skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>Talking about infinity is a total red herring and you know that - especially because if your method of increasing intelligence is "search randomly" then an AI will not be able to make a better AI - all it can do is continue the random search humans already started.

Well the good approach that requires a halting oracle is AIXI, which uses semi-approximable (IIRC on the terminology) Solomonoff Induction hooked up to an expectimax tree.

So it does have to examine every possible "universe" as a Turing Machine, but it uses proven-convergent probabilistic reasoning to get rid of the bad ones and raise good hypotheses to the top much faster than a universal search.

>The speed of intelligence scales. But not the quality of it.
>
>The quality of intelligence is something very hard to quantify. But as simply as I can state it, it's the quality of coming up with an idea that is not just an extension of an existing one, but an idea that came seemingly from nowhere. To someone else the idea appears magic, and no amount of thinking by that other person can lead him in a path that will end up there.

To be frank, before I'll believe this I want to see studies done on either humans or a mathematical examination of formal models of intelligent agents.

I think "never" is much too strong a word, considering that we seem to have a huge abundance of people capable of learning calculus even though few can rediscover it from scratch. There appear to exist very many people who would require such great efforts to learn certain things that doing so would be unpractical, but very few who simply cannot learn things no matter how much effort they put in.
Keith wasn't referring to the Google Trends chart. It is an unrelated quote about the state of the various languages' ecosystems 4 years after their release dates.
I have extremely strong doubts about that. Everything can be modelled in modern databases, and SQL is probably much more powerful than you understand here.
I lived in Vegas for a few years, and never ran out of interesting things to do. There are lots of great outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking, golf, etc. that you can enjoy at least 10 months out of the year (depending on your tolerance for heat in the summer). You can even ski at Lee Canyon.

Although you're dismissive of the strip, and I can understand why from the typical visitors' perspective, there are literally tons of things to do there and many of them are significantly discounted or free to Las Vegas residents. I did the math and over the course of 3 years I went to tens of thousands of dollars of things for free.

There are concerts, some of the best restaurants in the world, conventions, boxing, shopping, and more. Traffic is manageable. Cost of living is low. Flights to most places are cheap. You can be in Southern California or doing outdoorsy stuff in Utah for the weekend with a few hours drive, or easy 1 hour flights.
NeXTSTEP was way ahead of its time too.
Being Bulgarian, I don't think this has anything to do with Bulgarians, in general, but it's rather an ex-Soviet bloc thing.
American/Canadian border and its 900 markers
I know of one person who has brought one and ended up describing it as useless, selling it on, and buying a macbook air.

I've not seen or heard of anyone else with one. Shipping volumes do not equal consumer purchases, so till I actually see people with them I'll take this as some sort of advertorial.
That pretty much sums it up and is in fact quite accurate. Well put!
Excuse your psychopathy however you please.
I didn't say it was faster than sphinx (yet) but it is definitely faster than lucene in all the benchmarks I've thrown at it.
> I know that a lot of people are reluctant to change because they have invested heavily in the times, money, efforts in something like puppet and they simply do not want to give puppet up

That's not me. Just recently I switched companies and needed to set up a new devops environment from scratch, and before starting I evaluated Ansible, Chef and Salt to determine whether they were superior to Puppet. I decided they were not.

I am not "in love" with Puppet. People who are in love with technology tend to make decisions for the wrong reasons. I have very little loyalty when it comes to choosing software, and will gladly replace any part of my stack if there is a better solution; but I greatly appreciate maturity and stability. Freshly minted, grandly-hyped technology is by definition immature.

I am truly tired of software being unnecessarily reinvented. The "not invented here" (or perhaps "not invented by me") treadmill where young, inexperienced developers throw away older, mature technology simply because it's not fresh and new is something I try to stay away from. Sometimes (Rails, Node.js, Nginx, Go) it brings something genuinely new to the stable, but generally it doesn't.

Lastly, I don't appreciate your condescending tone. And really, I'm not your friend.
Well, the classical engineering domains are all pretty different anyway (electrical, structural, civil, etc). I remember my grandfather saying he thought it was ludicrous that they were all covered by a single qualification.

Building software with an engineering approach is a real thing. Not everyone subscribes to it, but doesn't mean it isn't a real thing.

For the record, I do a lot of gardening too, and building software has fuck all to do with that.

