skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This article should be subtitled "How to lie with statistics". The author is comparing absolute numbers of bank failures over time, and completely ignoring the fact that not all bank failures have the same impact. In particular, if a failed bank has 100 times as many customers, its failure will affect 100 times as many people -- and the failing banks of 2008/09 are much bigger than the failing thrifts of the 80s and 90s.
As a web developer, you'll also probably need to test in Windows and IE. For that, get Fusion or Parallels and you can have Windows and OSX running side by side.
In case anyone is interested in trying it, here's a good single-player simulator:

http://www.atc-sim.com/

If you want to try it live with other humans:

http://www.vatsim.net/

Not easy. Try memorizing all of this: http://www.laartcc.org/training/index2.php
Ask HN: How to spend a marketing budget of $US 2k per month?
Hi HNers,

We are a startup in the casual gaming space, beta for a couple months, just hit 10,000 users and picking up pace. Main demographic is teenage - 20 something girls.

Haven't spent any money on marketing, so far just done a bit of posting on some relevant game sites and forums/social networks.

Now we're growing and will close a seed round shortly, we're putting aside $2k per month for marketing budget (vast majority remains on development).

We know viral/referral is the only long term strategy but want to spend a bit to gain an initial audience.

Question - how would you spend that budget?
There may be a generation or two of robot that is deployable in some battlefield scenario in some autonomous capacity, but can not make that determination as well as a human. That will, however, be an anomaly that is rapidly corrected, followed immediately by it making the determination better than a human.

(It should be pointed out that we are hardly perfect at recognition tasks. When discussing robot/computer vs. human capabilities, people often slip in the assumption that humans are perfect at the task in question, usually unconsciously. That is never true. Humans have error rates too.)
Oh I should have made that more clear. Corel was in utah (well a division of it at least) after they merged/bought word perfect. They basically changed the name on the business park to Corel and went about business as usual. And when I say in the shadow of I mean both figuratively and literally as the business park sat up on the hill overlooking my jr high and it felt like that was my destiny if I didn't want to work at Geneva Steel. Oddly I did work down by geneva steel as a vw mechanic before delving into computers full time.
When a Feature Isn't a Business
The historical correlation between the in-your-faceness of war, and the amount of war, is negative. (The news fools you; on a per-capita basis, the amount of war is going down. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth...)

There is no actual evidence that making war bloody and costly is an effective strategy for preventing it.
Excuse me, "PC" does not mean "Windows computer", so I'd pick a PC and install some Linux distro.
Sony won't be going anywhere anytime soon, sure their sales are dwindling in a different market but I'm sure the ps3 will be able to make it through another generation of consoles just like the ps2 just now they have to rely on their other businesses. For Sony that shouldn't be very hard.
PC running Linux is your best bet. Take the money they save versus buying a Mac and use it for a second monitor which I find to be one of the most important development tools. Having your code and browser open at the same time will make your life that much easier.
How Baseball Players Catch Fly Balls
> people that stand to benefit most from the voucher program do not pay enough property taxes to cover the cost of private schools

How do you know how much tax they pay? I can bet you that most people pay more taxes than the value of the voucher program. Why not then abolish the education part of taxation completely and let everyone else decide where to school their children with private money? Or would that lose its coercive effect that you desire?

> My whole argument is that we shouldn't force people to pay for religions they don't subscribe to.

What if a tax payer opposes not sending children to schools of their choice? If 10% of the tax payers are of a certain religion then logic dictates that about 10% of children's parents would belong to that religion.

Religious people can choose religious schools, secular people can choose secular schools or (what happens more often) they choose the same private school and religious people choose religious classes.

> I never said that the state should force parents to raise their kids secularly.

What you said was “I am against someone imposing their religion on others--even their own children.”. The only way you would be able to accomplish that is with state interference (i.e. policing parents to ensure that they do not impart any religion on their children).

> I am not trying to impose my beliefs on anybody, and I am not asking anybody for money to help me impose my beliefs.

If you tax the public and use that money to provide education that fits your specified view (e.g. totally secular/irreligious) then you are imposing your beliefs on someone else.

That is because if a parent wants their children to have a religious education, they would have to pay double for it (once through taxation and once through school fees). The only thing that these vouchers do is preventing parents from paying double for their children's school fees.
It is not true that "all education is indoctrination." If I teach you how to make a fire then have I somehow coerced you into a fire-based belief system? If I teach you how to add two numbers then have I introduced you to the religion of numbers? No, I've just given you some facts. If I teach you a process by which you can educate yourself then have I somehow brainwashed you? I don't see how.

