skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This, to me, seems to be thinking completely backward.

1) Everything Apple does is "wireless". This guy is talking about docks and cables? Never heard of Airplay? Bluetooth? iCloud/Dropbox/Box.net/Azure? Just reading this makes me think the author lives in the 20th century, and not in the 21st.

2) for a lot of people, an iPad already is a desktop replacement. Email? Check. Skype? Check. Games? Check. Basic word processing? Check. Printing? Check.

3) a mouse? Seriously? Why would you need that? For things like 3D modelling, advanced image editing (photoshop etc) - yes, there they are a perfect match. But other uses? Smartphones and tablets are personal devices, they mostly serve the person that carries the device. It's functionality is pointed at making things convenient for the user. This is not a device that will replace a workstation. Nothing will, it has become damn good in what it does, but not everybody needs all that functionality. Fewer and fewer end-users will get their own personal computer in the future, and do everything on their phone (a situation like this already exists in Japan) or tablet. They don't need a mouse for that.
Why are there so many of them that share dates of registration?
Any chance of a link? It doesn't come up after a cursory search and that would most probably be an interesting read.
The New York Times: When Blackberry Reigned
This is a great little book.
Nice estimations, and something that was missing in the original article.
Fiat currencies have their value because people agreed on that they have value. Bitcoin is more of a fiat currency than it is anything else. I.e. it has no value but for the consensus of people saying it has value and is not directly redeemable for anything that does value. Unlike, cows, iron,copper,gold, or promissory notes for them, which are the usual non fiat currencies.

The fact that it doesn't depend on violence ought to tell you to stop blindly parroting every single libertarian catch phrase you hear. They are not all true.
>Who is to say every single professional athlete and musician and actor enjoys every single second of their career?

Why does this "every single second" strawman keep cropping up? The complaint was not that every single second of programming isn't glorious, it is that every single second is shit. The idea is not "other jobs are perfect because they are fun all the time", it is "other jobs are better because they aren't 100% pure shit all the time". If you don't agree that programming is 100% pure shit all the time, then argue against that. But don't stoop to lame strawman arguments.
Of course I have. I don't want my bookmarks to be "social", though. Nor do I want to upload them for data mining by a commercial service.
And my interests are the other way around, and I try to explain to people just starting out that there are so many different kinds of opportunities within our industry and they can easily move around and try new things over the years without the fear of getting forever stuck on work they don't enjoy.
The site appears to be down for now but i got to the content via fullhn.com (there doesn't appear to be a permalink i can list for there, it's currently fullhn.com/#article-5)
Software Helps Linguists Reconstruct, Decipher Ancient Languages
This has been my experience as well. It is far more useful to test scenarios, which generally involves some amount of integration. This also ensures the most important level of decoupling, that of the test from the system. The author's approach to TDD results in tests that are heavily coupled to implementation. This may be fine during design but they become a huge liability over the long run.

My experience is that automated testing should test the system not the implementation.
Foursquare, Twilio, Automattic Demand For More Disclosure On US Data Requests
Personally I think bulk collection is wrong regardless of where a person is, or what passport they carry. But the constitution only protects our right to privacy on American soil...

Since Lavabit operates in the US and we can't tell which of our users is an American, and which are foreign, I'm of the opinion they all have the same rights.
To be fair, in that video he rejects the label purely on pragmatic grounds, because he doesn't have "the time, the energy" to deal with the "baggage" associated with it. His explanation of why he is not an atheist consists almost entirely of a description of the social stigma and unpleasant stereotypes associated with the word "atheist." It makes sense that people would challenge his self-labeling when he explains it in terms of a desire to avoid social bother.
Actually it does mention that.

FTA Throughout the game, you're given opportunities to manipulate the markets. Some missions, for example, require that you kill the CEO of a company. You could, theoretically, buy the stock of that company's competitors and profit when they rise after the killing. And since there's no SEC policing stock trading in Los Santos, you're not going to be busted for insider trading.
Databricks raises $14M from Andreessen Horowitz to take on MapReduce with Spark
To the mod that changed the title: Is Get top Hacker News posts in your inbox more informative than the original HNdigest: The top Hacker News stories in your inbox, on your own terms?

I feel like the new title doesn't reflect that HNdigest gives you control over the emails you receive and it's not just a dump.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing, I'm kind of wondering your take.
You state a natural consequence of information theory. The original poster states that "non-NSL warrants conform to the Constitutional protections and will continue to be served and fulfilled." Both these statements are true.

