skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>False. There is no theoretical or comprehensive empirical study I've ever seen to suggest this is the case.

It is absolutely the case. What is not established is whether or not crossover will actually help. My main point was that mutation is not there to escape local optima, although I should have been clearer about the efficacy of crossover for that purpose.

>Also false. I'll especially take note that this is not the case if you're using a less-than-naive EA.

Yes, for specific classes of problem, you can converge on a global optimum. In the general case, there is no way to ensure that you will get to a global optimum.

>You start with a bunch of random bit strings. IF you have 1s in all indexes somewhere in the population, it's possible (though unlikely) that the algorithm will find the optimal answer.

Yes that's why I said it basically won't optimize at all. Random guess and check might arrive at an optimum answer too, but that is only "optimizing" in a very pedantic sense.
I think they are doing a very good job considering they have one full-time employee.
Only thing I can think of is to often look at AlienBlue for inspiration.
Point taken. I would still argue that most people would not go to bare post composer to write. Personal blogs and websites fill this space. Of course, there are lots of those, who like minimalistic and distracion free environments.
Yes, the low amount is what makes me suspect that it's fake.

If this were real, and the true aim was extortion, we would have never heard about it.
What stops you from doing that at a bitcoin exchange as well?
Gotcha. To be honest I'm not that familiar with Android, having primarily used iOS for the past few years.
Show HN: Sports Games Predictions Made Easy
Seriously, who else immediately thought of Dr. Evil demanding "one MILLION dollars"? Makes a good story but sounds bogus to me.
I think consumers are going to be weirded out by the fact that the stuff they have on their Windows 8 tablet doesn't appear on their Windows Phone 8 handset.

I'm not sure I followed this. Do you think people get weirded out by not having 'the stuff' on their iPad appear on their iPhone?
Project Sputnik Report #1
Ask HN: Making high-quality video advertisements?
Can anyone recommend any guides to making microadvertisement videos, or companies that do a good job with it?

We've seen a rise in using Videos to promote yourself and your product- Not just concept videos like Dropbox, but scripted productions, like you see for Kickstarter and DollarShaveClub.

I'm a tech guy, not a media guy, so any advice on who I should talk to, or what I should read, would be very helpful.
I have one suggestion for you: stop blaming everyone else.

The law itself is just fine. It's insufficient in itself, but so is the law making theft illegal.

If you use Google Analytics and third party social widgets, you're aiding and abetting, you're aiding and abetting companies that violate people's privacy rights on a massive scale. You choose to do so, so you should accept the consequences and the responsibility instead of pointing the finger to everyone else.

As an industry, we've had over a decade to fix this problem until the politicians finally took action. We, Silktide include, have not only done fuck all to solve the problem, we've participated in making is massively worse by putting Google Analytics and Facebook like-buttons on every site we put our hands on.

The politicians you're ridiculing are at least trying to fix the mess we created. We took a dump on privacy rights, and are now bitching about how bad politicians are in cleaning it up.

You really think they're going to listen to us as long as we keep acting like spoiled children with zero sense of responsibility?
Widgets let you do what live tiles do, but the difference is really in the discoverability. "Pin to start" is pervasive throughout the WP interface, and live tile functionality is built into the "default" app launcher icons. Pull up the location of my apartment in the navigation app? Oh hey, I can pin it as a tile for one-tap "get directions home"? Sweet! Stuff like that.

On my Evo I never made nearly as much use of widgets because adding them to the start screen was a different process from adding apps to the start screen, and not integrated into the apps themselves in the same way as far as I remember.

The other start screen thing I like about WP is that I hardly ever used the stuff on anything but my main, front-and-central home screen on my Evo. I usually just glanced at the home and then shut it off without swiping left or right to my alternate desktops, unless I wanted to launch an app on one of them. The WP "just swipe down to scroll through all the tiles" idea is really convenient for helping to remember everything you pin there.
I flagged this post. The article is not written by anyone with a background in the topic, and is a blatant spam for a to-do list app. There's nothing wrong with promoting one's projects here, but I'd rather see it done honestly, not snuck into an article on sleep.
I ordered one in August, that arrived a few days later. Just luck? It was out of stock every time before.
> Consumers don't care about any of this

But they do care - everything about a phone is what makes it. My GF doesn't are about the HP in my car, but she does care about how fast it goes when she presses the pedal, therefore, she does care about HP.

The specifications are not rendered moot because someone, like yourself, is too short minded to realize them...but unlike you, they know enough to keep their ignorance inside their head.
Can this be considered terrorism? Surely, blackmail, but also terrorism? Just curious.

edit: Since I received record fast downvotes, I'll clarify that this is not meant to be a political comment, jesus.
This is a very good point. Although the data (at this link) are not isolated, using a GUI window as a ruler, you can see a clear decrease, just not a visually compelling one. And yes, I agree that as you reduce the mortality associated with other diseases, getting cancer becomes more likely.

