skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The engineers were good (if not too good, it all still stands...), but they were limited by the ideology. The city planning and the architecture were at the ideology's service. For instance, rarely did buildings have ground-level spaces for commerce and services; after all, any form of entrepreneurship was discouraged by the economic system, so there was no official need for cafes at every corner. The streets were made wide to allow for easy troops transfer and make it harder for any rebels to create barricades. Some streets were shifted by a few meters to obscure a view of churches and other historic landmarks which could provoke unrighteous thinking.

I heartily recommend Ryszard Kapuscinski's 'Imperium' (it's available in English) if you want to learn more about the Soviet Union in general and different cultures inhabiting it at the time. A lot of spot-on analysis of how the system worked. Brilliant documentary writing, too.
One of the interesting meta debates that goes along with climate change is why don't people "Just get it?" This is an interesting look at why that might be true.
"Talks should always be reactionary rather than anticipatory: they’re going to come off as more natural, more interesting, and above all, more valuable."

I agree with the sentiment here. My presentations are all about science and bioinformatics, and I find they go best when I have a story to tell. The audience loves to hear stories, especially when they can experience the aha! moment themselves before I get to the end of the story. It's a much better story if the project is almost complete rather than mostly unfinished.

As a minor aside, being a grumpy old guy, I would suggest that rather than "reactionary" (which means something altogether different than what I understood Zach to be saying), the proper term might be "retrospective" and paired with "prospective". I misused "reactionary" myself in younger days and still cringe when I think about it. Strange word indeed.
I'm a gadget nerd and power user and having less devices that get the job done is always better. I own a Transformer Prime which comes pretty close to what the Windows Surface will over in terms of experience.

In terms of media consumption I do not miss anything with the tablet but I find myself so often getting up from the couch walking over to my desk to get some simple tasks done in software XY because traditional software still beats most apps.

Having all those software programs running on my tablet will be so amazing!
Cyber-Attack Alert System Japan (Ghost in the Shell-like)
While the writer dismisses the term "strategic dynamism", he acknowledges the actual problem that the Board of Visitors tries to address: the imposed large budget cuts make it necessary that entire subjects/departments have to go, instead of small budget cuts across the board. Something that Sullivan apparently in the end wasn't able, or prepared, to do.

(Note: I know nothing about the case, really; I am just pointing out that I think you misunderstood the point of the article you linked.)
Interesting. I've seen a few other apps do this too and always wondered. Well, I think shading the UI might be a better hint, but this is definitely not something I'd thought of before. Thank you.
Ask HN: Do you like working with bigger or smaller complexity?
Big Complexity: Large API with encyclopedic size manuals (see Java API)
Small Complexity: Code written in a few lines that does everything (see Algorithms)
To Advance, Search for a Black Cat in a Dark Room
Tailored Displays Compensate for Vision Problems
Researchers turn a 3D display into a display designed to compensate for vision problems so that viewers don't need to wear glasses.
I have nothing of significance to add, I just wanted to mention that you've done a really nice job on this post and the previous. Cryptography is not an easy topic to cover without getting lost in technical acronyms and jargon. I should know:I tried in my blog to do the same 3-4 months ago, and I'm now inspired to rewrite it and try again!
Awesome really appreciate the feedback, it's helpful, want to make sure the experience is great all across! will possibly change it shortly, were you able to convey the information out of the deck?
It depresses me that people are trying to make comparisons between a copyright infringement case and a rape accusation. Copyright infringement and rape are rather different. This should be obvious. I really don't know where to begin there - I know this community is male dominated, but rape is a incredibly serious crime. Piracy may well be a 'victimless crime'. Rape is not.

Two women have accused Assange of rape. They have a fundamental right under law to due process. Assange is attempting to deny them this due process by evading the Swedish courts.

Sweden's justice system really isn't corrupt. Assange knows this. His lawyers know this. If Assange thought he wouldn't get a fair trial he would have argued this point in the English courts. Many people have avoided extradition from the UK to various unpleasant places on the basis they wouldn't get a fair trial.

His legal argument was flimsy at best. Assange tried to argue Sweden lacked the authority to issue the arrest warrant in the first place, an argument that was basically laughed out of court. However, the English courts have had a lot of patience for Assange, and have offered him several avenues of appeal on the basis it's an important and high profile case. The Supreme Court even allowed an additional submission after their judgement (this is very unusual).

This is a criminal case involving two parties. Both parties have guaranteed rights. Think about the women involved for a second. They have accused Assange of rape. Perhaps they are lying: Assange is after all innocent until proven guilty. But is it out of the question they are telling the truth? No, it's not.

