skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I never knew that Smash TV was the sequel to Robotron.
PayPerPost's Latest Gimmick - SocialSpark
You can combine PageRank with a prediction market. People would make bets on the (perhaps relative) PageRank of papers at some future date.
That is very cool. Seems clockwise to me, but I notice if I look at it upside down, it seems to be turning counterclockwise, presumably because left and right are reversed then.
Can you solve this problem that the world famous mathematician Paul Erdos got wrong?
A thoroughly honest game-show host has placed a car behind one of three doors. There is a goat behind each of the other doors. You have no prior knowledge that allows you to distinguish among the doors. "First you point toward a door," he says. "Then I'll open one of the other doors to reveal a goat. After I've shown you the goat, you make your final choice whether to stick with your initial choice of doors, or to switch to the remaining door. You win whatever is behind the door." You begin by pointing to door number 1. The host shows you that door number 3 has a goat.

Do the player's chances of getting the car increase by switching to Door 2?
i also saw clockwise. and i'm definitely more logic oriented. i wouldn't make too big a deal out of this.
Discrete Math (this often include combinatorics, and was required for my CS major), Set Theory, and Mathematical Logic. I'd also try to take some sort of abstract algebra course as well, just so you get used to dealing with axioms and proofs. Get really good at vectors and matrices if you wanna do any sort of computer graphics or games; this usually means linear algebra. Skip calculus & differential equations if you're not particularly into scientific computing, though they're mighty handy in physics, and occasionally get used in computer graphics.

I've found I really don't use all that much math while programming. You do need to know finite state automata (that's usually in Discrete). If you want to do any sort of language design or type theory, you should know your set theory well, since types are based on sets. That's basically all that I use with any sort of regularity...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
If you haven't seen this before, try the problem yourself. Don't look at the solution!
You should always switch. There's a long story why.

This one drove me nuts the first time somebody told it to me. I finally decided never to appear on Let's Make a Deal.

Dang goats.
Microsoft to Remove Eolas Barrier in IE
Gabor Cselle, Xobni: The Xobni Office, and Thoughts on Startup Office Space
The answer lies somewhere in between. The problem with big questions is lack of traction, whereas the problem with small questions is lack of vision. The insightful questions latch onto the pivot points between these two realms, either reshaping the big questions in light of the small answers or visa versa.
You should try taking a logic course. Apparently it makes you think more clear and argue better. I regret not taken one and now it's too late as I am about to graduate. Oh and I think you can also prove things better, and see more tricky cases easier.
Dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=69798
Because Ruby is a better language than PHP.
How do you guys protect your repositories?
I just finished setting up a dev server (Apache 2, SVN).

How do you guys protect the repository from outside viewers? Right now anyone could (theoretically) navigate to the trunk and look at all of the yet-to-be-written code. They wouldn't be able to download it because I restricted that, but is there a way to prevent them from seeing it at all? Is this something you'd edit in Apache?

I'd really appreciate specific instructions.

Thanks.
I highly recommend reading up on linguistics, if you're interested to know why people responded the way they did:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics

Writing is hard.
I'm not sure I understand the question. Look at yet-to-be-written code? I know version control systems have been called "time machines", but they show you what's in the past, not what's in the future.

Generally speaking though -- if you don't want people to look at files, don't put them only a web server.
How To Choose A Logo Designer
You could:
-password-protect it with .htaccess, or better yet:
-make the repository only accessible via ssh, and
-set up Trac or something similar if you want bug tracking and friendly svn browsing over http.

I haven't set up either of these myself so I can't help you there, but I would be willing to bet that Google can answer your questions :)
I am taking Discrete right now, it does include some combinatorics but there is a class that goes into them more in-depth. Already took Calc I, II, III, and Diff. Eq's as an AE major (kinda rusty though). Linear Algebra is required for the minor, so it's good that it may prove useful. Other than Discrete, do any courses typically emphasize set theory?
An Economist Goes to a Bar (and solves the mysteries of dating)
"But at some point, if you want to build Web apps, you are going to have to learn to install software and set up a database and really learn to use a code editor."

Why? I mean, yes, you absolutely have to have those skills today.

But for a lot of uses, this service, if it actually works would be more than adequate. And there is a "code editor" in the demos. Probably not a very good one, yet, but I bet it gets a lot better quickly.

Saying "you can't do web development in a web browser" is like saying "you can't run office applications in a web browser" or "you can't edit photos in a web browser". Every day those "can't do in a web browser" items get whittled away a little more.

