skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I still remember a comment he posted on an "Ask PG & other rich folks: how has your life changed since getting FU money?" thread a few years ago (pre-indictment):

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511204

"In the short-term, my life was much worse. I spent a lot of really painful time struggling to come to grips with my situation.

"After that was over, things went pretty much back to normal. There's now a low-level fear all the time of losing all the money (something PG's written about recently) and I'm constantly worried I've invested it badly. I didn't make any dramatic life changes so people don't really treat me differently.

"The biggest thing is that it provides a sort of mental backup -- when I'm feeling bad about myself or about to do something risky, I can tell myself not to worry.

"My sense is that it bears out what the happiness research says: dispositional factors are much more important than situational ones. PG was an abnormally happy person before he got rich and he's still abnormally happy. I was pretty miserable before and I'm still miserable. (The reasons are more complicated but the result is I prefer my misery.)"
I assume you mean convicted, but Ford gave Nixon one.
Scariest part of about these things is, these are victimless crimes. Barely anybody is harmed by them.

At the end its all about some prosecutor increasing his kill count.
There's a difference between unhappiness and depression.
Damn that's a great analogy. Love it. Stealing it.
Larry Page ignored Steve Jobs’ advice, and Google is doing great
A more nontrivial amount of time would likely be wasted changing the time system of 7 billion people and every computer system.

I think learning to include time zones in emails to people in different time zones might be an easier solution.
If an attacker can execute code through other attack vectors (JavaScript, Flash, or whatever), and happens to execute Java, instead of say native code, or batch files, or something else, that's not a problem with Java, it's a problem with those programs that have the vulnerability.

The only way to be safe is to take your computer, encase it in a brick of cement, and drop it in the Mariana Trench. NoScript and careful browsing habits go a long way, though.
>Can we stop the speculations until we actually know what happened? :-(

No, because:

1) we'll never know what "really happened" (even if he had left a note stating a reason one can never know if something not mentioned also weighted on him psychologically)

2) speculation is, counter to what some may think, productive. For example, it gets you questioning stuff like the legal system in the comment above.
I believe they are referring to the reddit community's tendency to go off on misguided, half-cocked witch-hunts.
Is that the case in the US? My impression is that Ford gave Nixon a blanket pardon even though Nixon had not (yet, probably) been found guilty of anything.
When I was first going through what turned into a very long diagnostic phase for some mental health (let's call them) oddities, every person involved at any stage asked, every time I talked to them, whether I had thought of suicide. At one point, I had been asked about it so much I actually started contemplating if I were to kill myself, how would I do it (mind you, this wasn't wanting to, or even entertaining the notion, but me going "Why not actually think through the reality of it?"). I came to the decision that if I were to ever kill myself, I would stab myself in the heart with a knife. Yes, it would be excruciatingly slow and painful (can't quickly stab yourself and dodge ribs, have to drive the blade extremely deep to get the heart, etc.), but it would serve a singular purpose: to signal that it wasn't a quick decision, to absolve people from feeling like there was something more they could have done and to remove all doubt about how strongly I felt about making the particular decision. When I explained this to the psychiatrist next time I was asked, his response was along the lines of "Do you think someone would be capable of that?" And the only response I had was "If they wanted to end it all that badly, yes".

All this as a long ways to get around to saying: I disagree with anything that may consider suicide appropriate in any situation as one persons personal decision and situation becomes an example or model that someone in a similar situation could look to. But, I also don't think anyone should say a particular person should not have committed suicide. Instead, what should be said is a particular person should not have felt the need to commit suicide.
Thank you for this write up. It's nice to see this rational, weighed view on the incident among reactive speculations and accusations. But why a throw-away account?
Success is relative. Most startups fail long before going public.
I'm not. Similar arguments come up every time.

I am often accused in such discussions of being an offender against some wishy-washy personal development program ("just give depression a chance, what's the worst that could happen?").

Or of being a shill for some evil master-conspiracy to turn everyone into zombies.

Or ... well lots of things, really.

I honestly don't give a fuck.

The results are in:

Treatment. Saves. Lives.

One of these days, someone will read one of my endless simple, spammy messages about seeking help and it will make them less likely to die, because they will get help.

So you know what? I think I will keep going.
In the screenshot, the Close button provides context - it's a clue saying "this is what a normal button looks like". But it's still not straight-forward enough: you have to think in order to understand that. Without that context, how would a user know whether the light button indicates "click me to switch", or whether it means "I'm active right now"?

