skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>but OPA I had no idea. Currently looking at it now. Not a fan of JS, but I'm open minded enough to take a loot at.

Crap, Opa used to be an Ocaml framework that you programmed with an Ocaml-derived DSL and that generated client side JS and a single native binary that contained both the app server, web server, and database. It reminded me of Facebook's single binary blob architecture.

But looks like it's been changed since I last looked at it, now you program it with a JS-derived DSL and it generates client-side JS and server-side Node.js. It can still compile to server-side native code, but not by default, you have to compile it from source to get that:

http://forum.opalang.org/0_235

At a cursory glance it appears the MLState guys are still using their Ocaml-based compiler to generate both the client and server side JS/MongoDB, and I assume still have the same focus on framework security, but not certain.

Personally, the only one of those frameworks I would use for high-security production is Lift, though I'm really looking forward to the Haskell frameworks getting there as well. Lift is the only one that meets my personal requirements for maturity and designed-for-security, but figured I'd list the others just in case.

Lift also does things differently, in a way that I personally appreciate but not all do - namely that html 'pages' are parsed as typed XML DOM objects rather than dumb text files/strings, and Ajax/Comet are DOM transforms rather than string rewriting. Instead of writing controllers, you write 'snippets' in Lift's DSL that bind to a DOM element and transform it, and that can be wired to other snippets, parallel processed, and lazy-loaded. All very cool, like a server-side single page application.

As for .NET, I haven't used or even paid much attention to the MS stack since 2009 so am not qualified to say anything about it, but it's definitely a safe choice. Nobody ever got fired for buying MS, they put billions into securing it, and there are tons of experts on it.
One wonders, for example, if the Beatles or Steve Jobs, notwithstanding their hard work, could ever have become what they did if they hadn't also taken LSD at some point.

Honestly? I think that people who start using these drugs end up giving them too much credit. At some point, they start attributing all interesting or creative thoughts they have to the use of drugs when, while the drug experiences played a role, they weren't as primary as the person (due to the tendency to overvalue intense experiences in explaining personal traits) thinks.
Government attorneys defend by-the-books application of decades-old federal law. Film at 11.
"Approvingly quotes" is a bit strong. The quote you give was a commenters criticism of their initial article, and they agree with his point that at work / on company time you should abide by your contract.

Later on in the article they make clear that despite their claim he made an "extremely valid point" without making clear they meant just that specific aspect, they still believe you should spend time on side projects outside of work / company time.
I am not sure of the answer, but here is what I once read somewhere:

If, according to the contract you may have signed with the employer, the IP you create belongs to the employer, and that IP is earning a lot of money, then the employer is liable to the shareholders for recovering that money or an appropriate portion since it legally belongs to them.

This is in addition to the point in the OP, which is you may be exhausted while at work.
This is really neat. It would be cool to combine it with one of the JS-based presentation engines.
"When I did 2 hits of acid, I had the exact opposite experience of seeing God. The fact that such a tiny amount of a mere chemical could effect my "soul" so profoundly was proof positive that the soul is completely material."

Your so-called "soul" may in fact be "completely material", but I don't think what you describe above proves it.

There was a famous mystic who once said something like, "when you put a lit match to cotton, it is not the fire that burns the cotton, but God."

Relating it back to your account, how can you know if it was in fact the chemical that changed your consciousness and not the grace of God (or gods, or the devil, some alient, or the program/programmer running your virtual reality, etc).

There could be some cause that caused you to both take the chemical and to have the experience. Or they could be caused by two independent things, with the experiences just happening to succeed one another in time (see Hume's critique of causality).

Finally, I'm not a physicist, but from what I've read, even physicists now have a lot of trouble defining "matter" as such. I don't think they even use the term much at all anymore. And, whatever reality happens to be, it might be infinitely divisible, and ultimately not completely understandable or knowable as far as science is concerned. At the very least, science now does not have a full understanding of it, and to say that science will one day have such a full understanding is merely an expression of faith.
Ya he doesnt. I think the person who brought him into discussion out of context deserves this. As I said being a santa is not bad, but someone who brought santa on valentines day is wrong
I take psychedelics on a regular basis. Usually a couple of times a month. Although I've done several hundred micrograms (there is really no way of knowing) of LSD at once, I also really enjoy experimenting with smaller doses and casually micro-dosing on work days.

I happen to be a software engineer and try to apply my knowledge of "machines" to the psychedelic experience. While I don't believe in anything supernatural, I do think that there might be a chance that psychedelics, especially LSD, help your consciousness tap into some deeper abstractions of the human mind, maybe even the universe.

Let me explain that insane claim as best I can:

There is a great book on psychology that was published recently called: Thinking Fast and Slow. In summary, it goes into great detail about two systems of the human mind. System 1, the immediate reaction system, and system 2 which is responsible for computing and solving problems.