It is hard to keep indoctrination seperate from education. But, it isn't impossible.
Teaching Chinese for free -- Video lessons from youtube channel
Ask HN: What's the right way to authenticate survey takers?
Right now I'm using Facebook Connect to (and only to) check for real-personhood and ensure that each real person only takes the survey once. I'm really worried that since FB Connect allows me to hypothetically snarf user data and post to the Facebook wall, on top of the basic fact that you need to enter your Facebook credentials, I'll scare off lots of prospective participants.

Is there a better way to do this? Google accounts just shift the problem. I track IPs but those are neither sensitive nor specific. I'm running a general population data collection survey, so it can't have any domain-specific barrier.
I have a Mac and a PC and I feel more productive on a PC. I think the main reason for this is that I'm a "maximised windows" kinda guy and switching between windows and tasks feels much more smooth and simple for me in Windows. It may sound like a small thing but because the OS X dock deals with apps, not windows, it can be a pain switching between open windows (yes I'm aware of shortcut keys etc). Also the tendency of OS X to clutter the screen with open windows (which it seems most people are happy with) really frustrates me. Spaces alleviates this somewhat, but I much prefer something like Photoshop on Windows, for example. Much cleaner.

Having said that, the shell in OS X is really useful and a lot of Linux stuff you'll be using (Python for example) feels nicer in that shell than under Windows. Others here have commented on the "unix core" and it definitely is a benefit.

For me, though, I'm content to use Windows and Putty/VNC into my Linux box when required.

If you can, play with a Mac before you buy it. Developers tend to be a picky bunch so what works for others may not work for you.
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Forget shortening URLs. Howabout shrinking images? ;-)

http://tinysrc.net/
Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics
Another example of the dangers of following Joel's advice on software managment. If you think your company is like his... it's probably not.

I'm sure it works amazingly at his company, but his is almost always the exception to the rule.
I second that. Sure, you could get productive on Windows and Linux, but they're definitely not low maintainence. Plus, you could always install Windows using BootCamp or VMWare Fusion.

I wrote a blog entry on this. although it's from a hobbyists's perspective: http://blog.uncool.in/2009/03/10/thoughts-on-using-a-mac-as-...
Confessions of an Alien Hunter
who here is talking about their gaming division specifically? Sony has been screwing up in all their core businesses for years with poor customer service and poor prices:features. As a result their revenues are way down.
I believe the problem has to do with anger. The kind of deep-seated anger that festers and drives people to do things they would not normally do. So how do you reduce that anger? It's simple. The best way is maintain a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Doing so will allow healing to take place which will lessen that anger. There might be other ways such as exercise, yoga, meditation etc, but these are not nearly as effective as maintaining that relationship. This can be done by going to church, being a good person, minimizing things that drive the spirit away such as pornography. I know this may not be a popular viewpoint amongst people who prefer not to believe in God but for the vast majority of the world's population, this is sound and effective advice.
You're doing web development, not building a supercomputer or trying to run your laptop as a high-performance server. That level of RAM is entirely unnecessary on a machine used for dev.
"credentialed teachers"

see pg's essay on credentialism for my feelings.

you have state certified teachers teaching a similar curriculum in the way that they were taught (the state certified way). This is a far cry from a truly independent education that is accountable to no one but the customers.
Great essay that points out, I think, the strength of Joel's system. The author cites the primary weakness of the system as being that it doesn't translate to non-programmers. He also (correctly, as far as I know) points out that Joel has the advantage of only really having to worry about programmers.

But then, I think that's the whole point of Joel's system. Sales people are paid on commission because it's a direct reflection on their skills. Likewise, I think that assistants and tech support staff probably should be allowed to negotiate since negotiation is a key skill to their position. Where Joel's system works is that a programmer's primary skill set does not involve selling and does not require negotiation/interpersonal skills (at least, not as a primary concern).

I think the only problem the author really had (aside from the apparent disinterest in seeing the system through) was one of messaging.
Images scaled for every mobile phone screen
You need a *NIX system with some sort of port system (i.e. MacPorts, aptitude, etc.) and the ability to open VM's to test a bunch of the configurations that come up. Mac, Ubuntu both qualify. Windows is sorta possible via Cygwin.

Particularly since work is buying the computer, I'd get a Mac for the hardware, and then decide what OS to throw on it later. You can run whatever you want on a shiny new Macbook Pro.
On the same token, a Mac is a PC.
When I said "I am against someone imposing their religion on others--even their own children," I meant exactly what I said and no more. In particular, I didn't say anything about the government policing parents regarding their religious practicies.

