skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
not really. Student Editions are usually cheaper to encourage students to purchase the product. Thse that are free handouts are, yes, to encourage later sales. But I dont think you can draw a comparison. A piece of software is usually adaptable and reusable in the future. A lot of film and music is just dropped (tastes change etc.).

I doubt the number of youngsters who pay for music once they have the means is huge. Would you pay for the Spice Girls song you downloaded 4 or 5 years ago and havent listened to for the last 2 yrs. No, probably not - but you might have had 2-3yrs enjoyment out of it... where do you draw the line?

I dont see any justification for downloading music you cant afford when there are free sites to listen to it on.... it's not as if that lack of funds is depriving said person of the ability ot hear and enjoy the song. It perhaps does inhibit how and in what context they can listen to the song (i.e. no ipods etc.).
"This is just supposition, but my guess is that so-called "pirates" consume much more music and movies (paid) than non-pirates."

This gets supposed in both directions, so I would be legitimately curious about any studies that show whether pirates or non-pirates purchase more media.
Inventor or salesperson? The best entrepreneurs are both.
> We chose to treat the trial as a theater play and as such it’s been far better than we ever could have believed

This is the guy that, at one of the press conferences, said they were planning to take the trial fairly seriously because they new they would win and were there to prove a point to the industry.....
Can anyone recommend a good collection agency?
One of our clients owes us ~$9400 in back advertising invoices and refuses to pay us. They are a small company (< 10 people) which recently had a change of leadership. The new CEO did not return my calls for 3 months and the finally told me over the phone he was not going to pay, since it was the old CEO who made the deal with us.

I have an agreement (written by our lawyers) signed by their old CEO which spells out the agreement quite clearly. I've Fed-Ex'd a copy of the agreement and the outstanding invoices to the company and have heard nothing.

I don't have the time to keep pursuing this issue and I would like to pay a collection agency a percentage of any money that they can recover. We are also a small company (< 5 people) and recovering a portion of the $9400 would be significant to us.

Has anyone used a collection agency in the past? Any experiences to share? Can anyone recommend one?
My experience is that I am often creative but I am inconsistent in my follow through. When I get an odd idea, at my best I just try it. That makes me more likely to have another odd idea, and if I try that the cycle accelerates. If instead I listen to The Editor and get back to the humdrum, the cycle runs in reverse: fewer ideas, less follow through, fewer ideas. So I think, paradoxically, that action is the key to creativity. It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them.
Thank you very much for that link. That explains a lot. I guess it's up to us to create new precedence.
Pirate Bay four sentenced to a year in prison
That's the idea: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sprites/
This article is filled with pretty obvious statements:

You need to include failure reporting tools with your app and c'est tout.

I disagree, however, with the reasoning of getting rid of TDD to become a firefighter developer on the basis of exception logs. That can shoot yourself in the foot when your need to ensure system isn't broken when new features arrive.

<off-topic>
Am i the only one who is tired of getting almost every coding horror post on HN?
</off-topic>
No, you can't simply apply that analysis to lazy algorithms. foldr is not a tail-recursive function in a strict language. However, in a lazy language, foldr may not push O(n) frames on the stack.

The code you are looking at here is NOT tail-recursive. Haskell's implementation of ++, in a strict language, will always push O(n) frames on the stack.

But it IS true that this code is O(1) in stack consumption with Haskell's execution model.
"If you allow young people to have the content free when they have no money then they will like it enough to pay for it when they do."

Has this been demonstrated empirically, in the case of music and video? I see this argued both ways, and I don't know which is true.
No Silver Bullet.
Looking at my 3G bills I shudder to think about using only my phone to access the web.
TDD is not about just catching bugs. TDD is to enable you to change your mind about architecture. If you have a complete suite of unit tests, it's much easier to do major refactorings with confidence.

As far as catching bugs go, real users have no substitute. But you leverage the knowledge of real users by capturing their examples and creating automated tests from them. There's no sense in wearing out human resources by having them do the same things over and over.
Learn to re-define problem statements!
Unless he started speaking it at the end, he spoke way too little Japanese to be able to judge (I stopped watching after the language part).

He does have more info about language acquisition on his blog, FWIW.
I don't see a lot (yes small ad differences maybe) of difference between someone watching a youtube clip of their favourite song or downloading it.

In any case, there is no cost to the copyright owner if someone who can't afford it pirates it. There is at least a potential benefit.
First thing I notice is some trouble with the currency widget, which is taking a long time to update when a new currency during the first few minutes after the page is loaded. I would suggest an indicator that the new currency list is on the way for these slow cases (otherwise the currency list is blank).
The bay area will provide you all the things you mention and more. It depends on what you are looking for.

