skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
As a studying Electrical Engineer, what project should I do during winter break?
I am currently studying Electrical Engineering. Everything I am learning is extremely interesting to me. Winter break is coming up, and I want to make use of the month I have off.

- I am pretty good with Java and C++. Not great, but good. Should I try to elaborate on one of those for a month?

- I am currently in a microcontrollers class, and loving it. We are using Assembly to program the PIC18. I would love to make something awesome with a microcontroller, but am not sure I have enough knowledge at this point to do so. Would this be something I should look into?

- I have always been interested in hacking. Would it be worth spending a month just reading/learning different things about hacking? What languages should I look at? What should I read? What should I do to learn?

Programming, microcontrollers, and hacking are probably my best options at this point. What do you guys recommend? Why? Which is the most fun to you?
The flaws in architecture are well-understood and there are rarely-changing building codes to describe exactly what should and should not happen.

Software does not exist in any such stable world. There can be two pieces of software, each perfectly legitimate and doing exactly what they intend, that when both are present format a customer's hard drive. Who does the customer sue then?

If you want to make developers responsible, I won't personally be hurt much, since I can make a shitload of money finding vulnerabilities in other people's code (and have done so in the past). The lawyers will make lots of money, too, as we have jury trials to figure out whether that SQL injection was really negligent or not.
There is no "FB parasite" in your browser. FF is not "pushing FB on us". Social API is an API for any social service...fb just so happens to have a client for it (which is not packaged with ff).

see:
https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2012/07/06/bringing-...
Has bayesian filtering been tried on forum posts? (It can work well for emails)

If the filter is unsure, the post can be referred to an administrator for moderation (and will subsequently be added to either the spam or ham corpus, training the filter for similar posts).

In the case of false negatives (spam gets through), a discrete "report spam" button will allow a moderator to add it to the spam corpus (again training the filter against similar occurences).

It might even be possible to use the filter score to reduce "report spam" abuse, i.e. if the filter is fairly certain it's ham, require a larger number of users to report it as spam before bothering an admin with it.
It's always the little details. My limited experiences with Android (I try it every year or so) always end when I get annoyed by basic things not working. The tablet I got at Google I/O 1.5 years ago would power off every time it was fully charged, so I could either leave it unplugged (it which case it would run down the battery after a few days), or I could keep it plugged in, but then I'd have to wait for it to boot every time I tried to use it. It feels like they give more attention to the "big" features than the "little" details, which is why I still have an iphone.
Put yourself in his shoes. You have seen that the team is not working well together. The product vision is getting executed badly. Lot of VC money went down the drain. What would you do? Wouldn't you exit while the sun is up?
Nobody will cheer more loudly than I will if SCOTUS holds that electronic strip searches cross the line from "reasonable" to "unreasonable", but I don't know of a credible constitutional law source that predicts that they will do that, so baldly asserting that these searches are prima facie unconstitutional is a losing argument.

The case you've cited here is one where the 9th circuit held TSA's searches to be reasonable.
Elixir and the dining philosophers
Rushing a patch and possibly breaking something further is worse than just having the bug you have out now.

As a former intern, usual Google practice is to rollback rather than attempt to fix with non-client apps, in order to take a more measured approach to the issue and not accidentally break something with a hasty fix. Android is in a different position as rollbacks aren't possible, but my guess is the release managers would take a similar view to not rushing.
If its got grumpy cat im happy!
It seems the OTR protocol works around that, as I think the messages are not stored indefinitely like with PGP:

http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/otr-wpes.pdf
A lot of people wonder why Americans aren't more outraged about the increasing number of fascist laws being passed in the US.

The obvious answer is that too many Americans no longer believe in the basic rights to property and privacy. The civil liberty wing of the Democrat party has also been completely destroyed. It's not just the policy makers - it's the American people that are at fault. It's their sense of life, ideas and culture that is bankrupt.
Things were dramatically improved with Jelly Bean, which is the first Android release I think really stepped up to the plate with iOS. The little things were, by and large, dealt with. Matias Duarte has done a fabulous job.
The existence of any kind of life (past or present) would be something for the history books. Only Curiosity pretty much cannot find life, only hints that life exists or existed. Maybe this is about something else, but if this is only about hints that life exists or existed, then it isn’t really something for the history books. Most people would be bored by news like that. (I personally would find it very exciting, but I’m far from typical.)
The audio version gives a bit more context. It sounded like the reporter was there already doing another story, and the NASA folks were very distracted by this but wouldn't yet say more than what's quoted in the story.

