skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Maybe google knows that you are personally interested in social games? Or perhaps they're just trying to reach people who are on the internet right now.

Anyway, point is, the page isn't the only signal used for ad targeting; you (and your search history) are another, as is the current time. As well as a variety of other things, I'm sure (I have no direct knowledge of google's ad targeting).

I visited the page myself, and got an ad for the galaxy nexus.

I do agree that the placement of the ad, which makes it look like part of the content, is pretty crummy. As are the ads about e-cigarettes and penny stocks and car insurance.
Exactly. And those same users are the most likely to not be able to distinguish a targeted ad from actual content. You can say "this isn't a problem because it doesn't affect me". It's still a deceptive, slimey business practice that effectively tricks a certain percentage of people. But that's what makes a buck.

I'm not necessarily blaming any one company, profit would have inevitably led to this. I just agree with the author that this IS sad.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned that AdWords can target users and offer them ads based on what they think they might want. They're not always contextual.

Do you like to play games Reg?
Why doesn't Google offer some across-the-board AdSense subscription-- $10 a month to never see a single "Ads by Google"?
Using Readable (http://readable.tastefulwords.com/) it looks great: http://www.blueatlas.com/images/readable.png

Good job Readable

Full Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Readable.
Liked the post until the needless mention of blowjobs came up.
Why blame google? The problems here are: 1) the publisher has chosen to embed ad tags within editorial content; 2) the editorial content is so worthless that google can only show a house ad.
> Replacing the engine in the car was something like $7,000.

Which, for many drivers, may as well be $40k.

> the solution is a combination of educating/warning owners & notifying them by phone or email if the car starts to get too low

I never advocated ignoring anything. My point is not that "Tesla is great" or "boo ICE yay electric," it's that all the hysteria around "OMG car bricking" doesn't actually promote whatever communication/engineering solutions would actually make the product better or more consumable for people.
I work for money, not people. The less they know about technology, the more they're willing to pay.
I find this absolutely startling:
"It’s well known that many college students use Adderall to give themselves an extra edge for getting work done whether they’re prescribed or not ... Furthermore, a 2009 study on non-medical use (defined as use of a prescription drug without a doctor’s order) of Adderall among full-time college students showed that subjects aged 18 to 22 were twice as likely as their counterparts, who were not full-time college students, to have used Adderall."

Along with:
"Stephanie Lee found her freshman year of college unusually difficult. She had trouble adjusting to the levels of stress she encountered."
And:
"Without Adderall, you might feel bored by your math homework or unable to focus on the multiple steps needed to reach a solution, but on Adderall you might literally feel like you’re in love with math."

So many people are taking this drug to deal with the fact that they cannot handle the type of work, or the stress. I find it fascinating that people have come to assume that the problem is with them because they find the work uninteresting, or they find school stressful, and not because that is how the systems (colleges) and the work (math, science) are designed. Instead of telling people how they are not designed properly for the work, perhaps we should take some time to reflect on how the work is repetitive and not creative, and not fulfilling, and that is perhaps the issue.

Note: I do think math and science and intellectual work can be creative when at a high level. But at a learning level you're treated more like a machine designed to learn and repeat.

I was recently chatting with another student about how classes here are just becoming increasingly demanding. In looking at computer science classes as an example, the complexity of even the basic computer science classes has grown with time, and nothing has been removed. Every one of our professors expects us to spend 10-15 hours per week just on their class. And it's obviously not possible. Instead of trying to find ways to optimize time, people are trying to optimize their minds to be something that is not creative, but rather very much like a machine. College is not designed around passionate work, it is designed to be a grind on you and force you to do a lot of work you hate. Every four months you take all the previous work you did and throw it out and start over. How is any part of that designed to be gratifying? I don't necessarily share entirely positive views of college. It's an institution designed to meld and mold people to fit into our economic model.

I have spent some time thinking about this trend and have come to the conclusion that it could be a real damage to creativity and individuality when you can medicate your mind into a machine.
It'd be really cool to add some "equivalences" to compare what an asteroid hitting Earth would do, in terms of Mt.
I think that even worse are the fake download buttons served with free software that lead users to adware:

http://jakepoz.com/why_do_google_ads_point_to_adware.html
Contribute to open source typography, interview with The League of Movable Type
Heh. That's funny. when i go to those sites, i don't even see the ads. That's why I block facebook connect, google plus, and a raft of other sites.
It appears that the majority of people commenting haven't even read the article...
New URL? This was up earlier this week.
Our startup analyzed the Arizona Debate last night.  What do you think?
It's the tragedy of the commons, writ large. "What's wrong with just showing one gaming ad to a precocious dinosaur-loving kid, she'll be able to concentrate on her studies later. Oh, maybe one more ad, maybe one more, maybe one more..."
Here, let's grep and replace:

"The dirty little secret that I don’t mind saying is that mechanical engineering isn’t hard. There’s lots of handbooks, manuals, blog entries and Stack Overflow Q&A pages out there that very clearly describe how to work with any stress equation or tool. Follow it step by step and you are a mechanical engineer."

