skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is easier to do in low light, when only your rods (sensitive black-and-white cells) are active and your cones (less sensitive color-detecting cells) are basically "off" because there's not enough light.

What interesting about adaptation is that it makes edges of things stand out. If your eye moves a bit, but a cell is still looking at something that's the same color (or same brightness, if it's a rod), then adaptation will still happen.

Cones in your eye are much denser toward the center (fovea), so if you're looking at something dim like a star, try "aiming" the center of your eye a little to one side. That way the sensitive rods are denser in your But if you're looking for tiny variations in color, use the center of your eye.

Also, if you're looking for a something static, it helps to blink. This triggers a neurological "flush" in your visual system and helps to reset the adaptation.

But if you're looking for something moving, try keeping your eyes fixed on one point. Adaptation happens gradually, so everything holding still will immediately fade slightly and the moving object will stand out.
I have little empathy for this guy because I was him a decade ago. Going through life with a false sense of entitlement is no way to live. This individual believes that he was entitled to an opportunity, not that he had to go out and earn it. Furthermore, it seems as though this individual has allowed others to define wealth for him, in the end he has no idea what he wants and blames external issues for his misery.

If he really wants to work & make money, well companies are desperate for workers in the Bakken Oil Shale. I don't know about Canada, but in the U.S. many of the craft trades are also desperate for young people to get started. For example, in Illinois the average age of a plumber was 58 (it might be older now, I read that statistic a couple of years ago.) Young people aren't going into the trades apparently because it's not an acceptable profession. Everyone here knows about the needs in the tech industry so I won't go over them.

Lastly, his approach to finding a job is terrible (this is not necessarily his fault.) I've said this before & I will continue to say this (and I tell any young people this when I get a chance), when looking for a job you do not lead w/ your resume. It does not matter how well you researched the company, if you have not talked to people @ the firm or the hiring manager you do not know what they need.
Google Checkout had a fatal flaw when I looked at using it many years ago. It required that a buyer have a Google account. Paypal doesn't require this. A buyer can use their credit card. They don't need to sign up for anything. This simple fact alone made me think that Google Checkout would never take off. Google wasn't interested in helping me conduct business. It was more interested in getting Google accounts.
But the question is, can't these horror stories happen on other payment networks. If a physical item paid by credit card is disputed "not as described", its my understanding that the credit card issuer will get the money back from just about any payment network. If you want to avoid such horror stories have a clear no hassle return policy.
Hacking is such an overloaded term these days...
Thanks Matthew, appreciate your comment. However, I'd really liked to dive deeper into the topic.
Show HN: What's a Facebook User Worth? A real-time infographic quick-hack
It's falling fast... $40 atm.

Edit: $40 seems to be a barrier (not a surprise). It will take a little while for all the limit orders to be satisfied there.
NASDAQ:ZNGA
Alternatives?

I haven't read to much about it, but I remember a bug in Skype for Windows brought down 90% of their P2P super nodes a while back. Good reason to move super nodes to a reliable server.
There are so many fascinating stats about Facebook and its IPO, but we thought one important metric was missing

Facebook Worth uses Google Finance data and some published Facebook statistics to display real-time, what a user and their friends are worth to Facebook.

Just some web fun for the IPO day. Enjoy!
direct link to mandriva blog post -- http://blog.mandriva.com/en/2012/05/17/mandriva-linux-will-r...
Agreed. It's not just about the screen size though. The iPhone keeps you lock-stepped in a fixed user interface that you really have zero control over.

Android, and especially versions 4.0+, allow virtually unlimited customization of the entire phone experience. This includes themes, gizmos & gadgets (like 10+ different styles of clocks), etc., etc.

It's the difference between the old flip phones and the iPhone when it first came out, but the advantage is to Android this time.

