skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
What you wrote _sounds_ really good, and you got upvoted. The trouble is that it's not actually true.

The reason 12-14 years olds seem immature is a social one, and NOT a brain one. I come from a rather different social culture and in my social circle a 12-14 year old was more or less an adult - and we acted that way.

If you assume someone under 18 is a kid - they will act like a kid, if you assume they are an adult, they will act like an adult.

For every kid it was different, the range is about 12-15, but by then there were no longer any dramatic differences in maturity, and further changes are gradual and more importantly life long, i.e. the changes don't magically stop at 18.

By the traditional age of puberty (i.e. not todays accelerated age) all kids are mentally mature. But the social environment in the US isn't conducive to that, instead kids are told you are under 18 so act like a kid.

(And you got downvoted for saying kids don't have a pre-frontal cortex which is nonsense, if you had said less mature I would have let it go.)

And BTW my experience is supported by literature, at least based on an article I read about 2 years ago in 'scientific american mind' (which I tried to find but couldn't).

It's not accidental that the age of majority has crept up and up over the years. Basically people try to set the age so that everyone is mature by that point, but of course 95% of people are mature before that - but are told, don't bother. So they don't and the age creeps upward.

Repeat over the years and it keeps going up. In antiquity majority was 12, about 100 to 200 years ago it was 15. Today you find 25 years old living like teenagers used to.
This was posted here months ago, and shown to be grossly inadequate then. It's entirely meaningless because you could plot anything on that graph and draw an identical conclusion. Surely there must be something that does fluctuate and effect the tax revenue as a percentage of GDP, but if you plotted it on a graph it would appear not to.

Moreover, top marginal tax rate is an all but irrelevant metric since the ultra-wealthy pay considerably lower due to capital gains.
If they could "explain to you how to solve the problem or what went wrong" then they wouldn't need to show a vague error message. They'd just fix the problem.
In terms of the ever-present "Women in CS" question: who would HN suggest as the next female recipient of the Turing Award, after Liskov?
The LALR(1) parser and lexical analyzer generator for JavaScript, written in JavaScript
Silent Wednesday
$15.50 for a jar of sauce? That's an absurd amount for what's most likely simply tomatoes, salt, olive oil, garlic, onion and perhaps some dried herbs. Tasty I'm sure, but marinara is one of the easiest sauces you can make.

(Looking back, it's probably not the money as much as that I just like to cook. I'd actually get enjoyment out of the process instead of feeling like a sap for paying that much for tomato sauce.)
You can also opt out from being shown the targeted advertising.

http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/view?sig=ACi0TCio0d5X9...
It really is true. Look at the medical "startup" Walmart partnered with. They've been around for more than ten years.

I'm sure they're cheap. The problem with "going big or going home" is that in many cases you are going home. The one thing I've learned is that in the vast majority of cases, the market moves much slower than you expect.

If you find yourself in the case of a market moving faster that's usually the problem to have....then you hire and spend like a maniac but it doesn't matter because if the market is truly moving that fast you're making money hand over fist.

The problem comes when you are spending like that and the market isn't growing that fast.....then you flame out.
This is basically how family works. Every party should have a right to be 'right' in the agreed range of situations (my wife is always right in the house, no matter what).

So, the founders should split the territory and then follow to the agreement.
Whatever they do in South Korea, do that here (in the US).
In my opinion, 4 months is not enough of a stockpile if you don't have any contacts and don't know where to start.

If you have an idea and willpower, you need to be able to work on that idea for at least a year; either via investments or savings.

Of course, this is just my personal opinion; other people here may be less risk averse. But until we know the longer term health of the economy, a year of safety seems about the minimum to me.
Yeah, sure. I didn't mean to imply that Chrome didn't have some cool stuff.

I really hope this tab-as-process thing catches on, or at least become something you can enable (right-click -> fork or something similar).
Why?

