skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
No, I'm not talking about static content, I am talking about dynamic content, which is exactly what Rails is there for. If you only have static content you don't even need Rails, just have the web server deliver it.

I was not talking about "Web Applications" either, which, FYI, are not the same thing as dynamic content. I realize that he mentions in the post that he's mostly talking about Web Applications, but then he's just stating the obvious and the post title should be "For Web Applications, Rails is just an API".
Put Your Inbox in the Upstairs Bathroom
Dramatic words, but fortunately there's a decisive solution. Opt out.

But is there really no value in what FB offers?

For my part, it keeps me connected to friends from school and university and other important activities in life. It reminds me to connect and stay connected. This is valuable - otherwise I can get too focused on work and networking and the random stream of what's latest and loudest.

The UI widgets are not the point. The relationships are.
Having lived in China for the last 1.5 years, I find that the more annoying thing is not when sites get blocked in China. Rather, it's when sites get slowed down due to packet shaping, or something else, just because the site is foreign, has been marked as not nice, or something else. That is REALLY annoying. So of course as soon as I turn on my VPN, there's no problem at all accessing those sites.
Disclaimer: the only iMag I read is Nat Geo.

The original post and your response triggered some thoughts.

1. What if magazines abandoned their traditional chunked delivery and instead delivered article by article? That brings them closer to the blog format, while keeping download times small enough for quick loads. It would also permit the mags to deliver articles first in digital form before they get to print, which might be worth paying extra for in some cases.

2. Would an Amazon-like "people who read this article also read these" recommendations based on anonymized stats be valuable? ... particularly across different "article streams"?

3. How about builtin "letters to the editor/author" that they can republish? Perhaps video/audio forms of feedback?

4. News and analysis mags can push polls about hot issues as a single card?

5. Across-the-board scrapbook feature? One of the things I miss from the paper world is to cut pages and keep them in a collection. Damn! Been a long while since I did that!

6. A "zoomin to expand detail" interface that you can use to skim articles.

edit: fixed typos.
Is Pinterest the next Facebook? - Fortune Tech
"orthogonal" just means "uncorrelated" - not "inversely correlated". Your OP isn't saying those skills are automatically absent in people who code, but rather that ability to code has no bearing on your ability to manage - and vice versa.

Not saying I agree with the OP on that front.
PHP 4 End of Life announcement - cPanel
> mediocracy

Just FYI, the word you're looking for is "mediocrity"
It seems iOS/iTunes does not back up the keychain if you don't encrypt your backups via the iTunes setting.
Photoshop CS6 Beta Download
From my experience too many people are using Photoshop for areas where they should be using Illustrator. In collateral such as logos or signage, vector-based files are infinitely easier to work with, yet I can't tell you how many times I've been given .psd files by designers tasked with such projects.
We get it; you're a Charlie Stross fan.
'Super-connected cities' and video games tax credits
Marvelous Collection of Cloud  Manipulation
There are a couple of existing forks / patches / pull requests with preliminary support for it. Given that its presence in Chromium means it'll probably land in Chrome proper in the next couple of months, we should try to merge and finish support for source maps before then.
> True. I imagine modern compilers optimize this sort of stuff very quickly.

Just checked with Clang (and otool), in Os and O2 the disassembly is exactly the same whether one uses struct accesses or raw pointer assignments.

There are differences in O0 though.
Building underground pizza-eating rat robots (with or without smilies) sound as serious as the original proposal, that didn't include smilies either.
No need to hide them. All you need is a "data limpet", sort of like a limpet mine, but it serves data instead of explosions.

Take a small single board computer, with meshing WiFi, data store and solar power. Put it in a tiny flat cylindrical case with a solar panel on one circular face and a nice strong rare earth magnet on the other. Make them cheap, so they can be mass produced.

The challenge is to then place as many as possible in the most inaccessible spots possible. Attachment methods might include:

* Throw them

* Dangle them from an RC helicopter flying close enough to the target for the magnet to attach.

