skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>> The question was about scaling up.

Having multiple offices in different location isnt working remotely. The teams that work together still actually physically work together.

All i am saying is, having for example a team of 15 engineers, marketing guys, sales guys who all work from home creates more communication overhead per person. Add to that totally flexible schedules where the people i need to talk to often arent available and vice versa, i dont think it scales well. Its a total mess.

>> I put down the phone, turn on the PC and am available 2 minutes later

What if you have decided to go grocery shopping, take your kids to school, your dog for a walk when something urgent happens ? It basically the same as not being in the office at that point, you just are not available, no matter if on-site or remote.

I have been working remotely for several years, but i enjoyed working in a team with other engineers and the overlap of private and work life doesnt really leave me feel relaxed at home. So its not for everyone and remote-work certainly isnt the one-fits all future of work imo.
When we are coaching companies through the problem interview stages we set some basic ground-rules.

Interview at least 30 target customers. Anyone who doesn't fit into your pre-determined persona doesn't count.

Set the success/failure criteria before the interviews. For instance, we are going to talk to 30 potential customers and we are going to focus our questions about a pain point in this particular area. Of those 30, 21 will agree they have felt pain when dealing with this area.

Typical number of questions is 10, mostly to qualify them as fitting in the demographic. Take notes mentally, but not during the interview (taking notes during the interview infers a test and they will try harder to get the "right" answer). Immediately after the interview, document the interview. Make sure to allow the interviewee to elaborate on any question, as they may reveal other areas with pain. If they admit pain in the area you are targeting, ask them what they are currently doing (your biggest competitor may be that they aren't doing anything). Then subtly try to talk them out of the problem being a pain. If you can't talk them out of it, it is indeed a pain point they want solved.

Once you have 30 look at your interview summaries, determine if you have validated or invalidated the assumption. If invalidated, really look close at the responses you did get, since they will reveal other problems to explore.
I do not understand the general uproar against this. I have been working remote alot in my life and i find its not the ideal way to work productive for me and it certainly isnt the ideal way to build a great working culture.

This can be true, but for those whom it is ideal, why shouldn't there be uproar about it? Can we move your office to the basement, next to the drilling machine, while we take your stapler and forbid anyone to talk to you? This works for me so why are you upset about it?

Working remotely from home makes me feel alone after a few weeks now, i might even call it depressed....I dont want to mix private with work life too much...not always think about getting back to my desk to get some more work done.

These are valid points, and something important to take care of if you're working remote. I'd go batshit insane without friends on IRC, and it takes discipline to maintain a regular working schedule that doesn't venture into the night (too often). Nobody said working remotely is great for everyone. As long as you accept that on-site working is very suboptimal for others too.
A PDP-10 in a FPGA!? I used TOPS-20 at Uni, a long time ago. Loved the architecture, the assembler was like a high level programming language.

Like being reminded of an old girl friend you'll never really get over. If I get time, I should get a hobby...
It was more of a general complaint. I have a Kyocera Rise, and it's locked down pretty well. The fact that it's a fairly unpopular budget phone doesn't help.

The kernel was released... But I don't think I have the patience to try porting something myself.
HTML & CSS Feature Support & Polyfills
Abandoned Russian Cruise Ship Drifting Toward Europe
This is a fascinating topic. I haven't heard of this in the past, but I certainly can relate. I hate talking about things I (do/have done) and usually tend to prefer to just wait and talk about things "once I actually do something worthwhile."
March for Innovation
And Ubuntu is? Last I checked Stallman hated Ubuntu, and told everyone to stop using it.
Presenting Niice: a search engine with taste. niice.co
I didn't play it, but when I watched some videos of adventure mode (yeah I know, that's missing ALL of it, but the simulation is the same, yes?) on youtube I couldn't help but notice silly things like breaking bones and "bruising the brain" by throwing snow at things, or that dude who killed a bunch of wolves by repeatedly throwing a dead wolf. I am sure there is a lot of simulation going on, but how realistic is it?
I suppose you are prepared to starting paying the tax penalty for not having insurance under the PPACA?
Not allowing remote work seems as out-of-touch and inflexible as the types of companies that impose 3-year minimum laptop leases. It smells of an organization that is run by manufacturing MBAs and not creatives.

