skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Very interesting. The cat-and-mouse problem mentioned a couple of times - finding a solution that allows development on the old to continue while still working on the new - is very similar to a problem I had in a previous job.

We had an Actionscript 2 application that was under constant development and use on the web, and we needed/wanted to port it to Actionscript 3 to make use of new language features. I would write a tool that would attempt to translate between the two automatically, and then any more complex transformations could be hand coded and/or added to the translation engine.

Of course, the project did not succeed during my time at the company, mostly because the scope of the translator was so limited; there were too many concepts in AS2 (the borrowed javascript setInterval, for example) that had no equivalent line-for-line in AS3 (where you had to use the new Timer class to delay/loop execution) and therefore couldn't be simply substituted. Perhaps if the parser had tried to represent higher order concepts than files and lines of code (e.g. classes, instance data, methods) the project would have got further - but we simply didn't have the resource to spend on it, nor the ability to freeze features on the AS2 codebase.

As it was, the AS3 version of the app never quite reached feature parity with the AS2 version, which raced ahead too quickly for the new features to be added by hand in AS3 (and too many changes had already been made by hand to make re-running the parser viable.)

If Go is indeed simple enough to translate into from (a specific subset of) C, and if Google can afford more than one engineer for a week to write the tool, then this sounds like it's off to a better start than my project was.
I dont reallt care if facebook tracks me through iframes or if google tracks me through analytics.

I volunteered to go to a website, that volunteered to use that service. I can choose not to visit the source sites or the associate ones.

The problem I see with all of this "the governments - or - some government - or - the UN - needs to protect our privacy!!!"

Against whom? Facebook? Google?

How about GOVERNMENTS. If you ask me, any sort of nefarious behaviour commited by web companies are most likely the product of a larger, coercive form of behaviour starting from the government.
There's been talk for a while now about a "right to be forgotten" which is along these lines, but it has a terrible name.
Honestly, I'm of the opinion that I'd be better off decoupling my display anyway, and a base model Mac Pro is perfect in terms of power for me. And it looks pretty. I like having a workstation, and this is a hell of one!
It's an amazing way to bill extra hours as a consultant without being held to any standard of quality :)
Due process laws like requiring warrants for wiretaps.
Europe launches billion-dollar Milky Way telescope
U.S. Continues to Threaten Affordable Drug Lifeline for Millions
1. mod_php

2. ...
I have one comment to make. I don't mean it as advice (I don't give good advice), but as a potentially (ir)relevant semi-obvious but perhaps overlooked fact. You meet lots of people in school. You may be right the degree may be no use. But that doesn't automatically mean that getting a degree is no use.
"Kind of strange that in a discussion that is ostensibly related to the disastrous Healthcare.gov, that you'd invite the CEO of a gaming company that thrives off of manipulating users through gamification."

Not strange nor a surprise at all when that CEO is a major campaign contributor.
Bester was my introduction to science fiction. My father would tell me bedtime stories from "The Stars My Destination" long before I ever read them.

I remember sitting up in bed listening raptly to the scene where Foyle has his nemesis on an operating table, chest ripped open, kept alive on life support machines.
Actually Perl 5 is older then Java by about a year (yes, Perl had OO support before Java even left the lab). But Perl itself is much older then Java, by several years.
The point is that the reason why it is important that ISPs are dumb service providers in this case is that they are not just servicing the account holders, and the other people in the household can be severely affected by the decisions of the account holder, but often does not realistically have a voice in the case of "embarrassing" or sensitive topics like this.

The reason for making the argument with respect to the safety of children or spouses here is that the arguments for the filter is the protection of those very same groups. The proponents of this filter have opened the door to this line of argument wide open by making that argument while ignoring that the filter also is likely to harm the groups they claim they want to help. And while there has to my knowledge not been shown that viewing porn causes any serious harm, abuse in various forms is a very real problem. If the people arguing for this filter are serious about the intent of protecting children (which I must admit I don't think they are), then they need to be confronted with the reality that they may be doing harm to the very weakest part of the group they claim to want to protect.

If the filter only affected the person opting in/out of it, I wouldn't see it as a big deal - in that case it would not remove freedoms from anyone.

But the most compelling immediate problem with this filter for me is exactly that it effectively takes the choice of having unfiltered internet away from a large group of people that are often vulnerable. That it has been shown to be overly broad in a away that takes away access to particularly sensitive sites makes it substantially worse.
The Day Google Had to 'Start Over' on Android
This was described in Cryptonomicon 14 years ago.
I think the mindset of bitcoiners is a deflationary one to start with. It's the mindset of gold-standard thinking as expressed virtually. But the deflationary aspect of it coupled with bad faith of the exchanges stumbling with fraud and other glitches may well be its undoing.
> It's like writing C code that has to run on N different, immature, and mostly quirky compilers all with their own different subset of features, where N is completely unknown to you -- in fact N will grow over time after you release your application.

