skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A relatively simple motion search, known as "EPZS" or "Diamond", is as follows.

Let us define the SAD function as follows: it takes the source block to be compared to, and a candidate block location in a reference frame. Each block is a 16x16 array of 8-bit unsigned values with a large stride (since its smack in the middle of a much larger reference image). SAD(mx,my) means compare the current block to the reference block located at <mx,my>, where <0,0> is the colocated block in the reference frame. The function itself sums up, for each 8-bit value (x from 0 to 255), abs(source[x]-ref[x]).

Note that SAD is always run on unaligned data (well, 15/16 of the time). For speed purposes, SADs are usually done in groups of 4. With this method, on modern CPUs, assuming that the data is in cache, a, unaligned 16x16 SAD takes:

Nehalem: 38 clocks
Penryn: 49 clocks
Conroe: 52 clocks

(Don't have the Phenom numbers on me, but its around the high 30s)

Also note that in practice, the SAD function, at the end, adds the approximate bit cost of the motion vector to the candidate score. This is very important, because this bit cost depends on its difference from the predicted motion vector.

Diamond search:
For the current macroblock:

1. Start at the predicted motion vector. Let this value be <mx,my>. Set bsad equal to SAD(mx,my).
2. Set bsad equal to the lowest of SAD(mx-1,my), SAD(mx+1,my), SAD(mx,my-1), SAD(mx,my+1), and the previous bsad.
3. Set the new mx and my equal to the ones which gave the lowest SAD value.
4. If mx and my did not change in 2), terminate. Otherwise, GOTO 2.

This has two non-CUDA-friendly portions to it:

1. You must know the predicted motion vector: you can't simply search all blocks independently, as the predicted motion vector depends on the top, left, top right, and left blocks relative to the current one.

2. Some blocks might need 1 iteration, some might need 15.

It gets worse when you realize how damn fast the CPU can do SADs (38 clocks to process 512 pixels, on a single core!). Note that using the exhaustive search I mentioned above, sequential elimination, a modern CPU can get this value down to an "effective" 5-6 clocks per 16x16 block SAD.

Now, from my reverse engineering based on output bitstreams, I know approximately how Badaboom, the (rather awful) nVidia CUDA GPU encoder, does its motion search.

1. Set n = 16.
2. Downscale the image by a factor of n.
3. Do the above algorithm on this image.
4. Divide n by 2.
5. Downscale the image by a factor of n.
6. Each motion vector from before now represents the vector on 4 blocks.
7. Refine the motion vectors on these four blocks by a constant X number of iterations of diamond search (I'm guessing one or two).
8. If n isn't 1, GOTO 4.

Note how much more GPU-friendly this algorithm is. Its called a pyramidal search. It has many disadvantages though, such as the fact that it results in many false motion vectors (as the highly-downscaled search can move a whole bunch of blocks in a given direction due to some small motion in the center of that bunch of blocks, and then that vector doesn't get reversed back to normal in the lower level searches).
At first, my reaction was "WTF?" Then after I tried it, it was awesome.
Great point rw, thanks. Perhaps I can pop up a warning if JS is not detected.
Check out the jQuery Metadata plugin:

http://plugins.jquery.com/project/metadata

It lets you choose where to define this kind of custom data: in an arbitrary attribute, as a class within the className attribute, or in a script tag.
A problem with your statement is that you can substitute "data" for "anecdotes":

A plurality of data sampled without bias?

That's the problem: interesting anecdotes become data while uninteresting anecdotes don't, which is why you can't reconstruct the anecdotes from the data.
yhoo management is almost single-mindedly defined by competing with google. indeed they "missed" facebook because they couldn't stop obsessing with google. in google, yahoo mgmt sees the company yahoo could have been
That's a bit too much, but shit! I can save URLs on my Dock! That just solved my immediate problem.
smart businesses (especially small ones) change and adapt. if not they fail. why subsidize bad practices and decisions?
This is very cool for sure. I really think it would be nice for brainstorming on code with other developers.
I think he's saying "ignore what your users say, pay attention to what they do." User testing is seeing what they do, listening to suggestions on a forum is listening to what they say.
I believe you're correct, it's currently able to have the logo changed.

