skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
In his final report to Parliament, commissioner Robert Decary says some of the spying at Communications Security Establishment Canada may have affected Canadians in the past year. However, thanks to poor record-keeping, Mr. Decary – a retired judge who has been the agency’s independent watchdog since 2010 – said he can’t be sure.[1]
CSEC is forbidden from intentionally collecting or analyzing information from Canadian citizens in Canada or abroad. However, the National Defence Act allows the defence minister to give CSEC written ministerial authorization to intercept private communications unintentionally while collecting foreign-signals intelligence.[1]
Doesn't this contradict with the Canadian Privacy Act?
Yet, while Mr. Binney compliments the surveillance acumen of Communications Security Establishment Canada, he also urged the Canadian public to scrutinize CSEC – especially given its long-standing close ties to the NSA.
“They have integrated reps,” he said, referring to how the agencies swap personnel. He pointed out that they also share technology, such as a very powerful, recently revealed Internet-surveillance tool, code-named “XKeyscore.”
“CSEC does not direct its activities at Canadians and is prohibited by law from doing so,” its chief, John Forster, said in a rare public statement.
Yet, records recently obtained by The Globe show that CSEC has been developing its own secretive programs to “incidentally” monitor at least some Canadian telecommunications traffic.[2]
Some of Mr. Snowden’s leaks speak to the NSA’s close relationship with CSEC – suggesting, for example, that the two agencies teamed up to spy on foreign diplomats at a 2009 G20 meeting in London, and may have also been in cahoots to install a back door to spy on encrypted messages on the Internet in 2006.[2]
At the time, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment ran the standards process for the international organization, but classified documents describe how ultimately the N.S.A. seized control. “After some behind-the-scenes finessing with the head of the Canadian national delegation and with C.S.E., the stage was set for N.S.A. to submit a rewrite of the draft,” the memo notes. “Eventually, N.S.A. became the sole editor.”[3]
So CSEC was being coerced by NSA and completely gave up control.
Although I can respect the apparent "restraint" Canadian government has, but clearly system can be abused and will stay way under the radar compared to NSA and GHCQ.
[1]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/watchdog-says-s....
[2]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/beware-of-data-
[3]http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/government-announce
I think its relevant, honestly. C++ is a pile of hacks, layer upon layer, that only a small highly talented set of programmers can manage to master and the rest shoot themselves in the foot with. Linus says that in his own way, but that's the truth of the situation: C++ is a mess.

My takeaway from experience from all of that is to use C (as Linus argues).
Not shifting it still leaves some of the monitor's color space unused. I want to see data.
The problem with that is that, in society currently, your grades are what matter -- at least if you want a normal job at a normal company.

To get a job, you have to have a college degree and a good GPA. To get that, you have to get good grades in college -- which means doing the homework and taking the tests. To even get into a decent college you have to have a good GPA in high school -- which, again, means doing the homework and taking the tests. Most companies don't care if you actually have the skillset, or if any of those homework assignments actually taught you anything, you need the credentials to get in the door to show it.

Grades aren't as big of a deal if you're going to be your own boss or start a business or found a startup, but in typical corporate America it's the end-all-be-all until you've got years of experience to show instead.
I recommend reading the source article for this blog post, instead. It's well-written and far more detailed.
Rust is specifically aimed at "frustrated C++ developers": http://www.infoq.com/news/2012/08/Interview-Rust.

"templates, a powerful macro system"

I really like Rust, but I haven't been paying attention for a month or so; did something change? Templates? And the macro system was...oddly limited when I tried fooling with it.
Did you even read the article?!!
The simplest possible way to create a Slidify presentation
Thanks for the feedback! Anything to add in terms of tech I'm missing or better links?
Yeah. Noticed it just after I lost the ability to edit. Oh iPhone, of all the devices to betray me thusly.
I remember when people would submit bug reports about things, instead of writing long blog posts about some philosophical strawman.
Cores scale linearly while programmers don't.

