skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There are some really poor ideas in there like blocking the domains of affiliate marketing networks. That won't just block ads, it'll prevent you from clicking through from affiliate sites to vendors' websites.
You do have a good point on the very weak comparison of these two numbers - but the bigger point regarding the scale of these two numbers - holds. It is funny we can even compare these two variables - CEO pay and US tax - but that is the sad reality.
I haven't heard of those silly questions in the intern interview circuit. (2 at-school, 4 on campus)
This is nothing but FUD. The article points to no concrete data and makes sweeping generalizations with anecdotal evidence.
It's easy to add Disqus. But if you think you don't own comments in Disqus, it is a problem.
I work with at least one guy who just straight-up isn't interested in managing, ever. As the team has expanded, he's moved two tiers down the org chart, but he isn't interested in learning the administrative portion at all.

I just want to point out that there are different aspects of "managing". There's tactical, command and control, administrivia type stuff, and there's "solving problems, acquiring resources and providing high level coordination" and then there's "strategic decision making" kind of management. One can certainly lack interest in one of those, but might find the others interesting if exposed to that part of things.

Personally, I consider most of what most managers do, to be "administrivia" which is of very low value, and I'd have no interest in ever doing that. But when a manager it tasked with actually identifying and solving problems, making strategic decisions, etc., that part can actually be as intellectually challenging as programming and can actually be fun in it's way.

It's not about control, some people just seem to be allergic to meetings, dealing with stakeholders, etc. It's a perfectly valid viewpoint to have: some people just want to write code.

That's absolutely true as well. I was largely that way when I was younger, but over time I've grown more interested in the other aspects of things.
If you need it exposed to the internet you can at least attempt to change your port forwarding settings on your router to use a different port on the public side of the connection, for example, routing port 10000 to 192.168.1.x:500 or whatever the case is. Not sure why you'd want to print to your home/office printer while you're not there though.
This sounds much better conceptually than it winds up being in practice.

I tried one of these before, but crap like interstitial ad pages on news sites being hosted on some of these advertising sites made my browsing experience occasionally more annoying with the hosts entries.
if you pass it through grep, you can see that virtually every non-comment line refers to 127.0.0.1:

~/tmp% grep -v "^[[:space:]]*#" fred.txt | grep -v "^[[:space:]]*$" | grep -v 127.0.0.1
books
guestbook
hosts
text file
rss feed
0.0.0.0
0 text file
old macs
0 old macs
math links
origami
photos
polls
siteoftheday
home
Hosted by:
theorem.ca
how to make the internet not suck (as much)
255.255.255.255	broadcasthost
::1	localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
Fri Feb 22 08:05:36 2013top
~/tmp%

And I just realised now that the junk at the top of the output comes from me doing a Select All on the web page to highlight everything first, and it picked up the headers! Ooops. So there's in fact 3 non-comment lines that don't refer to localhost.
The article is old... 2011
I find the government giving a company the power to coerce an employee through the threat of deportation fairly horrible. It's indentured servitude. The H1-B program needs to be abolished and replaced. If companies have trouble finding workers of a certain skillset the government needs to open up immigration to that skillset.

But the companies should then need to compete in the free market for those hires.
Not entirely true for employer based sponsorship... the time frame depends on your birth nation. People born in China and India have a long wait regardless of how cooperative their employer is. The system is just back logged for years for those people (EB2, EB3 categories).
Shock sites (like the comments in the file call them) is probably more accurate word for the sites listed in the beginning.

And the majority of host names there are for tracking and ad sites.
In fact, in many family circles you are not considered a human if you are working in IT and do not have any "on-site experience"

I'm probably too independently minded, but I'm not sure I could be bothered to give a rat's ass about what my family thought of me with respect to my job or how I live my life. If I'm working, keeping a roof over my family's head, enjoying what I do and getting better in my profession... tough cheese if someone in my family doesn't 'consider me human' - that says far more about them than me.
I wonder if H-1Bs were attracting more Europeans than Indians, would Americans hate it the same way?
Care to link a tutorial on how to do this?
On Getting Paid (And Knowing Your Worth) — Freelance Life — Medium
Logic puzzle as the name implies are puzzles that can be solved using logic; typically deduction which neither of your given problems are.

It's important to make this distinction because skills like deduction are actually critical to developers, i.e. identifying the source of buggy behaviour.
I once had to troubleshoot why a Windows (XP I believe) computer was taking so long to browse the web. Turns out, it had a hosts file like this (generated from Spybot, IIRC). Cleaned out the hosts file, and it ran much faster.

