skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Price "gouging" (if you can call it that under the circumstances I'm outlining) is a good thing as long as prices are going up relative to the risk taken in the seller procuring the goods. To use an example that exists outside of the controlled economy, if drug enforcement teams are cracking down hard on a city, the price of marijuana is going to increase. The dealers and growers are taking a much more increased risk to keep supply.

However, here in Michigan after 9/11 (a place not directly affected by the disaster), gas prices shot up drastically, immediately. The governor stepped in and set gas prices at a controlled rate, with serious repercussions if the price limit was breached. That's an example of bad price gouging, in an area where that type of activity should be controlled. There was no immediate threat to Michigan's gas supply, nor to the Michigan transportation network. Prices were not going up as a result of increased risk in the market, but because companies knew they could incite a buying panic at a hugely inflated profit margin. They knew that when their supplies of highly profitable gas ran out, they could get more at the normal rate, then sell it massively inflated again.

What Uber is doing while operating in NYC right now is an example of increased risk. NYC is in a disaster zone. There is a massively increased risk to operating a business on the streets of New York currently. With the public transport out, they need more drivers. Depending on the area, they might need drivers willing to take the risk of operating on these streets. There is a risk to the continuity of their business, a need to fill demand with limited supply. Increasing prices temporarily makes sense. It's the tradeoff between everyone can afford it but no one can buy it versus some can afford it but all who can will be able to buy it.

If the government wants to limit the ability of the market to assess risk, maybe they should compensate Uber and other hire-car companies (aka cabs) to help offset the supply vs demand equation.
What are the clouds of your choice other than Azure? I don't see them mentioned in the tutorial. I'm on Windows but my Python projects are on a Ubuntu VM and I push to AWS, Racksace Coud, dedicated servers, etc. My project can also interact with the shell, phantomjs, node js, Redis, etc. How can I benefit from the VS IDE for my python projects? I've seen mentions of Linux clients but not sure what they mean. thanks. I'm dearly looking for a good IDE with debugging support.
Realize you are ill-equipped to answer this question, donate it to the Gates Foundation.
The Gates foundation funded this effort: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mycollege-foundation-partners-... seeking to build a low cost, non-profit community college.
I know exactly what you're talking about. After I started using my ASUS Transformer last year, I had to consciously train myself to not touch my laptop and desktop screens. That was painful enough that I'm firmly convinced that adding touchscreens is an important part of the future of traditional PCs.
You're right. It is a complex problem more akin to Christian missionaries who tried to bring their religion to the country that they visited. The country/culture might actively resist change because it threatens the status quo. Can't just build churches, have to build a following. And, as the Crusades showed, that can lead to aggression and war.
Turn your iPad into Kinect
I don't think Khan Academy is constrained by capital.
Brand/Marketing Advice Available - Reformed Ad Guy
Creative Director for top-5 global digital ad agency based in SF offering marketing advice to startups. First session is free. If you like what you get, we can discuss how to take things from there. My background: First, ten years of traditional, madison avenue type agencies in the USA, Netherlands and UK. Now deeply involved in digital, social and mobile marketing for Very Big Brands that you have heard of.

I have to be coy as I have a day job. But if this ends up being interesting, I might just leave it.

To be clear, I have little to no Valley experience. I don't know any VC's. But I'm smart,I've created and planned brand launches and ad campaign for beers, cars, shoes, software and even razor blades for chrissakes. I'm brand-literate and I get technology. (most of it at least. I still can't figure out what Hadoop is)

Interested parties should reach out to @reformedadguy
What do you mean by 'not centered'? Imagine you are standing on a field of corn. To you, the field looks like a line encircling you, although it may look like a square or circle from above. There's your projection thing.
Share your stuff from Google Drive to Google+
Couldn't agree more. The discrepancy between academia and industry is disgraceful. I just finished a particularly academic Masters in CS, and failed to learn a lot of skills that would have been useful in the real world - specifically languages like C#, python, or Ruby, big-data, server administration, parallel/distributed programming, etc. I'm not opposed to learning these skills on my own but it's annoying that I am not more prepared for industry.
Actually this is I believe the second published all carbon solar cell.

