skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Well, if the machine has only two states, it has only a single bit of internal memory. This means (almost) all information is in the picture.

Brain dump:

A one-state TM has no hidden state -- this means that it has no way to look at the surroundings (only the current field), which makes them rather boring. (All you'll get is lines or planes of one color, they cannot sensibly navigate the second dimension.)

Two-state TMs are 'clever' enough to change the color after moving, which means they can draw corners and thereby use the whole 2d plane. They still have to put all information into the picture, meaning you get to see all the gory details of information flow. You don't have the transition table, but you can read most of it off the image. You'll see all paths or areas in which movement in a single direction can happen without changing the color. Everything else has to be left in the picture, which means it will constantly overwrite stuff. This, in turn, means that it'll likely use groups of colors for one purpose.

Example: http://wry.me/hacking/Turing-Drawings/#2,8,0,3,2,1,7,3,0,7,0...

The start is boring: red - turn green & go up, green - turn black & go down, black - turn pink & move right (so far this could be done by a 1-state TM.) Pink does some state changes and introduces cyan, shortly after you'll see it 'sewing' to the left, leaving a thick structured line across the image, which is then expanded into a yellow-green covering of the whole black area (see how black/pink move right and cyan/yellow give turning directions and create yellow/green?) and then... ah, well just look at it.

Three-state TMs can hide quite a lot of information. As an example, the extra state can be used as a movement state, allowing non-destructive movement in one direction. (On jump mark (say, white), change to state #3 and keep going until you hit the next jump mark.) It can also be used to non-destructively look in one direction (e.g. for testing what color the left neighbor has). Combinations thereof can do pretty crazy stuff.

Adding more states basically just allows 'compressing' the picture more, which makes it more likely that you'll only see noise - especially if the TMs are randomly generated.
but Waze+apple could be. If you have a ton of cash and an inferior product, why wouldn't you buy up competent smaller players?
PHP is a solid workhorse. Quick to prototype, and once a PHP app is up and running, it just works.

Wikipedia, Facebook, MailChimp, WordPress, tons more -- they all load fast and are hardly ever down.

You can argue all day about the fine details of programming languages, but PHP is popular for good reasons.
If you read the next line, he's saying that low-rate developers need a lot of detailed instructions. He says that's because they are second-rate. Just as likely, they don't have the margins to play guessing games (if you are on $1000 for a CRUD website, you can afford a bit of rework; if it's $200 you need to be able to get it done without any change in design).
I think you really nailed it with this analysis
EntoCon 2013
International Conference on Entomology 2013
OMICS Entomology Symposium 2013
etc.

At any rate I think you're interpreting the accusation quite narrowly; the assertion is that OMICS has repeatedly done this and/or performed other actions that wilfully intend to confuse and deceive (e.g. associating authors with their conference without permission). The battle isn't being fought over a hyphen in isolation.
There are lots of systems with address-information associations. Collecting that information is going to yield lots of human names.

Something like the Coinbase merchant pages contained a surprising amount of information, and they were intentionally published.
> My code is much better architected, much more reusable, cleaner, and, if you're going to be using it in the long-term, it's going to be much, much cheaper.

I admire your humility.
I can't even begin to calculate the amount of time I wasted on Eclipse. I hated it. I tried to use eclim, which kinda work, but started crashing vim (infrequently) which is worse than not having anything. At least once every two weeks (for three years) I would get so fed up with how slow it is that I'd spend an hour or two trying to fix it.

It's hours and days wasted, and that's before I consider any difference in productivity while actually using each IDE. If any of this sounds familiar, do spend a couple of weeks in the free version of IDEA. It was night-and-day for me. The worst part will be your muscle memory (e.g. stepping through the debugger).
> If it's not good less people will use it because users will not like the UI.

It's not quite that simple. If you want to use Netflix, you have to use their terrible webkit-based app. So we all do.

That doesn't mean that everyone would have a better user experience with apps sticking to common platform conventions.
Google looks after Google and that's it. Exhibit A is search and how much more money Google makes after major updates.

People are in denial but some truth is coming out little by little.
Exactly. How many people do you think would notice if they banned some Google ip's. If they banned some Google domains, people would notice, but a banned IP would just mean one fewer Google servers in that region.
It's about time AWS had some serious competition.

Hah, yeah, okay, sure.
Does anyone seriously believe violating the YT TOS in the app was an honest mistake?

This is ridiculous. Why would anyone expect a special TOS just for Microsoft?
I'll reply to the only part of this comment that barely interested me, and probably the only part that even deserves a response:

> Do you think they were successful because they won a lottery?

