skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Neal Stevenson's Cryptonomicon does a pretty good job, in places, of calling out some of the more terrifying and gruesome aspects of WW2 in the Pacific. It reads so distinctly removed from the Hollywood version but this piece is a good reminder of the depth and length of the discomfort and terror the ground troops endured.
Phone numbers in the U.S. used to have a exchange name followed by numbers (the most famous example is "Pennsylvania 6-5000"). Folks would dial "P-E" (which is why there were letters on the old dial phones) and then the digits.

I can assume that they fell out of favor because human memory favored the "3 digit-4 digit" chunking of the phone number rather than the "two letter-5 digit" chunking.
It's probably also much easier to transport.
"22 gigawatts of electricity per hour" ?? WTF? As soon as I read that the credibilty of the whole post went waaay down...

But anyway, very cool.
It's actually a square interestingly. Just glancing at it, I felt it was taller than it was wide. Had to measure twice to believe it was a square :D
Its pretty simple. Because they don't need to. They're doing incredibly well without tons of scrutiny for every decision that they make. The question should be phrased the other way around: why would YC go public?
The Setup: John MacFarlane
Interesting. Are you saying that the technology for thorium reactors wouldn't be so closely related to weapons technology?
Maybe they meant gigawatts-hour, a unit of energy, although a bizarre one to use in any case.
I'm just going to interject here: http://xtzgzorex.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/grunt-auth-misconc...
Recommend reading Sep Kamvar's essays known as Mastery and Mimicry. He is a former Stanford and current MIT professor. Fred Wilson is a fan of his work.

http://farmerandfarmer.org/mastery/index.html
About 1 to 2 years. Highly variable by technology.

There is a persistent myth that solar panels take more energy to fabricate than they produce in their lifetime. It is shown false with minimal effort (consider if the entire cost of a panel was energy. no labor, not capital equipment overhead, no raw materials… they still have payback periods shorter than their lifetimes).
Show HN: LinkShUI, a web CLI in the browser
This Professor/Programmer uses a 6 year old laptop at work and a consumer laptop at home. Just what do you actually need to get work done these days if you are not compiling 100k lines of source code?

I'm thinking of dumping the desktops and going for a single laptop.
Actually, this is the first webgl demo that I've ever had trouble with. Gallium seems to cover most of the common extensions and claims support for OpenGL 2.1, GLSL 1.2, which is recent enough for most applications.

And no, I'm not overriding anything, it's always just worked.

Edit: In fact, doing a quick grep through the shipviewer.js file, they're only using GL_ARB_texture_cube_map plus a bit of framebuffer drawing, both of which are fairly standard things and should be supported by gallium. No idea what the issue might be..
20GW is nowhere near 20 plants at full capacity, it's 20 reactors, and is probably more of an average.

Reactors range from 400MWe to 1600MWe, and plants generally have 2 to 6 reactors with 2 outliers at respectively 7 (Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Japan) and 8 (Bruce in Canada, although it's only running 6 reactors right now). The 10 biggest nuclear plants all have more than 4GW installed capacity.

FWIW, France has a total of 20 active plants grouping 57 reactors. The installed capacity is almost 62GWe.
Better yet, don't make tongue-in-cheek comments or reference well-established Internet memes. Actually, try not to be funny at all. No... even better, just don't post. There. Now there's more time for everyone!
This was written in JS using node and linkjs (https://github.com/pfraze/linkjs). Let me know if you have any questions.
I'm not sure how valuable the bias from developer anecdotes is. Naturally patents are going to be annoying for the business that covets the technology they cover. If you have patents at all, you will have friction. Bit like how you can't have parking tickets without having people complain about parking tickets. The majority of users and developers the majority of the time have no trouble with patents. At which point you can argue that it's a hidden cost, something that affects all of us without being immediately obvious. And that's precisely my point... if it's a hidden cost, it could equally be a hidden benefit.

