skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree if you mean more than just a financial incentive. Job satisfaction at Space X must be extraordinary. G4S on the other hand is a company whose business plan is to sell 'security theatre'. They hire and train people for the minimum amount possible and resell that for the maximum amount possible, they don't have any incentive to care about their employees. They are just a HR department that processes people applying for and leaving jobs as efficiently as possible and a sales department that sells that time. No one is going to take pride in their work for a company like this. Maybe they made a mistake in assuming that there were an enough desperate unemployed people available to fill these positions?

I think that successful organisations, whether they be state run or private companies, depend massively on the character of the individuals that run them. I expect that Space X is successful because Elon Musk is a very rewarding person to work for. And for an example of a state run organisation like this see Frank Pick[1] who, as manager of London Transport, untangled the mess of privately constructed transport systems and made it into the poster child for public transport systems across the world. Pick's organisational values and culture outlasted him for many years, even today new transport projects in London have to be pretty high quality because they are measured against the legacy of all the great stuff the was designed and built in the 40's and 50's.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pick
Previous submission, much discussion:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4241404

Looking at its history it clearly got flagged off the front page and buried, despite being reasonably popular at the time.
>It's all about age. Older people impose restrictions on younger people - because they can and enjoy it too.

Yes, god forbid they do it because they know any better, because of experience and such...

Check your theory again in 20 years.
"Why on earth it is messing about in the US is beyond me."

Some ironic scope there. There are a fair few people who might wonder why the US is messing about, well, everywhere. :)
No worries; if idiosyncratic spaghetti frameworks like PHP are your thing, then it'd be a very good idea for you to avoid .net mvc
The article said that "the cash not going to the work force is redirected into shareholders' pockets". I don't read anything in that phrase about the service being cheaper or not. I just read that if the contractor gets X cash, and then gives Y cash to its workforce, the difference goes to the shareholders. If labor is what makes the biggest part of the expenses (and I guess the author is referring to such cases) that is almost a truism.
G4S isn't a non-profit.

Besides, the firm will have contractual obligations in other areas of the business (e.g. prisoner transportation and security at nuclear facilities), and if it reneges on those, it will face similar consequences.
I personally suspect that the real mechanism is not private vs public, but rather organization structure and leadership style.

SpaceX is led by Elon Musk, 'nuff said.
If they were a startup I would of cause suspect a conspiracy behind this, most likely some form of troll baiting of others into linking to their website. But I can't imagine the London Olympics being that sneaky just to get some Boingboing inbound links. Its probably once again one of these Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. cases.
> The question isn't "is there a correlation?", but "is the correlation between BMI and body fat stronger or weaker than for other estimators of body fat?".

As I've been repeatedly saying, the other estimators of body fat are much more difficult to calculate. Most people already know their height and weight. Most people don't know their waist circumference and have absolutely no idea how to calculate BF%. That's why sites like this use BMI, so that their visitors can gain some information rather than no information.
What protects users of being hostage to the service if one day you decide to change or close it ?
Ahh the irony! (the linked article has a SSL warning on IE9 on WinPhone) https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9906763/IMG_7965.JPG
Ok, interesting business opportunity, time-based road pricing auctions integrated with automation. The roads keep flowing because people will pay others to defer their travel.
What I have gathered from US law is that they have to do it in order to protect their trademark. If they don't sue, it's same as giving up the trademark. Please correct if I'm wrong.
Seth's blog is pretty awesome, also. The man is extremely inventive and clear thinking. That being said, I personally believe that most of what he's found can be accounted for by the placebo effect, but his ideas and reports from other people always make me think.
Jimmy Wales disagrees with the deletionists.
You mean outside of the physical coercion, eh? That seems like a big difference in my head.

If I petition the city to have my neighbor trim back his tree, it is one thing. If I beat him and threaten his family as an encouragement to trim the tree and give me $20, it is another thing altogether.
Meal-in-a-pill : A staple of science fiction
I think that on Linux, the 4G/4G split never made it, so in practice the limit is around 64GB due the limited amount of lowmem available to the kernel in the regular 3G/1G split.

https://lwn.net/Articles/39283/
It would be, but that isn't what is being said here. It is being said that this specific, narrow, limited group of men is using the structures they created to keep articles that focus on their interests, Linux distributions, while excluding things that interest other people and not them, like bridal gowns. Because of the demographics of that population, the interests happen to fall along gendered lines.

Almost no one is interested in Linux distributions, but having articles on them doesn't somehow discourage any women from contributing and may encourage those who are into Linux. However, it does when topics that are socially coded as feminine, such as wedding dresses, are deleted because of their topic it does send a message about what is valued by the community.

