skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The whole trend of bending the rules and pushing what's acceptable is rather frightening. Living in Ontario, Canada, I haven't heard of instances where any friends of mine were compelled to open up their Facebook profile. Could it be that it's just a matter of time ? It used to be that we worried about getting three good job references and not having a clean social network slate. Not having a FB account is looking pretty good to me, not that it didn't before.
So the way the OCD works is that I HAVE to have my documents formatted a certain way (e.g. characters per line), the time stamps a certain nice number, or I get super angry at myself. I HAVE to begin and finish eating, sleeping, and working at certain hours of the day. It suddenly arose within the last 8 months or so and I have no idea what causes it.
Why is this scary?

What I find scary is that so many people seem to feel dissatisfied with TV at 1080p. I can't make out any pixels at that resolution unless the source material has high-contrast pixel edges (i.e. not camera captured images) and the screen is taking up most of my visual field.
The Genetic Algorithm ("genetic algorithms" is actually a misnomer) actually has little to do with biology except for original inspiration. It is simply one of a number of sample-based methods for doing global stochastic optimization.

There's an old saying about the Genetic Algorithm: that it's the "third best way to do anything". Stochastic optimization methods (or "metaheuristics") in general are knowledge-poor methods, essentially last-ditch techniques where you don't have any other known way to solve your problem and you don't want to jump off the cliff into random or brute-force search. They rely on a central heuristic: that similar candidate solutions will likely have similar performance (the "smoothness" criterion).

Here's the thing. There are a huge and growing number of crunchy problems in this category. If you're trying to find a good tic-tac-toe solution, you can almost certainly do better than a stochastic optimization method (just use state-space search, say). But if what if you're trying to find the set of behaviors for a two-thousand-agent multiagent simulation model which produces statistics most closely resembling known historical data? Or what if you're trying to find the best parameters for optimizing an aircraft engine whose space is filled with local optima? It's ugly problems like these, for which there is no principled solution method, where the Genetic Algorithm and its ilk reign supreme. You might say that you never see problems in computer science which are "best solved using genetic algorithms". My answer is: your daily problems are too simple to need them.

Book plug: you might enjoy my free online text on the subject, called Essentials of Metaheuristics. You can also get it in paperback. http://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/book/metaheuristics/
Jelly Gamat Luxor | Agen Resmi
I think that if the meaning of "knowing" wasn't questioned, nobody would have bothered to answer what it is.

Edit: And I don't think that "bad" is really pertaining to this discussion.

Edit2: Oh, lookie, the submission is dead now. But why? It would have certainly spurred an interesting debate, furthermore when the results were shown in the future.
First Round Capital Brings On Scribd’s Jack Leidlein As Head Of Talent
I think this person answered this question perfectly:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3790563
Isn't Microsoft doing silent updates for XP users too? I thought everyone on XP was getting IE8?
Could you elaborate on that? I think the idea of using text images while promoting SEO is funny, and the idea of attacking your potential customer in your pitch, but what else? I'd like to know what you thought.
I'm just graduating with my BS, and I just know general tag usage in html like <img> <video> etc and absolutely no CSS, because I have never made a website or tried to.

My only attempts at javascript were demoing webgl and then I wanted to throw my screen at the wall.

So something like this is nice - I should know how to make web sites, if only to say I know how. Its a good skill.
What's illegal is discriminating against a candidate based on protected information. Knowing that information isn't illegal, but it opens you up to a discrimination lawsuit, because it's very difficult to prove that your decision wasn't motivated by that information.

This is why background checks are usually done by third parties. A background check will inevitably find out information that you're not supposed to discriminate upon - having it done by a third party means that the people actually making the decision don't know that information. (And more important, you can prove that they didn't know it)
I can only assume that "West Asian" was intended to be "East Asian" instead, as "West Asian" isn't a category I can say I've heard used very much at all.
While I have complete respect for @raganwald, I find it somewhat disturbing that he would even begin to implement or go along with this policy. I can't imagine asking an interviewee to login to their private facebook account, any more than their private email or dating website.

