skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If what we're talking about here is the extreme danger of declaring war on an ill-defined organization rather than a nation state, you and I are on the same page. The 2001 AUMF against "Al Qaeda" will probably go down in history as a world-historical foreign policy blunder.

But if what we're talking about is the idea that a clearly-defined Al Qaeda target operating in a territory that is self-evidently fertile ground for the operation of paramilitary death squads should somehow have been served with some kind of due process notification rather than being sniped from orbit, I'm less sure I'm on the same page with you.

For one thing, drone strikes kill far fewer people than ground operations do. Read any story about soldiers operating in middle eastern theaters (or Vietnam, for that matter) --- hell, read accounts of Army Ranger squads operating in theater --- and I think you'll see where I'm coming from. Somebody's old grandfather sticks his head out a window looking to see what the commotion is at the wrong time, and blam, he's a target. Ground combat (at least as long as it's conducted by humans on the ground) is necessarily horrific and anything that spares both sides those horrors is at least worth considering.

So that's a little shotgun blast of my thoughts about drone strikes.
You shouldn’t ask customers what they'd pay for a product (diagnostic imaging)
Have you thought about putting kits together to do this? And funding with Kickstarter?
That's a room, not an entire flat!
If you have one that's turned off, it's going to be quite hard for them to find out you have it...
What happens the first time an autonomous weapon refuses to fire because the target is not positively identified, or because non-combatants would be harmed?
Europe should close the current open doors. We now know what we always suspected, which is that the US only has its own interests at heart, and ours when it suits them.

My fear is that we close the doors and sooner rather than later we get hit by another Madrid and London attack, and the US turns around and says, "we could have told you that if you'd given us unfettered access to all of your communications".

My worst fear is that the US backs such an attack as a false flag op, just to prove the point.
Well, the design has been through a few revisions. I'm not afraid to make breaking changes before version 1.0.0 (for example, I completely rewrote the level handling system to improve level editing performance by an order of magnitude).

The current status of the server is:

* Full support for Minecraft 1.6.4 networking (1.7.x networking is a WIP)

* Full support for editing Minecraft levels

* Implementations of all Minecraft data types (i.e. slots, metadata dictionaries, NBT, etc)

* Slightly buggy emulation of Minecraft physics

* Simple procedural terrain generation

Here's an incomplete list of things that aren't done:

* Lots of block interactions (like water emulation, or falling sand) were done, but were lost during the refactoring I mentioned above

* Redstone and all related logic

* Mob AI (work in progress, not very far along)

* More detailed world generation (missing ores, caves, biomes, villages)

Aside from the server, there's also a mature classic networking library, and a fairly complete client library (no rendering).

The project is more than a year old now and is built on top of code that's about three years old. It's a pretty big undertaking, and it's going to take a while to finish. It'll be done faster if I get more third party help, though!
I have no professional relationship with LinkedIn and all signs I can see point to them taking security as seriously as any other Large West Coast Tech Company --- which, if you're wondering, is actually a pretty high bar compared to the Fortune 1000.
Unfortunately not everyone is as forgiving.
Maybe £300/month was a bit ambitious for Leeds, but here's £400/month:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-4286620...

This is in Bramley / Pudsey, 4 miles out from Leeds city centre (well within the Leeds / Bradford urban area). I imagine you could get similar in Armley or Holbeck (1.5 miles out).
15 hours a day? On fake problems?

Why not teach them basic skills on the frontend and backend and let them work on projects for 15 hours a day?
Are the pieces in the outfit generally specific to that outfit?

This is an interesting idea, but the value proposition to buyers is much higher if you're selling a few pieces that can go together, but are also very versatile in that you can use them in any number of combinations.

I don't want to spend money on 'one-offs'. Can you speak to the quality of the pieces?
What exactly is the fear here, they are going to accidentally hit a different car? Not really a big deal, considering during normal chases they accidentally hit other cars... with their car. Is the fear that they are going to sticky innocent law-abiding drivers on purpose? Well they already follow people and pull people over without reason, so I'm not seeing this as something new in that regard.. though this of course leaves a better audit trail.
Kudos to Joel, Leo and the team for how they're handling it so far. The speed with which Joel had a comprehensive email update out to every user was impressive. I hope they resolve it soon.
Outstanding email. Being hacked sucks but Buffer is handling it very well, at least communication-wise.
I basically want a Macbook Air-like computer, Haswell processor, but not from Apple. 8GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and absolutely NO touchscreen!
A yearly season ticket from Birmingham to London incl the tube is £7,252 (or £5,240 without the travelcard).

