skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This reminds me of the push here in NYC for all of the city agencies to open their data via an API. It's gotten better over time, but when the initiative first took flight, it was terrible. Some of the APIs flat out did not work, and the ones that did often returned all sorts of malformed, non-normalized data. It was a nightmare to work with. I'm curious if the government can do better.
I always loved the amount of power in java IDEs (Eclipse, for me) for refactoring code...made things so much easier.
No apologies needed :) The term "webapp" was just a bit too general.
ah, thanks. and i think i understand now - it doesn't affect filtering, but it makes the precalculated list have a monotonic value that can be used to select a "degree of smoothing". maybe.
Many of the arguments provided by the article are straw men and ignore a provision that Apple offers (and encourages the use of!) – custom sandbox entitlements. Apple has repeatedly stated that custom entitlements can and will be granted for apps that need access not granted by existing sandbox entitlements. Certainly not all exception requests will be granted, but for some of the ones he listed – Growl, file read access for Omnifocus – those are perfectly legitimate exception requests.

Apple is working hard to provide a secure and still fully functional system. Some things will break, undoubtedly. Some apps will be abandoned, either because of legitimate technical limitations Apple refuses to address, or because of political stances taken by the apps' developer. Things aren't perfect right now, and Apple still needs to continue refining and enhancing the OS X sandbox.

Is it as clear-cut as Rentzsch makes it out to be, though? Absolutely not. In fact, I think he takes a very biased stance in this article. For the vast majority of users, sandboxing is an enormous step forward for the safety and security of their data and system. For that reason alone, I encourage everyone to purchase apps via the App Store. It's a safe and trusted distribution vector that is now helping improve OS X's platform security. That's an enormous benefit to almost all consumers.

(And I say all of this as a developer who's having to wrangle with the sandbox right now.)
I'm going to my apartment now. 3.5 years ago I would not have been going there. Now and 3.5 years ago are not the same thing. He's interested in doing things now, and since neither he nor I can turn back the clock, that's as good as either of us can do.
I'm not disagreeing with your point, but I wonder if you actually read the memo from the CIO, or are just speaking ex cathedra about the requirements being given?
FreeBSD FFS with softupdates has been doing metadata copy on write since about 1998. Recent versions have a journal too, to deal with the cases not covered by softupdates.

ZFS also relies on drive write barriers for safety. There is no hope if your disk lies.
I think this should be judged against the status quo as a positive development rather than against an abstract ideal as a flawed concept. Having seen too many clients stuck in analysis paralysis or blocked by political/turf issues while trying to develop corporate-wide standards (protocols, object models, etc), I'm just happy to see online access to public/government data advance in any way.

If we had to wait for higher-level, coordinating standards first, progress might never come.
Merging Facebook With Search, Microsoft Rolls Out “New Bing” To All Of U.S.
Interesting idea, I could see it being useful but it doesn't really solve the same problem. Occasionally I just like reading through all my old note in the order they were created. For reference, the way I use short notes is almost like a second diary or whatever, where I have my journal of long ideas and my journal of one-liner thoughts and notes. And the reason I keep both is so that ultimately I have some sort of record of what I'm thinking and doing. So while being able to search by tags is definitely the killer feature, being able to go through it chronologically is also important.

Also, there needs to be some sort of export functionality, that should be the first feature you add!
The highway to hell
Of course, I am sure many realise that this is applicable to visualising anything of a fractal nature, e.g. plotting stock price history at various zoom levels.
>analyzed the password strength of about 70 million Yahoo users.

Ahem.
I'm reminded of this recent post by James Fee, talking about geodata, but I think it applies to the general case:

"... The question was APIs or downloads...
Personally, I believe [data] is one of the best
ways for citizens to keep track of their government
(local to federal) ... APIs tend to deliver what
their “owners” want them to do. Raw data means
everyone has an opportunity to check each other’s
work. Of course, raw data can be manipulated as
well, but it is harder to obscure."

