skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Just to push it back a bit further, revolutionary France and particularly Napoleonic France established a country-wide system of mechanical telegraph stations. They especially wanted it to warn of British naval attacks, but also for any military news.

It worked pretty well, transmitting, for example, a distance of about 200km (125mi) in about 9 minutes. The Brits would sail up and down the coast and fire on stations when they were feeling bored and mischievous.

Interestingly, Hooke (Newton's compatriot) proposed a similar system a couple of hundred years earlier, but the British military chiefs displayed their usual insight and did not take it up.
I don't think that gold diggers are of particular danger for wealthy people. It's more a matter of convenience. Zuck is focused on Facebook, he simply does not want to spend time dating/searching for someone else.
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So I'm all for IDE's on the ipad, but why would you want to code on an ipad?

but regardless of my question, looks good man
Hi from Sydney, Tom. Really appreciating these posts.
Show HN: Pinterest-like visual search engine for eBay and Amazon
Playing around the pinterest-like interface.

eBay

http://e.5thvillage.com/

Amazon

http://a.5thvillage.com/
An application that uses 64-bit pointers but doesn't need 64-bits of virtual address space is wasting physical memory because your pointers are twice as large. The application would waste physical memory pages and memory bus traffic just to store 64-bit pointers with lots of unused zero bits like 0x00000000ffffffff.
What I find interesting in your anecdote is the son chose to attend university and develop his talent as an athlete before starting full-time work as a plumber.

Even though the university experience might not have a monetary "return on investment", he chose to pursue it.

Now, it's also worth noting he's on scholarship. Whether that was the deciding factor in his choice to attend we cannot be sure just from what you've told us.

But nontheless he is investing his time at the university when he could be doing plumbing jobs and making money (or, by analogy, working on a startup that a certain VC has an interest in).
Because there is a finite amount of cache at each level.
> All of the engineering jobs at Facebook and Paypal require a BS or MS.

While I can't speak to the latter, I for certain that at Facebook they ask for a degree or equivalent experience. I also know several people from the CS Department here at University of Washington who ended up dropping out to join the company after very successful internships. It's my understanding that they are very much a company that recruits on ability to Get Things Done more than anything else.
Why?

Not to be intentionally blunt, but your argument seems to be structured around attaining the highest userbase possible, rather than the highest revenue possible.

The natural followup is that a higher userbase begets a higher revenue, but why -- and how? I think that's certainly true with companies such as Facebook or Pinterest, where a) higher userbase equals stronger value proposition and/or b) advertising is a primary revenue source, but neither of those seem applicable to Instapaper.

Frankly, I don't think Instapaper needs to revolve around a Freemium model at all. It's a high-quality, standalone app. I don't understand the trend in the tech world that tends to demonize paying up-front for an app (and hell, Instapaper's online version is free); frankly, I'd rather know what I'm paying up front than be saddled with IAPs or subscriptions down the line.
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I am most definitely arguing for forced obsolescence. The prime motivating factor being the fact that it is perfectly acceptable and "normal" to go through all of the hoops and ladders of inoculating your computer against viruses. And then when those programs fail, users have to go to take their computer to get their digital machine to be cleaned out as though it was a poorly built car in need of maintenance.

I'm not advocating that the API is cleaned out merely on the technical level, I'm advocating (with a lack of clarity on my behalf) that Microsoft needs to encourage an ecosystem of development creativity. Instead, we get a UI that is abstractly "optimized" for usage but is far removed from providing a pleasant experience for their users.
pasting links for convenience:

http://e.5thvillage.com/

http://a.5thvillage.com/
I agree. The statement that plumbers make as much as doctors is insanely inaccurate. I think Thiel needs to find a new plumber, because he's clearly overpaying.
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How to Start a Startup

I hope to thank Paul for this essay in person at some point in life. This is singularly most important thing I've read that helped me turn my life around.
I understand the need for the social sharing widgets, but they feel really obtrusive at the top of the page. Presumably at that point of reading the page you don't yet know what it is you're being asked to share?

I dunno, this is probably my personal preference more than a professional opinion, but I would suggest moving them below the example image.

Best of luck, it looks like a great inspirational tool!
I don't know what their numbers are, but for an aircraft of its class, the lower wings don't look like they have an abnormally low aspect ratio. The upper wings look to be of a higher aspect ratio than conventional elevators. Since elevators are a source of drag (they usually have to provide some downforce to trim the aircraft in level flight, and you can't make lift without making drag), that could be a win. But then they're close to the CG, so they'll need to provide more trim force (short lever arm as you mentioned), and the advantage might be lost.

