skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is fantastic! Very well-designed and it is the best "fake" iPhone app I've used in terms of responsiveness.
It's amazing to see exactly what we've been able to achieve. I never though we knew THAT much about our Universe. I would shake the hand of everyone who helped make it happen if I could.

Also, I don't understand how you can look at how many planets there are and still say that it is impossible for there to be any intelligent life in the Universe.
The Co-operation Advantage and the new Theory of Niches
It has been a long time now since Chris Anderson wrote his now famous post "The Long Tail" but my personal feeling is that only now, after almost eight years, we are seeing all the pieces of the theory of niches coming to the right place. Today, niches and communities are gaining a more and more active role in the inspiration, design, and, increasingly, even in financing and in the production itself of any product or service.
this is great. i tried ddg, was also frustrated by the speed, and returned to google. this is an easy drop-in replacement for that and works much faster.
I was surprised to read an article on DDG in a mainstream (albeit liberal) german newspaper "Die Zeit". It's getting press.

At the same time, I've tried http://www.hotbot.com again (last time I tried it perhaps 10 years ago) and I was quite pleased with the search results. So yes, there definitely is a world outside of Google. And it's working well.

But who else has GMail, Documents, Maps, Cache, Translate.. that's a major advantage for the #1.
The premiums set by American insurance companies will be largely driven by the cost of the services they provide. If they get providers to lower costs, then insurance premiums will decrease across the board, both for that company and their competitors. They can negotiate small discounts in their own individual favor, but large measures that truly cut costs and not just prices will impact everyone. As such, there's no real reason for insurance companies to negotiate for lower costs, since competition will ensure that their premiums decrease by a similar amount and they don't make any more money. Since demand for health care is pretty inelastic, they won't gain substantially more custom by lowering prices, thus they have no reason to try to substantially cut costs..
The way I see it, someone checking "business" on their immigration form is less likely to require a work visa than someone checking "personal". If you're a business traveler, you're usually just visiting for a week for some meetings. You're not taking away jobs from a local, so why would you need a work visa?
"There are a lot of people who can't form abstractions or pay enough attention to detail to be able to program."

I'm not convinced it's something genetic/innate as there's a whole raft of environmental factors at play, but some empirical evidence of this phenomenon quoted here:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programm...

"The test was administered twice; once at the beginning, before any instruction at all, and again after three weeks of class. The striking thing is that there was virtually no movement at all between the groups from the first to second test. Either you had a consistent model in your mind immediately upon first exposure to assignment, the first hurdle in programming-- or else you never developed one!"
Calvin & Hobbes actually have a story that perfectly illustrate this: https://imgur.com/a/wETcl

Personally, I never had many toys, and yet I had hundreds. LEGO never fell short to me ;)
"Libtask gives the programmer the illusion of threads, but
the operating system sees only a single kernel thread."
I guess I never use the arrow keys, being a 40-years-of-emacs oldster. Control/meta keys all the way. ;-)
Direct link to the web app: http://cheeaun.github.com/hnmobile/#/
Windows 8 Consumer Preview : In-Depth Review
On a shameless plug note,check out HackerNode.A free iPhone/iPad/iPod app for all iOS(4.0+) devices.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernode/id473882597

I pushed an update today which grey out visited links and fixes some bugs for the iPad interface.It should be approved in a day or two.
I don't think you can do this exception considering you don't own copyright on all of the files being distributed, unless you lay claim to have written the rbtree.c file. Assuming I'm correct, I think you need to rethink why you would add such an exception in the first place (because it seems to be against GPL's ideals) or change the license, and if you do remember to replace rbtree files
have you considered a varargs call for setting parameters with type codes? so something like

PreparedStatement_setArgs(p, 's', "a string", 'i', 42, 'f', 3.1415926);

would set arguments 1-3. i know it's not "OO", but i have done something similar in an internal lib for work and it's very useful and easy to use.

[edit] the number of parameters is assumed equal to the number of '?' in the query. i also have something similar for reading results from the ResultSet, but that required pointers and a count, and was much more likely to lead to errors.
This PDF shows the 65+ demographic as accounting for 35.6% of health expenditures in 2004:

https://www.cms.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/2004-...

It seems highly unlikely that it would change so drastically in just 8 years. Where does your 85% figure come from?
About a year ago China committed a billion dollars to developing liquid thorium reactors. Australia and Czechoslovakia have a partnership with about $300 million committed so far.

Sorenson and others have estimated that a billion or two is about what we'd need, and about ten years with a strong effort.

