skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A rough idea of why the Fibonaccis and the golden ratio are related: in making a golden rectangle, you take an existing rectangle, attach a compass across its long end, and use that compass to construct a square. You add the square to the golden rectangle to get... another golden rectangle. If you wanted to repeat this, there is also a "flipping" of the rectangle by 90 degrees. Mathematically, the process takes a rectangle (a, b) (where b > a) and produces a rectangle (b, b + a). But that's just the Fibonacci recursion relation, so starting from (0, 1) or (1, 1) you'll generate all the Fibonacci rectangles as you 'goldenize' them further and further.

An actual proof: Since φ and 1 − φ are the solutions to the quadratic x² = x + 1, they also solve xⁿ = xⁿ⁻¹ + xⁿ⁻² and thereby form a basis for all solutions of the Fibonacci recurrence relation: in other words, you can solve the system of equations {A + B = F₀ ; A φ + B (1 − φ) = F₁} for parameters A and B, and then the recurrence relation guarantees A φⁿ + B (1 − φ)ⁿ = Fₙ for all remaining Fibonaccis. (For F₀ = 0, F₁ = 1 this gives A = -B = 1/sqrt(5).) Since |1 − φ| < 1, this decays geometrically to 0 and the dominant term is simply Fₙ ≈ A φⁿ.

The article thankfully does explain that the golden ratio is the most irrational number: because a continued fraction expansion gives the best rational approximations, large numbers in the continued fraction expansion make for extra-good rational approximations, and the golden ratio has the smallest numbers possible -- they're all 1. What it doesn't quite explain is that if you're growing a spiral by spitting out dots and you turn by an angle 2π · α each time you spit out a new dot, those spirals often seem to "line up" in lines given by the denominators of the best rational approximations. So if you have a rational number like α = 22/7, you would literally see just 7 straight spokes coming out of the center; if you use α = π you will see a region where there seem to be seven spirals due to the fact that 22/7 is a disproportionately good approximation to π, off not by ~ 1/14 but rather by ~1/790. Anyway this is the more concrete reason why, if you take a sunflower and count the spirals, you always seem to "magically" get Fibonacci numbers; they're denominators in the best rational approximations.

You may wish to experiment with a spreadsheet to see all of this dynamically for yourself, a-la http://tmp.drostie.org/sunflower.png .
Andy Rubin's response to Alibaba
>If the argument is that "you're using too much Javascript" then we all might as well just give up on HTML5 applications right now.

Just blame the standard?

If you designed an app with a 700KB JS analytics dependency that's your issue.
Same on feedly.com.
I guess I could use a good leg stretch between flights. :P
I'd really like to visit a start-up and see what it's really like. I've never had a development job before.
No, parent is saying that:

>>> isinstance(tuple, ("foo", "bar"))

True

>>> isinstance(tuple, ("foo"))

False

which is correct. In Python, a single-element tuple must end with a comma--otherwise it is just that element, e.g.:

"foo" == ("foo")

FWIW, OP is right--finding a bug related to this issue is almost a rite of passage for new Python devs.
Is the Cheating of Examinations a Niche?
How viable is this idea. What are the practical ways of implementing it.
This is the kind of ridiculous statement that comes from Slashdot. Yes for a Mars rover or medical device we might want some insane level of reliability. But reliable enough for Google, IBM and Amazon and thousands of other companies is enough to take the title "reliable operating system", the rest is just playing semantics.
I'm not really talking about what Swartz's argument is, but you seem to have missed the point that there's more to being a publisher than holding data.
DreamHost launches DreamObjects cloud storage service
This is what mostly works for me:

0) Ensure you're truly in love with your SO, and vice versa. I'm going to assume this evaluates to TRUE for what follows.

1) Have your SO read PG's essay on this topic; you know the one.

2) If their response is receptive and nurturing, then talk about concrete tactics that will support the long, uninterrupted stretches of time you need to thrive [tactics to follow, below].

