skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You'll ultimately want to learn both, but start with Python.

Python is the definition of a general-purpose, beginner-friendly language that can also be used for more advanced stuff. That's part of what makes Python such a good CS101 language.

JavaScript is primarily a client-side language focused on interacting with web browsers and the DOM. This is starting to change with the advent of Node.js, but I would _not_ recommend jumping straight into Node style evented-IO if it's your first language.
Remember that you were there to do any system administration. Any kid will have no problem figuring out virtually any desktop be it Windows, Mac or one of many alternatives of Linux. After all you (double) click on whatever you want and if it is already running often the program will be brought to the front instead of a new copy.

But consider what happens when Ubuntu does an update - if pam gets updated you get a list of services to restart that is gobbeldy gook to almost all.

And most operating systems still make adding printers confusing, and troubleshooting printing issues virtually impossible.
Perhaps because you are on it?
all of my facebook crushes stopped being crushes when I saw them in real life =(
He's in there. Try unorthodox combinations. I think there's some state stored on whether or not you went through "up" doors or "down" doors.
"XP, Vista and I plan in their misery. I'll assure you may help you write something. Nasa doesn't exist for pypy."
Interesting. Based off of the FAQ, the only thing that keeps developers from sharing their users' SecureUDID with other developers and/or SDK-based companies seems to be their own discretion - turning over the domain and salt unlocks the keys.

There's also, as far as I can see, nothing to stop a company with a SDK from including this code in their SDK and tracking across every application that uses it. If I was still running an iOS analytics company, I'd be pretty tempted by this in the post-UDID era.

Well intentioned, I'm sure, but to me this looks like a great tool for continuing business as usual. I'm no expert, though - please let me know if I missed something.
After looking at the venturebeat.com list, I am always excited whenever I gain a new awareness of some of the innovative ideas of other upstarts. As for the All Things Digital article, the opportunities coming together for the Y Combinator groups of the future are growing. It's nice to know that there is a real hunger out there among investors to invest in the advancement of innovation.

As demo day grows, it no doubt provides evidence that Y Combinator is giving investors comfort in knowing that those individuals in which they are investing have been first selected and then have taken them through the process of mentoring them for several months in a tech company "graduate school" type of training. I am sure that an added benefit to investors is also knowing that those in which they invest will also receive an ongoing mentorship support that can only serve to aid stability and growth. That's a win-win for everyone involved.
Autobahn now supports Safari iOS/OSX (WebSocket "Hixie" style)
Is live video about to explode?  Airtime, OnTheAir, Hangouts, etc?
I saw this launch today, and the recent news from Airtime. Seems like live video is set to explode. Thoughts?
Prompted by an offline discussion I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about the other effects. I focused my post around the power requirements of the image processor circuitry. However, there are two additional components to an LCD display system: Display logic and Backlight power.

Display logic is, as the name implies, all of the circuitry required to drive the pixels. This is everything from the data connector on the raw LCD panel up to and including the TFT transistors on the glass itself and the transparent interconnects (also on the glass). The on-glass circuitry has complex parasitics and capacitive loading that also causes a fluctuation of drive current based on the randomness of the images.

Here's sample data from a 24 inch 1920 x 1200 LCD:

24 inch, 1920 x 1200
Idd for full black screen = 1,700mA
Idd for a black/white dot pattern = 3,050mA

As you can see, a pattern with maximal excursions in the data causes the display logic current (and therefore, power) to nearly double.

In very (very!) rough terms this current is also a function of display resolution: Twice as many pixels will demand double the current. Going back to the iPad 2 vs 3 example, the the new iPad has exactly four times the pixels of the iPad 2 display, therefore, it should require four times more display logic current than the older model under all uses cases.

The backlight may or may not demand more current as display resolution increases. Comparisons of displays of equal physical size but vastly different resolutions do not reveal a this effect to be an absolute rule. A lot depends on the design of the panel and the internal optics.
Nothing in Apple's recent history suggests this is true. Think of the recent kerfuffle over Final Cut; they had no intention of continuing to sell the older version even though the new one was feature incomplete.
It is highly likely that, when it appears, Aperture4 will similarly just replace Aperture3 at approximately the same price point. You can choose to buy the new one or not, but there's no discounted upgrade path.

Based on Shipley's numbers, it would seem that developers wanting to make money long-term on the Mac App Store would be wise to get on the same "lower initial price, but all major upgrades are full price" app model as soon as they can.
Guide to Installing and Booting off a VHD
One annoying thing is that I don't see any sort of guide on how to create map files.
Reduce Ubuntu latency by 3-4s by disabling mDNS
Hi Derek, thanks for an awesome thread and your many enlightening blog posts. (I'm surprised you're surprised to see a post of yours here :P)

What advice do you have for a generalist? I feel I can learn things quickly, but I don't get great at anything -- maybe due to a lack of motivation and a surplus of procrastination.