Of course there are other factors at work. For example, Jet A carries more energy per pound than 100LL and diesels are more efficient, so you carry less fuel for a given range. But the engine needs to be stronger to run a higher compression ratio, so that's some added weight. Every little design feature of an aircraft interacts with every other design feature. Aircraft design can be a tremendously unintuitive affair. That's why it's so fun.

So, the proof's in the pudding. The ultimate arbiter of an efficient aerodynamic design is its lift-to-drag ratio, or how much drag is generated for a given amount of lift produced. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-to-drag_ratio) They should be getting good data off their scale model, and if the model's L/D ratio is high and they've done their homework to reflect the full size aerodynamics, then they might have something.
No, the first personal computer was the Kenbak-1, which was the first to satisfy both criteria of being a computer (as opposed to something simpler) and personal (as opposed to something hugely expensive and really meant for business use).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenbak-1
Studying organisms like these would certainly teach us a lot about cellular maintenance and extremely slow patterns of gene regulation.

Relatedly, note that storing information in DNA is the longest lived form of information storage. Harddrives tend to deteriorate in ~10 years or so. Flash Memory has a similar life time. Books can last hundreds to thousands of years, but no more, and stones and rocks and fossils, perhaps a few hundreds of millions of years. But genetic information can be maintained for billions of years--it is a discrete information encoding, is easily copyable, and has noise tolerance and error correction. Not very useful (yet!) to store information and data, but very interesting to think about conceptually: humans have been reconstructing in metal and silicon what nature developed billions of years ago. Sort of cool to think about.
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Whether or not this is the case here, the sentiment you make about lawyers is so correct in my area (marketing). I often see people looking for lawyers to make yea/nay decisions whereas I believe business is better run when lawyers inform you of the level of risk and possible outcomes of a decision. Then you make the call. Otherwise it seems you will be stuck on the overly safe route.
Thanks for the feedback. :) I've made it prominent for now in hopes that it's clear how people can help the project - share so we can get lots more inspirational stories, but if it gets more annoying than useful, I'll move it. Thanks! And thanks for the encouragement! :)
I have a degree in computer engineering and have founded a struggling startup. My one year doing my failed startup was immensely more valuable to me than my 4 years at university. But that's just one anecdote.
> micro computers, the size of a room

Early microcomputers were not the size of a room. The defining feature of a microcomputer was that it used a single microchip (integrated circuit) as its CPU, as opposed to needing one or more circuit boards full of components for that task.
I decided to not go to college as some of you know. I wrote a popular blog piece on the subject a couple months ago.

It's something I think about a lot, but the past year since I graduated high school, it has been an incredible experience, and I'm topping it all off with my startup being accepted into the TechStars program this summer term.

I can almost guarantee I'll have more hands on experience, a decent savings, and a steady paycheck in 3 years when my graduating high school class graduates college.

If you look at my history you can tell I've worked really hard to be where I am, I'm super focused, and I inadvertently don't have a huge social life, and I'm ok with that. I feel in high school I concentrated on doing what I love instead of going to parties, etc. I have a few close friends that I have fun with and enjoy, don't get me wrong, but I feel a lot of the high school social life is just stupid and time wasting and I spent it learning about what I do, and when I graduated I had an internship with a startup in DC waiting on me. I chose to work hard, do what I love, and stay focused and it is already paying off.

I encourage people to find what they love, learn all about it, and whatever it takes to achieve their goals is what they should do. Don't look at college as a must have stepping stone to be successful, but instead look as it in a light that answers the question: Will this help me achieve my life goals and dreams?
Thiel is certainly not encouraging everyone to become a Fellow of his program. As far as I'm aware it is a connected but distinct branch of his education reform platform. If you visit the Meet the Fellows page of the program's site [1] and browse through, you will see that each and every one is highly accomplished and likely to succeed regardless of Thiel's patronage. Like his funding of Seasteading or Aubrey de Grey's research, it is much more an investment in his personal beliefs and attempting to further humanity (with his name on it) than it is meant to be a large-scale alternative to university.

What he seems to be aiming for is less information asymmetry via increased education on the costs AND benefits of education for those considering attending university, and more of a marketplace for degrees, if they are to be treated as investments. For example, allowing lenders to offer lower rates for those entering STEM majors or people who have demonstrated high aptitude scores, or making information on job placement broken down by degree more readily available.

[1] http://www.thielfellowship.org/fellows/
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Part of the problem is the way information is delivered. The model of "plop your ass in a chair and hit record as your professor speeds through PowerPoint" is insane and mind-numbing. It breeds students that are more interested in manufacturing the correct output for assignments than actually understanding the material being presented.

