skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That's one of one of the main use cases I had in mind when I wrote this: https://github.com/ryancdotorg/threshcrypt - you encrypt a file using N passwords and require that at least M passwords be presented in order to decrypt. At the moment it's not suitable for non-technical users, though you could make a bootable thumb drive that autoruns it and saves the decrypted file. I was also able to embed it in an initramfs on Debian for use with full disk encryption.
That's the bit that surprised me most about this article. Controllers for phones are NOT new.

iCade Mobile, iControlPad, and the umpteen bluetooth ones that don't clip on, but connect wirelessly and give you a PROPER gamepad for your iPhone/iPad.

As for Android, you can connect PS3 controllers and any number of aftermarket ones like above.

I get that the above linked one works for both iOS and Android, but very few people own (and regularly game on) both types of phone at once, so needing a multi-platform controller seems like a pretty niche market.
I can't believe the comments on that blog post are real. Apparently sarcasm isn't a language everybody speaks.
Hmmmm, the last bubble deflated in a similar way... despite some big bangs it never really 'popped' all at once. Instead there was a prolonged period of slowly deflating companies (all of 2001 really, yet the decline started in May 2000), with investors scrambling to reduce the burn rates and companies slowly running out of money and/or fools to invest in later rounds.

I was in the VC biz back then. Traveled the world to save what was left, sell what we could, hoping against hope that it was just a temporary slump. Ultimately we failed miserably. Lost my shirt and my life savings, so it's safe to say I wasn't a very good (prescient) investor... (I blame my nerd-core)

Note: there is one big difference with the last bubble: some of these companies actually make serious money, whereas at the time this often wasn't the case, but I feel that's merely a function of the role of the internet in our present-day lives. The crazy P/E ratios from back then still exist. FB, GRPN, ZNGA et al. are hopelessly overvalued.

Edit: added some details.
> I have no recourse but to not read the article at all

You could click the next button 4 times and read the full article. There's lots of content on each page. It would've taken 100% less typing than this complaint, and you would've spent that time learning instead of grumbling.

It's a real shame you can't read books either. Whole libraries of documents split into pages with no "view all" button.
The problem has to do with maintaining large, complex, and frequently changing projects. If your code tells me what the program is doing the first thing I have to do when debugging is ignore the comments.

If the comments describe the code this means I have to ignore all comments including those which may be relevant to my debugging. This causes a few specific problems in a collaborative environment.

The first is that the comments get stale/out-of-date/etc, more quickly and are therefore consigned to the archaeology of the program rather than of current relevance. At least with spurious logging, I can take it as a sign that someone had trouble with the code here. With comments I cant even tell if it was done in pseudocode and then translated below. It is useless.

The second is that you can't just add relevant comments into the mess without deleting all the other comments first. Otherwise they can't be sorted out easily or efficiently. In other words, it is worse than useless because it keeps proper, useful comments from being seen or read.

Third, if there are relevant comments there, such as

# This is the maximum value the standard allows for.

Then I won't see these and I am more likely to miss them and hence screw something up by accident.

A better approach is to recognize two things:

1) The code itself needs to be so clear, that you never need any comments for debugging (interface documentation is something very different), and

2) The code plus the documentation together has to be easily readable to the programmer. It also needs to be clear, concise, and avoid duplicating messages any more than needed. Duplication with the documentation of course is required by definition.

I hear a lot of people say they have code they would like to release open source but don't want anyone to see how horrible the code is. The answer is to learn to write code with a dual audience --- human and computer --- in mind. The code comments then function like footnotes would in a text, or as a way for two or three programmers to discuss/debate differences in approach. However, they are not debugging aids.
It definitely was not opt-in at the beginning.

http://www.quora.com/blog/Introducing-Views-on-Quora states "All Quora users participate in Views by default, but you can delete any individual view from the content's views page, or you can turn off Views anytime on your settings page."
Java SE 7 Update 6 Released - with Java FX
My contention is that the average value per user of Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest, Instagram, Yelp, and Youtube is $56.

You take the average of those and you're probably looking at a pretty decent ballpark for the value per user of a website that depends on user-generated content and that people use every single day.

At $145 per user, Quora is almost THREE TIMES that average. If that's not an over-hyped valuation then I don't know what is.
Alternatively, maybe soon – with the small iPad filling the $249 price gap – Apple will finally kill the iPod Classic and cut prices on the rest of the line. They've been manufacturing the lower quality retina display for the iPod Touch for two years, and costs must be down significantly.

Combine that with falling costs for flash storage, and I could see them going down to $150-$250 for the Touch ($150 for 16GB up to $250 for 64GB), $100/$125 on the Nano, and keeping the Shuffle at $49.
From the standpoint of a mobile developer and a user of one of Samsung's 7" tablets, the 7" form factor is too big for phone apps to really feel right on it, and too small for the big tab apps to be naively scaled down and feel right. So any Apple tablet at that size will suffer from a lack of good software until everyone catches up.

