skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
For decades now, the way to keep up has been to focus on an ever-narrowing field of knowledge. I don't think that's controversial. One description of the singularity is that it's when the maximum intelligence of an agent (human, computer, whatever) begins to significantly increase due to increasing computing power. If we're using that definition, then it fits with your "saturation point" description, since we'd be increasing the amount of information that an agent can handle. The "singularity" aspect is from the perspective of an unmodified human, not the upgraded agents themselves.

But there are other definitions. :)
Actually I agree, it is getting old, but there were too many comments in one direction, I thought.

Anyway, there are two comments now. ;)

Would I be wrong to assume you're a christian, based on your work on OneBody? If so, and if you rtfa'd, Did the example at the end actually strike you as offensive? Genuinely curious.
I like making fun of Twitter as much as the next guy, although in all fairness when I saw this graph I decided to give them a little more credit. They're facing ongoing, unbounded growth. I can't claim to have handled that kind of scaling, let alone handled it without a hitch.

http://alexa.com/siteinfo/twitter.com

(make sure to set the timeframe to 'max' to see what i'm talking about)
Points seem easier to get now than back then. There are more upvoters.
We might not have words for what he'd like to say.
It's going to be really hard to say no to free beers, count me in!
I'm a big fan of the podcasts at zencast.org. Particularly those by Gil Fronsdal. He is a Vipassana teacher and gives talks in a very humble, down to earth manner.
> The only problem is political.

And economic? Perhaps low-grade waste is the bigger issue?
I'm religious and conservative (Don't know if I'm a "religious conservative", though- depends on your definition, I guess) and I most certainly do NOT like STD's! I am not worried about contracting one myself, but I don't want any one else to either. I don't do those sorts of things (pre/extra marital sex) but I have friends who do, and I don't want them to get an STD.
This actually happens to by my birthday, so I'm definitely down to start things off right.

I'll be there!
Unless, of course, you're implementing a garbage-collected language.

I agree that its application is limited (although I'm surprised they were able to convert even parts of the Linux kernel). But if I ever found myself implementing the runtime for a language with GC, I'd probably reach for this solution.
Thanks, will cross post there. I thought there would be 10 people, but now looks like there's going to be a lot more. Awesome stuff! Can't wait to meet everyone on this side of the Atlantic!
Guy doesn't know what he is talking about. First, the French only recycle the waste once. After it goes through the second time, they don't recycle it again. They are building their own version of Yucca mountain to deal with it after that.

Second, in 2003 a very detailed analysis of nuclear power options by a group of MIT Scientists found that recycling is more expensive than the once-through process. See http://web.mit.edu/nuclearpower/

I am not opposed to nuclear power, but as usual, we see crap on the WSJ editorial page.
Some anti-nuclear activists do. Have you only ever seen whiny and blind activism?
Your argument is ridiculous. I know of no religious conservatives or anyone else for that matter who like STDs. You should research a little more before spewing your own blind hatred since many religious conservatives donate their time and money to eliminate those same diseases as well as poverty, hunger, and others laudable goals. Obviously one can go on and on about the various good things that religious conservatives do. My point was that it is disingenuous to portray all religious conservatives as a group that enjoys the pain and suffering of fellow human beings in order to further their goals.
The essays I've been writing about startups are going to be such a book. Most of the general advice I could give about investors, particularly, I've already given, in e.g.

http://paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

http://paulgraham.com/investors.html

http://paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html
That lovely business about "code to delete all the files on their hard drive" is from this cll thread, from June 2006 (it's in msg #4, with the justification in msg #8):

http://bit.ly/ta8Ni
I'm not sure developing and deploying the technology domestically makes it easier for other countries to use it.

Also, we're rapidly approaching an age when WMD will be accessible to very small groups. Our strategy should be to treat this like a reality today, and act accordingly.

Terrorism is certainly no reason to fuck up our entire domestic energy policy.
> Anti-nuclear activists want nuclear power to be dangerous (...)

