skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's referring to the 2 week free trial Netflix did a few weeks ago. A lot of people signed up, watched House of Cards for 2 weeks and then cancelled the subscription. How many of those freebies translated to subscriptions, I don't know. I've been a Netflix subscriber, on and off, for over a decade and I got started with a free month sign up card that was with the DVD player I bought.
Heh. Nope, not _arguing_ that, because arguing what constitutes fraud and what does not belongs ONLY to the administrators of said governing laws.

If I were presiding over this specific case, and had a breadth of understanding that confirmed they were cookie-stuffing beyond a doubt, I would move to convict them.

I do think the line that separates a civil matter and a criminal matter is unclear at times.

Further edit: Oh, were you asking if I thought the Airbnb behavior an example of fraud? Well, now I guess I do... based on what I read today. I still think its a civil issue, but it doesn't matter what I think. Prosecutors be prosecutin'.
Well from the context of the subject of the article, YC serves as the university (this site can be seen as serving like the social environment of such to discuss things relating) to feed the "New Bankers" or the Google/Apple/Facebook's.

However what this author fails to talk about in his haste of this new order to shape up because of the fracturing social order in developed world (note not developing world because most people in the developing world have nothing to lose because they did not gain much of the fruits the developing world has), is the war that usually happens during these periods (look at what is shaping up in Spain, Greece and spreading through europe). I expect 3-d printed weapons (Hat tip to Defence Distributed and the pollitically aware hacker-culture that very much includes the so called "Pwnd" developers) to shape some role.

Developers are the "new engineers" aren't "Pwnd". The "new system" relies on them for the new working class: the Robots. And the "old system" relies on them for pretty much making technology practical to use for their whims.

The people that are "Pwnd" are going to be the people who aren't shaping the new system at all: most people in the societies of the developed world.

"If you don't become an actor, you'll never be a factor."

http://rapgenius.com/Lupe-fiasco-words-i-never-said-lyrics
I see them more like a construction. Someone presents their view point, and if its not what I see as truth, its not my job to "argue" it, its now OUR job to figure out truth. So the conversation should be a back and forth of explanation until the truth is agreed upon. This does require both participants to be willing to change their viewpoint, which I agree people need to be better at.

Very, very well said. I agree wholeheartedly. "Collaboration, not arguing" is one way I'd phrase it.

I think that mindset is why I get frustrated with people on HN sometimes. If I say something, I'm not necessarily interested in having a high-school debate-club debate over it... I'm interested in finding a shared understanding of the truth and finding the common ground. Not all "discussions" need to be treated as "debates" damnit. :-)

My advice to the author would be to do as I've done with this comment: look for where the other person is coming from and realize that there are reasons people say and do the things they say and do. Then, instead of attacking, approach it as an opportunity for both of you to learn something new by sharing your differing viewpoints and converging on the truth. I'm looking forward to discovering the truth of how best to handle these situations based on the experience provided in by those who may respond to my comment!

Absolutely. I could not agree more.

On a related note, there's an old saying I heard once, that goes something like "Be kind, because everyone is fighting their own battles also". Being considerate and tolerant doesn't cost us anymore than being dick'ish and argumentative, so why not do it?
How does Glass tell if you're winking or blinking?
Shocked to learn that Brian Dunning has done this. I've been listening to his Skeptoid podcast for years. I always pictured someone of modest or middle class means because he solicits donations to help keep the podcast going. I didn't think he was also making millions from fraud. Ironically, 'consumer frauds' is one of things he has listed on his website as a target of his skeptical inquiry.

