing to pay for them.
I envision a website where people can request videos of certain themes. pornstars could choose to make certain themed videos and then offer them to customers.
It's still pretty impressive, and puts us one step closer to my dream of having a camera with me wherever I go, ready at a moment's notice.
A friend of mine did research about exactly this topic as she ran a startup in that same space. She wrote a thesis about it. Send me an email and I'll glady put you in touch with her: vincent /dot/ vanwylick /at/ gmail /dot/ com.
Their secret weapon is not their assembler language, MapReduce, but their HLLs atop that, like Sawzall, http://labs.google.com/papers/sawzall.html
yeah, i was thinking the same thing, but didn't edit to add it. i think the main difference is that google has a moneymaker product that helps to fund the other small ones, which wouldn't be the same as this concept. or, maybe it could be, with coworking space being the main business to keep it above water on the basic expenses.
jack - I think the recession is a great time to start. Get started now. The most successful web 2.0 era folks started after the nuclear winter of the dot.com

- Chris
XRay for some rudimentary placement information: http://www.westciv.com/xray/
The worst thing is when parents force themselves upon their children. It puts so much stress on the child and causes stress like none other. Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" is filled with a lot of corny ideas by an author that is fantasizing about himself being a prophet, in my opinion, but what he has to say about children is excellent.

"You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth."
Is Picwing working with EyE-Fi? They should!
They did do that, it was in Scientific American in an article about the eyes. They they did not take it from the visual cortex though, but rather from neurons coming from the retina.

The retina has various layers and they took a look at what each layer does.
It may very well be Firebug on Firefox.
Short as it may be...
If you're using a helmet, might as well use a camera instead...

Would be far cheaper, and could always use eye-tracking to move the camera (or even just zoom and pan to give the effect of looking)
Someone told me this quote recently, allegedly by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld: "I haven't worked a minute in my life". He only amused himself...
Matt thanks for the comment and I agree the article is a bit empty, because in reality it was a quick post based on what I have been feeling lately, not so much an article...

I should probably write a follow up about how I would envision the "24 hour party". For example for sure you would not be gauranteed to stay, the ability to stay would be based on how the company and team are working. So in essence every week or 2 would be viewed as an additional round. However with this cost basis unlike others you could keep a company going a lot longer if you believed traction would come.
irc.freenode.net
#perl
#ruby-lang
#c
#python

These are just a few of the populated and extremely helpful channels available.
So... Special relativity is called "special" because it specifically assumes no acceleration and therefore, no force. That formula you have is an approximation for "small" forces. General relativity is what actually explains space with acceleration (using Riemann Geometry, another fascination and extremely complex topic in of itself relying on tensor calculus, which is another fascinating and extremely complex topic in of itself). Secondly, the Lorentz transformation is critical to special relativity, because that is what gave rise to the entire theory and also because the Lorentz transformation is exact (up to QM effects and 0 acceleration). Also, the Lorentz transform is sufficient to derive the result e = mc^2 among many other useful results on momentum and particle collisions (or at least the aftereffects thereof, since we can have no forces) which is why special relativity is even taught in isolation.

As to the textbooks, all I can say is that you haven't come by the right textbooks yet. I would advise reading the Feynman's lectures on physics (all 3 volumes). Expensive but worth it and if you want, you could probably find free pdfs online. FLs does indeed go into the gory details of special relativity (v1 I think) and even shows how to derive most of the useful results including (I think) information on how to derive the Lorentz transformation from the Special Relativity's base assumption: the speed of light is constant in all time frames. ENM along with several applications is also discussed in FLs (v2 I think). FLs V3 covers QM is great detail (well... the parts that we humans can solve mostly). Another very good book on ENM would be Electricity and Magnetism by Purcell, Berkley Physics Course Vol. 2.

Oh btw. the central assumption of General Relativity is that force and gravity are just 2 different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Thus, for very weak gravitational fields, you could actually use the formula you have. Just that it would not be very useful because a) you would have to interpret it as constantly changing time frames over small time intervals, and b) because I don't think the Earth's gravitational field (or the moon's) is weak enough to justify the approximations inherent in your equation.

