skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Isn't it just a flat out better quality of life choice to live & work in a city? Traffic and a commute etc, and the lack of local food alternatives... that just sounds terrible!

(I like dense urban locals)
What is the difference between capitalism and the free market?
Google definitions:<p>Capitalism: An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.<p>Free market: An economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.<p>Those sound like the same thing? Why do we have two separate words for them? Can free market exist without capitalism or vice versa?<p>I have yet to get an answer without circular logic on this.
I like some big cities (Seattle, NY, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo) , but hate SF. I love PA and MV.
Guild Wars 2: World vs. World
This is not as much about tech as it is about advertising and commercialism. Our young generations are exposed to more and more advertising, commercialism and crass materialism throughout their lives, so it is no freaking wonder that young people will turn their phones into some kind of pillars of their existence.

This was fueled by the so called "tech journalists" that fueled the original mania about the ipods and iphones, etc. which basically resulted in a bunch of monsters that defined themselves by the type of gadgets they use.

So in a way that NY Times writer has only himself to blame.
It is extremely difficult to hire talent that is willing to move or commute to Fremont/Newark.
Why are Europeans White?
Author of "The Ring" releases new novel exclusively on toilet paper.
Vacations: Vegas Without The Hangover
This relates to something I've been feeling lately.. we're losing so much of our digital culture.

I was reminiscing about the Web development scene in the mid to late 90s and while I've found scraps (including Microsoft's first CSS demo showcase for IE 3) the majority of the pioneering work I remember from the time is either next to impossible to find or flat out gone. And archive.org/Wayback Machine seems to have almost given up keeping a deep history of the Web - its coverage seems to get worse year by year.

The problem is, where do we store this stuff so it can live for decades to come (because copying to our current machine will likely make it live on for only a short while)? Or, perhaps the question is even.. should we bother?
Huh. So the title of the piece should be "Data mining exec doesn't understand the difference between correlation and causation". Which is pretty stupid.
The difference is the word 'unrestricted.'
The tool is almost ready - it needs ~15 days work to be 100% ready. Scaling is not a problem - different users go to a different servers (this site is not very social).

Success for me is to have money for me and my family. I think that an individual can be successful without being public.
People who keep it disabled on all but a few white-listed sites.
Sorry, but applying an old concept to a new problem (actually just new buzzwords... it's only the size of the problem that's new) does not make a "novel" solution. Moreover, it's an obvious solution. But I guess that depends on who is doing the programming.

I would love to see how programmers with large clusters at their disposal were approaching large datasets before the moment they realized splitting the task into smaller pieces was what they should do.
Or #1 for that matter? As far as I know most if not all studies have found no correlation between using cell phones and brain cancer. Yet the risk of having a car accident is not reduced by using a hands-free head set vs. just your cell phone. At least so I've heard, I would be interested to know if HNers have more information regarding these two points.
Just how narcissistic can you get?
And hackers move there for better hiring opportunities.
[pdf] An informal introduction to Turing Machine
FavTool.com

I just don't want to spam here
Are your executables signed?
This is relevant but forgetting torrenting for just a moment.. I believe Dropbox uses hashing to identify files in their system, since sometimes you can copy a large file into your Dropbox and it syncs immediately (without an upload).

Given this, rather than using torrents, could there theoretically be a way to tell your Dropbox account you "have" a certain file that, indeed, you do not, merely by using the hash? For example, if I know the hash for the latest episode of a TV show is "ab12de" (gross simplification!) and I can make Dropbox think I "have" that file, if someone else already uploaded that file to their Dropbox, I could grab it too?
This post perfectly illustrates the kind of passive aggressive statement that can light the touch paper of a flame war. It's essentially the same as saying "it just works" from an Apple perspective. It's another example of tribalism and closed thinking.
I see you created a brand new account just to write this post.

MapReduce is the name of a piece of software, not simply the concept of map followed by reduce. That's something that every high school freshman invents on his own in Algebra 1 class. The interesting research area is making that concept scale to "run this command on every web page on the Internet" billions of times a day. I don't know about you, but I don't see anything to do that in my apt repositories.

Research at Google isn't about solving problems that are beyond the comprehension or reach of any average practitioner of programming. A good example is Street View. Anyone can understand strapping some cameras and sensors to a car and driving it around to make pictures of places available on the Internet. It's hard to call that "state of the art research" because it's such a simple idea, but before Google did the research, the product didn't exist. Now you can see almost any street address anywhere in the world in your browser. (The hard part is in the details. How do you map images to locations on the Earth in areas where GPS reception isn't good enough to provide enough accuracy? Scaling something to the entire Earth is not easy.)