There are a lot of variants, some more difficult than others. Instead of going for the LFTR right off, we could start with the DMSR. It's a non-breeding molten salt reactor using uranium, but about five times more efficiently than LWRs, excellent proliferation resistance, and all the safety advantages of LFTR.
"I know that lots of services let you add to Instapaper, but with Instapaper itself it's impossible to add articles without visiting them."

I can understand his dilemma, but this policy unfortunately makes the social feature of Instapaper almost unusable. You want to Read Later a bunch of articles your friends have liked? You have to load each one of them up just so you can add it later.
Medical research spending in the US is approximately $500/person/year. The medical cost gap between the US and other countries is approximately $3,500/person/year. R&D spending simply does not account for for anything close to the huge discrepancy in costs.
Visualizing the Metropolis Hastings Algorithm
Here are pics of look alikes of  Silicon Valley Legends. Enjoy
Getting started with WebAudio API
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”

- Calvin & Hobbes
I think he is referring to Microsoft Static Driver Verifier(SDV). It is a great research, actually being applied right now.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slam/
First of all:

"the United States is Cambodia or Burkina Faso or rural India, with access to a doctor available if you can pay the bill out-of-pocket"

Although it dovetails with the well worn narrative on HN, this comparison fails due to the level of care.

Also, from the article comments:

"There are just a couple problems. In 2009, the French Society of Radiology equipment in France was critically undermining care, and the government was refusing to increase capacity, even though people at many emergency rooms couldn't get an MRI even if they needed one because the equipment simply wasn't available. So, yes, the French government has held down the price of MRIs in France...by not purchasing enough MRI machines that one is available at every hospital. If you need an MRI in France, you're rolling the dice that you would be able to get one in a timely fashion.

Second, some of the development of MRI technology happened in Britain. Most was performed in the U.S. Who is paying for the cost of development of this and other new technology and drugs? It's often not the people in places like Canada and France, where government controls hold down prices. Most of the cost of research and development is paid for by Americans. We pay perhaps five times more in the U.S. for some procedures than people in France pay, but the technology might not exist in the first place if we didn't pay this disproportionate share. Once the technology exists, companies keep charging as much as they can in the U.S. to recoup costs and to fund development of the next big thing in medicine, and meanwhile other countries in the world adopt the technology, gaining benefits from it without actually paying the costs. This is Canada, France, and much of Europe. Plenty of medical research goes on in these countries, but American consumers ultimately bear most of the cost. It's an unfair system in many respects, but it's what has kept medical research moving ahead for the last several decades."
I suppose it depends on what you value more - maxing your business potential or maintaining your integrity.
I avoid them because my knees hurt when I sit in their planes. For example I'm not too interested in Bill Gates or Steve Jobs either, but if Bill Gates was the nicest guy ever and Steve Jobs was the biggest objectionable a*e ever, I'd still prefer the OSX to Windows.
You aren't French are you? I seem to remember that being considered a big issue with the French medical care system.
also, for the original asker - most of the interesting part is in the technical discussion (and the culture clash described elsewhere) that is in the answers.
Revenue distribution is an interesting variation of Flattr.com's business model.

Flattr is more general as it's a platform for distributing micro-donations to creators of music, games, etc., whereas Readability is specifically about publishing and effectively offers a product/service directly to micro-donators. You could see the same model being applied to other verticals.
Application vs Database Programming
Same here. His Apple fanboyism really shouldn't be that big of a deal, seeing as every other person on the internet is an Apple fanboy. But as an Android user, Marco's glib ignorance of the platform because he believes its users are cheap really rubbed me the wrong way. Oh well, Read It Later Pro got my $2.99, his loss.
BAE made hexagonal adaptive infrared cloaking devices for tanks so they can even pretend to be a car.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14788009
Port Saint Lucie Website Design
While I don't agree with the tone of the article, it matches my overall experience using Windows 8. In particular, the screenshot of the homepage is quite revealing. A lot of these positive reviews are based on MS marketing videos and someone messing around with it for 30 minutes. But anyone who has tried using it for a few days as their sole OS runs into a lot of issues that can't simply be explained by "beta". There are systemic design issues with Win8 where some "bugs" are by design
Fair point.

I still doubt that it is the extra cost of caring for elderly people really well that is the major factor that is keeping the other costs high though. Especially since there are less very elderly people, as a percentage of population, than in other developed countries.
Another programming language which claims to improve productivity by reducing multi-platform portability. Java starter this revolution , by quoting "Write Once , Run Anywhere". That phrase has seriously taken a huge leap today and has been used in all sorts of context.

