skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Twice in the past 10 years, or once every 5 years. That's the difference between iOS 1 (2007) and iOS 5.
Just be mature and reasonable because stuff happens:

"Sorry we missed each other yesterday. I thought we were scheduled to chat at 9am. Let me know if we can reschedule at a later date."
If you love math you might wanna check out Haskell ;)
There certainly a couple of contributing factor to that:

Geographical factors:

* larger distances. In Germany you can barely travel 1000km in one direction without leaving the country. This implies higher population density which keeps energy consumption for travels and transports at a lower level.

* milder climate: We don't need as much heating as the people in Alaska do and less air conditioning than California or Florida

Man-made/political factors:

* higher energy costs. We pay roughly 2USD per liter fuel. That implies that people are actually trying to buy fuel efficient cars. We don't drive pickups - in fact, I couldn't really afford the fuel cost if I would. Same is true for all sorts of energy.

* better insulation on houses. The standard american house seems to be the wood-frame-kind that's cheaper and quicker to build but is not expected to last for centuries. Here, houses are expected to last for ages. The one I currently live in dates back to somewhere around 1900, the one I'll move to was built in the late 1850s. This is quite common for Berlin actually. That implies thick, well insulated stone or brick walls.

There's certainly more things that affect energy usage, but the important point is that there are some factors that can be influenced while others can't. The Canadians for example will always have a higher need for primary energy since it's pretty cold there on average. The more interesting point is whether the consumption rises or falls and how we produce that energy.
Does that mean that the architecture of Win Phone 7 was a mistake? That it was never really part of a long-term strategy to transition from Win Mobile to Win Phone 8? Does Microsoft really intend to churn through platforms that quickly? It makes you wonder how far ahead they're planning things out over there, and whether this is a platform you should hitch your wagon to as a developer.
Where the Hell is Matt 2012? (Follow up to last year's epic dancing video)
That specific customization is possible but requires you to replace that entire component, so it isn't really a customization any more than saying you can customize that particular thing by just replacing the entire phone. ;P

This distinction becomes important when you want to install that customization on a device for which the stock launcher is not open source but has been customized to fit with other apps, or simply when you want multiple customizations from different people.

However, if you insist on something a little more concrete: what if you want to add new buttons to the Android notification center, add new features to the status bar, or affect the behavior of the lock screen? These are not apps you can replace.
I'm as appreciative of the "multitaskers only" kitchen mentality as anyone, but an electric kettle is a "single use appliance" in much the same manner as a Pyrex measuring cup is: it's a pretty important "single use".

A distinct advantage of electric kettles over stovetop kettles is precise temperature control. High-end loose-leaf white and green tea wants 70c-82c water; Aeropress coffee wants 80c-90c.

Speed is obviously another benefit. Good electric kettles are significantly faster than stovetop kettles.

Also, electric kettles take up counter space, but stovetop kettles take up space on your cooktop. Space is more constrained on the cooktop; you probably only have 4 burners, and on my stove, if the front two burners have skillets on them, it's awfully hard to maneuver with the rear burners.

Also, I hate the ergonomics of cutesy round tea kettles, and, obviously, that's a tea kettle: most electric kettles hold more water.
Yeah-- we're working on a solution for this, so stay tuned. We're thinking that dev ops drudge work is going to go the way of sys admin (thanks to heroku).
Wordpress is PHP.. not Ruby. I'd say it's counter productive because it makes you seem like you don't know an ant from an elephant.
Depends. No such criticism can be said of Android as an OS, but you could certainly make good arguments directed at the ecosystem in general. The interesting thing here isn't that the upgrade isn't compatible, it's that most people would expect Microsoft to support older systems. It's a break in their character. Maybe a good one? We'll see.
I feel like I've missed something. What, exactly, are they teaching?

I don't mean to be confrontational -- this is a genuine question.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he made it really clear that Apple's job wasn't to beat Microsoft. Apple then delivered on that assessment and created entirely new markets for themselves.

Sadly, somehow, Microsoft went all XOR on our asses. I'm still baffled about how Microsoft is still trying to out-Apple Apple when they've repeatedly proven it's a disastrous strategy (see: Zune).

Microsoft are kings of productivity software and the corporate desktop. They own business communications. They own corporate email. So when it comes to revitalizing their phone product, they focus on the twittering tweens?

Is it just me, or is it not freaking obvious that Microsoft should focus on building the ultimate business phone? Something that corporations around the world would deploy to every single employee in a heartbeat?

Hey, RIM is struggling. Perhaps Microsoft could stand to fork out a Skype-sized bundle of cash to buy them out.
Windows Phone 8 won't run on current WP handsets
No, but a casserole in a slow oven will do a much better job reheating lasagna than a microwave will.

