skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"Who cares if millions of people take bad loans that they have no chance of repaying? That's their own fault, they should know better."

And yet, look at how deeply the entire world was affected. People need to be protected from themselves for the well-being of society.

Also, are you Ayn Rand or something? Your only point of argument here is that people should be given more opportunity to ruin the lives of their family at the hands of a system that has most likely willfully manipulated and taken advantage of their lack of experience (including convincing them that it was a good idea in the first place). Have some compassion.
I think there is an opportunity for a startup to deliver a mobile messaging platform for developers to build apps on.

Parse.com would be ideal, but unfortunately is far too expensive for this use-case.

If this already exists, or someone would be interested in exploring this with me, let me know.
I'm taking a course with this book right now... and yes, I stole it at the authors' recommendation. Textbooks are too expensive and I don't want to carry it around anyway.
I hope that is sarcasm as I haven't ever seen a Haskell job in the EU.
From the OP's closing sentence:

> But there is little doubt that millions of teens will use these apps more and more, and older demographics will eventually join them. There's a good chance that will continue to be at the expense of Facebook.

Wow, that's quite the compelling evidence...the Guardian has "little doubt"!

Another great data point:

> The roll-out is still in its infancy, but after one music streaming service in the Middle East added the WhatsApp sharing button, its was surprised to find its users sharing 50% more songs via WhatsApp than Facebook.

The "one music streaming service in the Middle East" that apparently is so popular it doesn't need to be named! Of course, the above statement could also be true if the startup's users previously shared one song on Facebook and have shared 2 on Whatsapp, but who's counting?
They still have two billion dollar opportunities that they are sitting on:

1. An Adsense competitor
2. Video ads

These are not wild predictions of possible revenue streams. Facebook has already launched these features to select partners and when they are launched to the public, their stock will jump a lot more.
I bet if google tries hard enough, Google+ can be both complained about my everyone AND barely used (in any real way which a user would consider "use").
These things develop a culture though. The same friends you have on facebook may behave completely differently on a different platform.
You have the Xamarin extra payload and need to have someone write .NET bindings for the Android APIs.

But it is certainly a good way to write portable software across all mobile platforms.
> ... instead I will ask how they produce builds, what the deploy pipeline is, and then track back if I find their answers alarming.

That's a good approach, noted!
DNS can store whatever information you want to put into it.

I agree it's not necessarily going to be that practical for larger items of data, though.

LDAP would be a better comparison, though I can't say I fault people for reinventing LDAP on a regular basis given how annoying it is to work with.
> For example, when it is said that Litecoin and other Scrypt-based coins were created just as a way not to let GPU mining rigs go worthless

This is incorrect.

Litecoin was created to stop CPUs going idle, it was a resistance against GPU mining. They since changed their tune a bit, but that was the stated aim on their main page for a year or so.

> I believe the existence of other coins with different algorithms is important, even to point out possible flaws in Bitcoin and the way SHA-256 is used.

If sha256 is broken so badly that arbitrary outputs can be chosen, all things are dead. Litecoin uses sha256 everywhere internally too, just not for their mining algorithm.
A marvellous false analogy.
May I ask why is there so much fuss about youngsters? Yes, they will be the consumers of tomorrow but how about the consumers of today? I’m in my early 40s I earn a lot and I spend a lot. Plus I have my interests pretty fixed. Why aren’t the companies drooling to get my attention instead?
Reminds me of this article from a week ago about how google maps sucked because it failed at a particular coffee shop query in SF a gentleman that happens to be a techcrunch writer did. Google Maps and Facebook are amazing services that try to guess what's more relevant to you and most of the time get it write. This in itself is a pretty amazing achievement. This is what we should be amazed at, not these few times those services get it wrong. The level of self-entitlement is high here, especially that we're talking free web services here. The day they always get it right is the day we get human like (edit: or rather god like mind reading) perfect AI, not happening any time soon guys. So in the meantime, relax and enjoy the show. Or stop using these services if they're that bad, or even better, build your own.
I met a few people who work at Zappos in Vegas. They couldn't stop talking about how much they enjoy working there.
The funny thing is, your own comment could make you look like an "asshole" in a few decades when moral fashions change again. That's part of the problem with political correctness. The other and much worse part is that in some situations the choice of words that you present as (as it indeed is) such a trivial matter can have very nontrivial consequences.
you seem to be taking as a given that those are acceptable things to do.
As a base for a well rounded developer, I would say to pick C# or Java and Ruby or Python, and C or Go. Learn javascript. Avoid PHP, even if you're starving.
> I don't see as many duckface pics on my feed each day

