skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I successfully applied for a work visa here in Berlin, and I was blown away by how quick the process was, especially in contrast to the stories I hear about the same process in the US. From submitting all the paperwork to getting word that my application was approved, it took a grand total of 7 days. I was expecting to wait at least a few weeks, but it seems that the new Blue Card legislation has really streamlined things.

For anyone considering working in Germany, I would definitely recommend looking into the Blue Card, which offers some advantages over the normal work permit:

- It's initially valid for 4 years. For limited contracts, it's valid for the length of the contract plus 3 months.

- After 36 months with a Blue Card, you can apply for permanent residency (as opposed to 5 years with the normal work permit). This is lowered to only 21 months if you can prove B1-level German proficiency.

- You can leave the EU for up to 12 months without losing your visa status (versus 6 months with the normal work permit).

- After 18 months, you're free to live and work in any other EU country.

Further details:
http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/
OpenRC's view on systemd (and why its bad)
I like the name - after all it is just a name - is the Patriot Act patriotic??
Amazon Launches AWS SDK For JavaScript In The Browser
Temporarily mounted an NFS volume to a folder under /tmp.

Forgot about tmpwatch, a default entry in the RHEL cron table to clear out old temp files.

4AM the next morning, recursive deletion on anything wiuth a change time older than n days.
Yeah, I did, but I mean, if I were teaching and I gave an assignment and a student turned in a completely different assignment, he'd get a very puzzled compliment from me for how good the work was, but a zero would go into the gradebook for not completing the assignment.

I guess that's what I'm getting at.

And even outside of a school situation, if I were at work and my boss asked me to build a database and import data from some of our customers due Monday afternoon, and instead I spent the next three days building a brand new app that nobody asked for, I'd be fired (or at the very least reprimanded for wasting company time).
Most of the US (not NYC, DC, SF) is far cheaper than Europe in general. Even Seattle is cheaper on average.
I recently decided to stop talking about teaching kids to code, and actually do it. I don't plan to quite my job as a developer to become a full time teacher, so instead I started an after school program. This was made a lot easier because my wife is a high school teacher. We started a technology club at her high school with the dual goals of showing kids really interesting things that can be done with technology as well as actually teaching them some coding skills.

We've only been running for a few weeks but we've got about ten kids showing up every week. So far I've shown them some demos of things like using Google maps in your own software, making your own maps with TileMill, browser based games with Crafty, and phone call and SMS stuff with Twilio. They seemed to respond positively to all the demos but were very excited about the Twilio demo. I'm not surprised, because I also thought the ability to type something into a text area in the browser and then receive a phone call with that text read to me, is pretty sweet!

Most recently we started doing some basic HTML. Pages, images, links, etc. The kids were simultaneously making jokes about how simplistic it was ("oh wow, text on a page") and super excited to be creating something ("look I made it say something different", "cool, let me try!").

So basically what I'm saying is that if you have the opportunity, stop just "spreading the word about programming" and actually work with some kids to teach them something. It's only been a few weeks, but already it feels like very fulfilling work, and hopefully it will make a difference to expose these kids to the what's possible for them to do earlier than they might otherwise encounter it.
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Same can be said for Canada. As a non-white, I have not faced any discrimination yet in Canada ever since I moved here ten years ago. Sure there may be racism but at least not in the everyday life and certainly not in the tech sector.
This is changing. Rents in Berlin are rising by more than 10% each year in most areas.
If your application is only using S3 to upload objects, the full SDK would probably be overkill. Using pre-signed forms is sufficient there. However, if you want to use other services like DynamoDB, SQS, or SNS, pre-signed URLs will not work. Also note that in order to generate a pre-signed URL you still need a backend service running to sign those URLs, something you can avoid with the client-side SDK.
I agree. Two different things being discussed as one.

1) Everyone should have at least one outfit that is super classy. A cheap solution is a Salvation Army or Goodwill store in a nice part of town.

2) People who live on the dole and buy things they clearly don't need or deserve. Rocking an iPhone 5 while using your food stamp debit card at the grocery store to buy junk food is the typical "Stupid" poor person move most people hate to see. There's no justification for that.
The 7 best ways to learn how to code
The Buffet-drives-a-Buick school of being rich enough to not care about the social signifiers is, as mentioned in the article, a fully legit way to be filthy rich. Done right, it's a good way to fake being old money.
Even if animal testing is not made obsolete but is reduced by a large factor, that's huge progress.
wait what? Obama knowingly lied? ya don't say.
Right, but I'm not sure why they would even bring up the Popsicle thing at all. If I were at my job and my boss told me to do something, and I thought to myself "That's a stupid idea, I'll do something completely different instead," then best case scenario, I get yelled at for wasting company time, and worst case scenario, I get fired.

