skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ruby doesn't have great support for math, science or AI. There are projects out there trying to make the ecosystem better, but currently it trails Python.
If you're interested in the world of "computational intelligence" aka "nature-inspired computation", this book is a good high level survey: http://www.cleveralgorithms.com/

(You can also find stuff under the heading of "metaheuristics" -- http://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/book/metaheuristics/).

GAs are one of four (!) different independently developed strands of thought -- Genetic Algorithms, Genetic Programming, Evolutionary Programming and Evolutionary Strategies. Look out for that when you hit the Googletrons.
Best job in the world
That question can be turned around: Why should someone use Python (or Ruby) instead of Perl?

For someone who hasn't used any of those, I'd say give each of them a few hours and see which style suits you best. Of course, try to find modern examples to learn from. When it comes to Perl that means:

* Mojolicious [1] (or Dancer [2]) as the web framework

* DBIx::Class [3] as the ORM (maybe with some sugar [4])

* Moose [5] (or Mouse or Moo) as the object system

[1] http://mojolicio.us/

[2] http://www.perldancer.org/

[3] https://metacpan.org/module/DBIx::Class

[4] https://metacpan.org/module/DBIx::Class::Candy

[5] https://metacpan.org/module/Moose
And the full changelog here:

http://wiki.qemu.org/ChangeLog/1.4

Interesting gems there like more support for Mac OS X PPC guest OS's, and details on the block device changes.
>But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years?

Hhh? Most people work on the same thing their whole life.

And it's not like this will be the exact same thing as Posterous was.
I think it funny that you mention Japan, because only last week i was very surprised how hard you're fined for drinking and driving in Japan, even the passengers of a car where the driver drank alhohol. :)

Do not drive after drinking alcohol. Driving under the influence of alcohol is strictly prohibited and will result in a fine, imprisonment or penalty. When a driver is arrested for DUI, the driver and the person offering the car will be fined a maximum of 1,000,000 Yen, and all other passengers in the vehicle knowingly allowed the driver to drive will be fined a maximum of 500,000 Yen.

And what do you mean with "In Japan there aren't any laws like that"? Are you kidding me? Japan has very strong laws against drugs! So in the end you support my statement.. strong laws = lower crime rate (how surprising). What would it have to do with people. People are not a unique mass, there are drug dealers, psychopaths and what not in every society.

http://www.tofugu.com/2011/12/02/drug-laws-in-japan-youd-bet...

http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=664

http://expatsguide.jp/ch6
why aren't you using POD for your documentation

why are you mistakenly using prototypes for function signatures
Web Browsers, Black Swans and Scientific Progress
From “phreaks” to Apple: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s “eureka” moment
Developing command line tools with python + argparse
> Founders are more savvy now, and no longer ask questions like, "So when we get money from investors, when do we have to pay them back?"

this is frightening, where are the first-timer business-clueless technical-geniuses who did the innovation?
Maybe he is like so unemployed. Maybe he got his ass fued at work. Maybe you should shove a menorah up your back side and enjoy the free sensation.
The fact that they "like" the language.

Not noticing it does not equal "nonexistent". Your perceptions do not describe the whole reality.

