skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I was going to try to explain but seeing you use phrases like "pure, raw evil" to describe a couple of internet pranks makes me wonder if it's even possible.

The epilepsy thing was going too far, I agree, and they haven't done anything like that since. But I don't see why this one is so bad, in fact when I saw the headline I grinned and thought "good old 4Chan, creating drama for the rest of us .."

When I think "pure, raw evil" I think of nazi concentration camps and pleasure killers, etc. I cannot even begin to put these pranks into the same category. I don't see any reason whatsoever why it should be illegal. I just don't understand your reaction at all, basically. What is the problem?
Which internet? There was plenty of internet before ads became common.

I agree. I have never found ads worth the trouble. I am no designer, but I cannot bear to look at ads on my own site, even if I could be making money. I would rather ensure that my readers have a peaceful and pristine experience learning from my writing than make a few cents off of them. I think I would even prefer a paywall to advertising. (And indeed, I have written a book that you have to pay for. Although it is on P2P sites, and I certainly won't be suing you if you download and read it. Give me money if you want to, otherwise, don't worry about it.)

And saying that you "hate" people who dislike advertising is pretty disturbing.

It's axod. He is hates everyone and everything, unless Apple makes it.
A slight difference being the ginormous size of L2 and still respectable size of L1 on new CPU's. L2 sizes ranging from 3 to 12 MB are considered normal, which is about the same range as most 386's had RAM. IMO the real trick is to access RAM sequentially as there is a lot of bandwidth if you can avoid the latency hit. But, it's hard to guess how much L2 cache the machine is going to have.

PS: Looking at RAM the way you looked at the HDD on a 386 seems strange considering the amazing increase in speed, but it's a reasonable approach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicciolina
I don't see how you can call it a prank.

Personally, I feel that singling out handicapped people on the web and posting images specifically tailored to bring about possible-fatal seizures in them is the very behavior of pleasure killers.

At least many of the Nazi soldiers that participated in the holocaust didn't personally agree with their orders, despite what they did. But make no mistake about it, every single Anonymous member that posted on YouTube and the epilepsy forums did so of their own volition and should be tried for it.

The posts to the epilepsy forum could easily be tried as attempted manslaughter. And the posts to YouTube, on an individual basis, are almost guaranteed to cover a number of lesser charges, such as distribution of sexual material to minors, lewd acts, etc.
> And saying that you "hate" people who dislike advertising is pretty disturbing.

"hate" advertising. Let's not misquote.

> I don't see anything irrational about disliking insidious, manipulative marketing messages being shoved in your face whereever you look.

It does seem a bit irrational to expect everything for free. The other option is payment. In discussion threads there are a lot of people that say "I'll gladly pay for no advertising", but real life so far has not given me reason to believe that that group is actually of a relevant size.
very interesting and thorough explanation, + easy to understand!

recommended for everyone who wants to know more about python, threads, ticks and signal handling.
I feel this need for purely hacker oriented news too. That's why i started a little feed aggregator for blogs by Montreal hackers : http://montrealhackers.com .

That said, if you start a purely hacker-oriented version of HN i will watch it. :)
Or the HN codebase if you plan to go down this route.
And make sure to bring plenty of spam with you to cook over the campfire.
"Let's not misquote."

Sorry. Corrected.

"It does seem a bit irrational to expect everything for free"

Who said anything about "expecting everything for free"? I pay for a lot of things. I'd pay to access my favourite content if it was required.
the authors of the federalist papers might beg to differ
The point about Amazon Vine is you have to review X products to get more.

So if I've got four books already that I haven't gotten around to reading, and a new one pops up in the newsletter that genuinely sounds worth reading, I'll pop on over to one of the four I have and write a completely fictional review for it based roughly around what everyone else is saying and the book's description.

This enables me to get as much free stuff as possible without reading books that turn out to be nothing like their descriptions. And it's people like me doing this that contribute to the immense Vine bias.