First one came out of MIT http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/infrared-photovoltaic-062...
Wary of Future, Professionals Leave China in Record Numbers
Quite a few of these articles have come out over the past few months. This one has glossed over exactly why they aren't making money. According to almost every other article it's because of aggressive expansion. New plane orders, updates to their on board systems next year, new routes, more planes on their pre-existing routes and on and on.

This article has quite a bit more info: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Virgin-America-a-hit-...

Sounds like they are getting ready to slow down expenses next year and prep for an IPO.

Not really sure what's made this particular article stick and make the rounds but it's conveniently short on info seemingly to make a more dramatic story.
Ghostbusters' Vigo had prior art.
On Twitter, Sifting Through Falsehoods in Critical Times
I'm pretty sure he knew you, I remember when we worked at the same company, we held you in similar high regard :-)
I tried an Acer all in one with a touch screen, then a Sony Vaio 11 Duo and then to a bunch of non-touch laptops running Windows 8 in a store over the weekend.

I think in terms of Windows 8, the new touch screen is easier to navigate and interact with using touch than it is with keyboard and mouse. And feels more natural.

I think the keyboard & mouse experience could be improved.

An example, my brother installed Windows 8 on his Lenovo Thinkpad the other day and took a good few minutes trying to find the shutdown button until I showed him where it is now. (Hover right to bring up the charms, select power. Or press ctrl+alt+delete. Or if all else fails, pressing the power button should shutdown the device).
I was working on an Ajax (remember that word?) calendar app called Caladabra around the same time Justin was building Kiko. I also gave up after Google Calendar was released. Wish I had the foresight to put it on eBay! Anyway, congrats to Justin on all his ventures. Seems like a very down to earth guy.
Looks pretty neat!

Does it integrate with virtualenv/pip?
Don't know much about his negative traits?

He was convicted (on separate occasions years apart) of computer fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, and data espionage (carding/etc). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Criminal_investigati...

I particularly don't like Kim because I find him a walking insult to honest entrepreneurs. Getting rich off of other peoples' work (Megaupload) is shameful, and while everyone else is out there working hard trying to make it legitimately (and often failing), this guy is out there getting rich off of theft, dishonesty, and outright criminal action, and being treated as some kind of hero for it.

I don't like the way the investigation has been handled, but that doesn't make Kim a good guy.
Git, the stupid content tracker.
Kim's personal vices/virtues aside, this seems like yet another iteration of a while loop that has been running for awhile:

1) A form of piracy exists.
2) Prosecute!
3) A faster, more secure form of piracy has been created!
Will People Pay For News?
I apologize if my response came off as "blaming the computer." I'm unsure of what the 1990 references is about but I just want to help anyone that wants to understand how this works.

I'll be more clear, our dynamic pricing algorithms are just listening to how much you, as the consumer, wants to pay for a product. Don't want to pay 100% markup on a product? Don't buy it and the machines will just drop the price.

No one is being evil, not a machine or a person. It's just charging market price; every consumers' decision to buy or not to buy impact the price. Über is no different. Don't want to pay 2x? Don't and their algorithms will drop the price as fast as it went up.
Some people find it hard to understand that it's possible for an investigation to be mishandled and the person being investigated to still be a criminal.
It is also foolish to take Drake equation seriously or assume that we know what intelligent life is. Drake equation should be used for demonstration purposes only. As a side not, it is good to keep in mind that all we did for ETI search was looking out for a human-like radio signal with a narrow bandwidth, which is probably not the best way to transmit information through the Universe.
You can throw money at existing community colleges - but what good does it do if there's no visionary leadership?

