skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yes, those crooked contracts. Just because the labels give artists an advance doesn't make it virtuous, they're still shady as hell. They are every bit as crooked as classic "company store" based labor practices of old, the big difference is that it's not dancing around the poverty line so it's not quite so malevolent.

Nevertheless, compare a music label advance to a business loan, a mortgage, or VC investment. With a loan or a mortgage the financier takes a risk and puts money behind someone buying a house or building a business. But the obligation of the person on the other end of the risk is to pay back the loan plus interest, and the interest is how the risk of the loan is mitigated. With VC an investment is made in a venture and in exchange the investor is given a share of the venture, when the company is acquired or goes public the investor then owns a decent chunk of a now liquid asset and can either continue ownership or cash out and effectively earn RoI on their original risk taking.

But a music label advance is a very different and far more unreasonable beast. First the label loans the artist money in the form of an advance. Then the label takes majority ownership of the artist's works. Then the label requires the artist to fund production of their next album, music video, etc. out of their advance. The label gives a small share of the profits from the artist's works back to them which they must use to repay the advance. Meanwhile, the label takes a larger share of the profits for themselves. Additionally, the label may or may not spend money promoting the artist, but we should not look at this as virtuous because they are promoting their own products at this point.

The genius of this system is that the amount of money the labels take in from their share of the album revenue is effectively hidden, so artists can't tell how profitable their work has been for the labels. Moreover, by forcing the artists to pay back the loan out of their smaller share of the profits and forcing the artists to pay for album production out of their advance it minimizes the overhead the labels have to pay and increases their profitability while simultaneously making albums look less profitable than they actually are for the labels. Hollywood pulls similar accounting tricks with movies to dick people out of their rightful share of profits.

Imagine a world where VCs took complete control over startups, took the lions share of the profits, and forced founders to pay back initial investments out of a small share of company profits, while also requiring the company to pay developer salaries out of that small profit slice and the initial investment money. Nobody would stand for such a crap system, but many artists continue to allow themselves to be suckered into a similar exchange because it's the norm in the music industry and because most artists tend not to be business savvy.
I had no idea that existed! Pretty cool! Thank you for the tip. That is slick!
On maintenance intervals: If all cars really did get scheduled maintenance done on time, then cars that have just over X0,000 miles should be worth more because they just had this expensive maintenance done.

That is a car with 51,000 miles will just have had its 50,000 mile maintenance done while a car with 49,000 miles will not have.

So scheduled maintenance cannot explain these jumps, since it would predict jumps in the opposite direction.
Earlier this year I implemented the arithmetic of ℚ[φ] in Ruby, to illustrate how something like this would work for my students: http://bit.ly/1gSQdpC

Obviously the Haskell implementation more directly expresses the idea! I found it easier to implement ℚ[φ] than ℚ[√5], even though the two are isomorphic as fields.
I think people get into rhythms and follow the script they've learned. This plays out in the large and in the small. We've all probably had multiple arguments where A says one thing, and B automatically retorts in defense rather than thinking about what we're talking about or even just letting it go. I think a lot of marriages run like that.

People unfortunately think a well spoken response is the same as a truthful response. If the PR flack or representative or CEO seems otherwise calm and unflustered - smooth - then that serves the "reasonable response and explanation" part of that scenario's script.

We are very, very easily lead.
LinuxDevices content is back online
Tethering APNs and a few other settings (such as LTE enabling) are signed and can't be overridden that way
How I got 10x speed, 5x throughput from my API.
Another great one is "The History and Evolution of Computer Viruses" [1].

I actually have the viruses he demonstrates. You can download them here [2]. He emailed them to me once. Just load them into DosBox!

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yswPIwDFYDY

[2] https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhqt3wh8hzuf8vn/dosboxViruses.zip
The record labels have also noticed this and now nearly every new deal includes cuts of touring and merchandising as well as the usual cut of records sold. They're known as '360 deals'.
California to introduce first 'smartphone killswitch' bill
I'd love to hear from Matt Cutts on this
OK, so the entertainers of the future will work differently and make less due to the digitization of music.

So instead of being famous and having millions of dollars and a huge tour train, you'll produce music on the cheap or electronically and sell it via you-tube, streaming deals, shows, and direct album sales for the super fans.

Innovation always has its side effects good and bad, but those who want to entertain and be famous will still have all the motivation and incentive to be creative and strive for the spotlight. They won't be making off too bad for themselves, either.
Yes, it's a negative tone. My feeling is that he unjustifiably self-identifies with Jobs. As mentioned, I've recently read 'Hatching Twitter' and it paints him in an unseemly light.

