skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
One thing I really like about literate programming even beyond the extensive "write about what you code" aspect is the availability of sub-procedural refinements. Quite often you write code where everything in a "paragraph" pertains to a specific matter, often preceded by a comment line saying so (e.g. "// Initializing database"). With literate tools I can just move that to a separate block and have a better overview. As this is mostly out of a poor need for visual organization, factoring everything out into small sub-routines and then taking care of scoping and passing needed parameters often seems like a crutch to me (especially in procedural code). Folding editors provide another option for this, of course. (Well, you also could use gotos. But no one ever did that. Especially not me. No, officer, never.)

If I remember correctly, I once had two C preprocessors that did just that, without the rest of the literate programming features. (Found a paper for one of these: http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/refinement.pdf)
I disagree. Coding an algorithm is completely different from using it as a black box to design and implement a system. Algorithms are fraught with conditional logic, where well-implemented systems tend to quarantine conditionals to make edge cases as few as possible.

An algorist prides herself on ability to optimize the problem space, where a systems coder prides himself on the ability to keep systems bug-free and free of accidental complexity.

There are many coders who do both, but I don't think the set of algorists is identical to the set of systems coders.
My thoughts exactly. I'm inclined to believe with another commenter that they just picked GitHub as testing grounds.

Especially depending on the sum of money demanded, I can imagine it being cheaper to either spin up more servers to handle the load, or hire a DDoS specialist to help you out, or make it someone else's problem by moving behind a thirdparty CDN.
Amen! I second this.. Finally someone with truth.
> I think it's safe to say that he's being honest in his feelings towards SV,

I think some people associate the word marketing with lies, scams, and whatnot. What if we view the word marketing as a way to market products in a more neutral sense.

Can his honesty a marketing material? why not? it depends who reads it.

A message can be a marketing material regardless the intention behind it.

> The difference between DHH and others is that he's actually practicing what he preaches more often than not.

I think we all know that otherwise we'll call people who don't practice what they preach as a not-genuine.

> They actually believe this stuff and don't mind sharing what they think.

Most people believe on what they build/working on, otherwise it's a one-trick pony and it takes a lot of guts to work in such place especially for engineers.
Lost in this argument is any consideration of whether the VC money is necessary for growth. I took DHH's argument to be that the award of VC money is what's celebrated instead of accomplishing the task of building a successful business.

While I certainly agree that there are several cases of startups taking VC money and becoming acquired or building huge, lasting businesses, it is tough to produce much evidence that that route has a high expected value. I would also say that based upon my own interactions with hopeful entrepreneurs, WAY too many are asking questions centered on raising investment cash instead of doing the hard stuff like building and selling.
Wouldn't it be in their favor to stop? No one would pay them if they had a reputation of continuing the attack after being paid. It also seems like it'd be a waste of their resources to keep going.
Chrome 18 Beta offers speedier browsing, graphics boost for Windows XP
That's fine and dandy, and I love Heroku, but recently I've been falling in love with Parse(.com) for iOS development.

True, Heroku gives me more control over how I want to handle requests, but Parse has so much more built in and is simpler to integrate.

What I've been doing with iOS & parse is hook a heroku app to Parse's REST API whenever I want to manipulate the data that is sent beyond what parse allows.
Thank you for the detailed response. Your words do a much better (and less sensational) job of explaining what it is you do than the article. It sounds like a cool opportunity and I may apply in the future.
Group think? There's only two people in these comments with that opinion here. Also we aren't bullying men, we're just trying to understand them through controversial and offensive theories. We're not treating them differently.

Men on the other hand DO seem to treat women differently. I've seen it myself many many times.

You're "one of those guys" aren't you?
Oh I do use several different sources. The point is that HN attracts different sources.
Gource: Software Version Control Visualization.
Lets deal with reality folks..99% of start-ups are not at stages were they pay the going salary rates..

Has nothing to do with supply and demand or anything else.

Or famous Jason Calacanis blow hard likes to claim they do not want to work..that does not work either..

what works is transparency about at what funding stage you are at to the potential employee..
Solve the BitTorrent coding challenge
Kim Jong Un Death Rumor Explodes On Twitter, Weibo
NFC Payment Systems Remind Me of the CueCat
Tesla Model X introduced in California
The netlib-java project is very convenient because it allows you to use optimized native netlib libs, and transparently fall back to the f2j (jvm bytecode) library when native libs are available.

The java version of netlib produced by f2j is unfortunately the unoptimized "reference implementation", so it's not terribly performant for large matrices.
JavaScript's 'var' behavior is a bug codified in specification. It is counter to pretty much any other C-style language; the difference is particularly acute because it breaks closures. So while other languages (e.g. C) could optimize their variable implementation to be like JavaScript's and still make sense, the fact that JS has closures means this breakage becomes visible on a routine basis.

