skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Those "sparse resources" were busy removing functional code such as the location toggle button. Ironically, this caused many hours of discussion, time in which those "resources" could have been doing something else.

Often the functionality removed was very useful. Want to keep your screen on all the time? Can't - you have only got an hour. Write an extension or patch the program to get around the issue (VLC). Want beautiful screensavers? it was removed, and needs to be reimplemented. What was that about not taking up the time of scarce resources again?
So what's the tickrate for nature's physics simulations? I want to see it one tick after inception.
You can have both people saying what sounds like opposite things in a debate, and they are both technically correct.

Yes, but there are enough things that are incontrovertibly right and wrong, like a lot of pundit predictions of this last election. Even if this were not the case with anything whatsoever, there is clear value in being able to look up a pundit and see all of the predictions and statements in one place.

Fact-checkers are not infallible, either. It's usually someone who doesn't know the issue at all looking it up on Wikipedia or interviewing an "expert" with his own biases to get an answer.

So there would be 3 or 5 grades for predictions and factual/nonsense statements made by pundits.
Well, sure, if you consider "make yourself happy" to be a reasonable life goal, then there's nothing wrong with materialism...
NASA may unveil new manned moon missions
Would be interesting to know what it is about the page that is causing Chrome v23 on Ubuntu to "Aw, Snap!" so reliably.
AT&T allows some iPhone 5 users to FaceTime over LTE
You could certainly use SQLite this way, as long as you don't need anything hefty. Add and commit your db file, then fork and modify as needed.
I'm not sure if it was permanent, but there was an awesome H. Edgerton exhibit at the MIT Museum I remember visiting roughly six years ago. (he developed the camera that took this photo).

If you're in Boston and it's still there, definitely go check it out.
Microsoft turns spoken English into spoken Mandarin – in the same voice
It has several names, including hong bao or red envelope. More often associated with Chinese/Lunar New Year celebrations.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hong+bao&hl=en&tbo=u...
Keep it up man. It's awesome that you're doing, and not just talking, like me. America, and the world, needs more ethical manufacturing. And quality over just brand, is what creates great brands, like apple.
I'm reminded of the scene in Fight Club where the narrator masturbates on the loo while perusing a catalog of Ikea furniture.
Obviously not every policy based on race is racist, but affirmative action does advance a particular set of races. Call it whatever you want, but I think what the above poster has said is that to advance one race is to handicap another.
NASA fires-up experimental space Internet for robot control
I'm not really in the target audience for the product at all, but it looks great.

What really interests me is that amazing ad unit -- it's a "sponsored article from Bank of America". I actually read it, unlike a banner ad, and while if I were at all in the market for a family social network, I'd now be interested in FamilyLeaf, it ALSO made me somewhat more positive toward Bank of America.

This seems a whole lot more effective than running banner ads.
Exactly. This as a website would be great!
Very good points. It hasn't been easy, but it HAS been a lot of fun. I hope you'll be along for the ride!
I think there is some confusion over quality vs. quantity.

You can ship all the code you want, but even if it's lots of mediocre code, it's still mediocre.

Quality is independent of quantity or productivity. You may choose to lower your quality in favor of a higher rate of productivity, but you've still lowered your quality.

So you may be a productive programmer. But that doesn't necessarily make you a good one.

There's also the matter of the quality of code that your'e capable of, versus the quality you actually produce. So you may be a very good programmer forced into producing shitty code (time constraints often do this).

But let me say this: a good programmer who consistently ships great, high quality code regardless of the situation is still a better programmer.
MIT doesn't have a med school either. And while it has a good business school, Harvard's churns out far more CEO's, investors, etc. And while MIT has programs in the humanities, government, etc, Harvard's are far superior.
But there is https://github.com/carsomyr/rbenv-bundler already.
Its a little harder than simply setting a loftier goal and telling NASA to accomplish it in a shorter timeframe. I assume there was a certain amount of engineering due diligence done to come up with those dates. Have you ever had a manager (who doesn't understand the engineering issues) tell you to deliver 2x the product in 1/2 the time because that's what the customer wants? How does that typically turn out?

