skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The difference is consent, not the medium of exchange. A fish can't consent to be part of the dinner-diner relationship.

A doctor and an armed mugger are different because even though in both cases they are given money in exchange for life, the doctor's patient[1] consented to do so.

Also, restricting customers to people who pay with money excludes transactions based on bartering or favors. If I design a nice website for someone and they give me a bottle of wine, that's still a customer relationship even though no money has changed hands.

[1] Or their guardian, legal representative, etc.
"Yes, and if a Chevy Malibu could be sold for what BMW 5 series sells for then GM wouldn't have gone bankrupt."
This is probably the best product quality analogy I've ever read.

I remember the days of using LibreOffice on Linux. I always gave up after 5-10 exceptionally frustrating minutes and just went to Google Docs instead (though now, MS Office Web Apps would likely be my choice on Linux).
It's not all that irrational for... some electric vehicles. Probably not the Tesla Model S, though.

I mean, I normally drive (much) less than 200 miles per day, and I'm sure that 99% of my driving would be fine with a 200 mile range electric vehicle.

But when I do want to go farther, well... I mean... I actually want to go farther. I want to go skiing sometimes, and there is no skiing within 200 miles of me. I don't particularly want to spend even 30 minutes recharging along the way, either -- it's a long day without additional delays.

When I went down to visit my sister when she was in LA, and again when she was up in Eureka, or my family in Mendocino, those are important trips to me. They aren't my usual use profile, but a significant part of the value of the cars I get is that they CAN meet my less usual needs as well as my more usual ones.

Now, all that said, the Tesla Model S is a $50,000 to $100,000 car. Its owners have options. Probably well over 95% of Model S's sold are to multi-car households. And at the very least, its owners are clearly wealthy enough to do something like "go to Enterprise and rent a SUV for their ski-trips, without worrying about a few hundred dollars a few times a year."

On the other hand, I don't think that most of the interest around the Model S is driven by the S per se. I think a lot of people are using it as a proxy for "a future, less expensive car that has similar range." And then we're back to people who can't necessarily buy their hypothetical future EV as a second car, retaining a household gas car for their road trips, or renting one with their large disposable income.
Responsively fire JS events based on media queries
Ask HN: New telemarketing strategy?
I've gotten several phone calls from telemarketers today. I noticed a curious relationship between the time of day and phone number:

Time -- Phone Number

10:25am -- XXX-XXX-1025

2:49pm -- XXX-XXX-1449

4:45pm -- XXX-XXX-1645

Is this some new trick where you can manipulate the caller ID to just show the current time in 24 hour format instead of the real last four digits? Or maybe they're just automated systems that call at the time of their last four digits because whoever wrote the schedule was feeling particularly lazy?

For some further speculation, the area code is the same as the one on my number. If I had to guess I'd say they're spoofing through some shady VOIP service?
How to Get Your App in the Top 100
This car is clearly not intended for long distances. These charger stations seem like a hassle. Waiting 1 hour at a Charge station for your "tank" to fill seems crazy since it adds on an hour of traveling time to any road trip. Seems painful to me. This car would cause me anxiety.
Honestly, I wouldn't be the person to ask: I don't own any cars anymore. But, a quick google search suggests that a number of the La Quinta Inns, Days Inns, and Super 8s in North Dakota have winter plugins in the parking lot. Maybe you've just never noticed?
>because I'm not writing a check for something I can't measure.

This is interesting. My first response is that not everything of value can be measured [1], but then I thought better of it and realized there probably are ways to measure everything of value [2], they're just not easy, obvious, or intuitive, and the odds of convincing a national educational bureaucracy that does things as much for appearance and expedience as effectiveness are probably not great.

[1]: http://blogs.hbr.org/davenport/2010/10/what_cant_be_measured...

[2]: http://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Busin...
"I'm sorry, I don't know why someone mailed me a box of drugs. Could have been anyone that placed the order. Want to arrest me for this? Great, looking forward to next week when you'll be arresting your entire HQ for receiving drugs from Silk Road."

