skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Okay. So I don't own one and don't plan to, and here is why:

> 1- it's a design that is far more open than iPad. You can move files in and out of it and have full control of the user directory structure. Want to move a bunch of your spreadsheets, recipes, python scripts and chess games into it. No problem. You don't have an Apple-like overlord prohibiting any of that.

I don't want to control my tablet's directory structure. As long as I can put my files on it (and I can) I'm good.

> 2- Need to install XAMPP, Python and other dev tools? No problem?

I can do that, better, on my laptop.

> 3- Want to install VMware and boot Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a VM for a full command-line dev environment and even virtual host a few sites? No problem.

I can do that, better, on my laptop.

> 4- and, after all that work, do you want to create a restricted user account for your 5-year-old to be able to play some games and educational apps? No problem at all.

I'm going to hand my $1000 Surface Pro to my five year old? The five year old is getting a $200 Nexus 7, which is rubberized and cheap enough that I don't care when he puts it in the sink.

> 5- How about accounts for guests and friends so that they don't accidentally mess with your stuff? Yup.

Have you seen how my wife treats electronics? I can't say I didn't have notice--when I met her her computer was a netbook with three keys missing--but there is no way in hell she's touching my Surface Pro. No, she's getting an iPad, which I don't care when she puts it in the sink.

> 6- Need more hard drive space? How about attaching an external USB hard drive and, perhaps keeping all your dev work there for easy transport to your desktop? Yup.

Dropbox + Wifi?

> 7- Can you use that really cool RC Flight Simulator that comes with a custom USB interface to your JR9505 transmitter? Of course you can.

Why would I want to run this on my tablet?

> 8- Or, how about that receipt or business card USB scanner?

They have ones that connect to WiFi now.

> 9- That neat Logithech keyboard you use on all your PC's? Of course.

Bluetooth.

> 10- can you run SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver, CuteFTP, Komodo, WinForth, Keil, Eclipse, Photoshop, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Fritz and a whole host of other software you might already be using for fun and work? Sure looks that way.

I wouldn't want to run half of those on a tiny 10" screen, and the other half have perfectly good iPad replacements.
From what I understand, its at the discretion of the Captain or owner/operator of the jet, and what their FAA Air Operators Certificate allows. For charter flights with vetted/verified clients, that is very minimal security, and rarely by the TSA.

Technically speaking, TSA, who are not federal agents, have to be invited onto an aircraft by the Captain.
Learn Insertion Sort
Misconceptions about Lean Startup
"We currently offer home delivery to a limited number of Seattle neighborhoods"

Nice for some folks living in Seattle, otherwise not very relevant.
They're killing their brand with badwill though.
You'll be pleased to know you haven't missed your chance yet!

I used to see Michal the Milkman trucks driving around near down town Palo Alto a few blocks away from where Steve Jobs used to live!

http://www.michalthemilkman.com/Moo/Home.html
You need a better understanding of common law and civil law. We're a common law country, and the Constitution is an instrument of common law. If you try to interpret it as the entire operating manual for the country, you'll end up in crazyland.
Automated Build Pattern: Cumulative Build
Automated build patterns is something that I have started working on in the past few months. It helps me clear up why some things work better for me on automated builds.
Thus a public system intended to engender fairness and creative behavior profitable to all society is made its own negation.
There are (faulty) readings of ECPA that would suggest that (say) Facebook providing NetFlow data to AT&T to help squelch a DDoS attack would constitute an unlawful sharing of private data.
Agreed, but:

> Education and keeping your head down in a stable corporate job are not the ticket to prosperity anymore.

...are not the only ticket...

They still are and entrepreneurs are still a tiny minority. Almost everyone around you lives depending on a stable job with not that many options to go up. World is different from the HN echo chamber. Education and corporate jobs are still valid - in different ways, context and to a different degree than for the last generation - sure. But they're still valid.
Honestly, if he's accomplished what he claims to have, and he manages to get his GED (which will be enough to qualify him to continue his education later in college if he chooses), then I would't be that opposed to letting him go ahead and drop out.

I'd push for at least getting the GED though... that way, worst case, if his business ambitions don't pan out, he can always go back to college (starting at a community college if he has to, since they are often guaranteed admittance, if you have a HS diploma or GED).
Yes, he sounds like every 15 year old I know (including my own son) who is absolutely convinced that school is useless and a waste of time. That said, for most people the purpose of school is to prepare them to be able to support themselves and their families, and it sounds like he's basically able to do that now.