And that is why Assange should really willingly return to Sweden to face his accusers. He isn't willing, and his arguments about fearing the US really aren't that convincing given the UK is more than happy to extradite people to the states.
A standing desk for $22
How to build yourself a cheap Ikea standing desk on top of your current desk.
This is not quite asking people to pick the lowest unique prime number, because it was clear in advance that the prize would go to the individuals who picked the five lowest unique prime numbers, rather than the single individual who picked the lowest. This means that there is an incentive to err on the side of picking a prime number that's too high, rather than a prime number that's too low, which probably skews the distribution.
Followup: Benedetti on Placebo Ethics
Here's another one with a similar price point: https://railsthemes.com/
BlackBerry 10 hands-on (video)
The problem with that test is that the notion of "same" is too fuzzy. If you asked me "are leaves and traffic lights the same color?", I might answer yes. After all, they're both green. On the other hand, I might say no, since one is dark green and the other is bright green. To test if something is going on mentally, it'd be better to take my personal opinions out of the equation. For instance, show a traffic light colored square on a leaf colored background, followed by a sky colored circle on a leaf colored background.
No, iOS is a much better platform to develop for than, say, .NET.

My unsupported assertion of personal preference is equally valid.
The problem with these solutions is that when you get tired, you get to disassemble this sucker.
I'd be interested to know which Android devices are the exceptions to this general rule of binary-only video drivers.
The challenge to win a book was really interesting, as was the results. And nice and smart way to advertise his book.

I really wonder if he will be able to keep tracks of these 5 books, since some could consider them "collector" of "deserved" and would tend to keep them instead of passing them over. I'll certainly stay tuned !
Compared to what? Remember it's managed hosting, not a VPS (see https://gondor.io/blog/2011/12/20/why-pay-more-gondor-rather... for an explanation of some of the differences)
Reads more like a resume than reasons for leaving.
Quite clearly he's talking about Nvidia as a company, not about the properties of one particular subsystem. The statement stands well enough on its own.
>IMHO this has nothing to do with racial profiling

I've never been asked to produce proof of US citizenship or immigration status when I bought an iPad, let alone refused service. Do you honestly think that being a white male who speaks fluent English had nothing to do with that?
Then how in the world has the UK decided to extradite him to Sweden? Don't you have to be charged with something first? I'm a legal idiot, but that doesn't make much sense to me.

EDIT: Nevermind, cousin comment said he is wanted for a second round of questioning in Sweden before they actually charge him. I still don't understand how something as serious as extradition can be used for "questioning", without any charges at all.

Could some random country say they wanted to ask me something and the US would just ship me overseas involuntarily?? That is a terrifying thought.
I guess being a women in Virgina is an endangered species. Seems all they're good for is government forced medical examinations.

Guess you get what you vote for in a guy like McDonald.
Klout CEO Gets Sauteed at LeWeb London
> You are choosing to focus on the other unit. I devoted 0% of my post to that other offering.

Or,min other words, you're choosing to ignore the other unit, where the consumer isn't offered a choice
The height of the shelf is perfect for sitting. You can put a laptop/monitor on it and the keyboard below for some variety.
> For us, it was just way cheaper to supply the drivers outside of the kernel.

While that's certainly fair enough, and rational in economic terms, when a user base reads between the lines that "you're not worth spending the money to do things properly", I can also see it eliciting a more visceral and less rational response such as Linus'. I think that in any case though, money isn't the issue so much as Nvidia wanting to not share their toys.
There is a lot of sensationalism in that article. Half the pictured buildings are over ten years old. Only one is less than three years old.

That is not to deny that china has an over investment issue with their state financed industries. But still, in a country of over a billion I do not think it is out of the ordinary to have some development.
Not only is it pretty suspicious that this rape charge should pop up at exactly the time of Assange's ascendency into persona non Guantanamo status, but it gets even fishier when you consider the nature of the accusation. The allegation is that his condom burst during intercourse and he did not stop - in other words it's one of the few crimes for which he cannot possibly have an alibi or a supporting witness or even physical evidence (ie. lack of physical harm).

Anyone who doesn't think the US government is behind this is living in cloud cuckoo land.
With the Surface, Microsoft just started writing its next chapter
http://www.baconsrebellion.com/Issues05/10-03/Haskins.php

"The university has a troubling history when it comes to matter race..."

"UVa's racial problem is larger than simply a few isolated incidents of bigotry. ... There is still a discernable "Good Ol' Boy" network that heavily influences the Commonwealth's social, economic and political life and holds UVA up as a crown jewel."

What I posted was not just my opinions, and it was not uninformed. Nevertheless I deleted it because the contents or way it was expressed clearly offended a lot of people here.
It's nice to experiment with these techniques, but in my opinion it fails as a practical way to quickly provide the visitor with the information they need. From a visual point of view, something like http://pitch.csspiffle.com/ provides a more pleasant viewing experience.
Your 'bitchy' remark is inappropriate.