Those social codings are also a problem, but a different problem than the one being discussed here. The best way to fix that underlying issue in this particular case would be for more men learn about the history of fashion and get interested in the construction of garments, rather than seeing clothes as trivial or beneath notice. In the absence of that change, the next best thing would be for these particular men to be aware of their bias and let other people talk about the importance of clothing even if they don't agree.
It's quite sad to see this. How many people here are using the Galaxy Nexus? Google just pushed the 4.1 update and it is simply an awesome device and os. It definitely serves a more technical audience than the iPhone, but the power and customizability is amazing. I like the iPhone, but I just prefer the flexibility of the Nexus and the fact that no contract is required. The direct from Google model and Android's open philosophy simply works better for me. Choice is a good thing, the last time I checked.
Very unexpected email message I received today. Spool received $1 million in funding which was announced January 4, 2012.
So I've been there a couple of times, mostly via HN, and I had this odd experience of being unable to place the site somewhere in my internal onthology of web communities. Forum? Wiki? Blog? Scifi? Psychology? Religion? Agnostics? Atheists?

This provides some meta information, though I have no idea whether it's accurate: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/LessWrong
his article misses the most import reason (outside of Express/Outlook, which really is a reason): lack of checklist compliance.
Most corporate "infosec" policies require all kinds of oddities like difficult password format, running an anti-virus, software pushes, micro-managing browser proxy, encrypted disks, "personal firewall", on and on and on. Corporate infosec standards are written to compensate for Windows weaknesses, and so require a large number of tweaks to a base linux configuration."

I totally agree with that and see that on a day to day basis as well. But I decided to keep the article short and let the debate commence. How can one secure something like google apps if you're a huge corporate entity? Also when your information is in the public domain and being controlled by say google. it's easier for say the feds to obtain your data because google lawyers aren't going to file injunctions for you or use any stall tactics. They will just comply and hand it over. Large multinational corporations don't want that.
Because I wish there were no gender biases, I will pretend that just because not 100% of a gender is completely monolithic, that must mean that any gender bias is disproved.
If you think you have a chance at winning a case about patents then not acting would be foolish.

edit: My point is that this IS a conversation about software patents and competition and not whether or not you are I think this is reasonable. If the system is broken and you, as a multi-billion company, don't take that competitive advantage someone else will.
Ask HN: Figuring out algorithm?
Can anyone help me figure out the algorithm used to create this 2D depth perspective.

Source:
http://www.rpgwo2.com/screenshots/damon%20crater.png

Tiles:
http://i47.tinypic.com/1z20xfr.jpg
Since this is Hacker News, no discussion of diets can be complete without a reference to The Hacker's Diet <https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/>. Especially in this context, since it's basically calorie restriction designed to appeal to an engineer.

Personally, I lost 50 pounds using this approach, and my diet consisted mainly of Hot Pockets, microwaved White Castle cheeseburgers, and frozen pizza. Because they print the number of calories on the back of the box, it made it easier to control calories in. I didn't exercise and as a programmer spent most of my day sitting in a chair. Yet it was relatively straightforward to lose weight by simply eating less, with no particular regard to the composition of what was eaten.

My personal opinion is that all diets "work". Regardless of the magic or science involved, people on diets who have actually adopted the "I'm seriously trying to lose weight" mindset will eat fewer calories. Especially when it starts working: The Hacker's Diet involves a daily weight log and some math to extract the trend line from the noise. Now that we have WiFi scales and fit-tracking web sites, it's very easy to monitor the effect of cutting out soda, skipping dessert, and not having seconds at the dragon buffet.

Our brains are wired to make connections, and to some extent, to evangelize. So if you lose weight on the Tofu Diet, you're likely to go around telling everyone about the miracle benefits of tofu. Much like I'm convinced a simple calories-in/calories-out approach is all you need.
The color chart on that page is truly misleading - there's essentially no relationship between the size of the rectangles and the actual share numbers. The real news from the actual share numbers is that (iOS + Android) is now utterly trouncing everybody else.

Here's one attempt to fix the graphics - a more accurate look makes Apple look much more impressive relative to the market as a whole, mostly at the expense of RIM and Windows and Other but also somewhat at the expense of the largest Android competitors (Apple has roughly twice Samsung's market share):

http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/13/nielsen-needs-to-work-on-their...
https://toshl.com/privacy/
The same can be said about COBOL.

Or Visual Basic.
I signed so many NDAs in the past 4 years it almost looks like I did nothing.
Which could eventually lead to bankruptcy and still stick the taxpayer with the bill and poor service provision.

In any case I agree with your OP that these types of cut and dry presentations are never helpful, and we should be seeking to understand the appropriate context for different solutions instead of generalising.
I decided to have a look to see if I could find any details on https://www.london2012.com/brandprotection and found this instead:

This Connection is Untrusted

You have asked Firefox to connect securely to www.london2012.com, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are
going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.

