skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This post is nothing but a nice heaping of FUD. Looking at it from a distance the decisions made the Ubuntu brass have largely paid off. I like many others had my doubts when I initially played with Unity in 11.04 when it was slow and lumbering, however in 12.04 I doubt there are many people who would categorize Unity as a substandard experience. I haven't played with the latest GNOME so I can't comment there but Unity definitely blows KDE out of the water. I doubt lens-shopping makes it into the next LTS released, if it does it will be turned off by default.

I know we live in the age of hyperbole but statements like this "There are other major open source projects that have started to actively defecate upon their existing user base." are not constructive in any way. Ubuntu adoption is growing not shrinking, Firefox market share while not growing is holding steady. Claiming that these projects are going down is nothing but FUD. (I know many people would love to see Ubuntu and Firefox go down just so they can have a chance to see their pet distro on top and Chrome on top but alas it ain't happening any-time soon)
Inside Snapchat, The Little App That Launched A Sexting Scare
Calculus 101?

I recall that learning that lim(1 - 1/n)^n with n->inf is 1/e, was one of the first things learned in Calculus. I think we even briefly touched this in highschool.
What is wrong with going to a job like that for a year or a few years, then going to school later, with some experience working, traveling, etc. Or then picking up a trade like electrical or plumbing, either in the energy sector or elsewhere?

I used to be really disdainful of "engineering" vs. science/math/cs, but once I actually started hacking on hardware, I got a lot more interested in ee, mechanical engineering, and even chemistry, plus infrastructure (power systems, physical layers of networking, etc., and logistics).
Thanks for the excellent advice. Do you think for a beta product, skimping on various things will haunt you even after you go live? Or do you think everything is easily replaceable, and no one will even remember?
Not quite sure why this is being downvoted .. valid point?
How about "Learn machine learning the hard way?"
As a consumer :
http://followgen.com

As a developer :
iron.io
optimizely
stripe
Maybe you should practice what you preach. Complaining about complainers is the bottom of the barrel, and asking people to go away from a community just because they disagree and maybe don't use the right wording is a mis-understanding on your part.

People are genuinely upset about Canonical's direction, the tech community knows the context and history here, it does not need explaining. A simple "fuck you" reaction is sometimes appropriate.

Canonical is clearly taking the wrong direction and the simple solution is to switch to a better community, there are literally tons of them,

http://distrowatch.com/
Any time I've tried Xubuntu or Kubuntu in the past, I've found the experience to be quite horrible and unpolished.

I got the impression that they were second-class citizens within the Ubuntu world, whether they're intentionally held down, or just neglected and without as much attention.

I have consistently found that the integration of Xfce and KDE with Debian, for example, is much more robust and sound than what's offered by Ubuntu "flavors" like Xubuntu and Kubuntu.

Deny it if you wish, but the anger within the Ubuntu, Firefox and GNOME communities is coming from long-time users who have known better times. It's much more about people who now suffer from a far worse experience when using said software. People who have seen their productivity drop because they've been forced to use Unity, or because Firefox's UI has been screwed up, or because GNOME 3 embodies just about every bad decision that can possibly be made.

I think it's an extreme minority of people who complain out of some ideological want for their chosen project or variant to be more popular.
I've got it, and though I haven't read much yet, it's definitely got some good stuff.
I did the Google Adwords trick (advertising your Dropbox referral link) to bump my account up to 17GB. ~$20.
Well, I didn't attend Stanford , MIT or CMU nor do I know anybody who did.

I also live somewhere that is about is far away from Silicon Valley economically (and geographically) as you can be in the developed world at least.

There are plenty of useful things you can study that aren't engineering.
Be Unique, Be Different, and Bring Something No One Else Has
Indeed. I used arandr to make an xrandr script that runs at login. Works beautifully.

