skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Since you can make new wallets at any time to spend from, the key is paying your btc into a wallet that others are paying into, and then extracting multiple different amounts to new, different wallets (and then using those for spending).

If I have two accounts, one with 0.5 btc (newly created, never tracked by authorities, purchased with a relatively disposable account from somewhere like virwox) and one with 1.5 btc (potentially tracked, need to launder it), I'd pay both into a tumbler and then extract into 3-5 different accounts (like 0.2, 0.45, 0.9, 0.18, and 0.27).

How do you prove, as a tracker, that those 5 accounts paid out to, involve btc from the original 1.5 tracked account? Especially when you consider the hundreds of other accounts being paid out to at the same time.

Still paranoid? Rinse and repeat.
My post got 63k visits thanks to HN: the aftermath.
Do you have any interests/hobbies outside of CS? There's probably clubs for every interest you can think of at your college. Even if you don't have any strong interests, just be open to try different things. Some people here suggested reddit, secondlife, and online gaming - you have the rest of your life for that but your college years will go by before you know it so really take advantage of what your school has to offer first. I was extremely introverted in college as well so i can definitely relate, happy to talk more, contact info is in my profile.
We have already had a big accident though. It was called Chernobyl and it did not even come close to being as dangerous as other forms of energy production spread out over time. Since then nuclear power has only become much safer, the problem with nuclear power is not a technological problem. The problems is merely a political problem brought about by the irrational mind of humans and our poor ability to reason about risk.
1. Only the goldbugs dismiss the problems with deflation.

2. What is the ultimate driver of demand for Bitcoin? Fiat currencies have laws to create demand for them -- taxes, debt laws, etc. What legal business has any particular reason to accept Bitcoin payments, when they must then turn around and convert those payments to their nation's currency (at cost)?
Errrm, but how many of these employers require their workers to sign non-competes? I have no idea, I left the Boston area in 1991 after Route 128 died, but they were not uncommon back then. I'm convinced their non-enforceablity in California is one reason for the Bay Area's wild and sustained success.
You can still get coins to a fresh account through transaction fees.
How to Write Fast Numerical Code (2011)
Pools of crypto guys who don't leak stuff can also be employed by..the mobs!

This make more sense because bitcoin is already being used for acquiring drugs.
Rift Rush looks amazing. The Oculus Rift has been my favorite project since it started, and I even hope to work with their team someday. Anyway, this game looks amazing, and I cannot wait to try it out!

A few questions:

What is your favorite part about the Oculus Rift so far?

Where do you see the OR in 5 years?

Do you have any plans for another game after Rift Rush?
One of the most refreshing things I found when I started at Netflix was that they actually specifically call out in the employment agreement that what you do on your own time is your own, even if you use your work computer to do it. As long as it isn't direct competition, side projects are explicitly encouraged.
Hey if you're doing extensive research, I think it'd be great if you put up on Microryza.
Challenge accepted: Dwarf Fortress pros show Ars up with insane 10-hour forts
My inner cynic says Google has already collected aerial and street level photography at great expense. Thus it is in their best interests to keep the barrier of entry high for competitors, leading to their desire to suppress any technology that can recreate their mapping imagery at a lower cost.
Direct link to paper: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/mario/mario.pdf

Direct link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x...
Even Apple does not enforce Copyright on early versions of Mac software from the early 1980s. What would really be the point? To stop a few people from running it on an Android phone using Mini vMac? What would Apple get out of that except to look like a spoilsport dick?
Look into freicoin.
Yes, that is essentially what is happening.
Is this worth reading today with HTML5 coming a long way since 2010?
In more modern (idiomatic) Python you would use a generator expression so:

strList = (str(x) for x in lst)
There's no reply button for me underneath your threads initially until some time passes. I guess that's how HN works for some. I'll respond to your latest comment here.

> If you say things like "we have a lot of people, so wind power won't work for us,"

Don't you just hate it when people put words into your mouth? Yeah, point me specifically to where I said or implied that.
>"the people who held on to them" //

Or person presumably?
Ask HN: Emailing a potential company contact
I have found a contact at a very senior managerial level at a big consulting firm. We graduated under the same professor, albeit with a 5 year difference.

There is an opening at his company, and I want to write him an email asking how to get an interview for this position. Or maybe a general advice on how to be a successful applicant. What should be the content? How should i frame the email?

