skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I apologize if my post implies I believe we're out curing cancer - we're not and that was not my intent. If you point out to me where I've somehow stated that, I'll be happy to fix it.

That being said, I'm not sure I agree with your argument. Both indirect and direct means are ultimately necessary for any serious change or innovation. By your logic, a microscope is just an item that lets you see things up close. Now imagine a world without it. We'd certainly be hard-pressed to do much in the medical field. Tools, by definition, enable us to do something we couldn't do before or increase the efficiency of something we did have the ability to do. Without advancements in tools, we won't get very far.

If a new "text editor" ends up providing us a much more efficient means of creating things like Watson, in what way is that not just as important as curing any one disease? The argument is certainly not that one case is better than the other, just that I've decided to go down a different path, one that I believe is just as important. I can fix 100% of something or increase everything by 1% - I believe the latter is the best thing I can do at this point.
IBM’s Watson Tries to Learn Everything
I agree with this sentiment. I was really surprised by the response to Dave's post yesterday. It was extremely disappointing to read such vitriol over what seemed like a fairly straightforward and useful observation about acquisitions.

The real question is how do we fix it? I have often thought that what I would prefer would be a fully curated news feed rather than one managed by the upvote system. But this wouldn't seem to work well in practice. I would be relying on the persistent effort of a small number of curators, who might get sick or bored or go on holiday or they just might never exist in the first place - who wants to hand curate a new feed for some other people?

But what if we provided a very simple tool for producing a curated feed, so a curator could just right click in their browser to add a link to their feed. What then if we allowed the readers to aggregate these curators? The aggregation is yet another (semi)curated feed which can be followed for further aggregated.

This could (possibly) produce a single feed very similar to HN, but it seems likely that we could easily seek out a feed which was heavy on CS theory and light on VC politics (or the other way around).

The biggest challenge that I see is making it engaging to the curators. Right now we allow submissions and you get points for submitting something that gets upvoted or for making upvoted comments. I think we can make the experience rewarding but there are a lot of details, wherein live devils.

Maybe it sounds like I just recreated reddit, but this system would not have any votes, just aggregation of curated feeds.

Any thoughts?
That's where your wrong and the purpose of this ruling is to clarify that.
This looks pretty sweet! I'd add tooltips or captions for the icons at the bottom of the page. Some of them are instantly recognizable (github, instagram, twitter etc.) but it's not really clear what the rest of them are.
You are comparing apples and oranges. Linus works on the kernel, it's like a fight between coworkers. Winer talks about the usual internet trolling in general.
Not to undervalue DDG, but the same service has been offered for years by those servers http://xmpp.net/

A "we don't track users" XMPP server?? Is this a thing?
then this post came out ... I'm not really sure which is worse

It should be perfectly acceptable to decide you are done with a conversation and want out. We can't demand people stick around to be abused.
I was long time Opera fan, but since sometime it's getting from bad to worse. For me Dolphin is the best browser for Android. On desktop I use Firefox, but mobile version has problems with rendering fonts.
>You can probably stop reading now, because you obviously didn't read the whole Linus/Mauro thread from the beginning, and don't really want to understand.

Amazing.
This one is not exactly "buffer" as shown in the two links. It uses a custom structure data type instead of []byte, to avoid conversion between actual data and []byte (marshaling) or type assertion (conversion from/to interface{}). Check https://github.com/songgao/bufferManager.go/blob/master/buff... , inside Data there can be anything. The internal implementation is closer to `bufferpool` (2nd one) though, since they both use a channel as the pool.

As to performance in GO 1.1, I did try it with this implementation but have not updated result to Github. The speedup is similar. You could simply clone the repo and run `run_test.sh` yourself :-)
If you say you'll store images, and I make you store things that are not images - taking up hard drive space you didn't intend to let me use - that hurts you financially.

Any other reading of the situation is based on fantasy.
>the meanness of programming communities is a the biggest problem we have

Or maybe it's our biggest asset. In a world filled with bullshit (how many people you think really empathize with you - vs. just going through the motions?), it's refreshing to have a little corner where they honestly tell you why your ideas suck and your background is deficient. It kind of comes with the profession, yes. Only a relentlessly critical kind of person can effectively hunt down bugs and deal with dozens of other frustrating problems everyday.
I guess I'm letting my engineering background show, but I think you have to nail down the problem before you start to refine the solution. You have certainly seen people put up with absolutely horrendous interfaces, because they got the job done.

Sometimes, you are entering an established market in which the UX is the problem, and in that case, focusing on that right out of the gate makes sense.
2010 Unibody Macbook schematic [pdf]
I would contest that exposing corruption, even if it requires paying off some unsavory people, is a form of "lifesaving research".
Are you sure his problem was really criticism? I think that his problem was rather that people were making value judgements about his character in a manner that what he felt was unfair.
I will gladly pay shipping costs when I buy a book. I just googled "price for print on demand paperback"
Not so much impressed. There was a WordPress Theme that could do that a fews years ago.
No.

