skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thanks for your response, very interesting! I should clarify, it's not really the imagination to create weird scenes that I lack so much as the ability to actually visualize them. So I'm really curious now, when you say:

"I imagined a car-sized jar of pickles, but the pickles were garlic shaped."

did that involve you creating a mental image of this? How clearly can you see it? Can you close your eyes and visualize just an ordinary pickle, for that matter? I wonder how integral that is in order for this technique to be useful, since I have trouble visualizing even a simple colored shape.

That said, it occurs to me now that I can imagine the feel of things very well, as well as the sound of things. So maybe I could prompt myself with a slippery trumpet or something, rather than an odd visual picture.

Thanks for the book recommendation.
So we can end up with laws like this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745

Altering rights in the heat of the moment is precisely what we don't want.
You don't need majority. And the attack isn't about stealing money, its about taking down the system and making people lose faith in it. Remember: to make money all you need is some unlikely put options and for knowledge of market instability.
The cost of such attacks will go down as bitcoin ages.

As I understand it the bitcoin rewards of mining go down over time. If the rewards go down over time, eventually it won't be profitable to mine bitcoin. So the speed of transactions goes down and the network becomes weaker because theres less cooperating computer time on it.

Maybe I just don't get bitcoin. But if true that seems like a fundamental problem.
It isn't a majority attack. Infact, today, it would probably be cheaper since bitcoins are a third of what they were when I found it. All you need to do is crash the market and buy put options against it, you don't need to create nonvalid transactions.
Well done. Now here's a biscuit.

And do please stop waving around the razor and the butterknife, you'll only do yourself another mischief.
That works when "the corporation" controls your desktop and the certs your browser trusts, doesn't work so well when your (personal) smartphone or iPad is connecting out of the office over the cell network.

The recent Mozilla/Trustwave (and DigiCert before) debacles make it very clear that a nation-state level adversary is almost certainly capable of SSL mitm-ing just about any internet traffic they want. Unless you're getting your data in and out of your country via encrypted packets over ham radio (and into a country you trust), there's just too few businesses a government agency would have to "lean on" to ensure your SSL encrypted packets are reliably secure.
The role of physics in the sinking of the Titanic
Apple’s Suppliers Pressed to Improve Workers’ Lot
The JVM supports a feature called hot swapping (i think thats what it is called), where classes can be reloaded at run time. Most IDEs take advantage of this in debug mode. So a lot of the time i just launch my server in debug mode and edit freely. Occasionally i will have to restart the server, but it works surprisingly well. In fact you don't necessarily need an IDE to do this. A lot of servlet containers support this as well, where you can just copy updated jars to the servlet libs (obviously some simple scripts help a lot with this). After enough 'hot' deploys the JVM will eventually run out of perm-gen space, but even with that limitation you still get 10-20 edit-refresh cycles out of it.

Setting up your tools right can help a lot. Also, optimizing your build scripts. Ideally these will all work together to make it less painful :)
Ask HN: Good technical colleges in Bombay/Pune?
To HN readers in India, or anyone else who might know:

What are some good colleges/universities in Bombay/Pune where students are well-trained in Java, C++, and maybe other languages such as JScript and Ruby? Doesn't have to be technical colleges specifically, but I'm looking for places which have good programs for students in those skills.

I'm visiting next week and would like to connect with students and other talented folks there.

Any suggestions of schools would be great. Thanks!
Champagne at CSIRO after WiFi patent settlement
Hence the need for constant policing yourself and auditing the software you use.
Note that this isn't the large Sony production with Aaron Sorkin attached, but another indie film.
Are you arguing proof by appeal to authority?
<rant>If you follow his history, Liebermann is a sanctimonious wind bag that is all about drawing attention to himself. I'm glad he is retiring.</rant>
Wow. While people like to paint Steve Jobs as sort of a one dimensional character ("Pirates of Silicon Valley" is a good example) he's actually fascinating in large part, I think, because he's really an enigma-- clearly brilliant and has accomplished so much, while being such an iconoclast. This is why attempts to portray him one dimensionally (like the book behind this movie, for instance) fail so miserably. People instinctively know he didn't create greatness simply by running around and being an asshole or lying to everyone.

This is the kind of role, that if handled by an actor with serious chops (and lets face it, I think about %50 of that is going to be having a good director) it could be a career making role with an oscar award attached.

While I like Kutcher as a person, respect his support for startups, I also recognize he's more of a social media celebrity, whose got comedic timing, but hasn't yet shown (or maybe had the opportunity to show) significant dramatic chops. Its quite possible he's got them, and he's suffered from being type cast. (Remember how Demi broke the mold by playing GI Jane... but then that also seemed to end her career.)