Yes.
I'm also using it but I found the hard way that it misses a few bus line (such as samTrans in the San Mateo county)
And I wish Google well in this realm. Given yelp's somewhat shady practices, I welcome more competition (well, I would welcome the competition regardless, but especially in this case).
If the approach propagates because community norms fail, then a bad UI (and another, and another) may result in the shared investment in common platform conventions being lost.
They should add Java as a CLR-supported language :P
Ask HN: Is there a scalable method to paying contractors by check?
We currently work with over 100 contractors whom we pay by check weekly. Currently we are writing checks by hand. We plan on scaling our contractors by an order of magnitude the next year or so. Can anyone recommend a scalable method or service for writing checks or paying our contractors?
To answer these questions in the order they were posed: Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
> Microsoft has gotten a lot better the last few years imho

You are entitled to your opinion, but I must say that quite a few people around here, me as an example, do not share it.

We still remember the ISO Office XML shenanigans, the vague Linux patent threats, the still ongoing Android patent extortion, the UEFI requirement - that's on par with Microsoft's old evil, imho.
Several years back I was in a meeting with a very extroverted Italian man, well known to the group and a VP of something or other. He was handing out awards of some sort, and doing the extroverted Italian huggy thing. It was endearing, and most of the women were game, except one towards the end who was nervous about it. The VP read her body language and adjusted to handshake and a happy apology with contrite head bobbing and hand waving.

I was next, and on a whim called out "I'll hug you, Joe," and did so with gusto, to much laughter from the room. It was shocking, as I'm the guy who does nothing with anyone. No handshake, no hug, just radiating a pleasant uncomfortableness.

There are only two people I habitually hug, though, my wife and my father-in-law; the latter being much less awkward than my use of a semicolon. He's the Kramer to my Soup Nazi, and we get along famously for no apparent reason (aside from a common interest in his daughter's welfare, that is).
Yes, if you're curious what a pipe bomb explosion would be like, then I think you should investigate that curiosity safely with safeguards in place.

If you want to 'see what happens' with anthrax, then by all means you should study its properties at your desk at work--inside a laboratory--with safeguards in place.

And if you want to see what happens when you combine two chemicals in a science class, then by all means. I think students should be able to reasonably assume that the safeguards are in place. Because if we're giving our children materials to build the equivalent of a pipe bomb in science class, then that is our fault. We're the adults. We bring the safeguards, and they bring the scientific curiosity.

And by the way, a discussion of recklessly carrying out science is independent of a discussion of whether an act can be scientific in nature.
Have you tried TransitTimes? http://transittimesapp.com/boston-public-transit-app.html

Office mate of mine built it.
Oh, sorry. Let me rephrase:

> I don't know about your or your friends' coding skills, so I can't comment. I see a huge difference in the code my friends write in their language of proficiency versus code I write in the same language (I am mainly a scientist, so my code tends to be ad-hoc modelling to get to a specific point, then discarded).

> Their code is much better architected, much more reusable, cleaner, and, if you're going to be using it in the long-term, it's going to be much, much cheaper. Not to sound arrogant, but they sometimes marvel at how easy it is to add more features or change features just because the code was written properly the first time around.

> This is what the client pays for, the years of experience that have taught them how to write clean, maintainable and extensible code. If you're going to throw the code away after your MVP, you obviously shouldn't care if the code is maintainable, but code written by inexperienced and experienced developers is nowhere near similar.

Better now?
Microsoft developers are not idiots. This is a PR stunt. A lame one at that.
It's personal bias from my previous experience in travel -- but it's very interesting to see the small (grayed out) 'flight' logo as one of the navigation options in the top-left.
Just for putting another option on the table:

Get a graduate degree from either a US or UK institution and try making the jump from the low-income country over to a US/EU country. Afaik accounting PhDs are quite in demand so with a littlebit luck and effort you might find there a paid teaching position. That would allow you to have more time on your hands and push your non-finance skills forward.

That might improve your situation more than just building up Php/MySql sites as you have apparently already have quite a solid level of expertise in the auditing industry.

Think about what level of time and effort someone from outside the auditing industry would have to invest in order to compete with your skillset/experience. Unless you found some lucky accident you need to put the same level of effort into your goal if you want to become a full time IT guy (who doesn't just compete with a zillion of other wannabe professionals on oDesk).
> That story changed under interview,

You've said that before. Do you have a cite for it please?
You can always use IKVM for running Java under .NET!

I used it for adding the boilerpipe Java library to navigate HackerNews by voice! Details at: http://blog.databigbang.com/voice-recognition-content-extrac...
Ran into this and solved by searching for just "hangouts".
wow, what a great story. People following their true passions.
> ... Google Maps etc.

I don't use the others, but I often get confused using Google Maps because I have no idea what all the new/unusual UI elements do.