I just don't see much worthwhile dialogue going on in the patent debate, just shouting in both directions. For instance in this article, it's not clear to me what people are objecting to. Are people annoyed because someone is trying to enforce a patent? Or is it just because a group of large companies have acquired the patents? Does that imply that we're happy for small companies to have patents, because they'll probably never enforce them anyway, but unhappy for large companies to have them, because they'll actually put them to use? Or is it the nature of the patents (I don't see much analysis of what the patents really cover... they could conceivably be things which took a lot of R&D)? Or, indeed, is it the concept of patents in general? The article did mention stifling innovation, but that's a bit vague - it stifles business activity but that energy could arguably be used on alternative that would be more innovative.
> Imagine if many more countries and Government were committed to solar energy and would make the solar industry boom because of it. We're still very early in this, and the potential is enormous.

Here's one possibility: Sunny countries will begin to make a lot of money generating solar power and selling it to cloudy countries. North Africa, for example, could easily support all of Europe's electricity needs if we find some way to keep sand off the solar panels. But all of that money goes into the pockets of African and Middle Eastern autocrats, and the world enters a new era where everyone tries to grab the sunniest parts of the world ... umm ... wait a second, those are the same areas where we're currently killing people for oil. tl;dr: History repeats itself.

But on the flip side, solar energy would allow humanity to make good use of some of the most barren parcels of real estate in the world. Instead of using fertile fields to produce biofuel, we could use those fields to produce actual food and leave power generation to places like Arizona.
Marc Andreessen's old blog posts.

http://pmarchive.com/
http://pmarca-archive.posterous.com/
You don't. Instead you add wind and storage and quick-cycling natural gas.
Why We Lie
"Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it." -Publilius Syrus

It's textbook price discrimination[1]. If somebody's not willing to pay much for texting, they can pay nothing and ask that it be disabled. If somebody cares very little about it, they can pay 20¢ per message[2]. If they know they'll text lots or just want to pay a flat fee and not care, they can pay $20/month[2].

The 20¢ per message is because if you're a light texter, that's about the most you're willing to pay per message.

The cost of something only sets a bottom floor on a price; it's not immoral or unethical to maximize profit by setting a sale price with a large margin.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

2: http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-pl...
Developer Spears a Marlin, ‘Files’ Is Born
350.org and others are working on it -- help them!
Check chrome://gpu/ in Chrome. It should say whether WebGL is enabled. I have to run Chrome with --enable-webgl --ignore-gpu-blacklist to make it work.
Why not? Does not this directly contradict your statement?
> Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources.
Why is it a bizarre unit? I'm billed for my electricity use in kW/h.
I enjoyed it :) It's not the joke, it's explaining it that can get tiresome and must be dealt with with dispatch.
> "debases the art"

Surely if "the art" is actually a quality that objectively exists and has value, it will resist attack from those that lack it.
Drowning doesn't look like Drowning.
No, but they should have a stable exchange with which to go public. I'm not an economist, but to me it makes sense that factors such as confidence would greatly affect the price of a stock, not just in the short term. The price of a company's stock isn't just representative of its value - all the trading and expected trading of that stock plays a factor.

You could argue that it isn't a good system because it places less value on the companies being traded and more on the effects of trading itself, but within the current system I think people have a right to complain about a poorly-executed IPO.
In fact, that's one of the advantages of thorium reactors and fuel cycles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle#Advantages_a...
Imagine a car, coming to a red light in the right lane. It then turns right on red, but rather than driving on in the new road, it makes a sudden u-turn, coming back to the intersection. Then makes a right on green, and continues on in the original direction.

Oddly enough, Portland has integrated a variant of this pattern into some of its bike lanes. There is a busy bike boulevard (Williams Ave), that is commonly approached from a left-turn off a busy road.

Instead of cutting across several lanes of traffic to make the left turn, the bike lane veers right and cuts through a courtyard, depositing the bikers in the orthogonal bike lane. It really helps reduce conflict in this intersection.