Any turing complete language can do any job. As long as they are not astoundingly unequal, which is not the case, people choose based on... taste.
I think everyone agrees that dictatorship is superior to democracy IF the dictator is (and remains in the future) competent and also a decent human being. Maybe that's the state in Singapore right now?
Trapped In The Google Search Box
Please add a option "joe" (the editor joe), including *~ (file backups) and DEADJOE (gets created when joe crashes). Also, I miss a "submission" form for users to add their own findings.
work uses pypi every day, and I had to set up a caching proxy because mirrors are frequently unavailable. It was inconceivable coming from CPAN that the major package distribution network for a major language may be down.
Yes, but the iOS crowd needed a distraction from the regression of their previously-fixed lockmode bug for marketing purposes.
The current admins really need to channel their inner anakata for their responses.
I really like this. I've found it surprisingly hard to find freely available legal types of documents along the lines of privacy policies, terms and conditions and freelance contracts. I don't want to have to hire a lawyer for a small project when I know it could be covered by a boilerplate document. This will be a great resource for small app developers.
... so i put a browser in your browser so you can browse while you browse.
I just have a hacky Python script that reads each file, runs it through Jinja and spits it out. That is then managed with a makefile. I don't have any dependencies between pages (next, prev links) so there's no need to touch old pages on build. I've literally never used those features on any blog I've ever read, so I don't care about them. The makefile also generates an index file using the Python script.
it doesn't matter. Both should be stopped..but it seems there is an obvious bias.
What's Your Favorite Movie of All Time?
If anybody has simple and beautiful :) use cases of QEMU please share. I used it to run Debian Squeeze MIPS images, so that I could have gcc output in MIPS assembly.
more details here https://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/frost
Debate Topic: What do you think of the Simulation Hypothesis?
Opinions on Python aside, I'd never hire somebody saying something like that at an interview, even about a language I don't like. You should really look past petty details when evaluating any tech and come up with actual arguments.
RUSSIA Not HAPPY ABOUT POSS MANMADE FIRBALL
well, putting aside things "dynamic access to the symbol table" or run-time ast manipulation types of black magic, first class functions and "automatic storage management" are available in both Python, Ruby (...yeah, you need to twist your mind towards thinking in blocks/procs as first class functions, which annoys the hell outta me, but doesn't seem to be a problem for others) and most other "dynamic" languages.
Anybody getting mouse support working?
XML is good when the structure of the data returned is not self-evident to the data requester. In this case XML's verbosity assists in hand walking the tree to grok what the server is returning.

XLST is a friggin nightmare to code and I can't think of any reason why one would want to use it. It's much better to first parse the XML and then reshape to your needs rather than trying to do both at the same which XSLT does. In short, XSLT violates separation of conerns. Furthermore, if you think XML is hard to read, just try reading someone else's XL
OP does not touch on tax shelters such as the Individual 401k. I am a W2 employee and max out my social security tax through the W2 (by far). I then have an LLC that I do side consulting with. My wife doesn't have a job so she does the billing for my LLC. I max out the employee portion of my W2 401k (17,500 this year) so can only contribute employer portion to my Individual 401k (20% of profits). With my wife, since she doesn't have a 401k at a W2 employer I can shelter 17,500 employee portion for her and then the employer portion on top of that. Essentially the max you can put in for an individual 401k is 49,000 per year if I remember correctly.

You can open an individual 401k at either Vanguard or Fidelity - it's very easy. In many states, the individual 401k receives similar creditor protection to regular 401ks.

Consult an attorney and tax advisor before taking action on what I have written. This is neither tax or legal advice and I am in fact an idiot who knows nothing about anything.
Surely this could be solved by making the bootloader erase RAM at start-up?
AFAIK, all popular DRM schemes have been circumvented. In principle, any DRM scheme can be circumvented unless the hardware that decrypts the content (and therefore holds the private key in memory) self-destructs when tampered with.

This is a battle that content providers want to win. They can always find some plucky technologist saying that have an unbreakable DRM scheme. In the end, the question is whether DRM really needs to be there to keep honest people honest.

The idea that content providers think that there is this some untapped boon of cash from high school, college age, and 20 somethings who are doing the bulk of the pirating.

I do not want DRM to mean all media players have to be locked down proprietary software with the security enhanced only through obscurity. I don't mind there being a lock to remind honest people to be honest, but I don't like the idea of content providers bestowing upon a lucky few technology companies gatekeeper rights. It's not even in the interest of the content providers.
You exaggerate. It's not a slap on the wrist, no, but calling it torture is a very long stretch indeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Singapore#Medical_tre...
I see what you mean. And just a few years ago I would've agree that this applies to Perl. But then we got projects like Moose, Dancer, Mojolicious, the whole "Modern Perl" movement and a renewed focus on Perl 5 (very regular releases). I think a part of the community was waiting for Perl 6 and thus everything was a bit stagnant, but lately I don't get that feeling anymore.

