skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That's my sentiment as well (as an engineer who formerly worked as an associate analyst on the equivalent of Wall Street in Brazil).

The only way I could get behind the financialization of water is if there is the equivalent of a "Water bill of rights" which guarantees enough free water to meet the needs of humans using that water for drinking and washing up of cooking equipment. I think this is a guarantee that should extend to every single market/country in which Wall Street wants to trade water. Want to trade water in third-world Country X? Fine, but before you can make any profits, you first must set aside a cut of revenue to subsidize the minimum guaranteed amount of water per person in that country and subsidize the infrastructure to get that water to each citizen.

Assuming individuals have a human right to the water they need, the big risk is what trading in water will do to the cost of food. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing as it will force agriculture to start innovating on how they use water, perhaps moving into mass aquaponics or other solutions that minimize water use and buffer society against volatility in food prices due to droughts and mother nature.

The main risk of the subsequent rising inflation is how many people it could return to poverty. Again this is somewhere, where I think regulation could be used to shield or subsidize markets where rising water prices will cause an increase in the number of people living below the poverty line.

Overall, the right to earn profits should come with the obligation to prevent poverty and improve the human condition at the bottom.
If only Scala compilation weren't so slow. This is a bit off topic, but I find the difference between Scala and Go to exemplify some of the fundamental tradeoffs in the languages.

Scala is certainly the more researchy language with an advanced type system, better type inference, and multi-paradigm. However, its compilation is horribly slow, programming styles vary wildly, and I find its tools e.g., SBT, to be underdeveloped.

On the other hand, Go has constrained features and complexity, while providing higher-level features like GC, first-class functions, and simple type-inference, along with excellent tools e.g., gofmt and the build system.

I don't want to imply that one is simply better than the other, but I have enjoyed working in Go much more than Scala.
What's the point of trying a beta product, anyway?
> "Code is more than just a tool," I heard he said. "It's our craft. It's our muscle. And we need to train it. Chop wood. Carry water. Code."

I seem to hear this comparison between skilled manual labor (especially carpentry) and coding come up all the time. Yet I never hear writers or mathematicians making that comparison, and I rarely hear engineers or scientists in other disciplines make it. Maybe that's just because I listen more to programmers, but I think there's an actual difference, and I wonder why that is.

I also wonder whether or not there's any connection between writing better code and using "best practices" in all your google searches. I suspect not.
I believe they do care about that, but it shouldn't limit their thinking too much. For instance, there could be a wonderful model of computing that no current machine can efficiently implement. Kind of like Lisp in the 1950s.
I did not read the 'mixed feelings' blogpost with that quote.

If that quote is genuine, it still reeks of a stupid statement of an individual working for Facebook than a deliberate policy of Facebook to silence such people who find security issues. It's such an obvious dumb request. Don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. Facebook is not incompetent, but it's not infallible either.

I'm withholding judgement here. I'm not sure all info is available.
> I think the premise that professional salaries are determined entirely or even primarily by supply and demand is weak.

Your points about the perception of quality and digestible signals of quality are spot on, but what you're describing still boils down to supply and demand.

Supply and demand is a dynamic, complex system of the ever changing wants and needs of the producers (i.e. programmers producing code) and consumers (i.e. companies purchasing code) in a marketplace that determine prices (i.e. programmer salaries).

All considerations of programmer quality, signals of quality, type of programmer required for a specific job and so on are encapsulated within "supply and demand." It's an elegant system!
A lot of the starvation in China was also precipitated by the fact that Mao often gave grains and other foods to communist eastern European countries to curry favor with them to the detriment of the Soviet Union. Many people starved in China so that people in Eastern Europe would not.
That makes sense. If you were thinking about getting a GS3 in late September, you might as well wait to see what Apple was coming out with. If it were known that Samsung would be introducing a new flagship phone 2 weeks after the iPhone, I think a lot of people would have waited to make their decision. Then once they saw both, they would pull the trigger to buy the one they wanted.

I bought an iPhone 5, but was definitely interested in the Lumia 920 announcement. If it was going to be announced a week after the iPhone, I certainly would have waited to see what it was. It makes sense that people would delay their purchase decision for a few weeks if they know a competitor is just about to announce something - if for no other reason than to confirm that the original device actually is the one they wanted.
I haven't used (or even seen in real life) the Surface, but I would expect using the stand would be a challenge. It just feels to risky to put that tine edge close to your knees; the screen would drop on the floor too easily. That means you will have to move the edge of the screen at least, say, 15 cm from your knees. Also, having that 'one, steep, angle' for the stand would mean that looking at the screen would be a problem.

