skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
No, if there's any computations happening, that's engineers and physicists, especially if there are approximations happening.

A mathematician looks at the recurrence formula and generalises it (e.g. f(n) = a f(n-1) + b f(n-2) or f(n) = f(n-1)*f(n-2) (solve this one, hint: xkcd) or ...) and investigates its properties. The actual values of the numbers are not of much interest.

And a^n can only be computed in constant time if one uses exp(n log(a)), and (I think) that the scale of the numbers can have a large impact on the accuracy of the result, and so for large n, one needs more operations within both exp and log to give the same (relative) accuracy.
>The next time somebody tells you that homeopathy is harmless you can tell them that it killed one of the greatest mathematical minds of the nineteenth century on whose algebraic logic both the soft- and the hardware of your computer function.

Interesting, but as practiced homeopathy today is harmless (ignoring opportunity cost). It's basically the equivalent of drinking tap water.
> Ruby feels like a “more than one way” type of language more closely related to Perl.

Gem issues aside, which Perl doesn't tend to have because CPAN is so rock solid, that was exactly the reason I didn't continue with Ruby when I checked it out, somewhat in depth, a few years ago: Ruby is Perl with OO done right, which is nice, but if you use Perl professionally, Ruby will not provide you with an alternative way of thinking the way Python does.
There is no such thing as a vanilla Linux you can run, you can only install one or another of all the distros that have varying degrees of incompabilities and infelicities between each other.

And every now and then some figure who knows which political strings to pull uses that clout to load your favorite distro with pre-beta crapware.
I definitely agree with this article. We shouldn't be pessimistic about someone's grand vision. However, if you really wanted to start a cable company you probably wouldn't be asking hacker news on how to start a cable company. You would already have other resources that you can tap into and get started on it.
Yeah, that's why motivational posters are usually a dumb idea. The words are almost always true, but very context dependent. Stuck on a wall like that they lose context and start to seem absurd, things start to feel like a Dilbert cartoon.
JFYI, Yahoo! sponsors most of the freebsd.org and other infrastructure related to freebsd.
My assumption: He forgot the quotation remarks around "impossible".
Can you make one that says "Is this good for the company?"
The philosophy differences are exactly why we need FreeBSD (e.g., it can support things like ZFS without getting into licensing issues).
> And yet Hacker News folk must be drawn at least somewhat by Paul Graham, who applauds frighteningly ambitious startup ideas.

It wasn't a frighteningly ambitious start-up. It was the same old idea, done hundreds of times across multiple countries, with a minor adjustment in its pricing structure.
Different projects can have different objectives and I think this is good, that's a good reason to have more than one project in every major area of software.
Yes, but there are now more accounts being unearthed of people foregoing or declining conventional treatments because they have become convinced that homeopathy will cure them. Promoting homeopathy, if successful, can result in more deaths.
Being fired generally means you were terminated for cause. Being laid off generally means you were terminated for business reasons.
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More anecdotal evidence? I'm sorry, but I need to see clinical data before I'm willing to believe that homeopathy kills people.
Ask HN: ideas for portfolio projects?
Hi, I have been teaching myself to code for the past year and I am now at the point where I feel competent enough to do this for a living. I have focused on rails and javascript, but I also know a little python.

I'd like to start building a portfolio to show prospective clients but I'm at a loss for what kind of projects to build. Is the standard to-do list or blog enough for a prospective clients to see what I'm capable of or do I need to make something more substantial?
Eschewing real medicine because of your belief that tap water will cure your illness is harmful. I guess that's what you meant by "opportunity cost" though.
Best Application Dashboard which I ever seen.
I believe the author is referring to Y Combinator and the startups it funds, rather than Viaweb.

Though I'm sure you could argue many of those are rather unambitious ideas also.
Very true! In my own case, I like to think "impossible," because I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking that I have the insight to know the difference between actually-impossible and impossible-for-mere-mortals-to-conceive.

So if something seems impossible to me, I try to consider the possibility that the problem is my lack of imagination.
LongJohn: Longer, more useful stack traces for node.js
On the other hand, a lot of games now are large and diverse with hours worth of content/art, instead of 5 minutes of content constant replayed for hours until the button patterns are memorized.
Homeopathy killed someone once. Allopathy killed someone once. I guess we're just screwed.
I'm a primary Linux user myself, but I think it's a good that we have other alternatives too. Competition is what makes the world go around, having alternatives is good. Also, if there are more targets, people tend to write more portable code.
There's something rather special about effectively hosting your payment processor (the Bitcoin RPC server) yourself.
You can do things for more than one reason. They can think these results will be beneficial to users and help keep Canonical solvent.
That's not what a right-to-work law is.

Right to work laws are related to union workforces; they allow non-union employees to work in otherwise unionized workforces without requiring them to join the union (and thus be forced to pay union dues as a de facto condition of employment).

