skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thanks for the feedback!

You're right that for scientific use cases, the data access story defines mode and methods of computation. Your use case of having a large dataset stored across many files on a distributed FS is one of the cornerstone motivations for building Blaze, next-generation distributed Numpy:

https://speakerdeck.com/sdiehl/blaze-next-generation-numpy

http://vimeopro.com/continuumanalytics/pydata-nyc-2012

Rather than traditional "load all the data into memory" sort of approaches, Blaze is inherently out-of-core, and allows the user to define mappings of an index space onto local or remote files, and then manipulate that structure at the Python prompt as easily as if it were a small matrix stored in memory. There are existing PGAS approaches that are similar in spirit, but they tend to invoke heavyweight MPI machinery or make assumptions about the regularity or structure of the dataset that is being distributed across the cluster. Our guidance in designing and implementing Blaze is to make simple distributed things easy, and hard things possible; we are not trying to solve decades of distributed computing and linear algebra problems as a start-up. :-)

So, hopefully you can see that with Blaze as your data access mechanism, and Wakari as a web-based front-end, you should be able to do large scale compute from within a web browser.
Did Climate Change Kill the Mayans?
Perhaps Republicans should have spent more time actually displaying the business and organizational acumen and discipline that they claimed as an advantage over the Obama team, and less time suppressing the black vote.

Snark postscriptum: Also, next time, GOP, you might wanna hire some IT guys who make more than $12 an hour.
Well, it's not easy to say the least. There are essentially two big problems we have.

One, anything telecom related tends to be much more expensive here than almost anywhere else in the world. For example the best home connection I can get right now is 1Mb/s down 128Kb/s up with a 12GB/mo data cap for ~35$/mo. And that's DSL, for 3G(whose coverage is spotty at best) it's a 100MB/mo cap for 10$/mo(above and beyond the 20$/mo just to have a cell phone line). My cell phone bill regularly ends up in the 80-100$ range and I don't talk that much on the phone, people who do end up closer to 150$.

Two, and this flows from one and the fact that salaries here are about 1/3rd of US ones with comparable cost of living; any talented people that have options will just say "fuck this"(possibly turn over a table as they get up) and just leave. I regularly half-joke with foreigners I meet that our main export is engineers. Through college I met about 5 people who I'd consider co-founding something with. Of those 5, one is now in new york, another is at Intel, a 3rd is in france doing graduate studies and the other two left but I've lost touch with them. This even extends no non-computer fields and basically anything that requires high skill-level(so any engineering field, business consulting, finance, etc...).

The startup I'm working at now is actually based in the states. The founder is Lebanese-American and a mutual friend introduced us. We're trying to start something here(we're currently only 2 guys). My hope is that people eventually realize that programming can be done from anywhere and they don't have to go to SV and we might have a viable startup culture at some point. We're still very far from that point though.
It's tradition. The Facebook office used to be directly above Jing Jing back in the day.
Unpaid interest owed on debt would never be income.
Great pic of Simpsons family
Do you like Simpsons family? If your answer is yes, then you will just love this great picture of Simpsons.
If a hacker looks into their web and db infrastructure...I think he would just shake his head and move on.
Are there plans for an Arc driver?
Most people assume that an even integer is an integer whose least significant digit in base 10 is from the set {0,2,4,6,8}
>These are the Chinese we're talking about..

Is this supposed to mean that the Chinese are too tame and subservient?

They already had a huge communist revolution -- and two more revolutions in the last 120 years (the Boxer and the Hsin-hai Revolution). Even the last 2-3 decades, they had massive strikes and struggles, and the Tien-An Men square thing.
How to Market Your App with Ryan Morel - Part 1 (Video)
I've worked 24+ hours straight a handful of times in my career. "Healthy" and "relaxing" are not two adjectives I'd use to describe such coding marathons, and a lot of the code that comes out of them is pretty low-quality.

