skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Fiat currencies have value because of the law

The law is simply the threat of violence, which is what makes it so distasteful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

> not some wishy-washy magic agreement that people wake up with

Agreements are voluntary and magical, what's not to like? It's the other stuff that's wishy-washy (involuntary arrangements).

> Tax laws, debt laws, torts, fees, fines, etc. are what create the demand for fiat currencies.

There's no reasons these same things won't work for bitcoin. Private mediation and arbitration already exist that support bitcoin. Things like contracts are built into the bitcoin protocol and will facilitate many of the things you list.

> 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.

Pretend the bitcoin market is only used for black market activity, it would still have a large utility. Plenty of people on the market would see one less revenue stream.
I'm sure there's a Paul Krugman article coming up soon.
Yes, there's already the Zerocoin proposal... which will require big buy-in from existing stakeholders to get grafted into the protocol.

What if big Bitcoin operators get a message from the tax-and-law authorities that they welcome Bitcoin just the way it is, thank you very much, but will start to use the levers at their disposal if large remixers or Zerocoin-like extensions are added?

Or what if the authorities just say, Bitcoins that have never been Zerocoined are great, but those that have been through the Zerocoin-blinding are contraband, and can only be cleaned by declaration and payment of a significant punitive excise tax? The nature of Bitcoin and the Zerocoin proposal leaves completely transparent which coins are 'tainted' by participation in a previous verboten transaction.
> As China grows, it will be using much more electricity.

Funnily enough, China is also planning a massive investment in wind energy.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-04/10/c_1322989...

Even better link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackperkowski/2012/07/27/china-l...
Related: genetic algorithms to play video games. I can't find the exact one I read about before, which was for Super Mario Bros., but searching for "mario genetic algorithm" leads to a number of papers, videos, &c.
Then it's supposed to blow up.
That is patently false. The number of successful bitcoin businesses increases every day. Just take a look at Bitpay's success.

I personally have spent hundreds of dollars in BTC on various products.
No, that was a long time ago. Everybody who maintained those files on John Lennon is either retired or dead.

Also, I don't think John Lennon would have turned down his opportunity for celebrity if he'd known that J. Edgar Hoover was going to open a file with his name on it. He might have thought twice if someone had told him about that Chapman fellow, though.
Video is hilarious and worth watching the whole thing as others have mentioned, but there's some great stuff in the paper also. He mentions some really interesting future directions, e.g. obviating the need for the training data set of a human playing the game by having the computer initially try different sets of random inputs and continuously improving on those that do the "best" according to it's objective function. The bit about the computer trying to play "dinosaur coloring" is fantastic also.
>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)?

You should ask the hundreds of businesses that do so.

The most obvious reason is the fact that it actually costs less. There are substantial fees associated with using credit/debit cards or paypal. The fees for converting BTC to fiat are much smaller.
And that's probably why he didn't showcase playfun on Battleship.

I do agree with you though.
Setting goals together and have status updates. then you can have a record on what is achieved / not-achieved, realistic goals, need to work more to meet goals, etc. I would start there, then see how that improves things, or if you need to agree on more stringent performance metrics and consequences.
If you can prototype something in one day, that version is so brain dead as to not be any benefit as far as lessons leaned. That said, the "prototype" will still have promotional value.
Floating City The Green Float (Video) - High Tech Point
Good thing it's not a zero sum game. I'll take graphics/story/mechanics anyday. And graphics don't necessarily need to be intensive, it could be chalked up to creative art direction, like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or Team Fortress 2.
No, I don't think so. Or if so, it was ancillary. He wasn't saying "I should have done things differently" -- instead he was trying to show how depraved, spoiled, and inadequate people are inside the ivory tower. Much as in "Less Than Zero" by Bret Easton Ellis, we are supposed to be shocked at how the privileged elite are venal, cruel, phony, unworthy, and get away with it too.

You may or may not find that persuasive. But just as with "Less Than Zero" (a terrible, terrible book) and much of the similarly themed failure memoir genre, you get the sense that it is wildly exaggerated fabulism with a hysterical moral tone that is supposed to ensnare the reader in outrage.
Simulation and models often are, though.
So then it becomes a gentleman's agreement on who owns what proportion?
In my opinion animation is more important than just "graphics". In my experience a well motion-capped game is easily more enjoyable and immersive than a traditionally animated one. Of course this doesn't apply everywhere, but I think fluid life-like animation goes a long way regardless of the graphics that package it.
FSCKING HELL. Okay, at this point I'm inclined to think you're just trolling, but one last swing...

