skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Somewhat off topic: what happened to Mini Microsoft? It seems like he/she was intercepted and lobotomized by Microsoft PR. The open threads with wonderful discussion (one of the best venues for talking across silos) habitually wither from neglect from Mini. What's the next best place?
There are several ways to compile Python. But point taken, will think about drafting a specific license to avoid situations like this in the future.
Command-line gems
gdb is one of those tools that I regret never learning because I've always had an IDE. I was able to follow the examples here well enough, but the array assignment causes gdb to crash in Cygwin. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to overcome that (short of installing a vm & a real linux)?
I'm all in for revolutionary changes. Unfortunately, that's not what Apple did in this case.

The iPhone is outstanding design. And that is the extent of their work: with enough computing power, they made the first smartphone that didn't suck. Sooner or later, it was bound to happen.
I think it would be very lazy to reduce Microsoft's ultimate success or failure in this decade to a single policy. There are lots of factors that can make large companies fail to move well with the times.

Likewise, I wouldn't give it much credit if MS (or Google, or whoever) does well. With a few notable counterexamples, most very large companies end up adopting processes to manage the size of the company, but how large is the impact of the particular process chosen? Is it really controlling success or failure?

Bad management/vision can happen in any system.
Web/Interactive designer at drchrono
And that's because design, when done right, is obvious.
Worlds longest bus seats 256 passengers
I'm not so sure that you'll get the results you're aiming for there. Do you have links to a source that has successfully carried off this plan?
What would Ballmer rate in CEO stack ranking with the rest of corporate America?
Apple is not a patent troll, but patent trolling is merely one facet of patent abuse.

We need to focus on patent abuse, and Apple most certainly is abusing the recent flaws in the patent system, by patenting things which do not deserve patent protection (because patent protection for these things does not benefit society at large, discourages innovation, and is contra to the original intent of the patent system). The problem, fundamentally, is the system, not Apple, but because they are benefiting from its flaws, it's very likely they will defend them.

Unfortunately this will be quite hard, because Apple (along with other abusers) is also extremely, extremely, rich, and the rich tend to get their way...
And some very high z-index value.
I have honestly never heard of anyone not liking CSS before reading this thread, except for maybe people just starting out who don't understand it. I am an experienced front-end developer an agency and I love css when it's enhanced by a dynamic language like sass or stylus. It's quick, powerful, and easy style many elements at once and create beautiful and lightweight custom UI elements. The only thing I don't like is having to work with it cross browser, but that has nothing to do with css as a language.

I studied iOS development for a few months, read a 600 page book on it, and tinkered around with it for a while and found myself begging for CSS. Native custom app interfaces seem backwards to me - the difficult of writing core graphics methods for every bevel, rounded corner, gradient etc has a lot of developers just using cut images for everything. Disclaimer, I'm way way more experienced with css than i am with core graphics - just my impressions.
I found this interesting when I saw it before. I had thought of something similar after seeing Nimbus Chameleon http://blog.jeffverkoeyen.com/nimbus-chameleon The difference for me however was I was just thinking iOS and was wondering if something could be created that utilized the UIAppearance APIs in UIKit http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/...

Edit: I realized I ran into something that does almost exactly what I wanted a couple weeks ago on github https://github.com/robertwijas/UISS
Is an offer for just above 100k for someone who just got their undergrad degree (i didn't get an offer like this, but more than one of my friends has) just 60% of the top market salary now? Man, I need to renegotiate my salary.
Assuming you used the same strategy I am using now for level 8 (and which seemed popular on the IRC channel), I think the method for determining the other chunks doesn't work for the last one, since it is the last one in the series.
All any fad diet boils down to is "how can I eat like a pig, not exercise and stay thin?" and sell books about the diet.
why start at 59?
The problem is the system imposes a bottom 10% even if everyone performs equally well.
Hmmm. Very interesting perspective.

I'm currently using a number of "dead" programs.

In fact, most of my kernel is "dead". There is code in there that hasn't been changed in over 30 years!

I'm even communicating over a "dead" protocol. When were the last changes to TCP?

I'd even guess you are using some "dead" software yourself. Low level stuff that no one has the desire nor energy to modify.

(To be clear, I am not suggesting that we should not try to improve programs, continually. I'm only pointing out that perhaps sometimes code works for what it's supposed to do, no one has come forward with something "better" and hence the code does not need to be fiddled with endlessly in the absence of serious bugs.)
That's odd.

They get a 5 from me. Where 5 is the number of times I have RMAed that XBox there you've mentioned.

(Actually the sad part is that that's a lie, I think the last time was number 6 for this same console, which I play rarely).
Not to mention that a NDA only provides a way to attack the person who signed it, and has no effect on anybody else even if they further spread the information.
You have to be down for any company's culture to have much success there. I agree that this seems stupid, but Microsoft also is far larger than any company I'd probably work for. There's a lot of other companies that I wouldn't work for either that are that large and they don't use stack ranking. At some point when you become this big, you look at HR as being literally HUMAN RESOURCES, in the sense of the junk you mine in StarCraft. It's chaff to deliver products. Seems as reasonable a system as any to manage that many folks. It's the resources attitude I wouldn't want to be around, not specifically the stack ranking. Seems like a consequence rather than a cause.
Typically, it's not "build a company, any company" vs. "follow their life-long vision".

More common story is to build some successful project/company, then to build the real thing.

Elon Musk started with Zip2, Tony Hsieh started with LinkExchange.
Wow, I'm amazed people are downvoting the fact that

a) Apple has been neglecting updating the Mac Pro line (I've been waiting)
b) Because of a) you can now buy a much much better Linux or Windows box

I merely object to the idea that laptops can replace workstations, they can only do that for some people, and although the Retina MacBook is probably the best laptop ever made, it does not suit someone who wants a liquid cooled factory overclocked 4.2Ghz i7 with a GeForce 690 GTX and a RAID.
It sounds a bit like you didn't actually want to open source this code at all. Open Source isn't, "Look, I am giving away my hard work for free." Open Source means you give people the opportunity to build on top of your work. This is how things evolve. If everyone has to start from square one every time they have an idea for improving something they use it would slow everything down. And yes, it means you will effectively end up competing with your own code for mindshare and users, but presumably that doesn't frighten you. As long as they abide by the terms of the license and let others to the same they are in the same boat. If someone else does a better job improving the code, marketing it, providing support, etc. more power to them. Chances are if your version is the best supported contributions will flow back to you.

I personally prefer BSD-style licenses. I don't mind commercial competition at all.
I was expecting the levels to be factors of 2. :(
exactly... anyone who has worked in a place like that (I have) thinks it sucks... or you really thrive... one of the two. I end up in the camp that thinks it sucks.

In other words your entire team works for a full quarter straight 60 hours a week... ah well at least some percentage of you are ranked lower. Tell me that is fair.

Stack ranking is horrible.
Samsung Case Puts Apple Closer to Google Fight
Come on... This isn't even a review. Its four paragraphs long. Its from eight months ago. It nearly 2 full releases behind. The conclusion is "If only the update mechanism were more modern…", but there is no discussion of it.
Please don't submit such an empty review.

I love OpenBSD but this "review" isn't doing anyone any favors.
Not too long now before twitter releases pricing?
The Art (and Science) of Farting
God says...
laughed dispenser Passion admit butler Newsletter program
Victim enlarge leading conferring creepeth reproachful
ceaseth furnished forgiving spectacle melodies boastfulness
vice worshipping would-be Tobias represent discovering
boiled breathe Oratory Whence rounds ETEXTS*Ver New_Zealand
exceedingly ehheh_thats_all_folks philosophy anxiety Wyoming
Ask HN: How do brands work?
How does branding work? Especially for us mathematically minded folks.

