skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Point clouds are not very useful themselves, if we had a choice we would skip them. They are the result of turning any measured data (like pictures or depth samples or whatever) into a 3d visualisation.

Ideally you have collected enough data to reconstruct the surface geometry with reasonable accuracy, but realistically often you don't.

Our minds are rather good at inferring surface geometry from point clouds, our algorithms not so much yet as far as I know. So sometimes (as in the case of this visualisation) it suffices to show people just the point cloud.
Reminds of this wonderful study in usability: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25059665/CustomerForm.htm...
I'm glad you guys actually recognize the perverse incentives at work here and...

"Speaking of perverse incentives, we’re often asked about
our own. It seems that from the perspective of those
paying us, Beeminder is providing a ton of value and a
ton of motivation and the occasional cost of derailment
is a fair fee for Beeminder’s service..."

"in other words, Beeminder is putting itself on the map
for exactly one reason: it makes people more awesome.

But that can lead to the opposite complaint — that
Beeminder’s sting is so valuable as to be
self-defeating. In other words, it’s hard to be
motivated by the threat of having to pay Beeminder if
you feel that Beeminder has already earned that money!"

... Ok that only serves to scare me more.

This is a nasty psychological game beeminder is playing. So is GymPact. When people feel they have failed or they are at fault, a part of them wants to provide recompense for that failure. Beeminder and GymPact are not the first to fit this business model. Cable companies do it with wildly obtuse rules, ugly restriction, and massive overcharge fees, all with the line "Well it was your fault, it's written in the rules right here!"

That's what I see to be the problem. Beeminder puts itself resolutely in place as the 'go to' to seek punishment, striking where humans are at their weakest. Of course, rather than hail Marys, the punishment is money.

The fact is, because beeminder makes its money through my failure, it has a monetary insensitive to bring about that failure by any means, real or perceived. http://darkpatterns.org/ exists for exactly this reason! On what grounds do I have to believe beeminder would be immune to such an influence? Because beeminder loves me and wants me to get better?

That is how I saw it, from the outside looking in. I liked the idea, I really did, but with beeminder standing to benefit from the pledge, rather than say, a charity of some kind, I could never trust them.
That's embarrassing - I thought that Shiller's "Real Price" had dividends already rolled into it!
Beware generic advice about achieving success:

http://mustapha.svbtle.com/tfs

(This is just off HN frontpage)
is this a serious question? A corporate backed researcher is one that has the financial and IT resources at their disposal to research with and use that research in the shareholder interests of that corporation. The IP does not belong to an individual, but rather to the corporation, hence the lack of attribution to the researcher.

It's like saying Sun created Java, rather than Gosling created java, both are 'correct', but the former more so.
It is interesting, but I completely disagree. At least in my own case. I've worked on projects that I've not been passionate about ("This is gonna make me super rich!"), and I always end up throwing in the towel and moving on. Passion is what drives me to keep going when there's simply nothing else.
As someone that subscribes to this view, I don't think he's advising bouncing from job to job. Often, I think this mentality is more a matter of being mindful about how the work you're doing is impacting your marketability and future prospects. Also, I find this mentality to be a good way of motivating myself when I'm getting organized and grinding through projects - I take note of anything new I'm doing that might be relevant to other employers and note the value of being the kind of employee that can run through these things quickly.

Admittedly, it would be harder to have this mentality if you're set on staying with a company for 5+ years, but even then, shouldn't you be looking at other employers for salary negotiations? Shouldn't you be looking at potential advancement opportunities within your department/company?
Counterexamples or examples that don't fit this one pattern? Do you think the passion _caused_ the success just because it came first?
My son has medically diagnosed gluten sensitivity or whatever Celiac is officially called, and he loves the recent fad because there's tons of junk food he can buy at the store, at least as long as the fad lasts. He was diagnosed many years ago and back then, there were not many artificial GF products out there to buy...

It would be interesting to compare results over time, my son was diagnosed quite awhile ago and it was cheap and easy to go cold turkey WRT grains, whereas I think paradoxically it might be harder today for people recently (self?) diagnosed because there so many "here's a GF sorta-cookie-like object for a mere $6.95" products in stores. Or the GF pancake mix that tastes good even to me, but is about $10/box. Its a lot cheaper, and arguably easier, to eat naturally GF products than artificially GF products, what I'm getting at is its a lot cheaper and easier to make a GF omelet for breakfast than to go thru what you need to do to make (or buy) GF french toast. Its easier and cheaper to make your own taco meat seasoning than to try and buy a packaged envelope that doesn't use wheat flour as a thickener, for example.
http://fubarinc.blogspot.com/2013/08/inside-out-more-on-insi...