Sometimes unexpected actors can do great-- Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July was a surprise to me, but I credit Oliver Stone for that one. The other example I can think of is Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers.

Harrelson's previous career was on TV as the good guy midwesterner kid, but Oliver Stone said "I saw something evil in his eyes."

I really don't think of Ashton Kutcher as having the necessary chops for this role (and the source material is itself so half assed and shallow that the project is starting from behind already.) This runs a very real risk of being of TV Movie-of-the-week quality.

I hope they get a great director and some serious work on the script, and that Kutcher dedicates himself to the role.

I'd love to see a biopic of Steve Jobs as on the nose as Val Kilmer's portrayal of Jim Morrison in The Doors. (Which is another Oliver Stone movie, but I promise you I'm not obsessed with Oliver Stone, he just handles this kind of material really well.)

Edit-
I missed the part that this isn't based on Isaacson's work. So, whether the source material will be week (like almost everything written about Jobs since he didn't give people a lot of access) or not is open to question.

Also, as dlf notes, Kutcher was in The Guardian where he played a dramatic role, and did a damn fine job. I'd forgotten about that movie... But that convinces me that Kutcher has the potential to do a brilliant Jobs performance. Lets just how the script is good and the director is strong.
Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if the value was higher.
My CS degree may have negatively impacted my career. The pressure of working while going to school was one of the things that caused me to quit my job at the time. It took me a year and a half after graduation to find another job and I'm currently unemployed again after a contract dispute; the company wanted me to agree never to take them to court under any circumstances, I asked them to take out that provision, and they fired me.

I still think getting the degree was the right choice. I learned some things and made some friends. Career-wise, I'm back to where I was ten years ago.
For a browser that was supposed to be very standards compliant I'm always very surprised by how often a design that looks great in Firefox, Chrome and Safari bails in IE9.
1965. Although technically Black Americans were allowed to vote in 1870, in practice it was impossible in many states.

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

Universal women's suffrage didn't happen until 1920.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_Uni...
I remember marveling at the first time I saw multiple DOS prompts, all separate memory protected processes running on OS/2, knowing that rebooting the entire OS to handle a crashed program on 286 systems would be a thing of the past, knowing what a sham Windows 95 was compared to OS/2 and that NT was still a future milestone.
Public Worker Pensions Find Riskier Funds Fail to Pay Off
I found it pretty easy by upgrading the faster towers all the way; only needed 12 medium priced towers and a few expensive towers to win.
Once again, we have politicians who are simply unable to keep up with the technology revolution that has largely happened and continues to happen without their involvement (DARPA origins, etc., not withstanding).

What scares me is that this amazing new level of self-expression and communication seems to be facing an ever-increasing number of threats. Each time stuff like this comes up, it increases fatigue on the parts of those of us who work to fight against such threats...

The disparity in effort required to author such legislation and the effort required to defeat it makes me fear that loss is only a question of 'when', not 'if'.
How, if at all, will this impact the ability of VCs to raise future funds.
No, obviously, I'm rebutting an appeal to authority.
The Federal Constitution (amended over time) has a list of reasons and qualifications which cannot be used to deny the vote. It is otherwise silent on the matter. Until the 14th and 15th amendments (1868, 1870), that list only included "religious test" (as in no religious test may be used to deny someone the franchise).

The several states each had (and have!) their own laws and regulations. Immediately following the ratification of the Constitution, states largely restricted voting rights to landholding white men. But by the 1840s most states had extended the right to vote to almost all white men, having done away with the requirement to own land, or pay taxes.

States continue to have different laws regarding voting rights, perhaps most notably surrounding the the rights of convicted felons.
(RFC) Fixing Ruby, Python and Node.js packaging on Debian, Redhat and variants
Ask HN: I'm new to programing, any pointers?
I'm learning python with "Python the Hardway" and just now reading the "Django Book."

Some background I'm a business student, but I want to be able to build out cool webapps.

Any pointers for me? Resources, books, places to find quality source code, or anything else you think someone like me might benefit from?
I had 3 courses for basic python, java and haskell in my first year. In my second year we were assumed to know how to use basic C, and were taught some basic assembly as a small part of another course. Third and fourth year, we were expected to use (not taught) basic C++ and advanced java. Not listed are several less popular languages which were used but not taught for other courses.

I think I would have enjoyed more programming courses, but I wouldn't have learned anything particularly useful.

I feel like a CS degree based around learning programming languages would be a huge waste of time. Languages are what you should be able to pick up very quickly on your own. They are just a tool. It's more important to understand the concepts used in computers and software. Plenty of people learn programming languages as a hobby, or as a teenager, etc. A CS degree has more to offer than that.

