skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A little heads up to the Yahoo Security team probably would have been appreciated!
That's not the problem. The problem is that the e-mails, by their very nature, are opt-out rather than opt-in. One reason people seem to complain is because they have to waste time logging into the site, finding the e-mail opt-out section, and disabling whatever "service" is responsible for the torrent of spam. And that only works until the site's next "user experience" update.
I think the problem is that some (most?) people are born with a disadvantage, not that the he has some advantages. I don't see how giving anything up is going to do any good.
I worked with a company where there were 2 founders and one of them told the other guy he would like to retire so he got bought out.
He was still working for the company while the other guy went on vacation.
2 weeks later he came back, not a single one of all the orders was finished and he had introduced his new company to all customers.

In the months leading up to all this, the "evil" partner had bought an exact copy of all the machinery and software.

It was illegal what that guy had done and he was at risk of doing some time in jail.
They eventually settled for a price that was way too low because the victim was tired of it, he couldn't stop thinking about it, he couldn't sleep, he wanted it to stop.

Here's the kicker. The evil partner had done it 2 times before and his latest victim knew about it when they founded the company, but figured it wouldn't happen again because the evil guy was close to retirement.

Lesson learned ?
I don't know. Trust your gut ?
Hey benrhughes, thanks for feedback. I put together this update on where throwww is going. I think you'll like the direction :)

http://throwww.com/a/45r
Not to be overly negative, but:

- the images add nothing to the post, they're just taking up space

- the layout, especially the font on the headings, looks pretty gross (Chrome on Android Jellybean)

- the writing quality isn't great; 'utopic' stuck out to me as strange (versus 'utopian'), there were other cases of overwrought wording or outright weird grammar

- the premise is flawed: yes, the last half of the 20th century vastly oversold scientific progress based on what they saw as an ever-increasing rate of return on research. In reality, we have some pretty amazing computer technology, but we haven't cracked hoverboards yet. This doesn't mean we lack focus, nor that scientific progress is slowing down. It just means making something up doesn't make it physically possible, or even likely within an arbitrary timeframe.
I was thinking there would be a discussion thread for each dispute.
I hope everyone takes the above comment as hearsay, 'best friends' and all. Do you know how many friends say someone 'was a great pilot' after a pilot dies in a crash caused by their own actions and mistakes?
Just updated the site with a map.
HAL 9000 Life-Size Replica
Thanks for the reply - this wasn't a knock against you guys per se, just my sense of distrusting anything that wants to connect to banking details.

For example, transaction knowledge is often used as a verification system by banks, and in general the more knowledge a phisher/scammer has about you the more able they are to socially engineer their way into your life.

I'm perfectly prepared to believe that I'm being far too paranoid about this kind of thing, and that many (or even most) other people wouldn't be as concerned as I am
I've never done one of these before but it seems like a lot of fun. I would probably be going alone if I went, do people usually enter this alone and meet people there or go in with friends and then maybe merge with others to form a group?
Using Gambit-C Scheme to Create Small, Efficient Native Applications (2009)
True, although none of the other return values make that much sense with nil either.
Then opt out. This happens on any social network in which you have a public profile that gets a lot of exposure. Hell, my brother who works at Google explicitly lists Google as his employer on his public G+ profile, and he's been added to thousands of peoples circles who he doesn't know. If you aren't interested, then there is an email preferences setting tab that you can easily customize what gets sent to your inbox (https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?trk=hb_acc). LinkedIn is the only social network that I've had and will continue to keep, since it's focused on one thing -- professional networking.
My comment was based on a more precise point, namely that #3 in the process below is very natural:

1. Assume the theorem is false.
2. Make some calculations based on that assumption.
3. Eventually, make an error.
4. Pursue that error to a contradiction.
5. Claim victory.
Ask HN: EU conferences to plan for in 2013?
I just got an email reminder that BlackHat EU early bird registration ends in a couple of days. I was wondering is there one simple place to check for upcoming sec conferences this year, mainly in Europe? Any personal favorites you're looking forward to?

They don't have to be big. I'd actually try to avoid big-big. Interesting does it. Bonus points if they don't cost a shitload, because the chances of me coming up with something CFP worthy this year are slim. Like the year before. And the one before that too.
I wonder what tokenadult would have to say about this, but I don't think that that's a good environment for homeschooling.
Did you bother to read about Newspeak or click on the links?

Did you see the part about Java "AbstractAbstractFactory" actually being very close to "worse" than global variables?

http://newspeaklanguage.org

But apparently clicking on links is too hard, so I'll quote inline:

"Newspeak is a new programming language in the tradition of Self and Smalltalk. Newspeak is highly dynamic and reflective – but designed to support modularity and security. It supports both object-oriented and functional programming.