However, they cannot change var's semantics and retain backwards compatibility. So they did the next best thing: introduce a new keyword for variables that work like they should. That keyword is 'let'.

As far as I am concerned, if your JS is known to execute in an environment with 'let', 'var' might as well not exist. Too many subtle errors — “what do you mean, braces don't actually delimit scope?”
Gnutella definitely was once you found another node to talk to.
Crowding teeth ~ Of Dentistry
what prevents the labels from having a secret agreement, that will exclude their employees/execs/subsidiaries etc from these lawsuits? "If you get caught playing my music, I'll make sure you don't get punished. you do the same for me. but let's sue everyone else" kinda thing?
Is it really too much to ask to have some syntactic sugar. Is

for i,v in blah

, where i is an index of an array, or a key (not a property!) of a dictionary really too much to ask in 2012?

No wonder people are using coffeescript.
Not really. Many online products have a permanent special, and many offline stores are holding a permanent sale.
Ask HN: Validate my startup idea, Kickstarter for Academic research
Hi all,

There's a lot of shaking up going on in the area of education, but one thing that hasn't really been modernized is research funding. I think crowdsourcing academic research/distribution might be an interesting way for academics (or even non-academics) to collect funding, rather than applying for grants. This can be used to fund, for example:

-Research that is not easy to get grants/public funding for

-Costs of doing research (paying participants, cost of research instruments, travel costs, etc.)

-Publication and/or internet hosting fees

I'm curious of anyone on HN has arguments for or against this model?
Almost all large businesses and many medium ones have their own print shop. Most people just don't know about them because they're hidden in the back and aren't really integrated into the normal activities of the rest of the staff.

Marketing materials are far from paperless even in the internet age.
Stories like this, and laws against collusion?
Validated or not there are still many cases where this is a valid key and thus completely breaks the object. For example, this might be a login name, most people would consider it unreasonable to not allow js keywords as logins. For a simpler example, imagine a dictionary of syntax highlighted words for js ;)

There are workarounds of course, but the ironic result is that when you want to use a js object as an actual hash/dictionary (something we are repeatedly told js is great at), your code devolves into a defensive programming mess, requiring constructions like Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.apply, etc.
Reminds me of the 'biggest drawing in the world' viral image that went around a while back, which later turned out to be a hoax: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/artist-says-he/

Pretty cool that someone actually did it though!
10 UI Ideas to Learn from Gumroad
The test pilots are basically told what part of the world and for how long they have to fly; when they turn in a plan like this basically for the sake of cuteness, that's a lot of work picking waypoints.

This pleases me.
Ask HN: What technology/language should I learn to make wep apps?
Hey Guys,

My name is Corey and I'm freshman Computer Science major. I've been programming for awhile, but I want to get more into the web side. I have done web development stuff before but that is basically limited to HTML, CSS and minimal JavaScript. I've used a little PHP but basically only enough to make a WordPress theme. So my question is basically what language/technology is kinda the main stream of the best for server side web app development? Pros and Cons of different technologies would be very much appreciated. The main one that I'm leaning towards is Ruby and Ruby on Rails. But PHP is another one and I've heard Facebook is written in that and they seem to be doing pretty well. Just wondering every bodies thoughts. Thanks and sorry for the fairly broad question.
On a related note does anyone know of any Python/Django crash courses?
SXSW Interactive 2012 Campus Map (SXSW spans over 14 venues this year)
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

~Samuel Johnson
Apple news: Apple and Google Fight
Your top priority should be to be available for as many people as possible. If you can get more than 1000 people on your server at once then you need to take advantage of that momentum to build a buzz about your product. Putting artificial roadblocks in the way is fine, but at least create the CORRECT roadblock.

Instead of a "Server unavailable" when the user attempts to try things out, maybe have a separate server running a static version of your product which can be served quickly from cache that a user can play around with while they wait for availability. Or find a way to improve the caching on the website so support a higher number of individuals.

You could offer them access to the live application if they leave their email address with you. And then you could stagger the invitations for live accounts over a longer period of time without losing any potential leads.

Do you collect personal information upfront? I personally think you should let the customer play with as much of the application as possible without forcing them to commit personal information. The fewer barriers there are, the more time the user will have to explore your value proposition.

If you have limited server resources, it might be worth it to invest a few bucks for a couple of days on a beefier server just for your launch. You probably won't need it longer than that and you can probably afford an AWS instance for a few days.
I did calculations for my (failed) kickstarter campaign between Amazon Fulfillment and me personally packing and mailing everything.