It feels closer to Firefox, which is showing some renewed vigor lately, than to e.g. Tcl (sadly…).

This isn't really the only presentation/post about this. After all, it's not like Django and Rails receive the same amount of hype as they did in the beginning, so if you're just going by that, we probably all should switch entirely to Go and Node…
It isn't totally solved. For example, you cannot write a lambda that contains a line-break. Its not a big problem, but it is a trade-off.
Personally, I'm ok with the simple DRM scheme, where javascript can pass a decryption key into the video tag. Throw in a few extra features, like a header at the start of the file telling the browser to only play the video file on supported domains (to prevent websites that steal by embedding) and disable saving the move to disk.

To the content companies, it will be a lot better than nothing. It gives the same level of protection against casual copying as the more complex scheme, and absolutely every browser can support it.

The more complex scheme is an absolute nightmare, essentially bringing us back to the proprietary plugins (like flash) we have worked so hard to get away from.
And it won't even work, there is no way they can stop proficient users from ripping the streams. This scheme will be cracked in a few weeks after it is released.
JOE is added :). I'll look into a way take submissions.

http://gitignore.io/api/joe
Great list on that site, but I'm surprised they missed one of the granddaddies of such reports: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_tree_hoax
Can you share what converted you from knockout to to angular? What were the big reasons? What was the tipping point?
Do they not understand what DRM is, or do they just not care?
What kind of crappy article leads with a false dichotomy. DRM isn't any different than a paywall. It doesn't make the internet suddenly not open to allow sites to protect video content and for users to choose to view that content or not.
I don't know, presumably they have a lot more money to put into a legal defence. Even if they lost, in the long run the other side would probably bankrupt themselves in the process. And it's doubtful that the judgement against them would be very high. I don't really know how copyright/civil law would work in Finland or wherever the case would be, but I don't know how much lost revenue TPB admins could claim. They'd likely only be able to force them to cease use of their code/likeness, and I suppose an outside chance at recouping lost ad revenue.
I get the joke, but there are thousands of people currently learning either Ruby or Python and tons of classes for them, it's incredibly easy to hire either a Python or a Ruby (or PHP or Javascript) programmer and so on... while Perl is slowly falling off the radar.
You can propose an open standard for DRM that everyone is
free to implement or not.

At the core of DRM is this: The video is encrypted, and you only give the decryption key to trusted software that promises not to let the user save anything.

Unfortunately open source software cannot make that promise - because anyone can modify it, anyone can modify it to let the user save things. So you either let open source implementations have the decryption key, in which case the DRM is ineffective; or you refuse to let open source implementations have the decryption key, in which case there's no video on Firefox or Chromium.

Perhaps you ask "Why can't the open source software check itself for modifications any only decrypt the video if no modifications were present?" - unfortunately, the check could be modified just as easily as the rest of the software.

Perhaps you ask "Surely we could have a little bit of closed source software as a plugin, like flash player?" - but the whole point of HTML5 video is to get away from shitty closed-source plugins like flash. If you want flash, stick with flash.

Perhaps you ask "What's the big deal with open source anyway? Firefox only has 20% market share" - but Chrome, Safari and (recently) Opera are all based on the open source Webkit rendering engine. That leaves IE and nothing else. Before open source browsers became popular, Internet Explorer 6 had 90%+ market share and went 5 years without a substantive upgrade due to lack of competition. A return to the bad old days would not be a net win, even for the likes of Netflix, Google and the BBC.