If I start learning this language , I am not sure if I am actually getting the full benefit of what a Java/Python provides. I am not convinced until I actually see a production ready solution.
Malpractice suits are about 2% of healthcare costs, and that percentage is stable, so you're not going to make a huge difference by focusing efforts there.

The cost to avoid lawsuits adds up with a lot of tests that are not needed. Doctors end up doing whole batteries of tests on everyone to avoid the 1:1000 or higher chance that the person in their office with a headache really had an aneurysm and get the doctor sued for negligence when he sends them home.

Another side effect of all these tests is that many are extremely dangerous. CT scans in particular are ordered way too often and can does people with levels of radiation that lead to problems later in life.
To quote eight-time champion bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman:

"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don't nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight."
How To Be Skinny Like Selena Gomez
> programming languages are at least as much about comprehension and readability to humans as they are about theoretical purity from a mathematical perspective

I would say that both are the two faces of the same sheet of paper. Let's take the law of motion (f = m a, where f and a are vectors), is there anything more "pure" (or, in other words, "simple") from mathematical perspective? And is there any possible way to make this more readable and comprehensible by (educated) minds? I think I have read that before vector where properly "invented" a simple three-terms equation like this one was a complex mix of vague and partial statements. So, at least in this case, it means readability and mathematical purity came together, with the development of knowledge and abstract tools.

I heard some debate it or was hot about this question: is there a possibility that a future Newton will model any of today's complex problems in a way that make them easy to write, understand, and more "pure" (ie. simple, atomic)?

My bet is there will be (don't ask for proofs other than "it happened like that before").

So, more on topic: I think there are ways to make programs pure and readable, I think these ways are not divergent: purity is simplicity, and simplicity is readability.
While I don't agree with the tone of the article, it matches my overall experience using Windows 8. In particular, the screenshot of the homepage is quite revealing. A lot of these positive reviews are based on MS marketing videos and someone messing around with it for 30 minutes. But anyone who has tried using it for a few days as their sole OS runs into a lot of issues that can't simply be explained by "beta". There are systemic design issues with Win8 where some "bugs" are by design.

I can't see Win8 being ready before the end of the year…
"You know sir, with insurances we have all those additional costs...".

Well, with many insurance companies there can be an additional cost. Submitting the claims, filling out the paperwork, proving the work was done, etc... all add up. Depending on how much work a person does with an insurance company it could easily add up to another full time employee.
Barristers, manchester barristers, legal advice uk 
Steven originally appeared as an advocate in the criminal courts, but has developed an extensive specialism in advising and representing those companies and individuals in a wide range of court and tribunal proceedings. It has also been necessary to provide advisory services to companies in matters of a regulatory nature. Steven has obtained a ‘direct access’ certificate from the Bar Standards Board and can deal with companies and individuals directly in appropriate cases. Should the services of a solicitor be required then timely advice would be provided.
Just downloaded it. A couple of suggestions:

- The design could use some tweaks. (Poor icons in the home screen, not vertically aligned title bar text, ugly "comments" title bar that scrolls with you, inconsistent orange color (click a link and you see the bottom bar is a different color to the top bar), puke color in the "pull to refresh", has a very non-native feel with the custom list view, awkward arrow that is low res in pull to refresh)

- No comment indentation so everything is difficult to follow in the comments

- No ability to login and comment?

- Awkward click regions on the list view. It should only allow you to press on one or two buttons, but instead I can press on the timestamp, the comments, the title or the background. It should be clearer

It's really quick, though, and that's lovely. Keep at it!
Isn't there a license that requires giving back modifications without "contaminating" the whole program?
I've never encountered one that didn't have working DNS resolution
They are certainly lowering the prices, hence the constant back and forth (literally for 30 years straight) of local market consolidation between the buyers (health insurers) and the suppliers (hospitals/physicians). There are legal fights going on all over the country because of all the pricing issues; Pittsburgh is a great example of how the dominant insurer (Highmark) simply refused to pay the dominant provider's (UPMC) price increase. Highmark's solution? Vertical integration and just buy the other local health system.

In terms of MRIs, you have some odd effects with pricing, particularly when the MRI is seated inside of a massive tertiary care center instead of a standalone facility. If you look at the pricing discrepancies, it is almost always related to getting the MRI done at an academic medical center versus one of the ambulatory care centers. The problem is actually pretty simple: hospitals are terrible at cost accounting and totally game it. Instead of taking the leasing costs over the expected uses of the machine, adding in time for the technician and a bit of a real estate or facility charge, they allocate hospital costs (from all departments/overhead) to services based on their expectations on what they can charge. Michael Porter and his staff at HBS are looking at this right now.