Like Self, Newspeak is message-based; all names are dynamically bound. However, like Smalltalk, Newspeak uses classes rather than prototypes. As in Beta, classes may nest. Because class names are late bound, all classes are virtual, every class can act as a mixin, and class hierarchy inheritance falls out automatically. Top level classes are essentially self contained parametric namespaces, and serve to define component style modules, which naturally define sandboxes in an object-capability style. Newspeak was deliberately designed as a principled dynamically typed language. We plan to evolve the language to support pluggable types."

Sheesh.

Update: I know the creators of Newspeak, but am not affiliated in any way.
Either/or. Whatever you are most comfortable with.

There's a hour blocked off for you to network and meet other people, which hopefully will lead to some team self-organization.
Thanks, here's where throwww is going. You might like. http://throwww.com/a/45r
" they are deaf to other people's pain."

This is not really the case -- they just don't care. In fact, they often revel in other people's pain (e.g. torture is common for psychopath serial killers). This is not the case with, for instance, people who are "high" on the autistic spectrum.
A container might have an isEmpty function, and if the pointer is nil, that is probably more empty than not empty (though personally I don't believe either answer makes sense). "[x isEmpty]" might be more appropriate than "[x count]==0" for a list-type container.

I always check for nil explicitly, personally. It sidesteps any question of whether the method makes sense in the nil case. And sending messages to nil can't work in general, because the return value could be a struct.
These are all great, but I'd be wrong to not point out that Deleuze is a bit different, in that he is a materialist. The rest of 'the continentals' went Idealist and turned to Saussre etc because they rejected essences. Deleuze's place is solving that issue, creating a neo-materialism.

(At least, that is my current understanding of the history)
Just to recap over the past few months. We should quit Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This effectively covers the top 4 social networks. I'm wondering what this says about us more than these companies. Maybe we are just burnt out with social networks in general?

The author makes some valid points. I mainly use LinkedIn to get an overview about the person who is emailing me or just followed me on twitter. I find that to be pretty useful.

As far as the recruiting emails. The more successful you are the more cold emails you get.
Analysis of the Physics of Bad Piggies Friction
No snark: could you explain why it's bad code for you?
Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback. Based on what I've been hearing lately, I wrote a small article about throwww's direction. http://throwww.com/a/45r

Comment if you want anything you don't see. Not promising it'll get built, but it might be something I haven't considered.

Thanks again.
If you really can't get a job anywhere as a good developer, or as a freelancer, you probably should check what you are doing wrong.

You aren't likely to go back to your previous job, but even a failed startup should qualify you for a better job.

If you have the oppertunity, go for it. You regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did do.
From Seinfeld to Sushi: How to Master Your Domain
Could you elaborate on your perception of definitions of lambda calculus? Or, say, SK calculus. They’re very simple systems and entirely syntax-directed, so I’m curious to know where they “go wrong”—how would you prefer a definition be presented?
This is true, but I would argue that it's only true because of the assumption that random driver being pulled over is a citizen (or rather that you can't ask a citizen if he or she is a citizen. This was part of the big deal with Arizona's new laws a year or two ago).

When writing my post, I was considering the "unlimited detainment", and lack of due process for non-citizens in too many special cases.
Yes. LinkedIn endorsements are the new "I will follow you on twitter, you should follow me back."
Show HN: A portfolio for a hacker's life
Shutterfly Acquires ThisLife’s Photo Organization And Sharing Platform
There's an 12 year old notebook right on the front of firefly's homepage. It instantly makes this product look like it was from 2001. why do you do that?
Read about WCAG (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag), that's what you need to follow to make web sites accessible, not markup validation, which really means "jack shit".

Visual impairment does not necessarily equal total blindness. Accounting for text size, contrast level, etc. is a lot to consider. AA conformance level (middle level, so to speak) is very hard to achieve.
I can't recommend this enough. Techlaunch helps aspiring entrepreneurs to transform their idea into a viable product.
Whenever I hear something negative about Yahoo, I feel really sorry for them. Yahoo used to be a great company a few years back. Their messenger was one of the best products they ever had, their mail used to be REALLY good (in the early days). But soon, they failed to adapt with the market's needs and they are now here where they are. They COULD have been a great company if they had put in as much effort as their competitors had put in, in understanding their market.

The best example was about how they failed to respond to Gmail's popularity. Gmail gave almost every single feature away for free, that Yahoo charged (and still charges?) a premium for. For example - Mail forwarding, (POP, IMAP too?) and so on. I personally used to have a .co.uk address with them and eventually moved to Gmail because their ads were into my face, unlike Gmail's, where they are very subtle.

Also the UX on most Yahoo's sites are terribly poor. Ever visited their homepage? Looks like a cluttered fish market.
I agree with you and wrote about it more than a year ago:
http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/2011/07/02/lifestyle-busine...

