skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> There needs to be a better technology to harvest the massive amounts of energy wasted when decelerating from 30k mph to 1 thousand mph during re-entry.

Or, in the case of of Mars, we can focus on in-situ resource utilization [1]. Zubrin's Mars Direct [2] is built around this, and there are some immense fuel savings to be had [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-situ_resource_utilization

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct

[3] Zubrin, Robert. The case for Mars. Free Press, 1996.
We could just start burning old people. More energy, less social security. Double win!
Suddenly, losing my wedding ring does not look that bad.

I doubt anything physical will ever replace passwords. At most it'll be useful for multiple-factor authentication. It's easy to lose a ring (or get it broken, stolen, rigged, etc.)
Likewise: New Bacteria in Lake Vostok Actually a Contamination... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5361405

Seems like there's a rush to get news out without full investigations.
What problem did Twitter solve?
Serving CGI Scripts With Nginx On Fedora 18
Elisp is why I love emacs so much, especially given that I get that all that power in a console.

Editor wars are editor wars I guess. People just need an excuse to write about something it seems. I think the only prereq for a good editor is that it should be free, and nothing more. Everything else is a matter of preference.
The idea of politics at a local level, rather than having a single top down international government is that assuming everyone has good government then everyone's needs are advocated for equally.

So it's not so much that other workers are less worthy, it is that they should have their own representative to argue for them. If my representative is spending his/her time advocating for someone else then I am getting an unfair deal.

This is apparent in Britain over the EU debate as many believe that membership of the EU is preventing British politicians from considering the best interests of Britain whilst others advocate that EU membership is necessary for Britain to have any say at all.
Hey. Nobody forces to check-in. We are free to not check-in, not having a Facebook or Google account and all that stuff.
More proof Google Now is coming to desktop Chrome (François Beaufort)
"amazing"? These look terrible and would make any website look like a throwback from Geocities.

Neat that it's done with CSS3, not practical for any real purpose though.
Yes, it would be trivial. In most cases though (including your example) you could achieve the same effect by simply animating a 32-bit PNG.
You're comparing the FF "future" release which is not reasonable. There are equivalent versions of Safari and, I suspect, Chrome.
I think as one uses Angular more, a person will move most of their code out of `ng-click` style directives into their own components which might include click handlers on them.

That's the case, for me anyway.
SXSW - Copyright & IP in the Spotlight
You are not alone, if you go and check the real world (excluding the software dev. freelancers), you'll find that a lot of people are indeed facing the same issue. I stumbled on some doctors forum, and there is stories of how hard it is to get a medical business running (apart from the financial cost for it).

It's not easy (It's not supposed to be), but if someone else did it, you can do it too. Maybe you won't get popular, but you'll be able to have a nice revenue and lifestyle from it.

9-5 job is not my cup of tea. I like the idea of a product, and selling it to customers (if there is lots of support, you can outsource it). Passive income is cool; and if it is stable, it'll give you peace of mind. I'm in the process of achieving financial freedom through products, maybe in a couple of years I'll be doing just high-level consulting.

/rant/

My only advice is: persistence.
This sounds completely insane ;)
It's not clear to me from your comment whether you are agreeing or misunderstanding.

The underlying method is an idea, not an implementation. It is not subject to copyright.

It might be patentable in some places, but that has nothing to do with the DMCA.

Developers generally scorn software patents (owning an idea) but respect copyright (owning an implementation).

The designers here are trying to assert copyright over an idea, which you absolutely cannot do.
Technology fails in film are the new Wilhelm Scream
None. It's a fallacy to believe a startup has to invariably solve a problem to go out there; companies like Foursquare or Zynga weren't solving much either.
HN is a significant asset for YCombinator, and YC, presumably, makes significant money.
Is this modern day slavery?
The big assumption here is that the data you'll be querying is, in fact, decently structured. I like the idea, but I've come across too many structures that aren't organized to be queryable at all, because they've been constructed by people without any understanding of relational concepts, or indeed data integrity or normalization.

