skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm a developer who studied Physics, and yes, you certainly can compete.

I did a few CS papers but I was frustrated by what I considered low level practical and overly complex theoretcial skills I was learning. That's fine - University should focus on the theoretical - but it doesn't always result in employable skill. Heck, it's possible to get a CS degree without doing that much actual programming.

In my opinion, Physics gives you useful thought processes and solid math skills. A physicist has to relate the real world to theoretical models, something that a programmer has to do every day. Also, many of my physics lab experiments entailed computer analysis of the results. You had to take real-world data and get useful information by programming something - something that not all CS majors seem to have to deal with.

You will have to prove yourself - but if you've been working on open source projects or have a portfolio of high quality work, that will count more than a CS degree for many employers.
Oh to be young and think (or project that you think) you know everything!

(..says the old curmudgeon who realizes that despite all efforts to the contrary, he's getting increasingly less knowledgeable percentage-wise of what's out there. However you can't fault the kid for trying!)
Over the past 30 years we haven't seen breakthru innovation in transportation, energy, medicine, and many other fields. This point has been made by Peter Theil and others.

That may be true, but look at some recent developments. Self-driving cars, synthetic biology, thorium reactors, commercial space, 3d printing - not to mention the rapid evolution of internet and mobile technologies. Further afield, people are working on quantum computing, memristors, AI algorithms, and more.

All of these developments could make a big impact. Seems to me that we've got plenty of advances ahead of us.
Not fun. Upgrading my PC from 11.10 to 12.04 resulted in not being able to boot. Grub giving error "no such partition." LiveCD + running boot-repair seems to have fixed it. I think the devs tinker with the OS too much resulting in breaking things but I just might be getting old and stodgy. With Gnu/Linux there is so many ways to do things there is bound to be a workaround or fix, but I just want the thing to work not be a tinkering nerd with the OS.
I'm late to the party, but a quick and dirty implementation of this in ghci computes the 10,000,000th Fibonacci number for me in about 3 seconds, though it takes a lot longer to print to my terminal. It's pretty neat.

newtype T = T (Rational,Rational) deriving Show
:{
instance Num T where { T (a,b) + T (c,d) = T (a+c,b+d);
T (a,b) * T (c,d) = T (a*c+5*b*d,b*c+a*d);
abs (T (a,b)) = T (a*a+5*b*b,0);
fromInteger n = T(fromInteger n,0);
signum (T (a,_)) = T (signum a,0);
negate (T(a,b)) = T(-a,-b) }
instance Fractional T where { recip (T(a,b)) = T(a/(a^2-5*b^2),-b/(a^2-5*b^2));
fromRational r = T(r,0)}
:}
let r5 = T(0,1)
let phi = (1+r5)/2
let psi = (1-r5)/2
let fromT (T(a,b)) = (a,b)
let fib n = floor . fst . fromT $ (phi^n-psi^n)/r5
let x = fib 10000000
x == 0
The author begins by making the case that innovation was at a peak in the early 20th century, but has been largely stagnant at the start of the 21st century. It's a provocative question, but I believe it's a symptom of a real underlying cause. To answer him more directly: Innovation will ramp up when the influence of moneyed interests on legislative priorities begins to wane.

An interesting and, I believe, a truly important thing happened for innovation at the beginning of the 20th century, the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. He demanded transparency from food suppliers, broke up Standard Oil and worked hard to restrain the power and influence of large corporations. We need another T.R. for innovation to thrive.

In just this past year, there have been numerous anti-competitive legislative initiatives that we can point to. Each one lobbied for and backed by entrenched oligopolies that are actively trying to put the clamps on innovation. This is happening at both the federal (PIPA/SOPA, CISPA, patent wars, AT&T/T-Mobile Merger) and local level (Bans on Municipal Broadband).