In other words, it's like writing C code :-) (At least, if you require fancy features such as inline assembly, threads, string literals longer than 509 characters, 64-bit integers, ...)
The same is really true for just about any website with primarily user submitted content. Sites like reddit/youtube/blogger have very diverse content so you have to make a massive portion of the internet inaccessible to anybody who uses the connection. If you don't want the porn you can't have /r/askscience or /r/learnprogramming either. This will be further exacerbated if more sites start switching to full HTTPS.
Quick Tips About npm
Due process really doesn't mean that much when legal guilt is known beforehand and the defendant is a government enemy. After the hit job on Manning, I wouldn't be at all surprised for "due process" to include months and months of torture-detention in solitary confinement pre-and-post-trial-- all legal of course.
They should hire this guy I know... to fix their site.
Can't you use a render farm instead?
Any idea how long it would take before the first draft is out?
Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on Why He’s a Techno-Optimist
Even if Extreme Programming isn't followed exactly, many of the practices that these reviews attack are common in today's development.
How To Choose The Right Social Share Buttons That Will Grow Your Blog
Adding social share buttons to your blog is definitely best practice. However, adding the right ones is the key to real growth.
I think they may very well become (the digital equivalent) tragedies of the comments. I am under the belief that team leads should handle all the dirty work nobody else wants to do.
Almost all project management apps have a monthly fee and are SaaS apps. This isn’t appropriate for all businesses.

Duet has a one time fee and is hosted on your own server.

http://duetapp.com
Right on! Something like this is desperately needed. People don't realize what a huge impact their supervisor will have on their education.
I apologize for the late reply.

The truth is some jobs are simply not worth much to the employer. The minimum wage laws generally are designed to ensure a livable (albeit uncomfortable) income for a single adult working full time. In California, the minimum wage is $8/hr, and scheduled to increase to $10/hr within a couple years. This combined with government assistance programs will generally ensure that individuals with the will to work can afford to live near their livelihood ($500/month room with utilities in the bay area with BART access http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/roo/4250779898.html). Of course there are several other factors that impact one's ability to sustain themselves:

Dependants - There is government assistance available for dependant children.

Lack of work - The man from this article does not work full time. The availability of full-time jobs aside, it is not reasonable to expect a livable income on part time, unskilled work.

Major unplanned expenses - Things such as unplanned medical expenses or enormous college tuitions or loan repayments will be a burden to someone making minimum wage.

My point is, 1) I do not accept the assumption that certain jobs are non-livable by definition. For an individual working full time without dependants or edge-case financial burdens, you can generally get by in America. 2) "non-livable" jobs only exist when certain edge case financial hardships arise. In general, assistance is available in these cases, and we have systems in place to support people who fall on hard times. Whether these systems are working as intended is beyond the scope of employee compensation, although there is definitely a case for improving these systems.

There is a third, unspoken point about "non-livable" jobs. People who work these jobs are usually not expected to stay very long. Sometimes these are "stepping-stone" opportunities for the young and inexperienced. Other times these jobs act as a safety net for workers who have lost their higher-paying jobs and need to survive until they can be fully employed. I accept there are people who have no plans or hopes of moving on from these jobs, either due to a lack of marketable skills or even language barriers. I don't believe the answer is in regulating these jobs to pay better. I think the answer lies in educational outreach. Instead of bettering the job, let's try to better the individual so they can get a better job.

Finally, I agree that "someone has to do these things". The market will ensure that the things that need to get done are done. Assuming that everyone "gets better jobs", the supply of unskilled laborers will decrease. From economics, I would guess that a lack of supply for certain menial tasks will have one of two outcomes: the price for the menial task will increase ("non-livable" jobs now become more livable), or a substitute will eliminate the need for the work (automation).
Macros can satisfy that in simple cases (like the NEXT_BYTE macro in x6502), and inline functions (like set_flags, get_flag, mem_abs, etc.) can handle more complex cases. Both of these result in the code in the contents of the "function" being directly inserted into the calling block. (For inline functions, that's only true if you turn on optimizations, but I think even O1 on any C99 compiler turns on inlining).

In general, if I need something to avoid function calls, I'll use macros as a shorthand for a complex expression (like NEXT_BYTE) and inline functions for anything that involves one or more full statements (like set_flags). Obviously I don't follow that too dogmatically, because mem_abs is an inline function.
The same thing as ($x, $y)[$x <= $y] but it looks cooler.
Agreed. How are you attempting to solve. This is my big bad habit.
Hacker News for Healthtech
Providing way more information to college applicants.

http://www.collegeanswerz.com/
Can exchanged App reviews ever be fair? | HACK AND GROW.COM
I'm sorry if that wasn't clear, sharing doesn't only mean "making the data available" but also means high performance and direct access. Quite simply though: If you can't imagine different use profiles that make certain multi-processing paradigms better suited than others, then you shouldn't be having this discussion and should be getting more experience outside of what you're doing right now.
Thanks! Feel free to shoot me an email from the contact page if you would like to talk.
We're not necessarily talking about emergencies, we're just talking about ordinary life. Like someone who needs to get to his kid's birthday party, or home in time to get a decent night's sleep before work the next day.