It does not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_J._Gunther#Universal_Law_o... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_law

Not only it does not but sometimes it doesn't scale at all. Scaling software is a very difficult problem, especially when you have low latency issues.

And what happens when you write desktop software? You ask your customers to open Amazon accounts?

So I set the guideline at 1000 cores. Do not make performance-productivity tradeoffs below that.

In which field do you work?
> If you think the only purpose of knowing the names of world cities

Stop beating that strawman.

I never said anything about knowing a city name. I was arguing about knowing what's the capital of what.
I strongly suspect that Rob Pike understands the importance of performance.
a) he is old enough to respect resources
b) Google programs need performance
What are the consequences of it regarding P = NP? can this be used as a proof that P = NP since a 9 page formula is reduced to a simple function? can we use geometry to solve programs in the NP space?
You are quite right. I was thinking about Japan/Korea, and some statistics I had looked up years ago.

I can't find any information on Taiwan, but have a look a some of the gender equality for Japan/Korea. The numbers are quite abysmal. On the other hand Singapore is top of the world.

See: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2012.pdf

p.224 Japan ,p.232 Korea, p.358 US, p.318 Singapore.

It seems the problem is isolated to Japan and Korea, and likely has nothing to do with sports, math education, nor East-Asia.
http://www.ubuntu.com/phone

can i buy this? no.
Cool project. Was actually thinking about this as I'm currently working on my first ever presentation. Decided to go with reveal.js. Gonna keep an eye on this.
Signed up. Seems legit.
I code in both c++ and c# and switching between the two is so much easier. I don't even feel like I'm in a different language.
I wasn't really talking about the transferability of C++ knowledge to other languages. The amount of effort to learn C++ is greater than the amount of effort to learn most other languages. Whether that knowledge transfers to other languages is another matter altogether.

The amount of time to become a C++ expert is far greater than to become a Python expert or a Go expert. After spending a few years learning C++ spending a year learning Go doesn't seem like a big deal, so why not learn it?
Sports, with the right attitude, are a good thing. They teach you about winning and losing, instill a bit of discipline, and provide some fun.

I find a lot of arguments about sports to come down to not everyone enjoys or participates in sports. I find that a dangerous way to think since that could just as easily lead to the cancellation of other programs. For a lot of kids, sports and the academic requirements to participate in sports are the only thing keeping them interested in school.
Education 2.0 for Americans 2.0
iBeacon’s range is 50 meters (typical Bluetooth range), or 2,500 square meters.

That's some weird antenna right there. Assuming it's omnidirectional with a 50m range (radius) then it would cover more like 7,800 square meters.

The range of Estimote’s beacons is 50 meters, but the recommended range is 10 meters. If you go with the recommendation, you need 1 Estimote beacon for every 100 square meters.

More like 314 square meters.
"In a couple of weeks, once we've ironed some bugs, smoothed some edges, and given those people a chance to try Ghost out... we'll be opening up Ghost to the public. The Github repository will go public, and everyone will be able to sign up for an account on Ghost.org."
everything about web development... apart from the two of the biggest languages/platforms for web development.
Honestly, it was just the order I added them in. It could really use some reorganizing, and if you can contribute that'd be even better!

https://github.com/JonHMChan/bento/tree/gh-pages
Canadians need to get angry about government spying revelations
Add them in! https://github.com/JonHMChan/bento/tree/gh-pages
Here is a good article that describes some scenarios that provide a glimpse into iBeacon's potential:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242393/Why_Apple_s_i...
I don't think it's in OpenBSD at all, there is a monster of a patch (experimental) for FreeBSD though:

http://caia.swin.edu.au/urp/newtcp/mptcp/tools.html
This is the thing. This is what gets lost. C++ was designed with the premise that the language allows you to use it both in a C-like context and a Java-like context.

