skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If you're tracking attendance, you're obviously not using too long range a reader. But if you're tracking attendance, is RFID worth using at all? Some human verification of attendance is required, otherwise a single child can simply scan two RFID cards. If human verification is required, then a bar code-driven solution is cheaper and not an underlying privacy vulnerability for the student (i.e. a third party can't scan for it outside of the school).

The underlying issue with RFID in schools is the technology can be used to track people and some believe it's wrong for the state to condition kids into being forced to carry technology that can be used to track them.
16/40 bits per second? Then why is the quality of my vision so precise and I'm still able to hear the sounds of my environment? I've heard 2 bits/sec before as well.

Is this referring to conscious sensations recorded in memory, then maybe I can be warmed up to the idea. Long term memory is definitely spotty, although why can I recall my favorite latest dance track with such precision? The lead, bass, kick, clap and atmospherics themselves must compose more than 16 bits/sec.

What about what is processed by the unconscious, to be remembered later? Like when you didn't notice something at the time, but in the future something sparks your memory to remember it. Does the unconscious (that can become conscious) operate on a separate port with its own bandwidth?

But consciously? I strictly, abhorrently refuse. This music is FLAC, baby.

On the other hand, if it is true, then maybe our brain's compression algorithms are insane. Maybe we process sensations in relation to all our past sensation - I hear only the unique parts of this epic bassline, but the data contains pointers to all the basslines I've heard before, turning my consciousness into a complex amalgam of current and past. Then a two-hour movie in 22.5 kilobytes could make sense.
Chris Heilmann - Keep Calm and Trust HTML5
A friend of mine has a 3 year old daughter. His comment to me struck me in a way I didn't expect:

"There's a good chance my daughter may never learn to drive"

If he has the money and love of technology to get his daughter a self-driving car at 16 (or earlier if laws change) - why would she?
Looks like the author has never heard of usenet.
The Best Tech Ad I’ve Seen Lately
I saw that too. When looking at the Chrome developer tools you can see a bunch of stuff being loaded.
I am struggling with the economics behind this - we seem to have discovered an entire industry that sits in a eddy of economic thought - the value added by an operator has a very low ceiling, so they cannot negotiate much, plus the operators themselves have non-interchangeable skill sets - so the number of jobs they are actually qualified for is very low, especially in a given locale. Hence 10 USD an hour.

In short, the manager of a Mcdonalds can move to a local KFC or Wendys with very little effort. An operator of
machinetools X has no chance just picking it up on tools Y.

What I think we are seeing is the result of automation destroying jobs - as ChuckMcM says up page. And if so I am interested suddenly in rereading the Communist Manifesto - because in 20 years, we cannot continue having money flow to the owners of the means of production as defined now - if almost all production is automated, what happens then?

I am too tired to do much more than realise there is an interesting path of thought leading away from here - one I suspect having been trodden by many other thinkers before me. Any travel guides welcome.

edit: too vitriolic
How do you find the network performance with that wireless adapter? I've been tempted to buy something similar to use with my own.
I saw this ad in TIME this weekend and I thought it was awesome. I'm not an expert on advertising by any stretch, any professionals like it as much as I do?
I didn’t know that one, haha.
This is not news. Xcode normally shells out to codesign.
I guess the benefit of lazy by default is that (given Haskell is an experiment in purity) it sets the expectation that things will be side-effect free by default.

Were that not a design criteria it might have been better to make things strict by default and have a "lazy" monad rather than do lazy by default and use monads for all the side effecting stuff.
You are not the first one to tell me that.
Initially I had the same concern, but after digging a bit deeper, I don't believe this would be an immediate outcome. From the little I can gather, the ABC conjecture is really just a statement about the relationship between the operations of addition and multiplication on triples of coprime positive integers. While prime factors are involved in the conjecture, it doesn't seem that the proof of the conjecture would naturally lead to prime factorization in polynomial time. I'm not a mathematician though, and given how radical Mochizuki's proof sounds, I imagine it may (if it stands) eventually lead to more efficient factorization algorithms.

Advances in computing power seem to be a more worrisome threat to RSA, especially for RSA-1024 whose factorization is probably already feasible (http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~tromer/papers/cbtwirl.pdf). And once advances in quantum computing become reality, quantum algorithms should be able to very quickly break even RSA-2048 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shors_algorithm).
But Windows 8 is and the store for RT and 8 is shared.
C# has gotten much better since that article was written, but I've still got a 'bag of tricks' that I feel guilty about such as properties that return delegates and such.

I like using functional methods in Java to implement DSLs but the guava docs are right when they say you shouldn't be ashamed to use a for loop from time to time in Java.
> Part of the problem is that there isn't just one Android, there are many, and they all behave just slightly differently. Testing on Android is a nightmare because of this.

