skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I couldn't agree more: as a self-employed software engineer with degrees in literature and psychology, I am living proof that now (not one day, right now) programmers are working for liberal arts "managers" ;-)
PayPal operate as a bank in some places. Also PayPal have to fight fraud.
It sounds like you are saying that you can "cloud burst". If anyone tells you that you can "autoscale", they're full of shit. It's true that you can "spin up" more instances on AWS, but that still takes time, even with the best automation.

The advantage you get from AWS is not related to the "cloud" (eg. virtual machines hosted elsewhere). The advantage is from the virtualization. If you have unpredictable load (like many people do) then you would actually benefit far more from having physical hardware utilizing virtualization.

If you think "scalability" is simply "spin up more AWS instances", you're wrong. In the time it takes for you to "cloud burst" from 2 instances to 50 instances (which, mind you, in most cases happens in an extremely short period of time... think measured in seconds), you're site will be screwed. Even if you have the best automation setup ever known, it still takes on the order of several minutes to get an instance of a machine up and running on AWS.

"So, the next time a vendor is like, 'It's going to be so cool, you can cloud burst your way to safety.' just tell him you are not a magical unicorn." - Adam Jacob (on Cloud Bursting and Other Magical Unicorns http://youtu.be/NTijokrOw6o )
I like the idea of a visual age/points indicator. Like a design from the other day, your design omits the "flag" functionality.
Yes, because untested hypotheses and opinions are always true when they come from a scientist. That's how we know for a fact that Yahweh is 100% real.

Controlled double-blind experimental evidence or GTFO.
Blog Commenting Best Practice Tips
Have you considered installing Enthought free edition ? It has in a single package: Python, Numpy, Scipy, IPython, and you can install it on Linux, Windows and Mac.
I saw it a few months ago at a screening at my university. It's quite funny, and quite accurate too :). It is definitely an indie production, but that doesn't take away from the fun.
Hi HN, thanks for your valuable comments. Please do not hesitate to keep them coming, proposing features/tweaks you would like implemented in your Gmail. Florian (Gmelius Developer)
24% of Web Content is Now in Chinese, Will Soon Surpass English
What is "flag" functionality?
It was only a matter of time before actions such as these became public. The covert war has been going on for quite a while; I would expect more of these to come to light in the next few months, for good or ill.
The title of this article is pure flamebait, but I am a 41 year old former English major, and I've founded several software companies and had several hundred software engineers work for me since I co-founded my first company in 1995. I'm a little bit of a unique case, since what got me started was being hired as a research assistant for a forward-thinking biology professor who wanted me not only collecting information, analyzing it, and writing (my core specialty) but also administering a Gopher server, which turned into a web server, which became a proficiency with 1993-era web design. When I co-founded my company in 1995, I was the only one of the co-founders that really knew anything about the web. I eventually settled into the head of product role, and I've been a jack-of-all-trades product executive ever since.

So not every English major is going to have a similar backstory. But I do know this: research, organization, and strong writing skills got me where I am. It helps also that I was an engineering school dropout and I share many of the proclivities of my engineering brethren. I just decided at some point in college that I liked writing as a way of making things, and switched to English.

As other commenters have noted, no forty year old is an English major anymore. The point worth making is that receiving a good education and being ambitious, hard-working, curious, and embracing new technology is a good recipe for success. And if you think you're going to get anywhere in this new world without strong written communication skills, you're fooling yourself.
Interesting that people are doing this, but most people use Facebook for storage/sharing second, for social/commenting first. It's not about the photos, it's about the comments attached to the photos. And about the status updates and wall posts and all the other communicative stuff.

Email doesn't handle that, because email doesn't let interested observers chip in. One-to-one has its drawbacks.
The trouble with PandoDaily
Rebranding a college-course websites at the end of the school semester is not a smart idea. :P
They are on the GMelius logo at the top of the page as well.
This is really incredible.

I would love to see a professional designer "clean these up" -- use the exact same dimensions and curves, but standardize the stroke widths, curves, etc.

Then I wonder -- would this become the most legible, anonymous font of all time? The serif version could be spectacular for body copy that lets the content speak for itself.

Also, I imagine this could be a fantastic font to "design on top of" -- by overlaying your own designs, you can immediately see what is most distinctive about your own design.
"He seems to have missed making the point in the title."

I think his title was more of a gimmick to catch people's eyes; I think it worked.