Xrandr is a great program to know, especially if you use projectors a lot.
I am pretty sure it is not hardware problem since I am using it for development and do all kinds of crazy stuff for last half a year. :) The thing about windows - you get more support from hardware manufacturer, but you get screwed by the fact it is all proprietary and often stuff from one manufacturer is not working with software from different one. And due to closed source approach there is no way to peek into it to see if it can be fixed or there could be workaround.

Another gem from this fresh windows install - headphones will work only if I boot into Windows while headphones are plugged in. If I boot without headphones and then plug headphones after I log in - no sound in headphones :)

My point is - there are all kinds of bugs in all popular OSes. I bet MacOS have bunch of them too. You just getting used to ones. Like it is never a problem for me to fix a webcam in linux, but it frustrates me to download 600 megs of drivers software to get my video card functional. The same way OP really frustrated by broken webcam and not really concerned about windows needs to update drivers, constantly monitor for viruses, etc.

One thing I noted tho - most frustration with Ubuntu (or any really linux desktop) I see comes the fact that some particular hardware is not working. The same hardware often have problems on Windows platform. And more often than not drivers/software for this hardware are closed source with bugs which never get fixed (because manufacturer's business in selling hardware, not software.) So apparently we would not have most of these issues with any OS if software required to run hardware would be open sourced. This will never happen probably tho..
But that's not the fault of the OS. That's the fault of the user.
What's your problem with Firefox?
PassPack, RubyMine and PhpStorm.
I found LastPass quite horrible to use compared to PassPack.
True, but the article seems to talk about people who presumably had the option to go to college (i.e the grades and aptitude) but opted not to.
I've had about 6 in the past 3 years over multiple macbooks. It's certainly not an every day occurrence. Also, probably once every 6-8 weeks something beach balls so hard that it's faster to hard reboot.

This was also my experience using Windows and Linux across a variety of hardware from the mid 90s through mid 2000s. I don't know if it's just because I expect too much from my hardware - being able to run "too many" things at the same time, or what, but I always run in to situations where I need to hard reboot (not every day, but more than 1 time every 6000 hours).
And then, using GPG or S/MIME would restore email to the status of a postal letter, with the message contained in an envelope of privacy. So if I GPG my email, that should confer a higher expectation of privacy than "normal" email would.
That would be pretty awesome! Let me know how it goes or if I can give any input at all.
This iOS app calculates tips based on the performance of your server
How has Firefox's UI been screwed up?
Ask HN: Moving to Redis, Any redis hosting?
I'm completely fallen for Redis, ditching my MySql - but feel concerned there may not be enough
support for it yet ( compared to MySql ) -
Does anyone know of any hosting providers, that support Redis via Cpanel etc ?
xScope: http://xscopeapp.com/

Soulver: http://www.acqualia.com/soulver/
KindCritic – Get crowd sourced feedback on your creative projects
This is only tangentially related to the article, but if you'd like to see a nice interactive visualization similar to the ones it includes, http://cs.stanford.edu/~karpathy/svmjs/demo/ is a great one. There are similar visualizations for neural networks and random forests linked there.
Show HN: New D3.js Tutorial: SVG Text Element
5 Trends In HTML5 In 2012
I think if I were going to shave this way, I'd use a bowl instead of putting a lot of water into a presumably-not-perfectly-clean sink. You could wash a bowl and put it away after, whereas you'd have to wash the sink immediately before each shave. If the designer of the sink expected using a shaving bowl, the flat bottom would make a lot of sense.
MSDN Subscription

Mountain Lion

Acorn

A bunch of iOS Apps
The End of Parking Misery
How come researching hardware first is bad thing - you are not going to a shop and buy first thing you see.

Also windows is not perfect either, my old scanner doesn't have windows 7 drivers and will never have it seems. It works just fine in XP and Linux.

Sometimes things break, they even break in software that cost shitloads of money too. Six month old Oracle EBS SR with localization(!) problem - not critical, but surely half a year is enough to swap two strings. Sometimes it doesn't work well with some server vendor too (I don't know all details about this one).