What would be more interesting to see, in this particular context, is the mortality associated with different disease groups for different age cohorts. For example, how has the treatment for cancer progressed for people between 40 and 50, rather than all cohorts at once.
Can we please say "higher resolution" or "higher density" rather than an abomination like "more retina"?
Using open source CMS Magnolia for mobile
Here's hoping that some real, investigative journalist (i.e. not someone from Torrentfreak) will start digging into these events. Currently it's just an unfounded insinuation.
The Finite Library
If you want to dilute what the words means to the point it can mean just about any crime, sure. But if you're referring to the strict term, then no.
(The yet unreleased) Nokia Lumia 920 is more retina than the (one year old) iPhone. Oh... I mean... more pure motion HD plus than iPhone! And: It’s surprising that Nokia didn’t mention that the Lumia 920 is just like iPhone, but with more widgets, therefore better.

I understand that this kind of marketing works. But how? How come people do not value true innovation and choose to buy "better than HD resolution" when what they really need is already crisp iPhone screen?
Is there anyone working on Emacs 24 deftheme support? If not, I can try to work on it.
Metal ball bounces off sliver of super-stretchy 'jelly' developed at Harvard
I'm curious to see what you've done -- anything you can share?.

I'll let John write up the details in a future blog post, but mostly there are a lot of strange edge cases and problems that have to deal with maintaining closures, etc.
> If you live longer you can have more offspring.

I'm pretty sure this is untrue; the likelihood of offspring drops pretty precipitously after certain ages.
We've also run into some interesting documentation fragmentation points. Let's say you make an app for relatively technically unsophisticated users. You need them to drag some files to a folder on their SD card (the files are so large that you don't want to try and move them over a network). To do that, they need to mount their SD card on their computer's file system. How do you write the documentation that explains that?

Some mount to the file system as USB mass storage. Some devices call it "Disk Drive" mode. Some have a button called "Mount USB". Sometimes the button's in the notification bar. Sometimes it's in the settings. Some Android devices use MTP and the user doesn't have to do anything (but the names of the folders are different!).

You either get to write documentation like a choose-your-own-adventure novel or deal with confused users.
>the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion

Which word am I diluting exactly? If Romney is as afraid of releasing his taxes as many imply, would he not be fearful of their release?

edit2: thanks for the replies, I think I understand why y'all disagree and I think that I agree with you. It's not systematic and it's not being used to intimidate others, it's too focused, basically.
The "no-linking" phenomenon is definitely happening, but it's niche-related.

In the world of Internet Marketing, very few people ever link any more. I actually killed a business idea earlier this year because in its first month, the scale of the problem became apparent. No-one links.

In the world of games blogging, by contrast, people link all the time. I run a fairly successful website whose sole function is to provide manually curated links - and people link back to it all the time. Discussions fly around the gaming blogosphere and the blogroll is very much alive.

I'm not sure what the status of the link is in the tech community. Anyone?
Equally relevant!
Apple issues statement saying it didn't give UDIDs to FBI
We have seen this kind of competition everywhere. It's not about whether human eyes can tell the difference or not. It's about something of product A has higher number than that of product B. This has been the game everywhere (e.g. digital cameras with 10000000 MP). Don't hate players. Hate the game.
BMW will also let you pick up your car at their plant in South Carolina. They make the X3, X5, and X6 there, but also have a performance center with a track and instructors. You can also order in, say an M5, which they deliver there, then they'll let you drive an identical car on their track with an instructor, so not as to work your own so hard. They've done well with making it an experience worth aspiring to.

Also, there is a recommended break in period on the new engines, precluding you from going above 6k RPM, IIRC. Still, if you did a European delivery, it'd probably be very possible to legally drive 100+ MPH on the Autobahn.
I had a miserable experience the last car purchase I attempted as well. The manager wouldn't give the sales associate any pricing unless I test drove the car. Needless to say I walked out of there.

CarWoo.com saved the day for me simply because I got a price narrowed down before they even knew who I was. The only person I had to say no to after that point was the financing guy who tries to sell you tint, pin striping, and all that extra stuff.
(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with carwoo at all.)
For me the telling thing is the "1040" bit.

I'm no billionaire but, even my meager tax return is more than a simple 1040 form.
Everything dies. From old age or fate. Even the universe will die. Reminds of that great line Death said (from the TV show Supernatural). It went something like,

"Neither of us remember who is older." Referring to himself and god. "But I'll reap god too".

The more we are capable of prolonging life the more "fate" is capable of ending it. Sure, we might be able to prolong it - maybe to 200 years. But in the end, there is always an end.

