skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You might want to Google the term yourself. According to Wikipedia, "A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result which is contrary to the interests of the incentive makers". That is exactly westicle's usage here, unless you are implying that the outcomes he described were actually intended.
Sports competitions are about finding the best athlete, not purely the best training regimen - and genes are part of the definition of who that athlete is.

On the other hand, an interesting question would be about improved homo sapiens - we will start to improve ourselves as a species at some point (simply because there are so many imperfect things to improve), and at that point 'unupgraded' athletes probably won't be competitive at all.
Bill Watterson got successful by doing X != If I do X I will be successful.

Even if you follow the advice in the same letter and spirit as he did.

Though I agree you increase your chances of being successful that way.
The humor is why I also browse Slashdot, even though they're generally late (like by days) with the submissions. There's a little bit of serious discussion, a lot of memes, but then some generally humorous discussions based off misinterpretations of comments, articles, and titles.
To test the invisible hand, as described by Smith, you just need to buy something useful from someone who just sold it for money, and not out of any desire of helping people.

People just inflate the concept to ridiculous levels, which were clearly not intended by the author.
I thought the up votes were meant to serve a way to filter out the good for the bad. If something got to the front thats outright bad then it should be flagged.

Otherwise questions can be asked.
Welcome to Stockholm, sir.
Good idea for a service. Recently I told someone that a business can be built based solely on broken wordpress installations and this validates that it is indeed a big problem out there. Naturally the only reason I thought this was due to the emails I get related to this, and I never want to waste my time getting involved with wordpress. Now I have a site to recommend.
I have a French colleague with the strangest attitude to his strong accent when speaking English. His accent is strong enough that it makes understanding him a bit tricky sometimes, and when I mentioned it, he said that this accent was part of his identity and he wouldn't be trying to improve it. He was weirdly taken aback when I said something in a 'good' French accent.

This attitude was really surprising to me.

For me, when speaking your non-native language, the aim should be to sound like a native (or with the accent of some subset of the native-speaking population).

I wonder how widespread this "X is my native tongue, so I'm going to speak English in a strong X accent, because otherwise I'd be submerging my identity" attitude is?
>So starting from 1998 I slowly learned to fluently read English without making more efforts compared to reading something written in Italian.
I even learned to write at the same speed I wrote stuff in Italian, even if I hit a local minima in this regard, as you can see reading this post: basically I learned to write very fast a broken subset of English, that is usually enough to express my thoughts in the field of programming, but it is not good enough to write about general topics. I don't know most of the words needed to refer to objects you find in a kitchen for example, or the grammar constructs needed to formulate complex sentences, hypothetical structures, and so forth.

Well, have you tried to properly study English, as in, with a teacher and a course book? From your description I understand that you merely tried to casually pick up English.

If so, it's not particularly fair to assess the difficulty of English compared to your own language (that, besides, being your native language, you were taught it's grammar and syntax for years on end at school).

I've studied English for several years and have no trouble speaking or reading it -- despite not having had many opportunities to speak it with native english speakers until much later in my life. Reading a lot of books/magazines/etc helps a lot. Reading for like 1-2 hours per day.

I found out I could pick a specialized subject I was interested in, like, say, electronic music production, and just by reading the magazines (Future Music, Electronic Musician, Keyboard etc) for a couple of years I could go from a total newbie to understanding all the specialized vocabulary used (from simple stuff, like "knob", "fader" and "slider" to "dither", "LFO", "frequency cutoff" etc).

Watching movies and tv series without subtitles also helps tremendously. In Italy this is even worse, because they don't just add subtitles, they usually dub the whole thing with Italian actors (ugh).

(OTOH, ho studiato Italiano per tre anni, in un gruppo picolo, e questo e tutto che lo ricordo, ho dimenticato quasi tutti gli parole e la majorita de la "syntax" e gli tempi -- damn, that got bad quickly)
I bring it up on occasion and I make it a point for them to ask each month before I send anything. I reached out to HN because everyone else I've brought this up to before, is taken back by it.

That is true, it definitely helps more than just me as I do have a siblings that still depend on my parents. I still can't help but I feel a bit indentured.
Android Anti Theft & Full Battery Charge Indicator
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This is a pretty good article, I share a lot of the same sentients, but I'm on the other side of the fence. I"m on the technical side, although I've started making friends who are business minded in the area which has helped out a lot. I think that the right co-founder makes your team progress at more than 2x your normal speed.
Or using QtWebkit or a Cocoa WebView, possibly with limited glue for exposing host objects.
[1967] Poor Man's Explanation of Kalman Filtering
MOUSE Celebrates 15 Years of Inspiring Youth Innovators
I'd venture to guess from the presentation and the site that this is basically trying to be Node.js with a graphics engine attached.

ie. Throw away the browser DOM and provide a bunch of new apis (and maybe a few existing ones which already seem ok, like the canvas stuff).