In his book, "The Master Switch", Tim Wu tells a great story about a device invented at Bell Labs capable of recording a callers voice if the attached phone was not answered. The year was 1934, but the magnetic recording tape, used in answering machines and computer storage devices, did not become widely available until decades later. The AT&T monopoly chose to keep this new technology a secret, fearing that it would cannibalize their profitable business model. If nothing else, this story demonstrates the type of bureaucratic mindset that prevents entrenched corporate interests from making the kind of leaps that come from hungry entrepreneurs and government funded research. As a reader of HN, I would guess that this is already clearer to you than most.
Your Google apologetics are no more or less compelling than your BoA apologetics were.
Does anyone know what hike this is?

http://thetwohalves.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/P3110256-...
You could pretend that. Or you could say, we valued his intelligence and readily-apparent ability to learn over 'fizz-buzz' nonsense questions and cargo-cult interview style.
I think this article is misguided in that there has been lots of innovation in the tech sector that has been overshadowed by silly things like "Instagram" that solve "cat picture problems" due to startup culture. The public face of innovation has not been dealing with hard problems, but people are working on them. There are several potential wide-ranging cancer treatments and someone came up with a potential cure for the common cold.

Our educational system and our culture must change if we are to get into a period where there is widespread innovation in dealing with hard problems instead of cat pictures. The internet will be a crucial part of that, and in the future, we will recognize the internet as being a source of cat pictures before we figured out how to use it to unlock our own potential.
Unless I'm grossly mistaken, there's no tax benefit to incorporating in Delaware. Their franchise tax is actually pretty high. The reason to incorporate there has to do with reducing legal costs, AFAIK, which is a separate matter.
We have computers in our pockets that send a signal to space to locate us anywhere on the planet within a couple of feet, then tell us how to get where we want to go. We can communicate instantly, instantly with people on the other side of the planet. We have a network of satellites orbiting our planet giving us constant information about our world. Not many people predicted these things in popular culture/popular sci fi.

These kinds of articles always seem like old people complaining that the future didn't turn out the way they expected. Instead of accepting that the biggest innovative breakthrough in the past 50 years was a global communication and information network, they complain that there hasn't been anything good happening.
Which is why you should learn more about a candidate than their current programming toolset. Like their adaptability, their insight into problems and their convolutions. Not about their facility with the current fad language.
Amen to that. Unless I'm on a tiny screen where every pixel counts (i.e. mobile), don't make me guess WTF I should click in a vast empty white area to make the scrollbar appear (I'm looking at you, new gmail).
Google releases FCC report on Street View probe
> "...since CS grads do get an unfair advantage in the industry"

Really?

Considering that the IT industry is wide open to people without CS degrees, it is exactly the other way around. Engineering, Medical or Law students don't have an "unfair advantage" to their respective profession - they've simply met the minimum requirement. Meanwhile, a CS major has given up several years to maybe have a better shot of getting an interview, never mind a job.
You'd lose a lot of energy in the cables in the walls of your house that way.

The same reason they use very high voltages to transport the electricity and only step it down to 240 as close to the end-user as feasible.

I won't bore you with the physics, but you want to keep the amps as low as possible (which can be done by keeping the voltage high).
I'm astonished that people think the Internet-era is low innovation. It's only been twenty years and we've gotten so much out of it (social networking, location-based services, real-time updates/news, vast pool of information).

I don't know about you guys but I think anyone who lived in the past would kill to be in this era.
An HFT spreads risk among it's customers as well. When you cross the spread you aren't necessarily EXPECTING the stock to go down, you just don't want to take the chance.

The only time the HFT could be said to have screwed up is if they're losing money overall.

I find that to be a stretch, since the entire point is that you look for sure bets and attempt to only sell this "insurance" to people who (in your opinion) don't need it.