Similarly, getting an art degree isn't about learning how to use photoshop.
Nothing against Mr. Kutcher of course, but I seriously question his ability to play this character. This is a serious role with serious emotions and serious responsibility, and I'm not sure if Kutcher has the resume or the ability to pull off Steve Jobs.

As justanotheratom notes, Christian Bale would probably be a much better choice. Not solely because of the fact that Bale is a far more accomplished and critically-acclaimed actor, but because he seems like he could really do well in Steve Job's role. I just can't see Ashton Kutcher in an argument with a young Bill Gates or explaining principles of design to early investors. He just hasn't proven that he's able to really own a complex character.
> If you're on meds, the drugs that work may not always work, so be mindful that you may need to switch meds.

Much like you did, I researched the hell out of this. And after a lot of reading I determined it would be best to take meds in combination with talk therapy (CBT in my case). Happily, this worked, and I'm no longer on anything other than the occasional Xanax.

> so the next best thing is to make the most of what time is left.

That is very true, and I forget about this fact when thinking about all that time that's been, as you say, pissed away.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply.
I did a CS minor in my senior year of college. I got my first job as a dev by reading "Programming Interviews Exposed" shortly before the interview
Google contacts (within gmail) is great for this, for a single account. Never had a problem.

Though syncing between different accounts (my gmail account + my google apps account) is not trivial. There are some decent apps on the google apps marketplace, but none of them work as seamlessly as single account syncing. But I wouldn't call it an "unsolved problem" in any way.
The Shallot - A small little Onion for IT
Hi-fricken-larious
How about deciding what's best for now

Because laws tend to last well beyond the "now."

Another way of putting it (not original with me): "You know you have a stable, mature society when people commit random atrocities and the laws don't change."
I started programming at the age of 10, almost 30 years ago. By the time I reached college age it seemed like a waste of time to study CS, though I still wanted a degree so I studied business.

Hackers without a degree are not uncommon today but were unheard of in the 90s, when I graduated. It made it very hard for me to get the first the job, but if anything made me more motivated to prove myself. Within less than a year I became a team lead and had no issues since, because I had the track record.
Why would you call this a "mathematical" flaw? Your original post implied there was some algorithmic issue, when you're really just proposing dumping the exchange market -- which is a completely independent mechanism of trade.

> Also the only way to get bitcoins securely is to buy and sell them for cash. And even then there are ways of figuring out who is who.

This is ridiculous. The psuedoanonymity of bitcoin allows for laundering services which enhance your plausible deniability. You can't practically figure out "who is who" if I send a delayed transaction through a popular laundry service.
Show HN: Diet Manager [dietmanager.com]
I made a tool to help me manage my Crohn's. I am now off all my meds and doing well so I am making a more generic tool based on the same principals to help people manage their diets; kind of like a mint.com for your diet.

I am not done but I have made enough progress to start getting beta users: www.dietmanager.com

You will start to get meal plans in 10 - 15 days unless you complete your profile and update your status on a regular basis in which case your meal plan will fill out faster.

Its not very intuitive right now but I am working on a Get Started Wizard that I will be releasing this week.

If you only want to use the mobile app then let me know and ill get it to you via test flight.

Note: It is HIPPA compliant.
Not for nothing, but if you merely zoom in on the picture you can tell that the 'winning' line is a different color with the naked eye. And if you want to 'prove' this, a 10-second color replacement in photoshop does the job: http://i.imgur.com/7Mg4z.png
"Entry-level models cost $850 and come with 16 GB of memory built in."

So misleading.. It comes with 2G memory and 16GB SSD harddrive.

16GB in 2012, seriously?

And this: "Also, at $850, it is roughly double the cost of a standard work desktop. But you can potentially save money over time as the PC could live longer than those traditional computers."

So i suppose to use this until 2022?
I am a useless non-hacker idea guy and would love it if you began blogging
Why Open Education Matters
Are there many professional politicians left at this stage who aren't covered by more or less that description?
XKCD Creates Elaborate Responsive/Location-based April Fool's Comic
Up To 1.5M Credit Card Numbers May Have Been Stolen In Security Breach
I don't think you'll get a lot of responses here. Try this India-specific HackerNews clone: http://hackerstreet.in/
How To Get Advice For Your Startup
An even better answer specific to the "Why Nations Fail" question is in Jared Diamond's Collapse. Which specifically explores the manifold reasons nations and cultures fail.

Highly recommended.
Some virus called timeline has taken over my account How do I get rid of it?
I'm not a quant, but you also have to consider the operational and regulatory risk of dealing in bitcoins. The people who are currently trading bitcoins don't necessarily have to follow the same regulations that banks and trading houses do.

