skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There's also the very real and reasonable question of where capital might be used more efficiently. Having seen first-hand how government agencies make spending decisions it is my opinion that a huge percentage of tax dollars is wasted. Private industry is almost always far more efficient in allocating resources out of necessity. I have seen cases where government agencies pay double --or more-- what a private entity would pay for exactly the same product or service.
I mean if they are going to develop for niche OS like osx and linux, the money might be better spent on their firefox operating system
Having owned an Apple Airport Express, I can assure you that it's just as dangerous and badly designed.

Mine actually blew a cap and melted.

I'd love to see the guts of a REAL Apple charger spilled out for examination next to it.
That is right. I picked the most obvious problem, spam, and searched for a solution. I found one. That was all the easy part.
"The implied but never fully-articulated point of this article is that high-tax domiciles resent it when rational actors having a choice in the matter will routinely structure their business affairs to incur tax to the maximum extent possible in low-tax as opposed to high-tax domiciles."

No, that's the conclusion you might draw if you choose to read the article through an extremely narrow filter where you start from the premise that the laws, as they stand, are sufficient and reasonable.

If, instead, you look at the situation and wonder at the utter inefficiency of a tax system that allows some (but not all) corporations to move profits around on paper to avoid taxation -- but only if they spend money on creating fake offices and legal castles in the sky that don't contribute to productivity -- then you start to wonder if perhaps the situation can be changed. And that's an interesting discussion.
Edit: Apologies, my bad. Misread.
I'm not sure it's that simple. I live in the US. The vast majority of the US Federal budget goes to the military, income redistribution (welfare) and insurance programs (social security, medicare). I do not believe most of those expenditures enable me to make money, and I think a significant segment is actively harmful. I also feel that I don't have a meaningful say in how that money is used because the political system is broken.

Given those conditions, I don't feel there's anything immoral about doing everything legal to pay less in taxes. I suspect things are different where you live.
It's simple, but there are a lot of people who do not understand this. They don't realize the taxes from the system that funded childhood educations and college tuitions to result in an employable, knowledgeable, creative mass of first-world dwellers should be paid back into through taxes on the profits of the companies in their sphere.

There is a singular lack of realization about the societies in which we live, possibly because it does feel like every man for himself most days. The societal web that makes us interdependent and upon which we rely without knowing it isn't as apparent.

Addendum: there's a lot of confusion about the differences between something being legal and something being moral/ethical in the responses to this post. Legal too often simply means exploiting loopholes.
The reason it is immoral to pay taxes is that you are still benefiting from the existence of the government but putting the burden of supporting it on others.

You personally may agree or disagree with this, but that's what someone probably means when they say it is immoral to avoid paying taxes, even if it is perfectly legal. Taxes are part of the general social contract of our society, and aggressively finding ways to avoid paying them tends to a tragedy of the commons type situation.
There is simply a lower signal to noise ratio in regards to innovation. And yes, while there is a lot of noisy low-innovation internet companies, there are still more strong innovators now than there were 10 or 20 years ago. There is a low barrier to entry to the tech industry, and with that a great spectrum of the level of impact they make, and yet the opportunity and ease of access to an audience is greater than ever before.

Nothing like this has ever been able to happen. Innovation is continuing at an exponential rate, and I would hope Justin Fox would realize this as he books a last minute hotel via mobile app, rekindles a long lost friendship from school, and slips his tiny 90s-grade supercomputer into his pocket. All while selling his hobby romance novelas on his web marketed e-commerce site.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/icharge.html
This isn't HTML5, this is HTML4 div and span soup with an HTML5 doctype. If they really wanted clean markup, they'd use the proper elements everywhere.
My apologies. You make a good point, and this is one of those cases where CS folks are loose with the meaning of big-O.

I still might be confused, but AFAICT, the OP's solution and computation by rounding both require O( (log n) * M(log n) ) time, where M(n) is the time it takes to multiply an n-bit number.
Your first sentence of your last paragraph shows one of the problems with globalization. We have seen in the U.S. municipalities competing with each other to see who can give the most subsidies to large corporations. The effects have not been so desirable. Now we are seeing this played out on a grand, global scale. It's potentially a race to the bottom.

I think globalization without a proper international regulating agency is a bad thing. It's great for the people who have the ability to move from one country to the next. Who can find the optimal place for them to live in. Most people don't have this luxury.
Another famous answer:

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to shove them down people's throats.

(too lazy to look up the attribution)
Minor quibbling point, not necessarily relevant to your question: The point of a college education is not just job skills per se. If you want skills for a specific job, you typically are sent for training rather than education. My sister, who has vastly superior job hunting skills to mine, always said that unless you want to be something like a doctor or lawyer, your major is largely irrelevant but having a degree (any degree) is important to get your foot in the door.