I'm a back-end programmer who likes front-end development, only because I'm not a great UI designer (but would love to be). I also love playing the piano and singing, but I haven't had a lesson in 12 years. (People tell me I have a nice voice.) I'm bilingual and fluent in a third language, and I could easily learn more if I had more time.

The path I'm currently on is to keep working and practicing front-end development, and possibly learn how to design. As I hone those skills I plan to start building software to one day quit corporate America. On the other hand, I love the music as a hobby thing, but feel that I'm not great. (I'm surrounded by very talented musicians from my wife's side of the family.)

I'm not even sure what my question is, but any advice would be s/kind of cool/greatly appreciated/.

Edit: I think my problem is not knowing what to focus on, and whether or not I should specialize in something or keep learning new things. (And if so, how to choose that something.)
Leonard Suskind gives a nice and accessible Stanford lecture based on this line of attack at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZDy_Dccv4s#t=27m12
Apple already did this disruption. I don't understand why other companies can't either.

Is it just because Apple is the only company ballsy enough to walk away when a carrier says no? (And they bring the iPhone to the table, but 5 years ago that wasn't necessarily such a good thing)
As a developer with Apps in the MAS, I can see where this makes sense from the developer's perspective. But I think it is a mater of laziness on the dev's part.

Let me explain:

From a users perspective, this would suck. It is an antiquated system. "I have to pay for an upgrade just so it works on the new OS?" Think of how many times you've had to do this in the past, and how you felt.

Apple will act in the best interest of Joe User, not Joe Developer.

Instead of paid upgrades, dev's should be providing In-App purchases for new features. Maintenance of the App should be provided for free. Win-win for all.

Now stop bitching about what the MAS should have, and start using the solution Apple has given you! :)
If the applications are read on the daily basis, what's the point of editing and REsubmitting your application?
You're talking about different things: He's talking about sentence enhancements on already violent crimes. You're talking about something about talking.

I find the British reaction to this tweet appaling, that they jailed the racist twit.

I however fully support the lengthening of sentences when a subgroup bias is determined to be likely.

While nothing easy popped up via a google search, here is another reason: http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/hate_crimes_study...

Apparently, victims of bias based crimes have more trouble getting over the crimes as well (as they can't very well stop being that thing).
Thanks for letting us know. Fixed now
True. We'll have to wait and see, but I imagine that price and integration with other Google services will be the main benefits.
A style that differs from the style a student already gets in school generally helps learners in supplementary programs like Khan Academy.

A really great example of a superb mathematics textbook by a top mathematician, all with hand-drawn diagrams, is Geometry: Euclid and Beyond by Robin Hartshorne.

http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Euclid-Beyond-Robin-Hartshorn...

The author explains his rationale for having hand-drawn rather than computer-generated geometry diagrams, discusses why he wrote the book as he did. I love this book as a remarkably accessible book on some very deep mathematics, with wonderfully challenging problems. I think Khan Academy video lectures work for some of the same reasons that Hartshorne's approach in Euclid: Geometry and Beyond works, and I hope that Salman Khan and his collaborators eventually get to advanced geometry like that in Hartshorne's book in the Khan Academy course list.
If you start with Python, try these tutorials out:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA1FEF17E1E5C0DA&...

Also this book:

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/

Javascript:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL46F0A159EC02DF82&...
Do You Want 500,000 Twitter Followers? This Game Will Make It Happen
6 Examples of Screencasts I Created
This is a great idea, and hopefully browsers will adopt it directly one day. In the mean time, this plugin is a nice way to test the concept.

I have a massive collection of passwords in my LastPass plugin, and managing them is a real mess. Sites are always changing their login URLs or doing other things to break the experience. Most of my family just uses the same password for all their logins, rather than deal with LastPass. With this new mechanism, you only need to store the private key, which is far simpler.

If a hacker steals your password from the server, they can log in as you. If a hacker steals your public key from the server, though, they still can't do anything. They need the private key to actually log in. So, besides being simpler, this new approach is actually more secure.
Love it or hate it, this thing is going to take over our twitter feeds for the next couple of days / weeks.
So you don't agree with this decision by Sony? Basically you would be happy if Sony were complicit in allowing vulnerabilities to exist and be exploited on their platform.