"If the 3rd character in "customer ID" is 7 or 8, and the start date is after 2007, then they are a "premium" customer, and the maximum order amount doesn't apply, if they're shipping an order to Michigan, Texas or Florida".

"If customer ID is greater than 80000 and the date is after November 2009, then the real customer number should be reduced by 10000, because we had a problem and needed to reuse customer IDs". (meaning, an invoice for customer 12000 on November 2004 is related to a different customer than customer 12000 for an invoice on November 2010).

"If the employee's start date is >2005, then check table 1 for employee data if their last name starts with A-M, and table 2 if their last name starts with N-Z, otherwise check table 0 (legacy) Oh, and in table 4, if the employee ID starts with L, that means "legacy", so use table 0 to find their information, but remove the L".

These are situations I've run in to in the last few years, and I'm sure many of you have similar WTFs in your experiences. If someone has their data in good, solid, structured formats/tables, natural language syntax might fun/easy/exciting, but those people can also be served by things like Crystal Reports, some books, and a few hours of learning. The companies that most desperately need NLP->SQL probably also have the worst data.
Didn't we learn that static files for serving websites are so uncool many many years ago and stuffed the content into databases and served off them? And what is seeing a great resurgence these days?

More things change, more they remain the same.

PS: I am not saying JS in attributes is a good thing, but just that these things keep happening, for good or worse.
Notice how the site uses a png noise image as background and none of the css3 backgrounds.
PhantomCSS: Visual/CSS regression testing with PhantomJS
Hi, thanks for sharing your story and I'm sure many people have been in the same situation sometime on their journey setting up a startup, I know I have.

It's hard to get up when you get knocked down and at the same time trying to balance finances. A way to make some cash on the side is to build small compact iOS apps and sell them on Codecanyon.net no selling experience required. It might not make you 1000's initially but they do sell and it will help your finances. Look at setting a goal in producing 1-2 apps a week so keep them simple but well featured.

You might even end up working on a new idea by doing this and before you know it end up with a successful business.

BTW email me you skills / work on iOS as I might well have some work for you.

Good luck,

Steve
I can see this being used: http://lea.verou.me/css3patterns/#lined-paper
Taxis have existed for more than half a century, the current regulations are built around the current model and are the culmination of over 50 years of knowledge, to discount the value of those regulations because a new company is having success by ignoring them is a mistake, just like it's a mistake for the regulations to not be revisited in light of the options new technology is creating.

What Uber is doing is interesting but there are real problems that need to be addressed, labelling every opponent in the business as "idiots" ignores the problems. Let's say hypothetically Uber becomes the biggest source of taxis in Boston, they drive out the incumbent "idiot" companies[1] that can't compete with the service Uber provides and then once Uber has an 80% market share they decide to increase their prices 50%? They decide to ban rides of less than 1 mile because that is hurting their bottom line? They decide that if you want to ride in an Uber cab you need to provide ID and have your fingerprints taken in case of crime? If they're a company built around ignoring regulations and have effectively killed all alternatives, then what? People can't just boycott Uber, because they have no other choices.

The current taxi companies cannot compete with Uber; if they try to they will lose their licenses to operate and they're not big enough to swallow the losses and evolve into an Uber alternative... by ignoring regulations Uber is making it impossible for anyone to compete. The regulations now are not perfect, as many articles have explained there are problems with them (such as restricted licensing to operate, huge start up costs...) but just ignoring them is not the solution.

As others have pointed out in this thread, there are ways to innovate within the taxi business while respecting the regulations and there are businesses doing that now, if Uber wants to genuinely protect consumer interests in the long term they should be pushing for the regulations to be addressed; not ignoring them and putting consumers at risk in the long term.

[1] Companies that have identified the regulations as not being perfect.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish...
A look at 4 crypto apps
Indian Govt pays bounty for botnet probe
Hey there, sounds like what you're lacking in your current situation is a network. It becomes easier when you have other people looking out for your interests.