This is pretty common in professional engineering--most bridge/pressure vessel/structural engineering is done by effectively filling in the blanks on worksheets and following thick handbooks of best practices. Are they too worth your contempt?

Self-respect doesn't enter into it--computer science might be hard, mathematics might be hard, clever low-level or very abstract programming might be hard...but software development? Especially as practiced nowadays with the toolsets and parts we are encouraged (nay, expected!) to use?

No, software development need not be any harder than any other form of white-collar engineering.
It's flatter, but patients are given their medicine and told to take it rather than being invited to select from a menu. Pharmaceutical companies don't advertise direct to the public and doctors make all the decisions about which version of a drug patients should be taking, based on the clinical outcome (eg whether the side effects of a generic are well-tolerated or problematic). In the US you have to be a lot more knowledgeable about what you're taking and the information is much more available, so in that sense the patient has more control, and arguably more freedom; on the other hand most of us are not doctors and spending time becoming expert on the finer points of your meds is perhaps like becoming an expert on the difference between Coke and Pepsi - you may strongly prefer one over the other, but is it really making any difference to your nutritional outcome?

In other countries the win for the drug companies is predictability; the government will negotiate far more aggressively but will then contract to purchase a certain amount for the next x years, providing the drug companies with a predictable revenue stream. Where public healthcare is the norm, the government also absorbs a lot of the insurance/liability costs; if a drug is approved for sale but later turns out to have problematic side-effects, the government will compensate or support the affected patients, on the theory that since it approved the medicine for sale it accepted the potential risks as well. Obviously, there are exceptions, such as if a manufacturer had data on clinical risks that it concealed to get approval, but those cases are a minority.
Based on my reading of the article and raganwald's comment below, my understanding is he's blaming talented employees or entrepreneurs who choose to use their skills to create low-value (in societal terms, not monetary) products and services. And it seems he's not so much blaming as bemoaning.

The post struck a chord with me because I am evaluating several employment offers. The one that gives me the opportunity to work with the coolest technologies and receive the highest compensation would leave me feeling the ickiest at some level (it involves mobile ad analytics).
"Nice browser yous gots there... would be a shame if something were to happen to it, eh? Like if some ads was to get put on the pages... 10 bucks a month, me and my boys 'take care of' that for yous". The Google Protection Racket
Because AdBlock is free?
I applaud this fantastically succinct point: "Some foods taste good but kill you. Some drugs make you feel good but rot your brain. And some ads lead the curious away from knowledge."

I do think, however, that it's incredibly difficult to construct an entirely machine-learning- and auction-based ad network without these sorts of problems popping up. Especially with presumably low dinosaur-related ad inventory to choose from. (Perhaps dinosaurs -> kids -> games isn't a far leap in terms of correlation?)

Based on physorg's deceptive ad placement, text styling, and terrible anti-aging ad selection for the bottom, I would argue that our collective sadness is better directed at them than at Google.
Ask HN (+YC Alums): Two Products, Two Applications?
So, I have a question for YC alumni (and the rest of HN) about applications for YC.

We have two products:

#1 Is in the advertising space and is growing rapidly. We're turning away customers so we can focus on getting the product solid so we don't get crushed. We are about to sign a deal with a major online ad player to get one-click integration with their customers.

#2 Is an iPad/web app in the healthcare space and has a deal almost ready with a major medical company. Our cloud-based software would be used in about 1/4th of the hospitals in the US if we get this deal...but the deal is not inked and the product is just getting traction.

I have 3 co-founders, but I'm the only one who reads HN regularly. I have great karma and try to participate and add value.

We've applied with the healthcare product via my account and the advertising one via a co-founders account. What I'm concerned about is making sure we don't get nixed.

The healthcare product is a major outlier that is coming together quickly. It could really change a lot of things for the better. However the advertising one is a nearly-sure bet with rapid growth and is already quite profitable (keeping our lights on and at ramen-profitability).

My questions are:

1. Should I just apply with one?
2. If so, which one do you think?
3. If not, should I use the sure bet with my own account, which is likely more visible?
4. Should I just not worry and keep updating the applications as things move forward?

Thanks everyone!
My guess is the value of you seeing the ads is probably worth more to them than whatever you're willing to pay to stop seeing them.
Your point was pretty clear. It would be interesting to see a more diverse and direct and relevant advertising world, exactly like you say, present actual dinosaur book or dvd discount offers or similar.