No, you look for bets with a 90% chance of collecting a $0.10 spread and a 10% chance of a $0.50 price drop (for a net profit of $0.04/trade across many trades). Actually, the odds are usually much worse than that, if your expected profit/share is greater than a penny, you are doing fantastically well. Any HFT who hunts for a sure thing isn't making any money - there are far more 51% gain, 49% loss opportunities than there are sure things.
The algorithm is quite fascinating (from what we can infer). Using things like a markov chain to model results in Google shows a big jump from human-compiled results in early search engines - it's a new application of theoretical knowledge that has greatly enhanced society, and frankly shows a degree of automation that could be a basis machine intelligence.
A 240V mains socket (depending on jurisdiction) is expected to provide 3.6KW. That requires 15 amps of current, and (here in America) 14 AWG wire, 1.628mm thick.

To source the same amount of power at 24V, you need ten times as much amperage, 150A, and 1/0 AWG wire, or 8.252mm thick. Much, much thicker, dramatically more expensive, and harder to handle.

And even with 1/0 AWG wire, you'll see a lot of voltage droop between the main panel and the outlet, which will be tens of metres away. A 20 metre run, at 24V and 150A will drop 7.5% of its voltage between the panel and the outlet.
I'm about to graduate with a degree in Physics. While the degree itself is brilliant I don't really think it is incredibly helpful in the startup world.

You do learn C, Mathematica, MatLab, etc, which means you will at least know what is going on when you look at code, but by itself this is not enough.

Something that has definitely helped me was taking a Microprocessors course, where you learn Assembly, which meant really understanding computational processes like memory, power, speed. I was lucky that we were able to create a standalone project that really helped solidify all the theoretical ideas. If If you can do a course like this, I highly recommend it.

Unless you spend as much time auditing CS courses as you do in Physics lectures (and really have the commitment to learn both), you will not leave with the same knowledge as a CS student, but if you put in the work, you can be competent.

I really have only one piece of advice: If you want to build applications once you graduate, start building now. It doesn't matter if they aren't brilliant or even good for that matter; build. It doesn't matter if they don't look incredible; build. It doesn't matter what languages or frameworks you learn; build. If you do this, with time, you will learn that you can learn most things relatively quickly and be competent in whatever it is you decide to do after graduating, because you spent time hammering away, grinding and really learning.
Xfce 4.10 released
Interesting point. I've seen plenty of customers bring in damaged iPhones with damaged motherboards or charging ICs who have been using their devices with non-branded chargers sourced from the likes of eBay. Most people seem to be happy saving a few dollars on a charger for an expensive phone!

Its great to see an in depth article in to the design and the cost-cutting.

(Source - I work at an iPhone repair company)
Leave your cellphone at home
Yeah, especially those political handouts that pay for maintenance on the I-280.
Using a name other than your official legal name is frowned upon in many contexts. In some countries, although not the US, it's actually illegal under many circumstances.
It takes about nineteen seconds for the matrix implementation in Ruby:

ruby-1.9.3 043 > x = Time.new.to_i; y = 10000000.matrix_fib; Time.new.to_i - x
=> 19
Given enough time, anyone smart enough to finish a PhD can acquire a set of skills. :)

But it's more than just solid statistics. We're talking about having enough mathematical fluency to develop models rigorously (not just "oh, we'll minimize MSE!!"), test those models, then implement those models--possibly using a distributed algorithm.

From what I hear, these skills take years to develop. Choosing to groom the wrong person is an extremely costly mistake, so making the choice is difficult.
Wow, it seems like he read the release notes for Firefox 13 (now in beta) and wrote a rant about how those features aren't in 12. See http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/13.0beta/releasenotes/.
Why not? (Honest question.)

We have states that have no personal income tax. Not surprisingly, these states are doing fine because they raise revenue other ways.
California should call Apple's (and others') bluff. Let companies decide if saving 8% in tax is worth leaving the Silicon Valley ecosystem and infrastructure.
Define little. It's only worthwhile when you reach a certain level of profit. There are quite a few lawyers and accountants that specialize in offshoring.
SSL = Security Still Lacking
I am just telling you the truth.

IT industry != Software Engineering industry. Event IT will favor Business, InfoSys, Accounting grads way above any other science disciplines.

