skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
On awards.

"Basically it’s like going around a party informing everyone that you’ve had sex with a human being last week: I’m sure it matters to you a great deal - and hopefully to the other person as well - but the rest of us likely don’t give a hoot."

Nice line.

"There are exceptions to this rule, but very few (they include ... a Crunchie ...)."

Um, I'm sure they matter a great deal to you, Mr. Wauters, but...
Way to attack the symptoms of a disease you yourself have.
The problem is that your "object code" is someone else's "source code". When you follow standards, it's easy for people to use what you've published; when you don't, it's painful.

A simplistic example: say you put out a typical web page with a navigation area and content area. Maybe for some reason, your website is much easier for me to use if I put the navigation above or below the content or maybe you put it on the left, and it works better for me on the right. If you used standard practices (CSS) to position your elements on the page, it's really easy for me to go in and mold that to exactly what I want. Why? Because it's the standard, so there are plenty of tools out there for this. All I do is tell the browser to overlay my css rule on your page and I'm done. On the other hand, if your layout is done with tables, well then it becomes much more difficult because you didn't follow the rules that the majority of us have agreed to.
Dupe, see vigorous discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=736578
Unfortunately, smaller independent films and authors probably do hope you stumble upon their works -- it's notoriously difficult to sell books unless you are picked up by a major publisher.

I think his point is that things like the App store should be more of a meritocracy (like the web), but it's becoming increasingly difficult for smaller players to get noticed to due the economics (strong downward pricing pressure) and Apple's policies (random rejection can destroy months of work). One thing they don't mention is how difficult it is to figure out where your sales are coming from; there's no Google analytics or referrer logs for app sales -- you have to do things like become your own affiliate through LinkShare and assign different codes to your own links if you have multiple distribution channels.
Darn, I used to think of Switzerland as the exception to the ever advancing big brother state.

Can anyone think of a free country left in the world? Not some crazy idealist absolute of freedom, but even what just the US had not too long ago.
Is this only a one page article?
I'm not sure why this is newsworthy other than the fact it has Apple's name in the title. Wireless keyboard attacks of various kinds, and keyloggers, have been around almost as long as the hardware has existed.
A documentary on gene modified food crops & patenting.
I thought it was french that did something like "three twenties and a ten" for seventy? Am I thinking of some other language?
I just read through the document... The surveillance is only applicable if a lawsuit has been started. So one needs put this into context but it still brings up some concerns.

As far as I understood it this measure is taken to be able to do surveillance on someones internet connection the same way law enforcement does with phone lines.
My first experience did not work as advertised. I tried to convert an image into the default arrangement of header, sidebar, content, and footer and the HTML preview was mangled in my default browser (Chrome). I'm afraid I don't have time for further experiment to see if it's my fault. The tutorial on the site is not clear at all.
Ebay: Like Amazon, only more profitable?
I don't see why the developers can't do additional marketing outside of the App Store. If the App Store didn't exist they would need to do their normal indie developer advertising. Why can't they do that now? And just treat random App Store sales as gravy?

So the dude becomes an indie Mac developer. He's going to have advertise and promote his new Mac app. Why can't he do the same with the iPhone app?
Tuna seems to be high in mercury:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/tuna.asp

You might want to substitute some lower-mercury alternatives:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/guide.asp
I seriously doubt any cavemen or any human other then modern man, ever had regular access to THIS much animal protein and fat. During peak times, migratory season, sure, but not all the time.