The problem is that some of the baggage of the former interferes with the latter. C++ is danged ugly in some places in ways that could be expressed cleanly in higher-level languages.

That's what C++ coders want - C++ with modules and real generics and fast compile-times and ways to cleanly implement and use garbage-collection if you so choose. A language that lets you say incredibly complicated and detailed things, and then lets you abstract them away into a library or a class or some other unit of organization that lets another coder use your stuff without absorbing the complexity.

All these "C++ replacements" assume that the solution is to gut out all the C-like stuff. What they should be looking to do is giving developers clean alternatives to the C-like stuff, including ways for the hardcore developers to provide their own clean alternatives to the C-like stuff. Don't give us garbage collection, give us the tools to write libraries that provide clean garbage collection to a developer.
Some things I have been able to dig up.

In his final report to Parliament, commissioner Robert Decary says some of the spying at Communications Security Establishment Canada may have affected Canadians in the past year. However, thanks to poor record-keeping, Mr. Decary – a retired judge who has been the agency’s independent watchdog since 2010 – said he can’t be sure.[1]

CSEC is forbidden from intentionally collecting or analyzing information from Canadian citizens in Canada or abroad. However, the National Defence Act allows the defence minister to give CSEC written ministerial authorization to intercept private communications unintentionally while collecting foreign-signals intelligence.[1]

Doesn't this contradict with the Canadian Privacy Act?

Yet, while Mr. Binney compliments the surveillance acumen of Communications Security Establishment Canada, he also urged the Canadian public to scrutinize CSEC – especially given its long-standing close ties to the NSA. “They have integrated reps,” he said, referring to how the agencies swap personnel. He pointed out that they also share technology, such as a very powerful, recently revealed Internet-surveillance tool, code-named “XKeyscore.” “CSEC does not direct its activities at Canadians and is prohibited by law from doing so,” its chief, John Forster, said in a rare public statement. Yet, records recently obtained by The Globe show that CSEC has been developing its own secretive programs to “incidentally” monitor at least some Canadian telecommunications traffic.[2]

Some of Mr. Snowden’s leaks speak to the NSA’s close relationship with CSEC – suggesting, for example, that the two agencies teamed up to spy on foreign diplomats at a 2009 G20 meeting in London, and may have also been in cahoots to install a back door to spy on encrypted messages on the Internet in 2006.[2]

At the time, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment ran the standards process for the international organization, but classified documents describe how ultimately the N.S.A. seized control. “After some behind-the-scenes finessing with the head of the Canadian national delegation and with C.S.E., the stage was set for N.S.A. to submit a rewrite of the draft,” the memo notes. “Eventually, N.S.A. became the sole editor.”[3]

So CSEC was being coerced by NSA and completely gave up control. Although I can respect the apparent "restraint" Canadian government has, but clearly system can be abused and will stay way under the radar compared to NSA and GHCQ.
[1]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/watchdog-says-s...
[2]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/beware-of-data-spy...
[3]http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/government-announce
From the link: "In a couple of weeks, once we've ironed some bugs, smoothed some edges, and given those people a chance to try Ghost out... we'll be opening up Ghost to the public. The Github repository will go public, and everyone will be able to sign up for an account on Ghost.org."
Haven't had an issue with it thus far. It's very good on iOS, and running on a few different devices I've got lying around.
I coached sports in a very blue collar town, and I know several of the students had no positive male role models, no structure provided for them at home, and no incentive to perform academically. Then they joined our team, and suddenly they had people willing to help them, a bond with other students they hadnt possessed before, and a structure they needed.

They had to pass their classes now because they wanted to play, and we taught them to be more respectful of their teachers and administrators. These kids went from being trouble at the school to just normal kids. That is because of sports and nothing else.

Could they have afforded to play on a team not affiliated with the school? Probably not.
"Kickstarter is amazing, but one of the hidden catches is that once you have taken a bunch of people's money to do a thing, you have to actually do that thing, and not some other thing that you thought up in the meantime." -- this is not strictly true - I mean, kickstarter projects aren't legally obligated to deliver anything at all - so they could certainly decide to do something else.