So, I would guess using the stand is out. That leaves placing the screen flat on your upper legs with the keyboard in front of it. In that setup, I am still worried about the keyboard detaching from the screen, and the screen dropping on the floor. The keyboard would have to be attached fairly firmly to the screen for that setup to feel secure. It also would place the screen in an awkward location for reading: too far away, and at an inconvenient angle. So, for that setup, I expect you will want something that wraps both the underside of the keyboard and the back of the screen, and props up the screen by, say, 10 cm. I guess something like that will pop up on Kickstarter soon.
Kent Beck, the guy who created Extreme Programming, Test Driven Development, and the first Unit Test Library ever, made a very similar point about this a few years ago, in his "The Flight of the Startup"[1]

In the taxi phase, breadth, speed, and, above all, cost of experimentation is the key. Try out ideas related to lots of different needs. Precision of feedback during the taxi phase is less important than trying out lots of different kind of ideas. The risk during the taxi phase is that you won’t find a genuine need. Address this by reducing the cost of experiments and running many of them.

After working for a while for Facebook (the move fast and break things company) he described how deployment speed dramatically affects how you work on his "Software G Forces: The Effects of Acceleration"[2].

So, it is not a secret that discovering "something people want" is more important than working code[4], because failure if the great equalizer of code: all good code and all bad code is equally thrown away[5].

[1] http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/blog/?p=251

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIkUWG5ACFY which was seconded by Mary Poppendiek on her "How Cadence Predicts Process"[3]

[3] http://www.leanessays.com/2011/07/how-cadence-determines-pro...

[4] http://swik.net/Eclipse/Planet+Eclipse/Julius+Shaw:+Kent+Bec...

[5] http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/6FfAAXK00nWB/en/...
Crisis in Open Source Land
I don't get it. Am I supposed too just look at the slides from a presentation and get what it's about? If the presentation is any good that will be quite hard.
>Peacetime armies (ie. not WWII) end up with careerists on top, not warriors. So you get the same as any mediocre corporation.

But armies don't have the pressure of potential bankruptcy that acts as a safety valve against poor performance.
Slide deck had something along the lines of, "Property of A16Z. Do not share or redistribute."
So have you checked if any of these do what you claim they could do?
The actual "problem" is that Germany has pushed things to the breaking point by waiting too long by upgrading their transmission capacity as their generation ability in the North has increased, because they've so far been able to get away with relying on excess transmission capacity from their neighbours.

It's easily fixable in any number of ways. It's a matter of political will (and cost - both investments and potentially in buying their way out of short term obligations to prevent problems this winter), mostly.
Anthropologist: Apple is a religion
or he probably just declined to be recorded.
Do you mean the article, or the non-asian voices in it?

I felt the article itself presented a fair picture of the sentiments from each corner, though I'm not particularly sensitive to bias.

As for the complaints about test-centrism, I felt they were echoing a belief that life should be and success is about more than cramming and solo achievement.

Extracurriculars, grades, and fuzzy-wooly essays/recommendations may be as strong metrics as standardized testing, but neither are our current tests nearly as good indicators as they could be.

For example, we could do more to promote problem-solving skills by providing test-takers with a much larger corpus, promote a minimum level of teamwork by allowing some collaborative problems, etc. Just some ideas.
Why would this be a problem?
Ben choose not to be recorded at Startup School. That is why the video is not available.
Not the case in Germany.
Supporting a second platform is a bit more involved than learning to program for Android. Since both Android and iOS currently have functionality that competes with Instapaper, I too wouldn't invest one single dime on it.
I cant speak for the world, but i have a personal, irrational dislike for Java ever since my university standarized on it for almost every subject and assignment. This was before we even had things like generics.

People hate on Java, likely not because its the worst language, but because it was the least favorite language they were forced to use too often. This hate does not reflect a rational opinion, but an experience.

Ands it about a lot more than language features. Its about culture, what it represents, and the type of role it plays in our industry. Like Cobol before it, Java will not escape its faith and it will die. Not because it must die, but because we must kill it.
> I think this will be another advantage that hypermedia will have over regular old print, you will be able to present your information in "layers". A TL;DR for reference, a summary, and then the full article.

Abstract, introduction, paper.
СКАЧАТЬ БЕСПЛАТНО FlashGet RUS 3.7 RUS + Portable
To be fair, "average" is a weird measurement for comparing the US to the UK. The average density of development in the UK is far higher than in the US,a nd housing prices are higher accordingly.
Nice little robot. The video is a little short, is there any more footage?
What part of "a contract stipulates the relationship between two parties" did you not understand?

It goes both ways!

That is exactly what contracts are meant to do, and have always been meant to do. And in order to use them successfully, they don't need to be "absurdly lengthy" or anything. The boilerplate you're referring to generally has nothing to do with "abuse" or "being reasonable", and most of it doesn't even need to be there, because if you'd leave it out, it'd be implied.

What you do have to do, however, is stick to the unique terms that you did write in your contract. And if you cannot, don't put them there, or don't offer the contract.

