skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
And that's exactly what had everyone else scratching their heads, too!

There are plenty of slow random number generators. They're easily built from cryptographic hash functions [1]. Heck, use something like Bcrypt as your hash and you can get as many seconds per number as you like. The reason we don't use them even though they work perfectly well is that they are too slow.

The challenge is making a fast PRNG that can maintains the properties of cryptographic randomness. That's why everyone was so confused with dual EC.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function#Use...
Christmas Dinner on the International Space Station [ 2009 ]
I think the authors opinion is interesting. I looked up the review for Analytic Combinatorics and the author suggests going into some depth would take about three semesters. The Coursera MOOC is of course six weeks long and probably not in as much depth. Interesting.
Regulated cab companies simply sold out during the snowstorm -- there were more people asking for rides, and fewer drivers willing to drive.

Uber's approach solved both problems: filter down the list of ride requests to those who really need to go, and provide an incentive for drivers to drive during the really nasty weather.

Uber is a luxury good, and the price floats with supply/demand. There's nothing wrong with that, and no one is entitled to use their service.
I doubt it moved the needle at all. I think their reaction was, "We know they like us enough to steal the music, so let's give them something they can't rip off." I don't think it improved store sales.
It's a tradition: http://lee-phillips.org/google-chromeBadKerning/
>Most of your speakers are american anyway – why would they care about surveillance that’s not targeted at them but at non-americans. Surveillance operations from the US intelligence agencies are targeted at foreigners.

Well, as an outspoken American who has been screaming about this since the ATT story broke in 2006, that was a needless slap in the face.
I lived in Cambodia for a couple years, and my wife and daughter were born there. It is, as you say, a different universe. I agree that most people in developing countries are not jumping to iPhones anytime soon (although they all want one, Apple simply doesn't care about people who can't drop hundreds of dollars on a phone), but LTE is definitely coming. I don't at all see why they won't all be buying smartphones in the near future. At the low end, there are already Android phones selling for less than $100. What would prevent them from eventually getting down the price to where feature phones are now?
Compare his lack of regret with Alfred Nobel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel
If you can show that the number of point of sales (and listening to a song in the subscription model) are down compared to the 1990s, you might have a leg to stand in your statement. Without it, all you have is statistics that say that people paid more for less in the 1990s.
What if we literally didn't buy it?
I'm an american and I care about widespread surveillance of foreigners.
Some important context from the OpenSSL list last week (http://marc.info/?l=openssl-announce&m=138747119822324&w=2 ):

Why did we implement Dual EC DRBG in the first place?
- ----------------------------------------------------

It was requested by a sponsor as one of several deliverables. The
reasoning at the time (my reasoning and call as the project manager)
was that we would implement any algorithm based on official published
standards. SP800-90A is a more or less mandatory part of FIPS 140-2,
for any module of non-trivial complexity. FIPS 140-2 validations are
expensive and difficult, taking on average a year to complete and we
have to wait years between validations. So, there is an incentive to
pack as much as possible into each validation and our sponsors (dozens
of them) had a long list of requirements they were willing to fund.

We knew at the time (this was the pre-Snowden era) that Dual EC DRBG
had a dubious reputation, but it was part of an official standard (one
of the four DRBGs in SP800-90A) and OpenSSL is after all a comprehensive
cryptographic library and toolkit. As such it implements many algorithms
of varying strength and utility, from worthless to robust. We of course
did not enable Dual EC DRBG by default, and the discovery of this bug
demonstrates that no one has even attempted to use it.

Where did our implementation come from?
- --------------------------------------

The client requirement was simply "Implement all of SP800-90A". Our code
was implemented solely from that standard.

Seems fair enough if a client says "implement all the standard" that they implemented it... it's a bit different than "just add this one algorithm"
The DOJ hasn't bothered to produce any reason to throw executives in jail

New York State Penal Law Sections 175.05 and 175.10

edit - 175.10, which HSBC have admitted guilt to, is a class E felony in NY, which apparently has sentencing guidelines of up to four years in prison with a minimum of one year.
[xtopdf] PDFWriter can create PDF from standard input
Ryan, there are no specific categories of users on August. There is one user account for everyone. However, if you are invited as an artist, you receive an additional distribution channel reserved for the quality content of true artists.

The view of August is that the world of media will change when an artist is able to sale 100 million copies of their work, all by themselves. This is the future, and we are building the platform that will make it happen.
Should we just quit computers because for the entire history of mankind, aside from the last 60 years or so, nobody could become rich from them?
I need not have political purposes of my own to recognize a device commonly employed in their advancement by those who do have them. Nor need I have political purposes in order to have desiderata with regard to those fields of human endeavor in which politicians, both amateur and professional, exert themselves. I've simply learned through unpleasant experience that there's no point arguing with the weather, or with City Hall. "Offense" isn't really the correct term; "resignation" is much closer. The rest is just bandying words around, a pastime I greatly enjoy for all its ultimate pointlessness.
There are some hard workers in government - you see many around DC. But I don't disagree that there are some lazy people in government - I have heard much worse about the EPA than you have stated for example.

