skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Oops, you're right it is a PIC not an AVR. Just a typo/brain-o on my part (I've corrected it in my above comment, thanks). Obviously there are steps up from the Arduino in terms of power. Just like there were "real" Unix-caliber mainframe systems available in 1975 when the Altair launched. and likewise, the Arduino-compatible boards are getting more powerful every day, cf the new Arduino Mega as well as the Illuminato. The core of my argument is of the "there's always room at the bottom" type. Without a smooth newbie-to-expert curve, the existence of more powerful and flexible systems is just a frustration to users who are locked out of the whole domain for lack of a starting point. I don't think the Arduino is the Last Word in Physical Computing, I think that for a large class of people what's important about it is that it's the first word.
It's possible for this to be true, since on a bicycle you may tend to expose both your back and front to the rain more so than when walking.
> Reading about finding and learning a programming language is like reading about an artist choosing a brush.

Wands are a much better metaphor to make. Or perhaps, what if you had a magic brush that could at any time be extremely fine or large or anywhere in between depending on how you felt? That would be some brush, especially when you compare it to the many medium sized brushes which aren't so fine when you need them to be.

Okay, so maybe the metaphor is still stretching a bit, but these are no ordinary brushes; they are worth writing about.
I don't think this is really anything new. In fact, my IQ was used to help prove I'm ADHD (basically, with my high IQ, I shouldn't have had such a low GPA).
Dead on. Also, the main point when you're getting started with physical computing is not the processor, but the actual hardware you can plug into it, the LEDs, buttons, motors, thermistors, etc. One of the Arduino's really big advantages for beginners is that it is relatively "transparent" in terms of cognitive, cost, and setup overhead in this regard. It gets you to actually plugging things into it and seeing them blink the fastest and cheapest by an order of magnitude.
He did explain why:

"This provides both future-proofing against later changes in ECMAScript (adding keywords), and simplifies the grammar for conforming parsers. Simpler grammars mean less opportunity for errors and non-conformant implementations."

If it didn't require quotes, currently valid JSON may not be valid in the future if a new keyword which was use as a JSON object key was used unquoted. And there's the added complexity of supporting both quoted and unquoted keys.
Lean movie-making: Zombie flick wowing Cannes made for $70
The profile is usually pretty clear: the kid is unable to behave himself or perform any action for which there is not an instant reward. Its not something that shows up with hormones, it is the central characteristic of the child's life from day one.
Maybe they are more in touch with what people actually care about? (ie, the actual core functionality of the device and its usability) It's a bit absurd to assume people are fanboys because they choose to buy a phone despite the fact they cannot install a kama-sutra app. The simpler and more obvious explanation is they don't care. Some of the AppStore incidents annoy me but, at the same time, it's nothing that makes me want to stop using the iPhone platform.
Paul, you're fit to prefer Arc over the rest because: 1) you're an experienced Lisper, and 2) it's your own creation, you know it inside and out and the language spec, manual, tutorial and research papers are somewhere between your ears (the most convenient type of bookshelf ;-)

However, it's IMO, unacceptable for a fairly new Lisp programmer to cast aside 50 years of Lisp research, development and deployment while brushing aside the industry's backbone languages, and herald Arc as the best thing ever when it isn't even finished.

I can accept personal choice and opinion, if kept to one's self and made in private. Even if someone sings Arc, or Clojure or Common Lisp or Scheme, praises, I am fine with it. But to say "Languages X, Y, Z suck because they don't allow me to write succinct programs", well, you're just trolling for X, Y and Z programmers to come out and straighten you out. The sort of macrology he is after (code-compacting type, not language extension) is pretty basic and could be done with the C pre-processor and M4. You can even write compact assembly programs with GASP, HLA, and NASM macros; it's not rocket science.

I reserve my judgment for Arc until it's done. There is no manual yet to hold the compiler accountable, and to save me from guess-work. However, what I can't ignore is blind fanboyism; if everybody here sang Arc praises, when it is just arc-tutorial.txt and arc.arc, and there were no "dissenting" honest voices, well, the place just wouldn't be the same.
And all of them can't handle non-word characters like ":"

var a = { foo:bar : 'Monkey' }
Well, to be sure, calling this a "Man-made star" is quite a stretch. In fact, it is nothing of the sort. It is a small-scale fusion reaction. Yes, this can indeed tell them some things about how stars operate, but in no way, shape, or form does it, as claimed by the article, "allow the researchers to probe the insides of stars and supernovae in unprecedented detail".

That's not to say they won't be surprised by some unexpected side-effects. Who knows? But they certainly won't be doing a 2010 to planet Earth. Besides, we have already created fusion reactions vastly larger than what NIF will be creating. It's called the hydrogen bomb.
My 'IQ' hid my ADHD, because until highschool I got by without studying or paying attention or doing homework. I'd ace the tests, and it was enough to pass. In highschool, I needed to study or at least pay attention and didn't. Teachers said I was smart, but lazy.