And what makes you think if as many of your Facebook friends were on Google+ (and used it as actively) you still wouldn't see "as many duckface pics" in your feed?
WhatsApp, iMessage, BBM, WeChat. They're all basically the same thing: Private messaging services. Simple. I think ultimately that's all people want to do as far as communication is concerned.

Not that any one service will win, but in order for any of them to do well, I think they need to do the following:

- Private messaging

- Group messages

- Images

- Free, or very very cheap (I don't think anybody has really tested the idea of charging a fee yet)

- Cross-platform - leaving out BBM and iMessage

- Some way of getting your address book from an existing address book

-- Web/desktop messaging. This isn't as important for the younger generation but for many others it is.

The only reason BBM and iMessage are or were popular was because they came pretty early and came with devices, but leaving friends out of conversations because they use a different platform from you is damaging, which is why WhatsApp became so popular, and why Facebook Messenger is so popular too.
> Plus I have my interests pretty fixed. Why aren’t the companies drooling to get my attention instead?

Couldn't "Plus I have my interests pretty fixed." be the answer to that question?
> C# is great with Visual Studio, but costly to use.

The Windows/.NET SDK is free.

Additionally, you can make use of SharpDevelop, Xamarin IDE or Visual Studio Express editions.
It is a human problem. Humans live in areas where the scientific community knows certain disasters will eventually hit, sometime. It is hard to convince someone to allocate $100 now to save $1000 later, because it is later. You don't see the result now and might not in your lifetime and the prospect of "it probably won't happen" is easy to justify.

and yes prevention costs less almost always.
Kinda. I have dozens of cousins with terrible politics and duck faces that I love to hang out with 2 or 3 times per year. things that get organized on Facebook. It's tough to have only digital friends that don't do duck face or push shitty politics if you also have real life friends.
Agreed.

b) is ripple (I already commented about it in this thread) - it really is amazing technology that I hope becomes mainstream. It solves a lot of the major problems of BTC and other Altcoins.
You can still use WhatsApp without a data plan, almost everywhere there is WiFi. It may depend on your life style, but I spent a lot of time at my house, office or college, so my phone is connected most of the time without a data plan.
Is this a joke about that 1956 conference?
A host of batch jobs that source data from up to 28 different systems and then apply business rules to extract a substrate of useful data.
Absolutely yes! Nobody here can tell you what is good and what sucks. Your experience must not be based off a few HN comments. You must learn the facts, and then draw conclusions.

Even if you're not into Java programming, a weekend or two with the language will validate a few opinions and reject a few. I promise there's no better way to learn.
I think you mean, the first one to AI laughs their butt off as the AI proceeds to kill all humans ;-).
Yeah, thanks for the confirmation. I never believed in this crap about email, phone, letters and personal visits (WTF?)!
Afaik the idea of BBM pin codes is you can exchange contact information without giving out anything sensitive, formal, or prehistoric such as your email address, phone number, or your real name. It's a stroke of genius if you ask me, and I think it appeals to teenagers secretive nature.

Most teenagers probably don't want all their phone book imported magically in to their IM app either: 1) because they probably IM and Skype with more, and more varied, people than they text or phone, and 2) because their phone book probably includes their annoying aunties and relatives.

