skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The classic adage is: A CEO walks around the office floor and notices how wonderfully clean the place is. This CEO is all about efficiency, so he trots into his office and phones up the CFO. He asks how much is spent on cleaning, suprised at the cost decimates the cleaning budget.

In a brief email to the board, boasting of another hard day's work making the company leaner and faster he says: "The office is already squeaky clean, why would we need cleaners?"
Prior discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5748053
Gold Gets Dug Out of the Ground; Then We Melt It Down and Bury It Again |
Yes just thinking purely about the actual written information in an ancient book it's hard to imagine it could survive copying without a single mistake no matter how much attention to detail there is.

Add to the translation from language to language over many centuries, phrases may not translate very well even within the same language due to changes in culture over a long time. How many phrases and words do we in the English world use that were common even just 100 years ago now imagine 2,000 years ago.
> As for MQ, I've really tried to understand it, but it's just profoundly awkward IMHO. Mercurial's main benefit is that it's much easier to use and understand than git, so if I'm going to need to fire up the extra brainpower, I might as well learn git where these advanced patterns are extremely commonplace. I've almost never seen anyone using MQ or rebase with mercurial.

I believe the GP's reference to mq is for the strip command (to delete unwanted revisions), which for some odd reason that I've never understood is part of the mq extension.
There are many problems with the golden model (like really golden prices if you compare them to their real costs), but it is not true that it implies bad quality -- greed does. Springer's BMC for instance is golden and quite reliable, while Elsevier lives from subscriptions and does even worse things than Hindawi.
I'm not sure this is true. There is lots of sage advice out there pointing out what seems obvious to older, more jaded folks, which is that unless you are an actual founder, you'll probably not make too much money even on a successful exit. The information is certainly out there. It is mentioned on HN a lot.

But on the inside of these places you tend to have a lot of people at the founder level who speak about how well off everyone is going to be when the business really hits it big, and this type of talk can be pervasive to the point of almost being cultish. It becomes the go-to pep talk when the going is tough -- "Sure we're working 90 hours a week, but just think how great it is going to be when we all have Lambos in the parking lot!" And I do think a lot of younger folks who are less experienced with the game do tend to believe the bullshit even if all available data (save for ridiculous outliers like Google) states otherwise. When you're inside an echo chamber, it is really hard not to start believing what everyone is echoing, even if it seems obviously wrong to objective bystanders.

As far as the founders go, I think in some cases they are just being purely manipulative, and in other cases they aren't but are just naive themselves and not really thinking about the enormous drop in EV you can expect when you are a common share pleb.
Why, imagining is fun.

There are tons of photos of these places online, many of them tagged ("breaking news from the dome of the rock", or "here's me and Sam at the western wall"). Collect enough of these and you can attach knowledge to images. Then, you just have to know two images look similar, and you have your classification.

Neither of the above is easy - nay, it's very hard. But once you have those two building blocks, this technology is viable. And it's very exciting!
I thought validating an idea is very common step for startups?
Also, if you think you aren't living in a free society, try moving to Saudi Arabia, many countries in Africa, Cuba, Bolivia, many S. American countries, many eastern european countries, etc.

Just because other countries are less free hardly proves that we are living in a free society. Maybe there is no free society on Earth?

Kudos to the FBI for taking this seriously and showing people you can't just say crap like this without any consequence.

I can't even begin to understand this mindset. In fact, it makes me a bit sick to hear somebody talk this way. But I suppose you think that if we all just sit back in the shadows, embrace fear, behave and do as the all mighty benevolent government tells us, then everything will be alright.
Fascinating stuff, but I have no idea what the author is talking about in this section:

"Some steps have been taken to try to rescue the project. The back end – the benefits calculation – has reportedly been shifted to a “waterfall” development process – which offers some assurances that the government at least takes its fiduciary duties seriously as it should mean no code will be deployed that has not been finished."

It was so out of step with the rest of the post(s) that I thought it sarcasm at first.
Yeah, I had it in my undergrad intro to mechanics textbook. Still a great problem!
About Persona versus site-specific passwords, here's a relevant blog post from one of the Persona developers: http://dancallahan.info/journal/password-managers-not-enough...

