skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The one point he makes there, which I find to be terribly important, is the bit about reading a lot.

I don't claim to be a great writer or anything, but I've managed to get an article or two[1][2] "out there" and have actually had a few people (including a former English professor) give me some praise for my style. But outside of Creative Writing 101 my first year of college, and H.S. grammar class, I have done little in the way of "training" to be a writer.

Except... I read a lot. I mean, a lot. Like, a really, really, lot. I read voraciously, which is a trait I appear to have inherited from my mother. And I can't help but think that if you read a lot, you'll inevitably absorb enough of something to go a long way towards becoming a decent - if not great - writer, if you choose to write.

So yeah, I think "read a lot" and "write a lot" are really the keys to writing well. Sure, this might not get you to James Joyce territory, but for writing marketing material, blogs, technical docs, etc., it can take you a long way.

And as far as that goes, somebody famous (Stephen King, IIRC) said pretty much the same thing in a book on writing. "Read a lot, and write a lot".

I'm with Ryan here... don't label yourself as "a writer" just read and write. If you really don't get basic grammar and punctuation, read Strunk & White, or Eats, Shoots & Leaves. That should be enough to enable you to write at a respectable level.

I would add one more thing though... since I started writing more for specific reasons (that is, beyond random ranting on my blog) I do read with more of a conscious eye on the details of what I'm reading, in terms of structure, voice, etc. And I freely admit I will shamelessly crib useful ideas from other writers. Of course, it might not be the best thing for my interest in writing technical content that my favorite writers include Dean Koontz, Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft.

[1]: http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/why-you-s...

[2]: http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/how-provi...
Do yourself a favor and visit Portsmouth, NH after you are acclimated to Boston or just need a reprieve from big city life. It's a smallish city with a great bar and restaurant scene. If you are into history there are also some wonderful opportunities to explore as well. Be warned, however, New Englander's can come off cold compared to people from other parts of the country. We make great friends but it takes awhile to get there.
How much do cats actually kill?
There's a pretty young subreddit for this http://www.reddit.com/r/nyctech.
I am in same situation and I cant do what I generally do for medical issues in family: flying to India. If my child is born in India it will lose American Citizenship. I have got a no choice.
Only for my kids.
Awesome link, thanks! I love learning when stuff like this has a name.
Proactive Fight Against Patent Trolls
I don't know why your comment was greyed, but I find it interesting that the poisoning the well [1] in the grandparent was granted a nice black font.

[1] http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallaci...
or https://twitter.com/DEVOPS_BORAT
Built with Laravel
I doubt they will expand it to every book. It might be a while before it expands to a sizable portion of their library.

Netflix wasn't what it is on it's first day.
Could you recommend one Marty Weintraub resource to read for someone who knows basically nothing about FB marketing and just wants to have an exploded-head experience?
What does he mean with "When we’re alone, we’ve been conditioned by society to believe that we should stay alone."? I waiting for an explanation in the article but it never came
Ridesharing (Transitprivatizing)
Market share for ipads dropped year over year in relative and absolute terms. I don't think the ipad air and retina mini are enough to change that trend.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/29/apples-ipad-market-share-c...
Hacker Indicted For Data Breach Conspiracy Targeting Government Agency Networks
You're making HN awesome. Keep up the good work!
I didn't read the article thoroughly, but one point to think about is patients may be more likely to visit with a particular doctor if said doctor frequently performs the surgery they believe will help them.

I am the perfect example of this. I went to a particular doctor with the expectation that he would eventually perform the surgery I desired. He did technically evaluate if I was a good candidate, but I got the impression his patients only visit him if they want the surgery performed. He also does a lot of these surgeries, making him more experienced and more attractive as a surgeon. I would imagine this Florida doctor is similar.
The stub itself pulls down the full installer, and you can always get that from download/FTP if needed.

The intention is to provide a better download experience: there was a gap between the number of people who begin downloading Firefox (counted via hits on download.m.o), and the ones who open it for the first time (counted via hits on the firstrun page). The stub installer is intended to address this. It also checksums the full file to make sure you're getting what you think you're getting.

(Disclaimers: I work for Mozilla, and am responsible for download.mozilla.org among other behind the scenes web things. I don't work on the installers, but we had to change the download scripts to support the stub. I do not speak for Mozilla.)
I use it for managing high-throughput sequencing data. It's a good fit because a) the items are inherently key-value oriented and b) items have heterogeneous schema that are dependent on the platform used to perform the sequencing and the experimental origin of the samples.
You're assuming that being older implies having more capabilities. Civilizations like ours almost certainly reach limits, either in terms of resource limits, or in terms of fundamental limits on the kinds of things that can be engineered (or both). The fact we've never run into any alien tourists or explorers, despite thousands of years of record keeping and being able to search the earth for alien artifacts, and our own research into star travel support the idea that it's impossible.
replying because I'm going to refer to this comment as a prime example of how HN's moderation is going downhill in all future posts. Thanks for the ammo.
As another resident of Canada, I have to completely disagree with you.

