skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree mostly with everything you said, but I would put things differently.

I think this all revolves around what the person means by "free market" Some people think this is a "free-for-all" while in fact a free market is usually regulated to some fashion to make it free (by guaranteeing private property rights and tort law for contract enforcement, if nothing else) So free market definitely does not mean lack of government support/definition/intervention.

Taking, for instance, the health insurance industry in the U.S.. I'm in favor of the government defining simple levels of insurance coverage, say from A to F. A would be total coverage for anything that went wrong (including preventive care). F might be catastrophic care only, with the guarantee that life-saving measures do not bankrupt the family (even is some measures might be denied).

In this case, the government can and should intervene to create the open market. Currently policies are so obfuscated by legalese that consumers effectively have no choice. In details-rich markets, like lending, insurance, airline fares, etc, the government can make the market freer by simply providing _simple_ standard categories of service.

As far as direct intervention in social systems, such as education, I think most right-leaning libertarians such as myself would support those interventions that directly related to things the government absolutely had to do. Education falls into that category because the need of a national army requires a standard of education. Health care in general is a very tricky area. We're developing life-saving cures for our elderly that cost more than the person made during their working years. I find it very hard to believe people in a democracy are going to vote for their own early deaths, so as a practical matter some kind of political appeasement needs to be made with the public at large, free market or not. I'm still thinking this one through.

The danger is taking a complex system and oversimplifying whether on the "leave it alone and everything will be fine" side or the "hey, we can engineer this thing to do whatever we want" side. It's way too complex to work like political slogans want us to believe. I think we're in agreement on this point.
Reactions on a couple of secondary points:

First, there's a huge drawback in the "reward accordingly to the value you produce" paradigm: you can't punish people accordingly to the value they destroy. So if you estimate that an operation has 50% chances of winning $100M, and 50% chances of loosing $200M, your rational interest is to make that operation, even if it's not in your employer's interest, because you can't lose more than your job (this only works if your salary is much lower than $100M, but you can pick other numbers).

This effect is much stronger when individuals work for extremely wealthy companies, but I'd guess the protection from bankruptcy must have some comparable effect. It depends on your national business laws obviously.

About the footnote "[3] Progressive tax rates will tend to damp [the] effect [of money as an incentive]": it's only true if you suppose that money has linear value for individual, i.e. if going from $50K to $550K is roughly as valuable as going from $5M to $5.5M. But if you suppose that money has less importance when you have more of it, states should rather get it from where it's the least efficient as an incentive, i.e. from wealthier taxpayers.
Nngh. They're laptops.

If we need a new name for something, it's those computers that have >= 17" monitors that are currently called laptops.

Hey, I know. Why not use these nifty grammatical tools called "adjectives"?
Does anyone know where this course ‘Big History’ that he is talking about is being held?
Is it on iTunes U? I can’t find it.
What is the most infeasible piece of software you've ever been asked to write?
Ugh. Is this really the WSJ? I thought they used to only print stuff like this in the anonymous opinion columns.
27. This was about 1997.

I was in kindergarten when people were still using 8088s.
I tend to wolf my food down without thinking. How did you consciously solve your issue?
Looks like it's using geolocation. It says here "JA," yes in Dutch.
or people can just submit the url as the first comment, and get double the karma
They've been pulling this scam since way back in the IBM days. My CDW contact was able to scare up a box full of the little plastic trays for us from somewhere in mexico overnight when a whole rack of servers came in completely without disks and all of the disks we ordered to go with them were useless because of the lack of little plastic trays.

The most frustrating thing about the whole deal is that there was no warning that what we ordered would come in unusable and we were on a very tight schedule. By trying to extort a few extra dollars out of us they almost blew a very important install by causing us to miss the window.

The idea that you can only get the trays by ordering Lenovo drives is complete BS. If you're a little bit irate and a lot persistent on the phone, you'll probably score some trays sans cost. In the future, always tell the sales rep that the sale is contingent upon the trays being with the server or you'll refuse the delivery. You'll get trays for every slot every time.

Edit: I used decks of cards to prop the drives while doing the configuration until the trays came the next day. The playing cards allow you to get just the right height by adding and subtracting cards...
For your eyesight:
The 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look away from the monitor to a spot at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.
Special computer prescription: You can get a special prescription for computer work based on your current Rx that will help with eye strain issues.

RSI: Swimming (the TotalImmersion way). Beware that any pain in the lower arm extremities may be a symptom of problems upstream (e.g. shoulder/back - try rolling your shoulders)

Roids: Splash cold water on affected area, ideally right after you-know-what

Favorite healthy snack: Formula = Carbs + Protein (e.g. whole wheat no-preservative bread with natural Trader Joe's peanut butter or apple slices with peanut butter)
As much as I appreciate your sentiment, I would beg to disagree. It is possible to imply scatological sentiment without resorting to 'swear words' and is occasionally appropriate. Although it requires effort, constructing a sentence or phrase that is more precise on whatever topic is vastly more effective than either "good job" or "god damn fucking shit". The use of either is both lazy and frequently just plain ineffective.
House is the result of a group of very smart english majors (scriptwriters) carefully crafting both sides of an argument.
"12. The use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace on company computers leads to increased productivity."

