skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
great article. I wonder what the range can get to with this.
There's already an alternative plan on the table that does SF to LA, city centers in both, in 2 hours 28 minutes.

To mount the argument that engineers and critics should be focusing on rehabilitating Musk's proposal rather than shooting it down, one of the following needs to be plausible:

(a) that door-door transit times on Musk's system will be significantly better than the HSR plan

(b) that construction and operation of Musk's plan will be significantly cheaper than HSR

(c) some X factor makes Musk's plan more attractive

There are compelling arguments against (a) and (b):

(a) because Musk's system can't reuse existing urban rights of way, it terminates far from either city center. It gets a "~30 minute" estimate, which message boards are eager to latch onto, by waving a magic wand and turning Hayward into San Francisco and Sylmar into Downtown LA. If that was a viable strategy, SWA would still be relying on Islip to service NYC.

(b) Musk's estimated tunneling and el track costs are so low that, were they viable, they'd revolutionize all of the rest of urban planning. For instance, Musk proposes to lower the cost of running viaduct by an entire order of magnitude. No comparable tunnel has been built for anything like what Musk proposes his tunneling costs will be. And the expenses he lays out make optimistic assumptions about the routes he'll be able to use, especially through the mountains.

It's gotta handily beat 2hrs 28min for the route people actually care about, OR be substantially cheaper. These aren't nits: they're the entire motivation for the proposal.
>and that wait will be determined by the volume limitations of the hyperloop

This is what led me to believe he was talking about standing in line for a place in a capsule.

Why is the wait for security determined by the volume limitations of the Hyperloop? Isn't that a function of demand, security lanes, and space to fill with waiting passengers?
How can one extract usable amounts of power out of sound? Even 100dB SPL has actual power around 1mW/m2.
Pulling out of Iraq? I suspect that
Iraq will pour blood into the Persian
Gulf and then return to a strong man
thug, Saddam II. Maybe not. I hope
not. There are various people and
factions there eager for blood, and
when they get killed off maybe there
will be peace there again.

For OBL, you are looking at the bigger
picture, starting with 9/11, and not
just with the Navy Seals and their
raid, and your view is fully appropriate:
OBL and a few guys with airline
tickets and box cutters got the US to
do a lot of harm to itself as you
listed. We were sucker punched.
We've done it to ourselves.

And
apparently OBL was not completely
nuts but understood well enough
to say that his objective was not
to defeat the US but just to watch
it bankrupt itself! We need to wise up.

What we do to ourselves if there
was a really serious threat and attack?
Open an incognito window in Chrome - command-shift-n on a Mac.
maybe the mobile link [1] works? i could read it just fine.

[1] http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/technology/an-inventor-...
That's an interesting suggestion and an interesting distinction -- thank you.

I agree that any and all license restrictions stifle innovation / building on each other's work. I also think it would be nice to limit the application of "open source" so that in a perfect world, you don't get the kudos if you don't encourage the innovation.

On the other hand, the literal meaning of open source is pretty clear: that the source code is available for you to view, tinker with and re-compile. Which with OpenDesk is, I hope, the case -- despite the NC license restriction.

Aside: `license the brand` vs `license the design` reminds me a touch of the What colour are your bits article re-posted yesterday http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 A name is just a tag that can easily be snapped off...
It still seems like ET3 has a much better design. It's simpler, more efficient, faster, and has fewer moving parts (that can break). The only down-side would be the 6% royalty you'd have to pay.

As far as proposed routes, train stations would be a better marker than air travel (to eliminate trips over water and mountains, etc.) In which case Japan would dominate with 45 of the 51 busiest stations in the world. The top trip on his chart has 10 million travelers a year, Shinjuku station sees 1.25 billion. http://www.japantoday.com/category/travel/view/the-51-busies...
Fly a lot? How much time do you give yourself to get through the lines?
The Bush administration did those things. But I remember idiots on 9/12 in bum fuck, Nebraska, going "if it could happen in NYC, it could happen here." People were genuinely scared.