Yes, the last bit was agreeing with you; the lead-in with "I couldn't agree more that..." was something of a clue.

Regarding the earlier pieces, you said in your original comment:

"That's another common misconception as that advice is only true for brute force attacks, which are usually only the last resort for password crackers. Dictionary attacks are pretty sophisticated these days so I really wouldn't gamble on a short list of common words being secure these days."

That is what I have been rebutting (in various forms, in various sub-threads), and it is incorrect. THE ENTROPY ESTIMATES IN THE COMIC ASSUME A MAXIMALLY 'SOPHISTICATED' DICTIONARY ATTACK, so "dictionary attacks are pretty sophisticated these days" is inane and misleading AT BEST. If you want to avoid miscommunication, communicate clearly, and either own what you say or say you were mistaken.
We wanted to pivot into something else and decided to just start building last night. It's far from what we have planned, but hey, I think it's pretty good work for 10 hours.
Ask HN: where can I find a list of upcoming coding contests?
I'm interested in finding either upcoming or ongoing contests, especially those that can be done remotely/online, as well as those that have a monetary incentive.
It's completely reasonable to just e-mail him directly. Generally you would explain in the first few sentences what your connection is and how you found his e-mail address.

I've done similar with good results. People are usually a lot more willing to help if you have anything in common at all.
Sure would be nice. Sometimes I'm working on projects and get sent repos to work on with all the deps missing, because people just cloned the deps into subdirectories and git ignored them or something. Would be much better if they had a .git in every folder like Subversion does nowadays instead of trying to have a special root that includes and ignores certain children.
Hang on a minute. Writing toy kernels for an OS is an exercise that grad students do. The other Unix OS for PCs at the time, Minix, was the work of a single individual, Andrew Tanenbaum. There are plenty of other examples.

I don't really know what I'm talking about when I talk about crypto or Bitcoin. I was just musing out loud. In fact, don't even read this comment that I'm writing. :)

BTW, I think the best comment in this thread so far is by myprasanna, who seems to be saying that the premise of the entire question is wrong. Those of us who came late to Bitcoin marvel at how this brand new idea and an implementation came out of nowhere. But it seems to have had a history on crypto mailing lists, and implementation ideas were even discussed in public. Maybe the idea has a longer gestation than it appears.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5548682
Zenocoin argument stands. If you have access to the full bitcoin chain, can you write a mathematical proof that allows one account to transfer anonymously to another account, without using a "tumbler" mixed account?

IMHO, you can't.

That's the flow in anonymity, because, how do you ensure the tumbler properly operates? There is an incentive to try and "steal" from the tumbler pool.

Even if it works, the tumbler could be marked as "tainted" - or any undeclared BTC account by default could be declared tainted, and taxation imposed on any incoming bitcoin, unless then come from an untainted account to another untainted account.

The same logic currently applies in the real world - ie if you receive say 500k wired to your account from an account in the cayman islands, the taxman will want to have a word with you.

Do you see the logic there? It was previously discussed in the thread reference in the original message.
Napster.fm Is An Open Source Social Music Player
Is anyone else bored by the Bitcoin debate yet? As far as I'm concerned it's the ultimate "put your money where your mouth is" situation. If you think Bitcoin is a foolhardy endeavour doomed to failure, just don't buy any. Short it when that becomes possible, for all I care. Problem solved, and you are not harmed in any way when it inevitably collapses. If you think it's the greatest idea since fiat currency, buy some and gloat when one BTC is worth $900,000 in 20 years. But what is the point of these endless articles debating it?
> Fiat currencies have value because of the law.

So when the value of the Euro swings 30%, it's because somebody passed a law changing its value?

Zimbabwe's government wrote a law saying its currency's value was now zero?

No. Any money has value because there's a market for it. Legal tender status helps by guaranteeing certain markets, but even that is no guarantee.
What exactly does "time travel" mean in this context? That the simulation makes some moves, sees what happened, and then has the ability to undo its moves and go back to its old state, and then try new moves?
Microsoft tax break subsidized by 'opportunity to dance' tax in WA
Well, I use Debian for development and production, and I would never use Debian ruby packages on production. With the Debian packages, you have no idea what version you're getting. And then gem installs can only be done by the root user, not the deploy user. What a mess.