[Note: You don't actually say that, rather, your attorney argues the above with reference to the rules of evidence and burden of proof; and asserts that receiving a box of drugs in the mail is insufficient proof by itself that you ordered it, and the only other evidence is that a series of jumbled characters paid for it.]
"She said to shut off the cruise control to take advantage of battery regeneration from occasional braking and slowing down."

There's either a fundamental misunderstanding here or Tesla just owned physics. Braking is never, ever a good idea for power preservation. (Slowing down is another story, but if "occasional braking" was actually in the advice, that's abysmal).
That link to the Turing-complete Rule 110 cellular automaton implemented entirely in HTML and CSS (no Javascript!!!) is an incredible example of what happens when programmers have too much time on their hands. Here's the full repository:

https://github.com/elitheeli/stupid-machines
Hey, i posted that too :P
You could also make it attack its owner and drain his life force to recharge itself quickly.

Having such an easily replaceable battery would be nice, but it's not infinitely nice such that any tradeoff is necessarily worth it.
And if the NYT ever got a hold of any reasonable evidence of doing so, at best (for Tesla) it'd ruin Musk's credibility and at worst they could turn it into libel charges of their own.

Plus being publicly traded, I believe the SEC might have words on the subject.
> In the years since, the name Mathematica has been widely imitated (think Modelica, for example).

...or Metallica, for example.

Seriously, isn't sticking 'a' (or 'ica') onto the end of a word some kind of Latin thing?

Britannica!
Ask HN: How can my girlfriend get plugged into a startup?
tl;dr: My amazing, beautiful, and talented girlfriend is really interested in the startup world but can't code or design. Does anyone have a void in their startup she could fill? Maybe a customer interacting, support, organizer, or assistant type role?

HN has been the source of several jobs and work for me and I thought I'd put this out there to see what the community thinks. In a more general sense, how can we include women that can't necessarily code or design? If we need more women in tech, there has to be a good way. The women who may start out not being able to code or design may spark their interest and inspire them to learn when they are in that environment.

My girlfriend would love to be in the same realm as I, but isn't sure how she can be of use. Too bad we aren't in SF or close-by either. Does anyone have any ideas? If you'd like to know more about her I'll send her information onto you and you can chat.
Open Office falls short compared to Office for the average user in the same way that Linux falls short for such non-technical people - poor documentation and support. My mom can go to the public library and choose one of several books. She can even take classes on Office at the senior center.

The support for FOSS alternatives just doesn't compare in terms of diversity or ease of use for a lay person. The bookstore has shelves of books on Office. When there are three books on LibreOffice, I'll consider buying a lottery ticket.

I wish things were different. But they aren't.
There's no reason for an electric car to idle at all - if you're stopped in traffic, why would you need to provide any power to the motor when the start up time for an electric motor is near instantaneous.
> To see if the myths held up. Age was talked about a little at dinners, but the consensus was that it didn't matter.

Oh really? Shortly after I got to the Bay Area, I met a 20-something YC kid who looked straight at me and said that my age was going to be a problem. (In the context of the Bay Area, not YC, to be fair.)
Actually, I think everything Elon said appears to be technically true--the car wasn't fully charged, and the driver took a detour. What he didn't say was whether or not the car can be normally "partially charged" after a "charging complete" status posted on the car (yes? no?), whether or not the lost range due to a incomplete charge was material (the journalist claims the car reported sufficient mileage before the drive began) and whether the detour materially affected the result of the review (if it's really a two mile detour, the answer is probably "no"). Does all this add up to a "faked" review? Not sure, but I wouldn't blindly trust Elon's classification.
I used IE briefly in 2000 and 2001, before Mozilla (0.9) became usable enough and Phoenix came out; back then (IE 5.5 to IE 6.0) it definitely was the best browser, by far.
Hourly finder charts for asteroid 2012 DA14 this Friday
Well, if its the Super 8 around here, they are not quite telling the truth. Not sure what a La Quinta Inns is, and the couple Days Inns don't have outdoor outlets either. Must be selected locations only.

