skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think it would be an interesting experience but probably not a satisfying one. As I see it, to be as strong (in character skill) at the end as you were at the beginning, one of two things have to happen:

1. You start weak and finish weak. This gives you games like "I wanna be the guy", which build player skill, but I haven't seen this in RPGs. If the player gets noticeably stronger and then weaker along the way, the part where the character's powers are taken away can make the player feel cheated. (Not always: see e.g., the last fight in Ocarina of Time.)

2. You start strong and finish strong. Everything is easy and boring, unless you are depowered along the way and have to claw your way back up. See Metroid Prime (1 or 2) on the GameCube, or Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Trap on the Master System (or Dragon's Curse on TG-16). Usually the strong start is used to ease the player into the game, so that it's harder to fail while learning the controls and patterns of the game. Regardless, you still have a definite progression: either of tools, stats or something else that means you can go to places you couldn't before.

Wonder Boy III is an interesting example, because although you start with the best armour and weapon at the start of the game (which you then lose), the various forms that the player takes (mouse-man, hawk-man, &c.) give the player a different kind of power than the one that was removed: flexibility of movement as opposed to better offensive/defensive stats.

<aside>I have read about an interesting house-rule for D&D 3.5 called "Epic Six", which gives a similar result but not using the mechanic you suggested: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/206323-e...

Basically, characters do not level up beyond level six, but gain additional feats every 5000XP which provide various small bonuses. This means that the players still get more powerful, but they don't scale up into the world-destroying powerhouses that you get at high levels.</aside>

I don't think that getting rid of XP means that you should throw out the whole concept of power progression in an rpg-like game. You may as well tie power progression to items or other things that will happen along the way. If you have an XP system (with power progression tied mainly to XP), then you as a designer need to match XP progression to story progression. If you don't, players either need to grind (yuk) or everything's too easy because you're levelling too fast (snore). Why not throw that out and go with the metroidvania-style of getting more tools to solve your problems? Metroid did this especially well because if the current fight was too hard, you could backtrack and explore for more energy tanks, missiles and so on so you have more resources at your disposal.
their example/demo is fabulous, i wish more open source/tools libraries had ones that functioned half as well
My girlfriend's younger brother was in the marines. He had to get his older sister to buy ammunition because he couldn't despite handling far more deadly firearms in the military.
Borderlands 2
Borderlands 2
borderlands 2 game Borderlands 2 is an future first-person present shooter with role-playing-elements along with the follow up to 2009 Borderlands.
I'd pay for twitter to go back to 2008, when everyone on twitter was more or less by definition reasonably awesome and nobody competed for followers.
I find it very scarey that I have to wait for a software update to be applied before I can drive the car.. I hope there is an override mechanism to allow the car to start anyways in the event that software update fails.
It's a rhetorical question. I don't see that there is anything which makes gun ownership important, I don't see that it protects against anything significant, and I don't see it as being better than not having that right.

It's kind of hard to support a negative claim like that. It would be nice if you could kick in a bit of your side instead of just complaining about how I say things. And no, "it's in the Constitution so it's automatically true until disproven" does not work.
Vivienne Westwood Shoes : Vivienne westwood shoes
From the comments in the thread it would seem that started as a boing boing link and got changed.
This file lists what's new since 4.2: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh/blob/master/NEWS
Makes me want to buy a bottle of JD despite the inevitable hangover. I am surprised they didn't offer to throw in a bottle or two.