I have to pay $20,000 for my schooling. My first nations friends pay nothing, it's covered by tax payers. This includes numerous other benefits that I do not get. In Canada, unfortunately it can often seem like the minority have more privileges. That's not equality, to me.
Here's a larger point from the mid twentieth century: what is the real value of a broadcast TV network with the viewers? IN a sense, the product the network produces is ad views, with the work being done by the audience.

I'm not saying that the audience is an employee, just that the model of not paying for value created by a crowd is large and old.
Do you have to express your point so abrasively?
I don't think any site like this can survive Eternal September...just stave it off as long as possible
I watched a documentary (on Netflix) which said c-section rates go up in America at around 4PM so doctors could get home and not spend the night waiting. This explains why we are 34th in Infant mortality rates.
Most of the comments in the article are about the horrible footer. Gosh, is indeed an awful footer.

Oh by the way I agree with half of what he said (just half) but I still enjoy javascript.
A rotating collection of images from Hubble and the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archives: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
Don't ever do that to my back button.
Passage: a Gamma256 video game by Jason Rohrer (2007)
> see how the "Big Love" family had to move due to pending prosecution in Utah

Presumably -- and I am somewhat embarrassed to be able to catch this mistake -- you are referring to the actual family featured on the reality show "Sister Wives" [1], not the fictional family featured on the show "Big Love".

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Wives
I wonder how hard it would be to introduce a cut detector, so that the (to me) annoying cinematic cuts that are sometimes at the beginning or end of a quote can be trimmed off. I think a simple heuristic of something like "If the frame cuts in the last half-second of the gif, trim off the extra frames" would work well, although I don't know how well a simple detector would work, nor how many quotes have a reaction shot that would get cut off unnecessarily.
For another perspective on this story, see

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03f86lh

You probably can't listen to it unless you are in the UK, but it seems that there were panics, just localised ones. There have also been repeats of this event when similar programs were broadcast in other countries. For instance, see here:

http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/war_worlds_quito.htm
We're not always talking about vegetables on life support here. There's a lot more to care of the elderly. My 93 year old grandfather recently got a hip replacement and he's doing great. Would he have received that hip under the ACA? Recall that a woman asked Obama a similar question and he said maybe she should just take a pill.
I think it is interesting how Kickstarter is framing "successes" on that page as anything that has received funding. It fits in with the image they are trying to put forward as a funding site and not a preorder site, but is it the right thing to look at? A project that takes money and squanders it is a success in Kickstarter's mind, but I would guess most backers would disagree. To them the real success probably only occurs when the project's rewards are delivered. That rate is going to be lower than 43.84% and is probably more indicative of the long term viability of crowdfunding of this nature.
Samsung Tools Aim To Help Its Smart Devices Stand Out
Might kittens be different from cats in this regard? I don't really have experience with either, but I imagine kittens may be more tolerating of environment changes.
It's encrypted keys all the way down.
Yes, this add-on is amazing. It's a critical part of my web browsing experience.
I have recently come to the conclusion that ultimately problems like this stem from high income inequality. Humans have a tendency to compare themselves to people who are better off than them. Fifty years ago doctors were very well off in general and were esteemed. But now this is not the case and the desired prestige can now only be accomplished through financial gain. Back when income inequality was not so great other motivations came into play besides profit.

There is a perniciousness in American society where too many people have bought into the "I've got mine, forget you" attitude. Where money is the main source of prestige of a person. The problem highlighted by the article is a societal one. Profit is not a great motivator of innovation and ought not be as high a goal as it currently is in the U.S.

What fascinates me the most is that the segment of society that appears to be doggedly in favor of a profit first public policy appear to be people who follow a book that says that love of money is the root of all evil.
you could easily have known someone that left early.
I have a technique for when I'm alone in a large social setting. Find other alone people. It's not hard to spot them if you're looking, and in most cases they will appreciate the friendliness.

This works especially well in a situation like a networking event or large party where it is unlikely that attendees will know everyone else.
The game takes five minutes.

After playing it, read the Creator's Statement: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/statement.html
Docker maintainer here. I also hate having to put this in the README (and hate it even more each time someone from Iran offers to contribute... what a waste of talent and energy this policy creates!).

But we triple-checked with our legal counsel and they confirmed it's the only way to stay unambiguously out of trouble. As un-tasteful as it is, it's better than causing unnecessary legal trouble for docker contributors down the road.

