skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
One voice (of many) who's been involved in Occupy:

One thing that's super important to keep in mind: "political" doesn't have to be electoral politics. Many would argue that electoral politics are really much closer to rooting for a sports team than anything truly political.

Politics is fundamentally about power. You shift power relations, and elections reconfigure themselves around the new state of power relations. Obama beating Romney just means one segment of the empowered has dominated another segment of the empowered. Maybe a segment of the empowered whose base of power comes from liberal cosmopolitanism and a rationalized Rawlsian State, but the empowered nonetheless.

One hope of many Occupiers is the entrance of relatively marginalized and excluded people into the political sphere, by community organizing and other types of organizing, to create new and alternative structures of power. Obama and Romney don't give a shit about elderly monolingual Russian immigrants on Coney island (or, being more clinical, they have no political incentive to cater to them, because there's no payoff). And it's hard, too: there has never been a FEMA which is able to anticipate all the possible disasters (Katrina in NYC???) or know all the secret hidden knowledge that hasn't been made knowable to the almighty state (wait, there's a large population of elderly Russian immigrants in Coney island that we need a staff of translators on-hand for?). Certainly you can figure out solutions post-facto or figure out ways they could have known post-facto, but post-facto people are already dead. And if those solutions were obvious before the problems initially arose, why didn't FEMA build them? Indeed: why didn't you contact FEMA to tell them "Oh, you should have Russian translators in case a big hurricane hits NYC"?

But local communities inherently have all this hidden knowledge bound up in them, and they're able to use it. And many Occupiers, to the extent they have an ideology, believe in the practice of community organizing and interaction not only as the means to leverage this knowledge but also as a way to further it and have communities self-organize into even stronger and more interconnected power structures. A person who gets some much-needed potable water from a volunteer associated with Occupy has a decent probability of volunteering with Occupy themselves, and identifying with it (to some extent) in the future.

Compare to entrepreneurship: entrepreneurship is exploring a market landscape to find a scalable business model that meets some business need that can't be computed before it has actually succeeded. Occupy, by analogy, is an organic, leaderless movement that asks individuals to explore the landscape of social networks to find opportunities to build new decentralized networks, self-sustaining and self-repairing, to fulfill needs that have previously been unsatisfied, such as providing power or, in this case, disaster relief. Ultimately the hope of many is to scale out discovered solutions to all disempowered communities, by building the knowledge and tools--technical, but even more so political and social--to succeed via practice.
I imagine that it's easier to fight a subpoena directed at you than it is to fight one directed at Google (for example).
Link: http://www.macbartender.com

I'm a big fan of the app, and the developer finally fixed some annoying bugs from the 1.0 release.
Whatever Clarkson thinks of the car, I would be very surprised if his persona ever stops hating EVs.
Why isn't this capability built into every wireless router?
1.) Yeah, there're still some bugs that we need to work out. We also need to come up with a more scalable solution of finding rhymes if we go commercial.

2.) Yeah, you're right. We just wanted something that would look good on the projector during our demo. This needs to be tweaked.

3.) You're right for the most part. We didn't really know how we'd be implementing it at the beginning. We thought we'd need to do a lot of heavy server-side processing (which turned out to be a false assumption). We do want to add the ability for users to exist and have poems saved under their account that they can share and stuff though.

4.) Thanks! We decided early on that it'd be better to do a few things well than try to implement a lot of half finished features.
And gas/operating cost savings, and HOV lane access. And some states have a tax credit on top of the federal credit.

(That said, I don't see much point in buying anything but the Performance model -- assuming you keep it for 5-10 years, drive a lot, it seems like it's worth the extra $30k)
How easy it to spot "9mm Luger ammunition" laying on a table? How much of an expert would you need to be?
How do I save what I wrote?
I know the reaction for Windows 8 and the Surface has been trepid but I would've thought he would have been safe given his pedigree within Microsoft.
"This is a unexpected move which is going to change Microsoft at a deep level."

Agreed, although not to the level of Sinofsky, Larsen-Green is pretty darn awesome in her own right. At least that is my opinion.
this makes me happy :-)
Does Google actually require subpoenas?
I'm still going to go with "he's a nutter", personally.
It puts me in control of the situation. As it is, an over-zealous prosecutor can get my ISP to comply. For personal systems, I assume that it would require an outright lawsuit/prosecution to force my hand to do anything. With competent representation, I assume it would need to be serious business and not a fishing expedition for them to get my email (should I comply at all).