Don't get me wrong, if it was just for my lunch, I'd use the microwave, but if I was plating something for family dinner, I'd use the oven.
This looks technically very interesting (how did you do the terminal emulation, is that an OSS library?).

However I'm almost sure I don't want my Vim and terminals in the browser, there surely will be all sorts of quirks with copy/paste etc.

Can the remote filesystem be mounted so that we can just hack with our local terminals and editors?
In Lead-Up to Launch, Lift Leaves Gamification Behind
Using a Raspberry Pi is massive overkill. A $20 XBee module, a $3 microcontroller, and a custom PCB will do the trick; you can then control it all from your PC with another XBee radio. It'll probably be easier than making Linux deal with your relay, because microcontrollers are easy mode. Even an Arduino would be expensive overkill for this project.
Or an iPhone 3GS, since there's... oh, wait... and it was released when? ... 2009 you say? Astonishing.

---------

EDIT: For the narrative impaired, I am saying that the 3GS is still being supported with major software upgrades despite being three years old, in stark contrast to all other major smartphone platforms.
I know different people can take away different feelings, but for me, it's complicated is the opposite of a cop-out. It means you have to keep on working at it. In my experience, the people who believe they have answers to everything are generally the ones who are taking feel-good shortcuts.
What the hell is a Kaggler? It might be worth a moment to explain that somewhere on the linked page.
I'm not really sure whether it's true or not that Android doesn't have brand power. I mean, it's not as strong as "iPhone", certainly, and I don't have any specs to show, but I sure notice "Android!" on signs in front of cellular shops a lot... and there's a giant green Android robot balloon on the top of a little wireless shop just down the road. Even my non-techie friends say things like "Is that an iPhone or a Droid [sic]?"...
When you write "algebra" do you mean the algebra people study in high school or abstract algebra?
I have worked as a working student for more than half a year, also I will write my master thesis in the industry dealing with "real world problems". On page 1 are: Skill list, Education, Experience with details about the work done. Page 2 is only sugar: my skill set ranked with year and self-evaluated knowledge, awards, certifications, activities. But you would say anyway that it would do more harm then good?
Why? It's basically a subset of GL, what's wrong with that? It's a bit like complaining that XHTML Basic profile is incompatible with the full XHTML.
I am going to give my mother a laptop with Xubuntu installed on her birthday next week.
They said that native code is going to be supported. That tells me WinRT will be as well; it's not like people are going to be writing MFC apps for it.
*Unconfirmed*: Flame Created by US & Israel to Slow Iranian Nuke Program
I love this post. It's another reminder that it's all about the journey, working on stuff you care about and using your failures to launch you into your next opportunity.
> But if you write a secure version, you only have to write it once.

> You only have to maintain it in one place.

> You only need to test it in one place.

Again, so this cannot be done in a dynamic language? If it can be done, why bring them up?

> And if you forget to use your secure Query type, anywhere else in your code, the compiler will yell at you. It's a significant advantage.

The only thing the compiler will yell at you is if you passed a type that is not of a Query type. The compiler will not yell at you for getting the current session directly or creating your own jdbc driver for that matter.
I just sold my Lumia 710 and replaced it with a 10 year old Nokia 3310. Looks like i picked the right time i.e. Before the value bombs.

For ref it was sold because the battery life is abysmal, there is no upgrade path and the mic doesn't work properly.
I have a HTC Titan. I'll get the new start screen feature and a few other updates in WP7.8. WP8 is really about supporting hardware that doesn't exist on my phone anyway.

That said, after WP8 goes out, MS really needs to step up there game with software updates. Having to get the carrier and manufacture on board to release an update has effectively made updates impossible.
Carreon is in on it, and is just intentionally creating some buzz to drum up donations to some worthy causes. Well played.
Yes, that's definitely in our pipeline.
Always Swim Downstream
I think it depends on how it's done. If there's a whole bunch of individual deals for small amounts, I don't expect a VC to want to clean up the mess. If there's one or two deals for small amounts of money and equity, I expect them to get bought out of it - what's $20 thousand on a $5 million round? But I also expect there to be organized consolidation of crowdsourced money into a single package with a single set of terms, which would make it less hairy for a VC (and the terms could be set up to help limit dilution) - in particular, I expect this is where the "Raise your crowdfunding here!" startups will go.
We could just as easily say "twice in 2 years, or once every year" since the first WP7 devices shipped in late 2010 and WP8 will be out by end of 2012.
The better way to describe it would probably be at LEAST one will suffer. Obviously if mishandled it can get even worse.
>Is it just me, or is it not freaking obvious that Microsoft should fire their phone strategists, and focus on building the ultimate business phone? Something that competes with Blackberry? Something that corporations around the world would deploy to every single employee in a heartbeat?