The answer should have been no at the first suggestion and I hope he amends his blog to indicate that even the few times he did this was completely wrong, in addition to placing the company in a tenuous legal situation. As an interviewee, I would be outraged and walk out.
Really? That's fantastic for them and ThemeForrest
I did not say that they did not work. I said that they were not the best solution. Other algorithms will usually do the trick at a fraction of the cost :-)
Hehe, and I just commented how un-Ontarian the whole story was.
Your headline offends my sensibilities.
> If you could measure them perfectly, there would be a loss

Again, how do you know?

Below someone says diet follows the laws of thermodynamics. That's hogwash. While our bodies certainly follow all laws of physics, that has nothing to do with diet.

We are perfectly capable of expelling unconsumed dietary energy.
I love this guy's work. But this makes me want to pull the violins.
Someone requested a new password for your account. Maybe they were actually trying to log in, forgot their password and mixed the username up, maybe because they thought they had (malicious) access to the corresponding mail box, maybe because the new passwords are easier to crack than arbitrary ones...
I've done some hiring of math tutors for a small tutoring company I used to run and I was extremely diligent about reference checking. It made a big difference. I never got a bad reference, but I got some where there were pauses on the other end of the line that made me curious. I was naive then and hired the people anyway. In one case it was worth it, but in both cases, it became clear early on what might give pause. Other than that it helped because a lot of people with cheerful demeanor and astonishing resumes simply disappeared when it became clear that I really did make calls and verify every degree they listed. That happened with a lot of people.
A Lesson From Google: Why Innovation Is the Key to Your Company's Future
After the first one? Yes. This is the reason I unfollowed r/technology over on Reddit, it's the same stuff (ACTA and SOPA and PIPA! Oh my!) day in, and day out. I appreciate being informed about badly written laws that could impact the internet and its users.

What I don't appreciate is echo-chamber hand-wringing over how horrible a certain law is, day in, and day out. Yeah, I agree with the folks saying the laws are crap, but there's not going to be any productive discussion there - just a group bitchfest, which while cathartic, gets precisely nothing done.

Put another way, it gets boring after the third time or so.
It's called moral courage because it requires hard decisions and sacrifice, and leaves you open to suffer barbs from fools who seek to make themselves look and feel better.

It's not called "moral no-shit-sherlock-easy-choice." It's called moral courage because of people like you.

(full disclosure: I don't know the grandparent poster, I don't know his situation. But I do know how bad you can be made to look when making the right choice, usually by callow jackanapes.)
My first proper web app was ProgrammerMeetDesigner.com. It was a meeting ground for programmers and designers (and later entrepreneurs) who wanted to work together. Wrote it from scratch in PHP with a MySQL backend, launched in 2006, sold it a year later. It's still pretty much unchanged.
How the Internet (Yes, the Internet) Can Solve the Housing Crisis
Started learning to code with Turbo Pascal when I was 10 and I am now 30. Which puts me in the 20+ years bracket . . . holy crap I have been coding for two decades!
In August, I suggested that the only way we'd see lasting success/popularity for G+ was to build a really great game brand, and that we couldn't do this if we were publishing a mix of (a) Zynga games and (b) decent but not brand-defining games like Angry Birds (non-defining because it was already popular by then). I got a few people together and we came up with a plan for saving the Games brand by courting indie developers. A plan that would have worked, and that likely would have made G+ into something. I had massive support (including about 2/3 of the G+ Games team, because who wants to support Farmville instead of doing something cool?) among the engineers and a lot of people said they'd contribute on a 20% basis (even though 20%T was clearly dying).

This drew a lot of attention to me. Positive attention from everyone who cared about games or the actual success of G+. Negative attention from the higher-ups because they were afraid of another RNCH.

