skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Today I was writing a Skein hash function implementation in Go. Skein can be configured for different purposes (e.g. MAC, KDF, stream cipher, etc.), and it can accept >5 optional arguments. I wanted to expose all these configuration option to users, in addition to providing a simple version that will create hash without configuration. Here's how I solved it (there's prior art in some standard libraries).

I exported this struct:

type Args struct {
Key []byte // secret key for MAC, KDF, or stream cipher
Person []byte // personalization string
PublicKey []byte // public key for signature hashing
KeyId []byte // key identifier for KDF
Nonce []byte // nonce for stream cipher or randomized hashing
}

and then provided a function:

func New(outLen uint64, args *Args) *Hash

Users can easily call it like this:

h := skein.New(64, &skein.Args{ Key: someKey, Nonce : someNonce })

I like this design a lot.

Plus, with structs as arguments you can easily provide more than one default configurations. For example, if you want to personalize hash for different usages:

var FileHashConfig = &skein.Args{ Person: []byte("file hash for MyApp") }
var MessageHashConfig = &skein.Args{ Person: []byte("message hash for MyApp sync") }

and use them:

h := skein.New(64, FileHashConfig)

(Note: Args is a bad name for general usage -- I called it like this only because Skein authors call these "arguments", and "configuration" is reserved for something else.)

There are a few specified usages for Skein with arguments, so to avoid making users of my library read the Skein paper, I wrote "constructors" for them:

// NewMAC returns hash.Hash calculating Skein Message Authentication Code of the
// given length in bytes. A MAC is a cryptographic hash that uses a key to
// authenticate a message. The receiver verifies the hash by recomputing it
// using the same key.
func NewMAC(outLen uint64, key []byte) hash.Hash {
return hash.Hash(New(outLen, &Args{Key: key}))
}

// NewStream returns a cipher.Stream for encrypting a message with the given key
// and nonce. The same key-nonce combination must not be used to encrypt more
// than one message. There are no limits on the length of key or nonce.
func NewStream(key []byte, nonce []byte) cipher.Stream {
const streamOutLen = (1<<64 - 1) / 8 // 2^64 - 1 bits
h := New(streamOutLen, &Args{Key: key, Nonce: nonce})
return newOutputReader(h)
}

Simple.
I'm not sure about the cheapest, but ECU (East Carolina University) has an MBA program available online that is generally considered a pretty good value.

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-bus/

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-bus/op.cfm

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/grcat/distanceEd.cfm
He might be rude, but he's correct about the hypocrisy. We HNers do subscribe to the belief that ideas don't mean much at all on their own, and it's all about the execution. These guys are amazing at execution, so it follows that we should respect them for it.

However, I think this is generally a community of craftsmen, so we see ourselves on the other side of the equation... our idea being ripped off by the Samwers' operation.
I'm not an economist or a lawyer so wondering:

1) Should there be a penalty for people who file patents that obviously have a ton of prior art to incentivize people not to do this or to do more research?

2) Should there be a reward for people who discover prior art invalidating patent applications/ claims? The reward could come from a) people who are using the idea without holding the patent and thus don't want to get sued over the patent and are benefiting from the research, and b) the frivolous filers from 1).
Machine Learning using Optics
Wow, you couldn't have picked a better time to get this out there. I hope this can become a replacement for Apple's botched attempt at the Maps app.
No. The laptop is irrelevant.

The article is about him realizing that his workstation shouldn't run a dead Solaris installation anymore, and more general that he doesn't need to replicate a server on his (workstation) desktop.

A broken laptop (running OS X, not that it is relevant for the meat of the article) just lead to the switch, which wasn't reverted for all we can tell.

