skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> It's also hugely important not to expect anything out of your meditation

Thanks for saying that... it's such an important bit, but so difficult to actually live, and it's ignored by most.
I play on a hockey team. Helps you forget about other things. Plus smacking a puck, or people occasionally is good for relieving stress. The only draw back is getting an intense work out right before going to bed doesn't really help your sleep.
Yes, "a tax on savings and deposit accounts", also known as a wealth tax, as opposed to an income tax, would, indeed, encourage spending.

It's also one of the most frightening ideas I've heard proposed, and you're not the first to propose it, it's been proposed by congressmen.

Just as there was a strong backlash against the patriot act, with many feeling that extra security was not worth losing rights for, so too, must you seriously examine whether you really think it's worth sacrificing your children's ability to save, to end this business cycle's downturn six months early.

These times disturb me greatly, and it's not the problems that scare me, it's the solutions that are proposed to them.
It's a knee-jerk comparison, and certainly not one that I believe, but when you said "I think you need to stop and reconsider whether this is the appropriate attitude to take toward someone who really does nothing more than write articles and speak at conferences," the retort that came to my mind was "All Hitler did was sign papers and speak at a podium."

The point is that despite just writing articles and speaking at conferences, the content of his messages have far more meat than his enactment of them.
Was there supposed to be content here other than "we use EC2!"?
Thanks, the latter two sound good. Pin seems to be a too generic acronym to Google it, what does it stand for?
If you're interested at all in what zen is, I really enjoyed this very small book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0802130550/ .
I don't know anything about retroactive lawsuits.
But if people can sue these companies after they license the technology, why can't they sue them for not licensing and providing safety? It would sounds so ironic.

Am I missing something here or the laws are really in such a way ...
At least he points out some flaws in the industry and where they can be corrected. Blogging is a new industry (in some ways), and hasn't adjusted completely yet.

Newspapers took quite a long time to adjust, and libel became against criminal and civil law (although "cyberlibel" is around, there is maybe a total of 3 cases?).
Quick comment: people in the future will look back upon 1980-2009 as a barbaric era of unbelievable interpersonal nastiness. The truth about the matter is more complicated. We're not really meaner than people of prior eras-- in fact, we've made a lot of progress as private individuals on racial/gender attitudes, even while social infrastructure has decayed-- but certain crass and mean elements of our society (casual sex, classism, internet harassment, homophobia and racism, so-called "irony", a heartless health insurance system) are being expressed loudly right now.

Although we won't, at bottom, see the economic privations of the 1930s, 2001-2009(?) will be remembered as a difficult decade during which the future of civil society seemed uncertain. The 2000s have seemed like only a so-so decade to us, just as the 1930s appear to have been horrific in retrospect (people starved? no way!) but were still better, materially, than the 1900s and 1910s.

The reason I predict an imminent and rather abrupt end to the "nasty era" is obvious. The people in charge of it have fallen from grace rather decisively, and we have a brilliant, inspiring president whose character is excellent by any standard, and downright heroic in comparison to what we've come to expect, and whose ascension represents a degree of triumph over centuries of racial bigotry.
When I count things (in the real world), I now have a bad habit of starting a zero.

"How many floors on that building?"

"Let's see, 0, 1, 2... oh wait..."
This will turn into Kathy Sierra part 2.
"The hottest start-up in the Valley right now won’t make anybody rich, but it might put the next president in the White House. "

yes it did.
I agree. It never occurred to me that Google would manage to screw something up as fundamental as making sure domain renewals worked properly. Of course, given the recent issues we've seen reported with SSL certificates being allowed to expire (GrandCentral comes to mind), maybe we should be more worried.

I have one domain registered with them, and supposedly I should be able to transfer the domain to another one of my registrar accounts (I can unlock the domain and receive the authorization code, transaction ID, and security code), but something keeps rejecting the transfer. Let's see how long it takes to work through this!
Personally I find any activity which forces you to lose that constant mind chatter to be very relaxing. My favourites are sparring (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), weight lifting and Life Drawing. I guess it's that old 'flow' thing.

