skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yes, that's an excellent point, I make sure I really do have a reason. Part of that is to keep an eye out for stuff that is useful to my 'network' and alerting people to that. The funny thing is that they repay in kind and you'd be amazed at some of the stuff that comes 'back' to me in this way. It really does seem to work like the karma counter on this site.
> Intelligence is going down as fewer and fewer books are being read

As far as I am aware measurable intelligence is increasing. I would also think that the internet has lead to a general increase in reading and intellectual thought.
They would not have to use the API directly. Someone would make a website or facebook/iPhone application.
Zen, ego, statecraft, belief systems and barriers of entry.

Perhaps read
'The Relation of Science and Religion', Richard P. Feynman.

I have chewed this cud before: http://tr.im/f95s
> "As a rule, any mention of religion on an online forum degenerates into a religious argument. Why? Why does this happen with religion and not with Javascript or baking or other topics people talk about on forums?"

I've also seen this happen on forums where people mention vi or emacs :)
No TOC ;(
When I was at university and doing a course that I wasn't really interested in (but which was the only one I could get into with my poor marks), I attempted to do an internal transfer to a degree in Computers. I was rejected. I ended up doing it different to this story ... I was young, angry and annoyed - couldn't they see my passion and enthusiasm? I left university that year and began teaching myself what I wanted to learn. My success has been nowhere near the college drop-outs you hear of in the news, but in just a few years I was earning a very good salary programming. I'm from Australia, where a degree seems to be not as important as in other countries - most jobs will have "degree or industry experience" so if you can get the experience somewhere small, you can work your way up. However, sometimes I wish I'd gone to university, and I still play with the idea of getting a degree - but I've got too much work to do on my startup now. Maybe later I will.

It's true that determination can help you do wonders. And in my case, that initial rejection just added more steel to mine.
Rail, bus and airline companies. It would be useful to query not only the timetable, but also any delays or changes, and of course booking via an API would be awesome.
True, but I still think the percentage of average gym users who would go to those lengths would still be pretty small (though larger than those who'd use the API ;-)). Normal people rarely care about this level of efficiency (which I find sad, but hey).
The problem isn't that the shell isn't userfriendly, but that the term userfriendly have been morphed to mean "easy to start working with", which is just one part (and often the least important).

I argue that the shell is great and very userfriendly. It has a few rules, which can be composed logically without too many gotchas, and if you cannot remember the name of a particulary feature then it is easy to press the tap key and get a hint.

I have come to hate how stuff is judged based on superficiallity (how soon can the user use this program) and not on substance (how much benefit will the user eventually derive from this program, even if it takes a week to learn to use it?)

It is the same problem with people who don't make the effort to learn to type on their keyboard without looking. Unless you are never going to use a computer, have the respect and decency to yourself and learn to use the tools you have at your disposal.
Here we go, http://www.cs.princeton.edu/theory/index.php/Compbook/Draft
> Continuously deploy. Every commit should be instantly deployed to production.

ah... no. Maybe this is just viable for a single developer, as a substitution for continuous integration. But with multiple developers checking in, on a complex system your site will be down. A lot.

If you're frequently having problems where new deployments are bringing down the site, then doing that more often isn't the answer. As un-fun as it may be, you should be looking at how you could have caught the problem before it went live, whether that entails more testing, more robust design or something else.
Inspiring read...

The countless meetings with absolute assholes who had no interest in learning about the Internet, the single most significant business innovation of their lifetimes.

What do you think will be the next significant business innovation of our lifetimes? While we're on the topic of luck and timing...
This flies in the face of mannnny years of copywriting wisdom. I guess that's good in a way. Things are changing as much as ever and there's still opportunities to be had.
Retail Tricks That Make Us Overspend
This is great. These plant are also very common and therefore easy to get and don't cost much. I think I've seen the Areca Palm at Ikea.

Do you have any pictures of how it looks inside the building?
Keeping your identity small is great advice, but it is actually biased advice.

If you keep your identity small you are not going to be associating with any large group holding common beliefs, which would argue against associating with 'a political party', 'a religion' and so on. This is not a binary issues, everybody 'identifies' with some group more or less than with others. For instance, I had no part in the Romans occupying NL because it happened 2,000 years before I was born, but in spite of that I sympathize with any people that it did happen to. Possibly people from present day 'rome' would see this differently. Arguably the whole Yugoslavian war was exactly because people remembered too well what side of a battle they were on long ago. I don't readily identify as a perl or a python programmer but I do have a stronger leaning towards python because I feel that that is a cleaner language, and easier on the eyes so in an argument about pers vs python I'm probably biased for python, even though I may try to be as objective as possible.

