skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Let's not forget about what happens when a company which had been open internally starts locking things down. Suddenly, you can't get access to certain parts of the code depot, the people working on that project clam up, they stop being verbose in their code reviews lest it leak information, and they stop writing snippets about what they've done in the past week. They ask other teams for resources, but won't say why. You thought you had made it past the final wall of secrecy by being hired, but then they went and started putting up walls inside after years of having things be open. Pretty soon, instead of just one "us", there is now "us" and "the special ones who get to know".

Then they call you to the big auditorium one day for a big reveal, and you find out it's called Wave. We all know how that turned out.
It's easy to avoid this future, observation of past future predictions suggests we're not very good at it. Therefore this future is unlikely and simply by relying on our poor prediction skills we can avoid this future without doing anything.
A friend recently asked me what it would take for me to go back to developing on Twitter. I said, "Finally release the 3rd-party rev-share program they were promising back in 2009." They will never do this now with their current heading, but it would make a lot of sense. If they are becoming a media/ad company, they need as much distribution as possible, so let the ads run free outside their own walls.

For Twitter this would make a ton of sense because the rev-share would be based on impressions of ads, clicks, etc. The method to determine the dev's cut is straightforward and a known system (a la AdSense).

For App.net, as you correctly pointed out, the definition of "rev-share based on usage" is insanely complicated and the maximum value per user per month is capped at $2.08 (in the 50/50 scenario).

If I create a premium app.net client, would I still want to charge for it (e.g. iphone app)... would I even be allowed to charge for it in accordance w/ app.net TOS?

The idea of no first-party apps competing for user revenue is the ultimate dream of a platform that enables a 3rd party dev ecosystem. Sadly, many such platforms that began with that promise ultimately went back on it, much to devs' dismay. Much care would need to be taken to stick to this decision over the long term if this is decided up front.

Aside: I'm peeved that Svbtle doesn't allow comments. All the feedback you get must be out-of-band, and it creates extra steps for the people that read your posts.
17 years old hacker will demonstrate Linux ELF Virus
Sure, but it could allow a single code-base to be portable to both to the tiny Lua VM and the web.
You could use Bartender http://www.macbartender.com/ which is free, to hide your menu icons. It works great.
FBI MONEYPAK RANSOMWARE- Complete Information, Symptoms, And ALL Removal Steps
find a new team. haters gon hate
I just saw it on the front page.
Using an outdated OS that is not supported anymore isn't good security, but in theory there shouldn't be much danger as long as you follow some basic restrictions :

1/ Put the computer behind a NAT router with no open ports/outside access
2/ Use a browser that hasn't dropped your platform (just because the OS isn't supported anymore doesn't mean you can't find at least one browser that's up to date with continuous security updates. There are still people porting Firefox to PPC macs, an initiative called "TenFourFox". You can also try Camino or iCab, two alternative browsers that have kept PPC compatibility)
3/ Don't open an email attachment unless it has been scanned through an antivirus

Point 1 and 3 are something I do even on a patched computer anyway. Your desktop shouldn't be directly exposed to the internet.

I've never ran an outdated OS myself but I would feel confident in using one as long as I respect those principles. The one thing I wouldn't be confident in doing, though, would be running an outdated browser or an outdated mail client. Security updates for anything that is in direct contact with the internet is a top priority and using an abandoned mail client like sparrow that doesn't guarantee security updates is a terrible, terrible idea.
As an aside, I'm thrilled that you are blogging about the process and hope you continue to do so. At the end of the road, whenever that might be, it would be amazing to go back and re-read everything as a post-mortem.
The ridiculousness underlying the ridiculousness is that it's possible for retirees to not retire without a major downgrade in their standard of living. Such a phenomenon would be literally unprecedented in human history.

The fact of the matter is that "saving" in the stock market is completely artificial. "Saving" money doesn't create resources for you to use in retirement, it gives you an earmark on the resources produced by people who will be working when you retire.

With current technology and the foreseeable resource limits we'll be encountering over the next 30-50 years, it's just not physically possible for a small working generation to produce enough to support both itself and a large retired generation at the same standard of living the retired generation was accustomed to when it was working.
WebOS legacy lives on as next-generation Enyo framework exits beta
One of the nation's top First Amendment scholars thinks the court order is unconstitutional, likely to the point of being "transparently invalid":

http://www.volokh.com/2012/07/22/the-dark-side-of-privacy/

While it would have been better for her to appeal the order first instead of just violating it, it's almost certain this judge will be benchslapped on appeal.
> If this is true doesn't it mean that Bin Laden won the war on terror?

in all fairness, it's not like the American people put up much of a fight ...
Joey Skaggs is a guy that's done this sort of thing over the span of decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Skaggs
I don't remember the details, but I read somewhere that a US court has ruled that only patent attorneys can understand patents.

