skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
After some digging, I can confirm that they appear to use the Emotiv headset like munin hints on. While I never got around to diving too deep into my Emotiv headset, the one thing I did notice is during my profile training, I wouldn't get precise results without forcing some sort of neuro-muscular response (pulling my head slightly back to move the block closer).

I noticed the person in the wheelchair showed control from at least the neck up, so I assume there was some use of muscles to get that sort of response out of the quadcopter. Thinking, without muscles, is actually really HARD! I couldn't get past training without some assistance, and that was with maybe 2-3 actions (imagine ~10 different actions with unique thoughts needed)

Its still amazing work, and I'm glad to see some research in the field and will definitely try to get a copy of their paper. I'd love to see the next step to be either controlling the wheelchair with some good response time, or to increase the number of actions possible.
I'm probably biased but I disagree. I initially funded The OpenPhoto Project on Kickstarter. There was a deliverable but it wasn't a physical good.

The deliverable was completed as promised and we continued to build additional features and services above and beyond what the Kickstarter campaign allowed us to do.

http://theopenphotoproject.org
Nobody is charged if the KS project does not meet its funding goal.

This article is about what happens when a project is funded, but fails to deliver. At that point the funders have lost their money.
Get it while it is hot. All packages can be downloaded right now.
Very useful tool
That's not totally true.

I've personally reaped the benefit of knowing I've helped launch projects for people who might not have been able to accomplish it themselves. There's a bunch of music projects, a documentary, a short film, and an Arduino Shield that wouldn't have existed without my (and a bunch of likeminded people's) help. There's a few things that clearly _would_ have existed without my help (Amanda Palmers current project, for example), things that clearly didn't need my tiny bit of help, but that I feel good about being part of anyway. The hundred or two dollars that those Kickstarter projects cost me was worth every single cent, and would have been even if a few or even all of them had failed. At least we tried…

And more power too all the project creators - I hope they all get corruption-inducingly-rich out of the things my $5 or $50 or $300 helps get started. Anybody who thinks "investing" to the tune of a couple of hundred bucks entitles them too, or even stands any chance of that resulting in a significant equity stake in something - probably hasn't thought that through very hard...

big
Ahh, see that's what I thought, but this article made me second-guess it.
You are pessimistic! I would love to meet the person who declined to implement advance font fetching and then chose to implement an optimization to refuse to load a font explicitly requested and used.
Henry Ford. And he appears to have never actually said it. And this attitude cost Ford the early lead in market share.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/henry_ford_never_said_the_fa...
Three words: read the link.
DL links for the lazy:

http://freakshare.com/files/6gw0653b/Rxdzz.txt.html
http://u32.extabit.com/go/28du69vxbo4ix/?upld=1
http://d01.megashares.com/dl/22GofmH/Rxdzz.txt
http://minus.com/l3Q9eDctVSXW3
https://minus.com/mFEx56uOa
http://uploadany.com/?d=50452CCA1
http://www.ziddu.com/download/20266246/Rxdzz.txt.html
http://www.sendmyway.com/2bmtivv6vhub/Rxdzz.txt.html
Single username isn't privileged data. But a set of usernames and realnames can be. It's better to lose a pendrive with encrypted block256.dat than Passwords\HackerNews\dfcsd.gpg, Passwords\Bank\34457356.gpg, Passwords\Mail\name.gmail.gpg etc.
1. Link? JQuery tutorials explain how to poll for successful completion of write-inserted script tags before calling client code.
That's not with respect to start ups, but any 'testing task' in general.

People emerge totally changed individuals during and after times of hardships. During disease, financial difficulties, tough assignments, chasing near impossible goals, during times crisis, turmoil and difficulties.

You get to see who is jealous of you. Who envies you , who admires you, who is ready to help, who discourages you. You learn not just about work, but also a lot about people, places, things and life in general.

That is why some people who go through life threatening diseases, fatal failures, harsh financial conditions are so successful, resilient, self sufficient, motivated and hard working.
Seeing that I'm much more of a "builder" then I'm a creator, I really have to admire someone who drops there job, to do something full time that hasn't proven a source of income yet.

Personally I love the idea of the site. I'm not sure it has anything that I would buy yet, but I'm still a huge fan of it. I keep looking for something I'd want off there.

That being said, I'm not sure what the market is, out there for these kinds of things.
What I miss here is why some projects are not being honest on their pitch videos. It is not a problem with backers not understanding how funding works:

If someone advertises their project as being finished, and is just asking money to get into the manufacturing phase, backers will expect that.

The same way, if they show a nifty idea, explain that they do not even know how it will look like, but sell their team as someone that could eventually do it, backers will also know and accept failure as a possibility.
Actually I think its more like donating money to a cause you agree with, with the proviso that if it works, you'll get something for it.