"I think the perception that 40 year olds are not up to date on technology is laughable"

I strongly feel that this depends on whether the 40 year old likes programming for its own sake, or they feel that it's just part of a 'clock in' and 'clock out' job. It's also very difficult for many programmers that I've known over the years to step outside of the language that they started with, and start learning and heavily using something new. (Maybe it has something to do with aversion to risk and experimentation? For me, the ease in which a programmer can jump from one language to another, is a key test for their longevity in the field.) Of course this also holds for younger programmers; it's just that their skills are fresher and in my limited experience they tend to be more open minded both technically and to things like longer hours.

That said, I've known two programmers in their 50's who could kick any 20 something's ass in any of the latest tech. Sadly in my experience, they are very very rare.
> every iPhone, iPad and probably a majority of android devices

That's a mild understatement. ARM practically owns the entirety of the mobile device market. Every major mobile OS is near-exclusive ARM based (Android being a very recent exception, and Intel handsets haven't shipped yet) Outside of China (where MIPS seems to have a bit of marketshare); you'd be hard-pressed to open up a reasonably smart non-PC device and /not/ find an ARM chip.
I'm no expert, but information theory answers the question of "randomness" more simply, intuitively and rigorously.

This notion of Kolmogorov Complexity doesn't seem to add any additional value.
Distasteful, or maybe imprudent, sure, but I don't think it's unethical. When I signed up for Gmail, ads weren't part of the bargain.

"Gmail is built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful. And maybe even fun. After all, Gmail has: Lots of space. Over 7538.321890 megabytes (and counting) of free storage."

If just using the service obliges me to view the ads, doesn't it also oblige me to click on the ads? If I don't, I'm lowering the efficiency of their ad network, and thus the value of their advertising product. Maybe I'm even obliged to buy some of the stuff advertised?

That seems crazy to me. They didn't mention the ads when I signed up, so I just don't care. I don't owe them my attention any more than they owe me customer support.
I'd also love to see this process done for collections of typefaces from the same period -- humanist, transitional, modern, grotesque, and so on...
Why would I work for one day for somebody with an English degree? Or did he mean to say "Software Engineers Will One Day Work for English Majors"?

Not that I'm worried either way. I'm a Software Engineer with a degree in International Relations and Chinese Language, which will probably be more valuable than an English degree.
I wonder how the software devs feel about this at Bloomberg?
Norway is not a good country for entrepreneurship, but a very good country if you need help. Don't know why we are so far behind Denmark and Sweden in tech startups though.
Google Dart, it better be.
> Your earning money to give yourself a secure future,

I have been doing that during my college years and few years after that but then the future came and it was secure regardless of money I had. Money got spent or lost on stupid investments. I feel bit insecure now but only a bit. Is scaring yourself about your unknown future the way to get the money hunger?

> to be able to spend more time with people you enjoy being around,

I spend 24 hours of at least 95% of my days with the woman I love. I think I can't improve that area by making more money.

> to be free to go wherever you want,

I'm exactly where I want to be. And I really don't like travelling.

> do anything you want at any time without money being an issue.

I'd like to have that, but to get more money I'd have to crawl out of my local optimum by doing the things I don't want to for a lot longer than I do now. Also success of 100% passive income would not be ensured.

> You're earning money for freedom and independence.

I don't feel like I'm lacking either of them now.

> Do you have the hunger now?

No, but thank you. Idea of making myself feel insecure about my future might be a way to go.
Why is this on Hacker News? It's consumer orientated, not hacker or startup orientated. Stop with the spam.
The author is a CS professor. Does he not enjoy CS or something? I'm not certain what his goal is with this article.

"Finally, those high programmer salaries are actually low, because the same talents (analytical and problem-solving ability, attention to detail) command much more money in other fields, such as law and finance."

This is a tricky one, because it really boils down to "it depends." I can't speak about the law sector, but my limited experience in the financial world speaks to sales guys making oodles more than the analysts or quants. Further, the high salaries come with many more hours, so the per-hour salary of a software engineer would actually be higher.

http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Financial-Analyst-l-New-York,...

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=software+engineer&l1=sun...

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=quant&l1=new+york+city (note that a quant is typically a phd-only position and comes with crazy hours)

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=fixed+income+sales&l1=ne...

According to this data I was mistaken about sales vs quants, but I wonder if this factors in bonuses (which would be significant for the latter two)?
Dirt analysis reveals the fears and obsessions of medieval readers
Not only is this a several year old feature, this reads like a press release.

More top-notch 'journalism' from TC.
I am an English major who's over 40 with a love of programming and writing. I've only recently realized that these two passions are not mutually exclusive. Given the latter, I suppose I'm a bit of a slow learner. But on the upside, since discovering this, I'm applying more and more energy toward contributing to open source projects as a writer. I contribute as a programmer when I can, but for many, many projects improving the documentation is where the greatest benefits can be had.
IMO the blue header bg is completely wrong - they do look like buttons, not only that they look like the current sites buttons. The whole impression is clean and technical; is this what you're after for selling people a place to call home (albeit rental).