A peak return ticket is £158 (this Tuesday, trains arriving before 9am)
Yes. It was depressing, and having to get up off your ass to discuss even the slightest triviality was annoying to no end.

I like my current open setup. I'm not a fan of all open setups, but there are advantages above and beyond the oft-quoted one of cost. There are also tools that seek to replicate the advantages of being physically next to the person you need to communicate with, but in my experience they are pale facsimiles of the real thing.

Screen sharing, video conferencing, IM, shared whiteboarding (this last one is by far the worst, not a single product I've ever seen in this space has been anything but terrible). None of these are "good enough" replicas of sitting next to someone.

When I worked in a private office setup even just wrangling people for scheduled meetings was a pain in the ass. So even actually trying to talk to some people face to face was terrible - the culture developed a tolerance for lateness. Someone's in the zone and making code sing, they can be 90 seconds late to the meeting. Then everyone starts being 90 seconds late. Then 2 minutes. Then 3... Before you know it the first 10 minutes of every scheduled meeting was a complete writeoff.

But that's a cultural problem that can be fixed - as are nearly all problems with open plan.

I'm not an open-plan zealot, I've seen how it can fail terribly. I've also seen how it can be great for my productivity and the productivity of my team. I object to being called an idiot because I've had good experiences with open plan spaces, and the author has not.
Somewhat. That's how it started. How it ended was nasty, actively deceptive and minor nitpicking bitterness. Towards the end, that campaign just made me cringe.
Thanks to less than 100% reserve requirements on banks, the money the rich keep in American banks is theoretically reinvested through loans back to various enterprises.

The problem arises when the banks don't lend the money and just sit on it... or when companies like Apple siton their huge cash reserves...

To fix this we must boost aggregate DEMAND. Investors and banks give money to businesses when they see demand.
I always wondered whether a chair that would put you into an almost lying position would be best for your health - I believe you could easily fight sleepiness, while the reduced load on your back and knees would make it possible to work very long hours with minimal health effects...

Kind of like the Emperor 1510 - maybe we could team up to develop something like this :-)
Roundup: Busy Week at Internet Archive (New/Updated Research Tools & Policies)
"Most Americans—61 percent in the latest Pew survey—support the idea of military drones, a projection of American power that won’t risk American lives."

I sincerely hope this survey is wrong, though something tells me it isn't...
For custom hardware with a substantial fraction of the feature-set of a modern smartphone, plus way more sensors, $1000 seems ambitiously cheap.

They aren't going to sell a billion of them, R&D and tooling costs are going to push the price up a lot.
These are all still localized problems, with local solutions (or that are in need of local solutions). Speaking about water shortages on larger scales seems to ignore the reality of how water supplies work.
I love this, very cool stuff. You should add a code format button to the editor.
call me cynical, but I bet it was discussed, and overruled on the point that this system allows them get access to all your juicy email under the pretence that "we can't do it any other way"
That's quite a team. The article's light on details, but I have to assume that they have already been doing durability design and that the article is just light on the details.
"open-source", IP-free anticancer drug candidate (http://indysci.org)

We're launching in January (or possibly December)

It's cool, because we want to disrupt the way that pharma operates. Biotech could learn a lot from the way that the software industry has been revolutionized by the open-source philosophy. The world could stand to also see tangible benefits if we succeed in (re)proving it's actually possible. People have done this in the past (salk and sabin come to mind); sometimes the global consciousness just needs a reminder.
Without addressing the issue of tax loopholes in general, there is a logical rationale for lower taxes on capital gains (for Schwarzman, Buffett & co):

- It's a double tax, as money that was invested had already been previously taxed.

- It does not account for inflation. If an investment grows only with inflation, capital gains taxes still need to be paid on that growth.
Blimp http://getblimp.com

Project management software for creative teams with no managers.

It's cool because:

* We help you automate a workflow for your tasks (Plan -> Do -> Review ->Done)

* Beautiful and easy to use

* You can see the status of all projects on a single page (no more status meetings)

* You can see who is doing what in any moment

* Conversations are task centric, no need to read long messages to figure out what to do

* Google Drive, Dropbox Integration

* Proudly bootstrapped and made by three guys from Puerto Rico.
How the “Navy SEALs” of trading are taking on Wall Street’s predatory robots
So are you going to sign Business Associate Agreements with your customers? They won't be HIPAA compliant otherwise, under the latest HITECH rules. That's where the analogy to PCI breaks down.
EEG (brain waves) device for about $50
I do agree with you that the article has not provided any evidence suggesting the correlation between low birth rate and the expense of education.