I think its a pretty common situation. Nevermind that some people are independent learners, and the public education system is ill suited to this style of learning.
I believe after Kumon level J you get into calculus and plenty of grade-school kids take this.

Here's some quantification of the number of students who take calculus before the "usual" age in this era:

http://www.maa.org/columns/launchings/launchings_05_07.html
I wonder how much of it can still be called science when all it does is with incomplete unreliable and unpredictable stuff. We can rename it "Computer Magic" or "Paracomputology"
That's the point - we CAN'T do better than nuclear. Not in 2009. All the alternatives are either too expensive or not reliable enough.
His intent has been "largely positive", but what do you expect people to say after his "Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Scheme and Common Lisp suck because they didn't allow me to write compact code" remarks?

Here is what will happen: Perl and Ruby programmers will ask you to show code and they will rewrite it in one-liners. Java and Python programmers will stuff code into packages/modules and write a tiny 5-line "client" for it. And Scheme and Common Lisp programmers will take absolute pleasure in skinning your argument about macrology and hygiene, the Common Lispers keeping a bucket of salt nearby for the rubbing.
Some dietary triggers for the ADHD like behavior commonly mentioned are artificial colors, sugar

Rather than downmod I'll ask a follow-up question and request research citations to back up that statement mentioning two distinct triggers for ADHD behavior.
I think it's an important clarification of the conceptualization of human cognitive abilities, and I can't count on everyone to do the Google search that you have done, especially on a site with new participants every day.

No, I'm not related to him at all. Are you related to someone who has an opinion on research on human cognitive psychology?
> It had to be said, as much as I hate to be rude and blunt like this

Actually it didn't, but that hasn't stopped you before;
Wow! How did it feel the first time you used it?

The reason I am asking is, I am having problems with ADHD but I haven't tried any medication yet. What you said sounds very promising.

I cannot ever imagine myself planning for the next day and being able to follow that plan. I sometimes am just like as you described, cannot even take the trash out, because I have so many things in my mind, confused.
Or they could be translators. They could teach their native language to people whose native language is the one they've learned. They could end up as authors or writing the marketing copy to sell your software in France or on any number of non-self-referential career paths. There are useful places in this world for people who didn't major in applied sciences, too.
I'm not sure if your particular example is correct, but you're right that there are certain ambiguous cases involving labels and object literals.

There was a really good talk recently that touched on this, but I can't remember who gave it or what it was called.
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about and if anyone is doing FUD, it would be you.

The .NET compilers costs absolutely nothing and are part of the free (as in beer) .NET SDKs you can download whenever you feel like.

As for mono: Microsoft has actively supported the community, helped out with getting moonlight (the opensource Silverlight implementation) working, and as part of the Silverlight package you have IronPython, IronRuby and the DLR (dynamic language runtime) which are all largely opensource.

Even if Microsoft wanted to bail out at this point, it would be too late.

Not to sound rude, but I think you had one thing right in your comment: "Mono is something weird. I confess I fail to understand". How about the simple explanation? The .NET framework (despite the silly name) is a solid framework, C# is a good language, the CLR is sexy and people want to use it on more platforms than just Windows?
But I couldn’t find any stories that put the whole thing together and questioned whether there was any news value at all.

Isn't that kinda like proving a negative? Why would anyone write a story about something they have concluded has no news value?
This is definitely a well-written essay. I also have a favorite passage:

"There probably aren’t many jobs that can be reduced to rule-following and still be done well. But in many jobs there is an attempt to do just this, and the perversity of it may go unnoticed by those who design the work process.
... you put the manual away and consider the facts before you. You do this because ultimately you are responsible to the motorcycle and its owner, not to some procedure."

There lies the crux of the problem. Here is a man dedicated to good work. The people who design the work flow processes know that they do not always fit the actual world. The point is to get it right enough of the time to keep enough customers happy so that growth targets for the quarter or year are met. When you have tens of thousands or millions of customers, you can do very well by getting it right 80% of the time. The underlying capital serves as a cushion for the rest of the cases.

The lone mechanic has to prioritize keeping his customers happy if he wants to stay in business for long. And that's exactly how the author likes it.
Affordable Bridesmaid Dresses
At Figuratively Speaking (exquisiteweddingdresses.com) we provide high quality, affordable wedding dresses and gowns to brides of all shapes and sizes. Our goal is to make it simple, stress-free and fun for brides to choose their wedding attire.
I don't think this is really anything new.