Found this blog post with court documents and background:
http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=291

EDIT:
Found this old blog post by Brian Dunning:
http://skeptoid.com/blog/2011/10/05/a-partial-explanation/

"Cookie stuffing refers to a web site writing a cookie to your browser without your knowledge or permission. ... It’s a scary-sounding term, but it’s fundamental to the way Internet advertising works. ... Cookie stuffing is more than just a standard practice; it’s an essential component of the mechanics of serving ads effectively."
Nice, Emacs have a mode for doing the same too: https://github.com/pashky/restclient.el
I don't know that they are actually even considering this. This is just a video version of an article in which some Wall St. pundit speculated that Netflix could "tighten things up." No news here, move along.
Scientists Back Kiera Wilmot by Tweeting About All the Stuff They've Blown Up
Description
As Software Developer for charity: water, you'll mainly architect and create web applications. You'll improve on our code and help devise technical solutions for each of charity: water's departments.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Design, develop, test and implement web-based software for thousands of our donors and fundraisers to use on a daily basis.
Build integration software to tie the back-end of our office systems to our donor-facing web applications.
Join in reviews to improve your own and your coworkers' code.
Monitor, maintain and improve our back-end office systems and our website environment.
MUST-HAVES

Bachelor's degree in CS or equivalent.
1-2 years of experience developing public-facing web apps.
Experience with an MVC framework (CakePHP a plus), database design and implementation (RDBMS or NoSQL) and working in a test-driven development.
Experience with PHP and Java, as well as CSS, JavaScript and HTML.
SKILLS

You know what you're doing
You have the experience with frameworks listed above. You have a hunger to learn, problem-solve and find the best technical solution for an issue.

You can implement new systems while managing existing ones
You possess systems integration skills (e.g. data management and synchronization across multiple systems) and when possible, you look to improve a company or organization's workflows.

Please apply online at: charitywater.org
Check Engine Light for Your House
> As soon as the waters have an owner, the owner has an incentive to protect them

I am curious. How do you go about deciding ownership on a long river? What rights does "owning" a river give you?
Hopefully, they will get the trademark preemptively this time. I vote for "Codefest".
Runescape got a full MMORPG running in HTML5. They currently have a beta for several players also.
Ahh this brings back some memories.

The articles mentions the guy who made the cooking stuffing software. He was pretty active on a private part of a forum I'm still part of.

Anyway eBay went after the forum as well, and promptly deleted his account and all the threads mentioning eBay. They also moved their servers offshore and deleted pretty much every thread that mentioned eBay in it.

I do remember he wrote a massive long thread about how the FBI raided his house and seized all his computers. He said the FBI agents weren't even told why they were conducting a raid on him and actually felt kind of sorry for him. He charged a pretty hefty price for the software ($500/month for the basic plan), but it was pretty advanced. They figured out that they could spoof referrers in flash, so rather then have a 1x1px image file, it was a tiny .swf file.

People were banking on that though, eBay first, then Amazon. You could buy shitty porn traffic and parked domain traffic for literally $1-2/1000 uniques visitors and stuff them all with cookies.

It was also round the same time Craigslist cracked down on affiliate marketers. People were literally getting hundreds of conversions a day on rebill offers like credit ratings and dating verification offers. One guy fled to South America so Craiglist and the FBI couldn't find him as he was literally making 6 figures a day.

I probably have said too much, but now everyone is pretty smart now.
Facebook were the last ones to smarten their act up since their whole system/backend had so many loopholes in there it wasn't funny. Plus their security team only worked Monday-Friday, so if you noticed up until 2012, there would be a bunch of spam on your feed during the weekends.
Companies don't always have the luxury of finding the perfect solution. In many cases they have to run with the best plan that's available.

If you're the kind of person who frequently says "no" during meetings, you need to also be the kind of person who proposes alternatives.
Which teachers and administrators at the school do you feel are a part of this "upper class?" There are certainly no millionaires handing down decrees at the schools near me.
I think my article didn't do justice to my beliefs. I don't use Quora or Reddit as a source of information per se, it's a place for discussion and I happen to find information there once in a while. That happens but I always research it further outside of Quora.

I don't believe that University courses are the way to go. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dropped out. But I do reference to them because you can easily skip around in the lectures and find what you need.