So I'm not clear on why he did that. I mean, if he did it on his own time and for fun, then great, but I don't see why we should be applauding him for not doing the assignment...
Take note of the caveat at the bottom of the article:

*"The Germans appreciate their visa-application process in comparison with America’s, but in the end, it’s still a slower process than many techies are willing to tolerate."

German bureaucracy may not be the worst in the world, but it is significantly more convoluted than the United States.
A reporter asked us to hack him, and here’s how we did it
NYC & SF are silly compared to the rest of the USA. I can go live in Seattle for that rent when I was there 3 years ago. I don't get state income tax either, which further increases my income. I have cheap, quick, direct flights to NYC & SF from Seattle too. Austin is probably a similar situation.
Most MBA programs seem to teach you how to run an existing business, versus how to create something people want. The first is much much easier than the first. A cynical part of me wants to call it leeching off the hard work of those who came before them. Somebody already did the hard part of starting the business.
The problem is that when you're aiming at a group that's higher than you, you don't know exactly what they do and don't know and what they can and can't tell the difference between. Thus, you may think that you have to have something extremely nice and not just simply nice. Additionally, the huge name brand over the acceptable-looking thing may buy you status within your own group, not just the group you're trying to move into.

There are countless movies having 2 well-dressed people side-by-side where the "in" person looks at the new person in the group and says "Get rid of that cheap suit." or similar.

The problem is that while you and me know that you can get away with the cheaper stuff as long as it's well-pressed, clean, etc., not everybody is sure of that.
Sorry, still disagree. I find the book quite filmable because I say it's already been done. It seems to me you say it cannot be done because you already have what you want, the original book.
I worked in canada for a year and was offered to stay

After 5 years in the US

If I am reading this correctly, you came to the United States even though you had an opportunity to stay in Canada. What was the appeal of coming to the United States?
The other day, I was hanging out with my uncle, who is a devoted hi-fi nut.(like tubes and lps and voodoo cables kinda hi-fi nut) He took me to a fellow 'enthusiasts' home who has spent the kind of money on a hi-fi system that I couldn't see happening even if I were a multi billionaire. This guy had the $160,000 US msrp(though he got them at the bargain price of only $60,000 plus a trade of some other equipment) Focal Grande Utopia EM(for electro magnet being used on the subwoofer) http://www.focal.com/en/utopia-iii/184-grande-utopia-em-3544...

He also had 750watt tube amps that were approximately 3x3 cubes on his floor and surprisingly for being valve amps of that magnitude didn't create the heat of the sun. He had a dedicated power circuit installed by the utility company so that he could separately condition and wire everything to use only the best 10,000 dollar cables available.

While this guy was certainly well off, his home probably more than doubled in value when he took that stereo inside the front door. He was retired and didnt need a large home, and this was an older 2500-3000 sq ft home in Dallas.(which is still somewhat reasonable per sq ft, compared to say silicon valley)
This guy was SOO proud of his stereo, that he has listening parties every tuesday night to show it off. Sure it sounded good, but as I said, even if my last name was Gates, Buffett or Zuckerberg I dont think that would ever be on my radar as a purchase decision. In many ways I think this persons stereo and an indigent person buying a 2500 dollar purse are the same impulse. Both seem horribly frivolous, but who are we to judge really??
Contact the Ruby Berlin Community (either through RUG::B or Ruby Berlin e.V.). We have members that are in a similar situation like you and will definitely be able to help you out.

Also, there is a surprising number of Berliners going to RubyConf AR. That would be a nice place to meet people.
> You will, however, pay two metric shit-tonnes in professional fees getting your U.S. tax returns prepared because the international tax rules are so ridiculous.

Really? All I did in my tax returns was say "I made this much outside of the US and paid this much in taxes". As long as the percentage is higher than you would have paid in the US, than you owe nothing. In the case that you don't...well then you might want to hire an accountant to "get creative".
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i love the analogy, but you're overthinking it. most people on technical forums have never been poor, so they've never been in the cage and have only heard about second-hand.

i didn't understand what poverty was like until i started smoking weed all the time, neglected most aspects of my life and got heavily into debt. i still wan't poor, but i started to understand why people without money, who are constantly hounded by debt collectors, tend to focus so much on the short term.
The Jigsaw Model of Education
This is a weak article. The headline exaggerates the content of the article as is often the case. Based on anecdotal opinions of two Berlin techies who probably have an incentive to promote Berlin's tech scene. The conclusion is that the German visa process is still intolerable. Yet somehow the application process is better is some ways. Some details of the process would be nice as well numbers of visas granted and time frames would be very helpful.

