skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"My 5000 word assessment of (insert latest gadget here) that leaves no doubt about why absolutely (no-one|everyone) should buy this, conveniently ignoring that other geeks have their own opinion and the average user doesn't give a damn"

"10 mistakes that I made during my unsuccessful YC interview, 9 of which PG probably didn't even notice"

"Show HN: My first (read: I'm younger than you) app I hacked up in less than 20 mins (read: I'm smarter than you), because I had nothing else to do (read: don't feel too cozy in your job, cuz I'm dropping out of college any day [if my parents agree, that is])"

"How I made big bucks with something so trivial that I'm surprised my cleaning lady did not think of it before me"

"Apple is no longer as innovative as they were 5 minutes ago"

Plenty of discussions that mix a lot of fancy Latin expressions and Scotsmen

Recruiter: a derogatory term for somebody that knows less about a specific field than than the experts in that field they hire

Fanboy: favoriteGadget.brand != other.favoriteGadget.brand

Fanboy of a Recruiter: greatest insult on HN
It's HTML only, as it's harder to cache other assets for every single page in the user's list.
The century-old methods are still competitive at this high a voltage and power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current#Dis...

HVDC is less reliable and has lower availability than alternating current (AC) systems, mainly due to the extra conversion equipment. Single-pole systems have availability of about 98.5%, with about a third of the downtime unscheduled due to faults. Fault-tolerant bipole systems provide high availability for 50% of the link capacity, but availability of the full capacity is about 97% to 98%.[19]

The required converter stations are expensive and have limited overload capacity. At smaller transmission distances, the losses in the converter stations may be bigger than in an AC transmission line. The cost of the converters may not be offset by reductions in line construction cost and lower line loss.
They're stuck in a local maximum. They can't throw their white, middle-aged religious base (40% of the population or so) under the bus in order to pick up a few extra points from young people who, if they've been paying attention, won't trust GOP pols anyways.
Facebook makes things even harder for (many) game developers
I know there are smart people who believe SOPA/PIPA was a game-changer that pushed copyright reform into the mainstream, but I'm not convinced. Both things can be true: that the PR cost of pushing through something like SOPA outweighs the marginal benefits (political and economical) of the bill, and that radically disrupting the content industry is not generally a winning issue for either party.
Lower caps for non-commercial statutory damages is part of Bill C-11 in Canada.
I think you're right. Those ideas aren't popular enough today, but the electorate seems to be trending more that way over time. I suspect that GOP leadership is smart enough to know this, but they've decided that this generational shift will take a few more Presidential election cycles until it matures to the point where they can capitalize on it. Until then, keep flogging the current strategy until all the value has been extracted. They've invested way too much not to do that.
I took that course when it was running on Coursera, and I honestly can't recommend it (in its current state, at least) to anyone looking to learn basic statistics.

It covered a lot of material, but the quality and order of coverage was very inconsistent. The first couple weeks were fine, but it felt really odd to jump from correlations and scatterplots into regression, then come back to t-tests and AOV afterwards. There were also some errors in the R code on the slides, which led to a lot of confusion on the discussion forums during the class. As a student, it didn't feel like the class's pedagogical approach was very good, and I'm now finding myself using other resources to fill in the gaps.

If you'd like to hear more about those other resources I'd gladly post a list, but they're mostly Python-centric. One that I can whole-heartedly recommend even if you stick with Prof. Conway's class is the set of lectures from Roger Peng's "Computing for Data Analysis" class on Coursera. The course itself isn't available at the moment, but the videos are on his Youtube channel[1]. It teaches R from a programming perspective, and you'll find the content invaluable once you start writing R code that's more complex than a couple stats functions and a plot.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/user/rdpeng/videos?flow=grid&vie...
> Say you go on this quest to find the best city to live in. You find a good one, and you're not unhappy. But you'll always have that doubt: "What if I had quested just a little more? Would I have found an even better city?" And that'll bum you out. It becomes the anxiety of "what if".

