skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Americans already eat way too much protein.

Japanese and Koreans are the thinnest 1st world people on the planet and they eat more rice, more vegetables and a lot fewer steaks burgers and fries than Americans (or Canadians or British). The same is true for rural Chinese, who are far poorer than American southerners, and they don't have obesity and heart disease problems.

Here's what the American Heart Association has to say about the subject: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1123...

"Eating large amounts of high-fat foods for a sustained period raises the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and several types of cancer. People who can't use excess protein effectively may be at higher risk of kidney and liver disorders, and osteoporosis.

That's why the American Heart Association guidelines urge adults who are trying to lose weight and keep it off to eat no more than 35 percent of total daily calories from fat and less than 7 percent of total daily calories from saturated fat and less than 1 percent of total daily calories from trans fat. On most high-protein diets, meeting these goals isn't possible.

Some high-protein diets de-emphasize high-carbohydrate, high-fiber plant foods. These foods help lower cholesterol when eaten as part of a nutritionally balanced diet. Reducing consumption of these foods usually means other, higher-fat foods are eaten instead. This raises cholesterol levels even more and increases cardiovascular risk."

Eat food, mostly plants and not too much.
Are you implying that my job is automatic? :)
I'm lost, all I see is rambling. What is his point, what is his problem?
A week of karate camp does this for me. Just one week, but it is intensely focused on my body and my immediate physical surroundings. I think what makes it so... refreshing? is that it is a new and different obsession. (It's been new and different every year for 7 years, now.)

I come back from my week at karate camp and don't know what to do with myself. During the summer I live at my computer, but after a week-long break, I can't think of anything I want to do.

What I really don't get is how I can be so easily addicted to either state - constant flow of information, or no flow of information.

I guess it's a matter of self-obsession versus world-obsession. This year especially, I came back from karate camp thinking I could become a recluse, doing nothing but physical training and soul searching for the rest of my life. I wouldn't even mind if my soul searching returned zero relevant results, because no results would be meaningful (for once).

At this point (in my thought process), it seems like it's a matter of obsessions. I don't think I could live successfully in a state of balance between these two polar ideas - I would hate it. Maybe it ties into the human need to be the best at whatever is occurring at any particular moment, which expects specialization, and thereby obsession.

That still doesn't explain why it's so refreshing to change obsessions occasionally. (But I know I'd get bored being at karate camp year round, too.)

Oh well.
You realize, of course, that not too long ago we were launching actual nuclear bombs into the upper atmosphere and detonating them on purpose. And it didn't really mess things up that bad.

In that context, the remote possibility that a rocket might accidentally fail in a way that somehow managed to crack open its little reactor, spilling some radioactive material in a way that somehow harms anything whatsoever, would seem quite trivial. I'd be more worried about airliners crashing into me on the freeway if I were you.

In other words, I'll bet you five bucks that nothing radioactive will drop onto your house the next time they launch a satellite with a nuclear reactor onboard.
I was called in recently to fix a system to which someone had done `chown -R 777 *` from `/`.

So everything was owned by a nonexistent user. It was interesting to fix. Especially since someone had been mucking around trying to fix it from the open root prompt after the damage was done.

(mount filesystem from live cd, copy ownership from livecd filesystem to the disk, reboot)
My question is that if you were to collect that data, is it causation, or is it just correlation? Should you invest everything you can to get every user to 5 runs? Or is that just an effect of different levels of interest?
Even though I'm intrigued by the capsule hotel idea, it sure does look like a kennel for humans.
Some friends and I are going to start an old programmers' home. Rocking chairs on the porch, (real) Unix in the hall closet. We'll save space for you.
I met a very cute SEO consultant at a bar who explained that all she did were the basics: position keywords prominently, use meta description and keywords, move your site name to the end of the page title because you're going to win search results for that anyway, etc.
"You don't seem to be able to comprehend the idea that people will sometimes just make their work available to others without any desire or need to recognition or compensation."