The military is some of the hardest working but criminally underpaid.

The whole contracting system is broken - the amount of money government leaks there is criminal.
Somewhat related: http://blog.jgc.org/2011/11/why-im-not-supporting-campaign-f...
Have you tried getting a regular cab ride during a snowstorm? At the beginning of this year it took me three hours to get a cab after Boston got a few inches of snow.
Actively working on my personal projects (a online game, community moderated forum/comments system, online journal and lastly my php/javascript library that helps me reuse what I build across my personal projects.
Yeah, really. Just about everything we take for granted as part of modern life is an historical anomaly. Electric lighting is an historical anomaly. Clean drinking water is an historical anomaly. Etc.
Of the AFI's top 100 movies of the last 100 years, only 14 are on Netflix. It's not the new releases I'm worried about.

I can't find a list cross-referenced with Amazon's catalog and I'm not going to do it myself right now, but I suspect the success rate is similar. I'd love to see data on this.
(Searching for "spike this deal" finds two kinds of usages: people making a play on words in advertisements for volleyball and football products, and people talking about ruining a deal on purpose.)
Hmm, perhaps. But it also occurs on plain bold text https://www.dropbox.com/s/h2zy36l447mj8j7/Photo%20Dec%2023%2...
I couldn't imagine the pain involved in being attached to one of these projects for multiple years. I suspect most smart and ambitious people agree with me. So in the end, you add a lack of talent to all the other very real things that others have added.
Price gouging is supply and demand. It's just supply and demand in ways that seem particularly unfair, like withholding food to make a profit.

Whether or not you call it gouging mostly has to do with how essential a service you consider transportation to be.
The gist of this article is that concerts bring in much, much more revenue for the band than in-store cd sales via (a percentage of) ticket sales and merchandising. Most of all, concerts expand the fan base leading to even more revenue.

Most of us have been saying this for years (and some in defense of the Napster model, for better or for worse), and it still seems like a no-brainer to me. As one poster here pointed out, if artists treat the music experience as a service instead of product (and, to expand on that, give the music away for free), I would be interested to see the impact.

Also note that Iron Maiden has never had a song on the radio and they pride themselves for it, so I don't necessarily buy the argument that artists need the conventional music business model to succeed.
Anecdote: In a 40hr/week corporate job I was evaluated on time at desk. My managers would tell me I needed to be at my desk more, because upper managers would walk around and check on who was at their desk. These upper managers had come from operations, and had managed production environments their entire careers, and would primarily judge performance on time spent at work. I was hardly ever asked by the upper managers on what I was working on, I wasn't; I just had to be at the desk. Later these managers were given flex time, no set hours. Everyone actually worked longer without set hours. Japanese company.
It's a 'sound byte' that popped up in response to the people that preach doom and gloom if the "piracy problem" isn't solved (e.g. "music is doomed") as if all music would cease to exist, and no one would have motivation to be a musician if it wasn't for record sales.
So, as a user, you don't change phones to one that forces you to do without your favorite apps, learn a new UI, and so on.
That algorithm can be de-obfuscated (see my top level post for the intuition). The above is equivalent to calculating a power of a 2x2 matrix, and since matrix multiplication is associative, we can use the squaring trick.

In python (I left out the code for matrix multiplication for brevity) this becomes

def nth_power_assoc(comp, f, n):
"""Reduce n copies of f with associative operation comp (short for composition, not compare)."""
if n < 1:
raise ValueError
if n == 1:
return f
if n % 2 == 1:
return comp(nth_power_assoc(comp, f, n - 1), f)
else:
g = nth_power_assoc(comp, f, n / 2)
return comp(g, g)

def fib(n):
M = ((1, 1), (1, 0))
M_n = nth_power_assoc(mmul, M, n)
return M_n[0][0]
If these guys are really spending billions to deny global warming, there ought to be more than a few people who have become millionaires doing the propaganda work. Know of any?

Blogging is free, so they really spending billions on television? Have you heard lots of TV ads denying warming?

I'm skeptical about the "Billions" spent by the rich deniers. We're told they hide their funding, using big money. So how were they found out?

Could be true, of course. I just want some evidence. And I want to know who are the public figures getting all that dough.
Didn't realize they released a package for KeePass - when I looked a few years ago, I ended up using KeepassX because I couldn't find one, and it's worked great for the past 2 years for me.
Given that there would be no discussion to be had about this or any weapon absent there being people ready and willing to employ them, it hardly seems sensible to argue about weapons as a proxy for arguing about the uses to which people put them.
> If only people on HN could be downvoted for being completely and arguably wilfully ignorant about what they comment on.

