skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If you're running a modern OS you can use multiple desktops. why not use a desktop switch - with another browser running your personal account. you could switch back and forth with a key command and maintain the separation. Or if you have the power, run a VM and do it in that.
Ask HN: why does the TIOBE index omit HaXe, CoffeeScript and Vala?
Neither CoffeeScript nor HaXe or Vala figure in the 2013 TIOBE index [1]. If I had to guess I'd say all of them are more widely used than most included in the >50 group, and the index does feature "transpiled" languages like Dart and Fantom.

They claim to use search engines and other web resources to compile the listing, what could account for these missing? Are they really less common than Dart, Eiffel, Gambas, Dylan, etc?

[1] http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
I have no idea whether or not that image is accurate, but it's worth noting the image deals solely with mobile-related patents. This lawsuit was related to the H.264 on the Xbox.
IIRC, they were started by Motorola but Google continues them after Motorola became part of Google. Some companies have better PR departments but generally, that's the only difference when it comes to wireless patents.
Paul, I'm disappointed to see this from you. Calling someone a “hater”, no matter how carefully and eruditely you define the term, is still an ad hominem attack intended to dismiss their opinion. It's a DH1 on your disagreement hierarchy.

I visit Hacker News because, while not perfect, it does the best job of any internet forum I know of minimizing that kind of cheap attack. It worries me to see the person who created that forum publicly setting a bad example like this. You're basically saying, “ur all just haters, forget u guyz!!1” even if, superficially, the words you use seem smarter and more reasonable. And beyond being an unconvincing argument, I don't think it reflects well on you to be stooping so low (and flat-out insulting so many people) to defend your investment.
Oh I'm saying "told you so". Since years and years.

The real problem is the very mentality of the people who downplay security issues, always saying "this is not a serious issue" (or, worse, saying "but language xxx / framework yyy" suffers from issues too, it's how the world works).

That mentality is the reason why such exploits do exist in the first place. Security is nearly always an afterthought.

The most braindead argument being: "My goal is to sell xxx, not to have an unbreakable server".

Once you read that one, you know you have reached the low of the low.
A science game for kids
TL;DR

The author had two Kindles which both died with the symptom of lines showing on the screen, and ended up getting stuck in warranty hell with Amazon.

AFAIK this is the display controller going bad, which is a seems to be a pervasive and persistent problem with e-ink displays; I had a much-loved Hanlin V5 in 2009 that was very well taken care of which succumbed to this after only a few years of ownership.
Abstractions acts as a cognitive tool for you to think about problems and solving them. Whole human civilization is based on abstractions. Numbers are themselves abstraction, other notations based on numbers uses numbers to create other abstractions and so on.

As far as coming up with innovative idea is concerned, if you start digging into abstractions and taking things apart at low level, you will be overwhelmed with so many concepts that you wont be able to see simple patterns and solutions and will be tied up in the complexity because of the limitations of human brain.

We build abstractions to overcome our brain limitations and still be able to innovate.
1,500 miles of high voltage transmission lines would cost a lot ($billions). Much more than the economic benefit of sharing power resources across the distinct markets.

AEMO's National Transmission Network Development Plan [0] describes in great detail how they foresee investments in the (eastern) grid infrastructure. As a frame of reference, just upgrading a couple transformers to increase the transfer capacity between South Australia and Victoria will cost tens of millions.[1]

[0] http://aemo.com.au/Electricity/Planning/National-Transmissio...
[1] http://www.electranet.com.au/assets/Uploads/interconnectorfe...
Background - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Relations_Series
> I think if you are working at a scale where this is even ridiculously relevant then you will prefer to manually specify required libraries and maintain a closer understanding of control flow at all times.

I work at a scale where this is extremely relevant, and autoloading is a godsend. Manually including files is not only error-prone, but is tedious and requires development effort [time] that would be best utilized elsewhere.

> [...] this particular approach ('autoload') costs too much and delivers too little to be generally praiseworthy

Costs too much? Have you not implemented it? It's not hard at all to implement, even if you have an unorthodox file & class naming convention. The only caveat is that you can only have 1 class per file (which hopefully you'd agree is good practice in the first place).

Performance increases can be pretty large, too, especially at scale. Consider class A, which in some methods requires access to class B. You _could_ put the include inside those methods, but I can guarantee you that you'll see a noticeable performance hit if that method is called in iteration (we're talking a few seconds worth of time if iterated 1000+ times). That's non-trivial. So, what do you do? You could move it to the top of the file, so that it will only be required once. However, the problem here is you end up with 5-10+ includes at the top of every file. So now when you require that one file, you're now requiring an additional 5-10+ files, each with their own possible set of includes. I've seen instances of needing to require a single file result in having 100+ files being required due to the cascading. With an autoloader, that 100+ goes back to 1.

