skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Something most 'non - enterprise' people don't understand:

The price is not set by some magic formula. It is set directly by how much the customer is willing to spend.

And you can't get that from a Webform.
(Its worth loosing some 100$/mo clients to wheel in a $50K one)
I'm wondering what the "revenue capacity" is for the the entire farm?

I don't know how they virtualize, but even a conservative calculation on instance capacity (eg. assume each server can support one XL instance on average) means that they can conceivably bring in $288k per hour.

I'm sure I'm way off with this estimate, is there any evidence out there are regarding their typical server configuration or utilization rates? Spot instance prices paint a pretty vague picture about utilization (eg. rates are pretty much flat over the last month).
All of a sudden you don't need to build in Python support, or Ruby support or LISP support or whatever else you fancy into the browser. The browser no longer cares what you compiled the script from, it just gets the standard bytecode and everyone's happy.

Yes please. Just define a straightforward VM in the browser and be done with it. Let the coders handle the rest, and compile any of their favorite languages to it (they will!). Java was on the right track, too bad the implementation (and APIs) were so clunky instead of nicely integrated, otherwise we'd never have needed the JS, Flash, Silverlight, Java applets, HTML5 mess that we're in now.

Anyway, hindsight is 20/20, now we can just settle on JS as a target VM. Too bad it's implemented slightly different in every browser, making it inconvenient as intermediate format. Also, going through a dynamic language is an inefficient level of indirection if you want to program in a static language. You throw away information that could have been used to optimize.
Be in regular specific contact with actual friends that you know, either face to face or email. Use a mail list or a private Google group or similar if you want a group. Recommend stuff. Ask for stuff.

Monetization not required.
Our Quebec audience has been almost nonexistent so we didn't think to mention that on our page. Email me at sean @ waveaccounting.com and I'll let you know when we're ready with Quebec.
Opacity was so poorly executed as to make it pointless.

http://loewald.com/blog/?p=1612
And _why himself thought of his [(poignant) guide to Ruby] as a literary project. “The book I feel is closest to my book is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which interleaves brief math puzzles and astronomical diagrams with the story,” he wrote to a listserv. “[I’m] interested in presenting an initial stab at giving literary value to a programming text. I’m also interested in getting people to at least feel what I feel when I program.”

Great quote. _why definitely created a new genre.
Online social networks have gotten a lot more complicated since Facebook was just a college tool. Now the basic, joyful simplicity of keeping your friends in one place has developed all the complexity of real life -- you have to make sure Grandma is separated from Vinny the frat brother at all costs but everyone still wants to be friends. If we even have to create a "trusted friends" subset, it feels a lot like we've lost something important that the whole concept was originally meant to provide.
Its pretty bad form to claim how well documented something is (twice in 3 sentences) and then just hand wave and not provide any links to any of this supposed documentation.

(I didn't downvote you)
They decided that a long time ago with healthcare. If you're rich, you get better hospital service. If you're rich, airports are nicer.
saathi@gmail.com
Seems like a nice tool at a high-but-fair price point. I look forward to seeing some deeper reviews, because the Illustrator trial I used to design my app icon expired a long, long time ago. :)
I've had the same problem the last few weeks looking for a colocation provider in my city for half a cabinet. Ever time I ask for information through a web form, they ask for a conference call. I reply back with my power and bandwidth requirements and ask them to email me a quote. At that point I'm usually ignored. I finally selected a provider two hours away who publishes their pricing online.
He is an awesome scientist and has made real contributions to the field computer science. It is unfortunate that in his politics he a very right wing pro-Israel type that supports attacks on Palestinian NGOs and even left-wing Israeli groups. He is on the board of NGO Monitor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGO_Monitor
IIRC, they also to use the two-step method. You pay at the register and then go over to the person making coffee and give them your slip that says what you ordered.

As far as pricing, I don't think you can make a living selling shots of espresso for $1, unless you sell an awful lot of shots or sell a lot of other things.
There are rules set by the gaming commissions in each state that the casinos are fairly well bound to upholding. In Vegas, the legislation is more in favor of the casinos than in New Jersey, but both are pretty broadly pro-casino.

In Vegas, it's worth noting that a casino can eject any player for any reason, whether they are 'cheating' or not. If they are deemed to be actually cheating, they have the potential to sue for recompense, as well as blackball the gambler from that (and other) casinos. Nevada also has state laws that define what cheating is[1] and what recourse the casinos have.

Card counting is considered 'illegal' by the casinos, but most legislation only applies to physical tampering, such as marking cards or using illicit devices. That won't stop the casinos from ejecting or blackballing you for counting.

In Atlantic City though, they can't eject you for card counting, but they are allowed to change the table stakes on you. If you're at a $10,000 a hand table, and wiping out the casino in a way they don't like, they're perfectly allowed to change the table stakes to 25 cents at any table you sit down at.