As an Asian I think the correlation is a little hard to believe for some people but this correlation can be true. The ever-growing economy brings destruction to peaceful Korean society and living expense is going up so much that good salary (and thus having an admirable job) is necessary. If you are not a Samsung engineer you can face social pressure (from your family, your gf/bf family and from your friends) according to the article. This is probably because Koreans are very proud of their technology. As a result from the pressure, I suppose a lot of Korean are avoiding marriage and birth early so they can concentrate on their career growth. These are just my theory and I'd like to see a good research on this.
According to the video, that process is a way to measure Plank's constant (indirectly), which is precisely what they refer to in the article.
Beauty emerges from insight, understanding, first principles, and rigor.
Public Service Announcement: "SHA1(password+salt)" is an extremely unsafe way to store passwords. Use PBKDF2, bcrypt or scrypt.

Edit (T+7 minutes): Rewritten to not be a jerk.
Happy Scale (http://happyscale.com) - A moving-average weight tracking app for iOS

It's cool because it changes your relationship with the scale. Your weight fluctuates up and down naturally during a diet, and seeing a high number in the morning after you worked so hard the day before can be so demoralizing. With this app, that number is just a data point. You can enter a high number into the app and find out that your overall weight trend is still headed in the downward direction, so there's no need to freak out!

On a personal level, it's cool because I actually SHIPPED and because I've gotten to learn so many new things like design and marketing. And getting an email from someone who tells you that it's helping them in a way that no other system has ever helped them before feels incredible.

PS- Reading Hacker News has been a huge inspiration for working on this and persevering during the rough times. Love you guys.
From the email I got,

All updates have been paused.

Passwords and payment information have NOT been compromised.

--

It would be sorted out in a bit.
This is probably bound to catch on fast in the us where teachers and their unions are thought (by an unnerving possible majority) to be one of the primary factors in our ongoing economic problems.
http://respondcms.com/

I know "why do we need another CMS?" It's cool because it makes it really easy to deploy Bootstrap sites. Plus, it has a full API and a great UI (well, at least I think so).
An advantageous move for LinkedIn might be to just launch it's own email service and compete with Gmail. So many add-ons and hacks exist to add LinkedIn capabilities to existing email, it might be worth it on their part to do it the Right Way.
Their blog post said as much; that LinkedIn gave very little background about what's going on behind the scenes. This post doesn't actually address much.

Why was your account created 30 minutes ago just to post two comments on this story?
There are a few things in this post that are widely off the mark, so much so that is actually unhinges the debate.

The first is that Alito is actually far better than Roberts on privacy rights [1]. Specifically, Alito supports a mosaic theory of the 4th amendment [2] that looks at "whether the government conduct taken over time collects an amount of information that is somehow surprising or unexpected". Alito is actually one of the best hopes for progressive 4th amendment jurisprudence, yet your characterization of him is exactly the opposite!

The second is that blind deference it is not the position of Scalia (though he certainly does support deference to the executive branch when such deference is allowed by law). He is an originalist [3] who faithfully executes that algorithm when he renders his decisions. Just because you don't agree with his point of view doesn't mean he's blindly backing national security agencies. In this situation, Scalia would tell you that what is being done is allowed by law and that Congress can stop it at any time through legislation, i.e. "garbage law in, garbage decision out". He thinks, quite sensibly sometimes, that it is the executive branch's job to deal with national security issues and such issues only become his concern when they violate the law. He is a very capable, if sometimes misguided, jurist.

As to the fact that SCOTUS does not know much about technology, this is an oft argued position that has been thoroughly debunked. Judges have to make rulings on a wide range of technical issues that they are not experts on. This has always been the case, it's not a "wildcard", and the courts are well equipped to handle it. They bring in experts and requests briefs on the necessary subjects. In the last 10 years the Court has ruled on genes, encryption, complex medical procedures, etc. It's impossible for the justices to be experts on all of these. The best we can do is require the justices to be experts on the law and provide them with support from subject matter experts.

[1] http://www.michiganlawreview.org/assets/pdfs/111/3/Kerr.pdf

[2] http://www.volokh.com/2012/01/23/whats-the-status-of-the-mos...

[3] http://nymag.com/news/features/antonin-scalia-2013-10/#print

EDITED to address some comments.
I think I read some people's experiences with a chair like the Emperor; what they were basically saying is that it gets very uncomfortable over time, no matter how comfy the chair is. It's a fallacy to state that the most relaxed or supported position is good for you. Better to sit or stand in an active position - like what this chair is trying to do.
Very interesting stuff. What are your thoughts on the I2P darknet, the Syndicate system, and why are they inadequate in your opinion?
> low taxes on dividends

My understanding is that the low nominal tax on dividends is on top of the high corporate tax, which is 35%, so that dividends are taxed at a higher rate than earned income.
I know you didn't imply this, but there is no reason that every "what if" needs to be tested or falsified.