Simple as that. If you offer people unlimited phonecalls, you should be prepared for them to be on the phone 24/7. If you're not, you really shouldn't be offering them unlimited phonecalls, instead maybe offer them 20,000 minutes per month (that's about half of 24/7).

And if "twenty thousand minutes per month" doesn't sound as snazzy as "unlimited minutes", that's too bad because the reality of the matter is that you apparently cannot afford to actually offer "unlimited minutes".
There are a lot of things that determine compensation, in particular how easily one's contributions are measured, that can be shoe-horned into but don't fit neatly into the supply/demand framework. Just because it's theoretically justifiable doesn't make it analytically useful.
I was there and nothing was said that was very controversial
Also, you can get locked in the save dialog and can't recover your document in Word. This seems more serious than the lag.
Supply chain issues really hurt in a market as competitive as smartphones. I wonder how many sales Apple loses per day because they can't keep the product in stock?

Buying an iPhone 5 involves either lots of waiting, or hard work to track one down.
I was there, and he used much of the same slides and material from this talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-LBSqm3xh4
>Will computers ever have the IO bandwidth to compete with the human brain?

Probably, it's just a matter of time.
Build relationships. Wherever you are you can probably network yourself to a reasonable position.

If you gave some details about where you are and the nature of your startup, it might be easier to give practical advice.
"Then once they saw both, they would pull the trigger to buy the one they wanted."

What's far more common would be more or less uninformed people walked in to buy an iphone 5, and were told it was out of stock for weeks and the salesman (who gets a significantly better commission on Samsung phones) tries his best to sell them the GS3 and sometimes does. I know this is a common story because I've actually seen the exact scenario play out several times in the course of an hour I spent with my wife in the Sprint store activating her phone.
But it's exactly the other way around. We don't need more brevity and speed. We need less. How much gold do we mine by digging with a teaspoon here and there for five minutes?
Good points about programmer value, but it's not clear why the author thinks they are underpaid.
I don't think Samsung's advertising hurt either. Many of which directly targeted (made fun of?) Apple users.

Stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf5-Prx19ZM

They've been showing that non-stop in the states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification#Waste_disposal

The most modern technique is to gasify the waste before burning. That way it can even be used in a gas turbine for electricity, if desired.
> They are showing what it can be (in the minds of potential buyers), not what it is

If that's true, they are showing what it isn't.

> It's marketing. That's how it works.

I believe the technical term would be "deceptive marketing"

> Given the specifics on Windows RT, low power ARM based CPUs, etc ... it's not a desktop replacement device.

At least not while it's running Windows RT. Too bad it can't run anything else. Let's wait for Windows 9 and hope current devices can be upgraded.
I have different problem - I just can't code like The Kid anymore. I know I could in the past, I have the code to confirm this. Not anymore, I'm not able to.

And often I'm required to. My boss says: "just hack it quickly" or "it's one-shot script, just write it" and wants it done in an hour or so. And I can't do this.

I don't even know why I can't. I tried many times to "just code" and there's something in my mind that seems to be opposed to this. This "something" refuses to use unknown or not fully understood tools. It refuses to let ugly line of code be. I feel like I'm refactoring my "one-shot" scripts reflexively, without me noticing. And the worst thing is I do it continuosly - not when the script is finished and somehow works, but during writing it for the first time. I know exactly when was the last time I wrote more than twenty (Python) lines of code without breaking the code into functions and classes, caring about names and comments: in 2004. Tests came later, but now they are a reflex too.

And now what my boss wants done in an hour I write in three or four. Then he's getting angry and tells me to go clean and document some code or to implement something else, and I do, and it more often than not works and - I hear - could even be a pleasure to read. But then, few days later, he wants me to quickly convert something or export something or something like that and I just can't do it, unless I have previous script ready. Then he's angry again...

TL;DR - giving a damn is certainly a good thing, sometimes, but taken to the extreme can disturb your career.
Follow the money.

Partners at VC funds are employed (funded) by limited partners (LPs). LPs are typically institutional cash and tend to be conservative. A26Z's LPs and potential LPs would not be pleased if they saw a video of Ben giving a talk wearing his "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt.
Maybe not controversial but just talking about portfolio companies or commenting on them directly can be risky when you have a big fund and LP's to deal with.
Yes, good point. Although consider that many a corporate behemoth has been able to carry on for a long time with little competence at the top due to a large stable revenue stream from some product or other. It gets them in the end (probably), but for a long time they can coast on mediocrity. Example: GM.
Looking at the Series 7 right now at Amazon [1], the Surface Pro version of this with a similar spec would be nice for the Type Cover, and note that this has similar tech specs as my 2011 Macbook Air, indeed a very promising replacement for Air+iPad, I'll keep watching but will skip this iteration simply for having purchased the iPad 3 recently. (.NET Developer here)

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-XE700T1A-A02US-11-6-Inc...
I'm not offended personally and hope you feel the same. Let me try to explain what my issue is. I object to the cheap argument for "balance" that commonly shows up when someone is making a specific point. "By all means, let's acknowledge X, but on the other hand let's not throw out Y" -- that kind of thing. I object because it's so unobjectionable. Who could be against it? It just sits there like a big impassive blob pumping lukewarm water into the conversation and diluting everything interesting about it. That is what I felt your comment did. But my annoyance is at the general phenomenon, not at you. That's part of the problem with these patterns; you can't object to them without changing the subject even further (and coming across as a jerk).

