skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I find Rich's anti-OO philosophy refreshing. I know Rich's reasons for not liking mainstream/traditional OO is different, but for some reason I've never liked the idea of having methods and data together. I like the concept of Common Lisp's CLOS.
I understand your point, but I think you've successfully argued against it when you told me that there is "no such authority on Bitcoin who can alter the amount of currency on the market at will"...

What would a 24-hour transaction period do exactly? Bitcoin is supposed to be used like cash. If you spend it then it's gone, most immediately, and if you value it highly then you keep it in a safe.

Price goes up, price goes down, safe is still safe. Until it gets cracked, then if you're a real player, the market is flooded with (illegally obtained, but generally not really tainted and otherwise fairly easy to clean) pile of coins.

I'm no economist, but I understand "redistribution of large collections of wealth can lead to rapid deflation without countermeasures." That's equally harmful to big-time owners as well as little guys.

We should be thinking about the countermeasures.
This is great insight. We paired 3 hours per day for about a year at the company where I work for before realizing that a more flexible approach to pairing was needed. These days we use it as a tool for on-boarding new developers and collaborated on hard problems, but there are no minimum requirements of time. Keeps everybody happy and still encourages working together!
The problem with that is that "coerced charity" through taxation is not a contractual obligation one willingly enters into. Did you sign something saying you would pay taxes for government assisted programs? I know I didn't.

Non-coerced charitable donations are more effective because individuals are putting their own dollars to causes they care about, and therefore have an actual interest in seeing their dollars be spent wisely.
Startup Girl Survival Guide
So, discuss the next Willow bark extract at a different forum first.
That's probably it: a simple boolean header. And I agree that changing default behavior is a very dodgy practice.

I used to have an Outlook extension that disabled Reply-All on outgoing mail. I used the heck outta that thing! Nothing bugged me more than someone sending an e-mail broadcast to the division, which would be followed in my inbox by a dozen or more Out-of-office autoresponders.
I'm glad Larry has finally answered definitively how to end parentheticals with smilies.
Re: 2: A thousand times this. Stocking the pond with something easy for the first thing next morning is a great productivity hack. Usually I'll do the same sort of thing and leave a failing test case or a dangling compiler error to get my brain moving in the right direction the next morning.
Free for children? Shame that Apple's factory workers don't live in San Francisco. ZING!
The Star Trek Medical Tricorder Is Real, And It’s Only $150
"Balanced’s sweet spot is that it can make sure merchants get paid within 24 hours of the marketplace giving the go-ahead to send out the money. Other places like Stripe can take up to a week."

I personally think this is one of the most under-rated things Balanced does. Why tie up a weeks worth of revenue if you don't have to? We're fixing that.
And then the post mortem / lessons learned and how next time I'll use Lean Startup (shit, do I need to pay Eric Rice a licensing fee for mentioning the generic term that existed since he was in diapers, but trademarked somehow?).
> If someone gained access to just the synchrophasors, could they shutdown the whole plant down?

Something like this could occur if knowledgeable people gained access to the waveforms and ability to read/write breaker controls:

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-09-26/us/power.at.risk_1_genera...

Generally what you want to do is have your internal networks gated by hardened devices communicating over VPN. Disconnection from the Internet is simply not practical anymore, but snooping and attacks can be significantly mitigated. My fine employer works in this area and sells these sorts of devices, I would be happy to email interested parties links to our whitepapers and devices. :-)
Heavens forbid that someone try to make a living providing cost-efficient technical solutions like a website and email to non-tech-saavy small businesses!
What an excellent example of how not to do things. Always operate your business with integrity and you cannot lose.