That really doesn't make any sense. They are opposed to nuclear power because they don't perceive it to be safe (which they learned from disasters like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island), if it was perceived to be safe then they wouldn't be opposed to it. It's not like they hate the power it would give or the jobs i wold create, there is no other agenda for them to oppose it on (unless you're talking about astroturfing campaigns by alternatives, in which case I misunderstood you).

Extreme religious conservatives are another story (and I add 'extreme' because someone can be religious, conservative, and perfectly sane).
As a genuine interest, please could you clear up what is meant by "Lisp All The Way Down."? I've implemented my own Lisp interpreter in Scheme before, and I looked at the interpreter from McCarthy's original paper, but in both of these, the interpreter still required some language (albeit one with list-processing procedures) to begin with. My experience would be that there's nothing special with Lisp in this regard, just that its _really_ easy to parse, but I still hear this claim often enough - am I missing something here?

And to answer your post, I'd say that Clojure does give you what you need - it gives you the axioms, it gives you defmacro - the rest is history. All those other library functions you can think of in a more abstract sense ("George's problem"), and in the end these should be machine code no matter which HLL they were originally written in.

The Lisp way has always been very dynamic - you can change things, even when they're orbiting Mars, but Clojure is functional, you generally don't change things. So in that sense, Clojure is not a true Lisp, but only because it chooses a different set of trade-offs, and if you don't like that then its fine, but it doesn't make Clojure evil, just different.
Another effective way to deal with the low grade waste is to pulverize it and spread the dust in the wilderness. Or mix it with concrete and build a school with it.

A concrete example: In terms of radiation dose, a depleted uranium cutting board is equivalent to granite countertops.

Most low level radioactive waste is just not that dangerous. Dilution is as effective as storage.
You are a rational human being. Your type is quiet and doesn't make the headlines. The "religious conservatives" who do make the headlines are not like you.
Yes, I'm a Christian, but I don't think (since it's hypothetical) the example would offend me. It's not uncommon to to make fun of evangelicals and the religious-right on the web, so I try not to take things like that too seriously.

I personally think pron in presentations is way more offensive. But, this stuff is getting a bit old now; I think most people made up their mind about it within 10 minutes of reading the news.
Middle of the week =/

If this was on a weekend, I'd love to come out.
I think that was its intended consequence (though it didn't affect my replies.) I'm glad I put you on the spot, because your reasoning was worth hearing.

You're making an interesting case. I haven't heard any claim that Java actually is faster than C++ in practice, just that it theoretically could be, because of JIT optimizations (then again, I don't think C/C++ is used that much in the server, anyway.) I also haven't heard of Java getting a comparative advantage due to multicore, just that FP would. But that's not to say it isn't true. You could be right. Interesting.

(The link seems to be commodity computing, like Sun blade servers).
I have already heard that it's in fact good that drugs have so many negative effects, because otherwise almost everyone would use them. But author of the idea wasn't able to explain why would it matter, if there were no negative effects. Because drugs are bad anyway, mmmkay? Sadly, this way of thinking isn't that uncommon :/ (and not limited to religious conservatives)
I find this hard to navigate, and it seems to mix good examples with bad. I wish that it were organized in some better way. What about this do others find useful?
I think several have, but I can't remember which. I know CO2Stats was on CNN.
Cloning of the World’s First Transgenic Dog | Dog Stories | WayCoolDogs.com
Also, FriendFeed has had post-by-mail (originally called mail2ff) since before Posterous even launched.
There's an app for that. (Well not quite as described, but similar)
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/want-to-avoid-swine-flu...
Yes.

