skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think the author is saying that the heritability of a trait depends on the range of environments being considered, but saying it in a needlessly grandstanding and obfuscatory manner?

Having now read the paper, yes, that was what he was saying, and the non-quoted sections of the paper are much clearer. Example

For the modeling
underlying twin studies to make sense, one has
to assume that the environments experienced by
identical twins raised in the same family are no
more similar than those experienced by frater-
nal twins, that genes and environments are
independent and additive (again, in the usual
ANOVA sense) in the determination of the trait,
and that parents mate randomly with respect to
the trait.

That's totally true. If you compared an organism with a randomly generated genome to a human and exposed both to what would be a normal range of environments for a human, you would find that all traits are entirely genetic. And if you selected people from the normal range of human genetics but only gave half of them access to important things like a uterus then you would find that all traits are almost entirely environmentally determined. So you can't say that "Trait Foo is 50% heritable" unless you also specify the populations and range of environments you're talking about.

EDIT: Or you could say that heritability is ordinal but not cardinal, given some reasonable assumptions.
I am a huge fan of DSC and their biz model. I'm a subscriber, their products aren't anything amazing, but I think of it as foothold into first bathroom products, later other consumables.

I bet they come out with a shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hair gel, toothpaste/mouthwash, toothbrushes, moisturizer, deodorant(s). Think anything axe/old-spice do now.
I saw the ad. Kudos for getting onto the tube.
whoa- any particular battery brand that works the best?
Good write up. I actually would like to be more involved with what you're doing. Please contact me - email in profile or just my username at gmail.
No. A unified definition may be impossible.

But not having a concrete definition doesn't make certain inferences impossible.
Open Source REST for MongoHQ
What's it like to attend HackMIT?
> This whole field seems likely to be a case study supporting http://xkcd.com/882/.

The scientifically interesting thing is that it's not at all like that XKCD cartoon. Multiple hypothesis testing is built into the design of the studies, and has been from the very start. When it comes to proper interpretation of stats in science, geneticists are at the top of the hierarchy.

Your second point is far closer to what I think is going on, but I still think that single-gene studies are the wrong way to go, as you might guess from my username. They're testing for the wrong thing, single locus or single gene causes, of a very complex phenotype with the involvement of many many different loci and genes. So if there are 500-600 genes that are important, maybe one passes the test in your particular subsample, but in a different subsample the rest of the 500-600 genes mediate the effect. I.e. there's not enough complexity in the model to account for the signal. What's worked very well for simple diseases and traits may not work well for complex traits with the influence of many many different genes.
To williamcotton's point, the business behind music promotion is alive. The business of music as a product is what is dying.

The fact that there is no product left to monetize the music means that there will be fewer musicians being funded. Only a few musicians will be chosen to promote and this will selectively be done such that they have a huge reach.

The mass marketed products like JT, Kanye (barf), Miley, etc will continue to be a part of the music business, as they always have, But the Luna's, Feelies, Grizzly Bear's (http://nymag.com/arts/popmusic/features/grizzly-bear-2012-10...), and myriad of other, small appeal bands are going to have a hard time sustaining themselves for the longterm with out a product to keep them afloat.

The live performance is the product now, but the problem is, is that this is actually hard work. This is why you see EDM musicians having a good time in the new music economy (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/09/30/130930fa_fact_... - paywal) - they are able to put on a show with minimal effort, to large crowds (i.e. big $$$).

I've seen so many awesome musician friends throw in the towel after a few years because they can't keep justifying theier profession. It's sad, but unfortunately the way its going to be.

Edit - this was the Grizzly Bear link I meant to use: http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/grizzly-bear-shields.html
That's a 200 disguised as a 404. Shame!
Smashed up your computer? You’re not alone
hope it is not sabotage
Yahoo Mail search is the best when it comes to going through some very old emails. Gmail search is effectively useless for me for everything that I sent or received half a year ago or earlier.
Writing a Spotify Client in 16 Minutes
Ask HN:  How do you attend Startup School?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do you get tickets for startup school? Is it free? Do you just show up? Do you have to RSVP? The site doesn't give much detail other than date/location/time.
Off the top of my head: eugenics, diverting the smarter parts of population to science and leadership roles.

Not saying it's moral, but definitely and obviously practical.
There's lots of things under the physics umbrella out there, and the Nobel committee has refrained for giving a prize for string theory or other speculative BSM physics for decades; there's no reason to think they'll change, especially given the recent downturn in the popularity of those fields. The Nobel isn't restricted to fundamental physics. You can look at the awards from the recent years to get a sense of what gets honored when there are no fundamental advances: laser spectroscopy, magnetoresistance, optical fibers, semiconductors, graphene, etc.
> Which is why I also said that, if the problem gets worse that just a few wisps, the detector should immediately escalate to full alarm.