There are currently several big PR effort around US immigration reform[1]. Could this article just be part of that effort directed at Silicon Valley? Am I being paranoid?

Edit: I'm for easier immigration and work visas but would like a more transparent and fact based discussion.

[1] http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/24/republicans-for-imm...
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Startups might like it, but investors don't. Bootstrapping startups might be favorable in Berlin on the other hand.
Android 4.4 KitKat: designed for every phone
Google Announces The Nexus 5: AnandTech
Does the Fifth Amendment only apply to US citizens? The reason I ask is this: if I am traveling to the US and the TSA asks me to decrypt my laptop or unlock my phone, am I protected under the Fifth Amendment? Well, are US citizens protected under it at the airport?
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I think the point is that USB vectors allow the malware to jump the airgap but not reliably, maybe it puts some data on a USB stick and jumps it back but for the most part once it is behind the airgap it will only do what it's programmed to do.

Being able to communicate via ultrasound means that if you have an infection on two computers either side of an airgap in close proximity the theoretically isolated computer can be sent instructions from a C&C server and can send data back at-will.

I'm not commenting on the legitimacy of the story, but either technique in isolation is of limited use, combined however they can be a lot more effective.
Where in Germany are you? I think this is the first time I've heard anyone say that there is racism in Germany.
| Where in the US are you talking about? While we don't tend to have laws mandating sick leave, nearly every company that you'd immigrate for gives it. I've never worked anywhere that didn't offer at least two weeks of vacation.

No offense, but your proof here is purely anecdotal. I've worked for employers who offer less than two weeks. My first STEM job offered 5 days your first year, with 5 more each additional year, capping at 20. 2 weeks may be thought of as the norm, but since there is no actual law about it, its only a suggestion.

|Working 50+ hours is really a personal choice (as long as you work for an ethical employer) since it isn't legal to require someone to work more than 40 hours/week.

This is only true if you are hourly, and dont fall under a salaried exception. Its also only true if your employer is ethical, as you say. Since the US is largely at-will, you can be fired for most any reason. They aren't even required to tell you why. So, if you turn down your unethical boss insistence on a 50 hour week at a 40 hour weeks pay, you can be on the street in an hour. You can try to fight it, but the laws in the US are stacked in the employers favor.

|I'm not sure about super expensive education. Out of state tuition is typically expensive if you want to go to a good university, but the average community college is downright cheap.

This is generally true. JC are comparably cheap, but contrast this against someplace in the EU that has "high" tuition. A 4 year degree from a good school in England will set you back about 30k. Here, an equivalently prestigious degree can cost you 150k, easy. While you may learn the same at a 2 year JC, which will still cost you 15k by the by,you lack the prestige that a University degree gets you. Sadly, thats what gets you in the door. So, to be equally prestigious, you need to have 150k in debt in the US, and only 30K in debt in the UK. Thats not the same at all.
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Among different datacenters this is done most often in DNS in order to avoid the increased latency and singe-point-of-failure.
Generally at the CS graduate level most rejections are because your CV doesn't stand out from the pile.

What makes your CV good ?
This is huge. Jeff, if you're still reading, are there any plans to include Persona in the Web Identity federation?
Android for all and the new Nexus 5
Berlin is 3 times cheaper in terms of rent & food than San Francisco.
Live Input Effects
I agree with your point about it being a cyclical problem, but have to disagree with the part about supply and demand. Much of what has to be taught in public schools is dictated by government policy (both state and federal). Art and music classes are typically some of the first things to be cut when there are budget constraints, so a surplus of those types of teachers leads to a surplus of unemployed teachers (or retraining for a different subject), not a surplus of those classes being offered.
I really hate the idea that deploying on a Friday afternoon is a bad idea. It's only bad when you have shit developers or shit processes that don't catch broken code.

Personally, I think it's better to release at 5pm on a Friday. Once people stay late a few times to fix their broken shit they'll be smarter about not checking in crap.
Yes, it's important to be articulate. But the author is talking about speaking a different vernacular. I imagine one can be articulate in Black English* without being fluent in White English. "Talk[ing] like white folks" means speaking the same language at all, not merely "speaking well" on some counterfactual continuum.

