skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"Why didn't the romans invent the internet?"

Simply put you could't beat the bandwidth a messenger, traveling on a transcontinental network of roads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Peutingeriana), changing horses every few hours. Semaphore communication would've been a lot slower. Oh, and it wasn't any good for bringing things.

"Imagine what the world would be like if we'd had a 2,000 year head start on the principles of the Internet?"

Most likely the same it is today. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages for reference.

I think the article is built on the false premise that the existence of knowledge per se, guarantees it is going to be used. To paraphrase Kenneth Clark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilisation_(TV_series)) you need a flourishing civilization to utilize the knowledge you have. Western Europe effectively UNLEARNED Roman knowledge and didn't "discover" it again for a whole millenium. Although never forgotten, Eastern Europe (represented by the Byzantine Empire) didn't have the scale or resources to take advantage of this knowledge.

So there you have it, knowledge alone is not enough.
Interestingly, if you look at the break-down of how much you spend, for many people a majority of that spend is simply a function of where they live. If you're living in SF, your food+housing+etc is going to be a far greater multiple than if you live out in the sticks.

So I'd say the best way to retire early is probably to get a telecommuting job that pays similarly to your current job, and move to VietNam or Africa. Your expenses should be a fraction of what they were before, and your income should remain similar. Instant years off your working career and no traffic pollution to spoil your day. I think we might be seeing more of this in the future...
It's still DRM controlled, so is it even really free today?
I haven't disproved my main point at all (returns from investment are ultimately funded by the working population) - just perhaps not given the proper weight to the caveat about increased productivity when talking about the effects.

However, fact is that most people's incomes have stagnated or decreased. The increased productivity is not quite enough to compensate for the increasing number of retirees and/or super rich (the article linked to by hudibras implies it's actually mainly the latter).
Samsung Galaxy Note III to feature 6.3-inch display and eight core processor
I was surprised, too, which is why I also read through the budget you linked to.
Of course this only delays the eventual development, unless you fancy perpetuating international class differences.
Right, but I was not talking about passphrases giving root access to critical machines or documents. I was talking about passwords for Twitter or HN accounts, or those used heavily in entreprises. I have a friend head of something in a big corp, she says she has at 6 passwords with 6 different policies and has to use them everyday, sometime just to sign the invoice for a new ink cartridge.
Where is the on the record typical case statement? I haven't seen one yet.
> unless the remaining workforce becomes correspondingly more productive.

It's not impossible. Everyone can just become poorer. That doesn't have to be a bad result when you consider just how wasteful most modern lives are.
> I've been shocked to see how many geeks - including Linus, do not seem to understand the concept of maximum penalties.

And I'm shocked to see how many people misinterpret those geeks. We don't believe he was absolutely going to end up in jail for 35 years; we believe it was hung over his head to extort a plea deal, while remaining a real possibility.

> Journalists like to quote the "up to" numbers because they sound dramatic, and as a functioning member of society you need to know what that means and doesn't mean.

We're not talking about the concept; we get that. We're talking about a prosecutor that had large discretion in which, if any, charges to bring and brought multiple charges that had high maximum penalties for a reason. It's disingenuous to come back later and try to downplay the real charges with the real prospect of 35 years in jail, even if its real purpose was extortion.

It's easy to say "you need to know what that means and doesn't mean" until you're the one actually facing those penalties and financial ruin. I'm sure reminding you how the game works will be very comforting.
Which OS is loved the most?
There is a incorrect assumption - you can't take out 4% if you are only assuming at 5% rate of return. The 4% number comes from an assumption of 8.5% (long term stock market returns) minus inflation minus taxes. So in your 5% assumption, this means you can only take out 0.5% or less.

But the article is overall directionally right. The less you spend on shiny, the less you need, and therefore the less you need for retirement.
I respect your opinion but do not agree.

He saw that scientific research.... Not his call to make, really.

He encountered a bug..... Not sure I agree that attempts to block his access was a "bug" that needed a workaround.
Well then it's certainly a shame how the only linux drivers I can get melt my graphics card.
Nothing new, but every time I put some aside, something happened: I either lost on the market or needed it for unexpected expenses.

(On the bright side I have a paid-off home and minimal living expenses.)
> Say someone breaks into your neighbors house and steals 10k worth of stuff.

I consider crimes of violence to be the use of aggressive force against a person or their property. After some research, this appears to disagree with the generally accepted definition, so feel free to reread my comment with this in mind.

> Her job is to pursue justice within the boundaries of stablished laws, which technically and pragmatically Aaron did break.

The "just following orders" defense. I reject such a notion. If "just following orders" or "just prosecuting within the boundaries of the law" leads one to perform or support unethical actions, then one should refuse to follow those orders or prosecute those laws.