Put it this way. Kickstarter just hands your money over. Of course its possible for somebody whos raised money to disappear with it without providing any product or refunds. Even if you threaten legal action and they are in the USA, its going to be quite a process (a lot of time and money) to recover your tiny investment.... And if they choose to move to another country or claim to be 'late but still providing it', even more complex...
Why benchmark at all?

Benchmark yourself against people "lower" than you, you feel unsatisfied; against people "higher", you feel depressed.

Why not just do what makes you happy?
Thanks for posting this, I was unaware.

However, still seems like a bit of a hassle: "One of the conditions of this exemption is a yearly aggregate limit on the amount each person may invest in offerings of this type, tiered by the person′s net worth or yearly income. The limit ranges from 2% of people earning (or worth) up to $40,000, up to a cap of $10,000 for people earning (or worth) $100,000 or more."

Presumably, the onus will be on the funding channel (i.e. kickstarter) to validate these accreditation rules of their investors. If there is a big hesitation for new users to simply register an email/password for a site, imagine when you are asking them to also submit tax returns and copies of ID.

Don't get me wrong though, I guess its better than nothing.
It shouldn't be considered secret, period. If you're worried about non-secret data being used to attack you (the kind of data people can acquire by digging through your trash when you bring it out to the curb, for example), then your likely-to-be-lost USB key should be using some encryption of its own. This encryption doesn't defeat the purpose of using pass, either, because pass uses gpg agent, where the key nicely times out after a while, whereas disk encryption is somewhat persistent. Regardless, username data isn't private, even when you have multiple in once place; all that data can be put together through other means.
Clones at the same or higher price increase noise.... unless they have better marketing to reach a wider customer range than the original; that adds value.
Ask HN: Are there any freelance "problem solvers" out there?
I'm interested in a very specific kind of work. I want to consult in many different fields, applying concepts from math and computer science to solve hard computational problems. Are there any readers that do (or know someone who does) this or something similar?
Also, what's the point of releasing password protected files to public? I mean, they give you the password thus kind of making the whole password thing a moot point.
Congratulations on the jump, Emile :)
why does an FBI agent have 12 million+ identification numbers for iOS devices?
Given the Jobs act, I'm wondering how this will all get sorted out w.r.t. blue sky laws, etc... gonna be messy and full of fraud at some point.
Anyone care to do a comparison (for now) between Sublime Text 2 and TextMate 2?
I just launched hacker fiction. It is a collection of stories (no more than 100 pages long) focused on hacking, sci-fy, and just about anything else I can imagine. It already made its first $20 on launch day. :)

You can read a sampler here:

http://orangethirty.blogspot.com/2012/09/hackfy-space-raven-...

I don thave a website yet, because Im still testing the idea to see if its worth investing time in. Plans would be to write a collection of stories and then sell them. Maybe some merchandise if any of the stories stick.
I don't think that it is clear to many people what a Kickstarter is actually. It is neither and investment, nor a pre-order. I personally view it more as a gift, which perhaps has a reward at some point. The backer "rewards" are aptly named- they aren't items for purchase, but something you might receive if the project happens to be successful.

When I back Kickstarter projects, I personally have no expectation of getting anything. I just want to see something cool happen.

While perhaps off topic, this is pretty much the model we take with the Awesome Foundation. We give money to people with a cool idea, expect nothing in return, and simply hope that they do something great with it. We take no ownership, and if it fails then that's ok. It was up to our judgement if we wanted to back them or not, and if we failed in that judgement then thats our fault and just a lesson to learn from.

Whatever it is called, you should never gift, invest, etc more than you can afford to write off and lose.
From Consumers to Producers: Adopting the Algae Lifestyle
It is GREAT if it already exists in a different market or language. That is proof that the idea is desirable. As long as the success isn't specific to the culture where it exists (so don't try a BBQ chain in Jerusalem), translate it to your market!
Interview with Joan Rivers
Very cool! So how does this compare to Chrome OS and it's sandbox technique for tabs. Yes I know it is only a browser, but with offline apps, executable code (native client), and local APIs, it is more like a normal OS.
I can't use zip ties on my boat. Two months in the sun and they're toast. They quite literally turn to dust.
The 'Your four best friends from high school' market segment
I can't remember schedule exactly, but I feel like the Adonis Jot was on time.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/531383637/jot-capacitive...

I've backed one other project. It is severely late.
I totally agree.

You _never_ want to compete on price. Compete on quality. It's a good idea to eliminate the cheapskates ahead of time.
I would say that it's quite clear that Kickstart campaigns are not preorders (unless they blatantly claim to be). I don't know the details, but the JOBS Act in the USA supposedly made sure that crowdfunding is allowed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups...
Not that I disagree with you.

But some people do as a matter of fact get rich by being at the right place at the right time.

