skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Maybe if you are a close watcher of BofA you didn't learn anything; below are some of things about BofA I didn't know before reading this article:

"controls more than 12 percent of America's bank deposits (skirting a federal law designed to prohibit any firm from controlling more than 10 percent), as well as 17 percent of all American home mortgages."

"AMBAC, the second-largest bond insurer in America, went bankrupt in 2010 after paying out some $466 million in claims over 35,000 Countrywide home loans. After analyzing a dozen of the mortgage pools, AMBAC found that a staggering 97 percent of the loans didn't meet the stated underwriting standards."

"In the first half of last year, Bank of America paid $12.7 billion to settle claims brought by defrauded customers."

"Allstate claims it got stuck with $700 million in defective mortgages from Countrywide. The states of Iowa, Oregon and Maine, as well as the United Methodist Church, are suing Bank of America over fraudulent deals, claiming hundreds of billions in collective losses. And there are similar lawsuits for nonmortgage-related securities…Merrill Lynch brokers allegedly dumped $944 million in auction-rate securities … even though the brokers knew that the auction-rate market was already going bust. "

"for instance, intentionally ding depositors with bogus overdraft fees. (A class action suit accused Bank of America of heisting some $4.5 billion from its customers this way; the bank settled the suit for a mere 10 cents on the dollar.)"

"paid a $137 million fine for its sabotage of the government-contracting process"

"Last year, the bank was sued, alongside some of its competitors, for conspiring to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate."

"As part of an $8.4 billion settlement it entered into with multiple states over predatory lending practices, the bank agreed to provide homeowners with modified loans … the bank "materially and almost immediately violated" the terms, according to Nevada Attorney General"

"Just a few weeks ago, the government charged Bank of America with violating the Fair Housing Act"

"Last December, the bank settled with the Justice Department for $335 million over Countrywide's practice of dumping risky subprime loans on qualified black and Hispanic borrowers."

"In South Carolina, Bank of America won a contract to distribute unemployment benefits through prepaid debit cards – and then charged multiple fees to jobless folk who had the gall to withdraw their money from anywhere other than a Bank of America ATM. "

"they asked the bank to move a chunk of that mess from Merrill Lynch onto Bank of America's own balance sheet. Why? Because Bank of America is a federally insured depository institution. Which means that the FDIC, and by extension you and me, is now on the hook for as much as $55 trillion in potential losses. Black, the former regulator, calls the transfer an "obscenity. As a regulator, I would have never allowed it. Transferring risk to the insured institution crosses the reddest of red lines."
Not sure if those are still accepted in Europe; fairly sure they no longer work.
Readability, Yet Another iOS App UX on Android
Why not link to the original forum posting?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=125840
Why Systems Programmers Still Use C (2006)
I've always wondered why Mint.com doesn't offer white-label services like this to financial institutions. They've got the UX down really well and they seem poised to offer a lot of cool features in this space if they could offer a tighter integration with banks.
There is two links to steve jobs' talks [1][2] that are not rendered because of some kind of typo. the opening tag of which i believe is intended to be an anchor tag is "nota" instead of "a".

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmG9jzCHtSQ
USAA limits passwords to 12 characters. That means they're doing something wrong for password storage.

Although they offer 2-factor auth, only the SMS option is any good. If you choose Symantec VIP, your login consists of the VIP token and your 4 digit pin, rather than the VIP token and your password. A 4 digit pin does not provide much more security than the VIP token alone. I don't understand why they buddied up with Symantec rather than implementing OATH.

I know they're a good bank, but I can't get past those technical issues.
OOP obfuscate our programs by blurring the frontier between data and treatment. I can't agree more, since I made the mistake quite a few times myself.
* small credit unions can't offer all the fancy featurs of a multinational (like automatic online bill pay or whatever).*

I'm with a credit union now and it offers bill pay (with lots of features). I don't know if it can be set to completely automatic since I like to check each bill prior to money leaving my account, but bills show up in my account for me to examine and I click pay. Takes about 30 seconds or so. Their service will also cut checks and mail them to people for things like rent or my current water utility that only accepts payments sent through the mail. This is included and has no additional charge. They also have great loan rates, and it's nice to deal with friendly local people.
The airplanes wouldn't drop like flies, but you could probably make a plane divert in bad weather by jamming the NAV frequencies.
I agree. I read this guys book, and it was similar quality.
This is such a non issue. The differences between launchers are minimal in icon themes, and widgets. Some offer a little better performance, customization and effects.

Most users can switch between launchers with no problems and this is the right the call for samsung, because it is their differentiator. If any user wanted to experiment and switch to a more stock launcher they can easily do it by looking in the app store. Theres no penalty to switching launchers so if a user actually took a little effort they could do it no problem, otherwise they're happy with what they got out the door.
I use 1215b with E450 and I can agree that it's a good product.

