skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I have a project due for my second year cs class. It's in C++ and it had a lot of potential to be a fun project. We have to implement a game of hearts on the console.
But they've stripped all the fun parts out. No shooting the moon, or breaking hearts. I don't know why either, it's not like they would be hard to implement.
And then we had a chance to write a fun AI to play it.
But they over-specified how the AI was going to play.
We have no creative freedom at all and it's rather demotivating.

Another point is that this class is sortof a "learn c++" course, and I think it suffers from a lack of motivation, and everything feels somewhat contrived. I wish it had some overreaching goal that we were working towards as motivation. It would give more context to what we are learning.
Just because a prof at your school formats a programming class poorly does not mean that all cs curricula need to be changed. In every programming class I have taken, projects have taken large precedent over exams and I feel like general concepts (recursion, abstraction, design) have been stressed over nitty gritty syntactical details.
Fred Becky was climbing El Cap well into his 80's. You might have something with clubbing though.
> Dustin Curtis also suggests that as a partisan of the best, he is taking on the hardship of truly understanding a domain in order to identify the best consumer good within that domain.

Really? I am sure Dustin can speak for himself but I would have thought it obvious that is impossible to objectively assert that something is the best and that when you say that something is "the best", you are implicitly solving a matching problem given your constraints.

In general, I am not convinced by your case as to why getting something that you personally think is the best is so bad. Sure, there might be some people who would worry about the best getting damaged or whatever. Then again, I would argue that your matching algorithm should choose something that doesn't get damaged so easily. E.g. One of the best investments I made was in getting a pair of Shure in-ear headphones. They weren't the most expensive I could have got but they were five times as expensive as the skull candy crap that I get. Guess what though? They have lasted me 5 times as long. Sure, there has been some change in the way I handle earphones but still there are many days where I close my laptop and remove my earphones and leave the entire setup on my bed and go to sleep.

Having said this, I get the idea that the cognitive load created by having to make decisions about what to buy can be annoying at times. I have been putting off the decision of buying a bike because there is so much research to do.
Now it's in cart, but I can't checkout "Due to high volume". This has got to be the most botched product release of all time.
Could be. It was listed as available at 2:02 (central), but as of 2:06 it's listed as "sold out" again.

Edit: looks like it was only temporary. It keeps switching between the two messages every few minutes. I haven't tried adding it to the cart myself, however.
Alternative failure modes observed:

* page saying "Server Error".

* clicking "Add to cart" brings up the cart page without an error, but saying "Your cart is empty".
Sometimes, it's worth it to splurge. If nothing else, think of it as investing in an experience rather than a thing, and treat yourself to a tasting menu with wine pairings at least once in your life. Take your time, smell, taste and feel every bite and every sip, and savor the moments. If you have a significant other, definitely take them.

I say try at least once, because in my experience my first one was the best (Chez TJ in Mountain View, CA). It's also bloody expensive (I usually don't do it more than once a year, and none of the other ones have been as expensive as Chez TJ). But sometimes just trying the expensive stuff (even if it's a test drive, a rental, or an experience) is worth it just to let you know what it's like, and if it's worth it to you. Or to let you know if it's just overpriced.
The situation isn't [described as] "How can such a great man speak like this to one who loves him?" - it's the situation where the love-marriage has ended, and they are staying together for the kids and for practical reasons only.

Read it as a "roommate agreement" of a sort.
Chinese Newspaper's Entirely Accurate Summary of Onion Report
There must be a way around that. Imgur's advertising seems to be pretty standard, but they have gigabytes of nude and/or violent photos uploaded on a weekly basis.

Would it hurt your traffic too much to not have it displayed so prominently on the front page?
My clocks were still showing 2:59 when it went from 'sold out' to 'add to cart' and back to 'sold out', all within 60 seconds.

Now, almost every time I hit refresh, it flips between the two. I'm giving up for now.

EDIT: The trick from this comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4838782 worked for me after about 5 minutes of clicking.
> you can test easily, cheaply, and fast enough to make a difference.
> You can fix a critical bug that crashes your app on load 15 minutes after discovery (See Circa).
> You can show 10 different landing pages and decide in real-time which one is working the best
> for a particular user. You can also close a viral loop
> . . .

I've always been skeptical of mobile-first, but so many people love their phones, I'd say if you know how to solve any of these problems (or the others listed in that paragraph), then that's a business right there. What an amazing list of pain points for anyone who wants to sell shovels!
#1ReasonWhy: Women on Discrimination in Gaming
Are the laws really that specific? I thought the way it generally worked was that discrimination based on age was illegal, but being young is viewed as a proxy for inexperience, so discriminating on that basis is OK. I didn't know there was generally a specific cutoff.
So, I had a small spoon get scratched pretty badly by the dishwasher grinder the other day. On the back, still pretty useful, except for one detail: being scratched, it could hold much more bacteria for much longer. And though it could have been stainless steel, it wasn't underneath.

