skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The law of unintended consequences has a damned long arm, that's for sure.

Perturbing systems creates long-lived ripple effects. Humans have been tapping into stored carbon equivalent to a few hundred million years of fossil deposits, and ... that's going to have some really long-lived effects. As to what the future holds, my sense is that we're simply not going to have the quantities of free, abundant, and fungible energy we've enjoyed for the past century or so. There are a few people who've arrived at similar conclusions (Dennis Meadows, one of the original Limits to Growth team is among them).

The problem with nuclear waste for me (and others -- Hyman Rickover's criticisms of nuclear energy are revealing) is that the stuff is of such a concern for such a long period of time -- literally longer than written history. How the hell do you create a warning iconography that's going to be comprehensible in 10,000 years, or even 2000? Spoken and written English of even 700 years ago (Geoffrey Chaucer) is barely comprehensible today. And structures to contain it? The very oldest intact buildings we know of are massive stone monuments and even they are both heavily weathered and have long since been plundered (pyramids and other archaeological sites).

The primary problem with oil and coal are simply the quantities we've been consuming of them. If human populations hadn't grown, and they simply substituted for the biomass which was being consumed in their stead prior to the Industrial Revolution, they'd be far less consequential.

I should try figuring out how large a population could be supported at, say, 50% of US rates of energy consumption...
For metals of the smartphone age there's no Plan B
This looks awesome - Minecraft meets Dune meets Homeland?
Functions like CADDR are not much used in modern Lisp.

I would not write `slice` as a `macro` or special syntax. I would use the `SUBSEQ` function, which already exists.

CL-USER 7 > (subseq '(a b c d e f) 2 4)
(C D)

The simplest way to introduce a special syntax for it is to use different parentheses:

{1 '(1 2 3 4)} -> 2

But the default Lisp style is this

(functionname arg0 ... argn)

where `functionname` is a real symbol. It may be longer on the character level, which may be a problem for some users - not for me.
What were your grades in the CS classes you took?
It would quickly become painful to only transfer execution with JMP-instructions -- you'd need some way to keep track of either how to return, or where you'd be going next (this is exactly equivalent to only using GOTOs for control flow -- and as we know, considered harmful).

I suppose on x86 you could create a calling convention where you store a return address in a register or something -- but on 32bit you're already rather short on registers. It would probably be more (if still not really) sensible on amd64.

I only see this as viable for rather simple state-machine designs -- but I suppose you could also just generate machine code that read return addresses from an area of memory or something ("the tape" in Turing parlance).
After reading chapter two, my conclusion is that this book is also suitable for high-school level. Not many books simplify things so much as this book. The Python implementation even avoids Numpy, which makes it very easy to understand (even though using Numpy is more practical).
You are explaining "hidden variable" theory. It is currently considered not compatible with experiments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_variable_theory
Sorry for coming off as a Debbie downer, I think what you made is really cool, I'm just personally frustrated with the blatant abuse of the CFAA.
Your view was Einstein's view articulated in the 1935-1936 EPR Paradox paper. It proved that you need either local, real, hidden variables to account for quantum entanglement or FTL communication between particles was necessary--widely believed to be in violation of special relativity.

Bell's inequality paper in 1964 proved that the predictions of a local reality system and a quantum entanglement system are in fact different for certain polarization experiments.

Subsequent experimentation proved the two theories to be mutually exclusive and results back up FTL communication. An FTL mechanism has not been found experimentally, however we know that special relativity is not violated because quantum uncertainty prevents information from being transmitted via entanglement at FTL speeds.
Well, I tend to apologise straight away. Perhaps I've spent a lot of my life surrounded by arseholes... Yes, I have spent my life surrounded by arseholes.
Lightweight XML parsing, printing, validating and transforming Java library
jcabi-xml is a lightweight wrapper of Java DOM for parsing, printing, validating and transforming of XML documents, check it out..
List of scientists who became creationists after studying the evidence
Thin margins are great. Innovation typically happens more when margins are thinner. When profit is easy it's easy to be lasy, which we've seen. It'll be nice to see the market tighten up more and people actually have to earn money by servicing the customer.
I've got to mention: Burke's entire ouvre is available on YouTube (as best I can tell posted by the man himself).

I've been tremendously enjoying re-visiting his original series, Connections, and viewing The Day the Universe Changed for the first time. Connections2 has been a bit of a let-down (too commercial and rushed with 22 minute episodes, and retreading much of his earlier material) though it too has its moments. I haven't gotten to Connections3 yet. I highly recommend at least the first two, which very much focus on how ideas develop, spread, and emerge.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JamesBurkeConnection
Maybe it isn't entirely a physical disease.
There's no mention in the article of any testing based on a replica or reproduction of the design -- does anyone know if this has been done?

