skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Well, it is run by Jason Kilar, a former Amazon SVP, who appears not to be of the same mind as the content owners. I remember reading an article which described how he disagreed with them quite vigorously about a few things around launch...unfortunately, I can't find it now, don't remember enough details.
I'd like to see a similar study conducted on frequenters of HN and Reddit. If the study is correct, there should be a correlation between grumpiness and higher karma on these sites too.
I really would like to hear Douglas Hofstadter.
It depends on which attack was meant - there are two that come to mind. It annoys me that you're assuring security without being familiar with the systems, and that the legitimate concern expressed above and this response is now at the bottom due to downvoting of the former.

The first attack is simple packet sniffing for passwords and data. A few of these have been covered by the media[1]. This is considered a compromise of the system because ignorance of complicated security procedure should be expected and countered, but is not by default (as is attempted in, for example, I2P/Syndie). See sslstrip[2] for your MITM attack against anonymity, which does a great job of compromising even the security-aware. As for using a bank account or email, I would feel perfectly safe using both over Tor, as long as I entered the https: myself (my webmail is set to always use https). In fact, I would feel less safe using news websites, since my activity with these could be used to identify me as the same user over a number of exit nodes.

The second is the timing attack. Tor is low-latency and not a mix[3], so packet size & timing data can be correlated to determine whether two hostile nodes are on the same tunnel. You-H-N-H-Dest, where H are hostile nodes and N a neutral node. The one beside You is a guard node, and can determine its status as such by observing how often you connect to it (your node connects to only a small group of guard nodes). The second H is the exit node, and knows what the Destination is. A simple timing attack plus the mutual connection to N links your ip to the destination. There are 1800 tor nodes[4], I'll let you do the math on how long it would take an adversary with a very modest budget (or 20 zombies) to land two hostile nodes in this configuration. It's not very long, given that your 3 outbound tunnels reconstruct every 10 minutes.

As is common with security, you've gotten just about everything wrong. (No doubt I've made similar blunders in this short message.) Luckily, though, nobody actually cares about what people do on Tor - or perhaps they think that collecting data is more worthwhile than exposing vulnerabilities. Please take the time to learn more before commenting on (or using) these systems.

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/15/tor_hacker_arrest/
[2] http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/sslstrip/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaum_mixes
[4] http://proxy.org/tor.shtml
I agree. I really didn't like the sites they chose to showcase.

Its a cool style that might work in some cases, but I don't see it becoming mainstream.
>When’s the last time you did only one thing at a time? If you’re reading this—particularly if you’re in the news or content business—there’s a good chance you’ll have trouble answering that question.

Uh, when I read that passage it was the only thing I was doing. I often multitask, but not all the time or even the majority of the time. And as others mentioned, it's not like the Kindle encourages "unitasking" any more than reading a book does.
RMS spoke at my college about FSF. If you're already familiar with FSF, etc, then it won't be particularly interesting.

...until your econ major friend starts arguing with him, and he starts hurling personal insults.
Starcraft 2 Effects and Techniques [pdf]
one thing at a time? Like the iPhone has promoted since its launch?
Or this one for 230mpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car
Bingo Card Creator Goes Web 2.0
I think Gell-Mann's problem is not Feynman's generation of anecdotes about himself, but Feynman's generation of anecdotes about Gell-Mann.

The bit about brushing teeth. I once knew a very intelligent young man who once concluded that sleeping was a superstition. He tried to not sleep. But he was in grade school at the time, and he hadn't heard about the Uberman polyphasic sleep schedule.
apparently blackboard holds the patents for what they are doing, and they are very quick to sue anyone encroaching on their patents. Unless you have a ton of cash for legal battles, its just not worth going after them
Could someone explain what would motivate a newspaper to limit other sites linking to it? I can't think of a single reason it would be harmful to their business.
Thank you for your perspective on the matter. I had assumed something along those lines, but it is still frustrating to see someone making an argument as important as this without two fundamental parts:

1. Data to back the argument up.

2. Some recommendation.

Which reminds me: does anyone, anywhere, actually have a recommendation? I know the HN crowd would say "start a million startups!" but realistically, what can we as a society do?
A Guide to All Things Google
How about whitelist-only Internet like DPRK?
Leonhard Euler or Carl Gauss.
Flash might die for many things, but not this one.
- David Deutsch, driving force behind the formalization of quantum computing, generally interesting in a wacky way, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch

- Stallman was interesting to hear in college.

- Lawrence Lessig would also be really interesting.
It's fairly easy to degenerate "enterprise developers" when you're defining what "enterprise" means.
RIP Billy Mays - Death of the legendary salesman broke on Twitter
A noob’s guide to web apps in Arc
topic in #python on Freenode says: "It's too early to use Python 3.x"
That's the myth, as it is in publishing.