That said, I do agree with the whole argument that whenever peoples' identity is involved in a discussion you run the risk of degradation of the conversation. But that's really up; to both parties, their mutual respect and the way the conversation is conducted. It doesn't HAVE to degenerate, even if identities are involved. The discussion can still be civil and you can agree to disagree on the basics of your belief systems and still come out ahead on both sides of the dividing line.

I guess sitting on the 'kill' button of this site comes with some responsibility and I see this piece mostly as a justification of executing the policy, even if the discussion is civil to avoid future degeneration and the 'slippery slope' of if you allowed 'that' then you should allow 'this'.
"Mr. Spolsky used his personal interest in and amateur’s knowledge of design"

My Spolsky is a design professional, not an amateur. Would the New York Times write the same about, say, DKNY's headquarters:

"Donna Karan used her personal interest in and amateur’s knowledge of design"

?
You're welcome. As others have said, there are search facilities, but they're not easy to find. I agree that this link is better than the other. Sometimes the "duplicate" is of greater value.

It would be really useful to be able to cross-reference items more easily, and then to merge discussions and comments, but I suspect that won't happen.

Anyway, interesting talk, interesting idea. Thanks to you and your father.
The animals are free to find other sources of food, if they so desire. This is exploitation of the animals only to the extend that you don't believe in free will.
ARRGH matey
Hack your remote to improve its range
Perhaps this was the same crazy guy who spat on Michael Arrington recently.

I think we have a rogue entrepreneur running around, driven mad by trying to get his product off the ground.
The worrying thing is that most people at the conference are at an email away. Or is it worrying? Somehow I feel better knowing it.
Free will is a difficult position to defend nowadays. If free will is physical, you have to explain away determinism and causality. If free will is supernatural, we have to go meta with the discussion and figure out why you believe in the nonphysical.
but seriously. not too surprising.
Show all programs connected or listening on a network port
Seems like a new nature of crime which is rising. Last was the attack on Michael Arlington.

In this case as speculated it could be for access from a very normal guy, not terrorists not criminals. Is it a indication of losing patience, values and rise of intense rage and i-dont-care attitude among general public?
This is actually a point of rage for me. I hated it when opinionated mothers who are in fact completely ignorant about statistics or science choose to endanger their children like this.

Fucking absurd. It's child abuse.
There's a standard complaint about the media. When a paper writes about a subject you are familiar with, you tend to see the errors in it. I've read Spolsky's (gradually diminishing) essays for years, and when the nytimes writes about him, it's like he's some effete flower arranger, primarily concerned with the graduations of sunlight on his atrium's interior.

What is he, really? He's a gay, Jewish New yorker who worked for microsoft, started a business, got lucky with a completely unnecessary proprietary bug-tracker, inspired lots of manager-types with his stylish vision of modern workerdom, and now lives off the fat of his past efforts...
It won't support OpenGL, and it will suck.
thinking that religion may at least save their kids from meth.

That was put to music recently in a country western hit, "Drugs or Jesus".
Many times I've been asked by online American friends why I held such strong opinions about American politics. After all, I'm a Swiss living in London, so I don't think there was much identity involved. I don't consider myself American, and I certainly don't consider myself "democrat" or "republican". Those concepts are not a part of my identity.

However, I have very much cared about US politics because of its impact on the world around me. The last 8 years of Bush decadence have, as far as I can tell, made the world a worse place to live in, made it more dangerous both to people and ideas, and I see that as having a direct impact on the range of things that I can do.

In contrast, religion does indeed have little impact on what happens in much of Europe, and though I have had many arguments with religious friends (I'm an atheist), they were all constructive and enjoyable to both parties - not emotional flash-fires. This contradicts pg's "identity theory", in that my "religious beliefs" (or lack thereof) are certainly a part of my identity - they have a direct impact on how I choose to look at life and behave within it - but because other people's religion has little impact on me, there is no need to get heated about it.

I think Matt's hit this spot on. It's impact, not identity, that makes the discussions so heated.

Now, with that in mind, why do people feel the need to have heated arguments about, say, OS's...? Well, there, I think there is also an element of impact. Most OS flame wars that I've seen were between Windows and something else. There's a good element of impact there, because most non-Windows people have perceived Microsoft as a threat, hell-bent on exterminating all competition, so imho that could have driven much of the flame wars between OS's. What about languages? Again, there is an element of impact there. I've rarely seen a heated flame war between Java and .NET, because they don't threaten each other. But between Rails and, say, PHP - well, it's a different kettle of fish, because many Rails programmers have had to maintain spaghetti PHP applications in the past and so these have a personal impact on them.