That's what they're doing:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/window...
>focus on building the ultimate business phone?
That's what WP8 is. It has much better support for enterprise systems.
Yup! Also on our todo list.
Great article, though I do some of these things and have never really had trouble securing work, some examples:

Candidate has wide technical breadth but little depth and related: not uncommon, particularly for folks that have perhaps bounced from job to job a little too much

I think this describes me, though I'm not sure how to define technical depth here. The only benefits I can see (technically) from staying at a company for more than a year or so would be greater domain knowledge and perhaps a greater understanding of the long-term implications of architectural decisions.

As for technical depth in terms of skill, IME I've found that job-hopping has dramatically increased the speed at which I've been able to gain expertise. For example, I've worked at some places where, for cultural reasons, there's no call to do fat-client javascript applications, with more of a focus on server-side technologies like stored procedures. Conversely, where the front-end stuff was more important, I got much better at organizing large javascript codebases and creating web services to interact with them. Had I worked at only one or the other, I would have lacked technical depth in the area I was missing out on.

Candidate displayed a superiority complex or sense of entitlement -

Guilty as charged! Unless I'm being hired as a consultant, I generally tend to wrap-up interviews when I realize the technical staff I'd be reporting to don't have as much technical ability as I do (for my own, entirely subjective measure of technical ability). Also, I don't work with PHP, Java or anything related to Microsoft.

I'll also disqualify companies where I feel like they have bad process, or if there's any social weirdness in the interview (I've experienced everything from off-the-cuff anti-Semitism to the interviewers shouting at each other). I don't mind a flexible work schedule, i.e. I work late on a Tuesday and then I go home early on a Wednesday, but overtime without pay is not an option.

Candidate talked more about the accomplishments of co-workers -

Programming of any significance is a team sport. Sometimes a potential hirer will ask "Do you have any experience with problem X?" and my answer is often "Yes, alongside other developers" or "Not directly, but I was involved in discussions about X when we were dealing with it at #{company_name}" or even "No, but I was talking about X with #{someone} at #{some_tech_meetup} and he said they were trying #{some_solution} which sounded like a sensible strategy. I think it's probably better than #{other_solution} because it means that #{benefit_of_first_solution}".

As long as I discussed some of the tradeoffs of various options and managed to adequately demonstrate my understanding of the technology, I think the interviewers were happy. I feel somewhat uncomfortable taking full responsibility for achievements at any company I work at, because in practice it involves mulling over ideas, discussing pros and cons and coming to a solution together.
As I understand it (ie: barely), the problem here isn't that the SEC is going to send agents in black suits and sunglasses to arrest your parents; rather, the problem is that when a real VC's counsel reviews your company's paperwork, they'll throw a fit if there are nonaccredited investors in the company. As I understand it (less than barely), the biggest real-world issue is that nonaccredited investors can cause extremely expensive legal headaches down the road for a company if those investors decide they've been wronged by the company.
I think "it's complicated" merely acknowledges the absence of a simple solution.

Solutions are better, but there can be value in observation. We wouldn't want everyone who observes a problem to keep quiet prior to knowing the solution; someone better suited to solve the problem may benefit from the formulation.
I think this is inevitable when a company targets a diverse set of demographics. What works for one customer might be disastrous for another.
It's good to see them giving back.

They ran a similar program back 2005 for universities where you could buy a perpetual cyber cafe license for $10 / seat. I think they realized it wasn't such a great deal for them and it is annual now (Source U). I bought some licenses for our computer club and Valve gave us contact info for one of their engineers who ended up sharing their Maya export tools.

More and more companies are opening up to this sort of stuff but us students were flabbergasted to get "real" tools from a studio that we could learn and use in the lab.

Keep it up, Valve!
One of the themes of nearly all the Alien movies, at least the ones without Predators in them, is dysfunctional leadership and management. (I've not seen the A vs. P movies myself. So I can't comment on them.)

I don't know anyway to go into details without spoilers, which I'll try to keep to a minimum (but you are warned). Suffice it to say that roots of the mission in the movie were not as disclosed to the members, so it's not really surprising that the scientists were as dysfunctional a lot as they were. In fact that would seem to have been a design consideration.

It's a movie about fear, greed, hubris, invasiveness, mythology, and mystery. It's not a juried science article. I enjoyed it myself.

* Spoiler *
Having said that, I did think that woman was awfully spry after her emergency, self administered "cesarean" procedure. The wonders of modern medicine ...

Edit: One of the things the movie made me think of were several of the disastrous late 19th century, early 20th century polar expeditions.

You can certainly make a case for the argument that in the future things are and will be better. But that would make for a very dull science fiction horror movie.
From the site (http://www.teachwithportals.com/):

Welcome to the new, free educational collection of puzzles and teacher-created content from Valve’s best-selling game, Portal 2, an engaging 3D puzzle-solving game. Based on Valve’s technology, the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker takes place in an environment with realistic physics – a playground rich with opportunities for educational fun.