It's like looking for the 'perfect distro'. Just pick one and learn to love it.
Fantastic, thanks for sharing!
Not for New Zealand it isn't. We get no say in US politics yet the transpacific partnership is poised to force copyright issues to the benefit of US corporations. Even without the TPP we have the Dotcom saga, further weakening our laws won't help NZ.
Does Apple's Tim Cook Want an Apple Television?
I took CS106X this quarter and while I enjoyed the lecturer and the assignments, as an "enthusiast", I did not feel challenged. It was more of "let me get some more experience with programming" and not "wow, that's nice to know". The class just teaches some more data structures not covered in CS106A and recursion and touches on inheritance. From what I hear though CS140/143 (os & compilers) seem more interesting to me.
Look through 'tzs comments for the one about the meaning of the word "science" at the time the constitution was ratified, and the clear intents of the framers. I believe Khanna's opening point about the purpose of copyright is actually incorrect.
The #nofilter trend is just the natural product lifecycle. At first what makes it different becomes so mainstream that the "cool kids" now rebel. This is always the case with products.

The #nofilter crowd will move on to the next photo sharing hotness as soon as it comes out. A market is made up of many demographics, the #nofilter crowd are the early adopters who want to distinguish themselves. At first this was by using filters, now it's by not using filters and leveraging their followers for the same dopamine induced reward cycle that was once delivered by the filters. So, while it may seem like I agree with you, I don't. The fact that there are filters is the big deal with Instagram, but for some people, making the choice not to use them, is their own form of self expression, but without the filters to choose not to use, it wouldn't be instagram. They are still vitally important, even when they are not used. I hope this makes sense, I am not sure I have articulated my point very well.
I hope the GOP fails entirely, so it can be replaced by a new party that advocates social liberalism and (true) fiscal conservatism.

Romney got less votes than McCain. Romney was more fiscally conservative and more socially liberal.

He wasn't as "cool" as Obama, though.

Unfortunately, issues have very little to do with the outcome of national elections. It's mostly about party identity and other groupthink cue following like hipness. It's not very surprising that our news media continues to be less and less distinguishable from our entertainment industry.
> They were further to the right than Paul Ryan

Not sure, but I think they're more open to military cuts, which is kinda 'further to the left.'[1] They think the leadership would rather raise taxes than cut a growing defense budget. You could say the leadership is more establishment-left (compromise by raising taxes) and the 'younger members' are more anti-establishment-left (compromising by cutting defense). From my bias I see it as more of an anti-establishment thing than a left-right thing; it's not that they weren't moderate enough, they weren't the right kind of moderate, which is why I think the GOP leadership is cutting off their only chance at courting the younger demographics.

[1] https://twitter.com/repjustinamash/status/273070039597461504
> I cannot find the figures for this last election

Relevant: http://www.waywire.com/v/3a3432fdf3549524a2f89bd63443fd12
Yes it is, I'm glossing over what could have robbed the primordial tribesmen of the same satisfaction, such as a dominating chief, subjugation by neighbors, failure to contribute to your tribe and thus be demoted, environmental changes causing a hunter to resort to farming...

There were challenges, but generally you had the opportunity to overcome them as the default path. Today the default path does not necessarily lead to self actualization.

Many of us who post here happen to want the same thing: freelancing, side project income, small business, start up. This can't simply be a coincidence, and in my view what they have in common is the autonomy and accomplishment needs we have.
There are also IP theft issues, and (while this doesn't apply to Apple) the burden of having to set up join ventures in China in partnership with a local firm where the foreign company has less than 50% ownership of said joint venture.

In such a "partnership" (if you can really call it that), there is a constant struggle between the Chinese and the non-Chinese owners of the venture where the Chinese counterpart is trying to absorb knowhow as fast as possible while the foreign firm tries to maintain their technological leadership over their partner so that they don't get marginalized. Perhaps the benefit of such a contentious relationship has been eroded enough from higher wages and other costs that firms have started to migrate their operations back home.
Dwarf Fortress inspired programming language, Armok
In America, you think for the Army. In Soviet Russia...