I will close with one of my favorite anecdotes: Michael Crichton wanted to be a writer. His family told him he was crazy, you cannot support yourself that way and encouraged him to be a doctor. So he went to medical school. And his first book was published before he graduated, so he never did work as a doctor. Still, his overwhelmingly successful books and movies are all the richer due to his educational background. Jurassic Park and other works would not be so compelling if, like so many authors, he had some throwaway explanation like "er...radiation! That's it!"

Not intended as advice, which is nearly "against my religion". Intended only as food for thought.

Best of luck.
The only problem with that criticism is that Neil Stephenson has known more about the internet earlier than nearly anyone commenting on this story. One of the central activities of 'team hero' in Cryptonomicon is laying undersea IP links. If you've read his books, it's obvious he has thought deeply about how the expansion of the internet affects everyone's lives.

You are entirely missing what he is saying.
This doesn't seem to me to be the goal. I think the point is that implementers would produce this module, and stdlib developers would consume it. Joe Foobar python programmer should never need to know about it.

I think it's maybe not the best solution, but it's good, and the fact that they're trying to address the problem somehow is great.
I think you misread, nobody was suggesting to lurk 4chan at work, in fact the exact opposite.
I wasn't necessarily talking about drivers but rather people in inter-personal contact.

Asia is on my list. I've mainly done Europe and S. America. Almost went to Tokyo to study Aikido for six months but just couldn't pull it together. Maybe next time.
Similarly IKEA pays zero tax by channeling all it's profits through a very complicated setup to an Irish non-profit. GE not only pays zero tax, but also manages to extract tax refunds from the US government.

The big question if an evasive tax setup makes sense at lower profit levels, or if the costs of setting up and maintaining it are prohibitive. Does anyone know?
As an iPhone user, Android is "the same, but different". The Windows Phone sample I played with was actually different. Whether Android cloned iPhone or not, it feels like their design was, in many cases, "do what they do." With WP, it just seems more like they actually stepped back and asked, "What are we trying to do again?" Of course, all three end up being fairly similar, there's only so many solutions to the same problem.
I had the LPS project roll a version of this for my unit. I have tried to find it useful and failed many times. Great idea, the developer working on is doing good work. But the big problem is that so much of DoD has bought products that depend on brittle WinXP and IE (Citrix, Juniper, etc).

A far more promising development in the near term has been Thursby's and Apple's progress with FIPS 140/2 certification for iOS and OS X, respectively. This means .gov and .mil smart card (CAC card) users can access web apps secured with DoD and .gov PKI infrastructure.

Right now, that's limited to Outlook webmail (only confirmed test "sat", I've heard about so far), but presents a huge enterprise market for Apple developers to target. Thursby has an API for developers.

http://osdir.com/ml/general/2012-04/msg43528.html
I suspect this would be most useful in working around 2.6/2.7/3.1 differences and loading different files/polyfills in response, or something. But old versions arn't going to magically retroactively implement a new PEP, so we won't see the benefit for some time. Other than that it's hard to imagine a use case for needing this sort of information.
> use a float if you need unsigned ints

what.
There isn't a need for a single international treaty to deal with this. Simply levy import tariffs on products by companies who refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, or use slave labor, shoddy environmental practices, etc. The means is there and can be implemented tomorrow. What is lacking is the political push to make it happen.
>Even beyond the technological challenges, there are lots of other obstacles to change. Stephenson, who has “devoted a shocking amount of time” lately to learning about alternative space-launch technologies, said at MIT that “the reason none of them happen turns out to be insurance.”

I submit that this (and related barriers) may be the primary reason for a lack of crazy innovation. Even though claiming a lack of innovation ignores the crazy amount of social changes the internet has brought us at every level.

Innovating in software right now runs the risk of patent lawsuits because you came up with something that someone else came up with.

Innovating in hardware right now runs the risk of falling afoul of a bajillion safety regulations you may not even be able to find out about.

Innovating in content right now runs the risk of being squashed by the older players (RIAA, MPAA, B&N, etc) because they don't like they way you looked in their direction.

Innovation is still happening, but yes, it could be faster if we'd just chuck all that and say "do whatever". The wild-west of creativity. We'd get our personal jetpacks and flying cars in a small handful of years at worst. But then again, there's another article on the front page that shows the danger of allowing this, the 'tiny, cheap, and dangerous' iphone charger: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3903705 . (tl;dr: the $2.79 charger might kill you)

Honestly, I doubt we can have both innovation and safety. Ever. There is very likely a happier middle ground than where we are now, but they're almost precisely opposed to each other.
The only good browser for mac is chrome.
Ok so now there are officially 4 people with a Windows phone, him, Jobs, Balmer and a mate I know in London.
Dr. Goldratt wrote in his later works that the "biggest constraint is Management Attention".

