skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Look. The 'problem' with patent trolls is two fold: (1) The legal system permits them to shake down companies in ridiculous ways, and (2) The patent system grants obscene patents.

The solution is to attack those two problems. Not to attack the concept of patents themselves nor NPEs.

If the anti-patent-troll efforts were focused upon those two points specifically, meaningful reform would be much easier to achieve; fewer special interests would be aligned against the changes.
I think he's right. A culture where flow is encouraged is bad because the risk of going down a rabbit hole increases enormously when in the zone. This makes it an inefficient way of working.

I like to compare solving a programming task with navigating to a goal. Being in the zone is the equivalent of going really fast. Speed might be good in general, but it's really useless if you're going in the wrong direction. Navigation skills are in fact a whole lot more important than speed.

In solving programming tasks you have to be smart - try to find shortcuts, ask interrogative questions about the requirements to avoid unnecessary work, check with your colleagues if someone has already done something similar, find libraries which will help you solve the task etc.

So being in the zone is in my world just a sign of someone who's probably in a hurry and/or isn't working strategically.

The only exception to this rule is when you're pair programming, because then you have a co-driver who's handling the navigation, so you're allowed to focus on going fast.
FLIR E4 Thermal Imaging Camera teardown
I agree with the majority of your post, but I'm not convinced that inflation should be included in your list of bad things ("do you want inflation, meddling, and regulation?"). A moderate amount of inflation is a very good thing, and this isn't really even open to debate among economists. Its importance has been empirically and theoretically proven many times.

Inflation is important because economics is all about creating incentives. We have property rights because it gives people an incentive to work hard and takes risks. We have patents because they give people an incentive to explain how their invention works. We have a market economy because it means that if a company wants to gain market share, it has to create value for the consumer. In the same way, central banks try to maintain low levels of inflation (~3%) because it encourages people to invest their money in profitable ventures, rather than just leaving it under the mattress. Investment is the way wealth is created, so it should be pretty obvious that deflation is bad for the economy.

Notice that I'm talking about the economic health of the country, not the individual citizen. If you're only concerned about immediate short term benefits, you should push for zero taxes, high deflation, and the gold standard. But that's penny wise and pound foolish. You're shooting yourself in the foot. Better by far is to support actions which improve the economy, because a rising tide lifts all boats.
PAYMILL is still looking for some new people:
http://goo.gl/mxIUtf

:)
Some of the HP T-series thin clients are x86 and can accept a PCI-E riser. I ran one with a sempron 2100+ (fanless) and an Intel Pro/1000MT 2-port PCI-E card. It had 1GB of RAM and 1GB of solid-state disk-on-module, but the module used a weird reverse-gender 2.5" IDE connector, so I had to use pin headers to adapt it to an external USB HDD reader to install pfSense on it.

After that though, it ran great for a few years until the motherboard died. In all, $100 well-spent for a quiet and small pfSense box with enough power to handle 100mbit internet at wire speed.

Here's an example of what you can get these days:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NG816AA-HP-Compaq-GT7725-Thin-Client... ($60 and it has either a PCI or PCI-E slot).

Now I'm happily on a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite, which is a great little Debian ARM box that runs Vyatta for $100: http://www.ubnt.com/edgemax (protip: learn the CLI; it's very similar to Cisco's IOS)
> Harmonize security and those travel times fall in line right quick.

The security differential in the US is based in large part on the fact that airplanes can (a) be diverted by hijackers to alternate destinations, and (b) be used as weapons against arbitrary targets.

Since the risks aren't the same, why would you aim to harmonize security, except as a pure subsidy to the airline industry?
> Long distance rail competes with plane, light rail with autos.

Heavy rail at the distances for which HSR routes are planned in the US (such as California HSR) competes with autos more than air travel.
SEEKING WORK - Remote

If you need reliable, high-throughput REST-style APIs in Java, I'm your guy. After 7+ years of experience in server-side Java (JEE 5&6, Spring, Wicket...), I'm specializing in lightweight stacks. I love Dropwizard, JEE6, PostgreSQL, Lucene... Please email me at username at gmail.com for more infos.