(The article does mention that the artifact itself is too delicate to test.)
I remember years ago, back in highschool, when I studied quantum mechanics, our professor suggested this idea (he used a blue and a red ball in two briefcases) as a comparison to entanglement and then disproved it explaining that it's not quite the same.

Unfortunately, too many years passed and I don't remember the counter-argument that explains why you can't apply that logic to entanglement but it involved Bell's theorem[1] and the EPR Paradox[2].
Actually I think Einstein himself made a counter-argument similar to that (just not with stones/balls but with actual particles) and was disproved later on. Sorry if I can't give more details, I'm not a physicist.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_theorem
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_paradox
The scratchiest neckbeard, or FreeBSD on my Thinkpad X200
"my CS program was woefully inadequate--the standard Java/C++ stuff"

That is the foundation for everything else. You will write much better Python if you are competent with C/C++. The truth is that the major languages are very similar. Yes one manages memory, one does not. One supports the ++ operator, one does not. And so on, but at a fundamental level they are essentially the same. The reason why C/C++ and Java are taught is because these languages are good for teaching the fundamentals: how memory works, data structures, functional vs object-oriented, etc.

Like others have recommended, an internship is a great way to get real-world experience. This is exactly what I did, and it helped me immensely. In particular, I worked for Delphi-Delco Electronics who make electronic automotive parts. My job was to automate testing of the automobile's main computer. Due to safety and regulations, testing was very rigorous so I had to learn how to be rigorous. That skill has helped me immensely throughout my career.

BUT that internship was no replacement for my degree. Without the degree I would be good at testing, but it would be quite hard for me to build an efficient web server because I wouldn't really understand how the CPU, RAM, etc work. While it is possible to learn all the fundamentals on your own, it requires immense discipline which most of us (myself included) do not possess.

That is my two cents. I wish you the best whatever you decide!
I think it's a really well done visualisation. Perhaps you could improve it by making it easier to select a user and see their data. For example, instead of having to click on the query tool, then clicking on the user, then clicking on the link to their profile, you could just click on their profile picture and get a little box showing their top stats. Minor quibble though, great work!
The JSMESS Endgame
DIY Coffee Table Pong Game
1. If evolution is true, then creationism is false, and therefore God doesn’t exist.
2. Creation can’t be true, since I lack the mental capacity to understand it and am not at all interested in studying it; moreover, to accept its truth would cause me to be uncomfortable
3. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.
Ah yes. I agree. Doing things with these simple neurons is complex. On the other hand a 3 year old kid can sing and dance at the same time. How can it be so complex? ;)

It is a fascinating problem which is still lacking an answer.
RTFM is elitist bullshit that really f\a*cks me off. Stern's technique is very adept at breaking this code of silence. Here is a paraphrased example of youtube:

Troll: "HTML is a programming language"
Gullible douchebag: "%s" % wikipedia_article_on_HTML
Troll: "Troll successful"
This is local meme - when someone asking question and you will look stupid in case you don't have answer.
It's Sunday, shouldn't you be in church?
Trust me, it's not _that_ simple :). (I'm working @ ChaosGroup on vray).
Lot 379: Harrison Ford "Han Solo" DL-44 Blaster from Star Wars
The is really cool. But what exactly am I looking it? Would be awesome if this was clickable somehow to see the projects/account linked to it.
Ignoring the font hinting (the font is barely readable when fully zoomed out - in contrast to on iOS and Android, although with the 4S and HTC One I had retina screens, so maybe it's not a fair comparison), the only thing really annoying me with the browser is more a general Windows Phone issue - in text boxes, I haven't worked out how to move the text caret position in the URL - by default it seems to autoselect parts, meaning it's very tedious try to fix incorrectly-typed URLs... I guess the answer is get it right first time...

I wish there was a way to make "Open in new link" tabs open in the background like on Android as well, but as far as I remember iOS had that annoyance too.
Oh great, no OS X version then. :-/
I guess we are supposed to bring our desktop computer in the coffee shop ;) it's for laptop users, but this is so oldish. Who is still doing that ?
Definitely agree. When I saw this:

> A larger firm is more efficient (that's why almost everything is made by large firms) which makes employees of these firms more productive. This may be counterintuitive, but it's right

...I got a tad ragey. Everything is made by large firms because capitalism is predicated upon, well, capital, and the larger you are, the more you can grow. Mergers and acquisitions are the sound of that growth.

The next issue I have with that statement is this - define efficient.

The local branch of HP tenders for government websites, and then it charges the government $4000 to change text in a hyperlink. Is it more efficient at generating revenue than a small PHP firm? Yes. Is it helping the client make a more efficient use of their IT spend than a small PHP firm? Hell no.

Former employees of large dev shops who work with me tell me about the time they wasted in being forced to argue with clients about whether or not bugs were actually bugs, because bugs weren't billable but feature requests were. Apparently, this is more productive.