>> because it opens up closed hardware (which is always a Good Thing)

If you want open hardware buy something that supports it. Don't punish a commercial company that just wants to do their own thing.
Hadn't heard about FATCA, so I googled it up, it sounds bad:

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

"As a result of FATCA, European banks such as Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, HSBC, and Credit Suisse have been closing brokerage accounts for all US customers since early 2011 citing "onerous" US regulations, which FATCA will make more complex when it goes into effect in 2013"

Reported by Der Spiegel (which I expect to be a reputable source).
Hopefully they figure out something that works on the iPhone. It can't work exactly like Sonalight on Android works, because the iPhone doesn't yet support launching a third party app based on just a voice command. (Even Siri, a native app, requires you to hold down a button to activate). Sonalight works just by having you just start talking even if the phone is in your pocket.
Which honestly underscores one of my biggest complaints when working inside Apples ecosystem. I always get the feeling that they're building solutions for themselves first, and developers second, they don't take an agnostic approach to creating a platform. A good example of this is when you look at their UIKit and Appkit frameworks, all of the components were designed to the specific behavior that Apples engineers wanted at that time, with no thought on how to easily extend them. Compare this against other frameworks that were intentionally built to be easily skinnable and customizable.
Basically useless for desktop users, they should let us pick the order of that nav. All I need is gmail, docs and reader.
good idea. will add to future releases.
Disappointed to see that it is just a plug for someone's toy app, rather than something genuinely interesting or weird.
>Once it loses it's novelty, nobody is going to be gunning to get the title of "295th play-fame.com winner".

Novelty or not, the site will keep adding users over those 259 rounds, and all those followers will have value, even if it's just for a day.
So... how do we use this?
I feel like the solution isn't paid upgrades but instead monthly/yearly subscription for access in the Mac App Store. The 'appification' of the web is eliminating the idea of major release "versions" of software...it's just an app in consumers' minds and it will always be the same product (with gradual improvement of course). As a result, just charge users for ongoing access to your app and keep them paying by providing regular updates.
So just don't stream the non-public startups :) Seems to me like a massive missed opportunity for YCombinator
It seems like launching the app with a button push on iOS would be a good enough trade-off to get the benefits of the rest of the app.

The iOS market for this is going to be huge and someone is going to do it eventually regardless of whether you need to push a button.
I was hoping too that browsers would have it built-in instead of the password managers.
Perhaps the incentive is the wrong one. If the goal is to get users to upgrade, offer a launch sale that entices existing and new users to upgrade.

I don't think it's so terrible that there is multiple versions out there. Reduce the price of the older version and setup the page to let people know there's a new one out there before buying.
One Surprising Sign You’re Cut Out to Be an Entrepreneur
Mr.
Hi everbody,
hope to see you later.
Ciao for now!
Paul
Google has $44.6 billion in cash and short term investments at their disposal. Dropbox was recently valued at $4 billion. If Google could spend hundred of millions (or even a few billion) offering tons of storage space, you would have to think might consider doing so over doing something like trying to buy Dropbox. They would become the leader in the space almost overnight. At the very least, I would expect them to offer unlimited storage for movies and music purchased in the Google Play store (similar to Amazon).
The mouse movement is laggy. Why not use hardware mouse speeds? For an interaction with that much frequency, it makes the game unplayable.
Forbes: GitHub and the Democratization of Programming
Wow, Benny's Chinese is impressive for 10 weeks. I have seen students that studied for 2-3 years that are less comfortable speaking.

If you are looking to mix up you studies, you should checkout my site. http://chinese.yabla.com/ It is not free, but if you are interested, shoot me an email, and I'll send you an account.
Foamicate uses a browser extension. Is there any reason the client side portion can’t be implemented in JavaScript with keys stored in localStorage?
Creating US Store Account
> If you want open hardware buy something that supports it. Don't punish a commercial company that just wants to do their own thing.

All hardware is open, given enough work. The original creators' intentions have nothing to do with this; it's for the owner to decide.
How to (Kindly Gently) Tell Users That Their IT Problems Are Their Own Fault
I have a big soft spot for concepts like this -- bravo!
Reminds me of Aaron Swartz's https://www.jottit.com/
I was thinking the same thing, but I don't think that's sustainable, nor is it a good user experience. If you have X choices of IAP features available, are you going to test the 2^(X+1) configurations out there?

Probably the best you could do with IAP is offer current version as IAP, and roll your n-1 features back into the main app as a free update on a periodic basis (i.e., want the latest and greatest, buy it now, or wait X months/years and get it for free).

Nickle and diming your customers for features also leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

As a customer, I appreciate Apple's model since I know all updates are free and any major version changes usually warrant a new app entry (I find it annoying, but understandable, that the previous version is sometimes retired from the App store), which makes the demarcation clear of what I need to pay for vs. what I don't.
Can you currently do in-app purchases on the Mac App Store? That was my first thought as well.
A Picture of Language
I'm very interested to see the privacy policy. Should we expect ads to be "better targeted" to the extent that we use Google Drive?
I really like how most applications in the iOS store have been about upgrades. When a new version comes out I get it automatically without paying. Camera+ is a great example.

