skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The degree to which the United States continues to be successful even though people here, on average, don't work as hard as people in east Asia, on average, is a puzzlement to east Asians. My take on the situation is that the founders of the United States were largely people who worked very hard indeed, and they were probably in the top rank in the world of that time in how hard they worked. Thus the United States still has accumulated resources (not just capital resources, but a society structured on the basis of sounder rule by law) that gives it a long-term advantage, allowing many Americans now to become complacent. It is a fact that most east Asian countries have been growing economically and improving socially at a faster rate than the United States has during my adult lifetime, so they could catch up[1] (and then, perhaps, have many inhabitants decide to take it easy).

I shared this link, after reading it, with my Facebook friends as I waited to see if it would bubble up to the front page of Hacker News. Sure enough, several of my American-born, American-raised friends thought that the article describes a situation of east Asian toil that they don't desire to emulate. A south Asian friend of mine gave the post a thumbs up, and went back to work without commenting further. The stored-up wealth of the United States also prompted a comment from another Facebook friend, also brought up and born in the United States:

"I believe the following:
1. America enjoys success today largely because of immigrant labor, not American labor.
2. American universities are still far and away the best in the world, but they are getting worse rapidly.
3. American universities increasingly serve foreign students, not American students.
4. Investing in America is far safer than anywhere else in the world because of such organizations as the SEC.
5. People hate the SEC rules and are looking for ways around them with increasing success, in large part because the investors are foreign and not used to such rules.

"I am reminded of the fall of Sparta."

One observation of this phenomenon I heard around the most recent turn of the century was from Christians in Taiwan: "It looks like God is blessing Americans for observing the Sabbath, as they surely don't work as hard as we do here." People grasp for all kinds of easy explanations for the difference in recent outcomes between the United States and east Asia (I refute another too frequently heard, too simple and just plain flat wrong explanation below another comment in this thread), but surely the explanation for this phenomenon, as for plenty of other phenomena of differences between countries, is multifactorial and subject to change over time.

[1] http://www.globalpost.com/globalpost-blogs/southeast-asia/si...
I used to work with him when he was a PM, in the pre-.Net days . He's got what it takes to run MS.
For me, the most worrying part of the whole Snowden affair is the absence of anything even close to resembling a debate in parliament. The silence almost speaks for itself.

First, Julian Smith secured a 30-minute Westminster Hall tirade on the "The Guardian and its impact on National Security". It was like watching a prosecution with no defence; Smith just declined to give way to any MPs who held a different view.

Next, there was an exercise in PR from the three heads of the intelligence services at the select committee. The questioning was appalling. It failed to inspire any confidence in the committee's ability to oversee the secret services.

Then, another committee had the audacity to call in the editor of The Guardian to explain himself. Questioning again appalling. "Do you love your country?" asked Keith Vaz. Others accused Rusbridger of being a criminal.

As far as I see it, other than the odd equally pointless question at PMQs and a measly motion passed at the Lib Dem annual conference, the aforementioned's about it in terms of any debate.

The issue that should be at the heart of the debate--state surveillance--has been glossed over in parliament's response. There ought to be a public inquiry into surveillance but, as Boris would say, I've about as much chance of being reincarnated as an olive.
>You can send a man to the moon but cant have a woman President.

That's not a fair critique at all. Had Barack Obama (first black president) not won, there's a very real possibility that Hillary Clinton would have been elected president. Both of which represent political firsts and a changing system towards greater integration.
What Happens When You Fire Someone — And Totally Screw It Up
Delhi is a state for most practical purposes.

from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi

"A union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi today more closely resembles that of a state of India, with its own legislature, high court and an executive council of ministers headed by a Chief Minister."
If a person is over 18 in the US they are an adult, and to base this on what actions they choose to take is the wrong metric. For instance, My wife and I work a lot and choose not to handle the major cleaning tasks, such as mopping, dusting, vacuuming, and the like ourselves. We outsource it to a cleaning company who does a weekly pass on these things. The house stays in pretty good shape in between, and the only time I have to clean much is if the kids are being rambunctious.

True, if I couldn't afford it I would have to do more myself or burden my wife to do it, but it doesn't make me less of an adult.
> It's frightening to imagine a world in which we force Alice to pay for her neighbor's renovations,

we already live in this world, and you haven't even noticed:

NYC Build it Back program: http://www.nyc.gov/html/recovery/html/home/home.shtml

"Rep. Michael Grimm wants federal government to earmark $600 million for NYC 'Build it Back' program": http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/rep_michael_gri...