On the plus side, with the entry of an Apple device, there will be a much greater incentive to create workable design paradigms for the form factor, and both Android and iOS devices this size will benefit.
This is awesome. Much thanks.
Rendering Sub Menus in Drupal 7
The average Nigerian or Bangladeshi has more phones than you do.

Facebook has not yet exhausted mobile.
What To Learn About Negotiation From Marissa Mayer’s Compensation Package
Microsoft: Windows Phone App publishing temporarily on hold
iPod Touch updates come in the fall (Sept/Oct) with the rest of the iPod lineup. You make an interesting point, but I think the devices are different enough that the Touch will stay for now. They fill different needs. The Touch is pocketable, a better iPod, and has a retina display. The mini iPad is better for web browsing, reading.
Or maybe it's just what it looks like?

You don't need a conspiracy to question whether a first-time CEO is suitable for a multi-billion company.

Sometimes they are! In the software and technology world, particularly. But it's still worth asking.

Personally, that Mason is being pilloried and Zuckerberg praised is just a reflection of the current state of play of their companies. It might be that Mason is a wonderful CEO. But the forcing function for Groupon is that they have a model which cannot live up to the hype.
I mostly agree, but "they exist to make up for poorly written code" should be "they exist to make up for less maintainable code." Less maintainable code may not be poorly written if other constraints (intense optimization in a critical path, for instance) force it on you.
1and1's Control Panel is quite painful to use, but you don't have to go through cancel.1and1.com to transfer a domain - just make sure your domain is unlocked and you have the EPP code handy.
> "You'd have to be doing a LOT of that sort of travel"

Of course. Most aircraft are significant investments; you don't drop that kind of money unless you've got really good reason.

That said, if you're one of the few for whom this particular use case is relevant, I can't think of a viable substitute. If you try to use a traditional aircraft, you're left needing ground transportation at various remote sites that may not have taxis. If you drive from site to site, you might end up spending an extra 3-5 hours on the road every day. So if you're running a high-revenue business that requires a high amount of travel, this (or some other flying car) might be a game-changer.

> "do you still have the B-17 out front?"

I stopped working there when my son was born, and left the state a year and a half ago. This is the first I've heard of the B-17 being out of its hangar, but apparently it's open for summer tours:

http://www.museumofflight.org/b-17-boeing-bee-bomber-tour
Steve Wozniak: Internet should not have gatekeepers or regulators
Curiosity's landing- as seen by 1 of her 3,000+ creators
Half a million credit cards stolen from Aussie business
HN is a circle-jerky echo chamber? Really? I can't really disagree strongly enough with this.

Back when I was a reddit junkie, I found that my use of the site was actively making me unhappy. Sure, people came from more diverse backgrounds, but the structure of the community encourages rhetorical maneuvering and brutal riposte. The problem was that I was good at it, and I was really addicted to the absurd emotional attachment that I had to watching people agree with me. Of course, that attachment went both ways, but as with most experiences, the negative experiences were more mentally prominent than the positive. The result was that I felt bitter a lot of the time, and when I channeled that bitterness into acerbic responses, I was rewarded. This is not good for the soul.

This, I think, illustrates two important points about exclusivity.

First, the cutthroat nature of high-karma commenting on reddit is in many ways a direct result of the site's laissez faire voting. Anyone can downvote anyone, and the exact total of those votes is then shown to everyone. I made this problem worse by writing Reddit Uppers and Downers, which shows the upvote and downvote counts separately. Two subtle but important ways that HN elevates the discourse are by reducing the information presented by voting, and by regulating the downvote privilege. One could decry this as "elitism", but I think the positive effect it has on discussion should not be underestimated.

Second, my problem became worse as the reddit community became less exclusive. Arguably, this could have been my own inability to cope with a broader variety of viewpoints, but I think the famed Eternal September problem was the larger issue.

The most rapid decline was in the use of downvotes. The guideline that it should be reserved for unproductive comments became ignored more and more with time. This effect was infectious even for established users, and the result was that the downvote button became a "dislike" button.

And more gradually, the level of discourse suffered as well. When I joined, reddit was a place where unusual and/or controversial opinions sparked interesting conversation. When I left, soon after the advent of the "sexual content relating to minors" rule, arguing that maybe the rule was a tad too broad would often get you labeled as a pedophile.

And the thing is, I still like seeing a comment get upvoted on HN. But what makes me happy is when someone disagrees with me and is willing to put thought into telling me why, and, if I'm lucky, actually convinces me to change my position.