And people ask me why start-ups aren't getting into bed with Microsoft these days... Because who wants a company like this as your biggest partner?
Also, for some developing countries is not only the money, but how do they pay.
I mean, here in Bolivia $5 a month is equal to two lunches, not too much money, but. If are not getting a good salary (developers usually are not) you can't acces to credit cards. And that is a problem. Pre-paid cards may be an option but that increases the cost even more.
Rogers puts all Windows Phone 8 devices on sale, keeps them well under $100
The difference between this and your rotting fish analogy is that there is no objective way to say that Ubuntu search surveillance is harmful. Rotten fish can objectively be proven to make you sick. Giving targeted ads may be a useful feature for some users.

In this case, you should not tell people not to use Ubuntu. It's a personal preference, not something that is physically harmful. What should be done is educating people about how their information can be used. If they find that their personal information is being used to provide a service they like, they can make their own decision. Personally, if I have to see ads, I'd prefer they are for things I may actually be interested in.
Good science isn't identical to the truth. Rather, science is a social process whereby large groups of imperfect humans with their various vanities and weaknesses can eventually converge on the truth. Someone might come up with an idea that happens to be true, but until it's tested it isn't good science - and we have easy way to know it's true.
Cloudapp have.
I think this is a nice gesture by a public figure. I don't think this is something to take seriously as an approach to a long-term goal, but instead as something to be inspired by. Thanks Larry Page. :)
Would you mind sharing what Droplr's issues are?
Stephen Wolfram on code assistance
The 9 Worst Tech Buzzwords of 2012
Cat parasite toxoplasma uses 'Trojan horse' to infect human brain
Here are some decent options:

- https://appharbor.com/

- http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public/servers/pricing/

- http://aws.amazon.com/windows/

- http://www.hostgator.com/windows-hosting

AppHarbor is not a VPS, it's managed application hosting, so you don't get to touch the server itself. However, I found it to be a breeze to work with. Very easy to build an ASP.NET MVC app and quickly get it into production. They are basically managing the EC2 hosts and sharing them among their customers. HostGator is also not a VPS, it's shared application hosting.

I don't think there's anything as cheap as Webfaction.
It's basically impossible for people outside the scientific community related to a specific field to independently test or verify extremely progressive science in that field; if scientists working in that field are unable or unwilling to validate extremely progressive theories that is a separate problem from the fact that, to the layman, those theories are entirely indistinguishable from pseudo-science.

I can understand why an organisation like TED would prefer to err on the side of false positives over true negatives when it comes to their bullshit detector.
It's not about being a better person. Charity is not about being a better person. It's about helping people. And the purpose of government is to put systems in place that can give help to all the people who need it, as close to all the time as possible.

Larry Page is a fantastic man for doing this, OP is not disputing that. But it would be nice if children were guaranteed a flu shot regardless of whether a particular fantastic person decides they should get it. Charity is wonderful, but non-broken government is even better.
I haven't ever experienced what is described either (in personal projects or professional work). What I find gives me "coder's block" is when I have coding tasks that need to get done, but don't really require any thinking. Tasks that are just beyond the threshold of being able to write a script to do them for you, but still feel like they are something that should be automated.

In this case I don't think it's a block in the same sense as writer's block, but rather a block due to a lack of motivation, because such tasks aren't enjoyable in the same way coding that involves creative thinking is.
> this is a total non-story

Worse, it shows a very bad mentality from the so-called 'passionate fan-base', which reeks of Microsoft's own situation on the desktop:

> True, Android malware is a real problem. True, Google needs to do more about blocking malware applications from ever reaching users in the first place via the Google Play Store. But, there's also a lot of Android malware FUD and Android now has over 75% of the smartphone market

This kind of proof-by-horde is a catastrophe. Being the leader in marketshare doesn't make you right, technology is not a democracy: if there's a security flaw in the code or in the process, the flaw is there regardless of the number of users. It reeks of a "good-enough" mentality (of the bad kind, not the "less-is-more" or "worse-is-better" kinds): the one that strings things together, declares "It works!" and goes up in arms when someone dares pointing out the cracks and flaws, especially compared to other (potential or existing) more robust platforms.