New York Assisted Home Performance Grants: http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_C...

low interest housing renovation loans from NYC: http://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/1869/housing-renov...

e.g. just in new york there's plenty of publicly (or in the case of assisted home performance, ratepayer funded, e.g. a tax on energy bills) funded housing renovation programs.
I find Nock's book more convincing than Nursie's comment, but good try.
Beatport “Bloodbath” As Dance Music Startup Lays Off Engineers
Unless I'm mistaken if you can see all the traffic a sender can be identified by being the first node to produce a set cyphertext. As the delays seem to be fairly short for the acknowledge messages, there is some chance that the receiver can be identified in a similar way.

eg
node A broadcasts C1 which has not been observed before
nodes B,C,D propagate the cyphertext C1
node D broadcasts C2 shortly after receiving C1
nodes A,B,C propagate C2
etc

Of course seeing this pattern in practice might be hard, but it still seems like a possible attack vector given the current system.
From what I've seen I agree with your first point. AirBnB is more like The Pirate Bay than YouTube.
Replying so I can come back to this later.. That looks ...incredible
Yeah. that's pretty much it. If they are offering people money to leave, they are doing layoffs, but instead of firing the low-performers, they are getting rid of those most able to get other work.

Now, sometimes it does work out for the company; if you've got no other options, sure, you will put up with worse treatment and do more work.

either way, it's a pretty strong sign that the company will very shortly become a place I don't want to work.
But it's this letter that has a small chance of convincing my 65 year-old aunt that Snowden did the right thing, not emphasizing the sacrifice of two individuals.

She's a Democrat, and otherwise a good person (I'd even say she's a remarkably good person) and she truly thinks Snowden is a traitor. In her mind the fact of behind-the-scenes surveillance projects are secrets are like nuclear launch codes or troop movements - e.g. legitimate "trade secrets" that the government needs, in this case to prevent another 9/11 from happening.

Of course she's horribly wrong, because like most people she's pretty bad at estimating risk. In this case, she's grossly over-estimating the risk from terrorism, and grossly under-estimating the risk we assume when our government gives itself surveillance super-powers over us (and in secret, no less!).

Anyway, this article might open up her eyes to the latter mistake, that she is grossly under-estimating the risk of government granting itself such power, not to mention the risk of a government exerting unprecedented influence over the press. This letter connects this to something she knows about, and feels strongly about: Watergate. So maybe she'll listen, and rethink her position, and for that reason, it's a great article that I'll be emailing to her momentarily.
Well, in 99% of cases I think it is a formality -- I've never been turned away from a border before, nor do I know anyone personally who it's happened to. So I don't know what you mean by pre-clearing, or what you want it to gain.

If you're looking for a 100% assurance that, as a foreigner, if you get on the plane, you get let in the country, that's never going to happen, for security reasons. There will always be only some things that only passport control will catch.

I mean, a country's borders are the last chance to turn someone away, so it makes sense that that's where a certain level of scrutiny will apply. And the only people a country is going to trust to do that, is its own passport control workers. That's just a reality.

And as far hassling returning citizens... as an American, I would be horrified if I encounter trouble returning to the US, just tremendously pissed off.

But I can also understand that, with the US probably being the most popular country in the world to want to sneak into, people might be trying to fake their way into the US as supposed citizens, and that determining citizenship and identity at immigration might not always be as straightforward as it might. (But I still think it's horrifying to have to go through computers, phones, text-messages, etc... - I'm not defending that at tall!!)
Heh. If you went to Sunday Musk-worshiping, you'd know Mars is the new frontier.
One tends to realize only in retrospect that it's a very curious experience to go from normal life to the military before having any other real responsibilities in life. One very much gets the feeling of being a Platonic "guardian" and the access to information only heightens that experience. It is likely quite similar to the way some folks in IT talk perceive "sheeple" and doctors sometimes perceive patients, and even the UPS guy perceives your package as he congratulates himself for the hard work even as he drop kicks your computer into your screen door.

Couldn't I fairly easily replace "military" with "profession"?

I think going to medical school and being indoctrinated into a second professional culture is what gave me an opportunity to see the experience for what it is. The striving, the late nights, the urgency, the aspirations, the sense of responsibility, they all play in to a larger story of self where one paradoxically may not appreciate their own larger role at the time. I also submit your immediate seniors also may not appreciate their own roles.

I submit any differences you saw in her were side effects of the history of the institutions, the policies that govern them, the nature of the work, and the point in time at which your paths crossed.

Look at General Petraeus, compare him to Lincoln's string of generals, or just the number of military officers who will never make general, fired one after the other, and consider, how many months or years of conflict did Petreaus save after the civilian leadership made the decision to go to war? How many soldiers and civilians were killed or saved? How many lives has his work touched?

