skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Does the university a professor went to then also have a case against the professor "selling" what he learnt by teaching others? How far up the chain do we go?
I'm probably revealing my ignorance here, but what are the security issues inherent with replacing Javascript with a bytecode based VM type solution? Surely Javscript runs in a VM too, just one that is not really designed to run anything other than Javascript. Why does the type of code the VM runs cause any fundamental changes in security?

(What I really came here to say is that this is a pretty terrible article. I dislike JS a lot, but this article makes many strange assertions and presents personal (often misinformed) opinion as fact. I'm not sure why people are upvoting it.)
Yeah, I think that's a little sketchy too. It's fairly okay for the intended use of the referral system but it still seems a bit off. I have used it to send emails to the people who clicked my ads but didn't download Dropbox.
I've been blackballed by Google just for using an affiliate system. Unfortunately their near monopoly puts them in a position where they can get away with strongarming customers and users into obeying. But they're not going to make any new friends with this kind of attitude.
Dynamic Languages Wizards Series, Spring 2001 (Videos)
I'm now doing this same thing with Bing advertising using a free voucher for £30 (~$47) - I'll make a post with my results when done :)
I disagree at some point. If person doesn't at least knows difference between hash-table and B+tree -- then he cannot build large scale systems. The same for other algorithms. Everything is based on algorithms, and without their understanding people often will build scalable applications that have really horrible performance, so they will consume lots of hardware to do simple things with wrong algorithms. And that's horrible.
Crawling Ajax Webpages with PhantomJS
It doesn't matter if you took personal offense or not, or even if Rebecca took offense. And i don't think anyone's personally attacking the guy that gave the introduction, because chances are extremely slim he meant to make any objectifying remarks.

But it's something that deserves to be called attention to. It makes some people uncomfortable, maybe not everyone, and does not belong in a professional setting.

Lets say instead the speaker was overweight, and now the person giving the intro, after plenty of appropriate compliments, makes a diet joke, or comments on their weight even in a non-judgmental respect. It is belittling and inappropriate. Commenting on people's physical appearance in a professional setting, not a casual social setting, is objectifying and inappropriate, regardless of if that person is good-natured enough to just laugh it off or not.
DemoCampHamilton5: Another Booming Success
Show HN: My first app, Taxonomy: your taxi traveling companion. Feedback wanted
This is my first app, it's a taxi "assistant" for want of a better term- gives you street intersections for bars and restaurants, tracks your journey and lets you share it with your friends, splits the cost between passengers and lets you bill each other using Venmo. The web site is:

http://www.taxono.my

and I have an introductory blog post about it's transition from hackathon entry to app at:

http://blog.untogether.co.uk/post/17301824816/introducing-taxonomy

It's NYC-only for now because it's entered into an NYC app competition (more on that below), and had to be done to a deadline so I haven't had a huge opportunity to get opinions- any and all feedback is welcomed! I intend to follow up with more blog posts about the tech backend of the app very soon, but it's 95% HTML5 in the app, and node.js on the remote server.

Shameless plug alert: It's entered into a City-run competition called NYC BigApps, and there is a public choice award. I'm way behind on votes, so if you like the app, I'd really appreciate a vote: http://bit.ly/yURqU8

Thanks!
Is this even technically a robot?
Isn't the problem then the free coupons?
Parsing Nested JSON in Haskell with AESON
Show HN: Peer editing made easy by a 16 y/o, Finchly
Pandas is literally in my top 3 favorite open-source projects. I use v0.6x regularly and it is absolutely fantastic. Highly recommend. Can't wait to try some of these new features as well.
I don't think the terms of Google's coupon are that 'you can only use this credit if you intend to spend more than $100 long term advertising on our platform'.

If it were a matter of 1 user creating multiple accounts then they'd have a legitimate reason for closing the account. However, it doesn't sound like that's what's happening. It sounds like they're punishing people for using their coupon in a way they hadn't intended.
I'm probably revealing my ignorance here, but what are the security issues inherent with replacing Javascript with a bytecode based VM type solution?

I suppose it's true that if the functionality was locked down to match JS, there would be no greater security issues. But usually the whole reason for making a VM is to allow more functionality (as in Google's NaCl), so the two issues get lumped together. Even WebGL has issues with vulnerabilities in graphics drivers.

I'm not sure why people are upvoting it

Everyone loves to bring the juiciest piece of flame-bait to the barbeque? :)
There is No Root Cause
Flame-y tone aside, I cannot help but feel exactly like this:

> Zounds, Herr Professor Doktor, you seem to be setting a new level of pettiness and arrogance. You don't seem to object to your getting a doubtless hefty paycheck resting on huge tuition rates, nor do I recall any quibbles from you to the costs of textbooks. Gods forbid that any student earn a few bucks from his diligent note-taking!