Unfortunately we live in a world on the web where people who are religious, atheists, conservative, liberal, or whatever are put into little boxes and made fun of. This is what passes for wisdom anymore (instead of rational, clear discussion about beliefs and issues)
Sorry about that... I figured it was a great excuse to come out in the middle of the week and hang out/drink beers with other entrepreneurs or hackers. (plus I head back to Europe at the weekend)

Everyone's looking for an excuse, right?
Doesn't YC require an option pool for employees, something along the lines of 15%? If so then the founders only own 79% of the company.
I have no idea what my password is. I when I "signed up" I just typed something random on the keyboard as my password.

If I'm ever logged out I will lose all my shiny karma points. Those ain't worth much, c'est la vie.
gtk.threads_enter()

try:

blah

finally:

gtk.threads_leave()

or even better and wrap that as a context manager so you do

with gtk_lock():

blah
I don't think that's what the original poster means. I think (s?)he means that the loud group of people with idealistic beliefs seek out examples of people, that the average person can relate to, to serve as examples of their ideals i.e. Joe Teenager contracting HIV from his immoral behavior.

I'm sure all these people are nice when you meet them, as most people tend to be, and would never wish anyone personally to contract a disease, but they love malleable statistics and impressionable stories to support their positions.
So invent and define new words. Where do you think words come from in the first place?

No, seriously, before I spend ten days on anything I'd like to have some idea what the point is, even if the communication isn't perfect.
Anymore? When has discussion of beliefs and important issues ever been clear or rational?
There must be a bug, because I am also "frosty". I didn't post this article, but it has a red asterisk next to it.
I don't mean to be rude here, but could we give the "teh internets is runnin' out!!!" stories a rest on HN. I don't think there's anyone on this list who doesn't grok how absurd this is. We've been hearing this same tired alarmism since '99, but in the past few days, its shown up four times on HN.

Again, don't want to step on any toes but sheesh!
Ask HN: What are your favorite iPhone apps?
I am interested in what the Hacker News crowd installs on their iPhones. I don't have much, but here are the ones I use most:

Wikiamo

Google

Pandora

Skype

Now Playing

Shazam

Stitcher

iTalk
Just put the TwitterAuth gem into my rails app, and am using OAuth with twitter now. This is a niche though, meaning unless you already have twitter, or actually like it, it's a long process and could keep people from signing up. Logging in is easy though.

http://kineticac.posterous.com/rails-and-twitter-signin
Could you please email me? pg@
same here. 2nd account.
Thanks paulgb, useful link

--

This topic has come up many times on Slashdot... I'll share my digest of interesting link

Pronouncable Passwords :: http://www.multicians.org/thvv/gpw.html :: generate a memorable basis point, add unique randomness on top. Very good for teams where the secret 'salt' is shared, but you can remind teammates which password is used verbally

Keepass :: http://keepass.info/ :: Self encrypting db with GUI tools

Diceware :: http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html :: offline strong password generator
In Portugal (hi CrLg, nice to see some portuguese around...) I guess its the opposite. At least in IT related courses.

Companies are eager to hire bachelors, which will do the job they want them to do exactly the same as a Master, but with the difference of paying them only a fraction.
VCTaskForce: Starting a Startup?
One thing complicating your line of argument is that investment terms (as a price) are are significantly harder to value than cash. So it can make sense for people with more experience could to correct the under- or overestimation of inexperienced entrepreneurs.
Low-grade waste is problematic, but it's really no worse than lots of chemical and industrial waste that we produce and deal with every day. It's completely within the scope of current technology to dispose of it, since most low-level waste doesn't have particularly long decay times.
"Does he not know that the Beta and RC are publicly available to anyone who wants to download it?"

