skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Isn't it odd that this is patentable? One day, long before this patent expires, all of the technology needed for this will be commonplace, and the idea will be obvious to any four year old.

I've heard that the point of patents is to incent innovation, but it's hard to see how that's happening here. It's not the case, as with pharmaceutical research, that R&D resources had to be spent to generate the idea, demonstrate its efficacy, and prove its safety. That will be needed for the technology required to implement this, but, this patent actually reduces the incentive to spend R&D resources on the technology necessary to implement it!
Just a note: Language Shootout is still Go 1.0.3. We are going to wait to see the new benchmarks.
>> If less tax was paid than required you have to pay that + interest...which really isn't that unreasonable.

If I pay too much, do I get interest back on the overage?
> the incentive of the IRS is to maximize the taxes

I'm not sure this is the case. IRS funding is not a static percentage of tax revenue. Sure, the tax money goes into one big pot, but IRS funding is not dependent upon the money they bring in.
Expressions - The Regular Expressions Game by Wingtip Labs
While trying to find one interactive tools to practice and learn regex, found this! There's other's that I used before like regexOne (nice). Hope this can help you guys too!
Which is fine. It's the idea that software can "pollute" is absurd. Give reasons and arguments, not slander.

Already having a python/postgres stack is a valid reason to want a piece of software that runs on it. Just saying php/mysql "pollute" is a terrible mindset.

It's like saying "I won't pollute my mind with German" instead of "I have no use for German in my everyday life". One is very trollish, the other is a valid point.
Have you been through an audit? They don't just arbitrarily ask for all your records; they have questions about a specific number or set of numbers on your tax return and they ask you to substantiate it.
Python as a language is great. Its the GUI frameworks that always stop my advances into Python...there are about half a dozen of them and they come in various flavours of broke, ugly, incompatible, difficult or abandoned.

So I end up downloading VS C# Express...
With BT-Fon the ADSL owner's traffic has priority over the BT-Fon traffic if push comes to shove.

So someone can use up to 512kbps of my ADSL connection, unless I need it, in which case they get throttled down to nothing.

(The traffic is also segregated in that BT-Fon stuff goes down the wire as a separate IP address from my own ADSL connection data. I'm not sure if multiple people on Fon on a single wireless router get unique IPs or not.)
Indeed. Some of my portfolio is from dead companies where I got permission from the rights holder, some is where I got permission to use a few foundational files that showed e.g. how I do things to improve error reporting and debugging but none of the company's secret sauce. But neither would have been possible without my having been in the field for a long time.
Trick question:
"If you paid for employee's training and he quits, would you keep investing in training of other employees?"

------
Source:

"The only worse thing to training employees and losing them is not training them and keeping them". -- Zig Ziglar
Using Redis with ASP.NET Web API
In this article I am going to show how to use Redis as a data store in a ASP.NET Web API application. I will implement a basic scenario that leverages ServiceStack.Redis library and its strongly typed Redis client, show how to model and store one-to-many relationships and how to use Web API dependency injection capabilities along with Autofac to inject repositories into controllers.
Google moving away from open standards is a current popular opinion in bologsphere. Google has always made it super easy to take away your data. So, if you are not happy with a company than just don't take their services.
I think the Chinese government tolerates a certain amount of scandal in order to pacify the populace. The argument for 'total government control' is much stronger when you consider things like:

1. You need a license from the government to run a web server

2. You need a chinese ID # to sign up for Weibo

3. QQ, Weixin, Weibo, RenRen, etc censor massive amounts of content at the whim of the government

4. The great firewall is getting smarter about detecting and blocking VPN connections, and VPN operators in China must be specifically licensed by the government

I can list more, but I think these alone paint a pretty convincing picture that 'totally controlled by China's gov' is closer to true than false.
I was raised to believe that asking someone "what do you do" is a politer variation of "where do you work", itself a pry into their income level, and the proper response is to describe your hobbies or goals.
>There's a lot of hype about Go, but I am not aware of cases where Google is overselling the language. Can you give examples?

Not Google. Just the Golang guys (Pike and co).

1) They sold it as a "systems programming language" at the beginning, to replace C/C++. When that didn't play well with actual system programmers, they reverted it to mean mostly server and similar back-end programming.

2) They emphasize as often as they can the "compilation speed", while for one is not a great concern for most projects, and second, other languages are just as speedy on that front.

3) They made claims of Go being "very fast" based on its statically compiled nature, whereas in practice it's slower than Java/Scala et co.

4) They downplay the fact that their GC is basically crap.

5) They make frequent statements about Go being used all around Google, but I've read Google employees deny that and say that it's use is quite marginal. The 2 greatest success stories they had offered are a simple component for Google Downloads (not the one that handles the whole thing) and a load balancer for MySQL fro YouTube. Not the kind of adoption to write home about.
>> "Does Potential Co. value the professional development of its employees?"