It's crappy, but you're still welcome to enjoy the gambling experience, just without the potential to win anything significant.

[1] - http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-465.html#NRS465Sec083
I would pay a lot of money for something like this that worked across platforms (Linux, Windows, OSX).
FYI, Dart does type checking.

If you want to give your javascript some type-checking, try running it through the closure compiler. This is what we do, and we annotate our methods with type signatures like this

/**
* Queries a Baz for items.
* @param {number} groupNum Subgroup id to query.
* @param {string|number|null} term An itemName,
* or itemId, or null to search everything.
*/
goog.Baz.prototype.query = function(groupNum, term) {
...
};

And then the Closure Compiler tells us if we've broken some type contracts.
Salesforce Tackles Talent Management W/ Rypple Integration, Debuts Site.com
The fed atty general in Colorado just the other day said medical marijuana clinics and laws are meaningless in the eyes of fed drug laws.

So legalize all you want (and that's a necessary first step), but the fed is going to take a long time to come around.
I prefer to think the Use Of Capitals to indicate Serious Business was done in the same spirit as on the defunct adequacy.org.
"Choice to choose a worklife style is upto to the individual. Stopping Individual from achieving their goals is in direct contradiction to freedom to pursuit of happiness."

Some might have goals similar to you. Others might aspire to work a 40-a-week job, be there for their spouse and children and not feel burnt out every day. Yes, there are people like you who might enjoy working crazy hours and being super productive. However, the person who is truly most productive in a 40-a-week job should also be able to achieve their goals without this cultural stigma around working a normal amount of time.
Flip To Hand Over Sharing Platform Flipshare To Givit
So I'm a little ignorant, but I think I'll benefit from answers more informed people give:

My question is, why aren't people out there (who are more experienced at programming/developing than I am) developing support for X language(s) in open source web browsers like Firefox. I'm sure I don't fully understand how this works yet, but can't anyone who wants to be developing this capability independently instead of waiting for browser makers to do it?
"Instead of traveling 10,000 miles or more via cable, it’s only 8,000 miles in a direct line through the center of the Earth."

8k vs 10k -- is it such a big difference? I see it more as cost efficient -- "powering up" 10k miles long cable may be more expensive than shooting a "beam" through the Earth.
This is ridiculous. I love python, but it has no language support for an event loop, and if you put it in a browser, everything would have to be done in an event loop. It'd be ugly.

Javascript excels at evented programming. Use the right tool for the job.
Not a "C guy", but I simply read it as:

Strings could be missing a "\0" and therefore some function could read too far later on..
Am I the only one who thinks this whole sharing business has gone a bit too far?

Honestly, how many people would say that finding content is one of their biggest problems today?

It's easy to think all you need is more optimized/better content while what you really need in fact is probably something of the following:

- think about something

- focus your attention

- get to work

- get in touch with other people
And yet...you were not so offended as to refuse to read it.
Blu-ray Remains Noticeably Better Than 1080p iTunes
Thank you for this review. It helped me decide not to read the article, both because it doesn't have content and because I have been deliberately avoiding knowing _why's "real" name.
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> If all your algorithms are as trivial as calculating a weighted modulo 11 checksum, then the sort of case I'm thinking of doesn't apply.

My estimate is that 98% of all programming everywhere is as algorithmically trivial as calculating a weighted modulo 11 checksum - probably more so - and it acquires its bugginess from accidental complexity due to poor factoring, and from conflicts at interfaces. Test-driven development is pretty good, in my experience, at helping ameliorate both these problems.

Of course, that doesn't mean I actually do it 100% or even 80% of the time. I'm happy to agree that it's no panacea: testing threads and UIs are particular pain points for me, and usually I substitute with either Thinking Really Hard or just Not Changing Stuff As Much

Formal proof for me is stuff I learnt at college, forgot subsequently, and keep meaning to reread up on. Thank you for prompting it back up my TODO list
LOL. Welcome to America, you obviously aren't from here.
STUDY: Social disapproval not health concerns help smokers quit
here is a thought: center of the earth is 6,000c hot. There is a heat resistant aluminium to withhold this temp. Further, I am sure there are solutions to generate electricity from the heat. I wonder how hard would it be to dig a hole through the center of the Earth and put the cable in it, hahah :)
Perhaps this is what all the aliens are using. Much better than dealing with EM interference?