> whilst harming simplcity

This couldn't be further from the truth. You will have less LoC overall, less developer time spent trying to get the perfect set of includes so that you only require them once and only when they're needed. You will have fewer bugs due to the problems with manual includes, which again, means more time for developers to actually do stuff that matters.
I think that you are right that there are some people that will not become happier or more healthy if they got more money. More money does mean "distinguishment" to them. I think we could describe American upper and middle class people in this way.

The vast majority of the people in America and the rest of the world are not upper or middle class. They want both "distinguishment" AND health, because both could improve. Look at health problems and obesity and the poverty line and education rates. Look at what happens to the birth rate when you introduce economic stability and health care access that can more or less guarantee the survival of your children.
Prim's algorithm: an analogy for life
IPad would be America's 11th largest tech company
I have only had great experiences so far with their customer service. Let me count the ways:

1. My girlfriend really wanted to join too. I sent them a message about this and they sent her an invite that day (this was before invitation were available to current customers).

2. They emailed me to ask why I wasn't using my account. I said I don't have direct deposit because I'm a freelancer, so it didn't make sense for me to use until they had check deposit. They said that makes sense, and a few weeks later they invited me to beta test their check deposit feature.

3. I asked about the possibility of giving goals the ability to withdraw a percentage of check deposited rather than a certain amount every day, since my income is variable. I got a response from someone saying they had just put in a request for that feature, and it should be on the horizon.

4. They've happily answered all sorts of weird questions regarding my particular circumstances, and indulged me more than any customer service people I've ever talked to.

This service is not perfect yet, but every indication I've seen suggests everyone there really wants to do well, and they really are trying to build a customer focused bank. After trying it out for a few months, I'm planning on moving most of my banking to my simple account.
"The only gains to be had from intimately understanding underlying structures are to be found in performance optimizations."

Or, you know, being able to effectively troubleshoot when something breaks or when abstractions leak.
Guess we'll see if the data is as interesting as American football...
It was very stressful, the IT department at the law firm I worked at had a 90% turnaround for over four years that I worked there. They treated us like dirt/crap. For example I had to call Seagate Software for Crystal Report issues and their tech support number was in Canada. Everything a law firm does is tagged to a client and matter number for accounting purposes. I used the office numbers because it was business related. Since it was in Canada there was no 1-800 or toll free number, so they took the cost of the calls (what they usually bill the clients for LD calls) out of my paycheck because it was Canada. I asked to be reimbursed because it is business related, and they refused, telling me not to call Canada anymore as they only want to deal with US based companies. Keep in mind that Crystal Reports was bundled with Visual Studio 5.0/6.0 back then and they paid for Crystal Reports 7.0 to give everyone that nifty Web based server that gave them RTF, Word, Excel, and PDF files on the fly. It had a lot of bugs, and you had to talk to Seagate (I think they changed names or got bought out since there, Business Objects, SaS, whatever) which was located in Canada. I got so upset that I bought a LD calling card to make those calls.

Moving from Windows 95 and Office 97 to Windows 2000 and Office 2000 was a nightmare, because there were bugs and I was told Microsoft was aware of it and will fix it in the next service pack. We had gone to the latest and greatest of Microsoft's software instead of waiting for service packs to be released to address bugs so it is more stable. My Fax program used a Word Object to copy RightFAX codes into a document and print with a RightFax printer driver to fax out documents. Problem was Word 2000 had a bug that messed up the toolbar after a document was closed using the Word object in Visual BASIC. Microsoft admitted the bug, but didn't release a service pack to fix it yet. Management didn't understand that and had me search MSDN for a solution or maybe a beta service pack to address the issue. Then I am chewed out for wasting five hours searching the MSDN knowledgebase for a solution. I forget how we fixed it, but the work-a-round from Microsoft was to minimum Word 2000 and then restore it and the toolbar bug went away after that. After the service packs were released the bug went away.

While working for that company I suffered a nervous breakdown from the abuse and stress, and ended up on short-term disability, when I returned I was fired two weeks later for having a panic attack at work. They had moved me to an open area, no more cubical, near a bookshelf, and people mocked me and laughed at me as they walked by.

I had the right to sue, but because I am mentally ill, no lawyer would take the case. I am considering writing an ebook on the computer industry, as well as another ebook on what lead up to me becoming mentally ill and no longer able to work as a result.

Yes it was not a good work environment, it ruined my life and career.
The Story of the Ping Program
Today We Learned That Verizon Is Going To Save The World
Java Experts on the State of Java
She is Already interested in what i do... I am not gonna force her do anything..

The odds of her getting some value out of it, I am not sure...
That Will be an interesting follow up post may be 10 years later..
Microsoft Messenger is No More: Migrating Users to Skype
Neither would I, but this was back during the Dotcom crashes when jobs were hard to find because the market was flooded with people looking for work.