On the one hand, they say a novel is 'written in crayon'.

On the other hand, with a well-crafted novel that they can't sell, what is the excuse there? Simple, they just don't say it in public.

This is the same with Wikipedia: Perfectly reasonable edits that are flamed down with arbitrary rules, with the public excuse, again: 'Written in crayon'.
Technology Doesn't Make a Business
I agree that good content is also essential, but I think the idea that good content will naturally be found / attract links is a fallacy. Thus, launching without an SEO strategy is putting your business at a serious disadvantage, one that you may not be able to recover from, even if you have great content.

I really like your point about why people distrust SEO. I guess I have the separation between good and bad SEO, and care deeply about accessibility and usability, so its hard to remember that the bad SEO is what people usually notice and think of.

Glad to know there's other SEO's on HN :) Cheers!
I think you mean 07?

http://singinst.org/media/singularitysummit2007
I guess we can find some use cases that qualify as important. But who cares about the rounded number?
Customer Development - The Definitive Resource
Wendell Berry, as an intelligent counterpoint to all the enthusiasm about technology
It's not only buzz-creation. Website copy and usabilty is often overlooked or bad executed.
> alpha female keeps the omega male alive.

Sounds like group selection, common fallacy.
BashReduce
Well, they build Las Vegas out of an Oasis.
I believe that Feynman created anecdotes primarily because he was bored (not because of an ego), and he didn't spend tremendous effort on them (as Gell-Mann says) but rather he spent some effort on them and still had energy left over: he needed more to do, not less.
Bringing Boys And Girls To Computer Science With 'Alice'
I just did a totally typical thing (for me): wrote half of this, deleted it because I thought it sucked, went away for a while. But this time it really stayed inside me, so here it is.

The problem is not a financial one. Money is not the constraint. There are people with access to (for our purposes) unlimited sums, with good intentions, and a good track record at getting difficult things done, who have not made a meaningful dent in the problem.

The answer must lie in an approach nobody tries, which immediately eliminates throwing money at problems. It also means that it doesn't make sense to give money to an existing organization.

The problem is inherently informational. How many thousands of small villages have wells, but no access to clean water because some small, inexpensive part is broken? I've travelled extensively in the third world, and this is the situation in all too many places. The key is in knowing what is needed where, and what equipment and knowledge is required to redress the problem.

The right answer is some sort of mega-clearinghouse of such information; matching people who know what is needed where with people who are headed in that direction and can bring equipment and acquire the knowledge required to successfully deploy the equipment before they go.
This is indeed the problem: newspapers have no understanding of the business they engage in.
But wouldn't Gell-Mann, a guy who worked with him be a better judge of that, maybe Feynman did spend a good amount of energy of generating anecdotes, noone is perfect. It's becuase of all these anecdotes that we like him, not because we understand his papers of quantum electrodynamics. So maybe Gell-Mann has a point there !
Real CEOs Don't Twitter -- Do They?
Michael Schrage on Innovation, Collaboration, Tools, and Incentives
He does, however, have his own social news site.
I'd probably attend and listen to anything these people would talk about: Alan Kay, Don Knuth, Feynman, Oppenheimer, Teller, Von Braun, Henry Ford, Edison, Telsa, Edwin "Major" Armstrong (FM), Charlie Munger, Kary Mullis, Ray Kurzweil, Alfred Loomis, Turing, the transistor boys (Shockley, Bardeen, Brattain), Jim Williams (Linear Technology), Robert Pease (formerly National Semi), Bob Widlar (National Semi), maybe even Wozniak.

I would not bother to attend a talk by any politician or Steve Jobs.
I know this is slightly off-topic for HN, but I feel that many here could learn from the man's life. His passing robs us of a salesman who had perfected the art. No, you shouldn't go scream at people to use your app, but you can find a style of sales that is in sync with your personality like Billy did.
I have read many opinions of Feynman by people who knew him personally. Sometimes they contradict, so we can't just assume they are all true. In any case, people can be mistaken and we should think for ourselves. There is a lot of evidence about Feynman publicly available. Based on that evidence, including Gell-Mann's testimony, I think what I said.

I do not say this in an attempt to make Feynman perfect (in fact inability to find enough to do is a flaw).
How is that a bad thing?

