skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My bad didn't realize you (the author) submitted this.

You specifically said they talk bad about you "when they think you aren't listening" and that you've been told you won't get funded. I made the leap that you had requested said funding and been rejected so perhaps that part was incorrect.

I do look forward to hearing the other side but I'll repeat: I'm not saying a word of what you said is inaccurate. Just that its important to consider the source is somebody who feels slighted by the Tech Vegas clique.
Apps are content, too
> On August 5, 2010, Clapper was confirmed by the Senate in a unanimous vote.[5] Lawmakers approved his nomination after the Senate Intelligence Committee backed him with a 15-0 vote. During his testimony for the position, Director Clapper pledged to advance the DNI's authorities, exert tighter control over programming and budgeting, and provide oversight over the CIA's use of predator drones in Pakistan.

So why is your beef with the NSA/The intelligence gathering effort?
The last half of the steps would just be my mother.
If you don't have anything nice to say...
Who knows, but if they claim their refusal to say "Yes" to the question "Am I free to leave" actually means you were free to leave, I kind of doubt they'll get very far. And the safety exceptions won't be in effect after a few minutes of such obfuscatory questioning.

For that matter, I suspect most will realize that they aren't going to get anywhere with someone who's knowledgeable and disciplined enough to only say "Am I free to leave?", and will move on for easier prey. Spending "hours" in such a game isn't going to generate the arrest statistics they need, they'd only make that sort of investment if it was a really serious felony. (Unless of course their reward was an internal one of successful harassment ... and this sounds very tedious.)
…which only has a single button for input, eight LEDs for output, and a couple comm lines with the AVR. Everything else is just broken out to headers.
Whistle blowers backing whistle blowers. Honestly.
They were probably out of the $1749 model.
Color Theory Squeezed through the Google-ifier
You don't have to be in direct contact with the Chinese government to provide them information. It is probably the case that spies do not have direct contact with the government they are spying for. He namedropped the Guardian/WashPo. Sure, I can believe that journalists from these papers aint' Chinese spies, but how about the Chinese papers that he talked. Oh, he conveniently did not mention them.
Why does Mountain Lion being at the top mean very little Mac software gets sold? Is it really that surprising that the OS itself is the most popular software on the store?
I highly doubt that chance. Please see update, thanks.
How usable is LLDB nowadays? I'm curious how easily it could be extended to support other LLVM-backed compilers.
Self-Published Authors Are Destroying Literature
Huh ... don't look now, but Google is already putting hundreds of cameras in the sky, daily. Various aircraft, even some satellites, are devoted to Google imagery. Having a new fleet of balloon-based "craft" providing imagery could easily fit into Google's M.O.
Here it is in practice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNzgkruFw5g
it had to start somewhere

it had to start sometime
While he is right that you may not ever need the CPU resources, the RAM I would argue is necessary (plus it's only $100 and will overall make a HUGE difference).

Ram is one of those things you can almost never get enough of. I am a heavy chrome user (and general system user), and I cringe anytime it's less than 8GB because it requires much more tab management for me. Which may be better for me to do, but I keep a large amount of misc work in various chrome windows and tabs, and closing it isn't necessary for me.

Along with that, I'm often running a bunch of other apps. CPU is never usually a problem, but RAM definitely is.

That being said, you're probably fine with the base model, but I certainly would at least max the ram. :)
I recall a month or two ago some rumors about Google preparing to launch airships & blimps to achieve this same purpose.

Now I wonder if that was a misinformation campaign intended to keep competitors and Wall Street guessing.
Smallest Galaxy
Perhaps not Mountain Lion per se, but by your own description it effectively turns the top 10 into a top 9, and for no reason. Now, when that is expanded to the point where the practical reality is that non-apple apps are basically competing for two slots in the top 10, then yes, you start to feel like maybe not that much software is being sold on the Mac App Store. When a spreadsheet program that hasn't seen a major revision in 4 years still chops the charts, yes, it feels like its probably not worth it.

More importantly, as a user, I've simply become blind to the top 10 charts on the Mac App Store completely. I have no desire to visually scan for the 2 apps that might be different.
Brazilian citizen here, but living in the US. I never thought I'd say this, but I really wish I was back there to take part in the protests. Brazil finally has a chance to change for the better.

For those of you who don't know what's going on, or who are being fed incorrect information by the media: protests started because of a small increase in bus fares, but that was just the trigger to the whole thing. Brazilians are fed up with all the crap the government has been doing for decades, unscrupulously stealing tax payers' money for their own benefit. Many will say this happens everywhere, even in the most developed countries, but people from developed countries usually have no idea and can barely picture how rampant corruption is in Brazil.