If they get defensive after reading the essay, then you will know that indulging in maker time when you could otherwise be spending time with them will need to happen A) in a separate, unshared space, and B) during hours and within contexts that the general population of non-makers would consider a socially acceptable time to be practicing your craft--i.e. 9-5, M-F.

If (ideally) your SO inquires as to how they can support your maker's schedule while you're cohabitating, then explain to them how the Pomodoro technique works, and on your breaks between Pomodoro's, give them your complete and undivided attention. This way, you're able to focus without stressing about possible interuptions, and your SO enjoys your full, undivided attention during breaks, with the nice side effect of you being in a great mood during these breaks.

3) Realize that your SO, and all the other relationships you have with friends and family, are at least as meaningful and valuable as anything you could be making. Share the joy and purpose that making brings to your life with the people who love you--and just as importantly--take pride and great pleasure in the things that matter to them, too!
It's not the morality but the legality of his actions that are being disputed, sometimes these disagree widely as many comments here explain.
The admission that they couldn't figure out why their app was crashing is a pretty big indictment for a company in this space.... if they lacks tools, why didn't they write them and give them back to the community?

Or is it the case that they didn't even know what tools they lacked? The post certainly smells that way.
This. Is. Featurebloat.

Seriously, color changing? Dimming? Make a simple natural light bulb, a smartphone app and a wifi wall switch. Latter is far far more important than an ability to drown my kitchen in a shade of green. Keep it useful, damn it. Not a single home automation company gets this. Usability is a key to adoption.
Types of Marketing with Examples
Google and Alibaba Continue Warring Over Acer Phone
I was trying to make the point that there is more to being a publisher than just holding static content.
short summary from the book in order to recall sequenced information:

walk down a path in your mind, that you can recall well from your memory and then place images of the items/words you try to remember along this path.

in general: the more numerous the set of associations you have with a certain word the more likely you are going to remember it. For example, when trying to remember the name Baker of a person, don't think of it as a surname but rather as the profession "baker".
Considering the Upcoming Sales of iPhone 5
These kind of projects are always so damn cool, but so utterly useless :(
Hello, I'm the author.
MATHML is not used.
PDF is rendered with only HTML/CSS, and a few JS.

Please comment at github such that I can see it in time.
It gets tricky if your exit path ends up being the sort of combination talent/product acquisition where your new employer wants to keep your tech proprietary (see: Apple acquiring Siri, Facebook buying Face.com and shutting down their public API).
I think the position the OP takes is bogus. If Apple wants to look at Android source code, they can download it like everyone else. Google can put whatever closed, proprietary extensions it wants on actual devices, and while I don't necessarily feel that's in the true spirit of open source, the same rules apply to that that apply to Apple and the source code for iOS on the iPhone. If the Galaxy Nexus is specifically attacked in the dispute, and not Android in general, then the open sourceness of the majority of the code, which may or may not actually be running On the Galaxy Nexus, is unrelated.
This is fantastic! I've been using LaTeX for a while now, and nothing has really outputted HTML anywhere near this quality. I'm very impressed!
Why is this at the top of HN? There's nothing there. (Or am I blind?)
I wrote this a while back after having Google flag my site as malicious. http://www.besttechie.com/2011/09/19/how-to-fix-site-google-...
My God, this is entirely, entirely, wrong. When you speed, you're JUST as culpable of killing someone whether you actually kill them or not. This is an old ethics issue: you can imagine two scenarios, both of which you do exactly the same actions: speeding down a road. The difference is that in one of them, a pedestrian doesn't see you bearing down on him, and you kill him. The pedestrian may or may not be there, but in one scenario, you're a monster, and in the other, you're just a speeder - even though your actions are identical in each case!

The right answer is that you're a monster in BOTH scenarios, and you should never fucking speed.
Here's the corresponding video to these slides from a separate event that gives an overview of features in 9.2: http://vimeo.com/49337386
The memory grandmaster who trained Foer, Ed Cooke, runs a phenomenal startup that brings described techniques online to help you learn vocabulary: http://memrise.com

Highly recommended for anyone looking to expand their vocabulary in a variety of languages, including Mandarin.
Amazing - I am attempting to install this on mac osx lion -- it is taking a lot of time because of the dependencies. With so many dependencies the probability of failure is very high. Let's hope it works.