> That is what we should be focusing on, not some witch hunt

While I am all for the repeal of the CFAA, I do not think that it is unreasonable to seek justice against someone for abusing the justice system (torturous use of plea bargaining).
It's always embarrassing to admit that you're a part of a cult, but I'm a huge fan of MMM and his spiritual godfather Jacob (earlyretirementextreme.com) and I'm currently on track to retire in 4 years in my early forties.

Few points to remember as you browse the site:

1. Retiring early means that your post-retirement life could very well be 50 years long. Over that timeframe, 5-7% return on investments is a reasonable assumption.

2. Living on your investment income also means drawing down your principal eventually. The "goal" is to draw the last dollar from your retirement account on the day that you die (nobody actually believes that, what with passing money to your heirs, your presumably unknown date of death, and at least a small trickle of social security continuing, but that's the theory.)

3. Some of the lifestyle changes seem drastic, but you have to remember one thing: you are no longer working. Having complete freedom to do what you want each day is the whole point of retiring early.
They had a business selling blue boxes, which allow people to make long-distance calls for free (among other things). At the time national long distance calls cost roughly $4 (in today's money) per minute, with international calls being even more costly. Woz and Jobs made about $30k (in today's dollars) off of this illicit business and perhaps cost the phone company many many times more than that in potential lost revenue (possibly millions).

Compare that sort of "youthful indiscretion" to Aaron Swartz's far more selfless and far less damaging JSTOR hijinx.

On the flip side of this, consider that had Jobs and Woz never experimented with phone phreaking and never built those blue boxes they may never have had the guts to build Apple. Being a disruptor is about pushing limits, and sometimes the law runs right through those limits.
Sure, they didn't try to do anything too crazy, but on a scale of cobol <=> new hotness, I think django would fall closer to new hotness.

I think django was a good choice; I just don't think you can draw those conclusions from it.
Bingo! This is why I find a lot of the economic debates frustrating. People think that money in the bank is like cans of pork and beans in storage. They don't realize it's just an earmark on the labor of some future person.
Or to look merciful when they agree to a lesser sentence.
Sounds like an issue with your service provider - I work in the UK and France and never have any problems. Certainly none today.
IAMA criminal defense lawyer, AMA.
If only...

Give examples.
Post-mortem: 5 mistakes I made with my first online product
If you save a high enough percentage of your take-home income, the article actually argues that you could be done in 7-10 years starting from scratch, which sounds a lot more doable to me than the 30 years you're expecting.
I'm actually not a fan at all of the OAuth craze.

The parent post was talking about the OATH (http://www.openauthentication.org/webfm_send/1).
Final <P>:

> "So before you go around claiming that serif typefaces are easier to read... It's one of many myths you (and I) have accepted as true, that isn't."

It isn't true? Prove it. Until then, you don't know whether the myth is true, and it is not necessarily a false belief.
I totally agree. Why emulate sketching when you have pen and paper? Why emulate browser behaviour when you can code? Sketch on paper, learn some HTML, javascript and use a framework.

I'm working with very simple HTML and Bootstrap. I also use JSON files with actual data and some simple jquery to populate and handle states. After a while you'll get a library of HTML snippets, javascript code and dummy content. You'll work quite fast. The result is much closer to the truth and you might actually be able to re-use some of the stuff you've created when you build the actual app.

I've been using Axure and Balsamico which are quite good tools, but I find myself getting stuck and wasting a lot of time on emulating behaviour which is quite easy to code.
This is the only time/place people are getting brownie points for calling something out as sexist -- i.e., when they realize that having a girlfriend could make a man look good, and the other guy just found an unfair advantage in that department.

At all other times, women have every advantage in the world and no imposed limitations to speak of.
I can access HN without issue and am based the UK.
Movable type has a worse story. Although not usually mentioned it existen in the late minoan age. Delayed for only about 3500 thousand years... [1]

[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc
Yay! I got flagged!

Well, I believe soon all Valve games will run fine on Linux, since they ported the whole engine anyway.

Also there are a couple of AAA games already partially or completely ported, and it is just a matter of putting them to work properly on Steam (sometimes what lacks is legal stuff). For example Doom series, and some of Unreal games.

Of course, games using any of those "great engines" are easy to port too (ie: any game using idTech and family or Unreal and family).
Anti-Drone Camouflage: What to Wear in Total Surveillance
One big difference is package management. You don't download stuff here and there to execute.
Yes and no. Android really picked up after it was, shall we say, inspired, by iPhone.