Could be that it wasn't much of a calculated PR stunt by either side, but rather just human nature at work. If you're the NASA people, and you're getting exciting data, you're going to be excited about it. If you're a reporter, and everyone's excited, you're going to write about it even if you have no good details.
Say what you will about Microsoft's products, but I doubt an error like this would make it through their robust testing process these days.
It's a message board comment that says if you believe the US is on its way to being a fascist state, read a history book sometime on exactly how fascist countries operate.
It's not like that. The rover has several imagers including a microscopic(ish) imager, but it can't see things as small as cells. Almost all of the instruments are designed around determining the mineral composition of rocks or the chemical composition of samples.

If there are signs of life on Mars it's unlikely that we'll be able to see it with any imager on the rover, but we might be able to detect its chemical signature. The sample analysis instrument is a gas chromatograph connected to a laser spectrometer and a mass spectrometer. What happens is that a sample will be vaporized and then pushed through a long column. The column is designed so that different molecules will have a different speed through the column and thus will come out at different times. Then each of those parts of the sample (which should be comprised primarily of one molecule) is passed into the spectrometers, which can identify its molecular structure. This can determine the chemical makeup of minerals, but it can also identify complex organic molecules such as the components of cells or perhaps things like cellulose or lignin and so forth.
The People app uses its own picker widget for event dates, in order to support the optional year element; it uses NumberPicker widgets internally. There is an off-by-one bug in NumberPicker that was worked around in the standard DatePicker component, but not in the custom widget implemented in the People app.
> If you've used a HTC Android phone before, you'll realize they make some of the market's amazing high-quality android phones

Eh, really? I've got an HTC Supersonic. The charge management circuitry downright sucks. First, the phone won't even operate without a battery present - the AC adapter alone is not sufficient. Second, leaving it plugged in while using a continuous load (wifi AP, for instance) has outright destroyed my battery. I speculate the charge manager is unable to sense that the battery is in fact draining slowly (as the phone is using more power than the attempted trickle charge is supplying), leading to a deep discharge (kills battery life) followed by unexpected shutdown. It could be that all phone manufacturers have given up paying attention to such details these days, but it's highly annoying to discover outright design negligence like this well after the return period has expired.
What kind of QA google has? - Good for nothing kind
Media Galleries APIs of Chrome
(NCSA) Blue Waters Opts Out of TOP500
> FB parasite

> go Chrome exclusively

Wat? Google wants to slurp your data just as much as Facebook
Quoting from the DC Circuit opinion in "EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security":

"""As other circuits have held, and as the Supreme Court has strongly suggested, screening passengers at an airport is an "administrative search" because the primary goal is not to determine whether any passenger has committed a crime but rather to protect the public from a terrorist attack. See United States v. Aukai, 497 F.3d 955, 958–63 (9th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (passenger search at airport checkpoint); United States v. Hartwell, 436 F.3d 174, 178–81 (3d Cir. 2006) (Alito, J.) (same); United States v. Edwards, 498 F.2d 496, 499–501 (2d Cir. 1974) (Friendly, J.) (carry-on baggage search at airport); see also Illinois v. Lidster, 540 U.S. 419 (2004) (police set up checkpoint to obtain information about earlier crash); Mich. Dep’t of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990) (sobriety checkpoint). An administrative search does not require individualized suspicion. City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 41, 47–48 (2000) (individualized suspicion required when police checkpoint is “primarily [for] general crime control,” that is, “to detect evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing” unlike “searches at places like airports ... where the need for such measures to ensure public safety can be particularly acute”). Instead, whether an administrative search is “unreasonable” within the condemnation of the Fourth Amendment “is determined by assessing, on the one hand, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual’s privacy and, on the other, the degree to which it is needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests.” United States v. Knights, 534 U.S. 112, 118-19 (2001) (internal quotation marks omitted)."""

The Edwards reference you mentioned is in there, but so are others. In "United States v. Aukai" (2007) the 9th Circuit said "We have held that airport screening searches, like the one at issue here, are constitutionally reasonable administrative searches because they are "conducted as part of a general regulatory scheme in furtherance of an administrative purpose, namely, to prevent the carrying of weapons or explosives aboard aircraft, and thereby to prevent hijackings."

In United States v. Hartwell (3d Cir. 2006), para. 8 "We hold that the search was permissible under the administrative search doctrine. Cf. United States v. Marquez, 410 F.3d 612, 616 (9th Cir.2005) ("Airport screenings of passengers and their baggage constitute administrative searches and are subject to the limitations of the Fourth Amendment.").

These were all easy to find.
I respectfully but vigorously disagree with you that there's no point discovering what proposed laws say. It's our responsibility as citizens to figure this stuff out. There aren't that many "cyber" laws proposed every year.