We'll see how it goes though.
I enjoyed this because I wasn't aware that Clojure could run on .NET (IKVM or otherwise). Thanks!
Ruby/beanstalkd example of distributed computing estimating PI
assuming you modded me down because you can't name three real companies where every employee is FORCED to use outlook
Three related feature requests for the comments section of articles:

1. Give id's to comments so we can #reference them (I looked for it but didn't find it, surprisingly).

2. Add a "parent" link to each of a comment's children, referencing the aforementioned id, so that it's much easier to locate the parent of a comment when it's offscreen because there are lots of replies. To peek at the parent we'd just have to click the link then hit the browser back button. Perhaps use some javascript to make this parent link appear only when the parent is offscreen.

3. When we post a reply use the anchor in the obvious way so we don't have to find our comment manually. Usually you want to continue reading the comments after the one you just posted.
How is the programming language in Mathematica?

How is it for Matlab stuff? Or perhaps it isn't for linear algebra at all?

Can you write real standalone applications in Mathematica or it is solely for prototyping, analyizng and modeling?
No worries - They are mostly just nitpicks - I think it's a interesting concept.

I'll fire you a screenshot when I get back tonight.

The community question is an interesting one - the site would be more sticky if it's relevant to the users. e.g. HN is useful because it's relevant to me in the startup domain, and the community reinforces that. At the same time, you also need to have it a little bit diverse to keep people interested.

So yeah, it's a fine line - but as you say, this could be something that evolves rather than being designed. I'm guessing the initial selections will jumpstart it in one direction or another.
1. Please at least consider LGPL. GPL makes adoption arguments a little tough.

2. I would not include the repo.

3. Thank you for considering open sourcing instead of letting it die.

Here are some other common open source license types if you're still deciding: http://www.opensource.org/licenses
http://orgmode.org

You do have a limited amount of working memory, so if you pursue ten threads at once, you'll just lose track of what you're doing. But if Thread #1 is your do-my-project thread, and Thread #2 is your save-distraction-for-later thread, you'll do fine.
definitely needs some more meat -- I'd love to hear more
Small businesses were affected by the financial crisis more than people realize. Businesses with long sales cycles (e.g. media companies, advertising companies) often use commercial paper to finance their short term recurring financial expenses (payroll expenses, rent, etc).

No bailout, no commercial paper, no paycheck.
YouTube - MontyPython's Channel
Well, it used to be that Clojure targeted both .Net and the JVM. Now it just targets the JVM.

So... it can only run on .Net if it thinks it's talking to the JVM.

Does that make sense?
The people being fired aren't the only ones who will need to decompress...
I wrote an essay about this problem, and offered a solution to fix it. However, I'm not going to be able to hack on it until the holidays...

http://einfall.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/enhancing-multitaski...
10,000 Core Computer from SGI
I have a friend who has always been a fan of SubEthaEdit, I like the idea but not the implementation. Is there a similar plugin available for emacs?

Normally when I'm actively editting code that two people are sharing remotely, we just commit/update a lot. It tends to run up the revision numbers, but I can't think of a better way. Any ideas?
intellichat is the best thing ever. you've got to be kidding me. you can't talk to everyone one of your customers and this may help answer some questions they have about why they aren't buying your product at that point. if only i could be next to every one of my customers while they are thinking of paying!
Yahoo’s stock rockets…downward
Ask YC: How Can Web 2.0 Improve Conversation Between Local Gov and Citizens
After this past election and the way things are shaping up, starting off with Youtube for national addresses, social media is going to have a more rapid acceptance by local government. It's a topic I've been exploring the past week or so for fun, and just want some insights + thoughts from fellow hacker news commenters.<p>I'm NOT looking for a discussion about politics. I'm looking for insights about technology and its impact on communication between local governments and its citizens.
Note to self: reward companies who share their IP freely by buying their products whenever possible, to encourage further sharing.
A big 3 bankruptcy will be bad for auto workers, since the bankruptcy judge will rewrite their contracts. Since they currently get way above market rate, the judge will probably give them a pay cut, and authorize the layoff of many (1).