...

www.london2012.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is only valid for the following names:
a248.e.akamai.net , .akamaihd.net , .akamaihd-staging.net

(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)

Oops.
Nope. Everything's working fine on my Windows 7 laptop.
Dr Hirsch seems to be rather oversimplifying, to me. I'm not an expert, but what about -

1) Psychological factors and satiation?
2) Calorific uptake and excretion?
3) The mechanisms by which the body converts excess energy to fat, why and when they're triggered?
The Workplace Benefits of Being Out of Touch
We should probably also be "impressed" at how blatantly inaccurate that color chart is at representing the actual share percentages.
Someone should introduce Tim Cook and judges Posner and Alsup. I'd love to watch the ensuing conversation.
Mannen: corrigerend ondergoed doet buik verdwijnen
Thanks for the recommendation. AT&T contract just expired, and I'm looking into getting an Android.
I assume Microsoft's patent extortion is included in the price of my Android tablet... sigh...
It's the same as buying any other sort of goods and services. Do you think the NHS makes its own paperclips and grows its own potatoes? No, the private sector really is massively more efficient, for two absolutely crucial reasons: 1) there are actually many sellers with interchangeable products and 2) paperwork and catering aren't actually core to the NHS mission.

If 1 and 2 aren't true, if there are a limited number of sellers of the service, and the service is core to the mission, then outsourcing will certainly fail.
Digg v4 killed Digg. Reddit filled the void. End of story.
Can we have a little break where people can make good products and compete fairly? Let's not be so eager to jump into the pit with another brutal monopoly.

edit: "If I don't take advantage, someone else will" is also known as mutually assured destruction. I liked the patent cold war better than what we're seeing now. Companies should shelve the nukes and go back to vying for customers with merits, not missiles.
On the one hand I agree.

On the other hand: http://xkcd.com/751/ makes a very convincing point.[0]

[0]: As a kid who was basically raised on Video Games and Internet forums, this comic isn't even really exaggerated.

PS:

Parents, if you really want to do your kids a favor, let them know right now that the Internet never forgets, and that you should keep this in mind when you say things.
Just zip it.
Well there we go - thank you for that. There is however a crucial difference between:

> Some people oppose the redefinition of the word "marriage" to include unions other than a man and a woman
(your original post)

and

> It doesn’t matter what you call marriage
(Stephen Fry)

If you agree with him then perhaps you could choose your words more carefully next time - Stephen's position is one of indifference, not opposition.

On the other hand, if you still feel 'oppose' is the right word then he doesn't support you, he's just disinclined to argue with you ;-)
You can do that without self-driving cars though.
We are talking about pre-release software on a pre-release OS, but yeah, time is quickly running out and there are a lot of improvements to be made.

On another note, I don't expect the mail app to be that awesome. They still need to sell you Outlook :-P
Nvidia  Kills Online Store In Response to Hacker Claims
Anyone who has been in the software industry for a while now will have noticed the recent influx of people who I will refer to as "the Creatives".

Most of them are decent people, and I'll go for a beer with them any time. But what they bring to the software they're working on usually isn't beneficial.

Put bluntly, they care more about the look and aesthetics of software, rather than its usability and practicality. As these people have become more and more involved with software development over the past 5 to 7 years, we've started to see more and more problems arise.

Long-time Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox users will know what I mean. Each round of "improvements" to the UI by these creative types has in fact made it much worse. The usability has suffered greatly. Unfortunately, these people also apparently have great influence at Google and Apple, so alternate browsers like Chrome and Safari have UIs that are just as bad, if not worse in some ways.

My suspicion is that the same thing has happened at Microsoft, and Windows 8 and Metro are just this problem becoming extremely obvious on a wide scale. If Windows 8 and Metro are huge failures, as they very well may be, it will probably become clear that we need to ditch these UIs that focus on being pretty above all else.

The industry as a whole will need to return to simpler UIs and that are usable, functional and practical. We'll need to leave this dark period behind us, but hopefully we can learn from these mistakes to ensure future applications do not fall victim to the problems we are witnessing today.
Simple HTTP Basic Auth Wall
Same here ... I'd ask people why you wanna do two keystrokes when you understand when to :x. Creatures of habit.
One thing I dislike though is accidentally having my shift key pressed which converts the :x to :X and Vim thinks I want to encrypt the file.
> What did Reddit do right that Digg did wrong? Well, they haven’t redesigned since what appears to be 1997, which has pleased their user base who like the simple look.

Reddit was founded in 1997?
Not my experience. I've had crashes, but only in desktop mode.

