skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Might move to Bay Area, but terrified by gender ratio. How bad is it?
I could be moving to the Bay Area in 4-5 months, but a lot of things I've heard about the unfavorable gender ratio and the women there are outright frightening. New York's dating scene is pretty awful-- although gender ratio is obviously not the culprit-- so I can't imagine much worse.

How bad is it, in truth? I'm 27 and reasonably attractive, of average social skill in general, but have zero "game". I'm looking for a serious partner I could marry one day; short-term flings have no appeal to me. What kills me on the New York scene is that I'm inexperienced... and a low "number" is a turnoff to the promiscuous, materialistic, family-hating SatC women who have ruined the East Coast.

Is it common to find an available marriage-worthy woman in the Bay Area, or is it rare enough that I should avoid moving there if I suck at "game"?
Don't forget how much it costs to sell the watch - that highly trained staff at the Beverly Hills boutique doesn't come cheap either. This of a luxury version of a car dealership.
Pretty much anything he talks about outside of his area of expertise makes him sound like an idiot. I especially enjoy his rants about how OOP is useless, Emacs sucks, and how databases are too slow for real work.

It is amusing because he uses OO techniques in Linux and Git, mg is a more complex and harder to customize than emacs (and has fewer features), and databases are not slow by design; svn and monotone just happened to misuse them.

I am not so hot on monolithic kernels or UNIX either, but those are issues for another day ;)
I've always promised the designers pixel perfection across browsers, but I agree that for a casual site it's OK to leave some aspects of typography to the browser defaults, and to fudge layouts with uncalculated "em" spacing.
The days of $100+ OS are over. They'll milk it the most they can but they better embrace for impact.
there is no guarantee that every 100 flips will shake out exactly 51/49.
That you earn $10 with 99% certainty.
They have to inflate the population at all costs, otherwise the new money they are printing will lead to currency debasement.

Not trying to make a joke here about sex and inflation, it is just that they realize that adding more population is a requirement.
About Theatrical Distribution
"I'm sorry to respond to flamebait but I use visualStudio and emacs, compile by pressing a button and using make. As long as you understand what's going on it's all good."

While I don't "hate" Microsoft, as a professional programmer who has worked in both Microsoft's world and the open source world, I am very glad to be able to work entirely in the open source ecosystem precisely because there is a limit to how much you can understand. You hit it when you hit the closed source components.

I grant you that having source for everything may not be everyone's cup of tea, but being able to dive into the source of everything has saved me so often that it results in a qualitative difference in the experience of developing. I haven't spent two weeks trying disparately to figure out how to get around some bug since I used a closed-source PDF generation library three years ago, but this was a routine experience in the Microsoft world. (Not always two weeks, granted, but it can be!)

We've fixed the kernel, read the source of glib and other fundamental libraries to figure out why our things weren't working, hacked up other things in ways that are two-line fixes in what would be closed source in the Microsoft world but would be huge masses of unreliable code to work around at a different layer.

(It should be pointed out that this is simply an effect of having source and the right to build it and use the built result, which some permissive commercial licenses do permit, but my understanding is that this remains the exception and not the rule, with most people still working under the idea that opening your source is tantamount to handing out the family jewels.)
Jeff Bezos's Kindle apology: please tell us what the Kindle can do
A comment like that requires a reply. If you don't have the time, that's okay b/c someone probably will (but you could check back later to make sure someone has).

Don't punish (downvote) someone for earnestly taking part in the conversation. Other people probably have similar beliefs so this person did everyone a service by bringing the question out into the open so it can be discussed.

Votes encourage discussion, not correctness.
Apple Screws Google Over 'Latitude' iPhone App
This is because many people here still vote by agreement, rather than for comments that are interesting, insightful, contradictory, terse, and so on. This happens on a much larger scale with lower-rated comments. I once saw the word "no" with a score of 50~, which made up for the contributor's running streak of -5~. It wasn't that their contribution quality became better, it was that their comment hit that major "upvote when you agree" fault in our system. It reduces our quality. Seeing even a poorly-composed brute force attack on the ideas in the article is what I come to the comments for, because even reckless disagreement is often a gold mine of those little bits of information that you didn't take into consideration, but should have. (I've said all this before, and it should be repeated.)

Vote for what you think others should see, not for what you agree with.
The number of dollars you win out of N flips is 2W - N, where W ~ B(N,0.51). So, your question is:

What is the minimum value of N such that P(2W - N >= 10) >= 0.99, i.e. P(W >= 5 + N/2) >= 0.99.

So calculate Sum from {n = 5 + N/2} to {n = N} of P(W = n) for some different values of N, and see what you get!