This is a good question, but I'd avoid yes/no questions and ask for examples instead. "What are some things you do to encourage employee learning and growth?"

It's easy to say "yes", even if they're not doing much.
> a 5 year transition plan from Py2 to Py3 and that is actually working very nicely

For whom? Five years is long enough to realize that you might as well try new languages instead of porting all your code base (and maybe some libraries that you need) to the slightly improved but backwards incompatible version of Python.
"Is that confusion intended by the article author?"

Probably not. Most everything can be misunderstood, but it's not really a particularly confusing paragraph.
Yep, your living like a lot of people on the edge. You cover your bills and clothes and then don't do much else. I am truly disappointed that the opportunities I had to learn to program in the late-70's and early-80's are not there anymore. We have cut off a part of the population from learning to program early even though the price of computing has dropped.
I'd like to see an Estuary English/Londoner/Cockney version. "Alert" could become "Oy_Wanker", "Try..Catch" could be "Do it!" and "Bollocks" etc etc.
This should shove the internet into a more sophisticated mode of advertising (if more clandestine in many ways, shills ahoy). It's unprecendentedly pathetic to see companies worrying about their outmoded methods and hegemony on content choice. Imagine when content choice is purely based on relevance and recommendation (and shills).
"Describe a time you chose principle over immediate short-term interests."

This question can be asked of a prospective boss, a co-worker, or adapted to the company as a whole.
It is a guarantee. I promise, you won't have to change any of your code when updating from 1.0 to 1.1.
I agree -- I've turned down a job before I received a formal offer (was told one was in the works) partly because no one could tell me what the vacation policy was. Not that I'm only interested in time off work, but I do live a few states away from the rest of my family (and many friends) and I'd like to visit them once in a while and not feel guilty.
"Do you trust the IRS to say, "It's okay if we lose $5000 - you're happy, right? That's what matters!"? Of course not. Having the separation works in the US for this clear conflict of interest."

I really think you misunderstand the intent and mentality of the IRS. You seem to be projecting a capitalist objective to their actions with the motive of obtaining the maximum amount of money. The IRS does not have any direct incentives for bringing in more money.

If you are audited and the auditor finds you missed deductions, they will tell you. I would hope that information should be enough force a change in your perspective.
The GS salaries aren't the complete picture once you factor in benefits and the pension. Traditionally, gov't salaries have been below market rate with the understanding that you and your family would be looked after. But with the current administration and legislation I wouldn't depend on that agreement remaining in place for longer.

If you're young and job hopping I wouldn't look at a gov't job just yet. 35 with a family of 4? I would seriously consider it.
You will never get a straight answer to any of these questions:

"-Do you do performance evaluations / raises?"

Yes, we do performance evaluations and raises. (We haven't actually issued a raise yet, but there is a plan at one point in the future)

"-Do you block any part of the internet?"

Not to my knowledge (We do block parts of the internet, such as porn websites, but we don't expect you to attempt to go to any of those blocked sites)

"-Do you allow working remotely?"

Yes (but it looks really bad and you will be judged negatively)

"-Do you have a sane sick day policy?"

Yes (for certain definitions of sane)

"-What kind of basic hours per week do you expect?"

We don't expect you to work 24-7 if that's what you are asking (but we do expect 16-hour days)
DMV offices in many states are actually run as private businesses under contract to the state, not by the state government directly.

In my state, actual government offices are generally less seedy looking, better staffed, and friendlier than the universally-privately-run DMV offices are.

Deputy Registrars are independent contractors and are selected on a competitive basis as described in the Ohio Administrative Code and RFP. Deputy Registrars receive service fees of $3.50 for each vehicle, driver license and ID card transaction; and $0.90 for each vision screening performed. All fees are established in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code. Contracts are generally for two or three years per Section 4503.03 of the Ohio Revised Code.

http://bmv.ohio.gov/rfp.stm

All that said, the private contractors do get the job done, but they do it in a way that's efficient with employee time, not in a way that's efficient with customer time.
I agree with your sentiment:

Honestly, is there anything that matches Google search quality of services? Is there any email hosting, paid or not, that is as feature rich as Gmail? What about online documents? Calendars and contacts? What about all the other little things I get, like Gtalk or Google hangouts?

Honestly, if there was any alternative that covered all of these with the quality of Googles services, I'd switch in a heartbeat, even if I had to pay $30+ a month for them all.

Actually, if anyone has recommendations, I'd love to hear them!
This is the biggest thing.

There is literally no reason to do this if it's opt-in.
Converting Python2 to Python3 [video]
Calendar is a bit harder, but storing contacts seems like an eminently solvable problem.

Especially if you require dropbox.