That's essentially true, although in the interests of strict accuracy (for people like me who recently went looking to download it), there aren't any versions currently available for download: the Beta hasn't been available for weeks, and the RC won't be posted until May 5th.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

"We're sorry, Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available. If you've got a copy of the Beta and need a key, here's where to look...The Windows 7 RC will be available May 5, and you'll be able to download it from this site through July."
hey i registered with account frosty :). i had seen one comment posted in my profile which i am sure i had not posted.

mailing you pg
I disagree. I think it's much easier to earn karma now that the HN community is much larger and diverse than when it was smaller. It's simple math; even if only 0.1% of HN members will upvote your post, you'll get votes much more quickly with 15,000 users (15 votes) versus 2000 users (2 votes).
This week in summary: people posting about people posting about people posting about being offended. My stack is overflowing.
Every guy needs some cowboy bunk beds
That's what they said about dumping garbage in the ocean.
Amazon grabs more online retail territory with Amazon Payments partnership
You must not develop a website, or you must have a small monitor.

As a web developer. I always run two monitors - one has my emacs, terminals, process manager, and browser, all nicely tiled on a 30" monitor.

On my other screen, I keep iTunes, skype, and other distractions.
Wow, that looks potentially awesome. Certainly looks like it has the potential to compete with NumPy and R. Nice use of Clojure to tie together unrelated Java libraries with a useful syntax and REPL style exploration.
Django File Browser
Check out the screenshots :: http://code.google.com/p/django-filebrowser/wiki/screenshots
Let's carry on this conversation via email, my address is in my profile. I can share with you some of the sources that have led me to form this opinion.

+1 thoughtful and respectful debate.
Check out the screenshots here :: http://code.google.com/p/django-filebrowser/wiki/screenshots
also reregistered
It's always good to do your research before making a statement on a topic you might not have a complete picture of:

Colt: http://acs.lbl.gov/~hoschek/colt/
Parallel Colt: http://sites.google.com/site/piotrwendykier/software/paralle...

There's been talk about integrating this functionality into Clojure. Incanter is an example of a project by someone who wanted to get primitive support for matrix math and has had quite a bit of success.
From the article:

> Uranium-238 is 1% of the earth's crust.

This is off by 4 orders of magnitude:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth'...
Wow, that was an interesting article, but when he said a good domain name costs $5-$50k. Man, what is he smoking? Businesses don't depend on $50k domain names.
The above link just linked to my playlists, but here's a Chrome video I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Z0ybTCHKs
Clay Shirky Debunks the WSJ's "Bloggers For Hire" Feature
Tell HN: Chicago's alt. weekly adds "share" buttons for my niche social news site
Women's suffrage is generally acknowledged to have resulted in the passage of Prohibition, and Prohibition is generally acknowledged to be a mistake. Why couldn't other mistakes have their roots in suffrage?

That doesn't mean that suffrage was itself a mistake or should be repealed, just that there could be bad effects as well as good. I'm generally libertarian, and regard the extension of the welfare state as bad, but I'd regard the political inequality of half the populace as far worse.
That really depends on where you are. Asia is migrating more quickly than the US because they have different needs.

But yeah, for the US it probably won't be a big factor until 2012; if then. I mean other than fulltime networking geeks it's going to be just another address format hidden below the DNS.

If you work for an ISP, or design networking equipment or are building widely deployed sensor networks or something of that nature, then you care about it now.

But for the average developer of web-based applications it's not going to be particularly noteworthy until you discover bugs arising from erroneous assumptions about the network.
Oh, I'm sorry, the Chinese people will get that memo as soon as the white people get the memo about fixing their entire banking system.
I believe it works similar to the way the iPhone's GPS does (it asks if you'd like to give a site/app permission on a site by site basis).
> such little jurisdictions can spring up, and individuals can easily move between them

Unless you are capable of defending your country from a serious (read: US or NATO) invasion force, you are merely playing at sovereignty. You will be free to do what you like as long as it does not seriously upset established regimes. In that case, what is the point of starting a new country?
The article mentions Thanissaro Bhikkhu aka Geoffry DeGraff in the beginning and links to some of his writings. His Dhamma talks are also freely available at http://dhammatalks.org/ for anyone interested.

Just be careful, I lost three close friends to the monastic life because of his teachings -- two are monks with Ajaan Geoff at his monastery outside San Diego, another is ordained at a monastery out in the jungle in Thailand.