But seriously, in the 80's the Soviet brass still treated tank battalions somewhat like fire and forget weapons. Basically, they'd just mow down everything in front of them until they broke.
American-Made Macs: What’s The Big Picture?
Handmade robot sculptures
Nice article. SodaStream has found a sweet spot where it's providing a convenience and savings for the end customer, while still making profit hand-over-fist on the consumables, and probably even on the base machine. My family of four probably consumes close to 4L per day of SodaStream output, 70% as fizzy water, 30% as diet soda.

The project on my to-do list (please don't do this unless you know what you're doing) is to cut the top off of an expired SodaStream cylinder and fashion it into an adaptor for the hose from my 5 lb. CO2 tank. 5 lbs. of CO2 will yield something like 500 L of carbonated water, at the same $15 per fill as the SodaStream 60L refills. This should bring the cost down to $0.05 per liter or less. SodaStream will still get my money for their soda syrups, but I can disintermediate their highway-robbery CO2 service.
To be fair, there were a few positive/neutral articles, for example by Frank Rieger, a popular member of the Chaos Computer Club, in the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) but they are in the minority.

Of course, there is the obvious ignorance regarding technical facts like: "robots.txt is from the stone age. On or off for everyone is the only possibility" [1] which reminds me a lot of the discussion we had some time back regarding internet filters. But the one thing I find really dangerous is that they (meaning major newspapers, politicians, etc.) managed to spin the story so that the narrative is now "greedy google" vs hard working journalists. I applaud google for their efforts (and I am fully aware of their commercial interests in this matter) but I slowly begin to think they did their cause a disservice. If a discussion takes place its always about google and their lobbying. The extend of this law which could lead to bloggers being sued (btw: a side effect of the very fuzzy written law which leaves a lot open and almost certainly will need a court to decide on the details) when they link to news articles is almost never mentioned.

One last thing: Recently, two big news newspapers had to shut down and that print sales are declining is nothing new. I cant remember the last time I bought a newspaper and I am also pretty sure that although blogs/twitter/whatever are a good addition they cant replace classical media. There is definately a need for the discussion for new sources of incomes for classical paper based medias as ad sales from their online publication wont cut it. Perhaps something like a "culture/media tax/flatrate" as we currently have with the GEZ (for the financing of the public tv stations)? I dont know, but the #lsr is certainly not the way to go.

[1]http://www.golem.de/news/leistungsschutzrecht-springer-vergl...
If you meet the criteria, apply! I was on Startup Row in 2011 and it changed my life. Even if you're not part of Startup Row, do visit the startups there. I met many interesting companies while everyone was in talks and the exhibit hall was empty.
Does anyone actually have this memo? It'd be an interesting read.
Whatever you do, you cannot call it Libertarian though. The word has been tarnished by both crypto-anarchists (the disguised/hiding kind, not the strong crytography kind) who adopt the label to appear more mainstream and by mainstream pundits who paint a picture of Libertarians as anarchists.

(Also Ron Paul not really being socially liberal but rather just being kind of "state's rights"-ish hasn't helped... but I think that is more of a particularly sharp edge-case and not a systemic issue. A social conservative wanting to cut back government isn't a Libertarian, it is just a Republican being what Republicans have always claimed to be, but rarely are.)

The label is toxic now. Everybody knows that Libertarians exist, the reason today that they don't have the numbers is that nobody really wants to associate with the label.
I have never liked presenter modes. It's too much information, and I have to interrupt my thinking (which implies I will interrupt my speaking) to process the information. I much prefer to just see what the audience sees.

It also isn't much help because I tend not to spend much time near my laptop. I walk around a lot when I speak, and instead of using a laser pointer, I prefer to gesture directly at the screen - in much the same way you would gesture at whiteboard diagrams when explaining something to a colleague.

