skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm of the same persuasion, but I'm also not going to say it's nonsense.

If 1 out of 100,000 people would really suffer from this it would take a major test to figure out who those people are, especially if - like almost every other radiation sensitivity - the effect is cumulative rather than instantaneous.

Let's make an analogy with sunshine:

A person is asked to determine whether sunlight is on a small section of their arm or not. After several guesses we determine that they can't determine this with a probability higher than what you'd arrive at if you guessed.

We can then conclude that 'light sensitivity' is nonsense. But absense of light over longer periods of presense of too much light will definitely have an effect.

If being sensitive to HF is cumulative then we need a completely different test regime than to simply ask people if they can sense a wifi transmitter is on or off.

You'd have to test over periods of days or even weeks.
'Also, the tests administered which disproved the so-called "wifi allergy" failed to account for the possibility that the effects take time to develop.'

They used the self-reported time for symptoms to develop from the sufferers themselves. It's not actually science's job to exhaustively test the state space here, since that's not possible. Consequently, there's always another goalpost that science didn't hit (no, wait, it's only 64-bit WEP encryption!)... but it's not logical to thus conclude that the problem is the science. When the goalposts are getting shuffled around the field, the logical conclusion is that the problem most likely lies on the side moving the goalposts, not the side that keeps hitting the goals.

Maybe there's a real problem that is actually something else, though at the moment, "psychosomatic symptoms", Luddite-ism, and superstition seems to cover the observed phenomena pretty well. Like I said in another message, if more data comes in I'll examine it, but right now there is no reason to believe there's any reason to believe that such data will be forthcoming.

(Following up on my first paragraph: This is why "more study is needed" is an information-free statement. There's always more state space to examine; the question is, is there any reason to believe there's anything interesting there? There's so many interesting things that studying things extremely likely to be uninteresting is a waste of time. The exceptions that you might think are leaping to mind, like "Well how will we ever discover anything new if we never try new things?", are not exceptions. Things we have no idea about are interesting. Things that we have a very good idea are going to be uninteresting are what I'm talking about.)
In this regard (fighting the gorillas) I really respect Google for its consistency: they're once again fighting for Net neutrality, this time wireless networks and not just the (my) traditional definition of the Internet.

I have an iPhone with 50 voice minutes and a 6GB data plan (I live in Canada). Clearly I value data much more than voice. I understand why the carriers are anxious about customers like me, but their business model has to change.

My 50 minutes cost $15/month. My 6GB cost $30. I have the voice because the contract stipulates I must. Why I should be prohibited from using a portion of data for voice remains a byproduct of history.

The VP of Credit Cards in any bank hates the VP of Debit Cards for eroding his revenues (and thus his personal annual bonus).

The VP of Voice in any wireless carrier hates the VP of Data for similar reasons.

The winner, of course, will be Google and any wireless carriers who structure a business purely around data delivery.
No matter reading this and analyzing it, turns out it was AT&T:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/07/28/att-app-store
You know that John Nash used the word "hack" and "hacker" too, right?
Yes but it's not automatic. Creditors don't have any feelings of loyalty towards debtors the way employees feel towards employers. Creditors also tend to be businesses who are used to suing for their debts, unlike employees. So while employees should get paid first, you have to actually make a claim to that money somehow. I'd ask a real lawyer for the details.
Surely you can't evaluate whether it works "brilliantly well" until you have compared the success of your selected sample against another randomly selected sample.

You may find that carrying out interviews on the roll of a dice is equally as effective at letting you meet candidates who wouldn't otherwise make the CV-lead cut.
Gruber updated his post. It was AT&T all along.

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/07/28/att-app-store
I think infinity is well enough defined - for measurements at least - on the reciprocal scale:

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
--|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|--

-1/4 -1/3 -1/2 -1 ∞ 1 1/2 1/3 1/4
--|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|--

I certainly didn't intend to devaluate the submitted article. Just wanted to point at some circumstances where infinity in fact is considered a distinct and definable value; by the example of resistance being the reciprocal of conductance.
This list is awesome. I would love to work for someone like you.

My experience has been that even when the leader/ceo/whatever decides to cut their own pay in that situation, it is done in some sneaky way that doesn't really result in much loss to their overall pay.
Agreed. I can't wait for the service to come to Canada actually, it should work great on my Storm!

