skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Team Fortress 2 took 9 years, and it's awesome.
I kinda like the low keyness of the talk. A departure from the norm.
The future of shopping on the high street looks like this…
Is there any way to run background processes in the Java version of GAE?
Dear Graduate: NYTimes on Failure
@wmblatter: The point of this application is to be precise, if in future has more community support I will try to optimize this problem and to balance the precision.
I was trying to be funny, since I would expect most people would view smoking as the odd one out, the other two being difficult to understand. Clearly I failed. :)
Wolfram wont take off unless:

- it nails every common query every time in a useful way (i.e. stuff people want like: where can I see X film in Y city?)

- it expands beyond the scientific borders. So far it appears only statistical queries and some science stuff works really well. I know they say pop stuff is "coming soon" but I dont buy it. The task is too big to organise that kind of data in the way they seem to be doing.

Basically I think Wolfram has ignored the process which has got Google to the top. Google apprach search from the "index and link everything and then analyse words to find good matches". Frequently it is wrong, but often that can eb overcome by adding or tweaking the wording once or twice. Wolfram is going to analyse your questions - which is fine but suggests that if you dont get the right data small tweaks to your wording are simply going to result in the same data. They are also trying to provide a nice page of data on all sorts of topics. Which is nice (and for advanced statistics it appears to beat anything else on offer) BUT Wikipedia has huge archives of data which can be recovered just as easily. Wolfram perhaps covers the complex data relationships base fairly well (though this article suggests far from perfectly) but for basic data (which one assumes is it's main target) it is probably pointless...

AKA I think there is a lot of Hype. But no delivery.
Star Trek's Warp Drive: Not Impossible
Quantum arguments for God
last.fm is a pain in the ass. you simply cannot use it to find a single song and then listen to it.

http://www.last.fm/music/Mastodon/_/Divinations I want to listen to divinations, tell me the sequence of clicks for doing this on last.fm.
Intel's NASty little test tool
Wow:

http://farmtools101.blogspot.com/

http://toolanswers101.blogspot.com/

I think they win the prize for best (ab)use of free Blogger accounts. And reading the answers page alone is better than the quiz, unless you already have some agricultural knowledge.
They are not going to compare well, because they are NOT designed to be the same thing, or find the same data.

Stop comparing them Apples to Apples, people.
During Daylight Savings Time, noon is at 1:00 pm.
Indeed, but that's the nature of people. Equally in the nature of people is to debate round and round in circles until it's too late.
Cristal Taylor arrested at Dirk Nowitzki's home | shan.biz
Build a mouse game with Python
Business Plan Competitions
Build an Ncurses UI with Python
So long and thanks for Tasm!
'cable companies are implementing "usage caps" to keep users from, er, consuming "too much" bandwidth'

used as proof that we're running out of capacity...
Artists Commandeer (illegal) Manhattan Billboards
Arduino hardware hacking: Part 1
Arduino hardware hacking: Part 2
An interview with Leslie Lamport (creator of Latex, Paxos, etc.)
Toward Modular Molecular Composite Nanosystems [pdf]
Ask HN: Where can I find a good mid-priced Startup/VC Lawyer?
As I'm working with term sheets and Series A funding, where can I find a good, mid-priced lawyer experienced in financing startups? Is there a regional network or directory?
Rapidly shoveling food in your mouth is a great way of gaining weight because you don't notice the point when you stop being hungry. Instead, you only stop when your stomach screams it can't take any more food.

When I was trying to lose weight, I made sure I was eating as slowly as I possibly could. And it worked - I ate less because I got tired of chewing.
Heck no!! I mean, well yes, it is possible that the political views you happen to hold go together with the good looks of some candidate..
Also competence may even correlate with looks, but even then correlation does not make any assumption safe!