A good UI doesn't make you think in order to to understand what an element does.
Midday GMT is defined to be when the mean sun is directly over the prime meridian.

("Mean sun" as opposed to "apparent sun" because of the Earth being a naturally occurring celestial object, rather than an idealised mathematical model. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time .)
I've certainly had periods when I felt suicide was the answer.

Basically depression so completely fucks with your head that it seems like the only option left.

Not: "this seems like a great idea".

But rather: "this is the only thing left to do".

And it's not true.
Do this: randomly generate texts to see if and how long it gets to:

- Shakespeare's literature
- a c/c++ compiler
While brainless did commit the survivorship bias, I would consider you responding to what he said rather than what he meant to be attacking a strawman.

In this case, lets consider all humans who ever considered suicide. Now, while it's true that we can only observe those who did not commit suicide, we do have a substantial amount of data on humans in general that we can work from. If this claim has you skeptical (ie "successful suicides are a separate reference class"), I will remind you we have data on suicidal people who were forcibly restrained, which you are encouraged to look up.

So now let's look at the core of brainless' argument: people change with time. If you look at happiness rates for quadriplegic patients (or any of the hedonic treadmill research), you'll see that your happiness levels aren't so impacted by life events. This effect is present in both the population of completed suicides, and aborted suicides, and is likely a lot of the causal force brainless is trying to reference.

Which is to say that it's highly likely that people who kill themselves counterfactually wish they didn't.
Another stupid scare... most idiots will blame the entire set of Java products, even though applets are just a very minor feat, almost a deprecated one... and the real threat is greatly exaggerated... there was never a major security incident in the entire history of java...
Remote Workers More Engaged, Committed
It's astonishing how often one still sees Java in device configuration web pages, ie. printers, PBX systems. It's also still used for weird hardware devices that are deployed in a lot of financial services, like signature pads. Lastly, vertical applications that don't recieve a lot of updates.

It's almost impossible to understand why java is necessary in most of these applications, but simply removing the plugin from a lot of corporate environments would disrupt vital business functions.
It really rubs me the wrong way when something like this happens and folks jump to conclusions as you have here. You didn't know this person. For all we know he could have not given two shits about the whole legal process and this is linked to family or relationship problems or long term general depression.
Psychologists have pigeonholes.

I know a lot of pigeons like you. I understand you better than you could know.

You are an atheist. You obsess on game theory and evolution and IQ. You obsess on zero sum. Zero sum captivate you like a moth to light.

It's actually like a kid playing with shit. You are sucked into dark thoughts and brought down to hell.

prisoner delema get's you charged up? ROFLMAO you're a sad little specimine.

The world is just. Relax. Let the peace of Christ let it be.

You cannot do better or worse -- it's all half a dozen one way and six the other. Highs and lows balance. If you get tortured, you get rewarded.

You sad little thing. I laugh at the painting "the scream", sad little child playing with darkness.

----

God says...

mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.

22:43 And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not
aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD:
nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people
offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.

22:44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

22:45 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he
shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Judah? 22:46 And the remnant of the
sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out
of the land.

22:47 There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king.
>I have no illusion that therapy is magically going to stop all suicides.

I think the very existence of "professional therapy" is a factor in FAVOR of depression and suicide.

It means that as a society we have compartmentalised social life, so that the help one previously expected from his family/friends (and ultimately: from the way he can structure his life) is now to be had from paid professionals (or tacky volunteers).
I don't have a screen of anything using it but I understand what he means.

A simple example:
http://s33.beta.photobucket.com/user/hfsktr/media/temp_zps28...
a media player that has the options in the image linked. Which is on and which is off? I usually guess that darker is selected but occasionally the lighter option is the one that is on.

When it is a binary question the selection is clear (or when there are other options to compare to).
The few times I've seen the options is for something like styling in a game (classic/new).
The mandate is to respond. 25,000 people signing a petition doesn't mandate action.

With a response it is acknowledged that you have been heard, likely by people very high up in the administration. That's about all you can hope for for such a simple way of gathering support.

This is a good thing. Otherwise Piers Morgan would have been deported for pissing off right wingers. What do you really expect from 25, 50, even 500K people signing an online petition? Do you want that to create law? Introduce a bill?

If you want to effect change, you need a lot more people than this, you need an organization, you need lobbying, you need to demonstrate voter support and influence...

These petitions are useful for getting some level of acknowledgment and demonstrating some level of interest in the issue. I consider them a very positive development. When people complain, they should consider what exactly it is they expect instead.
As you can see I'm not a firm believer in the 'this is my job so I do what I'm told' concept.