Indeed, but personally I don't want a dumb electronic device to make that judgement for me - I'd like to do it myself. I'll know instantly whether or not the house is on fire and I'd like to know instantly whether or not it seems like it might be. False positives are, as I said earlier, infinitely preferable to "he'd have made it out if he'd heard the alarm earlier". Besides, how do you decide what's "house fire smoke" vs "burnt toast smoke"? if the fire isn't adjacent to the detector then smoke may only reach the detector slowly.

I get the drive to make devices more intelligent and thus more convenient but I strongly disagree that this philosophy should apply in all cases. Sometimes 'basic' really is better. Not to mention that there's less to go wrong.
This line of argument tiptoes kind of close to the "no true Scotsman" argument, though. Don't you think?

"Conservatism is about respect for established institutions!"

"But every conservative I see is running around tearing down those institutions."

"Those people aren't real conservatives!"
Any person that wants to learn to program should be given the opportunity and tools to do so, regardless of background. And, believe it or not, those tools do not stop at pencil and paper. Go SWOT!
Where did you find this? The only place I could find it was on their terms of service page (http://nest.com/legal/terms), in which they explicitly are referring to the website & associated apps:

>> The term “Services” means the Site, Web App, Mobile Apps, and MyEnergy Service.

I don't think that this applies to the actual alarm... good thought though...
"intelligence is genetic" and "intelligence is heritable" are completely different statements. The notion that IQ is fixed and encoded in genes is nonsense. What is true is that for a given environment, the variation in observed IQ is strongly explained by genetics. It is possible, and likely true, that lower intelligence among minorities is caused by the environment, but that the variation among those in this environment is explained by genetics.

The fact that intelligence is heritable says nothing about social-economic policy for changing the environment. It is as absurd as saying that because "height is genetic" there is no reason to worry about malnutrition.
HipChat API and Plivo Integration for Sales Line Bot
That's what the test/reset button does. Try looking at it next time before becoming violent!
It is an interesting article and I agree with the subject matter (just wanting to do a startup is not reason enough), but I wanted to comment on the title: 0.00006% is a prior distribution. I wouldn't be surprised if the success rate posterior goes up an order of magnitude with something as minimal as a 4 year degree. Which is still a really small number...but it drastically changes your expected value.
Is due process the wrong term? Can't due process occur after the fact? For example, you can be arrested for suspicion of drunk driving, taken off the road, put into custody, and found to be innocent, and that is still part of due process. Your actions appeared to be causing a threat to others, so the government stopped your actions immediately and let the courts decide your guilt or innocence. How is that different than taking a site that is suspected of harming other people offline immediately and then work on deciding guilt or innocence?

Note: I don't necessarily disagree with the author, but I am playing devil's advocate here.
Well, we had critical success with it. For example, in a few days there will be a joint press release between a top virtualization company and my company. This was achieved through LinkedIn InMail.
Those things only matter if people use them. The page is claiming that many people would rather their smoke detectors just be off than to have to deal with their annoyances.
Is there another one planned for next semester?
It's likely because late night/early morning is cooler temperature, and this drops the battery voltage enough to trigger the sensor.
Yeah, agreed -- a year's supply of blades for a safety razor really only costs maybe $20.

Gillette's marketing has really worked over the years. A more expensive, inferior product beating out everything else.
Sales Page Mistakes That Cost You Money (And How To Fix Them)
This is a bit confused. The US needs to pay about 0.5 trillion interest a year, or 1/5th of tax revenue. They borrow about 0.5 extra per year (which is why the budget ceiling needs to go up).

If the US wanted to instantly achieve a balanced budget, they would have to spend 3/5ths the current amount. When a government cuts the amount it spends, it shrinks the economy, and reduces tax take.

In the UK, a limited form of this strategy seems to be working, but in Southern Europe, a strong 'austerity' strategy is creating a spiral of reducing tax take (requiring ever greater cuts).

So the sharp reduction in the deficit you mention is not possible. It would need to be gradual.

The elephant in the room is that, in the US, China, and Europe, the aging population is coming. As the proportion of contributors to consumers of public spending shifts, more debt is inevitable. It's going to suck pretty bad for everyone, but if we (all of us) can't achieve a balanced budget before that hits, then things are not going to be as gentle.
How did this reach the front page of hacker news!? This is nothing more than an advert for sending money overseas. Oh and for the marketing team running this blatant advert, here's a free tip that will help your SEO a bit, add a 301 redirection on your non-www site. You don't even redirect http://transferwise.com to http://www.transferwise.com
Also, see http://xkcd.com/980/ for the scale of money, where you realize a trillion is not a lot of money either.
I haven't thought about buying razors or blades since I became a DSC member.