No, never judge by looks, remain sceptical on words and judge on their actions. Because ultimately only the actions count.
No, there is no threading. A thread starts in response to an HTTP GET or POST, returning the result, then dieing.
Apples and Oranges, but still fruit.
Agreed. Keeping in mind that what we know of WebOS suggests it's just a presentation layer on top of webkit and making the assumption that palm's "core apps" that provide services to lesser apps are of the same scope and resource usage as iPhone's background tasks, it seems we ought to be able to get a performance ballpark just by opening multiple pages in Mobile Safari.

For those who haven't tried it, this doesn't work so well after 5 pages or so. And that's with static pages. Imagine if those pages were IM apps constantly polling the server for updates or youtube apps trying to stream movies? Certainly, I would assume palm's spent a lot of time optimizing this path that's (comparatively) unimportant to Apple. But I can't figure how that would buy anything more than incremental improvements. I've yet to see anything magic or revolutionary in their approach that leads me to believe they've cracked this basic limitation.
Me too. A more balanced approach would be to have "minimum" and "maximum" hours. Say that you would work at least until 13.00 and at most until 19.00. Finishing in this time frame you will call it a day, but you add more work before 13.00 and just stop after 19.00.
Defense Contractor, DoD Face Constant Net Attack
Simulating dynamic scoping
Protect Yourself on Facebook
Survey: Consumers warm to Internet widgets on the TV
If you're interested in the Rails 3 side of things, here is also an hour of your time:

* New Router can route other Rails apps, Sinatra apps, and possibly apps from non-Ruby frameworks (he mentions Django)

* New Javascript agnosticism uses HTML5's data-* attributes

* ERB's html_escape on by default, <%=raw to escape escaping

* Lots non-public-facing stuff being refactored
Except that Chinese Democracy is unbelievably bad. But perhaps whoever owns the rights to DNF now could get funding the same way Axl did: exclusive retail deal with Best Buy.
I wish my friends who always come to me with "ideas for a website" would ask themselves questions like these.
Setting up Ubuntu for Ruby on Rails development
Quantum mechanics is a mathematical formalism that is an attempt to produce as good a description as possible of 'the world'. The key point of the previous sentence is: it is mathematics. Mathematics may allow us to make certain predictions about the physical reality surrounding us, but it is nevertheless an abstraction that does not necessarily have any direct connection with that reality.

Any interpretation of mathematics in physical terms is debatable at best and completely unfounded at worst. Granted, mathematics seems to reflect nature, but this may well be a prejudiced view: phrasing it differently, it seems hardly amazing that something created to describe nature produces descriptions that seem to describe nature very well. Mathematics would be a failure if it wasn't usable to model nature.

Given the deep metaphysical problems surrounding the relationship between mathematics and physics, any attempt at interpreting quantum mechanical uncertainty as the psychological property 'freedom' belongs to 'completely unfounded' category, requiring lots of work before it becomes even remotely believable.

Moreover, it seems it could well be a typical example of a category mistake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_mistake.
A bit old, but a nice catch! I liked this bit:

> Write a book based on a selection of distorted anecdotes showing that instincts are superior to rational judgment and you get a best seller. Imagine how popular a book would be that urged people to engage in difficult study to develop their ability to think so they could rid themselves of the irrational and often destructive beliefs they now cherish. So, trying to get people to think is dangerous. Over the centuries, many have been killed in the attempt. Fortunately, when applied to programming rather than more sensitive subjects, preaching rational thought leads to polite indifference rather than violence. However, the small number of programmers who are willing to consider such a radical alternative to their current practice will find that thinking offers great benefits. Spending a few hours thinking before writing code can save days of debugging and rewriting.

I'm not sure I agree, though, ultimately. Sometimes too much up-front thinking about big huge complex systems is just not possible or productive. It's better to get in and start interacting the system, as that can also drive a more thorough understanding of the system.
Rails 3 Gets Supersized With Merb
'"It is thus perfectly possible that God might influence the creation in subtle ways that are unrecognisable to scientific observation. In this way, modern science opens the door to divine action without the need for law-breaking miracles," says Collins.'