The short version: "I Love Lucy" was a lifestyle business dreamed up so that Lucille Ball and her husband could have children. It was easier to revolutionize an industry than have a two career couple and family, so they did. In terms of technical innovation, the show was the "Star Wars" of its day, which is part of why reruns of it still get played to death to this day.
You're right, because that is more or less the purpose of the Republican Study Committee. Their core function is to take all the legislation proposed in the House and produce a summary that says whether any conservative action groups oppose it and whether the bill conforms to the ideology of conservative Republicans (no new taxes, no mandates on state governments, no increase in the scope of government).

The idea that copyright reform was ever going to come out of the RSC is a bit of a fantasy.
A Guide to Python Frameworks for Hadoop
Web app challenge... accepted
I've published several mobile apps in the past, however this is the first Saas web app I'm making. It's actually a response to Nathan Barry's post a few days ago.

I programmed the code for myself and my own Android buyers. It's been really helpful to get feedback from users, and start a dialogue with them, so I'm working on making it more user friendly for others to use.

Please let me know what you think about the idea itself, the landing page, the copy, anything I must know before launching a Saas app, etc. Your feedback is appreciated!
Just copy/paste the link to a new tab. It seems they don't want HN as a referrer :)
I really like this for a visual resume. It's especially relevant for all of the people who don't like LinkedIn. Nice work.
It's worth noting that Go has interesting handling for empty values as well. A nil basically means "the zero value for a given data type". Thus, an empty array compares equal to nil: http://tour.golang.org/#36
Man, the real world is the hardest game you could play and it has, like, no difficulty ramp.
i've come to realise that there are people whose passion is figuring out what to do, and people whose passion is figuring out how to do it, and that as a "how" person i will probably always need/want a "what" person or company to be working for.

having no boss is nice in theory, but i suspect that in practice it'd become a drag because i'd have to personally fill in for all the value-add that my boss (and her boss, and so on up the chain) now provides.
Ask HN: How to reach _real_ people at Google?
I am really frustrated right now.

Well, it's a long story to explain. So here's the short version: I once had an AdSense account. Then I didn't use it for some time. Then I had to migrate the Google Account under which my AdSense was running, because my ISP used Google Apps to distribute free addresses to his clients but they cancelled the service. So I had to transfer all my Google services to another Google Account. I forgot AdSense after a bit of time, didn't use it any longer. Now some time later, I tried to login to AdSense and all I get is a message sayin' that my login wouldn't be an active AdSense login.

So I tried all the automatic forms and assistants on Google's help pages and AdSense' support center. It's basically always the same. I get an email back that I'm not known to the system, that they didn't found an account under my provided credentials / my provided data. I tried various email addresses but only get autoresponders that they can't read the messages under the specific address and that I should consider looking at the forms and assistants. I even tried to contact them over Phone. Same thing. The robot on the phones says I should consider the online support options.

It seems that you can't freakin' reach real humans at Google, no matter what you do and how much time you spend.

Maybe someone here on HN has any advice or idea.

I really appreciate any form of support.

Thank you.
I've published several mobile apps in the past, however this is the first Saas web app I'm making. It's actually a response to Nathan Barry's post a few days ago.

I programmed the code for myself and my own Android buyers. It's been really helpful to get feedback from users, and start a dialogue with them, so I'm working on making it more user friendly for others to use.

Please let me know what you think about the idea itself, the landing page, the copy, anything I must know before launching a Saas app, etc. Your feedback is appreciated!
Enable Smart Sizing in Hyper-V VMConnect
The Pollination Project:  $1K micro-grants for philanthropy
I think there are problems other than inconvenience. You might have a job or property or family within the US. Being denied entry without the protection of due process where you are innocent till proven guilty can be a BIG deal.
I've been using the Google contact list, because of convenience. Contacts are available on iPhone, in Gmail, Google Talk phone, Google Voice.
The first two points of this write-up are largely invalid.

1. Mobile devs. don't know where their downloads come from

Every single large/popular ad network that I've dealt with has a conversion and download tracking system in place. A user clicks on a banner or some other media link to the App Store/Google Play, passing one of many unique identifiers (udid, device id, idfa, device finger printing). If that same user downloads and opens the app, the app makes an API call to the ad network with the same device identifier and BOOM, you've tracked a download. This is mobile marketing 101. It's a little trickier recently because of the move from UDID to IDFA on iOS, but still quite effective at tracking the acquisition process and value of mobile campaigns, and nothing has change on Android. Does she think companies are just throwing money at ad campaigns without tracking their success??