Apple's got a looooooong way to go to catch up, IMHO.
Not seeing the forest for the trees? Hell, if we're going to use that loose a definition, everything is a process, regardless of skill level. Even if you end up without a product, to get the steaming pile of crap you abandoned, you went through a process.
Ask HN: Obligation to pay recruiter for semi-unsolicited referral?
If a recruiter sends an email to you offering a candidate and asking if you want to see their resume and get contact info and you say 'yes' and then hire the person, but no prior arrangement has been made with the recruiter, is there any ethical or legal obligation to pay the recruiter? This seems to happen a lot, so why do recruiters do this? Note, the email header says "This resume submission has been solicited by your company. Any contact with the candidate is to be initiated through [recruiting agency]" but the submission was NOT solicited, at least not from them, and no contract or discussion of payment was made. We've made an informal offer. How should we proceed?
Wow, I'd love to hear more about this!

It seemed that plenty of folks (myself included) found WPF text to be rather unusable until they fixed it years later (after the VS 2010 blurry text editor thing). I can't use IE because of the 'smoothed' text, but Chrome still seems to get it "right" (snaps to pixels, like in Word). Are we talking about the same thing?

At high DPI it does look fine; unfortunately high DPI didn't actually happen like Microsoft thought, just like 6GHz CPUs (both predictions at PDC 2003). Although, now that the iPad3 shipped a high DPI screen, maybe other OEMs will get their stuff together.
Seems like a few trading sites are having issues with high traffic levels - not sure if that'd cause an increase OR a decrease :)
Federal prosecutors say they should not have to sort through the files at taxpayer expense, but have objected to their erasure. MegaUpload attorneys suggested hiring an e-discovery vendor to recreate samples of the data as “read-only” files, but those efforts have been rejected.

If federal prosecutors don't like the US's discoverability rules, then maybe federal prosecutors should think about trying to get the US's discoverability rules changed. There's no shame in admitting that the standard is unnecessarily broad and is part of the reason why it's so ridiculously expensive to pursue a case in the USA.

For now, though, they helped make this bed and they should have to sleep in it just like the rest of us. If not, well then I wish Carpathia the greatest of luck in pursuing their hopefully forthcoming and definitely non-frivolous lawsuit against the federal government.
Epic! Alpha preview for Alums? ;)
What are you talking about? 11 Years ago I moved from Toronto to Vancouver. I was a web programmer in Toronto and would eventually be looking for a position of similar capacity in Vancouver.

The moment I hit the ground though, I didn't expect my dream job to land in my lap, but I still needed to pay rent. So, I walked into the local internet cafe with the help wanted sign.

Here's how it went:

Me: "Hey, I see you're looking for someone, and I could use a job right now, would you be interested in looking at my resume?"

Him: Dude, I can't pay you more than minimum wage plus a buck or two, you know that right?

Me: Yes, I understand. I just moved here though and it'll probably take me a couple of months to find a job I'm qualified for.

Him: So you're going to be looking for something better right away?

Me: Yeah, but you need a person to help you out, and some of these machines, to be honest could use a bit of a rebuild. Can any of your staff do that?

Him: No, and you're right I could use a person right now.

Me: Well, I could really use the money, and I think we'd both benefit here. I'll give you 3-4 weeks notice and help interview a replacement if you want.

Him: (after a good deal of humming and hahing and a conversation with his wife) Okay, let's do it.

Just like that.

It can and does happen. The retail industry isn't looking for a 3-5 year commitment. Hell, they hire people for the month of December only. Like anything, you need to speak to their needs and address them. In my case, most of the staff he had barely understood computers, and none of them could rebuild and clean out his inventory. I could. He gets that extra service for free in place of understanding that I'm not a long term employee.
And it is mystifying how they can justify not giving the data back to MegaUpload. If it is evidence for the case, it must be available to the defence right? And if it isn't evidence, then why can't they have it back?
I admire what you're doing, but I just wanted to point out that there's a HUGE difference between denying yourself something because you can and denying yourself something because you can't afford it.