When opposing sides get heated, lawyers win. This letter seemed to calm the fire down. It's all class, and more effective as a result.
I think Minecraft's "Creative Mode," where you are given an unlimited number of otherwise-farmable resources to do with what you please, is what the article is talking about.
Luckily, the fact that individual scientists are subject to the confirmation bias does not greatly affect the workings of science as a whole... for as soon as an interesting theory is developed by some scientist, hordes of other scientists will try to prove it false. For whatever reason...
I read Wright's book, How To Get Away With Murder. It's a quick read. It's not very focused and doesn't answer many questions. Ironically, there's very little focus on Ric Prado, who's the most interesting of the bunch.
The Onion’s Take On HP Cloud; 4 Other Attempts to Make Cloud Funny
It's not a dumb thing, just lacking a piece of information. Oxford University, and Cambridge too, is not a campus university, it is spread out all over Oxford. When you're stood somewhere near the centre of town (and the centre of Oxford isn't really that big) - which is where most tourists ask the question - chances are if they look around 40% of the buildings will be part of the university, and another 40% will be buildings owned by the university, or by a college, and rented out for profit.

40% is a random figure and probably an exaggeration, but here's a map of the centre of Oxford (i.e. Oxford without suburbs) showing university buildings and colleges in red: http://www.planetware.com/i/map/ENG/oxford-map.jpg (note also how the majority of green spaces are owned by colleges for sport, as well)

Edit: looking closer at that map I see some missing buildings that should be on there, and at least a couple that are smaller than they should be. But I don't know the whole university well enough so maybe there are also some shown too big, or some that shouldn't be on there at all.
Facebook Testing Sponsored Ads in Search Results. Will They Work?
I cannot recommend "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin highly enough. It's an incredible read. Go find it and read it.

The HBO mini-series, From the Earth to the Moon, largely based on that book is also quite excellent. Go find it and watch it. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon_(TV_...

If you're still looking for more material after that, I'd go read "Failure is Not an Option" by Gene Kranz.
And they're right. For another example, see the tactile feedback in physical keyboards, vs the keyboards on a touch screen on a phone or tablet. The shape of a button and the act of depressing it are very important inputs. Our fingers are filled with a large number of sensors relative other parts of our bodies, and it's best that we use them.

Other instances where analog has been desired over digital:

* those brightness adjustment sliders in presentation rooms

* video game controllers

I'm sure there are more.
You know, I've heard this "fact" quoted over and over again, but it ignores a simple reality: There exists potential, unimplemetned features which no one can possibly be using, but would! If you had fewer features, you'd still have 80% using a different 20%. Whose to say if you'd make more money or have happier users?
Institute for Creation Research
If murder is a right, isn't nothing a right, since anyone can murder you in response to anything?

That's kind of the idea. What actions are you physically capable of? Once again, in the context of absolute freedom, what are you allowed to do (i.e. a right)? The thing is absolute freedom is a bit complicated especially given individual differences. Order/laws develop to facilitate interactions with other people.

I'm not sure how well I can explain this, so here's a link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

You have the right to find it interesting, a right to find it horribly stupid, or a right to find it _________________.
What is JD Double Black? My dad bought me a bottle - he told me that it means it tastes even smokier than black label, but I wonder what that means in terms of the production process.
I guess the thing is that gasoline has many non-killing uses, whereas guns don't. I live in a country where access to guns is much more tightly controlled than in the US, and I'm glad of it. Sure, under some circumstances a can of gasoline can be more lethal than a gun, but the prospect someone chasing me down the street at 3AM with a can of gasoline doesn't scare me nearly as much as someone chasing me with a gun. Think of all the lethal scenarios that a gun can be used, replace with "can of gasoline" and see your straw man go up in flames.
Gerald Celente Predicts A False Flag Attack Before The FED Hikes Interest Rates
Obviously I meant Coursera not Code Academy.
I politely asked them to charge me $5 a month back in 2008. http://www.youell.com/matt/writing/?p=61 Never heard back. :)
I've been a seller and a buyer. Made a living off it for a while even.

My opinion is 3k is about average for a domain sale. If I recall average sale was in the ~2000-3000 range. It's a pretty reasonable asking price without knowing anything about the domain.

As far as valuing, there is no way, scientific or otherwise to tell you value. My favorite explanation from the sellers side is:

Value = Price * Probability of Sale

(Credit for that goes to Paul Shaw)

It so beautifully encapsulates many of nuances of domain names. There is a unique supply and an infinite demand curve. The probability of getting a sale as you go higher diminishes. There is no 'one' answer to value, but it's completely dependent on the seller's risk appetite and expectations.

Finally, some practical advice. There is nothing you can say, no tool you can use that a rational domain owner is going to accept and act on because you wrote it in your counter offer. You have a max price, they have a minimum price, maybe you'll negotiate to a point where they overlap, maybe not. I would counter offer (doesn't have to be your max price or you can play the ultimatum game) and see the response. Repeat or accept. For such a small number I wouldn't be countering more than once MAYBE twice. I generally consider it a warning flag when the other party is negotiating over almost nothing.

Set your max budget and stick to it. People are irrational towards the end of a deal. Don't overspend and regret. You've done the analysis beforehand, you know what it's worth to you.

Find other names and prepare a backup plan. Don't tie yourself to one name. I hate when a deal falls through because they bought another name, but it makes perfect sense from your side.
"A central instrument for putting pressure on the Soviet Union was Reagan’s massive defense build-up, which raised defense spending from $134 billion in 1980 to $253 billion in 1989. This raised American defense spending to 7 percent of GDP, dramatically increasing the federal deficit. Yet in its efforts to keep up with the American defense build-up, the Soviet Union was compelled in the first half of the 1980s to raise the share of its defense spending from 22 percent to 27 percent of GDP, while it froze the production of civilian goods at 1980 levels."

http://wais.stanford.edu/History/history_ussrandreagan.htm
Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-Ray Review and Theatrical Screening
Adding a "person to blame" to bug reports
Computer Virus News Report, 1988
"Not one company is willing to put forth a salary number, but they all say they offer excellent compensation."

The implication being that the salaries offered are low. If they were confident that what they were offering was competitive then maybe they wouldn't be afraid to be up front about it? I've never had to hire someone so I don't know what the reasons are for not stating a salary range are.
Usenet seemed to do find in the past. Perhaps users could adopt a similar model.

Also, wasn't Diaspora working on a solution as well that involved cloning?
My Experience With TDD In Clojure
UI: nice. Ergonomics: not so nice.

Just from my eyballing of the layout, that touchscreen on the right side of the panel will be out of reach for a significant number of drivers.
Great response. Thanks for your input. I think I'm going to set a max price and use that as my only counter offer. If they don't accept I'll keep looking.
What do you mean? The "terrifying background" seemed pretty clear to me -- a federal organized crime task force believed that he was involved in seven murders as a drug enforcer in Miami before becoming a contractor for the CIA.
Totally agree and yet I still expect there will be periods of crunch time. I hope that employers will be tolerant of my shortcomings and so I tolerate theirs.
I have to disagree with the word "responsible". There was a huge domestic opposition to Mosaddegh's rule in Iran. Did the CIA encourage this dissent? Yes. Did the CIA hasten the overthrow of Mosaddegh? Yes.

If the CIA had never gotten involved in Iran, would Mosaddegh have maintained rule? It's doubtful.
I dislike the reduction of controls. One of the things that has always bothered me about driving with my phone as a media player is that I can't control it easily by touch. I want buttons and knobs that I can use by touch for all car functions.
> “I feel bad for this generation, too much is expected from women,” said one caller.

This does not spark outrage, however including the number '0xB16B00B5' in a source code does, something is terribly wrong here.
Noone gets to the top of the tree by sitting in the corner & waiting for things to happen.

If you want to be the #1 then as soon as they mention a bad idea, immediately suggest reasons why & if you can't think of a bad reason, select the weakest point of the idea and heavily focus on it.

Once you have done this, they will probably try and act smart and say "what's your big idea then?" then you have your time to convince everyone & as soon as any of the 'loud talkers' interrupt, don't let them by speaking louder and keep going they'll shut up and as soon as they do, rework parts of what you said whilst they were speaking gibberish back into your speech by saying "as I mentioned earlier but was interrupted by person X, Y and Z alongside..." and carry on speaking.

Seriously, you can either sit in a corner or you can come out fighting so to speak, assert your authority and take the top spot.
why it's hard?
The OS X app looks very nice.

Though I'm having difficulties grabbing the scroll bar thumb on that blog. There's an element hovering it. Am I the only one seeing this: http://i.imgur.com/GyJ2z.png

Of course I can use the scroll-wheel or cursor keys...
The "On being sane in insane places" Experiment
thanks! I think I'm a bit less louder that my con-nationals
If you want to see a truly excellently designed car display & navigation system, check out the new BMW 3-series (F30).

They sprung for a non-standard display size that is super-wide, which means you can show two things at once. I have it configured to always show navigation directions on the right 1/3, and switch the left 2/3 between map or music, or whatever.

They also have a heads-up display which is awesome. It uses computer vision to detect road signs and show me the most up to date speed limit, shows me my speed right next to that, and the next turn coming up. When I switch through my iPhone playlist, it replaces the turn directions with the playlist, same when someone calls in. It's completely non-distracting and right in my field of vision while I'm driving, looks like it's just "floating" in front of the car.

Then they have the iDrive rocker, which moves left/right/up/down plus spins to select more complicated things, like moving through a playlist or typing directions into the GPS. It means that I keep a very natural driving position even if I'm controlling something in the car, with one hand on the wheel and my right hand by my side.
If that is all it is, why can't the reader just use Readability (or Readable)?
Agreed; this isn't much different than in bio where we would apply an electrical current to freshly amputated frogs legs (or heart) and watch them twitch. It's just a much more elaborate presentation. When it's swimming on it's own and reproducing, then I'll agree that they have created a new animal.
not exactly. More like you offer a base line service (for example sake lets say for free), then you offer individual feature add-ons at a cost. That way, rather then paying x$ for upgrading say, professional to ultimate and getting a bunch of features you don't need, and the single one that you do, you buy exactly what you want, and no more. Also could provide a way of priming your users to submit features that they would actually want to pay for.
HSLpicker.com Released
Putting aside the kind of silly hypothetical exercise of trying to figure out which 20% of features to develop, the rest of this I feel is spot on. As a developer, so often I either come into applications with redundancy or get directed to build redundant features in. Often the person who makes that decision has no real basis, they just want to make sure people can use feature X, so it seems like putting in 3 different ways to do X makes sure everyone will use it. In reality, you are just adding overhead for your team and confusion for your users.
Is it DODO or DOKO?
Hilarious Call of Duty Reactions
There is nothing funnier than COD freak outs.
What a lot of therapists do is by definition part of the modern understanding of depression and its causes and solutions. Depression is a biopsychosocial disease, so to have any real understanding of it you need to look at it through a variety of lenses and disciplines.
As a recipient of a few of these over the years I have to comment on how humane this is. A particular C&D I once had the displeasure of receiving seemed purposed more towards tying my stomach in knots and keeping me up at night then actually protecting the brand. The outcome here provides the same result, just much, much, more comfortable for the parties involved.
Why is mpg plotted? Prius is quite popular with people who try to get the max range / min consumption. Previous generations had a separate view mode for that graph.
If you're driving forwards you can be only in 2 modes B/D. Otherwise it's neutral or reverse. There's nothing more to show basically.

Regen shows how much energy you got back by slowing down our breaking.
I am not making an impassioned plea to patent trolls. I can't change what the people before me did. Instead, I'm trying to have my actions reflect the kind of world I want to live in.