These are the companies that straddle the past - vision-less, fearful, and clinging to hierarchy and control instead of embracing risk and riding and harnessing waves of change. These are the types of companies that see their employees as cost lines in a P&L spreadsheet, instead of as untapped resources with limitless potential for creation.
Useful and Beneficial - Do well at your job without getting used
À la découverte des soins orientaux à Essaouira 
"Riad Chbanate vous invite à la découverte des soins orientaux en sélectionnant les plus beaux spas et hammams de la ville pour cette invitation à la détente."
The Parrot is dead. Long live the Parrot?
It's funny this comes up here and now, as I am working through "How to Read a Book", which was in one of the recommended reading threads on HN recently. In HtRaB, they talk a little about speed reading, but dismiss it as mainly something that can help bring someone up to speed, ie, it is mainly helpful in a remedial sense. I think the commentary with comprehension is quite cogent (it's precisely why I'm reading HtRaB), and so therefore the discussion should turn to what to read, since time is limited. Again, I am grateful to previous threads on HN for pointing out good reads, and feel that a more considered approach to how time is spent (both in what is chosen to be done and how well it is done), rather than in how quickly something is done is most beneficial.
Because BDD is too limited. It allows you only to state what should happen, not how or why.

Like the comments newbies sometimes make in code

//Assign 0 to i
i = 0;

Whereas with literate programming you can explain why you went with a particular style of code, why you went with a particular datastructure, etc. You can build up a narrative of code that will help the next programmer who comes along.
Fog distance can be changed on the fly, though. You don't need to start a new game to adjust it.
You should still use probability to quantify that belief. Whether it happened in the past or is going to happen in the future doesn't matter. If you throw a coin, and the coin is flying in the air, what is the probability that it lands heads? By your reasoning, the motion is already in place, and it's either going to land heads or it isn't. With a high speed camera and some physics we might even be able to predict which side it will fall. Even if we go back to a little before you threw the coin, the electrons in your brain are already in place and it's already determined which way you'll throw the coin. Would it be invalid to say that there is a 50% chance that it will land heads? So even when we are talking about the future, we use probability to quantify our belief. Or perhaps more accurately, we use it to quantify our lack of knowledge: in this case our lack of knowledge about how exactly the coin will move. Since we are already using probability not just for "fundamental randomness" but for quantifying lack of knowledge about the future, what's so special about the future vs the past? It makes total sense to apply the same reasoning to the past, even if we are talking about a specific instance.
Tweeting StackExchange with Spring Social – part 1
Tweeting StackExchange with Spring Social - the integration with the StackExchange APIs
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/sketchbook-pro-for-ipad/id36...

Nonetheless I certainly don't agree with raganwald. They seem to believe that there are two options of which one must win. In actuality there are thousands of options, and all of them can win in their niche.

In this case it's a guy who sketches online comics. I appreciate their review and completely get where they're coming from, but the things that are valuable to them are not at all valuable to me.
I SSH to REMOTE servers form home OR from office. So what difference does it make? Well, yes, it may change some interaction because you could grab a coffee with people. And I kinda like to work in office but I DO work from home a lot. And even if I am in the office I still talk to most people on IM. Yahoo's new policy is garbage. Or explanation why they do it is garbage.
TL;DR: Here's the thing: All engineering is "working remotely" because being "remote" is simply a matter of isolation. This is why even people in the same room use headphones, IM, etc. Everything that's not working remotely (eg: isolation) is "meetings" and the overhead of distractions. The only advantage of having engineers in the same office is a lower cost of meetings. The disadvantage is it makes engineering harder.

