skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Copyright law, the DMCA's Safe Harbor Provision (and its European analogues), whether people should have an expectation of privacy on public streets, and what the solution to the tracking cookie problem should be. I'll assume the first three misunderstandings are self-evident. The last one I'll explain.

Cookies are sent by your computer, which is under your control, to Google and other advertising companies. The solution isn't regulation. The solution is browsers that make it easy to control the information that you're providing. Every existing major browser is produced by an internet advertising company or is paid by an internet advertising company, so there's a bit of a conflict of interest at the moment. If governments want to solve this problem, it would be cheaper to create a browser extension that achieves their goals, or publicize an existing one.

What expectation of privacy should one have on the internet in the first place? If I patronize some establishment in the real world, there's no guarantee that they won't tell anyone else that I went there. Safeway probably shares my purchasing history with all sorts of companies. The assumption that your web site visits are private isn't based on any analogue in the physical world.

If the government thinks it's a good idea to inform people of the supposed dangers of letting internet advertisers accumulate information amount them and ways to prevent it, that's fine with me. Making it illegal or imposing onerous regulations on tracking cookies is silly and unnecessary.

If this guy gets his way, every website is going to have some annoying interstitial that asks you to opt in to their tracking cookies, and you'll get them every time your cookies get cleared or expire. That would be extremely annoying.

It would also likely be the end of free, advertising supported services on the internet.
I tihnk there are two options

1) Go to grad school (or just become a Research assistant) and start to work with proff. If you love science and you may resist of depression, it will give you funding, intresting (but really hard) work, mentoring and etc.

2) Continue work on your own enerpreneurial project.
Has he got any real reasons for using Gmail, or is it mostly just "I like this feature because I like it"?
That's a great book. I think it's the only startup fiction I've ever read, and it inspired me quite a deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs
If you meant about Estonia, here is a link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0701/p07s01-woeu.html

(I had no idea that it's been almost six years already since I saw that!)

If you meant about the dilution of real rights, I'd have to get political to explain. I hope this is OK since the headline is already political.

It has to do with negative and positive rights. Very briefly, a positive right is a right to be given something through the action of someone else. A negative right is usually a right to be left alone in some way, such as a right to free expression. As a positive right, a right to internet access can only be guaranteed to everyone through a violation of someone's negative rights.
It's a tough decision. You should not ignore where your passions lie, however as has been suggested elsewhere if you want this to be your core revenue stream you must understand the relevant metrics.

I've written about this on my blog, where I have discussed this and similar topics in greater depth: http://www.fourthirds.com/which-idea-to-bet-on/.

You might also be interested in reading Seth Godin's short book The Dip. This discusses ways in which you can decide when enough is enough.

I'm always happy to be a sounding board, in as confidential a manner as you wish, for ideas and offer advice on what to do next. Hit me up at the blog if you want to take the convo further.

Good luck!
How to spoof a MAC address on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6
Dynamic capabilities - as a personal key skill | shan.biz
gag. i fled here from reddit after fleeing digg a year or so back.

i feel like i am being followed.
re: safe food in India

1) Never drink tap water. Always buy a bottle of mineral/drinking water at a restaurant. The water they give you is usually not safe no matter what they might say. And bad water usually accounts for most of food poisoning incidents.

2) Eat hot food (aka food prepared on-demand preferably in front of your eyes).

Again the amount of precautionary measures you take varies depending on the quality of the place you visit - street-side food/fast-food places, you must be extremely careful; breakfast at Taj, not so much.

I'm Indian. I've lived outside India for the past 7 years. You'll lose immunity to a lot of things if you stay outside India that long. If I go back now, I can catch a cold almost immediately; go through at least 1 account of food poisoning, etc. My brother who might be eating the same food as me at the same places, doesn't even fall sick. It takes a while for your body to re-adapt again.
I have read the article again, but I must have missed the parts where he recommends the actions you say he recommends (ie regulation, outlawing of cookies). I only saw the bit about stopping Microsoft (personally I thought it was wrong to call Microsoft a monopoly and attempt to smash it by law, but obviously people have different opinions on that).

He seems to be right in pointing out the problem. Whether we have a right or even a hope to privacy is another matter.
Fine, I'll delete it.
A programmer reviews Star Trek
This is about the transparent society versus the surveillance society.

Google represents the transparent society. Tons of information that used to be public but impractical to collect is now available to ordinary citizens, who can use it for good or evil as they please. There are plenty of examples of both.

Financial Times is located in what is likely the most extreme example of a surveillance country in existence today. There are cameras everywhere, and the government collect detailed information about all citizens. Strict regulations exist to ensure that this information can only be used by the government, and there is an outrage only when these regulations are broken.