I totally support a tax rebate program that could be used for both religious and secular private schools. That way parents do not have to "pay double" to send their kid to private school. But, that is not the effect that the voucher program has, because of our progressive tax system.
My work just bought me a mac book pro, and coming from a souped up desktop running Linux, there were some upsides and downsides. Personally I would pick Apple hardware if you can get it and run OS X, but if you've never used Linux or OS X, odds are good that unless you really want to rethink how you use your computer, Windows is going to be the best choice for an operating system. One of the benefits of OS X, as others have mentioned, is the Unix core, but the applications for OS X are really awesome as well - Textmate, CSS Edit, Things. However, if you normally develop on Windows, the application centric vs window centric model of OS X takes some getting used to. Personally I prefer OS X's window manager over Windows, but that's just me.
get a mac pro with gobs of ram. thats what i got a couple years ago. use it to rock vm instances of windows/linux/solaris whatever. mac is, by far, the leading dev tool in this space.

going to various computer/dev conferences over the years it was hard to not notice the rise of apple laptops to the point where they are at least 60% of all laptops seen at these conferences.

nevertheless, whatever you do - mac or pc - be sure to get at least two monitors. studies have shown, and i can attest, that multiple monitors is the number one thing you can do to increase your productivity.

my rig:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9864615@N06/756229467/
I helped start "The Case Project Club" at my school. We just changed the name of the old battlebots club and kept all of the purchased equipment. It turns out that battlebots sounds more cool that generic projects, because we ended up getting less money from the student activity fund in the end.

The battlebots association was dropped because the show moved to england and people just lost interest. The club roster dwindled down to one member, but people started coming to our club room to work on projects with our equipment. It was a natural change.
I disagree. Doing web dev, you could easily be running a browser with multiple tabs, web servers, db servers, and a handful of virtual machines all at the same time. The more RAM you have, the smoother it all runs. That is unless you like nice little pauses when you switch apps. If you have a 32 bit system, you should have 3GB if you can. 64 bit, throw in 6 or 8 GB. Memory's cheap.
Pick the PC.

If you happen to be starting at the place I work, the only way I can get a Mac is if new employees say they want a PC. Otherwise I'm stuck. I don't know if I'm next on the list, but even if not that'd get me one step closer to my Mac.

So, yes. That's why you should pick a PC.
if someone pays for me: mac

if i have to buy myself: used pc for sale, install openbsd/ubuntu and i'm ready

but of course ...

no vim ... no work
How is this different from an arc lamp / high-intensity discharge lamp as used in spotlights and car headlamps?
There's a reason why the motto of any outfield is "FIRST STEP BACK!"
One has to consider that he is simply investing after almost everyone else screwed up. This could be a great opportunity but results are not yet in. It important to consider this.
It turns out that I am wrong:

http://gist.github.com/90381
Laptop or desktop?

If it's a desktop, I won't comment, that's entirely up to you (maybe others have advice) - I haven't used a desktop regularly in at least a year. If it's a laptop, though, unless you work in a totally Windows-centric environment, a MacBook Pro is the only choice (even in a Windows shop, I'd consider it since you can dual boot and the hardware itself is really nice). Get one N-O-W.

Seriously - these things are freaking awesome, ever since I got one I can't imagine ever buying anything else. I've never met a person that bought one and didn't absolutely love it. First laptop I've ever had that didn't feel like a cheap plastic toy...

Go for a 15" matte screen, though - the bigger ones are too cumbersome, and the glossy screens just suck.
Other than excel having some floating-point arithmetic problems, what difference does it make what tool he uses?

Most things are linear to a first approximation anyway.
tiled wm like ion3, wmii, dwm open new windows automatically maximized

no need to use mouse to scroll, move, resize, min, max window ... huge time saver
freaking awesome.
Keanu pires bio trivia
I hate those people and I want to smack every one of them up side the head.
Yeah, it's funny how the NYT never mentions one important - get involved and improve the school where you live!
NYT articles with a NYC focus are fascinating to me as an outsider. One thing that jumps out at me, spending my entire life west of the Mississippi river, is that NYC appears to just give their schools numbers:

Public Schools 6, 59 and 290 on the Upper East Side, and P.S. 87 on the Upper West Side

In the states I've lived in the schools have always had "friendly" names, and are never referred to by their numbers, if they even have one.

Furthermore, the phenomenon described in the article reeks of "helicopter parenting", and seems like it might be particularly easy to find in (nearly unique to) NYC. I have no data to back up my prejudice, but between the stereotype of overbearing New England parents and the probable variance in school qualities in an urban area it's not surprising.

In the midwest where I grew up and in Seattle where I live now it's not particularly common to stress over where your children go to school; you optimize if convenient, but most of the choices are pretty good. Likewise, my perception about life in Houston was that some of the schools were pretty bad but given the low cost of living anyone who cared either already lived in the suburbs or made so much money that they could easily afford to send their kids to another school.
I second that. Sure, you could get productive on Windows and Linux, but they're definitely not low maintainence [sic].

Nor are Macs. Every piece of software needs to be updated manually, as there is no system-wide update manager. If you want to install UNIX software (like C libraries that your language needs to bind to), you will need to install some sort of ports system, and maintain that. (When I used a Mac a few years ago, none of the ports systems all had the latest versions of packages I needed, so I had more than one installed. This was a fucking nightmare to maintain.)