So it is crucial when you are constrained by cash, time, people, etc. to keep your focus.
Instead of arguing by a proxy authority, why dont you explain what he 'really' meant, since it read fairly clearly to me
I guess the things are much easier in Europe than in USA in this regard. Not facing a huge risk of being sued by a candidate you've turned down due to their lack of skills is liberating both for the employer and the potential employee. I personally have been frustrated on more than one occasion with the complete lack of feedback and transparency from USA (or multinational) companies.

Working in Europe, on the other hand, I've tried to be open and honest to the candidates about their chances. I've personally called all the candidates I've had an interview with and told them if they've been rejected. I still think it was better for them to be updated so they could make informed decisions regarding their strengths and weaknesses, and their upcoming interviews.
If it had to do with contributing to the society around you, surely it would be the same obligation regardless of the tax laws, wouldn't it? Yet no one voluntarily pays more than the tax rate, and nearly everyone takes all the deductions and tax credits they can.
This is an interesting project, however having your simulations and schematics in a cloud does seem a little bit careless for any serious work. It doesn't seem like a real alternative for various version of PSPice and other software. Am I missing something?
I'm going to guess you don't live in Paris/London/Copenhagen/Rome then! I live in Europe and there aren't any €250 rents that I know of near me. About 35% of my after-tax salary goes to rent.
I was given the opportunity to talk to two teams before and decide where to go when I joined Google.
http://jungroup.com is doing some real cool alternative advertising things.
Yup, that is absolutely why I do this. I'm not sure it would be possible to keep this up without an intense curiosity about these topics :)

There is also a selfish aspect to it. By writing the best book that I am capable of, I learn this stuff much better than I would by playing around with it for a day or two.

Motivations and results feed each other and (hopefully) produce great results.
Every instance of a nonnative UI framework ends up being merely tolerated by users. They don't love it because they can tell something is slightly off from native UI. Whether it is a less-than snappy menu dropdown, or imitation fonts, it ends up feeling cheap. So, stop aiming so low and make something that users will love - right to the smallest detail.

I'm not surprised Mozilla took this route, though. They are more focused on openness and freedom on the web, which are also admirable goals.
You didn't actually rebut anything I said... and you haven't explained what you mean by "unfair advantage".

And 99.999% of software engineering jobs are not at Google/Facebook/...
You are referring to all government services and all revenue collected. I'm referring solely to services provided to corporations and revenue collected from corporations.

I fully agree that the losses from the War on Iraqis/SS/medicare/etc don't outweigh the profits made by taxing Apple/etc and providing them with a few cheap services (corporate registration, enforcement of contracts, etc). That's a separate issue.

Regulatory competition helps - if the profitable people/businesses flee from corruption/inefficiency, then those wasteful programs will eventually run out of money.

The existence of corruption and regulatory capture is all the more reason to have regulatory competition. If California is captured by corrupt special interests (e.g., prison guard unions), corporations can purchase corporate registration and contract enforcement from states which offer a better value.
Sounds very familiar ;)

I have an econophysics degree, work in IT and can easily compete with CS graduates. Started my first job as a software developer and now I'm the head of my own development team and also responsible for hiring.

As a physicist you are a problem solver: You will learn how to learn, how to tackle complex challenges in a systematic way and analyze experiments. These skills are very useful. If your physics and math knowledge helps you later on depends on your future job. My own work does not involve physics, nor any non-trivial math.

The biggest hurdle will be getting your first job in IT: You have to show that you are as capable as a CS graduate. That's easier if you apply for jobs that don't focus on algorithms, for example systems programming. Though some companies will only hire CS graduates and miss the chance to get cross-domain knowledge...

So how to show the hiring manager that you are good at writing software? Write (open source) software, mention projects on your CV and also in your cover letter. I love to see links to github / bitbucket on a CV.

If you have passion for writing software, are willing to invest a huge amount of time and you know how to teach yourself then you can be become a great software developer.
Oh, the irony of an article with an Amazon ad on the side for an Apple USB Power adapter accompanied by reviews with such titles as "This is NOT and OEM Power adapter" (4 days ago)
Income tax only accounts for some of the taxes a state can take in. Property and sales tax are also forms states use to collect income, and they happen to be regressive in most cases.

If you look at the CFED chart [2], those nine states [1] with no income tax make up the top 9 slots where the bottom 20% pay many times more in taxes than the top 1% (as a percentage of income), from 3.8 times (Tennessee) to a whopping 6.7 times (Washington).

[1] http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=130684,00.html

[2] http://scorecard.assetsandopportunity.org/2012/measure/tax-b...
I wrote a reply but was using this HN app for the iPhone and, of course, it didn't go through.