- http://spatiallyadjusted.com/2012/04/03/sharing-data-downloa...

I couldn't agree more. APIs are great, but are not the key to open government, for two reasons:

1. They don't provide simple and easy access for non technical individuals into raw information.

APIs shouldn't exist for querying historical datasets if the dataset is not already available in a static format. Release the data, then build an API if there is demand (or the private sector doesn't do it, better, for you).

2. Historical data access is poorly served by APIs.

There is no such thing as a good 'general use' API[1]. API's are appropriate for specific service based transactions that involve some level of processing. Examples:

* VAT/GST number validation
* Road closure notifications
* Identity services

3. Bonus reason: government agencies suck at building APIs.

They're not good at determining what is genuinely high value to end users, they tend to prefer visible projects that can justify budget increases, over genuinely useful, but less easily communicated ones (cf. the US national highway system and pork barrel politics), and there is an entire industry of enterprise companies heavily invested in keeping it this way.

TL;DR Release the data, let users build the APIs. Everyone wins.

Bootnotes:

[1] I lie. That's exactly what publishing raw data at stable URLS on a website achieves.
Why business needs people with Asperger’s syndrome, ADD & dyslexia
Obama will do anything to avoid a conflict right now. If gasoline prices go up any more, his opposition will be running ads replaying the video of him saying he believes that gasoline should be in the $5-$7 range so alternative energy will become more adopted. (everyone knows this so it makes him very weak internationally)

So this should surprise no one. He used technology to get elected, and he will use technology to try and stop Iran without a physical military conflict.
I'm thankful that the construction companies have enough sense to not build more new houses when the is a 6-12 backlog in existing houses. This kind of common sense isn't common in the USA.
WhosHere's response to Brian Hamachek/Who's Near Me
SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth
Rewinding a tape cassette.

The sound of the tone arm retracting at the end of a record on an automatic turntable.
It also means the same thing, and almost rhymes. "Who's Here" and "Who's Near" probably shouldn't both exist doing about the same thing - it would cause confusion. With "Who's Near Me", I think it's no longer a worry (in terms of what the law should be doing - I'm not a lawyer, so I can't speak to what it is doing until we see what happens in court, if it gets there).
Permit me a shameless plug for my new crowdfunding site, BountyOSS: https://bountyoss.com/

It works quite differently from Kickstarter; I think it's more appropriate for Open Source software projects.

It's still a bit rough -- I even hesitate to mention it here on HN just yet -- but I think it's usable.
WhosHere's response: https://whoshere.zendesk.com/entries/21514943-the-other-side...
The logging in barrier is a deal breaker for me.

Not saying you shouldn't keep it, just letting you know that some people will not get past it because they don't want to.
The Other Side of the Story:
"We are not patent trolls, we are entrepreneurs and developers, and here's what we're struggling with."
https://whoshere.zendesk.com/entries/21514943-the-other-side...
Who's Near Me's side of the story: https://whoshere.zendesk.com/entries/21514943-the-other-side...

It appears this isn't such a clear cut story...
Having recently suffered a hard drive failure, I have a new appreciation for the idea of being able to download and re-install my applications from a single location.
Agreed, it's just a better user experience overall.
Also I am not at all sure that terrorists are going to care whether the US says they have used weapons like this. I would suggest that "we are worried about cybersecurity" is a much larger green light than "we are using cyberweapons."

I am not aware of the last time a terrorist attacked us with an F-15 or a B-2.....

The much larger issue though is that by releasing Stuxnet, the government had to release tools that terrorists could use into the wild. These can then be reverse compiled, hacked, and turned against us. That's bad news. It would be like leaving behind a large number of Predators or something in terrorist hands.

Actually it is worse than that. With actual airplanes, you have maintenance issues and costs, and the fact is that you have limited quantity and little ability to produce more. With Stuxnet, these limits are not there.
Hmm, not sure API vs data is productive to see as a dichotomy.

