skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Next we're going to hear about the higher prevalence of this gene in minority communities, and then we'll hear how the prison-industrial complex was really wonderful all along.
To anyone who has watched the whole thing, could you please very briefly summarize the responses to the following question that the author is intentionally withholding?

* How HOTorNOT negotiated away some of their biggest expenses using techniques you could (and should) use right now.

* How a bad economy could help your company grow. (It helped HOTorNOT.)

* The most effective way to increase conversions and get more users to pay. (It’s not what you’d expect.)

* The step James ADDED to his order process that increased sales. (It’s still an under-utilized technique)

(I'm not going to watch a 74 minute interview, but I would have gladly have read the 20 page transcript if it had been posted. )
Tatango founder creates user-powered list of CEOs under 30
the console app http://txt2regex.sourceforge.net/ is -way- nicer to handle
I can't remember where I read it now, but there was a very well reasoned argument positing that this is essentially why we have sports. A sport is a means of venting primal violent and competitive urges in a way that's controlled and (usually) not harmful to civilized society, so they claimed. This violent expression works directly for those playing and vicariously for those watching.
Ask HN: What is your experience with Adwhirl as a publisher?
I'm currently using Admob to publish ads. Adwhirl seems to be better because it aggregates ad publishers, but I haven't been able to find any online discussion about it.
I'm waiting for the fake fake Steve Jobs to return
Did You Ever Wonder About Labels?
We use HP SiteScope for our servers and Orion Solarwinds for our Network.

+ SiteScope is pretty easy to set up and can be extended with scripting.

- Support since it's gone to HP has been pretty bad.
I quadruple vote because whenever I see a typo, I want to fix it.
Well, there's the armed forces, but the consequences are not so pretty.
I'd love to be able to advance to a green belt ninja, but alas Video Chat is not available on Linux.
Engineer/Inventor in the U.K. Hacked his house and monitors it via Twitter
At this point I can't sincerely pick any side as the good guys. On one hand, I'm already sick of cookie-cutter "color revolutions" where "nonviolent" protestors oh-so-conveniently invite the support of Western nuclear superpowers to topple regimes unfavorable to the latter. On the other hand, I'm already sick of the only offered alternative, the emerging "multipolar world" fraternity of Ahmadinejad, Putin, Chavez et al.

I kind of envy you Westerners. You have a simple moral principle that tells you which side to pick, a never-failing axiom: democracy is always best. But the recent history of my country (Russia) has given me a huge and readily observable data point against your axiom. So I can't honestly share your faith, even though I'd like to.
Dutch Gov. Wants To Tax Online Media To Fund Print
It's a cool idea, but everyone says that it ends up serving almost all Admob ads, and due to the bugginess of Adwhirl's client, switches back to Admob.
Sony Ericsson Aino Unlocked (8MP)
Sony Ericsson Aino Unlocked touchscreen handset. A slender slider with a 3-inch touchscreen and numeric keypad, the Aino has an 8.1-megapixel camera, their PlayStation 3 remotely from anywhere in the world they have a network connection.
I hear you, but that'd really be applicable only if the presenter actually added a material contribution or at least a novel recombination of his own. He literally just followed someone's tutorial and presented that.
But will you be using a scripting language? If you can compile something to C, you can call it Objective-C and pass it off to Xcode, right?
What does this site do??

Maybe I am having a display error (Firefox 3.0.11 on Ubuntu 8.04), but I am not seeing anything that gives even a clue as to what this website is supposed to do.

EDIT: enabled cookies and I can now see the instructions. That seems like a problem. I normally never surf to unknown sites with cookies on...
Write lots, it's the only real solution.

I dabble in article writing (more for print media than the web) and you get slowly better over time. At one point I had a weekly column and my style improved dramatically due to the regularity of writing.

Getting feedback can be tough: if your blogging then places like HN, Reddit etc. can be good critics - but usually more of your ideas than your style. Dont bother with writers forums and the likes either - they tend to be very proud of pedaticism over language etc. As suggested send stuff to friends and see what they have to say; or even better people you don't know too well (but suspect will give you straight advise).