And I don't think the diet as described, most calories from meat, cheese and eggs, is the most healthy. Perhaps healthier then any diet high in processed sugar, depending on individual physiology. I certainly agree sugar is bad for you, but I think a "mostly plants" diet, is still better for most people.
C\C++\Java backends mostly.
Tor is also excruciatingly slow.
English: Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
I like the rationale you are using. I would like to see the walled garden broken.
I also just had a look at the law this administrative extension extends, SR780.1 (http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/780_1/index.html, unfortunatley I wasn't able to find an English translation)

Especially interesting is Article 3: Prerequisits (http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/780_1/a3.html):

(I'm no lawyer and not a native english speaker so my translation might be incorrect but you'll get the picture)

To be able to command surveillance the following factors have to be fulfilled:

a.
Certain factors justify the urgent suspicion, the person to be surveyed has commited one of the crimes listed in paragraph 2 or 3 or was part of such a crime.

b.
The gravity of such a crime justifies the surveillance

c.
Other tries at investigating have remained unsuccessful, or the Investigations without the surveillance would be futile or unjustifiably hindered.

In paragraph 2 and 3 follows a list of the crimes that justify a surveillance.
yeah, I would not buy that game. sorry!
Does anyone know if these kind of libraries (pygame, pyglet, gosu, etc) are good for networked multiplayer games? I can't find a whole lot on the subject, nor any examples, but I haven't looked too hard.
So, your point is that programs can't process data if it isn't human readable?
socialbrowse.
That's true enough (93 = "quatre-vingt-dix trois" = "four twenties and three"), but it's still the case that the more significant digit is listed first - it's just composed by multiplying.
GWT fully embraces the notion that the languages implemented by the browser can be treated as target languages for cross-compilation. The beauty of its design is that the server need not play any role beyond delivering the compiled output...or rpc/json requests for data if you need some. I'm shocked that GWT went unmentioned in his essay and the comments.
I was really impressed with this, and sent it to my wife, who pointed out that it's not all that impressive.

If you watch, McFerrin gives the crowd 4 out of 5 pitches _first_. Assuming he starts on C, he gives them C-D-E, and then A. He also makes a point of making a bigger leap from C to A (a minor third) from between C-D-E (each a major second).

At that point, it's hard to see how the crowd could come up with anything _but_ a pentatonic scale! He's given them four notes, and established that a small jump is a major second and a big jump is a minor third. So when makes the big jump from E to G and the crowd follows along it's not all that magical.

If he'd just given them C-D-E and made a small step stage left, would they have gone for B or Bb instead?

It's still a fun little performance to watch, but I don't think it proves anything about the pentatonic scale being hardwired into the human brain.
doesn't fly on a Mac....
It's like with advertising. Press Releases themselves aren't a problem, only irrelevant, boring, poorly targeted ones.
I agree! But the main failing of the original design of CSS (which could resolve most of these arguments) is that they didn't include a way to do page layout in the way that tables work. Many years later, with CSS3, they've finally adding it. But it seems like an obvious layout deficiency given the previous use of tables for layout.
Ask HN: How to protect/copyright code/essays/papers published on my site?
Hi,

I'm thinking of creating a personal website and putting on it source code, articles/essays, unpublished papers, etc. that I have/will writ(t)e(n).

However I am concerned some of these works might be stolen. I'm especially concerned that someone might publish on their own name the unpublished papers I have written and/or use my code in their programs and then claim it as their own.

Is there some way to prevent this? In case one of the above does happen, is there some way for me prove that I am the true author of the work?

I read a post on HN a while ago that discussed copyright. Over there one solution was to pay $35 fee and get all your work officially copyrighted. It seems like the best way to protect one's work but the only problem is $35 is a bit too expensive in my case. I intend on releasing code & papers that discuss new ideas frequently (probably monthly, if not weekly). In that case 35 bucks is a bit too much to pay even on a monthly basis.

The nice thing about the $35 option is that you can copyright all of your work in one filing (done online at http://www.copyright.gov/eco/index.html). But the problem of cost persists if you decide to release stuff frequently.
it seems that it ends up being a lot about finding the right combination of consultants. i already do the 50/50 split between my consulting and work on my vision project. and have been actively looking out for the right kinds of collaborations. be nice if there was a web service that spoke directly to this kind of linking "the 50/50 club" .. or maybe there is?
Great job, guys, congrats on the launch!
And the greatest threat to the established order is the missing women. [1]

The large number of unattached young men with little to no prospect of getting married provides a volatile substrate for almost any social movement that promises to upset the current order and bring it's supporters to prominence and power.