We disagree on a couple of contentious issues, which is fine :)

I'll try to re-cap very briefly (Argh! No time for long, deep conversations, anymore!)

I think the keyword is 'meaningful'. I think Reynolds would agree that music genres and movements aren't linear or unorganic. They start, have hiccups, move and are flexible. They're dynamic. As you kind of alluded to in your edit. So, I guess we half-agree (?) on this.

The African thing is a bit of a stretch, no? The comparisons I made are in-tune with each other and had stronger (and direct) ties and similarities. This is the tricky part of comparing conceptual/theoretical ties within music periods and sound, from a musicology point of view. The treatment of sound within my comparisons are much closer, I think.

Also, remember that the 'electronic dance music' that is now popular in the States wasn't so in the 90s--it was underground--whereas you can make a case for it being popular in the UK in the 90s. If you hear people like Kevin Shields talk about music in the US vs. the UK back in the 90s and 80s, he talks about how the UK had a larger audience that was 'thirstier' for newer sounds and it was more accessible to 'mainstream audiences', whereas the States had a strong disparate audience and division.

For example, talk to anybody in the US and ask them if they think The Smiths is mainstream. They will tell you they are not. Yet The Smiths was an extremely popular band in the UK.

The same sort of thing occurs now in the radio up until now. So-called 'indie' or 'underground' music in the States is popular or listened to at a wider scale in the UK and even Canada.
There is a company in the current batch of YC companies that is in this space as well, Screenleap. To share your screen with me, you go to screenleap.com, click the share button, and get a 9 digit number. You give that 9 digit number to me, which I then enter on the same screenleap.com, and I can see your screen.

No visible revenue stream, but those are overrated anyways, right?
You Can still use Code Search to search Google Code repos, Chromium and Android. http://code.google.com/codesearch
Thanks - looks horrid inside :)
That's pretty much what I thought. I just wonder what the marble madness developers might think of seeing this. what would they have said to using maps of the real world with live traffic streamed in to the game to roll your marble around?

MM was only 28 years ago. We've come many lifetimes since then :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Madness
Exactly.. lets first talk about the morality and ethics behind the govt. spending MY hard-earned dollars to go bomb brown people in the middle of the desert for 20 STRAIGHT YEARS.
> Cheap doesn't mean it has to be dangerous, that's a false dilemma.

I bought[1] a brand new mobile / cell phone today. £4.95 ($8 USD) which includes the phone, the battery, and a charger. It's all neatly packed, things in bags etc. it's not on a contract.

So it's possible for huge multinational companies to use economies of scale to make, ship, and sell cheap things.

I'm not so sure that small companies have the same economies of scale - especially for things which require being built to safety standards.

[1] Buying it took about 10 minutes. I can't quite work out how all the people in the chain manage to get paid from an $8 phone.
Is it just me or do I find it ironic that the article is surrounding by the things the author seems to dislike?
The twitter/facebook tie ins on the site are one thing, but the recommended content made me laugh.

>Why You Should Start Smoking

>6 Rules For Increasing Your Chances Of Getting Laid At Parties For The Chronically Alienated, Interspersed With Songs I Like Right Now, Vol. 1

> Paid Distribution What Your "Drink" Says About You on a Date

It's a great way to unintentionally strengthening the authors argument.
Tech companies want repatriation amnesty so they can invest the money in the US. I have no idea why we want to prevent them from doing this.
I was really unsure what the result would be -- I definitely shared your concerns when I started.

The core of Dart is surprisingly stable -- the team is doing a really solid job of not yanking the rug out from under developers' feet. Sure, I could have stopped at one blog post, but I ended up with 90 and still feel like I have more in me.

In the end, I was pleased with the result. But I might be biased :)
The book "Good to Great" sums this up amazingly well as something called "the Hedgehog Concept."

* What are you deeply passionate about?
* What can you be the best in the world at?
* What drives your economic engine?

If there is something that does not fit in those three circles, do not do that thing.

Much of the entrepreneur blogosphere would go up in a puff of smoke if people would simply read the business books that stand the test of time.
Focus is the most important thing you can have as a startup founder.

Every failed company that I have founded, worked at, worked with, or heard of, has ultimately failed because they could not focus on a single goal, and instead pursued multiple, divergent plans... all at the same time.

Not 'some failed companies', or even 'many failed companies'.

Every company that I have seen fail, has failed because they could not focus.

It's amazing how easy it is to be distracted, as well. Lots of shiny new opportunities to expand. There's new features that will give you a share of some marginally-related market, or new alliances that will only cost 'a little engineering time'.

It's amazing how expensive those 'little' things really end up being.
Yet somehow it just works. Why waste your time on idiomatic CSS when good old tables work just fine?
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.

And ironically, they do it via that very same network, without which their ideas would probably never be read by most of the people commenting in this discussion.