I don't see how the comment is downplaying his accomplishments though.
It's a set of many links in the bottom of a page, mostly unrelated to the main content of the post. This lights many red flags in the Google webspam metrics, I'm pretty sure.
> Scenario: You just noticed a major typo on your new, statically generated microsite - using Markdown, pelican, etc. ...but the only computer you have access to is running a fresh copy of Windows 8.

Could also be running a fresh HaikuOS version.

If it's flatfile you update via ftp or direct shell access or some magic git recipe. I fail to see how running win8 prevents that. Moreover, if it's a fresh win8 installation you don't have that long random password in your head to log into your wordpress site anyway. Just a scenario.
As I understand it the whole reason you use a PRNG rather than just using your source entropy with some conditioning, is speed -- or maybe the risk of stalling, which is related to speed. So if you want slow, you can forget the seeding-a-deterministic-algorithm part altogether.
> Can they afford us? If you think it is callous to put this as the first thing we look for, then you are probably not someone we want to work with.

I wish you elaborated on this (I think it'd be worthy of its own article). How do you do this? Most articles I read on this topic seem discuss their fee with clients like a diplomat, a politician or a strategist or something. I've read in more than one article you're supposed to sell your price as "an investment, not a fee". But your article implies you cut right to the chase.
Not all great songwriters are great performers, or even enjoy performing at all. I'd rather have those spent their time in the studio coming up with new songs, rather than touring with the old ones, crappily, because they have to.
Funny you should say that. We used to think of him as jolly but affably mushy in the head. In retrospect, he was pretty wise, but he made no attempt to come across as being especially smart. I later related what he said to a retired Marine, who responded to the effect, that must've been an Army story -- his family had been joining the Marines for 3 generations to kill.
Yes, its quite the double-edged sword. I used to run my own one-man consultancy shop and picking the right clients was tough. It cost me thousands of dollars in 2013 alone. That's why I decided to move on and work as a full-time programmer. The business side of the consultancy was making life harder than it needed to be. I could have hired people to help me grow it. But it would have forced me to step away from the code and into management. Something I really do not want to do. Currently Im working as a full-time programmer for a growing company and its been great.

Good luck with your company. :)
OK, you win the Internet!

Mr. Kalashnikov might have liked it too.
Stripe begins private beta in Australia
Here are three responses to your question:

1) It's not always true that users lack insight or imagination into new possibilities. Many of our best futurists aren't technologists - Gene Roddenberry, for example. On the opposite side, programmers can sometimes be resistant to new ideas because they judge the effort to be too high for the benefit. This would be the equivalent something like "If you ask engineers, they'll tell you to buy a faster horse because internal combustion engines are expensive, hard to build and horses are faster anyway (at the beginning they were anyway)." What this misses is that speed isn't the key benefit. If you talked to users, you'd probably discover their needs are lower maintenance costs and improving reliability. Users didn't want to go faster, they wanted to get rid of the horse.

2) UCD is not about asking users to invent new ideas, architect the system or tell us how to implement it (i.e. do you want a horse or an engine?). It's about including the users' perspective in how we assess the benefits and drawbacks of a technology. Engineers tend to want to do this by quantifying aspects of the technical system (megahertz, megapixels, MTBF, softer measures like code quality), excluding a broader perspective of the socio-technical system—the system in a social, human context of use.

3) Developers are often resistant to including the users in the design process because they feel that it impinges on their autonomy, especially when it interferes with their desire to innovate. There's a little bit of... well, hypocrisy is maybe too strong a word, so let's say inconsistency in this. Developers defend their own autonomy and right to direct their own work, and rightly so. But they then argue that it should be taken away (or at least not given) to the users of the technologies they build, technologies which deeply affect the work and lives of those users. As I argue in the article, excluding users has a negative impact on developer autonomy, because UX designers are brought in, reducing and sometimes eliminating developer control, except for the most talented and insightful.
Maybe narrow your scope. Dorsey created two services that millions of people want. Could you create something that only thousands or even hundreds of people would want (and pay money for)?
Not really. You can't save files and the courts I've been to charge $0.25 per page to print if you can print at all.
most interesting part:

> I found nothing sketchy in my reversing, your phones most likely aren't being backdoored by Chinese.
The article explicitly says the firm arrived at its conclusions from Maiden data it saw.

>Musicmetric noticed Iron Maiden's placement and ran its own analytics for the band.

The firm wouldn't be the only one capable of drawing such conclusions.

I find the piece to be OK and interesting if not exhaustive and airtight.
The absence of Mexico from the FATF blacklist simply means that Mexico makes a good effort at implementing the FATF recommendations. Which makes sense since Mexico is a FATF member (I don't think there is a single FATF member in the FATF list of high-risk and non cooperative countries). It doesn't account for the high risk of money laundering associated with the social context of drug trafficking (this was also the government's point I think).

For what it's worth, the 2009 IMF report on Mexico's FATF compliance[1] identifies a lot of issues regarding Mexico's AML process (see the ratings table starting at page 311).