Should cyclists do this on their own? Probably not. But if built into the infrastructure its a great trick. You can see it here:

http://bit.ly/Ly64VI
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The news version of Qatrix.js is now released[Higher performance, 4.6KB only]
Thorium can't, as far as I know, be used for bombs. Unlike plutonium or uranium.
C-SPAN’s Online Collection of 600+ Searchable, Viewable Commencement Speeches
Welp my 2048-bit key may not float there. This is ridiculous, I never though it'd be THIS bad. And why are they asking for the "decryption key", in two parts?!
Exactly. Let's assume that Day 0 = day of IPO, and Day -1 = the day before the IPO. Let's assume that the (unobserved) value of the stock on Day -1 is the 'true' underlying value of the stock.

The only way that a glitch on opening day would have a permanent affect on the stock price is if the stock price on Day n (for all n > 1) is conditionally independent of the price on Day -1 given the price on Day 0. In other words, the best predictor of tomorrow's price is today's price, and yesterday's price adds no new information.

This is a reasonable assumption, but if you believe that, it means you also believe that stock prices are essentially a random walk, in which case there is never any convergence to the true underlying value, even if the price starts at that true value (which it may not!)

Let's assume that stocks are not a random walk and are some reflection of the underlying value of the company (however you define that).

Even if there had been a glitch, on the first day, as soon as the real quotes start getting published and the information is symmetric all around, then the prices should start to approach the fundamental value, even if they don't converge.

If a week later, Facebook is still trading below the IPO price, we can assume either that the convergence process takes time (unlikely, given the volume of stock being traded) or that the underlying value of Facebook as a company has changed in the last week (unlikely, since there has been relatively little news about Facebook-the-company, as opposed to Facebook-the-stock).
Facebook’s first week is the worst of any IPO in 10 years
This is impressive, but I would guess that this was an especially sunny day. I'd like to see what the average output is.
This is not a fair argument. When a nuclear reactor is being inspected, re-stocked, checked, repaired, refurbished, its output equals zero solar panels.

Fukushima's output has been equal to zero solar panels for over a year, despite its incomparably greater cost.
"segmenting customers by behavior and price sensitivity"

Similar to what is done by web hosting providers. Offering more disk space for more money when the average customer isn't going to come close to using the base allotment.

Also, we did this with domain redemptions. We used to charge a fee and process them all at about the same speed (Which was pretty quick usually within an hour or so.) We changed the order process so that the default turn time would be 12 to 24 hours for $0 upcharge. Then, say 8 to 12 hours for $15 more. Then $25 upcharge for 2 to 8 hours.

The response was instant and about 60% of the people paid the $25 charge. Not only that but if people are really upset we can give them the quick service for free (because it doesn't cost us anymore) and it makes them really happy. (Like an upgrade to an empty seat in 1st Class.)
Not only that, but they need the same thing for companies. Corporate accounts that let them add and remove users so they can purchase mac app store software on their behalf.
Apple | EthicaliPhone.org
It's an incredible game in every regard. It's not WoW in space. It's not arcade space combat. But it is a very human, deep, cold, and brutal game. I had a very fulfilling time trying to corner the market on various goods in my sector, hiring newbies to make the freight runs for me. But one day, you find yourself analyzing the EVE narcotics market spread on your commute to real-life work and wonder if you're overinvested. It's why it's called spreadsheets in space. Min-maxer's delight.

Unfortunately, it's not a game I'll pick back up unless I find out I'm immortal.
Chrome's been bugging me to restart, I've just been too lazy to do so. :)
There are many ways to store leftover capacity so that nuclear plants can operate all the time even when combined with renewable sources. For example, you could use leftover capacity to drive pumped storage plants. Pump storage plants operate at 70-87% efficiency [1] and can produce gigawatts of power on demand (in fact, within seconds). They are effectively the largest batteries in the world.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...
No, you're billed in kWh.
You're on HN. This puts you far above the "average person". You probably have critical thinking, and problem solving abilities that not many people have.