If they don't break the laws, then...they're not miracles, are they? The whole point of a miracle is that the normal laws governing the universe most of the time are suspended. If there is a God who created the natural laws of the universe, surely he is also capable of suspending the rules when he finds it worthwhile to do so?

It seems Collins is trying to impress his atheist science friends with this idea, and it is back firing. Inherent in the religious point of view, I think, is the idea that there are limits to the knowledge that can be obtained through observation and experiment, but can be revealed to us by a God outside of nature, at least to the extent we are capable of understanding.

For the more mundane truths about our world, I agree with this:

"But for all its faults, science is probably the best and most honest tool we've got for finding out practical truths about how the natural world operates."
I don't understand why you would argue against using facts as the basis for debate. We're not giving proper weight to people's spiritual beliefs related to climate change?

"Don't use science to get around politics" sounds like a joke. I mean, really?

"...their ultimate authority is a report from a group of scientists, and they’re saying ‘this is where we stand, forget about our moral concerns, forget about our ethical positions, ... forget about whether we are Christians or Buddists, no, none of that matters.’ The only thing that matters is that they’re holding a report from peer-reviewed science that in itself justifies their position.
And it’s not just protesters who are hiding behind the authority of science. World leaders are doing it, too."

What?!

[sorry for the long quote, i'm working myself up :)]

Maybe it's a joke, and it's just too early for me to get it.
That's one of the weakest "correlation" graphs I've seen in a while.
Companies such as Blizzard and Valve are rightly applauded for ensuring the quality of their games by delaying or cancelling them as necessary. For years I've been defending 3D Realms, saying that the situation with DNF was no different: it's not a game that has been in development for 13 years. It's two cancelled games and another that has been in development for five years.

Perhaps they were doing the right thing but have been terribly unlucky somehow. Perhaps they were simply perfectionists, doomed never to be satisfied and fooling themselves into thinking that starting again would fix everything. Perhaps they played WoW all day, in denial about their rapidly depleting funds.

Any one of these scenarios seems possible. I hope we find out in the coming days and weeks just what went wrong over there.
This is why Apple is winning:

"We went from concept to a first release that was revenue-generating in 35 countries in 6 weeks (literally), and with zero outside capital"

Try calling Verizon and tell them you have an idea that uses GPS and you would like to test market it on one of their phones. I used to work for uLocate and their Where application has been going to launch on Verizon "next quarter" for 2 years.
I disagree with the focus on VC funding, but otherwise a solid list of things to consider.

I wonder where they get the 90% rate from, and how that matches up with time invested? If you're still plugging away after a couple years, what's the rate then? I would guess there's a big falloff after 6 months or a year, but if you stay in long enough, you have a shot at some kind of success.
That's one of the weakest "correlation" graphs I've seen in a while.

See the Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation

and especially its well done graphs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Correlation_examples.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anscombe.svg

(one based on a famous article by a statistician) for what correlation coefficients alone do and do not say about relationships among data points.
Team Fortress 2, i.e. the type of vapourware that does eventually materialise and proves to be worth the wait.
Military Data Found on eBay'ed Hard Drive
I really thought it was an accurate and concise depiction on the history, limitations and overall characteristics of PHP.
The results aren't really that surprising, given that it takes ~20 minutes between the time you put food in your mouth to the time the brain recognizes satiation. If you eat slower it'll give your brain time to adjust to keep up with how much you've consumed. If you don't you'll keep cramming food in until your REALLY full.
Django 1.1 status update
10 Most Creative & Cool Business Cards
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Business card from "Lush Lawn and Property Enhancement". The business cards were letter pressed by hand and stuffed with grass seed. The best thing about them is when you hand one out, the seeds shake and instantly pay off the idea.

