skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I wonder...do any of our compatriots in the UK or any other part of the world for that matter hold old wars and battles in reverence? Are there reenactors of prior battles and such in your parts of the world? I am partial to believing this is more of an American cultural phenomena.
As cool as it is to be sending data over sound, its only $25 for some of the cheaper wireless modules over at sparkfun:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=16
That would be impossibly more practical, and you wouldn't really have to have them wired together to sync them. You could have a master transmitter that sends out a sync bit that everyone syncs with (or something...).
The difference between war and politics is trivial from certain theoretical points of view but very important to real people who have to live through one or the other.

Besides, even the hatred between Democrats and Republicans is tame by most standards. Democrats and Republicans normally engage in fair, peaceful commerce with each other, and a Democrat plaintiff arguing in front of a Republican judge isn't doomed to lose -- in fact, the judge will not consider it essential to figure out the plaintiff's politics if the case has no personal political implications for himself. James Carville and Mary Matalin is just a cute story, not a shocking breach of loyalty. Hell, go on Match.com and see how many people describe themselves as "very conservative" or "very liberal" but are willing to meet someone from the other end of the spectrum. Street brawls? Violence? The most-publicized violence from the last election was imaginary -- the loony McCain worker who carved a "B" in her face and claimed an Obama supporter did it.

Hutus and Tutsis it ain't, nor Northern Ireland or the Balkans. The biggest problems people have with partisanship in the United States is that it's embarrassingly stupid and it probably results in a lot of bad policy. Maybe it's inferior to multi-party coalition politics, or maybe it isn't, but the difference between two styles of peaceful democratic government is bupkus compared to the difference between peace and violence.
No, the primary reason for these apps isn't advertising. I don't know if they have finally given up or what, but people reading email or composing documents just aren't that distractible.

Google likes the idea of putting your documents on the web because (a) it's a potential business, especially at the enterprise level; (b) they want more structured data on the web to mine; (c) they want a better way to profile you.

Android I don't know enough about, but it's more like an attempt to make phones work more like the PC -- an open-ish standard, rather than specialized, incompatible devices under the control of carriers. I assume Google feels they will do much better in that kind of market.
Hmm. It's a very beautiful app, but its user experience is iffy. Case in point: http://screenshots.markbao.com/43208b3dcc19bd9cf1a8e8864459e...

Perhaps it's just my tendency as a developer, but I hate having this "view" part and an "edit" part in different places. Why should I have this part where I can see my outline, but then I have to click, move my mouse over to the side, edit, and then click save on the box? Most of the time during outlining, I want to use zero mouse. I don't want to use it to add new rows, to delete rows, etc. It would be awesome if it acted like a text editor with outlining helpers.

Much of the time that I use outlining is during notetaking, where speed is a pretty big factor. Maybe this is a different use of outlining that I'm not familiar with?

An example of an app (that, I should add, I love) that this app should emulate with view+edit on the same place is OmniOutliner: http://screenshots.markbao.com/7e2b04d5fb6f2721287848166a108...

So here's one way you can refactor it: http://screenshots.markbao.com/ebef2709d6f0ddde877da8339bac7...

(Side note: why the hell are they using Dreamhost to host their app? I use them for personal sites. Outages every week.)
Lessons Learned from 3 Years of Blogging
Ward Cunningham has joined his first startup. Who woulda thunk it would take so long.

The article is about the startup scene in Portland, OR. Portland has some pluses, like talented developers and money, and some minuses, like the inability to attract seasoned executives because of the lack of large companies (executive pool).

>"There's not one-upsmanship here," he said."I have friends in Austin, where I used to live, telling me they have a hard time building a technology community because there's a lot of rivalries. But that's not the case here."

Tatoo that on your hand. An area will fail if there is secretiveness instead of cooperation. I rate it as a good read for those wondering if their area has potential for startups.
He only needs to offer the ffmpeg sources is he has made any changes to them.
I am not sure how much of humanity's history can be gleaned from Dickens books, good as they are...at most they tell us that in a certain part of the world, in a certain period, some children in certain classes of society were made to "earn their keep." And we all know how well the 1800's went for social justice.

Undoubtedly children have participated more in livelihood in the past; helping with the fields, milking the cows and whatnot. Simultaneously nothing suggests that children never played, or even that they played any less than they do now, or that play was frowned upon somehow (generally, individual idiocies aside.) There are certainly drastic differences between cultures, but there are very few -- that I am aware of -- that completely or nearly so did away with "childhood."
I've also observed this; I summarized it as: It's possible to be analytical without being scientific.