But does that mean that because you can compromise a system then the government is allowed to force you to compromise your systems to utterly betray the purposes for which they are designed and then lie about it?
Show HN: GeoDJ - listen to music from around the world
Maybe a better question—how do I 'opt-out' of ad retargeting?
targeted ads... go on google, search for butterflies and you will see tons of butterflies ads.
I know you say in the comments that this is still in progress, but it would be really helpful if you had a conclusions section that ties the results together. From your HN headline, I see that you conclude that the evidence points to DNB being ineffective for improving general intelligence, but that was not the sense I got from actually reading the analysis; rather, I had the sense that evidence supports an improvement in intelligence, but that this evidence is much weaker than it appears to be at first glance.

So it would be helpful if you had some explanation of your final conclusion.
Well, this is very interesting. It's a way to filter unwanted posts.
This argument has already been rejected by the judge. Wiretappimg doesn't suddenly become permissible just because it permits an arbitrary business model that happens to pay for the service.

If we say analyzing your communication is ok as long as it makes money for the service provider and the service is free, we open a Pandora's box. Google (and anyone operating an SMTP server) would be able to sell HR reports to recruiters, insurability scores to insurers, predictions of criminality to police departments, infidelity scores to private detectives, etc. Advertising is not a specially protected business model.
This is exactly right, for me at least.

Sometimes its easy to know what is required, and probably guess at how long it will take (15mins or 1 day), usually because you've seen other people do it this quick. But if you don't know how to do it, and even worse, don't know where to start to learn it (which book to read, which course to take, who to ask) you can end up sitting about doing nothing but getting frustrated.

A great example is Linux. You know a task is easy (like creating an automated backup), but you can't just go and do it. You need to read up on it, you need to learn CRON and how it works, you've then got to read up on the subtle differences of your linux distro vs the one in the tutorial. You then need to read up on chmod or sudo to change the permissions, etc., etc.

Point is, it's an easy task once you know how, but when you don't know how, all you see is a huge mountain of learning you have to do to achieve it. And to make matters worse, sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Why spend all day reading up on Linux just to copy some files?

End result... I'll do it tomorrow
Those can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_currently_r...
E-mail addresses are case sensitive.
Testing an Android app with Robolectric
I get the suspicion that a lot of people tech startup circles, never had to worry about paying there own bills. At any stage of life.
This was our weekend project for the DjangoDash hackathon.

To create it, we scraped a bunch of music data from Last.fm and MusicBrainz, and currently have over 2,000 artists from 200+ countries.

Any feedback is appreciated!
Spotlight et al have a problem - I build multiple branches of a project. The executables are all the same name, different paths. Mac doesn't distinguish them for me - I have to browse to the one I want every time. Which is a click-fest.
How do I contribute using Paypal or a CC#, without having to give rally.org all my personal info?
That's just it really. On its own ou wouldn't trust it, but mixed in with /dev/random can't hurt. XOR random bytes with a constant stream and it's still just as random.
Awesome library. For sure going to use this.
This is already in use in the micro-4/3rds cameras, which feature interchangeable lenses, but still tight integration between the lens and the camera. There are even firmware updates for the lens.

http://m43photo.blogspot.de/2010/09/lumix-20mm-distortion-co...
Where do you get the idea that intent is irrelevant? That's certainly not a general legal principle.
I don't think it was obvious at the time.

I can distinctly recall seeing Mosaic for the first time in 1993 when a fellow undergrad showed me his home page. My thoughts were essentially, "that's really stupid: it's just a bunch of boring information about you". Email and usenet seemed (to me) far more interesting and important.
You probably would have made zero money as the companies would have filed a trademark / wipo dispute and taken the domains.

I would have registered a bunch of generic domains, like business.com or sex.com (lookup the history of that domain for an interesting read.)
A Speed Test Of All The iPhones Ever Made
And #45, "Data IO.com", seems to have a space in the middle.
Hardware programming in a language, that doesn't even have ints? I would call that nice joke, but I fear they are deadly serious.
Steam's Linux Future. A Smart Move?
I'm going to guess expensive and full of paperwork.
I'd be happier with the fat model version than the fat controller. At least that way is amenable to Using the same code via multiple different user interfaces. For example, the normal web site, a mobile app, a data import, and an admin path, and something else that hasn't been though of yet. In general, designing things as though there will be more user interfaces for it in the future is helpful, and tends to push logic out of the controllers.

I see a lot of unit tests like the ones described in this article and have some doubts about their effectiveness for doing much more than spotting syntax errors. Integration testing is still important if the goal is avoiding defects getting out to production.
In that case, "we don't know." Seems laws and court findings should be written down somewhere, though, right? To ensure the US continues to be a nation of laws and not of men?

http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/09/18/by-secret-law-did-they-...
Herein lies the crux of the issue. Apps are "small". Small seems to be easy. How many app devs have "tiny" or "mini" in their titles.