Having said that, perhaps you're getting at "leaky abstractions"? There will always be something that you need to tweak, as a developer, that the development environment hasn't made accessible to you. That is certainly true, but I think that could become the exception more and more, and day to day development could happen in a web development environment. Developing in the exact same environment in which your app is running certainly raises interesting possibilities.
As much as I consider myself a "right brainer", she looks to be turning counter-clockwise to me without any ambiguity.
Very nice approach to your office. One note though - in the last picture I noticed a smiling Xobniite with three monitors with his back to the window. I've found that the ideal is to face the windows for a couple reasons. The first one is that the glare from the windows on the monitor can be very annoying . Secondly, in having the back of the monitor along the window wall, and the user facing the windows, you can then look up and out the window when you're thinking about something. This helps you avoid destroying your eyes by exercising alternate focal lengths and for me, at least, it seems to help with creativity.

(I also found my office through Craig's List - $1 per sf believe it or not! :)
Password protection withhtaccess might be the way to go if you are hosting your development code on a web host instead of having your own server on your local network that is not web accessable.
It doesn't seem like they show evidence for anything more than significant correlation. Other theories (like birth trauma reduction) could explain it just as well.
I really appreciate the procrastination preventer, but would like one change.

It is not enough that the reader does not spend too much time reading and commenting on Hacker News. Because willpower is a depletable resource, it is also necessary that the reader does not expend too much willpower resisting the impulse to spend too much time reading and commenting. When the "get back to work" page comes up, I find that I have to expend real willpower not to click on the override link (anchor) at the bottom of the page. To balance that change, you might simultaneously put a link to the reader's user page, so if he really needs to, he can go to his user page and turn the procrastination preventer off. (A logout link on the "get back to work page'd be nice too.)
Yes, and failing miserably. I guess there's a rift between people who have a sense of humor and those who don't. I need to find a way to get both to downmod me.
"the best system should be similar to the Page Rank."

It's been suggested, but I don't know how popular such index is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor#Other_measures_of...
Alan Kay: The computer revolution hasn't happened yet
perhaps a spoiler.

Consider the case with 100 doors. you pick a door. the game show host opens 98 doors, all with goats. The only remaining closed doors are yours, and one other. Do you switch?
For the problem as stated here ("I'll open one of the other doors to reveal a goat") you should switch doors.

For the version of the problem where the host doesn't know where the car is ("I'll open one of the other doors, but I don't know what it will reveal"), it makes no difference.

For the version of the problem where the host knows where the car is and only opens another door if the car is behind the door you picked, you should obviously never change doors.

Usually when this problem is asked, the questioner (who usually doesn't understand the problem himself) doesn't specify which version of the problem he's asking about -- all of the cases I know where a famous smart guy has answered "incorrectly" come down to the problem not being described to them in precise terms and them not making the same assumptions about the host's behaviour as the questioner.
That's probably my single favorite article (by pg). He makes every word count. It's also available as mp3: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/audio/download/itconvers...
a way to make it change direction that works for me pretty much every time: see it, then look away from it, so you see the image only with your peripheral vision (it will look like someone skating to you, or away from you), then consciously make it change direction
this i s a dupe. the first time through i didn't see the trick. scroll down until you only see a small fragment (or make your browser only a few hundred pixels high). show just the top of the head, or the bottom of the feet. If you get to that state, it seem pretty easy to reverse direction.
In Ruby it's even easier:

module Kernel
alias ? lambda
end

(where ? is the lambda-sign... why does it show in the title but not in the comments? oh well...)
and put this:

$KCODE = 'UTF-8'

at the beginning of your program. I used it for a while but eventually dropped it because a lack of editor support and the strange look of the lambda in my chosen font.
I think you guys chose the wrong space... PR/advertising can be can be a very interesting field to learn about :-)
Did they really have to apologize for their part in dispelling mystery? :/
Isn't this the concept behind "Let's Make a Deal"

If you make it to the end - do you switch or keep what the case in your hand?
I read good explanations... so please keep posting 'em
LOLCODE! on DLR
LispCast Episode 4
The Under-Appreciated Unfold
Really useful anamorphisms in Ruby
CGI-Lisp
I thought it was hilarious. Then again I don't even see where to downmod, so my only choice was vote up.
Joel's "Hitting the High Notes" should be part of the boxed set.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html
Skynet military launch is delayed
That's the coolest Necker cube ever. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necker_cube)

But I've never heard of any connection between left/right dominance and this phenomenon ("binocular rivalry"). I suspect it might be BS...

In any case, if you want to learn more, check out this (pdf) slideshow: http://visionlab.harvard.edu/Members/Olivia/tutorialsDemos/B...