If that really were so, then why the rant? So a part of you seems to care. The "demanding" customers are basically just dumb or socially challenged, so I would pity them, not write a long rant.
Does anyone else find it ironic that an article about Linus saying some level-headed and pragmatic things carefully selects a quote out of context to serve as an inflammatory headline? I know you gotta have a hook, but jeez.
Performance Artist
Carpenter.
Apple's much-anticipated tablet device coming early next year
I use a 3 tiered system of responses. I gauge my response against the person I'm talking to and am pleasantly surprised when someone actually wants more detail.

My responses to "What do you do for a living":

"Computers"
I use this response when talking to someone at a party who is obviously uninterested, or someone that I think has no idea that this could mean a lot of things. Also, to extended family though it may require an explanation as to why I can't fix their computer.

"Software Engineer"
This is the answer I most expect to not get more questions on, unless speaking to another software engineer. This answer almost immediately causes the conversation to shift in another direction. I can see the mild panic behind their eyes that I might, in fact, elaborate.

"UI Developer"
When talking to someone in design or the rare individual who asks for more details then "Software Engineer" It is usually accompanied by a more detailed description of my job.
It's usually self-deprecation when someone claims arrogance. They'd directly claim confidence, you see, but then they'd be written off as arrogant.
Whatever it would be, I have no doubt that I'd start looking for ways to automate it (for better or worse).
What to do for the situation of actively liking a book, but getting bogged down because it's (for example) huge.

With a series, you can take a break between installments. I read the first Otherland book several months ago, and I'm just now feeling ready to pick up book 2. What about this situation in the middle of a book? Put it back on the shelf to finish later, or cut your losses and move on?
Captain of a big freighter (if that counts, because the big ships are mostly computers nowadays).

Or a chef :)
Something in a print shop, or a place that does screen printing onto fabric. (This does involve computers and machines, but not as a programmer.)

I'm surprisingly good at teaching, but I would go on a killing rampage if I worked under typical education administrators. Maybe private tutoring or an alt-education job.

Being an electrician looks like an awesome career too, though I have no relevant skills.
What keeps piracy alive is the fact that it's almost impossible to get caught. If people could shoplift in physical stores and there would be no consequences associated with it, I imagine that there would be more shoplifters.

I think it's essential for the future of digital products to come up with a viable ID system for the whole web, so people are more responsible. In this regard Facebook seems promising...
Skill Versus Luck in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital
Bleh. I tend towards viewing MS as truly evil too, but that site is a bad example to offer. I clicked through expecting to find a factual chronicle of corporate foul play, and instead just found a bunch of uninformed opinion-spouting combined with poorly veiled Apple fanaticism. Nothing turns me off faster than someone who can't be a little reserved in their allegiances.
I do this ruthlessly. I skim the first part of many articles, and do the same for books, which I have in almost constant supply from amazon.

I wrote a system for myself (called Mnemo) that I used to catalog and cross reference stuff. I can tag things, and search by author, keyword, whatever. This is useful not only for going back through a topic I'm interested in, but also because while I'm reading I can ask myself constantly: would I put this in Mnemo or am I spinning my wheels?

Maybe I'll release Mnemo and see if it works for other people.
The critical part is the lawn with kids to shout at.
Apple hardware changes alter Microsoft "Hunter" ads
I think you underestimate the cumulative effect of small annoyances.
Harbour pilot. Failing that, some form of mechanic.
This has worked for me.

Decide now on a chapter that you haven't reached yet as a goal. Force yourself to take a break when that milestone is reached and read something else in the intermission. If you still feel its worth the effort to finish the book, go back and pick up where you left off.
Entertaining Code - Scarcity of Content in Games
This is true, which is why it's worthwhile discussion what the karma system here is supposed to be. If you deliberately don't use it that way, then I find that sad because I like PG's goal. As he explicitly states, this site is partially an experiment. I hope it's not a negative result.
Does John Carmack count as a real programmer?
far33d's definitive guide to taming the IE6 beast: Don't support IE6.
Excellent quote: "If I'm reading a truly, actively bad book, I'll throw it out," he says. His wife will protest, but he points out that he's doing a public service: "If I don't throw it out, someone else might read it."