When your brain is in system 2 mode (solve 17 x 54 in your head) your heart rate increases, your pupils dilate, and your brain starts consuming glucose. It's doing work. System 1 is the trained mind that recognizes facial gestures and stuff infinitely more complex than a simple math equation. It reacts to danger before you are consciously aware of danger.

I would speculate that LSD turns on System 2 where normally my System 1 brain would give me an immediate response. Your mind starts processing information differently. This cascades into an incredible effect on your emotional awareness, creativity, introspection, insights, and behaviors both physical and cognitive.

I wonder if these extreme doses of LSD eliminate your minds ability to process normal sensory input. What you're left with are low level systems. You're self-awareness is turned off, but you are left with cognitive factories still churning away.

Imagine something sad that happened to you once. Now imagine the visual component is gone, the memory of language gone. You're left with the actual chemical response of the memory. Now do the inverse for something positive. That's what ego-loss is like. You're swimming in a sea of emotions as your brain randomly wanders off into different states, sometimes many at once, sometimes you get stuck in one. Sometimes that state is incredible panic, sometimes you're crying-laughing for 10 minutes straight. This is a common experience I've had on measly 300-500ug doses.

As for the universe claim, as far fetched as it sounds, maybe some of these systems are abstractions of the universal systems. What we are perceiving in these insane states are also little clues into how the universe organizes itself and a peek at something pre-selfawareness.

That last paragraph is all bull-shit heresy but even with my lighter doses I've had remarkable insights. Things that have changed my life in incredible ways. It's like a Pi of molecules or some shit.

edit: grammar
> Disgusting that the executive branch is sticking it's nose into copyright law and the Supreme Court.

The executive branch is involved whether they want to be or not. Since these people were tried under federal law by federal prosecutors, it would be weird for federal prosecutors (employed by the executive branch, remember) to simply stop communicating during the appeals process. It's the expected behavior for them to put a position forward.

The good news is that the Supreme Court is under no obligation to do as the executive asks.
I have a question: Is it cheating if I haven't had a task at work for weeks now and I'm using my time in the office to take Coursera and iTunes U classes on Mathematics, CS, and iOS development instead? And when I get tired I go to the gym for maybe two hours and come back and study again.

Not kidding, this is a real question. I have a feeling this is technically unethical but I'm not so sure my time will be wisely spent if I just ethically sat here and did nothing.
Hyperdex now supports OSX
Who's talking about using LSD as a party drug? It's certainly not even slightly suggested in the posted article or this response.
Read the section labeled "argument" here:
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2013/02/12-715...

That sounds like a defendent of the record companies, not the executive branch trying to ensure law is faithfully executed. It would be one thing if the supreme court were ignoring laws, but arguing for the denial to review a case is hardly taking care that law is faithfully executed. Our executive branch is suggesting the subversion of due process in this case.
LSD is an intense drug that alters ones brain chemistry. We are those neurons and synapses. When they change, we change.

LSD will alter one's perspectives. Maybe the correct statement is, add more perspectives.
I often think that Steve Jobs' biography is the worst thing that has happened to enlightenment, and the methods we seek in achieving it, in modern culture.

This was a great read. Thanks for sharing it. It's a shame the responses are overwhelmingly arrogant and myopic/naive. You don't know what you don't know, especially when it comes to the individual perception of others.
I think the majority of people are not against women in tech.

Most of the issues are fairly unconscious bias. Some people just assume women aren't as good at tech jobs as men are. Some people assume pretty women are stupid. Some people are simply uncomfortable around women, so don't put themselves into a position where they will be around them.

Issues with actually getting women into tech jobs range from their manner of speech (for example, raising their voices at the end of sentences) to being overly modest about their job skills.
The servers for .com itself are in the US and .com is owned by a US company.
That's true. The system has settled - after a few millennia of experience - on an all-students-gotta-do-their-homework model. What scalable, affordable system would have the best total outome, given real student populations? That's the problem for the public system to address. Note that this is not the same question as "what's best for betterunix".

I have a lot of sympathy for you, as a student who did as little homework as I could get away with or a little less. Lucky for me that exams were more important back then. I might have more trouble nowadays.
I talked to one of my friends in M&A @ one of the top tech companies the other day. I was surprised to hear that their target is a 55% success rate for companies they acquire. They want it to be slightly better than a coin toss, but not so high that they over-think any deals. Their logic is that it's okay to have 50 failed deals, as long as they're the guys who find the next YouTube/Hotmail/PayPal.
>I can renew my smartphone yearly for free just by moving.

