skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
India is not a police state. India is a dysfunctional state only made functional through continuous petty bribery.

Historically police states like Nazi Germany or Mao's China operated by being well organized at all levels of society. India is absolutely not well organized at all levels of society. Instead India seems optimized for the petty bribe seeking bureaucrat. It's not the all knowing police state. It's the disorganized mafia state.

I had an easier time getting a work permit in Russia last year than India. The sheer amount of paperwork and rubber stamps required for my Indian work permit was the worst I have ever had to deal with and I've worked all over the world. All of this paperwork and stamping allows perfect opportunities for small time bureaucrats to extract bribes and favors from people who just need to get something done. So when I look at something like requiring ID to use wifi I don't see Total Information Awareness. I see Tammany Hall and a genius system that's operating exactly as it was designed, to extract graft from normal people at every possible opportunity.

Disclaimer:
I lived in India for 0.5 years in '99 and recently worked there again in 2011 for a month. My answers are based on these experiences and of knowing lots of Indians frustrated with their government.
You seem to do, considering you cannot find an up to date browser to your liking. It also seems to be a valid alternative considering you do not want to buy software upgrades (OS).
Startup brings browser-toolbar crapware to Safari, Maps and other iOS built-ins
Should we thank Lincoln for codifying the law of war—or curse him?
> But, I'd argue this works exactly as HBO wants it to, so it's not broken, it just doesn't do what you want it to.

You're nitpicking. It's broken in the colloquial sense -- the app makes an implicit promise and then delivers only partway. That it was built to spec is immaterial; if the spec is "broken" (anti-user, antipattern, etc) it doesn't matter if you build exactly to spec... it's still broken.
Chinese sexy girl videos
Avoiding Deus ex Machina
Ah, interesting. But what if the app communicates via https, how could verizon detect any inner protocol?

Or does it happen only when using the ISP as http proxy?
They can't sell it and they can't not sell it (the days where new people brought packages are over, giving how easy it is to download it). They are simply making great shows and acting irrational about the business.
30+ Vibrant and Flashy Illustrations By TechnoDrome1
How to Disable Office 2013 Start Screen.
Safari is not supporting latest version on Windows, and if they were to support, I'd assume they'd also want people to have the latest OS. I have not gone the Opera route yet in a substantive way.

People above seem upset that there are still people out there using XP. My main point is that there should be multiple choices of reasonable browsers including even for older hardware.

The way I have seen things move, the Firefox is as same as anything else when it comes to utilizing a whole lot of memory.
That's another interesting topic of discussion though!

It's funny that national media (and even our local newspapers here in Detroit) tend to write-off the American autos as out of touch. Not discounting this sentiment, but they are making moves...

The Ford family have been investing in auto tech like P2P car-sharing (Wheelz) via the investment fund, Fontinalis Partners. Meanwhile, GM Ventures is investing resources into startups like RelayRides.
Congratulations Mailgun. You guys deserve it.
Show HN: A path to what people want
Hi, could I get some constructive feedback on an idea please?

This is one of those ideas that might be too disturbing socially to be taken seriously. The most surprising thing I observed is not that people can't say they do this - it's that they don't want to hear that they are susceptible to it already under various disguises (notably: employment).

Thanks to a couple of wise people who said most ideas are crazy and encouraged us to build this. If you were to change just one thing, what would that be?

Thanks in advance, I'll be happy to return the favor, I promise! http://lookapinky.com
I assume you were downvoted for saying there is no value in being able to send (and receive) email, but there is.

Deliverability is a huge important issue for most people, if I send an email and it doesn't arrive then I'm in a bad spot. I used a similar service to Mailgun (http://postmarkapp.com) and the amount I paid per month (when I was sending emails) meant if I spent more than 1 hour of my time configuring and managing a mail server every month I would be losing money.

This is an especially big issue for people that are using virtual servers or not that great server providers, ones that recycle IPs, if I'm correct in my understanding of mail deliverability, if an IP has sent spam before it's almost guaranteed to be blocked by most spam protection companies, that sort of thing isn't good.
I'm really loving their fast release schedule. There is noticeable improvement in performance with each release (may be placebo effect ? :) )
Spammers harvesting your Facebook info to send you spoofed emails
My father notified me that he received a spam email from me with a Yahoo.com return address using a name that I only use on Facebook.

Looking around on the internet, I see reports starting two weeks ago about people receiving spam from a Yahoo email address with From: <a relative> and the Subject: for <firstname>.

Delving into my Facebook privacy settings, I saw "Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided?" was set to Everyone. Hmmm.

I logged into a Facebook account that is not friends with my father, I searched on his email address, found his profile, and was able to his friend list.

Spammers must be doing the same thing - searching email addresses, going to the page, and, if the friend list is public, sending the spoofed emails. It seems to be choosing relatives or people with the same last name for the spoofed "From" name.