In my experience, this issue is overblown, especially with Android 4.0+. Unless you're developing a game, the hardware differences should not be a huge concern. The Facebook app certainly shouldn't have problems because of this.

> I wish Google would make some efforts at fixing this problem

Google has and can have no control over how Android is implemented or updated by various OEMs, particularly when carriers are dictating terms. And when Google tries to go around the carriers, like they did with the Nexus 4, they get crucified for the lack of LTE. Seems to me they're between a rock and a hard place. Hopefully their plan to launch a wireless carrier with Dish Network will pan out and things will get better.
A method named 'where' seems really odd.
Are you in the SF bay area? Please contact me.
Seeing a common theme in the LLC applicants whose generic choices of profession-related words Australia has objected to...

Delta Mill, LLC
Snow Sky, LLC
Koko Moon, LLC
Atomic Pipe, LLC
Corn Sunset, LLC
Dog Bloom, LLC
Hidden Way, LLC
Knob Town, LLC
Spring Frostbite, LLC
Victor North, LLC
Blinky Sky, LLC

and so on. Did someone actually get a random name generator and then register all those shell companies?
Hello Andrew, I wanted to follow-up with a like to source code for any changes you want to introduce! I'm seriously very interested in changes you might introduce, so please do anything you would like with the source code here: https://github.com/nint22/3DTutorial :-)
Inferiority complex.
> especially with Android 4.0+.

Is it partially because so many recent phones aren't able to update that the testing field narrows considerably?
I read about this so often, that I can't think anymore that the problem really is the low pay for high skilled jobs. There must be a reason why in so many countries for so many years nobody increases their hourly rates and hopes to get well educated people for the current rates.
The spirit of your code is correct but I think you'll get a runtime error since the inferred type of your iteration variable, foo, will be System.Object.

Here's a slightly more idiomatic C# 2.0 (i.e. sans var goodness)

ArrayList descriptions = new ArrayList(mylist.Length);

foreach (Foo foo in myList)
if (foo.Description != "")
descriptions.Add(foo.Description);

return String.Join("\n", descriptions);
Probably because its expensive and requires a lot of people and isn't amenable to automation even a cheap show is running at 1M per hour.

It will be interesting to see how BT Vision plays out in the UK.
Hi xoail,
I'd love to but you don't have any information in your profile! Can you add something to your 'about' section and I'll be in touch. Many thanks Charlie
The end of your comment is describing the US community college system. Cost-effectve lower-to-middle-middle-class career education in a wide variety of trades and skills.

The elite will never be available to the masses, because exclusivity is part of its reason to exist.
College isn't about learning a skill or some specific knowledge. It's about the overall intellectual atmosphere (and the people who make up this atmosphere.)

In the end, it's about becoming an educated person. Will it help you learn programming? Probably not. But you will learn about the world in ways that are extremely unlikely to happen if you skip college. Things that may seem irrelevant, like the philosophy of science, the fundamentals of microeconomics, or any other "obscure" academic topic. Can you go to the library and read a book about the subject? Sure, but you probably won't even know what books to read. Even then, reading a book pales in comparison to a good course.

Also, I'd take advice from recent dropouts with a grain of salt. In all likelihood, they don't know what they don't know. In other words, life may be good now, but unless they had a broad pre-college education, or read classic literature, science, etc. for hours a day, they probably won't know what they're missing. Their frame of reference on the world is likely very narrow and limited to web development (or startups, or whatever.)

Edit: check out this design school in Germany (relatively close to Eastern Europe). When I was applying to schools, I looked into it and really liked what I saw. (I stayed in the US for a bunch of unrelated reasons).

http://kisd.de
That's somewhat true, but it sounds like one of the goals is to get general feedback on the Android platform and its ecosystem of apps as well. For example, Path does a beautiful job using rich notifications in 4.1 (you see the uploaded photo in the actual notification), but Facebook isn't. Getting a broad set of feedback into product direction is helpful beyond just bug reports and testing.
I'm sure Mike Matas and all the other rock star & ex-Apple designers they have hired will be cock-a-hoop about that.
JSLint Error Explanations
Thanks for the reference, I'm going to pass it to them, and yeah, there is still plenty of room in the AR worlds, but they are really dissapointed with this as they were pitching their game as "A minecraft but in the real world".

They are now looking for an alternative, I hope they find one.
You can't sign apps (even for non-appstore distribution) without a developer ID, which requires a $99/year developer account.
> But these days, the action is in iOS, and Android is a clear second-tier player (amongst developers). The fact that Android is shipping more units is almost incidental.

Really? Incidental? For an app that makes money by sales, I'd agree with you, since Apple has proven possible that more money is to be made from a smaller market segment if that smaller market segment is more willing to pay.