I also love the design of the BBM app (on Android). It's straightforward, single purpose and clean.
How many people were fired or expelled over things like not wearing flag pins?
There's a caveat with process substitution; the command can't seek() on the input file.

If if a command, for example, needs to do 2 passes, it'll will either have to be 'smart' enough to stick the output in a buffer or fail.
Languages I think you should know:

C, Java, Bash, Javascript, one out of {Perl,Python,Ruby}, and perhaps a functional language like Lisp or Clojure. Each one will make your understanding of programming more comprehensive.

What Java offers is that it's actually a pretty idealistic language in its approach to OOP, to the point that it irritates the hell out of most of us with all the necessary boilerplate. Practically speaking, too, there are a lot of Java jobs (and probably will be for a while) and it's not very idiomatic so there's a lot of overlap w/ other languages, vs say, Prolog.

Also, by "know" I mean, have written a non-"hello world" application but not necessarily having expertise in it.
I don't know what country you're from, but in most of Europe and the US (or anywhere infact!) why would you not have a data plan for your phone? It's quite difficult to find a phone plan without some form of data included, even PAYG, and the price difference is often negligible.

Fair enough if using a fashionably retro 'dumb' phone and not a smart phone, in which case you can't use WhatsApp anyway. If you are using a smart phone without a data connection, then why? Surely you're missing out on all of the benefits of owning a smart phone like maps and instant access to online information, free messaging (WhatsApp anyone?).

If you just don't want a data plan, you can still use WiFi which would likely cover you for 80% of the time (home and work).
Thank you for this.

It's easy to make armchair judgements and comparison when not armed with all the facts.

The truth is, the country will always have issues (bureaucracy, corruption, etc) dealing with these natural disasters, but combatting poverty will go much further in avoiding loss of life. The vast majority of those affected have a hand to mouth existence and have basically no choice but to live in areas that put them in the highest risk (low lying, coastal, flood prone) in structures that are all but guaranteed to fail in a storm.
How much can I save in my mobile phone and plan?
> The day they always get it right is the day we get human like perfect AI

I agree with the majority of your comment, but not that line. Accomplishing that feat would not be "human like perfect AI" - it'd be mind-reading. My very closest friends could probably do a better job filtering my newsfeed than Facebook, but no way they would ever get it always right.
Kasper - A theme for Jekyll
I get what you are saying, but I think your analogy would rather be this (to remove the flaws in the parallel) -

> I have no knowledge of airplane mechanics, and hence, I probably have no business flying in airplanes.
C++ is very much alive and kicking. "Worth learning" - is there an end goal you have in mind?
Does Python 3 fix the import system? Can I import a file from any location in the file system?
What's sad is that many people will read comments like ours and not get it.
One to many, not one to one
The difference in speed between Python and PHP should not be a deciding factor in choosing between the two web frameworks. Many of the core PHP functions are implemented in C directly, so they are very fast, but once you add a framework into the mix, speed drops off considerably because it seems the PHP interpreter is not so good.
I'm surprised Malta hasn't been discussed (tiny island in the mediterranean, just south of Sicily). I arrived here 5 years ago thinking it would be a paradise (its not). Below are my generalisations:

Upside = Best weather in Europe, English speaking, 100Mb/s fiber, cheap ryanair flights to most of Europe, cheap rent compared to Northern Europe - luxury 3 bed flat around 800 Euro.

Downside = Extremely conservative and religious state run by the church (abortion is illegal even if mothers life is at risk - WTF). 10 year prison sentences for possession of Marijauana. Extremely narrow minded people. Ugly, very dry, dirty polluted beaches, lots of rock and very little green. Very poor standard of food at restaurants and even supermarkets.

I'm leaving for the Netherlands, can't wait!
just wondering how good a "best friend" is when you rely on facebook status updates to keep in touch with her…
i might be old fashioned, but what happened with speaking to / seeing people irl?

