skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Virtually every class focuses on memorization and not conceptual understanding, unfortunately. That's what students have to do to survive high school and college courses, because that's how they are taught and assessed.

A recent study of calculus courses found for example that almost 80% of the test questions simply involved recalling and applying a procedure (i.e., "plug and chug").
http://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/cspcc/TSG13_Bress...

The students don't want it to be this way: "74% preferred to make sense of mathematics rather than simply memorizing it and 72% saw the role of the instructor as helping students to reason through problems on their own rather than showing students how to work the problem".

And yet because it is easier to test and grade rote learning and memorization, we end up killing students' interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and most students who enter college as a STEM major end up changing majors, transferring, or dropping out. "students leave STEM
majors primarily because of poor instruction in their mathematics and science courses, with calculus often cited as a primary reason."
> Just need to administer this scheme, which would be a logistical impossibility. Yay.

Actually, ridiculously easy to administer: The enforcement you get depends on your reporting (and tax paid). If you claim to have made $x in a given year, you cannot sue any one individual for more than $x loss in that year.

So, if Disney properly reports - it is administered.

If Disney under reports - they let infringers off the (full) hook. If they do a Hollywood Accounting and claim loss every year - well, then, they can't sue any infringer for it.

The only thing giving them any standing is copyright law. Just tie it to taxation, and all will be well.
Show HN: explain everything on one page and share it with one link
Hey, guys and girls :) Please notice, that my intention is not to advertise my project here, but to ask for your advice. Long story short: we've noticed that it's very hard to "sum-up" any idea on one page and share it without using a blogging platform. Let's say you want to collect and present your point of view on "IA reaserch". You can write a blogpost or use social media to share your opinion (that would reach limited amount of people though). We really missed a tool that allows you to embed a lot of different resources on one page and than to share it with one link. This way you can take advantage of ready to use materials like videos, infographics and articles, add your comments and than paste the link wherever people might be interested in seeing it. We've launched the tool yesterday and we'd love to get your feedback, as we're truly trying to follow the lean principles. What do you think about this? Do you need (I mean REALLY NEED) such a tool? Please be cruel if neccessary - we'd like to know even the hardest truth ;)

the link: http://www.reclipper.com/en/?tut_v=b

cheers,
Greg
You need to shift your centre of gravity backwards and then you can still brake, or at least feather the brakes, hard.
Yes, it can't be the next big thing for Apple's revenues if it doesn't shift lots of fairly expensive hardware. There's also Apple love of iCloud, and iCloud revenue, to push them towards cloud (or even local) sync between your iPhone and a mini-desktop rather than a dock-your-iPhone solution.
I agree with sytelus that the writer is seeing what he wants to see. I don't agree with the reasons though. They all seem like doable hurdles if Apple really wants to do this.

I think iOS could handle mult-tasking if it was a priority. The lack of RAM/Processor/storage is not a long term problem either. Specs will go up over time and apps like photoshop will be written to max out the capabilities of their average users' machine, but not more.

I just don't buy the everything-is-powered-by-your-phone future. I see difficulties, hurdles and compromises but no benefits. There is no reason not to have processing and storage capabilities where the display-keyboard-mouse is. It's cheap.The problems solved by putting the brain in your phone are small.

I especially don't see Apple doing it. It seems like an anti-Apple move. Apple like to keep their metaphors as clean as possible. That means stuff needs to be self contained. A brainless desktop powered by your phone and the cloud is the opposite of that. It's complicated.

OTOH, I do see (or maybe see what I want to see) the benefit of iOS on a keyboard & mouse device. I just think its a different iThing. An iOS desktop could be what chromebook should have been. A "computer" where everything is easier than it is on windows/mac.
> For example, Objective-C would be dead if it wasn't the only language to fully explore iOS and Mac OS X capabilities.

It's a symbiosis. Cocoa would be much worse and harder to program if it wasn't for Objective-C.

Objective-C gives a stable, object-oriented ABI without requiring a VM.