Towards the end of last year, we (a company of 3 in new york) were running low on investor cash and started looking for consulting gigs to cover our burn. We didn't end up going that route, but every gig we had lined up was through a word of mouth referral.

I'm not totally comfortable networking and meeting lots of people (sounds like you aren't either?). I'd encourage you to get out there and do what you can locally, but also hang out in the right places online where iOS work tends to appear. Some iOS people who do contract work can probably point you in that direction.

Good luck!
Electric heat pumps are more efficient than any of those. Whole system included. The combination of {heat engine + heat pump} -- i.e., the power plant generating electricity, followed by the electricity powering a heat pump in your house -- is more efficient than using the same heat in your house directly. E.g.: 1 Joule of heat, in a power plant, can bring to you 2 Joules of heat in your house (through an intermediate of 0.5 Joules of electricity).

This doesn't violate the 1st law of thermodynamics. You are not converting 1 Joule of heat into 2 Joules of heat. You are using 1 Joule of heat to move 2 Joules of heat out of a large heat sink (the outside atmosphere, or maybe the ground).

It doesn't violate the 2nd law either. A power plant runs on very high temperature differences -- Carnot ratio Th/Tc as high as 5.0 (1,500 K / 300 K). A heat pump runs on very small temperature differences, maybe 1.1 (e.g. 300 K / 280 K). Together, you can translate a small movement of heat, at a high temperature difference, into a large movement of heat, at a low temperature difference.
“Hacking the Xbox” Released as Free eBook in Honor of Aaron Swartz
Tech Leaders Launch CloudHealth, Raise $4.5M in Funding from .406 & Sigma Prime
If we could extract them at economic prices, that could have enormous significance.

The resources of methane hydrate are enormous. By some estimates there are more of them there other fossils:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/gas-hydrates/

On the other hand, if they start leaking we will have incredible strong greenhouse effect...
To say it bluntly, on average people with high EQ are more successful than people with high IQ. (There's a whole book about it.)
this depends on how your define slavery...I would say this is more collusion
One key thing missing imo. "history" can be a huge help. Even more so if there are multiple admins on call.
For a pythonista, maybe.
When AIs or uploaded humans can do everything that flesh-and-blood humans can do, more cheaply, then there will be more reason to pay flesh-and-blood humans for anything. And they won't have any spare land or resources to return to past ways of living, because technologically advanced corporations will be able to extract more value from that land or resources, so flesh-and-blood humans will be outbid, and subsequently perish. Basic econ 101.

(Programming seems like a task that's especially suited for AIs or uploaded humans, because it doesn't involve any physical manipulation of mass. So programmers should be the first, not the last, to worry. And don't kid yourself that you'll be an uploaded programmer earning a living wage. That honor will go to the the most productive and undemanding uploaded programmer in the world, who will get copied a billion times. See Robin Hanson's "Crack of a future dawn".)

One possible answer is transhumanism, making humans smarter so they can stay competitive. But even so, the majority could still get left behind.
the world was tweatless. they fixed it ;-)
This is why I always use the default language for a given platform, unless I am required to do some multiplatform thingy.
Grep.js
Modulus looks pretty good: https://modulus.io/

I haven't tried them out yet, but their support team has been very responsive answering my questions.
I think you're getting the wrong idea about this. These Taxi companies (of which there are many in Boston, not one or two) want to sue precisely because they have something like a government-granted monopoly. The problem here is government intervention, not lack of it. Taxi medallions are worth about $500k in Boston because the city limits the number of taxis and has outlawed Taxi companies from other cities picking up passengers.

How's that for lack of government intervention? If there was no government intervention here Uber would be free to do its thing. But thanks to the Boston government the taxi rates are high and there are never enough taxis to serve everyone.
good luck and i wish you from the deepest of my heart that you make it.