The main advantage of the bay area is ofcourse the people, the collective knowledge, and the culture. You learn so much from other creative and smart people and bouncing ideas off of them (if you meet the right people, that is). On the other hand, it is very competitive out there and very tech centric so you can sometimes lose touch with the 'real world', so to say.

I have lived on both the East and the West coast and although I like the lifestyle in the east better, the west coast is the place to be if you are doing technology (the bleeding edge). You'll learn how the big guys do stuff and learn some valuable lessons that you can then use wherever you go (even if you don't end up living there longer term)

On another note, how is the startup scene in london ? My impression of it is that a lot of the startups are more business-centric (like on the US east coast) than tech-centric whereas it's quite the opposite in the valley.
O-6s also down regulates thyroid function, decreasing metabolism.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/12/omega-6-linole...

I didn't want to mention sat fat benefits, because I hate making heretical claims without time to back up them up, but I agree.

Even the AHA has admitted that stearic acid, a sat fat, is fine. As we turn up the power of the microscope on nutrition, sat fats suddenly aren't blanket bad for you. It looks like I depends on the form, source and context you're eating it. I try to down a lot of coconut milk/oil. It's a healthy sat fat, a MCT that's burned immediately instead of stored as fat.

The AHA promotes O-6s by the way. It seem like there's a lot of cached thought in nutrition. Many in the field can't design a study. They test a "high-fat diet" without thinking it matters what fats were eaten, and in what form.
So many exciting things happening in the world. Try and keep up :)

The churn rate is fine!!
Obviously holding the coat of a man in a fight is an extreme case, but isn't being an accessory to law breaking commonly used as a justification for prosecution?
Stories that make the top spot: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/HNWatrcoolr

Also see hacker.watrcoolr.us (feed:http://feeds2.feedburner.com/HackerWatrCoolr twitter:http://twitter.com/hackerwatrcoolr)
Not quite. A lens comprises three operations:

get : C -> A
put : A x C -> C
create : A -> C

And the GetPut, PutGet, CreateGet laws require of every lens that:

put (get c) c = c
get (put a c) = a
get (create a) = a

In other words, if there are no edits, then it is a round trip. The real inequality you mean is bidirectional != bijective.

(EDIT: for typesetting equations.)
Most Catalyst deployments are on FastCGI nowadays. Its nice that Catalyst doesn't much care how you deploy it: built-in test server/CGI/mod_perl/FastCGI all 'just work.'
You can always browse off the mobile network using an iPhone (like I frequently do)
I think implicit in that is an acknowledgment that the content most in demand for pirating comes from the U.S. Which I find relevant because countries like Sweden might find less need for strong copyright laws because copyright-able materials are not seen as a valuable, exportable commodity, at least compared to the U.S.
I'd buy it if it's from the point of view of an internet entrepreneur living on a boat. Most books about living on boats seem to be about 'the boat living lifestyle', but for me the boat is secondary to having a functioning internet business.
Webmynd (YC W08) integrate Twitter search into Google results
FireDiff - track changes to a page's DOM and CSS
When I ask for code they usually send a project they wrote entirely, a file, or a class. I try to stay within the code they told me they had control over.
I know. What you say reinforces my point. There is (and it needs) to have the conception of migration. Nothing wrong. It is a necessity.

But it is an important point, because DB migration is always around, not something that happens magically.
Let's not forget all those lines of COBOL that still need to be supported!
It's actually the highest rated links among the most recent 15k items.
The alleged botnet in the article here did not come through Apple or Adobe servers, it came through thepiratebay.org, demonoid, usenet, etc.. In other words, the safety of the official channels of distribution is largely irrelevant.

The only thing preventing this from happening in Linux is a lack of interest by trojan writers (they could already do it with vmware workstation which is surely available on pirate sites and requires root privileges to install) and perhaps a lack of proprietary 3rd party software (which I'm sure a lot of people will say is a good thing, but that's another discussion).
Cross-posting from other thread but: I have some friends who found inspiration through "The Artist's Way" (some of the exercises, very internal, not easy to do, challenging)

"The Artist's Way is a workbook for anyone who is creative, feels blocked in their creativity or wishes that they were more creative. The book begins with the statement that everyone is creative and has an artist within them, and the point of this course is to recover that inner artist. It is divided into a twelve-week course, with assignments much like any semester-long college class."

Week 1

"This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The focus of establishing a sense of safety will "enable you to explore your creativity with less fear."

http://www.theartistsway.com/

http://paperartstudio.tripod.com/artistsway/
that is not, as far as I know, how Swedish law works.