I'm curious what you get as a benefit of doing this instead of just using Node itself and providing an api to work with the graphics/sound/whatever engine.

No HTML or CSS renderering -> A considerably more plausible project, and certainly one that won't complete with existing browsers in the short term.
I can't help but think how naive the OP sounds, with statements like these:

> 40 years ago, two journalists showed the world that the president of the most powerful nation used the Secret Services to wiretap his political opponents. This investigative work granted them the Pulitzer Prize and led to the resignation of the president.

First of all, winning the Pulitzer Prize doesn't validate journalism. It's a prize given by journalists to journalists, and despite what the OP thinks of today's investigative journalism, journalists are still giving each other Pulitzer Prizes for investigative work, so not sure why he uses it as some kind of metric.

Second, I'm not familiar with all the details of Watergate, but I don't remember it being a scandal involving the Secret Service.

Details, details, I know. But the OP approaches this issue with incredible wide-eyed naivete, with no real knowledge of what's happened in the past. I'd hate to think what kind of jaded essay he'd write if he really studied world history pre-2001.
"A co-founder is your strongest and greatest validation."

No. A customer is your strongest and greatest validation. The only thing that proves people will buy what you're selling is someone buying what you're selling. Any other "validation" is mere vanity. You're just enjoying people agreeing with you. Clue: They might be entirely wrong.
The issue is not whether or not libertarianism would be "against" an externality like that, it's that libertarianism (at least in the author's eyes) doesn't provide workable solutions for externalities like pollution and other tragedy of the commons-like situations.
The main question is : Why should I use your micro-blogging engine instead of the other ones? The README is unclear about it.
Chinese Mandarin has no the/a/an, and I believe most languages from the Sino-Tibetan family do the same. It is normally clear in the context anyway so (surprisingly) doesn't even lead to any confusion. They do have 'measure words' which can be used in a similar sort of function to a/an, but they are a bit more abstract.
I found I was really, as another poster said, "disappearing into smartphone-land" at every available opportunity. My procrastination levels went through the roof, as I previously had only a dumb-phone. I have an iPhone (4) now but have found out to keep the distraction stuff to a minimum. Apple make it quite easy, can't speak to Android.

Just go to settings->restrictions and turn off app installation, safari, itunes, and whatever. When it asks for a passcode, ask a good friend / family member / SO to type one in and remember it if you need it back at any point.

So now I just have "core functions" of a phone that are useful in a non-distractful way, and a few other relevant apps.

Core functions:
- Camera
- iPod
- Camera
- Notepad
- Calendar
- Reminders
- Clock, alarm clock
- Calculator
- Maps (well, apple maps)
- Weather
- Email
- Phone and text

These functions are actually really good, as they bring together what were formerly separate devices into your pocket, but they don't really change your behavior. You're still a person, not a zombie.

Then, I have some additional functional apps:

- Sleep cycle (upgraded alarm clock)
- Torch
- Google translate (for travelling)
- TripAdvisor, AirBnB (ditto)
- Duolingo (for learning French)
- Online banking app
- Facebook Messenger (I see it as an extension of SMS)
- WhatsApp (as above)
- Soundcloud (basically an online iPod)
- Skype (phone)
- SkyScanner and
- Couple of online shopping apps (eBay, Amazon, RedLaser)

So all of those extra apps are things which actively improve my life and/or are "lifehacks" bridging me to the real world - instead of going to the bank, I go to my online app, and so on. Saves time.

That's pretty much it. The standard apps replace a whole bunch of devices and books. The extra apps come in really handy. But with Safari disabled, and having not installed all the trendy "social" media apps, I'm still connected with the real world. I don't feel I'm missing much.

The only bum note is that certain useful apps - like Google Maps - have inbuilt web browsers which are easily accessible. So I can't use them. It would be nice if developers respected the "Restrictions->Safari" setting instead of ignoring it.
Ask HN: Why are Ask HN posts coming back from the dead (repeatedly)?
Hiya,

I posted an Ask HN 4 days back (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6290198) - it stayed on the Ask page for 2 days and slowly slipped to the next page. However after 12 hours it came back to the 3rd spot on the Ask page and then slowly slipped away again. Today again its back in the 9th spot, along with quite a few old Ask HN.