I think the terror happened without the government, they just milked it to increase budgets, get new powers, and invade Iraq.
Yeah, imagine high speed rail going down tubes. Next thing you know, they'll be proposing to put one under the English Channel. Those crazy engineers.
From Wikipedia[1]:

> a distribution is most simply described as a particular assortment of applications installed on top of a set of libraries married with a version of the kernel, such that its "out-of-the-box" capabilities meet most of the needs of its particular end-user base.

It seems you're just making up random criteria that elementary OS doesn't meet so you can dismiss it for what it is: an operating system.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution
Because it's not really a good VM.

It's full of good ideas, but also full of cruft and years of technical debt. It doesn't have a JIT compiler, (nearly) no async IO, threading support is pretty new and not battle-tested nor documented very well.
Who said that only professionals can find vulnerabilities? The guy is clearly inexperienced, but catching the bug is no lesser favor to Facebook. They are being dicks. And they deserve the bad press.
Concentrated beam I imagine. I wonder about heat generation locally.
Mirror: http://www.columbusceo.com/content/stories/apexchange/2013/0...
Ratchet's got a v2 that's being worked on right now. Last commit was 5 days ago.

https://github.com/maker/ratchet/tree/2.0.0-wip
You wrote "a plan so convoluted as to involve actually taking time out from running a rocketship business, car company and solar power company". I'm pointing out that he took time out to write a paper; he hasn't taken time out to build anything.

The question of his motives --- which is a sideshow --- would be easier to dispense with if he had actually invested in the proposal.
To be honest, I never cared much for investing in a good screen until I got an iPad 4 and saw how much of a difference it made. Now that I'm in the market for a new development system, I don't think I want to settle for anything less than 1080p and IPS.

I just hope the 13" Haswell retina will allow 16GB Ram.
You can continue to stay on the $19/mo plan. There's an option to stay on your existing plan or move to the new pricing.

I'm not familiar with what rackspace did to jungle disk as I've never used it. I was under the impression the service was still running with a rebrand.
> I need to build shelving units for a warehouse

I have to say it is hard to beat commercially available warehouse-grade shelving systems for this application. I'm not sure I'd consider a DIY solution unless I had nothing better to do with my time and the wood just happened to be laying around. You can go on eBay or Craig's list and find the kinds of shelving systems you see used by Home Depot for pennies on the dollar. Hardly worth the effort to build. Focus on your business.

I only see two scenarios under which building your own furniture makes sense:

1- You want something that simply isn't available off the shelf.
Example: a custom entertainment center.

2- You want to learn about woodworking.

I've done lots of #1 both for myself and as third party projects to earn money and fund other activities.

I find myself doing a lot of woodworking under the pretense of learning (or, more appropriately, teaching) these days because I am teaching my older kid how to build things. For example, a few months ago we built a custom wooden standup paddle-board. We started with cheap lumber purchased from Home Depot and ended-up with a beautiful fiberglassed wooden board that does pretty well at the lake. He learned a ton through that experience and we spent hugely valuable time together.
Mine is linked to at the bottom of the article: https://github.com/CoryG89/MDNJump

I construct google query URLs with the I'm Feeling Lucky field specified and restricting it to the http://developer.mozilla.org domain and it brings you right where you wanna go everytime. It uses a keyword `mdn-` in the omnibar and registers a context menu item on text selection.
MIT "encryption broken" article not accurate
> So installing something by default is forcing it on people now?

Only for Microsoft.
It seems some people don't quite understand what the big deal is about not terminating outside the major population centers.

For people from the east coast, imagine a train system that claimed to connect New York and DC, but actually terminated in Manville, NJ and Bowie, MD.
Who Gave Hollywood's Representatives the Same DMCA Question?
It's more likely that a somehow extremely directional soundwave would knock a phone off the table than provide any appreciable amount of power.
Throwing around "OS" used to bug me too. Even Android runs on top of Linux. So, is Android really an OS? A distribution? It seems like something more than a distribution--Android contributes drivers and patches to the kernel. But it's still Linux under there.

