skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Nice hobby, but to me learning many languages sounds a bit like a waste of time. Unless you want to become a translator, but where is the appeal? It seems to be a very passive, uncreative job.

Also I wonder how hard it really is to learn a language, with the proper memorization techniques.

Edit: To the downvoters: I was expressing my personal opinion, that for me it seems like a waste of time. If you enjoy learning languages, more power to you. But be tolerant of other people's opinions, if you can.
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Thanks for this - very interesting!
In the Netherlands children in higher secondary education learn English, French and German, besides Dutch. Many schools also offer courses in either Spanish or Italian. When going to the 'highest' secondary education form (gymnasium) you can also learn ancient Greek or Latin.
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I was hoping he'd offer some advice for those who struggle with language learning.

Can anyone share an opinion about the best way to learn a new language (or several)?
At least we can take comfort that the UN is basically toothless and the good old USA more or less controls it... With the occasional rise from China/Russia... As long as the Americans keep their government in check everything will be fine, right?
Yes, I understand. I was exaggerating a bit. I edited the post to clarify.
you'll have to search the filesystem which means hitting the disk , moving the disk head away from where it was when it was loading the program.
Slick interface and the instant search makes me want to use the product.

But I like and trust email because it is stagnate. How is this different than Buzz (dead) or my other 'streams' like G+/Facebook/Twitter? I don't want my email to be a stream, because if I miss one, that could be devastating. I don't want email to evolve, because it is the only thing I can trust that won't become realtime.
I did some research into the options available in the UK and was quite pleased to see that there are some good "Software Development" or "Software Engineering" degrees at Masters level:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=msc+software+development

These seem to be a good alternative to "computer science" degrees at the same level.
As I recall from interviews with the DropBox crowd, that's more because what DropBox was doing wasn't even planned functionality in the first place; they hooked into the Finder code at a fairly low level in order to get it to do what they wanted. (Anyone got a link?)

Your general point is correct of course: the price of compartmentalisation is the inability to benefit from the experience of other groups in the company.
I'm sure this service is not a web.py project. Yandex uses its own home-grown technologies for projects like this.

Web.py is probably used mostly for intranet services.
In my experience the best way to learn a language is to use a book and read/write enough to have a basic hang of the language. Once you have the basics down, force yourself to start thinking in that language. Make it a game: each time you get an entire sentence of your thought process correct in that language reward yourself. If you make a mistake punish yourself.

The disadvantage to this method is you need a lot of discipline to keep constantly forcing yourself to think in a new language, and you will spend a lot more time when thinking.
As far as I know, their search engine does not use webpy. May be they use it for other parts of portal though.
Knowing languages other than your native language can be really useful if you work for a multi-national company.

I'm a software developer. My previous gig was at European aerospace company, and my current gig is at international financial institution. At both of these companies there's a wide range of languages spoken, and being able to converse in other colleagues' native language can indeed be useful. Both of these employers see languages as a desirable, but not essential, skill.
I disagree, but from a gut feeling. Frankly, I've never been good at languages.

English is the one single language I learned and feel comfortable with, everything else failed (most notably I tried several times to learn Italian, now I'm in Israel and start to doubt if I'll ever have a conversation in Hebrew).

Maybe you are right about emerging patterns, and in fact that is exactly what the guy claims in the BBC video at the end: It becomes easier the more languages you learn. But still, I'm honestly impressed by speaking a large amount of languages fluently (i.e. no stuttering, freely, without a hard accent - and without starting to mix languages due to context switches).

"All similarly structured": I guess I have to take your word for it. Coming from Germany I haven't found a language that feels like a good match so far (disclaimer applies again of course: I suck at languages). To me, Russian and Dutch/Afrikaans kind of don't mix.

And the final, most impressive feat for me is: Handling the conflicts, not the similarities. A chair - does it have a gender in the language at hand? Which one? What are the consequences? Are you talking to a male or female person? Does this change your sentence? What are the languages ~basic~ irregularities (think numbering, for example).

Some of these examples are things that I'd imagine being hard learning German. Some are issues that I have with learning Hebrew. I'm impressed.
How-to-learn-any-language forums is to polyglots what Hacker News is to hackers.