When will SETI be switching to neutrino detectors?
Leaked DST document reveals secrets of Yuri Milner investment strategy
I liked the article. I'm happy that _why didn't commit _real_ suicide. I will now forget the name of the person that the journalist tracked down, and if I ever meet the guy in person, I'll try not to know it.
Showing the path eases this feeling a lot, while accentuating the sensation of speed.
Indeed, Microsoft continually puts out great iPhone apps (with a visual style that I wish was the standard on iOS).
what I don't understand is why email isn't enough. Why in this day and age do you need the phone # and address? That just tells me that you'll use my information to do high pressure sales calls, and not just to "inform" or "customize" my quote
Well, the 10,000 miles is also through multiple routers -- and I think it's probably a lot more than 10k, once you factor in obstacles and landing points and stuff.

But yeah, it could also be more power efficient (assuming, of course, we find a way that doesn't require a few-mile particle accelerator to fire the neutrinos :)
As far as anecdotal evidence is admitted, I am a very happy user of a Nokia N900 tablet. So are other folks focused around http://maemo.org. Its lineage goes back to 2005 (N770). This isn't question of entering a new market, it's a logical continuation of a long-time trend.
Does anyone know what resolution the screen is? This is usually where Apple beats the crap out of the competition.
Your PDF is going to be resolution independent and end up being used in much the same way as the code, so I'm to sure it's a significant difference.

I do like the automated color derivation though.
For exactly that reason it's a really good example of the point I was making: what you really need to know is whether a given product is strategic to its supplier. "Am I paying for it?" is one indicator that it may be, but it's not conclusive
The analysis doesn't seem to hold up very well in terms of US post-9/11. Jokers (terrorists) caused a ruckus, which the defectors (military-industrial complex) overplayed as a call to arms for cooperators (US populace). The cooperators then produce excess benefit for the defectors (control of oil-wealthy regions, superfluous security contracts).

I can't pin my finger on what makes post-9/11 US different. Were the jokers not destructive enough? Does the model not account for power structure, or psychological needs (i.e. security) and exploitation thereof? Is the effect of a single joker short-lived (which would correspond to the outpouring of national unity post-9/11)? Did the 9/11 attacks actually increase the cooperator/defector ratio in the long term in a way that is not apparent to me?
Hi there, raganwald, Annie here. I think this is a completely valid criticism, and it's one I largely expected. But for what it is worth, here are my thoughts.

As a journalist, I think it would have been irresponsible not to inform _why of the article and not to try to interview him. (As a general point, you don't write articles about public figures, and he was absolutely a public figure, without giving them the chance to respond.) I didn't expect him to get back to me, and certainly did not stalk him. And my hope is that the article approaches the infosuicide in the most humane way possible.
No. Not on 9/10, and not on 9/12. "Changed security environment?"

Nothing has changed. There have always been terrorists. 9/11 was just the first time this particular kind of attack was used.

That vulnerability was patched out the very next day (or otherwise quickly) - locked cockpit doors and air marshalls. Add to that the bonus of any guy standing up to hijack a plane will likely be throttled by angry passengers.

These checks are _not_ a necessity. We could go back to private screeners and metal detectors and be safe enough.
There is no "changed security environment." That's a myth created by fear mongers who support garbage like the TSA. Life is dangerous, do it long enough, you die. That was true before 9/11 and it's true now. There are bad people out there, that was true before 9/11 and it's true now. Living in a free, open society may be more dangerous in some regards than living in a tightly regulated society.... true before, true now.

Freedom is it's own end: true before, true now.

And never mind that the TSA does absolutely zilch to make us any safer anyway.
> I'm really sick of writing checks whether my function got values of the correct types

That doesn't sound like a problem that you should be having. The "Pythonic" way to do things is just roll with the values you get and handle any errors that result.
Over half of Internet Traffic Is "Non-Human"
Could it perhaps be that a very simple thought experiment is not a strong model for the chaotic actions of hundreds of millions of people over several years?
With a tool like Enyo you can write all the code in a sort of JavaScript, and it is converted to HTML + JavaScript. Google also has a tool to convert Java to JavaScript. Why not a similar tool for Python (or other language)? No practical need to have a lot of languages in the browser itself IMHO even if it would be nice to program web pages with his favorite language.
Finding good content is a problem for me in the sense that content consumption has become a new form of entertainment. So if you don't entirely dismiss entertainment, then, yes, finding good content I will enjoy and maybe learn something from is a problem to me. The main issue I see here is that the incentives in social networks are all wrong: we're being prodded into over-sharing because that's where the money is. As a result of that we're drowning in a shit-stream of content.
IMO, zero-terminated strings are, and always have been, a bad idea. Discriminating against a certain character instead of just regarding it as opaque blob of data will bite you in unexpected ways, and strlen() taking O(N) is another drawback.