I think people should do stuff like this more often. Like YAGNI with real-life objects. You just ain't gonna need most of the crap in your house.
The one who gets extremely rich is the one whole suppliers beer & liquor to all the bars (& w houses)
Transitioning from Developer to Software Entrepreneur
I always get a little question mark over my head every time I read something talking about how IE "Broke" the CSS box model.

Those of us who were around back in the day recall both IE4 and NN3 allowing one to specify the Width of an object at 100px, with the refreshing expectation that nomatter what padding or borders you applied to it, the width of the rendered element would be 100px.

That was the universal standard at the time that the CSS specifications were written. For reasons nobody can explain, the W3C came out with a box model that broke that convention, and that's the model that NN6 followed.

Netscape Navigator 6, you will recall, was incapable of rendering Netscape.com correctly when it was first released. That's because Netscape.com was designed to be viewed by the current state of the art browsers on the market, both of which interpreted the box model the way that Internet Explorer did until recently.
From Zappos' Controversy to Modular Innovation's Enterprise Inroads
Better paying, fewer hassles, don't wear out your body as quickly.

I know a guy who was a superstar networking engineer in the 90s, who now is a wildlands firefighter. But it's not like he left all his problems behind in computing -- there are still politics and other workplace frustrations.
This is a great idea.

There is inherent bias in academia and unwillingness to accept ideas that go against the canon. That being said the worst case is still scary - crackpots could be given an apparently legitimate platform. The best case is exciting, an alternative outlet for radical ideas that lost the battle to get published. Some reasons I've heard for not being published: the paper is obscure and thus the audience is limited, the paper is obscure and thus it doesn't fit this journal, the author is unknown or it doesn't follow our guidelines. All these types of papers would be perfect for a journal like Rejecta Mathematica.

EDIT: added last few sentences
I use the moderation system here as an asymmetric control: if I agree/like something, I upvote it. I don't downvote if I disagree/dislike something. I only downvote when I think something is not a part of legitimate discussion.

If I encounter a 0 or -1 post that I think is legit, I will upvote it.
How would you generate an income from that profession?
I've recently started focusing on a home remodeling after some renters destroyed it. It is a lot of hard work. Very manual labor: ripping out walls, painting, cleaning up the yard.

But yes, very rewarding. You can actually see the work. People in the town stop and comment on how much better it looks. Everyone can tell if a house looks better, but not many can tell if a website has a better architecture.
Car repair shop.
Yeah, home is pretty good. However, you can't meet random people at home -- granted you may not want to. For me, the ideal working space has the right amount of "human noise" and enough opportunity for social distraction for when I need a break.

Secondly, not having to cook a good meal, not having to make your own espresso, and not having to do dishes holds value as well.
I like this opposed to my typical startup work that gets trashed in record time.
Yes. I have an orchard in Missouri that I tend to when I can. Persimmon, Fig, Quince, Pomegranate, Apples, Mulberries, Peaches, Apricots, Cherries.
What do you mean by a solution looking for a problem? What are you referring to from the article specifically?
I stopped on page 1.
> One kind of software is unaffected though: custom software.

I've worked as a software consultant for years, making turn-key software and modifications to existing infrastructure and support, and all of that.

The thing is ... it's not fun. If it's not your product, you don't have the time, the energy, the resources to put much love in the products you're working on.

If you're working on custom software, customers only want to pay the minimal price that will get their needs solved. If it's support for an open-source software you're working on, if that software is too good, or is of no interest to companies, then you're not going to get hired.