That plane thing seems to have been an erroneous hypothetical.
I lived in Oakland (17th, on Lake Merritt) back in 97/98, coming in from Canada and attracted by the low rent. I got the hell out of there as quickly as possible (moved to Sunnyvale) - Every night consisted me of taking my life into my own hands as I tried to walk the 5 or so blocks from Bart to my apartment.

A week ago, after not having visited for about 10 years, I toured the old neighborhood and was astonished at how much it had changed - it was after dark on a friday night - and there were actually a lot of people out, walking around the lake, restaurants open.

HUGE shift in gentrification of the area. This is a very positive impact of the San Francisco housing situation.
YC not necessarily, PG pre-selects already highly successful people. They're just not startup millionaires yet.
It doesn't if the experience gained makes you worth it, despite the implied risk of flight. If anything, it makes you unhirable for positions where employer values above all predictable mediocrity (ie. most corporate grind jobs), which is not a bad thing.
Leap Motion Game 
Leap Motion is making an effort to get some serious gamers. Video looks cool. If you have a Leap you should try it
How to avoid a common product mistake
Google-Backed File-Sharing Service Spreads Malware
First of all, knowing python just ain't enough. You really should acquire some useful skills for the real world such as expanding on your python knowledge and learning the django environment. Secondly, technology conferences and hackathons are great events to meet people and find potential employers. It's the survival of the fittest here, so make sure that you're fit and good at what you do before you make your move to SF. Good luck!
I tried this game and it was surprisingly good.
40-60 ride out of SF? AC Transit Lines 800–899 are All Nighter lines, operating from 1 a.m. – 5 a.m. daily. Some may operate somewhat earlier or later (especially on weekends).
> the percentage doesn't seem to bring enough money compared to the cost of electricity for those machines.

That is entirely dependent upon the value of one bitcoin.

The transaction fees for a block go to the miner.

If bitcoin is actively used in 2140 when the issue of new coins ceases, the value of even small fractions of a coin will likely be very high.
IIRC, there's a longer write-up. And a lot of the problems seemed to be partly due to her being a hardware engineer trying to make a next-gen console, embedded in a software company.

Some of the issues were specific to Valve's style. I think she had trouble recruiting staff, because Valve wanted her to hire people who could be team players within Valve, and she couldn't find a technician who could also program first-person shooters (unsurprisingly).

But more generally, she was hamstrung by Valve not having quite the hardware instincts to manage building a console with the time and resources they gave her.
I've seen this idea work well in very young companies (2 to 10 employees). It can boost morale at that size, but it would likely feel forced beyond a handful of employees.
it's optional? I can't believe the video said you needed a pledge to get back on track! It shattered my confidence in them.
How to become an expert at social media marketing and get more sales
Yes, Prop C is a ridiculous attempt to subvert the planning process. For the record, 8 Washington was approved by the Port Commission, Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. And yet, here we are with this measure.

Another one to watch out for is the Mexican Museum Tower (706 Mission). There have been rumblings that a few of the owners in the Four Seasons Tower don't care for the tall building obstructing their views:
http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2013/07/an_unfriendly_ult...

Depending on the results of the November ballot, we may be seeing more of these.
The Big Secret Twitter Doesn't Want You To Know That Might Be Killing You
Its his face photoshopped over the woman from this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-50GjySwew
That's one of the things that sucks about IP law. It'll never be standardized internationally so those places where it's strict, prices are high. In nations where it's looser, prices are low. We pay the government to enforce laws that keep our prices up. It's kind of a bummer.
I have been thinking about a similar approach for the past month or so (I call it the framework-oriented approach). There was an HN post in which a sports coach was quoted describing how a system consisting of good habits lead to consistent successes, as opposed to a goal-based approach that lead to non-consistent, one-off successes.

The idea is that you create a framework of good habits that keeps you focused on a task at hand, and that also forms as a mental safety-net in case of failure (thus, not pushing you off the wagon). Using a habitual process, you can make incremental progress overall (keep improving the framework) and you keep adding or removing features (goals) depending on the demands from your system. This is in contrast to having a goal-based approach where your entire framework is hinging on one goal/feature.

> For example, you often hear them say that you should "follow your passion." That sounds perfectly reasonable the first time you hear it. Passion will presumably give you high energy, high resistance to rejection and high determination. Passionate people are more persuasive, too. Those are all good things, right?

Related to this is a great book by Cal Newport "So Good They Can't Ignore You" (http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/145550912...) where he lays the case against "follow your passion" in a very methodical way. Here is a talk he gave at Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwOdU02SE0w
Yes, but then the news media steps in and claims that the gods of science have spoken. Then if this article gets refuted a year or two down the road, the damage is done because the public moved on.
How NSA breakthrough may allow tracking of “burner” cell phones
Yes, this article falls well within those bounds, but I can't help but feel we'll never cease to encounter similar write-ups (or books, or videos, or lectures, or how-to guides).