It is not surprising that these two views on the role of information in society clash. Information is power, and the question if this power should be centralized in the government, or spread out to the people. The risk of abuse is far greater for the later, but the consequences of abuse is far greater for the former.

Some may prefer a third way, an opaque society where public information won´t be collected, even though the technical means for doing so exists. I doubt that is feasible, it will probably result in another society where the collected information is only available to the few.
Well done Balsamiq! You are an inspiration to the rest of us. You've earned your success - thanks for sharing your story.
Stop procrastinating. Just make something.
Google is to privacy and respect for intellectual property rights what the Taliban are to women’s rights and civil liberties

I suspect I'm more "anti-Google" than most people here, but when the article starts out like that, even I have to just say "flamebait" and move on.
If I recall correctly, the EU's "right" to Internet Access was in response to France's "three strikes" cutoff law.

In other words, this is a right that prevents governments from cutting off an individual's access, not (and correct me if I'm wrong) any right to free state-paid Internet access.
Just make the decision yourself. You've probably already made it. If you really want us to make the decision for you, you should have made a poll.
I've had a few beers, so I'm just going to come out and say it: JavaScript is a terrible language. The best thing it has going for it is that it's Turing Complete.

"But wait!" you cry, "it's dynamic! It has lexical scope and lambdas! CLOSURES!" Too bad tail call elimination isn't in the spec. Or any kind of optimization on continuations or recursions. Yay running out of stack, tons of fun.

I'll write a book called "JavaScript: the Best Part" and it will be one page long with "Parenscript is the best part of JavaScript" printed on it, with "(pray you don't end up 10-feet deep in a call stack)" in smaller type underneath.

Maybe I should lay off the India pale ales and comments.

edit: I had to use JavaScript for something a few weeks back, it was like being hit on the head with a hammer wrapped in a damp cloth. Let me show you what I mean: http://emgio.com/wow.png There are so many things wrong with this that I had to take a picture, which I now show to people whenever they try to argue in JavaScript's defense. The blue text is interpreter input and black is the return.

Actually, JavaScript makes a fun benchmark race I guess, just because it's so ridiculously hard to write an optimized interpreter for.
He would call it that when applying this solution to that specific problem. In general, I don't think he would say that when the proposal is that people should use scrypt to hash the passwords they store.
I think you miss the point. Some tools are made for precision while others are made for maximum functionality. The scalpel vs the Swiss Army Knife if you will.

Javascript is horrible in many ways. It really wasn't even designed per se. It's just a mismash of hacks that Netscape put together with a few more hacks tacked on after the fact. But while that makes it messy it also makes it amazingly flexible.

That's why it's become so popular.
What happened to Microsoft?
Some of your suggestions are a bit over the top for a noob...
Go straight into your final year at university. That's a right time for studies, get a degree or you will regret later. There is more then coding to be a good programmer.
I didn't say it wasn't useful or popular. Just that it sucks! If it had just a few more things, it would be a lot easier to layer stuff on top of it, but we're kind of stuck with it now.
If you really hate it there's always Actionscript or if you're really brave you can even use C# or Visual Basic via Silverlight
Has anyone besides yourself yet vetted this 'key derivation function' (and perhaps you wouldn't mind shortly explaining the difference between a KDF and a cryptographic hash function)?
I believe you are correct about the law, but I was responding more to the idea expressed in the title and in the article of recognizing internet access as a "fundamental" right "on par" with the right to free expression.
I am concerned about privacy issues with google and I'm trying to defend against them as good as I can, including not using google for everything.

But I'm scared outright by the people who might regulate them. Governments are pushing for much more far reaching and much more consequential invasion of privacy than would ever be in google's interest.

Buiter makes it appear as if evil commercial interests were the worst that could happen to us. Being spammed with dog food adverts is not nearly as bad as being charged with crimes you didn't commit by incompetent morally confused totalitarian law makers.

European governments are currently building a system of censorship and questionable evidence collection, partly to enforce laws against the very "crimes" that google allegedly commits. We're being subjected to grotesque disproportionate surveillance techniques by our governments in the interest of Mr. Buiter's own commercial interests as an author.

It's amazing how incredibly clueless even the most esteemed academics can be.
Given how Axum looks very much like C# with added keywords and constructs, and how most of the functional aspects of F# either got into or is getting into C#, my guess would be C# is getting some neat concurrency-addons in upcoming revisions.