--

This decision shows me that Meyer doesn't respect or understand engineering culture. She's bought into the management BS "accidental collaboration" rationalization for industrial age butts-in-seats ideology.

Engineering culture comes, to a great degree, from the way you treat engineers and the process of engineering.

Treating engineers like cubicle bunnies who just can't wait to get interrupted by their Pointy Haired Boss is not conducive to building a good engineering culture.

In fact, requiring people to be in the office shows an anti-engineering mentality, because engineering, an effort of the mind, requires situations that are best for the mind.

Two key things enable good engineering: Collaboration (which requires communication) and coherent thought (which requires silence or peace or the isolation from interruption necessary to do it.)

This means that even if every engineer is in the same room, they're going to start "working remotely" by isolating each other via the use of headphones, and a preference for non-interruptive working (Eg: send email, or an IM rather than walk over and tap the engineer on the shoulder.)

It's true that in an office getting together in a conference room to has something out is easier and more convenient, but the tradeoff is that even with all the isolation people try to put into effect interruption creep is a real thing- eg: meetings, etc.

Working remotely prevents these interruptions at the slight cost of a higher level of effort needed to have a "meeting" (using a virtual whiteboard or just a phone call or whatever.)

So, if you spend most of your time in meetings, then you need everyone together.

If you value engineering and spend most of your time engineering, then whether people are together or apart physically, they are all isolating each other and effectively "Working remotely".

IM, Email and other collaboration tools that allow engineer isolation work as well whether the engineer is in the office or across the country.

Plus, lets not forget the minimum 2 hours of lost productivity that comes form requiring people to go to an office- either the commute (and the resulting need to get into work)-or the long lunches at those free cafeterias, and the endless cycle of distractions that are accepted non-work in offices. A "15 minute coffee break" at the office really has a 20-40 minute work interruption, because it often involves other people, while that same break working remotely can easily be exactly 15 minutes, and likely will be shorter because 10 minutes is enough to get the same level of relaxation from the day.

Almost everything in an office is designed to distract you from engineering, and the cost of this overhead is significant.
I'm in the exact same place. I devoured fiction (especially science fiction and fantasy) in my youth (ages 7-17, including 6 full LOTR readings), but the appeal has been destroyed as I've moved into hypersonic reading speed, in which my consciousness of individual characters and ability to emotionally relate to the plot line has been decreased to the point of near non-existence.

I've recently been contemplating a re-reading of LOTR, but feel so far away from the potential to immerse myself in the universe that I have not even given it a serious try. Virtually all of my consumption is rapid reading of relatively light fare that I can consume in a one or two sittings.

The introduction of digital means has not helped me (i.e. Kindle, Kindle App), as this increases my propensity for speed, and virtually the only novels which conform to my expectations are overly long novels (i.e. Neal Stephenson) which provide enough change of pace without any particularly deep or moving characters.

Frankly, I have no idea what to do either. I also feel like a greyhound on steroids, incapable of fictional engagement if it does not come at breakneck speed.
Getting started in software
Having worked mostly remotely for a company that was going slowly down the drain, I can say that I was more productive.. But I was the first to jump ship when their buyout looked unfavorable to engineering.

Companies in yahoo's state don't necessarily care about current output (what good is more of what isn't working?)

A report I reviewed in the past indicated remote workers are more likely to walk away when a bad changes are occurring. For yahoo, that means now and/or soon.
I think you're right on the money

Your major problem would be finding an interviewer who knows what's an L-System

Edit: you should add the rule 111->31, so it may not be an l-system because there are infinite rules? (1111->41), etc

Or we limit it up to digit 9
but NYT, why some stupid equation on the top? http://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2010/08/know-your-science....
love articles on this subject.

somewhat related there is a great lecture about Sugar (sucrose vs fructose vs ethanol) and some history on HFCS in America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Is this really doing anyone a favor?