What do normal everyday people see in brands? What is brand loyalty and how does that work? Are brands basically a way to let people be lazy by outsourcing their thinking?
Sounds like an RPG! :)
Pot permanently lowers IQ
Is anyone else worried about people this is going to lead to scores of people trying to board while talking away on their phones while forgetting about the 200 people behind them?

Or, for that matter get seated next to a guy who's arguing with his spouse/stockbroker/best friend the entire 4 hour flight?

I'm all for in-flight communication, but I'm a little worried of the chaos it might bring as well.
I didn't know bush's high school grades were released, and i couldn't find them in a cursory google search. do you have a link?
Wake Up, Deathists - You DO Want to LIVE 10,000 Years
GTK 3 uses CSS for user styles and themes too, I think. See https://desktopsummit.org/sites/www.desktopsummit.org/files/...

This replaces the old `.gtkrc` system.

Those with recent Ubuntu desktops, try it out!
I haven't yet worked anywhere where everyone performed equally. I've seen places that keep the people at the bottom on as long as everything else is going well, and other places that try to replace them as soon as possible. But I don't know enough about the precise details of MS's system to comment on how fair it would be in the end.

An entire team working 60 hours a week a full quarter straight is an entirely different problem.
Does EPUB and Mobi scale?
flyertalk.com is the hacker news of travel optimization.

Personally, I find that airline miles have gotten totally inflated to uselessness. I care about airline STATUS, but mile redemptions are a huge pain. (You can get Star Alliance Gold for 20k miles/year on Aegean Airlines, and CX Silver (mid-tier and One World status) for free with Founders Card, and such). Lounge access, easier boarding, etc., which is especially useful if you buy cheap economy tickets. Airline status also helps a lot during irregular ops -- if a flight is cancelled, the guy with a UA Global Services card is going to get rebooked before the person who flies United once a year.

SPG has been fairly good about keeping the terms of the program constant (or improving them) over the past 13 years that it's been around. If you use the points optimally, you can get $0.03-0.04 per point redemption -- remember with hotel points you also get out of taxes, which in some markets can add 20-25% to the base room rate. As of last year, Starwood point redemption stays now count for elite qualification, too. You only get 1 point per general dollar spent, but can get up to 12 points per dollar during certain promotions when spending at Starwood properties; there are times when a marginal dollar spent at Starwood on a card, with status, during a promotion is actually returning $0.60 directly and then bonuses like 500 points per stay, requalification for elite tiers, etc. which make people do crazy things called "mattress runs" where they take trips just to check in and collect credit. Hotel points are kind of special with Starwood since redemptions are constant-price in points, or constant price in cash and points, while cash rates fluctuate widely. 10k points can get you a $99 Tuesday night in Las Vegas, or it can get you a $600 Saturday night in Las Vegas. Status also lets you force availability during some events (sort of works during SXSW, unofficially, and NYE in NYC).

The best cash-back cards are 2% unlimited -- there was a Schwab card (no longer offered, I believe) and was a Pentagon FCU card. Cash is undeniably easier to work with, but having point bonuses in various programs can be useful as well.

The best deal for Amazon cash back is the Citi Forward card. It gives 5% cash back on all bookstore purchases, and currently all Amazon purchases are coded as bookstore purchases. (I am going to try it with AWS once my credit balance runs out; it would be hilarious for someone to run Netflix's AWS bills through a 5% cash back card!). Otherwise by using the Chase Amazon card you get 3% on amazon, and can use a 1.78x multiplier (redeeming $900 of credit for $1600 in flights).

Someone smarter than me recently said "I could optimize for that stuff, but then I look at how much value I can add to my startup by working an extra hour...", and yeah, that makes sense too. But travel programs are a fun game to hack.
And I give the people the freedom to do with the code as they please, as long as they follow the terms of the license. And I don't mind commercial competition, in fact I promote it right in the website: http://rosarior.github.com/mayan/support.html
Without knowing, I would guess that lower numbers are used for non-developer employees (i.e. sales or marketing).
one more step closer to monopoly
83(b) Elections For Dummies
The system is really ugly in the sense there's a percentage of people that get each score and MUST be met each cycle.