Consider that an API might provide access to "raw" data directly.

I'd ask not for data over APIs but for more universally useful properties such as stability, currency, consistency, etc.
A nice list. The only area I'd add is statistics. Eventually the theory's got to be tested, and understanding the methods experimentalists use is very useful in navigating that world.
Yeah just think about the problems and then find ways to solve them with what you know. Teach yourself what you don't know.
So your professional legal advise is to stop giving legal advise? Are you serious?
And it's ridiculously elitist that only brain surgeons get to cut people's brains open. I mean come on! Is this a democracy or not?!?!
The first thing that caught my eye was the misspelling of Barack in the address :)
Under color of what law would you be sued for making free suggestions about legal matters?
Get ready for some hackathon! I'm sure there are a lot of useful and interesting ideas to build with whatever comes up.
> Hmm, not sure API vs data is productive to see as a dichotomy.

It's not, necessarily. An API provides a [very] limited view into the data. A view selected by the publisher. That's part of the problem.

> I'd ask not for data over APIs but for more universally useful properties such as stability, currency, consistency, etc.

Amen. I'd add: clear license and usage conditions, simple and concise metadata, and frequent updates.
I agree that this is certainly in bad practice, but before everyone goes all crazy hitting the donation pool, are you or aren't you "wealthy"

From a PDF they have posted regarding emails from you (https://whoshere.zendesk.com/entries/21514943-the-other-side...):

"" I was born wealthy; I have an obscene trust fund. I assure you that if required, I will obtain the best legal representation for corporate litigation in the Silicon Valley. After your last proposal, I will resist this legal action well beyond what makes any financial sense, simply out of principal. ""
Yes, this is an act of war. So what? Is Iran going to declare war on the US?
Why don't you have backups? I _expect_ my hard drive to fail.
This article reminds me of when I landed a job in the US (at the time I was living in Canada).

As a part of the relocation package I was sent a book "Culture Shock: USA".

Quite an entertaining read. The most memorable quote was "In the US, it is usually typical for a husband to accompany his wife to the hospital when she gives birth".
As someone else has asked you already, provide an example you were NOT personally involved in.

Also: I doubt that you can talk about the specifics of the case, but there should be nothing stopping you from quoting the court case so we could look it up ourselves.

Incidentally, it appears that are providing us with legal advise here. The legal advise is that we shouldn't provide legal advise.
Interesting, but would you take a stolen car? Doesn't quite compare, I know, but it's a bit silly to justify it by saying that.
For turntables that supported a stack of records, the sound of the next record falling onto the platter.

The sound of an 8-track tape switching to the next track.
I swear my practical peripherals 14.4kbps external modem was faster than my 28.8 and 33.6 at actual throughput (error correction maybe?). Never did the 56k analog.. went 128k ISDN. Having bonded channels was awesome. No cool analog sounds on that though...
Google Applies For .lol Domain
Still... I mean Who's Here and Who's Near Me are in no way similar as far as the TradeMark is in my opinion. Come on.
Laptop, $300 refurbished Epson projector, and a blank wall works great for me. I invite friends over and it's like our own small theater.
Weasels. Seriously.
Great response. Very direct, with no vague language. Thank you for posting - now I'm looking at your app in a positive light!
I would be impressed to see an implementation of this. Topology is absolutely critical for serious GIS applications. Of course, ESRI makes it looks easy within their software, but I haven't seen what a basic algorithm looks like for this task. Good luck!
A cool song based on modem sounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3VzSv4ErEg
If you're reading this - you need to ensure you read the response from WhosHere: https://whoshere.zendesk.com/entries/21514943-the-other-side...
Yes. Try the following: "You are a moron who has no idea what they are talking about?", or an actual question "Are you a moron who has no idea what they are talking about?"

Both lower the tone. Both cause unnecessary battles and derail discussions.
I do have backups, but it's still a PITA to copy everything over, especially applications.
I don't get it. If you are the small bootstrapped ultra-busy startup founder, why continue to concern yourself with this stuff.

