skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
money can be refunded... we're not talking about a life - or a human life we're just talking about software. Reading how Twilio was using redis it sounds very reasonable (fsync). I've seen MySQL servers melt under extreme load running on very high end servers so if you're saying that somehow having had SQL in this case would have saved them... well... maybe you're right... but I wasn't there were you?

I believe the engineers at Twilio are building and have built a platform to handle a scale that is going to continue to reach further than many traditional models will scale. It makes sense to me that they would need to look for in memory systems to push the limits - They are fsync'ing immediately - so while it's in memory for a read it's disk for writes so that sounds pretty safe to me... Also, a lot of people use Redis now, so I definitely wouldn't say it's unproven, that is as others have said like saying we should still be using typewriters to put ink on paper because it's "proven"... I'd answer that with... "good luck with that".

And at the end of the day - "the shit will hit the fan" and it did...

the team did great and we're all thankful.
The negativity that you are sensing is not against the placebo effect, but against treatments that claim legitimacy and use anecdotes that are easily explained by the placebo effect as evidence of their effectiveness.

A placebo is by definition something that has no effect at all. Any improvement in the state of someone taking a placebo must be attributed instead to something other than the placebo. However, patients will attribute their improvement to the placebo. This is the placebo effect.

No doctor would literally say that a placebo is a "powerful drug", since it is by definition completely inert. However, they may say so in a figurative manner to mean that patients will claim effectiveness of ineffective treatments due to the placebo effect.

Treatments that rely on the placebo effect have two major negative aspects. First they may prevent people from seeking a truly effective means of treatment. Second, they take money for providing a treatment that has no actual value.
IC is a much older application. I wish they would rewrite it though because it sucks bigtime.
According to their text, they seem to have received those grants 3 years ago.
Still, given the rather low goal, I'd, too, assume that this is simply a marketing strategy to increase visibility.
After all, this is a kickstarter and when you back it (even though not receiving any Kites for yourself on the low tiers) you do something good for those poor people in Uganda!

Also, I'd guess that the $75k goal barely covers production, shipping & travel costs... and their manufacturing pipeline seems to already be set up.
Not gullible, just giving her the benefit of the doubt. It could turn out that she had some guidance, or has worked with people (though not as a programmer) and is smart + good enough memory to osmos some good practices, or took some class a long time ago that stuck better than she thought. Perhaps she had a power up period of non committed grazing and chose day 1 as the for real now point. Or some combination of above. To be honest I don't care. She's done something few can: keeping to a goal when she could easily have slacked on sites like hacker news, completing something not at all trivial, doing it well and sharing it. How long she's been programming wouldn't move my opinion in any direction.

And even if there is more to the story, I still accept her day 1 as valid. My least generous interpretation is she came with at most a scattered modicum of knowledge, gleaned from informal trifling and lacked confidence enough so, that saying she is new is a rounding error compared to how good she will get.
He's definitely a better man than I. Surely there is someone(s) responsible for their UX and I think it's too lenient to say "them's the breaks". Unfortunately there's apparently nothing he can do about it as evidenced by their non-response and even threat. No point in getting worked up over things you can't control.
Can't believe that article didn't mention what has to be one of King's most notable opening lines, ever:

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed".

Another great one is from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four:

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen"

Anyway, in the case of King, it's too bad he isn't as good at endings as he is at beginnings. Under The Dome was, IMO, a particularly strong example of a really interesting story that just fell apart in the last page or two. And, of course, the Dark Tower series and the fizzle-flop ending of that.

That said, Joyland had a pretty strong ending and was fun to read.
I just flashed 4.3 onto my Nexus 4, and I'm happy to say those annoying hiccups are virtually non-existent now! They really bothered me before. Chrome and Facebook were the apps I most noticed the stuttering in.
These types of long-polling setups have a critical flaw: no debugger statements. The moment you insert one is the moment you lose touch with the browser.
Just use an oscillating fan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/science/a-low-tech-mosquit...

It's also worth noting that previous attempts at preventing malaria in Africa have failed not because of any technological limitation, but because they view it completely differently than we do in the West.

> As medical anthropologists have consistently found, because malaria is so common in much of sub-Saharan Africa, and because the overwhelming majority of cases go away on their own, most rural Africans consider malaria a minor ailment, the way that Westerners might think of the cold or flu.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/02/opinion/la-oe-shah-2...
Show HN and looking for designer for a kids-friendly project
I think my design is kind of awful, that's why I've been always looking for a designer (co-founder). If you're interested in what I'm building, contact me at wanghq # kidsfriend.ly or leave your contact here.