20% people of each group will get a 4/5 regardless of their work done. Then the other 50% of the people that bust their butt off are told: Sorry! We can only tell 10 percent of the people they rock.
My guess is that Mayan EDMS is way more popular than all the other forks, so you probably don't need to worry about it so much. I'll also chime in to say thanks for making open source software, I know I really appreciate it.
Design patents on the form of a utilitarian object become functional. People get used to handling an iphone with rounded corners. They get used to volume buttons being in a certain place, on/off buttons being in a certain place, charging/usb ports being in a certain place. Imitating those things strikes me as less of an attempt to "rip off" Apple and more of an attempt to make it easier to use for people who want to switch away from the iphone or ipad for other reasons.

Pagerank is a great example of something that's not supposed to be patentable. It's an algorithm. The claims are "computer implemented method of (description of some algorithm)" and "computer-readable medium that stores instructions (that implement some algorithm)". Absurd. I'd be in favor of someone trying to invalidate that patent. Google's algorithm incorporates so many more signals now than what is identified in the pagerank patent (#6285999). Putting that patent into the public domain wouldn't have any direct impact on Google's market share.

I'd like to know how duckduckgo or any other smaller search engine avoids getting sued. Is it possible to be in the search engine space and avoid infringing on any of the [invalid but granted anyway] patents in that space? The pagerank patent has a massive list of newer, mostly search related, patents in its "referenced by" list (which takes up the vast majority of the page). [1]

I think a lot of people most infuriated by Apple's patent suit against Samsung also think the Pagerank patent is not valid. If you're looking for bias, good luck with your search. I'm against all horrible patents even if they're owned by patent non-aggressors, and even if they're owned by companies I depend on for technology.

[1] http://www.google.com/patents?vid=6285999
How do you know it's the gimmicks that make the "billions upon billions" of dollars? Are you making some assumptions?

Could marketing play a role in consumer decisions?
I can't believe how much time I wasted trying to debug C and C++ code in college with nothing more than printf and cout.

You say this as if this practice also isn't prevalent in working and experienced programmers also :)
Do people generally attempt to do something they know they will not be able to do?
I'm sick of this kind of twitter stories. This is just a hype about Twitters' internal affairs. Their business. Why on earth this is top news or even on frontpage? They have just skipped showing 2 words. If the story was about "how twitter hypothetically screwed and made 2 man hours work of deleting two words from tweets 2 man days of work" I'd be more willing to read it.

Please - this is not about hacking, this is not about technology, this is not even about entrepreneurship - I would really love stories about twitter's opensource projects, twitter's technology choice, twitter's software development methodologies, twitter's devels' thoughts about samsung-apple case. But this is not news worthy. At least not news worthy for Hacker News.
You don't need it for arbitrary problems, no, but this problem was stated as a coin toss.
Feds: Too few Americans ‘turn to government for assistance’
We're NASA and we know it (Mars Curiosity)
Now, this is neat way to celebrate engineering and science with swagger.

Yo, where goin ta look for ice (life)... Gotta calibrate, gotta be precise...
Dr. Chrono sounds like a comic book super-villian Agree/Disagree?
The author of this article, Jim Duey, has written some newer introductions to monads in clojure on his new site: http://www.clojure.net/archive.html
Australian labelling must be in kJ (but it will often have the kcal amount listed as well)
CSS layout for native apps? I have to hack heights for a vertical center position?
Every company I've ever worked at - has claimed they pay Radford 50 [1] . (50% of the average).

Unless every company pays their employees pretty much exactly the same, somebody out there has to be in the Radford 75, 90, and presumably 100. You'd think that they would brag about that so the best employees would apply there.