Further complicating MRIs (I'm not sure if this is included in the study's cost estimate) is that radiologists essentially operate in a cartel fashion. They are rarely, if ever, employed by the hospital (like most doctors), but band together and set outrageous prices for reading images. Radiology, despite being non-patient facing and limited liability (they render opinions to other doctors, not patients), is one of the most lucrative medical trades. Eventually, traditional radiology should give way - either through disruption (overseas or computers) or by other doctors simply saying why the heck should a radiologist get money for reading an image I can read myself and will then have to intervene on anyways?

Startups have emerged in price/transparency space (e.g. Castlight Health) and will hopefully start to put pressure on hospitals/physicians to actually compete with one another and bring down costs. Since they have so much local market power, there is only so far an insurer can go without owning an entire market.
One of the biggest employers in my hometown is the Swedish company AstraZeneca's huge Alderley Park research centre, employing around 3,000 people.
The Nobel Prize is for basic research. Once you've done the basic research, you're still looking at spending huge amounts of money, on the order of a billion dollars, and spending 15 years bringing it to market. The drug industry is in trouble even as it is, and obviously they would be in worse trouble if they had to sell as cheaply in the US as they do in the rest of the world.

>So even if the US companies were contributing that much R&D, shouldn't that proportion be attributed somewhat to other countries?

No, at least not for that reason. The important thing is not where the innovator is located, but what market they target.
I really love Woopra. I also use Google analytics.
Why should I avoid non-semantic classes in my html?
Just as a comparison, I've heard that Oracle will most likely adopt GCC's C11 ABI when C11 support is added so that one actually will be able to mix-and-match objects from both compilers.
> have you considered a varargs call for setting parameters with type codes?

Varargs are supported when building a prepared statement, but not for setting wildcards values. I see what you mean and how the client code can be made more compact. Still, I believe setting one by one value by explicit type may be better for readability, is less error prone and as you say, is more OO and orthogonal.
I love the name. In fact, that's the name I've been kicking around for my CMS :D

Man, what a coincidence.

Now, I shall call it ... "Hot Website Makr"! (without the "e") I'd like to see someone take THAT!
Looking through this was interesting and fun.

I'm surprised at some of the comments that posit intent doesn't matter in communication. Intent matters a great deal: a question can be sarcastically rhetorical or earnest, a comment can be blunt-but-helpful or simply meant to hurt, a reply can be a defensive knee-jerk or a clarification of position. It's possible for the same string of words to be either of those alternatives, the choice made only by intent of the writer.

In physical communication there are many cues to indicate the intent of the speaker. Writers must provide those cues intentionally.

"I don't mean to be" is often (not always) lazy and meaningless, of course, but that doesn't imply intent doesn't matter.
How to Build a Business Culture Like Apple
No, sorry, what? 1) he got a bank account knowing full well that it would change a fee for going over an overdraft limit 2) he then gave an evidently dodgy website authorization to change his account 3) 1 + 2 = free banking for sensible people
Do you have evidence that you are normative in terms of comparison shopping for healthcare? It seems to me that costs won't vary much between providers and that comparison shopping would be a mostly useless thing to do in the U.S. Indeed, your own experience in comparison shopping is that the price differential was not that great.

Health insurers in the U.S. have a captive audience. Most people before the age of 60 who have insurance get it through their employer. What the employer pays for insurance comes out of money that would be paid in salary. It seems to me that the insurance companies don't have a great incentive to lower cost of healthcare. On the surface the evidence suggests that they haven't since procedures cost so much more here than elsewhere.
I'm missing the bit where the dodgy website is the bank's fault.
This is impressive but it must be less work to just use Cocoa. Isn't the point of mobile web apps that they're cross platform?
When I am looking at hiring someone (and I have a history degree, not a CS one), I never ask about their degree. Why? Because I have rarely found that a CS degree really correlates either way with coding quality.

What I focus on instead is past accomplishments. I ask for work samples, questions about what you've done in the past, etc. If you have done open source development even better. Please send me your contributions and I will review them!

I have met excellent developers who had CS degrees and excellent developers who didn't.

This being said... The article I think illustrates the kind of person who needs an attitude adjustment before starting a company. His overall negativity means he will need to be able to think positively about his ideas before he can even start to think about making them work in the real world. It's hard enough to get such a software project going to a level of self-sustainability when you believe in it. When you think it all sucks it can be very hard.
Easy drag-and-drop jQuery Mobile app building and sharing.
Yes, a few of the libraries I've been involved with do not want to allow C99 features into the codebase because of MSVC. This, IMO, is the main reason for wanting some C99 in MSVC -- to stop Windows from holding the rest of OSS hostage when it comes to more modern language features.