I finally stopped caring and accepted that "OS" has evolved for most end users to mean a user experience, an ecosystem of applications, a hardware support list, and a technical support strategy. For many developers, it's now the set of tools, services, and paradigms available for development along with an understanding of the number and types of users that can be reached by supporting it. These definitions span the classical distinctions between Operating System, distribution, and even sometimes application. In my line of work, I can communicate clearly with the majority of my customers by referring to things like Android and eOS as "OSes". It's what they expect and I'm okay with that.

Congrats on the launch of Luna.
I like the minimalistic design. When are you going to launch this site?
You can. You can send an IP packed to every host in the internet and hopefully recieve a reply. That us the internet scanning.
A ~30 minute trip does not require the conductors, attendants or kitchen staff of, say, the two day trip the California Zephyr takes.

The overhead of those workers' wages would scale roughly with ridership. Amtrak ridership is up dramatically this year[0], but it is still 20x smaller than for domestic air travel[1]. They employ nearly 5000 people in mechanical and maintenance roles[2], which is a cost largely independent of ridership.

You can argue the case that Musk's cost estimates are overly optimistic, but Amtrak's operating costs are largely relevant.

[0] http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/01/5227255/amtrak-ridership-up...

[1] http://www.transtats.bts.gov

[2] http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/533/3/Amtrak-Mechanical-Services...
They aren't using it "the same way Debian and Ubuntu do." Debian is named Debian not "Debian OS." Ubuntu is named Ubuntu not "Ubuntu OS." The releases have own names.

Elementary "OS" guys use it like OSX and iOS which both conform to the real view: Note "OSX Lion" or just Lion and definitely not "Lion OS."

Clarity is important.
> After they said it is not a bug, it is clear that they have misunderstood you because you failed to communicate clearly. You could write a more detailed report and tell them that they have misunderstood you.

Right. He could also make a detailed flow diagram, or maybe fly to US and demonstrate in loco how it works. Give me a break...

If I send a bug report and some lazy engineer replies back in laconic fashion with "It's not a bug" I would also have exploited the CEO profile. They should be thankful he didn't simply sold the exploit, it had the potential to be huge.
You are correct that the JVM is ubiquitous in server software but not nearly as much as you assume and there has been a shift away from it in recent years for reasons having nothing to do with Oracle etc. I've been designing high-performance server engines since the 1990s and have watched the architectures and tool chains evolve.

Five years ago most new server engine development was done on the JVM. Since then there has been a shift toward new development being done in C++ such that the vast majority of new server engines I know about are being developed in C++ (mostly C++11) across a diverse range of companies. The reasons are practical and reflect the evolution of hardware.

The short version is that on current hardware C++ is much more efficient, both in terms of throughput per core and can achieve integer factor improvements in absolute performance relative to the JVM. Most of the differences are boil down to two things. First, server performance tends to be bound by memory performance and the JVM is quite a bit worse than what is easily achievable in C++. Second, an optimal high-performance server engine design in C++ is difficult to express within the JVM so basic design of the engine kernel tends to be less efficient as well.

In large-scale systems, that starts to add up in terms of power and hardware consumption and companies are more sensitive to this than they used to be. C++ currently offers significantly better characteristics and using less hardware to do it.
Jim Denaro, @CipherLaw on Twitter, a lawyer specializing in these issues and someone who has studied bug bounty programs, twerped earlier at me:

Paying out a bounty in that situation would be legally risky. Would advise against it.

Facebook's ToS forbid you to compromise other users accounts in any way. Its bug bounty terms require the consent of any accountholder used to search for bugs. It's also bound by California laws regarding breach notifications. And over the long term, it must retain the ability to enforce its own ToS. These are just the objections I can think of.