If you're interested in the subject here's an edifying expose of the situation: http://harpers.org/blog/2013/08/andrew-cockburn-on-the-failu...
You like federalism which is biased toward States' rights, which is why you are a Libertarian? What?

Libertarianism is about individual rights, not States' rights. You can be both a Federalist and a Libertarian if you want, but one doesn't follow from the other.
While I agree that it's not exactly the same, the only definition I could find is the one for manufactured homes in CA: http://law.onecle.com/california/health/18007.html.

The above definition lumps them together and unfortunately if there isn't something that makes the home not fall under that definition, you are going to have to disclose this at sale and financing will be a PITA...
A cato link isn't convincing. Its an extremely biased source. Cato can't stand that the single payer works in the rest of the world.
I agree. Specifically, the names remind me of a quotation by Victor Hugo - "To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark".
However, trading in some options based on NASDAQ index prices was frozen.
I live in NYC, and I've seen the tech community grow pretty quickly over the past few years.

I run a meetup group - NYC Python: http://www.nycpython.com/ - and the number of events, attendees, companies, and conferences dedicated to just Python has grown substantially since I started getting involved a few years back.
Are you really implying that the insane quoted cost of a C-Section is caused by something like '$10 000 - C-Section itself; $50 000 - malpractice insurance' ?
You might think you are ignoring them. But I'm sure, every once in a while, you notice them. Add that a up over billions of impressions and it starts making sense.
The plugin is quite dangerous, an "aggressive" stance sounds reasonable to me. In the interest of fairness I keep a similar stance with IE/ActiveX.
I'm talking about the absurdity of expecting explicitly-disclaimed benefits to just rain from the sky because you bought something.

It's cheap because they waive these responsibilities, it would be/is more expensive to have them not waived, that's just how it is.

There are also a few manufacturers of smartphones who guarantee against this sort of thing.

Also, the only way to maximize profits is to satisfy the customer: they offer the devices at a consumer price which is enticing to a mass market who may or may not have these issues, rather than expecting everyone to have these issues all the time, and pricing it to accommodate that. This is exactly what consumers want, cheap phones that at least typically do what is expected of them.
I am thinking the same things. At some point you have to make friends from scratch. They aren't just given to you.

As for the "doing things alone" I've noticed that people don't like doing that. Traveling, going to see a movie, or attending an event all seem to be things that have a stigma attached to doing them solo.
Not really. Its like he went to Hamburg and said "I'm a Hamburger".
Disruptive project Legal Atlas is launching
Why can't they use the built-in decoder in OSX like they do in Windows?
I like the video. Can you share who made it?

"We'll let you know who's calling, based on previous call data, and algorithms." - made me laugh

One suggestion - remove the "Powered by WebRTC". I doubt your customers know, or care, what that is. Perhaps, instead, replace with a "No Hardware to Buy" type of headline.
Is there any data for VC funded projects that actually come to fruition? Is 50% inline or way off?
> So, in practice, it is already impossible to do a true offline install of either browser; you just may not be aware of the things that are left out of the installer

Some people have lousy Internet connections. Those people use things like download managers to help. Download managers don't work with stub installers.

A simple link to a true offline installer would help those people. (Torrent is fine too, I guess.)
Yes, and that's why its first derivative is steeply negative.

However, it's far enough ahead of everywhere else (due to six decades of momentum, developed before that problem existed) to still be #1.
not only does it seem strange to make a marketing center on a barge, but it's absolutely huge. at a conservative rough count, it's about 8 8-foot-wide shipping containers wide, and about 6 20-foot-long shipping containers long. and four storeys high. that's 30000 square feet. for a showroom.
More info on this?
This isn't quite a straw man, but it is a little straw man-ish

Adam Smith coined the term invisible hand, so lets use him to take the place of the strawish man. Apart from 'Wealth of Nations' he also wrote 'A Theory of Moral Sentiments.' He was a moral philosopher at least as much as he was a economist. The invisible hand does not assume people are profit maximising robots in a theoretically perfect world.

Since Smith was very much talking human beings, he dealt with all sorts of motivations: selfishness, selflessness, empathy and a bunch of socially mitigated motivations like the desire to be held in esteem. He uses words like "often" not "always" to describe helpful outcomes from self interested motives. He isn't a fundamentalist at all.

So from a Smithian perspective I would say that immoral doctors are arseholes.