For what it's worth, while I was very impressed by the production value behind 'Rails for Zombies', I felt it was lacking as a learning tool. Coding rails snippets without context in the browser really doesn't translate very well to web app development.
Quick googling and I didn't find the article but I have read it. Maybe someone can find the magic keywords.

The crux of the study was that children who don't know the words left and right don't appear to have an innate ability to understand the relative positions of objects related to other objects. Children with the language for left and right can remember relative positioning but children without those words do not.
Which the consumer will buy, believing that all Windows 8s are the same.
I might be in a different boat than many of my peers (and for this reason I wish HN had more designers), as I've started designing almost exclusively in the browser outside of some initial wireframing on paper, so my assets are CSS and not PSD. In that sense, I wouldn't mind using others' work because the ability to see the code and the output are valuable in determining if I'm going to (or can, browser-dependency pending) use it. I'm also able to change values on-the-fly to see if it looks good in different colors, dimensions, etc. With PSDs, I'm left waiting until I open the file to see how it was created, hope it was done right, and then try to tweak the Layer FX to suit my needs. I've also then got to go through and slice it up and sprite it out.

When I was using Photoshop exclusively I created everything from scratch, mostly just because I am a perfectionist and because it was another way to learn. As is the case today, the only assets I'm willing to download and pay for are icon sets and typefaces. If I see something someone else did and want to use something similar, I'll simply copy/paste the flat image into Photoshop and recreate on top of it to cater to my needs.

Emailing you now!
Ask HN: What are some of the smaller tech blogs out there?
Hello,

We are about to launch beta of our product in about a week. It would be nice if we can get some of the smaller blogs to write about our product. Can anyone share a list of bloggers we can contact?

Thanks,
Should "monopolise" be "monetize?" :)

I suppose we should all dream big, though...
"Sweden's justice system really isn't corrupt."

http://falkvinge.net/2011/09/05/cable-reveals-extent-of-lapd...

Wah wah.
JavaScript Decoder Brings High-Quality Audio to the Web
The thing is, you're perpetuating the myth too.

"Those poor PR people, how were they supposed to know that a chick plays video games?"
I did name names, right there in my post. So did the article. But clearly I should have known better than to have used 'world government', too much of a loaded, and lazy, term. But I do think there is a push to increase the UN's power in the world, to the point where some or all of it is binding.

If I don't trust the motives and agendas of some of the regimes behind that push, so sue me? The US isn't exactly a paragon these days, and our political system somewhat corrupted by the influence of highly-concentrated wealth, but I also see signs of a long-overdue self-corrective reaction to that, enabled in large part by the open Internet.

Is such a reaction possible in other more restrictive, more authoritarian regimes? Doesn't look like it, and ones like China are doing all they can make sure it stays that way, but who knows. We shall see...
Hortonworks Review of Hadoop Summit 2012
To extend your point on key features: I think of it as memorizing the overall structure of your talk. You may have a dozen or so topics you want to hit in your presentation, and that is what you end of memorizing - not on purpose, but because if you're well prepared, you can't help but not memorize it.

If you know that you want to hit points A, B, C, ..., in your talk, and you know your material cold, then you don't have to memorize how you want to connect A and B, B and C, etc. That is what you re-create on the spot. The practice is important because sometimes you can't connect two points on-the-fly. Practicing your talk at least once will reveal those places, and you can either: figure out what the connecting bits are, or decide you don't want to cover that.

In addition to the jokes and wry remarks, I find that I also tend to replay the same body language in talks that I did in practice.
Yes: http://www.pcworld.com/article/239059/linux_now_runs_on_ipad...
Barter for Google IO ticket. Fresnel lens, James Bond, Love.
Why primes?
> Do NOT ask for a 'show of hands' from the audience.

I completely disagree. If you ask people to raise their hands 10 times on inane questions, then of course it's useless. But correctly used, it:

1) Wakes people up and gets everyone in the room focused

2) Gets people aware of the rest of the audience, and "on the same page"

3) Ideally provides a natural segue into how the point of the lecture directly connects to you

I taught English for years, which was basically public speaking every single day, and getting my students to tie an aspect of the theme/question of the day into their lives, and respond, in the first couple minutes was always key in terms of getting them all on the same page and relating to the material in the rest of the class. It would only occasionally be a show of hands, there are hundreds of other techniques as well (shouting words, asking the nearest person a question, writing a word on a piece of paper, etc.), but these are all fantastic public-speaking techniques. Of course, you need to have the personality to pull them all off, so the audience trusts you and wants to go along, but you can develop that.