Now, you could argue that the current acquisition system that supports NASA is completely broken, and it could be possible to do this in a much better way (truly faster-better-cheaper). I think SpaceX is starting to prove that. And you could also argue that NASA needs to take more risks when it comes to manned missions, which would make things a lot cheaper and easier. But simply thinking that cutting the timeline in half will fix the problem is naive.

I'm with you on the ISS though. I love the thing, but can't help but think the money could have been better spent... especially since its so unclear exactly what we are learning up there.
Why Clear just won the to-do list battle
Everlane has done a great job. We're big fans of a couple of their designs.
Krita has (or had) an interesting implementation for paint mixing that uses Kubelka-Munk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyLPZDVdQiQ
It's fantastic that nearly all the software I enjoy using is free, and fascinating that that model works. But, here we're talking silverware, not software. Things to put in your backpack to go traveling are not free. And if they're the "best" then they're probably the more expensive of available options.
And here I thought my appeal to the anonymous, crowd-sourced authority of Wikipedia would totally work.

Thanks for the link. I've read it, and all I can say is that, in my highly unqualified opinion, the two things seem to be treated with enough overlap that we'd be, at best, quibbling, at least relative to how much I care about the distinction, if nothing else. That said, for someone with extensive formal training in the subject, I can also see how the distinction would make all the difference. The devil being in the details, and all.

So my response, then, is this:

You originally took issue with it being about obscenity, and not hard-core pornography (which seems to be the more common view, correct or not). Stating that it's about obscenity, not pornography, does not end an argument. And, when you cite the decision, please offer your own words supporting your own interpretation.

You started out with an unreasoned, unsupported correction to his comment. I accept that you're trying to support it by citing Jacobellis, which may be sufficient in a room full of lawyers, but I don't think it is here.

I'm completely open to being convinced on this, but you're probably going to have to do some actual convincing for that to happen.

And while you're at it, if you think Wikipedia's wrong and can so demonstrate, please go correct it, and add your reasoning to the Talk page.
Slavery when, where, and how? The term is surprisingly broad, when you actually look into details, and can easily span all of remembered human existence.
An Introduction to Hexagonal Geometry
There's also the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas http://www.nationalatomictestingmuseum.org/
To me that's a clear pattern that deserves to be corrected.

While there is a damnable travesty present, it's not clear to anyone what the pattern is or how to correct it. Many other poor places have gotten rich; many ethnic enclaves thrive. It's an absurd stretch to look at this chart and draw any conclusion whatsoever about the merit of Affirmative Action.
The wide tines of the salad fork are going to ruin your tomatoes, not to mention pulverize the walnuts or pecans in your Bib salad.

The soup spoons are too wide.

The knife if ridiculously non-functional to anyone who's ever made a PB&J for their kid.

It's pure aesthetics. Pure pretension.

And to think reading a book or two would give you such an in-depth understanding of "The Best" for anything! Imagine someone saying the same about Software Development. Or Plumbing. Engineering. etc.

I have a family member that has to have "The Best" of everything too... he has a $700 blender he rarely uses and spent weeks agonizing over. The Best vacuum, that mostly just picks up packing peanuts from the rest of his Superior acquisitions. The Best corkscrew. The Best wine aerator. The Best camera. The Best mattress.