I have read bad books on Vine and reviewed them, I've also read some really good ones, but half the time it's all complete fiction so I can get as much free stuff as possible.
This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rose_Bowl_Hoax

is a prank that's actually funny and clever. Most of the 4chan things aren't particularly clever or entertaining, and things like targeting people with an illness, or children, are just lame, and not funny. Things that make for entertaining pranks are focusing on the powerful, the famous, and especially those who are full of themselves.
This is scandalous. Another celebrity nude picture turns up and is now all over the internet. This is yet another reminder for women not to let people take nude photos (or paintings, even by artists with funky names like Da Vinci.) Even if it takes centuries, sooner or later those pictures are going to surface.
Programming is not the right thing to do
From C# on Mono, to Clojure on the JVM
This is not evil. This is a bunch of kids sitting behind their collective computers having a giggle with their mates.

As you observed, the Internet completely disconnects them from the reality of their actions. I'd wager that -- generally speaking -- 4channers don't run around flashing their technicolour LCDs at epileptics or showing porn to their mate's six year old. They're a little power-drunk on sweet, sweet anonymity juice.

The porn thing isn't a huge deal in my personal opinion. Of course, I say this without being a parent. So I don't know, perhaps I'd feel differently if that were the case. What I do know is that you and I are different people with different opinions and apparently different senses of humor, and hey -- that's cool. Sorry you found my comments about seeing the funny side to be so outrageous, I meant no offense.

I'd prefer a cultural change in 4chan rather than a legal smackdown. You can shut down a site, but the 4channers will still be around. This, in turn, will only lead to Internet censorship for the rest of us.

And it really would be shit if the Internet's dying words were "Oh, but think of the children." -- but imagine the good 4chan could do if this sort of energy were channeled elsewhere? Maybe I'm just being excessively optimistic. :)
And what does that gain you? Nothing.

The image needs to be displayed on the receiving end. From that point the cat is out the bag, no matter how many locks you put on the bag.
From Python 2.6 there is a nice multiprocessing library which based on OS processes. It's more heavyweight from the OS point of view but you don't need to worry about issues with GIL. I'm using it on an EC2 image with 8 cores and it rocks.
Plus it has the added benefit that if you design your architecture with queues as your distribution primitive you can scale across multiple machines pretty easily. There's a mostly drop-in interface [1] to AMQP that mimics the native Python Queue interface.

[1] http://www.lshift.net/blog/2009/06/11/python-queue-interface...
> Sorry. Corrected.

Thanks.
I said I also disagreed with the epilepsy event. That went too far. But this is learning, is it not? They went too far, they learned from it, they haven't done it again. Why involve the law? You would never find them anyway.

There were no lasting ill effects from the epilepsy forum vandalism. The Wired article you link to mentions "day-long migraine", someone who locked up for "about 10 seconds", etc. I'm not trying to downplay the stupidity of it, not at all. I'm just saying that throwing around phrases like "attempted manslaughter" is a huge exaggeration. It was a stupid, ill-conceived prank that had unanticipated consequences. If they'd done it again after that, then you can start using words like malicious or maelevolent, but they haven't.

I don't have any problem with the YouTube prank at all. Who cares if some kids see some naked people? I'd almost prefer them watching porn than the fricking Jonas Brothers. And good luck convicting anyone, they'd just claim is was art or something, and I kind of agree.
High population density triggers cultural explosions
Pure, raw evil? Get a grip.

It's not E.V.I.L. It's mean, and nasty. But E.V.I.L. to me resembles means more on the lines of the rape, torture, murder variety.

The reason the law shouldn't get involved in cases like this is the damage done to citizens in enforcing the law is higher than the result of letting it go free. Any parent who lets their kids under 13 browse around youtube unsupervised is responsible for the result of what the kid sees.
YouTube - Metro Station~Shake It Music Video
"I suggested it would be a cool name for an HN-like site that catered specifically to those who spend 8 hours a day behind an emacs or vi session (and no less!)"