Don't blame canonical for all the software in the distro, all they really do is adding eye candy and try to make it nicer, but they can't fix everything.

I find it silly when people try to force other people to migrate to Linux - show them around, tell about ups and downs and let them decide if they want to try it.

I use linux not because it open source, but because it does most of the stuff I need better. My parents use windows PC, because they can just install that thing which came with new printer and it works without calling me, despite I could probably make it work in linux just as easy since I know how to.

And for God's sake, don't install linux if you play games most of the time, but you read linux is better on the interwebz. Stop hammering nails with a microscope already!
I'm speculating here, and may be wrong.

You may have a more "I don't know how I got here, but I kinda feel like somebody's slave" problem than a CRUD problem. If that's your problem, there's an eject button that will be a wild and scary ride, but you're likely to come out more healthy, excited, passionate and feeling alive. Go independent (as in quit, become a freelancer/consultant).

If you do, your initial contracts probably won't be on the forefront of changing the world; but I'm speculating that that's not your problem anyway.

After going independent, and learning all of the self-management and business skills and establishing a reputation you'll also get more project offers than you can do and you'll be able to choose ones that change the world more, and the impact of your projects will probably go up overtime. And at that point, you'll also be hunted by the world-changing organizations that seem so distant now (if you want to leave consulting and go back full-time)
I found this:

http://jueseph.com/2010/06/opticrop-content-aware-cropping-w...

Seems to be a similar solution using PHP and ImageMagick.
Side Project Book: http://www.sideprojectbook.com/ - 39 Interviews with Profitable Side Project builders.
Just added a new section to my D3.js tutorial website. This one covers the SVG Text Element (<text>) and how it can be used with D3.js.
If they have the aptitude and skill necessary to complete a degree, they likely also have the smarts to turn their career into more later in life. Maybe they intend to take that quick and easy money and use it to bootstrap a million dollar business in a few years?

I get the feeling that you feel they have no road ahead without a degree, which I don't quite understand.
Mobile software: None at all.

Desktop software: OSX (on a new Mac), SourceTree (http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ .. now part of Atlassian), Viscosity (http://www.sparklabs.com/viscosity/). Other than some random games through Steam, that's it. I pay for VMWare every 2 years or so, as well.

Cloud stuff: Only normal VPS hosting, and some domain names.
One has to strike a balance. "No" is a very powerful and effective strategy when used judiciously. However, you don't want to say "No" to everyone about everything, or you become known as the opposite of the overly helpful fellow in the story, and people will resent you.

I enjoyed this article and I'm grateful to Mike Cane for turning me on to this charming bit of Americana. In those days, it was said that "The business of America is business" and the writings in this magazine fully reflect that belief. It's all about getting ahead, becoming the big boss, achieving financial security. Underlying it all is a naive yet practical optimism, a sense that we [white males] can achieve anything if we set our minds to it. It's a bit sad to think in contrast of today's narcissistic, short-sighted attitudes which are so prevalent.
Games, workflowy.com and Sublime Text 2.
I guess that might be some of the best free fonts, but even then I don't really like them. Most people using web fonts would have a Typekit account. I'd take most of the fonts on Typekit over this list.

However, I've found that the WebType service actually has the best text fonts for small sizes. Headlines are nice, but what really matters is your <p> text. Their RE (Readability) series is excellent for small text.

http://www.webtype.com/catalog/?wssmall=829

I'm personally using Benton Modern RE and Benton Modern Sans RE for smaller sizes, and Benton Modern Display for <h1> headlines.
Probably half a dozen iPad apps (I'm looking for a good drawing solution) tax prep software, AnyDVD, my renewal/subscription to Proteus (eCAD), Mass Effect (PS3). Earlier in the year I had paid for World of Warcraft but that has since lapsed.
Hide and seek is always fun with toddlers. As is Hide an Object and seek it.
I bought a copy after it was discussed here a while back. Overall it's a very good book and is worth purchasing IMHO. There are some notable holes and assumptions but it's probably the best attempt for a number of years.
To be fair, most of those things you mentioned sound like issues individual drivers rather than the OS.
You are likely to have closed source drivers under Linux too, a variety of GPUs and Wireless cards do not offer open source drivers (or at least with full features).