Myself being primarily involved with filmmaking and film classes at North Country Community College - I am attempting this year, before I graduate, to change the filmmaking culture that currently barely functions at my CC. Ive seen enough from the students here, in 3 semesters worth of film classes, to know that these kids who have great interest and talent at our CC, who migrate towards taking film classes, they all have talent. Theres a spark of magic in each of their shitty flip-cam produced final projects. And these kids just slip through the cracks after the semester is done, because theres no infrastructure to catch or support them.

Flip cams do not command high levels of creative performance. They just dont, and its a shame these kids dont get the chance, now, to use better. Especially with the price of technology today.

I began attempting to make a change at the end of last Spring's semester, and get the school to budget competitive equipment for film classes. The process; Everything I tried doing through traditional bureaucratic methods of improving the school's filmmaking situation, was either a barrier or unefficiency.

By the time I go through the proper channels to make visionary culture change at the CC, Im already gone. Everything is a process of approvals and appropriations. Meetings. Decisions. Levels. Kicking things upstairs, come on! Ill be transferring to a top ten film school, like USC, that already has all that good stuff Id like to play with. And at that new school, im 'happy to be there' guy. That emotion, buries the ones I have attached to my CC. Once I have that access to proper filmmaking equipment, I could give a shit about the ills of the CC, regardless how much I loved the school.

However, I believe if I could now have the proper filmmaking equipment at my current CC, I would be making great films now, not two years from when I first started, and not at a 50k a year institution. If im making great films now, at 5k a year, dosent that shift my perception about what I would need out of continuing my education at a four year? wont my decision making be different at that point?

Im definately interested in the future of filmmaking and community colleges. So, heres a nice place to plug the fundraiser I set up to help get our school filmmaking equipment and establish a new film club.

http://www.indiegogo.com/filmequipment

at 28k, its competitively budgeted. the goal is to do the most with what amounts to table scraps of funding.

4 billion, and 28 thousand. Thats a lot of filmmaking to be created at every single CC in the nation. Im taking a stand to show the world how.
Is there a creative solution for open access?
This is an interesting philosophical point. If the Universe is capable of supporting life, if indeed life is fairly common in the Universe then couldn't one say that life is fundamentally implied in the laws of physics and so forth?
Now this is a case where a dismissive top comment was actually useful-- in fact more informative than the article itself.
Sorry I was laughing during your funeral
Eclipse Orion: A Browser-based Editor for Web Applications
Allow me to vent:

The airline industry is byfar the worst run, worst staffed, most inefficient excuse of business ventures. This is the second time I have been stranded at an airport because agents haven't a clue how to navigate the system, dick around and make customers wait, and are incredibly dishonest. I was told today that supervisors were telling agents to, and I quote, "blow off" the passengers today who are desperate to fly. They tell you one thing, make you wait hours, all the while knowing what they told you wasn't true just to avoid customer anger.

Someone needs to completely flip these morons on their heads. They're making flying such an unbelievably frustrating and inconvenient task. I now dread to head to the airport, nervous they'll screw up my reservation or find a way to make me wait unnecessarily. Not to mention how pricey it is now to fly for just 4 hours.

I'm seriously fuming, and this is far from the first time it's happened. The airline industry has consistently delivered the crappiest customer experience I have ever seen.
Same here. Alaska Airlines goes SEA/DFW non-stop twice or three times a day. VX makes me connect through SFO or LAX and adds at least a two hour layover. Lack of non-stop is why I don't fly Southwest anymore, even though they're my all-time favorite airline for both price and service[1]. I'd fly VX if they had a non-stop or a one-stop that didn't connect via California. DEN or LAS or even ABQ would be preferable.

1 - 2014 is going to be a glorious year with the Wright Amendment going fully away. I hope to be on WN's inaugural non-stop SEA/DAL flight.
Perhaps I'm one of the minority? If a VA flight is available, I'll definitely pay the difference (usually negligible). Every other time that I've HAD to fly some of the others (i.e. a VA flight is not available) I end up swearing I'll never fly that airline never again. I've never had that feeling with VA which is why I'll always choose it over any other...