Googlers don't talk about it for fear of losing their jobs, but the engineers hate the Real Names policy. It's probably 80 to 90 percent opposition. Here was another mini-RN (even titled "Real Games") that I inadvertently started in my first 3 months by pointing out that the direction we were taking with games was going to set a historical record for missed opportunities. A weird and harrowing experience. I really did not anticipate that positing a good idea and getting a lot of popular support would lead to adversity. I underestimated the degree (and I still do) to which people would entrench themselves with bad ideas.

I still stand by the fact that I was completely and utterly right. The only way I can see a general-purpose social network beating Facebook is by having great games, and by having a very high average quality (a "we won't waste your time" ideology). This requires being extremely editorial about what you accept. This is hard for Google because it made its name by being non-editorial, which is admirable and stately for web search but inappropriate for games, especially because those shitty Zynga games were (in 2011) the #1 cited cause of social network fatigue.

I didn't get fired, because I don't think Google knows how to fire people. (If it did, there'd be boxes at the desks of most of their executives.) I left in good standing when I realized that (a) I had years of C++ legacy maintenance ahead of me, because that's what most of the work at Google is, and (b) it would take several years before I'd actually be able to really contribute. Not being able to save the Games product was pretty discouraging.

This is what people keep talking about here on HN with regard to me and Google. That, and the fact that I got mixed up with one of the most ineffective means of communication (an internal mailing list that rhymes with henge-risk) I've ever encountered.
Do explain how and why so many CS graduates hold on to cargo-cult notions?
Do you think the idea of searching for this information perhaps a bit ironic in this context?
If he'd have said portable bash scripts, then Windows can't do it without cygwin.
Catcha turns website security into a game of ‘spot the cat’
My answer, not really, but what that part of me that flies off the handle feels like answering:

Dear interviewer,

This is not a reference. I don't respond to douchebags with manipulative reference requests.

Thanks for letting me know that Jane Doe is in the job market. In the case that Jane is indeed exceptional (and she might be for all you know, or you wouldn't be annoying me at my place of work), I have done the following:

I have just written to all my friends in a position to hire developers to let them know there is an exceptional candidate doing the rounds, and they should call her for an interview asap.

In fact, I may have done this even if I don't think Jane is exceptional. By definition, only a few people can be exceptional. Some developers are just solid and dependably conscientious, creative and productive, and I also hire and recommend those whenever I can, because in doing that I help two people: the developer and the employer.

Which is also why I would never give you references for good people. The industry needs good people, and good people need good places to work. Which isn't your shop. Good developers deserve better than your manipulative sports-metaphor elitism.

Regards, etc.

[edit: took out an unprofessional bit of invective at the end]
Are you replying to me or the article?
Meanwhile, Osama Bedier is still a VP at Google and now an advisor to Mezz [1] a startup which, if he signed the same employment agreement the regular folks sign, means he probably will be moving on from Google shortly. (My personal experience is that Google pretty much considers any outside work a conflict of interest)

[1] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mezz
IPhone Documentary Takes on Syria: Is This the Future of Journalism?
Oh my god. I just spent the last month on and off trying to wrap my head around CoreAudio. I'm flabbergasted, thank you so much.
I have a stupid question. Has anyone ever been asked this in an interview? Or knows anyone that has been asked/asked this question? I've been reading a lot about this situation over the last month, but have never heard anyone say it happened to them or someone they know. Just stories that seem like rumors/gossip.

I do not know many people who are right out of college and interviewing (and that's who I assume would be asked this sort of question), so maybe my network is too small to have heard of it happening.

Also, I realize many people will sign NDAs about the interview process, I am not looking for juicy details of when/where/how it happened. I'd just love to know if people actually had this happen at one point in the last few years.
>mutual admiration society

That's very true. I browse Linkedin sometimes, and I'm often surprised to find out x# of people have recommended a terrible ex-coworker.
Reading the newspaper must be no fun for you then.
A funny thing happened on the way to iTunes utopia
Is it open source? I'd love to check it out.
only if you're pulling from Windows Update. Many of the IE6 installs (large corporations) use WSUS, where they can pick and choose which updates to push to their users. I can see them rejecting the update if their business still needs IE6.