* Launch them from a trebuchet

* Air canon or rail gun

* Use your imagination. Coolest and most spectacular idea wins.

Locations can be anywhere there is ferrous material, the higher and more inaccessible the better:

* Tops of tall bridges

* Radio masts

* Transmission towers

* Buildings

* ...

Even if the data limpet is in full view, if it is on a sheer face hundreds of metres off the ground, it'll probably take ages to sort out the access difficulties, both physical and legal, to remove it. It would also be an unequal contest, in that removal is a major deal, but placement isn't.

The tech could be applied in any situation where a powerful entity is trying to silence a powerless entity.

Edit: formatting
AutobahnPython 0.5.0 released
An active open source project with an IRC channel might come a long way.
The layer stack system is getting really tired. Here's what I'd like to see:

- Node-based layer system, like Quartz Composer and Max/MSP. Right now, any complex nesting of layer styles has to be done via Smart Objects, which is a terrible hack that has you saving, seeing what the effect on the final image is, then going back and making more changes, repeat.

- It's 2012. There should not be destructive filters anymore. All filters should just be another node in this layout. If you'd like to apply them, you should be able to right click a node and merge everything that feeds into it. Brushes should also be usable as layers. Composite everything.

- Where's this layer system going to go? Obviously, it will go on screen, but how about an iPad app that pairs with Photoshop for displaying and altering it? They already have something sort of like this for tools.

- Photoshop badly needs usable variables of some sort. I'm tired of jumping around 5 different places because I decided I want to change a color.

- Going with the last one, documents should be able to contain multiple images, like Illustrator does. This would be a great addition for icon design, since you could (easily, without ugly hacks) have all of your sizes in the same document. Combine that with variables, and...

- Finally, stop the sucky non-native UI already. Stop replacing perfectly good Cocoa widgets with terrible Air ones.

Adding fancy new features is nice and stuff, but the fundamental UI of this application is getting really dated.
Oh, those poor enterprise developers, such as myself. Everyone can talk all they want about the real world, but it's astounding how big corporations still have their battered employees using IE6.

And I have to develop to that, while all you folks get to build for WebKit. Not fair!

Anyways, I feel like those percentages don't tell a good story. Many of us are still locked into supporting IE6.
Here's an answer to that from a couple hours ago.

https://twitter.com/#!/dhowe/status/182691163936006146

David Howe - ‏ @dhowe - Director of Photoshop Engineering

@ColinHarrington We have looked at Wine on & off, the last time a few years ago. Not usually a high-enough priority given other demands.

12:52 AM - 22 Mar 12
Broken in what sense? That "programming ability" is not the only criteria selected for?

In this case, and in most interview cases, there's already been some vetting done via resume/portfolio/phone, and face to face interviews are as much about personality and team fit as they are about technical competence. Being able to demonstrate that you can think about others socially, include them in to a small ritual, and do it in a way that's memorable without coming across as too cheesy (I don't think I did) is... dare I say, a skill.

I've definitely been on the interviewer side of the table, and if someone had brought in some cookies to munch on, it would bode well. If that's the only thing they do, and they still suck during the interview, no job.

I'd done this a few times over the years, and in a couple cases never even got a followup call back. If it was because of the cookies/cake/snacks/whatever, then I'm glad I don't work at a place that's so uptight/rigid that they can't take some fun.

FWIW, I didn't take a job after that interview, but was offered one.
Not that's an ingenious idea. It wouldn't necessarily need to fly; an operator could catapult it up and let it hook onto a line, and a lead weight in the tail would orientate it like a real bird.