You lost me there. Is that slang for something?
Government attorneys fail to act on behalf of the people. Film at 11.
Rare indeed.
Microsoft Surface RT returns may signal problem with operating system
The DOJ is the government's lawyer. Their job isn't to present balanced analysis of both sides of the government, any more than it's your lawyers job to do that. Their job is to argue strenuously for the interpretation most favorable to their client (in this context, Congress). That's their role in the executive's overall duty to faithfully execute the law.
Exactly how is a brief suggesting that a case doesn't merit cert a "violation of due process"? A full hearing of one's case by the Supreme Court is not a procedural right guaranteed to citizens by the constitution. SCOTUS rejects the overwhelming majority of appeals without hearings.
Evolution Of A Founder: Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Sideways, Up, Down…
Obama signs executive order on cybersecurity
Government attorneys fail to act on behalf of the people I favor. Film at 11.

Fixed that for you. :)
I found erlibirds.com , is that soemthng you were looking for?
essentially ...

“If you put the high return rate together with low sell-through [sales out ] rate, that’s indicative of a problem,” Alexander said.
I have a serious question... is this a west coast thing? A midwest or southern thing? I've worked for over 13 years in Boston, in several companies with several smart female engineers... no one ever treated them differently that I saw. So... anyone seeing this in Boston? Maybe developers here are more enlightened? Maybe all the women coders need to come to Boston. :)
The simplest thing that could possibly work in Tetris
Writing Tetris inspired by Ward Cunningham: “What’s possible? What is the simplest thing we could say in code, so that we’ll be talking about something that’s on the screen, instead of something that’s ill-formed in our mind. Once we get something on the screen, we can look at it. If it needs to be more, we can make it more.”
Apple Has 100 People Working On The iWatch
"Meh, the counter-culture petered out for a reason."

If you read about the history of the 60's counterculture, you'll see that there was a massive political, physical, economic, and social backlash against it from the dominant culture.

Kind of hard to keep participating in the countculture when the whole rest of society is hell-bent on eliminating "those dirty hippies", putting you in jail, and making illegal the drugs that aided consciousness expansion and questioning the status quo.

Not to mention the huge incentives for conforming and working on Wall St or in Silicon Valley vs giving up your posessions, dropping out, living in a commune, and refusing to participate in the dominant culture.

Also, it takes quite a lot of dedication, patience, and perseverence to stay part of the counterculture for extended periods of time.

There are consequences to all of this and prices to pay quite apart from whether you achieve wisdom from psychedelic trips (which, sadly, most aren't even interested in).
If I recall the story correctly, they gave the elephant other drugs, too (to counter the effects of LSD after some hours/time into the experiment), and some of those countering drugs had associated known LD-50 (probably not measured for elephants, though..) - would need to reread the original text.
Exceptional pursuit in the face of difficulty.
essentially ...

"A smartwatch would be Apple's entry into the field of wearable computing—devices evocative of the old "Dick Tracy" comic strip, where phone calls and notifications arrive on a lightweight device, handling most mobile functions that don't require a large screen while staying connected to a phone or tablet that can stay in a pocket or purse."
Crashes the whole phone if I run it under Firefox on Android. I should probably report that, any crashing bug is a potential security vulnerability.
Ducktales inherited much of its sophistication from the comics on which it was based. Carl Barks, creator of Scrooge and most of the rest of the Duckburg universe, was an avid reader of National Geographic and sought to expose his readers to the wonders he found within. I'm incredibly thankful to have been exposed not only to this show but the comics which were also briefly resurgent in the mid-late 1980s (published by a small company out of Arizona called Another Rainbow under the Gladstone mark). The editors recognized the importance of these works not just as simple stories for kids and filled the comics with analysis alongside reproductions of the golden age works. It was around this time that Don Rosa (who was featured on Hacker News last week) emerged as a modern day torch bearer. What a great time to be a kid! It's a shame this stuff has faded from popularity and public consciousness.
CheckTheCrowd
Many websites allow you to rate bars and restaurants on their food, service, or even ambiance -- but what about the crowd?

CheckTheCrowd lets you rate various places based on how attractive are the people hanging-out at a given time.
I'd like to see how Santa Monica compares. 90k pop., and more dense than Berkeley. No public rail (yet), a big commitment to parking lots, and tons of cars and commuters. But I think stands up to Berkeley as far as urban fabric. But maybe my perception of the amount of parking is off.
> Your so-called "soul" may in fact be "completely material", but I don't think what you describe above proves it.

Re Hume, not to mention Leibnitz, I didn't mean proof to a logical certainty. I meant proof beyond all reasonable doubt. But if you want to believe that God hides super-soul-cleanser inside simple chemicals, then more power to ya!

To tell you the truth, I actually believe in epiphenomenalism, which is a kind of materialist dualism, but that's beyond the scope of this discussion.
Then why do so many women say they keep getting tracked out of software development jobs?
The monthly-salary system is not necessarily suitable for all programming jobs. I think it is rather an exception that the monthly-salary system correctly matches the dynamics of the situation, such as for hotel receptionists or security guards. The default agreement in programming work should be about results and not about hours present on the job.
> drugs give you perspective the same way any divergent life experience gives you perspective.