He was willing to rebrand his app, even though the trademark registration was apparently not finalized at this point. So at which point did they feel entitled to make the demands they were making?
Let's do a kickstarter defence fund for WhosHere too and let the crowd decide! Bread and circuses.
If you are able to make this happen, it would be very interesting if you could get the visitors to write a short note before entering about what they expect, how well they think they'll handle the disorientation, etc. After they're done have them write a similar note about their experience and how reality matched up with their expectations.

For all of us that don't have access to such facilities, this kind of before/after diary might be very interesting.
By the way, I'm local to San Francisco and the Bay Area and not opposed to in-house work or onsite meetings!
They are patent trolls. The worst is that maybe they not even realize it.
I take it that's not the case in Canada?
You made a decision to turn him down. He made a decision to turn you down. That part of it is not really at issue, in my opinion.

You turned him down, he decided to do it on his own, and called it a different name. I don't think I would confuse the two. If he'd wanted to cash in on your TM (as said in the other thread) he wouldda called it simply "Who's Near". Changing the web address to wnmlive was a huge compromise in my opinion.
Julian Gollop: Sons of Rebelstar
I'm slightly more sympathetic having heard their side--there is more to it than just random legal threats out of the blue.

..BUT.. This suit revolves more around "we felt wronged" than "this clearly infringes our trademark." The only similarity in the trademark is the word "who." The law is the law, your feelings are irrelevant.
We literally bet our life savings on this and years of zero vacations to bring WhosHere to where it is.

Making a bad business decision and living a shitty life doesn't entitle you to sue people who make a similar app just because their app's name uses some of the same letters as your app's name. (Both companies picked crappy names that are poor brands and poor trademarks. It's like calling your hamburger shop "Hamburger Shop" and then suing anyone who sells hamburgers for trademark infringement. It's not their fault you picked a generic name.)

Would you protect your company and its name?

With the facts I've heard today, absolutely not. Taking a competitor to court is an absolute last resort, done only in the most egregious of cases (serious fraud that people are associating with your business, etc.) While the case has legal merits, it has zero ethical merits. You picked a generic name. The other guy picked a similar generic name. He is not trying to compete and is not negatively affecting your business. You are being jackasses.

Making sacrifices to follow your dream does not give you the right to treat other people badly. You may be proud for the sacrifices you have made and the hard work you have put into your idea, but you deserve nothing for it. You're just another group of people equally good as every other group of people. Act like it.
Agreed on export, vote for it here if you'd like! http://fetchnotes.uservoice.com/forums/136052-general/sugges...

In terms of chronological order, the notes are displayed in chronological order already. On everything but iPhone and desktop (coming soon) there are timestamps within the note.
The Pearson VUE exam driver is pretty solid (Java). But I agree, all the ColdFustion stuff Pearson does is very stinky. VUE was an acquisition I believe.
This sounds nice in theory but I don’t think it’s an interesting goal. I’ll go further: it’s been the goal all along but doesn’t have traction.

SQL was designed as a “business” language, for end users (what we now call information workers). Didn’t happen. There have been many promises of “visual” languages, just drag and drop components and you have an app.

The issue is not tools, but the fact that programming is a logical business. The best programmers are logicians – they have a robust mental model of a problem to be solved. The coding (and the tools) help, but they ain’t the thing.

Basically, being capable of manipulating Illustrator does not an artist make.

In fact, programming has been moving in the other direction: more people I know use Ruby on a command line than Visual Studio’s design surfaces.

The frontier is in end-user UI. Progress is when we allow users to be more ambiguous, less logical, and still give them what they want.
Antivirus helps the people who are less computer savvy. I don't see why you would be so rude to generalize.
Google Website Optimizer is no more
IOS 6: Higher Hanging Fruit
While I agree that terrorism is given disproportionate attention (add car-collision fatalities in September 2001 as 3300 and it becomes even more useful comparison-wise), I also think it misses the point.