- Direct links to CS2 that neatly bypass the notice that says this is for licensed users. Note: the login page was not there 2-3 weeks ago, apparently CS2 is still popular and Adobe have noticed. Adobe say they have disabled the licensing code, but have they stopped it calling home?

- A recommendation to use bittorrent to get CS6

- And finally GIMP

If you are on a startup "on a budget" use GIMP. Or get the CS6 trial, if you need it pay for it after the next round of funding.
The Future of Garbage Is No Garbage
A “Growth Hacking” feed? This sounds horrifying.
Where is any mention of the disastrous consequences of the USDA "food pyramid" which has been drummed into children at school for decades, perfectly tracking the obesity "epidemic", and which promotes an obesity-causing high-carb, low fat diet.
This seems similar in goal to the SPORE project (https://github.com/SPORE). Have you seen that and/or considered merging efforts?
this policy is probably just a means to weed out non-productive workers,

normally like DHH but think he's sounding off on something he doesn't have the knowledge to
It's high-grade snark, but the people who implemented Hadoop or Yahoo pipes do not seem to be particularly stupid.
Concatenated SMS as someone else mentioned, but there is also USSD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Serv...
It doesn't have to become independent for that and I would imagine it never gets its own compiler (though it might get a plugin to GCC/Clang) because really, when you can make any choice of language, why chose CS? It is a better Javascript, but that isn't a very hard bar to cross.
Wait. Facebook is inspiring "free information access"? Isn't that what Wikipedia and even Google have been doing for a decade?

I think you're talking about free Internet access, which I think only works if the content provider is paying for it himself. Are these Wikipedia SMS's even free to the user?
"Anyone who is happy working in the environment that was Yahoo over the past 5 years is not an A player by any stretch, so it's safe to assume that you can afford to lose them."

Ah but you're not just chopping off the right edge of the bell curve, you're shifting the entire curve to the left. A non-innovative company like yahoo can trivially survive shedding the innovators, but can't survive a system wide forklift downgrade.

Maybe "in this economy" they could have gotten a C- grade dude who needs to work at home on Fridays for whatever reason, well, now they'll be lucky to get a D+ grade dude.
"
small but crucial move: the industry should use the expertise of scientists — its own and others — to gain a deeper understanding of what was driving Americans to overeat.
"

LMAO, they probably employ dozens of scientists trying to figure how to get people to eat more. Could the speaker have been any more clueless? He would have been better off pushing some solution that had been user tested not to hurt sales. E.g. use Stevia instead of sugar, cost goes up 5%, but sales rise to match as you capture some dieters you wouldn't otherwise or something. Instead he told them to research getting people to want less of their product.
No.

Dice Man would be faced with a situation requiring a choice. He would then assign numbers to the options, then roll a dice, and then do whatever the dice said even if it was unpleasant to him.

AlexMuir's version is to assign numbers to the options, then roll a dice / toss a coin, and decide while the coin is still in the air.
There are algebraic objects for which inverses are defined, but which aren't groups: namely groupoids, quasigroups and loops.

In groupoids the binary operation isn't total, i.e. there can be pairs (a,b) for which a <> b is not defined -- so we can't use groupoids.

In quasigroups and loops the binary operation doesn't need to be associative. But we require associativity, so that we can deduce

(a <> b) <> inv b == a <> (b <> inv b) == a <> e == a

So we do actually need all the properties of a group.
Tarn, the creator, has said that Dwarf Fortress might be the last game he ever creates. He may still be working on it 20 years from now, and it may still be in a pre-release state at that time.
Thanks for the link. I like that game.
If your job is such that it requires you to be on site, for example mowing lawns, being a cashier, dealing with customers in person, then yes I agree that you should be on-site every day because it makes sense.

However, if your job is "software engineer" or any other job which 100% of the work can be done over instant message, email, teleconference bridge, screen sharing, etc then No, I don't agree that you should be on-site the majority of the time.

