skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You say that 99% of the time it's fine. If you go through the back scatter thingy, I'd say that 99% is a hopeful assumption. They are likely unsafe, and some small subset of people scanned may end up quite sick.
Facebook Developers Blog - 2012 in Review
NRA blames video games for Sandy Hook slaughter
The UX is identical. Self-destructing, the UI for choosing friends / viewing photos / taking photos is the same. The fact that it notifies the user if a screenshot is taken... it's the same. Facebook added nothing new, only copied.
Thank you. So deregulation happened.
China 'enhances' Great Firewall, teaches it to choke off VPNs
Best Tech Gifts for Christmas 2012-2013
if you can't fizzbuzz you are a 0x or worse programmer, or need to find some anxiety meds before your next interview.
Missing from this post is any sort of discussion about how modern x86 CPUs are poorly designed for the types of programs most people are developing these days.

Managed language runtimes represent the bulk of programs people are running on servers (think: Java/Scala/Clojure, PHP, Python, Ruby). These environments not only lack "mechanical sympathy" but also have requirements above and beyond what x86 can do.

To take Cliff Click's word for it, managed language runtimes consume 1/3 of their memory bandwidth on average zeroing out memory before handing objects to people. If x86 supported an instruction for doing just-in-time zeroing into L1 cache, this penalty could be eliminated, and that 1/3rd of memory bandwidth could be used for actual memory accesses instead of just zeroing out newly allocated objects. In an age where RAM is the new disk, this would be huge.

Unfortunately the amount of time it takes to get a feature like this into an Intel CPU is a bit mind boggling. Azul started talking to Intel about hardware transactional memory early last decade, and Intel is finally shipping hardware transactional memory in the Haswell architecture in the form of transactional synchronization extensions.
50% of the population is on the bottom half of that normal distribution.

People are dumb.
We can keep on adding...

JavaScript, "We want a scripting language in our web pages."

TCL, "It should be easy to extend your scripting language in C."

SQL, "We need a standard way to talk to our databases."

PL/SQL, "We want to push complex logic into our databases."

BASIC, "We need an easy language for absolute beginners."

And so on.

But one historical comment. The ACTUAL problem that Ruby was created to fix was that Matz needed a scripting language that could handle Japanese text. People may adopt it now for different reasons, but that is not the historical inspiration.
I'm not sure how reduced memory requirements are a benefit to encryption. Are there really any low end systems still in use today that actually have issues with memory usage? Even $150 notebooks come with 1 gig of ram. This seems more like it would help save ram on interception devices like the Narus Device or the huge datacenters owned by the NSA, which have a huge issue with storing all the data required to intercept and decrypt eavesdropped communications reliably.
Yes, but Perl has better libraries for that now (e.g. Moose)
How to Send a Message to Intellectual Ventures: Boycott Cooley
New NASA Spacesuit Looks like Buzz Lightyear's
Depends on the job, I guess. Some jobs you hammer out the spec in a meeting once a week, and then sit down, shut up, and implement the heck out of it. Maybe a few tweeks on a public wiki or bug reports fixed during that time.

I suppose I'm noisy as heck, and attend lots of events and meetups and conferences, but I know whole companies full of people who don't get out, dont't talk or read much, and they just stay at work and make a killing. You don't hear about them because they don't get out.
I don't quite understand HOW does it turn the weight into energy. Could someone enlighten me?
That still doesn't make it right, though, and it's still anti-competitive. I mean who is Verizon to say that a company can't run a certain type of app on "their" phones, because they are not even their phones. They are their customers' phones.

It's especially troublesome when Verizon is creating a competing app, and they are just giving a more or less "reasonable" excuse to completely take out their competitor from the market, much like Apple is doing with the browsers on iOS. The difference here is that these carriers almost completely own the US market, and them joining together like this to stop Google from putting the app on their phones is kind of a cartel movement, isn't it?