School is something you can always come back to, but once you start into the family/kids part of your life it becomes a lot more difficult for most people. The best time to be in school is when you don't have any responsibilities to support anyone else.
IOS 6.1 banned from corporate servers due to Exchange snafu
What are profit margins like in the hosting business? In retail, $350,000 in revenue means about $3,500 in profit.
This actually looks like a false positive (I'm not 100% sure though, still waiting on confirmation from my researchers). Earlier today the Mercury News reported on Chrome blocking a number of websites, including Youtube, for distributing malware. The article specifically mentioned the malicious server ( us.bernerverein.ch ) that google is claiming is present on that site, and I think they got it from the article itself.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22556675/google-chrom...

It's also possible that there's an advertising network that's compromised and pushing malware (as seems to be the case quite often).
If what he claims is true, that's hugely impressive, and in terms of how successful he will be, it doesn't matter if he stays in school or not. If he's done that by 15, he's probably not going to learn anything that will change his mind unless and until he goes to University.

School isn't going to help him make more of himself than he has, all it will effect is his current business. With respect to his parents and school, it would be unfair, in my opinion, to stop him doing what it takes to make that an even bigger success.

His letter is inaccurate in saying education gives you nothing, I'm 18 and would disagree profusely. I've studied Computer Science for a few months after being suckered into a short lived technology business, and it's changed a lot about how I think.

However, he does come across in some respects as a smart business guy - where he discusses Minecraft hosting as a fad and tells of his longer term ambitions for that company - that's a business guy whose already made up his mind.
I'm somewhat excited about the "Convertible" concept. But technically, I don't think convertibles are quite ready yet for mainstream adoption.

Frankly, the real problem is that Intel / AMD chips are not ready to compete in this form factor. Intel is making bold new moves with Haswell however, and AMD is making big moves with Kabini, Temash and Kaveri.

In this generation, the lowest TDP chips are 17-Watt Ivy Bridges and 10-Watt Atoms / AMD Brazos. For whatever reason, AMD Brazos aren't getting used in tablets (they seem like a nice chip though...), the Clovertrail Atoms are too weak (lacks out-of-order execution, performs mediocre even compared to ARM chips, extremely poor GPU performance), and the 17-Watt Ivy Bridges use too much power compared to the 5-Watt Arm chips competition.

( Part of the reason is that Intel Atom chips are second-class citizens of Intel. They don't get access to the latest process, and were instead seen as a cheap cost-effective chip for netbooks, as opposed to a premium power-efficient but powerful chip that you'd expect in a tablet. )

With a power disadvantage, this generation of convertibles just ain't gonna cut it in terms of battery life / portability / weight. The CPUs require too much power, which require bigger batteries.

Next generation stuff from AMD / Intel however is looking quite exciting, and the potential standardization of widespread adoption of DDR4 for more power savings helps this form factor greatly.

In fact, Intel has introduced new instructions to Clovertrail Atoms and Haswell specific to new low-power states of the CPU. Intel's willing to change their instruction set to get better power savings.

True, Tablets will benefit from DDR4 (and already have the power-saving instructions Intel is only now implementing). But the real benefit of battery life stops being useful past around 8-hours or so. (With exception of e-readers and their 30+ days of battery life. Those things are amazing on vacation).

Furthermore, ARM chips are growing in a different direction in the near future... they're aiming at the server marketplace. The innovations of ARM 64-bit don't really translate to smartphones / tablets. Exciting for the server market, but I don't really see major innovations occurring for Tablet-space ARMs in the near future.

If the convertible concept survives till next year, then we'll see some real competition. In 2014, ARM chips will grow into the server market and attack Xeons / Opterons. And simultaneously, Intel / AMD solutions will have their first real salvo into the ultra-portable market.

---------

That said, the Surface needs to be made. Microsoft needs to innovate from the software side and figure out how to update Windows 8 to be more palatable for everyone. So even if Intel / AMD chips aren't ready to compete, Microsoft gotta move forward here. They're clearly falling behind in this race and need to put something out there.
Oh look, I have deep admiration for AGL. I like RMH too! I agree that they are "good guys".

But this is not about the the person or the corporation. It's about the users of PKI and the massive existing code infrastructure (not just browsers) they rely upon today and the attacks to which our systems may or may not be vulnerable under the different CA issuance policies.

RFC 5280: 4.2.1.10. Name Constraints: Conforming CAs MUST mark this extension as critical

Sure, there are times when bending the rules of an RFC may be the right thing to do. But breaking this rule violates an interface contract critical for security, thereby retro-actively reducing the security of conformant implementations.

Therefore, users and developers of existing security products must oppose this violation of RFCs.
Mark was actually only there for the China part which was four days including weekend. He's actually highly interested in the business climate there and wants his kids to learn mandarin.
If there was ever an argument against broad software patents it's this. Also if there ever was an argument that the patent system is a money making sham, it's this.