What I do with MY notes should be nothing but MY business, as simple as that. We are talking university here, people. Students should be MORE than old enough to be able to decide for themselves which way of learning works best for them. I do not need some facetious, bored prof patronizing me on how I want to study and ultimately pass the exams.

> campuses are taking new steps to limit what students can do with their class notes

And this is completely beyond me as well. Even if I could obtain exact 1:1 replicas of all slides used in each lecture plus thorough notes, I still do not get a degree from whatever university they came from and keep in mind that a lot of the HUGE names are releasing course material for free anyway.

This whole thing just seems really petty. And don't forget, some students learn a lot better by listening, others learn better by writing it down and others learn best researching on their own and taking thorough, well-structured notes can be a difficult job if you want to follow class and discussions equally well at the same time. Why shouldn't you allow both of those learning types to benefit? Don't we want our students to actually become team-players and independent, autonomous?
scipy only depends on numpy, but both at the python and the C level (i.e. it uses the numpy C API).
All those $75-150 free coupons makes legitimate customers have to pay much much more per click.
Sigh - I spent over 2 hours talking with this reporter trying to help her understand the limitations of this guy's studies, but she doesn't seem to have taken on board anything I said... Of course, he could be right and it could also be that the X-rays emanating from a TV really do protect you from malaria. Or it could be that you watch TV indoors and so don't get as many mosquito bites. So, yes, it could be that Toxo causes increased risk-taking ... OR it could be that risk-takers drive their cars more crazily and do things that cause them to be slightly more likely to get infected! There can also be a strong socio-economic bias to infection rates and it could be that people from Czech farms are more likely to be infected from eating vegetables from their cat-feces-infested gardens and more likely to be in a car crash driving home wasted after a Polka 10 miles away in the nearest town in a Lada held together with superglue while their affluent city friends take the bus or drive a BMW and eat vegetables from a mass-production farm in the Ukraine. Etc., etc.
On the other hand, the animal data are real (good, controlled experiments) and so it is TEMPTING to believe but the human data are really not good experiments. WAY too many "confounding variables" and no controls. There is one study with US military recruits that found a very slight increase in the likelihood that if you entered the army Toxo-negative and became Toxo-positive while in the army you were ever so slightly to be discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia than someone who stayed Toxo-negative. But the difference was not statistically significant, in my opinion (predict 13 patients would be discharged with schizophrenia in the Toxo-positive group and saw 15 were - NOT a significant difference).

Bottom line, it's crap science and of course he could be right but so could the guy who says the world will end this November...
Its not really relevant to the topic, other than to say you should not be afraid to maintain your personal ethics, whatever they are... if you dont, you will be less happyfor it.

There are lots of things we could all disagree about while we agree on other points.
I agree. I'm not trying to take away their contribution. But I do believe we ha learned a lot more to improve process, from their time to ours.
Pandas + statsmodels = #rstats domination. Really like where this project is going.
You're actually a little mislead. Proving that splay trees don't suck and inventing amortized analysis made Danny Sleator famous. Coming up with and coding it took him less than an hour (from his own mouth which might be embellished). If you look at the full proof of its log(n) running time, you'll realize that splay trees are incredibly complex.

Sleator is also an amazing problem solver. He can outcome most of the people commenting on this thread but isn't necessarily the best architect.

I believe algo is about problem solving. If you don't understand it, you don't know when to use which tool. Its unecessary if you're writing boilerplate and solved problems with frameworks but when you get to the google/amazon level, you can't just write good code. You need to understand algo to create dynamo and write dremel and mapreduce.
The title sounds like tabloid journalism.
This one is a great big hack…
With todays abstract languages you don't have to be great (or even good) at algorithms in order to create great software products. Simple as that.
New startup turns excess stuff into cash for charities
$20 off Kobo Vox 7" eReader
Please do not contact us again.

Tell us how you really feel about your users, google...
The author is off-target.

Apple went over the top with the new iCal GUI, but it wasn't an interaction problem. Users have mental models from cultural experience that dictate how they want to use things. In other words, "that software feels intuitive."

The issue I suspect the author actually has with the new iCal is that it goes over the top visually. Software doesn't have to mimic the gaudy ornamentation of a real world object to resemble it.
It's an interesting clause - often such terms are simply to allow the content to be used on the site and nothing more nefarious. Under this clause it seems they shot themselves in the foot. If you transfer your rights it appears to revoke their license … I doubt that's what they intended.
Only from the TOR guys:

- https://blog.torproject.org/blog/iran-blocks-tor-tor-release... Iran detects ssl parameters and block suspicious connections (they based it on the expiry time of the session certificates)

- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/83...

- http://www.christopher-parsons.com/blog/technology/is-iran-n...

Btw. it is not only Iran running country wide DPI - have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX46Qv_b7F4 about the different techniques currently used to block/prevent access to VPNs/Tor etc.