The inputs to apps are nearly invisible and or hard to understand. Therefore the results of those inputs are undervalued.
The question is whether our government can access the private data of people not involved in an investigation and whether companies can be forced to surrender their own sensitive info... or be forced to help subvert the security of their own products and services.
For those who haven't yet taken notice, Gwern's blog is a treasure trove of thorough, intelligent, compelling analysis and meta-analysis on this and many other topics. It's one of my favorite weekly reads.

It's not always the easiest reading in the world, and the formatting and structure often require a dive down a fairly deep rabbit hole of terminology, methodology, and sourcing. But it's fascinating stuff.
Food and Shelter.
It's not that they need to be open-source or not, it's that their user interface is absolutely awful.

You can set up your own CA but you can't sign for domains unless you're in the proper chain. The ones holding the keys for these are the big providers.
Whether or not something achieves your lofty expectations for "greatness" on HN doesn't make it any less immature and disrespectful to make pithy, destructive, flamewar comments that are unrelated and unhelpful to the discussion and the innovators.
Assessing My Personal Gender Bias on Twitter
Sorry, in that presentation you just come off as jumping onto the "look at me, aren't I rad for not supporting IE" smartarse bullshit wagon. Perhaps leave an explanation as to why even IE10 isn't supported?
Liberal arts CS grad to software engineer at $45.2M funded startup in 8 weeks
The Cognitive Drain theory of why mid-tier paid apps don't sell
alternative : http://www.hackernewsletter.com/

example Issue #158 : http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=faa8eb4ef3a111cef92c4f3d...
This idea that Apple does not allow trials is a total misconception.

I just released a subscription boating app that has a basic free version, and then a button to let you "Test Drive" the complete app. You can trial the paid version over and over.

Previously, I have released a product that had limited functionality, and prompted you to upgrade or buy the paid app.

People interpret the App Store guidelines very literally: Rule 2.9: "Apps that are "beta", "demo", "trial", or "test" versions will be rejected"
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guid...

This doesn't mean you can't set up an app to have a trial, it just means you can't submit garbage. You're best understanding that there is a certain twisted humanity to the app review process.
Google Ireland pays €17m tax on €15.5bn revenue
Agree.

If there's one thing my brain is good at, it's recognizing patterns that bore it and ignoring them.

If my brain can quickly postpone any number of relatively important reminders I have going off on outlook at any given time, I'm going to bet it would shut down a daily reminder to reevaluate procrastination.

I'm also not sure a daily reminder that I'm going to die would help subdue the constant existential crisis I've been in since I was 18. I have no idea if that's a good or a bad thing (that's part of the crisis) but it sure does make things more complicated than they need to be :P
Can you provide some examples? Which cities? I was not able to find any in operation using the following google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=parking+meter+automatic+fine
They were free, and only took a letter (not email...) to the internic. I remember when we registered Autodesk.com, not much impact at the time because we didn't have a connection to the 'net yet. My email was still {gatech,uunet,MIT}!acad!eric.
The decisions are based on the purpose for which the interception was done.

Using the contents of people's email to support an arbitrary business model is too broad according to the judge.

If we allow advertising as a legitimate reason to allow machines to read your email, why not also allow Google to offer credit scores, insurance ratings, HR evaluations, and services to private detectives?
How about XOR-ing output from some promising hardware generator with SHA256(SHA256("user-supplied random nonsense phrase"))? This way we ensure against both attacks (or backdoors) in hardware and bruteforcing user input.

Generally speaking, if we have 2 to 4 independent sources of random numbers (/dev/random, user input, external generator, something else), what's the best way to combine all of them in a single key to ensure that weakness in one of the? Is XOR enough? Using a cryptographic hash function is not acceptable because it may have a backdoor (so instead of multiple sources we get back to trusting only one).
The system was only designed to protect data at rest. I followed the NIST secure coding guidelines when processing sensitive data. That should have made it difficult to compromise the system without changing the code.
Fetish-Oriented Programming
I'm not sure iSnow is in another part of the world, because there are actually plenty of companies in North America that do not allow programmers to bring headphones or use IM at work.
Apropos of this article following Gwern's discussion of spaced repetition:

I wonder if a Dual N-Back task that was based on material-to-be-memorized, rather than just positions/letters, would have interesting effects on working or long-term memory. (You'd be stressing two related/entangled recall systems at once.)

Anyone done that test?
It's curious to note that the very first domain registration on any gTLD came from NORDUnet [1], precisely at the first day after the public launching of the Domain Name System, back in Jan 1, 1985. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORDUnet

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_currently_r...
I honestly don't know. I've tried Zimbra and Thunderbird and some other client I can't remember the name of, but in general even Thunderbird isn't great - I usually resort to webmail.
Looking to buy domains - what do you have?
Looking to buy domains that in some way can relate to a "project" organizing web app.

Post what you have available.
To me it's about the stress of decision-making. I like simply saying "hey, let me check out _____ type of app" then doing a search and downloading up to a half dozen different ones just to try out.

