skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Off topic: what is the cultural or psychological meaning of these one-off usernames on Hacker News? Last week I referred to Lisp in the past tense and someone created a username "presenttense" to correct me. Is it suppose to be a clever way of saying something, to create a one-time username? Or is that some people really need that much anonymousness? Should I assume that some of these one-offs are people who work for Ycombinator, who perhaps do not want to attach their normal usernames to something that some might interpret as snarky?

(edit: why downvote this? It is a serious question. I am curious why people create one-off usernames. And I am curious what the Hacker News community thinks of this practice. Another thread today was about how to improve voting on Hacker News. Do one-off accounts throw off the way karma should work, in an ideal system? That's a valid question, when we consider how to make the community better.)
That sounds like the result of a lack of forethought when designing the font rendering code, and not because it's a big problem. I've used vertical Japanese text input extensively in Word without any problems.
Google Fiber strikes deal to carry NFL Network
Knowledge vs Skill
(1) The big problem I see with that characterization is that CC-BY-NC doesn't establish any price for commercial use; it rather forbids it totally.

(2) I don't know how something can be orthogonal when it correlates strongly. The reason you are using CC-BY-NC is because you want to enable noncommercial uses, which is a major chunk of the entire new-media model of use, and a miniscule grain in the old-media model's desert.

Just to explain, because I was a bit terse above: The point of NC is that use and distribution in the world of filesharing networks, mix tapes, podcasts, independent remixers, and public social events like flash mobs -- those are explicitly allowed, because they don't make anybody any money. The point which I had trouble explaining above was that there also some for-profit uses in this category which NC-using bands would not mind, like ad-supported bloggers. In that sense, my impression of those who select NC is that they really just want to embrace the newer ways that people interact with music, without allowing the older modes of interaction to exploit it.
Nice job. How did you find your price tag ?
While I think the poster really messed this up, big-time, I can empathize with him or her to a degree. I prefer high-level languages to low, and I also tend to avoid conflict.

One way to salvage this situation without getting fired might be to come clean now, be contrite, stop using incendiary words like "inadequate" and demonstrate the new solution as something that just got out of hand. It's hard to hire programmers right now, and the manager would have to weigh the (legitimate) desire to fire someone on the spot with the fact that getting a replacement would be expensive and annoying.

One could even say "now that I understand the problem better, I have a better handle on implementing it in ANSI C, as requested".
Have to agree here. If you got to the onsite interview then there is a high likelyhood they thought there might be a fit.

This has been discussed before but basically telling a candidate that you passed on them for a specific reason is seen as an invitation to argue the point, so people say something like 'wrong skill set.' Easier just to move along and not worry about it too much.
Everyone here has forgotten the main rule for choosing a language for projects. You have to actually know the language. The developer here very clearly doesn't know c all that well. That's all we need to know to know it's a bad choice. C is an especially bad language to use if you don't really know what you're doing.

If Linus Torvalds it's starting a new project, C is probably a good choice for almost anything. Why? Because he's an incredible C programmer. But we shouldn't confuse every developer with Linus Torvalds.
Interesting. The boss gives a very specific set of requirements, then the programmer disobeys this direct order, goes behind his back to do it differently and has essentially been lying to him or her for months.

It doesn't matter if it's the right or wrong technology choice, this is really an issue of 'work ethic'. Perhaps if the language was left unspecified, or it was a suggestion to use C rather than a requirement then it might be different, but this sounds like a rather blatant violation of trust based on a lack of respect.

I'd have no problems removing the programmer from the project, even if the software was awesome.
Yes, but the problem with Twitter is they took too much money.

You don't need to have $1Billion dollars in financing to offer a service like this -- this is what the likes of app.net are teaching us.

A $50million Twitter could have "easily" sustained it's vision/objective without having to cannibalise it's entire ecosystem.

However someone promised the moon to a bunch of financiers and now they have to deliver above and beyond of what Twitter could have been, or should have just been.

As far I'm concerned that is the story of Twitter, a company that took the money and ran.
The Four Steps to   the Epiphany
Maybe there should be an "anonymous week" where usernames are hidden. Just to see if there are any different patterns.
Interesting, thanks.

Seems like I need a much wider image for the BG on mobile devices; I guess this is down to the very high resolution of iPhone screens?

Also, looks like the webfont character in the H! didn't work either.
The overwhelming majority of natural phenomena follow the normal distribution. Do you have any reason for assuming software development is somehow different?
Well it's obvious you haven't done any systems programming

While it may be true in this case, this is the sort of insulting and dismissive argument that I don't like to see here.
> but far more capable and powerful

Also, since they're full versions of Windows, they should just be able to access Hulu, Evernote, and all the other services that expect you to pay extra if you choose to use them on an anemic mobile device.
due to high traffic, the site went down briefly. it's back up
Just a thought -- there's lots of little packaging innovations that, collectively, make commodity products better to use.