State litigation is built on test cases I think. So there not being a specific law is not en-passe for it being legal.
When an angel could turn out to be a devil in disguise
You don't understand. The point wasn't to use a proxy to make illegal downloading untrackable. It was to use a proxy to access US-only (legal) media, like Hulu or South Park.
True, but Macs I think get some special attention because they already have the Windows world pretty knotted up. Mac users are still largely unconverted.
Nice little introduction! I wish I had read something like that when I first started with Python.
No; it's tantamount, upon observing that single programmers can and do form companies, to calling for the death of all software companies that employ more than one person. Like google. Or the pirate bay.
You think "programmer" is bad. Try "Visual Basic Programmer" or "PHP Programmer". That kind of stigma can never be erased.
I'm shocked that a small business would think of using a collection agent to get money out of another small business.

First, collection agents are threatening and scary. Their presence will affect both the debtor company and its staff.

Second, by selling your debt to a collection agency, you usually give them the right to sell it to other - perhaps more menacing - organisations.

Third, collection agencies primarily work by first sending scary letters, then visiting the debtor in person, then confiscating things of value. None of these are efficient: the debtor loses far more than they owe, and you don't get all your money back.
Hi, How fast is your internet connection? it chould change instantaniously. (cool notice: the currency value/calculation is updated daily from the FED website.)
The European Parliamentary elections are in 2 months' time, I expect the Pirate Party hope the publicity will do them good.
For Entrepreneurs 'Financial Exit' is a Dangerous Misnomer
You're doing it wrong. I am surprised that what you are doing is even legal, not to mention you are giving homeschooling a very bad name.

We only imprison a suicidal person to make death impossible for her, having in mind that the person's life is her own and that if the person could think rationally she would want to live. This is never to be done at home, though. It's done in a hospital or clinic, because it's a place that will be hated and where the person rightly won't want to return to.

I remember being in a mental hospital ward as a young adult and thoughts going from "I hate the world and I wish I was dead" to "If only I could go out in the sun and get some ice cream." This hospital had a beautiful garden outside which you could see from the barred windows and a quiosk where they sold ice cream. Man, did I enjoy that ice cream once I was allowed to go out for it! When was I finally released from the hospital (on the condition of doing therapy, which I quit soon I could, because it was humilliating) my family took me out to the cinema, to buy videogames and I had no restrictions on Internet and going out with my friends (I was not a minor anymore, so I guess it was easier for them to respect me.)

The experience was undignifying and I still have a grudge against my parents for it, since they got the necessary documents to forcefully sign me into hospital. I still love them and we talk but I prefer to live in another country. I also never completely got rid of my suicidal thoughts up to this day (over a decade after) nor did the experience scared me out to try suicide a second time. Still, it might have solved the immediate emergency then. I don't know.

The most terrible thing about hospitalization is the forced medication, which is brain damaging and useless. The mind is not ill, just wrong.

So I'm sure there is a better way to help. But whatever you do, have this in mind:

One's home should always be one's home. It should be a person's private space. It should be a welcoming place where the person longs to be in. Your daugher should have her own room, her own computer, her own things, her own friends and her freedom back. She should not be spyed upon by her own family. That will just make her paranoid. If her own family is out to get her, who isn't?

Understand that a person is motivated to live when they can be free, when they can have a good life by their own standards. So help her get a life she wants to live. listen to her. What does she like? Get her more of that.

Also, get her some Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand is great because she gets to the roots of the self-esteem problem. Teenagers that read Ayn Rand love life, and behave like they are invincible. I wish I had read her then. Your daughter is more likely to not be influenced by bad friends when she learns why she shouldn't care for what others think. The Virtue of Selfishness is brilliant. Get that one or Anthem for a starter.
I'm an SEO and know full well what they're doing. My daily cron job suggestion is to detect their activities.
Any chance of publishing several front page algorithms and letting users set a preference for one? Or even better somehow letting people suggest/test custom ones?
Just before this latest change, I had been noticing stories staying on the front page for a LONG time, and this recent change restores what to me seems like the normal behavior of a few months ago.

For information, my browsing behavior on HN is to land on the front page (now several times a day), look down about one screenful on my computer, and then follow the link to the new page. I try to upvote stories on the new page soon after submission if they look like they have strong hacker interest or strong delight the mind qualities.
That's a great idea. Would you mind explaining you setup? What's the most secure way of doing this?
> It was bound to happen eventually

It's happened before (there was a trojan in pirated copies of iWork '09).

Checksums won't help much because pirated software is often expected to be modified and Adobe (for example) doesn't have a lot of interest in providing finely grained checksums so you can make sure your pirated software is safe[1].