It's time once again to check and update your Facebook privacy settings.
You are talking about policy which can be undone with laws.

Try DE-militarizing our police which respond with massive weapon-grade force to unarmed, legal, protests (or shoot a dozen innocent bystanders to get to one crazy person).
I second this. I switched from Arch to Debian unstable so I could have machines targeting unstable, testing and stable all from the same distro.

I do miss Arch-style init though.
If they're using a front-end tool, you're committing to making additional software--you might as well have the front-end generate the file. What's the gain of using one file format over another if it's the structured output of your program?

> You're right that encoding needs to be solved, but the solution is to just make UTF-8 mandatory and be done with it. There's no real reason to support every encoding under the sun nowadays.

I agree--but that's the kind of decision that needs to be made and documented up-front. And you'll still have issues, because users will be creating text files on their home computers, and who knows what their home computer's encoding is set to? It's not guaranteed to be Unicode. You'll either wind up bloating your spider by guessing encodings, or you'll have made the format more strict.

> If the user is not technically able to make sure he saves the file in the right format, he can just use a tool. It's not like XML doesn't require tools anyway.

If I wait long enough, my point makes itself.

> Bloating the file format is a poor solution to that problem.

You don't have to love XML to be able to admit that it sometimes is the right solution. By not using it, you're admitting you'll deal with all these problems yourself instead. It may be that you can handle them with less effort than using the solution XML provides, but you'll be making everyone else go to that same effort as well, which isn't the case with XML.

At the end of the day, this is the fifth proposal to solve this problem and it's obviously the worst of the lot. The real world will go on using microformats, RDF and Google's AI.
I used to think so, but the more I've seen of the reporting, especially with the recent riots and Assam migrations, the less I trust them.

I used to never give credence to the insinuations that Indian Media was bought.

After the recent events, I've just stopped trusting them at all.

I got better reports from trawling through the dregs of r/India and then linking to other forums and checking out comments there.

Aside from that firstpost/tehelka come to mind for decent reporting.

What use is a free press, if they spend their freedom on just making up soundbites to garner eyeballs?
Perhaps the Software Freedom Law Center (http://www.softwarefreedom.org/) and gpl-violations.org (http://gpl-violations.org/) are the right ones to ask.
Is the Fed the Only Thing Driving U.S. Financial Markets?
I'll just leave this here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trial
Not yet, my main focus is the rendering of the chart. I plan to make an interface after the first release, but the idea is to pipe raw data into it for display rather than be interactive.
>Can you give me one legitimate reason to move off of this OS when 99% of my use of this OS is only through the browser?

That's a perfect reason to get off that OS.

Or, you know, you could use Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc rather than whine non-specifically.
Newer OS versions aren't just marketing ploy, they also include major security features. This is very important if everything you do is in the browser. There are a world of browser exploits that can compromise your system, and the majority of them target Windows XP due to its security holes (some of which cannot be patched without moving to 7 or 8).

You can continue to make your stand against Microsoft's evil plans, but saving yourself $100 by not upgrading could end up costing you everything in your bank account when you end up with a rootkit that steals your account information.
Project Management and Project Failure
Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it
I imagine the interest on $500M can build infrastructure just as well as improve schools.
Sorry - I should've written "was", not "is" :) I've left the channel quite a while ago. I remember that most people were blogging and graphing their progress; at least that's all we talked about. I could do some very light coding but nothing that required more than 10 minutes of focus.

That said, at least people weren't sticking to überman religiously- everyone seemed to drift towards a longer "core sleep" with a few naps during the day.
Can Apple do anything about this?
Why do american regulatory agencies put up with this crap? One provider shouldn't interfere with another (much less block it).
Another spectacular piece by Nir. Love how this gets beyond basic UI tips into really deep, specific reasons explaining why people behave how they do on your site.
Those are probably patented, also.
Part-time Founders
I use the Usenet since 1999 for downloading. In my country it's still fully legal to download anything, but not distributing (uploading) it.

We don't have hulu, netflix, bbc iplayer, spotify, whatever since the world wide system of copyright is too complicated. Media providers have a huge hassle to simplify the process.

As long as it's easier for millions of people to set up a giganews acc, couchpotato and download every single blockbuster in HD quality months before it's available on BluRay, VoD et cetera, people will do this.

The day when one eco-system provides me with state of the art resolution movies which I can buy _and_ collect (not VoD) , no matter where I live, that day will be the end of my filesharing career.
I suggest you read this article and then tell me what right to privacy you think you have. Or will you be wilfully ignorant of what is happening right under your nose.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/27/u-s-government-domestic-survei...
I'd say they are squeezing the wound, speeding up the bleeding.
I think they can revoke a certificate, but I don't think these certs need to be signed by Apple to be effective. If they aren't, they probably just show a warning.
If you like reading about this, I recommend "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe.