The nice thing about exercise is it will help you sleep better, which I find is half the battle in trying to maintain focus (especially for us programmers who spend most of the day sitting at a desk).
Hi, dumb question, but how who benefits from click fraud?
Oh, I may not resist the siren song of Norm Abram forever. We're just haggling over the price here. ;)
Ethnography and Product Design
Hacked. Zombies Ahead.
I agree it makes my comments better. It leads me to be more polite and try my best to explain my points so comment raters understand the argument.

By the way, this is the only site that I comment on and come back multiple times to see how people respond. Smartest, most sincere community I have found.
Because it is an entire life's drama in one episode and sometimes there are three. It's always the same scenario, but they're always different people. So you get to know them very well by how they react to the news.

They are real life stories, no one knows what is inside the envelope and we are all in it together wondering what it will say.

It allows us to experiment with our human reading skills. Do the individuals know themselves as well as we know them. Is she honest when she says it could /only/ be him? Is he honest when he says he knows it isn't him.

The amount of shock at the result is illustrative of the idea that the world around us can be exactly the opposite of what we believe it to be -- or want it to be.
OK I looked up "assault". He is blatantly guilty of assault, as far as I can tell, so why not just put him in jail?

Assault: (Law) an act, criminal or tortious, that threatens physical harm to a person, whether or not actual harm is done
Chris Messina wrote a blog post about this as well: http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/01/28/what-paypals-member-in...
The article is fairly substance free, but I like to encourage the sentiment.
Journeyman: Apprentice to Master or Novice to Senior?
How are you developing as a developer?
http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html
A really good case for basic inline formatting.

Any website that takes text blurbs that could be more than a paragraph should support some formatting.

At least: bold, italics, blank lines, and bullet/number lists.

And please, put a bullet-list of how to format the text to the right of the text box. It's not hard.
Starting at the Customer and Working Backwards
I'm inclined to disagree. If you view cowardice as avoiding confrontation, I fail to see how blatantly spitting in someone's face meets the criteria.
this sort of thing is something that has to be realized on your own

Absolutely, but the post helps. What I was referring to, also, was feeling jealous that the author can go through life without seeking the approval of others. I've found this a big problem in myself - something I'm trying to rise above.
Having been a cox customer with an inquisitive mind and tcpdump, I can say that they would certainly benefit from a fairness queue, even if they don't sort it by traffic type or destination. A single client should not be able to take and hold 90% of a segment no matter what protocol they are running. Even if these were just tiny routers, one per segment, this would be a drastic improvement.

My gigabit MPLS peering routers will be very disappointed to learn that they are not real.
Link courtesy of:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=453115
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=452490
As you pointed out, though, programs tend to have nested structures.
Being able to add a PO number to the description would probably help at many companies.
It's a very interesting time we're going through. We begin to see that, even though we have long railed against the evils of inflation, there are worse things.

You have to guarantee inflation>=0 for an economy to work. Gold bugs would opt for inflation=0, and that's very good. But if you don't happen to have a gold backed currency, than inflation>0 needs to be your goal, since targeting inflation=0 is too easy to screw-up and go negative.

Why do you need inflation>=0? So people are willing to spend. Otherwise, they'll shut down and wait till tomorrow to buy. Tomorrow, they'll do the same thing. Nobody buys anything, and the whole thing just dies.

Sure, people will trade in "stuff", as you put it, but the efficiencies of that are very low, which is why money was invented in the first place.

So, in theory, it is good to somehow devalue a currency based on time. We just have to be really careful we don't hurt too many generations in the process.
I really don't think so.

While Arrington is even more insufferable than Sierra, he is an expert in the mechanics of trolling. He knows what he's doing: he's judged that the hype-value of publicising his detractors outweighs the foolishness of feeding the trolls, and I think he's probably right.