Learning from books is fine as well, however, I don't have the exposure to that material most of the time. If you have any ideas or reference you suggest I should add, let me know. I would only reference something I've used or someone else recommended. I wouldn't mind reading this stuff either. Like I said, I just don't have the exposure to these books.
Inky (http://inky.com) already lets you sort by relevance. It's much more useful than VIP/whitelist/blacklist but we're continuing to play with the relevance metric to further improve it. It does take sender frequency into account.
It was as if the homepage was cached and wouldn't reflect login state.

Accessing a story's comments showed I was logged in, and only then could I return to the home page and it would also show that I was logged in.
I think you've missed the point of fine dining, or maybe it's just not for you. It's not about the utility of refilling your hunger meter. Like the article says, you're paying for the whole experience, and the level of craftsmanship. I also highly doubt you can make a superior meal, that's a little offensive to people who focus their lives and careers on the art of food. It's subjective, of course, but similar to how some companies think they don't need software because their home-grown spreadsheet solution is "superior" (i.e. cheaper).

I mean, if it's just not your thing, that's fine, but your comment is stereotypical of the purely utilitarian and rather smug perspective often taken by nerdy types. No doubt you find fashion equally frivolous and can't fathom why people would pay above Target prices for clothing.
Nice! Do you have an API for this.
Ben Goldacre on preventing health scares
Looks great but when I click 'Get started now' on the homepage, registration isn't over SSL.
I'd probably be interested in buying one eventually, but as it stands right now, there's one I can use for very cheap at my school, so for now I'll just stick with that.
My takeaway from this is: stay the hell away from affiliate marketing.
We tweeted the link, herrherr... we have friends and backers, too.

If the product looks interesting, you should try the dev tier... there is no credit card required.
I'm also very interested Amfy (can you CC me at i.am@k0nsl.org)?
It was referring to account sharing and how Netflix is planning on implementing policies to prevent it, or possibly increasing the cost for those that want to keep it.
I know individuals that have made millions, including family.
Just the name and email link isn't over SSL... Once you confirm your account, then you will definitely be in https when you create an index.
A Shenzhen style economic zone / free trade zone / etc. could very easily be built in Tijuana. Everything there lines up to create just what is in Shenzhen.

The Lamborghini dealership that is open for business at midnight might be a ways off, however...[1]

[1] ... and you know those Hastens horsehair beds that cost USD 60k ? Their showroom was open for business at 10:30 PM on a weeknight...crazy.
I'm using the API provided by the social sites itself. Code - https://github.com/rishabhp/mentions
Interesting... looks promising. Using this would be tough while we share phone/email/urls fields though.
You are as naive as her to believe that setting this thing off at school shouldn't have consequences.

You also seem to think the apparent illegality of the works bomb changes the situation for some unstated reason.

I've never agreed with the felony charges. But you seem to think that because you think it's no big deal that there shouldn't be any punishment.

And you can keep twisting my "bomb is a bomb" quote into whatever you want but as far as the zero tolerance policy is concerned it doesn't matter. The problem with all you idiots on here defending her is that you are equating this to an anti-science thing where she's being kept down by "the man". One poster likened this to Socrates.

The other point is that she's an honor student yet didn't know it was dangerous and illegal? So what is she, the naive, stupid little fawn or the smart, intelligent student with a bright future?
I'm glad the subject is being studied, it's a very interesting problem. Proper solutions are much more sophisticated than it seems. You have to ensure that the checks you use in the checker functions don't themselves cause overflows. If you're interested, I'll write about an algorithm for your WillOverflow function which has been proved correct.
The world’s first entirely 3D-printed gun has been made
What you're arguing for is better parent-child discussion relationship management in Gmail. Something like Gmail + Google Group at a much deeper integration level, with the Google Groups part not sucking like Google Groups does now.

Also, I'd love if I could take a mailing list thread (like from NANOG), and with one-click blow it out onto a thread on something like Stack Exchange.

Email needs to continue to evolve. It's role is to remove the friction of communicating tasks, thoughts, ideas, concepts, etc. We need work refining how those things are defined and moved between communication mediums.