The traditional solution to the problem of excess males is war. But the manifestation of male frustration can take many forms. Art movements, religious or political devotion, founding startups. Given the size and spectrum of China's population I would expect to see all of these and more to be tried by young men who know that they have few if any prospects of marriage without some great success in hand.

1. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1019/p09s02-coop.html
Those languages that use the dot for scope resolution have created an ambiguous operator in the plus sign.

Yeah, I think that's a bad idea too. Javascript is particularly bad because it's dynamically typed -- you may have to insert a few extra empty strings to get what you want.

You chose 6 languages all from the same paradigm.

Um, yes, that's the point!! All languages from the same paradigm doing things mostly the same. I can switch between Java, C#, PHP, and Javascript without too much trouble. If you've got a radically different language, it doesn't really matter to this discussion.

This is the last reply I'll be writing.

This is good, since you've run out of things to say except attack my programming skill and teamwork even though you don't know me. Typical.

But if you are CONFUSED by a backslash, you ought to reconsider your choice of profession.

I'm sorry you feel that everything is beyond criticism. I wonder, is there anything you actually care about? Go back to coding in COBOL -- if "ADD 1 TO VARIABLE" doesn't confuse you, I'm sure you'll be happy.

why don't you take the opportunity to create a working patch that uses the double-colon?

It's a fair question. Unfortunately I'm very busy, I have enough time to code, take care of the kids, and post to hackernews. I'm also a PHP programmer not a C programmer (right now, anyway). But the implication of your question is that I have no right to complain about open source projects?
They can work but generally they tend to be service companies for a long time before they become product companies. However, they're almost never done by part-timers. Even 37S and FogCreek are full-time labors of love. Also, there are always exceptions - I'm talking about mass statistics / average web startups - stuff similar to most YC companies.
"especially if you're a little bit older, you will be trading quality of life for a few bucks"

Stuff and nonsense. The old-timers I grew up around - most lived into their 80s - spent their whole lives eating what I call 'close to the Earth', non-processed, non-sugared, non-transfatted foods supplemented with stuff from their home gardens. Yams, rutabagas, strawberries, potatoes, squash, herring, liverwurst, canned fruit, blueberries, etc.

Nutrition isn't about money, and I eat nicely on $25 week year spent at the store, year after year. When I needed to lose 45 pounds (from eating 'good' food) I did it in 6 months eating fruits, veggies, nuts.
Here is my take on FOSS, I hope you find it interesting:

* FOSS is great at very small number of things: C compiler (gcc), Operating system (Linux), programming languages (zillions), Apache, MySQL, and a few others.

* FOSS is OK at a certain number of larger areas - relatively simple games (BzTank), office applications (Open Office)

* FOSS is absolutely horrible at new product development. Anyone with a brain and a decent idea that SOME people MIGHT pay for can see that FOSS is inferior to all of these:

* web-based subscription model
* web-based advertising model
* closed source shrinkwrap model
* closed-source consulting model

The only reason you would choose FOSS over these is you don't believe anyone would pay anything for what you want to make (but they might donate after using it). At this point, if you still choose to develop, then

A) It is a hobby, and the only thing tying you to the project is your interest

B) You can choose between freeware/shareware and FOSS

The game Dwarf Fortress is a good example of freeware. The creators want to retain artistic control over their creation, so they release as closed source software.

In conclusion, if you release source code, then:

* others may improve the product, which benefits you because you are using it

* you may lose artistic control due to fork pressure

If you don't release source code, then:

* you have to do all of the development yourself or through people you hire

* you retain total control over the product

Now you know!
Scientific Linux (http://www.scientificlinux.org/), it's maintained by Fermilab and CERN.
The quoted portion to which I responded specifically referred to English.
"I'd never even dream of using Finder for complex file management tasks (like reorganizing a photo collection). I usually drop into a Terminal when I have to do something like that."