Most people can be motivated very easily by throwing money at them.
Admittedly this doesn't work for everyone (many also need other factors) but I'd say that covers roughly 90% of the skilled population.

Now teaching a motivated person a complex skill is a completely different story. Yes, money (and lots of time) can help there, too, but the scales are not normally realistic. How long does it take to turn a given, motivated person into a great programmer, even assuming an unlimited budget?
Even now, there were many stories a few months ago about (Obama, McCain) supporting children in predominantly (McCain, Obama) territory getting bullied. Maybe letting them in on the process would foster discussion and let them think before they get stuck in a mindset.
How JVMs use Escape Analysis to Improve Application Performance
This got me thinking... Why isn't there a "credit card payment system" gem in RoR? Because if we want this sort of thing to be ubiquitous in startups, our tools must support them out of the box.

Put another way, startups are too busy prototyping and running up hill to bother re-implementing a credit-card payment system -- a simple, yet difficult-to-get-right chunk of software. Unless it's already done, no startup wants to waste their time doing it.

Again, I ask the question, why isn't it dead-simple to include credit-card payment into my website? (Please, someone make this!)
Small Businesses: Get Found on Google Maps
so essentially, your argument is that it DOES work, but it's just a huge pain in the ass.

I agree whole-heartedly with that- but the bottom line is it does work- you just have to keep everything separate (which is really not that big of a deal).

And the easy to avoid reporting it as a CFC is to not have it be a CFC. If you have a brother/relative from another country, you can each have 50%, and voila! it's not a CFC.
I agree with you, and wanted to add this Marginal Revolution post which is tangentially related. Are the banks insolvent or illiquid?

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/03...
So you have to use their earbuds? Hrm.
I thought these two parts were the most interesting:

"A clue to the underlying problem with the planning algorithm was uncovered by Newby-Clark et. al. (2000), who found that:

Asking subjects for their predictions based on realistic "best guess" scenarios; or

Asking subjects for their hoped-for "best case" scenarios...

...produced indistinguishable results."

and:

"So there is a fairly reliable way to fix the planning fallacy, if you're doing something broadly similar to a reference class of previous projects. Just ask how long similar projects have taken in the past, without considering any of the special properties of this project. Better yet, ask an experienced outsider how long similar projects have taken."
NetPositive, the default web browser on the BeOS, had great error messages. Here: http://www.8325.org/haiku/
Just ordered it....Not my field, but I'm told users in Canada regard this book as the dog's? Anyone else dabbling with the subject matter?

Also, to those here who beleive that it can't possibly help with creativity, try it, you will not be disappointed. I find it hard NOT to be creative on it, it's just that kind of drug. If you have too much or use it badly then obviously it's not going to help, but as long as you use it responsibly, it's a great drug for helping you get back on track on those days when thinking about coding is the last thing you want to do. It gives impetus, creativity, stamina, and in some cases, very strong objectivity about your output too.

Lurkio
I like the idea of there being some sort of investment required for voting. Everybody interested in voting can, but there's a barrier to entry that helps people be informed voters or at least passionate about voting.

However, like you, I find it difficult to think of a non-corrupt test. You certainly don't want SAT scores to be a precondition for voting.

Perhaps in order to vote you have to get x (say 100) people to sign a petition for you? Of course, community leaders would quickly get a pool of 100 people to sign for whoever they wanted. You might be able to prevent that by limiting the number of petitions signed by a person in a given time span.
Here's the thing: everyone else is doing the exact same things. And we're starting from a better place than most everyone else (lower government debt-to-GDP ratio). All currencies will likely lose value against real assets. But as far as currencies go, the dollar will probably do the best.
I used to think, MP3s sounds almost the same as uncompressed music (CDs), but, was until I got a fairly big audio system (in my car) that I realize that my MP3s sucked big time. But in ipods and other small devices MP3s are fine.
you'll be up at a reasonable 30wpm in no time.