This was put together by my friend Olivia, who's done a lot of work in this field. Be sure to check out pg. 16 -- Olivia's studied binocular rivalry not only in meditating monks, but also in people on 'shroom trips. Psychology is FUN! =)
Turning it upside down might introduce some other variables. Check out Einstein on pg. 11 (warning... pdf): http://visionlab.harvard.edu/Members/Olivia/tutorialsDemos/B...
You're not being forced, you can see a different oral sugeon if you want. Ultimately you do have a lot of rights that can't be signed away. Even if you sign something that's one-sided there's a good chance you could still get a fair shake with the assistance of a lawyer. IANAL
Not sure how many.

But I know a significant amount of scientific papers are published in other languages than English, e.g. in Chinese language on Wanfang Data (www.wanfangdata.com - affiliate of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology). This is probably the case in many other non-English languages.
Funny, this is happening in the states, too. I could copy-paste this paper and call it "Why I Am Not In School".
You're forgetting one thing that every software company office needs:

whiteboards

Don't bother with real whiteboards, they're expensive... just get 4' x 8' sheets of white tileboard from Home Depot for $13. Huge and cheap. I even got one for my room at home.

Credit goes to this page: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000679.php
Can Google Kill PowerPoint?
Fight the urge to go with one of those logo factories that churns out dozens of rehashed logos. It's a waste of money.
Correlation != Causation

It drives me crazy when I hear stories about "Children who [play an instrument / listen to classical music / have a pet] are smarter than average".

While that itself may be true, the implication that one causes the other most likely isn't. It's far more likely that a kid is smart AND plays an instrument or listens to classical music because their parents foster that sort of environment.

If your kid is dumb, making him listen to classical music isn't going help. There was a great Penn and Teller "Bullshit!" episode about this: http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/prevepisodes.do?episodeid=s1/bb
I'm becoming convinced that vote-oriented threaded commenting is harmful to discussion, except of a more limited, conversational kind. I haven't had time to properly think it through, so forgive the sketchiness of the rest of this comment, but my instinct is that this approach favors narrow, isolating, unnatural and oppositional discussion.

Dynamically-ordered threading divorces comments from the context they were written in (i.e. the rest of the thread, and of the natural linearity of conversation), and forces an awkward, artificial pattern of replying. This is a marked contrast to the sort of all-in-this-together, synthesizing discussions that can be found on sites like MetaFilter, and indeed of the natural conversations people enjoy in groups in real life. Voting and non-linear threading encourages and rewards simplistic, emotional, bias-confirming comments, while discouraging and often punishing any other kind of comment, leading to fragmented individualistic comments, which seems to me like the opposite of discussion.

I'm sure there are big problems with traditional linear comment threads, but if you want interesting, intelligent discussion, dynamic threading+voting seems to me the worst solution. (I might add that the generally high quality of comments here reflects the community, rather than the commenting system)
Looks approximately correct. http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/~guofei/CS_ConfRank.htm
My computer science and computer engineering major required a discrete math course (which mostly included combinatorics, set theory, and logic) and probability theory, plus calc 1-3, linear algebra, and diff eq. I also took number theory.

Out of all of them, I'd say the discrete math course was the most applicable.

It also sort of depends on what area of CS you're interested in. For example, probability / statistics for computer networks, number theory for cryptography, artificial intelligence uses lots of logic (and many others), graph/set theory for general algorithms, geometry for graphics etc.
Ron Paul says his campaign is more than "a few spammers"
I confess the first time I heard this (a while ago), it drove me so nuts I ended up writing a program to confirm the solution.
He's right to want this; it's great in DrScheme. I can't stand typing out l-a-m-b-d-a anymore. Just cntrl-\ and you've got it.

"Lambda expressions are rarely useful in Python." Sad but probably true. In my limited experience with Python you are steered away from lambdas.
woot - no 2 and no 5!
$13 is an unbeatable price for a 4x8 sheet of whiteboard... do you have any complaints with it so far? Does it write and erase OK?
You can protect you repository with apache http authorization.
Just search for a tutorial, here's what I found: http://svn.spears.at/#3.2
You add the users/passwords with htpasswd and then in httpd.conf add Auth entries.
Wow, just watched this. Really fascinating talk - especially his points about the wonders of scalable computation in biology and how clunky man-made computation seems in comparison so far. Definitely worth the watch.
Is there a transcription, or an abstract? I haven't got time for video.
There is a way to use your favorite editor through the browser:

ajaxterm + emacs
This is the Monty Hall problem. As such, your chances do increase by switching doors. Its simple Bayesian inference.
Lots of my friends still don't read this because it hasn't "sunk in" that it's not just startup news anymore. With perhaps detrimental effects to the pool of submissions - it's not quite reddit.com '96 yet.
I think you're taking things to their logical extreme. An article may be inspired, and even contain, PR yet still be interesting to the readership. Furthermore, many, many journalists are paid to draw attention to 'products" - sport reporters, arts critics, business and technology analysts, etc. Does Pogue or Mossberg have to disclose in every article that they got the product for free, and with info from the company, to test out? The important criteria for a conflict of interest is whether the journalist is paid by the "source". If not, I see no problem with it. Let the editors decide if the journalist was being lazy.