About Firefox OS, I was talking about the ubiquity of smartphones and similar mobile devices on a global scale, not just the existence of modern mobile operating systems. I don't think the former has peaked yet, and the Firefox OS team is hoping to make an impact in the developing world in particular. Regarding HTML5+JS versus native, in Firefox OS, HTML5+JS is native as far as applications are concerned, and Mozilla is providing and trying to standardize APIs for all of the "special functionality" that developers can only use through proprietary APIs on the other platforms.
Notice that your own post illustrates why this is a bad idea; whereas

for(int i=0;i<N;i++){
}

correctly steps through `N` `i`-values, a version with your `all_frob_indices` would step through `N + 1` `i`-values (because your termination check is `i > N`). Of course, it's easy to fix this once it's spotted, but you won't spot it with the same ease that you'd spot an off-by-one error in a `for` loop, because your eyes (or at least my eyes) don't know how an `all_frob_indices` function should look as well as they do how a `for` loop should look.
I wonder if I could be another MMM, but with buying stuff that are of extremely high quality and improve my life?

A simple example would be a fairly high priced mechanical keyboard... I would be using it every day.
"Kudos to the FBI for taking this seriously and showing people you can't just say crap like this without any consequence. Living in a free society comes with a cost.

...

Also, if you think you aren't living in a free society, try moving to Saudi Arabia, many countries in Africa, Cuba, Bolivia, many S. American countries, many eastern european countries, etc."

I agree that living in a free society comes with a cost, but it's pretty clear that this man's right to free speech is being violated. Also, the fact that there are countries with horrible human rights violations doesn't have anything to do with whether or not the USA is truly a "free society."
The Many Faces of a Temporal Recursion
I initially thought that looked a bit like a lame attempt to get money while "provoking dialog about what makes game a game" or something arty farty like that, because he makes it sound like that.

Now it seems it's a rather clever attempt at crowd funding.
Those are all good points.

Perhaps it is wrong to use the term Al-Qaeda in this case - it would probably have been better to say militant Islamic fundamentalists or some such than give any specific group name.

However, I was mainly trying address benatkins comment which I thought was an unfair criticism.
The unlabeled object recognition test is a standard test of machine learning algorithms.

Historically, error rates of around 20-25% won competitions and set records. A year or two ago, though some researchers and professors from the University of Toronto absolutely smashed those records, getting around a 16% error rate. They went and made a startup out of their tech, and got acquired by Google a few months ago.

I think that this is going to be the first of a long line of Google products integrating this sort of deep neural network technology. I wouldn't be shocked if Google in 10 years was known for something besides search, at this rate.
Aion Guides | Aion Quest Guides - MMO Strategy Guides
I know it's an unpopular thing to hear....but freedom is a relative concept. You are only as free as compared to someone/something else.

The world is a rough place, and is not a utopia. The fact is, people want to hurt the Western freedoms that many take for granted. Ignoring it, doesn't make those dangers go away.

I am not defending everything the gov't does in the name of security, but the fact is that these challenges are not easy. They are doing the best they can.

If they didn't act on it, and this kid did in fact do something, we would be having a COMPLETELY different conversation now.

The reason these things are so tricky is because many of these attacks happen by 'lone wolves' which are almost impossible to stop.

So as I said, this could have gone the other way - at which point I am sure you would be cursing the FBI for incompetence.
So a kid should spend 20 years in prison? I call complete and total BS. When you can't prove that any actual action might be taken in any way, it is a thoughtcrime. The problem with thoughtcrime is you can't defend yourself. You never know what thought will be labeled a crime today. Nobody is ever safe.

Yes, the US isn't Africa, Cuba, Bolivia, etc. The problem is that it is heading in the wrong direction. We are becoming more hate filled, more suspicious, less empathetic, more of a police state, and more tyrannical. That the first derivative of these things is heading in the negative direction is exceedingly worrying because the acceleration curve tends to steepen, and, as a result, the tyranny grows rapidly.

The lack of empathy you've displayed is exactly the problem. More concern for "just desserts" than for compassion and humanity.
The number one problem with most forums, imo, hn included, is the lack of a decent notification mechanism. In order to drive engagement, users need to know what is being responded to.
The ugly truth: Apple vs. PC design | Apple - CNET News
Sponsor Me, They Did (a followup to Sponsor Me If You Will)
O(N!) is not the same thing as O((N+1)!).

O(f(N)) = O(f(N+1)) is true for exponential functions and less quickly growing functions but not for things past that. (And it's not true for sufficiently quickly decreasing functions, either, in the other direction, e.g. where f(N) = 1/N!)
* Also, the fact that there are countries with horrible human rights violations doesn't have anything to do with whether or not the USA is truly a "free society."*

A free society is a relative term. Free from tyranny, free from government oppression. Free from gov't interference. Those are all relative to those things happening (or happened) elsewhere. Regardless, I hear you on his rights being violated.