In Software Engineering, fresh CS grads get a pretty unfair advantage. Do a Google/Facebook/Microsoft/Amazon interview and find out.
One of the possible reasons it took the companies two or more weeks to give a negative answer to Matt (OP) would be that usually the candidates are "ordered" by preference. When you get several strong candidates you propose to the one you consider the best fit (culturally, as specific strengths needed for the team, or professional abilities). Unfortunately, after you make the offer it usually takes some time for the person to consider the conditions you propose (salary, equity, bonuses, perks, etc.). One has to keep in mind that there is additional time involved in signing the contract. During this time it's a tough call closing the door on the other strong candidates in the backlog. Because of this, if you're not the primary candidate it could take some time before they give you a "no" or make you an offer, if the negotiations with the alpha candidate fell through.

That's an unfortunate side effect of trying to recruit the best talent. On the one occasion I had to interview and select candidates I informed two of the people that I liked that there is another candidate that we're currently talking with, but if the things don't work out with him I might get back to them in the next 15 days after the interview. Luckily we managed to reach an agreement with the guy that I considered the best fit, so I called the backups and told them that $COMPANY will not be able to hire them. They sounded grateful for the extra information and not being kept in the dark, but I'm still not 100% sure that it was the best decision, given the circumstances. What would have happened if I had to call one of the guys and tell them that we didn't reach an agreement with the primary candidate?

Have any of you guys and girls handled and solved this problem?
There is no state in the US that takes anywhere near 50% of your salary (assuming by state you don't mean country).

Companies should pay lower taxes because the buck doesn't stop there. Owners / equity holders are the benefactors of the company's profits and should be the ones to pay taxes, assuming you agree with having income taxes.
Some of their wins were competitor missteps too. Wordperfect was late to the Windows party, so users who wanted to use a GUI went to Word. That misstep may have very well given MS it's opening.

The XBox did all right, but the 360 has done quite well. I loved my PS2, the XBox wasn't bad. But Sony released a year later and at an insane price point. Combined with the difficulty of developing for the cell relative (relative to 3 identical cores) and MS was able to gain a big chunk of the market.

Apple never made a big mistake with the iPod. Even the 2nd or 3rd gen (which the capacitive buttons) was still a nice player. The "fat" nano was still a nice player. One of the shuffles was a bit of a dud, but that was never a big chunk of their sales anyway. Any downsides were more than made up for by the availability of accessories and the iTunes Music Store.

With the iPhone, I don't think Apple has made any big mistakes either. Maybe the price on the original (which they fixed relatively quickly), and I know many people were unhappy with the AT&T choice, but it seems to have worked out fine. Apple was able to control the experience to keep it from being ruined by the carriers (mostly), and again the accessor market and the App Store have more than made up for that with most consumers. The two biggest complaints I've heard are lock-in/freedom (most people don't seem to care) and the lack of a physical keyboard (preference, and Apple clearly is willing to let keyboard enthusiasts go somewhere else).

I'd say there have been Android missteps. Some carriers ruin the phones, and the updates thing is a big negative in my mind. But Android phones cater to just about everyone (touch screen only or keyboard lover), and come in at all price points. It's clearly good enough for a great many people.

At this point, I don't think there is an opening in the smartphone market. If MS wants to succeed, they're going to have to make an opening... and they haven't done that yet. Combine that with the Window Phone's downsides (update questions, smaller app market due to small market share) and it's not an easy sell.

I'd like to see them succeed here, if only because I like that they're pushing a totally different UI and they provide additional pressure on Apple and Google to keep improving. But the iPhone came out five years ago. Two or three years ago I think they could have had a good chance against Android. They may have waited too long.
Wall Street does care about there the money is. That is why tech companies have spent huge sums lobbying for a repatriation amnesty.
The navigation paradigma Microsoft uses is not for me, I prefer Apple's more natural approach.

