skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
good luck, if you love milk that much at least drink milk without hormones (labeled as no rBGH) rBGH is injected into cows to force them to overproduce milk (letting puss, bacteria, and other nasty things into the milk itself)

I love it too, dont get me wrong, I grew up with it and never knew about this. There are a lot of lies out there that no one can convince you unless you research it yourself.
Cyberwar guide for Iran elections
Yishay sez, "The road to hell is paved with the best intentions (including mine). Learn how to actually help the protesters and not the gov't in Iran."
I'll respond to you with a question: What end do you expect from the "enhancement?" Better grades, leading to a better paying job?

Those a nice goals but it's not life's be-all end-all and not worth the risks of taking those drugs in my opinion. A modest house, with a spouse and family who love you and a decent job where they respect your work and that presents challenges from time to time, doesn't sound all that exciting but can make for a long and happy life.

... sorry if that's a bit preachy.
An actual quotation from the submitted article:

"'We don't know what the larger implications are,' said Ganmaa."

Yes, we don't know yet what the larger implications are. It is interesting to note that cross-sectional epidemiological data show in general that countries where people drink a lot of milk are countries where people enjoy a long lifespan and low morbidity (low disease rates) from most causes. That's food for thought.
Yes. But I would argue that trendiness it not its essence

It's much more of a political/conscience issue - that is what the Prius appeals too (IMHO) (as well as thrift).
I'm not sure about that question.

Another improvement you could make to the code display is to display the language in which the code is written.
One of the weird things about Erlang is that, rather than being something like Ruby or Python (or Scala), that was created, and then started to see industry adoption, Erlang first was adopted by a large company, put in production, then released, and only later began to see wider adoption. The good side of this was that Erlang had a lot of resources available that most fledgling languages didn't have. The bad side is that they can't change it:

> Removing stuff turns out to be painfully difficult. It's really easy to add features to a language, but almost impossibly difficult to remove things. In the early days we would happily add things to the language and remove them if they were a bad idea. Now removing things is almost impossible.

> The main problem here is testing, we have systems with literally millions of lines of code and testing them takes a long time, so we can only make backwards compatible changes.

> Some things we added to the language were with hindsight not so brilliant. I'd happily remove macros, include files, and the way we handle records. I'd also add mechanism to allow the language itself to evolve.
It's also worth noting that casein is found in lots and lots of other foods. I know several people that have casein allergies, and it is surprising what is made with casein.
I used to have the same problems.

I feel though that taking drugs to improve matters is only covering up more crucial factors that lead to this behaviour. Are you bored of the course (my problem).

Are you at uni? or another level of education? At university I eventually realised the course is immaterial - I ignored most of my lectures and scraped through each year because of partying and socialising.I dont regret that and recommend it to everyone - do what's needed and come away with an ok degree. But dont sacrifice the MOST ipmportant part of higher ed (getting out there, meeting people, haveing a good time) just to get a slightly better grade.

I also did an electrical engineering degree (this is a bit scary :o) and found my main problem was a disappointment in the course. There was a lot of content I didnt like (power electronics) despite being on an embedded systems course. Once I addressed that the degree improved but not majorly.

I came out with a 2:1 [mostly due to a corker of a finals thesis which bumbed me up a lot] and certainly could have got a first - but not w/o a lot of work. I think the trade off was worth it threefold or more!

In my case the issues are lot better now I am in the real world working - my job is what I really enjoy doing so I can focus on it. That helps a lot. I also took time to fight my willpower issues - they aint great but I am working on it bit by bit :)

Fix any issues before you consider drugs - something is likely causing the problem (be they course related or not) and you just gotta nail that. :) good luck
I think you just need to find something interesting to do. Is getting a piece of paper saying you know EE interesting? If not, don't do it. If so, study harder.

Personally, I've found that I can go for days without doing anything useful if I am trying to avoid boring work. I feel really tired and generally run down. The way I combat this is to do something interesting, and let the momentum help me do boring things. (Video games also seem to help, a cup of coffee and an hour of Geometry Wars puts me in a great mood.)

Anyway, if I were going to go on drugs, I would do it in a structured way. Don't medicate yourself, get a doctor. Before you start taking anything, get in the habit of keeping a diary. Write down what you are thinking, how you feel, ideas you have, what you did with the day. Then, start your medication. Keep writing your in journal. If something changes, it should be easy to see. Your drugs might not make you more useful, they might just be lowering your standards. (My friends think they are much more interesting than they actually are when on certain recreational drugs.)