Any service that frees my brain up to think about other things can count on me as a subscriber. Here's to their success, and to the surplus brain power we'll all enjoy because of it.
You could just as easily argue that it's 100% environment, since a human who is never provided with food will end up dead, and therefore much less intelligent than an insect.
Higher Authority Cartoon
Ask HN: Help, suddenly forgot password encrypting 15 years of personal data
Regular here using a throwaway, looking for help recovering information that must be in my brain somewhere.

My data's encrypted with FileVault 2 w/ a password of 10-12 random characters -- the same for about 4 years now, during which I effortlessly typed it many times per day. Had you asked me what it was though, I couldn't have said; I'd had to have been sitting in front of a keyboard to type it.

Three nights ago I logged in as usual, then nodded off. I woke up ~30 mins later and tried to type it again...but couldn't! I was surprised, but figured it would come back to me in the morning. Several days now and nothing. This is incredibly frustrating for me as a geek who has lived most of his life electronically -- these 15 years represent a huge volume of my life product: passwords to online accounts, thoughts and computer programs I've written, illustrations, mathematical models, recorded conversations... So much of my world is locked away in there.

I know brute forcing holds no hope, nor is my recovery key stored with Apple. I have backups that are encrypted with the same password, because I was protecting from fire/theft/drive failure, not this.

So I'm not looking for computer advice, but rather help on recovering information from my brain that I know must still be in there, somewhere. FWIW, I've experienced no other neurological symptoms nor any forgetfulness besides this. That night, I even checked myself for the typical signs of a stroke and noticed none.

I remember pieces of it, and some of what it "felt" like to type. As I've tried different possibilities, some have felt more right than others. But it's impossible to tell whether I'm really getting closer or merely tricking myself with the newly established familiarity that my repeated attempts are creating.

Has anyone had a similar experience or advice on how to jog my memory?
Ahh, you are correct, apparently he has his own peace prize.
Lightening Your Responsive Website Design With RESS
I like the analogy made elsewhere in the comments about labels being like VC firms. By the same token, you don't think you need a VC firm/record label unless you plan to go big and go quick. Macklemore and others have shown that there is another path, even if it's not common (yet?). Just because we are used to teenagers and early twenty-somethings being blown up to huge proportions doesn't mean that's the best path. I imagine a world where artists slowly gain traction and following as they refine their art as a better place.
Thirty years ago there was a not-dissimilar problem on the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project, a pre-LHC particle accelerator (much larger than the LHC; the Higgs field could have been detected twenty years ago if it had been completed) in Texas. Fire ants (solenopsis) got into electrical boxes and caused no end of problems. Arc faults are one result. Located as it is in the desert southwest, solenopsis infestation should be investigated as a possible cause.
You'd need a lot of friends, but everybody has enough to get a post or two to the frontpage, and that adds up.
Taking a site offline on mere suspicion would be analogous to imprisoning someone on the mere suspicion. The notion of due process breaks down when it is too easy to abuse the process itself.
The word 'Service' is capitalised, implying that there's a definition elsewhere in the ToS. I found it at the end of the very first paragraph.

"The term 'Services' means the Site, Web App, Mobile Apps, and MyEnergy Service" (NB those terms are defined earlier in the same para).

In other words, don't rely on the above things for life safety. That sounds fine to me and I also note that the video does not show alarm messages being sent to phones (though I'm sure it's a feature).

A better question is in the absence of the above, will the alarm still go off if there's smoke/CO etc? In the UK, I doubt you'd be able to 'disclaim' your way out of it and there are probably minimum functionality/safety standards required before you could even market safety products. I'd expect the US to be similar.
I'm not aware of any other smoke / CO alarms that warn people not to rely on them for their safety, are you?
So the appeal of a service that provides admittedly mediocre products is that someday they might provide even more types of mediocre products?

I don't get it. But then I've never really gotten the appeal of DSC, beyond the well-done launch video.
Nest needs to get into the curling/straightening iron business.
Chris DiBona is great! I work at Google and his team provides a really solid foundation for using Open Source at Google, and for Open Sourcing Google code. I think few companies have the foresight to employ people like Chris and DannyB who help us ensure engineers uses open source legally and ethically.
How my one kind act went viral on Facebook. Should i do it again?
Well, due process used in this context normally means innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately the approach taken in this instance is the reverse 'guilty until proven innocent' or worse 'guilty and that's it'.

Yes, property seizures, arrests, etc. can happen as part of due process however there are complicated legalities associated with those things. For example, you actually need a court order to make an arrest (an arrest warrant) or a warrant to seize property. Getting a court involved means you have to prove something as well, or have enough evidence. Furthermore, other things such as danger to safety, security, flight risk, etc. are all considered by the judge.

