skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
First, a question: to what extent are you involved in local/regional/national politics and government, Daniel? Have you actually tried to work in/with political institutions, draft legislation, deal with groups of constituents, build consensus around your preferred political priorities, organize?

Words are cheap. Making real political change is damn hard, and takes a lot more commitment than a blog post here or there.

* * *

Half this list is just a poorly worded rehash of the existing basis for U.S. government (poorly worded as compared to e.g. the clear, expressive, rhetorically masterful Federalist Papers), and the other half is hopelessly naïve and broken. None of his claims are backed by any kind of supporting evidence or analysis, or even clarification of exactly what he means.

For instance:

> Representative democracy, where (in the States) you elect somebody to go make decisions for you, should involve somebody who physically lives near you, who only works part time making decisions, who is not representing too many people (100K seems about right), and who doesn't have a job for life.

This is a terrible principle. It sounds good in theory, but practical attempts to be led by it – such as short term limits – lead to terrible outcomes, as we’re seeing in the California legislature, where now no legislators have enough time to learn what they’re doing and won’t stick around long enough that cooperation is worthwhile, and so both parties have become intransigent and the whole institution is broken.

> The president's term should be extended and he should be allowed only one term. That way he won't spend all of his time running for re-election.

This is also bad. The president’s power falls quite dramatically in his second “lame duck” term. Making him a lame duck on the first day in office won’t help anyone.

The proper fix is to get rid of the 2-term limit, which was only created in misguided posthumous revenge against FDR, by opponents who lost policy fights while he was alive and bore a grudge about it.

> Politicians should not be able to make decisions today that require my kids to pay money for them 30 years from now. If my kids aren't represented, they shouldn't be able to be taxed

This is ludicrous. All decisions have consequences, and all big decisions today will still effect people 30 years from now. How could you possibly isolate government from any decision which would have impact 30 years in the future, and whyever would you want to? Who would make those decisions instead?
The article is confusing. He talks about intellectual property, copyright, and open source. He seems to confuse intellectual property and copyright (or at least, use them interchangeably), and seems think that open source and copyright are at odds. That open source licenses rely on copyright indicate this isn't the case.

Maybe I just misread the entire thing, but I honestly don't see the message he's trying to get across. It feels like their is a massive amount of context that is missing from this.
Raspberry Pi: VirtualBox simulator and emulator
Ask HN: Your thoughts on Demo conference?
My startup recently got accepted to launch at the DEMO spring 2012 conference next month (I believe they pick about 60-70). We didn't get a scholarship so we would need to pay $8k to launch there.

We only have seed funding so $8k is a pretty expensive proposition for us. What has HN heard about this conference? Is it worth the price tag? Any insight much appreciated, particularly if someone here has attended.
Heh ... it's actually a new project. Yes, the majority of the code is third party software. And while we do have a bit of "legacy code" in the project (in the form of the third party proprietary network stack that literally is in pure maintenance mode) we're mostly working in a legacy system (telephony network) that requires very high degrees of redundancy (hence the number of processes on the number of machines).

And for the most part, I was able to get the regression test for the backend process(es) to run unattended once started (thankfully---I (along with two others) did it once manually and it was horrible). I have no idea of how to do that for the frontend Android cell phone client. Sure, we can run tests on an emulator, but there are issues with the Android emulator (it exhibits different buggy behavior than the the physical hardware) so that only gets you so far. It's an interesting (if somewhat overwhelming) problem.
It's just my personal project :)
I think I assumed a little more than I should have about how much people would know about Ebert's argument. No, the customer changing the art has nothing to do with it. The audience complaining is what this was in reference to. The argument Ebert made is that if the ending of a game is up to the player it's not the result of an artist's vision. This is even one more step from that, not only do your actions as a player affect the ending, the players don't like the ending they got and the company is going to change it. I don't know how I would personally feel about Michelangelo changing the Sistine Chapel in response to tourists complaining about it, which is more like what this is.