You could either make it disposable (expect it to have a limited lifespan when removed by the authorities), or make it stop transmitting and drop to the ground when it thinks it could be in trouble. Birds tend to be coloured to merge into the undergrowth anyway, and if it drops before it's spotted, it could be very hard to find. An operator would then recover it at a later date.
Ask HN: Why do I find it so difficult to learn to code?
I have been trying to learn how to code using numerous languages for the past 10 years. I go over the same stuff, strings, variables, arrays etc and I possibly get about 100 pages through a book, everything feels great, I'm understanding what I read and I do the examples. For some reason, out of the blue I hit a brick wall and suddenly I feel overwhelmed and stressed, I look at other people's code and it's as if I'm reading Chinese. I get dishearted and eventually stop. After a few weeks/months I repeat the entire process. I've used several languages over the years so I know it's not the language. Is it something I'm destined not to do or could I be doing something wrong?

Can somebody PLEASE help me overcome this problem as I want to code more than anything.

Thanks
The rule is: don't assert your situational power. A woman alone or outnumbered among men is going to feel pressured. Comments you make won't be well received even if she is worried enough by the pressure to smile and hide her discomfort. She'll just curse your name to her friends after work.

Contrast: if you're the only man in a room of women, and the boss is a woman, would you dare speak up with your "nice dress" type comment? That's what it feels like to be on the downside of a power gap.
I'm not good enough to work on open source software
GitHub's JavaScript Styleguide
How To Disappear Completely And Never be Found
Strong parameters: Handle mass assignment in controller instead of model
I am shocked, SHOCKED sir, that you could possibly suspect anyone would write a humorous piece without smilies!

I am sure Jonathan Swift is spinning in his grave.
The last big web app I worked on cached the page components. For example, the "Latest images" section is cached, but the "Logged in user (11 new mails)" section isn't. (Or as another poster suggests, use AJAX for that stuff).

You can still get away with caching large parts of your pages though.
And screen scraping!
Chrome Became World’s Most Popular Browser…For a Day
Microsoft readying Windows 8 for "resolutionary" tablets
Is this app really too sexy for your iphone?
for a moment i thought he will propose implating chips on live rats.
How about dosbox for that kind of job ?
I've found https://kippt.com/ very handy.
I could see this being possibly useful in traffic "wave" disruption. I've read on the traffic wave theory before and there has been some ideas that if the wave could be disrupted long enough to clear out that it would dissolve and traffic would start to flow again at its normal pace. I suppose that disruption could be done by police cars allowing buffers to build thus disrupting the wave.

Can you tell I find this field fascinating? Full disclosure I have a degree in Operations Research.
Verizon: Biggest threat to corporate nets in 2011? Hactivists, not cybercrooks
The cynic would say: Why were you working on a mundane problem? That's for some other nameless jr. dev to fix while you focus on the high-profile-yet-easy stuff.
7 simple steps for thwarting hactivists
One reason might be that if you can reduce the effects of traffic you can make our economy more efficient and improve civic life.

Also, the theory that is used to model the behavioral aspects of traffic flow could very well apply to other areas of the social sciences. So a researcher trying to solve a different problems might read this problem and be able to apply the model to his own area of research.
Sunny Leone Learns Hindi
France announces crackdown on people reading extremist Web sites
I believe that limit was lifted as of the iPhone 3GS (i.e., for OpenGL ES 2.0 devices and greater).
If you haven't seen Twitter errors recently that just means you haven't been working with the Twitter API enough.
FTA, quoting French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in the wake of the death of the guy who confessed to murdering schoolkids and soldiers: "From now on, any person who habitually consults websites that advocate terrorism or that call for hate and violence will be punished."
Two words: Hacker News.
Déjà vu: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1626403
I have to disagree. I've had to manage a team of around 40 people who compete nationally (not tech per se, but I believe the same applies in a work place), and it only takes one person with the behaviour you describe to completely wreck how everyone operates and gets along.

We went from a tight knit, supportive group to being watchful of what we say, wondering who's out to get us and generally having to "watch our backs". Loyalties were split, motives were changed and within a matter of weeks it was an incredibly poisonous atmosphere.