Godspeed Leader Nussbaum! I hope that your first action is to find a replacement for whoever was responsible for the debian-ruby disaster.
Doubtful. The World Bank cites [1] extreme poverty statistics for 1981, 1990, and 2008 as 52%, 43%, and 22% respectively. Using world population statistics that would equal extreme poverty populations of 2.31B, 2.27B, and 1.29B. I imagine a huge percentage of that drop is China.

[1] http://go.worldbank.org/4K0EJIDFA0
Fonts make me insane
Is a person in "extreme poverty" with a cell phone?
Things are pretty gloomy if you like fish.
Actually, these functions seem to support designs where the database is normalised, but front ends are emitting JSON.
Seeking Inspiration?
Thank you for the advice. I sent him an email on how i got the contact, introducing myself, and asking for advice regarding that specific position.
Into the Arctic
>You are working for the wrong side.

Which side should he be working for that doesn't do any of that?
Do you remember Starship Troopers, where serving in the military gave you citizenship, and citizenship gave you the right to vote.

Well, in the Debian project, citizenship is a commit bit. And the project leader is kept on till he's dead or they find someone better.
It's funny that richard gatling invented the gatling gun with the goal of reducing conflict by making it too costly, but it took the invention of the nuclear bomb to actually accomplish this.

>It will be interesting to see what happens as this strategy is abandoned as the survivors of WWII die off, and memory of why the US spends so much on its military fades.

What about all of the other members of the nuclear club? To me it seems that full scale war of the WWI/WWII type isn't really possible between nuclear armed opponents.

And since we're talking about the number of battle deaths, it seems like the numbers will only decrease further once human front line combatants aren't really necessary.

It seems like the scale of WWII isn't really possible anymore either, even if we remove nuclear weapons. How would you move millions of troops when satellites are tracking your every move?
Minecraft doesn't really undermine it. Minecraft's inspiration was Dwarf Fortress, which is an ANSI game. Minecraft's most significant contribution which made the game feasible was the addition of graphics. All the non-graphic 'cool elements' of Minecraft are found in abundance in Dwarf Fortress, (and then some (and then some)). Graphics made that style of game accessible to the masses.
Just to say you are not alone. Though my internal voice has no accent and does not sound like me. We may well differ in other respects.

I remember the day I asked my English teacher what she was talking about when she described the impact of poetry on your mind...and the expression of pity she showed.

I remember the day I discovered my sister read a novel and imagined a film as she read...this was the first time I was ever jealous of my sister.

They were not good days. People might wonder what I remember. I remember my thoughts-emotions of the moment. So when I say I remember my teacher's expression I remember my thoughts-feelings about the fact that I could see her pity.

However, there are major advantages especially as life as gone on. It seems to have taken me longer to get the hang of life as I have had to develop alternative ways of doing things that are often not as efficient as the visual method. But that has given me a powerful originality of thought and approach that I can increasingly use to my advantage now I am no longer undermined by the basics of life.
Wake up around 2AM, no sleep during day. Don't drink coffee regularly.
I've seen the for x in lst syntax before, but where should I start to learn about generators?
>how could you possibly justify patents for such a thing, given how simple it is to come up with //

Patents are awarded on novel inventions. An argument goes that if a particular invention were so simple then why hasn't anyone done it already? Motivation, ability, recompense?

One response is the right-place, right-time, etc.. That's basically the answer that everything would be invented at some point.

However the patent system has an answer to that too - the disclosure of the invention is key to gaining the limited monopoly. Earlier disclosure, as the premise goes, is beneficial to the people of the state granting the monopoly. Thus even if the invention is simple - provided it's not "obvious" [in the domain specific meaning of the term] - then the reward is still being provided for a benefit.
Thank you. I exactly did that. Introduced how we have common connection, and then 3-4 lines about me, and then asked advice to be a successful applicant towards this specific position.
We share same supervisor and same lab members, so I am hopeful this will be a good fruitful exchange. And in general, I will keep this advice in mind for future. Thank you.
If Zooko has had challenges in his personal life over the past half-decade, Hal's had even huger challenges! IIRC, Nakamoto was active well after Finney announced his ALS diagnosis (October 2009). Also worth noting is that Finney was an active participant in the first email thread started by Nakamoto announcing Bitcoin, and seemed relatively hostile (I suppose Finney could have been arguing with himself, but you'll agree that it makes the hypothesis a little less likely).
Considering there are bots to beat you at Call Of Duty, and Quake, this is not such a feat.