Just like how not all hardworking people are successful. Not all successful people are hardworking. The simplest example I can give you is to be born in a rich family.

That's certainly a cosmic lottery.
Most subscription based models are being kept sustainable by "don't ask" principles. If you don't ask to renew and silently charge the credit card (a la most saas solutions), few people would try to reverse this transaction.
Okay so I mistakenly wrote his first name... I don't see how that invalidates what I've said.
I hear people talk about this, and oDesk exists, but I never met someone who ever hired a general software freelancer. The closest is MSFT hiring a contractor, but that is just paperwork over flextime/short-term regular employment.

Maybe I just haven't been exposed to the self-selling side of this consulting.
Because then where is the risk? It would be entirely with Kickstarter, since they would have to give their own money to the creators before taking any money from customers.
Why is that the case? It seems to give someone a lot of information. It's not just relying on the username to be secret, but it gives info to someone that you may want to be secret, like a password to a pornographic site.

Nice app by the way.
I don't think I could come up with a coherent definition of a database which includes low-durability NoSQL key/value stores yet excludes file systems. This doesn't necessarily mean that file systems are a database, however; it could be that in order for the word "database" to be meaningful it must be defined in a way that excludes some things commonly thought of as databases, similar to why Pluto was deplaneted.
Been working on this with my partner for quite some time now. Getting ready for launch, but could use a bunch of people to test out the system, and help with any bugs and errors that popup that we could not find.

Also, use 4242424242424242 123 exp 1 2013 when it gets to the billing page.
Yeah, that's more than a little disturbing that either the founder is not above making an outright lie to national media or that he is completely out of the loop. If he had told the truth of Kickstarters terms, did he think that that would somehow hurt the comapny's fortunes?

Perhaps the question was phrased in a more specific context? That is, the reporter actually asked something like: "What happens when a multi million dollar project fails and so many individuals are out hundreds of dollars?" it may be the case that no failure of that size has happened yet.
I'd add Jerry Weinberg's _Secrets of Consulting_ to the reading list. It had a major impact on my ability to turn my tech skills into a business. For example, it helped me understand that the right answer to a client request is, "Yes, I can do that. And this is what it will cost."
Super Flux led screen-MRLED
Epic Systems' Tough Billionaire
The website says that the book will be for sale on Amazon soon. Anyone know if it will be Kindle friendly? The text looks like it would convert easily from the web pages, if not.
Money quote for the people that don't want to wade through ten pages of rant:

During the second week of March 2012, a Dell Vostro notebook, used by
Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action
Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team was breached using the
AtomicReferenceArray vulnerability on Java, during the shell session some files
were downloaded from his Desktop folder one of them with the name of
"NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv" turned to be a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS
devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device,
type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone
numbers, addresses, etc.
$399/month?
Because this information is stored elsewhere, unencrypted almost always.
Pass seems excellent but for me is also almost-there, because it doesn't unlock when I log in and I have to mess around with public/private keypairs. I prefer using passphrases because I travel a lot and if I lose my private key, it would be a monstrous hassle to get a backup private key in my hands securely. `gpg -c` is my go-to.

For me, unlock on login is essential. If someone beats me unconscious and steals my computer while I'm in a logged-in session, I have bigger things to worry about than a potentially lost password database.

On a tangential note, we as a hacker community really have to work on de-mystifying public/private keypair encryption. It gives me a headache to think about it and I've been a programmer for over a decade. If it does that to me then it's utterly unfathomable to laypeople and they're the ones who could make the most use out of strong encryption, and who could become the champions of privacy and security in the NSA-snooping age. But it's just too hard to explain and use.
This is the stated reason for the release - to have people ask why an agent has 12m UDID numbers on his laptop. They released 1m out of the 12m UDIDs so that they can guarantee a statistical sample that can be verified, while preserving a bit of privacy.

Along with the UDIDs were other columns with an assortment of personal data, although there were a lot of holes.
Hey davrosthedalek, I'm facing a similar decision as well. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm definitely leaning towards startups because there are simply more opportunities for me in that direction. That will be different for everyone but one way to figure this out is to contact both sides and see how much interests you get from them.

I'm a biostatistician and my switch to data analytics comes rather naturally but my biology background does cause some organizations / people to do a double take (generally a negative one), but still I'm getting more interest in industry than in academia because the academic landscape in general is contracting, some fields like mine more severe than others.

I've chatted with a whole bunch of startups and folks in the industry and it seems people with quantitative degrees plus coding skills tend to be welcomed. Of course job specific skills varies a ton, but chances are if you're coming from nuclear physics you'll find a good fit somewhere.

My decision was not just motivated by the number of opportunities and levels of interest expressed by both sides, but also the chance to work on project that has fairly immediate impact on people's lives. That search for relevance (academic work can be buried deep in obscurity) is a big motivating factor for me.