I understand there are circumstances that call for them, but I really hope the idea of making it a regular part of doing business doesn't catch on.
Politico's article on ORCA today claims that one of the major problems was that they deployed the system in their election night HQ just prior to the election, and the surge of legitimate traffic on election day triggered their DDOS defences. They'd never tested it in that location with realistic traffic levels.
Someone told me that Accenture build it in India - poetic justice, I'd think, if that was indeed true.
I cited my travel as sources of my knowledge about corrupt systems.

As a male WASP child of educated, professional parents I have had almost every advantage possible. I know this.

Having watched many small businesses owned and operated by 'new' Americans has made me appreciate what is possible here, in a big city at least.
What a mess this is on both sides.

Apple has reacted poorly, but if I were British I would be a bit upset that my judges were wasting time on punishments like this. The point is to punish Apple, so just fine them and be over with it. The end result is the same, just without all this drama in the middle.

EDIT: I'm going to retract my opinion here because a few good points have been made and I shouldn't have spoken when I was not 100% informed on the matter. Sorry!
How does git handle binary/highorder byte data for patching?
This "mistake" is what most people would call 'utter incompetence'.
Scalability is a systemic anomaly inherent to the programming of the matrix
We're all lucky that an organization too inept to manage a campaign is ultimately not allowed to manage the country.
We spent a long time trying to reimplement other people's protocols but with our engine underneath. Being able to have features like this is one of the things that eventually convinced us it would be worth it to control our own. Bear in mind that our joins are also distributed which we think is really cool.
Professional Mattress Jumper Is an Actual Job
What does hipster even mean here?
Type without a keyboard using this iPhone app
This is cool.
Does anyone know anywhere else that "in-development" videos can be found? It would be interesting to see how other developers function in their environments.
Oh, I don't disagree. I think you see a lot of both: real value-added in operations, logistics, etc, and a lot of purchased CYA. And let's be fair--CYA is something we all do in corporate America, at least if you're smart.
> There's no way to abstract out that pattern in Python.

I'm sure there are macros that can't be abstracted out in Python but this isn't one of them:

from contextlib import contextmanager

@contextmanager
def temp_assign(obj, attr, val):
old_val = getattr(obj, attr)
setattr(obj, attr, val)
yield
setattr(obj, attr, old_val)

class X:
pass

x = X()
x.a = 1
with temp_assign(x, "a", 2):
print x.a # prints 2
print x.a # prints 1
I'm working on a HTTP testing library based on Ruby's VCR library[1]. I've got it to a pretty basic state where it is somewhat usable. I'm definitely interested in this area. Ruby's VCR uses the Webmock library as a backend (though it can use other pluggable backends) to mock out all the HTTP requests. I had to sort of grow my own Webmock - maybe I can integrate HTTPretty instead so we don't duplicate effort.

[1]: http://www.github.com/kevin1024/vcrpy/
Darcs's send and apply work on this principle, of course, though I haven't seen it applied to XMPP specifically. As I recall, the manual even has an example of how to add an easy hook in Mutt to apply a patch from email. git diff and git apply are available for single patches, of course, and git format-patch and git am are optimized for the mail case so that multiple commits can be sent at once, though darcs apply has integrated PGP signature checking and at a glance I don't see anything similar in the git versions. git-send-pack and git-receive-pack also have an underlying role not strongly coupled to the overlay transport, but seem to be designed for bidirectional communication so that the repositories can negotiate about which objects they already have.
Versioning RESTful Services
Skip the punditry and read the original article here:

http://readwrite.com/2012/11/08/whats-it-like-to-work-for-ti...
I would buy one, and so would pretty much any company.
A vibrant developer community is a big minus for big companies with no need for custom software, because that means there will be people figuring out how to root the devices (and worms, ect). If blackberry fails in the consumer market, the commercial market will save it.