The fact of the matter, as I understand it, is DRM barely works when it's closed source and if it was open source it wouldn't work at all. If you think there's some way to implement open source DRM I'd love to hear how.
An old rule for writing news articles: use your best anecdote/quote/detail in the lead, use your second best at the end:

> Angi Cooney, who runs C Residential, the biggest estate agent in Rugeley, thinks the nature of employment is changing permanently and people should stop pining for the past. It’s “bloody great” that a company like Amazon chose to come to “this little old place”, she says fiercely, looking as if she’d like to take the town by the shoulders and give it a shake. “People expect a job for life, but the world isn’t like that any more, is it?”
Text processing with interpolation, the dynamic type system, and regular expressions is insanely easy as they are integrated directly into the language. You don't have a lot match, compile, and match group type scaffolding in your code.
Jennifer Love Hewitt in Shape magazine
While technically copyright infringement, boilerplate legal text is routinely copied, even by lawyers.

This court case (AFLAC v. Assurant, et al.) drew a bit of a line in the sand about what's OK and what isn't:

http://danashultz.com/blog/2009/11/20/can-i-create-my-standa...

"The moral: There is not likely to be a problem if you copy routine legal or business terms, but if you copy unique provisions that are important to another company’s business, you might find yourself on the short end of a copyright infringement lawsuit."

When putting together our T&C, etc, our lawyer suggested we browse around and copy clauses we liked from the big guys and put it together into some semblance of what we want, then he would review it. Saves lots of legal expense compared with getting him to do all the work, and cost us almost no extra time as we would have needed to dictate to him what we wanted anyway.
That you'd need a closed source browser or plugin to access the draconian DRM content that insists on protecting the render path wouldn't mean anyone would have to consume said DRM content, or use such a browser for anything else. As you said, they could as well "put out an app", they already do; and adding a "content protection provider", a black box ultimately, to a browser just turns that browser into that app. But, and that's kind of my point, it doesn't affect my browser in any way I can discern, at worst it would mean somtimes seeing "sorry, your browser (or lack of plugins/dongle/whatever) does not support playback of this content", as opposed to that page not being there in the first place.
Most entertainment companies accept the current flash based solutions as sufficient. In this case they are trying to bring html5 to te same level as flash.
Skype in Telepathy prototype
Yeah, a very primitive 'feature' of adblocks. Discovered it for the first time a long time ago when I named some kind of 'addons' div 'ad' and it disappeared.
Yeah, I've tried to get into Ember a couple times now, and each time I end up ditching because of the documentation. It seemed sparse, and what document is up there seems like it's often out of date.

Does anyone know if they've gotten the documentation (including the guides) synced with the API yet?
They aren't trying to "properly" lock it down. They are trying to bring html5 up to the same level as current flash based solutions.
9 of the Best Free R Books - Part 1 - Linux Links - The Linux Portal Site
>Not everyone can become a computer programmer, genetic counselor, or startup CEO; a whole lot of Mead’s “ordinary people” will be stripped of their jobs and left behind in debt, poverty, and despair.

So basically if you're reading HN, the title probably doesn't apply to you.
wow,some of them were really true.
I like how clever this is, but is there an option to name a bcp (or a planned option), so that I can send files among a big network with lots of people using this command concurrently?
> My only allegiances are to user experience and the quality tooling necessary to ensure it. The web as-is provides neither.

You assert this, but you haven't provided evidence. Web application developers are providing great user experiences. What tools do you need to provide a good user experience that the web as it is now doesn't have?
You just repeated an assertion. HTML is an open standard. The DRM spec will presumably be open. How does that make the web not open? Any more than the fact you can use a paywall already?
significant whitespace is not why you cannot write a lambda that contains a line-break. the problems are not really related. just ditch the difference between statements and expressions and allow multi-line expressions. true, then it will no longer be Python but a whole different language :)
A big, unmentioned one: virtually all middlemen who do not add significant value are obsolete.

This includes salesmen, sales representatives, dealers, warehousers (replaced by on-demand everything), many types of brokers, etc.

This is a huge chunk of the economy. In the old industrial economy there were layers and layers of bureaucracy and markups between the producer and the customer. Now there will be at most one. The customer and the producer will deal directly. Everyone else is cut out.