It's personal taste but the text-align:center on that first heading screws with me too.

Also, on usability, when arriving at the site I'm thinking you'll not have anything in my area ... which is presumably the big problem with such sites, seeding them. So, perhaps you'd consider putting your strap line inside the header and having an optionally displayed "we have 234 rentals near you" or something; sniff IP and show it went it's over a threshold.
Maybe, but they can always do that down the line. At the moment, they have a dedicated audience that will gladly pay $15.
That 15% is not taking into account base salary (I'm including bonus + 401k matching)... it's more like 25% if you look at it that way ;). And this is a pretty entry level rate... in a year from now I know I'll be able to command at least 50-70% more.

Health insurance can be had for barely more than the cost of fuel I was using in my daily commute, which is $200/mo. Yes, I have to do my own taxes, and yes they'll be a bit more, but as a sole proprietor I can also deduct many expenses. It's pretty much a wash. I firmly believe people make a bigger deal out of this than it is, it's a fear thing.

But this is beside my point, I'm transitioning out from Windows dev, and it doesn't have to be some huge sacrifice like many make it out to be. I have a plethora of full-time work I can take in front of me if I wish, I decided the 1099 route makes more sense for me at this moment in time.
Apple and Google face salary fixing lawsuit
This would be dead-on except for he misses a key point: programming is not about programming anymore.

"Programming" in the sense he uses it is a corporate cog working in some huge technology-producing machine. That job? Sure. It leans heavily towards younger workers. Why not? Have you seen the way they treat programmers?

But the general skill of programming is not practiced in that environment much anymore. Today programming is everywhere. It's more like the way cursive writing used to be -- you won't get far without knowing it. Programming is that skill you mix into some other skill to make the whole thing better.

Programming is quickly becoming more of a necessary add-on than an end-point in itself.
Very nice, but seeing that made me wonder whether this can be improved as follows: instead of soldering, drill holes in the copper wire that are slightly smaller than the thickness of the component wires you want to attach. Then, heat or cool both enough for the component wires to fit through the hole (thermal expansion factors will hopefully be different enough for this to work), put them in and let the device go back to room temperature.
A lot of people here have said that their is nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but I have the opposite opinion: I do not think it is ok to WANT to make money.

I recognize that making money is required in order to live in a capitalist society, since that is the primary way you will acquire food, shelter, clothing, etc. I make money personally and recognize that it is necessary. How could I create software or volunteer if I can't even feed or clothe myself?

However, I do not WANT to make money. I recognize that capitalism is a system that depends on the exploitation of others, usually people I do not see or interact with unless I go out of my way to find them. We live in a world where there are many people who cannot feed or clothe themselves, cannot afford shelter, cannot have determination in what they do or the work they must take on. This is a world that I want to sincerely change to no longer require money. Isn't this the great future promise of sci-fi like Star Trek, that humanity will give up capitalism and exploitation and provide for every human?

The primary many readers here engage in software development is in a commercial context (myself included). However, I would much prefer to gather with like minded individuals to create software because I love to create software, not because there is a promise of a payout. Many others here feel the same way, but never forget that we benefit from capitalism while others suffer from it. I would rather remove money altogether than worry about acquiring more of it.
It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself that you don't want money, rather than the opposite.

Is the only thing you want to do with your life to sit by the seaside, squeeze out a couple of kids, and die peaceful and unknown? If so, fine, no need for money. If you have any speck of ambition in you, though, chances are you want to make some sort of positive difference to the world out there.

Money is a tool that you can use to do that.

What the fisherman parable fails to convey is that through his enterprise, the guy who did buy a bigger boat, expand, etc, ended up feeding millions of people. If no one did that, we'd all still be living in small fishing villages and dying of colds and flus. You owe all your modern conveniences to people who got off their asses and built empires (for whatever motivations it is they had).
The best part of this post was the dawning realisation about 2/3 of the way through the page that an actual font resulted from the experiment, and the page was displayed in it.

It's a really attractive font, actually. Regular enough that it coheres as a font, but just irregular enough to evoke the output of old movable-type printing presses.
He's actually becoming a parody of himself it seems.