"My 3rd cousin whom I haven't seen since a family reunion 10 years ago"
so why is she in your feed to begin with?

to me this all sounds like a rant from someone blaming a website s/he's socially awkward
I wonder if that's a piece of US-hypersensitivity? I'm British and it sounds a little old-fashioned but nothing close to 'offensive'. I even checked with a friend who works in an advice center and needs to be extremely aware of such issues and he didn't think it was problematic.

Anyone else in the UK agree or disagree?
What the hell are you smoking? I'm not attempting to prove anything, I am asking you a question.
This is why I deleted my facebook account about 8 months ago.

Never looked back.
FYI: WhatsApp charged initially to cover their server costs.
> It's quite difficult to find a phone plan without some form of data included, even PAYG

Citation needed. Pay and go plans in the UK still charge data by the megabyte.
How about stop sending me marketing crap when I sign up for something. Much better solution.

My biggest bugbear is actually Atlassian JIRA where when you upgrade/install it, it tells Atlassian to SPAM you so every damn time. You have to then click through to unsubscribe. Even though you just gave them $20,000 in license fees.
Er, you're assuming that this strong AI would be smarter than a human brain, what is not at all obvious.
It maybe more appropriate to ask, should I have a portfolio of Java applications/solutions to interesting problems. Learning the pitfalls of a language is undoubtedly useful and I would argue that learning the process of project start-up, testing, maintenance and deployment would perhaps put you in a much more valuable position for learning.
Is "7: Stop the sneaky redirects" really true? Source?
If you ask that, then no, it is not worth learning for you.
No, it doesn't have any chance.

WhatsApp | 350 million monthly active users
Viber | 200 million registered users
Line | 280 million registered users
KakaoTalk | 100 million users
Skype | 300 million connected users (663 million registered users in 2010)
WeChat | 400 million registered users (mostly in China)
Tango | 100 million registered users
I think that "The incredibly specialized into a well-funded field" is not optional. The second one is.
New China Cities: Shoddy Homes, Broken Hope
Teenagers are a 200-billion dollar market and are generally very social and trendy.
> the act or crime of stealing;

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/steal

steal [steel] stole, sto·len, steal·ing, noun
verb (used with object)

1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.

2. to appropriate (ideas, credit, words, etc.) without right or acknowledgment.

...

Some jurisdictions have a much broader definition of theft too, e.g.: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9a.56.020

1) "Theft" means:

(a) To wrongfully obtain or exert unauthorized control over the property or services of another or the value thereof, with intent to deprive him or her of such property or services; or

(b) By color or aid of deception to obtain control over the property or services of another or the value thereof, with intent to deprive him or her of such property or services; or

(c) To appropriate lost or misdelivered property or services of another, or the value thereof, with intent to deprive him or her of such property or services.

(Emphasis added)

The point that is missed when engaging in these word games, of course, is that in common parlance, "theft" is used to mean any act that deprive others of something. In this case, it is the rightful payment for the value provided by the intellectual property that has been appropriated.
Yes it is. I'm hearing of reports that measuring equipment actually failed because they maxed out. They say there are actually some things they can't give an accurate measurement of because the equipment burst.
Please think a little bit about (a) not being condescending

Please think about physics and use specifics in your reasoning. If you have better logic in your head, please relate it. What you have posted is indistinguishable from spin doctoring and therefore receives appropriate treatment.

I am not going to get into hypotheticals.

Because they'd sound pretty stupid if you came out with specifics. Remember, the context here is dealing with batteries encased in 1/4" thick aluminum armor. Scenarios that can expose dangers in the wreckage for one type of vehicle would also be dangerous for the other type.

All I am saying is that elecric cars have inherent dangers not found in gasoline cars.

Gasoline cars have inherent dangers not found in electric vehicles. See how hazy statements like that are?

You can stand in a puddle of gasoline and you'll be OK.

And you'd be much more foolish for doing that than standing in a puddle of water near a Tesla S whose battery compartments have been breached, but are mostly intact and are being inundated by fire fighters.