Let's assume for a minute that this was a credible threat and the FBI didn't follow up on it like this. Let's say he did do another bombing and killed 20 people, who would you blame?
Show HN: Neatflix, a Netflix API demo
Why would they come after google? A parent can make nearly any transactions for the child. And 17 year olds can take jobs, so even giving him a "job" to pay him trough that probably only would interest the tax guys ("Why are you paying some guy in germany 10k an hour" "Because we don't want to wait to long to transfer all the money" probably is problematic).
If it is a problem with US law, both google and paypal have companies in the EU that could handle that.
It's weird that PayPal replaced one of the instances of </script> with </skript>?
Audiobus – a case study in app collaboration
> Why are you so sure there is another side?

I suspect there may be one because the site is one that I've seen lie about the contents of bills while urging people to donate money. This does not instill confidence in their reporting.
Former Drupal dev compares the project to Scientology
I can only conclude that Drupal has become the Scientology of open source. It's an ant mill of sincerity, each person taking their cue from those that came before, all convinced there is cake in the middle.
Even the plants that do want to be eaten (fruits) often produce agents intended to make you pass them violently in a distant location, which is why overconsumption of wild plants on hikes can result in gastrointestinal discomfort.
Obviously the article is written for fun, but for those interested Douglas Adams' answer to why 42 was:

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story."
Some of us pride ourselves on not sinking to the lowest common denominator (i.e. breeding grounds for mediocrity).
By the way, do you have anything to do with the article you've linked? Because the "when Europe was experiencing its dark ages, these collections were already well established" is complete nonsense. "The Dark Ages" refers to a period in the European history that ends with the end of the 10th century and that is commonly referred to as Early Middle Agen in modern historiography. Wikipedia claims that Timbuktu became a permanent settlement in the 12th century. By then, Europe had at least a few fledgling universities. So no, no Dark Ages here.

Obviously, that doesn't diminish the value of the effort (and, I hope, the eventual schievement), but whenever I see claims like that I cringe. So many people have so little notion of history... (I blame in on the Renaissance people, they were the ones who tried to blacken (pun intended :-)) the previous centuries so that they could feel good about the world they remade for themselves. And then the term got stuck.)
I'm surprised this made it to the top of HN. It's a poorly written article with no clear point. I wish he had put some emotion into the story.
Op een natuurlijke manier definitief en blijvend stoppen met roken |
“Crunch with us before demoday” : screw you, the founders ARE the janitors
Ask HN: Does this sound like the death knell of a startup to you?
I joined this startup late 2012 because the product they were attempting to build was definitely interesting and there were few competitors in their niche.

The main strategy of the startup was to continue to improve the product (a collaborative web based game development tool) and try to garner a user base in the process.

Since then, there has been little traction and now it seems that the company is devolving into a service based web design and development company for clients. Hardly the company I took an interest in back in 2012.

Their justification is that it's necessary to lengthen the runway until "things really get off the ground". I'm skeptical as to whether it will ever get of the ground at all.

Thoughts?
Great, and cool that you touched imports, that's also something I'm hesitating on. I'll be doing your suggested refactors, and am considering consolidating into a single .py. Thanks!
10 Quotes From Getting Real [Slide]
Ask HN: Do you think this is an AI generated answer?
Edit: What made me more suspicious is the following

Question: Is this a genuine question. If so, then please examine the response. If not so, then please ignore the response.
That's my opinion, as well. However, what about paginating things? A different page is a different set of the same type of object, so it's basically sorting and filtering, but you're returning different content.

/posts/page/2

/posts?page=2

/posts?limit=25&offset=25

I like the third option because it allows the must functionality to the user if they so desire, but it kind of feels like a violation of the "only sorting and filtering" rule.
I know it's an unpopular thing to hear....but freedom is a relative concept. You are only as free as compared to someone/something else.

That is the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard uttered on HN. Freedom is binary, you are either subject to coercive force being applied to deny you your freedom of choice, or you're not. You can't be "sort of free" any more than you be "sort of pregnant".

The fact is, people want to hurt the Western freedoms that many take for granted.

Aaah, the "they hate us because we're free" bit. I hear that a lot, but haven't heard a plausible justification for it yet. From what I've seen, most of the non-westerners who are out to attack the West are mostly pissed off because we occupy lands they consider holy, invade their countries, depose their elected leaders, stage coups, supply weapons and training to "Group A" this week, then switch to considering "Group A" our enemy when it suits us, and generally meddle in their affairs.

So as I said, this could have gone the other way - at which point I am sure you would be cursing the FBI for incompetence.