Objective-C runtime is as powerful and dynamic as Python or JavaScript, e.g. you can replace any method of any instance of a class, even ones you haven't defined yourself, and Cocoa uses this for UI bindings.
The C++ problem with concurrency is not that C++ can't efficiently do concurrency (as you state, it definitely can), but that it can't safely do concurrency, therefore it's a big draw on programmers, debugging and productivity.
Erlang crowd seems to `put their money where their mouth is` regarding this question.
That STL link is the only thing that I learned anything from in this whole thread.
China's One-Child Policy and Its Housing Bubble
Nice, a few similar projects if someone need something slightly different:

https://github.com/mduvall/grande.js

https://github.com/sofish/pen

https://github.com/tholman/zenpen
Get a Warcraft 3 custom-map LAN group going. Funnest times ever :)
I'd consider myself a 'C++ programmer' - I've used it for years, it works very well for me for what I do with it, etc. However, what I find most frustrating is that nothing is intuitive. And there is always a reason for why it is like that, I know. My favorite example is the erase/remove idiom.

Anyway, here is a question about C++. Last week I tried to implement a parser for a subset of CSV - one-byte-per-character, fields separated by comma, no quoting, fixed line ending. The only requirement was speed. So I started with a simple C++-style implementation, read one line at a time with std::getline, split with boost tokenizer, copy into vector of vector of string. But it was too slow, so I reimplemented it C-style - boom, first try, 30 times faster. Through some micro-optimisations I got it 30% faster still - copying less, adding some const left and right, caching a pointer. So if anyone is so inclined, how would I make the following more C++-ish and still get the same speed? Using fopen and raw char* to iterate over the memory buffer are what I'd consider the non-C++ aspects of it, but feel free to point out other idiom violations...

bool CsvParser::OpenCStyle(boost::filesystem::path path)
{
FILE* fh = NULL;
::fopen_s(&fh, path.string().c_str(), "rb");
if (fh == NULL) {
return false;
}

const int BUFSIZE = 1024 * 256;
char buf[BUFSIZE];

m_Records.reserve(m_EstimatedRecordCount);
bool at_end_of_file = false;
std::string carryover_field_data;

std::vector<std::string>* current_line = NULL;
bool at_new_line = true;

const char separator = m_Separator;

while (!feof(fh)) {
size_t size_read = ::fread(buf, sizeof(char), BUFSIZE, fh);
char* start_of_field = buf;
size_t i = 0;
for (i = 0 ; i < BUFSIZE && i < size_read ; i++) {
if (at_new_line) {
m_Records.push_back(std::vector<std::string>());
current_line = &m_Records.back();
at_new_line = false;
}
if (buf[i] == separator || (at_new_line = (buf[i] == '\n'))) {
current_line->push_back(std::string());
if (carryover_field_data.size() != 0) {
std::string field(start_of_field, &buf[i] - start_of_field);
m_Records.back().push_back(carryover_field_data + field);
carryover_field_data = "";
} else {
current_line->back().assign(start_of_field, &buf[i] - start_of_field);
}
start_of_field = &buf[i + 1];
}
}
carryover_field_data = std::string(start_of_field, &buf[i] - start_of_field);
}

fclose(fh);

return true;
}
That's true, with the exception that learning how to write a program is also a lesson in how to think logically. Rather than teaching everyone to be programmers, the goal could be to use programming as a tool to teach everyone how to think.
Interesting. Seems from the link they don't own AllthingsD even though it's very much their thing. I presume they'll be negotiating with another company to start up something new but similar. Not unlike Nate Silver leaving the Times, except he owned his brand and site so could take it all with him.
That site is hilarious. What blows my mind is how autocorrect so often defaults to lewd and totally inappropriate statements. It's like it's trying to cause amusement.
> Failing that, C++14 may introduce Ranges.

It would have been nice to have some sort of simple range syntax added to C or C++ long ago. In the true spirit of C, don't even make it safe, just make it bloody well work.