Look at Drew Houston. Compare him to the many careers burned out in failed startups, the customer data lost in security breaches. How many lives has his work touched?

Look at Paul Farmer. Compare him to the many careers burned out in medicine, the patients who died in clinical trials while they took sugar pills, the failure of relief agencies to effectively coordinate supply chains. How may lives has his work touched?

Look at Fred Smith. Compare him to the many careers burned out in aviation and business. The pilots of passengers who have died in flight, or been affected by the failure of a supply chain to deliver the right item to the right place. How many lives has his work touched?

Now think about the soldiers, the code monkeys, the nurse's aids, the FedEx delivery drivers, living in the shadows of these names. What cultural influences are the same?

If you started on any one of these paths at 18 or 22, are you so certain that you would be mentally and emotionally prepared to resist the onslaught of cultural decisions you would be expected to participate in on a daily basis? Are you so sure that you so reliably see the forest for the trees?
This looks like an awesome approach but a few important considerations:

- How scalable is hosting on meteor.com?

- Does Telescope provide an API to let you, for example, create a native mobile app/browser extension?
As someone with severe dust-mite allergy (that went undiagnosed until I was 18), please consider cleaning your space—regardless of who you are. Clean houses are more than status symbols.
They should make David Sacks CEO.
Feel like I am replying to a obvious troll, but one thing that annoys me is when people blame the press for the leak.

Either the leak is justified or it's not. Either way the press is not responsible.

If the leak is not justified then the blame lies with the leaker and the organisation that the info was leaked from. If private companies poorly secure customer info they often get fined, but there seems to be no comeback when the leak involves a government.
An excess of compartmentalization was widely cited as a main reason intelligence agencies didn't put the 9/11 pieces together in time to stop it.
The case study should note that:

The constituency of Delhi is:

1. More educated than the rest of the country
2. Has a higher level of income than the rest of the country
3. Generally more cosmopolitan than the rest of the country.

I can provide sources for the first 2 if you would like. The third is debatable as the only evidence I have is anecdotal.
Devil you know. Elop was racing up the ranks before he left, and now he has some seasoning as a CEO.
Show HN: Reminder Hero -- Smart email and SMS reminders
I've updated this to now make it obvious that you need to enter your handle, rather than full url.
I really like that last bit, I honestly dislike the resentment that builds in these types of situations, especially because good friends can come out hating each other.

Having one person who is the tyrannical dictator for life is a good pick imo.
Today they seem to assume knowing how to type and use a word processor is equivalent.
Rates of extreme poverty have been falling worldwide for decades. The Hunger Games may be our present, but it's not likely to be our future.
Any idea whether I can make SE show the "real name" field to anyone? I didn't realize that wasn't visible, and I don't see a setting anywhere to change that.
Not having studied the topic in depth, my first thought is whether true pointers and a garbage collector can coexist (without artificially removing parts of the language). The big condition for knowing if something is still in use is whether any references exist to it. But in a language like C , you could cast a pointer to something else (like a void pointer for some quasi generic linked list), store it somewhere, and then cast it back later after garbage collection has run. That seems like a problematic situation. So is completely giving up on pointers (or just never doing tricky things like casting or pointer arithmetic) a requirement to having a garbage collector?
Interesting. Though not a US national, I couldn't help but find it hilarious that the head of the US Intelligence Committee would in the same breath both condemn Snowden for not bringing his concerns following approved channels, and call for wholesale warrantless surveillance to be codified into law.

Same people, different location.
Are you living abroad in Iceland? I was under the impression that was the only way to get at .is domains.
Mostly the consistent long-term rise in value punctuated by periodic panics that send prices crashing. As I understand, it was characteristic of bullion economies to behave that way.
There is one very strong practical justification for pseudonyms: some people have very common names. There are thousands of people named Paul Rodriguez, probably hundreds named Paul M. Rodriguez, but there is only one person who goes by "ruricolist". To the extent that I have one, my nickname is my reputation.
I would usually just upvote, but this is such a spot-on, perfect comment I wanted to say, well-said.
> Legally speaking, Airbnb is like YouTube and similar services in offering a service that is perfectly legal to do in proper cases

Is there actually a legal use case? I can imagine that this law is virtually unenforceable against private individuals renting out a spare room for a few days, but I suspect it still (notionally) applies.
Video: Creating a SEO strategy
>> We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality.

Without state enforced equality, there is no equality.

Many of the other things he says may well be true, and I'm not socialist, but that one has been shown over and over and over.
Toolkit from iFixit: http://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Pro-Tech-Toolkit/IF145-072...
So you admit that somehow you're able to find few hours a day volunteer. This is a necessity, otherwise a potential employer will assume I'm lazy and apathetic.