I'm also using 6Gb RAM in it, but I don't understand purpose to put SSD in such book.

If you put SSD in 1215b - price becomes comparable with ASUS UX21E. "True" ultrabook.
I am not making the same thing, but similar technique going on here.

FBRemix (very early state): http://www.fbremix.com

Edit: Source code https://github.com/jeswin/fbremix
I think a lot of the value of a talk is that it is constrained. It takes much less time to read than to hear the same words, so talks must be delivered with fewer words.

Constraints are paradoxical in a way. Most (all?) forms of art are subject to constraints, and in some ways are defined by them. That could be a musical structure, or a medium. After all, wouldn't origami be easier with scissors and glue? For that matter, maybe you could just use a 3D printer, and it would look more realistic. But that takes away the art.

So what does the constraint of a talk -- fewer words -- have to offer? I think it changes the message to focus more on convincing the audience to care about the topic, and less about the details. In writing, you have to account for many of the objections someone might raise without being too boring. When giving a talk, you can just convince the audience to care, and then they will request clarifications along the way.

Some of those clarifications are during the talk and can be settled immediately. Some are during the "hall track" of a conference, or in follow-up blog posts. After a presidential speech, a lot of the clarifications are handled by the press secretary.

So, a talk is a different structure of information flow, and I don't think it's inferior in that regard to writing.
Most of those don't have a decent graphics card that can run 1080p video and do H.264 decoding in hardware like the AppleTV. They make great Linux boxes, but are lacking in the media center department.
It's hardly so black and white, writing or speaking. For instance tweets are in many ways more similar to talking than writing, it's not something you think a lot about, but more like a long conversation where it is important to keep people interested while actually providing some information.
My cousin's ex-husband is a pilot for Southwest. He says he never turns his phone off because it doesn't matter and is a stupid rule.
Apple Conference Call
So how is Mass effect 3 going to do this :-) does sound like the guardians found some one who's obsessed with a single issue and is trying to write some link bait.
The problem is lack of leadership. Who do you mean by "the government"? There are only people in government service and none of them are beating the drum that too big to fail is too big to exist.
> Being a really good speaker is not merely orthogonal to having good ideas, but in many ways pushes you in the opposite direction.

You didn't say "trying to be a good speaker pushes you in the opposite direction of having good ideas"; you said "being", which implies some kind of essence / gift. You are effectively saying, in this sentence, that the gift of speak hinders one's ability to produce good ideas.
Er, I've never used a OO language that didn't allow you to add new operations freely without modifying a class. Not all of them allow you to add new methods, sure, but new functions and operators are par for the course.

And surely you're not arguing the defining feature of a class is that it's closed?
The New iPad is the perfect name
AOL blog spam.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=125840
[users] would totally freak out if they OK’d an over-the-air software update that completely changed the entire UI of their phone

Microsoft does this every year with the XBox 360, and it doesn't seem to have caused anyone any major problems. Progress is difficult, but that doesn't mean we should stop progressing.
> The journal companies essentially have a monopoly on the market. They must and should be broken up for the good of scientific research. The studies were funded by the public, and should be accessible to the public.

The problem is that almost by definition, they have a monopoly on "the market", since each paper is unique and non-fungible, and therefore arguably a separate market. A university can't decide not to subscribe to Cell, for example, and instead get the same research from other journals. This is a good thing (since it means research effort isn't being duplicated), but it means you can't just "break up" a publisher to bring pricing in line with a competitive market.
Article fails to deliver on the premise.
The big fuel tank has significant foam insulation because its two major fuel components are kept very cold (liquid oxygen at -300F/-180C; liquid hydrogen at -420F/-250C) and the external surface gets fairly hot at the speeds the shuttle travels.

Lockheed designed the tank with insulation outside the main shell, and it's never held together very well. I've spoken to retired engineers from another company who designed a competing tank with internal insulation; they're still upset their version didn't get picked. I've never heard a clear explanation as to the specific reasoning for Lockheed or NASA's decisions.

Of particular note, the Columbia disaster was caused by one of those foam pieces breaking off during takeoff and damaging the thermal protective tiles on the shuttle's wing. During re-entry, the edge of the wings reaches a temperature of around 3000 F; damage to the protective tiles basically allowed hot air to burn through the wing.
I'd be happy to tell everyone why. For a nominal* fee, of course.
The US is going completely authoritarian, and it's becoming more and more scary by the day. It is an extremely serious situation when the most powerful country in the world starts acting like this. Fascism is dangerous, and the US is walking a very thin line now.