Once I learn Google Maps' way of doing things, I don't want to have to learn a new way for every other app, too.

More to the point, I'd rather not have to learn how to use Google Maps' nonstandard UI to begin with.

> The rumor is that iOS 7 is going to change to a flatter appearance anyway, so in a few weeks this all might be moot.

That's a good point, because the way Apple rolls out incremental UI tweaks is by changing the standard components in backwards-compatible ways.

If you roll your own components, you have to work harder to keep up.

I would emphasize the word "incremental". If you examine the progression of Mac OS X across the past decade, there are significant changes, but they were done cleanly and incrementally and in a way that was immediate familiar to existing users.

I do not believe that we'll see iOS 7 pick up 'flat design' as defined here.
They did that once before http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Sharp
What you're looking for is a payroll service; they generally will handle both regular wage earners and 1099 contractors and will do the check printing, direct deposit, and year-end tax reporting.

We used Paychex for years to handle that type of stuff, but there are definitely others out there that are just as good if not better.
That story changed under interview

You've mentioned that a couple of times here. Can you point us to a link?
What a great idea. Unfortunately I am in Miam, but would love to look at replicating here.
A legal "right" with respect to rights to a common English word and a number is very different from a "right" with respect to an industry that is supposed to be unbiased and thruthful. In science, the name of a publication, conference, or person means a lot. To run a "major" conference about entomology named almost exactly like the most recognizable event in the field smacks of nothing but dishonesty.
What I find the most interesting is that they were not disingenuous at all. Meaning, they bought work that they loved, not attempted to get high value art for low cost from known artists. This speaks volumes. It was about the love of art more than anything.

They were just on a shoestring budget and the only way to get their paws on it was to be frugal and skilled about acquiring it.

Great read.
If that was the case, not anymore. On iOS, I'm using BeeJive for Google Talk and it works fine. Mo+ has an app as well.
>I'm wondering what you see as viable open source alternatives to the .Net platform.

Mono? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_(software)

Or going in a different direction with similar goals, Qt.
Give me one example of a website that I might be visiting who's TOS says that you can't block the ads.
Weird things you've never seen anyone actually do? Test for equality, build data structures, handle error conditions?

There's lots of example code, inline, but much of the article is about missing/broken features and artifacts of the design that make it unfriendly to wetware.
Every accounting department (that is, every company big enough to have an accounting department) I've ever worked with wanted a contract number on my invoice. If you're not in the system, you aren't getting paid. And you're doing well to get net 30, let alone upfront. I don't think this would fly with my individual clients either.

Interesting thought, though. I've always considered the first few hours as part of the cost of sales. At some point you just stop and say, "we need a contact". Until then, it's marketing. Not saying that's the only or best way to do it, but it seems to be the usual way.
The legal answer is that the Supreme Court has treated anything written by a corporation on a sheet of paper as a holy scripture (Citizen United, Monsanto, the class action suits waivers) so chances are it will be - they can do whatever they want.

The ethical answer is that when a company becomes of a certain size it happens to be a part of the national infrastructure so they should give FRAND access to their services.
Follow me on Tumblr, then! http://moron4hire.tumblr.com

or G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100282968888030008096/posts

The posts will show up on Tumblr and get linked on G+, but I'm not a huge fan of Tumblr's dashboard system.
"It seems odd now that Microsoft was prosecuted for engaging in monopolistic practices in the 90s. Apple and Google are currently abusing their market positions without much real criticism."

Key, and very important points:

First - Microsoft really did have a, legally proven, Monopoly position in 1999 for desktop/laptop computing. It's hard for some of us to remember, particularly with the wealth of web-based computing in which the client really doesn't matter any more (Facebook works just fine from a Mac or Linux System) - not to mention the incredible growth of mobile (in which Microsoft has no traction). But in 1999, Microsoft had basically a monopoly role in the people's computing experience, and they then tried to leverage that monopoly to take over another market (web browsing) . They managed to squish Netscape like a little bug, but the Justice Department stepped in, and prevented them from continuing their illegal behavior [1].

Apple has a nice product, but they most certainly do not have a Monopoly.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp...
The flagging ability is removed if you do a lot of flagging in a very short time, like the poster who didn't like all Steve Jobs posts on front page when he passed away and flagged them all and lost his flagging ability.

Microsoft related articles don't show up that frequently to cause that, especially because people don't even bother submitting them because 1. they don't get upvotes(because of HN's makeup) 2. If they happen to get upvotes they're flagged by overzealous Microsoft haters.

Anyway, if you think I am misguided, what's the alternative explanation of this and every other instance of such things? I am genuinely curious.