Yeah, the laptop (with OS X, incidently) was replaced.
Do like Steve Jobs did and don't follow your passion
The magnetic strip and chip duplication technology in gas stations and convenience stores are already a point of frustration for insurers, financial services and consumers. Exploiting NFC which is intended to be a generally-accepted payment method in the near future does not give me the warm-and-fuzzies
I'm not sure whether you're saying that there weren't google ads in the old iOS maps, but I'm fairly sure I saw an ad there when I did a search for Pizza Hut a week ago in SF.
Apple Maps vs Google Maps: A Side by Side iPhone Comparison
Do you think Steve would have tested the new map application in all countries iPhones are sold? I am sure Steve would have taken same decision as he have already took 'thermonuclear` stance against Android hence indirectly Google.
True enough. But all they'd have to memorize is one hard password (or even a pattern like 102938), and one modifier pattern based on the URL of the site.

A simple example, using 102938 as the base password would be taking the main name part of the url (eg. www.google.com would just be "google"), converting each letter to a number (g = 7, o = 15, o = 15, g = 7, l = 12, e = 5), adding them all together (61), divide that by the number of characters used (61 / 6 = int(10.16) = 10), then add that result to every pair of numbers in the original password (10 + 10 = 20, 29 + 10 = 39, 38 + 10 = 48), giving you a password of 203940 for that site :)

EDIT: forgot to make this hard to crack. Again, the pattern approach can work - 203948 for "google" could easily and predictably become "go20og39le48@mycompany" or some such.
A large part of the problem isn't the bureaucrats bumbling up the system, it's the "government is always corrupt under all circumstances" crowd passing "accountability" laws requiring 17 redundant forms in triplicate being filled out and sent around to a dozen different independent oversight offices thereby using $100 of resources (in the form of man hours, paper and so on) to spend every $.01. The ones who make these rules do so out a mixture of some absurd fear that that $.01 might be spend incorrectly so we must at all costs prevent such a travesty (damn the costs) and a cynical attempt to prove how awful it must be by their own sabotage (a mentality of "I believe there can be no good here, so I will prove it by injecting as much bad as I can in the system")

Huge numbers of government employees would love to, and regularly do, suggest ways of improving efficiency and outcome, only to be told "it is illegal to be efficient". I've seen it happen over an over.
Except that English as a subject is much less about writing English or the English language as it is about studying English literature and its reflection of (and impact on) culture and history.
Change the fonts on your website. I am sure it looks fine on Mac OSX, but it looks like crap on Windows.

http://i.imgur.com/DfzfJ.png
Show HN: highlighter.js a jQuery plugin for tooltips on selected text
Yep, it works, but not easily usable because for non chinese readers, you would have to type the search in English, and then leave the app to switch it to chinese for the taxi driver (and switch it back to English to do your next search).
NFC Sucks
Or, Google can release their Map application ASAP and try to build more of a foothold in the iPhone market. I guess then they would have to fear Apple rejecting their app when the time is convenient.
Startup recruiting: Stop trying to hire a unicorn.
Ha, thanks. It's a public agency with federal funding. Website: http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/
Hybrid graphical novel
FWIW the 'tag' concept in Go alleviates concern #2.

Info regarding tags (scroll a bit): http://golang.org/ref/spec#Struct_types

How tags are used by the built-in JSON encoding library: http://golang.org/pkg/encoding/json/#Marshal

Of course, just because this kind of thing can be handled with tags doesn't mean that people will actually know to use them or actually use them correctly.
Here's one example we saw recently in new york going from the 116th/Columbia stop to 12 St Marks Place.
Google's result: http://i.imgur.com/8zpbY.png
Our result: http://i.imgur.com/gpDu5.png & http://i.imgur.com/8hvrs.png

Currently we don't have an app for muni, though it's something we're working towards. There are some nice apps for Muni that have real-time arrivals but lack routing. Transporter & Routsey are probably the two best.
"But Apple didn't want a relationship, just a one time cash transaction so that Apple can encroach on TomTom's business. Part of me suspects that Apple got the worst possible data set TomTom could deliver and still plausibly argue they met the requirements of their agreement with Apple. There was no strategic advantage in doing otherwise."