Without question root DNS control needs to be stripped from this regime. Imagine for a second if the Internet was controlled by Nazi Germany, or Stalin-era Russia, or today's China... It would be completely unacceptable. If control is not taken away from these thugs now it will only get harder in the future.
We all use smart cards and no one pays at point of transport...
Austin, the next Silicon Valley? Robert Scoble on SXSW Trends
I question BofA's business practices and relationship with the government as much as the next guy, but this:

"a huge portfolio of dangerous bets into a side of the company that happens to be FDIC-insured, putting all of us on the hook for as much as $55 trillion in irresponsible gambles. "

Fairly certain that $55 trillion approaches the overall GDP of the global economy. Its super easy to make compelling arguments about BofA without resorting to such exaggerations.
This is an incredibly astute take on privacy. I particularly like the "Right amount of privacy" paragraph -- the concise explanation of a the user's requirement for a continuum of options that adapt to personal situations is something I'd love to see done right.
10 great lessons to take from SXSW 2012
There are multiple ways to do this. UsrMerge still isn't required.
Getting 100x better search performance on Riak
Three ways Britney Spears (yes, really) can boost your start-up
How does U.S. Bank compare to BOA?
The Banks Win, Again
Internet connectivity in India is increasing almost exponentially and in next five years half of the country (500+ million) is going to be connected to internet. In such times, when ecosystem is changing, market is getting bigger and there is an unprecedented growth of user base, there will be, sooner rather than later, when many very good startups will be visible in the Indian market. However, a regulation like this is surely going to adversely affect the Indian startup environment. It's not going to benefit anyone, and now founders have to bother to pay tax when they could be writing code and working on their product. Who will explain the <ignorant+foolish> government!
I work in an academic setting and most of us use writing to convey our ideas and use the speaking opportunity to advertise the things we have written about. So a good academic speech needs to have low idea density to serve its purpose. It should only present the core ideas to get the audience interested in reading what you have written. I am sure if pg starts to see his speeches performing a different function than the writings he will enjoy the speaking assignments more.
they are quite reliable if you don't turn them off which is what colossus did
Echelon 2012 Philippines Satellite: Hunt for the Best Startups in Manila
By 'the government' I mean Congress and all the relevant regulators such as the SEC and the Fed...

...and please don't imagine to the temptation that the world is not the way you want it because of the lack of a leader, or something. This stuff is heavily politicized and very complicated, and part of that complication is because of the generations of regulators who said 'something must be done'.
Apple about to announce dividend program?
HCI- some history (Alan Kay, 1993)
I don't think the .COM vs DE extension is as relevant as what type of interaction your web site is having with American citizens. ( Selling pharma/torrents/gaming etc )

They'll grab your NET/COM/ORG address in a heartbeat, but I think actually extraditing a person would require:

a: that person residing someplace that bends to US will. ( damn near everywhere )

b: costing US interests enough $$$ to piss them off.

Even if they don't extradite, you might find yourself arrested at the airport if you ever make a connecting flight through the good old US of A.
I wonder how that works out with the crazy new ipad resolution. If that's the future, maybe we can have those one-size-fits-all vector icons eventually.
Still a Fast-Food Nation: Eric Schlosser Reflects on 10 Years Later
It might pay in certain cases to get directly from the horse's mouth. Talk to web programmers of various stripes to get an idea of what's suitable for you.

Talk to project managers too, but do remember if you ask a PM, you will get a long project plan that will take months - while the market changes right beneath your feet. The reverse applies for programmers, but at least you get to meet people who may be interested in actually working on your actual product
I doubt a credit card is going to do much for me if I receive substandard beer or coffee. :)

I do use credit-cards for purchases of physical items. European cards don't typically give cash-back or bonus points, though.
What I find utterly dumbfounding is how some of the journals get away with charging everyone money. First, the journals charge the labs publishing fees. Then, the journals turn around and charge the Universities access fees. It is sheer lunacy.

I wish the NIH or NSF would require that all published studies from their grants be placed in the public domain.
11 Pro Tips for Unmissable Talking Head Videos
Ever heard of "Low orbit server stations"?
> "there wasn't a big decrease when the chutes deployed. It took a while."

They take some time to completely expand. They're actually deployed in a constricted ("reefed") configuration, and then after several seconds they're allowed to fully open.

They're also trying to slow down a large piece of metal -- the booster rockets are about 150 feet long and weigh about 200,000 pounds (empty weight) each. The chutes produce a lot of force, but they're pulling on a lot of mass too (acceleration = force/mass.)

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Boos...
There are worse banks. For example, Regions Financial quietly slid into positive tangible common equity with the $900M offering last week (for the past few years it was actually negative ...)

Bloomberg had a reasonably coherent discussion: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/stress-tests-pass-f...

FTA:

The footnotes to the company’s latest financial statements tell the story.
There, the Birmingham, Alabama-based lender disclosed that the loans on its books
were worth $8.1 billion less than what its balance sheet said, as of Dec. 31. By
comparison, the company’s tangible common equity, a bare-bones measure of net worth,
was $7.6 billion.