Simply because you can't grow (for the better) by insulating yourself from all the "bad stuff".
Please do elaborate, because I happen to hold the opposite view. Decentralized systems are hard to implement: QoS, reliability, search, security, etc.
Responding to w1ntermute below: You're right, and that's what I had toyed with looking into. The problem is I use a boilerplate lease like most landlords - because it's been tested for years in "production" if you will.

You take a great risk in making even small modifications to existing language without a lawyer review. Writing all new language is even riskier and considerably more expensive.

Since I don't want to spend this money, my default position is I will simply reserve the right to crack down on any Airbnb activities I become aware of.

Airbnb could use their own lawyers to help out with this conundrum and gift the resulting work product to landlords.
Thanks for the comment! Really like all the suggestions. Resume and easter eggs are on the way. Same with tab completion if I can figure that out :)
Enjoying Technology's Conveniences But Not Escaping Its Watchful Eyes (2007)
Manage your startup without fear
As a top-voted dissenting opinion on Dave's piece yesterday, I find myself compelled to chime in.

> I honestly don't care what the HN trolls, and the people who upvote them, supposedly "think" about me.

If that's true, why 750 words on the subject?

The issue I take with Dave Winer is that he seems to feel as though his accomplishments or contributions somehow elevate his words beyond criticism.

I will say again what I said yesterday – his post "about" Marissa Mayer was something I can only characterize as whiney. We can call it other things if that's less offensive: petulant, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, perhaps. But the sense of entitlement to the respect and admiration of other people was something that dripped off of the post, and then off of his comments, and is a recurring theme, to my eye, of the man's writing.

His poor rhetorical choices – name-dropping, specifically – overshadowed his point. That's the gamble you make when writing headline-driven link bait.

But guess what? Fuck me, because I'm just some guy on the internet. But guess what else? So is Dave.

Participating in a technology doesn't afford a permanent apotheosis to all of one's self and works. Your words must still carry their own water. There's effective persuasion and then there's ineffective persuasion. Those outcomes vary depending on the audience.

Now we all have a choice: we can tightly corral our words. We can be selective in our audience, we can dole out our rhetoric with caution and precision.

Or we can blast that shit out to the whole of the world.

Now, Dave is quite excited to tell us how he helped make such a feat possible. And the consequence of his great work is we all get to talk about it. And sometimes we're not going to agree.

Sometimes we're not going to worship.

And that's life.

I take the point very well that HN comments can be pretty toxic. But a lot of the dissent around what gets posted from Dave Winer seems pretty legit. Even PG has weighed in on his poor attitude:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1644147
This is a really flawed analysis. You don't mention here the traffic and the conversion rate. It's possible for your second venture that you had much more traffic, better conversions, loyal customers...
Hi _Lemon_

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Does it matter whether it's a loss to HN? When people/groups abuse their privileges, taking those privileges away is not a bad thing. Maybe having a few good sites block HN would cause commenters to think more carefully before posting vitriol, or upvoting it. I missed the thread the first time around, but I looked it up, and it's pretty disappointing. Despite there being lots of top-level comments about the actual content of the blog post, the highest top-level comment is just a mean personal attack. I see it on a lot of other HN posts too, and I don't get it. How does it contribute anything to say that this or that topic isn't worth talking about and, by the way, the author smells and he has a funny name?
Wow, that's impressive. How is the typing on it, is there a keyboard, is it smaller or the similar to current netbook keyboards? So if you could connect a Nexus 4 phone to it with hdmi, hack Linux on that phone you'd have a netbook comparable in performance to the current atom netbooks and a bit slower then the Samsung 303 chromebook.
> I.e. if you are doing a deal, don't be surprised if only the immediate terms are honored. Don't bank on future promises.

Dave himself admits that he felt like he had a disincentive to enforce the future promises due to what he had already received as a result of the more immediate terms -- a contract is, ultimately, not just a set of promises, but a set of promises that the parties feel need to be backed by the threat of legal action to ensure compliance.

If, for any of those promises, you aren't going to be willing to act on that threat when they are violated, and the other party knows the incentive structure that makes you unwilling to act on the threat, well, then the threat is gone, and if you didn't need the threat to enforce the promises, you wouldn't have needed a contract in the first place.