I now work from home, in the south of France, enjoying a fullfilling life with my SO and my 3 weeks old daughter : I won't relocate .
Reinforces one of my golden rules for internet discussions:

Gender Discussions on the Internet - Not even once.
This should be the go-to article for any one that is feeling down or confused about their hustle. Well written!
Amazing dog playing Guitar - Johnny Cash Ring of Fire FUNNY
The Guardian will need resources. I suggest considering taking a subscription -- electronic, if you are not in the UK and/or like trees.

TANSTAAFL
I am so glad my btc are in cold storage and i cant day trade them like an idiot
I think you're possibly being overly narrow with your notion of "memory". Such a thing would not be a memory in the sense of something stored in the nervous system, but it would still be a memory in the sense of stored information based on past occurrences that influence future behavior. (And all memories are physical changes, after all!)

And while that's certainly nowhere near as noteworthy as if memories from the nervous system were somehow being directly passed down, it does not seem to be a correct statement that this "is not an unexpected outcome of the study within the current model". I mean, sure, the model doesn't exclude this outcome, but it certainly seems that nobody expected it to happen in a case like this.
welcome to the roller coaster ride! i was playing the bitcoin market with a small amount of money and had automated orders buying at $90 and selling at $120. It kept accumulating coins fairly consistently for a few months. My "sell everything" order kicked in at $140 but the value just kept rocketing up to $1000!

Even though I made money obviously I'm a bit sad about it. But it just shows that nobody can see into the future. I thought at the time that $140 would be a ridiculous profit.

My advice if you plan to go long is to just resist watching the value because it will drive you crazy and you'll make stupid moves as you try to guess which way the graph is going to go.
Parse.ly (parsely.com) - Remote (EST / CST preferred)

We're a fully distributed team (see http://bit.ly/distributed-teams for a post by me, the CTO) -- which is to say, a merit-based, technology-forward, super-bright team of Pythonistas who happen to collaborate using the same methods of major open web projects like Wikipedia, Wordpress, Ubuntu, and Mozilla.

We just closed a $5M series A round. As a result, we're looking to expand our engineering team. We are looking for full-stack engineers, back-end data engineers, and front-end data visualization interaction designers.

If you're focused on the backend, you should have experience with high write performance DBs (e.g. Redis, Cassandra), large-scale log analysis (e.g. Hadoop, Pig, Hive), and big distributed cloud systems (e.g. >20 node cloud deployments). That will mean you'll hit the ground running here.

For the front-end, you should know modern web and mobile design principles and be particularly excited by d3.js and its associated ecosystem.

You'd be joining the company at a great time. Our engineering team is still small enough that we feel like an elite task force, but unlike two years ago, we are making millions in revenue and have a ridiculous amount of data to draw insight out of on behalf of our customers.

You should be an expert in a mainstream programming language, preferably Python or JavaScript. You should be willing to learn, or already know, technologies like Tornado, MongoDB, Redis, Solr, Postgres, Cassandra, Pig, Storm, and Amazon Web Services. You should be extremely handy at a UNIX command line, possessing all the skills of a sysadmin.

Also, if you happen to be an experienced software engineer who wants to end up in a role with a mixture of product management, customer interaction, and individual contributions to the code, we have just the position for you. Let us know -- we're looking for you.

If you join us, you'll be part of a well-funded and high-revenue SaaS analytics company that is rewriting the rules of online media. Our software aggregates data on over 5 billion pageviews per month of traffic, and we work with major media companies as customers, such as The Atlantic, Arstechnica, Mashable, The New Republic, MIT Technology Review, and many more.

Apply by sending a (short!) cover letter to work@parsely.com. Mention this HN post and say you're looking for Andrew.

Include links to online portfolio, Github, LinkedIn, or any similar services, if you have them. If you have a Python code example that you think expresses your Python coding style, that would also be a good thing to send along (as plain attachment, Github Gist, or similar).
The same thing happens in a lot of contracting arrangements. Federal government contracts software development work, and the developer generally retains intellectual property rights to whatever is developed (unlike most private software development contracting arrangements).