Take a look at which politicians support the bailout. Then take a look at which politicians get UAW money:

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000070

Coincidence?

(1) Due to union contracts, the big3 are unable to lay off workers as a normal company would do.
Policy? Check. Romney? Check. Politics.

http://voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/2574 is the best take on it that I've seen so far, though, if we really have to go there (we don't).
> jobs doesn't let the customers choose for the same reason that pg doesn't let just anybody choose what gets to the front page of this site.

This couldn't be more wrong. Hacker News allows anyone to sign up and submit pretty much any article they want. Then people vote on what gets to the front page. This is in fact an example of democracy in action.

> democracy leads to mediocrity, every time.

Your true colours are revealed. Why not also 'Freedom is slavery'... Look it up.

> and no, jobs won't be respected any less after he's gone.

We where talking about apple and the future of one of their products. You seem to be more interested in jobs. Enough said.
Upgrading my Wordpress version... HELP
I need to upgrade my Wordpress version and am scared shless to do it... heard horror stories and sadly I am not very technical ... which is worse that not technical.

Anyone able / willing to help? If in San Francisco, glad to treat to coffee or meal or blog featuring!
"Shockingly rich professors of mathematics" - a harshly vertical niche, no wonder the per-unit price is high. But I think they've painted themselves into a bit of an unnecessary corner. Mathematica is a universal workhorse and math has huge applicability. I think they could cut the per-unit price and make it up on volume, selling into commerce and academia. Heck, I'd be inclined to offer "open source user" licenses free for private individuals who agreed to CC license their results and their code libraries.

Who makes more money, Toyota or Rolls Royce?
Thanks blogimus - highlighting the name/URL of the current site somehow will definitely be implemented.
Apple has had an agreement with Google since the announcement of the iPhone. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt even sits at Apples board meetings.

Google is a special partner and this is why you get Google Maps integration, Google as the default search, etc... It only makes sense that they get preferred treatment in other situations as well.
Thanks unalone, would you mind elaborating a bit? Do you mean it should allow the user to add his/her own tags beyond the existing tags - or that the user should be able to find related sites from the homepage as opposed to the supporting pages?
I will definitely be cleaning up the individual post layout pre-launch. Thanks mssteff.
The Ad Chain: An Online Advertising Primer
Great read - thanks for sharing. It's probably the best take I've read to date. The real question is: who can make it happen?
Ballmer slams door on Yahoo deal
The ignorance of crowds
That's my hope, for sure. Ultimately, I'd love enough interest to be able to fan out a bit. By that, I mean keep the "less is more" one site, one day theme but break it down into less broad categories. ie hacking.worthyy.com, art.worthyy.com, social.worthyy.com, etc

Thanks again for taking the time to shoot me a screen shot - much appreciated.
From using the app, it looks like they just use the accelerometer and guesswork. Or they just really suck at detecting my head. The preference for screen rotation says "Turning on Screen Rotation disables motion sensing for voice search."
Yeah, the bug in Safari on Mac is a showstopper - my browser window was way too big during testing to notice it, but if your window is shorter than xxx pixels the bar is 100% obscured. Rest assured though, this issue will be addressed asap.
Fails the critical "I visit the site and know what it does without prior explanation" test. Add a subtitle that explains what the site does: "A new site each day" or something.
"Why didn't Microsoft beat Apple?"

Because the CEO of microsoft believes emulating the alpha male of a gorilla exhibit in the zoo is the best way to lead people?
I hope they open source this.
EY isn't about solving these issues for people who would have trouble otherwise. If you look at all the high profile teams hosting with them, it is clear that most of them could do it themselves or hire competent people to do it. The difference is that EY does it better and is constantly pushing the limits of scaling in the cloud - specifically relating it to Ruby.