And remember, passwords for crypto are still pretty much untested in (US) court. So far as I know, I currently cannot be forced to provide decryption passwords/keys for a court. Contempt might still be an issue, but that's another problem entirely.
Thing is...do I really think that in using Google they won't read my mail?
> "PMs at Microsoft are expected to be technically competent"

That has most certainly not been my experience with Microsoft PMs when I lived in Seattle. There were more than a few who had zero experience writing code in-industry, and many who I wouldn't trust with a product at all.
With all due respect, binary drivers can bugger off. As for you, shame on you for conflating userland ABI with driver interface. This has already been hashed out, many times before: http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense....

You can even get driver development for free: http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/free_drivers.html

If you want binary drivers, find another OS. As for userland ABI, people have static binaries from the 1.2 days of Linux that still run just fine.
Early access to best screens? Maybe not.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/17/3515158/htc-shows-off-stu...
The "Blue Star" is the $30k version, in the future. The Model X is an incremental modification of the Model S into a crossover SUV, available in 2014.

I'd love a "Blue Star Performance" for $50k -- I don't need a car as big as the Model S/X, but want 300 mile range, supercharger, and 4-5 sec 0-60. I'd be ok with a roadster except I hate convertibles and would like something a little bigger, like BMW 3er size.
It's only disturbing because people think of e-mail as equivalent to the letters in their desk rather than what it is: putting private information into the hands of private third parties in cleartext. The ECPA actually gives you an extra layer of protection--requiring a warrant for messages less than six months old. Under the principles of the 4th amendment, you wouldn't even have this much protection. In general, you have no privacy interest in information you entrust to third parties. If your ISP turns over your e-mail just because the FBI asked nicely, without the ECPA that'd just be between you and your ISP.

I don't know why this surprises anyone. Prosecutors have broad powers to subpoena information in the hands of third parties. 4th amendment doesn't even apply.
They're basically already doing all of these in some form or another.

1. They'd never describe it as this, but sign up as an advertiser and you essentially get all of this.

2. They're essentially doing this with their new interest based targeting for advertisers, i.e. mining users for interests and then letting advertising pay to target those interests.

3. Promoted tweets all the way. While they don't have follower count as a targeting vector yet, they do have everything from device and location, to gender and interests, to @handles and time of day.
First thing I turn off on all apps. If, after a spell, I find that I miss push notifications on a given app, then I will turn it on.
He was always polarizing and that his stock was rising is equally contentious, IMO. Windows 8 was late, Surface seems to be underwhelming and his inability to be a real team player are all likely factors here, as is his rumored disagreement with Ballmer (though I had Ballmer on the losing end of that one).

You're right that this will change Microsoft at a deep level, but I think odds are good that it's a change for the better.

Personally, Sinofsky was one of the biggest reasons I left Microsoft. He was willing to ditch potentially game-changing products/features spanning multiple industries because it didn't align with his idea of software engineering, which was more suited for boxed software like Office than for rapidly deploying services. He didn't/doesn't get services - he's a boxed software guy at his core. All the Office Live stuff happened after he left Office - arguably he should have seen it coming and been ahead of the game while he was running Office.
Unless he somehow saw the box or the imprint at the bottom, it's almost impossible.

There is a small difference in width but you can't really tell if you're further than a foot away.

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo...
I don't think it's accurate. Plenty of Googlers have 20% projects they spend 20% of their time on.
Copy/Paste

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Or you could fork it (http://github.com/bilalq/Tranquillity-Editor) and add it in for yourself ;)
I like the idea of this, but just know that teaching first year university courses is nothing like giving a quality high school education. As someone who has done both, I think that it's near impossible for someone on the outside to appreciate the difficulty of the latter. You will be sadly mistaken if you believe that you can get away with giving a university type education to a high school student. This seems to be a big point that most education startups miss. That said, I look forward to seeing the results! Good luck!
I don't really get the joke. Care to explain? :)
Login is enabled once you buy it.
It's not clear, but there's no trial you have to pay to login.
Riiiight, because this opaque give us money and we'll buy off some anonymous people's debt is a beacon for piece of mind.

A non-profit marketplace for this built similar to Kiva, LendingClub, etc. increases transparency dramatically.
It went and went
Like a sent Pequot;
For at wit's end
Lied St. Bernard;
Clothe me master
Welcome the foe
To them that desire
To supper at the broth;
Oh majesty, the flock,
The dismembered joint,
What captured Lemeaux!

- Dean Rykicz 1903
That's a great plan - we now just need to convince every website and web service (and whatever else your phone authenticates with) to update their authentication method to use these access tokens.

So are you going to phone Apple and ask them to change their website/ITMS/iCloud/DeveloperCenter password/authentication system? No? Neither am I.