EDIT: "Water, electricity! Oh noes!" was directed at my downvoters, not you.
I'm referring to social networking. For private messaging I stick to SMS.
> The novel question in the new post-9/11 context is how to manage that same balance in the ongoing battle for intelligence which by definition requires tremendous secrecy and daring.

I'll give you the beginnings of an answer by addressing this statement.

The "battle for intelligence" is a fantasy created by those who would wield fear over you. In any society, there is a risk that some people are crazy and murderous. The solution to this is not a battle, but a hospital: care better for the crazy, and the they are far less likely to shoot up their neighbourhood. Negating that risk through a "battle for intelligence" is like negating the risk of bullying at school by installing a constantly monitored camera on every pupil's shoulder and electrocuting any transgressors. It may work, superficially, but it ain't the right solution. The cost isn't worth the benefit.

This addresses internal crazies. What about the external ones who want to destroy America? Same difference. Instead of fighting an endless war, ask why they are trying to "destroy America" in the first place, and fix that. While I do not condone terrorists in any way, the US has a deeply hypocritical foreign policy, and has had that for well over half a century. Change that, consistently for another half a century, and miraculously the hatred against America will vanish.

So the problem begins with your assertion that there is any "battle for intelligence" with a worthwhile definition, let alone one that requires "tremendous secrecy and daring". There isn't. It's all a paranoia in your and your compatriots' heads.

Which funnily enough, is precisely the point of the article.
And we are back to MSN days, the mobile version though...
I guess habits, yours are already formed, while teenagers are more easily to mold. Habits are difficult to change. "What do you mean there is no Internet anymore on my computer, I dont want that firefly!!? Its buttons are all wrong."
I downvoted, because this is very short-sighted. IRC is simple. Blogs are simple. They had their time but they didn't win. They should have, though.
I thought the general assumption was that a strong AI would be able to rapidly self-improve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
If you've used facebook recently you'd know they've also added hashtags, their main purpose (and the way twitter started using them originally) is to connect your posts to a topic.

I've also seen it used (and have used it myself) as a way to kinda add a punchline to a post that didn't have or need one.
Billion of metric values.
Stuxnet also infected the internal network of a Russian nuclear plan
If somebody wants to learn now, its good to go after the future market which would be dominated by mobile, apps on cloud.

The (now) largest mobile platform uses Java as its main language for applications. Lots of cloud services, including much of e.g. Google's, are written in Java.

(Scala, Clojure seems to be picking up)

We live in a bubble:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=java%2C+scala%2C+cloj...

The average programmer will never write Clojure. Maybe Scala, but only as a Java with less boilerplate.

Golang/Dart will be a deadly combination as well

This almost seems an enumeration of today's hypes ;). You know that Go (the language) is practically a Java 1.0? What is so deadly about a Java 1.0-like language with green threads (which have been around a long time) and CSP-like channels (for which Java implementations were available). What's 'deadly' about it?

I like cutting-edge languages such as Haskell. However, historically, it's mostly boring languages with industry support that win. C was boring and it had UNIX, C++ started out as C with objects and had Microsoft and many others, Java was boring (a watered-down C++) and had Sun, IBM, Oracle, etc., and C# was boring (a Java clone) and had Microsoft (arguably, it did adopt more outside influences than Java ever did). Go will probably be popular as well, it's an incredibly boring language (no one could claim it to be revolutionary after Java or Erlang) and it has Google.

Note that I don't find the predicate 'boring' offensive. These languages are well-understood (except maybe C++), are standardized, have large ecosystems, have great tooling. The result is that they allow you to focus more on the actual problem than reimplementing basic libraries or fighting tooling.
I like Dumaguete City, have been there several times. I remember crusing down Rizal Boulevard with my girl, stopping to pick up some "silvanas" from Sans Rival. Really refreshing when it gets hot. Then hopping on the ferry to Bohol. Those were the days...

http://heart-2-heart-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/s...