What am I missing? Phone support?
As someone who is just fascinated by symmetry

Do you know Jane Siberry's charming song about it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpg0tlcAZw
DMV in New Jersey is great. It really is. Completely painless for everything I've done there including getting a license, buying/selling cars, trailer registration, etc.

DMV in Connecticut is horrific. One of the worse "customer service" experience.

Which says to me, all of the reflexive "DMV sucks" comments are missing the real question - why does it suck in some states and not others?
USPS International API + EasyPost
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/codelabs/duo-the-worlds-...
The rape analogy fails because declining a date is completely non aggressive. OTOH, people claim "rape" each other all the time in trivial activities like video games.
It's because Go was designed for large code bases, and doing what you describe leads to unmaintainable code.

You might be interested in this document:
http://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article
I'm a contractor so long term questions are irrelevant to me, but my standard questions are the following:

Will i have the freedom to use whatever OS and software i want?

If the answer to this is anything other than Yes, i dont take the gig. Give me the tools to do my job and trust me to do it, i'll even bring my own tools, i like a mac and sublime. I once had a potential employer tell me that i was only allowed to use windows, only allowed to use eclipse and i'd be issued an MSDN license even though they admitted it wasnt relevant to me, because that was standard IT policy. Sorry, no thanks.

Is the office a relaxed environment?

I can usually answer this myself if i'm doing a face to face just by looking at how people are dressed and such, but a lot of the time i have a phone interview first, and then i ask this. I absolutely will not work anywhere where i cant wear jeans and a t-shirt and if i walk in at 9.08am and you're going to moan at me for it, no thanks. I've also seen places where they dont allow employees to leave the building except at pre-defined lunch and break times, again, no deal.

While these might seem petty to some people, to me they're indicative of an overall culture of not trusting employees and excessive micromanagement and i have the luxury of totally avoiding places like that, so i'm going to.
Bingo. I myself would put them into a separate bin, and more thoroughly investigate the company to see if I wanted to work there, if I could perhaps weasel around the official requirements in my cover letter, etc. If you're more aggressive, bypass HR and find the hiring manager.
Are the Costs of 'Free' Too High in Online Education?
This is good perspective and i think it's good to keep this in mind, but let's not forget the other end of the spectrum:

Right now, somewhere in the world, a child is being born in a farm house with a dirt floor. That child will grow up to die in a civil war before age 14.

Right now, somewhere in the world, there are people waiting in line to get food from a charity.

Right now, somewhere in the world, someone is suffering from a disease because they can't afford the cure.

Right now, somewhere in the world, a man goes to work carrying bricks for 10 hours a day to feed his 3 children.

Right now, somewhere in the world, a woman rides her bike to work in polluted air at 6am, to a factory job where she will work 12 hours a day putting together tablets that all the "unlucky people who have to work" trying to be dot com millionaires will buy one day on a whim and then discard less than 6 months later. And this is good, because she has a job.

The real interesting thing is these people generally don't complain much, not nearly as much as we do.
You know, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I and many others like some separation between "work life" and "personal life"
Could Craigslist be ramping up for a re-design?
http://www.craigslist.org/about/craigslist_is_hiring

I hope so, it's been a long time coming.
Cultural fit is a huge deal to me, and I think it's pretty essential, at least for the small company that I work for. We don't force people to come out for drinks or for lunch or anything (although most people are happy to). You can still be a great cultural fit without spending any extra time outside of the office with your coworkers. It's how you work together on a day-to-day basis. We have an atmosphere that not everybody will like. Some of us tell really terrible and unfunny jokes. We typically leave the lights off first thing in the morning. We talk through a lot of our internal stumbling blocks and are open about them. The cultural fit is to make sure that you'll be able to work in the atmosphere that the company has established, not to make sure you'll come get drunk with us.
Bear in mind that while homographs in American English, "metre" and "meter" are different things.
As a polyglot developer, I found Go syntax just nice. It is not maybe so sweet as Ruby's syntax (which I like) but it just feels right.

Rust makes me think on Haskell but it is not so far away from Go, IMHO. I just skimmed Rust tutorial so I'm probably missing something.
Consider: if a movie star is a puppet of the government, and he posts statements that they demand, or if he is coerced into sharing his password, that is effectively the same as being hacked, via social engineering / state force.
England doesn't have an official language (or maybe it was the UK), neither does the US.
That is not "teenage" behavior. That is sociopathy. He outright lied to this reporter, then berated him with dozens of emails. Regular people, "teenagers" included, do not behave that way.

(I, as someone who is comparable in age to D'Aloisio, would never try this kind of shit, especially to someone affiliated with a major news organization; nor can I think of any of my peers who would. I honestly don't understand why people have such outrageous notions about how young people act, and have such permissive views about they ought to act. It doesn't matter how old he is, this sort of behavior is absurd.)
This change was added to ratify an assumption that the compiler had already made. As has been pointed out, this is not a big deal. Almost nobody is affected, but our release notes must be comprehensive.
Is Depression Really Biochemical?
I think the NYT 'paywall system' is just a cookie on your computer. Just delete any related cookies and it'll reset the monthly/weekly counter.
> Yet only last week a woman of color, Adria Richards ...