But then again, I may be one of the minority...
Why not go for the best biggest payday and make a lesson for everyone else to fall in line?
In many parts of the usa, other than SF/NY/LA, a typical HN reader could get by on $2.5k/month if they lived frugally.
Large Scale Language Modeling in Automatic Speech Recognition
Agreed -- I'd be happy to pay $5/month for Longform if stories were formatted better (I don't see ads but sometimes content is missing/duplicated), and maybe for a recommendation engine based on what I've already read.
Astraweb - no complaints - $10 a month. Never hit any limits yet. I download TV shows and such like (via NZB) that I can't find anywhere else. Much better than torrent.
Do everything the opposite of MongoHub and you should be golden.
How volatile is the bitcoin right now? For example, what happens when the bitcoin raises 200% vs. the US dollar? Do you change your pricing? What happens if it then drops the next day?
>regular, non-tablet computers will commonly have touch screens.

I think the conclusion is rather that soon enough, regular computers will be tablets (or tabletops).
You may be missing diego's point. For the sake of argument, consider someone who is willing to pay $1500 for a VA flight. There may not be enough of these people to make $1500/seat a profitable price for VA to charge. But VA's failure does not reflect the preference of that group.

Said another way, those willing to pay a large premium for VA flights are not "at fault" for the companies losses. It is the fact that there aren't ENOUGH people willing to pay enough of a premium.
Java's Future... Lays in Lienzo
I never see high fares on Virgin flights, and they're often not full. It's pretty easy to gauge the profitability of an airline by fares sold and number of fares, and return on capital and fixed costs by how many flights are done with each plane in a month.

For a while, Virgin was doing $69-89 flights from SFO to SEA, etc., which is probably below the point where even a 100% full aircraft is profitable.

I don't think they're anywhere near as efficient on plane utilization as Southwest, due to network. The other way to make money is to make small amounts on each (full) plane, but fly a lot of flights with those planes.
Looks more like super-human play.

The computer is seeing patterns that aren't apparent to humans. Patterns of time and momentum, with pieces scattered across the board. Non-local multidimensional high-complexity patterns.

Of course the best players also see deeper than the rest of us. But in hindsight the moves are rational and the patterns visible, because they're the kinds of patterns we can grok.

I wonder if this just a teaser, a taste of things to come. If we can model a situation we can simulate it. Weather, traffic congestion, etc. With a cost function and players, we've got a game engine. Cooperative or competitive.

So how does this evolve? Phone apps that organize flash mobs? Google cars that weave helter-skelter without stop lights on bi-directional lanes. Software that calls all the plays, coaches the game, generals the war, controls the money supply or the trading on a futures market.

Will we become the spectators, happily playing our side of an invisible gambit?
I heartily recommend this.
Image search is a bit different, due to the decontextualization of separating the image from the page when presenting results. Image search doesn't show snippets like "here is a picture of someone who is not XYZ", it just shows a problem future of not-XYZ when you search for XYZ
Show HN: UChicago admissions asked me to find Waldo. I did.
The email field seems to be broken
F# Succinctly - A free ebook
Standing on the shoulders of giants has never been more true. IPPOLIT is generally assumed to be a reverse engineer job of the previous #1 chess program in the world, Rybka.

Robert Houdart: "I must credit the Stockfish open source engine, which was the inspiration for the multi-threaded implementation of Houdini, and the IPPOLIT open source engine that provided a whole array of search and evaluation techniques."

Even so, the same stolen code is available to all, and no one else has replicated the results. It's an impressive feat.

Modern chess programming boils down to two things:

1. Optimizing a game tree search. Cut out as much as you can, but no more.

2. Reverse engineer the other guy's program and steal his ideas.

Chess programmers are taking a page from the playbook of big business, with fantastic results. Robert Houdart can enjoy it while it lasts. Right now someone, somewhere, is reverse engineering his latest release.