This is a country in which people of African descent couldn't even reliably vote 55 years ago. I refuse to succumb to the notion that all is lost simply because we've had 8-10 years of overreach.
Sure - it's fairly common at startups, especially in urban areas where many or most people aren't driving home at night. If you like beer, it's a nice-enough perk.

Note that there's unwritten etiquette around the consumption of alcohol in the office - don't get sloppy or obnoxious, save it for lunch / the end of the day / Friday afternoon (varies from company to company), use common sense. No one arrives in the morning and helps themselves to a tasty pint during the morning stand-up.
Not necessarily allowed, but I used to work with IB traders who used to have beer/pizza every other week and being their "IT support", we used to get the leftovers. fun times :)
Presumably because this is classified as a form of gambling right? (how the stock market gets away with it I'll never know.) Given that options are a financial instrument that converts a prediction market into something you can invest in, I wonder if there is some other financial instrument you could work out here.
History teaches us that the US will soon invade Canada, is what you're saying.
Guys with heavy beards... do you get more attention from the TSA? I heard that any male (regardless of race/religion) with a heavy beard is checked more closely. Has this been true for you or people you know with heavy beards?
I have experienced the same with our page. Likes from parts of the world we don't engage in and this seems sketchy. Knowing that there are schemes exist to purchase likes for very cheap from certain parts of the world, one can't help but wonder if there is such a thing going on with these promoted posts. You wouldn't think so but our engagement is at an all time low now, even the promoted posts attract few likes but no comments or spam comments now.

Facebook says you should get 15% organic views if you don't promote a post. We have around 10,000 likes on our page and without promoting a post it gets around 125-150 views now. You do the math.

I stand with Mark Cuban and George Takei on this. Facebook should stop this craziness and just show everybody the full feed instead of trying to adjust it in all weird ways.
The sad fact is, I think TSA type security is hear to stay, and won't lighten up very much, regardless of the facts that question its efficacy.

Why? Picture this. Someone (likely a politician) crusades hard to have the TSA dismantled, and is successful. No matter how much better the system that replaces it is, there is always a chance that someone slips through and takes down a plane, and 300+ people are killed.

In the throng of people screaming that "something needs to be done to stop this from happening again", who wants to be "that guy" who lobbied to have the TSA dismantled/replaced? Former TSA proponents will jump up and down and scream "See! This is why we can't have nice things!"

I don't think anyone will touch it...
I can't tell for "these days", but back then on Windows 98 IIRC, they forgot Poland (literally) on their time zone map:

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/9331/nopoland9fg.jpg
I think that was absolutely true for a very, very long time, ending sometime (±10 years) around the time that I was born (1983).

Call it an unrecoverable two-bit error, in your metaphor.
50% of comments: what horrible QA, don't they test anything?

Other 50% of comments: why is the patch taking so long!
> and just using the national average is useless for understanding anything about America.

I agree. We're talking about understanding America compared to other countries, not things about America internally.

>it's not like Americans aren't aware of the pros and cons of their own country

I completely disagree with that statement. How many times have you heard someone say "Best country in the world" with no understanding of the outside world? I'm continually shocked when meeting Americans that have absolutely no idea their infrastructure, education, health care, leave entitlements and general quality of life sucks compared to the developed world. They genuinely think they are the best in the world because that has been driven into them from day 1.

> relying on averages can be misleading.

Obviously looking at an average is exactly that. An average across the entire population, not a deep dive into where is the highest and where is the lowest, etc.
20 of the world’s hottest Wi-Fi gadgets
To me this is in the grey area of privacy. I don't want airbnb (as the example used in the pictures) to gather this kind of information about me.
> or get rid of patents

We could, its in the right of goverments to do that.

> That's like saying the US needs a new constitution. So much has been built on top of and around patent law that making such drastic changes would have ripple effects that would be worse than the original problem.

Thats hard to predict and otherwise its a really bad argument. It remindes me of the argument against lowering inflation. Yes lowering inflation will always creat problems, sometimes even very bad ones but that is no reason to just keep going.

Taking a stand and hit the problem in the face, deal with the consequences and from there on build on a much more solid ground like we did in monetary policy.

> I also have an honest question. Why does everyone really want to reform/abolish our patent system? I mean, really. The real reason.

I for one think that it is simple a ineffective system that will just harm the economy and the social live more general (specially in the case of copyrights).

From a purly economicl view it seams clear that all form of IP are harmful. Resources that are not limted do not need a propery rights system. I can not prove this (and I think nobody can) the benefits from copying are much much greater then the benefits from improved insentive.