If you want to get ahead - be better than those you're competing against. Don't try to undermine them, it does get noticed and unfortunately - for a small personal gain you're causing a hell lot more damage without even realising.
Something new is something good
> This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war. [...] These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we're building, that's more than enough.

Am I missing something here? Someone would just have to pull the plug on whatever "base station" these LOSS are connecting to and/or go right for the uplink to the "intarwebs" and take them off the web completely. If they could strong-arm the Swedish police amongst others into raiding the hosting facilities in the past, "coercing" cooperation from an up-stream ISP shouldn't be a problem?
Wouldn't a sniper rifle "remove the mine" from the MPAA's perspective?
You need IE for some of its feature such as Datasheet View, multiple file upload, etc.

They don't show up in Chrome. But that doesn't mean you can use Chrome. Just less productive.
Balloons don't require anchor cables if you give them some rotors. Use the propellers to keep within a certain area, but you don't need to expend so much energy on lift.

On the one hand, helium is running out. On the other hand, hydrogen explodes.
Find the Right Social Media Balance
Nvidia finally releases a 28nm Kepler-based GPU, the GTX 680
Woman buy a _lot_ of cosmetics.
Google Analytics “Not Provided” is a Double Standard
I use Doppler now. http://dopplerapp.com

What is better about Nezumi?
Some Kids are Making a Battlestar Galactica Viper Flight Simulator
Pivotal Tracker - Chrome Extension
Another issue, but also there: PNG images above a certain height failed to load on the iPhone 4. We were facing that problem with our mobile testing tool. Converting the images to JPG solved the problem.
Pivotal Tracker - Mac OS X App
Yes, I've since had a lawyer create a better contract for me.

Definitely need to look at how to better communicate with such clients, handling expectations and getting everybody on the same page is the hardest thing about contracting if you ask me.
really? How do you separate thousands? $5,999,00 ?
Could It Be Nokia That Beats-Out Apple In Mobile?
Very interesting numbers - would you happen to have a source for them ? Is that the traffic for Openstreetmap.org's Mapnik tiles ?
Doing that in an urban area will get you in a lot of trouble, even if you're police.
Patrick said "Buy your team dinner". That's what I was referring to. Buying a round of drinks is a very different thing, IMO. It's perfectly natural and social behaviour in many cultures.
Why this works with Safari and not with Chrome? Need help with impress.js
Yesterday we published in HN this link: http://thedoersproject.com/presentations/ixd/#/why

It's a presentation we made hacking a bit impress.js.
We realized that it doesn't show up correctly with Chrome & Safari at the same time (so sorry, btw, to have shared a crap link!!!). When it works with Safari, it doesn't with Chrome and viceversa.
We think there might be a problem with zindex, but we didn't manage to solve it so far. Does anyone have any clue? Thank you sooooooo much!! Irene
Personally I really enjoyed this answer:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/r62jp/iama_nasa_astron...
An anecdotal counterpoint:

I joined dropbox when I heard from a friend how well-designed it was. I then proceeded to sign up for it _despite_ my frustration at the video-only front page. I never did watch the video.
I just wanted to review the book, so far (half way through) I'm learning a lot! like the juxtaposing trick and the lorem text tip.

Thanks :) Brilliant
Why my cookies turned green: a post on chemistry
Actually I haven't read him, but I'm told I should.
Why do you want to learn to code so badly?
GNU liberated software, and software users. Long live the revolution!
This is excellent advice. I already discovered some of it (the hard way), but much is new. Many thanks to the author for posting such a compendium.

Many people don't care, but when you run code (written in Clojure) on the JVM, use multi-gigabyte heaps and require API response times below 20ms, this type of tuning becomes critical.
Building HavenCo: A hosting provider in the country of SeaLand [Video]
I hope they're devoting some resources to Fireworks. For web & mobile app graphics I find it far more effective than Photoshop but there are still a lot of rough edges to smooth out.
not sure this hasn't already been studied

there is probably some theory of traffic that this strategy is based on

http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/story/_/id/7128930/colo...

