skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You're absolutely right. I just couldn't resist making a very vague reference to the old joke of using machine guns against people armed with kiwis.
The TED Augmented Reality Hoax
"Examining the fortuitous circumstances that separate the haves and have nots is a scary endeavor. Why do we have the jobs and cars and apartments? Are we smarter? Maybe more educated, but not smarter. Harder working? Not a chance. Do we possess some specialized skill absent among the droves of desperate job seekers? Probably nothing that couldn't be learned within a couple weeks."

I think the appropriate cliche to insert here is "[citation needed]."

In fact, I'd take the entire article and flip it around on the author -- is the reason he needs to assert that it's mere circumstance that separates the homeless from the middle class that it's uncomfortable for him to confront the reality that many are not capable of living "normal" lives?

That's unfounded and it's unfair to pop-psychoanalyze a stranger, but it's exactly the same exercise he's engaging in. Not really insightful or relevant.
Farmers Slaughtering Dairy Cows Rather Than Lose Money Producing Milk
Considering that tesla is valued at 1BB (http://bit.ly/14WPOY) and has had 701MM in funding (http://bit.ly/2lv8So) I would say the onus is on you as the refuter to show data that they will be "profitable in months."

While renewable energy cars is something we all hope will eventually succeed, I'm not sure how sound it is to throw a bunch of money at Elon Musk.
I can tell you its not anything new, and it's been around at Apple for a while now. It's in use right now on several live Apple properties. When and if it will be released in any usable form has yet to be made clear though.
I wonder why gay right activists ignore Turing's story for a long time.

That is fortunate. I wouldn't like Turing to become another archetypal wicked scientist in tv shows puppetry inventory. Compulsive schizophrenic Nash seducing boys, autistic Newton, insane Cantor crawling on the floor whispering "infinty, infinty" are enough for me already.
Thanks for the share. I found a few pictures of them, but none of them were very clear, and I decided to put only a picture of the Zenith Minisport itself.

But it definitely is interesting to see those tiny two inch floppies.

The Zenith Minisport actually sounds like a pretty fascinating computer. It's too bad that it wasn't ever that popular.
The probability that a fair election would produce [these number distribution disparities] is less than .005.

How did they calculate this probability. I can see what they did in other spots, but this number seems to come out of nowhere to me.
One of the stories I remember being told by a farmer that lived through the depression was that the farmers were dumping milk into the streets rather than selling it and further depressing prices. Slaughtering milk cows is an even more permanent 'solution.'

Seems like the ground hog just popped up and saw his shadow and is headed back for a longer rest.
What the Tesla founders' feud can teach entrepreneurs
It's also not easy as someone business-minded with technical skills to cope with the hordes of business-idea-no-technical-skill MBA-clones trying to poach you to spend all your time on their project, not yours, for very little gain.

I'm guessing I'm not alone in being tired of the whole "Oh, you can code? I have an idea for this site.." thing. Gotta pitch it right to people overwhelmed with that sort of thing. If you really just want a few words of feedback so you can go out there and find a techie to work with knowing it's technically viable, that's great, but that's not necessarily what I'm picking up from you here.
This is incredibly naive. If you think all of 280 Slides is two toolbars and a dozen or so icons, then you have missed the point. Even the point you are trying to make is invalid, because this is perhaps 2% of the layout involved in 280 Slides completely ignoring all the interaction.
How to Jailbreak your iPhone to OS 3.0
I actually used a Compaq portable in the summer of 1984. I had a summer job at a place that had one. It was kind of mind bending to have a reasonably powerful computer that you could carry around. "Carry" had not previously been a verb one associated with computers, any more than one does now with, say, desks.
depends on your definition of "decent money", as well as a lot of other factors.

the short answer, though, is however much traffic it takes for you to convince someone to pay you what you want.
Hi - The interface is not very intuitive. I can say that with some authority as I'm the guy behind this. The idea was to get it out and see how people use it.