I think the best thing we can do right now is educate one another to be mindful of the advice and guidance we encounter. It can be motivational to hear about another's success, but unless we're willing to find what works for ourselves, it's useless.

Regardless, Adams is a remarkably interesting person and hearing about his approach to success is on par with reading a really great biography. Entertaining at the very least, something to build-up personal momentum at best.
I think most people are missing the bigger picture implication here: if 1 or 2 companies can double the bitcoin network in 4 weeks, then the network is not and probably never will be safe from attacks by the likes of the NSA and such.
Let me clarify. Nearly all programs should be tested, and have good test coverage. However, in this particular case your getting analysis paralysis from thinking too much about testing.

To overcome the analysis paralysis, just dont test. For now. Once you've started to get code out there and understand what you really need to test (by seeing what gets broken in production) it should be simpler to understand what you want to test and how to do it.

The most important thing is to ship. If testing is preventing you from shipping, skip the testing. The result of that is that in future, lack of testing will prevent you from shipping. At that point, it will be essential to improve your testing.
I was surprised to learn about the level of disfunction in SF government (which of course includes zoning): http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-12-16/news/the-worst-run-big-ci...
So, fix the media. Don't whine about the scientists.
D'oh! I was thinking it was Westley who pointed that out. I lose 1000 nerd credibility points.
What it’s like to be number 1 in iTunes
Jeri has a more detailed and technical video on her channel that goes more in-depth than the Kickstarter video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc2NQVQK69A
All dried up
Traditionally its because an East Bay to Silicon Valley commute hasn't really worked. Not until Twitter/Zynga/Square/AirBnb started the large SF startup presence has the East Bay really started to benefit from the tech scene.

(note I bought in Berkeley a few years ago, and looking to move to Oakland)
This is why I prefer Minneapolis to SF. All the character, none of the problems.

Though we do only have two seasons - winter and construction.
Meh, database, pass. I liked the idea of Jekyll of writing markdown and compiling it to static HTML so I wrote Snow to see if it was possible in .NET, now just refactoring and adding features. Markdown and Static files for a blog is the way to go.
If you drill down on any success story, you always discover that luck was a huge part of it. You can't control luck, but you can move from a game with bad odds to one with better odds. You can make it easier for luck to find you. The most useful thing you can do is stay in the game. If your current get-rich project fails, take what you learned and try something else. Keep repeating until something lucky happens. The universe has plenty of luck to go around; you just need to keep your hand raised until it's your turn. It helps to see failure as a road and not a wall.

I think that says it all, vis-a-vis the "luck" thing. Well said, Mr. Adams.
Screen sharing for Linux
Your advise is just as generic :)
I haven't written node code before, so correct me if I'm wrong. The package.json file indicates MySQL as an optional [1] :

"optionalDependencies": {
"mysql": "2.0.0-alpha9"
},

And this guide [2] seems to indicate that PG support is possible.

[1] https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/master/package.json

[2] http://www.howtoinstallghost.com/how-to-install-ghost-on-her...
Chromebook giveaway leaks user data
Given that PG was already successful before YC and HN, what makes you assert that the passion came first?
Why Android SSL was downgraded from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5 in late 2010
> Aid that completely bypasses corrupt governments and goes directly to citizens seems to be less likely to be stolen by middlemen.

Pretty much by definition it is less likely to be stolen by middlemen, since anyone stealing aid that goes directly to individuals without going through middlemen is not a middleman.

Whether it is less likely to be stolen -- or even whether it is less likely to be stolen by the government -- is a completely different story.
5 SF Startups with Killer Landing Page. Choose the best.
"It almost seems like San Francisco has a huge aversion to becoming a metropolis, but the problem is that the city really doesn't have a choice in the matter."

You've hit the nail on the head. Something will have to give, as while rents can go up forever, citizen's income won't.
what if i'm the type of personality that likes to misrepresent itself in tweets?
I was looking for a less-complicated alternative to nxhtml/mumamo and html5.el (which requires xhtml syntax). I've played with web-mode for a few minutes, and it seems great. Handles html, css, js nicely.

Only concern so far: javascript variables with underscores do not highlight correctly.
Dancing Zuckerberg is the new trollface
That's some very poor circular logic. You've never considered it because of the crime rate that you don't know because you've never considered it.
This title is false. San Francisco's population is increasing and Oakland's is decreasing. It should be called the San Francisco influx.
After 30 minutes all i can say is

Build failed
[sqlite3]: 1
npm ERR! weird error 1
npm ERR! not ok code 0
Until Asia starts eating it (India, China etc.) the headline is completely off. The world does not crave Quinoa.
You say that like San Francisco is crime free while the whole Easy Bay has a high crime rate...
My research group at CMU uses a lot of hashing these days and we care mostly about performance. We've settled on three as our basics:
- CityHash as a nice, general purpose hash, particularly on newer machines with CRC32c support in hardware;
- SpookyHash for longer strings, particularly with no CRC32 support;
- CRC32c in hardware for a quick & dirty hash with possibly slightly more poor distribution.