He also explores the interesting dynamics of how the astronauts using "simple" rockets became more famous than pilots who achieved stick-based flight to near-space levels.
Which is something Apple shouldn't have done - with all the crap they make devs go through, fully working airplay should be a required feature with all the video players.
And then Fox sued Dish for ad-skipping.
Firefox ESR
You are a lot less likely to take a Roku or Xbox to a friends' house to watch Game of Thrones, but you always have your iPhone

But if you have access to HBOGO as a HBO subscriber in the first place, you could just log in to the website on your friend's laptop (or Roku, or Xbox) and watch the same content that way.
I would just advise to make sure something internal isn't holding up payment at the customer. If this is a larger company, any number of things could be causing it. If it is a small company or an individual, then disorganization could be a cause...or a lack of funds. My companies have faced this issue in the past with companies from the Fortune 50 to small companies. Very few times did something actually go unpaid for longer than 90 days. Just be friendly and persistent.
It might be "as good as" if you're just using it to run a browser. But in my experience Win7 has been snappier to use than XP on the same machine, software vendors are starting to stop supporting XP, the UI is more pleasant (subjective), and the 64-bit support is much better. Just a few things.
Might be worth putting your name down for the Stripe global beta access: https://stripe.com/global.
It's the same as Chrome's - 6 weeks. What I think made a lot of people before attack Mozilla for it was because: 1) the "Firefox user" wasn't used to this kind of fast updates, the way the "Chrome user" was - and 2) Firefox' updates were not silent, and therefore you knew you got an update and some users may have been getting annoyed having to update it so often, instead of silently upgrading in the background. But apparently they now have silent upgrades starting with this version.
RumbleTalk HTML5 chat widget was just added to wix offering
Apple strikes licensing deal with Motorola in Germany
I think one of the more interesting bits is how you integrate via a javascript snippet

https://www.klaviyo.com/docs/javascript-api

It seems like you could tag events quite easily on your site [customer logged in, customer performed action, etc] quite like mixpanel - and then use the rest of the system to perform actions in responses.

It would be super simple to set up a "Haven't seen you in a while" email without having to do any extra work. Lots of companies build nice products but don't put any effort on customer success, past conversion to sign up.

I like it. A non-technical could add a lot of value to an existing site.
Anybody know a good alternative? It seems that aquired SAS means they will either suck or close.
The forum moderator uploads each ad manually and explicitly states that ads can be rejected for being "too annoying." Although I could see how this would be a backdoor in some situations, the site owner will not upload our ad unless he's OK with it.
A Serendipitous Tale of a Naval Clerk Talking to Neil Armstrong on the Moon
NetFlix is one.
Hot Mobile Apps
http://www.imgtocss.com/convert?url=http://www.imgtocss.com/... produces style attribute that will be stripped down by most web email clients.
Chartboost Adds GREE, Other Gaming Partners to Mobile Ad Network Alternative
I really want a distro that is minimal but also "just works." I like tweaking things as much as the next guy, but when I'm heading off to work and want to print a shipping label from my laptop quick, I really don't want to have to sit and read a manual to figure out why my printer isn't working. On the other hand, 90% of the time I'm at my computer, I'm just using Vim or a web browser, so running a full desktop stack seems like a waste.

The closest thing I've found to what I want is Debian Testing. I've heard good things about Gentoo, and while I think I'm more than capable of RTFM and doing it myself, and sometimes I enjoy doing it myself--other time, I really do want it to just work so I can get work done too.
> The query in this case is "GPL site:X". Site 1 and 3 have no page with the term GPL inside.

GPL has no requirement that the site make any mention of the license. It says the license must be included with the distribution. So check the download...
"Mitt Romney might have famously called to let Detroit go bankrupt, but all it really needed was some investors who cared enough to force a paradigm shift."

Those two things are unrelated. Bankruptcy doesn't mean the city physically disappears or anything. The reason one declares bankruptcy is to clear debts (in a fairly drastic way), which opens capital up to do things other than service debt. It may yet be a necessary or desirable step.
Why I Joined App.net
The App.net effect is due to sample bias -- the people paying are the one's most likely to be enthusiastic about it, so they are enthusiastic about it to justify the fact that they spent $50 for it. They don't want to feel like they've wasted their money. With App.net, users have a vested interest in other users adopting the service, hence the cheerleading.
congrats on the excellent progress!
I don't think this is true in general. Most patents I have read have had very detailed descriptions of the invention. In fact, it is to the patentee's benefit to be as detailed as possible in describing the invention. It will be harder for people to claim you didn't invent something if you have completely described it in your patent.