The sorts of terrorism we are afraid of tends to hype fear over risk. Take anthrax for example. Anthrax has been floated as a biological weapon because it's unlikely to spread back and contaminate one's own area, but experiments with weaponized anthrax shows an abysmally low rate of contracting the disease (between 0.1% and 1%) and so it's nearly exclusively a weapon of fear. The very things that make it attractive as a biological weapon also make it ineffective (no person-person transmission for example).

Similarly when we look at nerve gas attacks and the problems and sole case in history, it's clear these are relatively ineffective terrorism-wise. VX may be more effective than Sarin given high-tech dispersal systems but it's also very sensitive to things like droplet size and it's not volatile. Sarin, OTOH, is volatile meaning you can expect it to dissolve in the air and spread that way. Despite that, Aum Shinrikyo would have been more successful using plain old high explosives than nerve gas, and only one of their two nerve gas attacks (the one under entirely ideal circumstances) resulted in any fatalities whatsoever.

Nuclear terrorism could be significant but I suspect you'd have to blow up a small nuke in a major city every ten years to have an effect similar to car crashes nationally. I am sorry but I just don't see that happening so as long as I don't worry about getting behind the wheel I don't give that a second thought either.

All the above being said, cyberwar by non-state actors is different. Traditional terrorist attacks seek to cripple a society or socially disrupt it by killing people and making them afraid. I don't know that this necessarily has to be the intermediate goal of what people call cyber-terrorism (which is why I don't call it that). Instead it can disrupt society and hold it hostage by, well, disrupting it directly.

Imagine if power blackouts and communications infrastructure was disrupted repeatedly. Imagine if we suddenly the power grid were taken down repeatedly. What would be disrupted? How well could we recover? What if telecomunications infrastructure was attacked as well?

People would die but that's not really the goal. Just as in conventional terrorism deaths are a means to an end, sufficiently successful attackers could hold a society hostage by holding the infrastructure hostage.
Look, both your team and the other fellow involved in your dispute are in the wrong. And by wrong, I mean that you're both shaking your proverbial gender-specific parts around a crowded street, shouting about who's part is bigger, and trying to get the passersby to agree with your side or his.

No. One. Cares.

Put your shit away and handle this like men. Either reconcile or go to war, i.e. court. Just stop acting like you're still in high school and trying to win the who-likes-me-more popularity contest.
I am a backer and I just want to say that I am anxious to see it running... =)
Trademarks and patents are two different things.
Sounds like both parties are young.
You say it as if checking for signatures it the ONLY effective method and you seem to be saying it's not that effective, so all AV's are useless. Well, it's not the only method and there are other effective methods.
apparently according to Brian he has an obscene trust fund, so why didnt he lawyer up. Perhpas the mileage HN could bring + bad press he can bring about to a competitor was more enticing?

https://whoshere.zendesk.com/attachments/token/v4qbuvns0xkik...
Is it common to use the word "patent troll" to describe any type of legal troll nowadays? Just wondering because as far as I know there are no patents involved here, just a trademark.
They've published a lot of data, too.
I've done this, except I found it to be mostly worthless.

why?

We all restrict what other people's apps can see of ours.

What does this mean?

most stories aren't visible. The first 10 stories that I see through the graph api correspond to about the first 100 stories I see through my facebook newsfeed (this same limitation also applies to using facebook's own "download your data" app, as it is implemented through the graph api without any special access). This also means that if you post a comment to friend's story (and see on your page/timeline "commented on X...", if that friend restricted api access to their data, you will not only not be able to access the comment (that you wrote), you won't even see it in json dump of the page via the graph api.

In all honesty, the only way to do it "right" (in quotes for a reason, as not really right(tm), and with facebook's current limitations) is to basically parse their dom and rewrite it. That's also something I've experimented with (and have a relatively simple implementation), however, they change things constantly!