I'm new to HN, so I recently had a good look at the rules governing it. They are a bit more complex than your average site, and bound to cause a bit of controversy.

In the HN FAQ:

> There are no down arrows on submissions. They only appear on comments after users reach a certain karma threshold.

I recently posted a comment regarding some hybrid C/C++ code:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6949474

A comment of mine was downvoted, which I was a bit surprised at, then was upvoted when other hackers responded to it. To be fair the comment lacked sufficient information, which I corrected with a follow up. I'm thinking that the hacker who downvoted it doesn't know that much C, so I am not that really that bothered about it.
It's almost a satire of "hip" startup culture. Almost.
I'm not talking about new releases, I'm talking about 86% of AFI's top 100 since 1907.

The Avengers is Joss Whedon. Modern, progressive filmmakers are pretty good about getting their content onto streaming services, but there are still enormous gaps in the catalogs.
That's true, in 1938 Britain wasn't ready to fight. Probably not in May 1937 when Chamberlain became PM either. But Chamberlain was a high government official (arguably #2 overall) from 1931. The fact that the British military was where it was, and the German military was where it was, in 1938 was partly his responsibility.
It's only upon reflecting upon "this" recently that I realized that it is (effectively) a global (thread-local) variable set by the X.Y() syntax. (I mean, I understood to be the case, but I just didn't realize the impliciations for understanding "this".)

The ECMAScript committe are taking steps to make "this" more useful, but the current semantic is so insane that I don't it's particularly surprising that people who aren't language lawyers don't understand it.

(*) Given that Javascript uses a single-threaded model.
The thing is the alternative to the "gouging" isn't "lower priced rides for everyone", it's "most people can't get a hold of a cab no matter how badly they want one".

The "gouging" has three big effects: (1) More drivers willing to deal with the weather for the increased pay, so more people can get out of the storm; (2) A (highly imperfect) way to prioritize the people who most want/need the service. A person who really, really, really needs to move quickly has a way to credibly express that preference over someone who would kind of like an Uber, but could do without - by being willing to pay the higher rate. (3), or course, is more money for Uber. (1) and (2) are very good things, and I'm indifferent to (3).

"Gouging" is generally only a thing when there's a monopoly, which Uber doesn't have on transportation. People can look up Uber rates and decide if it's still worth it to them to go Uber or take something else.

(See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/20/u...)
I just looked at a random new release DVD - "We're The Millers" - in iTunes in Australia (the only one of the above options that seems available to us downunder) and the buy price (HD movie) of $29.99 is more expensive than the physical disc from a local retailer: http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/dvd/newreleasedvd.htm ($24.98)

$6.99 rent price is substantially cheaper if you only want to watch it once though I guess.

Not sure if GP meant "new release movie" as in still in cinemas as opposed to "new release DVD"
Very interesting.

It would be cool to have the HN handles, with links to their profiles, next to each bio blub.

Would also be cool to have lists of the people in each location -- I'd be curious to see who the 7 in NYC are, or the 2 in Berlin.
Really? I think it's because mozilla foundation is awash in money and egos and answerable only to itself.
Oh no, I thought this was exactly what I was looking for, but I would like it to be able to flag emails that I haven't responded to yet in a few days or so..anyone done a modification to that?
Not really. People like dogs and people like large nominal amounts. It's not rocket science.
Now who's splitting semantic hairs, good sir?
Sounds interesting...I'll take a look at the other thread. I like the idea of hashtags for flexible categorization, but I think we need to go further, e.g. now I can see all #startup #article emails my coworker sent me, or all #vacation #photo emails from my college roommate who travels for a living, but do I really have to click into each email to get the link to each article or image attachment? Can't there be something that lets me choose hashtags:#vacation #photo,sender:John Doe and returns a CoverFlow type gallery of all the images, with the text of the emails as captions? Or hashtags:#startup #article to get a Flipboard type personalized magazine made up of the formatted text of all of the articles found.
It's worth pointing out that at the scale mentioned, there's no reason that the "paying customer" had to be The United States National Security Agency. It was a published algorithm, and OpenSSL is used in countless commercial projects. It would have been entirely reasonable for one of these to have come to OpenSSL requesting implementation (albeit as part of a NSA-funded internal project with a 400% markup), and the request would have seemed entirely reasonable.