I disagree. Even if they gave them a high quality data set, that set is going to be obsolete within a year (let's say). Now Apple can either choose to keep obsolete data (which will definitely impact customers) or buy updated data from TomTom.
I like the new Maps app. I know it's objectively horrible and am not disputing any of the ironclad cases everyone else has made against it. All I'm saying is this: I punched in directions to Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown last night, driving from Oak Park. I threw my phone on the passenger seat and drove. The sensible route it plotted for me was unworkable due to traffic, so I detoured through UIC campus. The moment I diverged from its route, without me doing anything, it replotted a new route, and then a series of new routes as I ignored those directions, until I got to Roosevelt and followed its directions the rest of the way there --- which were much better than the route I would have taken.

Obviously, I fall into a specific class of Maps user:

* Using directions primarily when I'm driving

* In a major city

But that's a big class of users and, so far, Maps is better for that use case. The Maps app from 10.5 was unusable for driving.
Apple Maps is, in a word, awful
Wal-Mart stops selling Amazon Kindles
Our musical bundles never sold that poorly. HN, what are we doing wrong?
I don't understand your giddyness. It would be better if there would be competition instead of Google having a map monopoly.
Ask HN: Do karma points matter when posting on HN?
As the title says it, I am wondering whether karma points on HN actually do anything to your post's ranking. Anyone know?
Publish (your data) or let them perish. Why not publish your data too? (.PDF)
clarification: get a vote-by-mail form, fill it out and drop it off on election day - you have a guaranteed paper trail.

Good luck getting that kind of assurance with the voting machines. Lack of paper trail is a gaping flaw.
TQP claims using SSL violates their crypto patent and sues hundreds of companies
Regarding the treble damages for having read a patent - since these are patent applications, not granted patents, perhaps one could argue that one didn't know it was actually granted?
I'm pretty certain that Google won't be able to release a Maps App for iOS because it would violate the terms of replicating built in functionality. People can use the mobile web version, though.
Try living somewhere that isn't a big US city. Of course the major population centers are going to be highly worked on. It's elsewhere, that google maps has gotten so good on, that people are complaining about.

The satellite imagery is as bad as googles was, but more than six years ago.
This is like saying Chemistry should be merged back in with Physics as one is just a deep study of the application of the other. The edges between related departments are always going to be blurred, but it's still practical to have things separated out into different departments. I think that we'll just continue to so lots of faculty with joint or honorary positions across several departments. Hopefully this will also encourage students to collaborate in a more interdisciplinary way, too.
Predicting Customers' (Unedited) Behavior
It seems it's the same for Boston. Embark only has the T, no buses. Which is a shame, because the app looks great otherwise. It even shows hubway (bike rental) stations around the T stops.
Because it looks like they have ~10 people and according to the top grossing charts on iOS they make a few hundred dollars a day. Gotta keep it going until better metrics and results, I presume.
I hope everything works out for them. Jailbreaking makes the iOS experience 100x better.
Depends on which English degree you study. I know those who've studied the literature and cultural impact side of things and those who've studied the language with a linguistics spin on it.
"> There's little status to be gotten from tinkering on "someone else's" repo.

So github is about status? Silly me, I thought was contributing to OSS.
I know, the point of my comment was that it's almost as hard to brick a phone as it is bricking a PC. You've got to kill the bootloader to achieve this, which rarely happens, even when you flash a corrupt OS.
Everyme (YC S11) Founders Launching Origami to Help Families Stay in Touch
New User Profile Pages
My Raspberry Pi experience with Debian-based Linux distribution Occidentalis
Radical Patent Reform Is Not on the Way
I had never heard of TQP, but apparently they've sued hundreds of companies for violating an obscure crypto patent. They allege infringement just on the basis of using SSL / TLS. The defendants include Google, Adobe, the NFL, TD Ameritrade, etc.

Here is the patent in question:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=fUwgAAAAEBAJ
With TerraServer, Microsoft got into online mapping before Google was even incorporated (and when putting a terabyte of data online was so far beyond the leading edge that it was a Microsoft research project). Their strategic partner Nokia has been in the mobile mapping space for some time as well.