Learning to use the right fingers will make me that much slower? No thanks.
Should mention Kevin Rose's UStream broadcast from Virgin yesterday. Doesn't seem to.
I would like to see the charts compared with GDP per capita. Just curious if there is any correlation.
PHP micro-optimization tips
Lovely, Clean and Bright 3 BR - Navy Welcome (postid:369587)
How to Get Rid Of Orbiting Space Junk for the price of one shuttle launch
it's fascinating how this phenomenon works. I grew up listening to cassettes I had made from recording records. These recordings had flaws introduced by the cassette mechanism, drop outs, warbles, etc. I was used to it and didn't think about it. When I'd hear the same song from a CD it sounded weird. I can't say I prefer cassettes now, I never listen to them, they're all in a box now, and many have been thrown out. Records still sound as good as ever, many are much nicer sounding than the CDs that came out later on. I wonder if digital radio will eventually replace analog broadcasts, as has happened with TV. That would be a shame as all the old radios would suddenly become door stops.
Edeveloper - Google Search
I am not so sure about that. I rather liked Hong Kong when I visited.
Listening to Metallica's Enter Sandman on my crappy PC speakers, I couldn't find much difference between a 128K MP3 and a 360K MP3. Listening to them on a huge set of surround sound speakers changed my opinion.

You can't really hear the different instruments and the layers of sound unless you have reasonable quality speakers. I've tried purchasing good, expensive headphones, but nothing beats the experience of listening to music on a set of wooden-casing surround sound speakers (arranged optimally around the room, of course).

BTW, this is coming from someone who is definitely not an audiophile. Currently listeing to Piano Man on my crappy MacBook speakers.
Supply side economics does not really increase supply. That's just the moniker. Supply side economics means tax cuts for the well to do, who will supposedly then create the jobs that will grow the economy. But this rests on the middle class stagnating - something that has in fact happened in the last 30 years. The top 1% control 22% of wealth (as of 2006), compared to 8% in 1980. For comparison's sake, the last time this percentage was this high was 1928. If you don't think there's a high correlation between income inequality and levels of debt, then you are fooling yourself.

There's a point at which the middle class being too poor puts the entire economy at risk. We are there now. Being an acolyte of supply side economics today is like being a communist in 1989 - you can keep believing in the true faith, but it's been refuted in the real world.
University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering Colloquia Archive
Well... Its not much of a pain if you have someone else (like an accountant) to do the work for you.
I would really like to know, if you would not mind explaining, how are we all egotists. I believe myself that HN tends to attract better-than-average, educated, ambitious people. Egotism goes a bit with that. But to all being like that.
along the same lines, older keypads on things like garage door openers that people rarely change the password for but use frequently have serious wear on the keys that are used in the pword. its very easy to open those up. less obvious than a powdery keypad.
> Did you know that more than 40% of the country DOES NOT pay taxes?

Did you know that everyone who complains about that is ignorant and selfish and should have their taxes doubled for even trying to make the poor poorer?

By the way, it's a lie, everyone pays taxes, 40% just don't pay income taxes which is but one of many taxes we're all required to pay. Implying that they don't pay taxes is despicably intellectually dishonest.
Typically, though, if the browser could display some kind of information on the nature of the error, this could give a savvy user something they could type into a search engine or ask an intelligent question about on a forum, which might help them fix whatever is causing their problem.

This might not apply as much to the web, where the problem is likely a malfunctioning network connection, or a problem with the web server (or server side code). But it could help where the user is having a problem trying to accomplish something with an application which they will never be able to do until they change something on their end, or attempt it a different way.
Web gateway to the Google App Engine Datastore - a simple, fast key-value database
Agreed. I can pass on the function key entirely myself. If you want to page down with one hand, try space? Doesn't work everywhere though :/
"I've tried recreating those tapes with playlists of perfectly ripped flac from cd's and they just don't have the same life."