If you want to maintain that scenario, you need to make sure that new members of the community are instated gradually enough that the community's principles aren't compromised. If that comes at the cost of a little intellectual diversity, then so be it.
More subtlety would definitely have done this article well.

As it stands, the satire is both obvious and contrived.
Vertical/Tree Tabs like Firefox has Tree Style Tab.

Quick Tab is an...interesting take on the problem, but leaves so much to be desired. I'd pay money for a good Tree Tab system in Chrome. It is literally the only reason I still use Firefox for my daily browsing.
Very few since in most cases the Groupon is good for the business.
A not-so-subtle pretend recruiting/bragging piece, except perhaps it had the reverse effect on me.

#1 reason I won't want to work at Facebook so I can avoid smug, not-so-witty, immature douchebags like the author. With the stock price where it is, I guess FB might have to resort to these kinds of tactics to attract talent these days.
You lose access to answers from the sort of people who won't spend 5 bucks to get onto the site.

In some circumstances, that may be extremely relevant.
Wow, I enjoyed that way too much, lol
Why the white male bashing? That is a very narrow minded view and I really hope that you can grow and see beyond race and gender. It is a big world out there and I recommend you go out and explore.
Not Clojure, but here's some non-elitist/non-math-heavy FP: http://learnyouahaskell.com/

There are plenty of helpful people around in various mailing lists and IRC channels. There are sour people everywhere, can't let that ruin things for you.

You need less IDE support with FP languages in general than with OO languages, but that's coming too: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22light%20table%22
Mmm, I think RISC has to be a relative term. (It does, after all, have "reduced" in its name, which implies a comparison with a less-reduced alternative.) So every time processor A has an instruction that can only be done with a sequence of several instructions on processor B, that is evidence that B is more RISCy than A.
Exploring IndexedDB
Just for a bit of context, Facebook makes approximately 2x Groupon's revenue yet their market cap is 12x. Groupon made a net income of $32M in Q2 2012 while Facebook saw a net loss of ($157M).

Might want to adjust your shorts. Groupon doesn't have much further to fall.
See, even you managed to write many more words than him. It's not just that one post linked which is bad, it's a whole series of posts especially about Google and Android full of smugness, snark and sneering designed for his target audience, Apple fans and apparently, Google haters. It's like some of his posts are inside jokes at a fraternity club, and frankly are of that quality. It's tabloid journalism and nothing else, frankly.

You think any article by someone calling Ping a brown piece of shit would ever be featured on HN? Hell, even Paul Thurott's Winsupersite is hellbanned on HN.
2 Simple Rules to Read More Facebook Fans
When I first looked into this strategy long ago when evaluating strategies to get considerably more likes in my little personal development page. Everybody else was telling me to "like" other pages within my niche and also engage with other individuals by actively engaged in discussions. Whilst this plan is recommended, I discovered that "liking" people's feedback on other fan pages was a lot more effective.
"Buy it for an enemy!" brilliant :-)
Nice post, and you definitely bring a certain amount of insight with it.

However, the current system is, in many cities, broken. Working to change laws to fix a broken system will produce a better outcome than trying to work within the broken system to bring about its maximum potential.

I love and use Uber because it provides a different and better service than taxis do in San Francisco. I don't even own a car, and instead split my transportation budget between public transportation and Uber. ZipCar has its uses for some people and some situations, but for me, Uber is my go-to reliable transportation system.

Comparing and contrasting Uber with SF taxi service:

- I've never had a bad experience with an Uber driver, whereas ~30-40% of my taxi rides were unpleasant in one way or another.

- It takes all of 30 seconds to call an Uber, and they always come. Calling a taxi dispatch takes much longer and is extremely unreliable, as many taxi drivers will pick up anyone that hails them on their way to picking someone up.

- Uber takes care of all payments through the app, including tip. My credit card is charged, and it gets recorded in Mint and added to my transportation budget for the month. Many SF taxi drivers will harass you if you try to pay with a credit card.

- Uber drivers will open your door for you, call you to make sure they pick you up at the right place, and many offer to help carry bags. Taxi drivers are usually in a rush, and don't offer anything besides the ride.

These are my experiences in a year in San Francisco. I used taxis exclusively for a while because they're cheaper, but have since switched to using Uber nearly exclusively. And with UberX now, the cost difference is negligible. I see no reason to own a car in SF as long as I'm here, and the reason for that is Uber. [[I am in no way affiliated with Uber with the exception of being a customer]]
Lies told in Silicon Valley
The thing is that had he actually did that, I would have a more positive view of working for FB. I would be impressed by the caliber of people who work there -- people who're capable of parsing out the nuances of a given situation and take a holistic view of the situation. Those people are the type who can work through difficult situations and salvage a bad one. Instead, I walk away with the impression that FB is full of immature toolbags.
"The food is too good. What’s wrong with good food? Well, here’s what’s wrong: there’s too much of it. Three meals a day. Free. Cooked by award-winning chefs. And too many choices: salads, entrees, desserts, vegetarian food, soups, whole grains, usually a second dessert, organic stuff, barbeque, ice cream, fresh-squeezed orange juice. For someone like me with zero gastronomic self-control, this supposed “benefit” or “perk” is a complete disaster. Why doesn’t the FDA step in?"