Prepending existing ideas with, "A computer-implemented method" does not make them patent-worthy and everyone in the entire world knows it.
I wonder who the Kirsty character is at 500 Startups, Tech Stars, AngelPad, etc.
Sure, right up until you finish a college degree or have enough work experience that nobody asks about your HS experience. If he just went to a community college and got an Associate Degree in something, the difference between having a "real" HS diploma and having a GED vanishes in the wash. Transfer from the CC to a regular university and he's on the exact same track as before, except for possibly not going to Princeton or Harvard, and instead being at $STATE_SCHOOL. Big deal.

Don't get me wrong.. for most kids, I'd suggest going ahead and sticking around HS and finishing. But it's not very long after high-school when your high-school "credentials" become totally insignificant.
Ignoring your vibe for conspiracy theory, I was personally looking forward to a solution like secure boot.

Imagine securing your entire system with something like Truecrypt, using multiple layers of encryption, only to be defeated by a 1KB bootloader that performs Man in the Middle attack.
> Doesn't sound like a meritocracy to me.

Yes, but nothing made out of organized humans ever adheres to mathematically rigorous definition. (1)

Our lot is loads better than that of some poor orphan in Haiti, and our opportunities were distributed with tons more equity. That said, it's far from perfect. There are parts of our messy society that are close to meritocracy, and there's other parts that are headache inducing doppelgangers of it. It's a mess, but you can also think of it as opportunity.

((1) - In fact, whenever you think you are about to make a clever or skeptical point in a societally based intellectual discussion, tell yourself this first, then see if you still want to. Same goes for biology and software engineering.)
Er. I'm a bit confused. How is the TSA not a federal agency? I know there are state transit authorities, but the TSA is federal, no?
It's better to vote for a third party that's somewhere toward your side of the political spectrum.

If you don't vote, that's just a smaller pool that each side will get approximately half of, and you've voted for a candidate that can't win: nobody. You haven't affected anything (not that you are required to affect anything).

If you vote for a third party, that's still someone that probably can't win, but you've moved the needle a bit away from the other two.
Wow, I can relate. A while back I left a job I had for 11 years to enter a completely different business domain. I still get email from users of the software I used to work on. Back when I was paid to do it, I always directed people to the mailing list for help. But now that I've moved on and don't really want to make a public appearance, I will occasionally just answer directly. Or ignore them and feel guilty.
Jessica, obviously. Kirsty. And Carolynn Levy (legal), who is the most recent addition.
I think Neil Tyson does a beautiful job of explaining why basic education is important:

There are people who say “I'll never need this math -- these trig identities from 10th grade or 11th grade.” Or maybe you never learned them. Here's the catch: whether or not you ever use the math that you learned in school, the act of having learned the math established a wiring in your brain that didn't exist before, and it's the wiring in your brain that makes you the problem solver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0E-9uJgDZU&feature=youtu...
PG - what are the chances of a single founder but with technical background getting in YCombinator? I'm a good but not great/"rockstar" developer but I am good enough to create an MVP. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

P.S - I can have a demo ready by interview process.
If you're purely interested in holding government accountable for their actions, I can see why you might write this. A lot of the open data released has been things that will benefit entities other than political campaign groups.

Consider data on train positions in the UK. It's been locked up in various ways for a long time, or at least with restrictions that amount to non-commercial usage. So what you ask? Providing a live train-times service from the data costs money: I've been told it's upwards of 500 messages/second and there's a lot of problems you have to work around.

Releasing the data behind it is starting to help people to find cheaper tickets, make a more truthful record of train punctuality than official figures, etc. Many companies will benefit financially from this (rather than the current monopoly) but the public will benefit.

There are cases where accountability is at least starting to be possible. Last year I helped a newspaper look at published NHS data for things buried under the carpet - think hospitals that are failing to treat certain age groups for conditions like Diabetes. That's accountability. The UK pupil database is similarly promising.

Things need to get better but it's not as bad everywhere as the author claims of Canada or the USA.
And? So they're not RFC compliant. Lots of things aren't.
How will disruption unfold in 1-3 years?
Outside of leakage current CMOS/MOSFET circuitry draws current during state transitions. So, yes, more bits flipping per unit of time will cause additional heating, sometimes dramatically so. This is the reason the last generation of iPads get so hot: Four tomes the pixels means that you have the potential to have four times more bits flipping in the display processing pipeline, hence more heat. Try running footage where every pixel is changing on every frame and see what happens.
Need followup information:

1. What is the parents net worth?

2. Is the child a US Citizen?

3. What is the skin color/race/nationality of the child?

4. How much money does the child have in cash. What's his net worth?

5. Is his employment at this gig guaranteed for at least 5 years and is this gig going to continue his salary for 5 years?

6. Does he show any signs of burn-out? He may be wildly successful for a few years, then commit suicide because he didn't get stock options?

7. Does the child have stock options in the company and the right to liquidate the company and if so how much would get get in return?