And those "stories" aren't editorials. There's a specific page for that. Even then, many editorials are written by folks promoting a recent or upcoming book.

Yup, you got me. I read the Times every morning because I think it's a decent enough representative of news and with less of these things than their peers. Whether those articles contain "subs" I'm not too concerned about. I seldom buy commercial goods and a newspaper will rarely influence my choice. If I think the stories (and that's all they are to me) are interesting to folks here, I post them.

By the way, do you know that universities send out press releases to announce scientific findings? When the article appears in the Science section, do you think that's "nasty" and needs to be disclosed? It doesn't involve a concrete product, but it is an attempt to get the university name in the paper.

I guess my point is: I think every story in a paper has some angle to it. In the Times, the stories are usually interesting and well-written and fact-checked. But ultimately, I have to make up my own mind about what's worth knowing.
And you gotta do something ;)
Web forums need better notification when someone responds to you. And each site has to reinvent the wheel. I remember people asked for this for months on reddit before it got the little envelope icon.

It's just too bad.
In the case of the oral surgeon, I'm going to assume that you sign the waiver which contains an arbitration clause. There are two likely outcomes: (1) if you elect to go to arbitration and are unhappy with the results and seek to challenge them in court, the state judge would likely rule against you [as a general proposition, state and federal judges do not give much legal weight to challenges to outcomes of arbitration proceedings] (2) if you elect to challenge the arbitration clause in the waiver itself without going through arbitration, depending on state law, you may (or may not) have a claim. For more information, ask your local attorney who should be happy to talk to you about it.

As for should it be legal, please consult your state legislature or Congress.

To parent post: arbitration is generally faster than litigation, but depending on the kind of contract involved my not yield the result you desire as arbitrators have a tendency to use the King Solomon approach and make sure each party gets something. Courts are hesitant to overturn arbitration determinations. Arbitration proceedings also allow evidence that would not be admissible in court and generally have less procedural rules. Most experienced or skilled arbitrators are former judges or lawyers. Also, make certain who will bear the arbitrator's fee before you begin. It can also take many days. It is probably best to have your position written down on paper to submit before hand, but it all depends on the individual arbitrator to whom you've been assigned.

I've had the most experience with the American Arbitration Association, see http://www.adr.org/sp.asp?id=29157

They are happy to field questions.
A PHP class to query the web with SQLesque syntax
I thought his style of presentation had much to improve on, but it shed new light on what he intended with smalltalk. Apparently, encapsulation was only really one small part of his whole idea.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78364

I think this particular post sums up his ideas in his presentation. Also, watch it with 1997 in mind. That's why he rails against MS so much.
GigaSpaces Free for Start-Ups
Hah. I was just talking about this with a friend days ago. I live in Japan now. I love to sit and read alone in restaurants/cafes. I've become so accustomed to not understanding most of what's being said around me that when someone is speaking English within earshot it's ridiculously distracting. Even when I can't make out what they're saying the familiar sounds cause my brain to go nuts (in a background process) trying to interpret.
I've always felt that having childcare nearby is important. Employees age. They have kids (yay!). And having something nearby can keep everyone motivated and employed longer.
"OOP to me means only messaging, local retention and protection and hiding of state-process, and extreme late-binding of all things. It can be done in Smalltalk and in LISP. There are possibly other systems in which this is possible, but I'm not aware of them."... Alan Kay 2003

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ram/pub/pub_jf47ht25Ht/doc_kay...
So modern it makes you do the compiler's job of marking your tail calls.
They pay a lot more than $50k per year and charge a lot more than $250 per hour.
Yes. Good observation. I wonder how much of it is environmental? As I grow older I'm thinking more about how to show other people how to do the things I figured out when I was younger and how to organize groups of people to get things done on a broader scale.

I don't want to stop thinking like I did when I was younger, though. It's important to continue learning things, which probably means paying some attention to lower-level topics.

Today is my birthday. [argh]
I bet Paul Graham could make a lot more working for McKinsey than at Y Combinator. These folks have one hell of a racket.
I've heard the proper feng shui setup is to have the desks face the door so you can see people as they enter.
Falsest,

Know anyone who works there or has any stories about the place?
At my college, set theory was kinda the foundation for most of the advanced math courses. You got a basic introduction in Discrete, then there was a standalone Set Theory course (isn't there one at your university?), then you needed it for Mathematical Logic, Groups Rings & Fields (the abstract algebra course), and probably a few others.