I think Apple's belief since the Lisa has been that activities like organizing a large photo collection is NOT a file system management tasks.

That's what makes a Mac a Mac and not a Linux box.

If anything, the Finder is a fallback.

This is not to say that the Finder doesn't have a huge number of faults, but copy/paste semantics--or worse, cut/paste semantics--are an abominably bad fit for file system manipulation.

And to end the "one mouse button" B.S. once and for all...the Mac OS was designed as a one-button OS. Windows was not. Linux was not. So the comparisons are a #fail. The fact that there are multiple buttons now provides more conveniences, but you'll never find items in a contextual menu that don't already exist somewhere else in a proper app's UI.
A list of all the things one can do to raise the profile and track the marketing of a single developer app would be a useful resource. Hell, if you put together a decent sized ebook, it would probably be a reasonable successful product. If you could reach the right audience.
For the record, 93 is quatre-vingt-treize ("four twenties and thirteen")
Lookit, I run an ostensible eBay competitor. I'm very pro-eBay. (Really. It's not hard to be.) But this article is insane, and that's by the Barron's hot stock article standards.

Everyone knows that marketplaces - AT SCALE - are perfect stores: no inventory, no theft, all margin. And Amazon's third-party Marketplace is nowhere near as robust as conventional wisdom says it is. But eBay is surely declining - in revenue, in market share, and most importantly, in mindshare. Many people consider eBay a place to dispose of items, but not a place to make purchases. eBay's buyer universe is shrinking; the issue is that it's not clear where it's going (it's not going to Amazon, based on my channel checks).

Of course, the Skype IPO is on hold due to the P2P IP lawsuit. Yes, the crown jewel is PayPal. PayPal should be spun off; not Skype. But the heavy users of PayPal (merchants) are the most technically sophisticated, cost conscious group I know. PayPal can be beat since merchants really don't like dealing with international transactions (which is the only place where PayPal has a sustainable competitive advantage).

I could go on and on - but I love eBay as a company, and I hate EBAY as a stock.

[EDIT: I am a (is my registration lapsed? - I should find out) financial advisor, but I am not your financial advisor. This is not financial or investment advice, and should not be construed as such.]
Firefox Achieves One Billion Downloads, 31% Marketshare
Bob Ford.
can you show an example? most sites with pure CSS layouts must have the HTML elements ordered specifically, otherwise it breaks, due to the limitations of CSS.

the best way to customize sites in a client is with something like greasemonkey, where you can use javascript to manipulate the page. you can do it with just css too of course (like stylish) but usually that's limited to just changing the sizes, colors and visibility of things.
One Year of Stack Overflow
Nuclear Fusion Startup
In India, the dates are written as DD/MM/YY, whereas other people choose to do it differently, which quickly becomes confusing. That's why I always prefer something like <Name of the Month> <Day>, <Year> (i.e, August 2, 2009).

I'm also one of the crazy ones who always use a 24 hour clock. IMO, 1730 is much easier to say than 5:30 PM. Also, it's fairly unambiguous when you're dealing with someone on the other side of the globe.
Growing incubation periods in iPhone App Store
Transcript: http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm
I thought it was a smart question and I am severely impressed that Knuth addressed it. I really need to read those books.
Inflaming outside pressure on Iran regarding its nuclear program via anonymous leaks at this time will result in internal pressure against the still flourishing opposition movement.
Modern day pretentious diction! Orwell would be rolling in his grave! [http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Langua...]
As others have pointed out, I believe that it probably has something to do with significant information appearing first (on a left to right interpretation). So, 4,732 tells us that the number is in the 4700 range first, followed by the less-significant 32.

