skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's funny because in that Instagram thread, I just wrote a comment about how "beautiful" is the new "it just works"[1]. This post and the many like it are a direct backlash from that mindset, just as the Linux users mantra during "it just works" was "I can make it work better". It's a grab for control in a world where oftentimes your choices are limited. Everything is beautiful, and everything looks the same. What will be the new "beautiful"? I don't know. But I'll bet there will be a counter-culture there to espouse an alternative as well. Perhaps the new "beautiful" will be "content is simple". Time will tell.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5913461
So is my blog: http://justinjackson.ca

I'm thinking of doing a redesign. ;)

To be fair, in both cases I started with a simple text file on my computer. After that I send them as a plain-text email to friends for review. And then I publish on the fancy website.

I don't think there's anything wrong with pictures or colors.

"If that additional styling or image gives the audience more understanding - then add it."

At this point, I think I can experiment more with taking things out. Maybe that's where I'll start with my websites.
This would be for spooling archival data to, not to stream from. This will have great impact on the NSA's noble desire to keep a living record of all human communications!
Dark Side of the Prism - know when visiting NSA friendly sites
Firefox add-on
"When visiting any URLs that have been (publicly) targeted by Prism, a small notification will appear alerting that this site is being surveilled. You will then be presented with an ethereal Pink Floyd track from the "Dark Side of the Moon" album."
What is a perf room? Had to ask
Walmart's DW was 2.5 petabytes in 2008; undoubtedly larger now. Rumor had it that they were storing every line item from every POS receipt since the early 90s, but they probably don't have all that data online. I would think it needs to contain POS data, SKU inventory and sales at every store and distribution center, tracking of vendors, orders, shipments, truck logistics, etc. Even weather reports (remember how they predicted Poptarts would sell more when hurricanes were forecast?).

eBay has a 9 petabyte DW that cuts across all of the types of data on their whole site: listings, bids, feedback, categories, clicks, etc.

Sometimes big data is actually big data, both in terms of raw size as well as complexity.

http://gigaom.com/2013/03/27/why-apple-ebay-and-walmart-have...
How many Internet connected microphones are in the same room as you?
Looks like the focus is everything else, but words here
http://buildandlaunch.net/
From what I've seen, it auto-plays once when the video is in view.
The author has a romantic notion of technical progress. That's fine, but I'd argue that today's innovations have as much relevance as yesterday's, even though they lack the sex appeal.

And as others have pointed out, in a lot of the well-known examples, we've reached certain limits that make technological progress very expensive.

For example, probably the primary reason we don't have better airplane engines is because exceeding the speed of sound is a very noisy proposition.

I have an excellent book on the B-70 bomber, which in my opinion is the most beautiful airplane ever designed. And among the reasons it was not adopted is that sonic booms over populated areas piss people off. And flying higher makes the problem (counter-intuitively) worse.

But the main reason the B-70 was shelved was the ICBM.

And that forms my next point. The internet itself has (or should have) made some reasons for travelling pointless. And it works at a much higher velocity -- a nearly the speed of light.

So in a way the author seems to pine for a "faster horse" instead of a car.
Thank you. Can you elaborate your statement "you can learn NeDB using MongoDB's REPL"? Specifically steps to use MongoDB REPL connected to NeDB.
>to forcing them via law

yep. Current law allows to force them to be silent about the wiretapping to hide it from public. One can see how a creative government lawyer can force them to publish a denying PR release as extent of the same legal requirement to hide the wiretapping from public. One have a choice what to believe - either NSA is lying in internal secret docs or companies like Google are legally forced to publicly deny their involvement. Hard choice?
I agree.

"If additional styling, image, media, or script gives the audience something more - then add it."
Mildly off topic: Does anyone know where the shot of the gondolas headed to the roller coaster was taken?
Thanks. What do you think of PMT? I can't get past the 11% yield. I guess there are some pretty big risks there to justify that yield?
IQ has fat tails: the extreme ends of the distribution are much more common than a bell curve would predict.
To eliminate all doubts, a simpler solution would be to use a different mail id while applying for a job position at google. One that you can dedicate only for job search and nothing else.;-)
Doctors Take A Long Shot And Inject HIV Into Dying Girl.
The actual HN interface though isn't that readable (for me) though!

I read it with my own style - so that it is just words.

A few issues I have with it, is the contrast, the bright background, and when you zoom in, the text isn't fluid so soon flys out the side of the browser.

And I have to restyle most of the articles that are linked from HN so I can read them too.

Any article of any length ends up on my eReader - which is particularly no frills but readable.
> I'd be really excited if someone airline offered pilotless aircraft. I think this is technically feasible now. I know that we are currently capable of landing planes autonomously currently. Plus this would reduce door-to-door time as well since you'd reduce the need for long security lines. After all, if there's no cockpit to hijack what is the use of screening for potential hijackers?