I'm watching the demo video in Firefox Minefield right now and it works like a charme. Video without flash means for me (on linux) no random crashes or lockups. And if someone is too lazy to upgrade their browser then well, there are a bazillon flash video sites out there for them, no?
David Deutsch on epistemology.
My definition of "enterprise developer" comes directly from working in a gigantic financial company as well as an even more gigantic government defense contractor. Would you like some more anecdotes?
my idea of a fuel-efficient car only has a brake pedal - acceleration is controlled by a computer
So now all I need to do is figure out what determines the angle of the taper on the wheels...
Yeah I've always been impressed with the quality of the site design at NYT. I suppose they decided it might have something to do with their future at one point.
i don't think too much text is necessarily bad. it is possible to convey a lot of information and details on one page. look at most apple product pages or a page like
http://www.agile42.com/cms/pages/agilo/.
use the space on the page. use white space. go deep and let users scroll. keep the typography and graphics as simple as possible. be systematic with your typography and layout grid. keep the text columns narrow to make them easier to read.
your home page is a good start. did you work with a designer or just draw on good influences?
Blind leading the blind (leading the blind)?

If your users spend 90% of their time using two features, maybe it's because you've made the other features suck.
Once a month or so during college I'd devote a day to taking an ADD medication and working all day. I feel that I did more, and better, work under the influence.

I would start working on a Sunday morning at 8AM and besides a lunch break I wouldn't take stop until 10PM or so. I was working on an art major as well as doing some web development on the side at the time, and for these sessions I feel I was working at or above my normal creative and intellectual output for the majority of the time.

Besides a stamina boost for the day I also feel there is a similar effect to the Balmer Peak. (http://xkcd.com/323/) I would be much more confident then my average self, and because of it try (and sometimes accomplish) things that I would normally shrug off as out of my league.
The Coming Age of Internet Censorship
The environment ON mars is better than the moon, sure. But getting there is still a problem. I don't think you are right about the lethality rate for Mars transit. That is simply not what all those articles I linked to said.

The reason the high energy particles are more of a problem is because it's harder to shield from them. Especially without the shielding becoming a problem in and off itself. Which is more or less what you said. So you agree that hiding during solar storms is not enough.

I have no arguments about water working just fine as shielding. I think it will. It's the amount of water that is the problem. There is no practical way to launch the amount that is needed. And even once you launch it, it's so massive that you'll have a really hard time getting to mars fast enough.

I haven't run the numbers myself, but I've read works from people who have, and they say that it's not practical. Water is just too heavy.

PS. For the moon, there is little reason to build up - dig under instead, and line the inside with weak, but airtight material.
Creative Excellence - Michael Jackson Demanded It
just a pain in the ass since you need to reboot your computer to do so. I went 2 months w/o a reboot, but ended up doing it when I had to upgrade firefox to see the site
From what I understand of Mr Gates, when it comes to his business he's as mean a motherfucker as you can get in a room with.

When it comes to everything else, he's a decent fellow.
"But if the only job that will make you happy is covering "important stuff""

That's the ONLY job we're discussing here. A journalist, you know. Every single "opportunity" you have listed isn't journalism, those are corporate PR gigs. Real estate news for a blog of a realtor? Seriously? And a hundred of those will be a worthy replacement for New York Times?

Blogs aren't new. Five years ago every corporate web site had a "news" section and now it's fashionable to call it a "blog". So that's what journalism school graduates should be wasting their lives writing, and I should be reading from now on? So instead of semi-independent media we'll just have a million little press-releases

Working for a "newspaper replacement" isn't limiting, it is actually quite ambitious, especially compared to the PR career you have suggested. No wonder that girl was mad at you.

And don't pose as some kind of visionary and don't call someone's ambitions "limiting". Face it: you just want someone else's content to aggregate, i.e. profit from. And you seem to care very little of what that content happens to be.

Lets repeat the exercise: how can a young and ambitious reporter find resources to do a high-quality reporting (i.e. not press releases) on toxic food in supermarkets, the war in Iraq, corruption in a state senate, etc? Which "real estate broker" will pay for that?
This seems like it would have a serious early-adopter problem, in that it needs a pretty large network of people that somewhat know each other in order for things to work. Specifically, if I join this service, I can't do anything until someone who knows me joins, at which point we can then lend money to each other. If a bunch of my friends join, then we have our own small complete social graph - but we can't access the greater community until one of us is friends with someone else who has a complete social graph that would act as the bridge between us.

I also don't see what the incentive is for someone to join. Zopa/LendingClub pays interest, Kiva is charitable, this is...what? And how do you get your physical cash in and out of the system - would the service make deals with banks (which would put them under more regulatory oversight), or...?