Passenger is great, but it's not an alternative to hosting with EY.
it seems you're doing well, why are you trying to sell?
Microsoft to offer free security program
It's very difficult to have "moderate" deflation, though - it tends to be all or nothing, either no deflation or a deflationary spiral. This is because once prices start dropping, people have an incentive to hold onto their cash, since if they do nothing it'll gain in value. This results in even less economic activity, less demand, and more deflation. And so on, until the misery level gets so high that people have to spend or starve.
As soon as MS signal it is interested again, the Yahoo stock will rocket. I doubt they will comment in public one way or the other.
Also it's terrible for accessibility.
Let Me Google That For You: Better than a Screencast
Clutter.me was an interesting site, sorry to see you guys moving on.
They'll be better off in the long run. Let GM, etc fail, and get rid of the crippling unions. Then come back with normal hiring practices and they'll buy from suppliers again.
Point well-taken, thanks. I tried to use the tag line that appears in the browser header as an aid so as to avoid occupying more real estate within the bar but it might be unavoidable.
This is a surprisingly good list. A bit Machiavellian, but the level of cynicism and to-the-point-ness seems appropriate.
Agreed, if it's invisible, it won't be obvious that anything can be done. Also, I'm not sure that :hover is supported in all browsers. Might want to use something like jQuery to cover compatibility issues.
Is the panic over Detroit real?
A Visual Guide To The-Financial Crisis And The Bailout
Mistitled.

Probably should have been, "To create something game changing, listening to users is bad."

For the other 99%, ignore your users at your own peril.
He's right. Software design is art, software development is a craft. You can't create art by consensus. You need creative people, and the creative people need to be in-sync with each other.

Movies don't have 10 directors.
Due to the Android conflict of interest, Eric Schmidt excuses himself from all conversations involving the iPhone.
They do have syntax highlighting for JavaScript.

One thing I've often wished for was a standard syntax for specifying syntax highlighting modes. Right now basically every text editor has a different way of doing it, so you have to write dozens of modes when you create a new language or editor.
Why ebay over sitepoint?
True, particularly in strategic decisions. However, that does not mean that Google doesn't get special treatment when it comes to Apple products.

Eric Schmidt is a heck of a lot more likely to get Steve Jobs to bend the rules a bit than Joe Shmoe is.
makes me want to take over yahoo and make it successful. stick it to ol ballmer the spaz...

wouldn't be hard
As I understand it, the big 3 are saying they _can't_ file for chapter 11 bankruptcy due to the current lending climate. They argue that since the financing climate is so harsh, no one will finance them while they restructure, thus forcing them into a chapter 7 bankruptcy-effectively causing a fire sale of the company and its assets.

Sounds like Romney is advocating a "managed bankruptcy" where the government would facilitate a chpt11 bailout of the Big 3. Republicans want to avoid supporting an all out bailout whereas Democrats want help "main street" by helping the Big 3 avoid big-bad-bankruptcy. Obviously there is a lot of word wrangling going on in politics but it seems like this would be a good solution if it is communicated well.
This coming from the NY Times... They better take a look in the mirror.
This post smacks of jealousy. What is wrong with zero deductible healthcare? I don't fault someone for trying to climb society's ladder. I want everyone in America to be able to earn a living wage.

Being in a union doesn't make one lazy or overpaid. How do you over pay someone anyway? Who deems what a job is worth to society?

It is very unfortunate that the big three made the agreements they did, but they made them. They should be allowed to fail. All this talk of a bailout just furthers the crisis. When things start to look more desperate, the UAW will renegotiate. If they don't, the organization will cease to exist.

What I worry about are all those retirees who depend on the pensions they were promised.
It was $20m[1], which seems large to me, but I seem to remember the argument being made that it was likely too small a return to get their investors to agree to it.

[1] http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/30/xobni-walks-away-from-a...
Being able to skype someone a link is a plus. Network difficulties are easier to overcome online.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~peterned/3d/static/js/Canvas3D.js

It's JavaScript. View Source is your friend. Now what I don't see is any mention of a license. In that respect, yes, I agree, I hope they release this under an open-source license.
"... I'm NOT looking for a discussion about politics. I'm looking for insights about technology and its impact on communication between local governments and its citizens ..."