If you're going to participate in a bug bounty program --- and you should --- don't use non-consenting accounts to do it. This is a simple issue that's been blown out of proportion by message board pathology.
That's nice to hear.

We will probably launch in month or so. Technical side is quite complete already, but we still need more stories before launching.
Right, I didn't mean a literal line. It does help that you aren't stuck on a train for that time, but the increased wait is still a consideration.
Thank you. 100 pct agree. Hands-off was meant to convey respect for Hacker's process and craft of building out a MVP. As far as customer acquisition, feedback, service -- 100 pct hands-on. For some reason (most likely bad writing) my original post didn't convey that.

The idea would solve a personal pain point. And the MVP would test whether that pain point was felt by others. If not, failing fast is okay.

Relationship with Hacker is key to long term success. If Non-technical isn't plugged into the Hacker community, compensating them is a way to demonstrate seriousness. Skin in the game, so to speak.

Also, I'm speaking in broad terms -- Hacker and Non-technical -- for universal discussion. This scenario could apply to me at some point but I also deal with a lot of clients and associates that actively talk about similar scenarios at barbeques, dinner parties and conference rooms.

I don't have a confident road map to advise them on such a course and I'm genuinely interested in what this community thinks would be the best may to make this situation work -- for the sole purpose of launching a MVP -> shipping -> testing -> refining -> scaling.
I am guessing that, without reading it, you summarily dismissed it as identical to other sham stories and go off rant about them all as a collective, not realizing there is a ton of evidence to back up marijuana's role in fighting cancer. And then, of course, this being in the internet and all, you insult the intelligence of the poster. All because it doesn't fit in your world view.

Well done, indeed. You have demonstrated you are steeped deeply in the internet culture.

Fool.
'Natural' products appeal to people who apparently have a distrust of technology, drug companies, etc. I think the notion of natural breakfast cereal, or natural processed products is hilarious to begin with (where exactly is this in nature?). I think if you label a product as natural it is pretty out of touch with the actual definition and intention of the word.

I'm not sure that I agree though that diluting the word natural is the best course of putting the hucksters out of business. We already have a lot of that, and people still buy into natural cures and food without any scientific backing whatsoever.

Perhaps we need more aggressive public education in skepticism and rational thinking?
Terrorism is about terror, not dead bodies. It doesn't matter how many people are killed by what. Statistics do not matter. All that matters is that small numbers of people can create terror in large numbers of people and cause them to act in a certain way politically.

The problem here is that the mainstream media loves terror -- as long as they're the ones inflicting terror on the rest of us. Each year there's the predictable stories about killer bees, shark attacks, and all kinds of statistically unlikely events, all played off as being of dire import to the average consumer. We love using irrational fear to politically control people. It's as common as rain in the modern world. It's just when outsiders do it for their own purposes without regard to life or property that we run into all kinds of problems.
50 iOS7 App Design Concepts
Or delete "nytimes" cookies in your browser.
That's great news! Ratchet is truly an example.
I think my worry is that with the prevalence of locked down device that are now on the market, trying to even purchase a general purpose computer might become difficult.

Yes, if you are inclined you can buy a Raspberry Pi, but equally your kids could go from cradle to grave, never having touched a general purpose computer.

I see this as a problem. How do we inspire even a few kids in each generation to take up programming, if the only computer they've ever used is un-programmable.

I've blogged about this somewhere but I forget the link.
Will We Ever Know Everything About Human Evolution?
As a former mechanical engineer, it depends on your chosen course curriculum. Standard courses that all M.E.'s take generally don't cover topics like this. Instead, you deal at a more fundamental level with courses such as physics, calculus, statics and dynamics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, material sciences, etc. When other majors were allowed to take pretty much any elective, we were required to take 400 level engineering electives. This is where you had the option of choosing courses that would teach this sort of stuff. For example, I took a course in gear design which covered topics related to this. Another engineering elective I took was vehicle dynamics. Robotics courses are often an option for students as well.