Obviously this is not black/white and everybody has their own definition of Art, I was just pointing out how this connects to the pretty major controversy from Ebert's pronouncements last year.
What's the difference between "threatening to sue someone if they don't pay you/do what you tell them" and "approaching someone to head off patent litigation"?
Ran into this a couple days ago. Thanks for the heads up, clarifies some confusion I had.
That's a really great way of going about it! I should save this and look at it whenever next I get a world shattering idea.

Thanks for posting this. Seriously.
The post (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/03/21/scaling-to-dif...), however, was published yesterday.

They've been doing resolution-independent stuff since, at least, the 3.1 days.
Ways to go about your footer design – with examples
Yep, Google Just Patented Background Noise
Better? Wrong. Please read "Minimize HTTP Requests" here:

http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
Don't you think its a bit early for such a claim? Who knows where Libya and Egypt will be in 5-10 years from now?
You’re Investing Like an Idiot
TDK puts an SSD on a 17mm chip
I was following the (at the time) YF-22 and the proposed JSF when I was a kid. I'm now 28. These things take so long to build and there are so many hands in the pot that they can't help, but be ridiculously complex.

Talk about changing requirements during development. Imagine working on a software project that took 20 years to develop.

Add that to the fact that any large military project has to be spread out over as many congressional districts to keep as many congressman happy as possible.
It's been a while since I looked, so I'd need to think carefully. But very likely, yes, you could incorporate such things.

What I'd do is in the speed control term V(1-u(x,t)), I'd probably make V vary w.r.t the distance to the cop. I.e., same lane, you'd take something like:

[V+(V_cop-V)bump(x-cop_position)](1-u(x,t))

Whereas in different lanes, you'd take:

[V+alpha(V_cop-V)bump(x-cop_position)](1-u(x,t))

where alpha < 1 measures the reduced effect the cop has on different lanes. (Alpha might vary from lane to lane if you have more than 2 lanes, i.e. if the cop is in lane 1, alpha_lane_5 might be much smaller than alpha_lane_1.)

Here, bump(z) is some sort of bump function - 1 near z=0, dropping off as z moves away.
Hopefully - otherwise any french subscribers to /r/beatingwomen are going to jail.

In this case though, Sarko should 'just' have banned muslim propaganda, since the perp was muslim.
The article mentioned getting contacts in the press. I'd like to mention that I run a news site that also gets published in Google News, and often write and post all sorts of press releases.

News stories about your startup are possible too. Contact me via my email address in my profile for details.
> Or they're just suddenly enlightened because Apple released a new product.

Or they suddenly realized this feature is more important than, say, the Explorer ribbon.
Jolicloud Me – A Personal Cloud Organizing Service
Jolicloud Me – A Personal Cloud Organizing Service
Scientists Cure Cancer, But No One Takes Notice
Oracle Plants Its Flag With ‘Secure Cloud’
Oracle Plants Its Flag With ‘Secure Cloud’
I wrote this! Thanks for submitting it!
"At an estimated $1 trillion to develop, purchase and support through 2050"

People are going to spend more on video games:

http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/07/with-online-sales-growing-...

Look at the luxury goods market. It's huge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_good

If you want to go to Mars, there's plenty of money in the US economy where GDP is about 15 trillion a year.

Crowdsource an X-Prize...
It probably depends on what exactly the idea is, but yeah I think what you are saying has a lot of value. I never made a sign up page. It was like, "I'm going to build the next reddit.com" kind of ideas. I don't think a sign up page would get you anywhere with something like that.
Congrats on the launch! Very similar concept to my own project, Folyo (http://folyo.me). Pretty much exactly the same thing actually, except Folyo focuses exclusively on freelance designers.

EDIT: there is one difference, which is that Folyo takes a $100 fixed fee per project, not a cut of the budget.
When you say "chilling effect" are you suggesting that entire industries are being held back by the existence of the GPL?