WTF. How did this become about race?
z-push is probably the best.
I've heard people have already started using it actually.
Relevant: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-...
Pick a License, Any License (2007)
It is amusing that Chinese have been trained to be so brand sensitive, by an industry (counterfeit products) whose primary focus is brand dilution.
I don't see how any of the points you raised are related to it being pompous or not.

Funny is personal. I found it very funny. And in what way is it wrong? Because British people don't actually speak like that? That's part of the joke. Someone could make an American version with alert("howdy pardner") and I don't think anyone would take it seriously.
509 - Bandwidth Limit Exceeded ... The power of HN!
Xavier Niel launches tuition-free developer school named ’42′
T-Mobile will offer the iPhone 4/4S/5 starting on April 12th
It's very odd. At this point Bezos is patenting something that (probably) doesn't exist in the hopes someone does build it or his team can build it.

It would be like someone realizing that we could send out electrical signals from a transmitter and catch them on a receiver. What would the radio guys have patented? They actually built a radio, the patent is for a broad idea.

If anyone brings this to fruition this should be invalidated. Someone must've patented wireless electric transmission decades ago (maybe even Tesla?) and having wifi for the content is even less special.

EDIT: typo.
> If they truly wanted to have platform-dependent int, then why 64-bit int on 64-bit platforms wasn't introduced from day 0? It's a valid question, because it would avoid this big (implementation) change at all.

Because we have finite time, and it was easier to implement at the time. This property has been in the language spec since day 1. It should not come as a surprise to anyone.

How much of my hundreds of thousands of lines of Go code have I needed to change because of this implementation change? None.
In some countries, like France, asking someone you barely know "What do you do (for income)?" is considered vulgar. There, you ask what people are interested in, what they like doing, and so on. I like that. A lot.
In the US, sushi is a premium product, whereas in Japan it is a basic bar staple. Imported culture adds cachet.
Rands on how to make meetings suck less
How Call Loop Won "Best in Class" for Online Sales
In this interview, Call Loop Founder and CEO shares what he is doing to emulate Apple, Dropbox, Amazon, and Zappos with his rapidly growing SaaS company.
I payed for a Unity license to do work for a client but I still prefer to use C++/Ogre3D/SFML for other projects where I need a bit more control.
Three of the four questions are closed.

Try instead:

What was the last thing Potential Co. did to invest in your professional development?

What would you most like to improve about the team's process and workflow?

What was the last thing you did together as a team outside of work?

A couple of others that usually yield interesting results:

What's the most challenging thing about working at Potential Co?

If you could reverse a single technical decision affecting your product, what would it be?
Zebra, Flex-like UI components using HTML5 canvas
1. It clearly is a systems programming language. Pike has written whole articles about how difficult it has been to convince C++ people ot switch.

2. It clearly does have an extremely fast compiler.

3. It clearly is very fast, and Pike never claimed it was the fastest.

4. The GC works and is an active area of development. They are open about this. What do you want them to say?

5. Could you cite them actually saying Go was used all over Google?
I am not OP, but what it reportedly does is when a new file appears, if the clocks aren't exactly in sync, instead of "spreading" that file to other machines, it instead immediately deletes it because other machines are "newer" and don't have the file (or something).

There is some kind of strange race condition with the syncing. It doesn't always happen. In fact it doesn't happen very often. But most people won't accept even a "rare" random file deletion from a product they're using to protect themselves from exactly that kind of data loss.
- On call policy / standards ?

- Can I talk to a future coworker (aka what is the "real" job and what is the "real" culture like)

- Bro-grammer culture or professional culture? (will I be required to slam shots after hours, play xbox each lunch hour, and whistle at chicks with my coworkers or can I act civilized?). Probably best to ask the "future coworker"

- (assuming I'm replacing someone) What happened to the guy I would replace? (my brand new future boss, fired for cause, died, transfer, prison, quit, or what exactly am I stepping into at least in the rather short term?)

- When would you expect me to start work (tomorrow is a no-go, gimme about 3 weeks?)

- Any weird requirements for dress code?
Scandinavians might think different?
A 1.5kb JS plugin for creating toggled navigation for smaller screens
Thank you for this. Personally I use Sublime and it does a lot of the things the article mentions, but I will take a look at PyCharm.

We use vagrant and salt stack to maintain a consistent development environment across developers as well as our production environment. It works very well, and gets new developers going in no time. I'll write a blog post about this on the Opbeat blog sometime.
Hmm, looks like the tongue-in-cheek was missed by a few people. I wasn't nearly serious enough for a reaction like that.
Spray, low-level network IO using Scala and Akka