I also don't get how everyone who argues against software-as-engineering talk like buildings and bridges never fall over. They do.
Must changing your default email be this difficult?
I'm pretty sure that some of them are aware that they are criminals, but probably the power of the money is stronger than the power of their ethics.
The actual reason is just that they're separate on the org chart.
When wikipedia turned user-hostile in about 2006 that was one of the things that went. Just use a better wiki (e.g. tv tropes).
Extending node-dota2
I have to agree strongly with this. It's like a professional trainer calling themselves a professor just because they teach. You are an engineer if your diploma says so. It is an earned title, not a job description. I say this as a CS dropout that never calls myself an engineer.
Something similar happened to me. One day I got a call from a wrong number. The next day a letter addressed to my neighbor showed up in my mailbox. Very suspicious.
Congrats on making the leap! I've been waiting for the right time as well, and it has been too easy to continue kicking the can with reasons why not.

I am curious on the 6 months of runway. Have you found how many months others save up?
so many things have changed in 4 years. you can check out the conferences and meetups in istanbul. the city is constantly adapting itself to new cultures since many foreigners are coming and living in the city. you can go out to any coffee / tea shop, enjoy yourself some tea and work as much as you want.

the downside of istanbul is that it's insanely huge and crowded. the traffic is a big pain in the ass but that's changing since many people are starting to use public transportation and the municipality is expanding transportation options. by 2023 things will be way more different.
Money Doesn't Grow on Binary Trees
Congratulations, man! I did this 2 years ago when I quit the US foreign service (really stable job) and decided to learn programming. It worked out really well for me, and I have done some incredible things that I never would have had a chance to do otherwise.

It's not the easiest road, but you will have a great time, I am sure. Will definitely watch your blog for updates, and let me know if I can help at all.
It's a slightly flowery (haha) way of putting it, but I agree whole-heartedly. I recently held a talk at a Python conference and I asked the question: degrees and job titles aside, are we scientists, engineers, artists or a combination of all of these. The overwhelming response was "all of the above".

My preferred term is "artisan". A software developer is applying techniques acquired primarily through experience, supplemented by training and outside knowledge. The artisan has a clear vision of the end result in high-level strokes, but the actual process and implementation is strongly dictated by experience and intuition.

Obviously there are different branches of software developer that have more characteristics of engineering, others of science, but I would hazard to guess that 80% of software development is essentially a guided artistic process.
I'm always interested in reading about how people have managed to gain some personal and financial independence. But I find it hard to relate to this article. I guess if you have the runway to just sit around and discover what it is you really want do, then cool. But there's no real plan here, just "oh maybe I'll do freelancing too..yeah that sounds good." Maybe I've just been fortunate, but I've always worked in jobs where I feel I'm getting paid to learn skills that I know will be highly valuable whenever I decide to do something on my own. And I try to work on my own stuff, putting in 10-15 hours a week while still working a full-time job. I'd love to just leave my job, but I don't see why setting aside some solid hours each week isn't enough to get something off the ground. So, unless you're absolutely miserable in your job you shouldn't just leave it unless there's actually some other "thing" you're working on that actually requires your full-time attention. Again, maybe a lot of this post just reflects a sort of path of personal discovery, but it's hard for me to relate to. To me, the lesson is more about finding a job that is fulfilling enough and still leaves you enough time to work on your other stuff with the hopes that your other projects can eventually become self-sustaining and lead you to greater personal and financial independence.
You can Ubuntu them pretty easily, either side-by-side or replacing ChromeOS. Bang, you have a netbook just like a few years ago.
The story of None, True and False in Python
It's an encyclopedia for god's sake.
Loved the post. I'm in the exact same position as you. Have 6 months of runway and I've become an independent consultant. I'm also spending the time on my own ideas, like my newly launched https://www.silvrback.com

I wish you the best of luck. Like you said, life is too short not to take risks.
Why you can't comment here. - blog.vrypan.net
The "scientific method" -- which I commented on -- needs to formulate hypotheses, test them and so on. That can't reliably be done in any mostly historical science, by definition.

(And of course you can randomly test some things in historical sciences too. E.g. finding historical trading patterns by looking at materials used for artefacts, diet by looking at enamel of skeletons, etc etc. Other things won't find any possible test solution, ever.)
> ADTs/pattern matching are not "a complete type system". Structural types are not "a complete type system"

Why not? Can you not write any program using either? Haskell uses just the former, and JS the latter (though without type safety).

> Scala unifies the different concepts by expressing them through Java-style classes and inheritance.

I think it "unifies" them only in the sense that the (single) compiler can compile all three. But case classes cannot be part of an inheritance hierarchy nor structural types (or inheritance types) be used as ADTs. The three certainly intersect, but they're not really unified.

> It is immensely useful to have both dynamic dispatch and ADTs/pattern matching in the toolset; they are often useful for different problems.