That doesn't really mean there is a difference between short-term and longer-term promises, it means that there is a difference between promises backed by the credible threat of legal action and promises not backed by the credible threat of legal action, which is rather the entire reason contracts exist in the first place.
I think you're conflating criticism and being mean. It's quite possible to offer kind, empathetic criticism, which I would argue is more effective. When the person receiving criticism doesn't see it as an attack, he/she is far more likely to listen to it.
This is a fascinating subject. It would be nice if most of the article was not behind a pay wall. Quite a while ago, I heard of Paul Stamets who has done amazing things with fungus:
http://www.fungi.com/about-paul-stamets.html
We are starting to see nano-tech crossing with bio-tech more and more, and I think it bodes well for the future if handled in a positive way.
Asked the duck. Nice.
What concerns me is that the appearance of knowing what the hell you are talking about and actually knowing what the hell you are talking about is not that different

An example: many times I offer startup advice. Now, if you read my profile, you'll realize that all I can do is feebly try to repeat what I've read. I'm nowhere near an expert. But sometimes I feel that the things that I've read could be helpful to others. So I make what appears to be a knowledgeable comment in the spirit of trying to help. Yes, it sounds a bit cold, analytical, but it has that air of something that might be useful.

We got hundreds of comments like this, on any topic you'd like. Yes, we also have some world-quality researchers that come here and help out. But to the reader, it all looks the same.

We easily confuse the social nature of appearing to be critical and helpful -- let's be honest, looking smart to our peers -- with the actual value we might be providing.

HN is a place to go to read really biting comments that appear to dissect things into their core elements. But many times it's just wankers making easy criticisms from a Monday-morning quarterback perspective.

I love the open forum, and I love the personalities and people here, but as you grow, social posturing gets way more traction than actually providing value, even though both types of comments are indistinguishable from each other. That's just a function of crowds.
The startup Urban Compass is trying to fix this problem: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/7/4304374/urban-compass
Some of the arguments here are that if you post something to the web, you can't be in control of where it ends up. While I agree with that sentiment on the whole, HN shouldn't be a place where you submit articles that are clearly just somebody's snippet of an opinion, but rather actual news or human interest stories that err on the tech side. Others are suggesting that you just avoid the thread that is about you, and I think that's irresponsible; people have the right to correct information about themselves and their opinions.

We've seen all sorts of ShowHNs where the person who made it wasn't ready to post it yet, but someone got ahead of them. They rush into the comments to do due diligence, but sometimes the damage is already done. Now if the author wanted to post it again once it is finally complete, they'll likely end up with comments like "Didn't we see this already?" and potentially get less click-throughs considering. We've seen blog entries torn to shreds and the author show up hours late to a dead thread, hoping to do any necessary damage control or simply answer questions that could have changed the entire flow of conversation.

Not being fully in control of where my content ends up and not being able to be in every conversation about what I write is a big contributor to why I don't write at all. When someone posts my content here, it's assumed that it's to be taken seriously or that it is worthwhile. Despite that not being the case, people respond as though it is, and thus we find ourselves in this situation.

Even if there was some sort of tag like #nohn or something to highlight the fact that if discussion on the issue should be kept on the site because, as it wasn't intended to be a HN-worthy piece. That way, if it's posted anyways (as I don't believe in blocking the URL entirely), the author's intent is clear.
I find this post by Dave Winer a bit hypocritical? The reason he is writing about Hacker News being depressing is because of the comments against his article on Yahoo acquisitions and Marissa Mayer. As he says, he wrote it in 15 mins and I'd probably write something similar - but what he doesn't mention is how depressing that post must have been if Marissa were to read it. He makes a point about abuse being bad - but did he stop to consider that he wasn't being exactly friendly in his post about Marissa? He was publicly discussing a fairly "closed door" meeting he had and extrapolating that into a rant.

Basically, if you're going to publicly throw stones, I feel it's fairly expected that someone is going to be throwing stones back your way. There is nothing perfect about Hacker News - but I don't think that Dave Winer is perfect either. Blocking off content is not the solution, however, and I'm not sure what the solution really is. Sticking your head in the sand, perhaps? At any rate, if there is a solution, I'm sure pg and YC will work something out.
If anyone is interested by the edible insects concept touched upon here, check out our company Tiny Farms (http://www.tiny-farms.com). We're one of a handful of US companies doing real work in this area.

Alongside our research, tooling and outreach work, we've actually managed to feed Dave McClure a waxworm-filled Baklava: http://www.tiny-farms.com/2013/04/tiny-farms-in-zagat/
> Sometimes we're not going to worship.

It's not about worship. It's about civility and making an effort to write comments to a higher standard.
You know I would agree if the situation was unwarranted and about something trivial. Like say if your hamburger doesn't have cheese it's unacceptable to slap the cook and cry out I SAID CHEESE MOTHERF...ER! But when you are in a profession and you get dressed down for acting like you have no sense, well it's time to pull those marshmallow pants up because there are real life consequences, such as time and money being wasted. And that is abusive to everyone.
The actual purpose of this project is to provide years-long space travelers with food. This makes sense. The bit about solving world hunger looks to be a side aspiration of the creator.
In my experience, the way to get upvotes in any such forum (not just HN) is to express an opinion in the strongest terms you possibly can. "X is dead" gets upvotes. "X has some challenges to overcome, and it might" doesn't.