Brazil is not a poor country. It's one of the biggest economies in the world. But if you go down there, it will pretty much look like a poor country. Despite the strong economy and the ridiculously high taxes, there is very little income redistribution. Besides the income inequality, another thing that piss Brazilians off is the fact that everything has to be paid in double: you pay taxes for public education (even the university is free), but it's so shitty you have to pay for a private school for your kids; you pay taxes for the universal health care system, but it's so shitty (dozens of people die on the line for life-critical procedures) you have to pay for private health care (which is usually shitty too, but not nearly as shitty as the public one); you supposedly pay taxes for public safety, but it's nonexistent to a point people have to leave behind gates (I had to go through 2 gates and 2 doors, with 5 keys in total, to enter my aparment there) and bared windows and pay for private security companies to secure their homes.

Brazilians have had enough. The current generation of youths is much more connected and aware of the country's problems, and usually have a much better idea that the situation outside (read US, Canada, Europe and Australia, popular destinations for studying or working abroad) is better and that a better life is possible, and it won't take it anymore. It's finally time for a change.
Taken at face value, this statement seems good enough. Without actually seeing the data they have, we have to take there word for it.
A very helpful Apple salesperson helped me save $750

Not really "save", he just gave you less options and the cost $750 less.
if his supervisor finds out, he is fired.
The protesters passed by my street on the way to Paulista Avenue, and I have to admit that seeing all those people walking singing the national anthem was simply amazing. Something to tell my grandsons :)

Last number I heard on the TV reported 75K people in Sao Paulo, though the authorities told the media that would announce the updated numbers only after the protests.

The movement leaders have already created a new event on FaceBook, calling all protesters to gather together again tomorrow, at 5PM on Se Square.
He asked what applications I use most and I replied, "Vim, Panic, Terminal, and Git" in which he replied, "I'm sorry, what?"
This. Hostels world-wide in allegedly 3rd world countries regularly have free wifi - and fast! Yet in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, first-world western countries, free-wifi is rubbish or non-existent on the whole.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100/7108 Loudspeaker Assembly Black - TooSell.com
Also, it isn't upgradable after the fact in the MBAs.
I'm sure Fusion-IO are none too pleased about this news.
The US and Canada are actually some of the better places for a privacy-protecting provider, as long as you want to use strong cryptography. CALEA in the US is the main impediment to making a system where the operator intentionally can't disclose information, and that can be solved (for now) by not being a CALEA-covered provider (essentially, PSTN or VOIP interconnected with PSTN, or some kind of broadband physical access layer).
No, I'm pretty sure that when people say they dislike the "Top" lists, what they're really saying is pretty much what Marco wrote here.

Editors' picks are always a wild card because you don't know on what basis the picks are happening. But your assertion that they're always about the "connections" you have strikes me as, well, very anecdotal. I have some experience on both the submitting and receiving side of magazines, and generally speaking what gets your story accepted is the quality of your story. People often assume you need "connections" to get into big name markets, but big name markets attract big name authors and that makes the barrier of entry much higher. I have no inside knowledge of Steam, but I suspect that's very likely what goes on there: the more developers want to be on Steam, the harder it will be to be on it.

Of course, Apple already has editors' pick lists which I've heard really do boost app sales significantly; the question is really whether dropping Top 10 lists would flatten the curve further; I suspect the sales would remain vastly overweighted toward the featured apps no matter what, but perhaps if the featured apps were rotated frequently that would help. I rather like one of the other commenters' ideas of keeping the top 10 lists, but just removing apps you've already purchased from them.

The App Store search is pretty bad, as other people have commented. (A lot of people think the changes to the store in iOS 6 made it worse, but it's not like it was good to start with.)
My takeaway from this conversation - No amount of mathematics can address human stupidity.
> If I was a pan-European mobile operator, I'd have been lobbying for this. It will cost them very little to provide the service, mostly some modifications to their billing system.

I suspect it's more complicated than this, or they'd be more integrated already. My operator, Hutchinson Three (3) used to let their users roam in all the other worldwide 3 networks at no cost (UK, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Australia, etc) called 3LikeHome, but they eventually terminated it, claiming that due to their package roaming agreements (I've had it explained to me that most operators buy a roaming agreement bundle from a consolidator instead of negotiating one by one themselves), they couldn't limit their service in those countries to only roam on 3, and customers would continually roam onto other networks and rack up huge bills thinking they were connected to 3.
Nevada seems to rank pretty well as a business-friendly state.

Is Las Vegas/Nevada a good place to start a tech company?
especially with OSX, where ram is guzzled like no other.
"For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form."

If all of this statement is true, then I'm impressed. I would have thought Apple to keep more information, such as iMessage logs, for the sake of analytics and Ad revenue.