Of course, people should do what works for them. I don't use notes, and I'm fortunate enough that in the places I give talks, someone else is keeping time for me, and will give me signals when it's running out. But public speaking is one of those things that you do what's comfortable for you, because the more comfortable you are, the better the talk will be.
Kicksend (YC S11) is looking for an Android lead
At Kicksend, we help people stay in touch with the ones they love through carefully designed and crafted mobile, web and desktop products.

We've already been featured by Google once for our stellar Android app, which is used by a highly passionate, rapidly growing, global user base of hundreds of thousands of people.

We're looking for the right person to own all of the daily development and help with the design & UX (we design as a team). Android is massively important to us here at Kicksend, so you will be making serious impact. We ship on Android multiple times a week, and do most of our mobile experiments on that platform.

Our apps are designed to be incredibly easy to use, which means there is a lot of complexity and interesting problems under the hood on both the user-interface side and the architecture side -- not for the faint of heart.

If you're very experienced with Android, can learn super fast, and can code circles around most, please send an email to pradeep@kicksend.com and say hi.

We're looking worldwide, and are willing to sponsor/relocate anyone we really love to work with us in our offices in beautiful Mountain View, in the heart of the Bay Area.

- Great salary

- Top-notch medical benefits

- Equity (of course)

- Killer team members to work with and learn from

- How we work: http://blog.kicksend.com/you-should-work-at-kicksend

---------

Here are a couple of press articles about our recent launch:

The Industry - http://theindustry.cc/2012/12/06/kicksend-3-0-sets-itself-apart-in-photo-sharing/

VentureBeat - http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/04/kicksend-print/#s:4-choose_photos

Kicksend 3.0 Announcement - http://blog.kicksend.com/kicksend-3-0-the-only-app-youll-need-to-keep-in-touch/
I'm in San Francisco now, running a startup, precisely because I cast off my old life. It could have gone horribly wrong (and indeed it has on many occasions), but I couldn't imagine going back to my old job writing Java code for a bank.

Every now and again I think back to that. At this exact moment, I could be sitting in my old cubicle, watching that same stretch of bridge under the gray skies outside my window, thinking of the things that could have been if only...

The one most important lesson I've learned in casting off from the moorings of a safe life is that no matter what crazy shit happens, I always find a way to come out on top in the end, even if there are a few months or even years of bad times in between. One thing's for sure: I never get bored.

A life of interesting times is not for everyone. You need to have a fairly high tolerance to uncertainty. You need to be able to improvise, because things will rarely go according to plan. You need the strength of will to stand back up even when it hurts. But even with this said, you'd be VERY surprised at how strong you can be when the need arises.

Not everyone is alike. Not everyone would appreciate this kind of life. But if you're sitting there in your comfortable life, wondering what it could be like, stop wondering and just GO!
Ask HN: Importance of co-founders knowing product?
I current work at a start up that is not traditional in any sense. Although we are still very small, there is a strong hierarchical structure present. Our non-technical co-founder refuses to learn the software from a UI stand point and claims to be too busy raising money. He will then proceed to give demos to clients but always messes up since he won't take the time to learn the software he is co-founding nor will he ever practice or do a run through before hand. My question is; should it be mandatory for all co-founders to be knowledgeable with the software they are co-founding, technical or not? Because I strongly feel it should. And how might you deal with a stubborn co-founder who does not care too much to learn the product they are founding? I suppose I'm seeking reassurance but would really appreciate guidance on how to deal with this situation. Also note that it is hard to approach him because he feels like he is the superior of the team and is not too receptive or open to ideas that are not of his own.
World's First Facebook Page Cover Photo Scheduler
I guess the fringe issue is always looming in these situations. The SOPA discussion at least pushed it somewhat into the mainstream. But I agree with you, that many important issues are increasingly overtaken by the "crazy". I sometimes feel even myself, that trying to defending individual liberties and privacy is putting me more and more in a corner which is dominated by anyone between Richard Stallman and Alex Jones.
I've been following Kim since my friend showed me the kimble.org flash website back in the early 2000's. All the events in his life could be an amazing story for a movie.
It's a good thing none of the students went crazy on Fiverr, or Dharmesh would have been out of a lot more money.
If you're willing to get your hands a little dirty, there's an alternate option that doesn't involve buying into a razor blade business model.