Seems to be physics or problem-solving.
not sure what you're referring to.
Windows 8 has native Active Directory support for device and user management. That along with ActiveSync and I think the phones and tablets are for the enterprise.
glad to be helpful.

Depending on your editor of choice, you can get integrated pyflakes/pyling/flake8, e.g. I use vim and the syntastic plugin which is great.

This way, you get a bit of on the fly static checking without needing to remember command line tools/using vcs hooks, which is much more productive.
Tangentially related, I like this really simple experiment with map simplification from a few years ago: http://adamsmith.as/blurry_maps/

Obviously not nearly as involved as this, but a nice example of what a really simple transform can do aesthetically: It just median-filters Google Maps, which has the effect of removing text, simplifying boundaries, and producing large flat color areas.
A lot has been written about passion lately, and even another recent blog post of mine is relevant (http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2012/04/17/how-employers-measure-...). I don't think passion has to be demonstrated by 'only' doing coding 24 hours a day, or going to meetups every day. I know very good technologists who don't attend meetups or hackathons, but you can tell in how they talk about technology that they have passion. It's hard to quantify, but I think for the most part good companies tend to get it right more often than not.
I don't think twittering teens is their target market.

"To help tell the story, we introduce our muses, Anna, Miles and their son, Luca. They represent classic Life Maximizers – busy personally and busy professionally, constantly juggling priorities, settled rather than seeking, and valuing technology as a means to an end, a way to get things done."
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=189338

And most of the "screenshot" images I have seen involve young families with 'hard working' parents that are trying to balance work and life 'in more demanding times'. Kids are almost always featured (not the target, but within).
A different opinion from a UVA alum:
The "revolt" of the faculty is partially due to the Board wanting to close marginal academic departments because they can't pay for themselves, like Classics (which studies Greek and Latin texts from the founding of Western Civ.) I was not a Classics major and in fact never took a Classics class but many of my friends who are lawyers today were and universities want students like this. Everyone understands that cuts need to be made, but the board seems to fail to understand that making cuts at a university is different than cost-saving measures at a corporation.

Beyond this one issue, the faculty is also responding like this because the Board is acting silently, secretively and hastily in making decisions for the university with little to no participation from faculty or administrators, or even information being provided. At this point, after a week of intense scrutiny and questioning, still no one outside the Board knows exactly why President Sullivan was let go.

In 2003 UVA passed a milestone in that more money came from private donors than public funds. Today UVA's budget includes only 8% being covered by the state. The cuts from the state are very real and very keenly felt. UVA is on a tricky path to become a true hybrid private/public school and the questions facing the faculty and the Board are not whether this should happen, but how.

Furthermore, to rebut some of your points
a) It's not insane to have 3300 faculty when many of those are working directly on research or employed at the medical center. (I believe this to be the case given that on average about 1000 faculty are employed through the medical center http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/data_catalog/institutional/...)
b) The expenditures have increased in an attempt at keeping close with peer institutions for salary and other options. Realistically, despite these attempts the faculty at UVA could easily head to competitive private or public schools and make more money, and will probably be doing so in massive numbers over the next few years following this fiasco.
c) I am not sure where you are basing your correlation that this faculty growth has happened at the expense of students. If it has been driven by the growth of costs at the Medical Center that is a source of income as well. If it's been driven by academic faculty then its either been funding research to increase the number of accolades achieved by our faculty (thereby increasing the ranking of the school) or it has been hiring more professors or paying teaching faculty more to keep them from leaving, which would seem to directly benefit students.
Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?
FWIW, inline CSS functionality has long been part of the MailChimp API: http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/api/1.3/inlinecss.func.php
Hm. This is one of the rare times where a product actually does too much for me. If it gave me the ability to build and manage virtual envs for testing and development with ssh access (and maybe the ability to download them in say... vagrant box format) and nothing more, I would be sold immediately.

With the glossy IDE finish: not my thing :/.
The buyout might be $20k, but from experience I'd bet that the legal fees to resolve that buyout even if nothing janky happens during the closing is going to be low-mid 6 figures --- just for that one issue, not counting the rest of the closing costs.

And if jankiness occurs, I'd assume that's curtains for the round.

You'd want to watch and see whether VCs and VC-friendly lawyers like WSGR and Orrick come up with standard documents for crowdfunding, but I'm with 'damoncali in thinking that selling equity on something equivalent to Kickstarter is going to be the kiss of investor death for the next several years.
I would consider myself a longtime power user of both Powerpoint and Excel. I HATE the ribbon - it's much less efficient for most tasks (although it is prettier).