The $3 beer incident was poignant.

I found the book 'Nickel and Dimed' eye-opening.

Good job with your kid!
I'm imagining something like a thruster getting stuck on at a distance where it's far enough to build up some speed but close enough to have a decent chance of hitting. I know the relative speeds aren't high, but the ISS isn't exactly heavily armored either. I doubt it would take much of a speed difference in a collision to do some real damage.

I'm sure the odds of anything like that going wrong are extremely low, but not zero, and so I admire the fortitude it would take to give a "yes" decision to this even so.
It sounds like NASDAQ were having traffic issues. Be interesting to hear the excuse.
Web Design Manifesto 2012
Illustration Tutorial: 15   Free 3d Illustration Tutorial For Beginners
Well, that is called playing the stock market.

No, I'm much more concerned with the bets the fund in which my dad's union's retirement pension plan is coming from.
Thank you all for explanations. I learned something new today :).
Facebook IPO Rises 11% at Open
Is that an appeal to authority? Just because something is on TED, doesn't make it true.

I'm sure you could find studies that disagree with this.
On the upside caffeine can reduce your appetite so it may be an overall win.
I manage a small music label and that was a glaring omission for me too. That part of the industry is brutal for newcomers, which has some serious paradox business problems.

Maybe if you're funded enough, you can just pay a booking agency.. but for a big group of unknown talent, I just don't see it working.

Touring is the single biggest PR problem for my artists, the technical services are easy in comparison.

http://monofonuspress.com/ Our website if anyone is interested.
Studies have shown that you're correct. Doing shared activities is the best way to network, not at a pre-talk mixer.
That makes sense.

That I didn't think about that way immediately probably says that you have a much closer relationship with the HN readership than I do. :-)
This is so exciting! I hope it succeeds. How cool would it be to put a man on mars in a few decades?

Captain's log, star date 1312.4
Except that now you are ranking, by introducing the notion relative to everybody else.

Why should test scores improve year over year? If everyone is getting a 2/6 then yes, but students in the same grade are not going to get smarter every year. There is the major flaw in using student tests to measure teachers IMO. You are going to get a bell curve around 4/6 from the test results for majority of the teachers. When you don't, it is really hard to tell whether the reason is the teaching, the curriculum, the students or the test and its grading.
I recently read they switched to Scala.
Wow, down 13% the same day Facebook jumped 5% on IPO. What's going on?
If you are applying to a company that has a "hiring manager" and are not a perfect match, you are making the first mistake.

The manager at Starbucks is not a "hiring manager". He doesn't care what's on your resume. He cares about three things: 1) Can I work with this guy? 2) Is he reliable/competent? 3) Is he going to steal from me/screw the other staff/piss off the customers/otherwise make my job more difficult?
Ironcially, I can remember Yahoo being lauded very early on for the same thing (spartan user interface, insanely fast load times, etc.) back when it started.

If anything, Google was a return back to spartan interfaces after the initial batch of search engines got too caught up in portal mania.
Think Like an Engineer. Be More Creative.
Can anyone explain this? Down 13% so far from when FB started trading. Maybe investors are switching holdings from ZNGA to FB - I mean why hold ZNGA when you can hold FB instead?
I do fix computers (broken 8-bit machines from eBay) but that's for fun, not profit ;-)
Show HN: An improved version of my free desktop extender
Designing for Touch
I believe that Facebook could make something like AdSense. They have vast quantities of info about people and their interests. Additionally, thanks to the huge presence of facebook tracking codes (Likes) on websites, they can track which websites you visit - additionally increasing targeting efficiency. It would be fun seeing google decreasing their margins on AdSense (38% of webmasters profit?) vs AdvFace(or something like that).

They could also use some of the IPO money to acquire Bing and somehow mold if with the Facebook.