And I think people are mad at ambulance companies, which is why the country is grappling with health care reform. A major obstacle to reform is the opposition of free-market idealogues who feel medical care should go to the highest bidder.
Top 5 Predictions for the cloud in 2014
I'd suggest you pay 0, read the first issue, and then pay for the following ones if you enjoyed the comic.
Personal finance software isn't smart enough, and I'm lazy. I'm helping computers learn your spending habits, to save you money, pay off debts, and go on that holiday you want -- with as little effort from you as possible.
5 types of procrastinators: which one are you?
Amazon is awesome, but not very fun.

Solution? Svpply/Pinterest for Amazon.

http://www.gemsinthejungle.com
Certifications? No, the whole "certified bullshit expert" thing started with XP. Before that people just did their jobs and didn't invent religious practices that had to be adhered to in order to do so.
Hey, thanks! We'll likely eventually do that, but it's low on the priority list. There are some more structured formats (e.g., Guitar Pro) that we're doing first.
I don't know how many times I have to say "Rust and Go are not competing and are in totally different spaces" before it sinks in. This only works because Rust is a low-level design that does not rely on garbage collection; Go is a high-level design.
Everything is custom :)
You name your price, so just pay nothing for the first one, then if you like it, buy the second.
I LOVE this question (and it's the first thing I usually ask to myself and to others) so:

- Study scientific papers by deconstructing them through a wiki-like interface.

- Filtering news feeds, automatically removing stories and tweets I don't care about.

- Keeping an updated journal for each of my projects in the fastest and least intrusive way.

- Learning languages by cutting and pasting single expressions from podcasts into a personal audio library.

- Aggregating my soundcloud, beatport, bandcamp, youtube and shoutcast 'likes' into a single cloud playlist.
Yeah, SEXPs and LISP macros to a full refactor aware environment is like getting to Riemann surfaces from set theory.*

*The small problem with this example is that in fact the latter has been achieved.
The One Thing: Successful Daily Standups
I think they funded its development, so yes and no.
Sure!

http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=Morphic+Resonance&btnG=&h...

More specific: http://www.alice.id.tue.nl/references/sheldrake-1992.pdf

Again, not saying he's right. I'm saying that to dismiss an actual scientist when they say that in general, the field of science has "believers", and not enough people entertaining the questioning of "facts", is a dogmatic, and bad trend.

This is a good unbiased look on the whole event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SGzu8TJsyo
Starting an Elasticsearch server is easy. Maintaining and scaling a production cluster is hard, but not optional. http://www.found.no/
Oh wow. I've been looking for something like this. Amazing :)
But the very core of XP was that it did have to be followed exactly. That there was 12 specific things you had to do. All of those things were existing things, that people already did. It was precisely the "doing all 12 of them exactly as we say" that was XP. And it was total BS.
You are oversimplifying. You can either have a currency with intrinsic value or a fiat currency.

The USD is a fiat currency, it only has value because the US government says it has value. Fiat currencies are very close to debt basises.

Non-fiat currencies like Bitcoin are a little different, since there is actual value to a Bitcoin. It is similar to how gold and silver were once used.

The benefit of fiat currencies is they can't be used for other things affecting the monetary supply, they are always in circulation (pretty much, obviously there are exceptions).

Bitcoin is in a weird spot, it is a non-fiat currency without having to worry about the destruction aspects, as Bitcoins can't be destroyed. There is the whole getting lost thing, but that is unavoidable without implementing a use or lose it scheme (which some altcoins are trying).
Atheer's Next-Gen smart glasses on IndieGoGo
Sweden sent five JAS39C Gripen to Libya as a part of Operation Unified Protector in 2011. I was told that they performed well in the surveilance role with their "spaningskapsel" (surveilance capsule?), providing intel to the coalition. If anyone has any insight in how well Gripen as a platform performed during that op, please share.
A smell is an indicator that something might be wrong, not that it is a sub-optimal way of doing things.

If you create code that smells, you should justify it (in comments or other documentation). Likewise just saying it smells without suggesting an alternative is unhelpful to the discussion.
Not to nitpick, but doesn't it need to be two instructions? You first do a relative jump by the value you're switching on, which takes you to another jump that jumps you to the actual code for that case. I can't think of a way to do it in just one instruction.
> Language design isn't done, and languages are getting better all the time.