I don't think you can tar the OpenSSL folks with this without much better evidence.
My company is a Dockyard client, and this blog post hasn't done anything that would make me even begin to think about changing that.
Cars often have specific expensive maintenance at specific intervals. My car is worth maybe $2k more if I HAVE completed the timing belt replacement at 115k than it was at 114k before completing it. Warranty expiration also might influence value -- I'd far prefer a car with 1000 miles left on a comprehensive warranty, to know I could deal with undisclosed issues, than just expired from warranty.
I am more worried about driver issues. For example on my hackintosh the SATA ports on the Marvel controller are extremely flaky. It may be that the fbsd device drivers are great for the various on board Marvel or Jmicron controllers you are likely to see but I still feel better using the known LSI driver.
The historical reference is to putting a spike in an enemy's cannon barrel, which should render any attempts to use the cannon to catastrophically fail, as cannons generally had to be well-cast/flawless to operate under their loads.
Thanks, I enjoyed reading the bios, but I know many of these people only by their HN user IDs rather than their real names. Could you possibly add their user IDs to the bios?
Every time this point comes up I feel compelled to mention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
Not to say the the pirates aren't that bad, but more to remind that the studios and distributors aren't much better.
Its like someone wrote Entertainment 720 a check for $15mil
I suspect mobile HTML5 would suck if Apple hadn't started out expecting web apps to be the only option for third party developers. Where has all the alleged competition from android, palm, rim, and microsoft generated advances beyond the huge slew of stuff apple has done?
verb: spike;

1. impale on or pierce with a sharp point.

(of a newspaper editor) reject (a story) by or as if by filing it on a spike.
"the editors deemed the article in bad taste and spiked it"

stop the progress of (a plan or undertaking); put an end to.
"he doubted they would spike the entire effort over this one negotiation"

historical: render (a gun) useless by plugging up the vent with a spike.

From https://www.google.com/#q=define+spike
It's not gouging when there's competition - all of the other ways of getting around (cabs, public transit, friends who have cars, other ride sharing/providing services) are as available as they were previously. If Uber were the _only_ way to get around, then it could _potentially_ be gouging.
You're mixing up "streaming" and "Netflix streaming". Pretty much any modern movie is available to stream.
> The author seems miss the point in the comparison to the Moto G's price, since ZTE does not have a ~$50B search business to subsidize its phone business(Motorola's been losing money at a fast clip) and needs to make money on every phone it sells, it's not really a valid comparison.

It's an eminently valid comparison because the Moto G exists and is sold for $179. Sure, they have advantages that let them do that. No consumer cares. (Few developers care.)
So you prefer an objectively worse experience across all two serious platforms in case you switch?

How often are you jumping between iOS and android that this is an actual, real concern?
Just like napalm, mustard gas and nuclear weapons, yep, no volition there either. Just can't figure out why people misuses weapons to harm others... such a mystery.
I agree. It's still notable, though.
Corporate Fascism
No, I didn't try any of the 9.2 releases yet. I am still on 9.1.
The fact that I need to worry about this at all is a bad user experience.
One of the things to consider is that for many Wall Street jobs, it's tough to get in, and the hours are awful, but it's not an IQ test. If you hire someone with 120 IQ instead of 135 at a software firm, you might suffer. For banking analysts, 120 IQ is enough. This is why other things get considered. And as a recruiter, if you can help an old friend get in, you score some points in your community, and you know they'll be loyal for it.

This isn't defending the practice, I'm just explaining it. There are lots of negative side effects. (Less diversity of thought, gender discrimination, etc)
I hired twice the people in half the time by changing my decision-making style
We had it studied at secondary school back on the USSR. AK47 was an ecosystem of assault rifle, heavy machine gun and shorty mod. You had to assemble-disassemble it in seconds to get respect at school.
This weapon changed the history of humanity, and benefits far outweight losses. It is true weapon of freedom.
It seems to me that switching phones is .0001% of the user experience. Loading the app, tapping things to switch views quickly, etc is the vast majority.
Exactly.

Also, the impact of the Manhattan Project on Richard Feynman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ah7f-1M2Sg

"I simply didn't think"
To pre-emphasize, my only judgment of the author is that I applaud him for his candor and for being out there and actually doing things. Here are the things that I had a reaction to:

"work with some really shitty people too"

fawning language over Ember, making bold bets on it based on a hunch

firing a cofounder, admittedly a mistake

These were also probably the most valuable parts for me because they were challenging.
But many people have to deal with small amounts of data. Consider all the WordPress blogs there are on the Internet that will be set up and used by one person.

Interestingly, his first reason / argument to switch was about having the content locally and being able to use markdown.

I like the idea of storing the content in an version control system. I think it would be great for sites like gwern.com.

But still: if you don't have much content you will get speed and security practicality for free.
The etymology is indeed 'spike the guns'. Usually spiking was done to prevent the enemy from seizing and using one's own ordnance, rather than an act of sabotage by the enemy.

The 'spike' was a nail driven into the barrel, usually perpendicular to the bore.

As a Cold War aside: an AP round from the A-10's GAU-8 cannon could actually spike the barrel of a T-62 tank! But whilst this was demonstrated in controlled environments it wasn't really a practical form of attack...
Sweet! I'll take a peek.
If it's sold in stores and featured in advertisements, it is released.