Finally, maybe your standards are just out of whack, and you are imagining things that aren't true. I often feel inadequate, even when I consider that I have written 100+ pieces of software that people actually use (with about 10 maintained at any given time), I've written a book, I write a moderately popular blog, I am invited to give talks around the world, and have high HN and StackOverflow karma. I think we always feel that we can do better, but that's not a medical condition, that's just ambition. You should stop to think about whether you are actually doing as badly as you think you are.
The reason we have been taught that bovine milk is good for us is because the market is too big to be ignored (or lost). We have been lied by a marketing scheme that businessmen have created just to make profits from us.

Except that people have been milking animals for thousands of years, long before the concept of marketing existed.

EDIT: I should note that I agree that modern milk production is problematic. My family purchases our milk directly from a farm (albeit licensed by the state) where we can actually see the process and know exactly what the cows are consuming.
I think the idea is to track discussions through email as threads, rather than just a long list of messages.

That said, you bring up a valid point about reinventing the wheel -- GMail does this already with conversations. So this app would need something more.

One idea off the top of my head is to enable people to participate in a discussion using an account on the site, rather than through email. Maybe also allowing people to comment on public discussions, but giving their comments a lower priority (along the lines of HN's prioritizing of comments).
Posting anonymously

I recently got a prescription for Adderall. I've had trouble with procrastination and some other behavior typically associated with adult ADHD.

On a typical day, I'll eat a big breakfast, then take a pill. About an hour later I'll get a sense of euphoria and go into the zone. The euphoria wears off after another hour or so but for the next few hours I'm able to concentrate really well on whatever I'm doing.

The most noticeable side effect for me has been loss of appetite. It's kinda creepy for me to look at my watch, realize I haven't eaten in 8 hours, and not feel hungry at all. I also notice sometimes that I'm thirsty, but don't bother getting a drink because I'm too engrossed in whatever I'm working on.

greengirl512 is right though. I still have to force myself to start working. But once I start I don't stop. It's the same for books and video games too. In a way it's like replacing ADHD with OCD.

I think it's worth trying. If you're 21 and in college it shouldn't be hard to get a pill, but I would recommend scheduling an appointment with a doctor and telling him or her what you've told us. With most health insurance, a month's prescription will cost you what a single pill would cost you from a dealer.
Do you feel like either of these are true:

1. You are currently barred by the state from doing this.

2. Your negotiating power as an individual is greater than that of the private insurance companies who are already doing this?

You can complain all you like about the cost of healthcare, but I think it's economics not legislation that is preventing you from getting a better rate.
The Dawning of Internet Censorship in Germany
If only there was a way to get POW to run PHP.JS
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=630258
Except that people never knew about the actual health benefits of drinking milk for thousands of years; long before science was not considered the truth.
There is also the issue of Google scripts on the page (ads and analytics), so it comes down to trusting Google.
Okay that makes sense then.

I honestly still thought that it was just a popup on the website...hearing that the HN community (which I consider to be one of the most 'with it' around) was using it was crushing to me.
> Or heck, try any other phone platform besides the iPhone.

Developing applications for the Android platform is an absolutely wonderful process; I can build apps in Eclipse on any platform, plug in my phone via USB, instantly upload the compiled code, and run the app with a full debugger suite in Eclipse allowing me to debug apps as they're running on the phone, with breakpoints, full listing of in-scope variables, and a list of all process threads. And I haven't even had to pay a developer fee! Imagine that...

And while I haven't personally put an app on the Market, I've heard that the Market process is really straightforward and simple. And some of the apps I've downloaded have had multiple new versions available in a single week, so it's not slow, lumbering, and full of pitfalls like the App Store process.

The coincidence is just that Apple has spent more on marketing and branding for the iPhone than other platforms, and they were the "first" to have an all-in-one smartphone device with a decent UI, but they are by no means the "best" on the market. They just spend a lot of money and resources to get everyone to think they are.
Indeed, I guess the website needs a sysadmin. The web server is down :)
Also, IME, nobody has ever asked me for my grades. Even having the piece of paper is less relevant than "real world experience" these days.

If class is boring, find some way to distinguish yourself. (If you can't do that, then you need good grades. If you can't do either, then you picked the wrong field.)
I would say all drugs have side effects and should be avoided.

If you are always procrastinating on your studies, maybe it's because you just are not very interested in what you are studying? Getting through a 3 or 4 year degree you have little interest in is a very tough task. I have seen very smart friends fail just about every CS exam they took for this very reason - they had no interest, no will power to study and ended up failing.
With the direction of broadband ISPs being going to bandwidth caps, 'hosting' on personal PCs is not something I'd be looking at getting into at this point. It's kind of like why I would choose using Vimeo or Youtube to host a video instead of my own web server, bandwidth is not going to be free. I never see this getting beyond a miniscule niche.
Are these the hormones that they are talking about? My understanding is that the problems were with hormones that also occur naturally in (organic) milk.

