skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Erlang is as much of a platform as it is a (pretty peculiar) language and its functionality does overlaps with the operating system, for example thread management (and in Erlang you tend to have thousands of threads as far as I understand) and things like being able to boot up Erlang on ten computers and have them behave like one big Erlang instance. In other words, considering what Erlang does, it seems plausible this is a very reasonable thing to try, I don't think this has to do with "operating system services" in the windowish sense of the word "service", it's more about conflicting approaches to same problems between the OS and Erlang.
It is not as common these days but 20-30 years ago many courses had 100% of the mark depend on the Final exam. It was very common for students to do nothing for most of the year and then madly cram in the last few weeks.

All this does is make the "teaching" pary of the course optional.
They can't do that yet. As far as I understand, their idea works when applied directly / on a micro scale, but they'd have to still solve the issues of mass production and distribution through the organism.

Anyway, this seems very different from a perpetual energy machine pitch. If you can reject what they're doing using very basic rules of physics/biology, please do that. If you disagree that what they work on is possible, which part is it?
I'm afraid you may have misread him, and this is partially a cultural issue. When he seems to be saying something very subtle and gentle, it may be intended as a crushing criticism. And you lose face for not perceiving it.
I like the idea of encoding the data. Or it can be like a URL shortener, where the metadata gets recorded, and a short hash is generated. It complicates the back-end but allows for more comprehensive data storage, and eventual reporting.

Regarding custom DNS software, I might draw from this excellent write-up featured on HN recently:

http://5f5.org/ruminations/dns-debugging-over-http.html
I guess my impression was that you can not go to far down that road starting with only $60,000 in the bank unless you have a good lawyer take you on for free which is uncommon.

Meaning these options are not realistically open to large percentage of the population.
You don't really have to make a decision. Those you don't donate to receive donations from other people. Nothing to worry about I guess.
For me, it doesn't work because all the ad is saying is, "Hey, wait for me! I'm better now! I'm just as good as those other guys!"

It doesn't hilight anything that IE does better than the other browsers. Instead, it's saying, "I'm a relic of the past, when I was the only thing available for lots of people. Remember that? Weren't those good times? We should go back to those times."

And, part of the problem with crapping on previous versions of your own product is that it sort of raises the question, will we be doing the same thing again 10 years from now? Will Microsoft still be trying to win people back by joking about how awful IE 10 was, how it didn't bring any major advancements, how it just caught up to where the other browsers were?

And and, let's not forget those remarkably stupid ads for IE run the last time 'round, where Microsoft decided that its best strategy for convincing people to switch back to IE was because it was a bunch of nerds that were pushing the other products and all the nerds were wrong. And nerdy. How's that for a little bit of nostalgia?
Russian version: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_c...

The photographs were taken on three black and white plates with RGB filters in front of them, and could only be seen projected on a screen.

This is an article describing how the original images were composed to create the color version http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html this is about the russian guy, Prokudin-Gorskii, but the process he used to take the pictures was the same.

On the LOC website you can see the originals and composite http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/prk2000000200/
"Caswell estimates the U.S. government will have to pay at least $600,000 toward his defense fees."

I can't help but think that whoever made the decision to bring this frivolous case to trial should pay the fees.
Unintended how? The prosecutor decided he wanted to ruin Aaron's life. He succeeded.
I think one of the common security issues strongly hinted at by this blog post is Rails' secret_token.rb security debacle[1]. Basically Rails has a file called secret_token.rb containing what should be a complete secret, but the default Rails .gitignore doesn't ignore it and as far as I've experienced, none of the main introductory Rails tutorials mention it. So a lot of people accidentally publicise it on GitHub, and this facilitates exploits of some of the recent Rails vulnerabilities.

[1] http://biggestfool.tumblr.com/post/24049554541/reminder-secr...
I don't really get it. From the blog post, Granger is describing a very imperative object system, but you seem to be claiming that it is somehow a value-oriented functional system. What am I missing?
Twitter Buys Vine
Let it be known that some have cut off the top of their text before ALA 5.0 (myself included: http://tumbledry.org ). I like this design because it's opinionated, and I think we should wait to completely judge until they are done and have polished it.
thought you were talking about the tubes in the tires
Other than the number of cars (more), balloons (fewer) and soldiers (fewer), Paris looks pretty similar today.
Seems kernerl would have been better.
Bringing Minecraft-style games to the Open Web
Carmen Ortiz needs to go. She's a publicity hound just trying to make a name for herself rather than someone who actually respects the law.
The US attorneys office has a dude just sitting around in Boston PD waiting for fun cases to show up?
>let's be honest about that; the place is a blighted flophouse

Because you say it is?
That is awesome. A really great use of the YC network.
I have mixed feelings about this. It could be great good if done correctly, but there is also a lot of room for error.