You also don't know it until after you are hired, and you find out they install remote access trojans on your Windows workstation, and count the number of characters you type, and monitor your Internet use and don't know the difference between a work related site, a non-work related site, or just accessing ASP rendered pages on the Intranet I was developing for them. Basically it was a Big Brother type of organization, a law firm in downtown Saint Louis MO.
Your response terrifies me even further. You don't see a problem with giving the police extreme powers?

How about the police pulling up outside a neighborhood and making everyone get in a line for TSA-like gropes and clone everyone's cellphone because there were some crimes in the area recently (this actually happens now, not entire neighborhoods but select individuals at their whim).

Tell me where you draw the line and how police won't immediately abuse any power they are given? Let me know how you feel after your first encounter with the police someday.
We do have metering lights (mostly just red and green, one car per cycle) on most of the on ramps in the Bay Area, but a lot of them do not get turned on, even when the freeway is congested and those that do turn on tend to turn off at the end of the official high traffic time, instead of at the end of high traffic (although they usually are adaptive to unscheduled low traffic).

In the South Bay Area, there is also usually a major shortage of space to queue behind a traffic meter or to allow for acceleration after a meter. CalTrans knows how to properly design freeways, they do it in Southern California, but up here, they don't show it.
Show HN: Kera.io – convert your screencasts into in-app tutorials
Let us agree in giving the Rails secuity team many well-deserved thanks!

We on the sidelines primarily criticise as a stage of our shock and grief. That the patches keep flowing is unsettling in the short term but reassuring in the long term.

Thanks again everyone who dropped everything and worked so hard to get this set of fixes out!
I wish I played an instrument.

I intern for startup in Chicago. We help nonprofits receive donations. Zealousgood.com
I'd read somewhere that the pattern of where skyscrapers can and cannot be built in Manhattan has to do with the depth of the bedrock at various places on the island.

EDIT - Apparently this has been 'debunked', although the debunking might just be an alternate theory.
http://observer.com/2012/01/uncanny-valley-the-real-reason-t...
Stratfor isn't really a news media company like the times or a tv station. IIRC they sell analysis & forecasting services to governments and large corporations.

The author of this article wrote a book called The Next 100 Years which is a pretty interesting read.
There will always be impoverished people. Capitalism provides the best opportunity to choose not to be.
The conclusion came out of the blue without any sort of justification:

"""
Is it true that if the Labor Department cracked down on these internships and forced companies to pay the minimum wage, there would be fewer unpaid internships and students would be deprived of an invaluable experience that, as we established, can be worth more than a college education? Yes.
"""
Google Play Will Beat Apple App Store To 1,000,000 Apps
I still believe you may not understand the difference between a language and a framework.
So? If a student does not have their badge, the teacher just marks them present by hand. If a bandge does not have its student, the system marks that student present automaticly. Either way, the school gets payed.
a) Knuth does not solve "typical" problems.

b) Despite his obvious knowledge about algorithms and data structures, Knuth may not be able to see advantages that many others see.

EDIT: Oh, and what is the source of that quote?
Sure, I guess the circumstance that would concern me is if I worked for years.
Ask HN: How Do I Get In To A Top CS Grad School?
I've been out of college (B.Sc. in CS) for about 9 months now, and working as a software engineer / web developer for 6 months now. I've decided I want to go to grad school in the next couple of years, but only if I can get into a top program.

The problem is, I'm very average on paper. I got a 3.34 GPA, and 161 Quantitative, 159 Verbal GRE scores.

So what can I do now to get myself into a top graduate program for C.S.? It feels like a hopeless desire now.
Braudel is a fantastic historian in his own right, but especially important in this context in that he started his career as an overt Marxist who wanted to contribute to Marx's theory by supplying the actual history on which it depended. That is to say, a history told not from the perspective of popes and princes, but one based on material data about the world's great systems; macro-economic factors like weather patterns and the price of grain. This was supposed to be the vantage point from which the nefarious dynamic of capital would reveal itself most clearly, with the underlying data providing an empirical basis for Marx's economic theory, thereby grounding the whole enterprise in reality.

As it turned out, materialist history did provide a very revealing perspective, but not the one Braudel anticipated. Quite the opposite. Among its many revelations was the unavoidable fact that Marx's assertions about history simply weren't supported by the facts. Over time, Braudel found his reverence waning. Eventually, his loss of faith turned into outright rejection. That said, were it not for Marx, Braudel's absolutely brilliant history may never have been written. And that would be a shame, since the materialist approach that Braudel pioneered has become more relevant than ever in our own data-driven age.

http://www.amazon.com/Civilization-Capitalism-15th-18th-Cent...
Aaron is the only person on core who is paid to work on Rails. (Among other things.)