There also tends to be a finality to grading that is disjoint with the actual amount of information learned. When you fail a homework assignment and finally understand what you did wrong, THAT'S where the learning actually occurs. Unless that student is able to resubmit that homework in some other form, the grade will never reflect that "Aha!" moment.
Many people are logged into Disqus all the time. I would think that an explicit login overrides any DNT header.

On the other hand, if I'm not logged in, I don't want them tracking me across all the Disqus-enabled sites I visit.
I think it's time to dust off the word "carpetbagger".
Ya, circumstance is still important. It all depends on what you want to do and what you have access to.

If you want to be a web or mobile developer, why do you need to go to school? What can they offer you that free (or even cheap for pay) online courses can't?

If on the other hand, you're interested in biotech and need access to the equipment and knowledge only available at a university, by all means go for it! But if/when the day comes when that kind of knowledge is ubiquitous, like internet tech became, I hope you'll reconsider.
Sounds a lot like what people were writing on HN about Dropbox back in 2006.

Stripe has already clearly proven itself as a company operating on a plane far higher than most "startups". My co-founder and I take a look at their team page when we're looking at new hires just to remind ourselves of how high our standards need to be. The size of their recent raise shows investors heard things that got them pretty excited, too. I'll not doubt them.
direct link to video FILE: http://download.cbsnews.com/media/2012/05/20/60_0520_droppin...
wasn't Logo what was used for learning?
+1 - It was the first thing my eyes were drawn to when the page loaded
I understand most people trying to become more fit are overweight, but I entered in 175 lbs. as my starting weight and 190 lbs. as my target weight, and I was disappointed to see that I was only show people who dropped down from 300+ to 190 lbs.

What about those of us who are thin to begin with?
Wadhwa seems to confuse education (and college specifically) with learning.
While I've not run the numbers, when you adjust for the costs and lost wages from:

* 4 years of undergrad
* 4 years of medical school
* 3+ years of residency

And the potential upside for a plumber who starts his own business or perhaps branches out into general contracting, it would not surprise me if total lifetime wages adjusted for education expenses were fairly close.
It's admittedly anecdotal, but every finance/quant intern I've talked to works/worked 50hrs+ a week.
Parental duties
Not necessarily true. I 'attended' college for 4.5 years, completed 140% of the required credits to graduate but I'm technically 3 classes shy of my degree. I left school in 2003.

Suffice it to say, I don't think has_degree can be implemented as a one-liner.
And if the hypothetical car rental firm has no assets, let's take the assets directly from the nearest bank! Those guys always have money!
At the close of their beta, I received a handwritten note from the Stripe guys thanking us using them. It was a kind gesture and unexpected humility coming from such a high-profile startup.
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I'd never see the Hoyt video before and that had me in tears. As a father, I'm humbled.
Seems to be targeted at people who want to lose weight. It would be nice if, when you chose a target weight higher than yours, it would show someone who has gained weight through muscle (rather than fat).
...and if the author is looking for some visual feedback from their experience, there is Löve, a 2D game engine for Lua. It's very easy to code.
Signing pirated media? Would the release teams really want to give the RIAA the ability to cryptographically prove that they were the ones who released the material?
"we really do need to be able to yell "Hey <Business Person>, can you clarify this feature a little for me?" and be heard without having to track that person down from across the office"

Rather than yelling and disturbing the entire work area, what about some kind of instant messaging for those cases?

.................

"I'm writing code.

Dorothy says to Mike, "...API was" ==> you brain hears this

Then your mind rewinds.

"Joe said that the update part of the API was broken this morning. Do you know what's up?"

You pipe up, "Hey! Dorothy, we changed the format of the json going into the API. You should check the docs for the updated format."

Back to writing code."

Except then Dorothy comes over and asks you about the updated format instead of checking the docs because you decided to pipe up. Now she's in your face, and you are talking to her about something completely different than what you were focused on 20s ago. The consequences of losing focus and time to fully regain momentum are well known and the disadvantage to you typically don't warrant the advantage that Dorothy received by your presence.
using bpython has encouraged me to write more docstrings, which I previously did not do so much for personal projects ...

(because they are right there in the interpreter)
Hey there - I'll be showing stories of all kinds, though right now I just don't have that much data so the code is pulling everything. I need more stories! If you guys have a story of your own or know anyone, please submit or send them my way! :)
You mean those people that get welfare payments - they actually have their wealth taken from them and transferred to the likes of Steve Jobs and Marc Zuckerberg? And if this system weren't in place it would be that the current welfare recipients would be millionaires and Jobs and Zuckerberg would have nothing? Somehow that does not look like an adequate description of reality.