[*] I imagine because I don't speak it.
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It is impossible to build a startup "inside" another company. If one understands what the word startup means. Therefore, the article's author does not.
Train Your Smartphone Like You Train Your Dog: Coming Soon
There is still a benefit, because you pay only federal income taxes, but not state taxes and you do not pay various other taxes such as medicare surcharge on investment income. So if you are from a high tax state in the U.S. ( California or NY ), it may still make sense.
On the at-will thing, in addition to it being easier if the company has demonstrable financial problems as someone else mentioned, one thing that makes it less of an issue is that usually when you start at a company in Germany you're given a fixed-term contract. It's only after your third contract (i.e. usually after two years) that you're required to get a permanent contract. In most cases if there's a real clash it's going to be sussed out in the first two years of employment, and during the first six months employees can be fired with no notice.

The working hours thing, for better or worse, is broadly ignored in software companies. That said, hours aren't as extreme as in many American companies.

For the parental leave, that only applies for companies with more than 15 employees, so the startups that it would affect are going to be more established. And while taking a year off is common, it's very rare for more to be taken with intent to return to the job.
I don't think I've ever seen a serious maths problem not be specific about the type of average they are referring to. In general speech, all three common types are meant (mode being the usual meaning of "the average/typical person...") and the context usually explains which someone means.

> I will concede that yes, I did mean the mean average

Which is fine, but you were complaining that someone else was wrong even though one obvious interpretation of their statement was correct.
How were the dumps created? Is it true that if you control the firmware, then you control what those dumps look like? If so, then the virus could be sending a decoy image whenever it detects someone's trying to dump the firmware.
I didn't know Apple got praise from hackers. At least not in my circles.
What about language barriers? Many German companies officially use English as their business language on paper at least, but how true would this be for startups?
Then you should have her check out Lollipuff (YC W13): designer auctions pre-screened by experts for authenticity (ie. eBay without the fakes). It also amazes us. Why would people pay full price when the "lightly used" ones sell for 80% off?

*Disclaimer: Am a founder of Lollipuff.
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Wow, defensive much? By your logic you should be fine with reading a book backwards. That may be your bag but not everyone would agree.

I reread and rewatch stuff all the time. That doesn't mean I want to know how the story ends the very first time I'm exposed to it.

I think you're too emotionally underdeveloped to realize I didn't ask you to destroy your prose with legalistic gerrymandering in the first place.
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I didn't see any official statistics in this Bloomberg article, which is unusual for articles on public policy issues from that publisher. Such statistics would be helpful for putting the individual statements by business owners in context.

What do we know about the total number of immigrants who arrive in Germany each year under the visa status described in the article? How does that compare to the total number of immigrants who arrive in the United States each year under its visa categories mentioned in the article? As a matter of country-to-country net immigration, does the United States gain immigrants from Germany, or does Germany gain immigrants from the United States? (In net immigration between the two countries, do different categories of immigrants have differing net preferences for one country or the other?) It's really hard to figure out how generalizable the statements in this article are without more context like this. Statistics trump anecdotes, even though anecdotes are more compelling to the human mind.
What is the Big Data startup scene like in Berlin?

I am about to graduate with a PhD in Machine Learning from a US university. I have talked to several Big Data startups in the valley but being a foreigner, the visa is a hurdle. But if this article is true, maybe I should look at the Berlin scene.
The problem was with their temporary storage on a local filesystem, not S3. I'm sure there's some kind of limit to what S3 will allow you to store based on how they distribute data to servers, but 64k isn't it.
I don't think windows has ever automatically installed drivers. It would automatically run a program as the current user, but again that's only for CD drives, virtual or not, and nothing stops you from supplying your own drivers for the hardware.
We must preserve Bitcoin's principles of privacy and freedom of financial speech
what is it about toe shoes? i always wear them - what kind of signal am i sending?
This is astoundingly obvious.

> nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,

I could see compelled decryption being congruent with the constitution if the decrypter is guaranteed immunity--ie, you can be compelled to be a witness against someone else.
What's new in Android 4.4
Man, the iPhone 5 really is not a very good example here.

If you wear your super classy outfit to an interview AND you have the iPhone 5 instead of a prepaid Android phone (or worse -- a prepaid non-smartphone), it's going to show that you "belong" and that you're not poor.

Some people really do pay attention to what kind of phone you have, particularly for these gateway-straddling jobs that the author talks about in the article.
Try to exercise some abstract thinking once in a while. It will improve your programming skill if nothing else.
On Battery Life
I think is the same phenomenon that happen to a lot wannabe-writers or painters; they would move to Paris or New York, just to feel they were real Van Goghs or Proust's :)
I like this argument and agree with it, but it seems like the only real way to truly protect yourself from being compelled to incriminate yourself is to use deniable encryption. There will always be cases where a specific jurisdiction makes an incorrect call that forces someone to give up their key or go to jail. There needs to be a solution for that other than suing to put the toothpaste back in the tube.