/endRant
Thank you for the comment, though... that's the type of feedback we need.
Yeah, that's something I'd really love to see in Gmail as well as Docs.

It doesn't even have to be full markdown support, just the most convenient things (* for bullet points, ...)
I think those shortcuts are easy to learn (at least on Windows).
Ctrl-K for links, Ctrl-] for indent more, Ctrl-[ for indent less.
Really? Did you actually watch the video? The video is 24 seconds, and no where did they say that. She said "netflix lets friends and family share one account", and the ceo has said they may restrict that policy or raise prices because of it.
A "kill hollyweb" plan
Tricking people for profit is the definition of fraud. It says a sad thing about the industry that shady practices like that are considered important enough that it would be "scary" to have to abstain from them.
I do agree that he's unnecessarily harbingering and that the future is brighter than he paints it. But I also think that if really smart, savvy founders aren't already starting to keep away from incubators like YC and the acqui-hire path, they will pretty soon as they all start to get branded as alternative education paths.

I know I wouldn't apply to any incubator if I had a startup, I've felt this way for awhile now. They just don't seem to offer much value, rather being just a grand distraction, YC being the only one worth anything and even that's arguable. Capital isn't as valuable as it used to be, why give up control when you can generate it yourself? But it's really the only value an incubator adds.
I believe my submission on this is hidden because of my recent registration here. I've lurked for a long time.

The press release[1] from Staples confirms ordering online is live now, and printers will be on shelves in select stores next month.

I would have thought FedEx/Kinko's would be the first to make a move on 3D technology, first as in in-store service, then stocking product.

There was also previous discussion[2] on 3D systems and their aggression toward other upstarts. Smart of them to be first into a major national retailer if they cannot compete in the 'enthusiast' space.

[1]http://investor.staples.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96244&p=RssL...
[2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4812587
I agree, it was beautifully written. I'll be looking for Mr. Rich's novel on the strength of it.
Hmm, I agree with much of the OP's criticisms of Gmail, however I consider Outlook and Mail to be effective forms of torture.
While a Costco may negotiate and give the worker a fair wage. Others would simply test the limits of the labour market.

Though, I feel I am being too cynical, fearing the unknown. I would like to know what the situation was in a pre-minimum-wage era.
I don't know if anyone else has this problem but since I use VI for code editing I have a twitch reaction to hit escape a lot when I'm editing text.

This actually closes the compose window now. Which is incredibly frustrating. I know it's not a mainstream user problem just something that effect my perception of Gmail on a daily basis.
Productivity Tip: Let It Cool
All they would have to do is ask; surely someone would be willing to build something simple like this for them as a contribution.
In our experience, whitelisting really doesn't solve the problem. I often get email from people I don't know about things I want to read about ("hey, I'm a VC who wants to give you money!").

Automagically parsing receipts is certainly cool, and several mail vendors are working on it, including us (Inky).

Guaranteed delivery isn't really possible without controlling both sender and recipient's client; nor is immediate delivery.
Yes, this entire story makes no sense. They just attacked their own affiliate base and tried to paint it as a good thing.

Did these two people featured in the story do anything that was against US Federal law? Did they violate the eBay affiliates agreement (and that can't result in criminal charges anyhow)?

I've read through all three pages of the story twice, and all I'm seeing is eBay wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They even conspired with these two to help generate more affiliate revenue which eBay admits to.

Sounds a lot like another Aaron Schwartz-type pile of bullshit to me. eBay is going to enjoy their exodus of affiliate salesmen.
For whatever it's worth, it's possible to temporarily switch back to the old compose [1]. Perhaps this is well-known, but I just discovered it.