And so far I'm seeing that many people are getting confused by the correct file format and how to annotate predictions. But given that so many people are giving it a go, I'll spend some time cleaning it up and making it more user friendly.

Thanks for all of your interest.

Josh
I've never said that these topics aren't interesting - my point is that they are poisonous: they are more likely to set off flame wars, because people are pretty set in their opinions, and that they're likely to attract people who are not hackers yet who are interested in politics/economics/etc... This last point is especially important.

Also, in this case, I was really just making a direct observation of the conversation... it's pretty much all off on a tangent, and is very much 'politics'.
You can't prove anything, but can make probability arguments.

This is all academic. Even the Guardian Council has admitted that there were more voters in 50 areas than eligible to vote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23iran.ht...

Also note: "But many districts where the excess votes were recorded are small, remote places rarely visited by business travelers or tourists, analysts said"

And so on, problem after problem.

I dare say, the next election there will be "handled" better... :-)
Do you have a copy of the response?
Wouldn't it be nice if the need for a centralized, advertising-driven web business were removed from our social graph(s)? It would not take much for a distributed, node based plugin system to house personal sites and friends lists etc. Then we wouldn't feel so constrained by one monolithic corporation that inherently is going to have pressures concerning business revenue, government influence, executive dynasty, et al. My guess is long term we will take ownership of ourselves back.
CIA dumps some cash into Apache's Lucene and Solr search projects
Some interesting news that’s been making circulation throughout the blogosphere lately is the recent investment by In-Q-Tel (the technology arm of the CIA) into Lucid Imagination (an open source firm that provides support for Apache Lucene and Solr search technologies).
Misleading benchmarks
Where do you stop?

Obviously what happened to Turing was wrong. But is it better to concentrate on improving things for the future rather than endlessly looking back at the past?
Arduino Laser Controlled Wireless Cat Food Dispenser
Explicit up/down voting is a bad idea. You should remove that and concentrate on implicit behavior acquisition.
Good point. My concern here is that when people work with spreadsheets they tend to violate they layout principles that I'd prefer data to adhere to. Maybe a better option would be to create a google docs plugin that lets people clean up their spreadsheets - interactively pointing out where cleaning needs to be done.
"Not profitable yet" does not necessarily imply "doing it wrong", but you're right, it is easier to ignore that fact, make a cheap snarky comment, and then act self-righteous because you know the definition of the word 'unprofitable'.
Ask HN: Twitter account compromised, no response from Twitter...what to do?
About a week ago, through some stupid moves on my part, one of our Twitter accounts was seized by an unauthorized 3rd party, who is now holding it for ransom. I've emailed Twitter support multiple times, posted on Get Satisfaction, but haven't heard anything back. Does anyone have any advice or know anyone at Twitter HQ that might be able to help? If so, they can email me at my first name on mightybrand.com
Yeah I understand that. What I'm asking is if anyone has any experience with ad sales and could share their insight into it.
I don't think the argument is that "you're bad anyway". Regardless of who you are, how you got into that situation and whether the protesters have a point, with a protest movement that big and motivated your options are same: crush the protests, re-run the election or form a unity government. If you choose to crush the protest then you give up the "government by consent of the people" type contract that you have with society. I think it's that fact that will drive western opinion more than the actual legitimacy of the result.
It's a work in progress.

A voting system is extremely effective in preventing trolling here but only because PG put time into instilling the principles he wanted in the community through constant repetition, like training a dog. That required a lot of time on his part initially. Now imagine multiplying that by, say, 30 small sites that you are administering. So, I think it's not that the problem has been solved. PG may need to step in from time to time if the community 'forgets' the principles he started it with - such as when there is a big influx of new users.
Wow, that was fast! :)
man 1 join
see also
http://www.strozzi.it/cgi-bin/CSA/tw7/I/en_US/nosql/Home%20P...
FTC Is Ready to Pounce on Dishonest Bloggers
Brill's "Verified Identity" startup targeting TSA lines goes out of business
Wow, thanks. Hearing something so upbeat, positive, and motivated just makes me want to buck up and finally deal with all the things I need to deal with which prevent me from being satisfied.
Hello!