What we see really is sad, it's advertising "Games". Not a game, not something wonderful, but the general timewasting activity of any game, when it could be specific and direct and relevant.
This reminds me of some of the bad ideas I've had when intoxicated.
I get the authors point, and yes... it is indeed sad that "play games" are the most profitable types of ads. And stupid weight loss ones, and look younger, and hot women in my area.

It might be because those specific industries see the most value in online ads, since they can tie a click to a sale end-to-end and can justify spending $1 to make $1.01.

Large multi-nationals who dominate TV advertising (Beer companies, car companies, restaurants, groceries, consumer products, things you have to go to a store to buy) have a harder time spending that $1 since it's a lot harder to track.
Aren't you doing exactly what you're complaining non-technical founders do by treating "business" people as a utility? They just want you to "code" and you just want them to "sell". I think both sides need a mutual respect for each other. Treating either side as a utility is a recipe for failure. Good business people are not a dime a dozen either.
The problem with that analogy is that 90%+ of the farmers are growing coca or poppies today. Without a viable alternative "crop" or payment mechanism on the open web, I think the net effect will be to drive all of the content which advertising is paying for today into walled gardens, like a Physorg "app".
So.. you're sad because of the Ad industry, when there's A LOT more money in the military industry being thrown away? I mean, if you want to be sad about something, choose your argument subject more carefully..
Get ready to be even more sad, as everyone on Hacker News completely misses the point of your rant.
If Google's algorithm goals where not monetary bassed maybe they would have a different outcome.
What these same people also fail to realize is that just because you enjoy working on "exciting and challenging stuff!" doesn't mean you will find debugging their firm's spaghetti code exciting.

Yes, there are projects on which I would work 10-15 hours a day with minimal pay but, odds are - yours isn't one of them.
New project allows you to send files using DNS
That sounds a lot like a protection racket to me. "Pay us and you won't have to worry about our Ads.". I don't like the idea of paying someone to NOT do something.
Apologies if we offended, it is supposed to be humorous.
It's hard to find competent suits. And their understanding of tech is reducing, I'd suspect, as tech gets more complex.
Google Adsense provides publishers the option to show ads relevant on a user's browsing history (via tracking cookies) as well as contextual ads. Since Google's goal is to make both the publisher and the advertiser more money, Google will choose to show whatever it has found to be more profitable.

On top of that, if Google does not have ad fill, such as in the case of articles about dinosaurs, it will sometimes advertise its own products (which the publisher will still get paid for) instead of showing a blank spot (as some advertising companies will do.

tl;dr Google shows ads based on a visitors browsing history if it thinks it will make you more money that way.
I ran into this same problem recently: while looking for a legitimate and very specific car book on Amazon, all of the top hits were strange 3rd party offers to sell the book at ridiculous markup, over $200 for a $30 book. At the time I thought the book was just out of print and hard to find. (I eventually found it, it was in print and for sale at normal price from the publisher.). After reading this article I now suspect it was one of these scammer bots. I think this poses a real societal cost: after seeing the inflated prices I very nearly gave up on the idea of buying the book at all, which would have deprived the book author of a sale and would have deprived me of what proved to be a valuable reference book.
Since they're making such a big deal on the new styling; would anyone know the rationale they had for making VS2010 purple?
Do you remember the days when they had "punch the monkey" ads? This is progress in plain advertising. Also, it's the responsibility of the website owner to be smart. He/she could have spent the effort in finding dinosaur book publishers, but apparently they took the lazy route. As well, the web designer didn't think the ad aspect through -- it's an "oops" on their part. It's not greed, it's poor execution.
I think the answer he was looking for is: "sad"
And then some entrepreneur will realize this problem, and sell a solution that prevents students from surfing the web while in class.

I never got all the fuss about digitizing education, because it seems like the biggest downside is 'distractions.' Even if there is no way to prevent distractions, are digital textbooks not worth the improvement in costs, accessibility, and breadth (and type) of information?
So exploit them while you can? Interesting philosophy. I personally would hate working for a dumb boss.
It's likely not a profitable ad at all -- that's a google "house" ad for a google product, which means they have nothing paid to show.
Heed the flip side.

Imagine in your mind some special interest groups. Powerful special interest groups. The most powerful special interest groups. Are you imagining, e.g., the permanent civil service, academics, scientists, Medicare and Social Security recipients, and homeowners? Probably not. And yet, there they are. One of the greatest tricks of the most powerful interest groups has been to convince the world that, Keyser Söze–like, they don't even exist. And, unfortunately, you can't give citizens the power to eliminate pork without unleashing these hungry pigs upon the trough.
AHAHAHAHA HE SAID VALUES falls out of chair

Americans don't have those anymore, silly. We have money, and to hell with everything else.