Absolutely hit the nail on the head - drugs can show you things with _perspective_, not so much a mystical power given by god - and I see them as potential positives for this reason.

Psychedelic drugs are a shortcut to inducing an intense, temporary paradigm shift in your thought process and perspective, and those experiences can shape your conscious thought in either a positive or negative way afterwards. I am of the opinion that the nature of this influence is very much dependent on your mindset, reasons for and environment of the drug use.
Steve Ballmer Roams The Halls Of Microsoft Swinging A Baseball Bat
Ohai, Stavros! Thanks!
March 16, USPTO switches from 'first to invent' to 'first to file'
Hmm, that's interesting, I would never have guessed that the manner of speech is something that might need improvement. I guess the points you mentioned apply to any job (and probably gender), though.
The Constitutional scheme does not involve the DOJ second-guessing Congress. News at 11.
essentially ...

"Six-foot-two Steve Ballmer sometimes brings a baseball bat with him into meetings. And that's if he's feeling happy ... "
To add more details to my question: Right now I'm trying to learn web development (having previously done mobile development). The way I'm starting off is by learning Django using online tutorials.

I guess my problem is exacerbated by two things: 1) the field of web development is huge, and becoming proficient in it requires knowing a little about databases, a back-end framework, front-end development (JS, jQuery, HTML,CSS), and eventually some devops stuff for when I move off Heroku; and 2) Django itself is fairly complex (i.e. takes a while to get running at full speed).

I try to approach this systematically, with my goal right now of groking Django/the back-end before moving on to learning front-end development and exploring databases (SQL, NoSQL) and devops. HN has definitely given me a good idea of where to start, but it's still a daunting task.

My eventual goal is to write mobile/web applications with a back-end. I want to learn all this because I have a long list of all kinds of ideas for services/apps I want to write.
Benchmarking Usability and Performance of Multicore Languages
I completely agree. I would encourage anyone interested to watch "Urbanized" by Gary Hustwit [1]. My favorite part is about Bogota and their charismatic mayor. Very, very interesting ideas are playing out there.

[1] - http://urbanizedfilm.com/
'Microsoft Is Basically Malfunctioning,' Says A 20-Year Veteran Of The Company
Essentially ...

The software giant is wrongly focused on competing with Apple by "pissing off its loyal hardware manufacturers" and releasing its own PC ...
I've got my boss (well, actually the CEO) to sign a paper acknowledging the side project, and disclaiming any interest on behalf of the company. Hopefully, that counts for at least a little more.
Wow! This is classic exec level BS. This article clearly displays the perennial fear execs have, which is lower level employees getting rich. Well monetized side projects are scary to execs. It robs them of their financial authority which is directly related to their executive authority. No exec wants a rich low level employee who doesn't give a damn about getting fired. What that means for the exec guy is, his authority and position of advantage suffering erosion and the exec being pushed into a position where his biggest bargaining chip is lost. And not to mention the guy far lower in hierarchy may be making a good deal of money, which disturbs the advantage due to positing in hierarchy.

Fact of the matter is, execs and big guys have side projects all the time. Just because they don't involve writing code it doesn't mean they don't have projects. I know a lot big guys who attend pointless conferences which they absolutely don't have to, sometimes on their own money just because their pet project is to grow their network. Or they are busy working on their next real estate project in their spare time. Or they are writing a business proposal for their own venture. This happens just all over the place, all the time.

I agree that the office time should be clearly used for office work. Any other time apart from that is yours and use it the way you like it.
Well, when I am working on a side product it is better for my work productivity than when I am not.

When I am working on a side project I am in the kind of mood in which I can program for 16 hours straight. Doing two projects keeps things fresh. When I am not motivated enough to work on a side project I am more likely to zone out at work and spend an inordinate amount of time lurking on HN.
One of the things I love about New York city is that you can get on a bus in the afternoon rush hour, and sit down with a banker making $5m/yr on one side and a Starbucks barista on the other.
From the argument: "Petitioner’s further contention (Pet. 15-18) that the court of appeals misapplied the Williams standard is not fairly encompassed in the question presented and is, in any event, a case-specific challenge that does not warrant this Court’s review."

In other words, ignore the man behind the curtain.

Edit: to clarify- this is the final statement in the reasoning why due process should not be considered. Read the argument.
HTML5 RPG
Tastefully done! The one thing about motion blur I've seen is almost everyone overdoes it. You got just about the right level where it looks natural and not gaudy.
Public Library Operations Machine-Readable By Default
That's exactly what I said to my wife. At least he'll get to keep making films. At one time, he was heading up the Astro Boy movie. That might have been amazing.