One general tip I picked up (ironically from seeing the playback of pg writing an essay a while back) is refactor, rewrite and edit yourself (dammit, really stuck for a good word here! err....) extensively (ugh). One tactic I find useful is to pop small notes into the text when I feel like I hate the sentence I just wrote (for example) and come back to it later.

Dont be scared to put passion and force into your writing - at the end of the day if your content is solid it will stand up for your readers. But if you don't sound passionate or involved in what you have to say then people will notice your disconnection from the subject. If you get behind a good argument it lends it a lot more weight.

In terms of HN commentary: I would say that is very different. My writing style on here is very plain and often rushed and boorish (possibly, no definitely, self centred). Just be polite that's the main thing :D you don't really have room to form a complete and subtle argument in a comment!

EDIT: one final comment on opinions. If you decide to form some (a few bloggers / writers DO successfully write with no obvious opinions) then take time now to decide how strongly you present them. I am generally renowned for being very strong and forceful with my opinions (though I hope able to be swayed by a good counter argument - my friends will scoff at that:D). If your likely to be the same the piece of advice I have is always re-read what you wrote several times in the few hrs/days after you write it. Knee jerk reactions or over zealous commenting can be easy when you get wrapped in an opinion too tightly and I usually find myself rewriting a comment several times to clarify a message that got muddied in the explosion :D
It was slow for me too. I would click and wait for something to happen. Just when I decided that my click hadn't done anything, the blue arrow with the pencils appeared, but I was already clicking the mouse so I had to wait again. This made it difficult to get the hang of and it was very frustrating. Anything you can do to speed it up will be a great improvement.
Disposable multilingual chatrooms with real time translation
I didn't really like the article, but I think it indirectly brings up a good point. This is a good example of the risk you incur by using a proprietary platform (Virtual Iron). At any moment you can have the rug pulled out from under you.
I never said that. The claim was that styling a gwt app is simple.

"GWT is just html.Taking cappaccinos style and porting it to gwt would only be a couple of days work, if that."

I never claimed that their interaction was easy to clone.
I am a Westerner and I have no such moral principle.
Introduction to business investment
A library of the world’s most unusual compounds
I really enjoyed reading Fake Steve way back in the day (which was, what? 1 year or so ago?) - but once he started blogging as other Jerry Yang, Schmidt, etc it the whole thing went down hill rapidly.

Revealing his real identity and effectively shutting down the Fake Steve blog didn't help matters.

I doubt the old flame will be re-ignited here.
Need a pimple twinky eatter
are there any twinky devouring, pimply faced, serious electronic and computer geeks, around I am out of the loop, I will pay 100.oo bucks to anyone who can break into my computer, I need to check to see just how save I am, then I will need you to design and build what i call a chip to sit on the back of the computer, to monitor all activity when I am not there. I need to find out who is at the desk that is not suppose to be.
Show me where I said designing original content was easy. Show me where I claimed behaviour would be copied as well.

The claim was that GWT is simple to style. Surely I proved that claim. It's HTML and graphics people!
first one claims prize no second placers
"Lawyers...[will] hate that its hosted."
More accurately, lawyers will refuse to use this service b/c it's hosted and it raises unsettled issues related to the boundaries of client confidentiality. In many states, this service could even be considered unethical (read: illegal for lawyers) for use with client matters b/c it may either (1) be considered a waiver of confidentiality or (2) be considered a breach of confidentiality which the client has not waived.

However, I can imagine that students or nonprofits would love this, since those sorts of issues will not apply.
Don't worry, I'd wager that around 90% of the people in most large companies are already doing this, the rest are actively climbing that ladder.