As far as texts go, I would just search Google or Amazon for "Machine design". I don't have any particular recommendations because at the time I viewed text books with the same level of excitement as most other students, which is to say none at all. The two books that I did keep after college are the following:
1) Product Design and Development: http://www.amazon.com/Product-Design-Development-Karl-Ulrich...
2) Machine Design: An Integrated Approach: http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Design-Edition-Robert-Norton/d...
Why are you posting this on HN?
Hackers don't read TOS nor manuals.

Facebook should not expect from whitehats the same standards of bug reporting of their QA department. Most hackers are self-taught, one of the reason they are able to think outside the box and find exploits.

The whitehat program's priority should be to FIND EXPLOITS so they can be patched. Not having every single hacker in the world expend hours reading TOS and instructions on how to properly report such exploit.

Here is a thought: pay him less for not following procedures, but pay him anyways. Or better: pay a bonus to reports that follow proper procedures.
>And then, of course, this being in the internet and all, you insult the intelligence of the poster.

>Fool.

Cute.
A demo at All Things D 2 years ago: http://allthingsd.com/20110602/demo-at-d9-ubeam/

The design in that video involves transmitting ultrasound from a central charging station to an ultrasound receiver and that receiver is then plugged into a cell phone using a normal cable. The claim in that video is that it takes 3.3 hours to charge the receiver but she doesn't actually mention the watts or joules involved. Given that most claims of technology that can charge a device from across the room have turned out to be bullshit, I'm going to lump this claim of into the same bucket until there is more evidence to show otherwise.
> Americans Are as Likely to Be Killed by Their Furniture as by Terrorism

Sadly, still won't stop people from saying you have no right to privacy or due process or whatever sick agenda they're pushing at the moment.
Clean Your Old Game Cartridges the Right Way, No Blowing Required
It's not just the language barrier or the ethics of disturbing someone's profile though.

His emails read like a job application with some vague hints at an exploit that may or may not be real. I'd say he expected a job offer or at least an interview as compensation for eventually revealing the bug. In his perception, going ahead and posting on Zuckerberg's timeline was just another step toward that goal.

Breaking the rules is a somewhat glorified thing in hacker circles, and this may have contributed to his attitude. Of course, what they don't tell you when they say "break all the rules" is that only works out if you actually win in the end. And winning is an event often contingent on getting someone important to like you.

For what it's worth, all of that probably wasn't done in bad faith, but it wasn't a constructive process either. It's something someone very inexperienced would do if they were desperate for a job in the USA. It's understandable behavior, and if I was on the relevant FB team I'd at least given him something to recognize his efforts. If in doubt, do the generous thing (and be it only for publicity's sake).
It's a laptop charger ... and a crowd control device!
PLEASE do not invent your own headlines. In this case, an accurate headline might be, "Girl who never ages shows pathological and perpetual infantile dependence."

Also, you didn't mean "unravel", you meant "reveal".
"Also, a Hyperloop that terminated where the PDF proposes just wouldn't -- and probably shouldn't -- get built."

I'm sure we'll see it in built in China in a few years time then. No doubt it will be plagued with problems, maybe a few deaths. It'll be labeled a white elephant for a few years. But in 25 years time when everyone in China is zipping about at over 1000km/h and people in SF and stuck in traffic shouting about the good old days and refusing to build anything new because good isn't perfect, you'll be lamenting the lack.
Ryanair (budget European airline) does this.

EG: They fly you to Paris, not CDG or Orly, but to Paris Beauvais.
I think it all boils down to the "War Over Control" where some people want to control other people.

Personally I think if Islamists/gun grabbers/drug dealers/child pornographers want to destroy our way of life then they need to do it themselves -- I'm not going to do it for them by enacting draconian, broad-sweeping, and baseless laws that delegate power to people with questionable motives (all in the name of "safety").