That is actually what Perl is doing. With its loose original design it can evolve amazingly, and in ways that couldn't be foreseen.
Cool project. Can you say how much performance improvement you are getting with dSFMT versus a naive C loop?

Another fast monte carlo anecdote: at Bloomberg they are doing this sort of thing with GPUs.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/bloomberg...
None of this is going to happen. The moment they open that door all hell breaks loose.

I really wish, but it won't. The system is solidified.

If they open this door, and then do anything against people using Snowdens precedent, the white house will be in a much worse position than now.
Ask HN: Engineers and visionaries, what are your challenges with each other?
Over this past year, I've been putting together some thoughts on what it takes for an engineer to effectively work with a visionary. I understand that there are a lot of blurred lines, but I'm approaching from the extreme ends of the spectrum.

If you're a visionary, what do you often see as hurdles when working with engineers? What are the frustrating or colliding issues that cause a project to halt?

If you're an engineer (builder, strategist, implementer, scientist), what have been your challenges when working with a visionary?

What elements of the dynamic between these two spectrums are most interesting to you?

(Okay, I know I asked three-in-one, but hopefully this will look more like a discussion than a Q&A.)
I guess we have to disagree here. We're still both against the filters, but you expanded your 'Think of the children' argument now and I cannot have that.

I think that argument is never a good choice. Parts of your comment seem to read like a 'They started it', parts read like 'They used the argument, I just want to dispell it' and I'm still sad. Maybe it IS required to tackle that BS 'Protect our kids' argument in tabloids and mainstream media, but in general? I'd love a healthy (hey, my pov and all) "Don't feed the troll" attitude, ignoring every emotional argument involving children, puppies or kitties by default.

I hope nothing of the above ends up offending you, it certainly wasn't meant as such. I .. merely question the direction taken.
US National Security Agency quietly launches its Twitter account NSA_PAO
Some of the criticisms are still valid: there's a definite "gossip magazine diet plan" vibe to the book, even if the clean cut from waterfall or iterative process horrors (Rational Unified Process anyone?) was sorely needed.

The criticisms about no metrics supporting the book assertions are valid too (we have more metrics now, though).

That said, a lot of things in this book are now considered good engineering practices, and the methodology guys have come back with a vengeance with the Agile/Scrum/Lean/Whatever waves that filled the blanks left by XP (and ensured a nice revenue stream for pure process consultants).
There might not be strong enough cases against some of the prisoners in Guantanamo, so holding them there, under their special status, allows the gov't to hold onto them without having to go through all these bothersome limits on detention. Plus there's the argument that people in Guantanamo could be especially dangerous if re-released (not defending this).

There really isn't that sort of problem with Snowden. A videotaped, non-coerced confession? Hundreds of articles sourced by him? How could the facts be clearer-cut? Trials could begin immediately, the worst he could do is pull an Assange-style blockade in some embassy.
Interesting. I'd never have thought of this downside without hearing your story so thanks for sharing.

You say in the other thread that your wife suggested a Bachelor's/Masters but what about MBA or PhD instead? I know of folks who've come into Systems PhDs with diverse backgrounds. I'm sure MBA programs might also look favourably on your experience (though that route probably costs more).
My first reaction was, "Cool!"

Then I got to thinking about it a little more, and I can't figure out why this is the least bit interesting.

"Pardon Snowden" is a pretty common sentiment among the tech crowd. And tech execs generally follow the same sort of opinions as the rest of us. I'm sure there are substantial differences, but there's no surprise that there would be tech execs who think Snowden should be pardoned.

So then what is the supposed surprise? That the guy was brave enough to actually voice his opinion to the President? This is not the USSR and you don't get thrown in the gulag for expressing an opinion that the President disagrees with.
I think your looking at the internet with rose tinted glasses business practices go in and out of fashion and some times back into fashion again.

I directly saw this as I worked on the BS5750 standard and saw the rise and fall of TQM

I think you will find that in traditional engineering does stick closer to traditional project planning PERT/TQM and so on as its a lot more embarrassing and costly if a bridge falls down :-)

Its also a lot easier to do in manufacturing is easy you can measure the tolerances on a piston on an engine line and flag thats a defect or not - much harder to do in software.
You could have stayed in Python and used PyOpenCL or Numba or weave inline or f2py or...

What is the real reason to use C here?
See CPAN Testers:

http://www.cpantesters.org/
1 in 4 ad clicks are fraudulent.
I don't. Nobody brings a laptop to classes(unless he plans on gaming during the lecture, that happens a lot). Most of the actual work is done with pen and paper. However I would certainly miss bringing a laptop to the library, camp out for 5~6 hours and wait for the staff to chase me out.

Also, I plan on moving out sometime next year, so the weight could be a problem.

I'm not concerned with the PC atm, seeing that it's the cheaper solution. Can I actually get work done on a tablet?