Ketchup bottles: store upside down, wide mouth

Toothpaste: flat tops you can store vertically

Toothbrushes: grips, padding, strips, etc.

Even slicing bread is a huge innovation [how annoying is it to make a sandwich otherwise?].
- البث المباشر - الجزيرة الرياضية
D-Link is challenging Dropbox by offering 2-way private sync
Universal Log Management Solution
Sort of disagree here. I was kind of cringing at the verbiage myself, but at the same time it was so frenetic and different from the dry, 'value-added' language that you see other sites barfing up, that I was kind of smiling at the same time.

Then you realize it's just a useful little niche tool, and he's giving it away for free.

After checking it out, I asked myself "Do I want to download this app more than if it was presented to me in a more dry, professional, predicable way?"

Yeah, actually.

I especially love how he concludes by broadcasting how the app is not perfect, while giving a little dev road map.

Well done imho.
The KSO-enabled LCD tablets are following the same playbook as KSO-enabled e-Ink devices. Just as you can opt-out of e-Ink, you will be able to opt-out of LCD. The difference is we've found the vast majority of customers don't value opt-out, and so the option will be less prominent than before (in MYK or by calling CS).

Remember, the principle is to be the best tablet at any price -- so you will be able to protect your "privacy" for less than $200.

I put "privacy" in quotes because the ads don't actually track you or your usage. Doing so is the wrong thing and would jeopardize people using the tablets. The ads simply show up on the lockscreen and we record impressions. It's a pretty interesting ad product, and Amazon has put a lot of steps in place to protect customers.
Facebook already has a social network. Google already has a social network. Apple's probably not interested in running one post-Ping. Who else is going to purchase them at a price their investors - who've sunk over a billion in VC $ - wouldn't balk at?
Agree, that doesn't mean anything. My study was misinterpreted: those users are generating a TON of posts. The top poster has close to 6000. There is a long tail of thousands of users who are pretty engaged. They are just not posting like crazy!

Here's the earlier discussion of my post:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4487816
How do you know when it's time to leave your current company and move on?
This looks very nice. I'm a Linux (Fedora) user and the options for GUI database tools are very limited. I'm also a Rails developer, so I'll be interested in pitching in if I can. One question, since pow isn't an option for me, how do I connect labrador to my databases?

P.S. I love the name.
If you go to the URL in the code, it defines what a leader is: the 100 people with the highest karma. By define get_leaders I meant write the scraper, not come up with the definition. Heh!
I think this "mark on humanity" talk is rubbish. I mean, what does that even mean? Twitter is just a service that allows people to connect and publicly talk to each other on the Internet. That's it.

There have been previous, less successful iterations of the same common idea. Twitter hit critical mass in terms of it's user base and has created neat and unique nuances that make it's version of human-human communication on the web innovative and fun and successful. Kudos to them. It's the social network du jor for fast communication. But there will eventually be other iterations in the future. Some more successful, some less. Perhaps some new incarnations from Twitter itself as they evolve their product over the next decade.

If Twitter has a "mark", it's that they created a way to "flatten the world of communication" and take discussions to a realm where everything and everyone are drawing on the same board at the same time.

But in the end, these are all services that facilitate human interactions that have existed for thousands of years. We've just taken those interactions and put them all on an even plane at the same time, and exposed them in a way that is amazingly accessible.

So when we talk about "Twitter changing the world", I get confused. It's always humans that change the world, we're just using a different vehicle and techniques to get there. So... Rhetorical flourishes and hyperbole aside... How was Twitter changing the world, and how is it not anymore...?
My 2 cents on what I think is consensus here:

Javascript frameworks are cool
Public API's are good
VIM is awesome
Re: the TBH - exactly. I just might have to try this.
I'm pretty sure they have a set of servers each running a licensed copy of every AV software they support, all scripted and automated in some form or fashion. I am really puzzled as to why Google needed to acquire them. It surely wasn't a technology acquisition.
Thanks for mentioning this, very good stuff I never scrolled down to see.
An SSL based VPN can be done within a UDP wrapper. The outer layer can't be encrypted or the connection wouldn't work. It's the payload that carries your (TCP/UDP) traffic out at the other end of your VPN.
It seems life is one step ahead as usual:

http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/1441-beat-facial-recognitio...

But hiding your face is only part of the problem, your gait is also pretty unique, as is I suspect your smell, your etc etc.

We need a generic catch all law to keep everyone honest. as I keep banging on about.
> Andrew Ng, in his machine learning class [1] urges people do use Matlab instead of Python, because in his experience people develop faster with Matlab than wit any other tool/language.