In contrast, what is actually claimed (that is, the bounds of the legal right to exclude that a patent grants), is typically made as broad as possible. Claims will be included that are both broad and narrow, so that if the patent is ever used in court, and the broad claims are knocked out by some new prior art, there are still narrower claims that can be asserted.

In general, the patentee should describe every version of the invention they have conceived of, in as much detail as possible, so as to support both broad and narrow claims. If the description is not specific, it is generally for lack of time or money on the part of the patentee or inventor, and it results in a weaker patent.
1 million accounts leaked in megahack on banks, websites
It's really not. You seem to be hiding behind the browser, thinking that as long as you have a secure browser, your OS is secure as well. This isn't the case. Windows XP is a major nightmare, especially if "minimum services" doesn't include an active firewall, AV, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit tool. If you're running XP without all of that (as well as occasional one-off, offline scans with a different AV tool), you're asking for trouble.

Windows XP is seriously bad news when it comes to being online, with any browser.
It proxies all traffic! Not Cool!!!
That only works in some locales. I know some states in the US require that the winners names are disclosed for marketing purposes. Other places may allow anonymity.
An introduction to PTP and its significance to NTP practitioners
Also having the lowest memory consumption is not always the best indicator for how good a browser is. For example, I think Chrome uses more memory per tab than most other browsers, because of its individual sandboxing system. But that seems to be a pretty fair trade-off. Has Firefox started using sandboxing yet?
what will make more difference is grocery stores and other amenities people need to live in an area. tech campuses that bring people to work, then drive back to the suburbs... not enough to build sustainable changes. everything will be at the whim of the people deciding to place businesses there (for charitable reasons, or other), instead of any locals having any say or needs to fulfill.
I'd love to read a write-up of this bug if you get a chance.
Unfortunately I got addicted to pentadactyl after a couple of threads here. Which broke on 15 and made me go back from beta to stable.

I wonder what changed internally to lead to irc comments that in effect said 'it's a major undertaking to make pentadactyl work for this new version' and this commit: http://code.google.com/p/dactyl/source/detail?r=2557fa601030...

Really don't want to miss that addon anymore.
Leaked iPhone 5 Front Assembly Shows NFC Chip - Gizchina.com
Yeah, I was very excited to see that merge (and of course the patch in the first place.) I haven't tried the patch myself yet, but I will do so when I get the time and motivation. As far as it being better, I was under the impression that Infinality was based on papers published by Microsoft stemming from their work on ClearType.

Are there particular distros you could recommend that have better font rendering compared to Ubuntu?
Debian testing as been a good mix of "stable" and "new" for me. I was using Squeeze for awhile and it seems like "stable" in the Debian sense can also mean buggy and feature-less. There was a battery eating, CPU melting bug in the Squeeze kernel, and the fix wasn't actually brought over from testing. I'm thinking to myself "how stable is this really if I'm not getting an important fix like that?"
Very well written, although given that it's a commentary versus thesis I don't think it'll make it to the front page.
Lets just skip over the NF-104 mishap?
Despite what people think, most of the astronauts/test pilots have done at least one not-so-smart thing in a jet. This was probably not Gen. Yeager's finest piloting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A#Third_NF-104A

Gen. Yeager was also somewhat bitter that he never made it into the Astronaut Corps.
>>I am Indian mind you, although born and raised in the US. I will not be returning to India ever again.

Sad, I am Indian too. Born, raised in India, Bangalore.

The process you describe is something that every 'Indian' here goes through. I was a little taken aback when you said 'I am Indian mind you'. I think you refer to the legal status. Because although I agree that its painful- Being an Indian you experienced what each of your country men experiences everyday. I don't see why anybody would give you preferential treatment- merely because you returned from the US.

Besides this reminds of an incident about Gandhi, when he was asked why he wears and lives like a peasant after living in South Africa as a barrister wearing a suit, necktie, pant and shoes all the time. He replied that only way he can be one among the Indian and convince Indians that he can fight for them is to live like they live, wear what they wear and eat what they eat. To rub shoulders with ordinary Indian in their day to day lives.

Every time a NRI complains about stuff like this I always wonder- legally sure you might be an Indian.

But are you actually an 'Indian'?
I think the author has jumped to a foregone conclusion. He thinks it's all about getting releases before they're made public, and doesn't see any reasons other than that people might have for going with pirated entertainment.

The reasons are many and varied. Some folks simply don't want to pay, others are frustrated by the content providers insistence on their way or the highway.

IMO the recent Oatmeal says it best:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones
More security issues
Ask HN: API Library for Python, .NET - Best places / ways to create a contest?
I need help to create libraries for our app.

What are the best places to create a contest to create an API library & reward contributors?

We have the library in CURL, JAVA, PHP & Ruby. I need additional hands to help with creation of Python & .NET libraries from developers who can bring out the flavor of the language.

Inputs to find quality forums where there will be takers to deliver quality work is welcome. Thanks.