Consulting services really take the fun out of programming, that's why I'm a proponent of a mixed model ... keep your advantages proprietary, open-source the rest.
I know a little bit about trading, a decent bit about trading platforms, and not a lot about HFT in particular, but it was not my impression that HFT algos can literally MITM the market. They buy when they detect changes in demand.
My capacity to pay for ultimited data for multiple devices is waning.
I'm also NAL, but the proof that you've been using it prior to the offendor will hold up in court more so than that mark next to it.
Computer memory is always aligned in a one-dimensional, (relatively) huge array.

All of artificial intelligence is based on a one-dimensional representation
of a 3 dimensional fact (our physical existence).

DNA, our brain, every bit of information in Nature, always, exclusively, uses all 3 physical dimensions present to store its data, so we never will be able to directly compete with Nature in that fact. Because every dimension present has its own role, and how would you represent that in a simple computer memory (leaving out the fact that computer memory is really huge and really slow compared to the memory systems of Nature).

Do you (personally) know anything about how Nature uses all of the 3 dimensions present, to align its data in a really ingenious and unique way? Do you?

Physically near has a special meaning in our human brain, and influences all the bits of information near the stored information.

So, you see, Nature is able to use all of the 3 dimensions of physical reality to represent its data, while computers (and, consequently, all of AI) seems to be condemned to use a 1 dimensional, slow, physically huge, representation...

So, please please, don't directly compare Nature with human investigation -- they are as far from each other as our planet is from sun...

The more you observe Nature (and I really do!), the more you experience yourself really ignorant about the Intelligence hiding behind...
Gonna tell them script kiddies to get off my lawn!
Charge tourists for day trips.

Load up 20-40 tourists on the catamaran (based on the size), and charge them something like $40-50 each.

Costs (other than the boat itself and local fees/taxes) would be a crew of 2 or 3, food and booze, and whatever cut the local resorts get for referrals.

Biggest challenge would likely be to make sure the tourists don't get too drunk and fall overboard. (seen it happen once, the captain wasn't pleased).
I would be an orchardist.
In my experience (specifically to the Nike Plus) it's a combination of both. Users who get to 5 runs on their own is certainly an indication of interest, however by encouraging users to get to 5 runs, you get a follow-on effect of "wow, look at how much running I've been doing" and further engagement. It's really satisfying building up a history and continuing to contribute to it.

It's like the Jerry Seinfeld advice to use a wall-planner to chart out your tasks. For every day you complete the task (e.g. going for a run), you put a big red X up on the chart. Then it becomes about continuing a streak, rather than a daily chore. Nike Plus is a fill-in for that wall planner (and works even better when competing with friends who can see and harass you when you break that streak).
I wish I had the time to read enough comments to have an intelligent opinion on this.... I generally vote things up that I strongly agree with and vote things down that I strongly disagree with, without putting much more thought into it than that.
Helpful collection of info. Thanks
I'd try to make a living building custom arcade machine cabinets.
I guess it will run an updated iPhone OS (not the full fledged OS X) and it will probably have automatic resolution switch to retain the compatibility with the existing apps catalog.
Fair enough. I agree the numbers could be interesting. But it's quite different if you want to see users' names.

I grow weary of HN's Singaporean (overly sanitized) approach to geek discussion. Geeks suffer enough from intellectual narcissism without trying to constitutionalize it. Thankfully there's enough brain candy on the site to compensate.

And people, let's go light on the hacker this and hacker that. We all get it. We're all keen to learn and explore. But... was Michael Jackson a hacker? Geebus. Labels are overrated.

God Bless the USA, but there's something distinctly American about coming up with a subtly differentiated product and then hyping it as the total opposite of what came just before it. Yeah, I mean HN / Reddit / Slashdot.

P.S.: I made the remark about being downmodded because I assumed my gentle admonishment would be unpopular, plus I noticed that almost without fail it happens when people quote the Bible.
i don't think I'm confusing them, I think I'm stating that I do not care for news organizations ranting instead of reporting.