I am not complaining (obviously) - but I do remember loads of other Ask HNs being posted after mine (with lot more points and comments).

Is there a reason for the algorithm to be doing this? Is it random or some specific logic?
> Each browser has its own hackish way of doing something like that, but they're far from a complete solution.

How is the File API "hackish", let alone each browser having its own way of doing it?
At the risk of being "not HN".

no duh

These revelations, that "The NSA spied on <insert>" are unimportant beyond "The NSA spied on Americans". Every country spies on every other country. Welcome to being a grown up. I'd be sad if the NSA wasn't spying on the Brazilian and Mexican presidents.
Insolvent Town Exposes Gulf Between EU Dreams And Reality
No more so than any other advantage. Some kids get good diets, encouragement, the best teachers. Others get an abusive gym teacher, crap microwaved meals, and parents who don't give a toss about them.

Honestly, looking at the sacrifices some sportspeople have to make in other areas of their lives, I'm not sure I'd even want the advantages if they were offered me. I mean I love martial arts, dancing, swimming, archery... but I'm not sure I'd want to live the sort of life necessary to become the best in the world in any of them. When did sports become about winning, rather than having fun and making friends?
The problem is getting the data: a list of papers and their references/bibliography. The great thing about the arXiv is that the papers are open-access, that it is updated daily, and that the daily-update is immediately available to data-mining. Is there a similar thing for med/biomed?
If you're not working with important enough stuff that might be valuable in the hands of other people, does not mean nobody else is. It does not need to be military/state-level stuff. Even if the border shitheads aren't actively looking for it, they might get ideas once they see something.

Please send a URL to the uploaded contents of your hard drive so we can see them. I'm sure you wouldn't mind.
It depends on the volume. Often you can handle the 80% case with VAs, and then have just one or two people to handle the rest.

A good example is banks: mine still has tellers, just much, much less than before ATMs were common.
Aye, it's a sair fecht! ;-)
And how to show a totally lack of empathy and missing the point
It’s Not Illegal to Sell Anti-NSA Shirts Bearing the NSA Logo
And once again our community snipes, takes cheap shot and shows complete lack of understanding for comments expressing confusion over a cryptic, unclear and fluff-filled page.

If you have nothing of value to add, just keep quiet. Otherwise you can come across a bit of a dick. Thanks.
I have mixed feelings about karma. It's nice to have filters that bring (mostly) better comments to the top, but I think it results in more silenced voices than it does posts-for-karma's-sake.

It's validating to get a few upvotes, but more than that it's disheartening to spend time on a comment and recieve no feedback whatsoever.

I'm an outgoing person, but I find myself shying away from commenting on HN for that reason. Admittedly, I don't usually have some brilliant insight, but it does make it harder to feel like part of the community.
Do you talk to other founders much? I am a solo founder, but in a co-working space. I can bounce ideas off of or ask for help from many of the other founders there. That makes it feel like it's no big deal that I'm a solo founder.
A voice of reason in the wilderness. These people (or is it all one person with multiple accounts?) disinter tired, old socialist notions that have no basis in reality. Indeed, let's just close all the tax "loopholes" and redistribute $2T to the least productive people and see what happens. What a great idea!

Excuse me, but I have to get back to the real world, now. Enjoy eating the goose, but don't complain tomorrow when you run out of golden eggs!
Scribd (YC '06), San Francisco - H1B, FULL-TIME, and INTERN are all welcome

Scribd (social publishing & eBooks, top 100 website, 35 people) is hiring talented hackers of all kinds to help us build the library of the 21st century.

We've hired SIX full-time people and TONS of summer interns from these "Who is Hiring" threads, including two this summer ... it really works!

We're looking for people who want to work with:

* Ruby on Rails (we're the #2 largest rails site, after Twitter)

* Javascript (well, we use Coffeescript)

* iOS / Android

* Machine Learning / data mining / recommendations

* Back-end infrastructure: scalability, web crawling, big data, data warehousing, analytics

That said, we care way more about your personality and general hacking skills then what languages you've used so far, so if you haven't used these but want to break into mobile or web development, this could be a good opportunity for you. We've hired people from these threads with everywhere from 0 to 10 years of experience. We're profitable, very well funded and have a really fun office environment (go-karts + a rock climbing wall!).

Scribd alumni have gone on to found 4 other YCombinator companies, more than from any other startup. We think this says something about the kind of people that we like to hire.
We are always looking for international people interested in moving to the US and can help you secure a visa.

Scribd's vision is to build the digital library of the 21st century. Just as Wikipedia built the successor to the encyclopedia, we want to build the successor to the library. It is a big vision and we have a long way to go, but I'd be happy to tell you more about what we're working on now and how we plan to get there.