I'm fascinated to know what is "natural" about Apple's approach. I think it is "natural" because you are used to it. To me, it feels overly (/incredibly) app-centric. Both Android and Windows Phone (to differing degrees) feel far more task based: "You have a photo. What would you like to do with it?", as opposed to "You opened Instagram? I assume you want to do stuff with photos".

By example, when I look up a contact in my address book in Windows Phone, it allows me to look up my history with that person. Emails, texts, IMs, tweets, everything- all in one place, because who thinks "Dave tweeted that at me" over "Dave sent that to me"? By contrast, iOS keeps every interaction siloed in-app.

Apple's most "natural" interactions result in making the address book look like a leather bound book.
I got a degree in Biochemistry. I hadn't taken _any_ programming classes when I graduated. My first biotech job had me learn some LabView and R. Over the next year I took a night class in python, and got my job from that.

So yeah. I highly recommend learning CS while you can! CS is a field where your ability to code is much more important than pieces of paper.
To me that implies that our current tax methodology is fundamentally wrong. In a global system with value placed on intellectual property and virtual goods, rather than manufactured products, the current tax design seems irreparably broken.

I don't know nearly enough about taxes or economics to propose a solution. Would a VAT tax at a lower rate be more consistent than a higher corporate income tax that may or may not be avoided depending on the corporation? Europeans seem to hate the VAT tax but I'm not sure if that stems from a high tax rate or the concept of the tax itself.
Specific interests being mentioned in a tax policy discussion? Unheard of!
This is why I always buy expensive, good quality car chargers. I went through one every few months until I got my last one. Still going strong after 4 years.
I see that they've updated it since I last used Chrome. It's better but not perfect, although that might just be a matter of getting used to it. I expect to have to swipe longer before it goes back and I expect the same momentum effect that is all over Lion.

I don't understand why they don't simply use Safari's default behavior, it's not like Apple has a patent on physics and smooth animations.
Superb article, I would up vote this 5 times if I could
The point I made in showing that yummyfajita's remarks to be wrong stand. I might be wrong on my belief that repealing the Bush tax cuts would greatly improve the fiscal outlook of the federal government but this does not in any way detract from my point.

Your last two paragraphs are not germane to my point and they are wrong in any case. However, let's assume your last statement is correct.

Right now taxes around 15.4% GDP [1]. You seem to believe that 19% GDP in taxes is a reasonable amount to pay for government services. The GDP of the U.S. is around $15 trillion [2]. A 3.5% GDP increase in taxes to get us to 19% GDP for taxes would mean an increase of taxes by $525 billion. Current budgetary projections have the U.S. deficit at slightly over $500 billion in 4 years [3]. A lot of the current deficit is in non-recurring expenditures that are related to the fiscal crisis that started in 2008.

I might be wrong on my belief about the Bush II tax cuts being a large portion of our long term fiscal problems but from your sentence one must conclude that you agree that raising taxes by a reasonable amount would eliminate our long term fiscal problems.

[1] http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Doc...

[2] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD

[3] http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.ht...
It was about 20 points low for me.
single page link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strate...
Congrats to the FNF on their nationwide license from the FCC
Very cool, I already adapted Pinry to a direct PHP/MySQL implementation, as I'm not a Django user (yet). Applying the new UI to http://www.myinfoq.com/ to make it easier to discover information about your interests and should help as a demo/reference site. Thanks overshard, hope I can contribute back to the community. @dugald3
> The only reason it's immoral not to pay taxes is because it's immoral to break the law, at least if the law is just

Surely it's also immoral because it's moral to contribute to the society you benefit from, particularly when the laws are constructed to attempt to make you do so, even when there are loopholes?
One day at work I watched a coworker's fake phone charger explode in a literal fireball that went off with a large "bang!" complete with shrapnel, flame shooting out and good amount of smoke.

This article talks about the theoretical danger from an engineering perspective, but I've witnessed these things explode first hand. Definitely heed the advice - get a real charger
I think this is a terrible idea. Implementers of Python should code to a unified Python standard, instead of asking programmers of Python to code to a disparate collection of implementations.