I'd also like to hear some suggestions. If you want to get some feedback for your projects, we can exchange our ideas.

http://www.kidsfriend.ly
Also: http://pancake.io is pretty slick
Today in APIs: New Adobe PhoneGap Release Contains Two New APIs
I too have been waiting impatiently for Google to fix the audio latency. Great to see behind the scenes of how the Android engineers are tackling this issue. Surprised this is primarily a Linux scheduling issue and of course priority inversion. Between "fast path" and matching buffers/sample rate, looks like we're almost there. Great watch! Thanks for posting that link.

Any android developers working on audio should check out:
https://code.google.com/p/high-performance-audio/
I wonder if blog posts like this will cause some kind of reform. I was under the impression that Microsoft was aware of how important keeping 3rd-party developers happy is toward the long-term success of any OS or platform they publish.
waiting is until fullness... some of the best things I've ever learned, I learned when I normally would have been asleep
If this is your day job, yes, you should expect and anticipate these things. When you're presenting at a conference in a foreign country, all bets are off. I think how he reacted was reasonable given the evidence presented.
Community wiki: When will my device get the Android 4.3 update (Jelly Bean)?
Lennart Augustsson gave a talk [0] at last year's Haskell Exchange showing how to embed a DSL in Haskell and then use Haskell's LLVM bindings to generate LLVM IR for it. If you need a blazingly fast DSL, give it a try!

0. http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/home/making-edsls-fly
HTML5 Datalist: What You Need To Know
6 votes actually, not 12. (Well 7 because of the tie breaker.)
No. They're already busy. Let's not bother them.
disclaimer: using Xamarin, using MvvmCross and went to Evolve 2013.

- Write your core business logic API once (in a Portable Class Library) using the ModelView ViewModel pattern.

- Design native user interfaces for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows Phone 7.x, Windows Phone 8.x, Windows Store (RT and Desktop) and Windows WPF.

- Bind your user interfaces against the core business logic.

Multiple platforms, native user interface designed for each platform, sharing one core business library, maximum code reuse (90%+!), using either C# or F# with async/await/linq/lambdas/anonymous types, etc.

You can use Visual Studio or MonoDevelop.

Rewriting your business logic multiple times over in different languages to target multiple platforms does not make sense. I'm curious why would anyone not use Xamarin?

Evolve 2013 Videos: http://xamarin.com/evolve/2013

Recommended ModelView ViewModel Frameworks: https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross or http://www.reactiveui.net/
Likewise, some places (YC startups, or forward-looking splinter groups in larger industry) need rock stars who can do a lot; but there's a huge swathe of megacorps that just need warm bodies that can tab-complete API calls; the problem with debates like this is that arguments are so rarely anchored by a clear context. Are we doomed to always argue straight past one another?

Speaking of context, in many discussions on this and related topics here I see many contrasts like this raised. There is a vast gulf between startups that (truly) need rock stars and corporations that need IDE monkeys. There is a vast gulf between top programmers who read CS papers for fun and implement problems in 8 different languages out of curiosity, and "programmers" who can't even write FizzBuzz in pseudocode. In these discussions, I get the impression that this segment is either nonexistent or is so small it doesn't matter. As someone in that segment, it make me question if I should be in this industry. If the industry truly has a programmer shortage, I would think that is a poor impression to give.
The tool who represents my district actually voted AYE. Maybe there is hope for this body of morons.
Create Mobile HMTL5 Offline Apps Without Any Programming
What would it have cost Microsoft to let his wife come inside and hang out for an hour to watch her husband speak? It wouldn't require giving away an expensive ticket, or buying meals for her, or giving her a swag bag. It would only have required one decision maker to say, "sure, you can go with him but should probably leave afterward so other attendees don't wonder what's up". That's all.

I wouldn't have been nearly so polite if I were in his situation, and my wife would have a conniption if I were banned from watching one of her talks.

Again, I can't think of a single legitimate reason not to have let his wife go to his talk, and that simple act would have bought a lot of goodwill. The fact that no one was able to make that simple judgement call is a sign of terrible organization.
They mandated the color of pants speakers wore.

Am I really reading this? Wow.
Yeah who knows.
The readme is empty and the only url on it is broken
When and why would a lawyer be concerned with web-specific typography? I can't possibly imagine a lawyer ever needing to know about web-safe fonts or any other aspects of typography that are specific to the web.
Hacking Airbnb: How to have a better stay by the numbers
A delay in pursuing an effective treatment can be extremely significant. For example, if one simply tries to will away a broken bone, it can set incorrectly and cause permanent damage.
Like I said, I too would walk.
Should Facebook offer a paid, ad-free version?
Death Happens Slower Than Thought, Cell By Cell
I took a +1 to an RSA talk without a problem. RSA is gigantic (it eats Moscone) and badge-controlled. I just said "I need this person here in order to do the talk".
I didn't know that NZ had such a pressing security threat that would necessitate these actions. A shame really. Such a beautiful place with wonderful people.
Works great between my Samsung HDTV and Panasonic BluRay player, both 3 years old. Only have to use one remote. :-)
Samsung, Mobile Device Market Drive Linux, Open Source Hiring
Khakis, with brown shoes. Not tennis shoes, although trendy sneakers (but not athletic shoes) would be considered.