What may be new here is the changing view of what happens to the high-IQ, ADHD child upon growing up. I think there was a time when the high IQ score would have been taken as a prediction of all the usual socioeconomic success correlated with high IQ, but now the more nuanced view is that adult workers need other forms of cognition (broadly characterized as "executive functioning") to thrive in the workplace.
My powers of whit fall short while trying to express how idiotic this idea is. When I read of this "brilliant" scheme earlier today, I thought it must be April 1st already.

Honestly, is Sun now being run by the marketing department? "Hey, guys, let's do the iPhone/Appstore thing. We'll be the first to do it on the desktop! A sure-fire winner! Besides, if we don't do it first, Adobe will scoop us!"

Riiiiight. Sun thinks that they need a Flash killer, something to compete against Adobe Air. And as we all know, Adobe Air has just been sooooo successful on the desktop.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1659835,00.ht...

That was at the top of Google and describes a 2007 study in The Lancet. There's plenty more if you go looking.

The trouble with dispersal of natural health information is that the pharmaceutical and food industries are two of the biggest advertisers in mainstream media, have enormous influence, and they both profit tremendously from an ignorant public who's willing to buy low cost low quality foods and then take drugs to treat the resulting symptoms.
The first time I took Adderall I was angry and upset that I'd missed years of my life because I couldn't piece fragmented moments together into a cohesive whole identity. It was like waking up from a long sleep. I was 18.
Fixing Wolfram|Alpha
Am I Rich was a sort of in-store malware. It targeted the buying process. Once you bought it, there was no harm done. The harm came in the ridiculous pricetag and lack of checks and balances on expensive shopping.

Offensive apps are not malware. Again: there is no damage to software when you run the baby shaking app, so while tasteless, it's not harmful.
And mine -- http://collectivesys.com

It might not be instantly obvious that comparison can be done, so here's one example -- http://collectivesys.com/item/compare/KSrJ1hb2c9wx%3BvLgQgEe...
My feelings are mixed on such. I was on Ritalin as a teenager and I felt like it stripped me of my creativity and started refusing to take it. I had trouble focusing a lot of the time (though I also have the ability to hyper-focus). I've taken a few times illicitly since just to have a reference point, and I still find that the mental gymnastics that I've had to develop as an adult (I'm 28) to try to get myself to hyper-focus on the whole are a better coping mechanism than taking amphetamines on a regular basis.

I feel like scatter-brained-ness is a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, it contributes to difficulty in staying "on-topic" on a regular basis; on the other hand, I feel like it's been the mechanism that's allowed me to broaden my interests and to absorb a lot of information in usually disconnected areas and sometimes connect pieces that might be less natural for others without this "affliction".

This is of course an anecdote, and I believe as others have pointed out concentration is spectrum and there are extreme poles where medication may be the only option, but I'm leery of it becoming a catch all solution as it has become in the US (but not in other developed countries).
You're right, I suppose I was just inferring his intent. But from the facts that have been released, it looks like he just posted screenshots of his successful "hack" on 4chan, and didn't try to do anything more nefarious like steal her identity. I could be wrong.

I think my reaction would have been the same had it been Obama, Biden, or any public figure. One big difference for me anyway, would have been if he had accessed a @whitehouse.gov address (whether Bush, Obama or other official). Being able to figure out her pet's name or whatever seems somewhat trivial to merit a jail sentence.
I take Adderall. Helps with ADD, but for me it causes insomnia.
Having recently graduated from a CompE program at the number 2 or 3 (depending on who you ask) school in my non-US country - I think it depends very much on the focus of the school's program (my alma mater, for example, is known to do much more hardware things than most CompE programs we compare ourselves to). Over the course of my four-year degree, we had four lab courses where you play hands-on with circuits and do more traditional hardware hacking (so about one every other semester).

First one is the basic breadboard class, focusing on RLC + OpAmp circuits (basically building amplifiers and Wheatstone bridges) and getting you familiar with how to use a scope, function generator, and the various other tools of the lab.

Second one is CPLDs - over the course of a semester design (in, ugh, VHDL) and build a WWII Enigma machine. Some circuit assembly (attaching various components to the main board) and DIY multiplexing, but the focus is on the CPLD.

Third one is based off a custom board with a CPLD, a little programmable TI micro-controller, and a whole lot of pins to wire-wrap things on to. My year we attached keypads, RTCs, four-line LCD displays, and speakers to do FM wavetable synth - half our final grade was dependent on how good Jingle Bells sounded when we played it back on the last day.

Fourth one was about IC design - given the schematics for several types of amplifiers we simulated them, analyzed them, and then hand-laid them out. Flash-forwards two weeks, and we got them back (as DIPs) from the fab. Rest of the course was about testing them, building a few more RLC circuits to complement and verify them, and hooking everything together to make an AM radio receiver.