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html
This shows no understanding of how the Internet operates.

There is no technical reason why organisations like ICANN and IETF have the say that they do - at the end of the day it is nothing but consensus that empowers them. We choose to listen to what the IETF says about protocols, and choose to use the DNS root servers blessed by ICANN. If those organisations become corrupted, we can choose to use others.
Awesome! I'll see if I can make it to the free beers :D
Yes, but bear in mind that many Dutch people, while having had a few years of education in highschool, struggle when confronted with a conversation in French or German, and it's a long stretch to claim they are fluent.

It's not comparable with the way people from Luxembourg speak French and German.

(Disclaimer: my roots are in Luxembourg I live in The Netherlands).
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OTOH isn't this the "modern way" to develop a web app?

HTML templates + AJAX on the client and a REST/JSON API that you can reuse for iOS apps on the backend?
Understanding this little subtlety of the pointer declaration syntax was the epiphany that led me to feel like I actually, truly understood pointers a couple years ago (never been much of a C programmer). This syntax always confused me - I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't be something like "int& p" to declare an int pointer, but rather includes the dereferencing symbol, which made it seem anti-pointy to me at the time. Pretty much the instant I figured out why my thinking was wrong - that "int * p" should be read as "(* p) is an int" rather than "p is an (int *)" (as this post explains nicely) - pointers just completely "clicked" for me.
I've added a feedback module here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDUwQ0s...
Feel free to add any comment/judgement about this project.
Thanks.
I use it all the time and the code behind it (almost) fits on a napkin.
You mean teaching email users correct etiquette to reply in context and cutting all irrelevant parts of the original message? Like, for example, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1855 (1995)?

I have to agree that emailing has gotten worse since everyone and all has started using the internet and email. And then tools like Microsoft Outlook make it hard to quote in context and easy to reply above the original message. As a result almost no-one I have regular email contact with has a good email etiquette. If I compare my email conversations with programmers and computer scientists with that of my co-workers or family, the difference is huge. In the former case email is an efficient tool to communicate whereas in the latter case it becomes a pool of mis-communication fast.
The pointers method is used by most commercial mail archival software that I've seen (the kind big companies deploy for SabOX compliance).

The problems with Pointers & de-dupe is that at least marketing emails are personalised, each are sent independently often with at least a minimum of personalisation, for example calling you by your name (people are more likely to read it if it calls them by name). You can do de-dupe, but your limited to the efficiency and overhead of your block size. Compression would also take the storage required down to ~ 1/10th (excluding attachments), but I don't think thats still enough. Even if deduping and pointers gave you a 500x storage saving, the data size for a few days email is still so unfathomable that it won't work as a single global system.

As far as trying to solve it with economics, its been tried (as a method to stop spam) but the question is who has to pay who and for what? Every such scheme has failed because you end up missing one of the big groups of users as it becomes un-economical for their mail pattern to continue. If you make the senders pay, few comercial entities want to play, and few people will provide free email. If you have to pay to store then how do you stop being billed for someone flooding you.
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Of course languages can be useful, as I said, I just question the effectiveness of it. At a multinational corp. English would be expected. English is not my first language, so I already know more than one language anyway.
Make an amazing number of mistakes, make a constant fool of yourself, and above all - KEEP GOING!
There is also the guy who is advocating the use of low level radiation to improve health. He is pictured on his website wearing radiation emitting glass beads around his neck.

I'd say that the acceptance standards are low. Some of the presenters seem to be involved in pseudoscience and others seem to be of generally low quality. I'm also questioning the wisdom of allowing only ten minutes per speaker. Most Ted talks seem to go a lot longer, and I would want more than a ten minute conversation on an interesting topic.

http://www.ideawave.ca/2012-conference/low-level-external-nu...
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Disclaimer: Pure opinion. I only speak 3 languages reasonably fluently, and have a basic to moderate understanding of a few others. It's not like there's any scientific backing for this method, though.