As for the consumer market, who doesn't love seeing new ways to do things? Andriod and Iphone are old and boring now, and Windows Phone 8 is not my cup of tea. (Oh, just remembered firefox OS. Is that a thing still?)
If you're on a Mac check out https://github.com/liquidx/webviewscreensaver - Works well but you might not always have an internet connection so I just saved the HTML/CSS/JS into a folder and linked directly to that (and it works!)
This is totally offtopic. I have no idea why he gave people bonuses in October, but I don't think it has anything to do with a system that apparently wasn't deployed until November.
I think I don't understand what your macro does, because the Python code is easily abstractable with a context manager:

from contextlib import contextmanager

@contextmanager
def traverse(obj, attr, val):
cached = getattr(obj, attr)
setattr(obj, attr, val)
yield
setattr(obj, attr, cached)

with traverse(obj, "traversing", True):
# ... do stuff ...

Could you explain what your example does that I've missed?
Hacker ‘Cosmo the God’ Sentenced and Banned from Internet for Six Years
They're hating because RIM* is claiming they have the best browser.

But it's all hot air, or more precisely, vaporware. It's not even on the market. And with RIM's track record, I'm not holding out for hope.

* By proxy of Techvibes, which appears to be one of those tech "journalism" outfits that writes articles per what their hiring vendors tell them to.
Tim Cook, past-peak, Steve Jobs would never, bully, bullying, bullies, bullied, overpriced, one mouse button, luxury, ivory tower, arrogant, evil, marketing, finally.
Seems like Slava Akhmechet's worldwide celebration.
The Six Networking Secrets Of Silicon Valley’s Superconnector Shervin Pishevar
The poor in America: In need of help
I'm never going to remember what each of those squigglies represent. Seems like a lot of work for nothing. Pretty, though.
I think it's an extraordinary strength of Python that I hadn't seen your code when writing mine but that other than two variable names they're identical. Leaving my comment up for demonstration of this.
Engineers respect people who get engineering. Also, whatever role you are, if you have to decide on planning/prioritization it's helpful to have an understanding if people are bs'ing on time estimates.

You can't really understand the complexity of a feature or shift in direction without the computing background.
I believe it has been said many times that the main objective is to undo some of the harm that Apple has caused to Samsung. Hence, the public announcements.
Hey guys, Slava here. I've been up since yesterday, so I'm going to clock out (though some of the team members are still lurking here). I wanted to thank everyone for great feedback. We're working hard to improve Rethink over the next few months. FYI, you can always hop on IRC (#rethinkdb on freenode) or github tracker (https://github.com/rethinkdb/rethinkdb/issues) with questions and we'll help you out.
While most of us find these tweets distasteful, I personally find the notion that the school should be able to punish them troubling.

Presumably they're saying these things at home, on their own time, not during school hours or at school-sanctioned events -- so the school has no grounds to punish them.

(I'm assuming they go to public school. Private schools probably have a much wider leeway to require students to place restrictions on their conduct as a condition of continued enrollment.)

While the comments are distasteful, nothing illegal is being said here. The speech in question is criticism of a political figure, which is a specifically protected category of speech.

(The article briefly brushes on the fact that death threats -- especially against the President -- can result in criminal charges. Death threats cross a line that racial epithets do not.)

OTOH, I'm not arguing that their behavior shouldn't or doesn't have consequences. The Internet community can apply public pressure, and if the school is made aware that they're making these tweets, school officials should be able to inform their parents. If the accounts are connected to their real names, they may regret it years later, when significant others, colleges or employers Google them and don't like what they find.
PG said he'd post facto reject us from YC if we don't.

In all seriousness while we'd eventually like to have support for every language Arc is farther down our list than others such as PHP and Java. We will get to it eventually though.

If Arc could be made to use protocol buffers it wouldn't be too hard for a contributor to write the driver themselves though.
I feel like I've seen this story before....interesting, nonetheless!
+1 to you, thats what I am trying to know. Also being new in the haskell community, I am trying to figure out the aura around haskell....
11 DB servers and 1 web app? Let's look at how the db was structured. Wait...nevermind forget it.
How does AGPLv3 or even the GPLv3 harm free software? It's certainly more permissive than MIT with the "do no evil" clause.