If you're not a patent attorney, and you read a patent, and determine that you don't violate it, and later the court finds out that you did, then you're on the hook for 3x the damages you would be if you hadn't read the patent.

Needless to say, this is totally f'ed up.

But that doesn't change the ruling.

As a consequence, it's probably better for us techies to bury our head in the sand when it comes to searching out patents that exist. Assume that if you're somewhat successful, patent trolls will attack you, and the best option you have may be treating the "protection money" as a cost of doing business.

Practical things we can do:

(1) Bring the issue to the attention of your Representatives/Senators. Focus on your role as a small-business job creator; politicians love that particular turn of phrase.

(2) When you're Google- or Facebook-successful, remember what the little guys are going through, and go after the patent trolls to improve things for our entire industry!

(3) Donate to people like EFF.

(4) If you pay "protection money", try to make sure the deal includes clauses that let you back out later when you have more resources. For example, a clause that says you'll pay the troll, but neither admit nor deny that you violate the patent. That way, when you're small you pay them to go away; when you're successful enough, you might be able to sue them and recover your protection payments.

(5) Become a patent troll yourself. It seems like a foolproof business model, at least until the law changes.
service businesses cant scale, and require a lot of time. Client work is great, but only has a way to pay the bills towards a scalable product. my 2 cents
Inside the Coursera Contract: How Coursera Might Profit From Free Courses
The article says Obama approves the targets. So right there, accountability, Obama is 'owning' it.
I don't think anything about her actions here is irresponsible or immature. Resisting an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech is a worthy and responsible action. As is publicly shaming the perpetrators of a crime who try to hide behind the legal system.
In east asia, and historically in the west, peoples' kids too care of them when they were too old to work. The idea of a bunch of retirees living independently at the same standard of living before they quit working, across the huge swatch of society, is completely without precedent.
It serves to expose the fact that journalism is easily compromised and people should be assume fact checking is adequately done.
I can't help but feel that you're severely underestimating the network effects and momentum needed to make a service like this useful to someone. If Twitter had a price barrier, I doubt they'd have 5% of the user base that they do now. I get where you're coming from, but at the end of the day, the cost of scrolling through a Twitter/FB ad in my feed is far, far less than buying my way into a social network that at least 90% of my friends won't use because of the price alone.

Even if you get geeks on board as your early adopters, you're still going to miss out on the much larger non-geek demographic that make these social networks what they are, even to geeks. Remember, you're going for a social tool here, and so you'll need to make it easy for a person's entire social circle to join else it'll be rendered useless. If you're trying to position this as dev-centric alone and to foster a github-like community around dev topics, then I could see this working. But as a catch-all social network, I don't think this will take off.

I commend you for trying, of course. Definitely a lot gutsier than I am to take on such a bold endeavor.
Matt Gemmell has always insulted people and this is no difference. It's okay that Sparrow was acquired but his blog posts, along with Benjamin Brooks, is why I never pay attention to it. It may be intelligent but it's riddled with hate. Most times it is directed at the customer or theists.

He never places the blame on devs like Culture Code who promised Things sync but were quicker to release an iPad app to make more money.
I love me some tech employment as much as anybody that frequents hacker news, but this just looks like tech bigotry to me.

The attitude that "all other modes of employment suck, therefore tech should be #1" is not going to gain a lot of traction outside tech circles.
An Open Letter to My Daughter
> given that the US has roughly 10x the population of Canada, a job offer ratio of approximately 1:12 isn't so bad on per capita basis.

Seattle doesn't have 10x the population of Vancouver, and Boston doesn't have 10x the population of Montreal! Those should be 1:1 comparisons.
> 1. [...] There is always some sort of crap class that the department "thinks" you should take. For you it is Mat 380 Error-correction Codes.

Error correcting codes are fun! Taking a class on coding theory gave me some insight on compression, cryptography, and reliable data storage/transmission.
> the U.S. government which is currently over 15 trillion dollars in debt

As opposed to US consumer debt which is only, what, 11 trillion?
Usually, predictions avoid themselves ;-)

But it's an interesting work of fiction in any case.
You're ignoring the possibility that sitting is bad, but the negative impact is outweighed by the other advantages accompanied by education.

(Not saying that's the true explanation)
Doc Searls: The Customer as a God: A personal empowerment revolution
Now you lost me
Mobile and Web Security Will Be Major Topics at Black Hat
Thank you !!!!!!!!
Love you all.
Jg
Domain Name Infographic - Domain History, Information, Etc.
"Would you pay to use Twitter?"

"Never."

"Would you pay for App.net? It's like Twitter."