Having escaped from a public sector bureaucracy to a small start-up which is now at the 30-person size, claiming that a large private sector bureaucracy is more efficient and makes individuals within it more productive is most extraordinary.

Incidentally, the only real difference between a public sector bureaucracy and a private sector bureaucracy is that the latter gives its middle managers bigger bonuses.
1. God doesn’t exist.
2. [Theist's counterargument]
3. No he doesn’t.
4. [Theist's counterargument]
5. No he doesn’t!
6. [Theist's counterargument]
7. NO HE DOESN’T!!!
8. [Theist gives up and goes home]
9. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.
the moto x and Nexus line has always been considered mid tier, not the latest everything and many compromises made but not low end.
Thank you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_learning
I'm always happy to see more space exploration sims.
There's no "decent" Weather apps - that's obviously subjective, but WeatherPro for iOS and Android I really liked.
I still miss iOS's weather app really, the built-in one on the HTC One (don't know if it's Android's default) is a bit crap - made worse by the fact that different screens of the Android interface seem to think they're in different geographic locations.

Also there's no port of certain apps I rely on a lot like CityMapper, and the best guitar tuner app I've found on iOS or Android: Cleartune.
I'm a fan of Space Engine, one of the few space simulators I've seen do procedural generation well. http://en.spaceengine.org/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj-VcZY_nwE
That implies that 50% of startups have a negative impact, how would you define one?
Yeah, precisely.
I'm on the verge of doing the exact same thing. On that plan are you able to use any of that data for tethering or mobile hotspot? A customer service rep said you can use all of your "up to 5GB" 4G data for tethering if you want, but I found that a little hard to believe.
Looks like you don't know the first thing about Howard Stern.
>> Sounds logical on paper but doesn't bear out in reality - just about every country where health care is provided via "confiscated funds" pays dramatically less for better outcomes than the USA where people are responsible for spending their own money.

The US healthcare system is truly fucked, but serves as another great example of how people use someone else's money. That's why healthcare is so absurdly expensive there. Patients generally aren't using their own money to pay for medical services, and so, insurance companies get charged ridiculous prices behind the scenes, and the customer doesn't care. Businesses are forced to buy insurance, right?

Well, without the "forced middlemen" of insurance companies, and with customers paying for whatever services they use, you can bet your ass that health care would be massively cheaper. Competition drives quality up, and prices down.

>> The Parasite(tm) is more bedtime-story boogeyman than observed reality

I hadn't even heard of that "theory". But I bet I would have, if I were still watching Bill Maher's show.

You're right in that some parasite patients are not the problem. The whole system is.

Think about it. If you're running a hospital on a "limitless" supply of other people's money (as in, "public healthcare"), you're just not that concerned with efficiency, nor the quality of your services, because you don't have to be. It doesn't matter if your customers are unhappy, because you'll still be getting your money! .. It's blindingly obvious that this kind of system is doomed, but of course, healthcare is not socialized in order to make it better. It's socialized to make the masses dependent on the State.
Coal, oil and gas kill quite a number of people today, invisibly and at-semi-random. Say X people die.

If you had a power source that killed X/100 people. But to implement that power source, congress would have to introduce a bill in which every single person who had to die was named.

Could that power source be implemented in any democracy?

(not to say nuclear is exactly like this, just to say nuclear has a bit of this kind of problem and this kind of problem is very hard to solve)
Microsoft's latest "scroogled" advertisement - Chromebook: Everything you need?
The problem that i see is that once big 'popular' readers are gone, it's possible that publishers decide that RSS is a feature not worth having/maintaining. That's a choice that has been made already by platforms like Twitter and such.
A lot of new (more recent) blog platforms also did not prioritize RSS.

So, as much as I agree with the statement, I'm worried that in the end, we'll all lose.

Finally, Feedly's strategy here is probably one of the best way to make sure that publishers stop puvblising RSS feeds.
Also, while FTL is not allowed in general or special relativity, that's not why general relativity is incompatible with general relativity (since quantum mechanics depends on special relativity, which also doesn't allow FTL). The actual reason is more complicated and comes down to a certain mathematical trick (renormalisation) which is needed for quantum mechanics to not predict absurd probabilities failing to work when you try to construct it in general relativity.
How can you even begin to judge the gameplay from the teaser video?
There's an video interview with one of the developers here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-12-08-hello-games-deb...
Best designed app
This isn't about companies accepting you without a degree. Most countries have regulations which don't let you get a work permit without a degree. In fact, this is the one only regret I have from dropping out of college.
I've written my own over the past 2.5 years, mostly on the Train to and from work...

Ignoring geometry and texture paging, curve support and volumetrics (all of which I'm slowly working on), it could be used in production.