Either that, or it will simply get dumped. I can't see how it would make sense to maintain these two branches separately.
Hyperion Bay was an early WB program about a tech start up staring Mark-Paul Gosselaar. It wasn't very good though, only 17 episodes. I think I had watched only one episode all the way through. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166044/
No I'm totally with you, AS3 and C# are way better languages than JS. The CLR (and JVM, too) are all good ideas, I think that's what JS should have been instead of a weirdly dynamic C-syntax language with some useless prototype extension bolted on top (among countless other problems.) But JS, like most of the web technologies we're stuck with, weren't so much designed as they were a series of hacks layered on.. series of tubes.. anyway, I'm preaching to the choir I'm sure.

Silverlight is actually a lot better than Flash in most ways that I've found, too bad it's not installed everywhere like Flash is. I would make some comment about MS being evil, but I think they're about on par with Adobe these days (except they still seem to employ engineers occasionally.)
"Clearly, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft should opt you out [of tracking cookies] by default."

"They must be regulated and restrained by law so we can sleep at ease even though we know we cannot trust them."

Tracking cookies don't strike me as much of a problem. All the author says is that Google tracks us on the internet. So what?

"Search engines like those of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft can provide the companies that own and manage them with detailed information about many aspects of our lives, including our intimate, personal lives."

He doesn't elaborate on this point. What data about my personal life do tracking cookies give those companies? Oh no, Google knows how much I futilely try to disprove Rule 34.

Google does have my email and calendar, which could be a problem, but I'm more afraid of the government subpoenaing or PATRIOT Act-ing my data than Google misusing it, and the government can get it no matter who has it. In fact, Google's sheer size increases the financial incentive they have to not misuse my data. Their reputation is incredibly valuable.
You should learn some more javascript. The language itself is pretty sweet. Individual implementations vary.

Your image just shows you don't understand very much about the language. It's not "wrong" once you understand what it's doing and why. Show it to anyone who understands what is happening, and you'll look quite foolish. It's not massively complex once you read "Javascript: The definitive guide (O'Reily)" - the best book on js by a mile.

var obj1 = {};
// var doesn't return anything, so the interpreter shows 'undefined'.
var obj2 = {};
// same again
obj1 == obj2;
// Well no, they're different objects. So you'll get false
var thing = {};
//
thing[obj1] = "hi";
// OK this is an odd thing to want to do, but you're doing it anyway.
// You're using an *object* (obj1), as a key.
// The js thinks you're idiotic, but complies by calling the .toString() method,
// and gets "[object Object]" or similar by default.
// (You're free to override that on your object).
thing[obj2]
// Once again, you're using an object as a key
// and acting surprised that js has changed it into a string.
// So, you created an object and set thing["object Object"] = "hi"

So instead of "Wow! js is retarded", my response to that code would be "Why is he trying to use objects as keys? and why is he surprised when js converts them to strings?"
I recommend the above book to clear up things like this.
Remind HN: Call your mother
Just a reminder that's it's mother's day. ;)
If you can't do anything without a book (Like me), get "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan"

I know you can print things out and bind them but it's just not the same.
This article is filthy with mis-information. Just to give a few...

* Microsoft did make mistakes in it's early days. To make that point I need only cite all the Microsoft Execs who were quoted saying "OS/2 is the way of the future and We'll be phasing Windows out"

* Vista isn't popular with "die hard Windows fans". In fact, a big part of the reason Vista is failing is because there are a lot of things you can do in XP that you can't do in Vista (try right clicking on a network drive and looking for "Search" if you don't believe me)

* I don't see how you can have this sentence "Today’s Microsoft is impulsive and sloppy." and then follow it immediately with this "It has become massive and complex with too many layers of management, committees, and bureaucracy to produce anything great " You're either bureaucratic or impulsive but you can't really be both

* Microsoft did not "rest on their laurels" after IE6. What did happen is that Jim Allchin decided Windows = IE and disolved the IE team by integrating them into the Windows team. So when Vista's development timeline went to hell so too did IE. But there were always people working on it.

* Microsoft did not "get lazy" and miss the Internet boat in the mid-90s. What they did do was "get proprietary" and back MSN as a competitor to the Internet (remember that back then AOL was the competitor to beat and they didn't even have Internet access integrated yet).

I could go on but the point is made I think. You should know a little something about Microsoft before you write a post on how the company went wrong.
Read it again, the problem is that it accepts it silently and does not indicate any sort of irregular behavior in an operation that shouldn't work that way. It just does it and then fails weirdly in the future.

I fully understand how equality works in JavaScript (especially after making the mistake pictured.)

Also, the existence of an "===" operator should be troubling. Many people writing JS don't even know it exists.

edit: when you extend your reply in a large way, please append it with "edit:" or just make a new reply, thanks :]
Silicon Alley awards
Not in all countries! But yes, happy Mother's Day to any mothers here on HN. (I don't know if there are any, but hey, it's worth a shot.)
He does not elaborate on the regulations that should be in place in his opinion. Your way of quoting him makes it sound as if he wants to outlaw cookies, but I don't think that is what he is saying. I am not sure what kinds of regulations could be useful, but I am also not sure that there are no useful regulations at all.