Is he complaining that he's getting too fat from eating at Facebook's buffet?
If you have no safety in your sharing of information, you have no freedom.
Actually, I suspect the presumption is that the "iPad Mini" is going to take price off the table as an objection -- if Apple brings such a device in for even a base price of $249, it's going to be seriously competitive.

(And, of course, "average consumer" is also probably a key phrase. There are rational objections to be made to iOS, but they're mostly relating to things that HN readers are likely to value more highly than most consumers.)
How is productivity measured than? (OP)
The RISC vs CISC debate has been dead for years. Doubly so ever since we found the limits of scaling clock frequencies ever higher. After all, the RISC movement started as a reaction to the difficulties of scaling the architectures of the day to faster clock frequencies. Now (decades, really) CPU designers are concentrating on doing more work per clock cycle, which is rather anti-RISC. So the only questions that matter are "can we implement this feature efficiently?" and "does this feature provide enough performance or power gain for the implementation cost?"
Knock 1.3 billion off that number because FB is blocked in China.
I really like the Linux/server tutorials SliceHost has: http://articles.slicehost.com/
I was trying to say (pardon my English) that in the cities where the AC suppose to help, lots of people will be taking advantage of the "overprotective" system. When normally every time you are crossing the street you don't know what kind of driver is passing you, whether it is a good decent driver or a lunatic on acid, with AC all cars will drive and behave the same way. So people, knowing this will be likely to cross in front of the AC knowing it is smart enough to pull over safely enough not to hit the pedestrian. They will take advantage of knowing the computer's behavior.
Facebook’s Lockup Expiration: Who Could Sell
Pinterest for iPad and Android now available for download
> specifically Zuck’s idealism (perhaps even naïveté) that focusing on building great products will lead to solid long-term businesses

Nothing against that. Also I find it a good thinh that he's still involved in the products ...

But what good products does he think does Facebook make? Quality does not really come to mind when I think about Facebook. This is common among my peers too. To us Facebook is the place where soccer moms get ripped off by clicking on pixel cows.

That's also why I'd never work for them. It's something my hacker honor wouldn't allow.
One of the biggest downside of this a lot of people like cab/truck driver will lose their jobs due to this "revolution"

In the medium to long term, that's a benefit.
Comments in the body of a function should never be necessary for maintenance. The most unmaintainable code I have ever had the displeasure of working with was code which either had no comments or documentation or code with sparse documentation and LOTS of code comments.

If comments are necessary for maintainability, a simple solution is to flag the comment with a FIXME tag so that the next guy reads the comment and realizes that a section of code is unclear and should be looked at with extra care.

That isn't to say I am against code commenting. I find that when I follow my own code commenting practices and try hard to avoid using comments to explain code, I still use them frequently, probably more frequently than average. I am just saying the purpose needs to be clearly thought out.

In my view, the most important thing is interface documentation. This is a promise to the programmer, and it forms the basis of what you might think of as a development contract. You write your code this way, call the function this way, and you will get a certain return result. To a maintenance programmer, then, the question is whether the code works and by "works" I mean whether it fulfils its part of the contract by implementing what the comments promise. If a caller is requiring a corner case, then that can either be added to the documenting comments (i.e. adding to the promise) or the caller can be changed. So these comments are of vital importance and I see nobody arguing against them.

But within a function body things are different. Comments can be helpful here for collaboration and future development (and a subset of this is maintenance, but if you mind the rest this will take care of itself). A good maintenance programmer knows when to read the comments. if the comments describe the code, a good maintenance programmer will ignore them all in order to focus on what the code is actually doing and whether it fits the API docs. Bad comments then hurt more than they help and this includes comments which needlessly describe what the code is doing.

On the other hand good comments are golden and these either flag potential issues for the programmer (# BE CAREFUL OF SQL INJECTION HERE BECAUSE WE CAN'T USE PARAMETERIZED QUERIES!) organize code (# variable declarations) or add footnotes so that it is clear why a given choice was made (# RFC XYZ specifies a max timeout of 120 seconds).

The hostility is not to comments in code. The hostility is to a certain common practice, whereby comments duplicate code. There is no case where this makes sense without flagging the issue to a future programmer and noting that a rewrite is in order.
I am a firm believer that if the car was never invented until 2012, we would not be in control of them, they would be computerized and autonomous.

I welcome the day when unnecessary deaths due to car accidents is a reality.