Business Card from a Couples Therapist

100% discreet business cards for head hunter Aert van Seggelen. Completely edible business cards with ‘read it then eat it' instruction.

Business card from a divorce lawyer. The perforated card demonstrates what a divorce lawyers can do.

Business card from a Furniture Company

Business Card from a Second Hand store

Business card from a Dentist

Business card from a Graphic Designer

Business card from an Acupuncturist

Business Card from a Personal Trainer
Why Twitter shouldn’t sell
IPhone ads not your path to wealth
They do exist, but I would never use any of them. I'd use a prepared statement. PHP has come a long way since stripslashes. It just isn't flavor of the month.
Jut an FYI, Francis Collins is a well-known evangelical Christian. He gets a lot of press and notoriety exactly because of his status and his beliefs. He's part of a group of religious scientists seeking to find God anywhere it may be found, in my opinion.

My girlfriend took a class taught by Michael Behe, a biochemist who is a proponent of "irreducible complexity" as a proof of god. Even though the university banned him from discussing his opinions in class and distanced themselves from it[1], he still makes remarks to him knowing answers to something that is a current problem.

[1] http://www.lehigh.edu/~inbios/news/evolution.htm
I have also noticed the same trend -- companies are willing to spend money on worthwhile services and products. I'm consulting at two startups that sell products/services, and both of them have a nice collection of first customers. Better yet, interest is clearly growing. I keep pointing out that this is amazing considering the economy; I'm not always sure they completely understand how well they're doing.

The real point is: don't assume you can't get companies to buy things. They can, especially if it makes pain go away. Be aspirin, not a vitamin.
I'm not sure it took ten pages to say that. And nearly all the text was describing the numbers ("This number is bigger than the one before it. But brace yourself: the next number will be even bigger.")
This isn't new; see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
But has this ever truly happened?

Even if we go back all the way to Archimedes, we'll find his science intertwined with warfare, ship building, public works and various other 'statist' concerns.

Or take Galileo - surely not just doing science. Darwin. Manhattan Project, and the subsequent roles of various people like Oppenheimer, von Neumann, and Edward Teller. Nazis eliminating 'Jew Science'. Or for example Carl Sagan's comments about sources of funding for physics (so heavily military and 'statist') and their effect on the science.

I think this idea of pure science in isolation is an idealization that does not happen in practice.
I understand and to an extent agree with the gist of your argument, but I can't agree with this:

> Mathematics would be a failure if it wasn't usable to model nature.

In fact I don't understand why you would make such a statement, unless you have a very different description of nature (or failure, or both) to what I have. Mathematics has many applications beyond modelling physical reality. This topic has the potential to raise many philosophical questions, but even at the most superficial level there is a difference between "describing" and "solving".

This doesn't sit quite well with me either:

> it seems hardly amazing that something created to describe nature produces descriptions that seem to describe nature very well.

Pure mathematics isn't created to describe nature. Physical applications of pure mathematical concepts are usually only found many years after they are devised.
Science has always been socially, culturally and politically disruptive.
I'm a religious person in that I believe in the existence of a God but even still I think Mr. Collins ideas are unfounded. The truth about God is, if he/she does exist, that existence is outside our natural physical laws.

I think religious people fall into this trap a lot. In trying to "prove God exists" they are really trying to prove atheists wrong. But the truth is, and I say this as a religious person, atheists are right. Believing in God is irrational. That's the point. Religion is built on the proverbial "leap of faith." It is in having faith that religion provides any value to its followers. So if a religious person feels the need to go around trying to prove God's existence they are sort of missing the point.
> doing something I love and providing a product I can stand behind.

... but not link to in your profile? Sorry, but I'm curious about things people do that work out for them:-)

Also, yes and no. Sometimes the economics of these things don't work out to be quite so simple. Solaris is a great product in some ways, but it's not that much better (and in other ways is worse) than things that are available for free like Linux and *BSD.