This article: http://i.imgur.com/FbkMiCI.png

Just a few more instances:

http://i.imgur.com/ADMcanz.png

http://i.imgur.com/Yg5kXJb.png

http://i.imgur.com/FbkMiCI.png

Why would someone want to flag a review of the Surface Pro review from Anandtech of all places? Note that a new Chromebook announcement was #1 for all day on that day.

Want to see more instances of such mod abuse?

A user complaining about this happening to Apple related stories as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4850128
... disdain by hipsters is a bonus in my book.
Which of the top apps look like https://www.joingrouper.com/assets/new_landing/OnboardingScr... ?
I never thought of that, brilliant.
Ironic that two stories, actually far more critical of Google with something more legitimate to complain about, outrank this story.

I'd love to hear pg comment on if Google stories are really abused, mis-modded or flagged as you imply.
Hell, Google doesn't even allow a significant portion of the online video market to participate on Youtube. They are anything but choking out competition; they are handing their competition a huge feature on a silver platter.
Love that idea. That could also lead to an interesting analysis which institution the co-authors give as their home institution. Might be even demonstrate causality, e.g. researcher X from institution X works with researcher Y from institution Y and later researcher X joins institution Y as well. I'm suspecting there are some academic tribes out there.
Not sure. Maybe a fully-fleshed out profile could be visually appealing? Or the website could announce that the profile is only 80% complete (like how OKCupid and LinkedIn do it).

Or a big "claim my profile" link?
With Google focussing on G+ like crazies(even though I don't know many people who use this service) and seeing Hangout is almost fused in G+, this very much looks like a Google Reader waiting to happen for Google Talk.
That, and in the US (and many other countries), we also now have government protections against price dumping [1]. Not to say it doesn't still happen, but there is some recourse.

Regardless, a good read.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)#Actio...
> The project only makes it easy to generate and integrate flat images into these controls. You make it sound like he is rewriting UIKit.

What does 'native UI element' mean if you're swapping out all the bitmaps and completely changing the visual language, and ALL UIKit elements must be significantly modified to fit into your new language?
It sounds trite, but have you tried contacting companies in the UK and USA?

If written communication between you and the client is strong, it's often an advantage to the client to have someone working out of sync with them. At the end of their day, they dump some stuff into $ISSUE_TRACKER_OF_CHOICE. When they get back the next morning, it's done.
$600 million is nothing. Why can't we spend more on this? Do people really lack such forethought or is it the 100-yr-lifespan selfishness?
So you're saying that, as a programmer, it's in my best interests to learn something other than PHP so I'll be less affordable...?
Steve Jobs mail to Murdoch - How to negotiate over email
It would be, since it's not on the blockchain. But the purpose of the blockchain is to prevent people from giving you some coins, then giving else the same coins. If they just hand over their wallet, they could hand over the same wallet to someone else later.

The recipient could send the wallet's bitcoins to another address right away, but then the sender might as well have done that in the first place.

Still, in the rare case where you need an anonymous transfer from someone you completely trust, this might be the way to go.
I think this comment would have been better if you had listed some insanities that make Javascript unusable. It doesn't seem objective at the moment. I, for one, honestly cannot think of what you might be referring to, but I only have a passing knowledge of Javascript so I cannot really decide if you are the GP have made the better point.
My bet is on Google employees. I get a good dozen or so downvotes from them when I post something negative about Google. Usually it happens in a short period of time, as if someone gave them marching orders.

I have also noticed that Googlers aren't fans of saying "Disclaimer: I work for Google" but go straight into praising Google's Product A and Feature B as if they had no bias.

"Google is good and Microsoft is evil" is getting a little tiring and IMO is no longer true. Google will do almost anything for a quick buck:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-keny...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190478740457652...
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/05/technology/google_verizon_ne...

Just imagine what may hide in their black box algorithms as Google claims fairness an unbiased results.
I don't think this stuff gets grandfathered. After the FinCEN guidance they probably had a duty to inform their bank.
On top of that, having a payroll service with direct deposit makes contractors very happy.

I have not used Paychex, but I would advise against ADP (another payroll company).
Friend of mine here in Australia is the guy behind TransitTimes (http://transittimesapp.com/), an app in the same field (iOS and Android). He slaves away on his app and has support for a fair number of cities in the US, Australia, Canada and a couple of others. I'd be interested to know how it and Embark compare in terms of functionality?

He's actually in the US at the moment at Google I/O and hoping to meet up with fellow hackers, but his Ask HN fizzled a bit (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5678888). He's @hendx on Twitter if anyone can spare time to meet up with him - he'll be over there for a number of weeks.

I badger him all the time to do a Show HN and talk about the work that's gone into his app, but he's too shy about it. Embark guys, can I convince him to buy you a coffee and compare transit notes?