Good.
Yes, re: event handler wire-up, that's why I wrote the part that said " It looks like it is just the way the event handler on the 'back' of the item is wired up"
Adobe announces first major update to Creative Cloud.
New and Notable is actually a very good example of Apple showing pretty decent (and even handed) editorial review. By and large, anybody putting something with a reasonable amount of care and attention, gets some exposure there in their category.

I'm wondering if the Appstore has gotten large enough that an independent review site/app could make money? And, I mean a honest to goodness review site - not these scammy "pay to play" apps that have been plaguing the app store recently.

Also - if you could just survey a list of 10,000 honest users - that would be pretty good as well.

The sad thing, is some amazing apps on the store (for example, gymbuddy, one of the great weight lifting apps) have languished because only those people who actually use the app seriously would appreciate how much better it is than the competition. I.E. Can you imagine what the WeightLifting App Section in the AppStore would like if you surveyed a 100 lifters who had tried out a dozen or so apps before deciding on the one they like? Likewise for people who make pastries, check the weather, survey tree's, watch the tides, etc, etc...
> Apple recognizes what few other retailers do: customer satisfaction starts even before a product is purchased, and it is customer satisfaction that makes companies great.

I'm not sure you can really claim that from the actions of a single employee, which even in Apple's ideal world don't mirror their parent company's ideals.
Your distinction between existing records/data and records created going forward from the time of the warrant is an important one that I haven't seen expressed so clearly before.

Do you think the answer about databases of records should address government access to databases kept by major companies?

Thanks for these enlightening posts.
This is the first time I've heard that iMessage and Facetime are end-to-end encrypted. Can somebody comment on that? I imagine it only works if both ends of the conversation are on iMessage.
This extends to imports as well, often the duties run up around 100% of the item price. Not only that but items get stuck in customs for weeks as I assume they go through everything to level these duties.

From the outside selling things into Brazil it seems like a pretty bad situation. People seem to be used to it there though and just expect the import process to be painful.
Sounds like you're from my home town of Bakersfield!
Won't a gene test from, eg 23andMe, reveal the ALS risks due to present markers, without requiring counseling?
Apple seem to have completely stopped carrying anything but the base models of the Macbook Air 11" and 13" in their stores, which may at least partially explain his pushing you to downgrade your choice.

Use the "check availability" sidebar link here to see what I mean: http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD712LL/A?

I remember picking up my fully-loaded 13" from the store a couple of generations ago, so this is likely a new decision (or temporary while they figure out supply and demand). I strongly recommend the 8GB RAM upgrade, RAM gets eaten up really easily and is definitely worth the extra $100.

Ideally, he would have told you that the extra RAM might be useful, and also let you know that any upgrades would require delivery to the store or to you directly.
Commercial "vendor neutral" tools do exist, Synplicity was a public company which sold such tools for several years before branching into proto board hardware sales and then being acquired by Synopsys [1]. Their tools for synthesis, partitioning and debug are still available [2] and strong sellers to both Altera and Xilinx FPGA developers.

[1] http://news.synopsys.com/index.php?s=43&item=570
[2] http://www.synopsys.com/Tools/Implementation/FPGAImplementat...
Somehow managed to get thru 20 years of hardware design w/o yet using an FPGA.

Keep looking at them (esp. the IGLOO series), but keep finding some better suited or easier to implement alternative.
That term "direct access" crops up again.

> We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers
When I first bought my 11" Air, I went with the base model, too. Mostly because I was impatient. But 128GB filled up fast, even with a 1TB external drive. Photos on another drive is one thing but if you have a sizeable music or movie collection, putting it on an external drive is a huge hassle. And then you're travelling with the computer and drive.

Thankfully, I bought the Air the year where you could still upgrade the drive. I bought a 500GB drive to replace the 128 and have been very happy since.
Lets not criticize the list for being too good. Choose the subset you like and enjoy. :)
Ah, you're not yet up to speed with the new revised definition of orchestrated.
I forgot to mention that one, thanks for the note. And that is done in the name of protecting the local market, which is nonexistent for most things we want to import.
He's a great salesman because he sold you what they have available in-store.
You can be detained without being under arrest. When you get pulled over for a traffic stop, you aren't under arrest, but you are being detained.
My wife went back to school this year, and she needed a laptop, so I got her one for christmas. I went with the base model 11" air because that's what I would have bought if I was getting it for me.

She hated it. I couldn't believe it. "The screen is too small", "I can't play warcraft 3 on it" (ok legit gripe, war3 doesn't work, and she still plays that game!) "I don't like the way the track pad works"

Admittedly, the track pad default settings leave a little to be desired. I made a few tweaks to her setup, and it worked a lot better.

I asked her the other day how she feels about her laptop now, with 6 months use under her belt. She loves it, as I knew she would.