You actually refer to at-will labor laws, which describe the laws of all 50 states in the U.S. "At will" means that either party can terminate the employment agreement at any time, without notice, unless notice is first required by the terms of the employment agreement.

2 weeks is the standard notice required in most employment agreements that require notice, but 2 weeks notice is not required in most situations. It's simply the polite thing to do if you don't want to burn bridges. (I've worked with many people who gave more than 2 weeks notice, and a few who left the same afternoon they gave notice.)
It can be a hell of an opportunity cost. For example this case: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/13310801/woman... http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/a1443763-Homeopath-b...

And this case: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/son-taken-away-by-mother-t...

and this case: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12153074
Charts of alcohol consumption, obesity, and physical activity in Europe
Not sure, it may be non-parametric vs parametric. Random forests are the best choice, but a model is more appealing due to the analysis you can make on it.

I mean can random forests predict F = mA or planetary orbits?
Yes, I should have said, not constructive in his criticisms, but you are right, he has done a ton of stuff outside of his public speaking that has been huge and actually belies my statement to a large extent.
Yes, Bitcoin has fees, but they're transparently, voluntarily paid separately by the customer, not automatically deducted.
Hrm, if you're a girl, you get 1 X from Mom and 1 from Dad. So, if Mom's X's are chromosomes a and b, and Dad's is chromosome c, then your X chromosomes will be a,c or b,c with a .5 prob for each. With your suggestion, there's a .5 prob in each case that Dad's X will be used, and so a .5 prob overall that, for a girl, Dad's X will be used.

A guy has to use Mom's X. I think the paper's argument still holds, because there's a larger amount of possibilities for women than men, but I can't take this much further without circular reasoning.
there is no shame in being pragmatic
Perfect Job For An Ex-Banker: 7 reasons I love user acquisition & retention
I'd suggest going after source compatibility rather than binaries. It shouldn't be that difficult to check an Xcode project for things incompatible with GNUStep and offer a way to allow ProjectCenter to build binaries on and to other platforms, provided the developer refrained to use Mac-only features. It would be a nice way to collect hard data on what should be considered more important for GNUStep to develop, generating countless other opportunities for students pursuing various degrees.

BTW, is anyone building TextMate for platforms other than OSX?
Wow, what elegant hypocrisy.

I want to change healthcare. I have spent twelve years getting myself well when the entire world says it cannot be done. I have a website. I have a mental model for how to proceed forward. I don't have the programming skills I need. I am deeply in debt from the process of accomplishing "the impossible". The specifics of my personal situation are unconducive to applying to Y-Combinator. I have a really huge credibility problem.

I am generally equally dismissed, though my intent to do something potentially world changing is sincere and backed up by more than a decade of work. But, hey, feel free to join the legion of people who have already dismissed me for not currently having some successful business model in place while claiming you would like to see people like me get more support.

Oy.

Tldr: People seek feedback at different stages. Having nothing currently in hand (or seeming to) is not proof of lack of seriousness.
I guess

a) because he disqualifies the license as a reason, even though it is actually the reason GNU came to be, without which what most people call "Linux", that is - GNU/Linux would have had little to stand on. So license on its own is an interesting enough reason.

b) because one second of googling would have shown that FreeBSD has numerous technical (his criterion) things that Linux does not yet at a comparable level, including (from the top of my head) ZFS, jails, dtrace.

d) because there are also things which are not license or technical details which matter (project management style, for example)

Comments like the GP can alternatively be phrased: "I'm a bigot about reasons things happen in the real world, and also I'm too lazy to look up if what I believe is actually true. Lazyweb, prove me wrong", and it would get about as many downvotes.
I suppose it's possible that these posters can motivate a team, but only if everyone on the team knows and understands, on a deep level, what the slogans stand for. Unfortunately, it's very tempting to skip the part where you have a set of long, hard, emotionally draining conversations with the team, where the team puts measurements in place that help them see when they're not holding to their stated goals, where they get frustrated but keep trying to improve things anyway. Why go through all of that when you can just put up a poster!

(edit: My point is that these posters seem like they should be earned, not just purchased.)
But the same thing could be said for things like gmail. A person might assume that the mail messages they send are private but Google "reads" them and shows relevant ads next to your mail.
DebTorrent was to be a set of BitTorrent extensions to allow the Debian archive to be syndicated as one ever-growing torrent. Seems similar to the use case here, and free from the problem we have now which is the huge indexes getting hit by takedown notices.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebTorrent
I love the designs, and I think it's a great way to make money. Wish I'd thought of it first :) I can see companies paying a bit more to motivate their employees.
these are kinda pricey for what they are. fab.com has awesome prints likes these on sale every now and then for half the price and now free shipping. just saying.
I set up a monthly donation. I think the foundation would benefit from more marketing. Similar to other commenters, I wasn't even aware of the foundation prior to this HN post. Now that I know what to look for, the "Foundation" link on the freebsd.org home page is obvious, but I'd never actually noticed it before.
I would like to know why people compare Python and Ruby by default. There are far more differences than similarities.
hmm.. i cant see my private repos names in incognito mode. Maybe ur a contributor to his repos?
Terrible article.