(edit: added some additional links)
Speaking of very different skills, I used to have a developer working for me who was an absolute genius at fixing bugs - he would dive into complex code he had never seen before and be able to pinpoint and fix problems that had eluded other people.

However, when confronted with a "clean sheet of paper" for the design of a new module he literally couldn't do it - even with a lot of coaching.
I keep wondering when we'll move away from the "pages" paradigm in e-books. We should be returning to the scroll paradigm (which is already a familiar motif in software), not forcing content to fit a physical format which the e-reader is precisely an attempt to get away from.

Worst case is when trying to highlight, as a single mark (with note attached), a section of text which spans more than 2 pages (esp. when a "page" is a large-font phone-screen size): I can't tap-and-drag from one end of the section to then next because the "page" paradigm intervenes. Web page? word processing? no problem, we're used to highlighting via scrolling. E-book? scroll? nope, gotta match that page-flipping animation.
Pusat penjualan obat tradisional alami
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> But being the large organization that google is, it doesn't have the infrastructure or a working process to take feedback from it's customers and provide a level of support that its users expect.

I'm not sure why you are giving Google an excuse (too large to work with clients). The amount of money they make from serving ads is in the billions and they've had ample opportunity to spend some of that to improve their client relationship and feedback loops... But choose not to.
How do these services deal with scammers? and on the other side, chargebacks?

Can anyone just throw up a link to an imaginary "product" and watch the $$$ roll in while delivering nothing?
One comment in this interesting thread includes the statement "I haven't read the TOS" and other comments imply that users began Adwords activity without reading through the ToS in detail. That goes back to Business 101: if you sign a contract, be prepared to fulfill the terms of the contract that apply to your behavior, and know what trade-offs are set up by the terms of the contract that apply to the other party's behavior. You don't leave yourself with any legal recourse if the other party follows the contract, you do not follow the contract, and the other party uses one of its remedies (for example cancelling the contract) under the contract terms. Freedom of contract is one of the key ideas that has made the developed world more prosperous and free. You have the right to tell your friends, "I don't like the contract terms offered by [name of company]" but there is little use in supposing that a company will operate otherwise than by its most favorable interpretation of the actual words of the written agreement. Read the fine contract before agreeing to it is a general business principle that it is helpful for hackers to learn. (Yes, I am a lawyer.)

ADDITION IN RESPONSE TO FIRST REPLY:

It is, of course, unusual for most people to read in detail most contracts they agree to. When you buy an airline ticket, you agree to a contract that is in very small print on the ticket itself or on the webpage where you agree to buy the ticket, and much of the small print refers to national laws or international treaties that you probably don't bother to read. But if a particular business sets up terms that are off-putting to customers, a smart competing business may be able to figure out ways to offer better terms (more megabytes for less money, no restrictions on reselling, or whatever fits the transaction) and then advertise those terms to customers to gain market share from the first business. As long as new market entrants can set up their own agreements in a free market, the equilibrium of actual setting and enforcement of contract terms will be expected to provide consumer utility and opportunity for the business to profit. Again, that's freedom of contract. You don't have to do business with any business that offers you terms you actively dislike. If you don't think the terms are perfect or "fair," but the trade-off offered in the terms helps you do what you want to do, you may still agree to the terms.
Regarding getting stuck in a gutter, in music I find it's exactly the opposite. The musician who has a stockpile of pre-packaged phrases/idioms/licks tends to sound very predictable.

This is especially problematic in jazz, where a premium is placed on improvisation/creativity. There's real sense in which the very idea of having a pre-packaged phrase is totally antithetical to improvisation.

Also, pre-packaged ideas in music tend to get ingrained at the muscular level. The last thing you want to happen is for your hands to start running the show.

I do realize however that the very best musicians (and programmers!) probably have a huge arsenal of ideas AND deploy them tastefully.
This only works if you don't have a lock screen gesture or lock screen pin, and if you don't have one of those then you must not be concerned about others having access to your data.
Blackmore in her introductions to consciousness suggests something related: that consciousness is an a concept (or illusion, to her) only widely known because it became a social meme.
Instead of worrying about trivial things like this, how about you focus on actually making your site/product available? The number of ppl these days who equate "launching" with only putting up a sign-up form (or launchrock page) is ridiculous.
> Here is a sample non-recursive dfs:

I'm pretty sure that's a BFS, not a DFS. A DFS uses a stack, not a queue.
You can use mkfile 5g testfile.jpg on OSX.
Lisp Vs Xml
From the Pentadactyl home page:

"Pentadactyl was once called Vimperator, initially written by Martin Stubenschrott, then developed and maintained by Doug Kearns, Kris Maglione, and several other invaluable contributors. Doug and Kris, the primary Vimperator developers for several years, have left the Vimperator project and now develop and maintain Pentadactyl in its stead."