I think we'd be better off as a society if we accepted death happily - as we accept life. You can't have one without the other.
The Carbon Capture Conundrum
Update from Allied: They are currently 10 weeks backlogged.
Secrets of success from Europe’s most controversial entrepreneur (Oliver Samwer)
Take SEOmoz for example. I subscribed to them for a while.

I used it for the website: http://http://metalranchandfarmsigns.com/, which on average before Google killed me made $200 - $300.

In any case, my thinking goes like this: If I had to buy SEOmoz in one lump sum for rest of my life the value of the product to me is probably close to $5000. That's what I'd pay for a lifetime subscription just for MRFS.

I can either pay $5,000 (hypothetically) and have it forever, or slowly enter in at $99 a month. If I cancel within 4 years I win, if I cancel after 4 years SEOmoz wins.

I cancelled in a few months.
"Swat" Flies with Table Salt
Unfortunately, post-Google's Penguin update, there is very strong evidence that some types of links can indeed harm people's ranks in Google.

That's such a fundemental change to the way that SEO works that it's had people running scared for a while now.
Creating Sustainable Buildings Is Like Making A Soufflé
MapReduce Making Further Inroads in Academia
>Personally the thing that kills me about the iPhone 4 design is the seams on that metal on the side.

I don't understand this thinking at all. The seams have a functional purpose to separate antennas.

I view the iPhone seems the same way I view a car door seam: it has to be there, and because it has to be there I don't perceive it as ugly.
This is true, mostly because only one company in this space lumps all their phones under one name even when they are on different carriers with different radios and firmwares... until the GSIII that is.
Without going to full automation I guess there are basically two process options here:
1) Add more tailors that work with the suit from start to finish, thus duplicating the work of the lone tailer Mr. Peter Frew in the article.

2) Split the process of Mr. Frew's work among different tailors.

One other company mentioned in the article, Greenfield, is implementing option 2): ". . . there are huge efficiency gains when one complex process is broken down into constituent parts and each worker specializes in one thing. At Greenfield, one worker sews pockets all day long, and another focuses entirely on joining front and back jacket pieces."

According to the article their suits sells for $2000.

Without testing it out it is hard to say if process option 1) will necessarily be seen as more valuable than process option 2) from the customers perspective. It is also hard to say if Greenfield's suits are of lower quality compared to those of Mr. Frew.

At the end of day the story the tailor(s) can create about their workmanship are as important as the prices and processes they put into action. Price is just one element in the marketing mix and can't been seen as separate from the rest, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix
Sounds like an interesting experiment to read about. Do you remember the biologist's name?
Yes, indeed I do love Dungeon Raid already and have poured countless hours into it. I almost have every class upgraded to level 10. If there was a sequel I would buy it tomorrow. 10000000 was a breath of fresh air. I'm a little sad DR hasn't come up with a sequel or at least some updated content. It's a good game with very deep strategy and surprisingly a lot of content in a way, but now that I'm mostly through it I'm wishing for more.

These games hit a certain sweet spot for me in that you play in short sessions but there's a long term progress you can work towards. That way even when I'm tired on the subway I can chug slowly forward and still feel like I'm making progess. Other times I can rejoice in playing with zenlike brilliance.
Eh, I'm not sure. It's pretty clear what's in Romney's returns at this point (a lower than average income tax rate, though it's hard to say whether it's closer to 5% or 15%), so I don't see a huge downside risk for him in them being released. If they upped their demands to, say $10 million, we're talking about real money, even for Mitt. Enough to get an extra percent of the vote or so in a moderate sized state. Unless there's something genuinely illegal in the returns, a couple days of renewed interest in them might be preferable to giving up a bit of money at the margin (though, paid media is fairly well saturated now, so it might not be that useful).

From Romney's point of view, too, there'd be no guarantee that paying 10 million would prevent them from being released. There's no accountability for the Anonymous. With 1 million, though, it's just a no brainer.

That said, I doubt they have anything. Reeks of BS to me.
3 Ways to Operationalize the Extra Mile
We are looking for iOS hackers too.
20% of Android devices in the field are 2.2 or earlier. Its hard to tell a company that they should cut out 20% of their Android users in order to take advantage of the latest APIs.
When it comes to game AI, mostly it is not about being smart or real. It is about being fun.
I hear you. I have a similar background like yours and I had a huge disappointment when I broke into the game industry 2 years ago. But I am not agree with you in the sense that an statistic approach is not possible. There are so many opportunities but the reality is that game designers don't want that to happen.