Of the most satisfying outcomes on HN, mine have been when I've posted a reasoned, moderate comment and been upvoted. Sure, I try and avoid flamefests, and I've noticed a bit of trolling being upvoted, but overall, I think HN has risen above. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm lucky, but it doesn't seem that bad, yet. Of course, there's always room for improvement . . .
Thanks! Tooltips on the way!
You 're implying that women don't swear?
But, technically, isn't renting an apartment for the month of February (28 days) illegal too, since it's less than 29 days that the Hotel Law stipulates?
How about pointing out the problem calmly and rationally, like you just did?

The written equivalent of spittle-flecked screaming is neither professional nor constructive. Unless, of course, the goal is to hound someone out of the community and make others less likely to participate, in which case that was an excellent comment.
Every lease I've seen of my group of friends prohibits subletting without express permission of the landlord/owner. It's already the standard in NYC. Realistically, every AirBNB within a rental unit in NYC is likely violating the terms of their lease.
Lol, yeah that tablet in a box with the crappy controller is a huge threat.

Maybe it's paving the way for the threat but that thing is craptacular.
I write to my standard. You write to yours. We each get little buttons where people vote. That's the deal.

I personally find Dave's attitude of self-entitlement to be very toxic. Coming first doesn't elevate you above reproach or scrutiny. Success and progress require questioning and even defying authority. I'm incredibly distrustful of anyone who would discourage that. So he's going to demand people be impressed – and I'm going to demand they think for themselves.

As a human being, I'm incredibly full of shit. On an ongoing basis. And often times I don't know it. So I kinda need people to point it out to me. This goes for nearly everyone else too. Anyone who says otherwise, who suggests they're above that for any reason, is trying to sell you something.
The Atrix, too bad. Like polshaw said, I agree that the Pi is the weakness in the set up. It's like taking a honda engine and putting it in a BMW. I thought the Atrix and the accessories were awesome, just wasn't a fan of the low specs and Android.

I do have hope though for Ubuntu's mobile offering...wait that runs on an Atrix too, lol.
If not accolades, certainly encouragement: A big public "thank you," even if it might not immediately convince all companies everywhere to release API's and stop locking things down, might at least show that this is one good way to make at least some potential customers very happy.

Not a massive, business-changing boon, but perhaps worth it for tech (and other) companies that are or want to be close to their communities.
> At that point what can you do?

Take action (remove commit rights), message Mauro in private, call him and let him know you are disappointed and why, ... but having an ASCII-based temper just makes Linux and/or programming look silly. Kernel dev is rough but there is plenty of time to let things cool down and let rational criticism sink in.
> Isn't it my moral duty to do that?

No, there is no absolute "moral duty" to anything or anyone. There is a thing called "guilt", that some people try to induce (moral manipulation), when you don't do the things they want you to do. You only duty is to do things that you think are right.

> Could I have saved Kristie, or if not her, others like her?

Saving her - quite unlikely, unless you manage to find a cure for the kind of terminal cancer she has, in less than the survival expectation that were given.

Saving others - unlikely, unless you manage to find a cure for any cancer. There seems to be many people working on that.

I would say this is a battle you have <0.01% of winning. In such case, the wise thing to do is not to enter in this battle.

>if this is really the "right" thing to do

That being said, considering death is a final state, you may want to spend some time with the dying person instead of working on your project. If you don't, you may have regrets later on. You won't be able to interact with the person after death. I'd suggest stalling the IDE work, unless you have very compelling reasons to prioritize that.

Don't fight the battle, but instead, provide care and comfort to the dying person.

>I'm doing this because I believe that this is the greatest contribution I can make

Good statement. You do with the cards you are dealt with. Just make sure to take the right decisions to avoid regrets.
+1 on this - I had to look at the status bar to see where these URLs would take me for some of them...
Steve Mann, father of wearable computing, joins meta as Chief Scientist
I could not agree more.

One factor that I think contributes to the Asshole Ethos common among programmers is this idea that great men of genius cannot be held to the same moral standards as mere mortals. This idea, combined with an inflated sense of self-worth, makes for a host of Steve Jobs and Linus Torvalds wannabes, convinced that their special nature absolves them from social norms and responsibility.

The Raskolnikov-ian egoists ought to read Crime and Punishment...

I can fortunately say that in my experience, few programmers are assholes in person. Online forums are another matter. :)
This was a cool I/O session. One obvious use case they showed was to port Android apps to Glass.
It may not be the first implementation of this kind of technology, but if it does it better and we haven't heard of the others, then it doesn't matter.