See the story from a day or two ago about how badly CDs are being mastered.

Personally, I listen to a lot of non-English music and I'm beginning to wonder if part of the reason might be that non-US music companies seem to be much less likely to utterly destroy their music in the quest for illusory volume, because the "foreignness" is not something that I particularly care about either way.

Try your experiment on a CD from the mid-nineties. It is highly likely that what you are experiencing is a result of atrocious mastering, and not a digital-vs-analog result. Note that it has to be a CD that physically dates from the mid-nineties, not merely an album from the mid-nineties, as companies have been going back and destroying the old music on re-releases.

Of course that doesn't address the issue of your personal memories and if you like that, hey, great. I'm not going to complain or tell you it shouldn't be that way.
Voluntary? In an absolutist sense, yes. In practice, no. In theory all work in voluntary, assuming you can leave job and still afford to pay for basic amenities like food, housing, transportation, and still provide for your family, etc until new employment is secured. If you cannot do these things, it ceases to be voluntary.

"but paying homeless people $3 an hour is barbaric, what do you want, homeless sweat shops?"

Well according to this logic, $2.50/hr is better than $0/hr; $2/hr is better than $0/hr; $1/hr is better than $0/hr, and so on. Everything you describe is a race to the bottom in terms of wages. There would have to be a very strong deflationary pressure to bring prices to the point where the above is capable of really purchasing anything. In such a case, the economy would be in shambles anyway, so employment in general would be a huge issue.

What you describe is not new and, at its core, totally exploitative. Living in a company town is strikingly similar to this. The employer actually "pays" the worker, $7/hr, but keeps the $4 majority the payment of ground rent, food, etc. Of course, you leave any time--that is until your meager savings are depleted by a raised cost of living--one manufactured by the benevolent boss/mayor!
PHP XDebug & Webgrind Installation
I agree, and to be fair to Jeff, he does point this out. It kind of gets lost in the main idea of his post.

FTA: "Don't get me wrong. Your error messages should always be informative and helpful. That's not optional."
> I don't think Google is that good with integrating all the data they have. For example they still show me Google Chrome ads on pages I open with the Chrome browser.

Not to do so would be micromanagement, or rule-based algorithms. It decided, correctly, that you would be interested in Chrome. That's plenty.
> If a prosecutor (or government torturer) can prove the suspect had a file and wiped it out (e.g. /documents/superillegalfile.txt), I wouldn't like to be in his place.

In the UK that would be only sideline evidence, you'd have a hard time getting the CPS (crown prosecution service) to actually prosecute based on that evidence. Recovering the file is 9/10ths of the law :P

(this is our main revenue stream btw - forensics for law enforcement).
Just make sure you get the direction of causation right ..
interest in a subject is not intent to buy. however, i don't see why its unreasonable to assume that someone who is showing regular interest in something is more likely to buy than someone who isn't.
They don't have to. The theory is sound. Throw enough bits at a good enough encoder and you can't tell the difference.

However, 128Kbps in an encoder designed to encode as rapidly as possible will not have that result, and that's the usual case.

Also, hooking up a decent set of headphones to an iPod and that itself can be a "nice audio system". The stats on the iPod are pretty good, it's the headphones that are crap. I have a Creative Labs Zen myself, which has an inferior interface, but has even better audio statistics, and the best audio experience you can get in my household are my ~$100 monitor headphones hooked up to the Zen. That's pretty fine. Run a great MP3 through it and you'd never know it's not the original CD. Run a mediocre MP3 through it and you'll cry.
Nah I find it easy to hit control in the bottom left. Almost everything uses command anyway, it's just that in those times when I do need to hit control I always hit function instead :/
I'd like to add something to this discussion, though, so others won't feel the pain I once felt some time ago: Sdelete from SysInternals is not safe to use if you are also using EFS (encrypted files on XP Pro / Vista etc.). You will get random corruption of random files on your file system.