Growth hormones we artificially add to cows are a whole other ballgame. I am not sure why anyone would drink milk from cows that have been artificailly manipulated to increase profit margins. (Oh, but it's $1 cheaper! I get it!)
How can the grading standards of one high school possibly be linked with the grading standards of more than 10,000 other high schools around the country, many of which will be in different states with different state-regulated curricula? Why should anyone expect a grade of A from a northern Virginian high school to be at all comparable with a grade of A from rural Mississippi, for example?

The link in my previous reply (parent to your reply) is to a book about the arbitrary nature of grades in American schools. For more than a generation, researchers have known that there isn't any standard comparable from one school to the next for how grades are issued.
Just as an aside, does anyone else click on ads for great services like mibbit just to give some revenue to the site?
I think his program would be harder to implement in C than in Haskell. It's all about what you are experienced with.

(The usual pattern is "transform :: world state 1 -> world state 2". The transformer can "modify" as much of state 1 as it wants.)
My first question would be:

Do you enjoy what you're doing?

I've noticed that most people who complain about having trouble with motivation, willpower and procrastination when it comes to their job (or 'occupation' in the case of a student like yourself) actually hate what they are doing.

If you don't enjoy the things you should be spending your time on then obviously it's going to be hard to get the motivation to do them.

My first point of recourse in this situation would be to examine exactly what your motivations are behind taking this course. Is it because you love it or because your parents told you to, or because you couldn't think of anything else to do? If the answer is anything other than "Because I enjoy it" then you probably need to re-examine your decision.
Free msdn subscriptions for startups
As a software developer, you'll be fortunate to build one project that achieves critical mass in your entire life. And even then, only if you are a very, very lucky programmer: in the right place, at the right time, with the right idea, working with the right people. Most of us never get there. I don't think I will.

...which is overmodest: StackOverflow already has critical mass.
This is as dry as it gets, folks. If you can say "If only there was a way to get POW to run PHP.JS" with a straight face, there is nothing beyond your reach.
The site founder has an interest in education issues:

http://paulgraham.com/hs.html

http://paulgraham.com/wisdom.html

http://paulgraham.com/credentials.html
I've used Adderall, Concerta (Methylphenidate, like Ritalin) and Modafinal when I was in college. Adderall, which I would bum off my friend's prescription, pretty much gave me a rush of focus power and euphoria, which I usually squandered on things that weren't my schoolwork (guitar playing, wikipedia surfing and video games). I then got "diagnosed" with ADHD so I got a prescription to Concerta. Concerta was similar to Adderall, but given that it was sustained release, it lasted longer and worked differently depending on how I ate. I actually crashed really hard on it. I stopped using that after a while and just relied heavily on caffeine, along with learning methods to focus naturally.

Modafinal is an interesting drug. It just makes you feel awake and alert, without feeling like you are tweaked. It saved me when I pulled all nighters. Stayed awake for 3 nights once during finals and it was one of the strangest and most uncomfortable trips I've ever been on - but that's a digression I should save for Erowid.org.

That being said, if you rely on "cognitive enhancers" (I hate the euphemism, more like "speed") now, you may have to rely on them for everything in the future. They don't cure your symptoms, they just mask them. The thing is, focus should come about naturally because you have a passion for something. I believe that you would feel the most success from developing the ability to focus on your own. Did you try exercise? Meditation? Are you simply overloading yourself with too many courses? Are you in the right degree program? Such activities and considerations, though a greater time investment with more room for failure, are healthy ways to get your brain "in the zone" and prepare yourself for future cognitive demands in life.

Or, you can depend on drugs. It's really your choice.

People with "ADHD" have a broad range of symptoms that are conveniently lumped together and treated with various drugs on a trial and error basis. The science of psychology is still greatly in it's infancy. We still have a lot to learn about symptoms such as the inability to focus, hyperactivity, impulsivity and the like. It is highly probable that there is an underlying cause to any or all of these symptoms, one that has been fostered as we were growing up. The whole "chemical imbalance" theory really irks me - there is probably an environmental reason to most of the "chemical imbalances" that we read about, hear about or experience.

Another thing to try is getting a really good therapist (hard to come by) and talking these things out - figuring out on your own. In either case, good luck to you.
Native code makes a comeback - except it never went away
> With kids at least: it is paradoxical how "hyper" kids are calmed by the use of stimulants - unlike the effects of stimulants on the rest of us.