My company pushed out IE7 to all XP users, and that's as far as XP will get for us. The users still on XP (like me) have apps we use which will only support XP and only support up to IE7. Apps are being rewritten to get around this, and XP support will be dropped when that occurs. From talking with other companies at various Cons, many corporations are still working through this process. It goes slower if they don't have an application security team willing to push this every quarter.

I would wager there are very few home users who still have IE6.
"If they focused on #2, #1 wouldn't be so much of an issue."

You do not really believe this do you?

I am very sorry for your friend. Rigid interpretation of the rules can lead to some terrible decisions. However I do not think that requiring a GED increases the likelihood that the employee is going to be the cause of a lawsuit. Humans nature is an odd beast and the list of lawsuit inducing character flaws goes on for miles. If people were able to easily screen for these character flaws during the recruiting process elections would be so much easier...
Congratulations! Looks like you found a star

Uh, why are you looking for a star? Why does everything think they need or even want a star? How about just someone who gets things done?

As for reference checks, they're a great way to assure that a past, toxic work environment will continue to haunt a candidate indefinitely.

This article is just more of the "I eliminate X out of Y candidates, so I know I'm hiring the best!" B.S.
SEEKING WORK - San Francisco, CA or remote

I'm a Rails developer working for Batch / Dailybooth looking for some supplemental income and experience working on different code bases.

I've been doing Rails for 3 years professionally, and I'm proficient with HTML/CSS/JS. I also have a few months worth of experiencing doing iOS if that's needed.

I have experience writing APIs and large, responsive, scalable applications.

For some code samples, take a look at my Github profile (http://github.com/ahlatimer). The largest project is likely the write-through model cache written for Redis, CaChing (http://github.com/ahlatimer/ca_ching).

Contact info is in my profile.
You can track a user on Linux (reliably)

Here's 2 ways I know of:

- Linux Audit. Just have auditd tracing all execves. All execs made after UID transision (sudo su, sudo -s, what not) have a AUID appended that is filled with the original "logged-in-as" UID.

- RSBAC. Does basically the same thing

Both are kernel side. Userspace tools to control.
The newest Nvidia stuff is offering some of that, though it may be specific to CUDA.

The thing is, the bandwidth mismatch between the GPU and its memory and the PC memory to GPU memory is crazy. There seems to be extra latency involved there too.

As long as we plug a special-purpose video card into an expansion bus, I suspect the best performance will come from manually-scheduled transfers.
Asking for a URL is nothing like demanding access to the account. Anything available to the public under your profile could be found with a name search, providing it just simplifies the process.
The difference is that in this case the candidate knows you looked, and can testify under oath that you looked. To a court of law, that makes all the difference. You had the means and the opportunity, all that remains for the candidate to prove is motive.
The Svbtle publicity stunt now comes full circle.
This looks very nice, but unfortunately I cannot use it because each gh-page corresponds to a specific repo, whereas my project is comprised of several repos and I want one website to document all of these repos at once.

Would anybody have any other suggestions for getting a simple homepage for a software project up and running reasonably quickly, without having to fiddle with CSS or JavaScript too much? Something like what GH Pages is trying to do, but maybe a little more flexible. Is something like WP the way to go?
Well if he buys stock _after_ publishing the article it is not insider trading.
I said 10+ years, started out when I was a wee lad "programming" a front end in DOS batch for my non-computer-literate dad, reading from a thick reference book and trying to figure out errorlevels..

I haven't really worked on any big projects, just little bits and pieces here and there. I just set up a github a couple months ago, and the only thing on it is some mIRC script that isn't really being updated anymore.