Never thought I'd run into Ajaan Geoff on Hacker News.
That's a good point, all of those places are tiny places. Still, I'd like to think that Switzerland can be scaled up. As well functioning as Singapore is, I don't want to see that scaled up.
Hackers' alternatives to spreadsheets?
Wonder if someone has found a bearable alternative to spreadsheets: I like the program-by-example at times, but it is simply unhelpful to see a formula as =A4+Sum(B:B)+Count('A',C:C) (I'm making this up, but the non-intuitive/confusing nature is clear).

I'm not looking at solutions that require writing scripts: the most I'm doing is juggling experimental data to look for trends anyway.

Really something to Excel what latex is to Word.

Thanks!
The main issue with garbage is volume/surface area. Fishing nets are huge.

The volume of low level nuclear waste is so low as to be negligable.
"Lisp All The Way Down."

But why is this a desirable dream? It seems to suggest no other languages or technologies have any merit, except Lisp. Unix and C are brilliant pieces of work, and Lisp's hang up of refusing to work well with them really set Lisp back. Compared to, say, Perl, Python and Ruby which really embraced Unix concepts (pipes, scripting C programs, etc.).

I happen to think the JVM is a nice piece of work, too, and I'm happy to see a Lisp that works seamlessly with it and benefits from its strengths. Cooperation and interoperability are good things.

"which Reeketh of the Cube Farm."

Cube Farm coders deserve good programming languages, too.
Just to make sure I didn't read it incorrectly - is this the summary?

Patent pools can overcome patent trolls, and that there's no need to change the patent system even with the advent of technology such as biotech and software

The paper's topic seemed really interesting, but the blog post didn't really give a summary of the paper's major points. all it did was quote three paragraphs from the paper's conclusion
> It's not like they hate the power it would give

Please read the writings of the prominent environmentalists. Many of them want humans to hurry up and go extinct. Not necessarily in so many words, but anyone who advocates a return to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is in fact calling for the murder of the billions of people who are alive only due to agriculture, of a kind which depends on modern energy sources.
Imagine the public uproar there would be if a school were built with anything that sounds like "nuclear waste".

Also, AFAIK depleted uranium comes from the enrichment process, not from the actual reactor.
Health education
Women for World Health has the mission to identify the needs of a particular community and provide the support for these needs through free medical assistance and health education.
What If Scientists Didn’t Compete?
Manuals Search Engine (about 5.770.000 manuals)
Congrats to epi0Bauqu on the article! Proof that hard work pays off, Duck Duck Go is looking better and better with time.
Our small dev house uses Harvest: http://www.getharvest.com/

It's simple, straightforward, and has a metric ton of ways to enter hours into the system. It doesn't have all the things you're looking for, but it does well for all our vacation/hour/billing/tracking needs.
Not what you were looking for, but Excel has long had a feature that allows you to assign names to ranges, and it's a big time saver. alternatively, you might like to check out Mathematica.
Google Likes To Steal Others' Thunder
Electronic Health Care Advances,  Physician Frustration Grows[pdf]
In this paragraph, he's observing, not judging or making recommendations. Welfare beneficiaries and women do not, empirically, tend to vote for Thiel's preferred policies.

He might believe these groups are voting against their own long-term interests, but he's not making that case here, in a piece specifically aimed at those who already agree with him on a preferred (much lower) level of government economic control.

His piece doesn't advocate disenfranchising anyone -- as you imply -- nor does he call the 1920s America's "last great decade" -- just the last one where he could be "genuinely optimistic about politics". America's politics is neither the totality nor the pinnacle of its expression as a place/society/ideal, as his audience of cynics about state power understand.

(Though, as the decade of constitutional prohibition of alcohol, it seems an odd political high-point for Thiel. I think its main attraction for him is that at least it wasn't the 'New Deal' and massive government economic intervention ever since.)