Obviously, and that is why some languages employ the one or the other. The question is, how useful is it (from a cost/benefit perspective) to have all three (plus macros!) in the same language? After all, while each has its benefits sometimes, they also overlap a lot, as most programs are about as easily implemented in all three. As I've said elsewhere, in language design, as in most things, one must choose. A pizza, a steak and ice-cream all have their place, but may lose much of their flavor if mixed into the same dish. In the JVM ecosystem we are lucky enough to have easy interoperability between languages. The JVM is a restaurant with a varied menu, and you can have a meal of several courses. The best way to go, IMO, is to pick one simple language you're comfortable with and use it for most tasks, and for those tasks that require specialized skills outside your chosen language's strengths – use another.
- I hope, pray and wish you the best.
It's not always that easy. I was recently reading a fantastic book, not all at once from beginning to the end. So at some point, thrilled by the book, I just wanted to quickly check if the author was famous, if the book sold well, etc. I checked quickly the wikipedia page of that book trying (and succeeding, but still) to avoid getting spoiled. If you want to read it, it's "the fault in our stars" (but don't check wikipedia for it)
If you don't slide or freeze on your way.
Yep. I'm on work's Windows 7 laptop right now and hating it. (Linux Toshiba brightness bug is too annoying to live in Ubuntu.) Next netbook I buy will likely be one of these.
No OEM is going to pay $200 for Windows, so they're not going to refund you $200 for Windows. $40 is more realistic.
This doesn't contribute anything. You're missing the important question "what is engineering?".

Saying it's just "whatever engineers do" is meaningless.
To Grow, Twitter Looks to Wider Web and Outside Developers
I remain proud to have done my bit to destroy the spoiler warning.
> In fact, people do believe weird things about salt; there is a widespread and unsupported belief that moderation of sodium intake is a key public health concern, which it is not.

It's not an unsupported belief. Studies have shown that high sodium intake is a significant contributor to hypertension. Here is one such study: http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/3/235. There is debate about whether consuming several thousand milligrams of sodium a day adversely affects blood pressure in everyone or only in some people, but that it's a major contributor to hypertension (9-17% of cases) is supported.

If you have specific criticisms of the methodology of those kinds of studies or if you have links to sources that dispute the above, I'd be interesting in reading them.

Or are you saying that what's unsupported is the notion that the above makes sodium intake a key public health concern?
We didn't stab the spoiler warning through its whiny little heart until 2007.
I'll be at the Go room @ FOSDEM 2014! See you there.
... You just spoiled Breaking Bad for me, thanks!
- I think it is a good idea to go straight from college into contracting/freelancing. You'll learn alot. However I think freelancing should be like a part-time job and you should have a CS job as a day-time/full-time job. Not only for experience and networking but most importantly for the money. Freelancing IS REALLY COMPETITIVE and it may be difficult at first to get as many jobs that will be needed in order to pay the bills.
1. Well, you don't need to, but it's certainly interesting.
2. People assume all the time that software development is engineering. That's what leads to clashes between management and developers; clients not understanding why you can't estimate precisely; neverending projects; etc.

It's a very important thing to understand and explain that software development is _not_ an engineering discipline -- at least not yet. We strive to make it another branch of engineering, that's why we have design patters, methodologies, etc. Engineering is usually boring, but predictable, and that's a very important property software lacks at the moment.
They can licence the dude that made this html5 demo so he can use their assets.
I been using Go for a year now. Its hard to explain but for the most part I enjoy coding with Go. I could say i find it fun/enjoyable but that doesn't seem to convey the right feeling.
I have a hard time understanding why Chromebooks are getting so much praise over the internet, but at the same time Windows RT is considered as the worst piece of technology ever invented. Aren't they mostly the same thing? Both Windows RT and ChromeOS machines are similarly priced, both can be used to browse the internet and access web apps. Windows RT machine usually ship with Office 2013 for free (or the light version of it). They all have touch screens ( I dont think all Chromebooks machine have it). And last time I checked, android apps didnt work natively on Chromebooks, meaning that Windows RT machine have access to more applications than Chromebooks. This will probably be a very unpopular opinion, but I really don't understand why one is so popular vs the other (is it only explicable by the fact that most people hate Microsoft, but love Google?)
Which service is this for? It sounds very interesting.
I agree that the responses should be intelligent as well. But that does not make "we observe black people to be less intelligent" to be any more of a reasonable statement, nor does it mean that we need an environment in which you can say that without repercussions in order for knowledge to be gained.
Most other questions may seem too verbose to actually ask in a short interview, but the #2 is a key question that should be asked always. Most likely will tell you more about the actual job contents (i.e., which task you'll be required to focus on) than everything else; and asking it early is key to avoid a mismatch in expectations.
Because of a very strong community-driven notion that Wikipedia is not censored, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_disclaimers_in_art...) spoiler warnings won't make it into articles directly. This has been heavily discussed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/...