No one is stopping some dude from taking a large chunk of MIT or BSD licensed code modifying it and then closing it off forever. That fork could become the one to use while the pre-forked one dies in a fire because the software is no longer compatible with the new shiny one with feature X. "Oh crap! I'd like to fix this bug that's been plaguing me since I switched over to the closed source one, but now I can't." -- Some sorry dude who used BSD licensed software[0]

Those who say they don't care about this sort of thing are lying to themselves and everyone listening.

There's this stigma around the FSF licenses, which has never made sense to me. The whole point of them is simply "I share with you, please have some common decency and share with me." This seems like common courtesy to me, and only fair. If some corporation really wants to close everything up, well the same logic for avoiding Crockford's license applies, just rewrite it and don't use it. But, he who shares should always win.

[0]: yes, this was a loaded argument.
This sounds really neat. What's it used for, though?
Sounds cool..
Thought I'll share this with you.

A yc company hired me. I showed up at their mountain view office. The founder said "This is the former office of RethinkDB! I hope we are as successful as them."

I didn't know who/what RethinkDB was, so I said ok, sure.

3 days later he asked me to clear my desk and leave. He said "You are the sort of person who should work in RethinkDB".

So I asked "What does that mean ?"

He said "RethinkDB is trying to solve very deep algorithm problems. They want somebody with CS knowledge to do deep research. That is what you are good at. But here we are just trying to run a business. You are not a good fit for that!".

So I left.
"harm" for a company is another way of saying money lost, so why not just fine Apple a ton of money and give it to Samsung?
Seriously, Apple Is Doomed
Git sends data between repositories using a pack format that transfers the raw blob/tres/commit/tag objects, not patches.
It seems likely that any fine that the court could impose would pale into insignificance in comparison to what Samsung's lawyers have rung up, so this is pretty effective.
We have a big issue with companies giving Britain the middle finger with tax avoidance at the moment so the government in any form standing up to a big company is pretty much the #1 thing that British citizens will love right now (if they pay attention to the news).

Although it is ultimately quite petty, Apple are refusing to comply with court mandated actions and the court standing up to them is definitely something people want to see -- from my circle of British people anyway.
why is Ruby not in the title if you are also talking about it?
I work for H&M, their competitor, in their IT HQ in Stockholm. It is a great place to work. H&M is a success story as well, currently the highest valued listed Swedish company. IKEA might be more valuable, but is not listed. Ericsson used to be more valuable, but not any more.

The IT challenges are not always technically of the most interesting kind, and rarely bleeding edge, but that is made up by the scale of things, by a good atmosphere and people dedicated to doing a good job. It is an organization that is suited to grow professionally in.
That's one design characteristic of Scheme, but I wouldn't call it "the entire point".
And yet the Clojure guy did his distributed DB in Clojure (aka, Lisp).

Kind of makes me wonder why C++ was chosen...
A very refreshing landing page. Simple design that explains what you do. Looking forward to you coming out of beta.
Both my wife and I lean toward the academic. I went to MIT, and we have an ASD son. This research is fascinating. And I think the Time article on it (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2089358,00....) is a good starting place. A while back the "Einstein Syndrome" book did a light treatment on this topic but for speech delays. Ultimately, I think the whole concept of an autism spectrum is helpful and harmful, because severe kiddos are so different from high-functioning (e.g. nerds) ones.
Law is about applying one or more rules to the facts at hand. You do this by analogizing to past cases, statutes, etc. Theres a lot of creativity that can be used in this process, as the analogy is never staring you in the face - you have to find it and tease it out of the references you have.

You are one of those kids who can't hack it in law school - and the "changing dynamic internet" crap is your excuse. Is that what you need to tell mommy so she thinks you're less of a weenbag?
Damages are usually not punitive. Thus, Apple would only have to pay a tiny amount (in relation to the huge pots of money they have).

That would mean that the fine would be no deterrent, and further fines could merely be the cost of doing business.