The interesting thing in the current conversation is the question of how and why reading articles on the internet is comparatively shallow, more shallow than it would seem like it ought to be from the surface. Speaking metaphorically (and no I do not have "data" on this), it is as if it provides druglike stimulation to some outer layer of the brain without ever reaching the deeper, slower layers where the truly valuable transformations are possible. Or, to change the metaphor, it is like the difference between sugar highs and nutrition. It seems clear that it is an addictive cycle, leading to a starvation problem: we spend so much time at the shallow stimulation that we have little left for deep reflection. It reminds me of rats in a cage pushing a lever for cocaine pellets. I sometimes wonder if future generations will look back on this as an epidemic that took a while to recognize and get under control.
How do I find out about language centric events in the SF Bay area?
Hey, I'm new to the area and I want to know the single best way to find out about less general/vendor specific, and more language (or technology) specific tech events that are going on.

What's the best way to go about this?
Supporting a second platform is indeed a significant investment. I'm aware of that - I'll never develop for iOS because that would mean I'd have to buy a Mac, buy an iOS device, learn Objective-C/iOS development, and how to navigate Apple's app approval gauntlet. However, there's a big difference in the numbers when you have an app with a lot of users. For example, you can have someone else make the app (which, to his credit, Marco did do after years of foot-dragging).

Your point about competing functionality is moot, because that means he should abandon iOS as well. In fact, in that case, he should favor Android, since's Apple's draconian app approval policies means that Instapaper could suddenly get kicked out of the app store without notice.

In any case, allowing Marco's blog on HN means that it pushes more other, more valuable content out of the way. By banning sites like his, we wouldn't have to waste time wading through his mindless drivel to find useful links.
A more accurate title would be: "What Theoretical Computer Science Books Should Everyone Read?"
How to know if a freelance opportunity is no good
Mel Brooks Producers as a model for lean startups
No I did not. The friend said that nobody outside the Go team uses Go. My post indicates that the majority of Go code at Google is written by people working on other teams.
Great slides. I've been toying casually with a FP project for Python. It's an attempt to bring common FP abstractions and lazy evaluation of sequences using generators.

It's a work in progress, and I often think to myself, "Is this a good idea".

Here's the latest iteration: I'm in the middle of documenting things for an alpha release:
https://github.com/ericmoritz/fp/blob/feature/documentation/...
For what it's worth, I cut out an image of just the map from the screenshot posted, and gave it to google reverse-image-search, and it did NOT match it to a map of Zork. It just returned a bunch of similarly colored images.
A high-end i7 machine with 16 GB of RAM and an SSD is not rare between Windows developers.

OTOH, I do a lot of Linux development on an Atom netbook.
I learned at Startup School: Great entrepreneurs embrace head-on competition
NOTE: Ooops, it seems the 'edit' window expired on my comment. Expanding, unfortunately, in a separate comment:

----

I don't know if this is a problem if you're going hardcore with your FP. When we're talking about "lines" in Python, one line is exactly one statement, and if you're doing FP, that statement is an expression. Multiple statements are going to be either stateful, or declaring a temporary name for an intermediate value.

I am probably not being sufficiently imaginative right now, but I can't think of any fully-fledged functional pattern which would require multiple statements in a lambda, which would not be better abstracted out and given a name, and I would genuinely like to hear some examples of cases where a multi-statement lambda make for "better" code (or to hear how my presentation of this problem might be flawed, because I haven't done any serious Python programming recently enough to be very close to the issue).

----

In Haskell, a language where the syntax has been exhaustively designed to facilitate FP, the only places where you'll see multiple lines (I'm pretty sure this is exhaustive, without using GHC extensions, eg. Arrow `proc` blocks) are:

* Pattern matching function arguments

* Giving things names with `let` or `where`

* In a monadic `do` block -- which is just sugar that reduces to single-expression chain of lambdas, and are not equivalent to multi-statement lambdas
People will just buy a different smartphone if they're out of stock? Let alone if it's the iPhone they want? I don't believe it.
Instagram’s Kevin Systrom: “Sudden hockey stick growth doesn’t just happen.”