It's your call as a business, of course, but my perspective as a "consumer" is that every Tom, Dick, and Jane has a blog. They all can and do rant away with abandon and "professional" journalists have very little edge over bloggers in wit. It's true that any one journalist might be consistently funnier than any one blogger, but when sites like reddit, HN, and Digg filter the wheat from the chaff, bloggers in aggregate are at least as funny and usually funnier than "professionals."

What I expect from professionals that I don't expect from bloggers is professionalism. I don't think a "fun rant" is professional in tone or substance. So I don't like it.

JM2C.
Note: Link is to PowerPoint file.
I wonder what circumstances would lead to that? Some kind of a societal crash where computers are either fully exploited or no longer relevant.... well, who knows maybe road bandit? If I got busted with a court order keeping me off computers and I couldn't find some way to circumvent it, I'd probably end up doing some highly dangerous, highly paid work like oil rig or crab farmer until I could get enough $ to bail the country and get back to coding.
"2004: Embracing broadband"

This was about 7-8 years too late.
1. The problem is a different one: You develop for a 1-2 core machine and afterwards this stuff is destined to work on real servers. I can´t count how often i found massive scaling problems in systems you wasn´t able to find on a notebook, but was pretty obvious on larger system. Sometimes i was able to remove the problem, but often we replicated the development plattform by using 1-2 socket servers.

2. Obviously GNU make has advantages. I don´t have anything against GNU make. I just hate this Linux centric view. But from my perspective it would be more feasible to extend the standards (for example SUSv5 ;) ) to keep programs more portable between all Unixes and derivates. Free Software should be operating system agnostic.

3. I have to correct you: HPUX and OSF/1 is mainly on life life-support because of HP ill-fated decisions with PA-RISC and Alpha in favour of Itanic. AIX isn´t a toy for testing ... in the real world there are many systems running those operating sytems like Solaris and AIX. You just have too look at the market data: Sun and IBM still sell systems worth billions of $.

4. Yes gmake is in Solaris ... because of the dependence of many build procceses. But i´m still thinking it would be better to define unixwide standards that include GNU make. At the moment the behaviour is similar to Microsoft. We have our LSB .. that´s a standard ... the bad thing ... it´s a extended version of POSIX, SUS and so on. I think people should ask, why there is the need for a extended own standard instead of extending the existing standards.
First of all, your use of "you" immediately after the reference to the long rant seems to show a confusion. I'm not the author of the long rant, although I'm in largely the same situation. It's not especially relevant that I didn't write the linked article, but I thought I'd make that clear.

Secondly, it may be that you didn't intend it, but your first sentence is calling me a liar. I object to that, and ask that you withdraw it. It is so, I say it is so as a matter of fact because I am one of them, and while you may legitimately express doubt, starting a sentence with "If that were so ..." (emphasis added) is calling me a liar, and I think it's out of order.

Thirdly, I really don't care if people use my code, but I really do care that some people then behave in the obnoxious manner that they do.

You may be sufficiently socially disconnected - I don't know if you are, but you might be - to pity people who do the internet equivalent of repeatedly spitting in your face, but I'm not, and I object to it, especially when they use my work.
I do, but I call them "hobbies" instead of jobs. Not relying on them for income makes all the difference in the world.
I actually went through law enforcement training before deciding that I wouldn't be ok with enforcing drug laws and the like. If computers suddenly stopped existing or some such, I'd consider it again.
How healthcare overhaul may affect you
Yawn. Again? Same source probably told them that the Newton will come back too :-)
Brainstorm HN: Startup Idea Pool (Part II)
Pitch Startup Ideas here (no matter how insignificant or how radical/outlandish the idea is)

Why do this? Well think of it like a brute-force brainstorming method. Very low SNR but hopefully a few of these will inspire someone to come up with a realistic/sane/good idea. Share only the ideas you won't mind if someone picks up and implements.

First Brainstorm Session: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=602478