Adrian Holovaty of Chicago Crime ~ http://holovaty.com/blog/archive/2008/01/31/0102 and http://www.everyblock.com is probably the best example I can think of. Everyblock is going to be opensourced at some time in the future.

The ability for citizens see what is really going on at street level thematically is the key benefit thus allowing the Local government to get on with governing and release the data for others to use.
DirecTV can hook you up with satellite service.
In the US?

Move to a first world country.
~2.5k/month for a dedicated line? At least you'll have port 80 open!
The Gmail Labs features are available for Google Apps accounts. The domain administrator can enable them in the "Domain settings."

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...
Detroit fills Democratic Party campaign coffers.

And before anyone says its a non-partisan thing, look at where opposition to this bailout and the previous one came from. That's right: the guys we just voted out for being war-mongers and Big Brother supporters.

Ain't democracy grand?
No, Larrabee will have exactly the same issues. Except threads will be called fibers, and blocks will be called threads. Read the Larrabee paper from Siggraph 08.

The way to get maximum performance out of a given chip area is to use SIMD, and that's here to stay, with all the associated issues.
> An interesting side question is just how do people parse natural language in real time so accurately.

We have hardware support for massive neural nets:) I would guess that as we read/listen we speculatively build several different parse trees that could represent the sentence, eliminating each one when its probability (based on the implied semantics) falls too low.
I am generally against lists on HN but this was really good.

My one thought: does #5 contradict #1?
Gmail Themes [I am using 'terminal' and it is awesome]
Would be killer if I could bring it in house, so we could discuss everyday work on it.

(Yes, we could do that on public sites, but we're not going to, and neither are many of our customers).
The biggest problem with these arguments is that when you cancel everything out on both sides of the equation, what you're left with is using tax dollars to build (lousy) cars that we don't need.

Yes, of course allowing that many people to suddenly be unemployed is simply untenable. I just think that there has to be a better way to employ them. Whatever you think about the "new deal" the roads and bridges we got out of it a are quite a bit more useful to all of us than 400 more acres of "Aveos".
Gmail gets Themese
Good article. Makes me want Jelly Bellies.
Creative Commons Scores One of Its Biggest Wins Ever
OK, this will take me some time to think about, but I'll get back to you...
Gobby. Bubbling over with 1990's user friendliness:

"There is a native Win32 build of sobby at [link]. There are no special Windows-specific features, but it runs. You will need glibmm, libxml++ (from the gtkmm installer), obby and net6 DLLs (from the Gobby installer or the gobby-win32 repos). There has been no extensive testing on the Win32 platform, so consider this as experimental." - March 2007, (latest)
Nah, the intent is for 2 different things. You can add/remove a class on demand for display, not data, purposes. If I was editing text in an input or text area and wanted to change its background color for example. the .data() method would be if I wanted to store content for the element I was editing. Say if you store its current data using .data() and then blank the input, and if the user blurs out from the field without entering new data, you can replace it with the original.
Person A, a waitress at Dennys, making about $8-10/hour with high deductible health care.

Person B, an auto worker at GM, making $30-40/hour with zero deductible health care.

[edit: see response to this post, auto worker gets $73/hour.]

The bailout: tax person A in order to help person B, with 3 large corporations taking a cut of the proceeds. Does this make any sense?

Incidentally, the original poster did not describe union workers as either lazy or overpaid.

[edit: forgot to mention, it's actually very likely that the waitress does not pay taxes at all. So more realistically, the waitress should be replaced by someone in the $20/hour neighborhood.]
now, that's just funny :-) LMAO
Yay! Mystery meat! :-|
Compile C/C++ to Flash - Adobe Alchemy
The last thing America needs is another federal "czar," especially for specific product sectors. The Soviets lost, remember?
What about the hundreds of small businesses and startups that are paying the taxes to subsidize the Detroit Three's failure?
An important skill as a designer is to learn how to filter user feedback. This cannot be underestimated.

Then pay attention to how they react to it.