At the very least, I think this is worth an investigation from FCC and FTC.
Counterpoint: my GF really liked her Note 2 while she had it (her S3 was stolen, but eventually recovered and the Note 2 got sent back). But I couldn't have used the Note 2, because it wouldn't fit in my pocket. Her? She put it in her bag!
Merry Doomsday HN: All of my YC Facelifts are free to download and use
You can't really sue an entity that doesn't hold any assets. That's why it's been essentially impossible for companies that fight IV and win to counter sue. Even if they won the suit, the particular IV shell would just declare bankruptcy and get "reorganized" somewhere else.

A worthwhile counterattack would either need to fix the patent system (hard) or go after the IV stakeholders personally in a way that would make the risks of their endeavor far outweigh any potential benefits (unlikely).
Go: concurrent programming is too hard
While I agree completely, it's worth mentioning that the author does use GTD for his mindless, shallow tasks (that he can't delegate or get rid of). Presumably that boost in efficiency gives him more time for deep work.
- I don't have a good answer for you about how I started, I just got the compiler running and started writing code. A BST, as it so happened.

- I don't claim to understand the memory model entirely, but I think I have a grasp on it. This is due to my knowing C++ and having a grasp of the lambda calculus.

WRT libraries, it's not a mature language. It's not going to have the tens of thousands of libraries like Perl. I would recommend writing applications that fall into a functional programming/low level area, but that's just me. There's Servo, a research web browser.

Finally, I don't recommend comparing Rust with Go. Two languages and two different design goals. A better compare would be with D or OCaml.
While I do agree, the main counterpoint to this logic is that there is a danger of having users put all of the Facebook apps into one Facebook folder, thus hiding Facebook from your home screen. It's important to balance splitting major functionalities with filling people's phones with lots of Facebook icons.
Perl was made for processing text too, and for some reason he thought Perl was not good enough for the task.
Look at the original version of the essay from the wayback machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020210063149/http://paulgraham....

That link is in the original version of the essay, and that's why it's in the diagram that's described as a graph of the dependencies that PG gave.

The version on the WayBack machine has:

Javascript: Java is scary.

It does not have:

Python: Perl is a kludge.
There's some truth to that: JavaScript's execution model was Scheme, with the syntax swapped out relatively last-minute in response to corporate pressure. What I genuinely don't remember anymore is whether LiveScript shipped with the Scheme syntax at any point. If it didn't, then yes, I'd say it's fair to say they shared an influence.
In JavaScript you can extend any native object as well if that's what you're looking for. I find prototypes very useful.
Speed Up RSpec Tests by %430
Happy 14th baktun, America!

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/20-signs-that-th...

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/75-economic-numb...
You're entitled to not buy anything you feel like, but I'm strongly of the opinion that all arms-length prices are honest prices.

The economics of producing things for businesses are very different than the economics of producing them for individuals, particularly because businesses are relatively price insensitive and not very numerous. I can price this at $10 because it receives implicit subsidy from everything else I do.

If making businesses money through training was my livelihood and not a fun hobby, I would certainly explore packaging options and price points that made sense even if I only sold a few hundred copies. (And, n.b., if you were a SaaS company trying to buy advice on lifecycle emails from me that would run $500 to $X0,000. There aren't enough customers in that niche to make $7 a sale sane. Also, seen from the customer's perspective, the information will routinely be used to make five to six figures)

I respect that this can make commerce difficult for goods which are dual-use between for-profit businesses and hobbyists, at least for folks whose purchase would be more aspirational in nature. As somebody who started out as a hobbyist with a $60 budget, I have great appreciation for expensive business tools not being in the budget, but wouldn't cast aspersions on them simply because they're not in the budget. Many worthwhile things like e.g. employees are similarly not in the budget, and the answer is probably "Do without and bootstrap until you can afford them" rather than worrying overmuch about the pricing structure of businesses other than one's own.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing. You can buy now on Amazon a hand-crank LED light for $12, so surely these can be made far more efficient and cheaper with $200,000.
I don't quite think the Smalltalk one is fair. Smalltalk-80 definitely went to the extreme with everything-is-an-object, but PG is glossing over the history of Smalltalk-76 and Smalltalk-72, which betray the actual purpose: "Programming accessible by the everyman should be just as powerful as a 'real' language, not like BASIC."
They do have an excellent grasp of their market, but their largest demographic for iPhones are males over 25, not female teenagers. Even so, I'm sure they did plenty of UX research with a large diversity of users in order to come up with the ideal screen size and repeated this with the iPhone 5.
PagodaBox
Lua is as old as Python and Ruby. The alternative was Tcl, and the problem with it wasn't embeddability:

In 1993, the only real contender was Tcl, which had been explicitly designed to be embedded into applications. However, Tcl had unfamiliar syntax, did not offer good support for data description, and ran only on Unix platforms.

http://www.lua.org/doc/hopl.pdf
Don't seem to be able to buy it on Amazon:

http://oi48.tinypic.com/2cofv3o.jpg
I've been scratching my head about this bug for a while now, and now I know how to fix it. Here's some screenshots of what this fix has done for a site I'm working on:
http://imgur.com/a/W6dtC
I'm using the 'Sketch Block' font, and in Chrome 23.0.1271.101 on OSX it looks awful - but this fixed it.
Why did they even allow it in the first place? Or was it a matter of "not stopping it" until now? I've noticed more and more programs have been trying to install Chrome extensions in the browser lately.
Framer, a simple but powerful prototyping tool
> This is not, as you think, simple. There are no margins in commoditized devices. If they all trend toward being identical and low cost, all partners will find the most exceedingly clever ways to differentiate from each other or boost margins. Software is a prime target.

Except a high quality Android phone is not a commodity. It's a premium product that no one (outside the Nexus line and the OG Droid) has created. If there's a segment of the market interested in such a product (which is what everyone believes), then they will be willing to pay a premium for it.

> As this article points out, forking Android (especially to Samsung) is becoming an increasingly viable alternative to playing ball with Google, and the consequences would be pretty disastrous if they were to do that.

Forking is not an issue because that would remove access to the Play Store, without which a smartphone simply would not be competitive. Look at the Kindle Fire - it had the advantage of being a tablet (where Android apps are still being developed), coming out quite a while back (again, app situation more favorable than now), having an existing content ecosystem (which Samsung doesn't), and being their first foray into the hardware/Android market (not the case for Samsung).

At this point, Samsung really doesn't have any choice but to stick to just skinning Android if it wants to keep selling phones.
It's hard to say. By quickly adapting to new threats (like the shoe, underwear, and printer cartridge bombers) the TSA may be keeping terrorist attack technologies in a perpetual "alpha" state--unable to be refined past v0 to the point where they can work effectively and reliably.

But that doesn't mean that we can stop checking for the old attack vectors. For example, the TSA has never found a bomb in checked bags, and thus has never "prevented" a bomb attack. Does that mean we should stop screening checked bags for bombs? No. Lockerbie has shown that this attack vector is effective. The fact that they do screen bags for bombs so well has prevented attacks from even being contemplated in the first place, much less attempted.
Great analysis. Yes, cost structure; yes, ARM is the incumbent with all those forces in their favour, such as being tuned to the upgrade rhythm of the phone market.

A way out for Intel is their world-leading foundries, with process shrink a generation ahead. It's been suggested they manufacture ARM SoCs, and sell at a premium. But there isn't really a premium market... except for Apple, and its massive margins. And Apple is feeling the heat from competitors hot on its heels. Therefore: Intel fabs Apple's chips. Intel gets a premium. Apple gets a truly unmatchable lead. It's sad for Intel, but Andy Grove has a quote on the cover of The Innovator's Dilemma. They know the stakes.

The nice thing for consumers would be a x2 fast or x2 battery life or half-weight iPhone/iPad next March, instead of in 1.5 years.