Tizen doesn't have to wonder much, they can go and add the features shown to be liked by people. They can get "inspired" by both iPhone and Android.
I've been a Gentoo user now for a good 7~8 years and every time I've tried playing with Windows again the one thing that I immediately notice and immediately get annoyed about is the lack of 'work spaces' ( http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/items/virtual_desktops/index... ). I know there are implementations of this idea for Windows (Heck I even built one when I was learn shudder VB6 back in the day) but not a one I've seen is worth the effort of finding it.
William Gibson refers to this cognitive leap with existing technologies as Steam Engine Time: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/archive/2003_01_28_archive...
I'm not a big fan of a book about "internet freedom" that's copyright protected and sold on Amazon's DRM-riddled platform.

Edit: This book itself does not contain DRM.
Particularly if you can combine that with some kind of passive/recurring income (do consulting from Vietnam, and then also build a product/service from that experience with minimal maintenance)
Lots of businesses give tickets to clients as a token of gratitude for sending work their way.
I hope the SteamBox will change that soon. Valve can even sponsor indie devs to make a linux port / promote the Source Engine (I remember reading the linux port has better perfs than the windows version) / do something else, like selling Half Life 3 only on SteamBox during the first month (they won't, but they can).

If they manage to sell a lot of SteamBox from the beginning (with low costs, like the Nexus model for Android), they can start something.

And then the big players will come.

And then we'll get good linux CG drivers.
"std::cavedwelling<stl_guru, guru_cavedwelling_tag<const _Type<T &> >::const_value_type"

Pure gold.
Thanks. Quite interesting reads.
What a stupid article filled with hyperbole.
I'm real. Are you? It's getting harder to tell on the Internet
Just a few months ago, Linus Torvalds urged "mentally diseased" people to kill themselves over printer security and now, he is a Crusader Against Bullies Who Make People Kill Themselves. Bacteria have more self-awareness than this.

In Linus's own words, "here are the sources, so that people can compare them for themselves".

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LinusTorvalds/posts/1vyfmNCYpi5

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LinusTorvalds/posts/ggzfzKyrcRQ
>There are many reasons one might want to avoid being identified with previous use //

OK, so you get blocked, change MAC/IP and that gets you access again. Would you claim to not know that you were now circumventing an access block? How about if you were downloading the 300th (or more likely 30,000th) document from a repo when it was clearly said users were limited to 3?
> I guess his lawyer did a terrible job of telling him not to worry.

Aaron suffered from depression, which can amplify "worries" to existential crises, which can lead to suicide. Depression, like many mental afflictions, affects the operation of thinking itself. That makes it hard (or impossible) to mentally "step back" and consider things from a different perspective.
Great Idea, and the execution looks fine too. Will use it for sure!

May I ask how did you get to be featured on TNW, Mashable, etc.?
If you think now that Linux is great on your desktop, think again.
Read this article first - http://linuxfonts.narod.ru/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.de...
Nice synopsis although I suspect faction A will claim you're misrepresenting them.

My take on it is that the prosecution did what prosecutors do. Jason Swartz seems to me to have been somewhat bipolar, and in manic phases he was brilliant, enthusiastic, idealistic, and a bit nuts -- which is what got him in trouble. In his depressive phase he killed himself. Blaming the prosecutors for his decisions is a tad harsh. The truth is complex and sad.
A Shocking Death, a Financial Lesson and Help for Others
If only...wifi hardware manufacturers included ad-hoc network configuration an aggressive default. To wit: any time another device was in range, spare bandwidth would be applied to augmenting regular planned network connections with an on-the-fly spontaneous network. Various complaints could be addressed with ease on a per case basis, but point is the norm would be applying unused capacity.

Wasn't included initially because there wasn't enough expected ubiquity to be feasible. Now that everything but my toaster has wifi support, we could have something approaching a robust free universal Internet not beholden to backbones and pricy data plans.
I'm a 77 year old Filipino lady who's crazy about sci-fi and gets to some pretty wild outdoor parties
Marketing Messages All Web Designers Should Know
The venerable 747 series has troubles too, in addition to the Dreamliner? You probably mean 787.
Analytics and ad tech companies in The Europas
Last week a shortlist of startups participating in The Europas (Europe’s most prestigious tech startup awards) was published. It includes 200 companies divided into 25 categories. I looked through the whole list, diving deeper into those, which do business in areas of advertising technology, analytics and big data.
Poor Man's Namespacing for Objective-C
If you look at peoples' gross paycheck income, it appears to have stagnated, but much of this is due to the rising costs of healthcare. Incomes are effectively continuing to rise, it's just that much of that increase is being funneled into benefits rather than take home pay.

Then again, it's also important to bear in mind that most common investments are made in stocks and bonds, not in workers. In this case you're investing in companies and/or government securities, not employees, so falling incomes do not necessarily imply decreased ROI.

To some extent you are right: obviously someone has to do actual work, and not everyone can just make money on investing. That said, it's not a one to one correspondance: if more people are investing, that means there's more capital available for companies to build off of, which means it's easier to get a profitable company off the ground, which leads to more economic growth.
> I dare to say Aaron might still be around if that was what he was facing too.