SDelete works by using the NT defragmentation API to discover what disk sectors are allocated to a file, so it can write to them directly. However, for whatever reason, in practice this does not work with encrypted (EFS) files. I've looked at the source for sdelete, and I can't see how it's going wrong, but I do know from experience (twice) that it does. The symptoms include blue-screens from corrupted OS files, overwritten documents, etc.

There is further corroboration here:

http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3878

http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Win2000/microsoft.public...
I got to say, "too rich to care" isn't quite the vibe I'm getting from the yanks I know right now ...
Question: Looking for talented iPhone developer
I am looking for a talented iPhone developer to help me finish my startup idea. You will be paid for the services and it might lead to a full-time offer. Must have decent experience in using iPhone SDK.

Leave a comment below and I will get in touch with you asap.

thanx
Adobe AIR Application Distribution and Installation
If you've ever soldered anything in your life you can build one yourself. They're really easy to build, kits are available, and parts are VERY cheap. Of course, be careful. Getting shocked by 750 VAC is... interesting.
adblock
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

flashblock
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

ghostery https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9609
Well I am happy advertising will be more targeted and relevant, both as a consumer and an occasional advertiser. A transaction implies agreement on both sides, anything which facilitates it is good. Advertisment by itself will never put a hand in your pocket.

As for tracking every move... They're already doing it for some time. This way indeed it will be easier to get to the information - a spouse of a friend may find your Interests page ... interesting. But considering the world now, and most likely the world of the future is filled with social networks whose primary job is to advertise your interests to everybody, I don't think most people will have a problem with this. Especially the young. As for those who do... you can always opt out.
French anti-P2P law toughest in the world
Or, alternative scenario: "Better Living Inc" charges the homeless it's "helping" various fees for all that housing and assistance, meanwhile keeping wages low enough such that employees remain in debt, effectively guaranteeing "Better Living" a pool of cheap labor, much like the days of the old company store... Of course, since there would be no regulatory oversight, there would be no way of rectifying this situation.
Excellent article. I wasn't seeing eye to eye with the cofounder of my first startup, and didn't realize it until a couple years in. He wanted a comfortable business that allowed him to take Fridays off and spend more time out of the office. I had visions of being the next Microsoft and wanted to pump every dime back into the business.

It led to him quitting after the first couple years, and me driving the company to a lucrative acquisition. We hadn't issued our initial shares with an ESOP, so he got his full percentage, even though he didn't do most of the work. But the biggest problem was early on, when he wasn't working a 40 hour week and distracting everybody else from being a hard core startup.
Apple embraces accessibility and helps everyone in the process
Chimps too can plan for future
Some banks want to return bailout (too many strings attached)
You think raising the stakes will defuse the problem?
I was bored, so I made this table of effective tax rates for various incomes/years, indexed to 2007 dollars.

http://mharrisdev.com/income_tax.html
This is cool, but do we need another key-value store?
Please review: 2handthings.com (still in alpha phase, I'm working on it)
During the campaign, Obama said that he'd raise certain rates even if he knew that the result was less tax revenue.
Redis is pretty much an Italian product; and like other Italian products such as Lamborghini and Ferrari, this schema-less database is amazingly fast.
Eventually, it may all be automated and online... but for now, I need real feedback.
I don't get the fascination with taxes. Being a business owner my fascination is with sales and revenue. If my taxes are cut I don't create jobs or give raises, quite honestly, that doesn't even enter into the equation. My goals is to do the most work with the fewest jobs. If my sales increase and my employees can't do their job then I add jobs. Job creation is a function of sales and productivity. Not taxes.
I understand how the information is public and therefore free to use. All I'm saying is that it sounds great in theory, until someone goes ahead and makes your profile and gathers up your personal info and lets people rate you. I didn't ask for it explicitly or implicitly so it is annoying.
Agreed. Perfectionism is a disease that has no cure... but it certainly can be managed.