Just something to think about when using massive hosts files.
Everything points to the conclusion that there are both a shortage of cheap labor and a shortage of well-paid positions for tech workers.
Could someone post the same approach, but using bind (DNS), handling all those entries in one zone? Is it possible?
When I came to Google for my onsite interview, in the group of people scheduled for that day there was this guy with an alpha-nerd attitude including a Rubik cube that he kept playing effortlessly -- he could completely scramble the thing and then solve it in seconds almost without looking at it. I was never able to solve more than two faces of Rubik in my life :) fortunately no stupid puzzles at all in the interviews (at least not in mine), I got in. The Rubik guy, never saw again. FWIW.
"The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

Sorry about that."

Bummer.
If you do, make sure to read this discussion: http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/16657/special...
RRE Investor Adam Ludwin and Devon Gundry launch Albumatic
In Case You Missed It...
Shock sites (like the comments in the file call them) is probably more accurate word for the sites listed in the beginning.

And the majority of host names below them are for tracking and ad sites.
The difference is that After() modifies @useCase to that gui.showAskForName() always gets called after askForName on that object. Putting that kind of behaviour in a constructor in that way to me reads like a horrible anti-pattern.
Wary of self-promotion here (sorry) but here's a gitHub repo that amalgamates and de-dupes recent hosts files from mvps.org, someonewhocares.org, and malwaredomainlist.com.

https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
> EDIT TO RESPOND TO FIRST REPLY ABOUT PUZZLE QUESTIONS:

I'm nitpicking, but isn't that what the reply button is for?
It is easy to add Disqus. In fact, I tried using it and there are some commented-out Disqus css in default.css. I disabled it because I really don't need comment right now.
You are then comparing apples to oranges. Hiring someone who can't do the job for less than someone who could is not a very smart decision.

I remember Scott Adams using the word "managerish" to describe decisions like this.
HN is understandably filled with programmers who value programming above all else and believe domain knowledge can be picked up quickly. It would be true for someone hired as a programmer who implement a published algorithm or port existing software to newer systems or different platform; in other words, improving existing systems. I believe it requires equal depth if not not more for domain specific knowledge to innovate in non-computational fields. For my field of bioinformatics/computational biology, many open questions cannot be answered because of computational hurdles. Reading textbooks won't lead anyone to them, nor would reading survey papers. It requires expert knowledge in both biology and computer science to even know what is feasible and interesting. We want to find the driver mutations for cancer, discover mechanism of gene regulation, uncover subtle interaction of heredity and environment. Computation is intimately involved because observation is indirect, noisy, and massive. Only with knowledge in both fields can answer questions that domain experts care about but cannot do because of computational/quantitative obstacles.

I find researchers (I am in academia) in both fields cross-talk too much. Computational/quantitative experts try to shoe-horn biological questions into their small corner of research area, while biologists don't care about computational efficiency, statistical robustness/efficiency, and the mathematical implication of their simple methods; no one cares about software quality. This is unfortunate. It is also unfortunate hiring committees do not look favorably towards multi-disciplinary researchers because one is not a trained geneticist/cancer researcher. I definitively do not encourage computer scientists go into support roles in academia; they are poorly paid and get little respect.
Looking at the body of the text, rather than the head/footer, and excluding comments lines, here is what I get with counts:

[~]$ cat hosts_example.txt | grep -v '#' | awk '{print $1}'| sort | uniq -c
56
1 ::1
9674 127.0.0.1
1 255.255.255.255
1 fe80::1%lo0
This assumes your spouse is a citizen.

For the employer case, this is true for prospective immigrants of all national origins except India and China, which also make up the bulk of potential engineers looking to become permanent residents. As of today, the average time for an Indian in the EB2 ('advanced degree or exceptional ability') category is roughly 5-6 years and this number is going up because of increased demand. For the EB3 category, the wait is at least a decade.

I agree that companies have the potential to abuse this power they have over you, but in practice, I have rarely seen this happen.
John Carter was doomed before it was released. All the reviews doomed it. I even read a critical article on the WSJ. With all the bad press and the amount of money spent to make the film, I decided to see it anyway. I must say that I've seen far worse movies and I found it to be quite entertaining.
So all this guy is doing is cluster computing on a micro scale?
Big Data beyond MapReduce: Google's Big Data papers
I'll never forget playing AQ2 on Pearlmankey servers. Thank you for all the great connections GameSpy!
Human mission to Mars may be planned for 2018
Of course you can, here, and I see them:) If you want comments, it is easy to add Disqus. RSS is something I'll consider later.
It's certainly not a bad idea. I'm avoiding capital intensive companies for the moment :)
Ask HN: Apps built by self-taught coders
Hi HN,

I am working on an article featuring apps built by people who taught themselves to code via online tools. I realize that qualifies most apps, but I'm really looking for simple MVP products by non-career developers who picked up basic skills on the side.