Kinda hesitate to call myself a programmer, feeling like that term is best used for people who do it for a living or have a great deal more experience than I do. Coder or scripter is probably more accurate :)
People are actually willing to do an NDA for an interview? Why would anyone want to work for a company like that?
He didn't. The letter is fictional.
Yes and it looks like it worked. You could also see this as an opportunity to get some extra seed funds for your startup.
I think the lack of clarity is actually kind of refreshing for the web. You get that with literary magazines sometimes, where it's not apparent if something is fiction or memoir. But it's odd arriving there from HN.
I agree with the assumption of this projects application though I find it maddening that they're choosing to look 'up' instead of _down_.
I believe more practical value can be obtained if that enormous computing resource were used to investigate the smallest components of the cosmos.
Take Test4Theory[1] for example whose stated goal is to help in refining the accuracy of the Standard Model of Particle Physics; this would create the ability for us to derive a more accurate understanding of Nature and would exponentiate our development of technologies that are key to our species survival.

[1] http://lhcathome2.cern.ch/high-energy-physics-simulations
Definitely the hologram like HUD/interactive display that Tony Stark has. I'd spend most of the money on research and development, and attempt to write the code myself. It could take me the rest of my life. In fact, that'd be preferable! It's not like I'd have to work very often....
Show HN: Momentum scrolling with the arrow keys
Mozilla Posts First Firefox Metro Screenshots
I wish I could +10 this, but alas.

The driver issue is insane. The root cause of that issue is the GPL.

The reality is that hardware margins are thin, very very thin, and there are few protections against person X taking something you spent a year getting to work right, having it built in a Chinese copy shop and using your own drivers against you.

No one is funding open hardware, try to create a business model where your first chip has to make back its development cost at commodity margins. It can't.
No, actually, RSBAC does this via policy.

That is, the developer does not need to bother. The developer does what the developer does.

The policy enforces it, regardless of the code. If in certain conditions, as a user, you disagree with the user of CAP_SYS_ADMIN, RSBAC denies it (context-based too, via other modules!)

You can for example wrap that in a role-based policy, tied per binary, or simply by wrapping it in a RSBAC jail. (rsbac_jail -options /path/to/said/program)

I don't think the other ones do that, as it's quite specific. They just plain deny.

That's mostly because RSBAC has it's own framework (as does GrSecurity, but GrSecurity does not go as deep in that regard)
Metaphilosophy Survey: Intuitions in Philosophy
The agencies fighting against online poker are much weaker; also, poker is a profitable business that can defend itself.

The US dollar is a centralized system. US financial regulation is in effect worldwide (except now Iran, I guess). If you have a decentralized system dependent on a centralized one, it's a centralized system.

Bitcoin is not dependent on the USD for its operations, just for its value. The day after MtGox (for instance) is indicted, everyone will be selling and no one will be buying. Also, all payment processors everywhere will cut off all Bitcoin exchanges everywhere.

(Everywhere excluding Iran, I guess. Is Bitcoin big in Iran?)
I don't need to blame the free software community when I say "GNU/Linux and open source software do not meet my requirements"

I'm not willing to sacrifice productivity to make a philosophical point, so I only use Linux when Linux is the best tool for the job.
Stanford CS101 Online
Scribble Your Blogs
I heavily self-censor whenever my True Name is known. You would only ever hear controversial ideas from the few who recklessly take permanent risks with their job (and possibly housing, dating…) prospects.
lol that's a must-have but no technical challenge
It's probably for the best to keep these as separate concerns.
Hotel Transylvania opens on September 21 (Starring Adam Sandler)
Like many others said: this looks like a "stock pumping scheme" and "patent troll" story... nevertheless, I watched VRNG after that article and was amazed by its 87.88% rise today. Just take some money into your hands and make more with this opportunity...

... and of course: sell on time
Ask HN: What are the rarest books in your bookshelf?