It should be clear why companies won't admit to being in the radford 40, 20, 10, and presumably 0. :-)

[1] http://www.radford.com
They made a fatal mistake in building a Rails app. That led them down the wrong path for an ecosystem that needs to be a decentralized protocol. See tent.io, they've got the right idea. Not sure if they'll be successful, but work in this area needs to be at the protocol level, not at the application level. And as soon as I heard what they were doing I knew they were toast.
Yes, just over 100k is about right. My fresh out of undergrad offer to one of Microsoft's major competitors was almost identical to my colleagues' MS offers. Mine was to a competitor who is also known for offering below-market salaries along with generous benefits.
So he was obviously right.

Not at all. Semmelweis thought something associated with death was what was killing people (eg, he chose chlorinated limes which he found best removed the stink of death).

I suspect the focus on death and dead people meant people focused on that, and "proved" to themselves he was "wrong".

I can imagine scenarios where doctors dealt with one woman who had a good birth experience, didn't use the Semmelweis handwashing method (because the first woman didn't have the death particles) and then the next woman got infected and died. To many (unfortunately), that would prove his theory was wrong.
The problem is the system imposes a bottom 10% even if everyone performs equally well.

The problem isn't ranking people, it's how they determine the score. Are the bottom 10% really the bottom or the people who were the worst at selling themselves to their managers? Do you really thinking that everyone performs equally well?

I look at the MSs and Googles of the world as the big leagues in software development. They only want to hire the best and only want to keep the best around. Not everyone can make it in the big leagues, it's just that simple.

This sort of thing happens in pro sports every single day. NFL teams are finishing their cuts right now.
>quality font rendering

That depends on your distro. You can also install the infinality patches (which are being merged into stock freetype2), and the result is better font rendering than OS X or Windows.
The article does state:

The group however will not "consider the airborne use of cell phones
for voice communications during flight."
I met the author (after having seen his video of this subject) at clojure/conj 2011. Fascinating guy, and can really explain this stuff in more or less terms I can understand.

I don't use it enough to "get it" so I have to re-learn it every time I feel the need to, but this is the go-to spot for me.
true... ;)
I usually have to do the Verified by Visa stuff too, but my understanding is that it's almost entirely optional for a merchant to require the extra information. Payment can still be made even without a CVV.

And even if verified by visa were compulsory, it would still be possible to create a Direct Debit payment using the account details, which are frequently written on the card, and the address.
The article states that the main draw of this bus is it caries a large number of passengers, yet is cheaper than a train. But is it much cheaper than buying 3 regular size buses? Other than the cost of two additional drivers, that is?
Tell ya what I'm sick of.

This kind of comment.

Why on earth should I care what some anonymous person thinks is newsworthy? You've got a counter right there showing you exactly how many people find it worth reading.

If it's interesting, read it and/or comment. If it's not, scroll past. Flag if you want. But the only thing less newsworthy than a given story is your assessment of its newsworthiness.
If they published a comic series, I would read it.
Airbnb Tech Talk: Jay Kreps on LinkedIn's realtime data pipeline using Kafka
I suspect many will be skeptical of this research as it's almost become an article of faith that pot smoking is harmless and all criticism to the contrary is merely party-pooping oppression.

One of the things that often concerns me about Silicon Valley in recent years has been the trend of many startups where pot smoking is part of the established culture of the company. I don't think it's a majority, but it's certainly more than I'd realized previously and it certainly seems to be a more recent trend.

I'm not a vehement prohibitionist by any means. However, I've been burned by a co-founder showing up stoned to a key meeting with an investor who'd committed a 6-figure sum out of his own pocket to get the company to where it was. That was a problem.

Maybe it's just me aging - I am not a big drinker nowadays, after going through the same college years everyone else did where drinking was involved in so much social activity - but over the years I've arrived at the belief that much of the time wasted stoned, by folks convinced this is making them more creative, is time that could be put to better use.

Feel free to do what you want to do, sure. But reminding people that there are negative consequences is never a bad thing.
Ah true, you are given it. I just meant that you don't need it :)
So why are you not just skipping my comment and wasting your precious time on answering me?
This never addresses the mentality of "eating better" instead of simply "eating less."