I urge you to find a way to allow people to install your software more easily.

I managed to get it to install (after about an hour and a half of tinkering. However I get "Segmentation fault" when I try running it:

pdf2htmlEX --debug=1 test.pdf

temporary dir: /tmp/pdf2htmlEX-LY9cOv

Preprocessing: ....

Working: Add new temporary file: /tmp/pdf2htmlEX-LY9cOv/__css

Add new temporary file: /tmp/pdf2htmlEX-LY9cOv/__pages

Add new temporary file: /tmp/pdf2htmlEX-LY9cOv/p1.png

Install font: (29 0) -> f1

Add new temporary file: /tmp/pdf2htmlEX-LY9cOv/f1.pfa

Segmentation fault: 11
http://www.giagia.co.uk/2010/03/23/ada-lovelace-day-2010/
Twl's make free digital content easy to get.
Why It’s Never Mattered That America’s Schools ‘Lag’ Behind Other Countries
Fun fact: Spanner means voyeur in German slang.

Anyway, looks like a very exciting project. One could come up with so many applications.
As a business, sure.

But I don't see the complication on the tech side.

Getting the scanned copies is likely the most complex portion of this and is outside the realm of the site. The rest is just displaying static content and filling a Solr cluster with OCR data for search which is a trivial task with off the shelf OSS tools. Seems like a 2 week MVP project given how clunky the website is (why on earth does it move to the top of the page when I click the 'next' arrow when viewing the article, arg).
http://code.google.com/p/jps2/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk
Code is here http://code.google.com/p/jps2/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fj...
People sometimes need to be reminded of perspective.

The truth is that we all play parts in a grand, millennium spanning conversation of all of humanity.

Writing and contributing to that conversation in the best way we can is probably the most compelling driver for me personally.

You'll contribute far more by participating in the conversation (releasing code, or papers that describe how things work) than trying to keep everything to yourself.
oh, FLOCKing. Yes. That is neat too.
The code is pretty damn ugly (but then, most emulator code is), and the project is pretty much dead, seeing that the latest commit is from 2010. Why is this on here again?
Personally I've decided that life is absolutely meaningless, and I've found that to be incredibly liberating. It's helped me to not put so much pressure on myself to achieve (achieve what?) and live more in the present. It's a shame that people who don't find meaning in their life tend to take the opposite tack toward depression. Or others gravitate toward followership to anyone who will tell them how to live. If I could give advice, it would be to not do that. Half the fun is figuring out what's meaningful for you.

Otherwise, there are various clichés. People will say their family is most important and money is meaningless or some variation. I think those truisms are worth the amount of time it takes someone to repeat them, which isn't much at all.

And I love that scene in Fight Club where Brad Pitt is telling Ed Norton that he won't be truly enlightened until he knows, not just thinks, that he is going to die. I wouldn't risk your life or hurt yourself to figure this out, but if you're in your 20's and haven't had any near-death experiences, as you get older, you will DEFINITELY realize that your life is finite and it will change your perspective. There will be a thousand things that in the back of your mind you always have thought you'd have time to do, but then you turn 30 and start to realize that you probably won't. And that you need to start economizing and prioritizing.
Your original point was that no one's making money from Android apart from Google and HTC.

You were wrong.
Then there would be no activity at all that everyone could do, and the question would be senseless. I think you're reading it too literally and missing the point.
An Android phone can never have what an iPhone has
We're using ejabberd at work as well.
We're ~70 people and have got email address == xmpp handle, and we're using team-specific and general MUC chat rooms.

I do miss using IRC at this company, but at some point around 08 or 09 most people switched to Skype (as we'd used to for client communication anyway) and forsake IRC, but not all were happy with it. So in early 2011 (I think) we've had some polls and 3/4 preferred XMPP over Skype, so we switched. Personally I'm very happy with it.