In addition to the aforementioned standard ad-network practices, Google Play and Android allow you to specify a referrer in a URL to Google Play, which is then passed to your application if it ends up getting downloaded, which the Google Analytics SDK will then pass to Google Analytics. Funny, she shows the referral section as something that isn't available on mobile - this is the exact screen that gets populated with Google Play referral data.

2. Mobile developers don't know when their apps are deleted

The Google Play developer console tells you how many uninstalls you get per day, along with how many active installs you have. It's quite useful in tracking overall trends in engagement and retention of users.

For iOS or if you want something more precise for Android, the respective push notification services (APNS and GCM) both allow (and in fact, encourage), you to use their APIs that expose exactly which push token/devices have your application installed.

If neither of the above work for your app, plenty of analytics toolkits (Google Analytics, Localytics, Flurry) are there to give you engagement data. Hell, on Android you can have your app start on boot and ping your server if you really wanted to see if it's still installed.

"Reasons far out of any developer's control"? Hardly!
For Ubuntu?
The father and director of board in this case has a very high position in the government. This is why X did not pursue this legally, due to the publicity and stuff. It is also very unlikely that he would risk his position to cover up that his son stole ($25k-$75k, unsure of the actual amount).
That seems like it sends all data home. I find that incredibly scary for something so indepth.
This is nicely done! Awesome project!
Too bad it's WebKit browser specific.
Airtime (http://airtime.com) - San Francisco, CA

Airtime is looking to hire a software developer who can help us build a platform that brings people closer together by allowing them to have great video conversations over the Internet. We are an early stage startup founded by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. Our main office is in NYC, however we are currently looking for a developer for our SF office.

The ideal candidate is self-motivated, a fast learner and passionate about building good software. He or she has a strong grasp of computer science fundamentals, experience working across different technologies, and the ability to think critically about problems and choose the right course of action.

Requirements:
- 2+ years of software engineering experience.
- The ability to write high quality code efficiently.
- Passion for learning new technologies and the ability to do so quickly.
- Understanding of modern web programming practices.
- Self-motivated and possessing strong communication skills.
- Willingness to travel to New York City.

Pluses
- Experience with Flash/ActionScript3.
- Familiarity with video codecs, protocols and wire formats.
- Experience developing iOS and Android.
- Ability to work with small teams.

You will be located in San Francisco. You will be working with a small engineering team in San Francisco and a larger engineering team in our main location in New York City. You will be traveling out to New York City periodically to work (and party!) with Airtime NYC.

To apply, please visit https://www.airtime.com/jobs and follow the instructions at the bottom of the page.
Your entire comment is presumptuous and predicated on the assumption that playing for 14 hours a day inhibits those things, which is not necessarily true. Playing might be the symptom, not the cause.
FWIW: You could have written essentially the same (fairly value-free) article about a buddy or four of mine, who have roughly the same lifestyle, with the financial support being a software business.
They wanted the behavior of flashing a set time after the button is pushed, I'd use a 555 for the flashing myself though :)
Continuous delivery automation changes enterprise deployment
As someone with no previous WoW experience, I'd like to ask: What's the respawn mechanism in that game? If you paid some people to keep killing you, could they make your game completely boring / useless, or are there separate safe and pk areas?
It's not like this was someone revealing the vulnerability, though. The first knowledge of it was an in-the-wild attack; not much you can do about it at that point.
Are any of these available as online courses (lectures+psets+questions/exams)? I didn't see them.
Very true. Right there now. We have a lot of huge clients and are an enterprise SaaS. The killer for us is having not automated QA up front. The manual monkeys with typewriters approach is killing us.
This has been going on for days (months, if it is the same thing as the November/December problems), so I assumed Yahoo knew about it.

I only care because my dentist's receptionist uses Yahoo.
I could see taking a hacker approach to it if you do periodic technical work that does automate things. I don't necessarily think you need to work constantly on the technical thing to be a technical person doing interesting things. But I do agree that most of the examples I find aren't along those lines. The guy in this story is a self-help/lifestyle blogger afaict. But maybe that's because the lifestyle bloggers are more likely to blog about their lifestyle, whereas the people doing it via technical work are more under the radar? No idea.
Who cares? Turn all e-mails off, use it as a self-updating business contact list. Works great.

btw, am I the only one who get's confused by these "I quit xxx" thinking it's a post by a former employee?
For those that are confused about this thread, the original title of this link was 'This 16yo boy from eastern europe has a better sales page than you'
LinkedIn is the best tool out there, as a software engineer, I was able to get all my recent jobs (last 5 years) only by LinkedIn and the premium membership is totally worth it. Make sure to have a good profile, good recommendations, and if you are not interested in job offers, mention it on your profile. LinkedIn is much more than a recruiting site. Prune useless connections (especially those who have LION 1000+ connections etc on their profile).
There is a Clojure and ClojureScript version called c2 at http://keminglabs.com/c2/