Good to hear that I'm not alone.
In introductions, papers often give a short overview of what's been done before, so early work in a field often gets cited even if it turns out to have been flawed. (It can't be completely ridiculous, of course, it must have sounded plausible at the time, but even shoddy research often does.)
http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Lee-Leadership-Executive-Charac...
You're quite right that the article (despite its generic title) is about the Portland startup scene and paints a pretty interesting picture of it. But I thought if I were going to add one editorial aside, it should be about Ward, who's embedded halfway through and would be easy to miss otherwise. He's a great hacker, so the article literally contains hacker news!
Seth recommends banner ads to become a recognizable name. They are worthless for generating click-throughs, but work for raising awareness, so that in some other context your name is recognizable. Makes sense to me, particularly for a clean non-offensive (in the senseof distraction) ad with nothing more than a name, a tag line, and a pleasing graphic. This being Seth Grodin, there is no data or analysis to back it up.
UC Berkley on cloud computing - Excellent summary
It's part of being human, I think. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reenactment and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_reenactment_...
Laid-off workers start own businesses
The only country above the US that isn't an oil exporter is Luxembourg, which has a population about %0.1 of the US-- its basically a single, medium/small city. I bet if Beverly Hills became its own country, the per capita GDP would also be impressive!
Providing mankind is still around ten thousand years from now. Not a given thanks to another significant event of the 19th century: the discovery of how to harvest, refine, distribute, and use oil as an economic product.
I think the paraphrased quotes are satires over contemporary reaction towards the formal methods Dijkstra promoted, not actual quotes from the historic sterilization debate.

Semmelweis ideas were probably rejected because there were no theroretical framework which could explain how disease could be carried around by doctors or nurses who were not themselves infected (bacteria were not yet dicovered). It was not easy for the medical establishment to accept a theory that relied on the existence of a completly unknown and invisible substance.

Also, the post-napoleonic Austria-Hungary was an extremely conservative society. Revolutionary ideas and paradigm-changes were definitiely not the positive buzzwords they are today.

Here is a wonderful quote by the emperor: (http://www.archive.org/stream/austriahungary00legeiala/austr...):
Hold to that which is old, for that is good; if our ancestors were pleased with it to be so, why not we?
New ideas are to-day being advanced of which I do not nor ever shall approve. Hold them in suspicion and keep to that which is approved. I have no need of learned men; I want faithful subjects. Be such! that is your duty; he who would serve me must do what I command. He who cannot do this, or who comes with new ideas, may leave us; if not, I shall send him.

Not the best environment in which to promote radical new ideas!

In hindsight, Semmelweis opponents made a great error by rejecting a theory which had strong empirical evidence just because it didn't have a theoretical underpinning. However I fail to see the connection to Dijkstras formal methods. Is there really overwhelming empirical evidence for the superiority of formal methods in software design? No, it actually seems Dijkstras argument for formal methods is that it is a "time-honoured tradition", a line of reasoning akin to that of the the emperor and the opponents of sterialization.
Why would mankind be at risk because of oil? Mankind may be at risk because of nuclear weapons, sure, but oil? When oil is over we may have to start riding horses again, but I don't see that as such a huge catastrophe.
The idea that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves is dispensed with pretty early on - if not in middle school, then at least by high school, and in the worst case by freshman history in college.

Thanks, though, that was dramatic.
Palm Pre Launch Guide Leaked [pdf]
As a human interest posting, this was great. Finding goodness and generousity in the face of darkness is always a heart warming story.

As a business posting, this was irresponsible. Hmmm, begging for donations when my startup fails? I think I'd rather get a job (perish the thought).
Blogger survived on donations at its lowest point.
'I think it's an exaggeration to say that "In most countries in the western world, except for the United States, and recently Canada, medical care is available for free." That is only true for non-zero values of "free".'

Lately, when I read something that refers to this or that as being "free", I mentally replace "free" with "no one gets a bill" and "no one gets paid", and see if it still makes sense.
hmm.. didn't know that pdf links are automatically submitted to scribd.

Original Source: http://forums.precentral.net/showthread.php?p=1613037#post16...

My blog post based on the launch guide and other resources:
http://www.manu-j.com/blog/palm-pre-guide-service-plans-devi...