I doubt it's that simple. ADHD isn't one disease. It's a lot of things lumped together under one name.
I also disagree. I bought a MacBook Pro for many reasons, none of which was advertising. I do value my time and will therefore spend $$$ before I spend hours configuring some freeware, piece-of-crap application. I don't think I'm alone in the Mac crowd in this regard either.
My own anecdote: while living in the USA, I grew nearly 1 inch, at age 25. I was having cereal with regular milk for breakfast every day for about 6 months.
Isn't that fraud? (unless you buy something)
How to use Social Capital to Market Your Web App
Notable quote:

That's one option: to admit that functional programming is the wrong paradigm for some types of problems. Fair enough. I'd put money on that. But it also may be that almost no one has been thinking about problems like this, that functional programming attracts purists and enamored students.

The language features that help with the problems small programs have are intrinsically easier to show off than those that help manage larger systems. Beyond a certain point, I don't care how easy something makes a program that will never grow beyond a page, though. (If that isn't easy, your language has serious problems!) I'm more interested in how these techniques / paradigms break down, not how well they work on examples chosen for them. You can't always choose your problems.

(And yes, one of the main things I've learned from Unix is that it's usually better to break large systems into a team of smaller components, but that's neither here nor there. Also, informed use of multiple paradigms is likely the best long-term approach, but that's not a position that necessarily translates well into sound-bytes.)

Of course, it's easier to hype languages that let you do short parlor tricks, particularly on web forums.

Also, he has a followup posted here: http://prog21.dadgum.com/4.html
I'll never understand why you have to own a mac in order to develop iPhone apps, then shell out another $99 just to use the SDK. This means that after purchasing their already expensive phone, I need to shell out close to $1,000 just for the privilege of writing apps. I'm in the market for a new phone right now, and I was really strongly considering an iPhone until I realized that those were the restrictions for writing apps. I'm currently thinking of getting an Android phone, but in Canada, the HTC-rebranded android phones have been heavily modified by HTC... what could possibly go wrong!!
> Opera is last in browser market share.

Only if you stop the list as soon as you get to Opera
Not every piece of data is a file. For instance, is talking to your friends on Facebook a file? I suppose you could view it as a "you talking = writing, friend talking = reading" type thing, but that's stretching it a bit.

There are other examples that have nothing to do with file sharing, like GPS, Google Maps, and pizza delivery.
I think his modesty is well placed. SO has critcal mass within the technical community, but not with the average user
Ask HN: Sales Letters
At the recommendation of a fellow HN reader, I've been reading the book "The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy.

In short, the book is a good guide on writing the sales letters most often seen in direct mail, but now frequently seen on some landing pages as well, particularly for products such as ebooks.

Based on other comments people have made here, I have no doubt that letters written like this -- long, 4-6 pages, written in a folksy, kitschy way -- are effective for many target customers out there.

My question is as follows: has anyone used this format for something besides a kitschy mass consumer product? In other words, does such a writing style work for more sophisticated buyers, such as execs or tech savvy people? The book suggests sending such letters to executives but I cannot imagine responding well to such a letter were I to receive it at my office.

What are your experiences with sales letters? Who does it work well for, and who doesn't it work well for? What changes have you made to the basic method to increase efficacy?
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wont let me reply...

umm if economics are preventing me from getting a better deal why isn't healthcare equally expensive in other countries?

the government regulates who can get a medical license, an artificially low supply of doctors is generated.

the government regulates who can provide insurance and guidelines for what sorts of coverages are acceptable preventing competition.

the government regulates doctor's malpractice insurance, preventing me from entering into contracts where I waive my right to sue.

read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Competition-Second-Holding-Hea...
We've recently submitted an app to the iTunes store and Apple has been nothing but forthcoming and helpful. The review process took the expected 7 days, at which point we got a personal call from an Apple representative who let us know that they weren't going to be able to take the software as-is (the name was too weird). He then offered to bump the app to the top of the queue once we'd made the necessary revisions.

Not trying to negate the negative experiences of other developers, but I do think a lot of this is a case of an understandably pissed-off minority.
If nothing else, Adderall can mess with your sleep cycle and your emotions if you don't have ADHD and you use it consistently. That's why, if you're taking it for performance enhancement as opposed to actually using it to treat a medical condition, I don't think it's a good idea to take it all the time. And of course, the potential cardiac side effects can be pretty nasty.
"Stimulants" refers to what a drug does to your heart and respiratory system - not necessarily what it does to your brain. I think that's a common misconception. Pilots in the US Airforce, for example, have at one point (if not still) taken stimulants such as Adderall to remain awake, alert, calm and focused for long and taxing flights. I'm pretty sure that most of them didn't have "ADHD"