Yes, we can take-off, cruise, navigate, avoid collisions and land autonomously (landing requires a certain ILS category which not all airports have, yet) today. I don't really think the limitation is software related - it is likely to be regulations and public opinion. "Human error" is more understandable to the average person than "computer error".

There are other concerns, such as safety against tampering/hacking. However, considering how robotic Airbus aircraft already are, I am not sure those concerns are warranted. Boing is somewhat less so, by design, but they are still fly-by-wire with a computer between the pilot and the actual control surfaces.

Now, I don't think autonomous aircraft would do much for security. After all, all you need to protect the pilots is a door lock. You still have to protect the inside of a plane and the passengers, however. But they would do wonders for private jets - having a competent pilot immediately available 24/7 without paying additional salaries could be very appealing for some folks.
Real Python: Python programming through practical examples
Any one who's worked at Martin Marietta in the past (now part of Lockheed) will recognize this. Martin had a long, long history of doing this sort of thing for projects in trouble.

When they get past this (and they will, they have the DoD over a barrel, they just have to not gloat too publicly) the fallout to the F-35 will last as long as F-35s are in operation. In the early 90s, Martin people hand-assembled Titan rocket guidance and control software because some time in the distant past, the assembler had some bugs. The F-35 software group will live with whatever horrific "best practices" the current group of reassigned workers come up with.
I don’t pretend to know what the value of N ought to be[1], but 1/3 is ridiculously low.

[1] http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/guilty.htm
I use AWS at work, have used Heroku in tutorials and quick hacks, and DigitalOcean for personal projects. If I wanted just basic web hosting for a personal site, the free AWS tier does the trick. If I had a startup with funding, I would probably use DigitalOcean or AWS. I think being able to know what's happening at the server and OS level is essential. Note: I am biased since I spent some time and effort to understand basic setups for servers, devops, and sysadmin.
I used to be on a team which used SameTime. Although I disliked using Lotus Notes for email SameTime was a joy, especially the ability to take and send screenshots from the chat window.
You are dead wrong. Why do you think capitalist countries have antitrust legislation? Companies can make more money as monopolies. It's a place where most companies aspire to grow to.
> We run into trouble when we adopt some sort of "minimalism, always, ever, for everything" dogma.

Evidence? Examples?
Introducing Aaron’s Law, a Desperately Needed Reform of the CFAA
Show HN: Responding to NSA spying with a simple consumer VPN service
The NSA metadata gathering and passive monitoring is quite upsetting, and we don't have much confidence in legal changes happening quickly, so we put together a really simple consumer VPN service. We're still cleaning up the UI and making the install process easier, but it should work for people now.

Yes, it's based in the US, but there's a big difference between "will turn over data proactively" and "will push back on requests to the fullest extent of the law". Since we don't fall under CALEA, there's no requirement for us to have any monitoring infrastructure.

We're focusing on the mobile experience for iOS and Android -- the best combination of platform security but also difficult to "roll your own" service.

Would greatly appreciate HN's feedback on concept and implementation; still under active development. Posting some free signup codes in the comments to try it out.

https://privacy.cryptoseal.com/
That is a necessary but insufficient criteria. I have original content. I still have no audience. I have more traffic than I used to, but I am still trying to work out just what am I missing? Because an awful lot of pat answers over the years have failed to solve my traffic problems.
+1 Internet.
I can't speak for all designers, but when I design webpages, I do start with words. Typography and content serve as most the fundamental concerns when working toward a usable, visually stunning design.

If the thesis of this editorial is "add only which serves to aid in achieving the spec/goal", I agree. But there is an implicit danger here as well of underestimating the total needs of the resource's end user.
It is also all about "You" and stories, life, friends, etc.
They learned from the master.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA
Apple Keynote by Steve Jobs in 180 sec.
Why is there so much hate for Quartz on here? It may be hard to read on a mobile device, but if you focus on just the articles it is very distraction free and easy to read. Nit-picking is fine, but overly criticizing is stupid when qz.com is miles ahead of almost every other publishing outlet online.

Would you rather see more sites like qz.com that focus on content and navigation or more sites like traditional newspapers that throw 100 links, 10 ads, pop-us about related articles, and other crap at you?
http://www.templeos.org/files/TSGodSetUp.zip

God says...
harts smile unyielding devout illusion pence population
acting Kenya happier chiefest late matrons wantonness
extension mystery VERSIONS sticking NO inchoate Sierra_Leone
faulty commission licensed recent bedewed avenue drowsiness
entirely beasts not sole antidote

http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Apps/HolySpirit/HSNotes.html
> The F-35 requires more than 8 million lines of code, compared with about 2 million for the F-16 and less than 1 million for other fourth-generation fighter aircraft

The F-35 is programmed in C++, while the other aircraft are programmed in Ada, which is one of the reasons that there is so much more code. When you have to code, test, and maintain 8 million lines of C++ in an environment where a single bug can be deadly, you should expect delays.