I am a committer, and part of my job is to work on open source. Ish.

Other than that, it's everyone else's spare time, IIRC.
Those damn lights are terrible. We have them in Auckland where one authority controls motorway a (freeway) an another the local roads. The lights cause banking up at on ramps, blocking local roads. The motorway flow is improved, sure, but local single lane roads become impassable for hours. The lights just shift the problem here in Auckland.
This is what the institute said. It is not the logic the court used when tossing her case.

Religious liberty has limits. The government is merely required to make reasonable accomodations for religion; it is not required to bend over for religion. Importantly, the use of id badges/bracelets was wholly secular (i.e, no religious or antireligious purposes.)

The school offered, as a reasonable accomodation, for the girl to wear a normal id badge without any sort of rfid or other technology. There were no further accomodations the school could reasonably make without burdening everyone else: the teachers, administrators, her fellow students. Thus, requiring further accomodation for her religious beliefs was not reasonable. After all, the girl has the option of going to private school if she truly believes that a simple id badge is against her religion.
Rails vulnerability commit, 6 years ago
When your house is burning down, you should brush your teeth
Don't bother. No amount of evidence can overcome these ideologues biases.
They're both about public shaming for sex acts.
Because socialism or communism works so much better right? People are especially envious of the great freedom people in North Korea are enjoying? Same as Cuba? Venezuela? Argentina? (wanna change your currency to another one in Argentina to hedge yourself against a very strong inflation? you can't, because the socialist state won't let you do that)

What's next after Karl Marx? That the homophobic racist murderer that was the Che Guevara was correct?

The thing that saddens me the most on a forum supposedly made of entrepreneurs trying to create wealth is to see that there are so many people who are still failing for the poisonous words of a corrupt few who would have just loved to rule the earth: be it Kim-Jong Ill or Kim-Karl Marx, it makes me very very scared.

The first thing socialists and communists tries to do is to ruin everyone and reinforce the power of the state.

I choose freedom. Even if it means bubbles and crises.

I prefer that to slavery.

"Better dead than red".

Thankfully I'm not alone.
The point was that it was not reasonable for the school to go beyond letting her use an ID badge (which based on prior reports was the previous means of tracking students). The purpose of the RFID system was to improve their student tracking, which would improve the school's funding situation.

And why should they have offered her an exception? Giving in to silly demands like this girl's (refusing the badge, not the RFID tracker) would subject the school to infinitely more silly demands, all couched in "religious beliefs."
I think it's a lot simpler and sadder than what we want to admit. Most viewers of Fox News are pretty old, and most viewers/readers of liberal media have high paying white collar jobs.

Most people are working multiple jobs and don't interact with politics, so they more or less don't have to be appeased to. They are just trying to pay their bills.
No we don't.

These are poisonous words made by people dreaming of a world made of slaves. Dreaming of a world where the word "freedom" would be forbidden.

The last thing we need now in a time of crisis is socialists or communists trying to push their agenda.
Holy cow. I just figured out how to send the payload. This thing is seriously bad news.

I still haven't figured out an attack vector yet, but least I now know that my patches are working!
Nice website. Well done.
As the other commenter said, it would actually be pretty dumb to cancel a conference that's already bought and paid for, unless it's for pure CYA PR reasons. I used to work in the meetings and events industry and I can confidently say that the organizers of the AIG conference at the St Regis probably never imagined that it would turn into a PR debacle, because that kind of event is absolutely ordinary. They would not have considered it extravagant at all.

Consider this: you're having a conference for multimillionaire corporate executives and top performers. People who usually work in different locations are coming in to meet together and perhaps bring their spouses for some hobnobbing, strategy talks, and teambuilding exercises. Where do you think they're going to stay? The Motel 6? When you're paying someone a high six figure salary plus bonuses, is it really a scandal to pay $300 for a hotel room?

And by the way, if the rooms "can cost $1000 per night" and you rent out two hundred rooms for your event, if you ended up paying more than $300 per room, you should fire your meeting planner.
Heading to Harvard
Google to offer free Wifi in NYC
I thought this could go unstated, but presumably the intention is to encourage the attendance of students, not badges.
hey seb, ACH = automated clearing house[1]. It's the US network for moving funds between two bank accounts. ACH is a push & pull system, but our API only supports push.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Clearing_House
btw, on my system the `brew install` failed giving an error about "make the appropriate changes to your system". When I tried installing pyquery I realized it requires sudo access to write to /Library. I was able to install using "sudo python setup.py install". (pip gave a stack trace).

Tried "howdoi split string zsh" and it gave me a good answer.
Convert Fujifilm Camera Video with Professional Fujifilm Video Converter
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Maybe that is the problem in India, everyone is trying to overide the system. If there is a loophole, let me exploit it.