Step 1: bootstrap. Before you can really learn the language, you need to set up some basic structures in your mind for that language. You need a basic understanding of grammar, a few useful sentence patterns, etc. You need those to be wired in so that they can be called upon in conversation, so just reading is no good - you have to both listen and speak. I've found the Pimsleur courses to be excellent for this bootstrapping, especially those that have 3 sets of lessons (3x30 half-hour lessons = pretty solid bootstrapping), but even with just one you get some solid basics like simple sentences, numbers, basic grammar, etc.

Step 2: grow basic vocabulary. Even after bootstrapping, you'll still have a vocabulary that's way too limited to engage in meaningful conversation (though at least you can have uber-simple conversations like asking for prices, directions, and being polite). At this point you need vocabulary - a lot of it. The best way I've found to build this is to read, with a good dictionary and (if the language needs it) verb conjugation book handy so that you can actually understand things. Basically, take beginner-level reading materials, and, with a pencil in hand, read, paragraph by paragraph. While you read the paragraph, underline words you're not 100% sure about (but don't stop reading until you get to the end of the paragraph). Once you're finished with a paragraph, look things up and write the definitions in the margins. By the time you've read 2-3 beginner books like this, you can probably handle a simple conversation about a topic other than the price of a train ticket.

Step 3: total immersion. This is the key step, and you can even skip the previous two if you're in a rush, and go straight for that, but then it'll be very hard and you'll waste a lot of "prime time" (i.e. time spent surrounded exclusively by native speakers) learning the basics you could have learned at home. In this step, you need to speak only that language for at least a few weeks, ideally three months or so. Stay away from people who speak your native language (i.e. don't hang around with exchange students or whatever, however "safe" that may seem, since it will destroy the main benefit of this). Speak only the target language, and within a few weeks something magical will happen: you'll switch from thinking in english and translating, to thinking directly in the target language. This is the holy grail. At this point, you can speak. You may still have a LOT to learn (depending on the language... e.g. with Chinese, well done, you can speak - now you can learn to read ideograms, which is twice as hard), but you've got enough of the building blocks that you don't need a deliberate system other than speaking to people in that language and reading stuff in that language. The more you speak/read, the better you'll get.

Have fun!
Anyone know of something similar for Ubuntu(Gnome)?
yeahhh, well done mate!
Since when is a nice hobby a waste of time? What a rude thing to say.
Why Does Grammar Matter?
One of the most lucid and sensible answers to this question appeared a few years ago in–of all places–a position statement on the teaching of grammar in American schools. Published by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the report is blessedly free of educational cant. Here’s how it begins:

Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about language. Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make up sentences not only in English but in any language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children–we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words and word groups that make up sentences–that is knowing about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.

People associate grammar with errors and correctness. But knowing about grammar also helps us understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise. Grammar can be part of literature discussions, when we and our students closely read the sentences in poetry and stories. Knowing about grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialects follow grammatical patterns.
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"... What was there before the Royal Society? ..."

To get an idea of the formation of empirical science in Europe read Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksilver_%28novel%29 & a quick synopsis here ~ http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/history.html
It makes sense, but I still don't like it as its error prone.

It does make sense that the dereferenced pf is a float, but that doesn't stop it from being confusing. Being a pointer is, to me, part of the type. A pointer is a type after all, so having the * bind to the type would make a lot more sense to me.

Additionnaly it makes it easier too lookup for a variable's type when reading

It would also be easier to grep for types too (not that I've ever found myself doing that, but I'm sure people occasionally do)
Hanging out here making comments is of course not at all a waste of time.
A quick question: what do you see as the advantages of ansi-term over shell (M-x shell)?
I wonder how fluent (in terms of vocab) he can become in each? And if he'll remember them.