FirstArray[0..3] = SecondArray[4..7];

case 2..10:

for(int i : 0..ArrayLength)

for(int i : ArrayLength..0)

(hah that'd prove horrible if ArrayLength ended up being a negative number, obviously some proper syntax would need to be determined :) )

I am always annoyed that such simple things are ignored in the language. Sure they don't enable any "cool new abilities", but they make using the language a lot more friendly (especially in comparison to having a ton of case fall through statements!)
Bikes are so much lighter than cars that even careful braking will stop a bike much faster than a car, even going downhill.

The same is true of motorcycyles, which is why you should allow greater following distance behind a motorcycle than a car, if you're in a car.
you are both right.

while the typewriter may or may not be a convenient tool for producing hardcopy outside in a park, it's most definitely also for purposes of grabbing people's attention.

and it makes a lot of noise, I'm assuming.
Say you live in Apple land and have all the iStuff. Would you buy a brainless iPad with storage processing on your iPhone? If the only advantage is a cost savings ($50?), I don't see the point.
I haven't tried Rust, but what about considering Python for embedded targets?

Is it that the language won't fit, or us embedded people are just too masochistic to find something easier.

You can use something like py2llvm to compile using the same system that Rust uses and get fairly good performance. I am working on this project actually.
It was a school study done in Minnesota.
Facebook Added to Russian National Website Blocklist
BitTorrent Sync "doesn't have a central server": can be solved by setting up a central server, e.g. on a vm somewhere.
But... I love my MBP.

I'd go for the pocket PC with peripherals thing for convenience but I want to go to my desk pop open my MBP and kind of BE there with my machine.

I know this sounds kind of ethereal but ffs, I don't have an office anymore. Most people I know work in coffee shops or somewhere similar.

There needs to be some signal that I am 'at work' on something.

For me, sat on a bench at the dinner table in our apartment with my laptop open is that signal. Kids don't bug me and my wife knows to approach with caution.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I like having a workstation that takes up a space.
Given that it is a "beginners guide to....", it would be simplified and not go deep.
If I'm not mistaken the casing of it is very, very hard (even for space missions, where it's designed to whithstand a failed launch and reentry) and takes a very long time to degrade
Is this a free pusher? What's the catch?
OpenSUSE 13.1 Beta Released with Btrfs Testing
Continuous Feedback through Continuous Deployment
I thought this was going to be a study of papers written by undergrads for class. I thought 10% sounded extremely low.
Yes for big files your are right.
You've got to be kidding. Going from modal to inline is a huge leap forward in usability.
Best to see: heap sort

Wtf: bitonic sort

Really interesting! Thanks for this!
Troy's great strengths come from demonstrating to the average Joe just how easy this is. He's not going over board on the technical side because his aim isn't to get everyone doing this. By and large he's pushing companies with woefully insecure systems into securing them by using the media to spread the message. Though he usually targets companies with web based forms and authentication systems he appears here to be doing the same thing.
If he generates enough chatter about it, more pressure will be put on those responsible to fix the problem.

P.S. The vague "that article rife with errors" and "it's pretty obvious those screen caps have been photoshopped to try and prove and incorrect point" comments are pitiful and pointless without some explanations. But ooh, I'm sure you are all important and busy with out the time to explain yourself.
I don't understand why people are putting this article down by saying "Nothing Novel In it"; "i have been doing this for X years. I know all this stuff"; "This is too simple. Too Basic"