This does not make the MS campaign any less awkward, but compare Windows Phone blip on the Android radar to (on desk- and laptops) Linux blip on the Windows radar, and how the rampant malware situation of the Windows ecosystem used to be an argument in favor of Linux. Many of those 'passionate fans' are using the same argument in favor of their mobile platform that they loved to use agains their competitor platform (that, or the Android guys are not Linux guys but the same Windows guys that are so much used to hate Apple that they ran away from the iThings towards Android, and so use the same baseless arguments to justify their decision).

PS: This is solely an argument on the 'fan-base' and the article, not the various past and present capabilities of the platform themselves. If you were reading this comment and thought I was taking sides, reread it while keeping in mind I'm talking about people, not hard+software.
> This is flat out idiotic.

So nothing I said is factually incorrect, but what I wrote is idiotic? Good job.

> The influenza vaccine is a vaccine. Putting "vaccine" in scare quotes is either ignorant or utterly disingenuous. Or, more likely, both.

Perfectly justified considering it's much less effective than other vaccines. So it is a "vaccine".

> Even 50% efficacy is sufficient to dramatically reduce both the incidence and mortality of the disease.

That's the best case scenario. What exactly is the benefit if it's 5%? What if it's 0%? Those are real percentages from years over the last decade.

Last year was very good. This year? Who knows.

> The number of people who develop influenza because they got sneezed on in line waiting to get their vaccination is insignificant compared to the number of people who won't get sick because people get vaccinated.

You realize you can get something else there too, right? And you'll get it by touching the door or the doctor not washing their hands ... not by somebody sneezing at you.
I hate the phrase "bad science." Can't we just call this not science?
> Hey, don't go knocking CP+B

I worked at Groupon when they did the Superbowl ads for us. Sorry, I'm reserving that right to knock them. I would put a smiley if I could get my head out of my hands right now.
HN Houston Meetup -- Thurs, Dec 20
Howdy, fellow Texans.

I've always wanted to connect with other hackers in Houston, so I'd like to invite everyone to a HN Houston meetup on Dec 20 at Kelvin Arms near Rice Village.

No particular agenda, would just love to meet like-minded folk, nerd out about startups, tech, or anything interesting.

http://www.meetup.com/Hacker-News-Houston-TX-Meetup/
Switched over to http://iwantmyname.com

So happy to get away from GD
Be mindful of your glass house, Microsofties.
"But my hope is that it will be handled in a way that does not become an undue personal burden for me."

I just don't understand how you want it handled any differently than cigarettes, which are are already prohibited in most areas.
Very true. That's how I knew the meme. I saw it on reddit which I also frequent. However, that doesn't mean we should introduce them here. They don't add to Hacker News discussion.
Now has json(p), XML, and text options.
Ask HN: Last day at work after 7 years, last minute things I am forgetting?
I've been at LinkUp.com since October 2005, and today is the day I'm hanging up my code and moving on to other places. I'm leaving 2 great coders behind me, we've spent the last 3 weeks finalizing projects where I've been useful and braindumping everything into a wiki.

I, unfortunately, don't leave with many stock options nor was I smart enough to pen an agreement where I retain ownership of my code. C'est la vie.

My question for HN is what am I missing? Been a long time since I've quit a job and I'm hoping to skip any "OH CRAP I FORGOT TO..." if I can.
The cheapest S-class costs twice that. I do wonder how much the first self-driving car will cost, tho.
I have a iphone 4 and it just works, good reception, 3g, wifi, gps/igo, battery life, ux, i'm totally happy with it. I even dropped it and drove over it accidentally, so the back looks like shit but orherwise it just took it.
I'm less interested in this as a news story because of the magnitude of the backlash on Twitter and more so because it demonstrates particularly poor judgement on Microsoft's behalf.
NOBODY expects the robotic liberation! [1]

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SdGkkp1aq8

(I am aware this will rightfully get modded down but sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do)
It's about trying too hard to be a hipster technologist. It's _sooo_ in now to pretend you don't rely on your phone like everyone else does.