Here's an example: http://www.bridebook.co.uk/

Please let me know if there's one you'd recommend.

dani at mashable dot com

Thanks!
I really don't understand why manhole covers or stars in the universe puzzles are considered "logic puzzles". Logic questions are not of the form "why?" and "how?". Their structure boils down to "is this statement true or not?"
If the motive is laziness or the objective is to trick or intimidate a candidate, then I agree that the method deserves scorn. But I disagree with your position the technique is never reasonable. I like to hire people who know more than I do, and in this circumstance puzzles occasionally help learn about a person.

As a candidate I'm not particularly good at solving puzzles in this kind of situation, but I'm not bothered when people present them because the discussion and interaction about the puzzle matters more to me than getting the answer.

As an interviewer it is important to ask questions that a candidate cannot answer to see how they react. Since I'm a slow thinker myself, I must sometimes resort to "unfair" questions. I don't expect an answer, I expect a reaction.

After establishing a friendly rapport, finding common technical background, presenting an "unfair" puzzle, and discussing the puzzle a bit, then a discussion like this is golden:

Candidate: "Do you believe my ability to solve this puzzle indicates how well I could do this job?"
Me: "No. Though I often enjoy puzzles, I'm not particularly quick with them myself."
Candidate: "Then why ask a question like this?"
Me: "Because I want to see how you react when you don't know an answer right away. In your case, I had to resort to tricks."
Show HN: find your Reddit cakeday in style
Dont know about the list linked directly, but I have used hostfiles to block plenty of sites. I avoid timeouts by running a small http service on localhost so that your browser can get a quick 404 response instead of a timeout..
Holy yellow bar. Couldn't read.
The Pro-Am Revolution: How enthusiasts are changing our economy, society [pdf]
This is a really good piece!
@alanctgardner2 Agreed, there are limitations. If that guy is a fan of cut-n-paste then there are bigger issues at hand than just social interaction.

Working in a siloed environment doesn't mean not learning new skills or techniques. And I don't mean that you are only working on the same project/chunk of code the entire time. We would often switch projects so that what I'm working on today is completely different that last week and has been touched/edited/tweaked by just about everyone on the team at some point.

Having a Big Picture perspective is vital be being able to work individually. You have to know how your work will ultimately impact everyone else and how their will impact you.

I don't mean that everyone is working on completely separate projects but that Employee 1 might be working on a feature enhancement on version 4.5.3 while Employee 2 is working on a refactor of the back end code and I might be working on implementing a change control request on version 4.5.4.

Perhaps this is a better way to explain: everyone is working on the same Project but on individual and separate Tasks
Apple Getting Sued for 'Planned Obsolescence' of iPad 3
I'm not talking about Big-O. I'm talking about the general theme of these interviews.

Besides that I still don't understand this. I don't even know the last time anybody around me ever had a problem or a show stopper problem anything to do with Big-O or an algorithm.

Its always how the programmer can take pressure, how he can contribute to making the project happen, getting things done, how he can collaborate with fellow team mates, how he responds under times of crisis, how good he is with tools, what are his everyday practices, does he write unit tests, does he do code reviews, does he document the API's he writes, how does he package his code, how update he is with software world(tools, framework and techniques) etc etc.

Lets be frank, Its always these things that are relevant today in practical everyday software projects today. Unfortunately people hardly ask questions on these and then complain of bad software practices among people these days.
I guess I'm not revolutionary enough, but I can't see the problem with this. It makes sense for a private company to protect their reputation, and it makes sense not to provide data to people who run them down in public. They have an agreement to that effect that is provided in advance, and you can opt out be deciding not to participate.

I know I'm supposed to feel rage whenever there are conditions placed on the use of data, but I just can't muster it up in this case. Sorry.
I think the way H1-B visa holders are basically beholden chattel to a specific enterprise is especially repugnant.

Anyone who reads through job listings for engineers (all types, as in real engineers) and programmers will also conclude that many job descriptions and salaries are designed so that a) there are practically zero people who will match the 'minimum' requirements, despite the fact that most of the deficiencies candidates are likely to have can be solved by 3 months or less of training, and b) if there were any Americans with the actual qualifications expressed, they would never work for the listed salary.

It's also worth noting, the hidden secret to getting cheap developers in the US is to be based somewhere that doesn't have a huge tech hub.

If you base yourself in moderate size cities you'll find a hidden field of competent applicants who will take salaries close to $50k a year just because there are few jobs in mainstream America that aren't Java or .Net unless they move to a tech hub (people often do not want to live in NYC or SF, at any cost). And 50k in a region they like with a tech they don't hate is better than moving. On average.