He's not going to get taken hook, line, and sinker like Kathy Sierra did. She managed to prove her attackers correct (at least regarding her incompetence) in her reaction to them. That is the real lesson of the Kathy Sierra debacle, and why it is one of the most epic trolls of all time.
He is a blogger who obsessively writes about startups. He never promoted himself for anything else. People (used to) break into his home to pitch their startups and he actually listens to them. How is this arrogance? Would you listen to someone breaking into your home?

I don't know Arrington, but to me he always sounded like a humble, down-to-earth guy, very passionate about his job.
This particular talk, at least, is from chapter 3 of Freakonomics.
I think the problem with a domain like charge.37signals.com is that many users don't understand how to type it in the address box (e.g. some will add www before it). If you've watched users try to enter URLs with subdomains in the address box you've likely experienced this.
(I'm the creator of Jack)

I agree, but WSGI and Rack did it differently, and I preferred the Rack way, so I chose that.

FWIW, WSGI 2.0 (http://wsgi.org/wsgi/WSGI_2.0) will do it like Rack/Jack (except it still uses a list of tuples instead of a hash for headers. I prefer the hash, it's simpler and maps more directly)
Can the person who downvoted me please criticize my post with a reply? I thought it was pretty solid.

Feel free to downvote this post as well. Take it all the way to -50 if you care. Just let me know why, ok?
Worst bits:

- You can tell someone the answer to their problem, and they just stare at you, confused, while their emotions have to deflate.

- When you realize you're talking more abstractly than they can understand.

- Or they argue really basic stuff, as they've never been exposed to it. E.g. language alters thought.

It's like talking to some sort of organic thing instead of what you think of as normal. Perhaps later humans and programmers will diverge genetically?
Is there a reliable summary somewhere of what all happened in the Kathy Sierra incident? I mostly ignored it at the time, but now I'm curious as to how that all went down and what went wrong.
Exactly. I think every time you downvote, you owe it to every one else to explain why.
An aspect of some meditation is getting into a sensing mode instead of a judging/thinking mode. One way to do this is to focus on perceiving:

- focus on your breath (count to N as you breath in; count to N as you breath out - where N=4 or some other integer that is comfortable for you. I sometimes use N=2 if I'm very stressed).

- focus on the texture of something in the real world - trace the actual edge of a rock, or a doorway, or a road. Don't skip ahead with your idea of the edge - trace the actual edge, observe the actual texture of it.

- focus on the sounds around you, middle, near (your own sounds, breath, cloth moving) and far (traffic hum, birds, wind).

Being in nature, and thinking about what is stressing me, then observing infinite reality around me (sky, ocean, plants, earth) somehow calms me and puts things in perspective: those things are much more complex. I also get ideas from this new perspective. :-)

Not saying these will work for you. But one of them might.
human error is part of it, but also the not safety conscious part. how many drivers actually think about how they're hurtling across the ground in a metal or plastic box sometimes faster than the fastest land animal can sprint? most people who drive are not thinking about safety, they're just "driving" which often means a background task while they talk or think, etc.
Too bad when they hired the author of the posting the didn't include:

* Ability to summarize
This phenomenon is extremely common. Most users seem to either call everything by the product name or by the company name. For example users will refer to Office or Windows as MS or refer to MS as Windows. At my current employer some of our users refer to our product and company by the name of the product and some refer to the product by the name of the company.

What would you propose they change the name of their company to?
I liked this especially: "If you've got something to say online, say it in your own name or fuck off."
3. I need a bone graft, too.
John Lilly: 7 Lessons from Mozilla
Do the IE6 users even know that they are in fact ... IE6 users?