Everybody - including prosecutors - gets to decide what they do for themselves. If your job is so repugnant that you go after good people you have to question your own morality. Just following orders isn't good enough for me.
> You didn't know this person.

That's an assumption on your part.

And this was in response to people jumping to completely different conclusions, for instance that these things are not related at all. I wouldn't be so quick to make that call.

Maybe you feel like arguing this line with his mom? : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047398
The one at MIT, Nightline, was smart because it pitched itself as a general "call for any reason at night" number -- I called a couple times to get urgent help (after someone tried unsuccessfully to mug me, and I needed to figure out who to report to) -- not just for suicidal people.

I suspect there are depressed people who may ultimately kill themselves who, if there were some number solely for "suicidal people", would never call, but would be likely to call "call for any reason", and then get access to mental health care in addition to whatever the phone operator gives them.

Nice to see that somehow the MIT administration fucked up Nightline, too, so it's closed for a year. Good job guys!
How Online Ads Can Mislead
Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. I fail to see the relevance. The real issue here I would say is that you seem to have worked yourself up into a bit of a soul-saving frenzy, but your efforts are misplaced and frankly not appreciated. You seem not to realise that Hackernews is by and large a community of smart, stable, motivated and successful people, rather than a casualty ward for self-imploding depressives.

I would suggest you shift your efforts to a forum where people are actually starkly discussing hopelessness and self-destruction, rather than just briefly mentioning completely normal moments of weakness, and might even appreciate your help. For example, http://boards.4chan.org/r9k/. Enjoy.
I'm shocked at "life bullies".

Which lets face it is a Christian rule, and not applicable to all people.

I would like to die right now. I'm just too cowardly. There is no simple switch to do it quickly and painlessly. No way to stop others being upset. No way to stop others discovering something that may scar them. I do not wish to mess up others.

Why? I simply do not belong. I don't understand the human race at all, or the world that has been created. I want to leave, assuming I was ever part of it in the first place, which I don't think I was. Certainly not now. I want to shed my human slavery.

This is rational. It, for me, is not a label like "depression". It a conclusion based on my observation and experience. I willingly concede that others may well be different. How ever, many may not be able or willing to express it, especially given the amount of disdain and patronisation fired carelessly at people who feel this way, by people's knee jerk, ill-considered "opinion".

If you reply, be careful. Its too easy to be arrogant, ignorant and judgemental. Its too easy to trot out the usual tired incorrect tropes. Hearing or reading them just confirms conclusion.

Counselling? Don't make me laugh. I seen a few, none had anything to say. Nothing I had not already considered. Last one I tried packed it in after I left her with no where to go and she realised her profession was at best cosmetic. And that is all people have to offer, well, that or drugs. Oh yeah, be drugged up. That solves it all. Well, it might for people with things like chemical imbalances, but they do nothing by put thinkers to sleep.

Right now? I'm just waiting for it to all end peacefully, or at least quickly.

Sorry if this doesn't fit. But then, neither do I.
As Nietzsche put it: "The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night."
I live in China and we don't have daylight savings time. The sun rises at around 4AM in the summer, which really messes up my sleep habits if I forget to close the blinds before bed. Winters are about right.
It seems to me that in majority of cases suicide is simply the final symptom of a mental illness that was not or could not be treated and in that the situation is not that different from one in which someone dies for example from cancer. I don't think anyone is really saying that "he should not have committed suicide", what would that even mean really anyway, but it's OK to be sad that we don't always know how to more effectively help people in such cases.
>Understandable emotion, but the country did not kill him. He did that.

This idea is quite an easy cop out, isn't it?
Here is a thing you can do: Boycott JSTOR from now on. And refuse to publish to any journal / conference that demands $10 or more for downloading a paper that should be free (if you are not that lucky to have access to a subscription of that journal / conference).
China has one time zone for the whole country. Suffice it to say, the working/sleep hours in Urumuqi are very different from Beijing.
Nicely put, reading through your list I realise I've used half of it too! What a waste :(
Aaron Swartz did something he knew was morally right but very probably illegal in some way, and, him being a prodigy, I'm very confident he was aware of this. It is called activism, and is a very brave and noble thing to do, something most people don't have the guts for. Governments often try to break activists who threaten their agenda (or in this case, that of a dying industry), and it seems they have succeeded with him, which I find very sad and which makes me so angry.