The string functions in the C standard library suck. bstring is a better alternative: http://bstring.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/bstring/tree/bstrl... . Glib also has a good string library...
The counterargument is that the sales process may not be optimized for total revenue. It may be optimized for commissions. And, the people controlling the entire sales process, including online marketing, are the sales department. I only have anecdotal experience with this, but enough so that I think it's a contributing factor.
how would one go about minimizing python code ?
> Also I feel that this discussion is somewhat misplaced.

Yeah, probably. :)
Experimental Business Ideas
Oh indeed! I'm just trying to figure out the most likely reason why :)
Are you sure that a fixed prison sentence, enforced on everybody, for possession of any amount of cannabis, wouldn't cause many people to stop?

I'm fairly sure it would, looking at my friends who smoke because they believe (rightly) the worst they will get for possession is a smallish fine.
IT Departments Prepare for March Madness Headaches
European starlings flocking patterns similar to metals being magnetized
sign of beta?
Review my app: Social Break (the fun way to check Twitter)
Hey all - I've recently launched a new iphone app called Social Break which blends together 80's style gaming with your Twitter timelines. I'd love to get your thoughts about it - there are two versions, the free and the premium. The free (ad-supported) version is available at:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/social-break-lite/id508942059?mt=8

and the premium version is at:

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Here are some promo codes for you to try it out (once they're gone, they're gone!):

T99LA33AP4WF
MYR3P46NXNE6
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Thanks guys and I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Andy
Judea Pearl, AI Pioneer, is winner of 2011 ACM Turing Award
> FYI, Dart does type checking.

According to the official docs [1], it does not: They have no effect whatsoever in production mode.

Dart does, indeed, have a "checked mode" in which types are checked (I wasn't aware of that before).

In any case, Dart's type system is inconsistent (like Java's), intentionally, but I still don't think I could be called "static".

[1] https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1RqcfL64kw5SJkyut6eN...
I think many people share some concerns about macros, especially the need for good error messages. A far as I know Scala's language designers have been against including macros for a long time. So the proposal for macros has to be damn good if they change their opinion.

Macros are supposed to be a replacement for writing compiler plugins in many cases (compare with Java annotation processing vs. Java compiler plugins). The API is easier and more straightforward, semantics are easier to understand and don't require separate setup step.

In the meantime work has of course not stopped:

- Syntax has been simplified and several confusing bits have been removed/deprecated (Octal literals, FP literals without digit after dot, ...).

- The jar size of the library has been reduced, while adding fixes and functionality.

- Value classes have been integrated, which provide the performance of primitives with user-defined classes.

- Inlining has been improved a lot.

- Compilation speed has been improved a lot.

- Some collection classes have been performance optimized and are now a lot faster (and sometimes faster than the Java implementation).

- Play 2.0 and Akka 2.0 have been released, both with huge amounts of documentation.

- Documentation has been improved.

- ...

My personal impression is that while Scala has roots in academia, solving real-world issues is the focus of the team.
I don't search to see if you've ever filed for one, but putting it on your resume to me says that you want to work for a company that promotes them. The day may come when I have to file defensive patents of my own, but I'll never brag about it.

And as jongraehl said, there's still one strike left :)
Open Source port of Readability to Ruby
(s/his/her)
The ruby community is awesome, the rails community less so.
Where's _how?
Where is this alleged clear and well-designed Ceridian website with the transparent pricing? I clicked through and all I got for it was a whole bunch of "call me back" forms. Exactly what OP derides about all of the "other" services.
Completely agree with the author. I have signed the Gentleman's Agreement. Have you? :)
Walt Mossberg review: the new iPad
Nice effect!
Check out http://pyjs.org/. These people have built a python to js compiler, kind of like the Google web toolkit. It may not be the same as running python natively in the browser, but it is a start.
"As a journalist, I think it would have been irresponsible not to inform _why of the article and not to try to interview him. (As a general point, you don't write articles about public figures, and he was absolutely a public figure, without giving them the chance to respond.)"

There's a difference between "giving them the chance to respond" and what happened here. Being a journalist doesn't give someone an excuse to act outside the bounds of polite society.
Using something like the Apple-provided CGLayer, you can draw the image once, then use it like a bitmap while it is in memory, AND they can keep it cached on the graphics card. These guys could easily produce code that does that.

Reference: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/graph... (it works on iOS too)
this has interesting possiblities. but i consider it broken unless/until it supports scrolling with the spacebar, like ever other web page. fyi, i'm on firefox 11 osx.
U.S. Consumers Likely To Pay For Content On A Tablet Except When It’s News
The horror! Attacking NGOs by writing reports on their activities.

Unlike, say, firing rockets, or kidnapping and decapitating people.
Relatively no one drinks espresso in the US, so they charge more. The most common drinks are drip, latte, or cappuccino which can range from 2.5-6.0 dollars.
I used to work for GS. The pay was extraordinary. But the work culture/environment will turn you into a paranoid.