I agree that there's a lot of stuff we can do without requiring users to give us specific feedback. And we're doing some of it, and we probably will do a lot more in the future.

But when I'm looking at a news site, I often find myself thinking "this is good" or "I am not interested in this", and Newsbrane allows me to express that preference. It's not the only way we get data into the recommendation engine, but it's an important way.

Why do you say it is a bad idea?
Yea, the typical programming 101 method to initialize a random number generator is to seed it with the current unixtime, so if both of these machines were using the same random number generator (the clocks didn't even have to be in-sync with each other), it's easy to assume that these two machines generated the same random number on the same second.
Since i'm employed by Netmon (netmon.ca), I tend to drink my own kool-aid and use it most. That being said, since most of the products mentioned above are free, i'm assuming price is a big concern, so I would recommend looking for the simplest product to meet your needs. There really aren't any standards in this industry in terms of how to present monitoring data to users in a predictable way, and some solutions are abysmally complex, while others are simple but barely show you any important data.

I kind of like the nagios/zenoss relationship model, where nagios provides a great open-source platform for monitoring and analysis, and zenoss provides a clear emphasis on simplicity, presentation and automation on top of that platform. I think you should check those out, and i'm interested to see how that relationship and that business model develops in the future as well.

If you do have a budget for your monitoring solution though, there are some pretty cool solutions out there, but i'm obviously biased, so i'll refrain from going on a long diatribe about it.
Just out of curiosity, what technology is "your technology"? It sounds like you find enough work in it; so now you've got me curious.
Qik For Android Alpha leaks, Immediately Hits The Market
How to Stay Marketable When You’re Out of Work
Why Microsoft Had to Destroy Word
"I think the fact that a lot of people feel driven to take their time to write about a tool is much more indicative that it is an incredibly helpful tool, not that it is difficult to use. If you used some tool and it was really hard and barely got the job done, would you feel passionate enough to write a post or tutorial on it? Does horrible usability drive passionate proselytizing? No."

But there are things about git that are non-obvious, and tricky if you've been accustomed to cvs, svn, or even hg.

It's sort of like learning OOP after years of BASIC. Once you get going, you may wonder what was so hard about it, but getting a proper mindset can be difficult.
yes, but could you expand on the 'etc' ?
And it's more true than the reverse is...
you'll very likely be able to find success at $1 CPM or an equivalent. depending on the site, you could bump that up pretty far, but its a good starting point to test the waters.
The Coming AI War
This is an emotional screed accusing people who think there may be a limit to what welfare is actually called for of being "uncaring". An essay knocking over a straw man isn't worth HN's time. Flagged.
I've posted a pdf version of this presentation online :-)

http://www.ikbenbitterzoet.com/mod_parrot.pdf
You won't get actual users by having TC write about how "you're a cool website." That's not what you want. Why? Because there's no real value there. The real value is to be found in stories where The Windy Citizen's name is attached. Let me explain. If I was someone interested in Chicago news and was reading a blog post or an article in the newspaper and read "Windycitizen.com broke the story about the government scandal," I would either consciously or subconsciously realize that Windycitizen.com is something of value. They broke the story that I read. The traffic you'll get from this sort of marketing will be slower and more gradual, sure, but it'll be REAL traffic, not a traffic spike from TC because they said you were cool. Also, a site like Digg got its initial traffic because of Kevin Rose's celebrity. You don't have that, so don't look at Digg, if you are, as a metric since you two seem to be user generated social news sites.