Also, consider that over 80% of the foreign exchange market is accounted by 6 currencies or so: US dollar, yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Australian dollar. Traders barely bother with the Brazilian real or Indian rupee, even though these currencies are much more likely than bitcoin to be around in 5 years.
Why does this make Bitcoin "mathematically flawed" and different from other markets? If you find a way to crash any market, be it a penny stock or a type of commodity, for example by spreading terrible rumors, you can always profit with put options.

Is your point that the Bitcoin market is still very small and can be manipulated?
Block rewards are not the only way to earn from mining bitcoins. You also earn transaction fees of processed transactions. As block rewards dissipate, transaction fees will naturally increase to compensate.
http://www.codecademy.com is an interesting site for learning how to code. It is definitely worth a look. Also, http://github.com is a great place to store your code while you learn and after you learn.
Harvard Dropout Thrives as Turkey E-Commerce Lures Amazon
I like your unintentional pun in the title.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_(computer_programming)
Why Designers Should Join Software Startups
I have a degree in history. In addition, I've studied a few CS and higher math courses in the university.

The math, algorithm and data structure courses have been useful for my programming career.

I love coding, and I'm self-taught. I believe its possible to be a great programmer even without a formal degree, if you are passionate. The vice versa doesn't hold.

The course that I miss in the CS degree I dropped out is compilers.
My first "real job" was a with Andersen Consulting. Not uncommon for their clients to be 100% IBM shops, from the mainframe to the network to the desktop (which was either an IBM 3270 "tube" or an IBM PC running OS/2). I had a PC, and I do recall it never, ever crashed. It did take some minutes to boot up, but that wasn't necessary very often.
Have you taken a look at http://www.codecademy.com/
I See (Or perhaps a different sense) what you did there.
There is fundamentally sound economics behind the authors theory, but there's also really easy to understand logic: IF you have a strong state that controls the economy, then everything that is done must be authorized by the state. This is necessary if the purpose of the state is to extract the nations wealth to profit an elite few. If you have a weak state, then experiments can be tried, and while many experiments will be failures (such as most companies can fail) the ones that are successful really have a lasting and long term positive impact across the whole society. DEC, Apollo and many others failed, but IBM, Apple and Microsoft succeeded.

The other reason this works is that businesses have to accommodate the needs and desires of their customers, their shareholders and their employees. Businesses need all three in order to thrive. Governments don't need to accommodate anyone's desires or needs, short of that which would cause a revolution that overthrows the government... government imposes its edicts using violence while businesses can only attempt to pursuade or entice people.

Naturally this means that government is less interested in accepting economic reality, while businesses have to react very quickly... and if they don't, the entire economy of businesses overall will react quickly (e.g.: your business will get supplanted by one that accommodates the new reality.)

The lesson here for those who wish to enslave a populace and extract wealth from them is rather than have an overarching government with extreme control, allow a great deal of liberty and then impose a %10 tax on it. %10 is better than %50 when its %10 of an economy 1,000 times bigger.

Unfortunately, all states I'm aware of historically, no matter how rooted in liberty, eventually become parasitical and over the years start to extract more and more of the wealth to profit politicians and more and more controlling to make protect that extractive policy.
"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - Edsger Dijkstra

The name of the field misleads a lot of people into thinking that CS is only about programming, but it's way more than that. Personally, I think all of my CS background from university is what distinguishes me as a software developer instead of just a "programmer".
New York, NY - User Experience Designer

DirectMarkets is looking for an innovative, creative and intelligent User Experience Designer to join our Product team. A User Experience Designer at DirectMarkets is responsible for creating intuitive, goal directed user experience for DirectMarkets users. The UX Designer will collaborate with the Product Manager, Developers, Stakeholders and Users to create experiences which deliver business value and drive the growth of the business. The key deliverables will be designing wireframes and producing style guides to ensure consistency across the platform.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate has:

* Minimum or 3-5 years creating user experiences for web-based products.
* Experience with enterprise products and/or trading systems is a plus.
* Bachelor's Degree or higher in Human Computer Interaction or similar program.
* Experience and passion for working in an Agile environment (specifically SCRUM).
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
* Highly collaborative and innovative.
* Solid understanding of technology and how software systems are built.
* Ability to learn new industries and businesses quickly.
* Experience in visual design is a plus.

DirectMarkets' groundbreaking platform is the next evolutionary step in connecting the C-Suite of existing public companies directly with the capital markets. This is accomplished by electronically linking existing public companies with purchasers of securities. The DirectMarkets platform empowers issuers to efficiently sell primary shares directly into the secondary market, providing investors a new source of supply and liquidity, and the ability to accumulate stock positions in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, the DirectMarkets platform enables investors to initiate transactions directly with issuers, redefining the capital-raising paradigm. The result is greater transparency and substantially reduced time and costs associated with capital origination for existing public companies.

Apply by email chartel@directmkts.com

Website: http://www.directmkts.com