But then I guess any renderer can produce a pretty picture with physically-based shading - but speed-wise (it's a brute force GI renderer only, no irradiance caching) it's competitive with the other CPU renders out there with similar settings.
The harder stuff is memory-efficiency - Arnold's amazing at this, and numeric stability over all different types of data.

Given the amount of research out there, it's really not that difficult - most of the hard stuff I found was decoupling the GUI (I've written my own context-creation / scene editor as well which hosts the renderer) from the renderer - that involved a lot of re-writes...
because it wasn't posted by someone with huge HN karma or a YC company.
My 10 Favorite Image Placeholder Services and Why
Sure, it's not that hard. Sideload Amazon Store or F-Droid to get your non-Google app store fix, and the rest is pretty straightforward.
I bought a Lenovo A820 for my daughter; it's a great phone for the price, can only recommend it.

another point is build quality - the Lenovo phone comes in a metal case, not some plastic.
Heh, funny you mention that. Video has this wow factor that's undeserved: it's really nothing special, just some higher processing, storage and bandwidth requirements.

Funnily enough, three years ago I actually visited Edgecast's main office in LA on behalf of a former employer, a well known global video solutions provider. We discussed global partnership for them offering our streaming solutions but didn't wind up partnering with them as there was little commercial justification in handing them our technology, effectively commodifying our admittedly few but still important USPs.

As for Edgecast, I seem to recall that their delivery speed to Asia was particularly weak. US companies should think twice before trusting other US companies to deliver their content to the rest of the world. It's a strangely routed internet out there...
What's the issue with using the same user-agent method that's a standard with other feed-readers? Seems like you're doing extra work so that blog authors can also do extra work.
I thought his ruling was extremely well thought out in that case, and yet a Federal Court, which is apparently very patent friendly, has accepted the case on appeal. So I can't wait to see what ridiculous spin they will try to put on Alsup's ruling, if they do indeed side with Oracle. I'm not too worried if they do, because I think the Supreme Court will have more common sense and side with Alsup's ruling.
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety nine percent perspiration.
-- Thomas Edison

If smart people are not expected to get incremental results we may lose both incremental progress and ingenious leaps.
Talloc: The Tutorial
BashVenture
You immigrate to another country and emigrate from your country. You were actually right the first time, but those two words are often used interchangeably, so it's no big deal.

Anyway, I am a college dropout, and I am facing the exact same issue as you. Unfortunately, I just have four years of experience, which is too less for a non-graduate to get a work permit in most countries. I was applying for remote jobs for the past few weeks without too much luck. It is really hard for an Indian with 4 years of experience, and without any solid experience in Ruby/Python/Javascript-MVC (those seem to be the most popular skills in the market).
I just got another job in another city in India, which pays a little more, but it is more than what I have, so I have decided to move for now, and will probably re-look my remote work/immigration plans after some years.
Interesting, but that still violates the principle of locality. Inside each world, the scientists are experiencing spooky action at a distance because information in their world is moving faster than light.

edit: removed my question after reading joe_the_user's question.
Oxytocin enhances brain function in children with autism
Paper is here: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/11/27/1312857110.full...
Hey! Firstly, good to see some Romanian software news that's not linked to organized crime. I love your country! I was lucky enough to cycle around it for a month a few years ago and really loved the place.

Random suggestion: mapping a user metric such as dominant programming language to inform the building style. So maybe shell code would be more oldschool (Chinese/Japanese/Korean style wooden pagoda type look), perl would be hacky (like lashings of bamboo), enterprisey languages would be shiny skyscraper windows, and obscure stuff would be mud brick or straw bale or something!

The spatial proximity domain seems a little wasted with this mapping .. perhaps it could be improved by using direct links informed by real clones/contributions.

I hope Github gives you a data feed!
A world with cars and electricity looks like "business as usual" to us, but not to the people who lived before cars and electricity. The rate of change is now much faster than they were accustomed to. The technologies I listed will make it faster still. You can't talk meaningfully about what happens a thousand years from now, because accelerating change implies that at a certain point in imagining the future you just run out of imagination, and that point might be a hundred years away or even closer.
While they are good, who in their right mind puts cheese on fried fish?
I thought the aesthetic was actually kinda neat!
Samsung galaxy s4 catches on fire, samsung wants silence
Failure is not a good thing. Stop saying it is.
Go read "bad science", then come back and answer your own question. :)
The most realistic solution is to start with basic functionalities on your own infrastructure. Store the emails on your (private) cloud. Of course try to maximize security. Then offer on-premise storage of emails as a premium functionality and build the functionality when your first customer wants to upgrade to this package.
My boring list of 29 writing tips from Neil Strauss and Tim Ferriss
I found the points about Robert Oppenheimer and Nelson Mandela being on terrorism watch lists to make a particularly good argument for their potential flaws.

It makes the need for good Judicial Oversight readily apparent.