This is a very interesting discussion, for sure. I'm curious what other perspectives people have on this.
How is this related to commandlinefu?

http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=469656

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=467692
Organized sports.
Of course, but it's a huge improvement over my competitors. I think JUST targeting the Niche will help too. Plus I can be free for as long as is necessary to reach the "tipping point." It's the chicken and egg problem in the beginning. I agree just being simple will not be enough in and of itself.
I keep thinking something useful could be achieved without getting too formal or needing something as strict and complex as Prolog.

Looking at how well a site like Stack Overflow is working gives me hope of a happy medium between rigor and usability being possible in the future somehow.

It combines a whole bunch of ideas from social sites such as voting, points, awards, wiki style editing into an effective solution. Far from perfect but useful which as about all you could ask for I guess.

It would also be interesting if a company like Disqus started experimenting with features in this area.
See also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=406885

There is a much longer discussion there dating from over a month ago.
Thanks, Apu. I understood that these were their reasons and I certainly find them valid; we're talking about an amazing group of people here.

What I was trying to say was: to be brave, That it wouldn't be about waiting forever. Jumping in is important but keep a wide perspective and be able to throw it all out, over and over again. What they're looking for isn't going to come incrementally from code size. They've been given a golden chance here and I think they should consider being brave enough to lose site of shore -- to go for broke. I think the Alan of the 1970's would have done that.
Possible side-effect is that primarily hackers (by some definition) would do this, so hackers would tend to drift to when the gym is less busy, so the concentration of hackers would rise, making it more likely to find someone interesting to talk with, hang with, or generally get to know.
WTF do I click on? (site usability testing)
Article on website usability testing.
On long distance trains, we solve this by having quiet carriages, where phone calls are banned (also game playing is banned unless you turn the sound off). This doesn't quite work because there aren't enough staff to fully enforce it on a train, but presumably staffing ratios are better on a plane.

A plane isn't exactly the same environment as a long distance train, granted, but it seems an obvious first thing to try.
I think pg is entirely missing the point: it isn't about identity. It is about [exercising] power, and its subjects. Identity, like technology (mentioned javascript) is just a tool for it.

He might like http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2733964 (it is available in several languages) -- it explains the obvious: religious wars are in fact not about religion, neither identity. To most, even believing people, it does not matter for the faith, if the body and blood are actually present in the Eucharist or not. This is more of a pretext, an artificially created differentiation [marketing, PR if you like] to create identity, to exhibit disagreement [over other issues]. In the end, it is nothing more than struggle over control/power/resources. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Revolt
Duncan had to make a quick decision and I'm glad to learn that is doing fine now. However, I can't help but think that giving up the badge may have led to the attacker's arrest, if he ever attempted to enter TED with it. I think I would have given up my badge for that reason alone.
My Bank. Actually any bank outside USA at all!!
not to mention geolocation, right? :-)
For all the "Google is ruining our memory" stuff, isn't there a complement of how much it fills in the gaps? There are so many times I've wanted to know something more, and thanks to Google I can -- quickly and easily. My brain retains all these breadcrumbs, and I am able to recall them fairly easily. I'd argue that such ready availability of knowledge is increasing our breadth, perhaps to some detriment of depth, but I still think that's a net win. If I need the depth, I can get it easily, and retain it for the task-at-hand.

The article also assumes we hand over our critical thinking skills to the likes of Google, which is obviously a fallacy.
It is going to take years if not decades to repair the damage this train wreck of a "study" has done in the UK where there is no longer herd immunity to measles and there has already been one death of a child who did not receive the vaccine.

I can only hope that parents refusing to vaccinate their children will finally do so after the absurd Wakefield study is shown for what it is. How frustrating.
Of course! Kids does not think about death, they did not see it ahead. One probably could discover it after some incident or heavy decease, but usually kids are not aware.
Unawareness is the one little secret of their cheerfulness.
this already exists. It's a jailbroken app -- I believe it's called SMS Notify, or just notify.

It lets you specify a "vibrate every x for y" setting - eg vibrate every 10 minutes for every missed call
"One possible explanation is that they deal with questions that have no definite answers, so there's no back pressure on people's opinions. Since no one can be proven wrong, every opinion is equally valid, and sensing this, everyone lets fly with theirs."

Mentioning this view should always, I think, be accompanied by a disclaimer. As Michael Rooney wrote: "The error here is similar to one I see all the time in beginning philosophy students: when confronted with reasons to be skeptics, they instead become relativists. That is, where the rational conclusion is to suspend judgment about an issue, all too many people instead conclude that any judgment is as plausible as any other." http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/04/knowing_about_b.html#c...