Furthermore, silver silverware, which is expensive, is very clean because it kills germs so well.
Why not build an HTML5 site? You'll be device- and platform agnostic, and you can still iterate quickly.
Work in Progress: a Social Network using Meteor.js
There are less chances that they have children and a serious relationship so they are supposed to have more freedom to do what they want.
This isn't of course a general assumption. I know married persons with children who spend way more time than me on personal projects the week end.
The other side of DRM: developers are users, too
Older people are probably better at design than we are.
I hit waitlist when I RSVP. Can I still drop by?
Cart Updated: The following items have been removed from your cart because they are currently unavailable.

Nexus 4 (16GB)

AMAZING!
> I realize that the American public has been indoctrinated for the past few decades that voting is the only way you make yourself heard

This has never been true. Americans have always protested, signed petitions, and even joined special interest groups like the ACLU and the NRA. Americans have a very long tradition of things like that.
I made that post before noon PST. So...Powerball time?
Have to agree with that. Especially the video: He doesn't even seem to try to talk freely at the beginning, and later the music which makes it harder to understand anything. Also, I don't see why I would want to use something like that. I can just use MacVim for editing and Phonegap for native API access. Phonegap also has tutorials for how to package the app (with a web view).
Weird that people are voting you down. I develop backend systems for a living and also would separate a data problem from a backend problem.

Let's be clear here. Apple has a data problem.
Would a 60 year old really want to work 18 hour days with a bunch of 20-somethings crammed into a San Francisco studio converted office?

A Silicon Valley startup is just one type, but there are infinite businesses out there to start and grow at any age in your life.
This is one of the worst shopping experiences I have ever had. I have seen it come in stock several times now, but when I add it to my cart and try to proceed to checkout, I get "Due to high demand, your order could not be processed. Please try again later." This happens every time until eventually I get the dreaded "Oops, we had trouble processing your request. We're working on fixing the issue. Please try again later.", which means that they gave up and dumped it from your cart. (Edit: Actually, no they didn't, keep trying! If it comes back in stock, then spamming "Proceed" may work.)

Now I'm also getting it failing to add it to the cart to begin with, with the message "Oops, we had a problem with your request. Please try again.". At least this is better than two weeks ago where I would get very unprofessional-looking cookie errors. Edit: The icing on the cake (Add To Cart click): http://imgur.com/dHmOL

Google really needs to step up here. Forget missed sales opportunities; this is just reflecting very badly on them, period.

UPDATE:

Possibly the first real feedback from Google on all this: A message displayed at the top of the Play store reading "Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your patience." It was up for about five minutes and has since been removed. The Nexus 4 is now consistently in stock, but attempting to purchase it always results in "Due to high demand, your order could not be processed. Please try again later."
Yeah, I kept reading down to see where he would clarify that by 'web-first' he meant 'mobile-web-first' but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The tools for building mobile web apps aren't as good as they should (and hopefully will soon) be but it's certainly possible and gives you the flexibility to rapidly iterate, get the user up-and-running as fast as possible, etc.
Is List.ly the Future of list Posts?
Google Must Pay For Libelous Search Result, Says Court
I would expect Java User Groups to skew much older than the average HN'er or start-up employee, or probably programmers in general.
Galatasaray 4-1 Balıkesirspor maçı özeti izle
Ericsson Sues Samsung on Patents
I think that's also a "Java" deal. You could go to a COBOL meetup and see the same thing, that doesn't make it the norm.
"I'm the CTO" ... "I'm 24 years old"

mmmmmmkay....
Why not to use my library clj-record
I recently got into road biking and had to a road bike which can get quite expensive. I wasn't sure I would really stick with the sport in the long term so I bought a bike on the cheap end off bikesdirect.com. I have no doubt were a seasoned road biker to try my bike they would be frustrated by the overall quality of the ride. Because I'm a newbie, however, I have never ridden anything of better quality to compare it to, so it feels awesome to me. The point is, sometimes it's easy to forget that the worst products in a given category are still high quality, and that the premiums you pay for more expensive products give you diminishing returns. You end up having to trick your brain into believing the more expensive product is giving you increased value proportionate to the extra cost.
Look on the bright side, at least they told you. Mine just vanished with no explanation. :)
It's really quite something when an author manages to put down in words a thought or a feeling you were hitherto incapable of expressing. Bravo.