Of course there are others who aren't part of the equation at all.
That should be hammered into people more often :D

Regularly I see people jump on and say "can someone help" tumbleweed then they leave. But those who post a question and wait generally get an answer when someone notices - leisurely engagement a friend called it once.
Can Twitter Become the New Casual Gaming Hub?
chatterous, mailing lists

(the last one is a wealth of untapped info even today - depending on the community / subject)

Not IRC but shrugs same basic idea
Quiz HN: Test your biases
You are the minister of health. Currently, you screen all citizens for cow-flu using test X. You want to add another test, though, and you have two options: test Y or test Z. Test Y is strongly correlated with test X. Test Z is not correlated with test X.

Do you add test Y or test Z?
Well at least he's trying to persuade the industry to change and become more open. They're already selling some kindle books at a loss because publishers want to charge Amazon the same price for an ebook as a physical one.
Enlisting is a hell of a lot better option than gang-banging.
I second the "hate that it's hosted" aspect. You'll get the same issue at large companies too. The truth is commenting and reviewing sucks. Even when I was at Microsoft everyone complained about it when they did their specs. I definately see this as a value added add-on. Possibly by wrapping it into a plugin for hosted blog platforms or desktop programs.
Regarding the NYTimes story: he posted a response here.

http://www.wireless.is/projects/crows/correction.php

If what he says in his response is true, then it means that some shoddy reporting and fact-checking by a NYTimes intern did an enormous amount of damage - not just to Klein, but everyone involved in his research, including his advisor and both universities.

Regarding the talk: I agree that he does give the impression that the coin box experiment has already succeeded and he's ready to move on to more practical applications, when in fact his research is still in its early stages. It's a mistake, but a long shot from what the person in the original article has done (and what the NYTimes has potentially done to Klein's career).
I think part of it, is that they had a fun product, when there was no real competition from things like youtube(+5 years), flash games(+7 years), hulu(+9 years), decent social networks(+3 years myspace, +4 years facebook)

And the product itself, led them to pretty much be able to signup anyone who stumbled on their website.
yes cookies are required. I use the private browsing mode formost sites unless its email or google services. Helps instead of dealing with enabling/disabling cookies
Please provide more information. What is the specificity of each test? What is the sensitivity of each test? And how virulent is the disease? And how expensive is each test?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_and_specificity

http://www.nhhealthcost.org/costByProcedure.aspx
Yeah, but most keyboards are in the $5 - $20 range. It's the expensive high-quality keyboards that are in the minority because most people don't see the value in buying such an high performance keyboard.

I'll have to check out those keyboards you mentioned.
Did you see the end of the video? The multiplug is pretty rad.
Inside the launch of Wolfram Alpha
> They sum it up nicely but it's too easy to miss:

> "The probability that a fair election would produce [these number distribution disparities] is less than .005. In other words, a bet that the numbers are clean is a one in two-hundred long shot."

Man, reading that makes me roll my eyes and wonder how the average person reading this site has such poor statistical intuition as to mod this up.

It's like rolling a die six times, and arguing that getting the exact numbers I got has an exceptionally low chance of occurring, so the die must be rigged.
If there are tests for a binary result (has cow-flu/does not have cow-flu) that are not correlated, one or both of the tests is bad. Further information could confirm or negate the choice of Y or Z (or sticking only with X).
The best tip I've ever received is "Try not to write comments. Make your code speak for itself."

And I write a lot of perl.
All good tests should be strongly correlated with the presence/absence of swine flue, and hence correlated with each other. So either tests X/Y are broken, or test Z is broken. Or both.

We need to figure out which before answering the question.
This is like claiming credit for a LEGO kit that you built by following the intructions. You end up with something really cool, but you had no creative input. It's much more admirable to take the pieces and turn them into something new that no one has ever thought of.
I went to his talk at LFNW in April. Oracle/Sun own 'MySQL' in name and trademark only. The core IP, and more importantly the developers, are working with Monty on MariaDB. He was very clear that MySQL/MariaDB was not going to disappear.
MySpace Layoffs Coming To Countries Where It Is Getting Trounced By Facebook
If you read his earlier blog posts about his talk at TED, he mentions it was his life dream to be/speak at TED with HIS creation. He doesn't mention anywhere that what he showed wasn't his technology - he very much makes it sound like it was his own. He tricked them.

TED should have done some research.
Did Steve Jobs’ wallet help cut transplant wait?
Clear airport cards kaput
White House twitters in Farsi/Persian language
Effect reproduced. Very interesting.

If above isn't clear (wasn't for me), read article on BBC (clear for me). Or to rephrase it:

Put arm on desk, palm facing up is convenient -- don't move this one. With hand from free (other) arm, point and touch the middle finger of the fixed arm, then the elbow. I did this many times (finger, elbow, finger elbow). Get an idea of how long this arm is.

Now use the fixed arm, pick up a pen, and trace along the screen. I did this for about 10 seconds. Put arm down back into formerly fixed position. Redo the finger-elbow touch with the free arm's hand.
Let's say X and Y are both good tests. Is it still possible you would prefer Z to Y?
That's pretty much the right answer.

Let's say all tests cost the same and are 99% specific. Test X is at least 70% sensitive. Test Y and Z have unknown sensitivity.
So what's your point? That the people who want a say in how they're governed shouldn't express a view because the people who don't like to have a say are sick of hearing it?
Sorry for responding so late, but I just wanted to say that you're correct on all points above about my learning experience, including (and i'm reluctant to admit this) - the fear of sounding like an idiot (although I got rid of this quickly after actually moving to France, because you don't have a choice).
Single page:

http://www.extremetech.com/print_article2/0,1217,a%253D24162...
The Jack Welch (online) MBA (and how to buy accreditation)
Why wouldn't they work ? How would they need to differ from a regular plug or socket ?
It's surely better enough to warrant an effort. The question is whether it's enough better to license their patent. :)
Yeah. Sorry - concave.
IPhone in the Enterprise? Believe it. Business is Quickly Catching iPhone Fever
The armed forces are for kids older than 18. I think 13-18 y.o. teenage boys with too much testosterone could use a sort of "boot-camp lite" thing. Instead of shooting weapons, they could focus on less deadly stuff which is equally macho. Say, survival training, martial arts, extreme sports, etc.

This would probably never work in Europe because it would bring back memories of Hitler's youth. I am totally pro-freedom and anti-fascism, but I think that leaving teenage boys bored in the cities and suburbs with nothing to do is dangerous. The amount of money spent on teaching them how to fight, rock-climb, whatever, would perhaps be saved in less prisons and criminality.

Giving a teenage boy something challenging to do can be a huge self-confidence booster. Moreover, it can allow him to use his aggressiveness in a productive manner.
Consider

+ Taking some time to learn some grammar,

+ You've just insulted most of the people who could actually help you,

+ The people you describe are quite possibly not actually any good at security.

Consider reading about how to ask questions the smart way. I might be able to do what you want, but given the way you ask, I'm certainly not going to help you.
I could see this working as a gadget in google wave as well.
Strunk & White, Fowler, et al. emphasize rules and precepts. These are OK but too one-dimensional.

Stephen King, after years at his trade, emphasized basics - master grammar. I would add (with TallGuyShort), master rhetoric. In addition, I threw myself into the study of classical languages (Latin and Greek) in order to master complex sentence constructions, fine points of verbs, etc. Once you learn all that, it is important that you basically throw it away - that is, that you never come across as pedantic.

The great example of a light and brilliant style by someone thoroughly grounded in the classics is P.G. Wodehouse. His topics are all fluff. His style is priceless. Fun, light in tone, yet full of subtlety (all drawn from his classical training with words and with literary allusions). Read about how Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, who played Bertie and Jeeves in a BBC series, positively gush over his style (they don't exaggerate).

As an autodidact, it would seem you are a natural to throw yourself into this area as well. If interested, here is a link to something I did on what lawyers need to do to write well (http://www.grellas.com/articles.html), for what it is worth.

Can't speak to blogging itself. I'm sure others can.
Just for the record, the first two return posts were posted before the WSJ story broke. Both the post about heaven and the one that clearly refers to harvesting body parts (and the first comment made it crystal clear). Make of that what you will.
A dating coach has a 3C's rule that rates a venue for meeting women that also may apply to networking for shyer people:

Conversation-friendliness: How easy is it to hold a conversation (no shouting, no loud music, seating (if needed) )

Community - What brings these people to this venue? (e.g. a bar - random dropins vs art showing - people interested in art). A general networking event may rate low on this index but a Ruby brigade meetup (shared interests) may be high

Continuity - How likely are you to meet these people again? How involved can you get?

By this rule, local monthly small entrepreneur, coder, hacker meetups may be a much better use of your time than trying a general purpose networking event. Every time I go to a big networking-type event (where I meet people whose job it is to network), I get reminded that its not really my thing; I really go just to observe how bad/well people can make small talk. It's good practice. If you really want to observe good networkers, go to a political fundraising event (these people are pros, for better or worse).

I have met people at networking events - the key thing is you'll know pretty quickly if you hit if off with someone - the whole point of networking (as explained to me by the best networker I know - a woman president of a tech company) is to setup a "1st date" to follow-up if you hit it off - you don't go to networking events to have a 20-min conversations with one person but to meet a number of potential people who you might hit it off with for lunch or business.

If you go to a networking event and participate, good luck and remember: "One of the most difficult social tasks is to join an activity that is already in progress." Basically that means going up to a group of people who are chatting. There are techniques for doing this but theory is cheap, execution counts.
It could easily be a gadget or extension for google wave, the protocol is already there.
I'm a world-renown security expert, and I would do the job free of charge, but I don't like Twinkies, and I don't have acne. Oh well - there's always my day job.
EXTREMELY minimal, but I really like the openness and availability. At the very least, it's a good way to test your own gadgets. I'll certainly be playing with this more during the next few weeks.
your words match exactly what I was going to write
Adventures in the Blogosphere String War
How does that follow? Would anyone worth consideration seriously believe this government is legitimate even if the election wasn't fixed? What sane person says, "oh, they've shot dozens of people to death and tried to cover it up, but at least they didn't rig an election"?

The regime had their chance to relent, and they only cracked down. It's not up to them anymore.
Only in high-risk situations.
You must live in a fantasy land where the people working around you rational adults.

Doing this in the real world will lead people to thinking you are a "dick".
I never thought Fake Steve Jobs was that good. Among other details, I refuse to believe that Steve Jobs' reaction to the backdating "scandal" would be anything other than annoyance at how his time and attention was wasted on it, but FSJ worked it up to be this huge melodramatic depressive period.

But whatever fun there was in the blog was ruined when it turned out this guy was just another business journalist. Then it suddenly clicked that he couldn't get into Steve's head well enough to pull off the character. After that revelation, the flaws in his characterization became even more apparent--ah, that's why Fake Steve Jobs is commenting vividly on things that are fascinating to tech industry journalists but probably beneath the real Steve Jobs' notice.
Clicking the little icons each time (especially since they don't stand out from the text very well) is a bit tedious. I noticed selecting and typing automatically defaults to "revise". This is a great feature. Are there keyboards shortcut for adding a comment?

The move text functionality is probably the weakest link. Why do I keep getting the message "Can't move content like that."? Also, it would be greatly enhanced with drag and drop ability.
The rotating part needs two sliding contacts both safely enclosed and able to carry up to 13 amps.

Ever played with a Scalectrix set where the sliding parts on the controllers spark and give off ozone? PC Speakers where the volume adjustment crackles because the sliding connection isn't very good? Variable resistors that don't vary smoothly? Switches that have stopped switching properly?

Moving contacts aren't as reliable as one solid piece of metal.

I like the idea; I hope they can make it workable, but I'm not sure it's such a big improvement on the existing travel plugs they demonstrated - with the folding pins.