They're not accepting marketplace submissions yet, accept to invited developers.
No, market "share" is a relative quantity (just like a share of stock or of a pie). iOS sales are undeniably growing, and Apple is printing money with these devices. This doesn't show that they're "losing" in any meaningful way. What it shows is that Android is "winning faster", which may be a problem for Apple long term (or not, depending on where the market stabilizes).
Spintronic OLEDs: Brighter, Cheeper, More efficient
Outsourcing is seen as a panacea because it is believed you can offload worrying about the details. All too often this means the outsourcing process itself is handed over to people who don't (or don't want to) know the details. Hence we get fiascos like this.

The result is we are likely to have an Olympics with an overt military presence. Still this should make a lot of overseas visitors feel at home.

Oh, and the New Statesman is explicitly left wing in its politics, I guess for many Americans this may be the first time they have been exposed to left wing opinions as distinct from the Republican Party definition of left wing which seems to be "less right wing than I am".
Ramadan Pictures, Wallpapers, Images, Photos, Greetings & Wishes 2012
There was a myth?
The growing role of viruses in cancer
Goodlife.com is offering 35% off on Lord and Berry Make-up Offer
One can get numbers of Goodlife coupon codes, promo codes,discount coupon codes, coupon codes on dealzindia Coupon website.
Why is it taking the US so long to figure out that patents on business methods, abstractions and software are a disaster waiting to happen? Even parts of their own justice system are starting to understand the consequences.

Is it that hard to understand from first principles, like much of the rest of the world has, instead of waiting until the full irreversible burden is felt in legal, industrial and public bodies? Or is the GDP service churn over nothing actually innovative worth the deferrment of so much pain into the future?

Talking about kicking the can down the road...
Welcome to how so many social sites died.
Unqualified Reservations, by our very own Moldbug: http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/
Fifty Years after Telstar: Why the first commercial satellite was so important
You could put it that way. The point here is that the threshold of interest needed to apply is much higher for women than for men.

These barriers are real but you, as a man, can’t really judge that because you hadn’t to cope with them. You could only try to talk to women (stress is on plural) and try to empathize.
So eating mostly meat just makes it easier to consume fewer calories by default.

This is probably the most important statement in the entire thread. All of these fad diets basically trick the dieter into eating less calories. When Lustig, etc... cite various studies those studies never seem to account for overall caloric intake. Person A cut carbs, person B didn't, person A lost weight ergo carbs are bad. Yeah, it doesn't quite work that way. Saying that cutting calories will help a person lose weight doesn't sell books so authors have to pick something to demonize.

HFCS is a popular thing to demonize now. Is it surprising to anyone that if a person cuts out 4-6 sodas/day that had ~200 calories each that said person is going to lose weight? It had zero to do HFCS and everything to do with cutting out ~1000 calories/day. Again, that doesn't sell books or speaking engagements, but declaring X as evil does.
No. Pinterest is more tuned towards sharing pictures with people that you already know.

Picc.it is tuned to sharing pictures with people you don't know, but share your interests.

Think of it as the difference between glomping onto a pre-existing community (e.g. Facebook friends), and creating a new one (e.g. Reddit).
I added the ? when I could not read it. Normal SR can only do so much with a 3x3 pixel blur.

But their bottom line is mostly correct because their process also uses larger versions of the same pattern to replace the smaller ones.

So, there was not a much larger T, so it made a little fuzzball instead. So I wrote "?".
Are you really trying to argue that the majority of that which is novel is already open source, or has been discussed publicly? That's a really bold claim to make, and I really doubt it. NSA and DOD black projects? The majority of software products that I can think of are more advanced in proprietary form than their open source counterparts. Google's search algorithm?
Two things come to mind...

1. You can learn from a community without giving back to it.

2. It's not really a developers choice if their work is locked in a proprietary binary. That decision was made by their employer, and the only thing the developer can do is get another job (which isn't something most people will consider).
The ICs they use in passports support proper PKI, and are passive. I still have a ~300+ page spec for an Infineon IC commonly used in passports that I got under NDA, and I just don't think most uses call for such security/complexity.

It's important to note that originally the key difference between NFC and RFID was that the NFC-enabled phone was supposed to be able to fall back to power-less operation (inductive coupling) when the phone ran out of juice.
In the USA the government is the mafia. Similar to mafia's strength with 40 percent unemployment in So. Italy. The goal of US government is 40 percent unemployment which will give them ultimate control over the population. It has nothing to do with Republican or Democratic parties. You see the truth.
I agree with you, but don't forget that Steve Jobs vowed to go "thermonuclear war" on Android. It seems the folks at Apple are determined to follow through on that promise and will use any and all (potentially nasty) measures to see Android fail.
I don't see how "unnecessary" or "necessary" matters, as long as we're talking excellence.