My dad is a medical doctor. Because I spent a large amount of my life living in the same house as him does not make me a medical doctor.

If I tried to treat someone who was suffering from pneumonia, and they died because of something stupid that I did, would modern medicine be responsible?

You can hate on homeopathy all you want, but the conclusions being drawn here are utterly ridiculous, and anyone that finds themselves agreeing with this FUD suffers from a severe case of confirmation bias.
"Mainstream" medicine has almost certainly killed vastly more people than will ever be killed by homeopathy.

The difference, of course, is that it has also kept countless people alive (to say nothing of improving quality of life for others). Homeopathy has never kept anyone alive.
I can picture the scene:

CEO seated at fusty mahogany desk says "Eagles, jet fighters, and crew shells aren't selling to these 'millenials.' Hire some hipster models and get some 'edgy' copy!"
While I do find it interesting to read about the work involved to start such a company - I believe most here would be even more interested to read what steps it would take to start a disruptive company in such a market.
A lot of these markets are either ready for disruption or have recently been disrupted. I would love to read an in depth-article about the work involved.
This is a Usenet binary sharing site whose front page, in a Usenet "video review", was a table of movies, TV shows, and video games. In other words, it wasn't even possible for the owners to look at their own site and not know that it was being used almost exclusively as a tool for piracy.

Extremely common DMCA misconception: it's not enough to be "takedown compliant". That's not how the law works. You also can't ever operate with specific knowledge of infringing content; you are, in effect, required to "take down" any pirated content you find.
It's not hostile to women unless you choose to interpret it in that light. I simply brought up that subjecting boys to feminine nursing for too long tends to make it more difficult for them to find the man within themselves later. I could have said the same about girls grown in a very male environment and managed to be hostile to men too :)

And of course I decry what has happened to male energy in such a short comment. I wrote about male energy because I didn't want to start by writing pages and pages on a subject like this. (See, still trying to keep it short.)

By the way, you are aware that traditional patriarchy is a dying scheme in the modern world as well and that traditional paternal role has been pissed on for a long time, too, aren't you? It all started in the 50's/60's and female energy is in crisis too, like you said!

For example, in the contemporary world, women in the worklife wear a highly masculine attitude because the current way of doing business is regrettably masculine only. Women in office jobs even dress like men. Now, when a woman comes home after work it will take a while until she can be in touch with her feminine side again. If she has a so-called modern husband who has already picked up the kids from school, looked after them while making dinner for everyone (these are traditional, parallel, stereotypical feminine activities) then she might have a hard time a) finding her feminine side to get in touch with her feelings and b) finding the masculine side in her husband so that she can relax in the trust the masculine provides for her, and just talk her feeling out to get rid of her working day stress.
It was a different time. I was in highschool in '83 and was fortunate enough to have a father who taught at a technical college, an uncle that repaired everything digital, and friends with home computers. The true geeks then were the ham radio and astronomy folks. Steve Ciarcia and game programmers were heros. And computers were expensive and something we lusted after. Between game and role-playing, hours would be spent discussing what new system was featured in Byte...
2 weeks notice is only required by either side if the employment agreement requires it. (2 weeks = 2 weeks before the intended departure date, not the actual departure date.) Otherwise, the standard is that either party can terminate the agreement at any time. Professional employment contracts (lawyers, accountants, programmers) usually have a 2-week notice requirement on the employee, but not on the employer. This is to allow for the orderly transition or wind-down of the employee's responsibilities to other employees. If the employer is terminating you immediately, they've already figured out what to do or effected the transition, so the 2 weeks is unnecessary. (Union contracts usually have a lengthy process for terminating employees, which is goverened by a very different set of rules (and laws)).

Ergo, the suggestions Forrest makes in his blog post make no sense. He gave 2 weeks notice. His company did not need the full 2 weeks to transition his workload to another employee, so they terminated him the next day (or rather, the next business day).
Oh, for the women there's a .25 prob that a is used, and a .25 prob that b is used, and a .5 prob that c is used. Dad's X has the best chance, and his X may have made him a better partner than his peers. Also, a .25 prob for the X that made Mom a better partner. So, a .75 prob overall of getting a great X and a .25 prob of getting an unknown X.