That many programmers, who have standards that consistently hover around varying levels of mediocrity

How exactly did you come to this conclusion?
Right, so they don't make any money if you ignore all the money they make.
Yeah, that's true. There are still gaps in the set, but it has come a long way in the last few years.
we absolutely get to demand insight. whether they provide it or not is up to them, but demands are free.
This has been done and the exploit has been (mostly?) closed. Google "dropship" for all the details.
2012 Google PhD Fellowships
No, it must be related to Instagram somehow!
Totally agree. One of the things I love about Seattle is that I can live and work in the city. No 45-minute commute required.
I know this makes me a terrible person and I feel bad about what my brain is saying because someone went to the effort to create this and it's kind of cool if you're the kind of person who isn't creeped out by their own pictures, but my brain instinctually just keeps repeating, "Dang, that's coquetastic!"
You can't view apartment search results on a fucking map.

Are you really going to argue that the site is more usable without that very basic feature?
The article itself is more about the medical aspect than the 'saved-by-the-friend' aspect.
Capitalism deals with ownership, specifically of the production means.

Free markets is when the markets allow actors in the market to exchange goods and services without the interference of external powers, specifically the state.

These can theoretically exist independently, but are generally interdependant for mutual success.
of course they stifle innovation. that is the intent of those laws, to stop people from innovating on an idea or work that someone else had.

the only interesting question is whether they stifle it in a useful way, or a harmful way.
Why do people write five lines of inefficient Ruby when a more direct single line shell script would suffice?
Another freakishly depressing fact is that even if tomorrow we found a new technique of splitting the water with only the half of the energy obtained from recombining it (free energy !!!) the state would tax the freaking water or the technology or the distribution of this technology, GRADUALLY to a such extent that we (I mean the masses, not the oligarchy) would need again 9to5 jobs only to pay the freaking taxes !!!
It's pretty quiet. There were several large tech companies that set up here in the 90s but most left after the bubble imploded. There is, however, a surprisingly vibrant indie gaming scene, and a few start-ups here and there.

I've long found this situation surprising, because there are quite a lot of engineers here, many of whom would likely take a pay-cut not to have to commute over 17 every day.
Maybe this is because I'm only a casual SC2 player, but it seems like there is a big flaw here- what are we buying?

Sure, it's a video. And it has something about Team Liquid.

...

???
It's not about splitting the task into smaller pieces. It's about factoring out the parts of the task that need synchronization among all machines into one specific subroutine (groupBy) which makes mapreduce so powerful.

If you speak with people experienced in multithreaded and distributed programming you will see that synchronization with fault-tolerance is _hard_, and mapreduce provides a widely-applicable set of sufficient conditions for an algorithm to be executable with implicit fault-tolerance and implicit synchronization.

Without mapreduce-like abstractions eveyr piece of software has to be responsible for its own (1) checkpointing (to recover from errors), (2) checksumming (to ensure that no errors happened), and (3) distributed communication (to make sure the global state becomes global and the local state becomes local).
How Anonymous Picks Targets, Launches Attacks, and Takes Organizations Down
I don't think it is that simple. I bet that you click-accept something like "By ordering this file, you state that you have the necessary permissions and you clear our asses of any responsibility" when ordering a file. And even if you don't, it's still you who ordered the torrent download (resulting in re-distribution to other clients), which (I believe) matters more than the fact that you're not the owner of the client box.
This is not the forum for this...
Safari = Webkit. The same workarounds would have to be done for Chrome.
No. There's nothing remotely resembling a monopoly here, just a garbage product.
A better place for this question is http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/submit
How does their dedupe method work now? Shouldn't it still be possible under the same principle?
Capitalist systems could be described as systems where the government plays a larger role in monetary policy through banking, loans, etc.

In a true free market the government wouldn't bail out bad private investments or use public funds to bet on what politicians think are good investments.
Team Liquid is a rather popular professional gaming team, especially in Starcraft 2. I doubt anyone would end up on their website not knowing who they are (why would you go to teamliquid.com just for kicks?) so it's not that bad of a flaw.
Why do you hate SF?
Why isn't this grounds for a product-disparagement lawsuit?
The SF hackers I know moved there for lifestyle and quality of life.
I recommend watching Money as Debt (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2550156453790090544). This fascinating video explains the roots and consequences of the crisis in the very visual way. For a more scientific approach take a look at The Debt Deflation Theory (http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/meltzer/fisdeb33.pdf).
It's a documentary about Team Liquid. If you know what a documentary is, and you know who Team Liquid is, you know what you're getting.