No, exactly because I am fully aware of how difficult it is to prevent a single "lone wolf" actor from doing Bad Things. And as regrettable as that is, living in a free society has certain dangers that come along with it. Maybe in some hypothetical Unobtanialand you could impose a draconian dictatorship / totalitarian government sufficient to prevent all violent crime... but would anybody actually prefer to live there? I'm guessing "no".

I don't know what it is with people today... as far as I'm concerned, "Give me Liberty or give me Death" isn't just some archaic catch-phrase to study in the history books... it is the very definition of what it means to live. If we aren't free, what else could matter more than trying to become so - even if it means dying in the process?
The site displays a list of the least number of blocks needed to achieve an integral multiple "overhangs" (ie. Floor (x) > y, where y is an integer). What the site doesn't mention is that after the first iteration, the harmonic series will never be an integer again.
Ask HN: Javascript type inference and Asm.js
Asm.js works best for compiling statically typed languages into Javascript, adding type information into the JS so that compilers can optimize around this. Some people are worried this will lead to stagnation in JS optimization for when it's written by humans (although I've seen V8 developers de-prioritize Asm.js requests in favor of other optimizations serving JS programmers).

Can't we add type inference to JS to let it be Asm.js compiled? E.g., http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dimvar/jstypes.html (however, this doesn't distinguish between float/double/int/long, but that doesn't seem impossible)

I don't see in the Asm.js spec that they add type info for classes/objects, but this doesn't seem too hard to infer either. You'd take an inventory of what keys and types are in objects and make a hierarchy of them for 'inheritance' of objects.

Am I missing something?
> You really don't know if you made "the right choice" for your emotional well-being because you can only see one of any number of possible outcomes.

The technology for that is not available yet.

It's interesting to speculate what would happen if everyone had perfect knowledge of the ultimate outcome of every decision and optimized them for their own goals. It would be a completely different world.
I am not sure these are rabbit holes. One can certainly get lost in the depth of a new discipline, but you can take a look around new ideas start sprouting.

I am an interaction designer, for example, but working with email got me thinking into ways of using it to support the interface. Instead of sending a reminder email for inactive users ("we miss you!"), you can send them a little interaction ("is this challenge good? yes or not). I doubt that insight would have come if I hadn't worked with email on the technical side.
10 (Plus 1) Ways to Change the World With Computer Science
Child actor are specifically excluded from many labor laws; they also have a whole different set of special laws just for them.

(Obviously this is country/state specific)
It was paid out of bitcoin faucet funds, the bulk of which were donated by the EFF when they stopped accepting bitcoin. A position on which they have recently changed their stance.
That's different. Our "product" is a framework that repeatably lets apps become viral and get millions of users, through mobile phone invitations instead of facebook. Bsaically it turns your mobile phone into a social platform, with the address book playing the role of the friend list.

https://medium.com/musings-about-text-boxes/8157c364d26a

Compare: http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/a-new-kind-of-platfor... :)

I guess it comes down to what you understand "viable" to mean. Because if:

1. our app couldn't work on all mobile platforms => you wouldn't be able to invite many of your contacts, losing a lot of virality that could make the difference (http://luckyapps.com/blog/?p=12)

2. we didn't produce native apps, e.g. with phonegap => lack of integration with addressbook would reduce virality and convenience for the user

3. our app didn't have a one-step invite process => people would get tired of jumping through hoops and virality would suffer

4. our app didn't have realtime updates in chat => people would have to keep refreshing the page on their mobile phone and not get rewarded for engaging with the app

5. our app didn't have offline notifications => engagement would suffer, as the app wouldn't be able to notify people of relevant things via transactional notifications

6. we didn't have ways to manage notifications => people might get annoyed they are getting too many notifications ... yes, this one we could have done later

7. we didn't have ways to manage privacy / access => then everything would have to be public, making many people concerned ... yes, this one we could have done later

8. didn't have auto scaling where we split shards that get too hot and bring up more machines => if all the virality and engagement was as high as we expect, then our machines would quickly crash and we would lose ALL our momentum.

So we decided to invest in 1-8 up front before launching. We have an unusual strategy, having built a distributed platform with all the features of a social network that puts the power into your hands, and works with realtime and mobile ... and having a completely distributed team that is based throughout Russia and Ukraine. We are now in a position to launch many viral apps very efficiently and manage all their common issues on one platform.

PS: We didn't just sit on our hands while building this framework. We already released two apps that have 250,000 monthly active users, so that is why we were worried about growing exponentially from there, once we made them "social".

PPS: Wow, this was a long post. I hope it was informative.