For the dude there's a .5 prob of getting a great X and a .5 prob of getting an unknown X.
Most rails apps are deployed on linux. I doubt there are any popular gems that depend on OS X. The problem might be with gems' dependencies, but that's a problem with linux, not ruby.
I find it funny that Java scored very similarly to Haskell, when otherwise the languages are quite different.
Like propercoil, I can't see my private repos when logged out or in incognito either or on a diff browser either.
How would reading the news allow him to interfere with a criminal investigation while in prison?
"...he was in all probability killed by homeopathy."

And that's where I stopped.

People do stupid things. Sometimes, someone dies. Happens with cars every day, and we blame the idiot (criminal charges, lawsuits, media coverage...) Happens with guns and the law blames the idiot while the media blames the guns. This blog author's in the group with the media blaming whatever fits the current agenda.
Full reference at http://whatstheharm.net/index.html
Whenever I hear of an über-exclusive thing like this, whether it's a gathering, a club, a business, or whatever, I think how much better to be the one running it than to be someone trying to get in.

Craig Thornton is a talented, hard-working kid who probably wouldn't get seated at Spago if he walked in the front door a couple years ago, but by hacking his way into the dining scene, he's got celebrities trying to figure out how to get invited to his apartment.

The lesson is, don't worry about what other people think of you, find a way to make other people worry about what you think of them.
I'm a complete rails newbie. I've added 'better_errors' into my Gemfile, started my server/also with Pow and yet I see the same errors as before?
I've been transitioning to the troglodiet (tm): fresh veggies, legumes, meat. More or less the caveman diet, Atkins, paleo, Eat to Live, etc.

This Dr Terry Wahls TEDx talk has been very motivating.

Minding Your Mitochondria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc

Dr. Wahls is mitigating her MS thru nutrition. For me, eating lots of vegetables makes my chronic psoriasis go away. When I slack on the nutrition (eg traveling), my psoriasis comes back.

I believe, but cannot prove, that psoriasis is basically external arthritis. I figure better nutrition is improving my health overall, including brain function.

One side effect I did not expect: I now crave hearty kale salads. Years ago I had a gf who was really gunghu for kale, chard, sorrel, and other leafy greens. I could handle it once or at most twice a week. Blech.

Now things are different. Better recipes certainly help. I think once my body got used to the good stuff, it demands more.

Moderate exercise and plenty of sleep too, of course.

Good luck.
Just donated. I feel the FreeBSD foundation could have made a bit more noise about this; I almost completely missed it ...
Netflix is conspicuously absent, for one.

https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/software
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Are you saying that homeopathy is effective when administered by someone who does know what they're doing?

Because the alternative conclusion is that homeopathy is never effective, and the conclusion being drawn is true.
In practice it's not easy to avoid the fees. Maybe I need a custom client? Not sure. But I know what you're saying is true. If someone could explain how that would be awesome.
That's stepping on the jurisdiction of those people over themselves. Everyone is entitled to believe in whatever they want to and live by that. They might die but it's their death, not other people's.
If they want to hit their goal, they should really hire Jimmy Wales to send uncomfortable pictures of himself staring you down. Worked great for Wikipedia...
Seems more like an attempt to get help, rather than a serious post - although I agree that ruby gems are not as easy to handle as python packages.
Well, here you go.

We (rsync.net) are based entirely on the FreeBSD platform, and have been since we first offered offsite backup in 2001. Our principals have been server and desktop users since 1998.

Further, we built JohnCompanies (the first VPS provider)[1] entirely on FreeBSD and jail.

So with that disclaimer, we are compelled to point out that the high water mark of FreeBSD ... coherency ? completeness ? stability ? ... was 4.11 in 2005.

John Kozubik posted this long and detailed rundown of the situation in January of 2012:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu...

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu...

and there was much agreement and nodding of heads. $50k over five years was committed by Kozubik to support a new development trajectory:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu...

There is a good litmus test going forward. If you see 8.4-RELEASE, and see 8.x supported as "production" and not "legacy" well into the 9.x lifecycle, things are getting better.

If you see 10.2 and 11.0 and so on before you see 8.4 or 8.5 then FreeBSD is just a research project.

[1] Yes, Verio was doing that weird virtualization thing with their e10ks (or whatever it was), but in October of 2001 we were the first to make available what anyone today would recognize as a "VPS".
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I think the "understands the language and ecosystem better" is critical, but my expectation is that I need to learn a subset of key gems better more than anything else.

Every hardcore Ruby-ist that I've known has owned a Mac as their primary dev machine. I'm sure that there are plenty of Linux devs out there, but my experience has been that it's heavily Mac-driven. However, by sticking with Linux as my development platform, I'm probably going to learn the guts of gems because I have to get under the hood to make them work on Linux.

Maybe I'll continue to have gem conflicts, but that's okay - I'll know how to hack around them.
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