The choice of using C++ to write a system that is designed to never crash and the obvious ignorance of the "mythical man month" does not give a good impression of Lockheed's management.
True but at the same time there are physical powers we witness in the universe that we cannot yet dream of harnessing but which, by virtue of their existence: do ultimately offer a whole new paradigm.

The main one that comes to mind is nuclear fusion... The power of the sun. We see and rely on it every day. We know it's possible to create with a trivial set-up: lot's of crap thrown together. We haven't figured out how to control it yet but once we do, it'll change everything.

So you're right: there are physical limits and some absolute of course, but we're not at the absolutes yet: it's just going to be a very step-wise function on the way up.

edit: while this may seem tangential to a discussion of jet engines: imagine if we did harness fusion... think about the aeronautical implications. We could probably have helicopter islands like in a Sci-Fi film. :)
What OP said:

>presents an existential threat to modern society

What responders seem to be responding to:

>presents an existential threat to humanity

The latter one is obviously wrong. The former, I think it's more likely than not that it's wrong. Sure, globalization would make bacterial outbreaks more likely but simple things like more frequent hand washing and wearing surgical masks any time you're out in public would cut the infection rate down tremendously.

There are many societal things we could do to improve society's chances of survival before antibiotic resistance would become an existential threat to society.
My understanding is that the origin is verified. I don't have the citation handy, but I believe that reporters from the WaPo contacted the NSA before the story ran, and verified that the slides are - at least - authentic.

Granted, there's a lot we don't know about them, but I haven't seen any reason to believe that they aren't exactly what they seem to be.
Why is it called "lights out" if the offices are occupied with coders non-stop?
Except choosing to consume a commodity piece of art is very much a choice not a need like food or sleep.
Cool idea! I can find my keys and the remote control now!
There's something magical about personal websites. Something that a Facebook profile page or a Twitter stream or a Tumblr will never reach. I really wish more people would go back to the earlier roots of the internet, and share what's on their mind in a more personal and genuine way.
Cisco WebEx Connect
Ask HN: Code Review Service
I am working on some code and have it working in a stable state, but am interested in getting some peer review of it to tell me if looks good as far as flow, maintainability, and optimization. Anyone know of a good online service where I can submit a small (30 lines or so) block of code for peer review?
Samsung Premiere 2013 live stream and coverage
Fab receives $150 million in Series D funding, led by China giant Tencent
I don't see the connection, or the problem. Please explain.
We predominantly use our feet. Unless someone's snowed in, sick, or subcontracted (and not local) we just walk on over to their desk and talk. Or, hold an ad-hoc meeting. When someone's physically absent from the office, we have no standard policy (though Skype is common).
Do you really believe this is a "surprise attack"? I'd like to hear more about Instagram being an unexpected competitor
Do you remember this escapade? That's what I mean. http://news.cnet.com/amazon-retreats-on-kindles-text-to-spee... ... http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/arizona-state-settles-ki...

Don't know the latest on it but it was totally a legal battle.
What asm.js is and isn't
Wait, tptacek gave advice about growing a business? I thought he just preached the ills of DNSSEC and homebrew cryptosystems.

EDIT: Oh no, my karma superstardom!
But that's what minimalism is. You can say the same thing in reverse.. "If it doesn't give the audience more understanding - then leave it out."
Cloudup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq8C0GknwAM
My company uses Communicator. Not a big fan TBH.

A stupid configuration prepends an underscore to urls, preventing it to be clickable. Hate it.
Great post. If you liked this I also suggest taking a look at Peter Thiel's CS183 lectures at Stanford. Blake Masters did a great job taking notes: http://blakemasters.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup

In particular, take a look at the Class 15 one - http://blakemasters.com/post/24122680868/peter-thiels-cs183-...
Maybe, but I would say that civilization cannot stand on its' own, it will need defenders. And civilization has been good to most of us most of the time.

But I agree with the gist of your statement -- people in positions of power (or in your example, a position of artistic authority) constantly try to alter the terms of civilization to their benefit.
"Be safe instead of sexy"
Coupon codes: hn50hnaeS6SaeR is 50% off for HN.
I understand the different meanings of the word free, I'm just pointing out that there's a risk that incentive structures won't create the desired effect.
plenty of things remain prohibit by the Constitution

The language of your statement reveals the problem (sorry for being deconstructionist...)

There is very little that the Constitution prohibits -- that's not how it's constructed. It's not designed to blacklist certain governmental powers.