I see myself in your story - with few corrections it can actually be my own: expat, recovering from a breakup, left permanent jobs to pursue freelancing while waiting to find my purpuse ...
HIV/AIDS: 'Functional Cure' On The Way?
http://www.strikingly.com/site22261-1363092318 it's beautiful
I felt similarly when I got Windows 8, it reminded me of Ubuntu's Unity new universal search UI (except faster) which I liked for its simplicity.

But I installed Start8 just to try it out, and I do like it better. Its got the fast search of Windows 8, and I find it less distracting than the screen covering start menu.
I love how the US claims to be the home of capitalism

It is, but the largest corps and for the richest people. Try stepping on their stones and you're fried
while you're in there, can you please increase the default font size on this site!?
Given that all mainstream languages have some form of OO support, it is a bit hard to consider it dead.

OO is not the only way to code applications, it all depends on the domain.

Additionally I think the future is anyway multi-paradigm.
Why does Netflix only allow 4-10 character passwords? My weak password is 14 characters. There is no reason to have a length limit.
It's a joke!

How is it possible, given the URL, that it's the Reg, the author's name, the layout and the content to miss that it's a joke?

This particular line is a reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspuns_tenth_rule
If you're in Boston, arrange with Metro Taxi. They're quite reliable and on-time. If in Cambridge...yeah, good luck with that.
Duke Energy Lights The Way
Designers & Developers have Style Guides. Marketers should too
Verity Stob is a laaaadddddy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verity_Stob
What's worked for me has been to read the archlinux.org homepage before I upgrade (maybe once every few days). If there are any breaking changes they are listed along with the recommended method for handling them. If I somehow fat finger a command and it doesn't go smoothly then all I have to do is jump in #archlinux and my issue is resolved in under an hour.

YMMV of course but I've found the entire Arch experience to be pleasant and it fits my work flow, but I understand that it doesn't fit everyone's.
I think that people that hate OO, never learned to use it properly.
I think the oversized image style is not always appropriate for "boring" professional services firms. Perhaps some themes with less dominant imagery on the front page?
To be honest, I'd rather the security of the query wasn't handled by your thing. My data source shouldn't allower user bob to ever be able to see data that is not intended for him.

Time to train wouldn't be the problem, it would be a case of letting you guys near the data. The lawyers would have kittens. Having a nice tuning tools would be a good idea, as it allows us to do it.

Would the thing nock out an AST, or would it be SQL only? As it stands, one of the benefits of our own DSL (using Irony) is that we can implement the AST in T-SQL or just C# code against POCOs.
1. Blogging was too much effort

2. Not having everyone's mobile number to send SMS messages to the world

3. The need to be heard - even with nothing to say

4. Provides a tenuous form of contact with celebrity.
> But if you start project from scratch ... there are better approaches.

In what languages? Except for C, Pascal and pure FP languages, most modern languages are anyway either OO based or multi-paradigm.
Bell Telephone's lab (1947) vs Apple's lab (2010)
Ten Lessons from Peter Thiel's Class On Startups
It started out solving the one-to-many messaging problem (i.e sms for groups; what whatsapp and the kin are going after now)
Is the point of staying anonymous to not have your blog help your business in any way? I found you here, I may have some iOS work in the near future that I could see if you'd be interested in but I can't use a nameless entity.
Please, don't blame Maxis for EA management tier crappy ideas.
Always Return Something
Perhaps, but this is a question that you can't even begin to answer without quantifying both sides of the equation.
As an Android developer who has recently been doing some iPhone work, I don't know any resources directly for iOS developers but these are some areas that I think you should look into:

1) The activity life cycle model.[0] This is something that a lot of people moving over to Android struggle with for some reason. A strong understanding of this really helps.

2) Layout xml. In my opinion Layouts are a weak point for even reasonably experienced Android developers. This is an area that leads to a ton of performance issues if you don't think through it properly.

3)Device compatibility including targeting different SDKs[1] and different screens[2].