I don't know if this explains how it became this way, but it would make sense in explaining why it remains this way.
Let's turn his analogy around and ask, if every startup and nonprofit that ever wanted to put up a website had to either buy or build a webserver, would the web as we know it exist? More to the point would the standard protocols and encodings that we mostly take for granted have evolved? Or would we all be coding for aolserver and bitching about how to get our websites approved on different cable networks?

And the stuff about the source being paid for is a red herring, only a very few licenses prohibit the sale of software (and the GPL explicitly allows it, the only restriction is that if you sell software built with GPL components you must provide the source as well as the object code).
TechCrunch alert!
If you examine the images compressed using SVD, you can actually see the effects of the linear approximation in the form of light/dark bands. Great link. Thanks.
Fox and G.E. Reach Deal to End O’Reilly-Olbermann Feud
> could no longer afford to follow in the footsteps of people like that

The late Erik Naggum had something to say about this:

"I no longer share code with other people by default. My experience and problem-solving abilities have become the bread and butter of my life, not just "fun" until something rewarding comes along. Like many older fans of Free Software and Open Source, I have discovered that it is really only free in the sense that the time you spend on it is worthless. When people refuse to help pay for the roof over your head and your meals when you help them do their well-paying jobs, sooner or later you get seriously pissed."

(http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/e239591cbc...)
Code sharing is an economic surplus phenomenon.
"Not OSX that's for sure."

Such revulsion! I bet you didn't climb up on the dinner table Christmas day and take a big ol' steamy dump on the just-carved turkey, either!

Such manners, such propriety! No pooping, no OSX!
HTML should not be used for UI, it's for inserting content and from elements into a presentation. CSS, with the help of graphics and javascript for interactivity should do the UI.

Doing something like:

with-html
:ul :id "site-menu"
dolist (menu-item (list "home" "news" "blog" "aboutus"))
:li (:a :href concat(*server-root* menu-item) menu-item)

Should generate this:

<ul id="site-menu">
<li><a href="example.com/home">home</a></li>
<li><a href="example.com/news">news</a></li>
<li><a href="example.com/blog">blog</a></li>
<li><a href="example.com/aboutus">aboutus</a></li>
</ul>

Then in a CSS page referenced by that presentation, you do whatever you want to #site-menu; you make it a vertical menu, horizontal, tabbed, or even generate big fat fish-eye icons that look like the Mac's. HTML knows nothing of that.

Used in this sense, HTML is a very good object code.
You shouldn't infer from English on all European languages. In some languages you would say "three (and) twenty" instead of "twenty three".
1 blogger I would love to see banned from blogging -

Robin Wauters. For equating a Crunchie to both the Nobel and the Pulitzer.
Well, officially once you write something, it is copyrighted. You don't have to pay $35 to put © on it. However, in order to have some legal recourse if someone takes your work, you will want to be able to prove prior art (basically that you wrote it first).

If you want to use the site to host your unpublished/unfinished works, why do you need them in the source code? Why not hide them?

If papers and essays are all you will be using the site for, you might consider just installing Wordpress and using it to manage everything. It will keep unfinished works hidden until you're ready to publish them, and Wordpress has a datestamp that can be applied to posts to give some simple protection. Of course the datestamp could be altered and there's nothing keeping me from copying everything and putting an earlier date on it.
Not only is HTML object code, but the code that generates my HTML is also object code. Macrology is fun :-)
From copyright.gov FAQs

"Do I have to register with your office to be protected?
No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work."
Great idea, but I can see few practical problems:

1) It has the same catch-22 problem like dating. Unless there are many users already chatting on the site Im visiting, theres no point for me to install this plugin.It maybe better if you target some small segment of people
with similar browsing interests, like people who spend a lot of time in social networks, youtube etc.

2)http://www.visitrs.com/ doesnt have any content other than a login screen and the screenshots on mozilla.org is minimal. Some more screenshots would help.

3) What will I chat with strangers on a site? or will I even see a list of users currently willing to chat? Will I see the stream of messages between other "chatters" like chat rooms?