Lastly, this seems like it would be targeted by anti-money laundering laws real quick. A way to transfer money electronically between people who know each other, across trans-national boundaries with no government tracking of the amounts in or out...what could go wrong, from the perspective of the Feds?
Feynman comes across as egotistical to me - it's a big part of his impish charm. Wouldn't we all like to be able to get away with that?
I contributed to Wikipedia for years and was fairly involved in it. This is the main reason I got out. It's permeated the culture too deeply. The worst part is, that's the only real part of the culture that's stuck, since the project grew too fast to fully indoctrinate everyone into the culture. Hence the frequent civil wars on Wikipedia.
If "every single newspaper" closed its doors tomorrow, they would be replaced, quickly and effectively by an as yet undefined alternative. This would be the case even in a microcosmic example, such as a small town as opposed to a whole country.

Necessity will breed innovation.
The story has sequel:
The parable of the two programmers, continued
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1012623
I don't think the journalist did a good job when he took his conclusions as:

"Depression may turn out to be an inevitable price of living in a dynamic society."

That amounts to, Hey, we are doing something that hurt us as a society, but what the heck, lets all take the symptom of our mistake as a 'price' for our 'correct' path.

The blind leading the wounded.
Friedman: Invent, Invent, Invent
HN: Like playing Go? Review my new site. It was a "weekend hack."
The point of the story is that it's not how well you do your job that counts, it's how well your manager thinks you do it.

It's all about perceptions. If you're a crap coder, but suck up to your boss, wear a smart suit (or whatever the conventional clothing is at your place of work), always arrive at work on time, etc, then you'll do better than if you're a brilliant coder, but wear unconventional clothes, come in on work late, etc.
Alan Turing, Issac Newton or Jimi Hendrix
Thanks for taking the time to check it out. This was a "weekend hack" for me -- really, two weekends since I implemented Ko enforcement and a few other requested features the weekend after the original code was written.

I wrote more about "weekend hacks" here: http://davepeck.org/2009/01/26/weekend-hack-1-go/

The project is an open-source AppEngine application. The source code is up on GitHub; it is released under the AGPLv3. This was a hack, so don't expect the world's finest code base! http://github.com/davepeck/appengine-go/tree/master

Please send your suggestions (or, better, patches) my way. Happy Go!
That is simply not what all those articles I linked to said.

You're spreading pop-science FUD designed to create the exact misconceptions you are spreading. Read the other side in Zubrin's books and articles. No big conspiracies, just people using fear of radiation to sensationalize articles and get more money out of our federal government.

The reason the high energy particles are more of a problem is because it's harder to shield from them

There's less need to shield from them.

Especially without the shielding becoming a problem in and off itself. Which is more or less what you said. So you agree that hiding during solar storms is not enough.

By not shielding the entire vessel, you can create a small booth with enough shielding to also absorb the secondaries. Again, this is well trodden territory. Most public libraries have Zubrin's books. Read the other side, and you will find that you have been fed incomplete pictures. Shielding the whole craft is a straw man. Trying to give complete protection for initial explorers and colonists is overkill and FUD for selling expensive and unnecessary R&D to bureaucrats who want to cover their asses.

If you protect the astronauts from just the promptly lethal solar flares, you wind up with lethality something like a bad smoking habit.

I would gladly accept a 1% or even a 4% mortality rate if I could have the chance to be one of the founders of the Mars colony. My children won't have that problem, shielded by the Martian atmosphere and the soil used for radiation shielding.
Why do you need your computer on so much?

And what os are you running that a reboot was required for firefox?
Can you explain the part about entering email addresses?
They forbade an app for on-demand streaming but allowed one that does live streaming? I wonder whether they're relying on multicasting in each cell, which is only a win when many users want the same content at the same time.
This version of Go is played by correspondence. Email or twitter is required. There are no "accounts" on go.davepeck.org -- just people playing the game via their preferred contact mechanism.
"Everyone is becoming like a Stasi agent"
"This seems like it would have a serious early-adopter problem, in that it needs a pretty large network of people that somewhat know each other in order for things to work."

It's a classic, textbook example of the network effect: the more people use the service, the greater the value for each user. If a network of early-adopters were established and enough momentum were gained, it could perhaps work.

"I also don't see what the incentive is for someone to join."

Some might have an incentive to join. Some die-hard anarcho-capitalists would perhaps join for a matter of ideology. Others, like money launderers, would perhaps join so that they would not leave a paper trail.

"A way to transfer money electronically between people who know each other, across trans-national boundaries with no government tracking of the amounts in or out...what could go wrong, from the perspective of the Feds?"

Ripple looks like a P2P approach to the hawala system, and if the Feds are targetting the hawala system, they would doubtlessly target Ripple. However, cryptography might provide plausible deniability. I don't know because I am no expert on financial crypto and the like.

Last but not least: I personally find this an interesting concept, not much else. A rigorous mathematical analysis would be required to show that the system does work. One would have to study the robustness of the system to malicious nodes. Let us see: graph theory, game theory, mechanism design, cryptography, law, etc. There's food for thought here for many years of research...