I like the idea, to be honest; even though I use TextMate. :D
meh. I find them really useful. Perhaps it's a hippy anti-consumerism thing I just don't understand?
This happened nearly a month ago. It's strange how breaking stories go away, then suddenly reappear at the top of the BBC most read list (sometimes months or even years later)... where they get picked up and recycled by social news sites or bloggers, only to cause a second wave of outrage. I wonder what the dynamics of it all are.

Also note that the "I'm 12 years old and what is this?" troll - successfully swallowed up by many of the major news outlets - has now become somewhat of a meme.
" I am no designer, but I cannot bear to look at ads on my own site, even if I could be making money. I would rather ensure that my readers have a peaceful and pristine experience learning from my writing than make a few cents off of them."

I wholeheartedly agree. Not only do I not touch ads in any business activities, I do not place ads on any of my personal sites either. I pay for them, then, out of my own pocket - to the tune of about $250/m. I would have thought putting my money where my mouth is like that would ward off claims of being a "freeloader" but apparently not.
I love lots of things :) A free internet is one of those things.

I don't understand hate of advertising though. Are you anti-christmas presents also? Do you hate blockbuster movies? Hate disney? Hate consumerism? Maybe there's some 'hippiness' going on I just don't get.
What Opera is about to Unveil?
SEO Tools for Firefox
In response to the opener on why he doesn't understand Opera's low market share: To me, it's the odd and sometimes clunky interface.

The initial impression is important and when I load up Opera for the first time (Version 9.x) it's not as pleasant as say Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. I don't know, it just lacks a certain visual flair.

To be honest, due to this I have never given Opera a really good chance. I know Opera has some great features, but I can't get past that initial hurdle. I downloaded Opera 10 beta just now to give it another go though.
"metaprogramming" in that sense refers to self reprogramming itself, usually with the assumption that a lot of personality is imprinted, rather than just behavioral. A firmware change, so to speak.

Robert Anton Wilson's _Promethius Rising_ talks about that stuff, but doesn't run screaming at full speed towards occult mumbo jumbo the way many "consciousness" books do.

Also: Isolation tanks are neat. (Just don't leave your cell phone on vibrate on the chair next to the tank... :) )
Company alleges Chinese software has stolen code
From my point of view the internet needs advertising, because if there wasn't Companies like Google orYahoo wouldn't have been able to take on Microsoft with subscription based services.
> I don't know, it just lacks a certain visual flair.

I'd say it's mostly familiarity. It's the same reason that keeps me from giving FF a fair try[1]. It just doesn't feel the same as Opera does.

[1] Well, that and my rather awful experiences in the past with it.
Even Amid This Slump, Demand for Toyota Prius Is Insatiable
200 Years from now we'll all have a good laugh at how ridiculous it was that videotaping sex and tricking kids into seeing it used to be thought of as an intensely evil crime.
You're not replying to me, but I want to respond anyway. I hate advertising for two main reasons:

1. It is mostly ugly and aesthetically displeasing. I care about how things look and take steps to seek out and appreciate things I like looking at (eg art, OSX) and avoid things I don't (advertising, Windows)

2. I recognise the human brain is a flawed machine and susceptible to clever manipulation, even when the person knows he is being manipulated. Thus, I avoid any contact with known-manipulative forms of messaging whereever possible - this includes most forms of advertising. I have no such aversion to, say, movie trailers (I generally love them) or local business catalogues, etc, since they are informational only and do not try to manipulate me. By the way, if you think you're immune to this manipulation, you are 1. in the vast majority of people and 2. provably wrong.

And I do dislike excessive consumerism, especially around christmastime, and credit advertising for spurring it on - but whatever, people can do what they want.