On a related note of "credit based on knowledge", I am always fond of college professors who have the policy "If you make an 'A' on the final, you make an 'A' in the class", the premise being that you clearly have learned the material, and their job is to make sure you know the material.
What is a good web-based calendar with SMS/mobile alerts?
Trying to find a replacement for 37 Signals' Backpack calendar. It does 3 things I really like:

- clean monthly view

- quick parsing of new events, "3pm Meet with Joe"

- automatic SMS reminders for all events

Can anybody suggest a good alternative? Google Cal doesn't do the natural language parsing. Fantastical looks cool, but doesn't do the month-long view, and has no web view.

Thanks for any input!
Hate Facebook Graph Search? Hide it
There's http://gowatchit.com/.
I say the post is nicely done, and note that I'm happy he took security into account, and people downvote. WTF???
If people want to gamble, they should vote for representatives that will repeal the gambling ban.
So your exhibit A of how business and markets can make a mess of things is a county almost entirely dominated by government employers? It almost looks to me like when they have near total control over how an area evolves, they don't bother with much oversight or planning for it..
The prosecutor wanted another feather in his cap. I doubt he held animosity towards Aaron in particular, any more than a mugger would towards someone wearing an expensive watch.
Not to be confused with "NixOS", no dash, a Linux distro based on the Nix package manager. Sheesh, how many annoying names can we get into one thread? http://nixos.org/nixos/
It is by far the most dangerous activity (in an accidental death sense) that most Americans participate in. Is it more dangerous than a lot of things most Americans don't do? No, but that doesn't make it not really, really dangerous.
> it’s not a “natural birth” if you get an epidural

I never really understood this. It wasn't natural for me to have surgery less than a month after I was born, either, but without it I'd be dead now.
Of course Google Toolbar and OpenOffice was much more useful than Ask Toolbar.
Ask HN: Hacking your way into SF?
Getting extremely bored and frustrated with my current job. More responsibility, less compensation, etc, we all know the drill.

I set a goal to be in SF before the end of the year but I'm looking to expedite the process a bit. Unfortunately due to the aforementioned compensation issue I'm not able to just pick up and move just yet and I haven't lined up a job yet.

I'd appreciate some help from you guys. What options are out there for something like this?

I've stepped up my job searching activities and started cutting more expenses to save even more money, but my patience here is quickly waning.

I'd appreciate any tips or ideas you guys might have. Thanks!
I don't fully understand why this makes me so angry, but it does. The company you work for has no right to know anything about your personal life. To be expected to disclose things to HR is ridiculous.
Wow this is a great idea.
I was just going to post the Wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exokernel), but Mirage looks pretty cool. I've liked the idea of an exokernel since I heard of them. Thanks.
TIL that neon lights were invented in the early 1900's.

Also: that first picture is a subway station.
While the Woz might not approve of adding dramatic scenes to historically based films (and I don't blame him at all), it has a pretty big precedent in the movie industry. Apollo 13 comes to mind, when one of the crew yells at the other about the accident with stirring the oxygen (there was no such argument; all astronauts were very professional).

That being said, while I think most people on this site would prefer a more accurate portrayal, the non-hacker audience probably thinks it's good cinema.
Elegant!
Naveen makes sound simple.
If someone issues you a loan in good faith, and you cannot repay, it is indeed their loss. They have not committed crime however.

What I said is that it is a crime if at the time of issuance the lender has reasons to believe you cannot repay the loan. That is a crime, and that is a form of extortion (or loan sharking).
Fair enough.
I agree there are definitely a set of tradeoffs here, and yes, sometimes you can't avoid bad results if you want a working system.
I've made this mistake although fortunately with an unpublished app to a private repo but I'd still like to fix it.

My ideal solution will probably be to:

1) Look for an environment variable

2) Look for a file in the project config or root named: secret-git-ignore-this-file (or something similar)

3) If it fails to find either of then generate a new secret with secure_rand

4) If running on Heroku write it to the environment variable (I think this can be done and should persist although I'll need to check the documentation).

5) Otherwise write it to the secret-git-ignore-this-file

If/when I get round to this I'll probably try to put it on Github for others to use although if anyone knows of any good published solutions that do something like this that would be even better.
I am so impressed! well written and well conceived! yes - elegant
Security Vulnerability Found in Heroku and Rails form_tag
Wired Attributes Quote about jOBS to Jobs
To this, I would add that it's difficult to determine when this has taken place. Often it's a case of "he-said she-said," unless the harasser manages to leave evidence (or in this particular case, "he-said he-said").

The large potential financial payoff from a successful lawsuit gives the accuser a motive to lie or misremember.