[P(W = n) = (N choose n) 0.51^n 0.49^(N-n)]
No idea how to solve this. You want to solve for p = .01.
Though buried in the pile, I think more people need to notice this link.
Please don't upvote this, it's simply wrong.
I welcome Microsoft if they want to get closer to the FLOSS ecosystem.

As long as they come with their hands where we can see them. ;-)
"...eloquently makes a claim based on the perceived fact that the world is flat."

You should do what feels right to you.

What would I do? Probably click reply and challenge my fellow hackers with something like, "Who you gonna listen to, Galileo or Thomas Friedman?"
CMS Wire on Shareflow and trends in stream based communication
It's a Global Market, why are you cornering yourself?
Yes it definitely has a money making business ability.
A 10 minute tutorial for solving Math problems with Maxima
This hypothetical "factually wrong" dilemma is a red herring. The real issue is disagreement, not factual correction. Much more often the case is that someone has written a thoughtful, honest comment based on some worldview that is very different from your own. In that scenario you should not downvote at all. Rather, take the time to explain your own worldview or just move on.
He is close to arriving to the conclusion I generally have reached when thinking about piracy issues when he says this:

> People have been violating copyright and pirating and plagiarizing since long before the modern era. There's just something, deep down, that makes people believe that these sorts of ethereal products, or knowledge, can't or shouldn't be protected.

To me, the real issue is this: No one spontaneously thinks that sharing something freely sharable with friends and family and fellow humans is inherently wrong. "Intellectual property" is an unnatural and learned concept. If I had an infinite supply of food, I would not think twice about handing it out to others. I didn't use to, but now I do think that the problem is largely one of future shock and legislation: we simply have to come to grips with the reality that digital information will be copied, and that someone possessing a piece of digital information will expect it to be copyable.

So where does that leave him? I don't know. Maybe there is no decent business model for selling games like AI War in this age. Just like other business models have disappeared or, for that matter, appeared with the digital age.

I don't think the problem is that people in general view piracy as a victimless crime. I think the "problem" is that, deep down, people don't think it's a crime at all.
What I would do personally:

if score < 1
option 1
else
option 3

But of course it's a judgment call. If it seems like the person is intentionally trolling, then by all means, go negative. If the person is just misinformed, zero is a sufficient slap on the wrist that hopefully says "make sure you know what you are talking about next time", and a reply makes it obvious why it got downvoted.
Just one question: Is the code licensed under GPLv2 or "GPLv2 or subsequent versions".

This question is all-important because GPLv3 has patent provisions GPLv2 lacks that can make Microsoft's threats against Linux (and FLOSS) toothless.

If Microsoft licensed them under GPLv2+, it's good. If it's not, I am much more suspicious on their intentions.
I don't see this frequently talked about, but this is one of the big reasons to hope that one of the alternative (non-ITER) fusion proposals succeed, because most or all of them are much smaller than a tokamak, and easy to launch into space, at which point they could power an ion drive for a long time. This is true even after ITER succeeds brilliantly and solves all our energy problems.

Ha ha, I told a funny!

A working fusion device of almost any kind would open up the solar system, without the dangers of lofting fission reactors. (Also, they get better energy density, and while fission would probably cut the mustard, in space you'll take every bit of energy density you can.)
If I understand you

Sorry, probably my error. The main takeaway should've been that the article is skewed, inaccurately presenting traditional traders just as victims, and algorithmic traders as entirely bad.

how come it is suddenly okay when HFT does it?

I didn't say that. Show me a clean portion of the financial world, and I'll be shocked.
Comments that are factually wrong should go to 0 and no lower!

Below 0 is only for spam and things like "Me too".
Please don't post in a math thread if you don't know what you're talking about. Misinformation is really anti-social.
W ~ B(N, p) means W is a binomial random variable: the number of heads you get from N independent coin flips each with probability p of coming up heads.
There's got to be a better way to express summations and combinations on the internet. Did you see that link posted earlier?
I usually check out grayed out comments on the posts I read; I have yet to see one that was "thoughtful". Maybe on posts I don't bother to read, because the topic doesn't particularly interest me, there are lots of thoughtful comments downvoted, but I haven't seen it happening.
Doing the 99% certainty part I'm pretty sure requires that you calculate a confidence interval http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_interval although that article hasn't helped me remember how to do that
He said in the article (may be a misquote) that he was the only one.
That calculation shows that after 500 flips your expected profit is $10, which is not the same as the question that was asked.
The author recommends two ways to target rules at IE: 1) create new stylesheets for each version of IE, or 2) CSS hacks that only IE understand/ignores.