My experiences with client libraries in PHP were horrible, though.
xmppy (Python) and smack (Java) are much better.
Rails-debate
User-driven debate site built with Ruby on Rails and jQuery. Users can create and reply to arguments and join sides. Easily deployed on Heroku after resolving gem dependencies.
I know Bilal. He is a really great guy and has done so much for the community here in Ann Arbor. I am sure this will be a great success if it gets funded. I have backed the project and you should too.
Flowdock's similar IRC gateway is already open source:
https://github.com/flowdock/oulu
Origins of Wikipedia
I like the idea of "f.lux for my house". Might improve my sleeping. This part of the project is potentially life-altering.

Lots of people in the comments are getting hung up on the "control your lights over wifi" aspect of this project, which is far less interesting. INSTEON is (AFAIK) the current best solution for home automation, and already does this pretty well: http://www.insteon.net/

It's backwards compatible with X10, uses both powerline and RF to send control signals, and each INSTEON device also functions as a repeater, so you're far less likely to run into poor signal issues that plagued X10.
I can't even find the price on this page, and already made a negative image about this company just because of this :)
Yeah that makes a of sense. I go to school at Stanford, so I'm outside running around to go to classes all the time. It's been really bad here in Paris, where I've been spending almost all my time coding in my room.

And its definitely not at the case where I need medical attention. There are mornings (like today) where I wake up incredibly groggy. Hopefully everything will be better as soon as I get back into my daily routine with exercise again.
You don't even have to come up with anything new. You can just look at existing markets with paying customers and enter it.
No.

Having to pay for access to papers and being forced to pick cotton in the blinding sun every day of your life under pain of the whip are not the same thing.
The Acer/Google/Alibaba tussle: It's not about open Android
$49 for 4+, and yes the DIY is much cheaper. But the Kickstarter is about paying more to support the idea. The final product should be substantially cheaper...
Going to have to get rid of the habit of snoozing and waking up at a fixed time everyday. 6.30 would be pushing it but 8 am should be feasible.
For Android, you need to set up the Android development kit, which is the Java language, Eclipse IDE, and some packages from Google. You can get all of this for free from Google. I found it to be a PITA to set up, but I've never liked Eclipse. You can set this up on any hardware/OS.

For iOS, you need to download and install xCode from Apple, which means you need a Mac. You'll also have to pay for a development license so you can sign your apps and sell them through the store. You'll be developing in ObjectiveC here, which is kind of an odd language. I also found xCode to be an odd IDE, but if you're used to Macs it might be more intuitive.

If you want to develop in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, you can just create a website, or you could do a single-page app design and wrap it up in Phonegap to create a native-ish app that can be sold through the stores. There is a phonegap version for each platform so you still need to set up dev environments for each, just like if you were doing native development. In fact, Phonegap's installation guide on their website is a great introduction to setting up development environments for a bunch of mobile devices, not just Android and iOS.

My recommendation is to stick to a regular website, perhaps using jQueryMobile if you want a mobile-specific UI, if your app does not require much offline functionality or hardware apis beyond location. Other hardware apis are being defined and are slowly becoming available to standard Javascript, but they're mostly not ready for prime time yet.

If you need offline functionality and/or access to the hardware, but you don't have the resources to do native development on each platform and you don't want to focus on just one, Phonegap is the best choice. Your apps will still feel like a non-native website rather than a native app, but 90% of your effort will be cross-platform so you can save yourself a lot of time.

If you have the resources and/or want to focus on a single device platform, go native. You'll get better integration with the platform, better performance, and a lot more capabilities.