Never trust academics when it comes to programming. :)

Seriously, Matlab might be a tiny bit better for scientific programming than Python. But: if you start building an eco system around your machine learning code (distributed evaluation of models, email reporting of results, web reporting of results, online tracking of training progress, data base related things, web services for other people, proper documentation, ...) you are happy if you chose python.

Also, there is theano for python which has auto diff, transparent GPU/CPU use and symbolic optimization. It makes your life easy if you are using complicated models.
correct. thanks for that, will fix it.
have a great weekend!
Nope, that's right! Should have explained it that way the first time.
Apple Creating Pandora-Style Service
Thanks for engaging with my comment. (Upvoted.) Here are some counterargument to some of your points.

It has been years since Jimmy owned or controlled Wikipedia. Sure, the existence of a non-profit board with elections is no guarantee Wikipedia won't go bad, but I think you overestimate the usefulness of the CC license to those who would try to fork it if it does go ("has gone"?) bad.

>LibreOffice stands out as an example

Like I said although I strongly support open-source licenses for CODE (precisely because they allow forking). But I don't think the experience with code is particularly informative about text (or "prose" if you want a more precise word).

If Wikipedia's text were not freely redistributable, there'd be other ways of "forking" it (or more precisely, competing with it for the attention of the world's readers) besides rewriting from scratch. One can for example distribute a browser extension that replaces references to Wikipedia pages with pages from the "fork" if and only if a page in the "fork" exists.

My strongest counterargument is that the CC experiment and the Wikipedia experiment have been going on for at least 10 years now, and in the domain of their application to textual (or "prose") works, the most compelling actual development you can point to in support of them is Conservapedia (which, even if you approve of their mission, does not get enough traffic to count as a significant effect either good or bad).

In contrast, I can point to continuous harm (namely SEO spammers and just plain lazy folks who cannot be bothered to put thoughts in their own words, who are wasting the time of millions of readers).
I started with my cost price and added a markup that would reduce my risk. In addition, I noticed that botanicalls was 99$, so 119$ would be ok.
I agree that this is a real concern. Can I suggest that you start a new thread for it?
Very nice library - documentation is only 50% done, lots of blanks.
1) How do you know how much money it takes or does not take for Twitter to offer it's service?

2) Don't you think it's a little early to compare app.net and twitter? App.net is in it's infancy and is nowhere near the product twitter is

3) What could Twitter have been exactly? How did closing a few API's off prevent it from getting there?

4) Have you ever imagined that perhaps your vision for Twitter and Twitter's vision for Twitter just do not mesh?
I have no idea if Twitter is over-funded or not, but App.net has yet to have to service anywhere near the level of simultaneous traffic that Twitter deals with daily. App.net services 20,000 users (http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/09/07/off-slow-start-...); Twitter services 140 million (https://business.twitter.com/en/basics/what-is-twitter/). Twitter went through severe growing pains to reach the point where it could handle that much traffic; there's no reason to believe App.net won't have to go through similar issues if/as it grows.

Any centralized system that has to support tens or hundreds of millions of users in real time is going to be seriously expensive to operate. There may well be a point at which it's simply economically infeasible to do it without splitting the expense into tiny slices borne by lots of different parties, the way we do for email.
I've often thought that some of these one-offs are owned by long-time HN'ers who want to post content or comments across topics they find interesting, but don't fit well into the perceived "right content" moderation buckets. Much like your off-topic (but valid to HN) comment above... I could be wrong, but I've assumed it was a means to provide fringe topics/discussion without "damaging" their more popular personas.
Well, I don't know how you got that assertion about the normal distribution. But, one reason you could think it's not a simple normal distribution is that computer science classes often have bimodal grade distributions.
I think so too. It makes me sad, because the whole thing could have been avoided with some better communication and leadership skills.

We programmers tend to look at all things as technology problems, even in the way the question was asked ("inadequate?" what?) when it's almost always an interpersonal problem.
KSO ads aren't served by ad networks, and Amazon prohibits ad networks from having access to the ads for the very fear you mentioned. The only data recorded are impressions and ad-specific aggregate usage -- how many times did people watch the movie trailer? How many people converted? There are no tracking cookies included with the ads.

Amazon values its customers deeply and letting the third-party networks gather intel about its customers is a lose-lose proposition. Amazon loses its competitive advantage for having great data to make great recommendations, and customers lose their privacy. The ads don't work that way.
APIs for Manufacturing
I think there's a faction of engineers who want to work on interesting (which can be hard) problems, and those who want to work on interesting products.

I believe this is demonstrated clearly by the jobs pages for both Apple and Google. From Apple:

* Every detail matters… It matters all of the time. That’s how we do things at Apple. The result is some of the best-loved products in the world.