Rather, it starts from a perspective where all rights belong to the people, and the government may do nothing. It then whitelists certain powers as the people have decided to vest them with the government. That is, the government can do nothing other than the things the people have enumerated for it in the Constitutions (particularly Article 1 Section 8).

That people think of government power in terms of whether it's prohibited by the Constitution rather than whether it's allowed by the Constitution reveals how far away we've gotten from understanding how it was intended to work.
Has any of the reporting sites a copy of the courts decision? Would prefer reading the actually source rather than third-party reporting.
Five Articles for Boosting E-mail Campaign Conversions
kato.im
> The magic companies of the last century are the ones who could do both, allowing people to have side projects that don't immediately show commercial promise. Bell Labs was a lot like this. So was PARC. And Google to some degree.

Those past companies could afford to create creative playgrounds because they were monopolies or near monopolies. That is about the only way to create a situation where "nobody is looking over your shoulder". Google enjoyed that status for awhile but now seems to be in fierce competition with Facebook and Apple, so maybe not as much any more.
Atheist Seeking U.S. Citizenship Told To Join Church Or Be Denied
Unix-style "bunch of small processes communicating through pipes" model when applied in inappropriate domains.
I think we should create a West Coast "Institue for Advanced Study" in the middle of the desert with a few million dollars and a bunch of dreamers who want to get their hands dirty and try ideas that everyone else thinks are crazy.

I spent the month of May out in the middle of the Mojave on a film shoot. Absurdly hard work, grueling conditions, but boy is it a productive environment to be in, not least because you are constantly forced to think about self-sufficiency and the quality of your environment.
What's the point of hiring a super-amazingly competent genius engineer if he's going to sit in a corner and think he's wrong all the time?

Think of it this way: someone who is concerned with not doing the wrong thing is going to be more sure that what they do come up with is the right thing, that they aren't reinventing the wheel badly.
I think you've got to question the definition of "web design". I'd argue that the text is framed content and is part of the design.

The post at least highlights that 'web design' is somewhat of a distraction.

There is so much (unnecessary?) labour involved in framing the content by posturing programmers (lost down some rabbit hole) and anal pixel pushers that you could easily forget that to many: the content is what matters.

Getting your head around HTML, publishing and hosting is still not that trivial. That's why people take to something like Facebook, or sharing photos via Instagram via their mobile phones.

That's not to detract from the beauty and the 'miracle' of web publishing.
Instagram Videos
Where did they say it was new or a re-imagining of the video paradigm?
YES. The adjective-overload is too much.
For the tech details: it's OpenVPN, PPTP, or L2TP, your choice. Yes, PPTP and L2TP have "issues", but they're currently the easiest way to get a VPN on iOS without a custom client.
That's a creepy thought, right there. Any given phone's microphone is going to be picking up on the surrounding conversations as well. I suspect it's pretty straightforward to listen in on those through various enhancement techniques.

There's difference between "pattern-analyze the conversations of people we are authorized to listen to" and "pattern-analyze the conversations of anyone speaking near someone we are authorized to listen to".
Hire Economics: Why Applying to Jobs Is a Waste of Time
I'm not obsessed with fancy designs and scripts. Have a look at my home page.

What I'm obsessed with is the fact every god damned web site on the internet includes google-analytics stuff! You would have made your point had you left it out.
Asking candidates to complete problems at their leisure is a very good idea. But recruiters can bungle up on this too.

For something that's purely procedural in nature, asking for a complete and proper object oriented solution would not be such a good idea. Likewise, forcing the candidate to use pure procedural method for something that definitely needs OOP.
... in a petri dish.
Why are the only comments about keys? There are a lot of things you could do with a full year of tracking. Put it inside your bike's frame. Bam, you'll know where it is if its stolen. Hide it in your car for auto theft deterrent. And, of course, hide it in someone's purse and see where they are.

Point being, there are three comments, and they're all about finding car keys. You people are more creative than this.
Is it not self-obvious that if every page attempting to serve up content similar to that in the OP (pictureless editorial), the web would be bleak and characterless?

Not debating the effectiveness of that kind of design, but rather pointing out the obviousness that this sort of anti-"always, ever" statement is easily validated.
Lync.

Pros:

-Outlook Integration

-Screen Sharing

-Decent UI

Cons:

-Literally the worst copy & paste implementation I've ever seen.

-No third party chat protocol integration. (I want to integrate Facebook and Google's Jabber).

Edit: Formatting.
you're trying to fight your nature. People who didn't care for the group's approval were more probably to be banished from the tribal cave and thus die alone in the wilderness. Thus we are descendants of the ones who cared a lot about getting group's approval and avoiding its disapproval. With tptacek leading the pack.
VoIP, email and very occasionally an internal messenger. The idea is not interrupting others too lightly, since we already have scheduled meetings. If something needs dealing with urgently, then these measures kick in.