Given the relative sizes of patent portfolios prior to Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, I wouldn't bet on Google should the IP wars shift to mapping...of course I wouldn't bet on Apple either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraServer-USA
The point I was making was that with electronic transactions, discovering or infering information about a person from their purchases has just as much value as say working out someon is gay from their friends list or choice of netflix.

Use cash. But be aware it is slowly but surely becoming a ghetto.
> "Moreover it completely ignores the risk of devoting a ton of resources to developing a product that is already protected by a patent."

That's what the legal advisers (who recommend this strategy) are for. You bring them a concept or prototype, they do clearance/patentability checks and make a recommendation -- not only in whether to proceed, but potentially including advice on how to proceed in the most legally advantageous manner.

(Your specific invention may be patentable even when generalized to cover additional uses -- indeed much of the value of good patent counsel comes from their ability to get you the most-broad patent possible.)
> Apple dind't want to use OpenStreetMap because its open source solution and Apple never uses open source solution.

Riiiight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)
> wrong or non existent hospital.

FWIW: I can see that turning into a lawsuit.
Android already has market share, this will just widen the gap.
Web Cryptography API posted as W3C working draft
Seeing the poor state of the Apple Maps, I think Google can wait 2 years or so before even considering releasing Google Maps for iPhone. More people will want Android phones as they can't leave without it, just like some can't live without the Gmail app for Android.
"Facebook bought FriendFeed for $47 million and have done nothing with the startup."

Isn't the current activity feed based on what FriendFeed created?
This is progress, but not nearly enough. Imho we shouldn't need to dig prior art like this to protect ourselves. I think granting a patent should be the EXCEPTION, not the norm and patent examinators should aim at finding any excuse not to grant the patent instead of rubber stamp it unless they find prior art.

Right after the patent examinator decides the claim is novel it should test whether it is overly broad. For this, simply testing if the claim covers more than one implementation should save a lot of grief. If the software algorithm is described in pseudocode: rejected, in C: approved. This would allow for clean-room reverse-engineering (the claim uses C, we used java), something held as legal for ages in the non software patent world.

And before somebody argues this would make pretty much all software patents worthless: you are correct. Software should not be protected by patents since it is already protected by copyright law.
With respect, I think the author confuses the roles of specialization and generalization. There are general skills within the domain of Computer Science that can be applied to other fields. Just like there are general skills from Statistics that apply across other fields, or general skills from English, or general skills from various disciplines of Mathematics. One can apply these skills across disciplines without needing to specialize, per se, in the discipline from which the skill derives.

Alternatively, one can decide that the skill's parent discipline is worth specializing in. If I'm a Biology major, and I discover that I am getting a kick out of the Statistics skills I employ in my major, even more so than I enjoy my major, I can decide to major in Statistics instead. This does not obviate the need for the two fields as separate fields of study. Nor does it present any real indication that one field is going to be collapsed into the other. The sets of Biology and Statistics have many intersections, but they are not the same set.

And that's the key: the fields are intersecting, and occasionally even overlapping, but they're not entirely so.

At the risk of sounding even nerdier, maybe this concept comes more naturally to those of us who've played an RPG or two in our day. Think Skyrim, if you've played it. You can build a melee fighter who draws a few skills from the magic skill tree. Or you can be a pure mage. Or a pure fighter. Or what have you. At the same time, there are only so many skill points you're allotted -- so you can't pick all of each tree. It works the same way in life, really. It's probably better to be a master of one trade with a few skills from the others, than to be a jack of all trades and master of none.

This has been my daily admission of dorkitude. Thanks for listening.
Everyme (YC S11) Has A New Project: Origami, Private Sharing For Families
Startups Can Avoid a Class Action Lawsuit with a Single Clause
Liquid Information OS X 2.0
You know, reduced accuracy and functionaliy like that might be acceptable for an email client or a web browser (no copy and paste, other quality of life features) but not a mapping application.