Oh yeah, I can also multitask, and download applications from non-Apple stores, websites and vendors. The list goes on and on! :)
There's some useful code for reading and modifying Xilinx bitstream files up here: http://www.ulogic.org/trac

if you want to learn more bout the Xilinx chip internals you can learn the XDL format: with the command line ISE tools you can use the flag -ncd2xdl to convert a compiled NCD design to XDL.
You can read these from a distance and read multiple codes at the same time.

E.g. point your phone to the cereal shelve in the supermarket and have it point out which one has the most fiber, even visually via augmented reality — this isn’t possible with current bar codes (without scanning them one-by-one and no augmented reality).
One thing that you should do is network with your soon to be former coworkers. Set up a mailing list, start talking about what is happening and help each other find jobs. I've had to do this once or twice, though never at a place that outright missed payroll. But be prepared for the fact that most of your coworkers are in denial.

Depending on the state you are in it may be that management broke the law. Generally speaking, if you can't make payroll you are supposed to dissolve the business then and there and pay employees by selling the assets of the company.

And yeah, if management didn't even have the cojones to tell you that there wouldn't be paychecks on payday, the place is doomed and there is no helping it.

Good luck.
The common mistake the opposition makes is that the complement of "determinism" is "randomness". In fact, the complement of "determinism" is "non-determinism", of which "randomness" is only one possibility; ostensibly "free-will" is another.
The Streisand effect has not been published broadly enough it seems.

If you are that nervous about the rest of the world thinking you are renting out mouldy appartments I'm sure being seen as litigious bastards is only a minor inconvenience.
Perhaps they can break new legal ground and sue themselves. Their actions have done far more damage than a single post on Twitter.
Wifi allergy? I'm glad I missed another meme.
Alfred Lin Has The Midas Touch: The Man With $2B In Acquisitions Under His Belt
oh please. Only in the USA would a company sue over something this silly. Anywhere else they'd be laughed out of court and their lawyers would get slapped with a fine.

Until they made an issue out of it nobody had even heard from her, about them or about their policies, now they have a disaster on their hands.

This is simple abuse of the court.
Lesson learned: If you pick up the phone and it's Apple, request an email or letter, and hang up. Or maybe, ask to start recording?
Skype is WiFi only...perhaps GV will ultimately appear as a similarly limited app (thus protecting the frequently mentioned voice and SMS revenue, at least temporarily).
Can you clarify your remark?
Well, this would rule out anonymous contribution to "community-related activities". Not sure how, but this may be an issue.
I hope they will be very careful where they park that bike in Amsterdam, with all that gear on it it would be gone in less than 10 seconds.
2,000 Miles to the Promised Land
What technology (xen/openvz/vmware) did you move from ?
You just solved my startup's problem of not having an interesting (i.e. not "drinks at a bar") way to organize our meetups. Thank you, kind sir.
I seem to remember reading that using actual IQ tests is against hiring laws (although job-specific tests that happen to measure IQ are fine), is this not the case?
I disagree that this is bad advice. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough.

You are in a time warp. This game is over. It was over long before OP posted here.

You are on a sinking ship and must jump. Your co-workers are in the same boat. Some may even say you have a moral responsibility to help them. In real world disasters, some risk their lives to help others escape. Sending this link to your co-workers could greatly benefit them while costing you nothing.

You have no bridge to burn. Your boss already burnt it. Any recommendation from someone who let this happen to his people is worthless.

I don't blame your boss for having business problems. That can happen to anyone. I do blame him for letting it reach the point where it would affect his employees without fair warning. This is inexcusible and unacceptable.

From a practical point of view, you are much more likely to get a good reference from helping out a co-worker than from a boss who has already screwed you. So do it.
Stock exchanges the way they are right now have no real right to existence any more anyway. All the trading could be direct between buyers and sellers using a fairly simple web interface.

No more people picking up on the 'buzz' and trading on their own account either that way.

Of course that would remove all the fee structures that have been created over the years.

I doubt it will happen though.
But the point is that the app is already loaded. It's just shifting the burden of loading from dock click to startup. The users probably won't notice that their system takes longer to start because it already takes so long compared to the loading of one application. (At least for most systems. I try to keep it as short as possible.)

If lots of developers do this the negative effects will be longer desktop loading times, the time from login to usable desktop, and more idle memory usage. With memory so cheap, I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes more common, though personally I think it isn't polite to the user.
I have been in this situation. The employees were told the expected round of financing hadn't come through yet and we had enough money to pay rent, or pay the employees.

Some (few) people left straight away. Most stayed on and tried to make a go of it (this was a start-up). I had to drop out after a few weeks due to falling behind on my own personal finances.

