skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_re...

Judging by that list, the notion that you can't make money off the unexotic underclass seems suspect. Even excluding Oil and Gas, the vast majority of the companies are not exactly luxury brands for the upper class.
Let's beam! ...igos
Additionally, as point (18) on the page you linked to states:

Mandatory. Enable/Disable Secure Boot.
On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the
ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup. A
physically present user must be allowed to disable
Secure Boot via firmware setup without possession of
PKpriv.

Doesn't this mean that (definitely on certified non-ARM systems, and possibly on some ARM systems) you can just enter the UEFI, disable secure boot, and boot your OS of choice?
"underscores how backwards and insecure Harvard can feel at times"

You do realize of course that most people in the world would give a testicle, a breast (or two) to be affiliated with that University, right?
What's wrong with me setting my user-agent to "By allowing me access, you waive all rights and policies regarding my access." and then viewing your website? Hint: it's about as enforceable as a EULA, but just as obnoxious and offensive because it presumes too much and oversteps bounds. Still, in the grand scheme of things, my UA string makes more sense, as putting something online is practically tantamount to putting it in the public domain, whereas you can't perform perfectly reasonable and otherwise legal acts with your legally owned property unless you violate most EULAs.
This article seems to have good intentions, but it does so much insulting to the audience in the first several paragraphs that I struggled to read further...

The disgraceful state of the veterans really is a problem that can be solved rather easily with automation. Unfortunately, doing business with the government is very trying. From little experience that I have first hand, keeping the status quo is also very profitable.

As to the rest of the problems, people who point out the cash flow issues are spot on. For example, most European countries file childcare right there with education as a good that cannot be left to market forces. They all tend to have stagnated or declining populations, with extremely negative views on immigration. That is hardly the view point in the US. We seem to still think that healthcare can be completely addressed by market forces. (If you are sick and can't work, how are you going to make those payment again? Oh yeas, insurance! Too bad it's tied to the employment you no longer have...)
A new (real) Mario?

Are you serious? Do you mean a 2D Mario with actual effort put into it? Because that's Nintendo's biggest series in the ones you listed. Also, all of those games were available on the Gamecube (excepting 2D Mario), and Wii U is basically selling at Gamecube levels. I think it's important to note that the philosophy Nintendo has with the Wii U is more their Gamecube philosophy than Wii philosophy. Look at what Iwata had to say during the respective console cycles. I agree that it's the games, but more specifically it's their lack of interest in focusing on the games that sell systems (hence their horrible treatment of 2D Mario).

I'm inclined to believe that after three years of the Wii being sold out in stores, Nintendo went straight back to the strategies that led to the abysmal sales of the Gamecube. This led to significantly lower sales for the rest of the Wii's life and led to Gamecube-level sales for its successor, the Wii U.
Get out of the liberal echosphere every now and then and you'll find your ability to predict reality increases.
such a shameless advertisement on NYT that you can't even call it a placement marketing
The Earth is fine, people. One herd of farting cows diminishes all the human effort in CO emission decrease in nearby town. One volcano eruption diminishes it worldwide. One major earthquake contributes to Earth landscape change more than all the humanity did.
Claiming that human can change the Earth is like claiming that the single flea drives the whole elephant.
Earth is fine, people.
Comparing the walkability scores for the entire cities is a bad comparison. Houston is downright huge compared to San Francisco in a geographical sense. The area of Houston I live in has a walk score of 82 apparently. There are many areas of San Francisco with walk scores below that.

Yes, in general Houston is not a walkable city at all. But you can significantly reduce your reliance on driving by just making more intelligent choices about where you live. Many people here think that they've got to go buy a house as soon as they can, so they go buy out in a suburb with a 30 minute commute because they can't afford a house in the nicer inner loop neighborhoods. I choose to just rent an apartment downtown--significantly better quality of life, incredible dining options (Houston is frequently rated the best city for restaurants in the US), stunning wooded neighborhoods nearby (River Oaks), and if I ever decide I want a house, I can just go buy one for cash in a suburb (or nearly so)--yet I still retain the option also of packing it all up and going to SF if I wanted to.
I love how the entirety of the Q section consists of Quantum XYZ. :)
China, which signed a $3 billion currency swap deal with Belarus in 2009 to boost trade, agreed to finance the venture with low-interest loans as long as half the money is spent on Chinese materials...