GUYS!!! It's titled "BEGINNER'S Guide to WiFi Interception" So OFCOURSE it's basic. It isn't meant for security veterans like you guys. The author is apparently a secuirty guy too, but he just WANTED to explain it in as simple as possible way
It's my impression that doing basic mental arithmetic effectively tends to depend on understanding what happens to the magnitudes of numbers after various operations and making good approximations, which has very little resemblance to the brute force long multiplication/addition/division that is taught, but is teachable; yet approximations are almost never acceptable in school, despite being very useful in real life. Meanwhile, more advanced stuff requires random numerical tricks like these:

http://m.litfile.net/read/139440/139850-140188?page=80

which may be harder to teach, but are also quite unrelated to what schools attempt to teach.
I haven't listened to the radio since I got a smart phone and know many in the same position. My crappy anecdata isn't any kind of data point but radio listeners must surely be in decline - podcasts are my replacement. If I wanted non stop adverts I'd watch TV.
But it can be done better. My sister attends a private boarding school in the UK and they only have 2 hours set per day for homework(always between 7pm and 9pm). Teachers coordinate between each other to make sure the work never takes more than these two hours,but also that it doesn't take any less. So my sister spends two solid hours each day working on her homework,and it doesn't cut into her sleep pattern - they need to be in bed by 10.15pm after all.

Obviously a non-boarding student doesn't necessarily have the regime at home to solidly sit down for 2 hours and work without access to their phone/ipad/computer/playstation for that period like at a boarding school, but I believe that if the system was better teachers really could coordinate between themselves and arrange homework that was manageable.
IPhone 5S 12x as fast as the Cray-1 supercomputer
With the education system pushing for rote memorisation over comprehension it's going to grind the enthusiasm to learn out of kids before they even have chance to start enjoying education. I hated doing homework that was just memorisation and didn't have a component where you had to either comprehend or be able to rationalise as it felt like all I was doing was trying to avoid looking something up in a book. If you're just training memorisation you may as well play a memory game.
Espruino: JavaScript for Things
Britain's GCHQ hacked Belgium's telco Belgacom
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-operaton-socialist-fotostrecke-101663.html
I think a pardon is not wise. A pardon implies that he was "guilty" but shouldn't have been punished, or perhaps not-guilty and erroneously convicted, rather than that the law was entirely unjust. A pardon implies that it is possible to unwind the wrongs of the past retroactively and make it as though they never happened.

History cannot be rewritten, wrongs cannot be righted after the fact. The best way to honor Turing's legacy is to fight against unjust laws that still exist today.
This is a great idea and executed well but forms should not be complicated. They should be easy to follow. If you need this library to ease users along then perhaps you need to take a look at your forms workflow rather...
I could argue that in C++ applications actually using the C subset should be completely and utterly dismissed, even though it is compatible.
Yup, the same here. Teacher would always only check whatever we had homework,not how well we've done it. I don't remember ever getting a grade for my homework,except when I didn't have it - it always meant an automatic "1"(fail) added to my grades.
I can speak for Computer Science and the problem is "quid pro quo". Irrespective of what the conferences/journals say, reviews are NEVER blind and the people know each other in the community. No one "dares" to cross lines or report in fear of being censured.
Sporadic E propagation
That's the type of experience that is a big turn off for me in games as well. People spend so much time studying the mechanics and economics of the game that eventually, pretty much every match plays out in exactly the same form. For RTS games, the build trees often get set in stone. Deviate from the one feasible tree and you might as well just be giving up because after a few minutes your opponent has just enough units to wipe you (and, since you didn't follow the build tree, you won't be able to counter it in time). For team FPS games, if your team gets good enough, the first few kills almost always determine the winner of the match, because whoever wins the first wave controls map flow. They control weapon drops, ammo drops, and they probably have the spawn points and probabilities memorized too.

I suppose there is a certain mathematical attraction in pushing a game to its limits like that. But I've never been able to actually enjoy playing that way.
Poem: THE TONGUE
I always wondered why FM radio, here in the UK at least, was between 88–108MHz.
This has turned into a circumcision/spanking debate. "Let me tell you what MY parents/school imposed on me and why that's the best way, and as anecdotal evidence, I present myself, who as you can see turned out to be a perfect individual." I can read those on Reddit, Hacker News readers have no particular insight here. In fact, Reddit readers are probably better suited to this debate as there are more students and teachers posting there.