This seems similar to calling Android "the greatest legal destruction of wealth in history." (http://gizmodo.com/5785983/android-may-be-the-greatest-legal...)
Actually, they might be forced to stop using the GPL code and pay damages.

The GPL is a copyright license, not an ordinary contract, and there's no provision for specific performance. The court isn't going to issue an order commanding the release of your source code.
Step 42) When you go public with your product, make sure your infrastructure can handle the load so you don't suffer a failed launch. Many users will not give you a second chance.
You mean "the Americans" and "American" respectively.

Here's a somewhat hagiographic but generally accurate work on the American origin of all present "European" institutions:

http://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Century-Generations-Extraordi...

TL;DR: all "European" institutions were designed and remain supervised by EUR at State. This should only surprise people who think the Warsaw Pact was in some sense Polish.
Brink? How is this not a budgetary disaster already?

What 'technology' costed a trillion dollars to develop? Certainly not going to the moon.
With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
Really don't like how Shanley went about this, although the responses from Christian were very unprofessional. Sexism issues aside, no matter how angry you become, having a tantrum doesn't solve your problem. With an issue like this it's best to complain privately and then, if you don't receive an adequate response, consider going public with it. It's especially unfair in this case as Geeklist are getting bad PR when the video wasn't their fault.

Still, this is a good example of how NOT to handle a complaint. Both sides are at fault here, IMO.
The only problem that I have with code-generating macros like the FLAG_LIST is that source code browsing tools typically don't work in finding these symbols correctly and it gets frustrating over a large code base. You have to resort to full text grep to find these symbols that get generated via macros. So people getting into existing code always have a hard time.
probable context here: http://storify.com/charlesarthur/oh-hai-sexism
If you're looking for a great PhantomJS based testing library, check out CasperJS. It's awesome. http://casperjs.org/
I'm working on test page for guests.
Recognizing that behaviors which one thought were innocent might actually be hurtful and alienating to others is a very uncomfortable and difficult thing to do. Getting defensive is a much easier option.
It seems like a lifetime ago, but I actually spent one year in college mainly learning OCaml.

The language is really elegant, but I'm not sure I ever saw a real-life use for it until today.
I have never quite understood why so many powers (the United States, Canada, Japan, etc) have lined up to try and buy F-35s. Every plausible enemy our countries could square off against have extremely old technology (or no technology to speak of). In fact, I would be prepared to argue that slightly updated F-15s are superior to anything that any plausible enemy could attack us with.

Am I wrong? If so, help me understand why!!
Wow, this guy guarantees that if it isn't tested, it doesn't work. Important projects that people depend on like the linux kernel must have really good test coverage.
Dome9 Security Addresses Widespread Microsoft RDP Cloud Server Vulnerability
Dome9 Security Addresses Widespread Microsoft RDP Cloud Server Vulnerability
Learned ;)
CIO, Meet The CFO: How  To Get More From Your Cloud
CIO, Meet The CFO: 5 Ways To Get More From Your Cloud
Those of us who are, perhaps, a little older remember a time when 'getting into' any sort of field the relied on a compiler generally came with a lot of self study, little or no money, certainly no social status but an awful lot of scorn. Before there was a 'revenge of the nerds' there was a state worth seeking vengeance from.

It's not right, clever or productive but it's not hard to see how complaining about the social hurdles, to an incumbent demographic who were largely ostracized by same, isn't likely to engender much sympathy.

That being said barriers to entry should be lower for _everybody_.
What I don't understand from your article is what exactly you're asking one not to do. I like all your recommendations, but I think incorporating and getting some proper legal and financial guidance (i.e. tax implications) is important too. But aren't you technically a "startup" at that point? Does a StartUp need office space etc to be qualified as one?
I'd say that it is the display manufacturers that are the ones pushing the particular technological advance in question.
Social Media and Cloud Computing Top Internal Auditors' Technology Hot List
Social Media and Cloud Computing Top Internal Auditors' Technology Hot List, According to New Protiviti Research
Perfect Your Persuasion Skills on Paper Not On Your Parents
I'm not sure whether I should learn JavaScript or first have experience developing on RoR.
Well Apple might be "pushing it out" but it's Samsung who's building it.