I can't find a reference but I recall an Emulator for NES that used to be able to be player 2 for something like 40 NES games.
> We have had proof of CIA drug-running.

Absolutely, but that was usually part of proxy wars against China and Russia and drugs being the best source of funding in regions like Afghanistan or SE Asia. What proxy wars, where the US is on the side of the insurgents, are going on now?
Since you mentioned it - note that heat pumps are like 5 times more effective than gas or resistive heating. Really, given that they tend to have 400% - 500% efficiency, everything else is a waste.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump#Efficiency
I work in Kendall. I'm consistently impressed with the number of interesting companies doing interesting things. It is getting really developed (nice office buildings, nice luxury apartments, bars, restaurants) really fast- though it's still weirdly sterile. Nowhere to buy beer or even groceries outside of 7-eleven.

Just today I was at my gym (Bosse on third street) and overheard a guy complaining that he could rent a better apartment in Manhattan than in Kendall right now. The rent for the Watermark tower (corner of Third and Broadway) is around $3200 for a two-bedroom!!
Extreme poverty means living on less than $1.25 a day (not sure if it's per family or per person), not what technology you own. I'm sure that there is overlap and that is a testament to how pervasive technology has become. I'm sure mobile phones are playing a big role in raising people out of extreme poverty too.
Just out of curiosity, did you think about using KDE?

EDIT: typo
The problem with nuclear power is trust. That trust was broken with Chernobyl, and broken again with Fukushima.

Pre-Fukushima, most pro nuclear people would argue that the chance of a nuclear accident in an first world country was close to zero. Even I used to argue that.

Now we can say that with new safeguards of more modern reactors that the same kind of accident can't happen again, and it might very well be true. But the voting people will be less inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt. They will rather accept a known and quantified danger instead.
They've obviously never played Zork.
So many weird assumptions baked into this question.

* Why do you think Bitcoin is bulletproof?

* What kind of peer review do you think Bitcoin has had?

* Who are the crypto review firms that routinely leak things?

* Why would a non-leaky crypto review imply that Bitcoin was bulletproof?

* What about the pools of crypto guys at IBM, at Google, or at Microsoft?

* What would make one think Bitcoin is a comparably hard problem to other cryptosystems?

* Why is a cryptocurrency, which is a problem that has been tackled repeatedly by both hobbyists and researchers, more far-fetched as an intellectual exercise than, say, Tor?

SSL/TLS is the best-reviewed cryptosystem in the world. The USG relies on it in a myriad of different ways. What's the longest stretch we've gone without discovering some horrible flaw in it?
It still really sounds like a bad idea. His intentions are primarily to use the product so at some point it's going to to deviate from what he wants to a more general solution for others.

Maybe he should be an advisor, maybe he should be an angel if he's qualified or have some amount of equity but not an ongoing role etc, or maybe he should just be billed for the work that he wants.

He definitely shouldn't be your boss or anything even approaching equal partner in this venture, and you have to look at the big picture... you could still be doing this crap in 2018.
Hal's still active, and his version of his early involvement in Ⓑ is a little different:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.msg1643833#ms...
Very nice! Can you describe the process you used to develop your site so quickly? Was the speed due to past experience, using some new tools, copying an existing site, etc.?
>Nobody writes a AAA game in Python.

No, but the scripting/UI/mod toolkit for the game might be in Python

>Nobody writes a performant Apache/Nginx class web-server in Python

No, but Python can do quite well serving WSGI to Nginx

>Nobody writes a database engine in Python

No, but Python ORMs work pretty well.

The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think that it's a bad thing that Python sometimes gets relegated to a "support" language.

I think the time of the single language programmer is over. If you need something faster than Python, use something else.
Yes, and you can actually have multiple domains - one primary one, and set up aliases with any others. They also host Jabber on your own domain with Family and Business accounts.
Depends on what you mean by graphics and what the game in question is.

If you mean the graphics appropriate to the game in question, then sure (whether the 60% was just a silly rounding above half because Yerli is graphics biased, who knows).

Minecraft has graphics, and they added substantially to the aesthetic style of the game, helping to make it stand out. It obviously doesn't have Crysis level graphics however, and would have failed if that had been attempted.

Tetris, as a classic example, doesn't need high powered graphics, but its style of graphics are still a substantial part the game, as necessary for the basic gameplay.
Do you really think Gmail is a replacement for Thunderbird?

Come on.
>Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks

And it shows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI

Come to think of it, still, I'd rather put chopsticks in my eyes than Google Glass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI