skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Sigh. Here we go, a definition of the real numbers. I'm only doing this once.

Let's look at the set of all cauchy sequences of rational numbers. A sequence of rational numbers is just a map N->Q. We write a_0, a_1, a_2, ... for the sequence which maps 0|->a_0, 1|->a_1, 2|->a_2, ... Such a sequence is called "cauchy" if it has the property that:

For all epsilon > 0 there exists an N such that n,m > N => |a_n-a_m|<epsilon.

Basically, this means that the tail of the sequence bunches together.

Now, we define an equivalence relation ~ on the space of cauchy sequences. We say:

a_0, a_1, a_2... ~ b_0, b_1, b_2... if:
a_0-b_0, a_1-b_1 ,a_2-b_2... converges to zero

(A sequence a_0,a_1,... converges to zero if, for every epsilon > 0, there exists N such that n>N => a_n < epsilon.)

Now, the real numbers are the set of equivalence classes of rational cauchy sequences under ~, as defined above.

Clearly, .999... is (the equivalence class of):

0.9, 0.99, 0.999, ...

And 1 is the equivalence class of:

1, 1, 1, ...

So are these the same? Well, we have to check if our representatives are equivalent. Does this sequence converge to 0?

1-0.9, 1-0.99, 1-0.999, ...

Yes, it does. So 1 = .999...
Don't forget that there are a few "highest purposes." In no particular order:

kids
providing well for your kids
healthy relationship with your (future?) spouse
successful startup, etc

Have you discussed with your girlfriend that your startup is not entirely for you?

If you feel like you could live the rest of your life with her, then your startup is very much for her, your children, and your families in the long run.

This isn't meant to answer your question, just to provide more food for thought.
FORTH programming language, like C, might be a good choice. The downside is that not many programmers use this language. And that's unfortunate.
I like the idea, although honestly not that useful for me given that the exits I care about I already know.

You've got a decent start on an offline subway map though -- I'd pay for a good one of those.
Unfortunately, under typical corporate practices, even whether something is a "bug" or not is sometimes soft.
This downmodding is not making me any less cranky. (grin)
there are plenty of fish in the sea
Works well. Better than Illustrator's trace feature, at least for the subject I was using. You only get 2 conversions before you have to pay, though.
I find the whole idea quite amusing... Reminds me a little of the demo scene back in the day. I put this together with that in mind, simple but I wanted to keep the code neat (JavaScript):

EDIT: Realized I should add an online preview, the animation starts 6 seconds after the page loads... http://aarongough.com/hello_world.html

function floatPixel ( pixelFilled, pixelSize )
{
this.render = function ()
{
if( thisObj.pixelFilled ) thisObj.pixel.style.background = "black";
if( !thisObj.pixelFilled ) thisObj.pixel.style.background = "white";
}

this.animate = function()
{
thisObj.pixelFilled = true;
thisObj.render();
}

var thisObj = this;
this.pixelFilled = pixelFilled;
this.pixelSize = pixelSize;
this.pixel = document.createElement("div");
this.pixel.style.height = this.pixelSize + "px";
this.pixel.style.width = this.pixelSize + "px";
this.pixel.style.cssFloat = "left";

this.render();

this.timer = setTimeout( this.animate, Math.floor( Math.random() * 15000 + 6000 ));

document.getElementById("pixel_container").appendChild( this.pixel );
}

document.body.style.background = "black";
document.body.style.textAlign = "center";

var pixelContainer = document.createElement("div");
pixelContainer.id = "pixel_container";
pixelContainer.style.height = "50px";
pixelContainer.style.width = "900px";
pixelContainer.style.margin = "200px auto";
pixelContainer.style.position = "relative";
document.body.appendChild( pixelContainer );

var pixelData = "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001000100011111000100000001000000011111000000100010001111100011110000100000001110000010000000000000000100010001000000010000000100000001000100000010001000100010001000100010000000100100001000000000000000011111000111110001000000010000000100010000001000100010001000111100001000000010001000100000000000000001000100010000000100000001000000010001000000101010001000100010001000100000001001000000000000000000000100010001111100011111000111110001111100000011011000111110001000100011111000111000001000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000";

for( x = 0; x < pixelData.length; x++ )
{
new floatPixel( parseInt(pixelData.slice(x, x + 1)), 9 );
}
The towers are, by design, nowhere close to any of the key positions. No one close enough to be teleported into the towers (the power has a range limit) is in any way threatening the nominal goals of the zone.

I'm not sure why they didn't ban him, honestly. I had gathered that this type of sociopathy was considered griefing by the developers and grounds for temporary or permanent bans.
Something like this?

- Regular expression searching on compressed text, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=967612
Any hints on #30?
Got it. "Advertising" problem, not an actual problem then.
Note that HTTP content-encoding does not compress headers, so gzip compression will have no effect on responses with status 304 (or on request headers).

Your other points are good ones, which is why I said that bundling beats pipelining in some ways. Obviously you should measure your real-world use cases and performance before deciding.
You already have all the info and answers you need, you're just looking for support so you don't feel as much responsibility making a decision. You're the one working on the startup and only you know what it means to you. You are the one in your relationship and only you know what that means to you. If you are willing to lose the relationship in order to dedicate more time to the startup, than there's your decision. If you want to keep the relationship, then you need to talk to you girlfriend and figure out exactly what she needs, because that will be necessary in order to make the relationship successful. If you work something out, great. If not, then go with what you know even if it's difficult. We can't tell you what the right answer is, because there is no right answer. There are only answers that you are willing to accept and live with.

Yes, it's a tough decision. I am in the same boat. I just recently (LAST WEEK) moved to a new state in order to be with my girlfriend. I now must work with my startup co-founders remotely and deal with the disadvantages that come with working remotely. But the fact of the matter is, my relationship is important enough to me that I was willing to make certain sacrifices in order to make it successful. But being that I still want the startup to work, I'm also willing to go above and beyond what I was doing before to make up for the long distance disadvantages. It doesn't have to be black or white, relationships are about compromise. As long as you are both open and getting what you want most, then you should be able to work through the other stuff.

And just so you know, a startup isn't necessarily the best way to achieve financial success. They are risky and rarely work out. They take lots of time and often there is little payout until well down the line, if any.

And in a startup, success is not dictated by the number of hours you put in. It's all about efficiency of time and execution. Even someone with the best idea who works ridiculous hours is not guaranteed success if they can't work efficiently and execute effectively. Working on these 2 things could help you with both areas of your life, become successful more quickly and give you more time to hang with your girl. Give those a try.

FYI, it looks like you could use English lessons too...not that you need anymore on your plate :)
Is your question "How do you create an index that allows regexes?"

In that case, I'd like to know the answer to the question, as well.
The answer isn't intuitive in any language other than the language of math

Sorry for I might have not expressed myself clearly. "There is no number you can name between these numbers shown in this notation" is in English and appeals to intuition, it does not show that there is indeed no such number. Food for thought: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/05/you_cant_write_that...

You have to trust it and you have to trust your teachers.

No. Mathematics is a virtue of explanation (i.e. proving). No trust involved.
Something like this would also work for airports.
Technorati To Unveil Twitterati Tomorrow
AFAIK, Google Code Search was written by Russ Cox, who also wrote this: http://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp1.html

My guess, back when I was doing code search at Apple, was that he was actually scanning all the docs with his fast regexp, which would be do-able with the number of machines at his disposal + the expected traffic.

If anyone knows any differently, I'm all ears. :)
There are people who need lectures? I found out around grade 9 that all a lecture is, is the teacher reading out loud what's in a book,

I do not know what needs to be changed... actually I do. During this final year of Criminal Law, the "lectures" were not lectures, it was a sort of discussion about principles, scenarios, questions. I quite loved it, I was however puzzled that some people felt threatened by this "change" and outspokenly opposed it. They felt scared that they would not have traditional lectures, someone with a powerpoint saying what is already in the book. Seriously, these people should not be in uni.

My tort lectures were also interesting as the lecturer is a solicitor and had just started lecturing so he would give real world examples and less of traditional rehashing.

Compare this with psychology. The lectures were in a massive lecture theatre, about 100 to 200 people in. I asked a question once, are psychopaths born or made, the lecturer could not hear it, so I had to repeat myself 15 times, until the whole students in the lecture room started repeating it with me. Having this kind of experience puts you well off because you are supposed to make the question and move the spot light back to the lecturer straight away, not have all eyes on yourself and hold the room for long.

At least that was an event, something to remember and the lecturer appreciated my question, the rest of the year however was a rehashing of the book chapters in a powerpoint with a dummy and high tech "stick". To be honest, if I want the content in audio, I'll just read it out loud myself.

Those people who need lectures should not be in university, this will allow universities to have the resources to actually teach through inquisitive inquiry, not make their students sit there listening to what you already just read for two hours, which starts to become torture after 30 mins.

I find it idiotic - to use the Greek word - that although the method of teaching in Oxbridge is considered to be the best, the other universities do not copy them. Neither of those two universities has lectures, the theme is rather tutoring, which is afterall why one would go to university, to challenge his intellect, not to have some person say aloud what you just read.
still doesn't work for me. I get the first paragraph and that's it.
Pandora was nice, I've moved on to other services I listen to thesixtyone most of the time because a large amount of it is generally good music and if not I skip it, for more mainstream I can find songs on grooveshark (don't know if that will get shut down or not).

If I was ever going to pay for a radio like service it would have to be something like di.fm where pandora has variety and choice di.fm still has had enough quality that variety didn't matter to me.
Poll:  What other US cities for a YC like program?
I know some may feel YC like programs aren't a regional business. In essence, they're not, but that doesn't mean there aren't large entrepreneur communities that could use something like YC in their city.

I only made it US cities, because that's probably a good place to start. Europe could be a poll of its own and maybe someone else should do that in a day or so. Tons of opportunity there

PS- if a choice isn't on there that shouldnt be, just leave a comment and i'll add it.
Miami
New York City Area
Another Silicon Valley option
Another Boston option
Is this any better than POTrace(http://potrace.sourceforge.net/)?
This is still on right?
I've always wanted to know that.
The cost of that algorithm still grows linearly with respect to the length of the compressed text. It's possible Google is doing something like this (searching over the entire corpus until they find a match), but is there any work on precomputing an actual "index" to speed up this type of search?
The entrepreneur’s currency
Don't you think the term "hacker" is overused today too? It seems like everybody and their mother is always "hacking" something.
> when network speed is not an issue, we should be able to
> send the whole web app (or page) in one packet

it is not the case that a faster network implies larger packets
I had tried using SBCL to generate excutables before myself, using SDL as an external lib. Worked, but they were ENORMOUS (20mb). Not sure what I did wrong.
That's the argument funds use to justify their fee structure to their LPs.

In most cases, the LPs do worse than anticipated specifically b/c of the '2 and 20' fees.

As Harry Kat said in the New Yorker article:

"They are charging more than they are adding. I'm not saying they don't have skill; I’m just saying they don't have enough skill to make up for two and twenty."
The Trouble with Theories and Plans
Quirky but (mostly) useful software development rules
MTA.info offers a downloadable PDF. Also, if I recall correctly from my jailbroken iPhone days there was a very good offline NYC Subway Maps app.
That's just nice… I've had the same strategy, and obviously I know the station exits of my commute perfectly… :)

But it makes it all the more annoying to go to some station I don't know, so I think it's just awesome!

But as it is right now, I won't buy it. Simply because I'm talking about the Parisian metro… So tell me, do you plan on supporting more subway systems in the future? How do you plan to gather the data? Tell me if I can be of any help.
Working for a digital advertising agency, I've seen both sides of the coin. On the one hand, you experience a little disdain for ads. If you don't start off by analyzing them (what are they trying to accomplish? who is the audience? why is this relevant?) you generally ignore them with a pinch of disgust.

JacobAldridge, you nailed it in terms of the industry shifting towards a "give" approach, and as long as personalized ads aren't perceived as evasive by consumers, they will become much more potent and beneficial for both parties.

As for Mankhool's comment about the big corporate brands most are very familiar with, I think this idea is worth a shot: drop all current advertising and use the money towards donating public art. Paired with a great PR team, public art by Coca-Cola could make for a very broad and positive impression.
I agree; LPs have the power to change the model.
I disagree. If French lessons are important to him, why should he give them up? It sounds like one of the few things he does for himself (outside of work) and it may provide a good outlet for him to page out his work and focus on something completely different.

One possibility is to set aside time explicitly, as he's doing for his class. Going out on an actual date once or twice a week may make up for the heads down time in her mind. It would also provide another way to switch out the working set.
I use a simplified one port "port knocker" with iptables setup such that an ascending or descending linear port-scan will leave the ssh port closed upon completion.

Only one knock is needed to keep the port open for my current IP address indefinitely, or it can be closed immediately without losing my ssh connection.

It also precludes the necessity of filling up iptables with boatloads of DROPs to keep out the riff-raff.
When I was 16 I realized that someday I was going to be dead. I am not religious so I that meant that I was not going to exist anymore...ever. I used to spend the nights terrified thinking about it.

Over the years I have learned to rationalize it. Instead of worrying about not being. I am grateful for the opportunity of being alive. Also, I have learned that are worst things than dying. (e.g. Living in pain (physical or emotional))

So relax and learn to embrace your own mortality. It is not easy, but you have your whole life ahead to do it.
LZW encoding was patented, decoding was never patent encumbered. So web browsers never had to worry, since all they were doing was decompressing. For the H.264 case, decoding is also encumbered, so it's not the same situation.
Ask HN: Help us sell servers to raise money for our startup. (Radisys and Dell)
So I have an opportunity to sell some servers and help fund our startup. These servers belong to a startup (out of business now).
We are running low on cash for our startup (Mugasha) and this is a good opportunity.

I am having trouble trying to find ways to sell the Radisys setup. Its a few years old (generation) but its in new condition.
Do you have any ideas or pointers on who I can approach to sell this system?

The dell ones should be easier to sell.

Dell 2850, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 700 GB HD - $995
Dell 2850, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 600 GB HD - $950
Dell 2850, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 200 GB HD - $800
Dell 2850, 2.8GHz, 8GB RAM, 200 GB HD - $1050
Dell 2850, 2.8GHz, 10GB RAM,700 GB HD - $1100
Dell 2850, 3.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 200 GB HD - $825

I have several UPSs (all heavy duty) available as well.

The carrier-grade servers were priced for sale per the schedule below:

2x Radisys ATCA-6000 Shelf Units
(http://www.radisys.com/products/datasheet_page.cfm?productdatasheetsid=1368)
(12U W/ 14 Slots)
- unit retail price: $8,755
- unit asking price: $3,500

4x ATCA-2100 Shelf Manager (2 per shelf)
(http://www.radisys.com/products/datasheet_page.cfm?productdatasheetsid=1365)
Control Module (28 Port)
- unit retail price: $4,321
- unit asking price: $1,720

24x Blank Fillers

4x Shelf Peripheral Module & Power Supply
- unit retail price: $750
- unit asking price: $300

8x ATCA -4000 Processor Blades
(http://www.radisys.com/products/datasheet_page.cfm?productdatasheetsid=1367)
8GB RAM
30GB HD
- unit retail price: $3,800
- unit asking price: $1,500

4x ATCA-4000 Processor Blades
(http://www.radisys.com/products/datasheet_page.cfm?productdatasheetsid=1367)
4GB RAM
30GB HD
- unit retail price: $2,900
- unit asking price: $1,160

FYI - The Radisys chassis and blades are pretty heavy (takes two people to
lift them), so shipping/handling is a challenge.
These are located in the bay area, so some one in the bay would be ideal.