In other words, it's important to find a niche where people aren't going to rush out and create free competitors...
Ask HN: Is Murdoch Right when he says "The current days of the Internet will soon be over"?
The nature of the net is constantly changing, granted. But what he's really positing, is that the free ride is over. Ad-based support isn't enough for content. How can we prove him wrong? In what ways have we already?
Are you building an everyday app?
Wasn't it Feynman who once said, "I think it's safe to say that nobody understands quantum mechanics"?
I doubt that anyone gets twice as much work done in 8 hours as opposed to 4. This is like saying that you get 50% more work in when working 12 hours as opposed to 8.

The real problem in knowledge industries as far as I can see is that too many people work more than 8 hours per day.
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why is petfood and grocery delivery always brought up as some loser idea that is stupid to invest in? I mean seriously at least they provided a real service/product
<blockquote>If they don't break the laws, then...they're not miracles, are they?... If there is a God who created the natural laws of the universe, surely he is also capable of suspending the rules when he finds it worthwhile to do so?</blockquote>

Agreed. The idea that God could tinker with quantum physics without our knowing is interesting, but parting the Red Sea would still require a suspension of nature's laws. And as a Christian, I don't see any logical problem with that.

A God who created the universe from nothing would be no more bound by its laws than a writer is bound by the rules of poetry.

It's understandable that scientists balk at supernatural explanations - they fall outside of the scientific method of investigation. It's the same reason that "God created that evidence" won't help you in court; it's an assertion that can't be proved or disproved and therefore must be disregarded.

A scientist would attempt to explain miracles by natural, observable causes, because that is the method of science. But - interestingly - the supernatural explanation could still be the true one. If God exists, He may not care to sit on our examination table.
PHP is like that kid in school who got everything right but everyone hated. I'll be honest, I love PHP. I love it as much as I love Ruby, Python and any other language. For some reason communities have sort of ganged up on PHP and beat it to a pulp. The funny thing is, PHP, for the most part, outperforms them all in real world memory usage. Of course, that's probably because PHP is a language and Rails, Django and such are frameworks. PHP was built for the web, and as such it does a good job serving up web content.

The problem is that uneducated neophyte developers are polluting the tutorial scene and elitist, higher level language developers are shutting them down. Why aren't we helping these people progress? Why are they hitting a glass ceiling of knowledge?

I know, I was one of them. I worked at a small PHP shop and the attitude was "make it work, ask questions later". We got the job done. It worked, and the customers didn't notice a thing wrong with it. The problem was that I stopped learning. There was nothing more to learn about PHP. Why? Because it was a language. It's finite.

I've seen numerous posts about how horrible PHP is, but really, is it? It's a language. PHP, unlike a framework, is what you make of it. There are no standards, no methodologies, no guidance. That's what PHP needs -- a framework. Just as Ruby and Python after it needed a framework. Not because it makes you a better programmer, but because it allows others to understand, maintain and manage your code. The language you use doesn't make you a better or worse developer, it's how you use it.

Tools are tools. Skill are skills. I think the biggest mistake we make is mistaking tools for skill. Some of the greatest programmers I know write ColdFusion and PHP, and some of the worst I know write Ruby and Python (and yes, PHP).
I never understood the whole God-thing, except as a historically and psychologically interesting phenomenon.

How can you believe in something that has never been validated, except by believers of the fairytale that tell you it's true? If I told someone I believed in the tooth-fairy, Santa Claus or The flying Spaghetti monster people would think I'm crazy. But they are just as well supported (anecdotes and no evidence) as the God-thing.

I honestly don't get it.
EU Parliament rejects law allowing Internet cutoff
Not only is it not new, it's a very fluffy article about something that's not new. In addition, serious new questions have been raised recently about this idea -- none of which are mentioned.
How would that avoid violating Special Relativity (and giving rise to all sorts of nasty paradoxes)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity#Causality_an...
Microsoft search to be powered by open source