I think that Facebook valuation is so high because of many possibilities similiar to those I've just outlined.
The Kickstarter says that it might get you access to a packaged build, and that the price might be pay-what-you-want -- sounds a lot like the NeoOffice business model ( https://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/mirrors.php?file=NeoOff... ).

But making money from open source projects is hard enough, and varied enough, that it makes sense to spend a lot of time thinking about and experimenting with this one before committing to anything. It looks like that's what they're doing. So I don't think there will be a firm answer to this until they're much closer to launch -- or that it would be a good idea to offer one.
That essay is garbage in my opinion. My wife and many of our friends are teachers and it doesn't take into account things like lesson plans and grading papers - both Of which are typically done on the teachers personal time (at least in Florida and with elementary aged kids).

In other words, although other professions are as likely to work from home or other places, it fails to mention the amount of hours that teachers DO work outside the office - at least the good ones that actually care. In the same breath there are many teachers who just skate by because they know they won't get fired.

The essay also doesn't take into account the length of a teachers workday nor the nature of the work. When my wife taught she had to arrive at 6:30am and often didn't get home until 4:30 or 5:00pm on a good day. Have you ever tryed to entertain twenty 7-year-olds for 10 hours? It's pretty exhausting - not to mention the fact that they also have to deal with the administration requirements, parents, standardized testing, other bad teachers that never will lose their jobs, etc. All for 34k per year before taxes.

Say it's 11:23am and you need to use the restroom. Sorry, you can't exactly just walk out of class to run down the hall. You have to wait until your 20 minute lunch break which includes walking the kids to and from the lunchroom.

Just to give some perspective, this is such a problem where we live that that I know or know of nearly a dozen teachers no longer in the classroom or looking for other employment.

For those teachers who feel they are living the life, I'd love to know where they live because from where I sit summers odd is about the best thing going for teachers.
Once again, this is non-news, only made into news because of the ongoing anti-EU FUD.

The basis of the EU directive is sound. Actually turning it into (enforceable) legislation is the hard part. Most regulatory bodies in the EU consider it an iterative process to be figured out in cooperation with the industry, and nobody is planning to start doling out fines in the near future.

However, the industry's arrogant attitude of doing fuck-all until the law comes down on them is not going to help. Lack of self-regulation and blatantly ignoring the principles of existing privacy laws is what triggered EU intervention in the first place.

Basically this whole scare mongering about bureaucratic "anti-cookie" laws is just a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Totally. And using the freedom of this time for any exercise has been incredibly useful for this too. It's awesome having the the gym practically to yourself in the middle of a weekday :)
Trading in Zynga halted due to 13% drop and a circuit breaker tripped.
Volcanic eruptions trigger shocking finding
Chemists merge experimentation with theory in understanding of water molecule
Ugh, please avoid the GPL. Go for Apache or BSD or something more free.
Danger signs included gaps in employment

For the uninitiated why is this a danger sign?
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You are not motivated. Find something that motivates you. It sounds/reads like your current job may not be it -- or may not be sufficient, even if it's not deficient as work / a job.

Pay close attention to your physical health. Lack of physical well being can sap focus and energy as quick as anything else. If you're not exercising, do so. It doesn't matter so much what, as long as you enjoy and/or engage in doing it.

Pay attention to your personal life. (You have one, don't you?) Many jobs cannot meet all aspects of most people's personal needs.

With respect to the latter two, it's difficult to build solid work on top of a shaky foundation.

P.S. This represents a few suggestions. It's simplistic, not comprehensive. After all, I don't know you from Adam/Eve.
Said it before, and I'll say it again - much of the media we (hn-type readers) consume is 'tech porn'. Much like classic 'porn' reinforced a view of women as sexual objects, tech porn reinforces the myth that "just try harder and you'll be a billionaire!".