The dichotomy of best/worst — or, as I often think of it, acceptable versus available — is a tricky one, and it's not one which I feel I've yet solved. But I can certainly see how areas of my life tend towards the latter.

Take my dotfiles, for example. I spent ages writing a vimrc which sets up key bindings just so, the way I like them. Then one day I have to SSH onto a remote server and make a hotfix, and I start vimming files and get instantly confused when my muscle memory betrays me. I tried out Dvorak for a while, but then every time I had to help someone with their computer, or go to a client site, I was struggling to adjust to the 'normal' QWERTY layout. Eventually I realized it was better to learn the vim defaults like a pro, and then extend them without overriding them.

We can get very comfortable in environments we create for ourselves, expending huge quantities of energy to build a nest suited just for us. But Stoicism teaches us that fate is a lot more powerful than our nesting activities. One day a flood comes tearing through your house, or your hard drive fails, or you miss a credit card payment, and if you've wired your brain to only be happy in the environment you created, you are going to have a breakdown. In my childhood alone, I was evicted twice, moved countries several times, and had times when we were very well-off and times when we couldn't afford food. These things happen to all of us.

Nevertheless, in the Poisson distribution of cataclysms, before disruptive events, the Best approach may render you far more productive than the Worst. I consider this penalty to be my insurance policy; others have a different risk tolerance.

Just my $0.02.
Earning Money Online via Mobile Apps
It's interesting to see this blog post from 30 July 2012 submitted here. I have some favorite online references about statistics that I like to recommend in Hacker News comments.

"Advice to Mathematics Teachers on Evaluating Introductory Statistics Textbooks"

http://statland.org/MyPapers/MAAFIXED.PDF

and

"The Introductory Statistics Course: A Ptolemaic Curriculum?"

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6hb3k0nz

Both of those resources are good at identifying issues that are often missed in undergraduate courses in statistics that many college-educated people have taken.

On the more general issue of Khan Academy as a teaching platform, I especially like the video "What if Khan Academy was made in Japan?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHoXRvGTtAQ

with actual video clips from the TIMSS study of classroom practices in various countries.

Other thoughtful comments on Khan Academy, which have mostly been submitted to HN before but with little discussion, include “Can’t we all get along?” by mathematician Keith Devlin,

http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2012/07/cant-we-all-get-alo...

(1 July 2012, includes amusing comment about a Hacker News thread)

"Khan Critiques: We Were Promised Jetpacks & Got Lectures"

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/08/khan...

(31 August 2012)

"One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How Khan Academy Is Reinventing Education"

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/11/02/one-man-o...

(2 November 2012)

I think HN participants will learn a lot from these links. Some other good earlier links have gone dead, alas.
I was able to add it to my cart, but clicking "Proceed" did nothing. Refreshed the page and my cart is now empty :(
Was anyone able to buy it? I have being trying to since before 3pm. It just seems totally broken...
SixSigma.com Acquired By Owner of iSixSigma.com
As of 3:15 EST, the 16GB version switches from "Sold out" to "Add to cart" about once every two refreshes. Even when it's "in stock", adding it to your cart triggers an error.

The 8GB seems to be consistently in stock, advertising a 4-5 week shipping period. It is possible to add this one to your cart consistently.

EDIT: Now getting a generic Google server error page: "We're sorry, there was an error. Please try again later."
> This is one of the worst shopping experiences I have ever had.

Try "Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet."
This should have happened long ago, and from what I have heard, Y-Combinator would be the best place to start.
Has anyone actually been able to get an order through? I haven't heard of any success stories yet.
I literally just had the same thing happen to me, after much refreshing.

Why won't you just take my money Google?
Your institution is doing something wrong if you're being taught ``programming'' while majoring in CS.
It's an awesome phone, but not without it's problems. I bought mine on launch day and I'm already getting a replacement. I love the phone, but along with others I'm experiencing interference in the earpiece. We'll see if a new unit fixes it.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39936
Compared to the last time Google switched mapping databases, which I think was about three years ago, Apple Maps (for my town at least) has been remarkably accurate. For several months, Google Maps was putting my home address more than a mile from where I actually live (right in the middle of a major city, so a mile is a world away), and it refused to parse addresses for at least a couple of major commercial roads with unusual names. I don't think I've been able to find a single comparable problem with Apple Maps. Visual glitches don't ruin my day nearly as much as refusing to parse a business' address or placing it a mile away from where it is.