My guess is that once tech. penetration reaches a critical mass where the rewards for breaking into a low security server outweighs the hassle for the poor or smart people, only then will the government policies be upgraded.
Anyone else have a sudden urge to play Power Grid?
You can treat it like an anthropological exercise, and try to really figure out the values, interests, and motivations of someone who bores you to tears.

Just don't do it with a sneer on your face or contempt in your voice.
I believe Android leads only in a pure device count kind of way. Apple leads (far and away) in terms of profit per device, and that is the interesting metric for all large corporations. Google's Android play has always seemed defensive to avoid getting locked out of search if usage patterns on mobile shifted to non-web based interactions. Google does NOT want Apple, Microsoft or anyone else stepping between them and their users, especially since they make money with ad targeting/serving. As for Apple selling luxury toys to the well heeled, I recall reading recently that tablet manufacturers have all but admitted they can't price compete with the iPad. If Apple starts lowering prices to move down market, with their impressive vertical integration, I think it would be a blood bath for people currently in those spaces. I suspect we will see moves like this before the year is out. Not a good time to be Dell, Asus, etc...
Orbital solar power, since its introduction nearly 15
years ago, has grown considerably.** Various new stations
are now in place, able to provide continuous power to Earth.

Extremely doubtful.

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/03/space-based-sola...

On a yearly basis, then, getting continuous 24-hour solar
illumination beats the California desert by a factor of 2.6 averaged
over the year, ranging from 2.0 in the summer to 3.5 in the winter.
One of my points will be that launching into space is a heck of a lot
of work and expense to gain a factor of three in exposure. It seems a
good bet that it’s cheaper to build three times as many panels and
stick them on the ground. It’s not rocket science.

[...]

At this level, our 3.6 km diameter collecting area would generate
about 40 GWh of energy in a day, at an assumed reception/conversion
efficiency of 70%. By comparison, a flat array of 15%-efficient PV
panels occupying the same area in the Mojave Desert would generate
about a fourth as much energy averaged over the year. So these
beaming hotspots are not terribly more concentrated than what the
sunlight provides already. Again, I find myself scratching my head
as to why we should go to so much trouble.

Solar's a great technology. Space based solar ain't.
Creating An Android Game in a Day
>I've got nothing to hide

In that case, they've got no reason to look.

But I think like quite a few other comments say, it's old document.
See my comment above. If you assume that the underlying value of Facebook hasn't changed in the last week (a reasonable assumption - remember, we're dealing with the underlying value of the company, not the value of the stock on any given day), then there would be no reason for a bump to occur on the first day of trading except that the stock was incorrectly priced.

The reason that a 'bump' occurs is that money is being left at the table - ideally, stocks should exhibit no bump, because that means that the company has priced their stock correctly. Any bump means that traders are reaping the profit of the increase in the stock's value, and that profit is what the company was seeking to gain by going public.
The age of consent in Belize is 16 [1], the same as in much of the world (and the majority of US states [2]), so legally she is a woman.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_North_Americ...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_North_Americ...
"segmenting customers by behavior and price sensitivity"

I like to sail when I go to an island. I can go to the resort that offers free sailboats and wait my turn. Or I can go to the resort that charges $x to use the sailboat. I like the $x because that way I'm not competing with others wanting the same limited resource.

Actually the last place I was at charged for internet access. That was good I had plenty of bandwidth the $10 day charge kept people off the wifi.
Enter the Dragon: Astronauts Open 1st Private Capsule at Space Station
There are types of nuclear plants that can load-follow much more easily, but it's not a design goal right now. The cost of nuclear energy is almost entirely construction and red tape; once you have a nuclear plant, the marginal cost of producing another megawatt-hour is so low that you want to run them as close to 100% as you can.