Amazon Fulfillment would have cut my profit in half. Yes it saves you time but depending on where you live and where the fulfillment warehouse is, the size of the products you're making, and the cost of shipping them. For my specific case it wasn't worth it. Hiring a few neighbors and working out of the garage for a few days would be far more feasible.
or just bored kiddies, happens quite a lot
I like articles like this because they remind me of how subjective "breathtaking" and "beautiful" are. To me, this app is neither- it seems cluttered and messy. But I'm not the target market for it, and they shouldn't care very much about what I think. Good job.
So VEVO's position is that this is a valid defense?

"I didn't secure my computer and others had access to it."

Interesting.
> One of the strengths of object literals is that you can use them as dictionaries. obj.foo === obj['foo'].

I believe Harmony sets allow you to use any object as a key, whereas using a plain JavaScript Object instance will coerce the key to a string and use that as a key. There is no non-hacky way to do this in JavaScript currently. You either need to us an array (making lookups O(n)), or give objects a UID to use as the key.

Even if you're just talking about sets with strings as keys, there are lots of edge cases waiting to bite non-experts. For example, what if you want your set to have a key called "toString"? Every JavaScript object already has that method, so if you naively test "set[key] !== undefined" or "key in set" with "toString" as the key you always get true. Ok, so use "set.hasOwnProperty(key)". Now what if you happen to have a key called "hasOwnProperty" and you mask the builtin function? So really you should be using "Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(set, key)". Additionally, now you're making a function call, which could add significant overhead in tight loops.
My story is similar to nield's; I worked on a project that used the Boehm-Weiser collector in a 32-bit process.

Once or twice a tear, we'd have an unbounded memory growth to trace. Most of the time, we were able to solve it by providing layouts for structures that mixed pointers and pointer-like data. The debug facility it provides for providing a random backtrace to a root was helpful in those cases.

However, more than once we had a leak that it was beyond our ability to trace, despite a significant amount of diagnostic work. We found some workarounds that were specific to our app, which helped.

In the end, the costs to us were high enough that we rewrote our codebase in C# (our software was Windows-only). It was pretty much a line-for-line conversion, but it worked and we no longer had any memory leaks (except for one, in .NET timers, that took only minutes to trace using readily-available diagnostic tools).

I do believe a 64-bit process using the Boehm collector would be much less likely to suffer these issues, but this was before x64 was prevalent in corporate server rooms.

On your second question: Crafted input can indeed result in significant memory retention, if you aren't careful to exclude user input from the GC and have large, cyclic structures to collect, on a 32-bit machine, with almost any text encoding.
Perfectly reasonable! The treatment is similar but less formal/complete in PAIP.
I believe that number is per node, e.g. they have a cluster of 10 nodes that rendered for 24 hours producing 1 frame per day. Much like the concept of "man-hours" in a project.

[1] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transformers-dark-moon...
>> One doesn't have to be a teacher to come to valid conclusions.

I apologize if I misunderstood you, but your previous post gave the impression that that is precisely what you thought.

>> Have you taught much? When was the last time you were in a classroom?
Can't wait for the green-team to have their arms up about wasting fuel to do this (even though it's a scheduled test flight)
From what I understand you have the choice of setting limits or end funding early.
I moved to Sweden a few years back. Here is the list, and some with my comments:

1. "Start building your coffee tolerance": Neither I nor my wife drink coffee. It hasn't been a problem. But if you organize anything for your Swedish friends, make sure to have coffee.

2. "Pick a number, please": When I first moved here I would forget. Now the first thing I do in entering a service area is to get the number.

3. You can probably get by with English for decades, but...: There's only been a handful of Swedes (mostly 55+ or those who immigrated to Sweden) who I've met weren't able to speak English. English is everywhere in this country. I've even heard Swedes talking Swedish who drop English words because it came easier to mind than the Swedish. When I learned Swedish I had to be stubborn, and force people to talk with me in Swedish. "But I love to practice my English" was pretty common.

4. "Get your shopping done before 5 p.m. (if you can)" In the big cities, the supermarkets close at 10pm or even 11pm, so this isn't as bad as it used to be. But if you want to go to a specialty shop, then yet, do it before rush hour.

5. "At some point, you will squeeze food out of toothpaste tubes"

6. "Daddies pushing strollers"

7. "Camping and hiking and picking berries": I love allemansrätten! When I go on a cycling trip I don't have to worry about where I'm going to pitch my tent. In the US there's so much "private property, no trespassing", while here, if you want to go somewhere (and you take good care), it's not a problem.

8. "Melodifestivalen"

9. "Many businesses shut down in July": Being outside in July is the reason to live in Sweden. You survive winter by knowing that July is coming.

10. "Try keeping it 'lagom'": Yeah, I think this is overblown.

11. "Locate your nearest IKEA": True also for part of the US, I'm lead to believe.