[1] Granted, there could be the "well, help us prevent botnets for the greater good" argument, to which Adobe would respond "well, if you stop the piracy it wouldn't be an issue, now would it?"
I search Twitter all the time to see what people are saying about WebMynd and other topics so thought it was time we did a Twitter-centric extension. We thought real-time results next to the rest of the web would be really interesting. Would love to know what people think.

We've also worked on the design of our interface to make it easier to configure which sites you like to search.
Halleluiah! Two of my favorite things: Porn and Perl!
Also, "Creating" by robert fritz is not bad. But beware, reading books about creatity may become a form of procrastination.
Halleliuah! Two of my favorite things: Porn and Perl!
There is no interception and manipulation of a download going on, at least regarding the botnet the article suggests, it came from knowingly downloading and installing pirated software. The checksum idea is to get the checksum from the official source and to apply it to the pirated download, but then the pirated download is surely modified anyway, so this wouldn't work.
Wikipedia Survey First Results
Do you know something that can modify django templates that contain CSS & JS imports so that the linked version gets updated with each checked in change to the files?
> The Pirate Bay exists to facilitate copying of copyrighted works without paying the license fees involved.

Not entirely true. TPB exists to facilitate copying of digital content. Copyright and license fees are irrelevant; if the whole of copyright law as abilished tomorrow, TPB and the BitTorrent infrastructure would still work, exactly the same as it does now.

> And they have advertising on their site, hence they are making money from this activity.

The one doesn't follow from the other; for example, the avertising revenue may not cover the costs of running the site.

> It's a pity that everyone calls this 'file sharing'

I agree, but ont for your reasons. It isn't "file sharing" because the files aren't shared; everyone ends up with their own copy. An accurate term would be P2P file copying.

> to allow people to make copies of copyright works

You probably meant to say "to allow people to make unauthorised copies of copyright works"; making copies of copyright works is in itself perfectly legal; I do it all the time, as does everyone else with a computer.
However, much of what I've done in corporate IT is basically like plumbing. You connect this here with that there, and make sure all the fittings are secure and compatible. In the case of data, you have to sometimes transform the form data takes. This will become less of an issue as interchange standards take hold in the most computing intensive industries. These will grow into defacto data standards, then you'll only have n transformations to build where you once had n^2.

I know of people who used this n^2 to n reduction to tie together corporate data at a major energy company, producing "miraculous" results. It's only a matter of time for the economics to overcome corporate cultural inertia. (Which is often actually heavier in IT than elsewhere!)

I am also seeing this at play at a major bank I'm doing work for. It's changed the internal culture of IT from:

This system is my territory, which I shall defend
viciously.

to:

I gain fame and respect by publishing my data as Web
Services and being useful to as many other groups in
the company as possible.

It's changed this major bank's IT from the Cathedral to the Bazaar!
Your premise seems to be that you cannot focus on yourself as well as on relationships at the same time or something like that. I don't find that to be the case.
Some of the most interesting people I know are ones who have extremely busy lives and who are quite focused on personal development, among other things.
I am going to have to take you up on the point of downloading something to try and not liking it.

If it were up to the recording companies, would they refund me my money if I didn't like a CD I legally bought? Currently, the answer is no. That is on the same level of unfairness as pirating in my mind. Most of other retail stores allow you to return a purchased item, so why should music be any different?

As for the question of do I delete something I downloaded and didn't like, the answer would be yes. It's a yes, because that material takes up space on my hard disk that would be better served otherwise. And since I'm an unofficial tech support person for many people in my family, all of them being non-tech-savvy, I can attest that they do the same.
I know this guy Tiny Mike from Chinatown
For a small few he could "pay them a visit" and get you back your money with interest.

He charges about one third of what he gets
Whadduya think?
The best damn gaming site period
Hackers Gaming Community,fine gaming community.The best damn gaming site period!
Collection agents aren't how you want to resolve this. Instead you have an opportunity to solidify a relationship and create opportunity by showing you're serious about what you do, and you are worth being paid. Threatening people is hardly ever the right way to accomplish any of your goals

One of the best bosses I know in a rather small manufacturing company, after not being paid for 9 months, called up the CEO of the indebted company and said, "Hey Steve. I need directions from the airport to your office and then from your office to the nearest golf course, because Monday I'm going to fly out there personally, pick up this check, and then go play some golf. Feel free to join me if you want." Not only did he get his money, but the other company realized they were dealing with someone that was going to pursue every issue, no matter how small, and they started ordering far more product.

I'm not saying the exact same approach will work for you (though it could!) -- I'm saying get creative and get serious, and prove it.

His team was already set up to effectively pursue late payments. Less than 1% of their invoices make it past the 90 day mark.