[You can fill out this one for yourself.]
Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely keep it in mind. The upsells are a bit troubling to me, though. Mom doesn't need SSL and certainly no website creation tools or hosting (WordPress all the way). I'd like to recommend a registrar that really just focuses on domains.
Ask HN:Which is better IMO or eBuddy and why?
From your perspectiev which is better IMO or eBuddy and why ?
If there is one thing I hate about conspiracy crackpots, it's that they could not, in their wildest dreams, imagine that somebody simply disagrees with them, even if their life would depend on it. No, he must be a 'shill', paid by the CIA, the Mossad or some other evil entity.
first of all, what is this extremetech site exactly? it suddenly appears everywhere and the articles i find there are usually of low journalistic quality.

this article is the best example. the author delivers no argument whatsoever to support his/her claim.

" If you imagine a smartphone-sized computer that automatically loads Firefox after boot-up, and the only apps you can run are web apps, then that’s a fairly good analogy of Firefox OS."

- no, this is not a good analogy. although the apps are indeed written in html/css/js they have access to low level apis, thus delivering the same capabilities as native apps currently do on ios/android.

"We weren’t at the meeting when Mozilla decided to make Boot 2 Gecko an actual smartphone OS, but I have a pretty good idea of how it probably went down"

- what follows is pure speculation and adds no value whatsoever to the whole undertaking of proving the article's claim.

"Today, if iOS falters, there are 10 other mobile operating systems that can step into breach"

- No, there wouldn't. Of all mobile operating systems today, there are only two that have a viable developer base, namely ios and android. No other platform has yet succeeded in attracting 3rd party developers to create useful and beautiful apps for its platform (maybe windows phone will step up it's game). So, obviously, the huge advantage of firefoxOS would be the simplicity to create apps for the thousands of talented and motivated web developers out there. How often to you encounter a headline on hacker news that reads "check out me weekend project x which i made because i was bored/wanted to learn some new technology/whatever"? This happens every day basically. Now imagine these people had the possibility to do "weekend projects" with the tools they already master but this time not for the web per sé but for a mobile platform? That is pretty damn exciting if you ask me.

"Firefox OS is a nice idea, but it’s predicated on open standards"

- but? BUT??? If anything, open standards is a good thing.

"Anyone can take Firefox OS’s additions to HTML5 and produce their own implementation [...] Google can simply implement the same specification in Chrome, Microsoft can implement it in IE10, and Apple can implement it in Safari"

- Yes, i can totally see it, Apple et all will give up their control over the app store and let people install apps from anywhere on the web with access to low level apis.

"Mozilla shouldn’t be disheartened, though"

- Certainly not. Especially after this kind of click bait crap.
Hacker expands in-app purchase hack from iOS to Mac OS X
Nice title. In other news, if you're wet and outside, it's probably raining.

WTF, did you think they were going to talk about at Black Hat, flowers?
Their budget airline (Jetstar) has already been doing this.
Avoid step 3. Separating lies from truth in the media is a full time job. Most people have other full time jobs, children, and mortgages. Be trustworthy and explain without condescension instead of calling people idiots.

Caveat: this will help you to inform the people around you about what you think is true, but it will work even better if what you are saying is silly and appeals to everyone's prejudices.
You don't use 5.56mm nato for deer either.

The point was suitability (for hunting) and relative "power" or "lethality" (as much as I hate those terms because they incite caliber wars) of the rifle Holmes used compared to what is typically used for hunting. Typical hunting calibers for medium and large game (regardless of whether the hunt is in the U.S. or Africa) are .308 or .30-06 on up. Some specialized .2xx calibers might work, but run higher risk of causing more cruelty to the animal (by not being sufficiently lethal). That's why hunting laws tend to dictate calibers, not because banned calibers are too lethal but because they're not lethal enough. Even .308 (7.62mm nato) is commonly eschewed for large game.

Anyone talking about a .223 rifle as high-powered or particularly dangerous relative to common hunting rifle calibers really has no idea what they are talking about.
The stats don't matter when you're dealing with a commodity of one.

I find that when I get a ridiculous quote, believe me I've had some, the best thing to do is look for an alternative name and spend the savings elsewhere.
Turning Virtual Tables
Sometimes I think that we have an even bigger problem with retirement: it comes at the wrong end of our careers!

Make a list of all the things you'd like to do if you didn't have to work. For most of us, that list would probably include a mix of intellectual pursuits and physical pursuits.

With the current system, I'm supposed to work 45 years, then I can retire and get to work on that list of my interests. Hopefully I'll still be mentally able to pursue my intellectual interests, but my body will be old and may not be up to the physical interests. Broken bones and other serious injuries are usually much more dangerous at 70 than at 25.