Samsung storing the passwords in cleartext is lazy, but if the assumption is "you can only read that cleartext file if you've got root", since a consequence of having root means you can intercept anything the user does anyway, it's _maybe_ an excusable decision. I'm quite surprised they didn't choose to use a passwordsafe/keypass/lastpass/1Password style encrypted storage format though. It's not exactly rocket surgery…

(I wonder how that file appears on backups though? Does Android by-default encrypt backups? I know iPhone _can_ encrypt them, but doesn't by default. This file could be quite dangerous if it's sitting on a lot of people's laptops/desktops unencrypted...)
> You don't think they can figure out how to make an NSAPI plugin reasonably secure?

Nope.

> You don't think they can get the code portable enough to work on multiple platforms?

Not on platforms that expressly disallow it, e.g. iOS.
Anyone think Microsoft will be announcing Scott Forstall joining the company next? Sort of like the Marissa Meyer announcement for Yahoo?
Honestly, that puts it solidly into "more than I can ever imagine paying for a car" territory. It's also too big - I can't imagine street parking a behemoth like that in San Francisco.

I quite like the Acura TSX - small, luxurious, $30k. I'd happily pay $40 for Tesla's equivalent.
My take: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4776031
No way! My little brother drew most of DiffPlug's icons (and took the photos used in the demos). He is also just finishing high school, and part of why I made the image differ was to help bring him into the version control fold.

Thanks for the 3D differ link! The conventional wisdom when I talk to people about DiffPlug is that I should make it into a web service. For diffing, I think a desktop app is better than a web service for a few different reasons, but one of them is that the cloud is a pain for big documents like CAD files. I haven't had any real data to support that so far, but the comments thread for that link is very helpful!
Also- this looks incredibly bad for Ballmer. Sinofsky was at Microsoft his entire career and was head of Office before Windows. You don't promote someone like that without knowing what they'll manage like.

Ballmer has lost almost all of his original group of Presidents (I believe Qi Lu is the only survivor). If the board is worth anything, they have to be real pissed at him- all potential successors have now left the company. Microsoft's politics are legendary and Sinofsky was seen as one of the few who could navigate them, now he's out.

I wouldn't be surprised if the board of directors had some extremely harsh words for Ballmer.
I can honestly say, I do not compare the Tesla Model S to an Acura TL on price. It is something new, an actual viable electric car for normal consumers.

I compare it to industry shifting products like the iPhone, LCD flatscreens, laser printers, and Xerox machines.
Lots of people see a similarity between Sinofsky leaving and Forstall's recent exit from Apple (and a similarity between their positions and that of Rubin). Just a silly joke, though.
is this something that rocks him to his core

I would guess most of the time, the answer is "no". Forget the circumstances, human beings have a tendency to look for failings in others to explain their own misfortune. It can be difficult to look past your own hubris to recognize what are in truth your own failings.

So, it's really going to come down to the individual- but I would default to "no".
I don't think there's "Luger Brand ammunition" as mentioned in the police report, either (unless it's some lame latin american brand I've never heard of)
Windows 8 Boss Sinofsky Out At Microsoft
My current CEO was fired as the CEO of prominent multi-billion dollar company. I don't think that it phased his ego at all. He just moved on to being the head of another large organization and was still just as outgoing, friendly and creative as ever. I think he just used the experience as something to learn from. This is all of course from my outside perspective and 10 or so years of working closely with him. I'm sure there was some feelings of betrayal and remorse for him, but that's a side that I've never seen come out.
Seeking Office & Community Manager for 10 person VC funded startup
Circle (www.discoverCircle.com) is looking for somebody who is an expert life-hacker to keep everything running smoothly at all times. You are in charge of keeping the team happy and the community happy. You can get any task done in an effective and fast manner from making a furiously unhappy user happy to figuring out how to get a meeting with an unreachable reporter.

You should be extremely street smart, be able to hack your way at life to get anything done, think quickly, speak quickly, and be insanely productive. The position is extremely important as it is one of the first 10 team members of the company. We try to fill each position (engineers, designers, marketers..) with people who have the potential to be the best in the world and this position is no different. We are located in Palo Alto and are looking for somebody to start immediately. No task should be too small from taking out the trash to paying bills to creating a VIP Circle program.

The Role includes:
Daily:
Responding to Users in App
Responding to Users over email, ok pretending to be me when necessary
Being the face and evangelist of Circle community
Daily summary reports of stats and user feedback presented to the team (like the Presidential summary).
Setting up my meetings and appointments on calendar
Office Clean, House Clean
Team is fed, happy
Keeping team calendar updated and on schedule - mention at checkin upcoming events

Weekly:
Setting up Unique team happiness activity
Run happy hour with users
Ideas on increasing efficiency
Tech talks organizing to share knowledge

As needed:
Pay All Bills, Solve any probs with insurance, lawyers, bank, accounting, following up with details from meetings, book travel appointments, Accountant interfacing, Contracts, offer letters, Sending and picking up mail

While doing regular tasks, you will also have a large-scale project that you are working on like coming up with a Ambassador program or something similar.