Maybe being indicted while free may even be a bigger psychological pressure on somebody than being in prison. When you are in prison, you can focus all your energy on your case, and the situation can only get better than your current one, not worse. You have certain legal protections, and your basic needs are taken care of.

Imagine having to work a job to earn an income (your assets probably being seized) and function in society with a constant feeling of danger looming ahead. They can fuck up your life one little piece at a time. Imagine working on your defence when the computer you are using to do so can be seized at any time (some DA having convinced a judge that you may be hacking right now). Imagine restrictions on travel that make making a living even more difficult. Imagine randomly being delivered a letter with one more bogus charge.

While being free seems to be better than in prison from an objective point of view, given the workings of the threat detection system in our mind, made for tigers in the savannah, not constant worry and fear, it may be much worse. It is well known that the functioning of our "higher" abilities like creativity and critical thinking are impaired under constant stress. It's easy to conceive what this means for the feeling of self worth of somebody who lives for doing cool, meaningful, big things (one of my favourite essays ever, btw):
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity

Also, it neatly avoids the aura of illegitimacy that imprisoning peaceful activists would have for a government.

One lesson that could be learned from this is to try and consciously provide people in his situation with an environment that feels safe. Nut just a fund for legal and living expenses and therapy to cope with the stress, but much more importantly, reliable relationships with people who are supporting, compassionate and willing to listen.
I bet the part they most enjoyed was creating the initial training set.

(if it's supervised learning they use, I haven't read the paper)
Get a http://www.fitbit.com/one or Jawbone Up https://jawbone.com/up/buy.

Wife used to have a WakeMate. Worked similarly, but they have since shut down the service.
Actually we do.

The social contract is "we will protect your works, but in exchange everyone gets them after a time." This is true for patents and copyright.

We did our part, we protected their works for the period agreed, but instead of them doing their part (releasing them freely) they changed the rules at the last minute.

You make it sound like this is some small business or individual we're dealing with, which is simply a mis-characterisation. The people who made these works are dead, these are corporations.
Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful.

Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable.

Aaron's mother
Seems like they do, though, because you only mentioned "depression" and how "it's treatable", in describing this particular case, and not one line about his prosecution.

Many a totally non-depressed people have committed suicide under prosecution. Heck, many non-depressed people even became depressed under prosecution.
Aaron was an old friend of mine, I really appreciate you making this.
Supporting your (hypothetical reasoning, yes), I'd rather say that it is in most cases inexistent (at least from a relevance point of view): the urge can be so overpowering that 'responsibility' becomes almost meaningless.

That is why support is so so so so so so so important.
This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
21 Little Known Ways to Double the Chances of Getting Referrals
Lets abolish time altogether. Time is only a human concept. It doesn't exist in nature. There is only now. There isn't a now minus n, or now plus n. Because when you get to now plus/minus n, it is called now.
> By the time you are contemplating suicide, it's not even close.

This is classic begging the question. One could easily say someone who claims suicide is never a rational option is the altered one. It must be seriously condescending for those trying to help someone contemplating suicide to offer such plainly specious arguments against it, especially if that person is the contemplative type. It likely does more harm than good.
I think I was too loose (read "wrong") in my nomenclature. I wrote "The IUPAC InChI keys are.." when I should have written "The IUPAC InChI strings are.." There's the long InChI string, and the shorter InChi key. The key is the hash form of the string.

Generating the hash is, as you say, trivial given the InChI string. Computing the InChI string in the first place is not. It requires molecular perception of the input graph. For example, which of the hydrogen positions are mobile (eg, can be identical under tautomerization) and which are fixed? It also requires generating the canonical graph representation, which is done via a variation of the nauty algorithm. Usually it's quite fast. Some structures can take longer. By default there's a 60 second timeout.

I haven't worked with the InChI code for a while, so I don't know what the performance numbers are. An output log from 2009 shows "Finished processing 2186 structures: 0 errors, processing time 0:00:05.93." or 369/second = 2.7ms. Perhaps its under 1.0 ms now?

You estimated 323 milliseconds/record based on the numbers I gave. However, I did not describe the step which turns 977 million compounds into the actual number to evaluate. I would also include the combinations replacing Cl with F and with Br, and I would replace at most two of the nitrogens with a phosphorous. I may also have to try different hydrogen counts, depending on the types of structures in GDB-13. I guessed that this would require about 100x as much compute time as the base 977 million structures.

This is all meant as very rough estimates. It's only been a background thought until now, and I hadn't written it up before. In any case, the parameters are all quite tunable, in that I could crank up or down the problem size to match the available CPU time and researcher patience.