When evidence is weak or conflicting, there's still a particular correct state of uncertainty you should be in as a result. So even those who (incorrectly) assert that agnosticism is the correct response to religious teapots are still asserting the atheists and theists to be wrong.
Success is earned, no one is entitled to it. The difference between a "normal" person and a criminal is all in his actions. Maybe the attacker wasn't a habitual criminal but now he is a criminal nevertheless. Those who are willing to work hard and wait for success may have a chance at it. The few who opt for illegal shortcuts are criminals, even when they don't look like ones.
Anyway: yc is a great thing and I am thankful just for being able to watch it grow and congratulate everybody who makes it in. So no harm intended.
Why not use both a per-site and a per-user salt?
Maybe there's an assumption here that identity has to be constant. If we erase that assumption and accept our identities as a continuous transformation throughout our lives... :

Perhaps keeping your identity flexible can be better at protecting against useless discussion. And the key thing above any consideration of identity is to focus on receive as well as transmit, and to remember to couple the two with some sort of processing. The key point about identity isn't particularly its size, but its flexibility.

A small, inflexible identity is simply a harder target to hit, but when you hit it you'll still find useless discussions there.
A large, flexible identity is easy to hit, but when you hit it, you're very likely to find interesting discussions.
A small, flexible identity is hard to interest, discussions will fizzle uninterestingly long before the religious war, unless you happen to hit the right topic in which case you'll find a good discussion.
A large, inflexible identity is easy to hit and the main cause of pointless discussions.

The best discussions are where flexible identities meet, regardless of their size. A useless discussion is one where the participants come away unchanged. A good discussion is one where the participants come away changed (ie, with something that they didn't have before). You need to be flexible for that.

Of course, there is such a thing as being too flexible...
James Duncan Davis' description of assault at TED2009 is harrowing, because it could have ended much worse and because it wasn't associated with a particularly risky behavior on his part. One single person rabid enough about getting into TED that he would manhandle and persist in trying to get Davis' TED badge despite vigorous struggle and loud screaming... also makes you aware Davis was at much greater risk if it had been two assailants or a knife/gun weilding one.

Really a shame that common strategies such as walking in groups after dark (always urged at LA conferences I've been to) are important in Long Beach and at "A place where great thinkers and optimists gather." Sure glad his person, wallet & photog gear as well as his TED badge ended up safe. Not pleased that the crazed attacker was not apprehended and may not have learned a lesson from his unsuccessful attack.
No, actually, I wasn't thinking about that article, though it's a pretty good one. I was thinking about a much smaller, suburban district and the average there is probably closer to $50k.

And yes, starting salaries are much lower-- as they are for most graduates in most other industries.

I wasn't arguing that being a teacher is going to get you rich. But at least in NY, one makes enough to live comfortably. If you can handle dealing with kids on a daily basis, it isn't a bad career choice at all. Of course, NY State's public schools have a good reputation.
UK Government plans travel database
Yes it's an interesting story. And sometimes lucky things happen to innovative and morally compelling enterprises. But competence, attunement to developing markets, and a cautious nature that happens to cause you to divest from a dotcoms just before the bubble bursts... Well, it's only partly about "luck." ...or being morally compelling. ...and sometimes benefits scoundrels, too.

So there are no new morals in this story.

As for "the next significant business innovation(s) of our lifetimes." There are those that we are harnessing our vision and persistence to make happen right now.
How to Download Videos From Megavideo
How to Download Videos From Megavideo
Ask HN: Good all-round CS book
I've been coding for 18 months or so, and I'd like to learn more CS theory. Any recommendations for a good book (or other resources)?
Yes, web analytics and usability testing are powerful tools that complement each other. Useful reminder that neither has to be very expensive in time/money and... can pay huge dividends to your site in both revenue and in development time (when you are more selective in which features get most of your attention and when they effectively grab visitors' attention).
I'm not a member of this group, but it might be up your alley; http://people.csail.mit.edu/bjuba/crypto-complexity/
Looks good to me - from what I can tell bike riders seem to be pretty tight bunch so if you get a few on board they'll probably recommend you to their friends.

On this page: http://motolistr.com/listing/316

The 'Email Seller' box is after the fold. This is the most important part of your page it needs to be right at the top next to the image of the bike.

Your design would probably work well with a fluid layout too. It takes a lot more work but if you do it right then you will get a better experience for small and large screen sizes.
Are they more religious, or are they more open with religion?
I agree, companies wants a website that could potentially generate to them more moneys, so show them the numbers.
this guy is my friend and he always does some amazing stuff with the things we use daily and can never imagine how we can make them use in different way. hats off to you pranav.