The main problem I have found in this regard is the fact that designers love to have control over the behaviour of the game, and I believe they don't even want to understand how a machine learning AI can be possible. I even discussed my master thesis (an SVM based controller for enemies) with a veteran RTS game designer and his response was very heart breaking, he just told me that Game AI was good enough and that "people" wouldn't care about a better AI (after that he just turned out and walked away)

I am still optimist that eventually that would happen. But I don't have enough patience to fight against that any more. So hopefully a young hacker reading this would change that :)
But it's more funnier.
Maths FTW!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=longevity-w...
At it's core, HL7 is basically a very, very horrible xml-like markup system (but with weird binary delimitation.) Is this the "IP" they're making free? If so, they can keep it.
Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/1j1yzQ9S

I'm not very familiar with the Bitcoin protocol: Can all users view the values of these two bitcoin accounts -- or BTC in transit?
Quantum teleportation: Record-breaking distance of 143km through free space
Are Better Off Today Than We Were 4 Years Ago …Part 1
Cookie/privacy warning taken to logical conclusion
"it's just happening faster now"
That's the point. Let's say I call a shop, asking for a price of a product. They tell me a price of X, so I take amount X with me and go to the shop, just to see that the price eventually has been changed to Y (eventually higher than X). I'm missing reliability here. Sure, prices are changing all the time. That's just normal, but i would prefer stable prices for at least a time window that allows me to think about my decision before i buy.
HTC One X has great screen and camera.
Encyclopedia of DNA Elements Project unveiled
Would you happen to have a link? I've been interested in toying around with this idea (just for fun) for a while, but I haven't started doing the actual research.

My instinct would be that (biological) immortality is (mostly) non-existant not only because there is no evolutionary pressure not to die, but because there is evolutionary pressure to die after begetting offspring. Very long lived progenitors would homogenize the gene pool, if not by incest then by sheer number of offspring. This would make them fragile in the face of both genetic errors and environmental shifts.

To counter this fragility, child birth might be infrequent. However, if child birth is infrequent, there is an increased probability of death before child birth.
>> Windows Phone layout is just boring

To me, that's a plus, because most of the stuff I do on my iPhone is rather boring. My usage revolves around the core apps, none of which is very exciting.

If Nokia can keep innovating on the camera front, they might have me switching on my next upgrade cycle.
Perhaps the blackmailers assume they are more likely to get money from people who want the records revealed. 1 million people could pay $1 each, Kickstarter-style.
Consistency is what build brands
It's like the Turing Test. You only have to be convinced that a human is on the other end, the AI on the other end doesn't actually have to think like a human does. It's a black box. How it does its thing is not important to the test.
I like the idea, but won't this prevent you from accepting cookies if the site has actually bothered to ask permission before adding them?
Understanding Data with Histograms
Or media outlets, given the whole "celebrity cell/email hacking scandal". Or even rival companies that find dirt.
So Watergate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
Yes, the transactions to and from these accounts are available here:

Stop release: https://blockchain.info/address/1HeF89wMjC48bWNgWvVo7Wu3RaLW...

Full release: https://blockchain.info/address/12AP6iCwRNFQqKLStH3A4b4hw3SL...
New "university" from Marginal Revolution bloggers
Only if they stretched a couple of the rules. They can use the wire fraud rules quite a lot easier and put them in jail for a long, long time.
OK, but I feel the need to head off a possible misconception by pointing out that my screen-shot suggestion is also in the happy medium between automatic inference and manual logging.

Part of my suggestion, left unspoken above, is that once a day or once a week, the person would "review" the screen shots. During this review, the same (time-stamp, tag) pairs would be (manually) created that are created by your pop-ups. Its just that the "pairs" (or records) would be created in batches, rather than at the time of the events they refer to.

Now that I am done trying to head off a possible misconception, let me say that I plan to try your way, because there is already software available to support it. (I have software to automatically create the screen shots, but not software to support the task of reviewing the screen shots while manually creating the (time-stamp, tag) pairs.)
Outside of a few "lost" years spent on weird keypad designs, for the most part, I think that Nokia's phone designs have been pretty good overall.
ZURB's Notable iPhone Uploader
Waste is bad, true. But where is it happening? The article is thin on that detail. It could be that people are buying food and throwing it away, but how would you even begin to evaluate/validate that number? So I think the study must focus on food thrown out by businesses due to spoilage or other reasons, which might actually generate accounting records to work with.

But think about the food-service industry - it's one of the thinnest-margin industries in the world. They have every incentive to manage inventory as well as possible. So yes, waste is happening, but it's coming from the necessities of operating a business, not scumbag rich people throwing their sandwiches away.
> I don't relinquish my right to privacy by stepping into the street.

Yes you do. You might not be happy about it, think it's wrong and lobby for draconian laws to try and protect it. Physics and technology don't care. Someone can walk by, take your picture with a pin hole camera, upload it via tor to a torrent network.
Granted.... However, a game character getting stuck in a corner or jumping to water without a reason is not much fun.

The following article illustrate the point:

http://aigamedev.com/open/article/bugs-caught-on-tape/
The hacker activist group named Anonymous is not involved in this claim.

But rather the statement comes from an anonymous group claiming to have stolen digital copies of the records.
GitHub Pages on Riak and Webmachine [March 2012]