On the other hand if I had to pay a few bucks for an app I'd probably spend a while reading the descriptions, reviews, weighing options, etc. It would turn into work.
In this combination i'd say evolution, but i do not know the kde universe too well.
> it sounds like she could have simply taken the initiative and wrote the script on her own time

I agree, except no one should ever have to work on their own time. Personally, I think she should have written the script on company time.
I have to agree with the notion that at the end of the day, your job is simply your source of income. Some people are fortunate enough to be in a position where their job is fun for them. Good for them. But I doubt even they have sunshine and rainbow filled days one after the other in the office. There's always the shitty task that comes up that WILL land on you. That's why your job isn't your free time (well, maybe it is for some people). Don't get me wrong, I REALLY enjoy programming. But that's why I have numerous side projects that I'm working on.
Yes, but web development is a mature industry and becoming commoditized. It's very difficult to differentiate based on quality, as most clients choose based on price. Source: I've been a web developer since 1995.

It's not really an industry I would recommend to anyone.

The only area where there will be growth is front-end development. I would only work "in-house", as opposed to working for agencies.
This is a great point. There is a useful free app that I use which has a 5 star rating. I looked at one of the 1 star reviews to see what they said out of curiosity. It said something along the lines of "I had to customize the settings and the user interface isn't standard."
http://symbolics.com/ is just absolutely absurd now. Audi and Atari advertising next to a work from home scam, a domain name lawyer, a religious university, and a smattering of other random entities.

Somewhat ironically the first domain now just reflects the absolute nature of of the web itself.
It's also worth stating that rarely do you try and do something so completely new you can't apply any of your other expertise to the problem. Architecture and software are not all that different in terms of how you are solving problems and coming up with creative solutions.

Someone learning guitar at 32 might be at a disadvantage compared to some kid that started jamming when seven, but that kid hasn't heard as much music, hasn't acquired any particular musical taste, and usually doesn't have the money to get the right equipment or training. They probably don't have any friends that they can call on for advice or to learn from, as any kids their age would be just as relatively clueless and anyone older would probably not have time to spare.

It's never "too late" to learn. Go for it.
"theoretically"

The guy giving you the assassination missions more or less tips you off each time what stock to buy.
Vipassana pioneer S.N Goenka dead
The top 100 brand names 2013
All entrepreneurs are united by the fear of failure
Which Scala Testing Tools Should You Use?
Inadvertent? Jamie Dimon? Hank Paulson? I guess hindsight always has a "whoopsy daisy!" loophole though.
A lot of people did exactly this!
I have a 3kW electric scooter, which can and does hit 45 mph / 75 kph on the flats.

I'm trying to picture having 40 times the torque, and just failing. What an incredible world.
Gmail Android app may get ads soon, APK teardown reveals
These guys have a method: rogers.matse.illinois.edu/files/2011/slimoptexpr.pdf‎
Yes, you can always think up some way to get the same benefit, but the point is that for most people, going to college is a good way to get a well-rounded education that involves being exposed to a range of ideas and people. Can a dedicated person figure out a cheaper alternative? Possibly, but that's beside the point.
Bill Cosby calls Grand Theft Auto Entrance Exam for Prison
http://nativenotes.net/bill-cosby-calls-grand-theft-auto-ent...
I don't know (and don't care) if this makes your unit tests faster, you shouldn't write code like that. He took something that should be simple and made it really complicated. The execution time of your tests shouldn't dictate how you will design and write your application. Especially if it makes things harder to maintain and understand.

Edit: I love tests and they should be fast so that you can run them every time before pushing your changes but as I said they shouldn't dictate how you design and write your application.
Definitely. I'd say that improving the Libreoffice experience on Windows is probably one of the most effective things we can do at present to increase adoption of desktop Linux.
That's only assuming that the PRNG hasn't been backdoored or otherwise compromised by the NSA. If it has, damn near ANY hardware RNG will be better than it. If not, then you're right.
A simple program is an interesting comparison, but it's kind odd to consider this to compare the whole typesystem. It's hard to understate that GHC has a /big/ typesystem and has had a significant amount of research done in it over the past 10 years and a a result there are a lot of very powerful non-trivial typing constructs. I think the real testament to the power of Haskell's typesystem is how well inference still works even in the presence of most of these non-trivial extensions.
Thanks for this excellent comment. I hope you stick around; we need more contributions from experience around here.

Since you worked with APL so intensively for so long, would you care to describe what you think is good about it? And how it differs from more familiar approaches? (Apart, of course, from charset and order of operations.)
Similar service in Europe: SmartPost (Estonia & Finland)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartPost
That's not a motorcycle, it's a moped...
You say this, but it's not actually true in law.
Why is using Haskell a risk? It's not a proprietary system where the company might shut down.