I think the call to action is falling on deaf ears.
Good point, I didn't even think of that and it is true. One option would be to add a CNAME entry for the www portion on the subdomain. That way if someone did it would route correctly.
Work out daily (even for just 20 minutes). Have more sex (differentiate).
not sure what they're made of - read about implants here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osseointegrated_implant

its really amazing, titanium is the only metal that "fuses" with the body.
Carbonite Stacks the Deck on Amazon
Mine's pretty simple:

1. Get a good noise-blocking pair of headphones. Such as the Etymotic ER-6is I have.

2. Get some relaxing music. I usually pick up an album a month of new music. It keeps the music effective.

3. Walk around a bit with the headphones playing the music. Just outside the office is fine, maybe up & down a street or two -- depends on where you/the office is.
Personally, I commend Micheal on not punching the guy that spit upon him in the face. I;m certain it took a great deal of self restraint. I would have likely taken it as an immediate threat of harm, and beat the tar out of the guy. (I have learned to control my temper much better over the years, but there are some things that are intolerable.)

I would also recommend he go to Front Sight and get the training to protect himself and his family (from the death threats, not the spitter).
I always do that too, but I never really thought that anybody could NOT do that :)
http://dhamma.org puts on 10-day silent Buddhist meditation retreats at retreat centers around the world. They're supported entirely by donations: they don't charge for the retreats, nor do they accept donations from people who haven't attended one.

I've participated in retreats at a few of their locations and helped out on the volunteer staff a few times. The stuff they teach, though basic -- observe your breath & observe the sensations in your body -- is really useful.
Not being able to pick up on hints, ever, or otherwise be able to work with incomplete information. If I don't have all the arguments to a function in my brain, I just ignore it until the rest fall into place. Sometimes people specifically leave those out, so I'm lost until it's too late.
In summary, according to Cox..

Important Traffic: web pages, voice calls, streaming videos and gaming

2nd Class Web Traffic: file uploads, peer-to-peer and Usenet newsgroups
A lot of companies say they have no refund policy in public, but will refund if a customer complains enough or threatens a chargeback (just because it's so annoying to deal with).

A company like 37signals needs to say they don't give refunds to deflect complaints regarding if you close your account half way through a month.. "Why don't we get half this month's payment back?" etc, which would be an administrative nightmare.
Ordinarily, I'm careful about how I give feedback, especially in sensitive situations. This didn't seem like one of those times, so I opted for brevity instead of subtlety.

Given the reaction, it appears that I misjudged. Your comments are particularly notable; you are also one of the more experienced inhabitants of these parts, and I take your feedback seriously. There are aspects of the tone that give me pause (the parent comment strikes me as somewhat supercilious), but the content is much appreciated, and I'll be more circumspect in the future.
Why such articles are never written by people who have built something bigger or better than what they complain about?
Worrying about his health if you own stock in AAPL is understandable. But there was just something tabloid-like about _how_ people approached it; just didn't feel right.
Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?
how can i unlock my iphone 3g 2.2
I like that... I'll have to see if there's a way to locate the stops short of just maintaining a database. I'll also need to be careful with browser detection - I don't want to be loading a Google map on an edge connection. I'm trying to walk a fine line with having a nice user experience and making it usable on ANY mobile device.
That must be why they need a VP with HTML skills.
Probably the last bit talking about how you think Obama is awesome. (I didn't downvote you, btw, just my guess.) Also possibly mentioning casual sex in the same category as bigotry.

It went somewhat over the top, and presented your comment in a light that made it seem very biased and unprofessional. That completely eradicated the point you were trying to make early on.

Professionalism certainly isn't a requirement for posting, but a clear bias will make downvotes a lot more likely.
For God's sake, don't use our punctuation rules.

# Carefree means "free from care or anxiety." (American style)
# Carefree means "free from care or anxiety". (British style)

That has bugged me so much that, unless it is being proofread, I intentionally use British-style quotes.
Whenever I pay for something in cash, I'm trying to make it so that the change I get back requires the least notes or is simpler.