I think it's resonating in the bubble chamber with that extremely, poignant statement made by the KC Chiefs quarterback regarding paying attention to people rather than our phones commenting on the murder-suicide committed by his teammate: http://youtu.be/vc-e-T39Z80?t=21s

Oh, and people are dumb for sharing their photos on instagram. Somehow that also got pretty lame in the last couple of weeks when I wasn't paying attention.
I echo your thoughts on the overall process for interviewing at YC. We interviewed on Wednesday and they were running late on interviews, but didn't inform us. We had to ask several times, as opposed to getting an update from their team.

Morning food situation was also awkward as you mentioned.
Both Google and Bing have ads that are clearly marked as ads on their web search results? How does one know Google search is pure? Start a company, get some press, build pages in an SEO friendly format and start seeing traffic trickle in from organic search without paying a dime to Google.

Google has a lot more incentive (as they've proven over the years) to maintain really high quality organic search and paid ads separate. That is what set them apart in early 2000's. When they integrated g+ results, they had an orthogonal incentive (take down Facebook, spar with Bing) but if the incentive is just to make money in the business of search it is extremely unlikely they would pollute their web results with ads.
By being born in the United States, and as a child of citizens of the United States, I became a citizen of the United States. This entitles me to rights, like the ability to travel anywhere I like across the continent without impediment, as well as to obligations, like paying taxes on my income or military service in the event of war.

The obvious implication of this arrangement is that I rely on the United States every moment of my life, I wouldn't exist in the first place without the United States, and I owe something back to the United States for putting that whole thing together for me. But, if that's just a bridge too far, the United States is reluctantly willing to wash its hands of the whole thing and walk away if I am-- all I have to do is live somewhere else.

I've never understood what makes this concept difficult or complex.
Right. It's a tricky line to walk. But the TedX name grants a certain level of mainstream acceptance to ideas. And it seems like they're trying to prevent people from taking advantage of that to pimp their latest miracle, effort free, libido enhancing, hair increasing, bicep growing treatment.

An earlier comment mentioned that it's a question of what's the right forum to debate new ideas. Going to direct to the public is probably not the right one. Another hallmark of these hoaxes tends to be the notion that "main stream scientists don't want you to know" etc... It's trash.

I wish the letter had ended by admitting that it's tough to exactly define bad science but it's a lot like porn, you know it when you see it.
Pseudoscience would also work, and is easier to say than non-science.
The link you posted states that the White House is considering its options. This does not mean that the options posted there will be the final decision. I don't find it disheartening that they are publicly considering them, I will if they go with the bluster and actually put them into practice.
The Code Of Conduct
I can't imagine "NameCheap" giving a better impression. Network Solution is usually the go to registrar for my client who want a "premium" provider.
i wonder how name.com stands, they are also good domain registrars and i had to use name.com because namecheap does not have top level domain registaration like .io domains
From a previous thread on Ubuntu:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4864783

The difference is that - for a chunk of people - this functionality isn't crap. It's actually useful.
It's out of the way for people who don't care. It's there for people who do. I've seen folk go "that's so cool" when the amazon stuff came up.
This stuff is much closer to the adds folk get in Google search. It's often relevant to what they're doing at the time.
Butterflies. Because nobody suspects the butterfly.
GrabBox + Dropbox works good for me.

Just command+shift+4 and it transfers it to my public folder with a link in my clipboard.
@Cushman History has shown pretty clearly that governments on the more-coercive side of the spectrum have caused more death and destruction than those on the less-coercive side.

A government coercing dollars out of a population by force and a society that is based on using products produced by people other than themselves are two different things altogether.
Link to the cited research paper:

GABAergic Signaling Is Linked to a Hypermigratory Phenotype in Dendritic Cells Infected by Toxoplasma gondii

http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2F...
My parents used to think the same thing. But somehow, newer generations keep voting against their own interests.