I bet that study was sponsored by Facebook
It says at the top "Wall Street Journal. Opinion Journal"

It has no byline. At the bottom it says "Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum."

Not sure how much more they could do to tell folks that this is an editorial. Seems like this misconception happens a lot, though. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=381821
Inventor Trains Crows to Find Money
Here's an idea:

The next time you have the urge to say "what I want", add "to give" at the end.

As for me, what I want is to give thanks to pg and all the yc crew for everything they've done for this community. Keep up the great work!
The TED Talk mentioned: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intel...

Or a link to the MP4 version: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/download/video/4555/talk/...
Well, I'd moved to Singapore for about six months and I returned (to India) a few months ago. Like the dog that didn't bark in the night, the time in Singapore was perfect - speaking of my digestion - without any special effort. But after I returned, the same old bloating and hard stools (sometimes quite painful) recurred. Obviously, these conditions became sufficiently irritating that I was forced to analyse.

After a bit of thought, I realized that the Chinese-ish diet in Singers was mostly soup-like with lots of hot water, whereas back here at home it's stiff grains like wheat and corn with lots of husk, with much less liquid ingested. So I figured I should try to make what's going in be of similar consistency to what I knew worked. I decided I would try it for a week, strictly, and it worked wonderfully. And so I've stuck to it.
Paid Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch
It does have a byline and a dot-picture of the author, to the right of the title: "By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR."

So by the conventions of newspaper editorial pages, it is the opinion of the author, not the opinion of "the paper". (It is still generally the sort of opinion the WSJ has always favored.)
I commend them on putting all 50 things on the same page.
It's not that complicated: If you are collecting donations from people (i.e. they give you something for nothing), then you must not make a profile.

If you are getting your money in other ways, then go for it.
Interesting.

My guess would have been:

1) Larry Page

2) Sergey Brin

3) Terry Semel

4) Steve Balmer
They're aren't giving you something for nothing. They are giving you something so you can help the people that the charity benefits. That's the service he (Pallotta) provides.
Fake following doesn't seem like such a good idea. Better make it hardcoded design: never allow you to see if the people you are following are following you back.
Social Networks Will Be the New Breeding Ground for Viruses
Wireless turns iPod into a phone
It only costs $80 for a 500GB SATA server grade hd?

I'm in need of a new computer.
It's not that obvious where to draw the line. Executives of charities need to get paid. And because charities deal with large amounts of money, mismanagement can be very costly. By increasing the salary of the executives you can get more qualified people. As a result, the charity becomes more efficient and effective and everybody's happy.

Often charities have billions (?) of capital. If they hire a local private bank to look after the money they will have to pay for it, and the bankers will be driving porches. But if they manage the capital in house they suddenly can't compensate people for it similarly, because they're still a charity?

Charity.

Raise money: OK

Spend money: OK

Save money, use part of savings as bonus: Evil?

I haven't really thought this through, so my logic could be flawed. Still, I think that most charities should become more business-like. (Good) Businesses are, after all, all about creating value.
It’s here: fring for iPhone
I think this is high quality fearmongering.

Different aspects of what this guy is talking about happen all the time, all over the world. Take Argentina in 2001, Chile in the early 70s, Bolivia in 2004 or so, and the Rodney King riots of 1992. I've spoke to a teacher who was in Chile during the coup and he told me never in his wildest dreams did he imagine soldiers ransacking university libraries and burning books on the street. Not in Chile!

Now of course, there are fearmongers who aren't worth listening to, but that doesn't mean this guy's one of them. I think he's off on some points, but he tries to give an idea of what people can reasonably expect in the off chance there is a collapse. It's not the end of the world, but it's worth thinking about.

Also, keep in mind that there are times when it makes a lot of sense to be afraid. A lot of people are dead because they weren't scared enough to emigrate when they still had the chance.

Disaster scenarios are always shockers, perhaps because if people had the foresight to prepare for them they wouldn't be so disastrous.
Frohe Weihnachten, y'all.
The reason he wants it to be clickable is because he browses on his iPhone so FF is not an option. Copy/paste doesn't work either at the moment, which does make it quite frustrating.
2009: Year of the hacker
WSJ saw a huge drop in quality since Murdoch bought the paper. My guess is that he is trying to change WSJ to appeal to a lower common denominator to increase subscriptions.
Startup Interview: GoSports – From Potential to Performance
One Hacker's Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards
I would upvote you a 1000 times if I could.