The most insulting part: the Microsoft keynote speakers - MS employees - were in jeans and track suits. They were trying to look approachable. Hilarious because you couldn't approach them and ask a question during keynotes.
Help Coach Me Do Something
I've hit a stagnant point. I have no project to work on, no product I believe can make it, no cofounder to bounce ideas off of and code prototypes for. I'd like someone to take that role, to coach me back into the startup hacker groove.
If you're going come up with an interesting theory like that you almost have an obligation to track it down definitely.

Otherwise you're just making an assumption, and drawing conclusions from it without knowing if your assumption is right.
The colour was fine for an emperor. We know who wears the real pants in this "relationship".
This is the paper the article is based on: http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjo...
From the linked article it is unclear if the chemicals are absorbed into the body or not. From the horse's mouth:

"Kite Patch is designed for clothing, not skin. A few news articles did get it wrong – but our technology is designed to be placed on clothing, baby carriers, backpacks, Camelbacks and other outdoor gear (for outdoor enthusiasts), etc. Kite is NOT a skin patch."

Source: http://www.kitepatch.com about 5 pages down.

Manufacture's website: http://olfactorlabs.com
Komando: Hackers can gather personal information through 5 strategies
Netflix pushed very heavily to add their DRM plug-in to Chrome and have it rubber-stamped by the W3C.

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5
This one does. :)
What would have happened if Google got Steve Jobs as their first CEO?
On a related subject, Dan Bernstein of qmail fame created a portable assembly language a few years ago, called qhasm: http://cr.yp.to/qhasm.html The idea is that processors do pretty much the same things, but with different assembly language syntaxes. With a portable subset, one could then use translators to convert qhasm source into whatever dialect required by ARM, Intel, PowerPC, et cetera.

The latest source code dates from 2007, and it's only a prototype, but it's a clever idea.
> I was under the impression that Microsoft was aware of how important keeping 3rd-party developers happy

If Microsoft started alienating the very high number of Windows (desktop) developers (which is going to be higher than the OS X community for a foreseeable future), do you think they'd just abandon the platform?
HTML5 hgroup is dead: What you need to know
Clickable: http://www.kidsfriend.ly
I don't think you can take that party line as a baseline.

The president is democrat and is for it - democrat congressmen would have to notice that. But they didn't.

I think this issue simply has no party division, it.s each person with their own opinion. (If only all politics could be like that.)
How to power the Chromecast
The only ads I've ever clicked on (and actually ended up buying something from the App Store) are Facebook mobile ads. Just a couple of times but they were good ones.
I would love to.
Because they can't take a joke?
Unfortunately, there is risk that people may use alternative medicine as a replacement for real medicine and cause themselves unnecessary harm.

Of course. That's how Steve Jobs died.

The scientific method requires someone to check their hypothesis. If they ignore data, then they're not doing science.
Sorry, I think you misunderstood my intention. I was sarcastic. Read my other post. The GP was saying how well had he spent more hours with Photoshop he could have gotten so much better. Then Parent post said how exactly would have improved the art and my sarcastic response was well just applying a filter.
Not to play Big Brother's advocate, but even considering improvised explosive pressure cookers and underwear, I'd wager that 100 NSA snoops bring more of a tactical advantage to this "War on Terror" than 10,000 boots on the ground in Kunar province.

Whether we're achieving anything by wading into that quagmire is another question entirely.
Android master key flaw used in the wild
As a counter example, I have been to a number of conferences where the speakers/presenters/panelists and volunteers were expected to pay the full registration fee, so as you can imagine, friends/family and +1's wouldn't get special treatment.

While some events are pretty laid back, it looks like the registration for this event cost ~$2000, which is a pretty penny. My gut instinct would be to check with the event organizers first before trying to bring a +1, but I think the OP assumed that because he was able to negotiate with the travel coordinators for two one way tickets, one for his wife (instead of one round trip ticket), he probably assumed that this was implicit consent for his wife to tag along at the conference. Seems like a big mis-understanding that was confounded by poor treatment from security staff (and before we start ragging on the security staff, it is worth mentioning that event security tends to be a thankless, miserable job. Crappy wages and hours, and depending on the event, you spend most of your time dealing with people who treat you like shit.)
It's not hard to learn how to deal with the minor pain of a cavity long enough for it to become a major even potentially life threatening issue. Dittio for thigs like a minor acke that's the sign of an early cancer ect. Overall pain is generally a really important issue and solid pain for over a week without obvious cause is a major warning sign that should not be ignored.