BTW, re: Tegra 4/overshoot - In the next generation, when silicon is cheap enough for oct-core, because we don't need the power (and can't utilise multicore anyway) it will instead lead to the next smaller form-factor. But smaller than a phone is hard to use, for both I and O. A candidate solution is VR glasses - because of size.
I like how he quotes the 7.6 billion primitive chips (embedded processors just a notch above a bunch of random logic gates) "shipped" by ARM to the high-margin (for Intel) PC market.
Stack Overflow is about programming; Stack Exchange is a network of sites using a shared platform for all sorts of niche Q&A: math, startups, RPGs, home improvement, etc.
I haven't heard of hyperlink, but I love leanpub.com. Looks like there are a few companies doing the same thing.
You might be right, but it's hard to comment without even knowing what their business model is.

If, for example, they plan to generate revenue by selling leads based on individual's browsing histories, then they need view-only users to have accounts. In that hypothetical case, it wouldn't be terribly surprising if they found the expertsexchange model to be a good fit.
For the most part, people on Hacker News want to read thoughtful and insightful comments. They want to learn new things, or gain new perspective, or otherwise extract value from the comments they read.

Comments about religious history (especially with sources) or religious artifacts (like manuscripts), clear explanations of interesting doctrines, and descriptions of how different religions/sects view some particular issue tend to be pretty well received. As a religious person, I've made a lot of comments along these lines (some about my own religion, some about other religions) and gotten a lot more upvotes than downvotes for them. Even the negative responses I get are thoughtful most of the time.

Assertions that religion X is true/false, statements that aren't backed up by appropriate evidence, and preachy comments tend to be poorly received.
Good question. Not sure. It must be the case that Hyperink gets a higher cut if Amazon is not in the equation, so to the extent that you want to do someone a solid I'd suggest buying from them directly (they're a startup, too), but whatever works for you.
Why not get involved with groups that already exist such as http://www.openrightsgroup.org/ ?
Here's the Firefox version of this:

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2011/08/11/strengthening-use...
Missing my couple of my favorite languages: PHP, Objective C, Scala and JavaScript
Show HN: Space Armageddon
Interesting. I guess Microsoft wants you to believe that "you can read Office docs on the web" or something, when in fact it's the plugin opening them in the browser. This is what worries me about Windows 8, too. That they will try to tie too many "HTML5" apps with OS-related plugins.
Yeah, I really hated Skype extension that would install itself without my explicit consent or considering the fact that I don't use laptop to make phone calls.
Think smart cards.
> "... but there were technical issues that prevented accessories from integrating 30-pin and Lightning connectors, so our guidelines did not allow this."

They sure resolved those technical issues pretty quickly, no? So quickly, in fact, that one might have confused them for policy issues completely unrelated to the interoperability of the devices.
"no skins, no extra crapware, lag-free, and which gets at least two dot-oh upgrades - like 5.0 and 6.0"

Skins - probably agree

lag-free - certainly

mandatory upgrades - agreed

"crapware"... one man's crap, etc... but in some ways I wouldn't necessarily mind on these if they were just separate bundled apps that didn't interfere with vanilla operation. I've only ever owned a vanilla nexus, but have heard nothing but horror stories about pre-installed apps that could never be removed - eating up space and taking pride-of-place on the home screens.

I'm not against bundled apps, but but bundled apps that can't be deleted and which interfere with basic operation out of the box, yeah, I'm definitely against those.
No WebView required, with native YouTube Player API for Android
To be fair, though, gmail's filters are so good at this point that I basically never see spam on addresses that have been live for over five years. So I guess the technical approach does work if you have great engineers working on it way past the point where it pays off financially and you have about half of all email for training data?
They only call themselves Directors (who are supposed to answer to VP's), so what title should I ask for? They suggested "product manager", but that is BS because product managers are responsible for the features of a product, while I'll be involved in its development. I've also been told they don't plan to hire another technical person after me for two years. They made hiring decisions before by having votes between the founders. So even if they give me a vote I won't be able to hire/fire anyone I want. I suppose I can convince them later on...