It sure would have been nice when it got -20°F so I could have plugged in the head-bolt heater, but my Kia Rio started fine.

[edit 2] Handy tip, turn on the lights for about 15 seconds, turn off lights, then start the car. Warms the battery a bit.
Here is how the web site works btw, from the author:
"it flattens the image to 1-bit colour depth then looks in the bottom right corner for a ┛ shape. if it finds one sufficiently big it follows the edges up and left as far as possible to find out how big the panel is﻿"
This is an interesting variant on the Kickstarter idea. one of the more intriguing/disturbing campaigns on the site is one for something called 'I am Stela' that launches on the 15th, but contains absolutely no information about what it is other than a list of celebrity endorsements. It's probably some ribbon-of-the-month good cause, but it could theoretically be a social engineering scam.
T-Mobile charges $200 for a Nexus 4; at least, they did the last time I was in one of their stores. And if there's one thing the Galaxy Nexus has taught me, it's that any Nexus purchased from a carrier will provide a much worse experience than one purchased on Play (due to carrier malware and delayed software updates).

> Also, no law dictates that you have to sign a contract
> to get cell service in America. One can as well choose
> from few of the cheaper prepaid services.

Equivalent service from the same provider is typically charged at the same rate, regardless of whether the customer has a contract. That's my point -- since there's no difference in service price, it's silly to say the phone is more expensive under a contract plan.

If you're comparing different service providers, then of course there will be some who have lower monthly rates and higher initial purchase prices. The tradeoff is that these providers usually provide much lower-quality service.
Is this due to the pricing or that it is the cheapest offering?
Real Time Bidding (RTB): Where Erlang BLOOMs
WTF does one need Boost to build a keystroke logger? This is the crisis of software in a nutshell.
I don't think I agree with that.

Reading foreign assembly isn't that bad unless it is being intentionally obscured. It definitely takes time to decipher things but at the same time you really learn what's going on :)
But what about features set comparison? ipv6 support, backups, node balancer, dashboard, API, community, documentation...?
Could you explain what about Open Office makes it a pretty amazing project?

The entire mission of the Open Office suite seems to be to copy Microsoft Office as much as possible. It isn't trying to change the way people think about document editing, or provide more meaningful ways to express ideas. Microsoft created Visio, so let's go make Draw. What is the point? What value does recreating successfully developed and supported applications provide?
How about "Leibniz" in honor of the mathematician who independently invented calculus and, compared to Newton, used a superior notation (which he took great pains to make nice)

Or, Zinbiel.
We monitor uptime :)

http://serverbear.com/9683/linode#view-uptime-beta

Plus benchmarks etc (user run, which means you get a decent dataset to compare by server spec/location).

http://serverbear.com/9683/linode#view-benchmarks
http://serverbear.com/9806/digitalocean#view-benchmarks

We've actually considered ticket response times, a lot of hosts use WHMCS to manage their nodes - which we could make a plugin for. But a large amount of the more established hosts use a custom system.

Problem is, ticket response time isn't an indication of quality. Anyone could respond with a "We're looking into it" within 5 mins & not get a resolution for a few hours.
I am a high school student who cares about learning. I value the content of my subjects in school. But I am actively discouraged from learning at school.

For example, I have a chemistry teacher whose sole goal is to get us to pass the test. I'll ask something like, "So this ratio applies under a set, standard pressure and temperature?" And she'll reply, "What!? This has nothing to do with pressure or temperature, just multiply this number by this number...."

Other times, I'll ask a question and she'll say, "You don't need to know that for the test." She actively discourages inquiry into the "why" behind the material and instead prefers to teach robots.