A more detailed guide and FAQ by gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5133554/palm-pre-the-definitive-guide-and...
I suspect that he is referring to the dreaded AGW (I have no idea whether burning oil contributes more to carbon levels than deforestation or burning coal. In the long run, I think coal reserves contain similar carbon mass to oil reserves, but it always seems like the data is changing.)
I give this a thumbs up. It's a long introspective article giving both the things that worked and those that didnt (least favorite articles). Of particular importance to anyone writing is "Establishing a voice." She gives some of the ingredients of her voice: puns in titles and personal interest details.
Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, there is a bookmarklet and we'll be adding it to the website soon (or straight into the app). If you want it now, add this to your bookmark bar:

javascript:document.location.href='evom://'+escape(document.location.href)
I was a staffer for the U.S. House Budget Committee in the mid-1990s so I've been quite informed for some time. This year's budget deficit is going to be greater than the entire federal budget in 2000. Basically since 2002 spending discipline broke down, but the process has accelerated over the past 12 months.
> However, there are still some features missing, like the ability to delete bookmarks.

shouldn't bookmarks be implemented at the level of js scripted extensions?
It's pretty easy to calculate; the Nehalem system would have 8x3GHz = 24GHz while the Nano 12-pack has 12x1.6GHz = 19.2GHz and Nehalem does significantly more work per cycle. The Nehalem could have 12x2TB SATA or 12x450GB SAS disks with RAID while the Nano has 12x500GB laptop disks without RAID. You'd also save on switch ports, etc.

If you're given the choice between a slow private server, or a small share of a larger server, take the small share. (with apologies to Stuart Cheshire)
Just like road-side billboards, and sponsor labels printed on race cars, static ads printed on the sidelines during sporting events, and the majority of television ad spots.
You win the smartest comment in the thread award. It bums me out that some nonsense rant about the gold standard is at +7, while your comment (with opinion echoed by nearly every currency expert I've read) is down here in the weeds.

There was a flight to quality following the bank failures. The drop in the dollar is a good sign that the world's economies are starting to find better places to put their money than US currency.
Actually I would be interested to hear how you would get that done with Ruby.
Does this mean CouchDB already supports Comet? That would really excite me. I am not aware of any established Comet frameworks, and custom solutions in Erlang seem to become a common way to go at the problem (because of the cheap threads, useful to listen to all the connections). Since CouchDB is written in Erlang, I was hoping that it would support Comet eventually.

Edit: in the chat it was claimed that CouchDB supports COMET. If true, this would be way cool!
The original singularity paper
joshhart: If you are still reading the comments, you need to decide if you are a co-founder or an employee.

If you believe you are an employee, then structure a better deal that is more fair which basically says that you are getting paid at market value ($3K now and $2K as deferred compensation which is essentially a senior loan to the company that the owner needs to pay you back in the future).

Then at the same time, negotiate a stock plan which you can purchase upfront for just a few hundred dollars which the owner can buy back if you do not perform.

However, my own advise is that being employee #1, you are essentially a co-founder (because of the current down market, there isn't going to be much upsides for a long long time).
I disagree. That is irresponsible advice. The best way to avoid the shackles of debt is to be financially responsible. A good credit score is very important for more than just a good interest rate on your credit card.

Your FICO score affects what you pay for insurance (or even if you CAN get insurance).

http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/creditscoring/

Some debt can be worthwhile, especially when you balance your opportunity costs. Renting versus owning: Save for 15-20 years (or more) before you buy a house outright or save for 2-5 years and use credit for the rest? Need a small business loan for growth? I'm pretty sure your personal credit will affect that too.

And if you think you will ever need a security clearance, you better have a good credit score.
I follow the development of Mac Chrome Pretty Closely. Here is a list of what works and what doesn't as of build 16630. Keeping track of this at http://www.manu-j.com/blog/download-updated-native-google-ch...

What Works

* Almost all websites
* Bookmark pages
* Most visited sites
* Open link in new tab
* Open new tabs
* Omnibox
* Back, Forward, Reload
* Open link in new window
* Drag a tab to make a window
* Launch new tab
* Cut, Copy, Paste
* Keyboard shortcuts
* about:version, about:dns, about:crash, about:histograms
* Find in page
* History with search
* Form Fill
* Delete Thumbnail in New Tab Page
* Window Positions Remembered
* View Source with synatx highlighting and clickable links

What Doesn’t Work

* Open link in new tab Rev 13759
* Plugins (No flash -> No youtube)
* History Rev 16050
* Omnibox Rev 13759
* Bookmarks Bar
* Find Rev 16050
* Print
* about:network, about:memory
* Web Inspector
* Input methods such as Kotoeri (Japanese)
* Preferences (Partial implementation)
* Full Screen Browsin
After taking the Myers-Briggs test again several years ago as part of a team bonding exercise, I remember reading the description of my subtype (ISTJ) and it saying 'in times of stress, you may tend to act rashly and irrationally'.

I believe that even the most logical people will act emotionally under stress.

Isn't the meaning of the cliche that 'someone is human' that they make mistakes/mess up/show weakness?
But isn't oil carbon neutral? ;-)

It's widely accepted that oil has a biological origin (some people dispute that). The carbon absorbed by plants millions of years ago had to come from somewhere, and that is the CO2 in the atmosphere. If oil is derived from those plants, then burning oil simply releases the CO2 that was sequestered underground for millions of years. If there was life before, I think there will be life despite AGW. The number of humans may drop dramatically, of course.
And McCardle responding to that:

http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/edmund_...
In Praise of Silence
"If you want to see American democracy under great stress, the Civil War is the prime example."