As to actual marketing tactics, you need to create a story. Support a cause that stirs up lots of emotions. 'Support Protest Against Blah - Upvote!' Be known as the site that rallied individuals for a specific cause. If you can generate enough buzz about that, local blogs and even national outlets will write about you, not as a cool site, but as the site that helped facilitate a specific situation. Create a specific story.

Also, I'm not quite sure why you're after press from TC, or national/global press in general. It would seem that the traffic you'd get from them would be of no worth as someone like me in southern California wouldn't be at all interested in Chicago news.
It will be interesting, a few years down the line, to compare what Tesla does with its $465m compared to what GM does with its billions. Obviously not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it might illustrate the cost of the inherent friction in massively bureaucratic companies.

Regarding Tesla's profitability, it's EBITDA profitability, and in the words of Warren Buffet:

"References to ebitda make us shudder-does management think the tooth fairy pays for capital expenditures?"

Certainly this is an important milestone for Tesla. It means that they're getting a handle on their supply chain, but this doesn't make them anything close to a stable company. They still have to get to a point where their cars aren't just profitable, but profitable enough to pay for the factories they're built in. Hopefully this latest influx of cash will be enough to get them there.
http://280slides.com/Viewer/?user=22428&name=mod_parrot&...
When you say have it implemented, it almost sounds like you're looking for a 'hacker' you respect to enjoy your idea so much that they'll build it for you. That would turn off anyone.

I think what the parent commenter meant by showing your work is to have either a list of related projects you've finished and details on how they relate or all the material you've gathered so far and a very specific question regarding your current stumbling block.

If you approach a guru (or anyone, for that matter) with a question that would only take five minutes to google, of course you'll get the shaft. On technical issues, everyone is guilty of ignorance until proven innocent, and willful ignorance is not lightly tolerated.

Lots of folks just aren't looking for mentorship opportunities, too. I'd say scan the list of current and previous mentors for something like Google's "summer of code" and use it as a jumping off point for contacts that have a track record of providing mentoring to aspirant hackers.
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/u2/
"madly following the buzz words/process without understanding how it is supposed to work"

This sounds like a form of cargo cult software development management.

On a more general level this sounds like a common, if insidious, human trait: merely emulating the outward signs of successful persons or groups in an attempt to recreate or capture that success for oneself.
I don't think i really understand the article. Why is he blasting the lady for helping out at a Soup Kitchen and having a nervous habit? I don't see how her saying, "Y'all hungry tonight?" would be any different than say, playing with her hair or biting her nails. She was obviously out of her element while trying to help out. Instead of ranting about her on the intertubes, why not try to help her feel more comfortable? That way she may feel more inclined to help out again.
Generation Y: We're just not that into Twitter
I saw this too and was wondering what was new in the talk. It looks like he downloaded the source, swapped in a TED logo, and took credit. After it came out that the talk about training crows was faked too, TED is looking pretty bad IMHO.
I submitted this with the title that Forbes has: "The Coming Artilect War" - why was it changed to "The Coming AI War?"
GM will use it's billions to come out with the Volt with production in hundreds of thousands. A car for the public that has the best of both worlds, Electric for short range trips, with gas as backup for when you run out of charge.

Tesla will use it's millions to come out with the Model S, with production of 1-2000 units a year. A car for the more luxurious segment, that's electric only, that'll leave you stranded if you forget to recharge the battery.
Wow. Despite their being devastatingly anti-consumer, I must admit that some of the ASCAP arguments, though rebutted by precedence, are very clever. They must have a seriously twisted legal counsel to make some of those allegations.
Twitter RSS Links - feeds from your friends tweets that contains HTTP links
I'm 100% in agreement with you here.

Mac OS X's Keychain Access has "show this password", and iPhone does masking but still shows you the last character you just typed for about a second.

I think these are both good compromises.
Instead of waiting on Musk to provide evidence to backup his statement, you're seriously putting the burden on kirse to prove that Musk is lying...? That's a weird path to take. The fact is Tesla isn't profitable yet, and although Musk says they will be in the coming months, that talk doesn't mean anything until the reports are released showing profitability.
Iraq - it's so much more cost effective to off-shore your youth killing requirements
Summary: ASCAP wants "public performance royalties" for musical tones.