Before Google Maps, digital maps were HORRIBLE. Even the first iterations of Google Maps were better than just about everything, save for a Thomas Guide. Everyone has gotten used to putting data into a map application and being returned a reasonalbly correct set of instructions or representation of data.

This is inexcusable today. As far as horrible changes you can make to a smartphone, this ranks way up there (short of having a dialer that doesn't work).
My response: http://swombat.com/2012/9/20/rocket-internet

The short of it: This is, in my opinion, perhaps the most innovative company in the startup industry today, the first of a new industry. To declare them non-innovative, as some people do, is either short-sightedness or just jealousy.

I'm sure a lot of people were jealous of YC too when it first started turning the angel/VC investing world on its head. Same difference.
AT&T slammed over FaceTime block
That's my point. The post is cobbling together "foreknowledge" "infringement" "liability" into a statement with a rhetortical, "right?" tacked on. It not obviously a genuine question, though (by definition). viz:

foreknowledge of patent infringement can triple damage liability right?
For those who think this is just a problem with the 3D images, or are not convinced there are serious problems even after seeing this tumblr, try looking outside of California, at both satellite and standard maps. Some example searches:

"Brighton, UK", Satellite - a major UK city is so blurry you can't see streets.

"Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands" - ends up in the middle of the sea, and no roads on the islands at all.

"Colchester" - satellite shows clouds, in B&W

"Senkaku Islands" - compare satellite with standard to see duplicates of these disputed islands.

"Puno,Peru"- in lake Titicaca

etc.

They probably had to rush this out, but it's really not ready for widespread use in some areas; they'd have done better to cut back the features and massively extend their testing (or use a crowd-sourced alternative). Given how extensively this is used in iOS, both by apps using Mapkit and by customers every day round the world, it's vital that is it correct, and getting it wrong in such obvious ways is a massive strategic error on Apple's part.
Among dogs, some breeds are considered "smarter" than others. However, when people talk about their dogs being smart, what they most often really mean is, "my dog is able to understand and follow my orders". While that is one way to measure intelligence, it is an extremely one-sided and perhaps somewhat dishonest approach (only those behavioral traits are called "intelligent" that are good for us, dog masters). Breeds of dogs that are genetically close to wolves, for example, are considered by some as less intelligent than other, more malleable breeds. However, as this experiment shows (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls3ZmwtaosY&t=23m22s) (video in German), actual domesticated wolves are quicker at solving some types of problems on their own, while dogs will give up after a few poor tries and/or turn to humans for help.
On something like a Linux PC, where you have full access to the source code
and the ports on the back of the computer, finding a kernel exploit is
relatively easy

Something made me stop reading there.
> It seems like the quality level maintained by Steve Jobs is quickly deteriorating in favour of business moves designed to wrest more control off Google.

This stuff gets so tiresome. Apple has been buying maps companies for years. Steve Jobs personally ran acquisitions at Apple. He decided which mapping companies to buy and when he did he probably had a good idea of how they would fit into the platform. Development of the new Maps app was surely underway when Jobs was still alive. What do you think happened? Jobs died and the executive team was like, "Alright everyone, we've got 6 months until the iOS 6 beta is out. Let's cancel our contract with Google and get this shit maps app in there pronto!"

The reality is that Apple has been dependent upon their biggest competitor for a strategically important smartphone feature. The Wall Street Journal reported[1] months ago that Google initially balked at letting Apple have access to Street View, and didn't allow Apple access to turn-by-turn data. If the issue was only quality, Apple could have turned to Bing or Yahoo. They didn't because owning this technology is a strategic necessity in the smartphone market as it stands today. Having features dictated by competitors is not an option.

It's true that the quality of the maps app isn't great. I get looney search results (even when tapping on their search suggestions) and it's extremely frustrating. But there is something to be said for getting it shipped and starting the process of refinement and improvement. It only becomes a strategic problem if the quality doesn't improve noticeably with time.

[1] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FwvSLvr...
As of right now the perpetual beta is a lot better than the supposed "final" iOS6 maps. So yeah.