But I prefer to use a different approach: conditional classes on the body tag. For example:

<!--[if lt IE 7 ]> <body class="ie6"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 7 ]> <body class="ie7"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 8 ]> <body class="ie8"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if !IE]><!--> <body> <!--<![endif]-->

Then you can write IE-specific rules without CSS hacks:

body div#container { background-color: white; }
body.ie6 div#container { background-color: red; }

And all your related styles can be grouped together in the same file.

via http://paulirish.com/2008/conditional-stylesheets-vs-css-hac... and http://www.paulhammond.org/2008/10/conditional/
No I didn't. Could you please repost? I'd be interested.
Amazon Acquisitions and Investments
[video] Arduino + Laptop Touchpad in iPod like use
"True, but not making something because idiots would misuse it isn't a good road to go down either."

Erm... I am not sure about that one. Idiots cause a lot of harm.

The speed increase you get when using a wizard that makes code you don't understand you pay back with time and headaches when you have to fix the code you didn't write that no longer runs against the current runtime you are using.

As for Java and C++, they both make writing programs hard. The edge Java has is that it makes writing the bugs much harder.
The "factually wrong dilemma" is in no way a red herring. It's actually precisely the point I was responding to in the grandparent post. Down-voting based on opinion is something else entirely. Of course, people will confuse opinion and fact sometimes, and I would encourage people to be skeptical of themselves on delineating the two, but that doesn't invalidate the idea that people can say things that are factually wrong.

Yes, if someone says something that is factually correct (or at least not incorrect) based on a different world-view, then I agree, don't vote them down. If they say something that is factually incorrect but accepted in their worldview, I don't know that that changes what I was saying before.

Edit: you know, it's usually my policy not to comment on how comments have been modded, but I do find it hilarious that in this discussion, someone's down-voted this comment (at the time of this edit) without replying.
For a fusion device to work you need energy in first. In other words, you need a fission device first.

Igor.
You may want to consider rethinking the metered billing model. I have yet to see evidence that people who pay for stuff like them.

How about Amazon's cloud services? Lots of people pay for those.

Your story is sad but it sounds like the problem might be more the relationship between you and your manager rather than a problem with all cloud servies.
Etherpad pro is in beta
I feel like, fundamentally, the problem of piracy with digital goods is something like this:

I'm a wheat merchant. My store is located 10 minutes outside of town and I give people a fixed amount wheat in exchange for money. But one day there's a huge pile of relatively undefended wheat that people can just take for free (even if illegally) in the middle of town. Suddenly my wheat is no longer worth as much.

Seems pretty simple to me.
How to build your next venture quickly, cheaply, and efficently on the cloud
On reddit when things go to -8 it's for one reason only: They are pro religion, or pro israel, or conservative. (OK, that's 3, but it's basically the same thing.)

On reddit stupid stuff usually gets a plus vote, and people express agree/disagree via votes.

This is NOT the way HN is run, and people coming here from reddit have a hard time adjusting. So we need threads like this approximately monthly.

Maybe PG can require all new members to read some kind of etiquette guide (with a quiz).
Is there somewhere I can download the code to take a peek into it?

I also remember that coding in C++ for Windows CE was not a pleasant experience. Beauty is good and writing beautiful Windows code is next to impossible. C++ code is pretty. C++ code that runs in Windows is, most definitely, not.
I think he was asking for a numeric answer.
My Life Offline
This is actually a reply to jemmons to whom I can't reply directly because it's nested too deeply.

--

I can't disagree with you more on more levels than I can count.

1) Argument from Basic Economics: When I made a good faith purchase of an electronic copy of 1984 from a trusted book retailer, I did so because I value that book MORE than I value $.99. When Amazon "bought back" the book, they did so at a price lower than I would have agreed to ($.99)...

2) Argument from Hooliganism: ...They were able to do this because they could force the transaction without me or any authority stopping them. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I think that's called theft? Aren't those the basic facts of your average stick up?

3) Argument from Incentives: Especially with large organizations, laws are always tested. If there is a loop hole, it will be exploited. If the economic incentives for a big company are even a little out of line with the customers' or the public's interest, then customer and public will ALWAYS fall by the wayside.

That having been said, now that Amazon knows it can sell illegal files then just reverse the transaction later at no cost, they have full incentive to sell as many dubiously licensed books as they can in the hope that some rights-holders will not fight back.

By demanding they pay a penalty for this mistake, and especially for the subsequent mishandling of that mistake, we're ensuring that Amazon has sufficient incentive to stop this bad behavior. Right now, that have no such incentive.

3) Argument from a school boy: Enough of these economics, incentive, and hypothetical ethical concerns. In practical terms, it's possible that my high-school aged son could have had a copy of 1984 on his kindle for his AP English class. So here he is, reading the book, and he needs to write a paper about it. He tries to open it one day and it's gone. Just gone.