I still use Google Maps (via the web now), though, since I prefer the way it presents traffic data.
Pros and Cons of Different Languages to Learn First
Nassim Taleb: my rules for life
Hello,

I don't see the value your proposing. I've various cloud storage account and they don't need to be ruled as one. Each of them have a dedicated purpose and they may stay appart from each other.

your website is no good. I should understand what you're proposing in a second. And most importantly, the colors you choosed is like 20 years old ! Take a tour to https://kuler.adobe.com you'll find some nice and beautiful fancy color package !

Your name is hard to remember and doesn't tell anything about your product.

To conclude, I would say I don't know if you're on the good road for succes, I don't need this service but hey look ! there's plenty people on internet !
it's funny you say that, I see it exactly the same way. In my opinion they should have "mistakenly" collected a little bit more data.
Never change, California. Never change.
Even YC application asks for age! This is no secret. If you're not an investor past your mid 30s you are pretty much over in the valley.
Hollywood is biased, too. At least it's honest about it.
You can get sued for firing someone, but I'm pretty sure you can't get sued for declining to invest in a company (that would be very scary indeed.)
Extraterrestrial life may not just be separated from us by space -- time is also a huge issue here. Long ago I heard an explanation from Neil DeGrasse Tyson on this, though my google skills are failing to excavate it. I'll make an attempt to explain the idea...

The amount of time for which life exists on a planet, from genesis to extinction, is extremely small on a universal scale. Intelligent life may not persist on a planet long enough to develop a means for intergalactic expansion. Even if they succeed in this endeavor, it is likely that they will be wiped out eventually by some means.

Basically, the likelihood of multiple intelligent species existing simultaneously and within adequate proximity for one to make contact with the other is extremely small. It's hard to overstate how lucky we would have to be.
> But, to get children started on programming is always a great idea, and as all of us young devs grow we will want to share the dev experience with our kids. If they can make that possible I think they'll have a home run on their hands.

This is worth repeating. Kids are, in general, fabulously creative and completely open minded with new technology. I can see all sorts of fun, frivolous, nefarious and downright evil uses for a simple app maker that works on any kid's phone. Little Johnny makes a simple set of static pages that stores crib notes for his classes. Evil Britney, who has a few more coding chops, comes up with an app that screen-scrapes the yearbook site and lets her friends rate all the boys in her year (she got the idea from The Social Network.)

If these guys can get their teeth into that market either officially (through schools) or via the terrifyingly powerful playground word-of-mouth network, this could become quite big. It's a hell of a long shot though.
This is absolutely pathetic. How is Google, of all companies, not able to handle load? And how did they manage to fail so fantastically not once, but twice, on the same product?
The threshold point is a good one, here. I think there's always a way to maximize the curve: getting the best quality fork you can find given your budget, needs, propensity of friends to start a spoon band, etc.

To use Moxie's bike example, I wouldn't want to ride a rusty POS that's difficult to pedal and falls apart at every intersection any more than I'd want a five-figure custom carbon fiber jobbie that will be stolen if I blink too long.

Identify your variables. Maximize the curve.
Didn't FB try that?
$15 Dedicated servers from OVH
Nexus 4 out of inventory yet again
What I'm hearing from many posters in these comments is my level of fashion-conciousness indicates how innovative I am. I think it's a big mistake to judge a candidate's aptitude for the work by how hip they look. This is the last industry I thought we'd have to face this kind of thing in.
This is a bad time of the year to have 4-5 week lead times before shipping. I can't be the only one hesitating to place an order for an expensive piece of electronics that might sit on my doorstep for a week while I'm elsewhere visiting family.
Fair enough, and I like your term "Growth Marketer". But, isn't all marketing focused towards growth (of something?) I guess if we're going to define it narrowly as user growth, then I could get on board with it.
No evidence? He is overt in bragging about his age discrimination. He is likely the "thought leader" who made this practice acceptable in Silicon Valley.
Ditto (also 37)
Most of my comment comes from the fact that Eich originally wanted to build a homoiconic lisp for netscape and built many of the features into javascript instead. Still no a lisp ,but it was designed to be similar. http://www.2ality.com/2011/03/javascript-how-it-all-began.ht...
I was able to get one like 5 or so minutes ago. Took me a while and lots of phantom items in the shopping cart. But I already got the confirmation email.
I see your point, however, unlike a platform such as Reddit, the available categories under which you may post content are decided upon or terminated by Poole. There is an implicit democracy, where contributing content constitutes endorsement of the platform, but I think you will find that many decisions Poole has made on behalf of 4chan were unpopular. I'm not suggesting that truly democratic internet communities even exist, but 4chan is much farther from that ideal than Reddit. But what 4chan has is _privacy_.