Look at the "biographical documentaries" category on Netflix: the descriptions are mostly in the form of "[narrator name] brings you the [adjective] story of [topic]" with little or no elaboration.
You're dismayed that some people believe the unhealthiest of the population ought to pay the largest share of healthcare costs? Maybe you disagree, but "dismayed" seems very harsh.
That's a lot of it. But even if we'd wanted to stay, the real estate situation would have made it pretty hard.
Hello science—meet HR
Writing a primitive dynamic loader for Linux
Because you consider a problem to be "hard" and because someone else has proferred a solution that previously was not obvious to you does not lead me to the conclusion that map-reduce is something new (nor the result of ground-breaking research). It leads me to the conclusion that it is helpful to you. Those are to me two different things.
I didn't see "grocery store purchases" listed anywhere on their website.
1. All other factors being equal, insurance companies with more accurate statistical models will do better.

2.. Because many employees would choose to not work for such an employer, and this negative impact would outweigh the potential benefit? I haven't seen anything to suggest that people would choose not to be insured by a company that profiles its clients in this way.
Are SF and Silicon Valley really that different? Isn't Palo Alto like a 30 minute drive from SF? I know of people who bike the distance as a daily commute. Sure, there are advantages and disadvantages to living in and outside the big city (SF), but "why SF and not Palo Alto" seems to me like a rather unimpressive and, perhaps, not terribly important question. Something like "Why Silicon Valley?" may spur a far more interesting discussion :)
Creating a Web Design That Fits any Culture
People on the world are vastly varied and it is naïve to believe that a web design that resonates properly with a group of people can be equally effective with others.
That doesn't sound like a very good way to build a sustainable business.
Yes, exactly. My career started in Silicon Valley (Sun's Menlo Park campus -- now Facebook), but when we went to start a startup within Sun (Fishworks), we demanded that Sun lease space in the City for it. This had nothing to do with vacancy rates, and everything to do with the fact that all of us lived in the City and -- despite our love for CalTrain -- we wanted to be done with the Peninsula commute. (That we wanted space in the City was a huge emotional sticking point with Sun's executive management; Scott was exasperated that we refused to work in his million square feet of vacant office space in Santa Clara.)

A couple of kids later, I live in the East Bay and with casual carpool to the City, the commute's a breeze; at this point, I would only consider a job on the Peninsula (or, God forbid, the South Bay) if there were no alternative in the City. And to be honest, if I were looking for space now, I might give Oakland a serious look: with the expansion of Silicon Valley into San Francisco, Oakland is no longer the remote outpost it was -- and rents are cheap cheap cheap...
Right. I would say it's more about execution. For that Google gets full credit. And I do find the execution impressive.

The mediocrity line is my opinion. Not necessarily fact. Downvote me if you are offended.

Better yet, prove me wrong.
Samsung Mobile Arabia Tweets About Galaxy Note 2
Client: I have the file with hash 0x47fed9.

Server: Okay, tell me what byte 1257 (randomly chosen) of that file is and I'll mark you as having the file.

Client: Ummm ...
As long as the EU union is governed in a democratic way (as it is now) there is no serious fear that we (the rest of EU) would be the political slaves of Germany. Economically speaking, the eastern half of Europe (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland + the 3 Baltic states) is nearly in economic slavery to the French, German, Austrian, Dutch and Swedish financial elites already. So what was in danger to be lost is already lost for the losers. On the other hand, the French and the Germans are negotiating rather well their interests (Greece !) and as long as this negotiation is not stuck, there will be no need for another war in Europe. I live in France now and there is no real fear here of anything (militarily speaking) cause they keep their Nukes warm and ready :D.
99% :Innovation to upgrade Democracy and create Jobs
How to:Use innovation to upgrade current Democratic models and jumpstart western Economies
Signing doesn't always solve the problem.
By that logic, New Jersey and Manhattan aren't that different.
Nobody has suggested that the latest MacPro is the best anything. It was a huge disappointment and Apple fell behind the curve with their release of it. Nobody is that excited about the new MacBook Airs - they are reasonable updates, but the big jump came in 2010, with some dandy performance improvements in 2011. This year was just an evolutionary move - fine for 2010 users, but very few people with a 2011 MBAir are that excited about upgrading. Likewise, the upgrade from the 4 to the 4S wasn't a must upgrade - most pundits indeed, even suggested you could take a pass if you were an iPhone 4 users.

The rMBPro, on the other hand, moved the needle.

I would reserve the "Best X Apple has ever made" for the 2010 MBAir, iPhone 4, iPad 3 - though, you are right, obviously any product that is better than a previous "best", should, in theory, inherit the next best label. Maybe "Best" has to be judged based on what you expect at any given time to be deserving of that trophy?

I haven't played with the rMBPro - so not sure about that yet. I was never that pleased with any of the 3 MBPROs I owned from 2003-2009. They were well built, solid laptops (with the exception of having one battery go all bulgey on me) - but They didn't excite me the way recent products from Apple have.

Who knows - I may still be "meh" on the MBPro - it's still pretty heavy. Expensive. Low Storage. And if you use it, sounds like 3.5-5 hours battery is all you can expect. Not to mention that there aren't that many apps or content that can support that crazy display.
And there succinctly described lies the economics of agglomeration.
The Agile Business
Also, it is just a slightly slimmer notebook with a higher resolution. It is not "changing computing as we have known it".