See more at scribd.com/jobs and feel free to email me directly: jared at scribd.com
So a 12 year old in Brazil not only has to learn how to install an OS, and then how to install Python, and then how to program with Python, but also has to do all of that in a different language?

Pretty easy to call it an essential skill when English is your first language.

How about you try to pick up some new programming language using only Japanese documentation?
Most of English's "problems" come from a sort of natural drift that all languages experience all the time. There's no way to freeze a language in its "most useful" form, because a billion different speakers are simultaneously pulling it in different directions. It either ends up as a sort of democratic consensus, or eventually fractures into mutually unintelligible dialects.

1. Shakespearean pronunciation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlpphT7n9s

2. Problems that would be caused by simplifying spelling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_refo...

3. Power of Babel: http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Babel-Natural-Language/dp/00...

4. Toastmasters speech about "Manglish": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDanVi6byKo (Toastmasters has its own version of English, full of over the top gestures. Also recommended, search for Singlish on Youtube.)
Does the File API give you full access to the file system? Last time I checked it didn't.
Full dotRB 2013 speaker lineup revealed (Paris, Oct 18th)
> My favorite example is anti thesis -> antithesis.

That's quite an unfortunate example: it comes straight from classic Greek (another very bitchy language when it comes to pronunciation pseudo-rules), and percolated into Latin and eventually English.

Still, I agree large chunks of current English pronunciation "rules" (rules? what rules?) just don't make any sense from a logical perspective; proof is that even born-and-bread Englishmen can often struggle with spelling well into their late 20s and beyond, regardless of education level.
I don't think leaving a large inheritance for your kids does them any favors. The issue is that providing for oneself and one's family is a legitimate goal, but at some point your kids grow up and they need to make it for themselves. If they are always punching your meal ticket they will have a hard time developing their own sense of self-worth. Certainly there are some individuals who will use your gift as a springboard to their own successes, and some who will realize all this and jump out of the nest on their own, but I believe those are the exception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%2...

The Computer serves as the game's principal antagonist, and fears a number of threats to its 'perfect' society, such as The Outdoors, mutants, and secret societies (especially Communists). To deal with these threats, The Computer employs Troubleshooters, whose job is to go out, find trouble, and shoot it.
Is there a way you can continue without VC? It sounds like you're compromising yourself/business and don't really want to.

To continue your marriage analogy: don't do it if your heart isn't in it. The inevitable misery and divorce aren't worth it.
The hardest thing I've found is being able to type one handed while having a food asset occupying my other hand.

I know it's early technology, but gesture control in this scenario seems like it uses 10x the energy than a mouse (which may be a good thing).

I can see it being useful in public places where you don't want to 'touch' a screen that doesn't get cleaned.
The Kids' Guide to the Internet (1997)
Of the 9 comments before yours, only 2 (ChikkaChiChi and rorrr2) are really negative. It's a bit much to call that "the primary response".
A bit ironically, I do have a hard time figuring out how to pronounce "redis"!
Ligth Table [1] works well and uses node-WebKit.

1: http://www.lighttable.com/
Fire, second close is the wheel.

Fire gives the humans the ability to extract more energy from a given weight of food which frees time and resourses for everything else.
24SMS.net - Free SMS to world
I think that people are interested, but still not sure what this is about so they upvote in hope to have answers. (or vote rigging, but I prefer to have faith in people)
> Does the File API give you full access to the file system?

The File API gives you access to the files the user has selected for your access. No website-accessible API will ever give full access to anything for rather good reasons.
> Sounds like a simple program to write, probably it already exists.

It does and is called Anki. You'll probably need to search a bit though to find a deck that has italian/english with english sounds:

https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/english

Alternatively you could take decks made for other languages and build a new deck, since they're all stored in SQLite.
Ya, one of the great aspects / hidden benefit of a service like this is how it makes the lives of web developers easier because they have a reliable service they can refer clients to when they don't want to handle those pesky small maintenance tasks anymore.
Medieval & Renaissance  Cartographic Sea Monsters
DerbyJS is an MVC framework that runs in the browser and the server
The reference to the Pulitzer prize is correct. You just have to read it in the correct light. The author intends to convey that the work of Woodward and Bernstein was held in high status by the society at the time.
It's not a rewrite. It's a translation.

And it's done because there are developers out there who know Python and don't know Ruby. For them having a Python version of some software means that they can more easily integrate it and change it if they need to.
Global nuclear weapons inventories, 1945–2013