From a business perspective, I have long thought that the #1 chess program should only be made available via SaaS, with no binary provided to be reverse engineered.
Depends on what your expectations are. I built https://www.delayed-tweets.com for myself and I'm a heavy user of it and I tinker with it when I have time (Heroku + Stripe, if you want to know). If it also becomes a source of income, so be it. Otherwise, it costs me just a little more than using an alternate service to do the same thing (like HootSuite, Buffer, etc). But, I get to tinker with it on the side, learning new things and making little improvements as I have time. So 6 months from now, I don't have to be disappointed that it didn't go anywhere. A side project is exactly that, something that you tinker with while you still have a day job.
I would definitely pay good money (like, $200) for a killer native GUI that administered both Mongo and Redis.
First All-Carbon Solar Cell Made At Stanford
One thing to keep in mind ... sure, look at Gates and Zuckerberg the two prime examples of college dropouts who went on to found wildly successful companies. But if I'm not mistaken, these guys were already wildly successfull before they dropped out?

Another thing to keep in mind is that the majority of successful tech startup founders probably did finish college and have some life experience... E.g. Elon Musk is a prime example - he got degrees in both Economics and Physics before going on to found Zip2, X.com (precursor to PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla motors.
I have flown a decent amount this year. Usually [SFO -> LAX, SFO -> LAS, SFO -> SAT]. Almost all my flights have been Southwest, because honestly it is the cheapest. The problem is that nearly every flight leaving or heading into SFO on Southwest is massively delayed. My last experience from LAX to SFO, the flight was delayed four hours. There obviously was a mob of grumpy Southwest customers.

On the other hand I have taken Virgin America a handful of times, and the experience is the opposite. It is a complete dream and pleasure. I love the lighting (feels so sheek).

So what is the problem? Their product is top notch, but they are losing money hand over fist. Normally, a company would just adjust their prices, but in the brutally competitive landscape that is air-travel, prices are everything (see my top paragraph). So, what is Virgin America to do?

I still to this day don't know how Southwest is able to offer flights significantly cheaper than everybody, and stay afloat, while the rest of the air-line industry can't. What is their secret sauce? Cheaper plans? Lower wages? Not sure, but Virgin America should figure it out and adopt it. I am sure it ins't their interior lighting and amazing customer service though.
That is exactly how I feel too! I felt like I was watching a movie, that was compelling by the scene of it, despite not understanding what's going on for the most part..

But it makes you dream.. and makes me want to dive deeper into it all..

Fabric of the Cosmos (Brian Greene) opened my eyes into the world of physics (and string theory). Now I can't wait to find an equally compelling book on the ideas of loop gravity
So why would any sane person try his luck with this sketchy company versus Dropbox, which provides same functionality for free already?
I was working a similar project a few months ago. Wish I hade more time to complete. Mine was a bit more of a ripoff of Obj-C than anything. https://github.com/ryanashcraft/Classified-C
I wonder if Uber had waived their fees at the start, would they have ridden this out in style like AirBnb?
Yeah, decided to try Uber to get to the airport today, even with the $40 discount for first-time users, I ended up paying $75 for a 20-minute ride. Last time I'm using them.
I would love to see sequel: "A chat over lunch, 9 years later."
What do you think MongoHub doesn't do right?
Yeah, it really irks me when developers replace an image with another on hover. Just combine the two images on top of one another and use:

background-position: top;
and on hover use:
background-position: bottom;

This makes the initial hover smooth with no flash.
Wow. This is mindblowing. I just went through the thought/body experiment:

On your desktop/laptop, assume you already have a touchscreen and everything works perfectly. Assume every swipe interaction you have ever used works perfectly.

Interact with the computer. Navigate around the computer. Drag and drop files. Surf around the internet. Click tabs and hyperlinks and whatever with the mouse, with touch, even with tab+space, whatever feels natural.

Do it. Seriously, literally do it. Go through the motions.
Would this count as the final blow to the zombie that is BlackBerry?
The creepy cameraman of Seattle wears Google Glasses
Similar analysis using $50 billion:

http://www.ted.com/talks/bjorn_lomborg_sets_global_prioritie...