PS: Only after a reigorious investigation should someone look into developing coping skills.
The app size limit is so restrictive their own demos won't even compile. It's a tremendous shame because they automatically exclude so many people.
Cat's out if the bag... We haven't launched publicly, but we have customers on our beta application now. We've analyzed over $1.1B in legal bills.

If anyone here is from NJ, you've probably read the news stories about your school boards and local governments getting outrageous legal bills. Your state Comptroller, Matthew Boxer, is actually doing an outstanding job of putting a stop to the worst of it.

We're still in private beta, but drop me a note if you want to see how your bills stack up.
I think you're making a number of mistakes in judgement here. Most importantly, you're conflating NoSQL with "not as reliable." As if there's no difference between Cassandra, HBase, Redis, etc. They're just "nosql" and "not needed" to you. That just seems highly ignorant of the relative merits of each database.

And similarly, the attitude that a RDBMS is the right and proper data store, that all data should rightly prefer to live in an RDBMS aside from the loftiest heights of scalability.

Finally, the assertion that using a key-value or column-based datastore is going to lead to an "unnecessarily complex" design.

I'd not be surprised to find you disagree, but if we were working together on the same team, these are some things I'd try to work with you on.
i'm always wary of this kind of stuff. learning things upfront - not just for games, but in general for programming - is often a fantastic waste of time. the greatest skill to learn imo is how to research a problem effectively when you hit it and how to (re)invent wheels when you need to... also, my experience is that things learned this way stick better and are understood more thoroughly.
Assuming we all agree with you is pretty arrogant. A lot of people will do as you say, and a lot of people will do the opposite. As long as nobody acts like a sore loser about it, everyone goes home happy.
Maybe you're overinterpreting the parent commenter, who makes a valid point. I read it as: This reminds us of our (increasing?) dependence on systems operated by opaque and fragile entities that, on top of it all, may have goals at odds with our own.
Learn at least a server side language for now, and a web framework.

You don't need to learn every single thing about JS (for example, you don't need to know about the DOM and events, unless you decide to build apps with Cordova or something), but if you want to be a good independent mobile developer, having a server side language will enable you to work on your own backends. You'll want to know SQL inside and out, too.

If you don't know ruby or JS yet, I'd recommend just learning JS and using node for your backends with express.js. Node is pretty easy/awesome, don't listen to the neckbeards.

Don't waste your time learning brainfuck or whatever if you want to work in industry building applications. Although things like that are cool, it's never going to have a higher priority than the million other important things you need to learn right now. It's best left to bored CS students who don't want to rake in the cash to learn things like that.
We don't plan to, no. Your info doesn't matter to us outside of us figuring out how people use the site in order to better improve it. At any point, you can just delete your account, and it'll be permanently deleted. There are no soft deletes here. You delete your account, and all content you create is deleted everywhere.
Did anyone else pick up on all the chemophobia in this video? Is a clip of people spraying DDT supposed to scare us? Rachel Carson was wrong. DDT is safe. My favorite part is when they say "food grade FDA compounds". That's a lot of words to say chemicals.
FWIW I highly recommend the Dominos iOS app (the food notsomuch). Don't even have to give your email unless you want to pay by cc.

As for the Orwellian drama, most people aren't looking to be footsoldiers in the crusade. They develop for Apple because it puts steak on the gd dinner table and if developing for Firefox OS did the same they'd be doing that too but as of it today it doesn't.
Rather hard to carry an oscillating fan around with you at all times.
a good demo still beats the crap out of any amount of academic skill. good graphics and physics code often comes from being especially clever and creative with the performance budget and tools available... when your demo implements bits of tech that approach or exceed the quality of commercial games and engines then, so long as you actually made it and people look at it, your actual ability with math is irrelevant, even if you blindly copied all the algorithms to make your stuff work - making things work is far more important. :)
Perhaps she's just really, really smart.
Most already have. Looking backward, the primary competition has been web, not OS X. Looking forward, the ascent of mobile is only making it easier to deprioritise Windows.
Wow, I haven't read techdirt much, but I might have to start. I've never seen one article, let alone two (I clicked through to the Nugent one), about proposed amendments, that were so clear and accurate, with absolutely no personality-and-rhetoric trivia. It's as if Masnick actually understands enough about the process not to have to rely on press releases. Good show!
The iPad is Your New Bicycle
That's a truly common problem. Experienced the same thing when I was working at Formspring. We relied heavily on Redis and SimpleDB for caching and when a large portion of the cache was lost the site was pretty instantly DOSd. Not fun at all.
I'm looking forward to making sure that I'm not overpaying on the review of my commercial contract with banks!