Indeed, I think it's a real shame most public speakers don't interact more with the audience through these kinds of things. They boost attention levels and retention levels so much more.
Here's an episode of radiolab, where they talk about language as it relates to color, and how kids don't really ask why the sky is blue, because they don't think it's blue in the first place. http://www.radiolab.org/2012/may/21/
> I know nothing about Bret Taylor and his new company. However, I do
> know that he used to be the CTO of Facebook and he threw it out the
> window. Chances are his new venture will never give him the opportunity
> he would have had if he’d stayed at Facebook for the next 5 years.

Would the same be said for an executive who cashed out of VA Linux? Or Pets.com? Maybe this journalist has some crystal ball showing Facebook's stock price five years down the road.

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2001/01/18/bu_valinux2.jpg

ChuckMcM's previous comment summed it up perfectly: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4118949
Hahahahahahahaha.

Guess what Bill Keller also wrote?

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/opinion/the-i-can-t-believ...
Consumerization, APTs and cloud computing are security focus for next 6 months
Not every country has the same laws as every other country.
3D Thumbnail Hover Effects
I just realized that visible light spectrum, as it is taught in physics classes, is different depending on the language. Of course it is just a gradient and we distinguish 7 colors from it so we could remember the pattern, but those 7 colors differ. In my language, Lithuanian, we have names for light blue and dark blue (just like in Russian, as mentioned by Alex). These two colors sit between green and violet in our simplified 7color spectrum. They do not directly link to blue and indigo in the English spectrum.
I have asked for a "show of hands" before, and given the context, I would do it again. I really had no idea going into the talk who my audience was - I didn't know if I was going to be talking to programmers or theoreticians, engineers or researchers, or even technical people versus management. And I did modify what I said based on the feedback.
One thing to not is that mandrill has a limit of 25/day.
Yes. I've never heard of the author, and based on the other HN comments some of his points appear a bit exaggerated. Hence, my question.
So what's different between the Board of Visitors, and for example, the California Board of Regents? CA BoR is pretty despised by faculty and students alike.
I really don't think that the Metropolitan Police is going to put officers outside the Ecuador Assembly 24/7 just in case Julian Assange leaves. It just doesn't sound like a good use of the officers' time.
This could be huge. Taking a online community meant where you are supposed to socialize, and monetizing social interactions similar to how you do in the real world could open a whole new market if done correctly. On the other hand, other than their website facebook has struggle with execution, so it should be fun to see where this goes.
Ideally you would preprocess your assets server-side (e.g Jammit), so templates end up being just another script to load.

This is still ugly, in that debugging templates is an impossible pain the arse because there's no useful line information. On the plus side they're much easier to read than a chain of DOM manipulations.

It's arguable whether this is "better". I usually have to interact with the DOM programmatically anyway (attaching events, for example), so why not build the DOM in javascript as well?
And because it's cheaper, thiner, lighter, quieter...
This is unfair - the author of the article has no control over SmashingMagazine's markup/CSS.
Yeah, that's a problem I don't have a clear idea of how they'll handle. And since the x86 one will likely run whatever legacy windows apps you want, I see a lot of pissed off people who feel like MS is cheating them somehow.*

I'm perfectly willing to be wrong, though.

*When the cheap model won't do that.
There's still more revenue on windows. You can't charge 1000 usd a seat on iOS, but you can on windows.
Some people have a really clear narrative in their mind. I don't. Rather everything is probabilistic and will only be final once I formulate it.

Language is a reduction of reality and I realized a long time ago that I would rather keep my options open than let myself be let into narratives with premises that might be deeply flawed.

It has it's advantages and dis-advantages of course.
When IT Is Like Children’s Soccer
I tried it and agree it's very buggy. If they can't get rid of the obvious bugs, how am I supposed to trust that my data is not exposed by much more subtle ones? I've un-registered and deleted my data.
Good luck with sale! Looking forward to reading the results (and those from the Fireballing!)
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
Heh. We were both wrong, apparently. It's a tablet, and Microsoft is a hardware manufacturer (well, OEMing stuff, anyway).
They also have the benefit of the rest of the developed world's experience of how to plan cities.

Do they really only plan to use these large buildings for only 10 years and then rebuild? Is this normal for the rest of the world?
I worked on a Low Income Housing Tax Credit project where the developer had granite countertops and solid wood cabinets shipped from China for roughly the same cost as standard economy cabinets and commodity laminate countertops.

What made it practical was the specifics of LIHTC funding. A significant amount of the funds had to be spent upfront on materials and/or labor or it would have been lost. This made the long lead time beneficial because early stages of construction such as clearing and grubbing are relatively inexpensive whereas finishes are relatively expensive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Income_Housing_Tax_Credit
I agree, they get points for not trying to hide the fact that Linus is right.

Unfortunately, "Yeah, so what?" is not the kind of PR you want here. This was an opportunity to go "Yes, that's how it is now, but in the future, we're planning on supporting all this wonderful stuff on Linux!"

Instead, it's an advertisement for ATI/AMD's Linux support.