Thank you for your help. I am not a native North American, so i am unfamiliar with corporate culture here, hence I want the email to be within acceptable norms.
Cambridge is a wonderful place to live: extremely walkable, pretty architecture, good food, plenty to do, tolerant social atmosphere, very tech-friendly. Not sure if it's fair to call Cambridge/Boston a "terrible" place to live.

I would say that the weather and recreation opportunities aren't as good as in some other locations of the country, so you have a point there.
Fiat currencies have value because of the law, not some wishy-washy magic agreement that people wake up with. Tax laws, debt laws, torts, fees, fines, etc. are what create the demand for fiat currencies.

Bitcoin does not have such a source of demand. It has no particular utility at all; nobody will ever suffer for lack of Bitcoin money.
Never miss a call again (unless you want to)
We designed an app called Triggr that alerts you with desktop notifications during phone calls. Is this something Android users are interested in? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.fether.triggr
Yes, but in that case, you go to your psychologist/psychiatrist/neurologist to take care of yourself, not to your local energy provider.
These are all aesthetic complaints, not UX complaints. The UX is standard.

Now, I actually happen to agree that it's not the prettiest app. But it is a very usable app, in ways that a web browser music player is not.

I also get the impression that you're just being willfully contrary and not particularly genuine.
Most if not all governments believe a fixed money supply leads to deflation. They also believe that deflation is a bad thing that should be avoided. (Whether you believe this is completely irrelevant. What matters for this argument is what the government believes.)

Since Bitcoin's supply is fixed, Bitcoin is inherently deflationary. A government that creates and releases Bitcoin is a government that creates and releases something it believes is seriously flawed.

Why would a government release something it believes is seriously flawed? (The most likely answer is 'it doesn't', but let's play along.)

Perhaps that government believes the adoption of Bitcoin would damage its rivals more than itself.

Perhaps that government fears the adoption of truly-effective digital currency, and therefore chose to release and publicize one with inherent problems that will prevent its widespread adoption - delaying the onset of a truly-effective currency. (Again, dear reader, you might think Bitcoin is fine - but I suspect most government economists are more in line with Paul Krugman.)

Finally, perhaps the government truly thinks Bitcoin is a bad idea - but not everyone who works for the government agrees with the government. It only takes one person to leak something. Perhaps the group who created and reviewed Bitcoin were hired during one administration, and then, being unhappy with a future administration, someone decided to leak their what they were working on.

Note, for those of you who enjoy tinfoil hats, that the first paper on Bitcoin came out just days before the 2008 presidential election, when the polling was almost uniformly predicting a Barack Obama victory. Is Bitcoin a release from someone who believed both in the project they were working on and that they were about to be unemployed?
I didn't mean to suggest that [Integer] was of type Monad, I meant that when you write code in terms of the List monad, that code still works and is still valid and is still "monadic" even when the input to that code is a list of a non-polymorphic type.
You can find more detail on this here:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/static/functions-json.h...
Actually, I think profit sharing (properly structured) is a lot better than equity. I wrote about this, here: http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/gervais-macle...

Equity allotments for employees in typical VC-funded startups are pathetic, and have to be that way because VCs set such a small option pool.

Also, payment occurs at profitability (and is immediate and continuous from that point) rather than liquidity so there's an incentive for employees and founders both to do this unstylish (in VC-istan) thing called actually building a great business.

I agree with what you are saying, though.
If you take the alternate (but still true, imho) cliche of the burden of liberal taxation, it would follow that there's less innovation because it is harder for small companies to grow due to liquidity constraints imposed by tax burden.
A quote from the link that you provide: "But even households with children comprised entirely of immigrants (no U.S.-born children) still had a welfare use rate of 56 percent in 2009." Not a very impressive difference, that.

As for the notion that most HNers are interested only in high-skilled immigrants rather than low-skilled ones, that may well be the case. But low-skilled immigrants certainly are interested in HNers, or rather the money that HNers possess.
>>>The "target" of btc is an entrenched system of currency used by nearly everyone on earth. Much harder to contain.

I wonder if I'm the only person who sees Bitcoin as just as alpha test?
Sponsored Content & Native Ads
Upcoming Postgresql 9.3 Json Functions
"As an idea, bitcoin is perhaps one of the most revolutionary ideas in our lifetime"

Not even remotely close to it.

"It is the future"

I am sure people will talk about it in the future -- as an example of a failed experiment in currency without authority.
Plants of the Devonian period would like a recount on "the longest period of exponential population growth for any organism... ever" competition.
The Rent Seeking Economy
Read that. Twice. Now, add these words of pearly wisdom to the end: "It's also none of your fucking business."