Richard Francis Burton, supposedly learned almost thirty languages - and from what I've read - he would study a new language - while throwing out another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton
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So are you going to post videos of the talks on YouTube? It would be really nice.
I'm not sure about at other businesses but the Software Development company I work for has native speakers of what must be nearly every major language (the only one I haven't come across is Portuguese, and I'm sure that is just because I haven't meet that person yet). For example, the bank of desks I'm sitting at this moment has Greek, Bulgarian, Punjabi, Sri Lankan, Hindi and Russian. It would be quite difficult for me to pick up any of the languages to a standard that could compete with that!
The need to justify it like that just screams how wrong it is. They want to exploit users and will do anything to achieve that. The default settings hindered them so they worked around it. Privacy shouldn't be "opt-in". Your statement sounds like a thief justifying his crime by claiming that since Mrs Smith didn't install a $20,000 security system in her house she really didn't care enough about her property and that makes his "business model" of burglary okay.
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Using "EU" to refer to Europe is about the same as using "USA" to refer to North America. And, in this case, tagging an article about something in Canada with "USA".
Agree, I don't think Adobe has ever really positioned PS as a web tool I always thought of it more as something for people to process photos with, including huge photo files which are intended for billboards etc.
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Then you will preferably* be sitting in jail ...

* by your local friendly government and/or copyright enforcement authority
Why not Karlsruhe? It has the KIT, one of the highest rated universities in the field of Computer Science, so lot's of people (hackers) there that might be interested.
(And Karlsruhe is about 64km away from Stuttgart.)
I am sure the current citizens of the EU don't know it yet either, nor will they be consulted when it comes.
do i know u? :)
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I'm sorry, but you're wrong, and you're wrong. First, learning a language is far more involved than proper memorization techniques. Second, there is real evidence that being monolingual causes parts of your brain to atrophy. Seriously! Here's a Science Friday report that talks about the study: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/25/134059279/being-bilingual-not-...

I'll save you some time, though. Essentially, researchers showed babies tapes of a bilingual individual speaking English, then switching to speaking French. After a certain age, monolingual babies were unable to pick up on the switch, whereas bilingual babies were able to detect when the speaker switched languages. Oh, did I mention? The bilingual babies were Spanish/Catalan bilingual. In other words, they were able to pick up on someone switching from English to French, while neither was their native tongue, indicating that being bilingual preserves elements of the language recognition portion of your brain.
I'd rather have Munich. But Stuttgart would do too.
Wow, and I thought I'm cool for being fluent in 4 languages.
Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser
It is impressive; he won the prize for for most prolific young polyglot in the country. There are very few in the world at this age who can speak 10+ languages.

Are you speaking from authority as a polyglot yourself? Because I haven't heard this opinion before. The uniformity does ease the burden slightly of learning a language but it's a small role in achieving fluency.

I think you could go from zero to having full command of the Spanish grammar in a couple of weeks. I did it self taught in a month or two with a Michel Thomas CDs in a single grammar thin book. If you have the mind for it, learning language structure of a Romance or Germanic language is not too much of a challenge.

What then takes _years_ is vocabulary acquisition, comprehension, pronunciation, idiomatic usage, and the fast application of the grammar you've learned. For me, what took a long time was training my brain to think fast enough that I could decode the target language fast enough to hold fluent conversation and, later, get my brain fast enough thinking in the target language. This is hardly "learning local variations and nuances", it is what takes up 90%+ of reaching a "fluency" and it's something every language learner must go through, whether they already speak 1 or 8 languages.

I am starting learning German, and i'm going through the same process as with Spanish. It's really not hard to laern the principals of the language, the sentence structure and verbal agreement, gender etc. But _using it at a natural speed_ so you can conversion in German - that's a mammoth job and takes months or years.

Perhaps your programming anology holds, but reaching a "fluency" means you can go hours or days of coding without ever reaching for a reference document. Sure took me a long time to get there.
And it's closer to the Max-Planck Institutes for Informatics and Software Systems.
Sorry, but why do I have to like other people's hobbies? If I think they are boring, then I won't pretend it ain't so. However, if he enjoys learning languages, it doesn't bother me in the least. So where is the problem?

Also I admit it frustrates me if people study that kind of thing instead of productive things. Where I live people even go to university studying languages for years. Sorry, but things like engineering simply seem more productive to me, just my opinion. If all those people can find jobs as translators and are happy with it, whatever.

I recently heard of a friend of a friend who is translator for the Spanish envoy and get's to dine with Angela Merkel (German chancellor) occasionally. Might be interesting, but I personally wouldn't dedicate my life to achieving it. That's just me.