So it's essentially the successor to Vimperator, or at least a well-maintained fork by the original authors.
> find the mistakes in the available note sets and write the tests accordingly

Really great... instead of focusing on enabling students and focusing on teaching them the really important fundamentals and making sure they understood those through exams, let's just frakk with them in a really petty way (likely by musing over petty small technicalities) and put them in their place, helpless little pups that they are!
Good for you Germany!

I wish British politicians weren't useless, spineless, back stabbing, lying arseholes. They signed without blinking an eye.
Hey, thanks for your comment!

Indeed he is, however both myself and my partner are from the UK. To some extent I believe this is a great opportunity since the London tech scene is progressively getting bigger and it gives us a chance to grow with it. Having someone such as Sahil of similar age and ability to look up to is something invaluable and quite honestly very encouraging.
Competitors Size up Apple’s iBooks Author
What I've found to be the most efficient way of learning new programming languages..is not by using it. While is it true that you need to use it to gain mastery. It is best to learn new language as simply as a programming language. That means studying its features rather than syntax and grammar. Is the language object oriented, functional,or multi paradigm? The point being that syntax and grammar changes all the time from languages to languages, but programming paradigm rarely changes. Truly grasping the idea of a programming paradigm will make you learn new language a lot faster..and new programming languages emerge almost every year.
SMBC: Hopper's Ghost
Tesla Unveils Model X
Mathematica: A Love Story
Something I've noticed in software is that 95% of the anger and strife comes from the (largely male) impulse to react to unskilled creativity (or the perception thereof, because the most dogmatic technology wars come down to superficial perceptions-- e.g. tabs vs. spaces) with extreme negativity.

That impulse is even in our language. We say someone "jacked off in" or "took a dump in" the code base when he did something "clever" but unskillful and damaging. It's an epithet of self-indulgence and even sabotage when a more appropriate reaction is, "I wish he hadn't done that, so let's sit down and teach him better practices".

It served us well when we had to stop people from poking sleeping mammoths and smilodons with sticks, but it's outdated now (for the most part). Code indentation is not an existential issue for most software companies.

Don't get me wrong: I dislike spaghetti legacy code as much as anyone else. I mean, it's truly horrible to look at. And one only need review my history to see what I think of the Java and C++ languages. I just think reacting emotionally is a bit unskillful. (I can't use a stronger word than "unskillful" because I do it myself.) I think we'd be a lot more productive (and this is largely a self-criticism) if we could take stock of our mental processes and turn "code rage" off.

Relatedly, I think we'd be better off as an industry if there were more women in it, but that's another discussion entirely.
I was going to feel bad for the person, but then I tried to use their site and wasn't even able to get to an "About" page without needing to give up my email address. I literally have no idea what the author makes other than a simple sentence at the end of their post.

To the author: Keep up the good work, kid. Starting a business is rough, and sometimes you strike out right out of the gate--happened to my first company.

Get up, dust off, and keep going--and don't waste your time or ours by bringing up your age, because it doesn't matter.
Basic levels of algorithmic knowledge is required to be a competent coder. Being amazing just helps you be a better coder, but is only one of many facets.

however, don't ignore it. You should be able to figure out instantly that a hashtable should be used to find the intersection of two sets. Small problems like that crop up all the time and if you can't do that, I can't believe you can architect systems and write good code.
Join the Anti ACTA Movement. See the full map with protests happening world wide
Missed chance to meet Richard Stallman
In the end, Microsoft basically got slapped on the wrist. So, what does Google have to fear?
The two biggest schleps, or how about a Notionery
If there is a "hacker mentality", teachers tend to have the opposite of that: given a maze and a cheese, any route to the cheese more efficient than the one the teacher suggests is morally suspect. I've had more than one discussion that devolved into "The journey to the cheese is the real reward!" said by someone who was essentially fetishizing the particular contours of the maze rather than the journey.

(More broadly I think most conceptions of education where "Hide the knowledge from the students" is an acceptable operating principle are probably borked. Exceptions to be awarded if you're teaching nuclear engineering or Charms and skipping ahead a few chapters can result in the lab vanishing in a fireball.)

There is, for example, a well-trodden path in elementary schools of assigning "busywork", which is essentially a classroom management technique whereby you purposely assign work which has zero or negative marginal educational value such that your faster students do not run out of things to do before the class period ends, so that you can focus your efforts on slower students or class discipline problems. I remember a few incidents where I was chastened for dealing with busywork too efficiently. (e.g. "Draw 10 flags of the world." "Can we pick the countries?" "Sure." "Libya, Japan, Ireland, France, Italy, umm, can I use an encyclopedia for a moment?" "Why those countr... PATRICK." "Yes ma'am?" "That's CHEATING. All the other students will do lots more work." "Happy to suggest better flags for them too, ma'am.")