While you may not have enough time to contribute to os projects at this moment, it's simply because you have different priorities,and prefer to spend that time doing other activities. It's not the time I lack, it is the expertise, which should improve with more practise. Preferences are different from priorities, my preference would be to write C code (and other languages) for most of the day. My priorities are to get a full time minimum wage job, since that is basically a realistic goal for me. One of the reasons I am doing an accountancy course is that I couldn't get sufficient funding for a course in computing, and this is because I cannot get a full time minimum wage job to pay for said computing course. Sound familiar? In CS this is related to bootstrapping.

Also, my paid job is working as a tree surgeon. One of the most dangerous jobs in the UK, as well as back breaking. I'm amazed I have enough energy to code when I get home.
Cellphone data spying: It's not just the NSA
Can you operate a drone cheaper than 56.5c a mile? If so, it's a better deal.

The point to point nature of drones make in city delivery incredibly attractive

I can't see many years being required to beat that.
I don't think everyone appreciates infinite scrolling, perhaps showing more profiles per paginate would be better (or give the user a choice between the two, or how many per page).
Thanks. I remember it now. I don't know what to think of the idea that "political corruption" apparently comprises a non-negligible portion of my HN postings, and your pointing it out makes me aware that it is.

Probably time for a self-imposed moratorium.
A craftsman takes wood and creates a bench. The bench is worth more than the wood. Thus, he created value.

A manager does not do anything like that. He does indeed do valuable work, by enabling others to create value, but he does not create value himself.

But you are correct, zero-sum is a bad name for this. Do you know a better name? I was thinking about stock trading, where the money one wins, another loses, thus zero-sum.
Top comment from the reddit thread on the same article:

"Ophthalmologist here.

As a physician responsible for prescribing and injecting these drugs, I can tell you that this article glosses over the single most important factor involved in deciding between the three currently-available Anti-VEGF options: compounding pharmacies, and the lack of regulation thereof.
Any Ophthalmologist at this point is very familiar with the results of the CATT study which confirmed the equal efficacy and safety of bevacizumab (Avastin) and ranibizumab (Lucentis). The reality is that the actual drug injected into the patient's eye either comes from the manufacturer in a sterile, ready-to-inject form (Lucentis), or an appropriate amount was prepared for intraocular injection by a local compounding pharmacy (Avastin).

Compounding pharmacy regulation is notoriously poor, and the risk of an intraocular infection is not one many retina specialists are eager to take unnecessarily. Endophthalmitis frequently leads to blindness, even with early diagnosis and treatment. As much as everyone wants to think doctors are only interested in lining their pockets, the reality is that most of us simply don't want your grandparent going blind in one eye because a minimum-wage tech at a compounding pharmacy failed to follow appropriate sterile procedure. The American Society of Retina Specialists have been advocating for increased regulation of compounding pharmacies since Lucentis became available. Check out their website.

I guess I should also point out that we get paid the same for injecting any medicine into the eye, regardless of the cost of the drug. And we purchase and stock both drugs in the clinic, and bill insurance for whichever is used. So we don't benefit financially for injecting one versus the other."

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1sdxz6/an_effectiv...
I don't know of any language that has pointers and a GC. Are there any? C# lets you use pointers but only if you tell the GC to not move your object and promise to behave.
Funding the left is every bit as evil as funding the right. Someone once observed that the left wants to control your wallet, and the right your bedroom.

The behaviour of the 'right' in using lethal force to prevent people obtaining abortions is every bit as immoral as the 'left' using lethal force to ensure that people pay for other people's healthcare.

The only moral alternative is to eliminate coercion from all dealings between people, and the only framework I've seen that might have a hope in hell of doing so is anarcho-capitalism.
This seems relevant to the thread about "should I use my real name online?" You just never know how information about you could be used against you, maybe ten or twenty years from now, maybe half a world away. You never know.

(I'm not too excited about Google dredging up 25-year-old Usenet posts from my college days.)
Thanks for your confidence.

FWIW I don't disagree with the premise, state intervention may well crowd out social activity.

But you'd have to be deliberately blind to hundreds of years of human history to make the claim that the social activity did anything like the job our current welfare models (for all their masses of imperfections) do.
CPU reliability – Linus Torvalds (2007)
"flawed men... who abuse people, facts, and furniture"

So subtle I almost didn't notice. Nicely done.
The machine may be had lost its clear coat and polish, but still prints enormous amount of money. If this is bad, then I don't know what good is.

Could Microsoft do better? Sure. Is it doing bad? Hardly.