"How get 24 points on Hacker News"

1. Hire someone who can write. (I usually use an outsourcing agency for $7.23 per article)
2. Give them a topic to write about. (usually something that's in some way timely)
3. Tell them to create an article that implies that there is a numerated set of steps that one can follow to become rich. Use images from popular apps to imply that the article is well referenced.
4. Submit to Hacker News and other sites.
There were more people working on this movie for a lot more time than Louis CK's evening special. Plus, they don't have such high visibility, so they need to make their money back on a lot fewer customers.
Most people I know who have it have it because at some point in their lives they were without money. If you're smart and you've been working in IT for 10 years then I'm guessing you're financially doing fine. Maybe not super rich but well above national average and you probably don't want for much. I'm sure you could live somewhere nicer and have nicer stuff but would that really make you happier.

Your problem is summarise by five words "maybe it would be better".

We're motivated to do things that we believe will improve our lives in some way. Why would you expect to be motivated by something you're unclear on.

If anything it sounds to me as if you're a little bit aimless and if there's any dissatisfaction in your life it's probably that. Better to work out what you want than just pick something and go "lots of people seem to want this, maybe that's what I want".
Will ubiquitous VoIP lead Skype (and Microsoft) to victory?
How image tech makes content marketing possible.
Looks useful. But...

Bah! These are settings that should be dealt with globally by the browser, not idiosyncratically and by every website. This way is just annoying for everyone, developers and users alike.

I'm crossing my fingers that this stupid law won't be enforced, and am holding off adding annoying pop-ups of bureaucratic tedium to my sites. As anyone who knows online behaviour can attest, it's not as if anyone is actually going to _read_ them.
University of Florida guts computer science department in budget-cutting move
that's true, I guess it would only take Dropbox to add commenting on the sharing pages they now create. But it's mostly about the perms for me (which these shared pages don't seem to offer), I know who I share a DB folder with. And in my particular case, the comments happen over the phone, or when my family comes over, on skype and actually some to/fro email (although it's annoying when it happens there).
It does happen - I got turned down by startups here in Canada because I'm not experienced enough :)
PostgreSQL versus Oracle
I already know VIM/use it on a daily basis and I found this fun and interseting.
But the claim that the web stagnated because Microsoft stopped developing IE is just wrong. Firefox picked up their slack and put forth some pretty great efforts, far beyond what Microsoft was ever willing to do.
I don't think the privacy commissioner would take too kindly to this. That would be an accessibility issue. You'll notice though that on that page there isn't actually anywhere you can find the privacy policy.

I don't believe there's any legislation to force people into providing their privacy policy online. Though I would say the effort taken to get people to come into the office to view the privacy policy on the sheepskin would be prohibitively expensive. :-)
Realtime Computer Vision with OpenCV
What open-source maintainers can learn from antirez about customer engagement
I've performed as well as supervised manual circuit board assembly. I know what it's like to get in the zone of doing something like this all day.

My experience teaches me that it takes on average soldering a few dozen units of anything unusual before the assembler gets the hang of it. Unusual being anything besides stuffing a PC board and manually soldering. This is not likely to ever be a high volume product, and I probably (admittedly only knowing the size of the market from what other posters have said) would not be comfortable doing production runs of more than 50 at a time, so you lose a lot of the benefits of doing long runs.

That said, I think your estimates are a bit optimistic. Once the entire time is accounted for: from kitting up the run, setting up the work area, actual assembly and testing, my guess would be closer to 30 minutes per unit.

Slightly OT, but if you can point me to any good resources for setup and manual assembly of cable harnesses, it would be much appreciated. It's an area I find myself getting involved in and I don't have much experience, so it's pretty much "learning by error."
You really think that the first computer was invented in 1972?
"Why would software engineers work for english majors?"

Maybe it's just me, but I've "worked for" several English majors. OK, perhaps they weren't my direct boss, but I've been on many projects managed by Project Managers with degrees in areas like English and History. (IMO, whoever is managing your project is the person you're "working for").

And I didn't "choose" to work for these guys. Usually I go through a technical interview, then get assigned to a project whose PM is a non-technical person.

Perhaps this is unusual at places like Google, MS, etc. But outside of those types of companies, it's not unusual at all in my experience.
Once I broke the loading sequence of a game and discovered I could see all of the source right there. It was as simple as BREAK if I remember.

That kicked me off on my favourite learning method: reading someone else's code.
We had some serious proactiveness from antirez there :)
Money may not be 'everything', but it does seem to be the universal prerequisite.
This guy is so off the radar it is a wonder why he is allowed to publish this stuff.

I will just add two points.

1) Facebook, Google, and other silicon valley companies are far from the norm of software development jobs. There are far more jobs in finance, retail, and travel for engineers than the type of position he is describing.

2) Most directors, executive directors and VPs I have worked for started their careers as software engineers as a matter of fact engineering is how they developed the business knowledge to become executives.