Reading the Statement of Facts, I personally find the evidence compelling that there was a lot of blind eye turning at HSBC to say the least. Just one example:

When suspicious activity was identified, HSBC Mexico
repeatedly failed to take action to close the accounts. Senior business executives at HSBC Mexico repeatedly overruled recommendations from its own AML committee to close accounts with documented suspicious activity. In July 2007, a senior compliance officer at HSBC Group told HSBC Mexico’s Chief Compliance Officer that “[t]he AML committee just can’t keep rubber-stamping unacceptable risks merely because someone on the business side writes a nice letter. It needs to take a firmer stand. It needs some cojones. We have seen this movie before, and it ends badly.”

(BTW I don't "keep saying this". It was my first comment on the topic. You probably confused me with milkshakes or dalke.)

[1] http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2009/cr0907.pdf
I know Vungle is a pretty young company, but how long have the people you hired this way generally stayed with the company? Really interested in how short hiring cycles translate to culture fit and employee longevity.
How did you pick your law firm. In what ways Daily/Weekly/monthly are you using them?
I typically recommend this in my line of work, especially for occupations that are non-abundant in the relevant labor markets. Hiring can be expensive if only for the time spent looking for that perfect candidate which ultimately appears only marginally more qualified, and vacant positions carry a cost themselves.

Add on to that the fact that most employers use selection techniques with relatively low validities (e.g., interviews, particularly unstructured) and that validity degrades over time anyway (i.e., performance between someone predicted as "good" vs. "mediocre" is much more noticeable early in the employment relationship than it is six months or a year later).
Actually the new versions of keepassx have password generators.
First thank you for the phone. I'm regular Nexus user (US, California), but I bought the ZTE out of curiosity. Month or two ago a friend of ours (in their late 60-ies) had to fly and stay in Italy for 1-2 weeks. They asked me & my wife (being younger in our 30-40-ies) for a phone and whether it'll work in Italy. I gave them the ZTE, explained how to change the SIM card in Italy - and they've used it without any problem. Yes - there was only one photo taken, but they were able to use it for it's real purpose - a phone! - And on top of that I encouraged them to not get overly panicky if something happened with the phone - after all it's just $80 bucks. So they were pretty good testers, and I got back the phone and it still works.

I'm planning on using it in Bulgaria (my home country) and I feel it'll serve it's purpose - e.g. talking on the phone.

As for apps - there could be some improvements - for example if it's possible to clearly separate online & offline apps - so I know what's gonna work on the plane, or when I don't have connection - or if there is some way to "wget" the app in (if it makes sense though).

Thanks for providing one more good alternative!
The First Monad Tutorial (by Philip Wadler)
I disagree that all web apps are "objectively worse". I use HackerWeb[1] because I believe it to be better than any of the Android apps I've tried..

[1]http://hackerwebapp.com/
An an Australian, I wish I knew what a "Netflix" was.
He most certainly means Quora, which because of it's dark patterns I refuse to visit even when it ranks. Stack Exchange on the other hand, has another google problem. Many of the top results are "closed as blah blah blah" -- so you arrive from google to a Stack Exchange page which has your exact question, excitedly you click, only to find it closed and unanswered.
How in the hell is this a 'growth hack'? This is old-school black hat SEO.
Also, this has pushed me further to the left, not to the right.

So...who will you work for then?
It's somewhat luck of the draw of course. But with a new car (especially these days) you're getting a pretty well-defined quantity with a good warranty. The one fairly low mileage used car I bought from a dealer ended up having more than its fair share of expensive maintenance; I should probably have sold it sooner than I did as well. And last time I bought a new vehicle, I looked at used but nothing seemed like much of a deal.

The fact that I drive vehicles a relatively modest number of miles a year and keep them until they're basically not reliable transportation any longer may color my experiences as well. I just want to buy something and have it run with the minimum fuss and bother for as long as possible.
> "NSA is a intelligence agency: spying on foreigners seems to me like it'd be their objective, regardless of the revelations ... Other foreign intelligence agencies do their share of spying on foreigners too"

I don't know why we should find this more acceptable, whether NSA or foreign agencies. If it is supposed to be acceptable, than give every single person even greater power of surveillance of powerful government/corporate entities and their agents, given their power, they are more likely to do serious harm when unaccountable.
None of our jobs existed 100 years ago forcing our historical counterparts to design, create and make in other mediums and for (much) lesser reward, or just get other jobs.

But I sure am glad only musicians are asked to forfeit the benefits those 100 years brought us all.
Meh. I like BitBucket's unlimited private repo model much better.
Well I never knew till the other day that Zendesk started off in Denmark. Also Podio. Probably by the time a Danish company becomes successful they've already moved part of their business to Silicon Valley and everyone thinks they are a US company, like I did with Zendesk.
I guess in my mind what I'm thinking is that individuals are often decimated by criminal/civil judgements, as sometimes are small/medium companies, yet we almost never see legal action threaten the real survival or profitability of a massive company.