I'm not upset at the judge. I am upset at companies taking this stuff through court, and other companies not just putting a simple apology up.
If you've been subject to the discrimination it probably feels the same. public/private whatever you call them, they are all just groups of people, and exclusionary judgment based on a couple generations of dna, well I think THAT should be reserved for haShem only. Live by the sword die by the sword, reciprocity, lex talionis, karma, ... almost always catches up.
> Colemak is easier to learn, since it’s designed to be as similar to QWERTY as possible without compromising on efficiency.

I actually suspect that's a fallacy. When you learn & use something new, it's actually confusing when it's similar to something else. I have no issue with typing either Qwerty or Dvorak, but Azerty, where only a few keys are different from Qwerty, drives me nuts.
I find JSON-oriented databases to be a huge limitation for writing applications managing any kind of financial data, due to the lack of a decimal number type and a timestamp/date type, both of which SQL provides (and are used A LOT).

Sure, you can put that stuff in strings, but then you'll run into limitation with queries where you want to, e.g., aggregate a total, or do timestamp arithmetic.

I could do everything with strings, custom map-reduce, etc., if you're inclined to suggest that as a workaround. Still doesn't mean JSON's a good idea.
I'm British, and I actually feel quite the opposite.

Apple sought to use UK courts to their own ends, and then threw a bitch fit when the ruling didn't go their way.

The judge is absolutely right to slap them down. You shouldn't get to pick and choose which court orders to respect, even if you're the richest company in the world. That's hardly the basis for a sound legal system is it?

Frankly, whoever authorised this reaction in the first place is a disrespectful idiot. They treated the UK like a fucking banana republic, and got reamed accordingly.
I'm not upset at all. Fines seem to have very little effect on companies, especially as in the UK they are frequently embarrassingly small. One thing I really like about the USA is that when they fine a company, they don't mess around. But one thing I like about the UK is that we don't tolerate B.S. - quite a few American companies have come over here and been tripped up by one of the many areas we're a little stricter in.
This is a case where I think Cal Newport's arguments are on point: it's not about your passion, it's about your skills. Or as a lawyer friend put it to me when we were working together on a late night at an elite NYC law firm: "Law is only good when you can write your own ticket."

All of the OP's statements are true but also not true. For example: law is about authority, computers reject authority. What is authority? In some sense, it's just network effect. A sufficient number of people have agreed on an argument, therefore it won't be disturbed unless there's a very good reason. Same goes with computers.

Innovation vs. Applying past wisdom: The law's not so myopic to only look to the past. It considers the accumulated wisdom of the past to determine what to do now. In fact, the law is changing rapidly in part in response to technological innovation (and the increasing complexity of government and modern life). The question is whether past rationale makes sense under current conditions. Under that frame, innovation and disruption happens in the law -- consider the law & economics movement, for instance, or critical legal theory.

The question isn't whether law or programming is inherently more innovative, it's where you're situated.

If you're arguing cases before the Supreme Court, you are dealing with the cutting edge of law and you are constantly looking at new cases that come out and analyzing how their rationale opens up new arguments and reflects new ways to attack existing decisions. The problem is that to do that, you have to be the best of the best.

If you're a programmer at a huge corporation working on maintaining a legacy system, you probably think you have the dullest job in the world in a field where nothing changes.

No doubt, real differences exist between law and programming, although they are remarkably similar. Nevertheless, I think Newport is on point when he talks about just how important excellence is to appreciating and enjoying your craft.
I know lots of engineers who have trouble talking to people who don't share their knowledge. This problem is extremely pervasive - I'd say a good 25% or more have this problem to some extent. It's not a good thing when this happens - you need to be able to speak to laymen or you're gonna have a bad time.

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest you try to work on being a bit more practical. Don't complicate things for the sake of solving difficult problems. Don't try to shower people with your engineering knowledge when it's not necessary, and don't expect everyone to know everything you do. And don't be an asshole about it either.