Anyway, this (along with Apple's evil-ness) is what killed OS X for me. Yeah, it's really pretty, but it is too hard to maintain. Debian is much better. It is never missing anything I need, and full-system updates are just an apt-get away.

For programming, nothing beats a good UNIX system, as long as you are willing to learn how to use it properly.
I disagree. I find virtual desktops much easier to use than looking at a monitor that isn't in my field of vision. I would rather press a key than make my body uncomfortable.

(For this technique to work, though, you need to be very comfortable with the keyboard, and you obviously have to disable desktop-switch eye candy. Not a problem with xmonad ;)
Public schools in the US are known to have uneven quality from state to state-- something that is perhaps unavoidable since each state sets its own standards, funding, etc. But why does school quality have to vary so much within a city/school system?

I've always been suspicious that, "we can't live here, the schools aren't good enough for little Johnny!" actually means something like, "We can't live here, little Johnny might have to go to school with black people!". :(
This story reminded me of an article which I read on here some time ago: http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php . It was fun to contrast the two.

It was interesting how the founders were disenchanted with the idea of having to peddle their solutions to merchants and not scientists. I wonder if we can devise a better system for scientific and academic pursuits. I know my university is potentially laying off CS lecturers, while protecting the nano and biotech departments--posturing for grant and loan money. Much like in the article, it always is unfortunate when politics dooms an otherwise forward-thinking endeavor.
a MacBook Pro is the only choice

Why do you say that? Thinkpads are built much better, and IMHO are better-looking. You should only get a MacBook Pro if you want to run OS X. If you are going to run Windows or a UNIX, you definitely want a Thinkpad.

(Only disadvantage is that Thinkpads are a real pain in the ass to buy. "Ships in more than 4 weeks." Fuck.)
It's not the same. If you say "Mac or PC", it is understood that you mean "Apple computers, or other type of general-purpose personal computers, i.e., non-Mac PCs". But if we interpret "PC" only as "Windows computer", then there's this huge number of OSes we're not taking into account, since we're just considering OS X and Windows.
Indeed it's wild. Didn't mention in my orig. post but at the ESC demo Ewing made the point that given the various overheads typical performance is closer to 100 kbps and bursty FWIW. Still fast compared to my first POTS modem which ran at 2.4 kbps.
I'd argue there is really no such thing as a low maintenance developer system. Any good developer will need to customize their environment alot to be as productive as possible, and this means different things for different developers. Personally I choose linux because I like the development tools available there best and find it easiest to make any changes I need. That said though, OSX and Windows are perfectly legitimate choices for different people. From what I've seen though, OSX is no more low maintenance for your average developer's "requirements" than anything else.
For web development though I'd say osx or linux. I just havent seen sort of tools on windows to justify putting up with it unless you're focused on microsoft technologies (or a hopelessly entrenched windows user).
Sorry you are wrong. Look up the patriot act, you will be surprised just how much the government can get away with without ANY just cause.

The government no longer has a need to actually notify you of why you are being arrested. The government does not need just cause to arrest you. The government can even arrest you for "possible terrorism suspicion" and hold you indefinitely without trial.

Its OK because obviously the patriot act only applies to those damn Muslim terrorists hiding out in NYC... it can never be abused in any way... right?
The downside is that you'll consider complete sentences a waste of time ;)
Can we do a poll on which OS hackers use?
I can't do this, because I don't have enough karma. Could someone who's reading this set it up? (Meanwhile, please do not upvote this entry.)

I would give the following choices:
-Mac
-*nix
-Windows
That's true - and another reason to go with Mac.

On my Mac I can test Mac versions of Safari, Firefox, and Opera. I can also have virtual machines to test for Windows Firefox, IE6, IE7, and IE8 at the same time. If I were on a PC I would only be able to have one version of IE installed.

It's still funny to me that to develop websites that work on all of the Windows browsers a Mac is the only thing that makes sense.
You're right, and I'm wrong, of course. The problem is that it's hard to know who gets to decide what a fact is. There are many people for whom creationism is a fact. Is it okay for them to teach it to their children? If not, why is it okay for you to teach your children about evolution?

The fact that evolution is correct is sort of immaterial. There is no knowledge in the absence of cognition. For something to be known, it must be known by someone. We know that evolution is correct, but the creationist "knows" that creationism is correct.
Bighugewindow
Monetize your windows. Democratized outdoor advertising.
Most people mean "Windows machine" when they say "PC" though. Since the way people use a word define the meaning of the word more than even a dictionary definition, PC does in fact mean Windows machine.
The Thinking Machines interview in "Founders At Work" is also an interesting read.