It depends a lot on what you're hashing. For strings, both City and Spooky are great. You should benchmark both on your target architecture(s). If you're trying to take, e.g., integers to integers, we've found that CRC32c is a pretty darn good fallback if you need insanely high performance.

If you're running a hash table exposed to externally controlled input, then you also want to consider (whether you need) algorithms that provide decent resistance against "hash flooding". SipHash is the strongest contender there short of throwing your hands in the air and using MD5 with a local secret seed.
Relevant: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2213
I've installed ghost to my raspberry pi and have...

> ghost@0.3.2 start /var/www/servers/www..dyndns.org/pages/ghost

> node index

Ghost is running...

Listening on 127.0.0.1:2368

Url configured as: http://my-ghost-blog.com

Ctrl+C to shut down

127.0.0.1:2368 gives me an unable to establish a connection error (btw, I'm ssh-ing into my pi on the lan).

and also 127.0.0.1:2368/ghost where I am meant to access my admin account setup.

Any idea what went wrong?
"It almost seems like San Francisco has a huge aversion to becoming a metropolis, but the problem is that the city really doesn't have a choice in the matter."

I've lived in the Bay Area for 30 years and this is my take on it as well. The city of San Francisco (and by that I mean its government) sounds like a 35 year old insisting they are still a teenager. The most interesting thing to watch was that some development "snuck in" in the south of market area and that really really surprised people in terms of people living there. When I moved here SoMa was 'warehouses, drunks, and a train station." Now it is a growing and thriving community of the new executive class. Oops.
SF has a lot of homelessness, which seems to be due to a combination of both culture (generally liberal, reasonably good provision of social services, reasonably relaxed attitude to drugs) and climate. As brutal as it sounds, cities like New York will never have as large or visible a homelessness problem for the simple reason you're quite likely to die sleeping rough over the winter.
how wrong could you be. just because you can't see the causations, or have no intuitive understanding of misrepresentation does not mean that it doesn't exist. you'd be very surprised at how much accuracy there is in predicting you are wrong.
What about using goals as MVP's for frameworks/systems?

For instance I recently decided to read an academic paper every week. It is posed as a challenge, but if the results are good I will simply continue reading an academic paper every week and voila, a system.

I've used a similar approach for pretty much every good habit I keep. Start with a goal, then just don't stop. This has worked for everything from working out 3 times a day, to writing and programming.

Start with a goal, end up with a system.
Your "bratwurst vs quinoa" argument makes the assumption that negative externalities per dollar is constant, therefore negative externalities can be measured by dollars spent.

You later disprove this assumption yourself when describing how local goods can have fewer negative externalities than those imported from across the globe.
There's an argument to be made that there will be more innovation and creation of these drugs if there are fortunes to be made.
Booooooooo (But I laughed anyway)
I think this point of view is biased from the perspective of an entrepeneur. You seem to be over-valuing the contribution of the founders, to the point where you're implying that everything that happens after the founder leaves the picture is all his/her doing.

Would you make a similar analogy of nation-states? The Catholic Church?
What's the hipster for?
hm. i've never even heard of R .... it's a graphing library ??

Also, seems like that's a lot of dependencies for ggplot2. I'm wondering if this is really worth switching off of matplotlib. Sounds like all it's really doing is changing the method that you call ?
The article mentions New York. One difference between SF and NYC is that public transport in NYC is at least 10X better. Especially as people spread out, that makes a big difference to quality of life.
Also: "In hindsight, it looks as if the projects that I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success. Success caused passion more than passion caused success"
What are you disagreeing with? The article explicitly makes the same point: "your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job".

// Edit: I'm assuming you were attempting to reply to a sibling comment but posted a comment on the article instead of a reply.
Javascript path tracer proceeds 1000000 rays per second
Do you think the passion _caused_ the success?

I think his success was equal parts intelligence and determination ("passion"). It seems true to say that those two ingredients alone were necessary and sufficient.

He could still fail due to a run of bad luck. But it's a pretty safe bet that if things start to slip downhill, those setbacks won't make him any less determined.

If a person's passion springs from their success, then they'll be discouraged when setbacks inevitably happen. Paul's model seems better: (a) doggedly pursue (b) something you're pretty sure will succeed. It'd be hard to doggedly pursue something that you're not already passionate about.

In fact, that pattern seems common. Drew had decided to commit himself exclusively to Dropbox before even applying to YC; Airbnb's founders flew to NYC every week during YC to talk to users; Watsi's founders would probably do Watsi whether or not it was a huge success; etc. In every case it seems like their passion was independent of their success, because none of them were willing to give up under any circumstances. That's quite a different situation than someone whose determination depends on a positive feedback loop of success.