No one would claim he has The Best life because he's ruled by his compulsion to have The Best things. Having a family member like this, it's almost offensive to see such triviality glorified.
Create a blog using Emacs
I would disagree with this strategy as it adds more complexity than the original problem. It's much easier to rollback the migrations on the feature branch and switch to master. Avoiding situations like this is the best policy though as unexpected things will happen and you can be less sure that things are working properly.
We have fine-grained sizes and fits (especially for the traditionally overlooked audiences like the tall and lean, as well as those that lift weights). We're a manufacturer that is member-driven though, if you have thoughts, shoot them to us, we'd love to hear them!
Anyone tried Machinarium on their Android device yet? It's a Flash game if memory serves, and the Flash port to Android reportedly never did run all that well.
It's pretty easy to get around the beta restrictions, you can find links to the Steam .deb (as hosted by Valve) on various sites.
One approach is to use multiple local databases, one for each schema in use. When you switch branches, update your app config to point at the appropriate database.

It's not perfect and we still have to do work keeping in sync within our team, but it does the job locally.
Tell HN: CTO of Twitpic, in SF 11/9 to 11/18, want to meet up?
Hey HN. I'm going to be in San Francisco all next week. It's my second time, I'm usually on the East Coast in Charleston, SC. I don't know anyone in SF, though, and I know there's a ton of cool people out there.

Want to meet up and grab some coffee?* We can talk startups, social apps, scaling, programming, business, whatever.

Shoot me an email, steve AT twitpic

* or beer. I'll buy.
> If the US government wants to atone for its immoral actions in the past it should pay reparations not institute a system of race based discrimination.

How much money do you think a few generations' of slavery is worth?

> If, on the other hand, the US government wants to help disadvantaged people gain a level economic footing with the rest of the population they should use a much better predictor of disadvantage than skin color.

Would you like to suggest one?
I think the point was simply that they didn't want to announce it just before the election, in case Romney would become president and pull the plug on the whole thing. NASA would look rather bad if they had to call it off again in a month or so (despite the fact that it technically wouldn't be their fault).
No, but fanboism does :)
Having seen millions of lines of code for 'established business building products' I don't see that at all. I understand it, but hardly ever see it in practice. Code is generally 'bad' unless it has been refactored a lot (!) of times. Which most systems don't undergo as it's not a business concern (agile) for management.
Something to do with the electromagnetic heating of the wire being quicker than the energy capture and incandescence of the air?
F&T was a big inspiration for us. We'll definitely reach out for their advice. We've talked to dozens and dozens of other fashion startups in preparing for not only this Kickstarter campaign, but the harder part of production and fulfillment. Our reputation depends on good service -- we won't disappoint.
Really impressed by this answer. And really hoping you guys blow it out of the park. (Congrats on hitting your goal so early.)
Nope, he is not kidding, and it's sick.
My default response to any "good programmer, bad programmer" post:

A smart accountant once told me that the answer to "How much money did you make?" is always, "Who wants to know?" If it's an investor, the answer is "A lot." If it's a customer, the answer is "A little." If it's the IRS, the answer is "None."

Same thing here. The answer to "Who is a good programmer?" is always, "Who wants to know?"

To a project manager, the programmer who hits every deadline (regardless of quality) is a good programmer.

To a customer, the programmer who solves their problem quickest is a good programmer.

To a business owner, the programmer who makes them the most money is a good programmer.

To a PHB, the programmer who makes them look the best is a good programmer.

To a journalist, the programmer who tells the best stories is a good programmer.

To a junior programmer, the best mentor is the good programmer.

To another programmer, the programmer they are most likely to want to go into battle with is a good programmer.

To a blogger, the programmer who best fits the profile of the point he is trying to make is a good programmer.
Solution? Have a "suspend" AND a power off option.
The author implies a staffing delta up would change (increase) the performance of the fund. That may or may not be the view that others share, hence the query.

GV have strong brand affinity, deep pocketed sponsor, potential strategic/bus-dev angles, strong networks from current/xooglers etc. The two contra's are : (1) Strategic Fund (generically==not good); and (2) People (generic ==unkown). I'd be surprised if GV didn't get good looks at deals, unless issues were tied to the these last two points.