12. "Nice shoes. Please take them off": Remember to wear your good socks when you go to a party.

13. "Winters are really cold, dark, and can be depressing": some winters everything just feels grey; the outside, inside, life. I wouldn't say depressing, only grey.

14. "Be on time": It's okay to be late by a bit, but make sure to text if you're going to be late. It's also okay to be a bit late to parties.

15. "Get your tasty adult beverages at state-run Systembolaget"

16. "Keep that plastic bag"

17. "Special days celebrating food"

18. "It is safe to drink the water": A few years ago this city prohibited its offices from purchasing bottled water. The city water is fresh and tasty. It's hard to find bottled water, which makes cycling trips a problem when the general stores only sell fizzy water.

19. "Business casual means jeans": When I first visited here I made sure to dress up, with button down shirts and slacks/jeans. Years later, after moved here, I told this to Swedes. They said "button up? Sweden is usually considered a casual dress place." I replied that in my previous employment in New Mexico, "dressed up" mean something other than shorts and shirts with holes in them.

20. "Not all education and healthcare is free"
Cinemagram app launches on iOS, possible Instagram feature?
William Hertling's Thoughtstream: Scaling A Web App 1,000x in 3 Days
May be, try here: http://thejun.to/

All the best.
Welcome to FoxyTunes
Drug quickly reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice
Digital Copyright, and the Argument From Guilt
Should Google dump the Chamber? | SumOfUs
Embedly Challenge #1 Ruby Oneliners
There are solutions such that you describe, but they're FUSE filesystems for Linux, not full blown GUIs for OS X and Windows.

JungleDisk uses the server functionality for maintaing state.
Researchers are already using kickstarter, kiva and other sites to fund their projects. Why a new site?
Tests that challenge a student's deep understanding of the material rather than rote memorization is of course preferable. No has argued that.

I place zero value in the transcription of notes. The act of writing is a useful tool for memorization and even deeper understanding, but it's just that - a tool. Everyone learns differently. The test is meant to grade one's understanding of the material. How you obtained that understanding isn't relevant.
tldr; same as every other 37s article. Not sure why they keep writing them or people keep posting them here.
Americans View China as World Leading Economic Power
Comparing Double Fine to Blizzard is a little extreme. Although Double Fine has an experienced team with a long history in the industry, none of their games have been huge commercial successes, and they've had some spectacular commercial failures over the years. Most of their projects up until this one have been funded by traditional game publishers (Majesco, EA, Warner Bros., THQ, etc.) and this is a genre no one wants to touch, even at the small scale for download only titles on XBLA\PSN\Steam ($500K-$2 million range).

Afaik, Ron Gilbert has been trying to make a traditional adventure game for years and has been unable to get it funded until now.
Database Cracking: Dynamic reorganization based on incoming requests
The article misses the key advantage of NFC, namely speed. In the US market that may not be obvious today, as a swipe takes not that much longer, but with the introduction of PIN based payments the ability to pay for 90% of small value transactions instantly will be a clearer benefit.
Question for people with more aviation knowledge than me: Don't games like this make life hard for air traffic controllers? 35000' is right in the middle of normal airspace; isn't it much easier if planes are flying along standard routes between airports?
I try really hard to make sure all my music is bought and paid for, or obtained for free legally (promotional CDs, etc.). I don't download movies illegally (a really great public library makes that easy).

But I disagree with the way the content industries have tried to pursue an agenda of making it illegal to use things you've bought and paid for however you'd like.

That being said, I sure hope we do forgive and forget as a matter of policy. Being abrasive (like Michael Arrington is trying to be) isn't going to teach these people a lesson anymore than it teaches those who continue to get access to music and other content through piracy. The way to sway public policy is the same way things worked when SOPA was tabled a few weeks ago: through public action, using the legislative process.

Lawrence Lessig's Remix is a great intellectual treatise on why we should consider changing our copyright laws to reinforce the fair use rights we should have; sending copies of it to these people and asking them to read it seems like it might do a whole lot more good than some kind of draconian punishment regime.
Building Page.ly Post Summary.
Whole House FM Transmitter
Amazing little device allows me to play my iPhone through my car stereo.
How a Summer Analyst Applicant Got Laughed at by Everyone on Wall Street
This is a very leading question. "Piracy" is immoral within the context of copyright. But if the copyright system itself is immoral (because, for example, the successful enforcement of copyright is in total conflict with important digital freedoms), then we should get rid of copyright. Or maybe reduce it in some way. In which case the term "piracy" will lose meaning, and we will just call it "copying".
The Government wants to build an app store for real-life jack bauers.
College Endowments: Why Even Harvard Isn’t as Rich as You Think
At the risk of sounding like an old man, what makes you think the "90's" generation is any more depressed than previous generations?