People would likely be very, very angry and call them fraudulent if they changed their idea. Perhaps the point is that Kickstarter backers are investing in an idea (or worse, a product) whereas VCs are investing in the combination of idea + team. At the end of the day, Kickstarter backers want the product you promised, while VCs are pretty happy with you increasing their investment, no matter what road you take to get there.
Knowing locations of some major cities is useful, I agree.

Knowing which of them are capitals isn't, especially of the US states where capital assignments are very random.
People who quote Knuth as aphorism are rarely as smart as Knuth. The optimization quote is great, but it's usually deployed as an appeal to authority to justify a preconceived, ideological decision -- God knows, I've done this.

Building software is hard, and it's not at all surprising (or reprehensible) that people will seek out shortcuts to winnow their decision space.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only guy that likes and works in C. Then I see TIOBE index and alike and see C on top always. Are we, C programmers, not vocal or are those metrics skewed in favor of 'legacy' and existing code?
They should have offered the gold one at three times the price.

and brought back "I Am Rich" as a 5s gold exclusive

that would really set apart the high rollers
> The only language I know, which explicitly targets C++ is D, but it is not there yet completely. Though, depending on your needs it might enough and it is an improvement over C++.

And Rust. Although it has its own issues as well.
I've had success shifting my bioinformatics students that want something graphical but with more of a statistical framework to Rstudio or minitab.

You did remind me of this amusing paper from a few years ago though: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/5/80
I'd say asking a candidate to implement levenshtein distance in an interview (probably not the best question to ask I'd say) is more about creating a level playing field for candidates who might not have "attended and spoken at relevant conferences" or have "a bunch of apps doing mission-critical work in production", but might be thoroughly productive and successful at XCorp nonetheless.

In fact, a candidate might have experience in something completely different but maybe just as impressive - publishing a paper on an optimization for an algorithm, creating a programming language, submitting Linux kernel patches, etc. How would one differentiate a candidate like that with someone with "a list of public repositories on GitHub as long as your arm"?
I'd love to try this, I'm just in the process of creating my blog with jekyll but this seems like a good alternative. Any chance I can contribute now and get on the list?
The CDDL is generally less restrictive in terms than the GPL; its not GPL-compatible, which, given the wide array of software under the GPL and the GPLs more intense restrictions make it hard to use in many places where GPL software is in use, which perhaps makes it seem restrictive in an environment where there is an unavoidable commitment to GPL software in some role which would create a requirement GPL- or GPL-compatible software, but that's a result of the of the fact that the GPL is restrictive, not the CDDL.

(The CDDL is decidedly not permissive, of course, but its a far cry from being more restrictive than the GPL.)
Okay, who else correctly guessed the state?
Too boilerplate to be worth anything. Bet exactly zero companies got funded this way.
Why would you compare a phone to a car? (Champagne cars are pretty prevalent, btw.)

How about comparing it to a personal item people keep on them, like a pocket watch, watch, or glasses frame? Gold & silver are essentially neutral when it comes to "personal metal items".

How dare Apple give people the option of owning a color they want!
Show HN: Meta Trails | A whole new frontier for Learning
Almost a million #ios7 photos posted on instagram
Wasn't gold originally supposed to be called "champagne" or was that media speculation on a different hue? A champagne color is definitely more muted than straight up "gold".
Why would he read 79 pages in one night if all he had to do was find three quotable sentences? Read three pages picked at random from that 79 page section and move on.