But it's also possible the author is just editorializing or ad-libbing or name-dropping or what-you-will.
The [95%] Confidence of Nate Silver
It's harder than that, because it can take years of trying out new features & products before a company really matures and/or ossifies. So you can be in that awkward middle zone for a relatively long time where you don't have the time or resources to build things exactly right, but you might just find something taking off and becoming a core part of the company's technology stack.

Takes a lot of wisdom, discipline, and not a little luck to know where to invest deeply in building robust software and where to get something done quickly so you can start testing it in the marketplace.
As a designer, I can certainly say there are tons of designers who ship ugly designs. Do those designs convert well? Sure. Is the client happy? Yep. Does that make them good designers? No, definitely not.
High blood pressure damages brain long before old age
...the brain integrity of a 40-year-old with hypertension, for instance, was roughly equivalent to that of a person 7.2 years older whose systolic blood pressure reading was in the normal range.
There is some stuff that we want to handle differently, like when you increment a field it is usable locally but maps to an increment operation rather than a set on the server. So for a slew of details like this, overriding Backbone.sync wasn't quite sufficient. I hear the concerns about the trickiness of using plain Backbone with Parse, though - that is a design issue we are thinking hard about.
I might believe Cambridge to the academic intellectual capital of the world, but I don't think it's even close to the overall intellectual capital of the world. For that you'd want to look at economic powerhouse cities like New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.

Applied intellectualism is just as significant - especially for us here in startupland. All of these world cities represent an enormous mass of smart, motivated, educated people who are generating huge impact, much moreso than even the collective sum of a few of the world's best academic institutions.
If you right click on the top of the window and select Customize... you can add buttons to the toolbar of each Finder window. One of those buttons is "path", which when you click on it, provides a pull down menu allowing you to select any directory in the path of the current folder. I use that one a lot../
23.0.1271.64 on 64-bit Kubuntu 12.04 works fine, fwiw.
I wish more programmers/hackers had the courage to show off their ugly code and admit to the early stages of the creative process.

The Ruby community has a great emphasis on beautiful, elegant code, but how many first commit trees on github are actually after hundreds of hours were spent, a good percentage of which involved beautifying and organizing.

I definitely prefer to read clean, well organized code, but I'd also like to read the first attempts and the discarded approaches used by the hackers I admire.
Hey edw519, I've read a lot of your posts and I was wondering if you could point me at a repo of some of your code; I'd love to read it.
Some countries prefer an informed populace.
My today's 3 hours project is: https://ptweetcom.appspot.com/. It is thought to be a "How to" example project for Google App Engine. In general it is a micro service that gives twitter users ability to post private messages to anyone (not only for followers). You enter your secret message and addressee (@person) and get a link in response which you add to your tweet. Only addressee can follow the link and see your private message.

Next evening (now it's evening in Russia :) ) I replace this service to ptweet.com, make it more sexy and write "How to" for my blog (I guess).
This blog post reveals more about its authors insecurities than it provides in insight to the rest of us.

If you're good enough at what you do that you have time to blog your inner debates about how good you are, you're good enough to need more important things to do.
Luring Developers Into the Newsroom
Any critical (real time) system, no. Most other systems; with lack of other means, sure. At least he ships and it runs; my last experience with the 'outsourcing team' of HP was that the (> 1 million loc) system did not only not work (after shipping), it contained numerous sections which cannot work and will never work. I wish it would be different, but it's not unfortunately.
How about:

1) Solve an actual problem.

2) Resemble/enhance something people already enjoy.

Because the article's #1 point is entirely valid and thoroughly unnecessary for popularity. And #2? Well, good luck with all that (no, seriously, that's exactly what you need.)
One of the great things about growing up in the 80s was that virtually all computers booted into a BASIC interpreter as soon as you flipped the power switch, and presented you with a flashing cursor eagerly awaiting your program input.

Computers don't work like that today. Installation and configuration of various dependencies are a real challenge when learning.