PS: It is possible to use other dev languages. Android is Linux underneath, and you can write code in any language Linux supports, which is most of them. The drawback is that Google wrote the Android SDK libraries in Java and Java doesn't interoperate with other languages nicely, so you don't have access to the SDK in other languages. This is being addressed by Google, but slowly. I think you can probably use other languages on iOS too, but with the same caveat.
On iOS can they even do this? Without jailbreaking an iPhone, getting access to that type of control is not possible. I would say this falls more on Apple to provide better tooling for doing development on their browser.
It's pretty wasteful though. That's a lot of useful wifi gear being thrown out with every spent bulb.. It would probably be more efficient (and cheaper for more than one or two bulbs) for them to handle all of the logic and wireless in a single powerline wall wart and then have the bulbs be dumb listeners on that.
Web startups can become enterprises. Today's enterprises were car factories, farms, and accountants.
Node.js Is Bad Ass Rock Star Tech
Again posted a link to get redirected to the HN discussion on it but there was none. :(
Smartphones are todays temporary fad

You think carrying a mobile computing device wherever you go is a "temporary fad"? Really?
fosspatent has no integrity and he will print whatever his boss tell him to. Everything he writes is FUD.
Mars: A Time for Dragons?
How To Evaluate Whether Or Not You Should Join A Startup
I was able to install

cmake, fontforge and libpoppler with homebrew,

gcc-4.7 using

https://github.com/sol-prog/gcc-4.7-binary
1) Buy only DRM free copies of electronic media; in this way your freedom to do what you wish with your electronic copy is not restricted;

2) Maintain your own data on physical storage media controlled only by you; this means your freedom to access your data is not restricted;

You can now transfer your data to your heirs when you die by transferring them the physical media, in the identical fashion with which you would transfer the physical CDs/DVDs/Blurays.

Doing anything else leaves your freedoms at the mercy of a corporation, and their interests will never align with your desires to exercise your freedoms.
President John Tyler was born in 1790; his grandsons are still alive:

http://kottke.org/12/01/president-john-tylers-grandsons-are-...
Sequoia’s Jim Goetz Puts A New Spin On Consumerization Of The Enterprise
Definitely not insomnia. Just trying to get some information as to how I can get better sleep and not be so groggy in the morning.

Thanks for the links. I had no idea that exercise before going to bed was poor sleep hygiene. The whole no napping also comes as a surprise. I never managed to nap because it takes me way to long to fall asleep but many of my friends do and they find it has really positive effects.
Exactly. Sometimes, it pays to be detached. You can be passionate about something, but still be somewhat detached from it. The minute you let something/someone determine and define your life, you lose sight of the larger picture. And, the reality is that nothing lasts ever. Time and again, I have seen people surprise me - in both good and disappointing ways.

It's very difficult to find contentment in oneself - most people will call it a cynical and pathetic look at life. However, that's what life is. At the risk of sounding cliched - it's YOUR journey on the train. Everyone departs along the way. Some you will get to know more than others, but at the end of the day being aware that it's your journey and yours alone helps you not get attached to other things that might eventually end-up crumbling your world.
Yes it does keep history if you register a user.
Ask HN: How do you, personally, make decisions?
NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:coolwanglu/pdf2htmlex
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pdf2htmlex

I haven't yet tried to build on mac os, but in ubuntu it was trivially simple.
Spent all 2011 killing myself to bring a project in on time, missed kids's end-of-year shows, nearly got to divorce. This year I'm getting out on time, closer to home, and seeing a lot more of my family. Sure, it's less ambitious, and the possibilities of promotion are massively reduced - but I know where I'm happier.
I also cut down on soda and caffein 100%, and I feel much better overall. I could never go back. I used to get so addicted. When I began my internship I would be going through up to 10 shitty drinks a day. As soon as I completely cut them out my productivity, focus and energy dramatically increased.

Everyone is telling me to wake up early...eurgh. I'm going to do it but I'm really going to miss sleeping in, especially during the weekend where I go to bed at 3-6am on average.
I present this more as a interesting anecdote than a real argument but the fatality rate on the roads in Germany (where the autobhans have no enforced speed limit and seeing someone drive at 150mph is not uncommon) is considerably lower than in the US.

The reason this isn't a particularly great comparison is that driver training, car design and even the German attitude to driving are all built around the potential for high speeds.
Consider me boggled.

How does the body "know" or get "told" to only manufacture wind pipe cells and not say grow a new toe?

Really impressive stuff.
This is awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing this.
Sunday mornings are the best timeslot for submitting stories to HN... http://hnpickup.appspot.com/