This isn't rocket science.
Agreed with Moz, also other tools worth looking into/could be valuable WebSEO, GinzaMetrics, SEOBook and just Google Adwords
You should have links to webplatform.org - this is a varied collection of docs and tutorials contributed by browser vendors and other key web players, via the W3C.
Check out this video of a biometrics professor fooling high-end fingerprint scanners with a gelatin finger printed from a digital image of a fingerprint: http://youtu.be/K1Sx_BmfZ8I

Now consider that an attacker with physical access to your phone can either lift your fingerprint from the screen (you have been touching the screen, haven't you?), or can retrieve the software image of your fingerprint by plugging your iphone into their computer.
What's the relationship between the switch from 'cloud' hosting to your own boxes; and the switch to FreeBSD? What does one have to do with the other?
As someone who has worked on an RTS, among other games, I think I am qualified to speak on the manner.

For starters, yes there are complex problems with lots of edge cases indeed. But not one of the many problems you suggest are computationally difficult. Now there are some computationally difficult problems to deal with in an RTS but those are not among them.

Additionally, a large amount of the problems you just listed are common among any game with AI. RTS pathfinding is hard, but so is pathfinding an an FPS, and then add in how much more complicated a level is in a game such as Assassin's Creed, to the more simplified structures you can manage in an RTS, and it's easy to see why this isn't simply a matter of RTS games being simply more difficult.

And within an RTS there very many problems that are much easier, both from a complexity, and computationally then in other games. Visibility determination is one thing in particular that's considered super difficult, and very performance sensitive, that's very easy to solve with the fixed perspective of an RTS.

And then there is networking, in which case you can use a lock-step model in RTS due to being less sensitive to latency, that both vastly simplifies networking. And also makes it possible to synchronize the large amount of units in an RTS with minimal bandwidth.
Yeah, I know what an introvert is - that comic describes me very well.

This person still sounds more antisocial than introverted. And if they're just extremely introverted, then news flash: they live in the real world with /other people/.

I'm introverted but at work a lot of what people want to talk about is not work but /does/ align to my interests (software, engineering, etc.). So talking happens, and this person trying to shove their workaholic no-nonsense BS down everyone else's throat is no good.
It's unfortunate that you didn't just use the title of this article for the title of your post. The article's actual title is "what's wrong with the modern world." It's somewhat ironic that the change in title to a more incendiary, attention grabbing topic that has nothing to do with the crux of Franzen's argument is itself one of the things that's "wrong with the modern world."
nodeschool.io might be a nice addition to the node.js seciton.
The challenge here, in my experience on both sides of this, is that a developer's deep domain knowledge of a large or large-ish app is essential to a 'work-sample' environment. And that's virtually impossible to duplicate even in the longest interview time frame.

Making decisions about managing technical debt, adding architecturally-significant changes, balancing good OOP with responsiveness, knowing the difference between future-proofing and conscientious coding -- all of those are both crucial (in many cases the most crucial) to day-to-day work, and also so highly context-specific that those decision-making traits are nearly impossible to identify during a technical exercise.

So for coding challenges, that leaves short-term tactical/analytic/algorithmic exercises, which in (anecdotally) 95% percent of cases cannot begin to approach a 'work-sample' environment. I've yet to encounter a technical challenge that would tell me much more about a candidate than basically how fluent they are with their tools, how well they know syntax and some general design principles, and what, for instance, their TDD (or lack of) workflow is like. Probably some insight into line-level analytic and algorithmic ability.

All of that is helpful, but -- Trust Me Here!! -- can also be very deceiving. The same coders that can knock those challenges out of the park can also be highly-proficient Debt Machines, all the more destructive because of their special genius for cranking out architecturally suspect code at a breathtaking rate.

To get into a real 'work-context' flow of a large app requires weeks, sometimes months, and only then can you get full perspective on how a given coder is going to contribute to your team on an ongoing basis. To get a feel for what that will look like in an interview, I've found I have to pretty much rely on the candidate's past projects, and informal conversations around larger architectural and OO principles.
The article is specific for native apps. Is there something I can do to bundle requests together on browser-based sites? Does it matter there? I asked stackoverflow but nothing came of it yet: http://stackoverflow.com/q/18909185/1253312