To your question: I'm not sure. To the extent universities can generate revenue from developments that were publicly funded, they need less public funding in the future. Unfortunately I don't see that happen much; the revenue goes into funding a large administrative bureaucracy to manage licensing and technology transfer.
SEEKING WORK - Freelance UX/Design and Frontend Coder Remote: Based in Doncaster, UK. Working from my well equipped office space: http://instagram.com/p/b4GtPfH8Nw/

Portfolio: http://dribbble.com/roybarberuk & http://roybarber.com

Freelance UX/Design, from low/high fidelity mockups in Axure/HTML to Design to Front End Code/Wordpress. Have done css in ruby/node & angular.js Extensive experience with responsive website and wordpress.

Email: hi@roybarber.com other contact details on my website. Alternatively enquire through dribbble.
What exactly is the problem with patent trolls? Someone made an invention and wants to profit from it, and not every inventor is good at starting and running a business. Besides in quite a few business sectors the barriers of entry are too high to be able to monetize an invention from scratch. You see the exact same with lawyers, accountants, etc. Companies specialize in those specific tasks so they can be good at what they do, and other businesses hire them to simplify their own.

As I see it the problems are that patents are granted on ridiculous things, every new type of digital device comes with a slew of patents that basically replicate everything that can be done with a computer, and in biology patents are granted on DNA simply for finding it in a creature, not for actually designing it. That is one thing that should be solved, the other thing that should be fixed are the damages awarded by courts. For a phone or software product with 10000 features any single one shouldn't be worth much more than a ten thousandth of the price.
5 Mindset Shifts You Need To Make To Do The Impossible
One of the really powerful things about functional programming is Higher Order Functions, like Map, Reduce, Filter and ZipWith. This style of programming is inherently scalable. This is seen in Google naming its distributed processing framework MapReduce.

You can see a presentation about Clojure Reducers by Leonardo Borges here: http://www.slideshare.net/borgesleonardo/clojure-reducers-cl...

The application of these ideas is used in Big Data scenarios. In Clojure we can leverage frameworks that use Hadoop to apply ideas about Higher Order Functions:

* Cascalog http://cascalog.org/ (Expressive queries in datalog over the Cascading library)

* Parkour https://github.com/damballa/parkour/ (Hadoop MapReduce in idiomatic Clojure)
Jajah service closure
I've tried looking into salt a couple of times, but I find the documentation really lacking. The information is too spread out. I just took another look at the docs and it appears to do just about everything puppet does, but is much easier to configure (puppet-db/mcollective salt-alternatives are default).

Is there a canonical tutorial that's worth reading?
maybe he doesn't need/want the money in a "bona-fide" currency?
While it wasn't the biggest money mistake of my life, it's certainly a whopper in retrospect. Don't be like me ;)

I have a problem classifying random things like this as a mistake. You didn't have enough information at the time to predict that BTC would exceed $1000, and you don't have enough information now to predict what it will do, either.

It's just a game of musical chairs. The only "mistake" is to play. Some mistakes we pay for, while others ultimately benefit us.
All I can say for certain is that you're in for a hell of a ride. Good luck.
The Cold War and the Maximum Principle of Optimal Control
Ask HN: As a European, how do I get to Silicon Valley?
Hi hackers,

i am a computer science master student at the swiss federal institue of technology. I am going to graduate in spring 2014. I would like to work in silicon valley for a couple of years.
But i have noooo idea where to start.

What is the first step ? Visa or Work ?

Where do i look for jobs ? (except hackernews)

How much wage is "normal" in silicon valley for a software engineer ?

How much should i pay for the rent ?

Where should i look for housing ?

and so on
The fact that no bank can control it, inherently holds value.

But the fact that anyone can roll their own competing currency inherently kills value, doesn't it?
Clever! You started this tangential discussion with the posturing that you are pre-empting it.
Now this thread hijacks the actual topic at hand.
Never mind those generations of discrimination. We men will tell you what is an acceptable commit and that's that. Offended? Tough luck. We run the world! It's a meritocracy don'tchaknow??!!