As for privacy, and the data tracking cookies provide: it would depend on the web sites you visit, wouldn't it? I think in the average case, it would provide pretty much every bit of information about you imaginable (for example illnesses in your family).
Why shouldn't it work that way??? It's silently doing type conversion for you - from an object to a string. That's desired behavior. Just as most languages presented with "foo"+12 would silently convert 12 to a string via the toString() method.

What way do you think it should work? :/

An example of more sane usage:

>>> var myv={}
>>> var foo={toString:function(){return "12"}}
>>> myv[foo]=34
34
>>> myv[12]
34

>> "Also, the existence of an "===" operator should be troubling. Many people writing JS don't even know it exists."

You can't fault a language because some people don't make the effort to learn it properly.
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned the Amstrad CPC. I got one when I was 11. Here in Europe this machine had amazing market penetration those days (80's-early 90's), especially the 6128 model that featured a double-sided 360 Kb diskette (wow!)
Simply amazing.
First of all fair deuce. I wish I had the motivation you do when I was in your position.

My suggestion is to take a year out anyway even if you don't find something and work a part time job while doing some open source development. This way you will get the experience of working on a large development project with people. When it comes time to interview you will have code that has made it into software that your prospective employer might even use. Also when they google you your name will appear associated with this work.

The successful applicants for the Google SoC have been announced already and there are a whole load of good projects that didn't get picked. You could pick one, approach the team, and tell them you're willing to work on it if they'll mentor you a bit.
Having almost no Javascript experience, I always thought the language looked messy but with this great introduction everything seems so clear.

I found an error:

switch(1 + 3):
case 2 + 2:
yay();
break;
default:
neverhappens();
}

The ":" after the first line should be a "{".
This should keep you away for a while: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/06/rhinos-and-tigers.ht...
Tamarin and ECMAScript 4
Social Bookmark sites - Promotion and Marketing Plans
"semantic email"
I think most people don't realise what's at stake. Many just don't care, many others hear the talk about protecting the children, and swallow it, hook line and sinker.

I think in places like this forum, where most people are pretty web/tech savvy, it's easy to forget that we are still the minority.

When this latest round of censorship stuff reared its ugly head, there was some talk from parts of the pro-censorship side that the country should instate a policy of relegating certain web content to different ports. So rather than the standard port for HTTP being port 80, instead certain web content could only be served on a particular port and of course this would make it easy to block said content by blocking its associated port.

Yes, you read that right. So like you'd have a porn port (lets say port 69) and a gambling port and eventually I guess you'd have a political decent port before too long.

This is the level of understanding we're dealing with. Born in an earlier time, I'm sure these people would be spending their days burning witches after making sure they were witches by determining that they weighed the same as a duck.
As both government and businesses put more of their interaction with citizens and customers online, having access to the Internet becomes a prerequisite to participate in society on equal ground with others.
I assumed people would use the contact form, but I can see why you wouldn't. Updated my profile accordingly.

Will drop you an email.
Thanks - will try it out.
Can CMIS handle browser CRUD?
I agree with you. It's very important for people to have internet access for the reason you mentioned, and also to have better access to more knowledge (Wikipedia!).
I think you should step back, and go read "Javascript: The definitive guide". Also, for a good explanation of prototypical inheritance (Which is far from useless if you understand it), checkout the Douglas Crockford lectures (Vids on yahoo).
I'm a karma burning mood so I'll keep going :]

This is the main problem I have with it; it's a very dynamic language but in a totally dangerous way. It should hash based on an object's identity or something; as it stands, there's no way to do that in JS without bolting your own junk on top, as a result you can't do real object<->object associations in JS.

Python for example has well-defined and useful behavior when you shove something into a dict type as a key, for strings it will hash based on the string value, for some other things it will uses identity, etc., and you can overload it (which you can in JS too of course, as you showed.)
It's telling that the article has no mention of Windows 7 which, unlike Vista, has been widely praised for it's polish and performance. The rollout through to RC has also been handled in a slick but low key manner.

Seems a little premature to write off Microsoft at this point.
There are thousands of them. They're usually called, "the business plan."
Smalltalk: Our Death has been Exaggerated
It's largely irrelevant to most startups wether Microsoft went wrong because of X, or because of Y. Point is, they don't matter any more. Interesting from a historical point of view, but not much more.

MS still shows at every single opportunity that they do not understand the internet, and they'd actually rather it didn't exist. That's unlikely to change.
Maybe you can't be bureaucratic and impulsive, but you can be bureaucratic and sloppy.