Edit, for those who don't get it: Consider what you do at work and whose benefit you do it for. If you're in the states, your job is to make money for shareholders and/or investors, period. You are not building a product, you are driving inequality. Always keep this in mind in any industry to understand "business decisions" and politics, because it's all the same game; "I want to be better than those people"

This attitude is literally destroying our planet.
I don't know a lick of iOS or Obj-C, but this line is absolutely true:

> The biggest boon to closures, for "regular" programmers, is the dramatic simplification of async code.

Consider the way it's currently done in Java:

listener.addCallback(new AsyncCallback<ReturnType>(Parameters ..) {
public void onSuccess(ReturnType returned) {
System.out.println("Successfully returned!");
}

public void onFailure(Throwable thrown) {
System.out.println("Unsuccessfully returned!");
}
});

This is unbelievably ugly, and yet this is about as easy as it gets in Java. In order to make asynchronous callbacks "easier" you have to instantiate an anonymous class with very precisely named methods.

It's not only wasteful, but the potential for error is huge. Closures could make this much, much simpler.
This viewpoint as raganwald expressed it is too oversimplifying for my tastes.

It's pretty .. well, wrong.. to say that all Google engineers are working on is putting ads on web pages. Similarly it's not true that a whole generation of people are working on ads. Google is working on a tremendous number of things -- as is the rest of this industry. It boggles the mind.

I do; however, agree with the generalization of his point (and it's not a unique or new one) that what the technology industry has produced in the first 10 years of the 21st century is mostly a letdown compared to what got done in the last 10 years of the 20th century.

The first dot-com bubble left us with the worldwide infrastructure that powers the Internet today. What will this social-networking bubble leave us with when it pops?

Hopefully strong AI and the best possible tools for dealing with petabytes of data -- but this is likely just wishful thinking on my part.
Can you really infer who leaked a White House document this way?
Code Hero raises over $100,000 for shooter that teaches computer programming
Aussie woman scammed Nigerians
I'd imagine tanimoto or cosine similarity would get you most of the way there while being very off-the-shelf.

If you're going to go the route of binary classification, I'd personally do it via RFs as variable importance (product importance) is built in. (But that's just personal pref)

I think that it's a solid step-by-step thought process on tackling the problem -- I'd probably think of the false positive vs false negative in terms of the relative expected values of success/failure in those classifications. (And perhaps cost-sensitivity could even be added to your original classifier -- perhaps if you had a forest of 500 trees, and you get even 100 votes for pregnant, that's enough to decide to send a pregnancy-targeted mailer)
One feature I miss: select all only selects the items on the first page. Maybe I get too many calls, but when I have 500+ items in the inbox and I want to clear them out, it's a hassle.
>the editorial content is so worthless

I think it's important to qualify this statement. Worthless to who? Google's ad bots? Perhaps. There's no obvious ad category that relates to dinosaurs.

But just from the snippet the OP included in his screenshot, it is clear the content is not mindless drivel and is actually worth reading (to some people).
Maybe it's just me but I like the "Strong use of color" better. I find it hard to quickly find the tool button I want when they're all monochrome. I'm sure I'd get used to it, but I can't really say the colors in the GUI are my primary distraction when I'm coding...
Any sysadmin going the route of 'job security' through obscurity(i.e., no automation or documentation) should be classified as criminally negligent.

My speciality is disaster planning and recovery. I consider myself being hit by a bus a potential disaster. That freak occurrence should not mean the end of a business.

And don't know those helpdesk types who have never touched a CLI. They allow me to bill a fortune when I step in to fix their botched deployments.
Yeah me too,
The same thing happend with that story about the super hard video game where they used dry humping as a joke. In both cases I was extremely interested until the infantile behavior ruined it. You came up with a creative way to get yourself noticed however you turned off 75% of the people you attracted when you made the vulgar remark.

TLDR: Don't shoot yourself in the head with stupid remarks when you're almost at the finish line.
Jason Fried would be proud.
The Inside Story of How Wall Street Became Computerized
I'm also surprised that they're taking adderall for an off-label use, when there's not much research supporting that use, and that they're not taking anti-anxiety medication (diazepam, lorazepam, etc (but addictive potential is worrying)) or taking a known placebo such as homeopathic tablets. Why aren't dealers pushing homeopathic pills as "street adderall"?
Ok I'll take that, a bit of advice I would redact that line before you reach your "mark" unless you're 100% sure he's going to take it the way you intended it (as a joke)
Although it's more precise to use the word to mean "a fresh environment that inherits bindings from the parent environment" (your Javascript meaning), a lot of people for whatever reason just use "closure" to mean "any anonymous function" (the meaning in the article.)
There's a good video overview of it at a Posterous talk:

http://vimeo.com/35907658