Youll get experience with a fast-growing social-mobile startup from it's early days and you can be involved with any and all aspects of the product. You'll learn and do a variety of new things daily and no day will be the same as the last. Email evan.reas@gmail.com with a link of yourself if you are interested.
No mention of pandas or nltk?

I'd never heard of pattern before, and while it looks like it's a nice bundle of features, I'm concerned by the fact it references pyWordNet by name even though it hasn't been an independent project since 2006 (http://osteele.com/projects/pywordnet/). Has anyone actually used it?
the guys behind this know what they're doing, and this will go far.
its so sad. it's clear that nobody can save Microsoft from Ballmer now that the ONE guy that can actually execute is gone.
Bilal, what you have created here is really quite wonderful.

Please don't smother it with complexity in adding the endless myriad of features people will undoubtedly try to convince you are necessary.

Playing with this has really inspired me to write something today.

Thank you.
Forstall and Sinofsky were both running the OS for Apple and MSFT, respectively. Andy Rubin runs Android at Google.
I don't want to be "that guy" and it's probably just my own stupidity, but what's so special about this for it to frontpage HN?
US Military has lost years' worth of digital field records
The McAfee story is getting more interesting and weird every month it seems. I wonder what will happen next. Will he flee to another country, safe from prosecution, or will he be caught? Etc

When the story ends (likely by suicide or imprisonment unfortunately) somebody should really make a movie about it.
Economic advantages aside, gainful, satisfying employment is also great for morale of the nation.

Making things is generally fertile ground for job satisfaction.
20% time is alive and well, but not everyone takes advantage of the opportunity.
> I'm really struggling to think of a material that is "fairly exclusive" to Apple.

Elithrar's reply hit the nail on the head, but in some cases they do use some fairly exotic materials. For instance, the bead-blasted high-tensile stainless steel antenna array (iPhone 4 & 4s) and artificial sapphire crystal lens coating on the latest iPhone. Both required new manufacturing processes and a considerable amount of hardware to work at scale.
Hey thanks a lot for the info!

Much respect for your focus and execution on shipping your app. I don't mean to criticize your work in any shape or form but I'd agree with some of the people in your sub-thread: change the font :) (maybe it's just my personal taste though). It's rare to see web to use this particular font these days and it may be a bit of a turn off (may not be a deciding factor).
Tip.

A lot of people will see the name and have the response that I did. Which is that this is likely to be an app that aims to help sleazy pickup artists out.

Like it or not that is the immediate association that people have with "wingman".
Reading between the lines here - for him to be fired, it must indicate that signs are pointing that Win 8 will be a dud release, similar to Vista. Sigh.
I like the creativity in the design.

I think that having to snap the controllers together over and over is a little too gimmicky and would either get old fast or would perhaps be a lawsuit waiting to happen (small fingers getting smushed, old people's wrists breaking, etc.).

Do not show those games or the actors in the first video. It was unpolished and I got really confused and thought the controller contained those games, which look like really bad TV games.

I would not buy these controllers unless there were really nice looking games that utilized the features they provide. I could also see my youngest child getting hurt playing with them. You basically need a kickass game to show off what these can do for the game author and it needs to look less dangerous.
Billboards are illegal in New Zealand too.
Thanks! We definitely know there is a huge difference. We've been spending the last 6 months testing with mostly low-income 8th and 9th graders to make sure we give the best teaching experience possible.

The course we've made is definitely inspired by what we taught at Stanford, but it's very much a different course targeted specifically for high schoolers.
The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?

Alice checks Hatter's temperature

Alice Kingsley: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.
Sounds like a PC way of saying that he was not a team player.
In 2009, Microsoft had 5 Presidents- Sinofsky, Stephen Elop, Robbie Bach, Qi Lu and Bob Muglia. All but Qi Lu are now gone.

Not a good sign of Ballmer's ability to choose leaders.
There is an amusing catch-22 here. In order to pay him what his advice is worth, it helps to have taken his advice so that you have that much money to spend on the advice. :-)
Is it really the best car in the world if it's impractical or out of reach for most people?

"Car of the Year" doesn't mean, "Car everybody needs to go buy".

Taking a quote from Motor Trend's website:

the vehicle that best represents exceptional value, superiority in its class and most significant development

Take a look at historical "Car of the Year":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Trend_Car_of_the_Year#Car...

Notice, for example, the Nissan GT-R ($100,000) for 2009, and the Honda Civic ($15,000) for 2006