You, sir, have been awarded with an Honorary Indignation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtCiP8B2xpc#t=7s
Came here to say this. I really think it may have been one person. It was a brilliant idea, and as you all know, it only takes one person to have an idea, but would it really take that much work to implement? Would it really require an elite highly-funded team of programming geniuses?

When the Linux kernel was first posted, a lot of people, including RMS, couldn't believe that one man got a kernel up and running so quickly. Normally, up until that point, only large well-funded companies were thought to be capable of producing robust kernels. Linux happened despite this preconception. Imagine if Linux had been released anonymously. I wonder what rumors would have started.
If you look at the other work Tom7 has done over time, you'd find thats generally the case with his stuff.
Same thing for hydroelectric plants. If we look at historical disasters hydro power has caused way more damage.
This thread is full of claims like this... without evidence to back them up.

"I know who wrote the protocol, but I can't tell you. Do your homework."

"The protocol is years ahead of everything else, but I can't talk about it."
This is something I've thought of before, and I've always wondered how one would go about actually measuring this. I think Peter Thiel would normally wrap up the UX or the 'it just works' effect as part of some nebulous brand strategy. I bet there is a way to concretely measure this, whether it's product market fit or the ability to keep innovating.
The world is bigger than you think, you little minded thinker
Massachusetts is consistently the second-highest ranked state in the nation for VC investment, and has been for the past 28 years (source: NVCA Yearbook). Assuming I haven't F-ed up these calculations, MA has invested an average of 146% more than NY over the past 10 years.

The challenge for startups here has been in finding:

a) seed funding, and

b) funding for consumer web businesses

Both areas have seen significant improvements since five or even three years ago. Since YCombinator left Boston in 2009, Spark Capital (one of the main consumer web & seed-stage VCs here) has raised two additional funds of over $800 million. NextView Ventures raised its first fund in 2012 to invest in seed stage deals, and both New Atlantic Ventures & .406 Ventures raised new funds in 2008 to do the same.

Boston/Cambridge is certainly still far from the amounts of funding in Silicon Valley, but we're far ahead of anyone else, particularly when you factor in population.
Same thing for hydro electric power. One broken dam could mean hundreds of thousands dead. And this has already happened once.
When a small fraction of one percent controls well over 2/3 of the world's assets - explain how the "current power brokers/structure" is ending.

This article is nothing but pie in the sky fantasy.
It is becoming more welcoming. I like these two places on 3rd Street:

Voltage Cafe
http://voltagecoffee.com

Tatte Bakery and Cafe
http://www.tattecookies.com
Okay, I was trying to stay sympathetic to this article as I read it, but it bears almost no resemblance to reality as I've known it (not a stranger to these institutions).

This is less an indictment of "the system" than further evidence that systems can be gamed. Is this a shock to anyone?

Our narrator seems to have coasted through a variety of moderately prestigious (an adjective meaning that other people think whatever it is must be very discerning) opportunities. He chose to squander them out of a seemingly nihilistic/angsty/meta-hipstery and extremely adolescent rage against the machine.

What a pity. For him.
Nothing formal --- just the fact that decrypting a message wrongly is very unlikely to produce intelligible text.

Though the decrypting steps seemed quite ad hoc...
Elon Musk
Is Elon Musk more like Hank Rearden or Howard Hughes?
Clean Code and Clean TDD Cheat Sheets
Sweden runs out of garbage, forced to import from Norway [2012]
Sweet, just sent you an email.
You have to route the cash-out through an anonymising network. Surely that's possible, eg the fabled "Swiss bank account" in the world today?

Would a bank offer such an anonymising service; there's surely some level of transaction fee that would make the risk exposure worthwhile?
Don't you think a corporate entity or government would patent the code?
It's impossible to reclaim coins. You would have to guess the private key that secures them, and if that was possible bitcoin would be useless.

However, I guess it's possible for the network to agree to mine some new coins at some point in the future.
What does 'prototyped in one day' mean in the context of Gmail? Was it just the UI (arguably the most important part in this case) or was it a minimal but functional POP3/SMTP/IMAP client?

I'm not doubting you claim, just wondering about the scope of it.
Doesn't support Windows Phone.
Both Youtube and Vimeo use Iframes to embed their content, which means you get their native interface by default and limited customization parameters. With this site, your video is embedded using an html5 video tag, which gives you much more control over your content.