Honestly, I think this case just shows that nothing is perfect.
unrelated but when did Circa start publishing to the web, in addition to their apps?
Which is why the lightning connector is not outlawed. It's just that the charger end of it must be usb to be in compliance with eu regulations, so you can use a different charger with the same lightning cable when apple's charger breaks.
As a heterosexual white male it was very interesting to learn that all the thing I have been denied because of my race and gender should have been a privilege and that I have never actually been an outsider and have actually been the cause of everyone's loneliness instead of legitimately feeling it myself.
In a way, both of those guys are very much compensated for their posting here, albeit not directly from YC.
That's not how that works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rjGTOA2NA

The value of the law is not to give comfort to terrorists or evil doers, the benefit is in protecting everyone else. If those accused of the most heinous crimes are denied the benefit of law then all it takes to deny anyone that benefit is to level an accusation against them.

Maybe you think that you are safe from such things because your skin color, religion, or culture distances you from the terrorist archetype of the here and now (brown, arab, islamic). But without the benefit of the law such protections are extraordinarily flimsy and can be shredded at a moment's notice. What will you do when someone accuses you of being a child rapist? Those folks surely deserve no protection of the law, right? What will you do when someone accuses you of being a communist? Or a hacker? Or a pornographer? Or a media pirate? Or a dissident?

(P.S. I'm assuming I haven't fallen victim to poe's law, but I can't be sure.)
Works great in my chrome.

Is there any tech synthesizing the effects of distance? A linear volume fade (usually too quickly) doesn't cut it.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_localization#Distance_of_...
Your opinion about the cited figure is much more dubious than the data we got from an independent research analyst who didn't care for the data.
"Plebiscites are “referenda”, people’s votes, in which an authoritarian ruler invites the people to answer an often ambivalent, suggestive question, which he formulates himself. Using such plebiscites, a ruler bypasses and ignores his elected parliament and tries to claim direct legitimacy from the people. In this he is wrong, because he does not respect or follow parliament which has indeed been elected by the people and expresses their diversity and different interests"

In your case this would be bypassing congress, and bypassing debate because referenda are always formulated in questions that cant be debated. You're with us or with the evil doers
"It's not hard to spot them if you're looking"

This scares the shit out of the socially awkward or those the article is referring to. When entering a situation where I know almost no one, I always try to comfort myself by repeating things like "not everyone is looking at you" and "you are just like everyone else here".

However often times I take your advice and seek out other seemingly alone people and you're right, they're usually easy to spot .. if you're looking.
Foursquare + Rails + Heroku
This particular invisible hand has been hamstrung by malignant forces. Notably, the payer in a typical healthcare transaction is not the same as the recipient, splitting the typical buyer role into two.

Because health insurance is now commonly provided by employers because of World War II price controls, and because we have become accustomed to using health insurance to pay for all matter of health care, including routine visits, consumers are often ignorant of health care costs.

Customer A: My insurance will pay? Fine, let's do this. Cha-ching, price rises.

Customer B: My insurance will pay? Fine, let's do this. Cha-ching, price rises.

Customer C: Oh, insurance won't pay? How much? Whoa! How did the price get so high?

It's no surprise then that the invisible hand works in a way that appears flawed when one of its inputs (the buyer's sensitivity to price) is frustrated.

People of my persuasion often make the case that if automobile insurance worked the same as health insurance, and we used insurance to pay for oil changes, the price of oil changes would shoot up wildly. Reason being that you would no longer care what it costs.

Obviously the seller (the doctor in the case at hand) wants the price to be as high as possible. The invisible hand can't keep this in check—it cannot discipline the seller with lost sales—when so many buyers do not act with actual price sensitivity.
And all they had to do to get that was to be ripped from their homes and placed into residential schools, which existed into the 60s. What a sweet deal!

This smacks of tremendous ignorance of the history of First Nations people and what white Canadians have done to them. It's possibly the most concrete demonstration of white privilege I've ever seen.

"Well gee, I'm just a simple guy, but I don't think trying to balance out the horrible things that people of my race did to people of another race well into the 1900s that irreversibly affected their communities ability to survive is all that fair if I don't get those things too!"

It's all well and good to want a level playing field, but when you've spend the last century digging everyone else into gigantic holes, it kind of rings a little hollow.
I feel like the scariest sysadmin horror stories don't lend themselves well to the gif format.

For example, this one, from the dawn of the Internet about the coup in Trinidad.

http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/Folklore/Humor/encryption_foil...
Stopped not laughing when I read your comment.
The big confusion is whether we're trying to measure the "tech sector" or the "startup sector." The former is likely a superset of the latter, and the latter possibly includes companies which aren't necessarily in the former.

Should I be counted as part of the NYC tech sector? I'm working in a technical role at a media startup. Is that more or less techy than an office manager at a tech startup?

Purely anecdotally, the tech scene in NYC still feels extremely intimate. It's easy to know/recognize a lot of people at any tech event.