Now he has to spend additional time and money to reacquire the book he already bought, which has economic value. If he's lucky it won't actually affect his grade because he'll have had enough lead time to get it before any important deadline, but maybe he's out of allowance and I'm a mean parent who won't buy the book for him. Who will compensate him (more likely me) for his inconvenience and expense? Not Amazon, apparently, even though they caused it.
70

exp: after 7 flips 99% probability of earning $1 (1-(0,49^7))

times 10
For me, it's:

if score < 2
option 1
else
option 3

Note that I don't want to penalize them for being wrong-- we've all been there (and sometimes when we think they're wrong, really we are). It's better to let them lie and reply with better information or a ("Are you sure that's right? I recall blahblah.")
> That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

I wish people would refrain from saying this. Sure, it sounds so deliciously dismissive that it may be hard to resist, but really, it just can't be true.

FWIW, I agree with most of what you said though.
Next thing you know, they'll be deleting your copies of 1984 and Animal Farm.
I am impressed by the number of votes (up and down) on this topic. A nerve was hit, obviously.
If he wants one he can calculate it using the formula I've provided. A normal approximation to the binomial distribution might help too.
Critical DD-WRT Router Vulnerability
A Twitter client for the C64
I agree that one should do what feels right.

FWIW, I was trying to posit a situation in which you don't have time to respond. I was using flat earth as a stand-in for a wrong statement, and oftentimes, it takes more than name-dropping Galileo to demonstrate that the writer is factually incorrect. I agree that if you have time, demonstrating the truth is the best option.
Microsoft updates some out-of-date Mac bashing in ads. But not all of it.
No offence but 'smashing' to me means broken bones in multiple pieces. That contraption wouldn't work there.

You'd have been better off firmly taping a pencil to the underneath of your finger (with the eraser pointing forward for grip). This would have also acted as a splint in case there was damage to the finger

Still, any excuse to play with lego is good, I suppose!
I'm not totally sure, but I would say either upvote your favorite amongst the rebutting comments that will likely crop up if the incorrect post is highly rated, or stay quiet.

Here's a different hypothetical where upvoting based on agreeing opinions, rather than quality of reasoning, can be a problem. It sometimes crops up in sites with rating systems like the one we are reading right now, and it could be on any blatantly wrong, or merely not-widely-held opinion.

1) A person writes "a comment that honestly and eloquently makes a claim based on the perceived fact that the world is flat" (or any other well-reasoned claim based on an incorrect premise, or simply an opinion which is disagreed with).

2) Either because it was well reasoned or because of a number of otherwise quiet flat earth believers agreeing with it, it gets up-voted highly.

3) A few passionate replies are written to rebut the highly voted claim, but the majority of which do so caustically, without good reasoning; perhaps even name-calling.

4) In order to push forth their opinion, people who believe the earth is round up-vote the rebuttals, regardless of their quality; and the tragedy is that sometimes (often?) the rebuttal most up-voted is one that simply appeared earliest, rather than the one which rebuts most clearly.

So, I don't know what the ideal voting method would be, but voting based on quality of reasoning, not agreement, would have avoided this problem -- at least in the case of arguments.

A side note: as others have noted, the distinction between "fact" and "opinion" is, well, a matter of opinion in many cases.
can anyone else sign up - it doesnt recognise any of my email addresses!
Also, a link to the DD-WRT site with instructions on how to fix the problem:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/community/developmentnews/34-...
Interesting and I'm happy he doesn't see adding DRM as a solution. I wonder if he thought about long term effects of this piracy.

In the context of one game you can see piracy as lost sales, but in the long term those are people that were exposed to your product and that you may convert later. I know that I did copy a lot of games before working, but then for a couple of years I bought a lot. Now I play rarely, but most of the games I bought were from developers I had previously copied.
My naive concern has always been about the fallout of a spectacular launch fail of the sort that involves fuel rods spread over a large area.

If this is a solved problem, then my fears are unfounded. Let me know.
Microsoft bows to Apple’s pressure, changes Laptop Hunter ad
IPhone 3GS Encryption "entirely useless"
Long-term piracy concerns aside, the author can take that listing on NowTorrents with a pinch of salt.

If you try entering any garbage text in the 'search' you'll see auto-generated results (soon to be search-engine indexed) which claim to have that item available for download. All you need to do is sign up for an account to see 'em! Yeah... It's an old scam and probably ropes in more worried developers than it does pirates.

Keep an eye open for pirated copies and adapt as you can, but don't freak about every piracy notice you receive on Google Alerts.
Dear User of My Open Source Project
Unix Admin. Horror Story Summary, version 1.0 (old)