I read such stories almost every week in India. X kid doing that or this. All crap.

your point: the parents compete using their kids
it's right.

We don't see any of these kids in the newspapers when they are grown up. Why? Because these kids aren't born for what they are forced to do. Once they start using their brains, they change and begin to pursue what they want.
Ah, MPW. An environment that even made CodeWarrior look good.
Gold can be argued to have intrinsic value, when it has shown to retain some amount of value across over 5000 years of human history; and it would be almost impossible to have a working electronics industry without some amount of gold, or some other metal with nearly-equivalent properties (right now the industry is working on ways to minimize gold but it is still needed). It is not superstition.

I don't know where you got the idea that I was recommending a non-physical holding of gold or silver, but it is a good point to address: all COMEX contracts state that in the event of default (non-delivery) they can just give you USD, which of course is exactly what you don't want.
I'm guessing it means that women would have fewer children if they didn't expect most of them to die.
He works for "The Paper", though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holman_W._Jenkins_Jr
I'm sorry to disagree with you, but despite all of the emotional baggage that surrounds platform choice, I do think Microsoft is kinder to developers.

I remember the Stac case, but it was 18-odd years ago. It's more relevant to me now that, for instance, it is effectively illegal to write a book concerning developing for the iPhone.

After all, you'd never see Steve Jobs running up and down a stage shouting "developers developers developers" like a monkey on crystal meth, would you.
60 years ago (after WW2), there was no real competition to America because the competition mostly got blown up during WW2.

To go back to the postwar situation, we'll need another war. And it needs to be a real war with firebombs, tank columns and opposing armies, not a stupid "suicide bomb some orphans for the cameras" event like what we have now.
Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home
Crows are technically the most intelligent birds, but people expect parrots to be due to their speech capabilities.
Benefits of Image Comparison Software
Wow. An editorial on the NY that makes significant economic sense and goes against the liberal ideology. This is a first.

On the op-ed itself. I don't understand why anybody considers profit evil if said profit is not gotten through fraud or coercion. Exactly what is so evil about making money? Furthermore, all donations to charity are completely voluntary and private. Whether for-profit charities are evil or not is not something to the public at large to decide. We have no business passing judgment on any charity unless we happen to be one of the donors (and even then, clauses from their contracts apply). Lastly: if I was donating to a charity, I would not be concerned by how much they got in profit or how much their chief manager was paid. I would be interested in what I was giving them money for: how effective they were is helping the people they claimed to help.
Mibbit:  One year old, and profitable
They seem like all mathematical algorithms for root finding, integration, etc. Very interesting though. Do the zip files contain more information about each algorithm, or are they just code. It would be amazing to have a wiki that had each algorithm and alternatives listed.
Sometimes I forget to drink anything but coffee and I end up dehydrated and with a headache. This impairs my productivity, to say nothing of quality of life. I try to avoid this by keeping one of those disposable water bottles (I like the Glaceau SmartWater ones best) close at hand. I'll use the same bottle for weeks or months, just refilling it from the tap. I try to drink at least three per day. Eating fruits and vegetables and exercising helps me feel better and stay focused too but I don't do those enough.
They wouldn't print it if they didn't like it. Plus as said by another, he is on the editorial board.
I don't think anyone stresses just how much damage can be done by sitting immobile for long periods of time can be.

Whilst I have no problem with 'piles' and was not hacking as the OP was. I was slim and athletic - used to walk 5 miles a day, do weight-training and cycling, etc. Then 6 years ago I moved in my chair in the office and had a feeling like an electric current travel up my spine. It was months before I could turn my head without pain, and in the following years I've suffered terrible back, pelvis, and hip pains, and it's getting worse. I cannot really sit upright, and now even have trouble walking. No doctor can explain how all this began or even if the various problems are connected - and even when they have some 'treatment' the odds are even as to whether it makes matters better or worse.

So please, if you value a normal life, take care of yourself and don't sit too long without breaks. It won't matter how much money you make if you can't enjoy an evening at the cinema or can't go for a walk when on holiday.
The attachable Microphone: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA850G/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3NA&...
Correct.

If you're looking to assign blame, then do evaluate your own particular motivations. You have probably already made or you are now about to make a mistake; you've taken your eye off your particular goals of creating value for your customers.

Certainly don't repeat (unprofitable) mistakes. Do learn from your own mistakes, and do particularly learn from the mistakes of others.

Competing against an organization that seeks to place blame on others? Now that's a potential business opportunity. That individual or that organization is not competing effectively. They're dissipating their competitive efforts. They're potentially vulnerable. Do you have a wedge here? An opening? Use it.