Most of Samsung's own tablets and phones (and basically everyone elses) aren't fixed to set resolutions like iOS products so there's no real need for their products to jump by powers of two.
> An announce has been made by a president who's not so likely to be reelected next month.

W. wasn't so likely to be reelected either...
COSCE DI POLLO AL RUM
There was a really good discussion brewing on that thread. Does this not factor into a decision to kill a story?
Sigma.js: a lightweight JavaScript library to draw graphs
You are so right. Look at the continually improving capabilities and continually decreasing prices of computer chips and notice that this results from market processes. The same can be seen in health care where government is rarely not involved (Lasik).

The only fundamental difference between health care and any other good or service is that it is "really, really important" and people are more apt to fall for "We're with the government and we're here to help."
Can we please drop the word "resolutionary"? :|
I don't think any word has made me cringe more this year than that one.
So true. I've been "That guy", and it cost me my job. I didn't get it until then.
You definition of art (and Ebert’s, it seems) gets weirder by the second. Now we can add this deranged sentence to your definition of art: “If there are different ways of experiencing some work, it’s not art.”

The justification for that kind of mindless definition just makes no sense at all. The artist sets the parameters and all possible different endings (if they exist at all, most games don't have something like that) are obviously part of the artistic vision. Someone had to make those endings. The player certainly doesn’t. Why can the artistic vision only encompass a single way of experiencing a work? What’s the reasoning for that? Why can’t the artist offer multiple ways of experiencing a work and let a player (in this case) pick? Because doing stuff like that didn't used to be possible? Why add something as ridiculous as that to the definition?

It boggles the mind.

(Oh, and I was picking the pope because he is the customer - just like in this case customers of the game are complaining and potential customers say they want things changed before they buy. Talking about tourists in this context makes no sense at all.)
A dummy profile might still be required, because of stupid policies. Like you now often have to give a dummy phone number even if you don't have a real one, because it's a required field in forms.
Switching From Coffee to Caffeine Pills - Gun.io
While I agree that there's a bit more to it, let me see if I can rebuff a few of your points.

1. Yes, a typical weather balloon will do that, but it's possible to make a balloon reach neutral buoyancy at a specific altitude see:zeplin.

2. WiFi is a poor choice, that I agree. Assuming you're using something else, you can actually use a directional antenna pointed straight down with a very narrow (2-5 degree) beam. As long as there's no obstructions on the way down, it should work fine. It's like of like how a satellite works. You're probably not going to get 100Mbps, but if you multiplex it over enough balloons, it might work.

3. See 1, you can tune buoyancy with weight. Weather balloons are usually really light so that it keeps the costs down and they can go higher faster.
> Set a deadline of 2-4 weeks to ship the first version of the product.

I blame this kind of mentality for much of the derivative rubbish the startup ecosystem is polluted with. We don't need any more photo/video sharing, link voting, or file sending apps.

I'm all for validating assumptions early, but some ideas (the ones that matter) are much, much bigger than 4 weeks to an MVP.

Incidentally,

http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html
MLB jerseys
I've still got the Linux client... I don't think they've updated it in ages. Does anyone know if that is also affected by this backdoor?
Woah. Is there any available material on how they're doing that/how it's working out?
Would you consider this testing 'unit testing', though? Sounds more like higher-level integration tests with a lot of dependencies. Honest question.
Taylor Wilson: Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor when I was 14 years old
I'm pretty sure that in a community of entrepreneurs and developers, this story is actually one of the most pertinent. It deals with PR and culture and I don't see why anyone should flag it. The comment thread on that story was really interesting - you might want to read it. Sometimes it is not just about the story - it is also about the discussion on HN that I come here for
This one is written by Ira Winkler.