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/transport/2011/10/rolling...
Nope...

<quote>
Update: Shortly after this article was published we learned that the order in question has been vacated.
It turns out that the order was drafted by a defense attorney and Judge Schumacher apparently signed it by mistake, assuming all parties agreed on it. This is bad news for the defendants and means that the mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in Florida state courts are very much alive for now.<quote>
Start without looking at other people's code. Think of simple projects you could do, and do them from scratch. Even highly experienced contractors have a difficult time going over other large projects if they are not familiar with the code.

Don't try to make everything perfect from the first time. Make it work, then you can improve it.

Build a simple tool first, such as a video converter or a timesheet management tool or even the classic blog, calculator, image gallery etc.

You will hit not one, but many brick walls, you just need to know how to find a way to go over them. If the problems you are trying to solve when you hit the brick wall are too complex, divide them into smaller things you can tackle independently.

While you are doing this, keep on reading about programming as well as secondary processes that can make your life easier.

And finally, use an IDE, not notepad, learn to do TDD and how to use a profiler. You'll save yourself a lot of time.

I hope this helps you.
Your Facebook password should be none of your boss' business
Scientists Devise a Blood Test to Predict Heart Attack
Job applicants must give email and Facebook passwords
It actually works. Doppler had problems with the new Cedar stack when I was using it.
Anyone have a cheat sheet on using phantomjs as a drop-in replacement for wkhtmltopdf? http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/

For the superior completely headless qualities? There was a post on HN almost 400 days ago where someone claimed wkhtmltopdf's PDF output quality was superior to phantomjs - anyone know if that's changed with this release?
I've been building a wrapper to enable PhantomJS as a "remote testing library" for RobotFramework (to do exactly what you described): https://github.com/datakurre/phantomrobot (and http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/ for info about robot framework).
BrowserID is pretty cool in my opinion. It gives identity providers a lot of flexibility in how they can confirm users identity including multi factor auth or physical tokens.
Any luck with Chrome Frame? I've pushed that fairly successfully at previous clients. FUD aside (from MS mainly), it's really a great solution I think for anyone forced to deal with legacy IE6 installs.

http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/
Sans the copper, they do this over here in the UK by using variable speed limits, hard shoulder 'opening' and the real threat of speed cameras.

Seems to work in my albeit anecdotal and very occasional experience of driving near Birmingham in rush hour. Would be interested to hear the perspective on UK HNers who were aorund before/after they implemented this.

And they're using it more and more:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13426799
How I made an iPhone App in less than 24 hours: Putting it all together
A Short Lesson in Perspective
PHP Ad Tracker Part III: Data Object Coding
This week, we’ll examine the code for the data object class file and how the other parts of the site will use these methods. First, we include the database connection string information. This information includes the database server name, cursor location and other pertinent information.
Fireworks is far, far better for UI design, both for native apps and for web apps. I wished I'd discovered it a long time ago. I hardly ever even launch PS anymore but I use Fireworks all the time.
You should link directly to the Viper site, not a linkbait blog.

https://sites.google.com/site/mf2012theviper/
Flat Rs.1,700 cash back on a minimum purchase of Rs.20,000 by Seventymm
Today I wrote some code
I differ with that line of thought in that I don't think it's inevitable. Which is why I think it's so important to push for it. As the US Republican primary shows, there are plenty of people who'd like to roll back things from decades to centuries.
Agreed. I got the app free through a promo code and it's not with $9.99. At most, $5.

I can see what the developer is doing, targeting a niche market of developers - but when there are cheaper alternatives I think the price still has to remain competitive.
While it does kinda suck if your usecase needs Flash, I think the reasoning was solid. Being able to truly run headless in a barebones command line environment is more important than supporting Flash, in its waning years.

Then, of course, there's also this:

Issues are reported but nobody volunteers to analyze or fix them