You always mentioning this "free, advertising-supported internet" but that is a simplistic view, IMO. The price of "free" is that you are expected to view, absorb, and presumably act on, commercial messaging. There is no immediate monetary charge, no, but there certainly is a cost.
I'm not a blog person, but I'll keep an eye on this one, very interesting...
Don't forget guys, the web likes free. :)
OTOH I do fully expect software to continue to bloat as developers increasingly do less with more.
I know general guidelines say that titles should not be edited usually, but in this case a hint that it is all one man's wild speculation would have been nice and I would have not have bothered to read it at all.
This couldn't be true. By embedding a web server, you imply that all mainstream routers are aware of the web server thing and can route a query to itself correctly to the desired computer. As the IPv4 thing and all the huge local network used in family (your wireless router) and enterprise, a embedding web server can hardly serve anything on the Internet unless you get router manufacturers' support.

Still, you can achieve the "web server" thing by establishing a client-server connection to the Opera central server and the Opera central server will act like a "router". That, is more like what Windows Live file sharing feature.

Opera all these years acts like a good citizen with W3C's guideline. There is no way for Opera to support two-way ajax because there is no general standard.
Rounded Corners Using XHTML CSS (No Images)
If I may speculate as well. I really hope they will open source their browser. I'm not sure how likely it is, but it would be really cool.

I hadn't heard of this before, but now my interest is peaked.
Hmmmm... This fellow's suggestion may sound far-fetched, but if you look at the source code of the page by Opera:

<!--
We start our little story with the invention of the modern day computer.
Over the years, the computers grew in numbers, and the next natural step in the evolution was to connect them together. To share things.
But as these little networks grew, some computers gained more power than the rest and called themselves servers ...
-->

I'm not sure what to make of it...
Course, could just leverage opera's built in torrent functionality - sharing amongst opera users at least. Maybe somehow interoperable with Weave? Although I think that somewhat goes against Weaves point currently, being to keep your firefox installs on various machines in sync.
Honestly it's been copypasta'd throughout /b/ for the past few weeks. And yesterday especially, it was in every thread!

It's not like /b/ is some walled garden ::)
I'm not familiar with the author, but I don't see why embedding the server would change things. Mac OS X has had one-click Apache since it was released and I would imagine OS X has a larger active install base than Opera. Of course, Opera has had a lot of innovation trickle into other browsers (tabs, thumbnails, etc.), so maybe they've solved some other issues involved with personal web hosting.

The "hard parts" would be reliable dns resolution, finding common ISP open ports, and security of all kinds.
This also happened today, with lots of /b/-style "publicity" and "planning" i.e. it was copypasta'd in every thread.
Noticed the "freedom" in the URL? Does that mean something?

The Hicksdesign tweet also says something about the convenience of having "a connection wherever you are" = Freedom?

I don't know, but here is what I think:

Opera is already serving millions of mobile users through their proxy servers. I think there is support in the upcoming version of Opera(v10) to connect to the web though the proxy server. Now they certainly would want to monetize this traffic. What would they do?
Give internet connection for free (using some USB device) and then serve ads. But how does this USB device connect to the servers? May be they have made a tie up with some telecom majors.

Of course, this is also a speculation , just as ridiculous as the OP.
Opera 10 Beta has built-in support for Opera Turbo. I think those are the proxy servers you're referring to. They speed up page loading by gzipping pages and downgrading the quality of images.

One of my friends suggested it might just be the release of Opera 10.
All computers are having enough power that each of them can become a server now?
Can Oracle give Java a boost (and monetize it better)?
Turns out free doesn't work, and neither does dirt cheap. I am amazed that people will go into an area like video games, where you are free to make a truly unique, non commoditized product, and compete on margin.
The best: daniel.tenner
If you don't have engineer-itis, you probably shouldn't come here. If I didn't, I wouldn't. The discussions that veer off of technical tracks (like politics, economics, social issues) are full of so much noise and emotional opinion that they make good stuff harder to find.
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest" --Unknown
It depends on the definition of "hack".
His opinions about the merits of python vs lisp vs clojure seem based more on rumour and the current lisp/clojure kool-aid than on hard-earned hands-on experience.
I love Lisp when coding by myself and Clojure sounds really interesting, but Python is currently rock solid and a better fit for real-world team based development. And it's fine for functional programming, contrary to the strange opinion in the article that Guido is well-known to be 'against' functional programming !?
An honest question: Is there real value in these usernames other than convenience and ease of typing? It seems unlikely to me that Facebook would allow any kind of selling of the names in the future. On top of that, your username is permanently linked to your account so unless you're using a fake account registered before their cutoff time, you're stuck with it for your real account. Is it to get more traffic to your profile from popular keywords? Somehow monetized with links? Either you lose your real profile or you were able to make a fake account.