That one layer -- an Amazon type thing -- will be heavily monopolized by a few big players (Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc.) and will be very low margin / high-volume.
It's always interesting how content producers and groups like this seem to have so little regard for the copyright of content that is not their own...

I liked the one I read about recently, where an anti-piracy ad (which I must have seen a hundred times) used an unlicensed music track [1]. Of course when the artist informed them they would pay him what he is owed, right? No, he had to sue and they tried to get him to settle for a third of what he was owed!

1. http://torrentfreak.com/rights-group-fined-for-not-paying-ar...
NoJPEG - Why you don’t want to use JPEG for your logo.
Yeah, I was exaggerating for effect. The point being that they are rare. They have double-decker ones in Hong Kong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHFizrDGlUo
Then kill the content providers dead for all I care; let's talk about content creators instead. I mean, just consider the evil record companies: for every artist they exploited, there was an artist signing a contract. Are they just that stupid, do they feel forced by the uncertainty of their profession? Etc. But to just pretend content providers are sitting on something that ought to be free is bullshit. And I say this as someone who never took a cent for a photo or song I made. That was still my choice, and if you want to take that choice away from me you better start making photos and writing songs, because I'd be pouting.
Not sure of the specifics of implementation proposed but I imagine that the actual DRM decryption would have to happen somewhere in the guts of the kernel and the HTML part would mainly be metadata. DRM only implemented at browser level would be laughably bad as screen capture software would defeat it.

Fundamentally though this isn't really any different from current Silverlight based DRM. Things like netflix don't work on Linux (without hacks) as it stands.

Other non-drm video (which constitutes the overwhelming majority of web video) would continue to work as it does today.

Besides even closed source DRM enforcement mechanisms can be defeated by someone with strong asm skills and enough time.
Been meaning to start reading Race Against The Machine: http://www.amazon.com/Race-Against-The-Machine-ebook/dp/B005...

As a guy who studied Economics in college and now programs, it's something I think a lot about.
Which Commons:  Market, Zoo,  or Tribe?
Old news for HN heads, but might come in handy when dealing with civilians...
I'm committing the sin of commenting on the headline, not the article (I did read the article)

Too few people in steady jobs follow this advice. They live at or above their means, and aren't prepared for even 1-3 months of unemployment.

Many opportunities require things to get a bit worse before they get a lot better. Keeping a buffer gives you the freedom to take those opportunities.

If you've got a job in tech, you probably have the luxury of earning more than you need. So if you aren't doing it, an excellent policy is to scale back expenses until you have at least 2-6 month's wages in short term savings.

Having a side project that gives some recurring revenue isn't a bad idea either.
> Then our Charles simply had to figure out how Mrs Kipling scored the cakes and he could genetically evolve the best cake!

"And then a miracle happens." Isn't the fitness function the "key ingredient?" (It's in the source code, but not in the text for a reason.)

Still a good explanation of the rest.
We are testing [0] our Sparc v8 compiler backend. Apparently, a 3GHz i7 core emulating Sparc is significantly faster than an FPGA synthesized Sparc.

[0] http://pp.info.uni-karlsruhe.de/git/firm-testsuite/
So what? People who want to produce open content will still be able to use the internet to reach those who want to consume it.

I'd actually love to have viable DRM. I'd love a youtube where I could pay a monthly subscription instead of watching annoying ads. If DRM gave me that option it'd be great.
Congress Picks up the Pace on Open Access Legislation
I'm sure that won't cause a situation similar to the stagnation we saw when IE6 was the dominant browser!

To anyone who says "you can fork it": If you aren't using the same features as everyone else, how is the situation then different to what we have now?
I agree, "language aesthetics" matters ...that's why I hate variable prefixing with "$", "%" or "@" :) (and out of all ideas PHP could have gotten out of Perl, it had to be this one, and in a laughable way that makes it useless as arrays also use "$") but I could understand Larry's reasoning that "things that are different should look different" and I wouldn't avoid the language just for this reason.
Lessons I Learned From Shark Tank