Can someone explain the four-year planning of the currency swap related to the actual build-out? Or am I seeing something of insignificance related to the whole of the article?
I haven't had very good luck with Nexmo and deliverability. I wanted to migrate all my traffic there, but had to stop after a few %-tests resulted in increased failure rate. I do still use them for some areas/networks they seem to do better with. I also appreciate their good customer service.
Do you think he didn't respond to the original email because it was "short game" as Gary would say? There is an element of quid pro quo however.
Points on Why You Should Learn How To Code
Hong Kong's massive projects to reclaim land are captured in this and makes for very impressive viewing.
It really doesn't - Rails comes with a lot of things that Django does not by default. Off the top of my head, Django does not come with database migrations, environment based configuration or an asset pipeline. You can add those things to Django, but you need to either use a 3rd party library or roll it yourself. I believe Django database migrations are coming, based on South, but if they'll land in 1.6 I don't know.
Popcorn.fm — Movie and TV show recommendations
I have released some songs on Bandcamp.

What are the benefits to being in a large marketplace like iTunes?

I am very intrigued with Spotify being in the mix. Keep up the good work.
I'll just leave this here... http://www.tokutek.com/2013/02/mongodb-fractal-tree-indexes-...

Come talk to us if you're interested. We are stabilizing things and hope to open up evaluations more in a week or two.
Receding ice sheets don't terrify you? The felling of rainforest, the Earth's inhaler of carbon dioxide. Disappearing.

All because of one species. Human beings. That is a chilling.
The Amazon deforestation one and the Glacier retreat are pretty shocking and terrifying for me. Wish a scale was provided for the deforestation one though, since it's difficult to grasp the scope of its effects without one.

That being said I found the Dubai and Las Vegas ones fascinating.
[citation needed]. Seriously, because there's a body of evidence [1] completely disagreeing with your assertions. You're directly going against the overwhelming majority [2] of scientific consensus with those statements.

[1]: http://news.discovery.com/earth/weather-extreme-events/volca...

[2]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/...
Is it even that common to find hardware that will take a non-USB keyboard anymore? I've got some, but it's old.
We should still make our best effort to minimize human impact --

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/11/documerica-images...
I didn't really see what's so specific in this post about Facebook? The same could be said like "it's my X year on social network Y". I expected something specific in the context of Facebook in the post, but I didn't find it there. I'm not a Facebook user though, so may be I didn't understand some implicit assumptions of the OP.
As the article (clearly) says, since USB is not set up fast enough to recognize a keyboard before the bootloader has handed control to the OS, there's no way to interrupt boot to do so; Windows will let you reboot to another OS, but only after you click through a license agreement.
Yes, as long as you can get into the firmware menu in the first place. Which, on some hardware, requires you to agree to the Windows EULA.
I believe you, but can you please name and shame? I'd hate to accidentally purchase hardware which by design makes entering firmware setup impossible[1]. With online ordering this isn't always something you can check in advance.

[1] I'm assuming that if a working OS install is required to access it, should anything go wrong you're screwed.
Not really, basic permissions on facebook includes your friend list.
I don't think your points quell the issues raised by the Amazon diversity when considering biological diversity issues.
> 1. What does Rails do that Django doesn't?

The answer is, basically, "Have a larger ecosystem without being Java." There are a few things each has by default that the other doesn't, but by and large I don't think people pick Rails because it has 8 million features and Django only has 7.95 million.

> 2. Why hasn't the Python community seen whatever Ruby's doing and copied whatever makes Ruby popular? Are there any Python/Ruby experts reading this who are willing to port or reimplement the good parts of Ruby in Python?

Just about anything worthwhile already has an equivalent. The reason Ruby is popular is not really about features. Ruby is popular because Ruby managed to capture people's imagination. When the new generation of webdev was first coming around in the mid-2000s, Ruby had a huge burst of enthusiasm. Everybody was enamored with Ruby on Rails, and Ruby itself had lots of fanatical evangelists like Why who were eager to teach people. Python, ironically, was hampered by the fact that it was more mature and thus it was harder to get people excited about it. Additionally, Rails was the killer app for Ruby, while Python took a relatively long time to put out a comparable product. I don't remember if Django existed, but there certainly wasn't the situation you have today where Django is basically the "Python Rails" and they're seen as being on roughly equal footing. Instead, Pythonistas were all talking about how you should take Twisted and twelve other libraries and you just write all this glue code and then it's sort of like Rails if you squint really hard — and nobody really found that exciting either.

This isn't to say that Ruby doesn't have actual benefits to recommend it. Rails is a very nice, mature environment for web development, and Ruby as a whole has a very nice ecosystem these days. But the reason it got where it is is because Ruby won people over eight years ago, and it's gotten where it is today from that momentum. It isn't that Ruby is miles ahead and Python is simply inferior, but that Ruby just got a head start in that field and inertia matters a lot.

> 3. Are there any other reasons to prefer Ruby over Python besides Rails? For example, do Gems do things that are impossible with Pip?