Wow. This is like saying "the iPad is just a tablet you can touch." You're completely trivializing the rMBP's benefits.

It's not just "slightly slimmer," it's a 15" laptop that weighs 4.6 pounds. I see one laptop in that range (Sony Vaio S series), and it has an i5 and a spinning platter. A "higher resolution" is also too hand-wavey, since the screen has 220 ppi. I couldn't find a 15" screen that comes within 80 ppi of that mark. [0]

Apple's ridiculous marketing ("the most magical, splendiferous touchscreen device since the last touchscreen device we produced!") can be too much, but, I mean...have you used one of these? They're amazing in person--it weighs less than my 13" MBP, the screen is infinitely nicer, and apps launch so fast...[1]

[0] http://sortable.com/find-laptops/high-PPI-laptops-15-to-16-s...

[1] Granted, I don't have a SSD in my laptop, but still.
This happened to Oodle a few years back. It isn't like CL is targeting Padmapper.
You do realize the trade groups (riaa, mpaa) exist to prevent collusion? Aka mafioso tactics?

Not saying the represent a valid continual business model (currently, we can hope for evolution) but lets leave the hyperbole at the door.
I still think the rant is little more than link-bait (which used to be called flame-bait) but I feel the same way about iOS app startups. They should each memorize that quote.
Better yet, prove me wrong.

First you say, all programmers at Google have standards that "hover around mediocrity". Then you say you're amazed at Google's execution on world-changing ideas. Do you see a contradiction?

Argument over, you can close your trolling account! :)
I studied economics in undergrad, and I'm in computer science now in grad school.

If I could choose again, I'd try math in undergrad or, if I was stuck with my econ BA, I'd study applied math in grad school.

Math really seems like the way to go if you find it interesting (which I do...I'm just not a math savant). The most interesting parts of my econ degree involved relatively heavy (topology, advanced calculus/real analysis) math courses.
I don't know why this has been downvoted but it's true in many parts of India. Don't know about other Asian countries.
Django 1.5 will include a verbatim template tag

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/releases/1.5/#verbatim...
How to get a job as a programmer
The way you said it is x100 times better than just explaining it.
The author seems extremely harsh and unfeeling toward his father. He, or any one of us, should try to imagine being treated like his father did -- on first discharge from hospital, no one to pick him up but just some money and clean clothes were dropped off at the hospital. His father must have felt too unwelcome to even go home, and he didn't ... he went to visit his brother. On second discharge from hospital, they were so worried he might go home that they used a single phone call he made from hospital to the apartment as an excuse to put a restraining order on him -- which the police reacted by putting the father in jail. What a son! No surprise when the father acted hostile towards his children. I honestly think the children should have found a new apartment for their mother instead of putting father in hospital/jail.
Because you were referred to the site by a link on HN, for one.
It's called knowledge-based authentication, a kind of identity proofing. This could conceivably be implemented such that your personally identifiable information stayed with the third party (who already has it) and never crossed eBay's path, though I don't know if that's the case here.

Credit agencies already have this information about you, so it's perhaps no surprise Equifax is the first result for "identity proofing" on Google.
I think ideas do matter. Not ideas like the one click order or hey let's put a buy button in a game, but how to accurately recognise everything that's said in a room full of people, how to seperate sarcastic from factual statements in text, how to predict the number of bananas that need to be on the shelf next saturday.

The problem with you copying my invention is that you didn't share my research costs, so you could easily beat me on price. But as they are software solutions, I can bring them to market myself without much difficulty. I can hire or partner with the best UX designers and marketing people and I'm protected by copyright.

I wouldn't want to stop you from working out similar ideas and compete with me, nor would I want to become a law firm spending my time in court with people who had similar ideas. Patents are a danger and I don't need their protection because software ideas are either trivial and shouldn't be protected or they are complex and don't need protection beyond copyright and contract law.
Why wheel-to-zoom isn't working? I see this problem on many sites recently, and find it really annoying.
Hackers also like living and working near other hackers in a hacker-supportive community.

Also, if you're a Berkeley or Stanford grad, you probably prefer living in an exciting city like San Francisco instead of staying in suburbia. And even if you personally don't, your friends will, which means SF is still the place to be.
Santa Cruz would be amazing, but SR 17 would make a daunting commute.
After resizing the browser window (tiling window manager...), the starting positions of paragraphs can move quite far. This makes it difficult for me to orientate myself in the text.

Also, one must pay attention to indicate new paragraphs that happen to fall between columns. Without indenting each paragraph, I'm not sure how to make those clear.
Signing should allow reputation from previous versions to apply to updates, if implemented correctly by the antivirus vendor.