At a welding supply shop, they'll sell you a 5lb tank of CO2 (around $60 initially, then $15-20 for each refill thereafter). If you then go to a homebrew supply store, you can buy a CO2 regulator (~$70, depending on quality), the appropriate tubing and a ball-lock adapter (< $10), and a carbonator cap ($15, something like http://morebeer.com/view_product/18250/). That setup'll let you take any plastic soda bottle (1-liter, 2-liter, whatever) and carbonate it directly. I have a CO2 tank for kegging my home-brewed beer and soda, and I frequently use my carbonator cap to make small test batches of soda before mixing up a full five gallon batch in a keg.

A 5lb tank of CO2 will last for 15-20 5-gallon kegs of beer. There's no easy apples-to-apples comparison (soda is more highly carbonated than beer, and I'm not sure of the effect on efficiency from carbonating such small batches), but any way you work it paying $15-20 for a refill is a much better deal than paying for SodaStream cartridges.
Screen options on the Thinkpads have been pretty underwhelming for a while, unfortunately. Not really fitting for a premium laptop.
Interesting to find out what was going on behind the scenes at postmark. As a (albeit small) customer, we were noticing something was going on, but not exactly sure what. It's great to see the postmark guys sharing the info and being transparent. Overall I really like the service despite the recent issues.

As far as cloudant, I also never heard of it. Trying to go through the website, is this effectively a managed CouchDB in the cloud? Also, just wondering what's the migration path out of it (or who provides alternative service) just in case something doesn't work out.
In one sense, your point and mine can be true at the same time: that radical proposals are what's going to be required to reform copyright, and that the RSC is not only a wildly inappropriate venue for those proposals but also that a single "rogue" RSC staffer had no business putting the RSC behind a policy initiative that virtually nobody in the house on either side supported. Again, you'd be right here and I would at the same time.

But in another sense, I'm saying something more about the memo; not only that it was inappropriate for its venue, but that its policy goals were dumb. The Khanna memo would not have made it any less fraught to run a consumer Internet company. It would not have prevented the content industry from leveraging potential bankruptcy against infringers. Apart from reducing copyright terms, it seemed to consist mostly of extravagantly costly political expenditures in the service of cosmetic goals.
Check your extensions. Are they blocking any of the scripts? Try it without any extensions loaded.
It would be nice if iOS let users install multiple copies of an App (like gmail, instagram etc) for different accounts.
Tracking Happiness
Amazon’s Appstore is on fire: 500% more downloads this year
Does anyone really use Google plus?
Apple CEO Tim Cook hints at plans to build a TV
What Social Media Has To Do With Record Sales
With a fair appreciation for the limits of my own insight on this issue and the immediate concession that reasonable people could argue about it, I respectfully disagree.
I'm surprised they are only doing men's clothing. There seem to be far less men willing to pay for well made or high end clothing than women even though (from my experience), they tend to wear the same clothes longer.

Then again, even I don't really understand the quality difference of clothes made at discount places. How long will an Old Navy sweatshirt last? Or pants?
Great write up on a very talented man.
I only briefly worked in a Java dev shop as an intern, but I remember coming across Apache Commons Logging, and seeing the idea of an abstraction framework for logging frameworks an example of the "architecture astronautism" that infests Java.

However, I do realise that the Java ecosystem is often complex for a reason (or, "simpler" languages and frameworks are often too simple). Is there a reason there are so many logging frameworks? What different needs do they solve?
Research - Congressional education backgrounds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_of_the_111th_United_Sta...

http://www.crisp360.com/hosted-infographic/where-did-congres...