This is especially true when trying to teach kids - we like to think they're all computer geniuses now, but really a lot of kids don't seem to have any idea of how to navigate a file system. They're hooked on installers.
At least the latest motorola android is very close to stock android, and there is hope that since moto is now google the newer phones will have timely updates.
I'm of the strong opinion that if your code is encapsulated, it's pretty okay for it to be entirely shite as long as it works.

If someone needs to maintain it, and that someone isn't you, it's very likely they're going to understand your shite stream-of-consciousness code much more easily than your beautiful, elegant code that has had all of the thought process refactored out of it (but refactoring is a very important tool).
Jerry Pournelle has done a lot of writing on the value of offering prizes instead of having the government foot the bill. We've seen some of that with the funding SpaceX gets, but the scale needs to be increased.

Offer $1 billion to orbit an unmanned (man rated) capsule around the Moon. Then another billion to land same capsule. $5 billion to land a crew of two, and return them to Earth. Since each is incremental, the risk for the companies trying to compete will be lower.

EDIT: Yes I know the costs are far higher than the prizes I'm mentioning. It's the general concept I'm aiming at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabricati... shows there are 30 or so manufacturers. If you look at the 'below 40nm' scale, there are way fewer. Most of these profit from economies of scale by operating more than one fab.

I guess Apple buys less than 10% of Intel's x86/x64 chips. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_sit... shows Intel runs at most 6 or 7 plants that could do sub-40 nm chips. So, that would make Apple's part at most half a plant or so.

Finally, I guess that buying a plant is not sufficient. They also would have to license tons of patents. Without relevant patents to exchange, that would IMO be prohibitively expensive.
Halo 4 Beats Halo 3
Wait Don’t Finish Your Next Product
I just read the entire Cloud Code and Cloud Modules documentation, and there's one thing that doesn't quite make sense to me. There seems to be a piece missing.

So you implement some HTTP API using Cloud Code, and you deploy it. Shouldn't their SDK, through magical synergy, expose the native function to communicate with that API on the device? It seems like I can implement my HTTP API using Cloud Code, but I still have to bring in something like RestKit or ASIHTTPRequest on the device to actually talk to it.

So they have native APIs for talking to their HTTP API, but not the custom ones you implement using cloud code? Their example shows them calling it with curl, rather than "here's how to call this from inside your native app that already uses all the other Parse goodies"
The truth about Ukrainian girls
You and me together.
All this talk of beauty and elegance is missing one key point: it's not just an aesthetic matter. Beautiful code is beautiful because it implements some theoretical design concept that makes it easier to maintain and more performant. The fact that it happens to look nice when you do that is down to the design of the language itself.
The intensity of that heat is going to drop off rapidly with distance. I'm no physicist, but I'd bet it follows the Inverse-Square Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law) just as light does.

Meaning that at 20m from the center of the explosion (the fireball was 20m diameter, or 10m radius) it should already be at 1/4 the intensity, already less than the surface of the sun. At 7 miles or 11200m, you're talking 1/(1120^2) or 7.97e-7 of the original intensity - effectively zero - if I've done that math right.
I dont' see the problem. People are already attracted to engineering for the "wrong" reasons - most of them dig deep enough to discover just how much work it is, and run screaming in the other direction.

And that's fine, now we have someone who's doing something else and better informed to boot.

I'd venture this "problem" is neither a problem nor is it unique to our field. People think making video games is sexy until they see the innards of a game studio. People think making movies is sexy until they actually start doing it. People think being a musician is sexy until they've dealt with labels, marketing, and the royalty system.

So on and so forth.

Nothing executed at a high level is actually that sexy, but that's okay, because it's still sexy to the people who are doing it. Tons of rocket scientists, software engineers, automotive engineers, movie directors, and musicians wake up every day and can't wait to do the myriad of supposedly boring things they find sexy.
Oh! Man! You right! Thanks. We will fix it!