4) Adapters.[3] They are the data structures that back most of Android and if you are good with these there is a lot you can make with them pretty much alone.

5) If you have the time I also recommend reading through the Android design docs.[4] It helps give a bit of insight into what Android is trying to accomplish and what is important in the eco system.

These are just a couple general areas that are important and different. If you have more specific questions I'd be more then happy to help you out where I can here or by email (information in profile).

Here are a couple of extra resources that are really good:

API Reference (always important): http://developer.android.com/reference/packages.html

Romain Guy's Android blog:
http://www.curious-creature.org/category/android/

[0]http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity....
[1]http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-...
[2]http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support...
[3]http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Adapte...
[4]http://developer.android.com/design/index.html
Show HN: Hack Assist - Monthly Hack Night in Upstate New York
Despite the recent Startup Weekend in Saratoga, the startup scene in and around the Albany area of Upstate New York is still pretty light on the ground.

I'm starting a monthly meetup for anyone working on a startup or side project that might turn into a startup for anyone in this area. Called Hack Assist, the idea is that even if you're not working on an idea of your own, you can come along and for one night assist someone who is.

The first meetup is this Wednesday night (3/13) starting at 6pm in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Designers, developers, marketers, business folks ... everyone is welcome.

I'm not sure how many people in the area read Hacker News, but it can't hurt to announce things here right?

For more details:
http://www.hackassist.co
Review: Qubole offers a cloud-based Hadoop solution.
The Bitcoin Economy: Something Is Wrong About The Way It Is Shaping Up
It's not just the contrast; antialiasing is also applied to the text, which elevates the illegibility to a new level.
SXSW - Has Blogging Passed Its Peak? The Creator of WordPress Doesn’t Think So
The advantages being that >50% of the help documentation (and forum posts) cover some derivative of Ubuntu. You also have the added benefit of installing software through PPA's which are essentially mini-repositories that 3rd parties maintain (i.e. back in Ubuntu 10.04 VLC was stuck on an older version that would not play 10-bit MKV files properly, so I simply installed their beta-channel PPA and everything worked perfectly).

I also know of several colleagues that use and enjoy Ubuntu (because Unity notwithstanding, the distribution is pretty solid) with an alternative environment like xmonad.

My experience with Debian is limited to servers, but I'd imagine a lot of the creature comforts of Ubuntu are missing on Debian when used as a personal OS.
Core Developer
Toronto, Ontario

Trainify (http://www.trainify.ca) is a small scrappy funded Next 36 startup in Toronto. We are building software that makes it easy for companies to train their employees. We believe that employee training should be fun, fast, individualized, and rewarding. We started just a few months ago and already have meaningful traction.

What we are looking for people who love coding and building things so much that sometimes they forget to eat and sleep, and who understand that the best things are built by teams not individuals.

Your technical skills: Our platform is built using Python (Django Framework). You must have experience in HTML, Jquery, JavaScript, & CSS. But we hire generalists, we know that good developers can quickly learn new things, so don't hesitate to get in touch with us. Bonus points if you have experience in UX design.

Right now we are offering contract with immediate start.

So if you want to join us then send us everything you have about yourself (resume, github, etc.).

Email aditya@trainify.ca.
Do the Work So Your App Doesn't Die - Idea to Appster
Be open for critique
> What's wrong with images as bg?

1. Give a content block a raster background with a pattern including lots of pixel-perfect high-contrast edges (precisely the thing there are lots of in these demos!)

2. Visit the page on a mobile device, and tap to fit.

3. Horrible antialiasing ensues. (Not to mention what happens when you zoom in further.)

"CSS (vector) backgrounds" do have their use, and it's pretty much the same use as "vector icons"/"icon fonts" have: making things that look good at arbitrary scale+DPI.
> because the city limits the number of taxis and has outlawed Taxi companies from other cities picking up passengers.

And why do you think that's the case?
I expected to read that Van Riper died of natural causes later that year.