That doesn't mean I don't donate time/money/my voice to lobbying for this cause. It simply means I try to be consistent in this.
"Pranks" is great... an inspiring book.
I highly recommend the book 'Full Moon' compiled by photographer Michael Light. He's gone through the archives and reproduced many of the old medium format photographs taken by the astronauts on the Apollo Missions. I find the shots from the astronauts on board the craft at least as fascinating as the moon landscapes, seeing them up there strapped into technology (apparent from design, typography, etc) that's so clearly from an era that from today's POV looks so archaic. It really gives an appreciation for how badass those guys were, trapped in a little glass and metal bubble way out in the middle of nowhere, so far from any kind of life support.

http://www.michaellight.net/workFullMoon.html
From the submitted article: "Indeed, Facebook hit a legal roadblock in May, when it reached a tentative settlement in a class-action lawsuit over the use of sponsored stories, one of its most effective advertising tools. In the would-be settlement, the company promised to inform users explicitly that their 'likes' could be used as endorsements for a brand or page, and that they could opt out. By one estimate, it could cost Facebook $103 million in revenue." Yeah, that's the problem Facebook has, that many approaches to leveraging user data to maximize advertising impact may be illegal, off-putting to Facebook users, or both.

I have been running AdBlock for a long time on Chrome, and either F. B. Purity or Social Fixer on top of Facebook, and I notice that just since about the time of the Facebook IPO that Facebook advertisements are again showing up as I view my own profile on Facebook. Most but not all of these show up as "sponsored stories." I never like any of the ads. I don't like the "social" ads that mention my friends by name and face (surely without those friends really meaning to suggest to me that I buy the things advertised). I don't like any of the other ads either, and mostly find them completely irrelevant to my interests. I have a friend who used to take elaborate steps to hide keywords in his wall posts (for example, he would use non-ASCII characters to respell words referring to politics or religion), but whether a person does a little or a lot to confuse Facebook, Facebook seems just plain clueless about what kind of ads to serve up, and increasingly clueless about how to provide a satisfactory user experience in general.

Prediction: Facebook will go the way of AOL, still being a factor in the industry years from now, but also serving as an example of a company that could never monetize up to the level of the hype surrounding it.
>"As in, which casinos charge money for drinks to anyone who's playing a game?"

Every casino I've been to, ever.
The same thing is done in the online version of Real World Haskell and is used fairly effectively by the readers to share solutions and clarify concepts.

http://book.realworldhaskell.org/read/getting-started.html

I believe this input was used in revising the book for the print version.
Loving the emails :-)
It also appears to be a vehicle interface designed by someone who hasn't read Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 101, with its specific, prescriptive requirements, including the "confusing icons of traditional cars" that the designer intends to eliminate, an "MPH" or "km/h" label for the speedometer, and as noted in another comment, a display of the transmission shift position sequence.

The idea of a "built-in digital manual that guides you through maintenance and emergency situations" is also nothing new; it sounds like the ECAM system found on Airbus airplanes for many years and would be equally inapplicable to most automotive emergencies. If there is a serious problem with a car, the driver should pull over and stop, after which there is plenty of time to consult the index in a printed manual, which doesn't depend on the electrical system and can be used outside or away from the vehicle, if needed.
I was asked this question once and I said "This is a common, widely discussed interview question on the internet. Are you trying to find out how smart I am thinking on my feet or whether I surf the web, because in practice, on the job, I'd be doing the latter to find out the answer. If you have genuinely unique problems here, you can do better than that."

And yeah, didn't get that one. Oh well. "Brain teasers" with thoroughly documented, widely-read solutions leave you with a Bayesian problem: You'll have the 0.5% geniuses that can come up with the answer in 2 minutes and 5% of people that have read the answer but will make you believe that they are geniuses by not disclosing they have read the solution.

In other words, you'd probably get 90% cheaters and 10% smarties.
You keep claiming they attack their neighbors. Which ones? They have two: China and Russia. They also share a border with the other half of Korea. This is similar to the Mason Dixon line. Both halfs are part of Korea. Do you also object to the War Between the States as unnecessary aggression of the North against the South?