I love learning, but I can't stand some classes in school. My learning is literally being shut-down by teachers.
I don't think range anxiety is irrational. I may be that I only need extended range in 5% of my driving, but unless I own a second vehicle or am prepared to rent a vehicle for that 5%, it essentially makes a it a non-starter. In other words, it doesn't matter how infrequent those edge cases are, if they are necessary and without reasonable workarounds, then the design is a failure (for this specific use case.)

Now, I'm in one of the more sparsely populated states in the union, so my views and needs are colored by long distances it takes to get anywhere here.
TinyToCS: Academic CS papers in tweets and videos - deadline tomorrow
There already is (and has been for some time) a "better Excell" that'a also a "better Ms Access" at the same time: Quantrix (http://www.quantrix.com/), it can replace brittle spreadsheets with much easier to manage documents and do much more

...but there's a problem with it: it's just too much for 99% of people, both as features (It's probably easier to learn a general purpose programming language) and as price :)
It fits... fine? My worldview doesn't suggest that only bad teachers hate NCLB.
They should at least include the non-prefix css (or other prefixes) as well for when a feature becomes available on other browsers in case they forget to update it or if they're not aware of what other browsers support.
This was my initial reaction as well. However, I then realised that being able to see where the link leads to (assuming it's not a redirect) may very well be of more importance.

My suggestion on posts with as much downvotes as this one would be to remove the <a>-tags which, in addition to introducing the grey colour would also prevent unintended clicks and bring attention to the destination of the link as it requires copy-paste.
Why candor works
I wonder what it would take to implement BangWithFriends with cryptographicly assured privacy.

When I have the chance, I'll break open my crypto book and see if this problem is less impossible to solve than it seems.
Hi Daniel,

The scenario you're describing is exactly what we try to prevent with our code review option. Likewise, every app we broker is listed publicly on either the AppStore or Google Play, so every buyer can and SHOULD download the app to preview it.

I should also note (which I hoped was obvious, but after re-reading the post and thread I realize it isn't), that we actively reached out to this buyer to see what was wrong and what happened. We even gave him the opportunity to withdraw the chargeback and indicated that we would continue to do business with him. Even though it's somewhat of a moot point, this chargeback was not the result the buyer being misunderstanding what he was getting.
If you can't define what a consciousness is then you can't claim it's impossible to explain physically. How can there be strong arguments supporting a hypotheses if fundamental parts of the hypothesis aren't defined?
Great questions! I'll address them one at a time. We DO NOT store any of your emails on our servers. We scan only the from header when an email arrives and keep a reference to the message's unique ID if it should be acted upon. We also don't mess with your filters/labels. We strip the inbox label for deferred messages so they don't show up until you're ready for them, but all other labels are left intact. As for mobile, we built the site to be completely usable on smartphones. Mobile apps are in the cards, but we're still very young and have tried to make the mobile web experience first rate.

Thanks for asking. Feel free to contact me any time (gordon AT lightermail DOT com) with questions or suggestions!
This has me scratching my head.

Since the story blew up, the NYT has had time to get their graphics department to draw a nice infographic (that was up last night) and now a written defence by the original author of the story.

If Tesla's logs are such irrefutable evidence of fakery, why's it taking so long to post it online?
SF Tech Trivia Night Wed, Feb 13
An evening of technology and pop culture trivia, kindly hosted by One.

happy hour, team meet & greet @ 7:00 PM // trivia @ 8:00 PM

come with a team, meet a new team, or lone wolf it!

refreshments & prizes

Wednesday, February 13
7 - 10 PM
Cantina, 580 Sutter Street, San Francisco

Any interest in making this a recurring event?
I didn't downvote you, but the author says he received advice from tesla when he called them when he was getting angst about the battery range. He says they told him to take it off cruise control to let the regenerative braking help charge.

Clearly that is absurd advice, but that is what he says he is told. Given that advice, and not knowing any better himself, he thought start-stop driving would be more efficient.
You definitely have a bone to pick with someone but it doesn't seem that you even read my post.

"Well sure; people overcome all types of adversity to learn"

My post does not even remotely touch on diversity, not that its not a worthy discussion as far as education goes its not what i am speaking about.