But indirectly, this functionality could exist in a Javascript widget/gadget/script that users who do not wish to see spoilers can install themselves, into their registered account's settings. The installation process is usually very simple, a small copy/paste into a configuration file.

I think that no direct modifications to articles to accommodate the script would be allowed; this includes special templates, <!-- hidden comments-->, or even the existing benign {{anchor}} template (usually used to mark HTML URL#link targets), if it's used to mark text {{anchor|spoiler}} for the script.

So the script has to be smart and dependent only the article text itself. It could selectively activate on articles in any category containing the words Television or Film, on sections named Plot or Synopsis, and simply collapse (autohide), or redact (blackout) any paragraphs which contain proper names, or keywords present in a list (die, dead, death, kill, wed, wedd*, marry, married, etc.)

A good starting point would be the text selection and redaction functionality as shown in the ProseSize.js script, which also presents a "Page size" link in the left navigation bar and, when clicked, instantly styles all the eligible article text background in yellow. Our widget could just use black.

I leave it to Javascript and CSS wizards to go further.
On the open source side, feature creep and lack of design direction. On the commercial side, the internet + desire to squeeze in as much advertising/profits as possible.

It is definitely still possible to have a desktop that looks and behaves like this on Linux, if you use a minimalistic window manager and apps (dwm, xmonad, open box, the suckless apps, etc). I've been doing this for a while, it makes the computing experience much nicer IMO.
To begin with, it may not want to harvest more computational power. Even if, it may be initially too stupid to do this. Even if, the internet speed and small reliability of those nodes may make them unusable to this purpose.
A code unit is the minimal bit length for a character in a particular encoding, so in UTF16 that's 16 bits and in UTF8 it's 8 bits.

A code point is a character, that may be encoded by a single code unit or may require multiple code units.

Mostly Java handles strings as 16bit code units, code point functions were only introduced at 1.5.
Searchable map of zip codes ranked by income and education
I think this [silly] argument is nothing more than a special case of the argument over whether words have inherent meaning, or derive meaning from usage. I don't think 'software engineer' was ever meant to denote a new subtype of engineer. I think 'software engineer' is a compound word that means whatever it is we do. At work, whenever someone says 'get an engineer to look at that', absolutely nobody thinks that means to call one of the 'real' kinds of engineers on the phone. They know it means to get a software developer/programmer/code monkey/dev or whatever you want to call people who make software out of computer code.
I'm close to that point at my current job, too. I feel like I learned lots, but that the learning and growth has plateaued for me, so it's time to move on. I would love to just announce my leave and head out in uncertain waters, but I have a rule that I always have to be moving towards something I want, rather than away from something I dislike. Leaving because I am unhappy with the work would break that rule (to my dismay).

From one Dan to another (Danny, actually), I wish you luck, and I hope you succeed in finding what you want to move towards!
yup that sounds about right. looks like they're allowing to you hire partial FTEs for sales support.
How much would you pay for a nice UI wrapper, and the ability to designate glacier photos vs. S3 photos?
Share with HN: My Reading List
I thought composition vs inheritance was strictly an OO, not a functional thing?
not according to this breakdown of the google management team: http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/. even if true, they could combine them on the org chart as well.
I can't afford a Mac

Consider buying used, either from Craigslist or a dealer; three-year-old Macs are still very nice and cost about half to a third of new ones (I know, because I sell my firm's old Macs on Craigslist).

If you're proficient with hardware, it's also possible to dramatically improve performance by installing a cheap SSD.
It's actually just outsourcing - but I see that crowdsourcing is the buzzword of the year so I understand why you'd use it. I'd prefer the outsourcing approach with one or 2 good guys who know my product over a factory style team any day!
I intended the original definition, not the corrupted one, but also as a pun.
A lot of costs are also about five-fold in the US, apart from things like gas (which can be explained by the fact that decent public transport is almost nonexistent here).
congratulations :) good luck with whatever comes next!
What does not necessary mean more capable in case of making AI systems.
You should have said to them: 'you're only f* programmers'. Just as a joke. As a software engineer (?), I am quite fed up with people in their early 20s calling themselves 'architects', 'artist', etc.

You're not a scientist, and not an artist. Being a scientist and a programmer is extremely different because of a simple, seemingly minor thing: the lenght of the feedback loop. As a programmer, your feedback loop is sometimes an hour, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a second (IntelliSense/other IDE help), sometimes weeks. But for scientist, it's sometimes forever. So it's for very different personalities.