One cool application of the html5 video tag is the kickstarter team page - www.kickstarter.com/team

Hopefully with future iterations, the difference between EasyVideoEmbeds and Youtube will become more obvious. A few features I will be adding soon include

- Dynamically generate code, ie. Custom start time, video cropping, auto-play toggling

- Video conversion (from any video format to html5 supported format)

- Analytics
>>>One of the first pieces of evidence is typically that those countries that left the gold standard earlier also recovered from the Great Depression earlier.

By ramping up production for WWII.

Now I'm going to go orthogonal and mention something I've never seen addressed. Germany was economically a shambles. How did Hitler manage its economic comeback? Have any books been written on that subject?

EDIT for a typo. As usual.
Facebook has a substantial (and expanding) presence in NYC. As does Amazon and various other "tier 1" tech companies. Tech presence in NYC is exploding in no small part due to Californian (and abroad) companies trying to tap into the local talent pool.

While you're condescendingly lecturing others on basic economics, I'd suggest you brush up on what's going on in the tech scene in your own back yard.

Your understanding of economics is also overly simplistic and fails to account for the utility of the good or service being sold. Reduction in supply only raises prices if the utility of what's being traded is infinite and there are no substitutes.

While there are notable outliers in the tech industry in terms of profit per employee, most software businesses are firmly in the $200-300K range when it comes to revenue per head. This represents the upper bound of how much someone can get paid and still make sense - and both NYC and SF/Bay salaries are already a substantial portion of this figure.

A reduction in supply will only result in a rise in salaries until you hit this revenue cap. A continued reduction in supply past this point will result in companies going under as they cannot fulfill labor needs at a price they can afford. This becomes a net negative for the tech industry as the only businesses continuing to employ engineers will be the extreme outliers who can generate highly abnormal revenue numbers per employee. Startup costs will also blow through the roof as the amount of capital required to get a business off the ground explodes. The entire industry suffers as overall employment drops.

It's frustrating how many people in our field live in a fantasy land where squeezing hard on the supply side will mean they get rich.

> "where the kind of people he wishes to hire want to live."

This statement requires more elaboration. I'm in Manhattan, but I also understand that not everyone is like me. To claim that the type of software talent companies are looking for are inevitably urban is entirely misguided. There is no shortage of talented techies who would love nothing more than a house, a lawn, a car, and surfing on weekends.

NYC contains a certain demographic of talent that absolutely refuses to live anywhere else - and anyone has the capability would be well-advised to try to tap into it, but it is not the only demographic worth courting.

This may seem obvious to outsiders but bears repeating sometimes in the city: New York City, and the "type" of people who live there, is not the center of the universe.
>even households with children comprised entirely of immigrants

I kinda suspected you will quote that! You realize that you cannot tie that to skilled immigrants as such right? For e.g. there is family based immigration, diversity visas and what not that could and does result in households with children comprised entirely of immigrants.

If one thing is clear - highly skilled immigrants are not taking your welfare. I have lived through it and encountered a lot of high skilled immigrants and have not even an anecdote to refer you to where someone was using welfare. I would be very surprised to see data that indicates H1Bs, EB-1/2/3s, F-1s etc. take significant part of welfare benefits.
What is the ultimate driver of demand for Bitcoin?

Free instant global money-transfers that can not be charged back and are optionally anonymous? And you ask for demand?!

What legal business has any particular reason to accept Bitcoin payments

Any business that currently pays the >2% Visa/Mc/Amex/Paypal tax on every transaction?
Yeah, it is unfair to say all Americans know nothing about geography just because one journalist knew little geography and was too lazy to look it up.

By the way Rhode Island makes a poor comparison since that is a trick question, it is called "Island" but isn't one. Denmark does not have "Island" in its name.
Bitcoin has plenty of utility. In fact lots of it is directly related to your little list above.
It's very different. The difference is OSX is only trying to target one hardware platform (and succeeding) while Linux is trying to target the whole range of IBM PCs (and failing).

Before the era of the Linux on the desktop comes, we need an actual Linux desktop. Trying to target a whole host of hardware is too hard and unnecessary anyway - just copy Apple's strategy and let's move on to problems that are actually worth solving.
The problem isn't that the currency disappears when you pay it. We aren't suffering from a lack of currency! The problem is that expenditure of money represents an expenditure of resources, namely, the time and attention of these individuals allocating capital, some of whom maybe just have rich daddies but many of whom actually have to be among the best and brightest to win those positions; and as a result, those brilliant people are not able to spend their time and attention doing something that would actually be productive for society, such as sending rockets to Mars, inventing new ways to harness solar energy, remediating nutritional deficiencies that turn poverty into mental retardation, or writing peer-to-peer discussion-group software.