You might not need 600MB of drivers for your video card, it's that the manufacturer packages it with 600MB of software. On a modern HDD 600MB isn't so much anymore.

BSOD really does overwhelmingly indicate some hardware failure, it is not uncommon for a PC (especially one that is highly used) to develop failures later in it's life. I would suspect common culprits to be your power supply, memory or HDD.
PyCharm (and even added another year during the doomsday sale)
I've noticed this sentiment on HN a number of times. In my experience at large companies and small ones, I've never seen overperformance turn into unemployment. I believe it has happened, but I doubt it is common, and I certainly don't think it's common enough to base job decisions on.

In my experience, I have seen the opposite a number of times -- people who overperform have been rewarded with more responsibility and more-interesting jobs. This includes situations in which people automated away their job responsibilities.
Gerry Anderson, creator of Thunderbirds, has died
Here's my "e bookshelf" http://imgur.com/YBB33 , which uses the 1/n! definition. It only goes up to 1/3!, but ideally would approach 1/infinity!. e grows as the total area of the clear books on the left. For example, for the bottom shelf, 1/3! is the same as having all possible arrangements of three objects, and choosing one.
Similar to the way Alberta has been for a while, although $40,000 isn't that impressive.
Raising money in Europe is also quite difficult for an early stage startup. European investors are quite risk adverse; it's uncommon to invest in a company without existing revenues (even if there is a solid plan for revenue growth in the short term). It ultimately comes down to the perception of failure: if you start a company and fail, in Europe that's pretty much it for you, you've been branded a failure personally. Until that changes, the startup climate in Europe is going to continue to struggle.
Let's see...

- Sublime Text 2

- iA Writer

- Tweetbot

- Alfred

- PHPStorm & RubyMine

- Rdio

- Coda 2

- Things

- FTL
Amazing. What would happen if we replaced every crappy teacher with one like this one? How different would the world be in 5,10,15 years? We need more teachers that are as passionate and devoted as this guy.
Code frees us to think in new ways
I'm surprised no-one said Dropbox yet.

Well, I paid for Tarsnap and Backblaze, but I don't consider them "software", but services. Maybe others felt the same regarding Dropbox?
MS Research Offloads GPS Data and Calculations to the Cloud to Save Battery Life
Perhaps I'm missing your point. The rush you get from skydiving _is_ explainable by physics. The human fight-or-flight response induces the adrenal gland to release epinephrine, which causes a raised heart rate, excitement, etc. Even complex feelings like "yearning to find the meaning of it all" and "loving your disabled son" have a biological basis.

(Disclaimer: I get my science facts from Wikipedia and xkcd)
Most "design" nowadays is like that. It's actually styling, not design. Real design concerns functionality and usability first.
Too many titles to list, but I essentially paid for two categories: Mobile apps (bought through the Play Store) and free software that I use regularly and that allowed/asked me to donate. I started setting aside a small amount every month for the latter category. Examples are XBMC, SickBeard, X-Notifier, Cyanogenmod, PortableApps and JellyTime.
Looking to get feedback on our video
Windows Azure, but it's too expensive, I might move my websites back on the old hosting provider
I notice that his name is Bert at the start of the article and Joe at the end. If there were any doubt about whether the story is real or made up, I think that clinches it; people very seldom forget their own names.
It's working now. Awesome list btw.
Quite a few games through Steam during sales and two Humble Bundles. I played maybe two (out of over 20) of those games. Then I bought 2 licenses for PyCharm during the 75% off sale, not intentionally of course. Hoping for a refund.
What about Richard Stalman (before Linus), the Apache Group (before Linus) and Mozilla? And I am pretty sure there are plenty more examples.
Ugh. This "answer" is the textual equivalent of an imspirational poster with a picture of a cute animal -- it sounds really nice, but doesn't say much of anything, or have any actionable advice. What advice it does have is bad: "Figure out how to change the world from your current job". Right then. Hang in there, champ. Stay where you are. The world is better than it seems, mmkay?