Yes, I'm oversimplifying a bit, but I don't think by much. I think the mental/emotional harm that this sort of fixation on 'startups' has on many people is understated - we mourn the loss of someone to suicide, but say "he had other problems already". No 'founders' are ever comfortable talking to anyone about any fears/doubts because they will lose all respect from staff and investors, so there's an emotional toll being taken on a small (but growing) group of people.
Wozniak's Original System Description of the Apple ][
Please continue trying, your head is definitely in the right place and I'm sure you'll be a great asset when you get to where they need you to be.

I am such a huge Elon Musk fan that there really are no words to convey. When you think of the phrase "anything is possible if you put your mind to it" this guy is the true personification of it. It is also a personal dream of mine to be able to work with him some day.

When I was young I was thinking how much of a shame it was I missed out on the 60s. But then I got to live through seeing Steve Job do what he did (I was born less than 2 months before Apple was incorporated)... and now I'm seeing this guy just tear it up in multiple industries cracking some really difficult and important problems. I'm totally dazed; what a great role model.
Will you be buying Facebook stock?
Other eras required border crossings, vastly complicating things.
An interactive 3D-printing vending machine
Facebook Sued For $15 Billion In Suit Over User Tracking
我本沉默版本传奇
you should be filled and losing money by now as it is at $39...
N.B. I use the term employer throughout where it really can also mean manager or generally anyone responsible for figuring out what employees would value as compensation/perks.

One thing I've noticed being an employee is that when employers try to get feedback in how to compensate their employees or what kind of perks they can additionally offer the question asked is usually, "Is there anything I can do to make you happy?" That question is vague and oftentimes sounds like it should be answered in the negative. The employee doesn't want to look needy of course. Instead, the employer should ask, "Hey, are you happy with your hardware? You've been messing a lot with databases lately. Do you have enough RAM? Do you want some extra disks to mess with different RAIDs or filesystems?" or maybe, "Do you think we should get developers a second monitor? I really don't mind spending the money, it just never occured to me until now that it might be useful." Once an employer actually opens up a dialogue with an explicit offer or idea, the feedback the employer wants to hear will much more likely flow naturally.

More specifically with a topic such as health insurance, I as an employee need to be given some idea of what options are on the table when it comes to "improving" my health insurance plan. Are we talking about the employer paying more of the insurance or perhaps am I concerned about the lack of a plan that offers an unlimited lifetime benefits clause.

I feel my job as an employee is to do work that adds value to the company. If the company wants to genuinely add value to my well-being, but wants it to be more thoughtful or mutually beneficial than a raise, the ball's in their court to be creative and come up with a list of starter ideas. Now I'm not averse to thinking of what would be useful, but a vague email, or even a 1 on 1 asking me what can be improved is unfortunately not going to get any feedback because my mind really won't turn its attention to thinking about that for the time necessary. A personal anecdote offered in lesson form:

A CEO of a startup may hold a discussion on company offered stock options, to fill in people on how it works on a compensation level. When questions come up that the CEO does not feel comfortable answering (considering he's not a certified accountant), a normal CEO will advise you to ask an accountant (accountant? I'm 22 years old, I don't have an accountant, should I take off work hours to find an accountant, go to an accountant and ask him/her?). A creative CEO will get an accountant in the office for a day and schedule those with questions to have a 1 on 1 meeting.
It would be helpful if you explain what those scenarios are.
I would love a sysadmin position there. A lot. I do't have the Windows background that they prefer, though. Maybe later.
My question too. I backed Light Table with the hope they would hit the Python milestone.
Just because they're smart doesn't mean they don't make mistakes. If you allow one line changes to pass without review, eventually someone's going to make a breaking one-line change.
Peter Thiel’s Secrets of Starting Companies
In fairness, this is actually fairly close to the original MIT tech model railroader's club sense: http://steel.lcc.gatech.edu/~mcordell/lcc6316/Hacker%20Group...
How about the fact that the UI of many desktop apps responds to hover? Or the fact that UI elements are too small for big stubby pointing implements like fingers?
This is very exciting news! I see this as being a very good thing for both Light Table and Clojure in general.
Also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991779