8. Committed any felonies or gotten into trouble in younger years?

9. Does he have a drivers license?

10. Is there a Charismatic cult leader that hypnotized him into a delusional state to plant these seeds who stand to make a fortune from his quitting school?

11. What is the REAL reason for hating school?

12. Did the child write this letter or hire one of his employees to do it?

13. Are there any bullies in school that are hassling him that are prompting this? Can he get along with his peers?

14. Does he have successful mentors who will see his development through to age 18 or so?

15. Is his relationship with his parents solid? So that if he were to get into an accident and become mentally disabled that they would take care of him?

Who can predict the future of this decision? If I was the father, I'd compromise, I'd say: "If your next year in high school is Straight A's, we'll let you quit". If he wants it that bad, and he's a doozer, he'll make it happen.
Multidimensional pong game on HTML5 Canvas
It seems to me that every organisation has 2-3 people who keep all the balls in the air. The company I work at certain does. They don't rank highly job title / power wise...but if they get hit by a bus...heaven help us. e.g. We've got one person coordinating about 300 people's schedules.
> a true entrepreneur and a winner

The problem is that he might be a lucky winner. As per the "once - you're lucky, twice - you're good" expression. He's on a roll now, but if it all collapses (350k split to 12 employees and running costs - that's not really something to write home about), what are the chances that he'd be able to recreate the success? I don't know. Nobody knows.

He's effectively not hedging the risk of future failures.

If his current company does well, it'll be OK. But if it fails, he may end up facing more trouble than he can handle, all due to not having basic checkboxes ticked on the resume.
I am under surveillance by Canadian agents, my computer has been backdoored
That being said, I ironically found the font type on this blog website too large and I've reduced it, which is sometimes I really rarely do.
Am I the only one here who worked hard in high school and learned stuff? I was probably doing 60-70 hour weeks studying math, chemistry, physics, geology, English, and a few electives in between.

Of course I don't use most of that stuff in my daily life, but I'm glad I know it. And if I had gone into chemistry -- which I was seriously expecting to do as a freshman in college -- those chem classes would be something I'd be using in my daily life, of course with a lot more undergrad and grad work on top of it.
You keep citing the RFC as if it mattered. What matters in reality are the judgements of Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, and Apple (the HTTPS cabal). That this is annoying does not change its underlying truth.

Of those four organizations, I feel like I could make a strong argument that Google is the one with the best activist stance on improving Internet privacy, the one doing the most to improve the core HTTPS infrastructure.

The RFC you're citing is the product of a bunch of people sitting in a room talking. RFC policies do not bind organizations. About the most you can say about them is that they mean the HTTPS cabal is using something other than HTTPS. Ok, but that is the mother of all [sp]e[md]antic arguments. (Can we use "spemdantic" from now on?)
/r/classicalmusic share horror stories of TSA's handling of musical instruments
Vim, The OSX clipboard and Tmux
The Surface Pro looks a little before its time (heat and weight-wise), but I agree with almost all of this. Currently I've got a little Kindle Fire HD (better speakers than the Nexus) for watching videos on the go. I've got a MBP for doing "real work" on around the apartment. But when I travel, I'd love something that lets me do the work, using the tools I already know, while also being usable as a tablet for content consumption and note-taking (the active digitizer is a really nice bonus). iPads aren't cheap, and I can't imagine paying that much for something that can't do the duty of a laptop in a pinch.

The ThinkPad Helix also looks very interesting. IMO this is an instance of Microsoft being the ones skating to where the puck is going to be.
Get the GED, bank the money, and go to college at your leisure when the Minecraft hosting plays out.

If High School weren't such a poor learning environment then maybe but this trend to saddle a student with homework so they are working on school in excess of 40hrs/week is inhuman. Most adults would be looking for new work under those conditions, but we frown on students when they don't want to put up with it. We need creative, spirited young folks, not a bunch of crushed-soul droids.
If it was so easy papers like this would not exist:
http://research.google.com/archive/paxos_made_live.html
If he knows what he's doing,i think it's better to let him do as he sees fit. After all it's his life and he will live it the way he wants. As for learning computer science,he already said he has a hosting business,so he may be able to learn computer science at work,by doing it (which is the best way !!!). I think his parents should support him, mainly because he is creating his own job, and if he fails it will be a valuable lesson for him, and then maybe he'll get back to school,but until then ,i think he's right when he chooses his company over highschool . If he's wrong, he'll learn from his mistake and move on...
We also thought in 2006 that the entry ticket on a certain market was way too high for startups. And boom Facebook appeared.

We also thought in 2008 that the entry ticket on a certain market was way too high for startups. And boom Dropbox appeared.

So, OK, I understand your point but I'm always impressed by what a bunch of people in their garage (or accelerator) can achieve.