Yet the author misses the best example-- that in the middle of the war, in 1864, the U.S. held an election for President, even though it looked (in the beginning of the race) that Lincoln might lose!
The bunch has lost the plot years ago: the hijacking of HTML and [ecma|java]script has done already the damage to the initial "universal access" that made the Web popular in the first place. Try browsing this web without subordinating yourself to Adobe Inc.'s unilaterally imposed licensing...
Gestures obviously play a role in communicating
very simple concepts like "pay close attention",
"look at this", "stop a moment" or "hurry up" when
the speaker is playing the role of a guide.
However I strongly doubt they have a positive
correlation with deep understanding on the
audience's part. If anything I suspect they more
often serve to distract, confuse, misdirect or
supply a false sense of understanding. Consider
the antics of a stage magician whose gestures
are purposely deceptive.

I generally distrust anyone who relies on
gestures to communicate their point, e.g.
http://images.google.com/images?q=Henry+Paulson
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who took the time to review Useful Tools.com. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Also, thanks to everyone who sent apps in for consideration. I'm going through everything that was sent, and we'll definitely feature the apps that we think would work well on the site, probably within the next week or two.
I doubt the Pentium 4 had no barrel shifter, as its shift instructions have single-cycle latency. It does seem, however, that the Prescott can do rotate instructions in one cycle while the Northwood took 4 (thanks, Mubench!).
Does anyone have any thoughts on the ethics of being "relentlessly resourceful"? Its rumored that Bill Gates was in deep trouble with Harvard for draining university resources in order to launch Microsoft. If we imagine for a second that its actually true, is what he did okay from an ethical standpoint?
Autoinfanticide paradox - You go back in time and kill yourself
Harvard would certainly say so.
It's very similar. Typically client certs are "dossier" certs that contain everything the CA knows about you, while infocards can contain only certain claims (e.g. the holder is over 18).
It's a hash container, right? I do have a use for it, but it took some serious investigation to find out anything about it. The poster you replied to was spot on.
""The government should pay for them!" They said."

Where, pray tel, does government get the money?

From us of course.
Ok, well what about the idea that WWII was fought to save the Jews from Hitler?

You may have learned these things, but if you ask people to name a "just" war that the US has been in, those are the examples that come up.

Even Obama makes frequent reference both to Lincoln and to modern European history in his rhetoric.
Are we entering an age of reverse-globalization?
It was the first modern war...the machine gun, the submarine, and trench warfare were among many of the new developments that would later scourge the world in the 20th century.

More importantly, the U.S. emerged from the civil war more fully committed to universal political and economic rights in the context of a modern industrial society, a philosophy that drove the nation's explosive growth across North America and still guides U.S. foreign policy today. Clearly the world would be vastly different in 2009 had the Confederacy and the institution of slavery survived on a divided North American continent.
Yes, we're adding that feature soon. Thanks for the feedback! :)
it was really a miscalculation?

Self referential systems are not only prone to failure, but are doomed on the long-run due to missing independent guiding points.

"Any community with only one dominant power is always a dangerous one and provokes reactions." (Jacques Chirac, 2003)
"We Can't Afford to Sell the Pre to the Wrong Customers." @ page 11

Was this really leaked? If so, it goes to show that they really have a focus on their customers. Otherwise, it might just be part of their marketing strategy.
Can't dismiss that possibility that this is a marketing stunt because the original source precentral has official blessings from sprint.
To the results oriented person, a physics class is not an intellectual exploration of the properties of physics, it is a series of lectures, concepts, exams, and a grade.

Someone who focuses too much on the learning/conceptual aspect might be tremendously insightful about some of the concepts, but may omit others because they seem less interesting, etc.

If tested on peak reasoning ability, the "learner" might do far better, yet might do significantly worse academically.

Many people have a mix of both intellect and results orientation, but they are independent characteristics. I've known some relatively non-bright people who are very successful -- they find what works and run with it.

IQ alone is only good for doing well on IQ tests. That doesn't mean it's a useless measure, but it's far more signicant as a measurement of potential than of anything else.

This is why valedictorians get into lots of colleges -- they are proven results getters and have proven that they are able to identify the prize and win it. Someone may be brighter but not care about the prize or be too lazy to do what it takes to win.
!hn. flagged.
Um, what about it? That one's also taken care of pretty early in the curriculum (actually, I've never really heard that one). Are you just casting around to find something you can call someone stupid for thinking?
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