Let me know if you can help or if you have any questions.
Not to mention the client has to support resuming as well. This is why (along with the fact that they enjoy using ridiculously outdated technology) the scene still uses split RARs—a lot of the autotrading scripts (as well as FTPd's) they utilize don't support resuming.
Windows or Mac only? Hmm.
Antisec are hackers who don't wanna profit from fear.
I think Sugar is "a dumbed-down OS" the way Picasso made "dumbed down paintings".
What they're doing is a high-resolution fMRI scan of V1 (primary visual cortex), a region of the brain that shows a "retinotopic map" of the visual field. It's been known for a while that it's possible to reconstruct an image from V1 activation. What this research shows is that fMRI imaging is now detailed enough to do this non-invasively.

Also, something cool about this research, and also a bit scary, is that it's also known that this region is activated by visual recall (a quick search revealed this: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=48...). I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried to reproduce an image from V1 activation during visual recall, so I don't know if it would be a coherent image. My guess is it would though, in which case an fMRI scan could detect an image of an "N" if you asked the person to picture the letter.

Pretty cool.
yeah, you get what you pay for. VLC has worked for me when Quicktime would not (to play a movie from a DVD, for example)
Why doesn't anyone ever want to hire a coding pirate?
Great demo video and music, fun to watch. A good example of how a demo should look.
Read this for some supporting evidence. (sorry for being snarky thought this poll linked to the article.)
Good luck teaching children how to use objc.

Seriously, python is way better than objc from an elegance perspective. You don't need a crazy bloated cocoa API built on top with python either.

A book came out about pygame co-authored by someone in primary school. Not only are kids able to use python, but some also know it well enough to write books on the subject.

The ipod touch is subsidised by itunes/appstore/phone company. It's a console. It's closed.

ipod doesn't do collaboration well. Apple bans developers from talking bad about it - or tries to. It also doesn't have social learning features designed into the apps, or the OS.

ipod touch has a much smaller screen, which is poor for reading and viewing videos.

ipod touch can't be powered easily by a car battery.

You can't place the ipod touch on a desk, sit in your chair and play with it - with other children sitting next to you. Imagine laying the ipod on the desk... it would lie there flat. Fail.

The ipod touch is designed for a very different audience, and for different goals. To expect it is as good for teaching, and learning as an OLPC is silly.

Has the author even seen an ipod touch in a learning environment? Has the author even seen an OLPC at all?

I call uninformed ignoramus on the article - and fart in that general direction.
Nice. This is application equivalent of a comedian "saying what everyone is thinking". When I lived in Tokyo, I always tried to do these kinds of mental calculations on the train on unfamiliar lines (already 100% optimized by daily commute).
$ cat /usr/share/dict/words | egrep -o "(^world$)|(^hello$)"
Indeed; given that a basic function of the stock market is price discovery, surely automated trading causes a steepening and undesirable drop in the signal-noise ratio, amplifying signals past the point of distortion?

From my signal-processing experience, it reminds me unpleasantly of the Douglas Adams skit about the guy who gets rich by finding a way to convert stock prices to music so people can understand them without thinking. With audio, complex realtime input can result in all kinds of nonlinear distortions. This can be fun if you like crunchy sounds, but it can also spiral out of control. A lot of stock chartists (who believe in price movements rather than fundamentals as a guide to strategy) remind me of astrologers or numerologists: there's some math involved, but also a lot of mystical belief in golden ratios, fibonacci numbers etc, without any real scientific methodology behind it.

I have a hunch that a strategy of making small trades with a clearly embedded but arbitrary signal will expose a weakness in these systems for incorrectly targeting local maxima - eg if you start making meaningless trades in penny stocks where the volume Vn = Vn-1 +/- Phi, or whatever - sooner or later your arbitrary but very very consistent signal will be read as a 'strategy' and amplified by a robot.
Denver/Boulder
surely they could use all of those users to build something similar?
According to the site you linked:

Vector Magic: A commercial tracing tool that
is available through a web interface, for a
fee. Unlike Potrace, Vector Magic works for
color images.

So, I guess the benefits are:

* It works in color
* You get to pay for it, so you know it's Serious Business.
HTTP 1.1 supports byte ranges. You likely don't have any software on your computer than does not support HTTP 1.1.