(But don't publicly shame us! We're too threatened a species! we're just innocent victims of tradition! Who got this way through our own hard work! Oh no the womenz are attacking!!!!!!!!! Poor us!)
China claims victory in scrubbing the Internet
How so? As a noob in trading, I find it fun to ponder all the psychological factors. People buying fuels mania leading to more people buying fueling more mania. Until some turining point when too many people start to sell fueling a depression making more people sell fueling more of a depression...

Obviously people with enough money can try to artificial trigger those processes, but what are the conditions for that to work? Maybe the overall trade volume needs to be small enough?

How does an artificially triggered cycle look different from a "normal" cycle?

I suspect going from 100$/BTC to 1000$/BTC as a "pump and dump" would have required a lot of money for pumping?
I assume most people on HN don't know whats going on so I'll chip in what I know:

The admin, allegedly this Thomas guy, ran off with 17k BTC which is worth around $15M right now. Nobody is able to transfer their bitcoin out of sheep either. Everybody is pissed off so people are attacking his server and trying to "dox" the person. Here is the address where the money has gone:

https://blockchain.info/address/1Cwb33nqn4S2uDsXwhNrUNy7FPdi...

If anybody is interested, check out the sheep subreddit, lot's more information on the issue there.
> Conversely, it seems unlikely that e.g. Google's shares would be worth the current market cap if they were all sold at the same time.

Not really true. Google's shares have a value that is based mostly on analysis of expected value. If they offloaded a bunch of their shares at once, the analyzed value wouldn't change, so the market would only crash for a very short time while everyone else realizes Google is a better deal than their other stocks.

There is no revenue from Bitcoin, on the other hand. Much like gold, its value is almost entirely based on speculation, but with some added value on account of people needing to buy a little bit to do certain things. The market cap of Bitcoin is not based on anything tangible.
One reason for tolls (and patents from public research) is that they cause the people who use them to pay, instead of everyone. That seems reasonable to me in those instances where the road or invention isn't clearly for the public good of the whole public.
I'm thinking that the exhaustion had less to do with email or tech per se, but more to do with not having the authority to get shit done by actually solving problems. What I imagine with your Marine combat experience, is that you had access the to resources you needed, and it was your group's sole responsibility to get things done. In my career, the most draining positions I've had in the past are the ones where you can only fix symptoms, or peripheral problems and there is some long-term roadblock for me or the team to fully address problems.
For those who are interested in developing a realistically useful small OS in C++ (or even C++ 11), you may probably want to check out OSv https://github.com/cloudius-systems/osv/ developed by previous KVM guys.
When Smart People Are Bad Employees
DICOM Grid, Phoenix, AZ or REMOTE

Overview

DICOM Grid, a SaaS start-up in the healthcare technology field, is looking for a Compliance Lead to build DICOM Grid’s compliance policies and procedures. You will report to the CFO. We are looking to build the Compliance Lead by sending the qualified candidate to appropriate training. You do not need experience in healthcare regulations to apply. However, you need to convince DICOM Grid’s leadership that you can learn the healthcare regulations and quickly build appropriate policies and procedures. This is a great opportunity to build out a critical part of the company, to get involved in a healthcare startup that is gaining traction with big ambitions, and to develop skills that are in high demand.

Position Responsibilities

- Build and document processes and procedures that align DICOM Grid with relevant healthcare regulations.

- Monitor company initiatives that might be affected by law

- Educate employees on ethics, compliance, and patient privacy rights

- Oversee risk management and patient-privacy related programs

- Write, update policies on patient data integrity and ensure the company is safeguarding client privacy based on these policies (HIPAA, HITECH, and other federal, state, and local/municipal regulations)

- Develop detailed understanding of relevant regulations including 21 CFR Part 11, FDA Level One Medical Device classifications, and relevant European regulations.