Because the user base for the platform has been growing the potential install base for your application grows with it. The graph in Wil's post shows that the same application had a huge sales surge just because more people were exposed to it.

If a new version of Delicious Library comes out his existing customers will be very happy with the new features and bring more customers in with them. I bet Apple would even promote the new app and a huge sales spike would happen again.

In my mind the new model isn't how to get the most money from your customers, it's getting the most customers.
Latest Govt Jobs in India
I'm not sure what you mean.
But Livemesh/skydrive is exactly like dropbox.
You choose a folder on your computer to sync and it syncs for you. I use the skydrive browser app on my android too.
The surprising thing is that it has been around for a long time. But like many msft products, it is not well promoted.
Evil Github Pirates Site Goes Live
Last updated: 2/FEB/2012
Number of Projects Plundered: 60+

The Github Pirates is a constantly updated resource for those interested in HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Despite the name, the project doesn't actually pirate Github repositories, but gathers open-source content from Github and puts it into a single repository for the following reasons:

Ease of reference
Quality
Preservation
Exposure
Ask HN: Would you be interested in startup Month?
Just few week back, I have attended startup weekend and got amazed by kind of learning experience and networking opportunity it has provided. I have made some good friends and build an application in just over a weekend.
But it got some drawbacks as with other hackthons. i.e. there is no call to action after the event and the time line is much shorter to build anything serious.

Since then I am thinking about online version of this process which could carry over a month and participants can work partime whole month from their home.
More specifically, we will be having an online platform where participants from whole world can collaborate,comeup with ideas, brainstorm, vote and call for people with required skills set to build the MVP.

To test the core assumption of idea itself, I am thinking to build this online platform and minimum
tools required over a month using this process.
so I require web developers, designers, idea-tors, marketers, mentors and anybody who want to contribute to project in one or other way.
if interested, Please send me an email at saathi@gmail.com stating role you want to play and number of hours you can put per week for a month.

Currently, this idea is in very nascent stage and
require your criticism and suggestions to improvise.

Please up-vote to spread the message.
I want something like this quite badly. However, I'm not sure this is suitable for the users who I want this for (ie, people who don't need to understand markdown formatting)

1. Doing an html to markdown conversion, as you seem to be doing, feels like a giant hack. And one with leaky abstractions to boot (Hit enter off the end of a list, and you get <div></div> inserted into the markdown source).

2. Link editing is super important, and, also a very difficult problem (selection/range management issues) without the html to markdown problem added on top.

I think something like this is doable by having the transformation only happen one way (from markdown to html), given a markdown parser with full access to the parse tree. However, there's many other issues that would arise from doing it that way.
Actually, you can rent movies and watch on your desktop (streamed through Youtube) or rent/buy books.
But it's not even remotely symmetric. In one direction it's just a crime being prosecuted, and the UK has similar laws that could conceivably apply. In the other it's a prima facie violation of (stated without hyperbole) the single most important law of the nation.

See the difference?

And the "never be considered to be allowed the other way" bit is silly. The US has extradition treaties with most of the industrialized world, and extradites criminals routinely (although perhaps not necessarily fairly or symmetrically). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition_law_in_the_United_S...

But they won't extradite anyone for this crime, for reasons of fundamental constitutional law. That's not going to change no matter how many downvotes the first amendment receives above.
For me, it's more than just head tingling, it's a flood of utter joy and elation. It's an awesome experience when it happens. Quite where it originates from no one appears to know, and because it appears to be a good experience, no research is going into figuring out why it occurs (which is reasonable).
Or just turn it on before you drive.
Chalkable - platform for education apps
CNET iPad 3 heating test
Arista juices switch with x86 server, FPGA, atomic clock
Facebook's Management Secrets
Show HN: Google Play
I would classify watching a full-length movie on a desktop/laptop computer as being pretty close to worthless.
Does Chrome sync localStorage among browsers?
>So you don't agree with this decision by Sony?

The decision less so as much as the handling of it. Sony is a company that apparently has no concept of the word "tact". Any entertainment company out there would patch holes as they're found. Sony does it, Nintendo does it, Microsoft does it.

Sony acting like complete screeching dicks every time, is the difference. The Geohot thing was the final straw for me.

>Basically you would be happy if Sony were complicit in allowing vulnerabilities to exist and be exploited on their platform.

A "vulnerability" on a game platform is a sight different than a vulnerability on anything else. So in this instance, yes. I'd wish they'd let it alone. What are the implications? People who are going to pirate and break the DRM anyways continue to break the DRM, Sony focuses their efforts on improving their content and software, and nobody else (i.e. the average consumer) is the wiser? Seems fine to me.

>If you want open hardware buy something that supports it.

No. I will do what I wish with any hardware I purchase. Until such time as Sony grows up a little bit, they remain on my "do not buy from, ever, no way" list.