Anyone use a rather standard ringer, like myself?
Intel and Nokia form “long-term relationship” to develop Intel-based mobiles
Ah. Something borked on that sample output. Here is a better sample of the output: http://predict.i2pi.com/zK7tuI9Q
Some call it a walled garden; some call it privacy settings. I hear the "walled garden" criticism all the time, but I've never really understood it. What would make Facebook not a walled garden to you, while still giving users control of what information they want to share with which people?
Sometimes you need to explain why. If everyone naturally realized they were being yanked about by their emotions and having that used to bypass their rationality, nobody would ever use that technique. This is especially true if you happen to agree with the point being emotionally made. But sometimes when it is pointed out, it is easy to see that you are being manipulated after the fact. It's easy to see why spam should be removed; seeing why this article should be removed is harder.
The speculation in that article is so laboured, I'm surprised it made it into a popular magazine.

Considering that brain-computer interfaces have been in development since the 1970s and have only made it to an extremely coarse, infection-prone vision replacement, it seems unlikely his "cyborgist" party could be a significant force.

That leaves the war between "terrans" and "cosmists;" or "luddites" and "singularitarians." But unlike the luddites of yore, these needn't have easily available industrial targets. The Butlerian Jihad would need to be severe, indeed, to keep isolated research teams or even wealthy hobbyists from constructing a self-improving machine intelligence, once Moore's Law has taken the hardware obstacles out of the way.

That probably wouldn't be an optimal outcome, but I don't see any way to avert eventual AI other than an energy collapse or other catastrophe halting the advance of technology in general.
Amazon: A Search Engine With A Warehouse
Record biz tries suing Irish ISPs into submission
I have written a few articles in the web about programming topics and have published a few pages of source code too. Some of these articles are in the top results of Google for the right keywords. Now the problem is that I get emails asking about these topics, and I am surprised at the un-professional questions I have received from most of these people. I don't want to sound like a veteran-know-it-all-programming-guru who is whining about the stupid people who are asking his help. I am sincerely not. I am just another programmer who feels that people need to know how to ask for help.

Here are some types of questions I get:

Can you please send me the codes for XXXX?

- I put up the code in the website. That is where you are coming from. Take it from there. I really don't understand what exactly you want.

Can you please help me implement XXXX for PEP platform?

- I have no idea what PEP means. I implemented XXXX in C/C++. That is all I know, and that is all I can.

Can you help me do XXXX taking input from a file?

- I have given implementation for XXXX. Just open the file and give the input to the function!

Your code is a very complicated. Can I use the following code [code attached]

- The code you have given is plain wrong and it does not work. You may want to read some more on the topic, just to get the basics covered.

Then the guy responds again: OK. Can you tell me something about graphics in C?

- What? How is it related?! I am sorry. You can use these articles to learn more about that.

(Those are not the exact replies I sent. I am not that rude!)

I get at least one email per day asking for help about these things, and I am not claiming that all are of the emails are like these. But most are, and these people make life worse for everyone.

If it is a real a question about something specific that I can answer, I do take time to respond to that, even if I have to work a few extra hours for that. I think that people will help you if they think that you really are putting in the effort. They will help you if they think that you will do a lot better if they help you a little. But sometimes people ask silly things and they write stuff like "Sir, it is very urgent" or "I have to submit project soon" etc. They basically sound like you have to do the whole project for them. Obviously you cannot do that.

Of course all this is not an excuse for being rude though.
Linux Kernel Log : Winding down the IDE subsystem, LinuxTag Kernel presentations
Absent Jobs, Cook Emerges as Key to Apple's Core
I wish I did, but afraid not.
Flags are supposed to make the article go away. You end up with a dead thread with your comment, which is just noise.