Just as people are hugely disincentivized to do illegal activity for fear that it will totally destroy their lives. Companies however have no such fear. There's little personal liability, and at worst there's a ding to profit for the year and investors grumble a bit. But overall, its just a headache- not a severe deterrent to acting poorly in the end.

I mean, what if we did actually throw executives in jail? Even for short periods of time (3-6 months?) It could create a culture where from the top they would have incentive to support only completely above-board behavior.
Just throwing out ideas.

Do these demonstrate specific skills, knowledge and abilities directly related to the jobs for which you are applying?

Are the repositories open source?

Are you contributing to other people's open source projects?

Is your resume available on more mainstream job sites such as LinkedIn?
Not really. Keepass2 has a lot of problems on Linux based operating systems.
Keepassx however, while lacking in embellished features works perfectly and fits right into gnome shell.
The "it's curious" line is basically saying that anyone familiar with rhetoric and flowery terms is aware of the gaping holes in the formal logic arguments you're making. The floweriness is to throw off people not familiar with this kind of discourse. I understand that it's also for fun, though.

A man is not helpless against his enemy so long as both are similarly armed, but you render him quite thoroughly so when you disarm him

Here is a fundamental difference between how we see the world. You see the world through the eyes of the beseiged, us and them. Those people out there want to get me. They are my enemy. I must be able to destroy them, I must be able to project my power and keep what is mine. There are 'honest citizens' and 'criminals' and never the twain shall meet.

I see the world as 'we're all in this together'. People do shitty things, but we can reduce the total number of shitty things by working to improve everyone's lot. If someone does a shitty thing, instead of treating them like a criminal and making them worse, work towards rehabilitation.

I pay my taxes. I show up 9-5 for my work. I don't get in people's way. If someone has a turn for the worse in the street, I usually step in and help. This morning I evaded my public transport fare, as I did last night. Am I an 'honest citizen'? Am I a 'criminal'? If I were to obtain a firearm, would the 'honest citizens' around me be right to feel threatened? People are not separable into these two polar groups.

There is hysteria on both sides of the gun debate - and the pro-gun side's version is to paint the world in this ridiculous shades of the brightest white and the darkest night. Either for us or against us. It's a particularly weirdly conformist point to push, given that the same people are usually the same folks trumpeting personal freedom (not that you have been here)
Eww. A quote by a rap singer comes to mind:

Cuz if you go platinum, it's got nothing to do with luck
It just means that a million people are stupid as fuck

-- Immortal Technique
Keep in mind:

> This journey stops at root for now, since the /evasi0n7 binary is supa obfuscated good.
playing fast and loose with formal definitions here, but basically because services, by their very nature, are scarce goods -- you are paying for someone's time. once you productize/automate that, it becomes non-scarce and the marginal cost falls through the floor.

so, like the whole ideas and sharing flames analogy.

now, note, this does not pertain to products that perform services. that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax. but, in our example, that'd be like cloning the musician rather than the music.
Host dynamic websites using your Dropbox account
> But rarely in these discussions will you find relevant mathematical considerations. If the goal is to compute a Fibonacci number or a factorial, the proper solution is not a recursive function, but rather knowledge of mathematics.

THE introduction to the Lisp culture, SICP, discusses exactly this on page 35 (first edition).

See also:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-Z-H-11.html...
It's also great if you want to go to a foreign country, or if (like me) have to visit back your native one. It has good battery usage, and it works pretty good for it's purpose (phone first). for $50 the best I could find was very old design phones (back in Buglaria) that looked a lot worse than the $80 deal from FFOS (and they were locked at that, while ZTE is open).

So I think the PRICE should be taken very seriously here. I love my Nexus, and I love my wife's iPhone, and my friends' fancy Samsung, etc. - but each one of them is multiple times more expensive than the ZTE Open.

And it might finally make me start develop more for the web (did too much C/C++ over the years).
The term for this style of short circuit decision making is "satisficing.". There's a wide body of economic psychology that suggests that satisficing selection algorithms (as opposed to optimizing selection algorithms) lead to greater happiness.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing
Sorry, it means to 'deny successful execution of the plan'. Originally spiking gun barrels a modern example was environmentalists driving spikes into old growth redwood trees that would cause massive damage to a chain saw blade should a logger try to harvest tree. Generally doing something which prevents a deal from actually working to make up for the fact that you were unsuccessful in preventing the deal from being agreed to in the first place.
I really needed someone to summarize the article in one sentence (who has time to read more than one) and at the same time editorialize. Now I don't have to read the article or reason. Super convenient. Thanks!