I imagine that the possible deviations from General Relativity have been thoroughly mapped out and tested, where possible.
>I am not arguing for or against whether he was entitled to a realistic chance, just stating that he didnt and it was by design.

I know that you aren't passing judgement yourself, but I hope that before anyone else does, they consider the fact that Bin Laden was extremely intelligent and fantastically disciplined. He was the kind of guy who ALWAYS considered every possibility. His system for remaining hidden was absolutely amazing in a world where highly educated people routinely make idiotic mistakes from an OPSEC standpoint. You could argue that air-gapping and delivering USB sticks to remote internet cafés isn't isn't impressive, but the reality is, few people stayed on top of their OPSEC like this guy did. When we did find him, it was because ONE guy on his crew fucked up, one time, after hiding for several years. The only OPSEC mistake that Bin Laden himself made was trusting a guy that had proven himself dependable for many years.

Now, when you have a really brilliant guy like this that already knows that at some point in the future, he will be found by his enemies, you have to consider the possibility that he prepared for it. Thus, when our guys rolled into the complex, they had every reason in the world to believe that either someone in the compound would be wired with explosives, or that the compound itself would be rigged. With that being a real possibility, you don't really have time to give someone a proper chance to surrender.
I got an email stating.

All updates have been paused.

Passwords and payment information have NOT been compromised.

--

It would be sorted out in a bit.
Although it might be possible to modify the mass of a computer by a factor of 2 this is really not going to affect its score so much, given the presence of a logarithm. You're definitely not going to be able to adjust its mass by an order of magnitude after all. A similar problem exists for humans: should you include the whole body or just the brain? What about some kind of power source? Luckily all of these factors are only going to add/subtract a few points (doubling/halving mass is +-0.3).

A bigger source of error is whether the ability to process information can be put to good use. Since this was written computing power has increased by at least 6 orders of magnitude, putting computers ahead of humans. Yet we are no closer to being able to have an intelligent conversation with a computer than we are to having an intelligent conversation with a plough or any other machine that can be used to lever our minds.
Let's take a step back at what value LinkedIn Intro is supposed to give to me. What would be a better way to deliver this value?

I'd argue the best way to deliver this would be by working with mail providers not by subverting them. LinkedIn could open itself up and allow people to query names and profile information (probably would have to be opt-in) given an email address. A client would just send information an email address, and LinkedIn would hand back name and (public) profile information. If the client chooses to send their own email address, LinkedIn could send back a richer set of information including connections. The email client would then display the information in a way that it knows best.

The whole idea is so simple and straightforward that I cannot help but think LinkedIn's ultimate goal is not to just know who is sending emails to whom but also what they are saying. Cory Scott may know that the implementation is solid but I doubt he knows the motivations of his corporate overlords.

Perhaps LinkedIn should put a badge on all profiles of members who have opted in to the Intro service so I can cut all ties with them.
He surprised me as well in that ruling, him and Thomas both actually. But I think they were both reading from a strict fourth amendment position of the privacy expected within a home---something that could be easily conceptualized from an originalist point of view (those legal types who always look for the exact wording of the founders).

"Scalia created a "firm but also bright" line drawn by the Fourth Amendment at the "'entrance to the house'".[1] This line is meant to protect the home from all types of warrantless surveillance and is an interpretation of what he called "the long view" of the Fourth Amendment."

Mobile apps that use GPS to track people=brain freeze.

Given his standing on Clapper v. Amnesty, I think this falls under his more general view of privacy rights...which is not great, as Scalia doesn't really acknowledge Griswold v. Connecticut when the right to privacy was first established, and he has a strong reluctance to question national security agencies on issues he doesn't seem to know very much about...

“The consequence of that is that whether the NSA can do the stuff it’s been doing ... which used to be a question for the people ... will now be resolved by the branch of government that knows the least about the issues in question, the branch that knows the least about the extent of the threat against which the wiretapping is directed,” Scalia said.
Office Space: Open or Closed?
Damn, I'll have to see if I can convince someone to give it to me as an early Christmas present. I really need a new chair, and this looks like just the one for me.

They'll even give you a full refund, if you don't like it.
Except Tesla hasn't built an affordable car yet. You could argue the same for Dyson's vacuum cleaners, which are still premium devices much more expensive than regular vacuums.
An interactive food recipie application for the gov
The email I got had the following core info:

All updates have been paused.

Passwords and payment information have NOT been compromised.

--

It would be sorted out in a bit.
And what does a billionaire do after buying a $90M apartment in Dubai?

How does it help the USA working class when billionaires channel their money overseas