The culture of the two languages is sort of different. Python invariably loves explicitness. Ruby isn't as crazy infatuated with "magic" as it used to be, but it's still much more acceptable over there to do weird tricks that let you write code the way you want to (e.g. "this magically executes in a context with functions that aren't available elsewhere") instead of the old-fashioned way. A lot of people prefer the latter, so they like Ruby. A lot of other people hate that kind of code, and they will be much happier using Python.
He's referring to the fact that they can't spam your friends with just an email address, but can request additional permissions (which are often clicked through) to do that on facebook.
Atlassian also have something similar; "websudo"

https://developer.atlassian.com/display/DOCS/Adding+WebSudo+...
"Implications"? Is that a weird word for a block or what?
It's not done in CS either. It varies greatly by sub-topic though.
Startups for the 99%
This paper extends our previous work on .....
This EULA is unlikely to be unenforceable, as you have the option of returning the product to the manufacturer if you don't want to agree to it.
What about 100 dollar bills in particular? I would be curious to see what percentage of transactions using these bills involve tax evasion, drugs, or other illegal activity.
It prevents you from using Windows Loader to pirate Windows. (That's a benefit... to Microsoft.)
List Https as reason to not prerender. There goes the idea of using it for a sales funnel.
Does anyone have an authoritative, scientific resource that can quantify human impact on Earth in our presumably negative ways? I want to understand more about the issues as a whole but from a macro standpoint, ideally backed with numbers and science from a trusted third party.
Did anyone else catch the irony in Friedman talking about employers that "increasingly don’t care how those skills were acquired: home schooling, an online university, a massive open online course, or Yale," then writing an article entirely about two Yale graduates who went to work at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs post-graduation?

Last time I checked, McKinsey isn't recruiting at University of Phoenix. Going to Yale doesn't hurt in getting into YCombinator either. Nowadays, YC's name recongnition functions as a credential as well. Dig a little deeper than the title, and this op-ed only reinforces the reality that credentials and connections matter a lot more than raw skill.
I think the most impressive candidates have a mix of 3 qualities: raw ability to program, ability to map real problems into programming problems, and ability to work effectively with other people. I don't expect the ideal candidate to be an ICPC winner or red-rank TopCoder, but they should be able to manipulate code effectively and reason about their programs well. Knowing what non-technical requirements mean in technical terms (i.e. how to build what the customer wants) and what technical restrictions mean in non-technical terms (i.e. what alternatives you can propose when presented with restrictions) is core to being able to build software that solves problems. And since we're talking about hiring people to join a team of other people, obviously I need to be confident they'll succeed in that environment.
Or run https on your server.
Hispanic is an origin; white and black are races. Hispanics can be white or black (or another race).
Why? One would probably tend to keep the impact tolerable enough for themself, but you're not going to find enough people except green fanatics to be motivated to minimize it.
If you edit commits in the branch, then yes, it appears as declined in the UI, which looks hostile when they are notified. I write a friendly message every time I do this, but it sucks to have to give that explanation and the UI metadata is still wrong. I asked for this on bitbucket, though it's currently on hold [1].

If you don't edit the existing commits, then it will show up in the github/bitbucket UI as merged when you eventually merge, regardless of what games you play with branches.

[1] https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issue/6704/supersede-pull-...
Rumor Claims Apple Launching 12.9-Inch 'iPad Maxi'
Is this a joke? Have you ever heard of John Cornyn, US Senator for Texas? He'd wiretap your grandmother and collect DNA samples from your dog if he could.

None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead -- John Cornyn, in support of reauthorization of the PATRIOT act
He wrote "at Facebook", not "on Facebook". It's his 4th year as a Facebook employee.
Amazing. This is the area where I grew up (in Australia). The area features 3 "open cut" coal mines. One of which has been going through a reforestation process over the past decade or so.
http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/v=-38.2235574,146.46468...
Cool new iphone app for levitation photography
I have the same experience in the US. Seems like it might be a problem with the admin panel on a page (since other pages don't seem to have the issue).
The post was written with my younger coworkers in mind but I felt like it was of general interest to all new programmers so I made it public. I don't think you need to understand anything about the Facebook product or company in order to understand my post.

The original title here was "FB engineer reflects on his job" but I guess it got changed because that phrase didn't appear in the linked page? I think the other title set context that wasn't needed on Facebook but is in this environment. Apparently an editor disagreed. (Editor, if you're reading, I'd title this "My advice for newgrads joining software companies".)
Watch the Vegas time-lapse again, but look at Lake Mead, not Las Vegas.

EDIT: As for the scale of the Amazon deforestation, by zooming and scrolling the time-lapse map at the bottom of the article, I watched what looks like very nearly the entire Brazilian state of Rondônia go from rainforest to grassland in the 30-ish year period depicted. (Wikipedia says that 70k km² of its 200k km² of rainforest was cleared by 2003, while the map goes to to 2012.) [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rond%C3%B4nia
Yes, but this app does not ask for those permissions.
Ah, thanks for pointing this out, this changes the perspective of the post, so I just didn't pay attention :)
Trying out Coinbase as a bitcoin wallet - do you own any bitcoin?
Running a startup on Haskell (Video)
The EPA's Memo of "Endangerment Finding":
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/endangerment/Enda...