* Simplicity isn’t simple... It means rethinking every customer experience until the clutter has fallen away — until all that remains is what’s essential, useful, and beautiful. That might be a new product feature that delights even die-hard fans.

From Google, specifically an interview with Google employees about work there:

* ”... love to work on challenging projects”

* ”... love being faced with problems that were not ever solved before”

* ”... you hear people talking about algorithms and coding and programming languages”

* ”... it was just a pleasure being interviewed by smart people and being given a lot of puzzling questions”

I discussed this in a blog post I wrote which you can find here: http://mgp.github.com/2012/02/13/problems-and-products.html

I used to work at Google, and I joined there during a period when I wanted to work on interesting (i.e. hard) problems. I left to work on interesting products.
No relation to Twitter's obviously, but includes many of the commonly used Android libraries like ActionbarSherlock, Google GSON, etc.
This article wears its bias on its sleeve:

Really, when we boil it all down, the main thing the iPad has going for it is the Apple Experience — and is that worth $200?

For existing tablet owners (most of which are iPad owners), it’s hard to say; they’ve already bought into the app ecosystem, filled up their iCloud, and sipped the Jobsian Kool-Aid.

I have no horse in this tablet race (waiting for an iPad mini announcement to choose a 7-8" tablet, and switching from an iPhone to a Nexus phone), but we know nothing about the Fire HD 8.9. The comparison table in this article says "Unknown" for battery life and the screen comparison includes the words "early reports suggest." Whoa, giving Consumer Reports a run for their money!!

I won't compare the app stores (Android is rapidly catching up, with release for Instagram, Instapaper, and more and more games, while iOS still wins on volume), but this is a crazy comparison. Comparing a tablet that hasn't released yet to one that is 7 months old? Aren't there better things to write about?
If that's the case, and C is the wrong choice for that developer but the right choice for the project, then it follows that the developer is the wrong one for the project.

I had that exact same thing happen to me once. There's no shame in it.
Not saying these are good reasons, just reasons:

- Anonymity (as you mentioned)

- It is actually easier on this site to create an account than to reset your password (I don't know if people do this, but it is possible.)

- Novelty Accounts (like on reddit) for the joke. Here is an example of a novelty account in its natural habitat: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/z9yap/i_suspect_m...
It might be prohibitively expensive (think: CPU time and memory required to run a virus scanner (multiple virus scanners?) on every unique page on the internet).

Edit: Plus, per-machine licenses, and profitability -- how much is it worth vs blacklisting manually?
I suppose that, in my personal experience, I just haven't written a lot of Haskell code that used multiple similar record types in the same namespace.

I don't have any evidence for this, but I feel like it's often a bit of a code smell when this problem crops up. It seems like it frequently happens when programmers used to OOP are trying to shoehorn an object oriented design into a language which is just fundamentally not object oriented. I'm not saying that that's the only situation in which this problem arises, nor that the complaint isn't a legitimate one, regardless. There is no question that the situation could be improved. And perhaps I've just gotten lucky so far and haven't come across a scenario in which this really causes difficulties.

That said, there are always ways to work around the issue. I will make no claims of elegance here, but it's really not that much trouble. For one, you can define the different record types in separate modules, and then import them qualified. That's easy enough to do; it's just annoying to have to use multiple files.

Alternatively, you can keep the ugly prefixes on the record field names, but then use a type class to elide them away everywhere you refer to them. This technique only works when the similarly-named fields have the same type in each record, unless you use fundeps or associated types to attach additional type information to your class. For example:

{-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-}

data Foo = Foo {foo_field1 :: Char, foo_field2 :: String}
data Bar = Bar {bar_field1 :: Int, bar_field2 :: String}

class MyRecord a where type Field1Type a
field1 :: a -> Field1Type a
field2 :: a -> String

instance MyRecord Foo where type Field1Type Foo = Char
field1 = foo_field1
field2 = foo_field2

instance MyRecord Bar where type Field1Type Bar = Int
field1 = bar_field1
field2 = bar_field2

You could even use Template Haskell to automatically generate the instances so you don't have to tediously type them out yourself, especially handy for records with a large number of fields.

So I'm not claiming that there's no problem to be solved. I would be happy to see a real solution to this that doesn't require any workarounds. I just don't think it's a big enough issue to keep me from using a language which is, in nearly all other respects, awesome. :)
He may be pointing at organizations such as the TSA, which seem to have carte blanche nowadays.
I think this black-and-white/good-bad developer is way over simplified for our industry.

I think majority developer is above average AT SOME THINGS, someone may be a great javascript developer who can barely get a C program compiling, someone may be awesome AI developer who is blissfully ignorant about engineering best practices, etc.
Software development is not a natural phenomenon.
That's hilarious. Great sarcasm!