Next laptop I buy for myself will be a 11" air. I'm no apple fan boy, but it is the highest quality laptop you can get. But if you've found a better one for the same price, please let me know
Yahoo Reportedly Offers $30M to $40M For Social Email Startup Xobni
Separate issue: You're not always helping people and doing the right thing but telling them to not spend money. [1]

Some people derive quite a bit of pleasure from buying "the best". They simply aren't interested in hearing that what they are doing is wrong. Or ways to save money.

The key here is:

"Instead, this guy asked me why I needed the i7 processor and 512GB SSD. "

That's not really his business to stick his nose and interrogate you (like a parent would) to try to prove your thinking wrong (not saying that some people wouldn't like this or be appreciative of course). On the surface seems like a great loyalty builder. But maybe not.

Take the lady that wants a fur coat. You're going to tell her she's stupid and should want a good cloth coat?

Take a guy that wants a fancy watch or a fancy car. In their mind there is value that extend way beyond the real benefit of the device. A guy wakes up and wants the Porsche Turbo. He doesn't want to hear that at 160k he is wasting his money. Now if he asks your opinion that's another thing of course.

There is no question that with some buyers you will gain good will by following the path described in the story. But please don't assume that everyone wants this, appreciates this, or that it is some just so above it all business ethics that everyone should emulate.

By the way having an external drive has advantages and disadvantages. (Personally I would never travel with my photo collection but on the other hand having it on a drive means you have to also protect the drive which becomes easier to steal or lose.

[1] We don't even know how important the money savings were to the buyer in this case. Perhaps he had millions I would guess that the store salesman had no clue to his financial condition at all when deciding he shouldn't "waste" his money.
I worked at an Apple store for over a year as a "salesperson" (we called them Mac Specialists at the time). Let me input my two cents:

I was trained to do this. From day one of dedicated 8-hour training sessions, we're trained to find customers the right "solution" rather than get the most money. This requires using the APPLE technique (acronym, google it). The second P stands for "Present a solution for the customer to take home today." It was common knowledge at the time (4 years ago) that consumers were brainwashed to thinking faster/more is always better. But when we can save them hundreds of dollars, this isn't the case. There were many many times I talked someone out of a $2,000 MacBook Pro for a $1200 entry-level iMac with double the specs because after probing (the first "P") I learned they didn't need to be mobile. This was really, really common.

And note, this isn't about trying to convince people to spend less. Sometimes after probing, we learned they needed _more_. It is about the RIGHT solution.

To add to this: specialists don't earn commission. We weren't ranked based on financial sales numbers (there are other metrics, however). There is no incentive for specialists to sell more expensive or less expensive things. It is about the right thing.

So, this guy was just doing what he was trained to do. It is Apple store standard.
so I thought!
Yeah there really isn't a reason to not get more RAM in a PC. Everything else is debatable. The CPU in particular the guy was right on. I'd say the SSD is a wash.
You obviously don't understand how Apple Stores work.

He will actually probably retell this story (or a similar one where he convinced someone) later on and be applauded by his supervisors and peers.

Apple is in the business of making people happy because, ultimately, happy people will eventually spend more money.
Had a near identical experience today myself actually. I went in prepared to spend up to $3k on a tricked out MBP. Walked out with a bottom tier 13" Air. The rep kindly helped me realize it's a more powerful computer than the 17" MBP I was upgrading from - which did everything I needed it to do just fine (besides not be huge, heavy and need repairs every six months).

So far so good. Plenty of horsepower - and being nearly as portable as an ipad more than makes up for the lost screen real estate.
Well, this is a good effort. I think you are quite right to leave out reference counting. Reference counting is something that you should pay for only if you need it.

I don't really understand the fear of macros. void pointers are much scarier than macros, since they open you up to the threat of bugs going undetected by the type system.

You're not by any chance maintaining one of those much-maligned "driver portability" layers, are you?
Unless it has changed, the really crazy thing is that you can't upgrade the RAM later. (Though, surprisingly, you can upgrade the SSD, even though it comes in an unconventional form factor)
Volvo Tests Electric Road That Charges Cars
So to be clear about this you're saying that if you walk into an apple store and have already decided to purchase a particular model that Apple says that you should ask the customer why they need that particular model? Or just if they ask you?
The zinger:

> Dealers say laws passed over the decades to prevent car makers from selling directly to consumers are justified because without them auto makers could use their economic clout to sell vehicles for less than their independent franchisees.

To rephrase: Auto dealers increase the price of cars without producing value, therefore they must be protected by law or they would cease to exist.
Correct. There are additional aircraft inspections, maintenance requirements, and additional pilot training required to operator as an "air taxi" (part 135) or other commercial operation.
What application is "Panic"?
Obama Can’t Confirm If Courts Ever Rejected Spying Requests