For example, if I owe $7.84, I might give $13.09 so that I get $5.25. I sometimes get confused looks.
Related to that, I don't like having more than 4 $1 bills. I feel like, at some point, I didn't give the cash I should have.
Five minutes just doesn't cut it. Think about how long it takes to get in the proper state of mind for hacking. I don't even bother if I know I'm going to have to stop in less than an hour. Meditation is similar (but I'd say you need 20 minutes, not an hour).

I did a ten day course with these guys:
http://www.dhamma.org/

I found it to be difficult, but worthwhile. I'm not going to do a brain dump of my experiences here, but I came back with no shortage of focus, that's for sure.

Here's a thread where people talk about their experiences at this course: http://www.yoga.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18216&...

They tell you at the retreat that you should practice for an hour twice daily after you get back. I did that for awhile, but you feel like you're backsliding doing it for "just" two hours daily, after having put in roughly 100 hours in 10 days, and I was working 12 hour days at the time, so all I really did was work, meditate, and sleep. I ended up switching to this mantra-based approach:
http://www.aypsite.org/13.html
instead, because it only takes 20 minutes twice a day and seems to give you more benefit per time spent (this is not to say that this program is necessarily better than Vipassana, but it's easier to maintain while you're living in the real world). This is basically the same thing as TM, except you don't have to pay $2000 for a mantra. The people involved in this are too new-agey for my tastes, but the techniques will get you out of that permanent fight-or-flight reaction that does nothing but harm in the modern world.

The bottom line: do the 10 day course or something similar if you can and you are up to it. If not, a mantra for 20 minutes or so will help you deal with stress (although working out might be a good way to deal with too).
I find it's most often people say "or" when they mean xor, and "and/or" when they mean or.

So perhaps we should start saying either "or" or "ior" (inexclusive or).
Actually, the worst part is thinking there's something wrong with them, when in reality you're the weird one. :-)
My view on TechCrunch's "Some things need to change" post and a proposed solution.
The problem here is that starting a web service has become so cheap and easy that there is now ridiculous competition for eyeballs.

The vast majority of startups probably don't get a fair chance at success and this can be very frustrating to their founders.

IMO, we need a new way to advertise. Paid advertising doesn't work particularly well when targeted to early adopters (who tend to ignore/block ads). And bloggers such as Arrington are already overwhelmed.

The solution IMO is to make self-promotion socially acceptable and mutually beneficial.

This means not getting upset when people self-promote on reddit and Hacker News.

But we can go further with services such as http://www.readmytweets.com that are designed specifically for mutually beneficial self-promotion.
This would absolutely help many companies.

I saw this first hand at a company that I worked for. For accounting, you take the receipt and file an expense report. That goes into quickbooks. Then you get the credit card statement and have to go line by line and match it up with the items that were expended. It would consume many hours each month.
what can i say? i lather, rinse, repeat.

lather, rinse, repeat. lather, rinse, repeat. lather, rinse, repeat. lather, rinse, repeat...

showers take a while
Reported on Jan 23rd (5 days ago) here:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10149229-52.html?part=rss

Posted about on HN here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=450479

That's two days ago - it drew no comments then. This newer "news" item has different/more commentary because it's in a different paper. Does that make it different enough?

I'm finding the number of repeated items interested - it seems that every day I find a few. Is it because people find a new shiny thing and post it without checking, or is it because it's too hard to work out if it's been done before.

Can we stop it from happening? Does it matter? Does anyone care? My guess is: Maybe, no and no.

This sounds like a rant, or just whining, but it's not really. I'm genuinely curious about the dynamics of this group. The discussions, when they happen, are interesting, fascinating, enlightening. But so often something passes without comment, sometimes to reappear, sometimes not.

Most curious.
You need the trailing slash when using sed at the command line, but it's optional when doing a replacement in vi(m). You're right, though; the version with the trailing slash is probably the canonical form.