Also, people are notoriously bad about communicating with each other about relationships. So it's possible that the accuser genuinely thought he was being coerced, when this was not actually the case. I.e. if he'd simply broken up with Mr. Rabois instead of filing a lawsuit, there might have been no work-related consequences whatsoever; but he didn't believe this.
Integrating iPhone photography with wiki for note-taking during conference
Ask HN: Where to look for a manufacturer?
A friend of mine has an idea for a very simple product, but is completely clueless about where to start looking for a manufacturer. I have no experience in this field so I am as clueless as he is. Can anyone offer any insights or past experiences?

Thank you everyone in advance.
Julian Assange Calls Dreamworks Film a Mass Propaganda Attack
I wonder about the reverse problem. Are there any worthy yet unpopular cases that Ortiz not take up while she was pursuing these ones?
I just love this. It was featured a few months back and by the time I got to it everyone had already been sponsored [0]. It's brilliant to see the real stories of people who's lives you can have a positive effect on right now.

I also use Kiva [1] which is brilliant in a different way. You can loan money to people so they can fund their businesses etc.

I'm off to donate to Watsi now.

[0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4424081
[1] http://www.kiva.org/
Survey: Americans Love Their Public Libraries
I'm using my first post to thank you for what you already have done and look forward to this when it is ready. In my experience, biting off more than it turns out you can chew is a trait common to prodigious coders such as yourself. There is no better evidence than the (audacious!) projects you have tackled and completed in the past - leaving me confidant you will deliver Tokaido and it will be awesome. (but curious about all the hand-wringing by those surely not aware of your accomplishments) Code you have released freely in the past helps puts food on the table of lesser developers such as myself and I just wanted you to know you are appreciated.
The "people who download the most also purchase the most" stories that pop up every six months or so disagree. Even many of the people with the most awareness of the fact that they could get stuff for free are willing to pay the current market rates for a lot of it. It's been almost 14 years since Napster. A decade since suprnova and widespread availability of torrents for movies and TV shows. And yet the floor still hasn't fallen out of market prices. Things are changing in the creation and distribution world, but I see little indication that some substantial part of the population has decided that we're paying content creators too much, and that a song, show, movie, book, or game is only worth very little.
That does not sound 'unique'. reusable actions to messages in Flavors are called methods and the reuse is done via Mixins and Method Combinations.

In Lisp you won't use 'nameless' functions. Typically one uses symbols, which are late bound to functions. Thus the symbol table is the map we can modify. In a meta-object-based object system like CLOS, generic functions are mapped to symbols and they have 'maps' of methods which will be combined at runtime.

The Xerox PARC researchers who defined CLOS worked a lot on the problems (mixins, active values, open implementations, meta-objects in software, ...).
It's on the backburner, but I've never built/integrated rss into an application before. Maybe something to do this weekend if it's simple enough.

We're open-source: https://github.com/prezjordan/ilictronix
> We had debated the decision of receiving an epidural a great deal because some believe it’s not a “natural birth” if you get an epidural and I’d put us at a midrange granola level with our lives in general, but we decided that for us, for her, it was the right thing to do.

I'm also confused. Is this a decision that is made as a couple?
Interesting. What Watsi has is beyond what I imagined an ideal online donations would offer.

Kudos for taking the leap Watsi!
The driverless-car liability question gets ahead of itself
I thought it was an homage to Dumbledore's Army, didn't occur to me it could be anything else.
We originally ran on blogger (still do!) but it really didn't have what I wanted. College started, and I really couldn't prioritize "fixing up" the site on blogger, as it was just so convoluted.

Instead, I decided to take a stab building a custom solution in rails. Had a blast doing it, and I learned a ton. Still very much a work-in-progress, but I take great pride in building the very features I've wanted for such a long time. Now, I could tailor these solutions in PHP for wordpress or something, but it's not my expertise.
That seems correct, but points to two fairy different issues: the breadth of the CFAA in (likely) making this incident into a federal crime, and the prosecutors' choice to pursue it. The former is what I'd really like fixed. I don't at all disagree with putting pressure on Ortiz and Heymann for choosing to pursue the charges, especially with the apparent vigor with which they did so. But the fundamental problem is the law. Ortiz and Heymann, I think, exercised their judgment poorly, but by the letter of the law they were in the right, because the person they were pursuing probably was guilty of a federal felony, as Congress defined it. So that's the more fundamental problem.