I should know. I'm a competent (but not end of the world amazing jock rock star hipster) developer getting paid 50k a year somewhere in America that is distinctly not New York or California. And my company pretty much has me locked in because there are pretty much no other businesses or shops in town that use Javascript or Python or other similar common open source languages instead of .Net or Java (or PHP). (Obviously not an issue of technical ability, but language taste.)
Very well said, exactly my thoughts too. Although a language's syntax is somehow expressive of its problem-solving philosophy, the design patterns and best practices that grow around the language itself communicate that philosophy better.
This is a great idea. However, how can you certify someone has a given skill set, in special with environments where the skill sets themselves change very fast? How can you ensure those skills are really absent in the local work force?
Al-Qaida tipsheet on avoiding drones found in Mali
At the price point we can afford to pay based on the rates our clients will pay us.
A liberal arts education gives you an advantage over other engineers. "You mean this guy can actually read and write?"

There are a couple of questionable assumptions baked into that statement, IMO. First, that a "liberal arts education" (by which I assume you mean earning a 4 year degree from a liberal arts university) definitely means you will come out able to read and write to a superior degree. Maybe if you major in English or Philosophy, otherwise, I wouldn't take that as a given.

Also, there seems to be an implicit assumption that the only way to gain a solid grasp of reading and writing well is through a liberal arts education (again, I'm assuming you mean a formal liberal arts education). I'm not sure I buy that. The best way to learn to write, IMO, is to write a lot, read a lot, and solicit feedback on your writing. None of that requires a formal liberal arts education.

Now if you aren't necessarily referring to formal / university education, then we probably don't disagree. I certainly agree with the point that having solid reading and writing skills is a valuable thing!
10 Ways for Startups to Survive the Valley of Death
So that’s why, if one of them locks up or freezes, your whole computer can crash because it’s not actually doing things in parallel.

What utter BS. Does this guy know nothing about privilege levels [1]? or anything about operating system and processor development from the past 20 years?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_level
Re: hash table. I've been asking candidates to basically implement HashMap (for java positions) (without simply using Hashtable). It's an ongoing experiment. Although I've been told that this is a common question, I've actually never seen anyone do very well at it, and I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, it gets at some important java concepts: hashCode() and equals() and the relationship between them. Depending on how they go about it, you can also get into issues of runtime complexity, memory/speed tradeoffs, etc... It's a deep question that offers a lot of room for exploration.

On the other hand, as mentioned, people usually do fairly poorly at it, and so my fear is that it's simply too difficult. I mean, I'd even be satisfied with solutions storing key/value pairs in a list -- inefficient, but workable -- but it's fairly rare that folks even get that close.
Be aware that this blocks Google Analytics and similar services. IMO it's a really bad idea to encourage users to block these services. For example, they are used by pretty much every software company to IMPROVE the product, and if they can't get data on what people use the most in their product, it may not get the attention it needs.
Firefox 19.0 - and you're right, I just confirmed that the https link doesn't work on Chrome.
Agreed. In the process of sponsoring green cards for prospective candidates, we go through the process of trying to find US citizens that could fill the role. This is a requirement of the labor certification process. We rarely, if ever, find _any_ US citizen that applies for these positions. Most applicants are immigrants, which makes us reject them (since the exercise is to really see if we can find citizens). These are not low-paying grunt jobs. These are highly-specialized, very well paid positions.
Here is a paper of Bentley's that appears to be talking about the idea mentioned in the article:

http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/p.bentley/SABEC2.pdf

He has written other relevant stuff, but publicly available full-text versions are hard to find. For those who want to search, the key phrase seems to be "systemic computation".

And just in case it isn't clear: this is front-line research. There is no product to get the technical specs of.
In runtime, this is exactly the result.

As code modules, those two things are separated. The usecase doesn't need to know about the gui and vice versa.

In theory, they can even be reusable.

We combine those two things in the glue code. Thanks to the glue code, it's the usecase which drives the other things. The usecase makes sense even without thinking about a specific GUI solution.

I'm not sure where we could put the second piece of code you mention. Any suggestion?
1) Cutting 1 trip in 50 is actually a lot;
2) A 2% reduction in travel doesn't do much when e.g. U.S. air traffic alone is growing 2-3% every year and car traffic is increasing at 2-4% each year.
I think the way H1-B visa holders are basically beholden chattel to a specific enterprise is especially repugnant.

As an H1B holder on his third job in the US, I can tell you that we aren't actually beholden to any employer.
As much as people say "well, everyone knows about Fizzbuzz by now," lots of people still can't do it.

"Swapping two variables without a temp" is a bad question, because it depends on knowing the trick.

"Find the 2nd-highest element of this list" is a basic question, and I can change it up it a zillion ways such that anyone trying to just learn all possible permutations will end up doing way more work than someone who can just figure it out on the fly.
There is also alog.com.br which is a equinix branch in brazil