But in the case of Facebook and other such businesses where volume and ubiquity is key, it is incumbent for them to nudge developers to be more adept in a platform like Android. While FB users on Android will still visit FB, even if the app is inferior, I think FB's business depends on Android users being as attracted to FB as possible...not just when they get home to their desktop Macs.

In other words, why should a company let its developers be complacent with getting to use the best gadget, if the company's strategy is to dominate the global consciousness?

[insert pithy comment about FB still using PHP]
Don't want to speak on behalf of the R-Pi foundation, but you're taking things out of context. This whole thread was disgusting, I wanted to puke reading such douchy comments - from both sides. Example:

Developer: Remember who you are talking to here, and i am currently talking to the developer of the freedreno driver, and the guy REing the tegra, and we are all shaking our heads in disgust over the brashness of this announcement.

Liz: > Remember who you are talking to here
Seriously?

Developer: Definitely... Google me.

Yes, R-Pi folks should have clarified that while opening the userland code was definitely a good move (which was the topic of the blog post btw), the videocore blob was still closed - and probably will never be open-sourced.

And while this is fine for most people, some folks will still be frustrated - and they can always vote with their time and money. It'd be much more effective than writing self-aggrandizing comments, regardless their individual achievements.

Let's face it, it's a design trade-off, not the foundation's choice. You know, Broadcom-trade secrets-yadda yadda. May change one day, but I wouldn't bet on it.

HN, as usual, had way more civilized comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4692401
map, grep and join are subs as well as methods. Perl6 is a multi-paradigm language and of course there's more than one way to do it - even when using the same operations.

Instead of chaining methods, one could also use

# p5 style
join "\n", grep ?*, map *.description, @list;

# dataflow style
@list ==> map *.description ==> grep ?* ==> join "\n";
join "\n" <== grep ?* <== map *.description <== @list;
Because you can purchase other books and content from other places. This would be more like your DVD player not allowing you to play any content rated above R, and blacking out breasts in any context, even documentaries. And not telling you it did this when you bought it.

This isn't about Apple blocking hardcore or even softcore apps (as is mentioned, they allow Playboy). It's about them blocking history books from publication based on an extremely narrow definition of adult content.
> Apple has acted quickly and diligently

And sued Euclid posthumously?
Another famous theorem which is being formalized with a proof assistant is the Kepler Conjecture. It's less than half the size of the ABC Conjecture, with 250 pages of much more elementary mathematics, but the leader estimates it will take 20 years to complete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_conjecture#A_formal_proo...
Are they buying people Androids a la Google style?
The input bandwidth can be estimated by the amount of afferent nerve fibers, and the neuronal firing rate.

For an example of the estimation of the conscious bandwidth while listening to music, see the second edit of this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4829147
Stop Calling Yourself Non-Technical
In that case what's the cost of having the position completely unfilled for a month or two?

Seems like it would be so drastically high that hiring a MVC (Minimal Viable Candidate) might be the right choice.
Hi,

Thanks for the offer....

Could you please email at millstarz@hotmail.com

Thank you
the one overview I've found the most useful is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmNOAtZIgIk (Bay Area Vision Meeting: Unsupervised Feature Learning and Deep Learning by Andrew Ng in April 2011).
Just to note: John Merrick was eloquent and gentle.
As a developer I'd rather stay on the open app market, i.e. not iOS.
I'm sorry, I don't buy the "you (society) made your bed, now sleep in it" justification. Apple grew to dominance in several spaces prior to entering book distribution. That same logic applied anywhere else (politics, war, relationships) is just stupid, why is it fair here?

Blocking a history book because it contains a few dozen photos of nude adults should not be excused because US tweens wanted to store more music.
Design Patterns of Crowdsourced Art
Here is the thing, someone has gone ahead and spent time and effort to create and sell something, someone then has gone on out of their way and attempted to steal it.

That being said with any form of piracy it is in effect stealing. If one were to go down to the local store and steal a product from the shelves and make a run for the doors, you will also be caught, brought up to the police, charged and taken before the courts.

Now is the methods being used by the record companies correct? probably not. But do they have a right to try and protect their profits from looters and moochers of the world? they sure do.

I think digital media is the way of the future, especially being able to access it from anywhere in the world with little or no effort.

I just think that piracy in this sense has been taken for granted for much to long and we should work towards naming it as it should be named and stop getting up and arms about it as much as we do and just pay for what we use instead of running off to the local torrent site and downloading the shit out of it.
Apart from cryptography, has prime number research and theorization produced any other practical applications?
Agreed, I was very please to see a mainstream journal take the time to describe a potentially groundbreaking mathematical discovery
Testing a few hundred devices ranging in age from 1 to 4 years old on Android isn't great. Where it becomes a tough pill to swallow is when you compare it relatively to the iOS experience.