The realization that many people are not actually smart enough to figure their own interests came to me about 10 years ago, and the world made a lot more sense since then.

(the late George Carlin reasoned thus: "Think how dumb the average person is; and now realize that half the population is even dumber than that". It's true, if you assume "dumbness" distribution is symmetric around the mean. Or, just replace "average" with median and it's true by definition.)
Synchrophasors are timestamped data from individual measuring devices on the power grid, such as relays. If you can control those devices on a live system you absolutely can do a lot of damage. However, there are often several layers between those devices and the phasor data concentrator. And more security between the PDC and the public internet.

Synchrophasors' value is in comparing voltages across entire synchronous regions[1] to maintain stability and prevent events like the 2003 Northeast blackout. As such, they're essentially national in scale. How do you get information across the country (in roughly real time) without the internet? As you can imagine, replicating huge chunks of the internet is cost prohibitive to even the largest utilities.

Believe me, networking is taken extremely seriously in my industry (electric power), and no device is connected to the internet unless it absolutely has to be. There are plenty of valid concerns; however, progress must still be made. I'm interested to see how this all plays out, and to play my own small part in the development of networked utility infrastructure.

So far, the power grid has been safe from the types of nuisance attacks the water utility in the article saw. I really don't know why water pumps and sanitation systems need to be online. I have a hunch we electrical engineers have a leg up on civil engineers when it comes to computer security. ;)

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_synchronous_grid
If you're interested in ex-Googlers' opinions on the nymwars, then Rachel Kroll or Skud would both provide more thoughtful commentary.
Go+ - Google+ Community for Golang Developers
Agreed, and I'd go further than you in saying that TEDx has a duty not to try to lead scientific discussion or research by presenting cutting edge information. They rightly identify that they have a role as a credible purveyor of science, but lack the domain expertise to do more than popularize the scientific consensus.

Which is fine: If they do nothing more than make the current consensus more easily available to everyone, that's a worthwhile activity in itself.
I've joined but I'm afraid signal/noise ratio will be much lower than desired.
Sssoooo you used a story about losing business when using gmail for hosting to say that self-hosting was bad? I'm sorry, I still don't understand.
I use namecheaps free email forwarding feature and send them on to gmail. Has worked great so far for being such a simple solution.
yeah, agreed -- my comment was more just a random thought -- I appreciate that the two community styles stay mostly separate
I personally thought the LSD-inspired Zune commercials were decent. Otherwise, I agree.
> If you believe free enterprise can be more effective than government assistance, you believe "coerced charity" is better.

I don't understand this. Where is the coercion with donated vaccines?
I'm with you.

I use multiple registrars -- Dreamhost for most things, Namecheap for anything DH doesn't support and Ghandi for the remaining ones (mainly .es).
"Holds a nonstandard degree. For instance, if the physics-related speaker has a degree in engineering, not physics; if the medical researcher does not have an M.D. or Ph.D.; if the affiliated university does not have a solid reputation. This is not snobbery; if a scientist truly wishes to make an advance in their chosen field, they’ll make an effort to engage with other scholars"

What? Not having a degree in something disallows you to "make an effort to engage with other scholars"? Just saying you're not snobbery does not make it "not snobbery".
Don't forget your coat.
Correcting someone is a powerful motivator. It's the root of all arguments.

Some of my participating is of the "correcting" kind, but I also genuinely try to wait for opportunities to contribute helpful and interesting things from what I have learned in my life thus far.
"public health should be funded by the public through taxes"

But they didn't.

You might want to consider thinking about that for a while. It's actually very, very important.
I think they all suck. We need a open solution to DNS.
I'd describe it more in terms of flow (aka being in the zone) & the lack thereof rather than as a design issue. When in that heads space everything just works, when not even the simplest data structure is painful.