Fuck that.

The answer to your question is simple, and has very little to do with "changing the world" from your current job: you need to reach for what you want. If you're not happy with your current work, find new work that's better. Nobody is just going to hand you a plum job because you're kicking ass on CRUD apps. The world doesn't work that way. And it's highly unlikely that you're going to move into ML or compiler design by writing a classifier or a DSL for your current CRUD app-writing gig.

Want to be doing machine learning? Apply to positions that involve machine learning. Those could be at your current company, but probably not. You might have to take a pay cut. You might have to move. You might have to go outside of your comfort zone. But you need to work for it.

Can't get a job doing what you want because you're not qualified? Okay, fine. Go back to school. Find a junior-level job in a field that's orthogonal to what you really want. Maybe get a low-paying tech position in an academic lab that does research into ML or compilers or computer graphics or something else. Take courses at the local university in statistics, math and theory. Get an MS or PhD. People on HN will tell you that college is a waste of time, but they're wrong. They're mostly trapped doing CRUD work, like you. Education -- and certification -- matters. So, get some, if you're not qualified. Work your ass off, and learn theory. Most of your peers won't do the work.

The point is that you "escape the trap" by working really hard in a focused way. And it's a bit of a hill-climbing problem, because you don't really know your end goal, and you don't really know what the path looks like to get there, but you nearly always know a direction that's "up" from where you are right now. So, step aggressively in an upward direction. The way you avoid getting trapped is by not standing still.
As someone who is learning python as their first programming language this was very helpful.
The Programming Books That Meant The Most To Me
It's pretty recent :).
Just to back up the OP's claim for him/her: I've worked in unskilled labour, defence, engineering and finance professions, finally settling on financial software.

They're all just as packed with a shit-ton of politics as each other.

The worst thing I did was making pizzas while at college. That was asslicking and backstabbing central.
"Anyway, today I'm transitioning my parents in law to Windows 7. It will be a pain for me, but at least it will work for them. It won't freeze."

Glad you found something that works for you and your father in law.

I'll just mention that CentOS 6.3 (and the other RHEL 6 clones, Scientific Linux and Springdale, formerly PUIAS) have a kernel and applications that are similar roughly to Ubuntu 10.04. Ubuntu 10.04 is still supported on the desktop until April 2013 so people have three months to explore alternatives should they have hardware problems or find recent Ubuntus not to their taste.
Genuine question- who is using MongoDB successfully in production, and at scale? I'm not aware of anyone myself- I hear of it being used in hackathons etc because its so quick to set up, but I'd be curious to know what people are using it with.
How exactly have their decisions "paid off"?

The level of anger and displeasure within the Ubuntu community is at an astounding level. It's not a healthy community these days.

Clearly, the growth isn't there. Android has become the most popular Linux distribution around. DistroWatch shows more interest in Linux Mint, and a declining interest in Ubuntu. The general sentiment when following discussion online is that people are unhappy with Ubuntu, and trying alternatives, including Windows and OS X.

The same goes for Firefox and GNOME. The sentiment within the existing user communities is not pleasant. The only "positive" (more like non-negative) articles are coming from the leadership of these projects, and they often read much more like advertising or propaganda than informative articles. Much of the user-generated discussion is some expression of displeasure.

Contrast this to some of the other major projects. We see people openly happy to use Chrome or Opera. We see people happy to use Xfce and KDE. We see people happy to use Linux Mint or Debian. The difference is like light and day.

Ignoring, or even denying the existence of, the simmering tension within the Ubuntu, GNOME and Firefox communities just isn't helpful. It's going to boil over at some point, unfortunately.