The decision that a manager makes to allow one of their staff members to work remotely is done on a case-by-case basis and is done on the merits of their work and their previous ability to get the work done remotely or off-site.
Presumably the idea is that teams are collocated which is where most of the value of team bonding comes from.
Ask HN: How do you backup your servers?
I do a lot of devops-work for different companies and "agencies", and i have seen a wide range of solutions so far. Unfortunately most of the existing backup solutions were really bad an i realized how less they even cared about it.

So HN: how, what, how often, where and when do YOU backup your servers?

examples:

configfiles, everything at /etc/ is under versioncontrol with git, everytime i make a change i commit and push it to a private server (offside) where every server has its own repo.

database, postgresql, every night at 02:00 a full backup with pgdump, triggered by cron, homebrew backupscript in bash, dump gets scp'ed to another host in a different datacenter, old backups are deleted manually when the disc gets full soon.
You can find some screenshots here: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/try-textadept-fast-cross-plat...
Not at all - I'm very sorry I gave that impression!

Rather, I find it to be a interesting window into the mind of a highly intelligent programmer afflicted with a tragic mental disorder. I enjoy reading his comments because I feel it allows me to understand, if only in a tiny way, what he's going through (although maybe this is simply hubris on my part).
Beyond any educational benefit, what do you see as the advantages of programming
in this way?

For me, literate programming has been exceptional for organizing my thoughts, and preventing me from thinking myself in loops, or hitting a wall of decision paralysis. Being able to express what I'm trying to do in English, Spanish, Mandarin, etc., is a prerequisite to being able to express it in Ruby, Python, or CoffeeScript.
It amazes me that this article still pushes the agenda that "fat makes us fat." If there's one thing that hasn't proven out at all, it's that fat makes us fat!

The NY Times has even run other articles saying as much: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/opinion/sunday/what-really... (by Gary Taubes, whose book "Why We Get Fat" is a must-read.)

The problem with "low-fat" processed food in particular is that the fat is often replaced with sugar to add taste, but sugars and other high-carb grains are more problematic than fat consumption. Hence skyrocketing obesity.

Eating a low-carb diet and easing off grains (particularly "white" grains) and sugars will help you lose weight. From the article I linked above: "On the very low-carbohydrate diet, Dr. Ludwig’s subjects expended 300 more calories a day than they did on the low-fat diet and 150 calories more than on the low-glycemic-index diet. As Dr. Ludwig explained, when the subjects were eating low-fat diets, they’d have to add an hour of moderate-intensity physical activity each day to expend as much energy as they would effortlessly on the very-low-carb diet. And this while consuming the same amount of calories."

I can also speak from personal experience: I went gluten-free after being diagnosed with gluten intolerance in 2009. In three weeks, I effortlessly shed 12 pounds--12 pounds that had refused to come off previously no matter how much exercise I was doing or how religiously I tracked my caloric intake. I wasn't doing gluten-free to lose weight; I got dragged into it by a diagnosis, so this was a wholly unexpected yet awesome side benefit.

I've since noticed that if I slide back into eating too many carbs and sugars (even gluten-free ones), I start to gain weight again, and I feel groggy and disoriented. As a side effect of this diet^Wlifestyle change, I've also completely been able to drop caffeine consumption--something I never expected. Put simply, I didn't feel like I had been hit by a train when I woke up. Caffeine and energy drink consumption has spiked right along with "low-fat", high-carb diets. Something to consider.
Exclusive Interview w/ Marty Zwilling of Startup Professionals, Inc
Reviewers tend to dwell on the pixel density without mentioning the other things I want to know about the display: the color gamut, contrast, color accuracy, etc. This article mentions that the screen is "accurate," but it's a mystery what they mean by that or why they think so. One usually needs to wait for measurements reported in anandtech.com before one knows how a display actually performs.
SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon: No Bang for your Buck