Good luck on your hunt. I'll be needing a bit of that too.
That's awesome. Tindie was one of those things that I found so cool that I was actually a bit perturbed to find out that it was just someone's side project. Some ideas just deserve more. Best of luck.
If you ask people what they want now, they will say touch screens. That doesn't mean it's the future.
Open source might just be the cure for vaporware.
I have heard of Oracle and MySQL and PostgreSQL and MS SQL Server, but what is DOESN'T?
Absolutely agree. My spouse is an active contributor to an open source project. Often, someone will come into IRC asking for help, and soon realize that the scope of the problem is bigger than they thought. Their next idea: "I should hire someone to do this for me." If you have demonstrated your tech skills, ability to communicate, and willingness to help a client... you might get the gig.

It doesn't have to be open source. As long as it's a community of techies working together to solve a problem, being the Helpful Cheerful Person in the Neighborhood can lead to consulting work.
Thanks, I really want to get serious with that language seeing all the praise from people around. I have began to do some small things with it and it feels like a great language ( I love the no makefile idea !)

My only regret is that this format makes it really hard to print in one motion. Could you provide a link for a PDF version?

The animal on the cover looks really hilarious too!
It proves that the author of the rant is the leaker of the data, not just some guy linking to data someone else posted.

It also causes all the data to be released atomically even if it took a while to upload to all the places.
Calling unknown software the standard? Interesting approach. Fake it 'till you make it I guess.

I wonder how this compares to factotum.
Scoble: Why I am tired of Silicon Valley’s focus on virality
Actually I know a cardiothoracic surgeon, and she says its shocking how many times a primary-care or ER doctor misses something in a EKG. Usually listening to the heart with a stethoscope at primary-care level gets more diagnostic value, but again things get missed.

An EKG has to be cross-checked against other diagnostics to form reasonable diagnostic basis.
Please ignore pricing for now, just looking to have others test the system.
See this: http://code541.gsfc.nasa.gov/Uploads_materials_tips_PDFs/TIP... for acceptable lacing materials.

Zip ties are 'quantized' by the ratchet, so you can find an 'optimum' tension point that is between two ratchet points. Which doesn't happen with laces.

And for threads (like kevlar thread) it doesn't have the compression strength to be good zip tie. There is a lot of information about what NASA considers to be good and not good wrapping techinques here: http://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/links/section...

Also they mention out gassing which is something I completely missed, plastic zip ties have that issue as well. Any void in the zip tie also becomes a real problem in vacuum.
Congratulation, Emile!
> During a break from the meetings, I ask her, "Would you have to give money back to your backers if you weren't able to deliver?"

She takes a deep breath and pauses before answering.

"Technically, from the Kickstarter perspective, I actually don't know the answer to that," she says. "But from a doing-the-right-thing perspective, we will treat our backers the best possible way."

Um, what? She doesn't know how the Kickstarter system would or could transfer money back to the funders? Or she doesn't know if there's "technically" an obligation to make a refund? The answer to the second question should have been well known to her and her lawyers. It's a little troubling that she can't give a straight answer so early in the infancy of a project that is ostensibly rooted in openness.
His point is that it those luxuries applies to everybody. Then why didn't everybody invent transistors?

Given equal conditions, not everyone achieves equally.
Ah that makes sense. Thanks tlb.
I have read a few posts over the years of people using s3 for exactly that. I don't have specific links anymore, but a Google search turned up an example: http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/10/how-i-en...
If you don't mind your contact information (potentially residential address) out in the wild, I would suggest guarding your WHOIS information.

Doxing, increased email spam, and spam snail mail are all reasons I chose to protect my info.
Interesting concept. So if someone has a "hardware" patent and you manage to implement a software "emulation" of that hardware (that nevertheless runs at full speed) then you don't have to pay?

(Reminds me of Transmeta...)
Definitely lots of spam via snail mail - even more so if you've just incorporated a new business.
When I first saw this project on KickStarter, I checked to see the current capacity of MicroSD and it was around 64GB. Not sure if it's likely to remain at that level for some time.

Even at that size, it could be worth trying to set one up with TimeMachine to give a second copy of critical files in case of hard drive failure in your laptop. Not quite off-site back-up though.
> It proves that the author of the rant is the leaker of the data, not just some guy linking to data someone else posted.

I don't see what would stop you from stating the password to a file you didn't upload.
As soon as this product launches, of it sells well, the mold factory that produces the product, or one of its neighbors, will sell a clone for $5.
Wow, this is bad, and an excellent example of how the security machine (in this case FBI) can always be turned on itself. The methods required for FBI to "protect" citizens can be misused (or hacked) to do the opposite. A gun can always be turned around, etc.