I mean, I see value only if the username is relevant to the person choosing it but otherwise what's the point of -nanotech, -solar, etc. other than comic value?

BTW, I stuck with mdolon for my username. =P
Facebook are pretty adamant there'll never be a secondary market for usernames. They're not transferrable and if you quit Facebook, your username won't be reusable.

I see this as a move on their part to encourage real names in profiles and made-up names in usernames. The value in the Facebook ecosystem is that people are who they say they are, that's potentially much more valuable than eBay's ratings system.
Maybe something like this could be used as an anonymizing web browsing service as well. Just load web pages from what other uses have already loaded instead of leaving tracks on the original server.
Well, agree to disagree.

Advertising is there to tell me about products and services I didn't know about. I find that useful, and so do most people. Advertising (when done well) can be funny, witty, clever, artistic, etc. Sure, you get a few ugly adverts, just as with anything else.

I'm guessing it's mainly a "I haven't owned a TV for years/I hate consumerism/Anti-mainstream" type thing at work here...
Apple didn't try to kill FireWire. They didn't see the need for it on their non-pro line. The new 13-inch model is a Pro now, so it gets FireWire.
The problem with this is that it fragments the community, you now no longer read "Hack News" but instead read "Stuntgoat News" which has a readership of 1. It may have some crossover with "Almost News" but I think it would be deferent enough to remove the feeling of community that a site like this engenders which I think is one of the reasons people take the time to write long interesting comments (like yours here).
Ask HN: What web/desktop apps do you use to manage your startup?
What set of utilities and services (online or offline) do you use to manage your startup? There are obviously many possible needs, like book-keeping, private and secure sharing and backing up of files, communication between co-founders and partners, customer care and ticket handling, etc... I'm not clueless about these subjects, but I'd like to hear what the HN community recommends.
i think the router-issue is not really a blocker, and you wouldn't need to establish a connection to a main server either.

for example, any bittorrent client 'drills' holes through firewalls and routers to receive incoming connections.
Meh, AT&T sucks just as much as every other cell-phone carrier.
Go for it, it might work. I think there's a little more to creating a good site then just building and letting stuff happen. There needs to be something that binds the community and some way of keeping the focus. Otherwise it will just drift to the lowest common denominator.

I for one will definitely give it a good try though.

Love the domain by the way, definitely sounds like a site I'd like :)
Planning: Pivotal Tracker.

Finance: Kashflow.

Todos: Basecamp.

SVN: Beanstalk.

Tickets: Zendesk.

Files [internal, collaboration & sharing]: Dropbox.

Email: Google Docs.
The Kindle is still lacking the interactive zooming you can get on the iPhone. Interactive multi-touch zoom & pan is very powerful. So much so that in some contexts, it makes up for the inferior resolution, smaller size, and backlighting of the LCD screen. For references with intricate diagrams, this would be very useful. I find it makes for a great music "starter book." I just import PDFs of my tunes, and I can zoom in to the first two measures for normally readable notes of regular size.

Interactivity, period,is the key.

A screen technology fast enough to support a multi-touch coverflow, but with print-like resolution and a reflective screen. That would be it.

I have great hopes for the Pixel Qi screen.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/02/first-hands-on-with-the...
It'd be great if Evernote or Dropbox could partner with a device like the Kindle.