Do continue to move toward where the target business will be, regardless. Whatever goal or profit here you might view as your motivation. Blame doesn't move you toward that goal.
Oxite - Unofficial ASP.NET MVC based open source blogging and CMS
Congrats axod! Can't wait to see where you're going to take mibbit in 2009.
SpaceX Wins Big NASA Contract
I questioned Friedman's use of anecdotal evidence to make this point about engineering talent being redirected to finance. You've supported Friedman's point with more anecdotes. People were taking physics and engineering degrees and eschewing careers in engineering long before the Wall Street mess happened. My cousin has a nuclear engineering degree; he's in advertising now.
Ffs machine
Asian packing machinery is one of the most reliable players in the industry to satisfy this huge world-wide market by providing these complete food process plants & supporting them with a team of dedicated service technicians. so visit on http://www.asianpackingmachinery.com
What a good post.

This reminds me of something I used to think in my creative writing classes: you're a real writer when you're prepared to say "this is how bad I suck", and put your work out there anyway. I met so many people who called themselves "writers", but if I asked to read something they'd written, they hadn't produced a single complete work they'd call their best effort.

Once you really put it out there, for all to see, you have to let go of your fantasy about how great you are and confront the reality that this really does represent you as a writer.

It's so similar with code and programmers. There are so many people who like talking about what it means to be a programmer, what it means to write code... but you aren't a real programmer until you put something out there, warts and all, and say "yep, this is my work, for better and for worse."
New York also wastes ridiculous amounts of money on local pork. Housing lotteries (the city buys 50% of a house for a few lucky people), bloated salaries for MTA workers, dance police (1), and most programs are extremely inefficient (housing projects in manhattan? why not move them to Jamaica, and save money?).

Perhaps NY could spend that extra 15% effectively. But it would probably just be wasted.

(1) If patrons dance or sway to music in a bar without a cabaret license, the police will ticket the bar owner. As of 3 weeks ago, the cops were actively patrolling for this.
holy ho ho ho xmas
http://www.listenarabic.com
Dear Reddit, Hacker News...
Give NYT some credit, in the sense that not all their opinion pieces must adhere to some liberal ideology. As you mentioned, it is an "op-ed", not the NYT editorial board. The very fact that they have William Kristol as a regular columnist says a lot.
Topic: Internet and Fat Long Tail

Message: The winner takes it all

Data: Better connectivity between people makes big titles even bigger and unpopular one more unpopular.

a small preference for a particular object can, in a highly connected community, rapidly amplify and spread its appeal. </quote>

Possible explanations:

1. Ultimately, he thinks, our love of the blockbuster might just reflect that we humans are constantly looking out for a place to go - one where others are too. "A culture is a set of people who share beliefs, ideas and artefacts," says Watts. "Blockbusters are part of that - they make us feel we belong to something." </quote>

2. It is this sort of software [recommendation engines] that paradoxically promotes the sales of blockbusters and is responsible for homogenising choice online ... To make useful recommendations, most collaborative filters must make guesses based on previous sales and ratings. But obscure products do not have much in the way of sales or ratings to go on, so the filters tend to point us towards more mainstream offerings </quote>
Bigger and smaller computers are a good thing, opening up new types of interactions that are not possible with a 17-22" inch monitor, a 95-105 key keyboard, and a mouse.
Renumeration is tricky for charities.

In a public company, and to a large extent a private company, the bottom line is the bottom line. Investors invest, and they want money out of it. As long as it's legal, anything goes to get that profit.

In a charity the bottom line is providing some much less tangible benefit to someone or something. The bottom line is a much fuzzier concept. The benefit is harder to gauge than when you're just looking at a number of currency units.
And thanks for all the laughs Zed. We are looking forward to respectfully disagreeing with your upcoming intelligent thoughtful essays :-)
Meteor Burst Communications - Hacking the Skies
No, they are paying people to make more money with investments or whatever - that's fine, do what you want - the money comes from the investment income, it doesn't matter if it's inhouse or out.

But if you pay people from donations directly then it's not OK to pay a lot.

Are you paying people to get more donations (no good), or are you paying people to make more money in some other way - including by saving you money (...more efficient and effective....), then it's fine.

Basically if by paying people you will end up needing to collect less donations - or you use those more effectively, then I'm fine with it.

But if you pay people to work on methods of getting more donations in the first place, then I'm not OK with it (if it's excessive, more then a few %) - even if it means you have more money in total.
Ask HN: Anyone using Justin.tv API?
Justin.tv blog describes it here:
http://techblog.justin.tv/2007/11/jtv-search-api.html
I actually liked the rants
The fact that `C-h b` is not mentioned in the tutorial doesn't imply that one can't find it or doesn't know how to use it.

There are hundreds emacs commands. The fact that description for any command can be found through help doesn't mean that you've discovered them all after spending 30 minutes reading the Emacs Tutorial.