Eight pieces of common sense that everyone should always keep in mind before sharing the next intimate little secret of their lives for a bit of attention on Facebook & Co.
Am I the only on who thinks there were always backdoors in Skype? Also what is actually new in this story if venturebeat was writing about the patent in 2011?
Better make that 16 unless your image is greyscale.
IIRC Hal Abelson used Kawa Scheme as a base to implement it.
How many wars have ended with the complete annihilation of one side? How many of those victors are regarded with anything other than disgust or shame nowadays?

Nazi Germany? Japan? There was only one way to deal with them; we did it; the world greatly respected us for it; and it's a success story. (This is not to downplay the role other, allied countries also played in these conflicts.)

I believe that I showed in another thread that the TSA alone has wasted human-life-equivalent years equivalent to the 9/11 attacks.

Right - I completely agree - I'm advocating the alternative.
Ask HN: How much of your personal capital $$ have you invested in your startup?
1. How long have you been bootstrapping your startup?

2. Roughly how much of personal money have you invested in your startup?

3. Are you profitable, if not then at what point do you make the decision of pulling the plug and not invest your personal money anymore?
Creating a company forces you to think about who owns what, who is and isn't vesting and how they vest. It raises other conversations like who _does_ what and what value each person contributes.

The post says: "Just if things are going well you’ll create the company and build the structure of it."

This is the worst time to start the conversation about all the above.

I've been exposed to bitter disputes between company owners (not my company) about equity ownership and you can't possibly imagine how nasty things can really get.

These problems are not an issue when there is no pie yet, just the pan you plan to bake the pie in. Who cares about dividing that up. But pretend your business starts generating $100,000 per day in cash in the bank. Now ask yourself "who owns what?".

You may think you know your co-founders and co-owners well, but most people are unable to predict how they themselves will react in many situations, so don't assume you can.

My apologies if this post comes off as negative. Creating a company and watching it grow is one of the most exciting and rewarding things you can do, and it's so much more fun when you have co-founders and investors to share your success with. So to keep it fun, have the hard conversations when they're easy to have.
>a police car introduces certain mental restrictions which prevent people from behaving how they naturally would.

Just FYI, there's a reason for the mental restriction. If you pass a cop and you're in his jurisdiction and you're going faster than the speed limit you have about a 80% chance of getting a speeding ticket.

80% is the shaky number I came up with based on witnessing 5 occurrences. I was a one driver that got pulled over. I've seen 4 other drivers attempt it and only one didn't get pulled over.
An old patent years before they acquired Skype, one among thousands Microsoft files, doesn't mean that it has any plans of actually doing this.

Sigh, tech press.
Sorry, but I think I missed something here. First, this article is from last July. Second, it says that it's based on the US law named CALEA. The Wiki article on CALEA says that it covers all VoIP traffic. So.. what's the outrage? That Skype now functions the same way that, say, your VoIP phone service at home does? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm just curious what I'm not seeing.
A Successful Start-Up Story – Founder’s Instinct, Go Direct.
The bootstrap process for gcc involves first building gcc with an existing C compiler, then rebuilding gcc from this first build [1].

I'm still waiting for my build to finish, but i686-apple-darwin11-llvm-gcc-4.2 seems to be handling the gcc 4.7 source fine.

[1] http://gcc.gnu.org/install/build.html
IBM: Internet security progress made but nasty exploits grow
How would that work? "the wifi device will cause society to end, but the one in your house and in the Starbucks on the corner? Those are just fine." I doubt the type of people who would put these up are the kind of people to buy that line of reasoning.
If that happens, stand up to them too.

What else do you want to do? Lay down and die? Build more sewers and help them elect mullahs? Expand the TSA?

Anyway, you'd be surprised at the degree to which others will actually respect you for standing up to bullying, and winning; and the degree to which appeasement actually fuels more bullying (i.e., terrorism). In practice, what would happen is the opposite of what you think. (But if not, stand up to 'em.)
The article is from July 1st, 2011?