The National Academy of Sciences: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10139&page=1

The InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change:
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-...

^ About as scientific as it gets, attributing global climate change trends since the beginning of the 20th century to human beings with over 90% certainty.
This is the most depressing comment I've read all week, for so many reasons. :(
The Microsoft spec says that any fallback to the Windows rescue environment should trigger full USB enumeration. The Samsung Series 5 I tested had this behaviour, but given I had to return it after managing to kill the firmware I can't give you the exact model number…
I don't mean to diminish your point, as I fully agree with environmental concerns.

But I laughed when you said it's chilling that the ice sheets are receding.
Not the OP, but meaningful whitespace is an abomination unto the world.

It's difficult to elaborate on something that is a matter of taste, but some of us need our code blocks visually bookended.
How to shoot levitation photos with iPhone
He/she means that `=>` looks like a mathematical implication, just like `|...|` looks like absolute value bars.
Rob Zinkov (https://github.com/zaxtax) is a first-rate hacker. He has a popular ML blog (http://zinkov.com/) and organizes the Los Angeles machine learning users group.
Not really, since you can just disable Secure Boot and run a hacked copy of Windows Loader, or enrol the hash of said hacked Windows Loader and boot with Secure Boot enabled.
Of course Gov. Perry wants email privacy - http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-pol...

He's had problems with it in the past.
You misinterpreted the CNSNews.com article. You used the term voluntary but the incidents referred to in it are involuntary demands. That is, they represent legal process, such as a search warrant, a (d) order or grand jury subpoena for non-content logs, etc. If Google gets a valid court order, it is required by law to involuntarily comply. Similarly, if the cops show up at 6am at your home with a valid search warrant, you're required to involuntarily let them in and conduct their search.

Also the good folks at CNSNews.com (published by the conservative advocacy group Media Research Center) would probably not be my first choice for a survey of surveillance and electronic privacy law. For instance the article fails to mention that, at the time it was published, Google required search warrants for all e-mail -- an important detail.
For those that don't know Texas politics, the Senate and the House are roughly divided into thirds -> 1/3 liberal democrat, 1/3 old school country club moderate Republican, 1/3 Tea Party Republican. I can't think of a single non-rules vote that received unanimous support among all three camps in the past two legislative sessions. At no point in this bill's history ( committee hearings, open house vote, open Senate vote ) did it ever earn a single nay.

You couldn't get that vote for a proclamation that cancer is bad ( someone would vote against it because its a waste of time ).
Access to clean water. Diarrhea.
Erm...what? Do you have any data behind those claims?

The InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) disagrees with you: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-...

While we're at it, so does the National Academy of Sciences:
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10139&page=1

So does the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/endangerment/Enda...
I can't find anything concrete, but I think it's fair to say that the attach rates for the 360 and PS3 are similar, and as you say, Microsoft is only narrowly 2nd out of 3rd in terms of consoles sold.

I think a case can be made for the 360 being more valuable than the PS3, though, just because of the online service offered by Microsoft. They had at least 20 million users paying for gold in January of 2012, which comes to around a billion dollars a year for Microsoft. Who knows what the operating costs are, but I'm sure they're doing well, especially considering that they show advertisements on top of the subscription revenue.

I can't find any numbers for PS+, but I'd be shocked if it's anything comparable to what Microsoft has going.
Really, this sort of thing should be out of the hands of laws. We need a user-to-user encryption replacement for email already! If I see the words 'gpg' it's failed.
Many desktop machines still do, and most of the modern motherboards in full or mid-tower size still have a PS/2 port or two, for laptops PS/2 support is almost non-existent.
Everything you describe sounds like China in 1980. They designated Shenzhen as a special economic zone and it became a model for the rest of the country. Whether or not Belarus benefits in the long run, who knows, but it's a good deal for China.

The EU sanctions expire in a few months, and currently only target individuals and companies, there is no general trade embargo so access to EU markets should be fine. Also China and the US are outside every single European institution but there is plenty of trade.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/15/belarus-eu-sanctio...

Being landlocked won't be an issue for exporting finished goods to the EU, but perhaps there will be an issue for raw materials and component supplies.
Re: the Wiretap Act, you're quite right. But fortunately the Fourth Amendment does:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025650-281.html
Laptops are often still an approximation of PS/2.
Wish this went back to the 60's. I have heard about how much of SV was farmland (orchards) when my parents first arrived, and would love to see a timelapse that visualizes the change over time here.