Thanks for the advice, I have a clearer idea of what I want to do now. :)
I don't really need this book for my current job, but will probably buy it simply as a way to pay Patrick for all the valuable and free content he's provided over the past 5+ years.
None here either. 23.0.1271.101 on 10.6.8
You can't have good OO "outside" your language. You can't duct tape some OO to a language and consider it done.

That's classic: PHP guy say, "we have objects in PHP5 so now it is Object Oriented".
It's not. To say that language is Object Oriented because it has classes is like to say that language is Functional because it has functions.

So, Moose is a clever thing, but does it make every hash an object (I genuinely wonder)? Does it provide OO API for I/O? With exceptions? Does it make everything behave consistently? Because consistency seems to be the main reason that Perl did not become the final stop.
The ACTUAL problem that Ruby was created to fix was
that Matz needed a scripting language that could handle
Japanese text.

That's why it's on my enhanced chart.
Xkcd's take on Instagram
There's a bit of a false equivalency between JFK Junior's private jet (RFK was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan) and Ted Stevens' death aboard an Alaska bush plane. Small propeller planes are not an uncommon way to travel in Alaska since much of the state is still wilderness.

On a less important note:

"you literally take your car onto the tarmac and walk onto a jet, it's marvelous"

Wait, do you just leave your car parked at the tarmac for the whole trip?
I was a bit disappointed by the title. I was hoping for something akin to a sterling engine, which is powered solely by a heat differential. As long as the heat differential is present and barring any mechanical issues, the sterling engine will operate continuously without intervention.
My point is: no doubt that twitter et al are distracting. But that's not what makes the difference between a good and bad programmer. Really complex engineer tasks require your brain to slowly process the ideas that you have, sleep on them, discuss them with colleagues, maybe read something online about it. But I find that the argument that says 'you suck because you are too distracted' is kind of dangerous. Taken to the extreme and it becomes: 'oh I won't answer my mom because that makes me worse at my job' or 'oh I am not drinking wine tonight because I won't be at my best tomorrow'. I think on the contrary, it is important to take one's job slowly to be better at it.
You can get this effect everywhere by turning off LCD font smoothing in System Preferences > General. Personally, I don't like the color fringing of subpixel rendering so I keep it turned off. Most apps require restarting before they will notice that you've toggled the LCD smoothing checkbox, but Xcode will immediately redraw itself, making it easy to see the difference.
> When an approved agent was finally free, instead of cordially walking me over to the pat down area, he shoved and body checked me to get me to move. After the perfunctory patdown, he pointed to my luggage and said I could go get it. He then stepped in front of me as I started walking towards it and gave me one last shove, away from my luggage.

Sounds like you're describing the dystopian future we read about and see in movies.
I assumed it would be called the Nexus X.
I am curious b/c I work for a company that writes kiosk visualizations, what are the advantages of Looking Glass over say, running Chrome in kiosk mode?
You need to also factor in the cost of Homeland Security.
Cubes Viewer - Python OLAP Application for Reporting and Data Slicing
C# 1 --- Java is controlled by Sun

C# [n] (where n > 1) --- C# [n - 1] would be more awesome if it had...
For the same reason they entered the Nexus program - for the popularity in the Android community. And I guess Google could and should help them with marketing, the way Microsoft is promoting Windows 8. Google has never really promoted Android as a brand, and I think that was a huge mistake, not only because it means that in the mind of a regular consumer Android doesn't mean much, but also because it makes it that much easier for other manufacturers to step all over Android's regular interface - because the consumer doesn't know it anyway.

I'd argue that some manufacturers would be happy to make such devices if Google spent many millions in promoting them.
Here is the source for it: https://github.com/clockwork189/SpaceArmageddon

Always looking to hear feedback!
Haskell: what every Scala baby wants to be when he grows up
Someone should do a CrunchBase + Wikileaks web app for patent trolls. PatentCrunchTrollLeaks.com? :-)
Thanks to whoever updated the title.
Mozilla brings back 64-bit builds of Firefox for Windows