I guess that's where due process is being totally skipped here. There is no court order, no warrant, just a threatening letter without any formal basis.
Due process, presumption of innocence and other such "nuisances" are something that the DRM lobby tries to kill.
This site is awesome! A feature request, if I may: on the calibration page, it would be helpful to have the ability to mute all the sliders except the one you are calibrating. Or perhaps, like slider in a color tool, have a text box with a number representing that volume that slider is set to.
US sides with Apple; some Samsung Android devices banned
Preorder is available on Amazon for the 64 gigabyte version.
Rally cry for sinking companies: all hands on deck
If you havent seen this yet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJehexDPEsE&feature=youtu.be
*100GB of free storage for two years, starting on the date you redeem the Drive offer.
Some things like Hangouts, voice search and auto updates obviously require internet.
Screen images simulated. Color availability may vary.

I like the "obviously". :)
There's never been due process; it's not suddenly worse than before. The widespread and rapid communications we enjoy know have made us all too aware of how often it does (and used to) happen.

In some ways, it is both worse and better for us.
One thing they could have done that would have saved A TON of load is not require users to sign up before giving them a list of available plans. ...
My guess is millions of people just wanted to check prices and eliminating the database load for those users would have probably kept things running fast and smooth.

That's all I wanted to do (I have employer-based coverage for now). I turned back once I realized you needed an account to see this, but assumed it was due to some policy issue or agreement with the insurers.
That's still a lot better shot than you can get from most lotteries.
peachy printer only costs $100, that is the same price for a hot-end for normal printers. What else can go wrong with $100?
Sidenote: SOHO is in New York. Soho is in London.

Edit: ok, so the one in New York is SoHo. Close enough.
> Hunger in America exists for over 50 million people. That is 1 in 6 of the U.S. population – including more than 1 in 5 children.

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america.aspx
"Slow DB queries are the enemy and you don't realize how bad they are until you are at scale. Sure, it only takes a few seconds on your local machine, but multiply that times thousands of concurrent users and your DB gets swamped. If you are using an ORM, it is MUCH harder to track down where in your code that 3 way join that scans every record is happening. Ideally you'd be using straight SQL and maybe use comments to tag a query. Also tools like newrelic might help if only because many databases don't offer great visibility of performance data."

1. Slow Query Log
2. Grep commands
Or something like the type of business. A local service-based business like a hair salon, diner or hot dog cart shouldn't even be considered as a business that has the possibility of being worth a billion dollars. If this is based on total number of registered businesses, removing the large number of established small businesses that have been in business for X years would help arrive at a better number.
Not if you factor in opportunity cost, really. They could've spent that time making 6 figures at an already established company, instead they wasted their time on some bullshit for a tiny fractional chance of making any money
UL 217 requires that silenced alarms can only be done so for a maximum of 15 minutes. If someone's home and burned their dinner or forgot to open the flue, is 15 minutes so bad?
Well, probably the 3 split a small percent of the final equity because of dilution from investors.
We called those "housing projects" and they were not exactly a paradise to live in. Superficially need some minimal level of education/civilization. Which merely excludes those bored by formal education, most of whom are idiots and a small fraction of them are geniuses. For lack of a better idea you could use some weighted GPA/IQ/GRE/SAT/ACT score system. Assuming the smartest people are those who come up with the best ideas. It does seem that to spread an idea you need a smart dude but a think tank should hire marketing people for that? Perhaps a lotto would work just as well for selection. A lotto instead of elections would likely give us a superior government, perhaps it would give us superior ideas on average.

Another interesting example is the Institute for Advanced Studies nearby Princeton, I think. You might want to examine whats been produced there.
It is unclear at best. The ToS do mention that they are '...all for use in conjunction with Nest hardware products' so I'm not trying to be deliberately misleading in claiming that they relate to the operation of the smoke alarm.

I'm sure that Nest don't mean anything bad but the ToS and its legal reach is far from clear. This (to my knowledge) is the first safety device that Nest have produced, the ToS had been written earlier to make it plain that you shouldn't rely on their other products for safety. They need to update the ToS for the new product, basically.
First 3D Movies From a Single Pixel Camera
I don't know what it's like in the US, but in Canada, if you try to sell a safety device and put in your TOS that the device should not be guaranteed to provide any safety (even when used properly), the courts will throw out your TOS.

You can't sell a safety product and then pretend it doesn't do anything.
I interviewed at Adzerk
I don't wish to lament anyone's success, but honestly why is anyone buying blades from these people.

http://www.amazon.com/Derby-Extra-Double-Razor-Blades/dp/B00...

$13 dollars you have at least a years worth of blades for even the thickest beards. Also you will get a shave that is worlds better then the one from DSC.