Haven't there been any actual studies on this? The article mentions how on a international scale there's no correlation between homework load and results. Have there been any studies on a smaller scale (such as intra-class, using the same teachers/assignments)?
Actually WPF is older than JavaFX Script.
Caseful, that comparison might be a copyright violation.
"replaced with Lenovo kit as it's possible to strip it down and replace anything."

Spoiler Alert: Lenovo Ultrabooks have glued in batteries. In fact the Ultrabooks from almost every company (HP, Samsung, Dell, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, Acer) have glued in batteries. This is because glued in batteries are a useful innovation.
I'm very confused by their 6/10 score.

They gave tons of phones and other devices just as difficult to teardown far lower scores than that, some as low as 1:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/HTC+One+Teardown/13494/1?sing...

Just compare that HTC One teardown with the iPhone 5S, while the HTC One is "worse" there isn't much in it. So if they were being consistent the iPhone 5S should have no more than a 2-3 on their scale.

Then we have the Nexus 4 which got the same score (6) as the 5S but doesn't have things like glue holding the battery in place and a taking it apart requires "minimum effort":

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+4+Teardown/11781/3

The iPhone 5 got a fixit score of 7 which is even more odd. I guess they knocked off one point for the glue, but again seems like Apple's scores are getting bumped by 2-4 points relative to other teardowns they have done.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+5+Teardown/10525/1?sin...
How to Get Support Hotlines to Actually Help You
World Happiness Report 2013 Ranks Happiest Countries Around Globe
Like this ! I think this is so simple and neat :)
School in Germany also doesn’t last the whole day, it usually ends around 2pm, so even if you have several hours’ worth of homework you can realistically do that before dinner – or, if you prefer, spend the afternoon doing other stuff and then do it after. It was a workable system. Then I moved to France, where school lasts until 5pm and I got home past 6. After a few months spent working until well into the night I stopped doing most of my homework to get enough sleep. Doing anything else during the week if you were actually doing your homework conscientiously wasn’t possible at all.
Shouldn't it be the other way round. May be some descendent or relative of his family can pardon UK government.
These things are all easy to fix.

> 1. iOS is not good at multi-tasking which is bread and butter for desktop. Look what happened to Windows 8 which tried to forced full screen apps on 24" monitors all the time.

The base of iOS is still the OSX kernel, which is excellent at multitasking. A new UI for multitasking on bigger screens but that is fairly small addition, given that the apps and everything in the stack can already handle this.

2. Phone/pads still don't have necessary RAM to run desktop class applications. Can you imagine running full strength Photoshop on iPad yet?

Disruption doesn't start with the power users, Photoshop is a power user style app, most users don't need anything like this - think more like multiple browsers windows, a chat client, office software etc.
The Sasmung Galaxy Note III comes with 3GB of RAM. The base model Macbook Air comes with 4GB, as does the mini, as does the non-retina MBP. I don't see a big difference in RAM here. With a 64bit ARM chips there's no effective limit to the amount of RAM a phone could have.
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/samsung-galaxy-note-iii...

3. Phone/Pads are still far behind in providing large cheap storage compared to similarly priced devices.

Android and iOS phones can talk to USB storage and SD cards anyway (except Apple currently limits this to photos only though it's camera connector). Even without this 64GB is a lot more than many people need, especially if they store content in the cloud, which seems likely in this model of computing. Even within the limitations of most phone's software now, you can use WiFi harddisks which are cheap.

If Apple doesn't do this, someone else will, e.g. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge
Who needs secretaries anyways? There's an app for that
Fine here (Ubuntu 12.04, Firefox 22).
> This is because glued in batteries are a useful innovation.

Please explain (I'm honestly curious, having no experience in EE).
Not only [1].

1: http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1le4y5/the_haxl_pro...
The new picker looks nicer aesthetically, no doubt. But each time when setting an alarm, I find that I have to mentally focus to figure out which number is currently selected. Similar font sizes, similar colors, lack of negative space, and now the selected number and the numbers directly above and below are way too similar for comfort.
Play 2.2.0 Released