Put differently: if a prosecutor chooses not to pursue particularly stupid applications of a law, that's better than the opposite, so we should work to make sure our public prosecutors are as reasonable as possible. But that's a very weak kind of protection. Having very broad criminal laws where we rely on the wisdom of prosecutors not to charge the "bad" applications leaves defendants with basically no procedural protections, since not being charged when you violated the law as written isn't any kind of legal right.
And then will that get released to WikiLeaks?
That's probably mostly true, but it's worth pointing out that some prosecutors (if not federal prosecutors, to be fair) are sometimes held accountable for their actions. Mike Nifong[1] the infamous "Duke Lacrosse"[2] prosecutor, was disbarred, removed from office as DA, charged with various ethics violations and was even held in contempt of court at one point, and spent one day in jail (and paid a $500 fine) as a result.

Unfortunately it's all too rare for prosecutors to suffer any consequences for what they do, and it takes a really egregious case of misconduct like this (as well as a group of well-heeled and well connected defendants) to prompt such a thing.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Nifong

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_lacrosse_case
A few of the cases IJ has fought:

- a bagel shop owner in Seattle wanted the right to hold a sign to promote his business

- El Paso, TX passed a law that food trucks could not setup within a block of a traditional restaurant

- Florida passed a law requiring interior decorators to get a license

- Washington DC passed a law requiring that African hair braiders get a cosmetology license (which requires beauty school degree) yet beauty schools do not teach traditional African hair braiding (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/06/21/154826233/why-its-...)

- Dallas, Texas passed a law saying businesses couldn't display signs in their windows due to safety (of course, nothing requires them to have ANY windows)

- New London, CT used eminent domain to take an entire neighborhood of private homes to give the land to Phizer because Phizer would generate more tax revenue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London
If I didn't know any better, I'd say you hacked into our white board software... ;-) Yes! It's all coming.
Someone is saying giving to local people is nationalist and bigotry, I am merely refuting that.
I think its foolish because your investment is based on something that you have no control over, nor any ability to rationally judge risk. The US government could collapse the value of bitcoin in an instant by declaring it illegal. It's probably only a matter of time until they do this actually. Unless you have a good reason to think this won't be for another X years, investing is a bad bet.
Paris never ages...
A number of things happen with an epidural that are kind of a big deal.

1. The baby is affected by the epidural, which can result in several days of grogginess, increased difficulty in establishing breast feeding, etc.

2. There is a natural amnesia for the pain of childbirth. If you get an epidural that effect gets dropped. So there may be less pain, but the woman tends to remember it more clearly.

3. An epidural greatly limits the mother's range of possible positions and activities. For example squatting in a shower can be great for progress, but you can't do it if your legs don't work properly.

4. One intervention leads to another. An epidural slows the birthing process, and massively increases your likelihood of further interventions. In the linked article, the woman wound up with a C-section. The odds of that happening would have been considerably less if there had not been an epidural. (Even so, if there is no fetal distress, why the hurry to have a C-section if that had not been discussed? Before the childbirth they should have had a birthing plan, and the doula should have known the mother's wishes and defended them. That's what she's there for...)

That said, natural childbirth is incredibly difficult and not always possible. If a woman wants and is capable of having a natural childbirth, my hat is off to her. But women shouldn't be pushed to do that if they don't want to.
Thought I appreciate the sentiment "just do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may" and try to live my life according to it, on a scale of countries and when hundreds of million of people lives would be affected, it's simply irresponsible and stupid.
1. "You want to break up with me? oK, you're fired"

2. "Maybe Bob is the better qualified candidate, but I'm going to promote the guy who's having sex with me"
COO is not really "an employee".
Greg Wilson: What We Actually Know About Software Development (2010)
I think one thing to keep in mind is whether or not people who donate money through a system such as Watsi, would have otherwise donated that money to some other type of organization, and whether by donating through a Watsi like system they will be more likely to donate to other types organizations in the future. These questions could definitely use some study (I'll bet there are some already out there).

Anecdotally, I'm not someone who normally gives to charity, but I gave through Watsi, because I could see and to some degree feel the real impact of the money. As a secondary effect, I actually feel more charitable, whether that means I will give to other types of organizations remains to be seen, but I would not discount the halo effect systems like Watsi may have.
The intro in the linked article is set with a 24px font size and 960px width. For me, on a good desktop screen, that is uncomfortably large on both counts for a full paragraph of body text.

The main part of the article, set at 18px with about 700px width, is sensible IMHO.
Hey I didn't mean any disrespect, I was just surprised by how similar it looks. I myself wondered what UI library they're using (if any). Anyway, I am using Trello (no reason in particular) for some projects, but I'll check ThetaBoard out. Good luck with it!
> it seems like there's still a lot of room for improvement before

Room for improvement to do what? Compute n-body simulations. Permutations, or searching a FASTA file, spectral norm? You can't be serious.

The only one of consequence maybe the thread ring Erlang comes 3rd then after Go and Haskell.
And... patents.