A note on finding good textbooks: Pick a good university. Any good university (I would advise Caltech but thats because thats where I study) and chances are very good that said universities will publish the course textbooks for their classes. Some will even publish the homework assignments and solution sets along with lecture notes. Eg. http://www.pma.caltech.edu/GSR/physicscourses.html is the place where CIT has currently placed a convenient listing of all the physics courses offered with links to their web pages which contain among other things: the textbooks, syllabus, and in most cases, the homeworks for the class. Finding textbooks from there shouldn't be very difficult.
You're absolutely right. (I'm the author of the post, btw.) I've brought up these issues with Facebook in the past, and I've yet to receive satisfactory answers.

Using FBConnect is a calculated risk for us. It gives us the chance to grow faster (via News Feed integration), to make our site more social ("15 of your Facebook friends are on Trogger. Click here to follow them."), and to streamline the login/signup process.

As an early-stage startup, our top priority is to launch quickly and grow fast. We feel that FBConnect helps us do both of these things better than any alternative.

If we establish traction, and get a bunch of users, then we'll be paying a lot of attention to the points you brought up. I think it makes a lot of sense to have a contingency plan if Facebook significantly alters or restricts FBConnect, in a similar way they diminished the prominence of applications not too long ago.

At the end of the day, though, it comes down to growth. Many startups launch and fail because no one knows about them. FBConnect gives us the best opportunity to break out of this mold, and reach the proverbial hockey-stick a lot faster than would otherwise be possible.
After Google I search the forum that I can relate to the forum and if I have no clue I post in that forums.
For the stuff I do I find both svn and git get the job done. The only thing that I regularly experience that sucks about svn compared to git is the speed of checking out a working copy. Even when using tiny local file:// repositories svn checkouts on my OSX laptop often take several seconds where similar git operations are instantaneous.
I don't think that is true anymore. The classic "GmbH" was comparatively expensive, but I think they now made a cheaper version. Also, you can choose any other "company model" from any other european country, british Ltd. being the most popular. I haven't founded myself yet, though, so I can't say for sure...

paperwork: I think once you have a business, your tax declaration becomes more complicated, you might be obliged to have a professional tax advisor. What else is there to do/pay?
"Instead I decided to work on weapons that can kill LOTS of people... fuck those guys who didn't get me in school." -- Bert.
Ever since I read the story of writing a backdoor in the unix login prompt, then writing that change into the compiler so the login prompt code looks clean, then writing that change into the running compiler, so the compiler code looks clean, but the running compiler will backdoor itself or the login prompt, I've had the feeling that the best bet is not to trust as far as possible and not to worry as far as possible.

Smart people will always be able to outsmart me, stupid people with power or desirables will always be able to coerce me into lowering my standards.
Barring either of us getting hit by a beer truck or moving on to a new site,or the apocalypse you're on. Catch you 12/11/09!
and CloudFront the other JS libraries your site must use.. http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/12/08/how-to-getting-started-w...
Firebug Lite was indispensable when I was getting clipng to work in IE6. In particular I probably wouldn't have spent the time to make the page-scraping bookmarklet IE6 compatible without it.
I am interested in learning about map reduce but I have yet to find a very simple tutorial that explains what it does and demonstrate at a very simple level how it works
hacking roguelikes and muds eh? Have you ever tried DwarfFortress? Toady does it "full time" surviving on donations.
Do you have any publications of your research online?
"Smart people have a statistically higher incidence of winding up dead in ditches due to alcohol poisoning! Go us!"

Who actually said that? I'm sorry if the anecdote I mentioned was misinterpreted. It was just one data point. Just like the one about Feynman :).

BTW the original article had 8170 datapoints. And in the free abstract they tell that higher childhood mental ability scores were related not just to incidence of the problems but also with "to higher average intake of alcohol and to drinking more frequently".

http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/12/2237