That's not all RTM was facing.

"Morris pleaded not guilty on Aug. 2. He could face five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and an order to make restitution to anyone adversely affected by the incident.".
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-04/news/mn-223_1_compute...

"Under a second law being studied by Federal officials, the use of a Government computer to commit fraud is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 20 years in prison."
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/us/fbi-begins-investigatio...
There are very few really reasonable assumptions over a 50 year timeframe. 5-7% ROI is not one of them, I'd say. On the other hand, you missed an important point:

4. "No longer working" isn't a permanent all-or-nothing decision. You can start working again if it becomes necessary for some reason (probably won't earn quite as much though). Or even keep working, just with fewer hours and/or a job that pays less but which you enjoy more.
> There's a kind of emotional economy that nerds don't tune into.

Please expand on this as much as you're willing.
How I hacked my way into CES
TouchWiz is ugly. That's my major problem with it. The cartoonish icons take up way too much room in the notification window, unnecessary and useless animations slow me down. Mainly though it just isn't very good looking.
Luckily, as a software developer, your primary function is not to respond to interruptions; they're just a career hazard.

If you sell me a decaf drink, you're doing a bad job and deserve to lose it.
It so happens that a blogger I host has written an alternate history novel set in a late-Republic / early-Empire Rome that has undergone an industrial revolution. She takes as her point of departure that Archimedes of Syracuse was captured, and not killed, by the Romans.

http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2010/09/22/the-past-is-a-foreign...

I really must pester her to finish editing and get it published.

Edit: she says it's being considered by a publisher at the moment, but may go under a psuedonym, so I've removed her name from this post.
I don't think there's a standard list but make sure to not just run micro benchmarks.

I would probably do:

1. Return a few hundred bytes of json with no I/O.

2. Return tens of thousands of bytes of json with no I/O.

3. Do the same 2 tests as above but read the data from a DB.

4. Do the same 3 tests as above but render templates instead of sending json.

5. Do everything again with it cached.

6. Repeat all steps with 1, 2, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 concurrent connections while paying close attention to the response times at the 99% level in addition to the reqs/second.

Also don't forget to look at the bytes transferred. There's going to be differences in the http headers between frameworks. If you're going to compare them directly to yours try to adjust the headers so it matches.
It would be interesting to know the most used font on old gen Kindles (which have only three choices : serif, serif condensed and sans-serif.)
exponentiate

By this, do you mean "increase", or should we expect e.g. a process that typically takes eight years to take 64 years or 512 years?
What I've got a problem with is that they bind the "j"/"k" keys to navigate between articles. Which sucks if you're running Vimium/Vimperator and try to scroll. All of a sudden there will be a dozen links to the same article under your back button.
I just compiled libfirm and cparser last night on the train home. Cparser compiled so fast I thought the build was broken. Indeed, C++ compile times are unreasonable even with Clang.
27-Year-Old Box CEO Plans To Hire 300 More People, IPO In 2014
An interesting read on the subject, very detailed and it goes as far as the first letters and the beginning of writing: The Information by James Gleick. [1] In a chapter, he explains how the transmission of messages worked with towers, the limitation they had, the different things they tried. For instance, he explains how they used a cross with moving branch and each position of the branches would mean a letter, but also how it was difficult to implement and how it eventually evolved.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Information:_A_History,_a_T...
Football Manager Handheld 2013 v4.0 Android Apk
"And he was encouraged by the public response to his deeds as well."

People are usually eager to cheer you on when they don't have to clean up the mess or suffer the downside.
Samsung is building its own Android platform for the enterprise | CITEworld
Well fine, but Byzantium never took Northern Spain, let alone 100's of years after the Viking age.
If you can update it, trivially, presumably without using the heuristics themselves, someone can update it for you. Now you have a new problem (securing the method for updating the heuristics.)

Although a counterpoint to this would be using more unique points of reference like the iris, fingerprints, etc, things not likely to change.
I write Go every day, I was going to rant about the author being annoyed minor things (that do not annoy me conveniently), and then it struck me- I'm extremely annoyed by the author wasting a line every time he repeats his code rather than doing this (or something similar depending on case):

if _, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path); err != nil {
return nil, err
}

Then I realized, programmers as detailed people are easily annoyed, because small details often matter. But in both the case of the author, and myself here, we need to realize when it truly doesn't matter.

Sure these Go behaviours might annoy him, but they are important for large code bases and are easily worked around. Sure, repeating am overly verbose block several times annoys me, but the seven extra lines of code does not make him unreadable or incorrect-

Here is too not sweating the small stuff.
Thinking About Doing Something Is Pretty Much The Same As Doing It [video]
Wow. Didn't realize a lawyer could have such nerd cred. Respect.
Password Protect Your Python Application