If you look at sientific discovery and innovation, how it works is many small steps and improving little by little. Revolutionary discoverys do not happen very often.

There are many reason this is specially true in practice. In the real world the patent system is ruled over by a goverment agency that is (like any goverment agency) subject to lobbying and other problems discribed in public choice theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_choice_theory).

> don't you think that when they get to such a size where keeping the status quo would help them more than reforming patent law would that they'd drop their ideology and start throwing patent suits around like everybody else? I do. Because I would.

Sure they would. I would too. That is exactly why we have to change insentives. As long as the system is as it is people will have the same insentives (an we all know what these are).

The most importend economic book you will every read will just say "insentive matter" on every page.
>What's further terrifying is that the courts have made restriction of his use of non-windows non-monitored computers part of his bail conditions - prior to a trial to determine guilt.

How does he use a telephone? Or a suitably advanced toaster?
I think the IRA and the ANC are great examples to suggest that violence and "relentless attack" aren't necessarily the best options when trying to combat "terrorism".
Unless you add dozens of people to your address book every day, this is actually not such a big deal. I tend to edit the address book on the web anyway.
For those deceived by the headline, December is still in "Android", it is one date picker in one app, where dates are not used much (the People, or contacts app).
Is your city a startup ecosystem?
Why does scale have anything to do with a per capita statistic?
Unfortunately not, encryption is simply a workaround.

The bill covers every user of email, but it's not hard to make the argument that neither GPG or PGP are correctly usable by every user of email.

Despite there being a technical workaround, it's simply a kludge; strong civil liberties need to be in place, with encryption simply augmenting them.
This is just plain rhetoric and has nothing to do with real world trading. Anybody trading options who takes an outright view is doing it wrong (unless they have extremely good reason to do so).

The market is not dumb and prices volatility accordingly (hence a skew).

What you're talking about is a tail event - most sane option strategies protect against tail events (unless you're writing options and not covering your behind).

Most views via options are on spreads or on volatility where the maximum downside is known (in fact, betting in favor of a tail event is an extremely cheap strategy - via a strangle centered around the current spot - the deeply-out-of money options trade near zero while if a tail event does happen, you're entitled to a handsome payout - the max you lose is the amount you paid upfront - which might be as little as a few hundred dollars - essentially it's a lottery).

So even though your underlying stock may fall off a cliff, you wouldn't care if you had a sane option portfolio because what you get paid for is the distance covered by the drunkard - whether he covers it by falling off a cliff or going zig-zag ad infinitum doesn't matter.
Intentions may be good, AIA may be better than previous. But, when we have public officials that can't even articulate logically how patents enhance / protect innovation, there is a bigger problem.

It's the hill-climbing problem, and empty rhetoric, illogical propaganda and protection of special interests is preventing a policy that is far better for innovation, and the country, as a whole.
I don't know if you're joking, but I would love an app like Garage Band for making 8-bit/chiptune music!
Hey, I made that! Happy to answer any questions if anyone has them. Also, have a few promo codes:

http://tokn.co/6tjd3a4h
http://tokn.co/9r3w9v66
http://tokn.co/y3n96tjt
Officially Getting Too Old For Hardcore Gaming
I think what makes startup idea generation hard is that humans suck when it comes to low probabilities. We don't have the intuitive tools to differentiate between 0, 0.000001, and 0.001, because we never needed them in our evolutionary frame, but in massively multi-agent systems like markets, those distinctions matter.
Most opt outs cost you about 15 minutes extra; one time flying from MIA to ORD, I had to wait 40 minutes extra because I opted out.
A cosmetic issue from 14 years ago doesn't make a great counterexample.

The reason for the Poland error is explained here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2006/10/27/88041...
Scientology is demonstrably not a religion but a harmful scam.

I've lived in both, I can say with authority: One is a lot more free in practice, here. The police concern themselves with criminals, not with bullying. Surveillance is a lot less common. The government isn't wholesale tapping the fibers (or, if they are, they were slick enough to censor the news stories and books about them doing it, too). There aren't laws suspending certain groups' right to trial.
These are very pretty examples. I can definitely see them used in the future as videogame backgrounds and textures in HTML5 canvas games!
I was immediately reminded of how every Zune locked up on December 31st, 2008 due to a calendar bug: http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/31/zune-bug-explained-in-detai...
I was just looking for something like this. The breadth of uses for pixel art is great to see in this piece, especially when favicons came up right after the gaming tutorials. I'm no artist, but this stuff looks fun.
Not in this case there isn't. You showing up at the airport and going through security is implied consent to the search, just like opening the door to them without explicitly denying consent is enough for police to legally enter your house.