If you were really into HW, there were a few electives you could take (mixed-signal analysis, IC fabrication, and a whole bunch of power engineering courses sponsored by our local utility company) that would get you more exposure to it. All of this was in addition to the on-paper analysis courses that everyone took, starting with RLC circuits and ending with the physics behind BJTs and diodes.
I think you're being unnecessarily argumentative in this discussion. The author likes Arc, feel is makes him more productive, and he wanted to share that with the community.

He did not say other languages suck. What he said was he prefers Arc over those languages, and explained why.
Zonealarm. First and foremost. Then firefox.

after that, just the usual comfort foods; mingw, dev-cpp, emacs, and a few lisp dialects.
Does alcohol help with the ADD? I remember around that age that moderate drinking would dampen some of my scattering and made me feel as though I could focus more.
The trouble with dispersal of natural health information is that the pharmaceutical and food industries are two of the biggest advertisers in mainstream media

That should have nothing to do with publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals, which is what I was really asking about. [After edit: I see the Time magazine link you posted refers to an interesting study in the journal The Lancet, which is very well regarded. Now I'll have to look that up and follow up further citations. Thanks.] Scientific journals can have their problems too, article by article,

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

but that's where I'd like for carefully verified information about what triggers ADHD.

I'll read the Time article in light of the link I've just posted here, which I recommend highly and often to readers of HN. [After edit: I see the Time article ended with a suggestion, from an expert, that it might be a good idea to eat more "organic" foods. Interestingly, there is also a lot of research on phytotoxins suggesting that many "natural" sustances found in plants, which after all evolved defenses of various kinds against being eaten by animals, may sometimes be many more times risky for human health than some "artificial" substances commonly found in lower doses in typical foods. But again thanks for posting the link, which gives me something to follow up on.]
Technically I don't know how SL stacks up against Air or Flash but it seems pretty obvious to me it's not a good idea to trust a company that has so much to gain from making a technology popular and then slowly pulling back support to promote their operating system & web browser and, by extension, their own web services.

I don't particularly like Adobe but their cross pollination of Flash to the Creative Suite is not a deal breaker and they, of course, have every incentive to make Flash run on Windows, OSX, Linux, mobiles, etc.
"UVa is a pretty preppy school"

I'd give you +20 karma if I could.

Also a member of the dataset.
KodakGallery.com is holding your photos hostage. Bust them free using this.
Totally agree! I just remodeled our kitchen; tore walls down, built news ones up, and installed new cabinets and countertops. It was oddly fun and exhilarating and I never thought it would be. I felt a sense of accomplishment that I had not experienced in quite a while at my day job as a software developer. I don't know, I think I did a pretty good job at the remodeling and I keep thinking about doing it for other people and going into business for myself. Then I wake up and realize I've only done it once and that doesn't make me a master carpenter/installer. But I probably will continue down this path and see where it leads me.
> I think its a pretty common situation.

Yes. That sort of story is quite common even among people who don't have ADHD.

If you are in 8th grade, and you are capable of learning all the material without doing any homework, then it is just not rational to do homework.
Not predictably. Right now often jumping into a debugging session I'll have a glass of wine or so, but historically if I look back over the most productive phases of my life they've varied between times where I didn't drink at all to where I drank too much.

The most effective coping mechanisms have been combinations of removing distractions and sometimes short meditation. More recently I find if I'm distracted that going running for 15 minutes will help clear my head. If I find myself procrastinating too much I often run Freedom.app for an hour or two at a stretch to help drop me into the zone. When I'm working in an office I tend to start extremely early or extremely late so that I'm alone at the office for long stretches. When I'm working from home (I live with my co-founder) I tend to shut the door for long stretches and occasionally notice that I shift my sleeping schedule so that a large block of the time where we're awake is mutually exclusive.
OK, I have a HN etiquette question. I don't post much on HN, and I wasn't the one who posted the link to my thank-you here on HN. I've had a HN account for a while, but I'm still pretty much a newbie to HN.

I have a desire to not just stand here and take it on the chin as mahmud publicly proclaims that I'm pandering, a Lisp newbie, irrational, a blind fanboy, hypocritical, dismissive, and unfair. On the other hand I don't want to waste everyone's time with a tedious flamewar.

Thoughts?
Lawyer: RIAA must pay back all $100M it has collected
Dolores Labs has great blog posts on some data mining and visualization experiments, definitely worth checking out: http://blog.doloreslabs.com/

Glad to see they're hosting a MTurk meetup. I'd love to attend, but it conflicts with another event.
I think that anybody who resonates with what this author talks about should consider volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. As a software developer by day and a volunteer on the weekends, I find that doing manual labor building a house for a family that needs one is a great way to work off stress. You also get a sense of accomplishment not only in the work that has been done but in the fact that you've helped the less fortunate with your skills and labor.
I like the fact that people are taking aggressive action to push back against the RIAA, even if they seem to be stretching the limits of the interpretation of fair use.