"Learning despite misguided education policies will occur, but it's not a legitimate defense against criticism of the policies."

I never once defended the current policies, in fact i specifically said "Our schooling systems have there faults, large ones"

This I have the most issues with, you even made up a quote about me.

"So some kids don't have adequate "drive" or motivation. Should they be dismissed because of it? They are kids! Some kids need more encouragement and support, and we should be helping them succeed (truly succeed, not be socially promoted), not saying "well you aren't trying hard enough, you deserve to fail." Do not worry- they will get that plenty as an adult. The purpose of school is to prepare kids for adulthood, we shouldn't be dismissing them because they aren't prepared already."

We SHOULD encourage our kids and we SHOULD support them, thats my whole point. You mis quoted me saying "well you aren't trying hard enough, you deserve to fail.". This could not be further from what my whole post was about. My post had nothing to do with trying, it has to do with wanting. I also NEVER said that anyone "deserve to fail", what im saying is that our kids should be allowed to fail, to know what its like to fail.

"The purpose of school is to prepare kids for adulthood, we shouldn't be dismissing them because they aren't prepared already."

Passing students who have not learned what they need to is not preparing them for adulthood, its doing them a disservice by putting them into a situation they are equipped to handle all in the name of being politically correct.

"Another bone I must pick with your "they they don't want to learn""

Again you miss quote, miss represent and say exactly opposite of what im trying to say. So i will ignore the entire rest of your argument.
Default Parameter Values in Python
If you don't have a position available, but know of where to even look for these types of things, that'd be good too.
So that you can exchange documents with people who are using MS Office without having to pay a fee to Microsoft and without being tied to Windows.

I primarily use a Linux machine to develop, so not having to dual boot or use a VM/Second computer every time someone sends me a .xls is very useful.

The interface mimics (older versions) of office precisely to make the learning curve for previous office users as shallow as possible.
> It's definitely not fair, but in a way that's part and parcel of starting a venture.

In which sense do you find it, "unfair, but part and parcel?"

Is it not fair in the sense that physical attractiveness and gender is an "unfair" factor when hiring Hooter's wait staff? Or rather, is it "unfair" in the sense of hiring a receptionist or a graphic designer? (Where looks aren't explicitly in the job description, but where exceptional attractiveness could be a potent and favorable signal for the company.) Or is it "unfair" in the sense of it being a factor in hiring a machinist?

Can you explain the "part and parcel" part?
Stats of the union
I think this shift in word use is natural. Words become popular, and then get overused to the point that using them calls to mind a lot of connotation. To avoid that, speakers looks for a comparable word and start using that instead.

Then, eventually most good words (small enough to be known by the average person) get used up and speakers end up creating new words for the same reason.

Witness 'comment / commenter / commenting', which in the sports world has completely given way to 'commentate / commentator / commentating' to the point that those 'new' words past Google Chrome's built-in spell-checker.
Funnily enough, I was punished once in middle school for doing my assignments.

After one particular social studies class, in which I had finished all the work, I opened my reading book. In our English class, you read any (approved) book you wanted to and took comprehension tests afterwards. You accumulated points and you had a goal to meet as one particular assignment (e.g. reading skill level of X meant you had to score 300 points, whether you got that in 10 books or 50 that was your choice). I reading that book and got a silent lunch for it. Apparently the correct response to finishing all your work early was to do nothing for that particular teacher. For the other teachers in that same group (math, science, English) reading your book was the approved thing to do after you finish your work.
Indeed - a Chinese wheelbarrow looks to be even better for pushing, but you can't freewheel the wheelbarrow down a hill :)
Oh, and while we connect via IMAP, we aren't a client in the sense of outlook/gmail web. You keep using your current client of choice for reading/handling email and Lightermail works in the background to help you stay organized.
Best response ever!
Which still wasn't what he actually asked for or wanted. "Please place your order again" was the wrong answer when he already placed an order and the system clearly had that order on file.