It would be so much more sane to flip this around. Give people their retirement benefits right after they get out of school. Then they can spend 10-20 years pursuing their interests while their bodies are still resilient. Eventually, most people will get tired of that, or their bodies will be sufficiently battered, that they'll want to settle down to a more quite life. Then it is time to get a job and work until they die.
The concept of obtaining money wherever your comparative advantage lies (even if that has negative externalities), rather than working in a less efficient feel-good occupation (peace corp etc), and then doing more good with the money than you ever could have in the soup kitchen, is the acme of rationality. See Bill Gates.*

* obviously in some cases the claims of charity don't measure up to the damage done making the money. I think Bill Gates happens to be winning, but that's not the point.

(shame on whoever downvoted is74. It's fine if working in a soup kitchen makes you happier. You don't have to feel threatened by a suggestion that you should consider alternatives, if you're capable of making lots of money)
Ask HN: Asperger's syndrome and Engineering.
I have read a lot of engineers, especially software engineers, are some form of Asperger's syndrome. Just wondering if anyone know of a study that would show a correlation?

Perhaps, you can also indicate if you have any Aspergers' Sydrome or aspects to as well.
That would be an interesting natural oddity. For a perfect future, just get enough people together to predict all the different ways in which the world can end.
Yeah, but doing things with the purpose of improving the future will (probably) lead to a better future than if we do nothing at all.

If you want to see the past you can use http://hntimeline.com/ (yeah, shameless plug)
That was when people were generally a lot poorer than they are now and having children had little cost beyond food. Now, that math simply doesn't work.
Crowdsourcing Justice
Does this remind anyone of the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks? The way the legitimate investigations (9/11 commission, etc) were trammeled and the way the "truther" movement was marginalized?
CSS Menu Slider for Mobile Devices - Collaboration
Yes, patents suck. But talking will do nothing. We need to literally put our collective money where our mouthes are. I am only half joking, but somebody please run a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of reforming the patent system, I will gladly donate.

We need to lobby the sh_t out of our government. Start stuffing money in their pockets - this is the only thing the beast understands. Get them to phase out the patent system - that is, issue no new patents, wait for current patents to expire.

We also need to create an alliance of companies that agree to never sue each other over existing patents. We need to publicly shame companies (namely, patent trolls) that use patents solely for exploitation.

Yes, maybe these ideas are dumb or naive, but they would still be more effective than just talking about it...
LiveScript has many features over CoffeeScript that may not exactly be as in Haskell, but are inspired by it.
You can define curried functions, use partially applied operators (addTwo = (+ 2)), use operators as functions (sum = fold1 (+)), use infix functions, ("hi" `startsWith` 'h'), compose functions (h = f . g), have proper list comprehensions, and its standard library, prelude.ls, is based off of Haskell's Prelude module (inclusion is optional though if you want to use underscore.js or something else). For more information check out http://gkz.github.com/LiveScript/blog/functional-programming...
Do High Salaries & Bonuses Make CEOs Poor Decision-Makers?
This is pretty great marketing for the first edition.
2How  Marissa Mayer Can Turn Yahoo Around (Spoof)
I like the reasoning behind this and I really welcome the simplicity of giving feedback, but the way it is implemented here does not really make things clearer. The link makes me think I'll get a simplified summary of the paragraph, instantly. It's not clear that it sends an email to the writer.

Also, the writer will never know if a feedback-email comes from a genuinely confused reader or from someone like me who simply though 'what does this button do?'.

A solution would be to show a message after clicking the link, saying something like 'thank you for your feedback, we've send an email to the writer' together with a Cancel button.
I actually know a fair number of people who do essentially that. They get a low paying research job a a university, where they are given a fair amount of autonomy in what they research. Then, they might decide to settle down and get a better paying job so they have something for their actual retirement.

Unfourtuantly, this approach is not open to all interests.
For concreteness, is there any credible argument that the restrictions on gun availability that were put in place after the shooting incident in Australia in 1996 (which has not been repeated) have in any way reduced the freedom of citizens and residents of Australia? I know a lot of Australians, and they are very freedom-loving people, and I think if gun laws in Australia are different from how they are in the United States, one reason is that Australians like to be free of being shot to death by crazy people in public places.
Guys... Companies and other groups have been doing this for ages. It's very easy to disrupt public forums like HN or Slashdot and it has been shown to occur in Digg. I'm quite surprised it doesn't happen more often.
They would miss one.
For what it's worth, before I was a programmer I was a biology technician, living in Boston (a very expensive place to live) making 32k a year.

I still managed to max out my personal IRA as well as hit the match on my employer's 401k. Sure, I was single and living cheaply...but that's the point. Live within your means and contribute to retirement. You don't need to make 100k.
Microsoft Adds ‘Big Boobs’ to Linux Kernel