[1] http://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/01/switch-to-gmails-old-compos...
Emacs have a REST Client, but this app is like a REST Server: Mocky serve an HTTP response, whereas RestClient send an HTTP resquest.
The Two Different Mindsets When Purchasing Website Design
RaceNet: Grid 2's secret social network weapon
Episode 2: Digital Show & Tell: Transcript
Learning the following keyboard shortcuts for formatting bullet lists made the transition to the new compose UI much less painful for me:

ctrl + shift + 8 to create a new bullet list
ctrl + ] to indent right
ctrl + [ to indent left
Bitcointip already solved this problem, but it only works on Reddit unfortunately. Unfortunately I don't really see a way to implement an analog for Facebook or Google+ without official support since they're not public forums in the same way Reddit is.
Everybody thinks this is cool, but nobody (myself included) knows enough about car suspensions to comment!
Leaving this here:

http://reddit.com/r/bitcointip
"at the time no one else had reported problems"

How do you know others didn't do the right thing (by emailing info@ycombinator.com) ? AFAICT emails sent to the address aren't publicly available.
Can someone explain the mantra "Do stuff that doesn't scale"? Is this another way to say focus on the hard stuff? Then scale later?
HN Help: Fraud Voting Incident on Malaysia's election
This reminds me of an old reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMining/comments/i1xvv/how_doe...
An Open Letter to Facebook (in response to account ban)
"Sometimes the legal side can impact the business side of a deal."

Understatement of the year.
Am I the only one who finds email signatures entirely obsolete nowadays?
Interesting:

> Thank you ...@gmail.com

> One more thing. We took a look at your current mail's health:

> Deliverability of your messages (thumbsdown)

> Your server is weakly secured and could be used for sending spam.

Seems like a false positive.
It's a nice idea, but relying on a remote service for testing makes me worry. I tend to mock HTTP responses locally, so that the tests can run when there isn't even an internet connection available.
Have you ever experienced burnout yourself? Generally severe burnout will result in depression as well.
Surely you could've made it a PNG!

http://awesomescreenshot.com/00e18gxe65
I'm a big fan of delivering utility with less barriers. It probably is worse for your "active users" graph, but I always feel warmer and fuzzier about apps that I can engage with at my own pace.

So, in this case, that's an argument for attaching a reasonable-sized copy of the image to the email, or maybe a bit of embedded HTML with an obfuscated link or something that redirects if you want better tracking of what's going on / privacy knobs. Sure, some people will never register for an account because they'll get all their utility out of the emails. But on the other hand, all sorts of non-tech-focused family members will get to see the artwork, which is what your users want in the first place.

Glympse stands out in my recent memory as an app that did a great job of this.
Spark Core board adds WiFi to almost everything, takes input from anywhere
Ironically, I'm seeing 500s. Great for testing my reliability in the face of errors!
Gmail is now a cluster fuck of terribleness. Who the hell decided it was a good idea to make you type your email in what is basically a slightly larger chat window? Who decided it would be a good idea to put the "reply" edit box at the end of a potentially very long email? Oh, and make it fit like six lines of text. I swear, this is what happens when you let a bunch of kids run the show. "My emails are rarely ever more than 'kthx' or 'heh' so lets get rid of all that useless space!"
Is it just me or are these blogs posts increasing more and more about name dropping?

Blah blah blah artsnapz, blah artsnapz. 7 out of the 10 paragraphs had the word artsnapz in it, and 1 out of 2 pictures had it.

It doesn't mean the advice is any less helpful or informative because of it, but reading it was like watching a commercial.
Homemade Thor's hammer with an 80,000 volt Tesla coil in it
I had seen the picture, but I had totally missed the necklace. Thank you.
And this, dear jen_h, is how we go about fixing the problem.
I used a few different browsers and compared the raw responses.

I noticed when I used Firefox (20.0.1 linux), there was an additional redirect to heapanalytics.com.

Using Firefox(20.0.1 linux ), I obtained a valid session. It was simply the login status that was displayed incorrectly.

I deleted the cookie from heapanalytics.com, refreshed my Hacker News page and the correct login state message displayed (user name followed by logout link).

Hope that helps.
Don't Get Paranoid, But There Are Now Insect-Sized Flying Robots