So if it weren’t for the inflated loan values, Regions’ tangible common equity would
have been less than zero, with liabilities exceeding hard assets.

EDIT: fixed formatting -- I wish that there were a way to indicate that a quoted block should be wrapped
If a high beam headlight could really cause harmful interference with the vision of approaching car drivers, they would not be allowed at all. Right?

Here's a sampling of interference events: http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/docs/rpsts/ped.pdf (edit: only some of them are about EMI interference)

Instruments acting up won't automatically cause a crash. But they may contribute to the accident (ref AF447)

http://www.cvel.clemson.edu/pdf/nasa-rp1374.pdf - some examples of what lack of EMI shielding can do.
There is one good reason to turn off your phone however: the phone searching for new cell towers drains the battery quickly.
You raise an excellent point, thought there's no reason there can't be multiple rationales here.
Apple to Announce Plans for Massive Cash Balance
I couldn't get past the backwards bending royal ass kissing.
I suspect that its a different matter of updating for Android phone users, who may not be tech savvy and have just gotten the phone the AT&T store handed them, versus the much younger and more technical Xbox 360 demographic. Edit: And don't see why this wouldn't apply to iOS, too.
>At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time.

And with that, I could stop reading. If I had noticed it was Taibbi I could have saved myself a few seconds.
As someone who's passed as a native in physics, biology, compsci, and math, this is peculiar to biology, or rather to the culture of academic biology today, where the laurels go to those who can make the biggest mountain out of their molehill of data. Thus you have grand assertions, followed by a slide with a dozen gels, half of which are blurred, which show that under some very strenuous assumptions and some very particular conditions, something might be a certain way if you squint hard enough.

Journal length limits are partially responsible for the culture of bad writing in academic biology, but it cannot explain why most of my colleagues in biology could not express technical ideas clearly in writing even without length limits.

If you go to the older literature you will find papers much clearer than any biology talk I've heard. Arthur Koch's papers on cell shape are good examples. There was also a culture of monographs that is missing today. The best examples I can think of off the top of my head are one by Henrici (http://www.archive.org/details/morphologicvaria00henr) and Schrodinger's 'What is life?'(whatislife.stanford.edu/LoCo_files/What-is-Life.pdf ) are the two examples that occur to me off the top of my head, or Chargaff's scientific essays in 'Heraclitean Fire'.

Disclaimer: I loathe the culture of academic biology and believe that most of its practitioners should be defunded in favor of serious biological research.
How much math do I need to know to program? Not That Much, Actually.
Why we do not have un-paid internships
Amateur radio as a source of innovation
My understanding was that while the device is certainly powerful enough to power apps, the UI Toolkit is simply not ready yet for normal devs to use. I'd love to developer apps for this.
There is nothing wrong with assuming something that is false. Doing so and coming to a contradiction is a common way of disproving the premise.

Also, you missed the point. The premise is that heavier weights fall faster. The cleverness in the argument rests in consider what happens when you break a heavy rock into two differently-sized pieces. Using the premise each should fall slower than the whole; but what changed? Do they somehow know that they are separated? Of course not, that's nonsense. There is no "knowing" if they are one object or two. Therefore everything falls at the same rate. Which is true assuming no atmosphere.

The argument is still valid in the presence of an atmosphere, all you have to do is ensure similar drag coefficients.
You(and the other commenters) prompted me to do something I've been meaning to do for a while: Get my code on github.

The actor system (Haxe highlighting is broken):
https://github.com/triplefox/triad/blob/master/dev/com/ludam...
And example:
https://github.com/triplefox/triad/blob/master/examples/Sour...
Probably a hold over from the technocratic centrally planed socialist economy of the 70's.

Taxing capital investment is an insane idea I expect the Lib Dem part of the ConDem coalition to be lobbying for it (in order to bribe the mums net members whos family income is > $120k with tax credits)

I am only slightly joking about the last part.
You can generate a new address for every transaction and thus remain untrackable.
That the total liabilities referred to are $55T is a fact. That the FDIC would be capable of paying out even a small fraction of that is an exaggeration, though.
Thunderbird 11 arrives with tabs on top, IM coming in future version
Yes to your first sentence; I'm not sure about the rest.

I couldn't help but feel this essay was in response to an earlier HN thread where his speaking style was criticized a bit for its unpolished nature & being essentially "un-listenable to" on a podcast somewhere.

IF that is the case, then he seems to have missed the point that no matter how much good content you have, if you are so unpolished that you can't deliver the message effectively, you almost may as well not talk.

"no one, uhm, is, uhm, going to, uhm, sit still for, uhm, and hour and a half, of, uhm..."