The number of devices are just a fraction, users update almost instantly and the older devices have a matching ratio for screen size. You also get the added bonus of nearly all apple products having a planned obsolescence of about two years.
Avoid starting sentences with the same word as a nearby sentence, and paragraphs with the same letter as a nearby paragraph.

Don't make sentences too long. Just start a new one.

Learn how to transpose matter-of-fact statements/paragraphs into witty or memorable text by juxtaposing tones or images on what the reader was expecting. See Michael Lewis's books for an example, or Charles Stross's blog (antipope.org).
Read great novels of all era's.

Also, cultivate good email relationships with people from far away that you love and respect.
>what's to stop a race to the bottom?

Absolutely nothing, welcome to one of the big problems of capitalism.
I would instigate a rule that to register a whatever.sucks you have to be unaffiliated with the brand/company in question.
> It's more than a little amusing that the people writing the software need to be "encouraged" to use the platform that's more popular

It's not too surprising, though. The Valley has long been enamored with Apple and Steve Jobs - the Reality Distortion Field has been most effective on those who really should know better. Android's dominance in the smartphone market has only served to reinforce their feelings of superiority and elitism vis-à-vis the common man.

And contrary to what you say, this applies to Windows vs. Mac as well. Macs are dominant in the Valley, which is quite the aberration in a world where Windows has around 90% of the PC market. When people in the Valley sing the praises of the web for its cross-platform nature, what they actually mean is that they can use Macs while still targeting the Windows market.

This hypocrisy becomes evident in their complete lack of cross-platform support when it comes to the mobile market, since they just stick to iOS. Moreover, one of the biggest advantages touted about iOS is the wide variety of games available for it. But the same people praising iOS for all its games are running Macs, which can run hardly any games compared to Windows.
Boss gifts company to his workers [video]
Is the article really long enough to warrant a TL:DR?
I feel like the reason I prefer Android is because it's so faceted, and available for anyone to use to adopt for whatever use-case. I've owned an mp3 player that uses Android as a base, and I think it's being used in appliance dashboards and whatnot. That Android was built with this in mind leads it to be naturally harder to test for.

And while testing in Android isn't braindead easy, they have done a lot to make it easier on developers, from providing a really good emulator with images of all the various android versions, to having APIs designed to do feature detection, and have documented best practices to handling different sized/oriented layouts.

Maybe somebody should build a startup that creates a bridge between hardware owners and software developers. Let device owners have a client that downloads and runs test cases in exchange for money/points/lulz, paid for by developers wishing to support that hardware.
Maybe funding will allow them to direct attention more towards desired features - whilst generally I gather OS contributors prefer to work on features that interest them rather than necessarily the ones the community en masse prefer.

Donations might also free developers time to enable GSoC projects to be merged in, if indeed this is why it hasn't happened yet.
Avoid cliches. A cliche being a phrase that is familiar but content-free or even contradictory. Like, "I don't mean to be a jerk, but ..."

This helps tune your focus on making each word participate in creating meaning in the head of your reader.

Also, avoid creative analogies.
Jakob Nilsen guarantees that if you don't follow these rules only your mom will read your text.

- Use words that make sense to your audience.

- Convey one idea in each paragraph.

- Introduce the paragraph’s idea in the first sentence so people can quickly decide whether to read the paragraph.

- Use meaningful headings.

- Highlight keywords.

- Use bullet lists.

- Keep text short, simple, and informal.

- Start text with conclusions, and include a summary of its content.
This seems overly pessimistic. I'm sure it'd take a lot of work, but consider results like Gonthier's proof of the Odd Order Theorem (see http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/gonthierpr...), which formalized a book-length proof.
> Android 4.0+

Not sure if you know this but most apps are games. So that's a bit funny to say "this isn't an issue unless your making a game".

And I'm also not sure what you work on, but testing on an Android is a nightmare. Most of the issues on apps for Android are (My XYZ phone the app doesn't work). Just go through and read them, that's mostly what the issue is.

> Google has and can have no control over how Android is implemented or updated by various OEMs

Yes it does, it's Google's OS it has complete control over what people do with it.
https://twitter.com/Humblebrag
If marijuana and other drugs were legalized, there wouldn't be drug lords with private armies to begin with. They would disappear just like American mobsters at the end of Prohibition.
"there isn't new profound number theory in this"

I find this claim very surprising.Saying that "there is no new profound number theory" implies a deep understanding of the totality of Mochizuki's work, which as far as I know is so complex and far from the current state of the art that nobody really understands it yet.

Mochizuki's work may prove to be right, and it may prove to be wrong. But saying there is no new profound number theory at this point seems a little premature.