As for building a new system - so far such attempts ended up with North Korea, Soviet Union and other atrocities - but maybe you could do better. Good luck with it.
I definitely want to target weight gain OR loss - or even staying the same, just trading fat for muscle - I just don't have enough stories yet so the code is pulling everything. Help me get some by sharing and telling your friends, or submitting yours! :)
I don't play chess or understand why this matters. What is going on?
This was another amazingly inspirational talk. I highly recommend it to everyone. It's funny, emotional, well thought through and with everything going on in Prof Pausch's life at the time, one could only hope to leave this type of message to their family / children and the world.
What do you think of a simple $X dollar per month subscription for an app like Adobe Photoshop ($50 a month)?
The same product is also available perpetually for a one time fee of $2500 (no upgrades), equivalent to 4 years of subscription.
The common-area closed room should have a desktop computer in it.
watch here! http://download.cbsnews.com/media/2012/05/20/60_0520_droppin...

your ipad can play that file
the direct video link from the article http://download.cbsnews.com/media/2012/05/20/60_0520_droppin...
Is there any law that actually prevents tracking? It doesn't really matter whether you consent or not if it's legal either way.
I love that the website has an "Alternatives" section linking to competitors. That's not only classy, it also communicates confidence and inspires trust.
Interesting idea. Two pieces of feedback:

1. I am a tall-ish person and care the most about height compatibility.

2. Add a time period option. For example, going from 220 to 190 in 60 days isn't like 180 days.
Same here. But chess interests me a whole lot, so I'd love some explanation.
Ooh, good call. Thanks. :)
I see an inch and a half of useless buttons in that screenshot that they'll have to ditch before their WM becomes useful.

Seriously? Cut/copy/paste buttons? Why?
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http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/06/29/curses-dollars-a...
No story to contribute myself but I bet you can find some on http://bodybuilding.com forums.
That's true of many things, and often those that can shouldn't. It does, however, capture the sentiment of those who believe that not having a Bachelors degree renders you an unemployable member of the lowest castes of society.
Thanks Hacker News, can I have my 13 minutes back?
Here are some courses that changed my life: Intro to Abstract Math, Non-Euclidean Geometry, Symbolic Logic, Music Theory, Theory of Computation, Computer Architecture, Compilers, Computer Graphics, Animation, Performance Evaluation, Critical Thinking, Linear Algebra, Elementary Physics. I was a different person after completing each of these courses. I spent about 40k total for a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science. For arming me with needed skills and establishing a broad foundation that permits me to think outside a narrow discipline when it's called for, I'd say it's worthwhile. Anything that accomplishes this is good. Right now that's college.

I concede some schools are a better value, and some majors are not going to make you financially successful. I think that should be the discussion.
Why is nobody talking about the horrifying impact that this is having on the environment? All of these plastic pieces will end up in the trash. In other words, in our environment. That doesn't even take into account the pollution from the manufacturing process. And we call this progress or innovation? Please stop making this garbage.
I don't see anything wrong with the plan—solicit donations & use them to forgive debt randomly with pennies on the dollar while spreading an anti-bank message. arguably, the tax implications could be problematic to the overall plan, but this doesn't seem to be your argument. Yours seems to be akin to saying Planned Parenthood doesn't have a business plan because you disagree with birth control.
Yeah, I could do that or MyFitnessPal - I guess I'm not sure on the ethics. People themselves want to share their photos, but is it okay to reach them through someone else's fitness site? Hacker News and non-fitness-related sites seemed kosher, but I'm not sure about those... advice?

I'm trying to think of ways to make it a win-win for everyone - maybe promote the site/product/trainer that helped a person, but in a way so that the site isn't selling a particular product. Ideas welcome.
You have to "easy_install readline" into your virtualenv along with "pip install ipython" to get ipython's control characters working (otherwise ipython outputs what looks like garbled text). readline is easy_install'd rather than pip'd to because easy_install'd libs end up at the head of sys.path.
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"Shiny" could be metaphorical, here. Ever since Lion, OSX has been far too eager to show the world that it exists. Too many gimmicky interfaces, too many half-baked UI structures.... I don't care. Let me do what I want and get the fuck out of my way.

I have a limited number of pixels available to me. If you're a GUI designer who thinks I should give those pixels to you, then you are mistaken. Apple seems to have forgotten that recently (although Snow Leopard is pretty great).
This is a rambling jumble of thoughts. I'm not sure what the take away is.
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This is a commonly made false comparison: employed physician vs. self-employed plumber. You've combined two jobs (plumber + small business manager), then assumed that the plumber is better than competent at both. This will not compare favorably at the margin if you compare e.g. to a surgeon who opens a plastic surgery practice, or uses his surgical skill to found Intuitive Surgical.

Either compare averages or admit that there's no point comparing when you already know the outcome you want.