- Audit the company as defined by the processes and procedures that you develop

- Assist in the reviews we undergo from outside auditors

- Investigate any issues or concerns coming from staff, clients, or outside personnel

What qualifies you to join?

- Recent college graduate with 0-3 years work experience, preferably with a major in business or engineering, and a GPA of 3.3 or higher.

- Liberal arts, law, or business majors with strong GPAs (3.3 or higher) are encouraged to apply.

- General interest in healthcare and regulations.

- Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

- Strong ability to write clearly is mandatory.

- High enthusiasm and desire to work on an entrepreneurial team.

- Roll-up-the sleeves attitude is a must.

- Meticulous attention to detail with strong organization skills

- Heavy emphasis will be placed on problem solving skills, personal initiative and good people management/relationship skills. Sense of humor is mandatory.

Logistics

- Must be located in or willing to relocate to Phoenix, AZ or Boston, MA.

- This is virtual position, you must be able to work from home effectively

- Base salary is $60,000; stock options will be granted commensurate with experience; annual bonus will be awarded depending on performance; health insurance, paid holidays and vacation are part of the package.
Makes sense to request comments and input as standards are being developed, but I always wondered why these documents never graduate from "RFC" to "Specification" which is what they ultimately really are.
I wasnt trying to quote directly, but to clarify, Greenspan (you?) wrote:

At its core, Bitcoin is a proxy for another commodity we are all familiar with: electricity

You're right that tracking debts (or, to be more correct per cpervica's comment, tracking balances) and using resources are not mutually exclusive, but I don't think that resource usage is the scarce resource that bitcoin represents, as Greenspan (you?) suggests. I think the scarce resource is a set of values contained in the bitcoin ledger, and the mining needed to change their ownership is (as the second question puts it) an externality.
I'd be upset to see drones banned from our airspace before we get to realize their full potential for good.

If this happens I think in-home drone solutions could still provide very cool solutions. I'm sitting here on my couch and I could sure use a drink :P
Call of Duty Ghosts on Next-Gen: Is it truly a Next-Gen Game?-
"Oliver Twist" debunked -- Dickens just a novelist.
Did you think this was a good essay? Do you think it successfully tied together the various anecdotes it summoned?
Or discontinued support for outgoing international wires altogether, as my Chase account did.

That freaked me out, but unfortunately it didn't freak me out enough to make me buy a bunch of Bitcoins.
Carambola-2 with dev-board. No hassle, low price and compact.

http://8devices.com/carambola-2
It would be rather easy to attach a proper gun to the drone, with a targeting system and auto firing mechanism (already put in real world use in civilian hands: http://tracking-point.com/ ; http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/17000-linux-powered-r...). Sure, the tech needs to be smaller, but that' won't be a problem soon.

Now that's a scary assassination tool, and if properly camouflaged you can't stop it until it's too late (or drone flight is completely banned).
A currency without the major use case being legitimate transactions is going to fail.

Couldn't he have said the same thing about a protocol like BitTorrent?
I am honestly surprised this link is on the front page of HN right now. It reminds me of what the newest tab on r/bitcoin looked like two weeks ago: http://imgur.com/C2fncy2
So, it appears that evidence processing has something akin to zero controls and (effective) auditing?

Where prosecutors either knew of or had strong reason to suspect this misbehavior, their immunity should be dissolved and they should be prosecuted. Their personal assets should also be subject to forfeiture for compensation.
Scala at Yammer (2011)
I don't find email that much of a drain. I used to, when I was subscribed to a ton of mailinglists, but I cut down, and I skip a lot. I don't have to read everything. I tried to once; I tried to read all of usenet, then all of the web. And now, well, G+ and HN. And there I skip most too.

I read when I like. I don't need to check stuff constantly. I could have tons of free time if I just kept away from G+ and HN a bit more. And the stuff I read counts as leisure; maybe not the best way to spend my leisure time, but it's still leisure.

I don't think Keynes was all that wrong, really. I work 32 hours a week, and my son is the main thing that eats up my leisure time. People had more kids in the 1930s.
Geoff Hinton Facts