If more of our electricity came from nuclear, load-following would become more of a design priority. Or we would build some highly adjustable loads that can take a bunch of excess power when it's there, like aluminum smelting or electric car charging.
Delete Your Facebook Account Permanently
If you eliminate aging, how do you plan to eliminate starvation?
Become the facilitator of the conversation, like an interviewer. Listen and ask questions. This works because most people enjoy talking about themselves or their interests.
If we find some way to keep sand off the solar panels, and some way to efficiently transport it across the Mediterranean. That's certainly not impossible, but the technology for things like long-distance seafloor superconducting cables is even less mature than solar power plants.

It'd be way cool to see all of that come together In The Future, but in the near-term, surplus solar power in Africa is not going to help Europe, unless they use it indirectly by using solar electricity to synthesize oil or something.
The Most Controversial Hacks in Augmented Reality
Give entrepreneurs a (tax) break
> "I'm not sure how valuable the bias from developer anecdotes is..."

This is a legitimate concern, and something you have to contend with when you're engaging in the softer sciences. Someone with experience in something like sociology may be in a better position than most of the HN crowd to effectively study this topic in a rigorous fashion.

Anyway, (the way I see it) people are objecting, particularly in this article, because they view patents in software as something that can only do one of two things: nothing (read: sit in a companies portfolio never to be read or cared about, only padding the companies patent wallet), or harm the industry by stifling innovation and feeding the lawyers. Put briefly, they, unlike you it seems, do not accept the idea that patents in the software industry can actually do good.

It's not the concept of patents, it's not that large companies are using them, it's not that people are enforcing them, it's not any of that nonsense. It is more that none of these things have anything to do with improving the industry we have invested our lives in. I think you had a grasp on this concept earlier, but lost sight of it when you tried to analyse it too closely.
Don't forget that the amount of power lost due to cooling systems, mining, fuel transport and refining of fissionable materials should be considered as it's a considerable chunk of that output.
the average capacity of a nuclear plant in Germany is 1.2GW, it's relatively close. I'm pretty certain that the plant in Essenbach with two units represents Germany's nuclear plant power range, i.e. unit 1 is c. 900MW and unit 2 1.4GW.
Why aren't people working on thorium reactors?

Wikipedia lists current projects in the US (~2015), India (~2013) and China (~?).

The reason for India's interest in the technology should be obvious, and it's quite probable that we'll see further development on that front.
Text messages are not a limited resource; the misapprehension that they're priced as if they were is behind a lot of contempt for carrier pricing.

A good way to think about it is that people who send lots of text messages are simultaneously subsidizing the accounts of people who don't send text messages.
"programming would mean cooped up in a cube all day"

Unfortunately, I think for most programmers, it still does.

My guess is Atwood was once of them.

When I started to reach some sort "enlightenment" (series of epiphanies, ah-ha moments or whatever you want to call it) with respect to "programming" I found that I wanted to share my knowledge with others. I think I still have that urge now and again. (And even now I'd still be happy to show you or anyone what I've learned if they were really interested. However I must admit I've never had much interest in computer games or understanding how they work, and I prefer using Lua over Ruby.)

When I keep seeing these ridiculous blog posts like Atwood's I have a hard time seeing his sort of thinking as helpful to anyone (even himself). That's just how I see it. But then, what do I know? (A chorus of underappreciated programmers in cubicles responds: "Not much!" ;)

They're right. But so am I. In the grand scheme of things, none of us really knows much. That much, I do know. (Credit: Socrates)
I get the feeling PT isn't a big believer in global warming, but the accepted term for those kinds of investments is "cleantech". If he called it "CO2-reducing technology investments", he'd sound like a curmudgeon who's more interested in being pedantic on the internet than being understood. ;-)
It's a really interesting concept! And nicely executed too.

That being said, I don't know if I'll come back after having played with it for 5 minutes...