If I was in such a situation again, I would leave immediately and save some heartache.

Good luck!

P.S. The company survived and is still around but it never did make it big.
I read the link, and I think it's fair to say that evo-psych shouldn't be dismissed as "just-so". However, much of what I've read about evo-psych in pop science clearly is "just-so".

I recall one claim (in psychology today or something like that) that women in Scandinavia developed blond hair because it was a way to attract attention in spite of the thick clothing that would be required in cold weather... makes sense, right? In a just so way, sure. However, I haven't been reading scientific journals. For all I know, this claim was scientifically tested and validated.

So some of the "just-so" accusations may be the result of how evo-psych is presented in the mainstream media. A journalist may present solid science as a "just-so" narrative, because it makes for a more entertaining story, leaving out all the boring parts.
If being sensitive to HF is cumulative, then it has nothing to do with the phenomenon being reported. It just so happens that people are using the term "elecrosensitivity" to refer to the specific and fairly well debunked phenomenon that they claim to experience. It doesn't seem fair to ask science, after debunking the phenomenon that was reported, to continue on to debunk every other phenomenon that could go by the same name.
I believe it's illegal to give IQ tests to prospective employees in the US.

PS: A basic competency test is ok.
I don't know the real legal reasoning, but in general the score for a symphony is quite a bit more detailed than the words on your grandmother's recipe card. IIRC, a piece of music 8 seconds or less cannot be under copyright (can't find any reference; sorry about that). I would think the typical recipe card would fall under that line of reasoning, whereas a page or two article on how a chef makes a complicated dish would probably be a creative work.
It would not be new legal ground. Here is a company that did just that: (suing themselves)

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/al-lewis-wells-farg...
Yeah, we definitely don't call them IQ tests.
I have a machine with the hostname set as 'banana' to remind me video.
Some insight into launchly's upcoming business model changes
I'm working on a startup from Vancouver Canada. My SF Bay area VC suggested I look for co-founders down there. I put an ad on Craigslist and had several really high quality replies, which was great since I'm doing this part-time and was open to part-time co-founders. I've just about chosen a lead developer / co-founder and if that goes well I'll be looking for others.
One of the things I looked for were candidates that previously would not have made the cut because of a crappy resume - and there were quite a few of those.

I didn't do any kind of controlled study - so this is definitely anecdotal evidence.
It's like I keep saying:

Carriers around the world compete on price, features, coverage, and high-tech phones. Carriers in the US compete on how much they can get away with. Even "small" carriers in the US still suck just as much as the big guys. They are just presenting a more friendly image.
Apple and AT&T are allowed to do this in the US because of ludicrous FCC overwatch that allows operators to do almost whatever they want after they have paid the obligated billions in spectrum licenses. Such practice along with things like locking hardware devices to one operator, thus effectively limiting consumer choice would not only be considered anti-competitive in other parts of the world, but also grounds for a major investigation.

Unfortunately, the 'lobbying' mobile communications industry in the US has an absurdly rigid establishment that has limited competition from the beginning and people gladly pay for things like receiving phone calls/sms .
ICANN is kinda like cross between a bad TV sitcom and a reality show
Good point, I'm woefully ignorant of Branson's history of success; perhaps I'll meander through some wiki pages today.

I did liked the notion Stephen Dubner added. Namely that the two schedule types aren't necessarily mutual exclusive to a personality type -- some/(all) can modally switch between them (within reason). Perhaps the Entreprenuer's Schedule is really some personal-proprietary blend of both. (I would like to think Branson as a "maker" on some level or another.)
Yikes, and I thought I had it bad. Only 50 minutes?! Granted, I only use about half of my 450 (lowest you can go with AT&T).

I just wish the market would move more towards generic data access like an ISP. Voice, SMS, wireless Internet...it's all just a data pipe to me (and them), so charge me like an ISP (with speed and bandwidth caps, if necessary).
F-Prot Antivirus for Windows Free Downlaod
Just wondering: google claims that "the speed of light * 40 femtoseconds = 11.9916983 microns".

How did they decide whether something is transparent, or not in that kind of time / space limit?
Agree. There might be some nasty adverse selection bias for the employer as well. Those who are at risk of getting fired at their current employer will probably jump ship for anything, and those who are rockstars (to use a cliche) won't worry about the auditioning process. However, those in the middle, even though they would probably be great employees, might not take the job due to risk aversion.
Yes. Hopefully it will bring more makers to hn and scare the managers away.
It's excellently written, but I wish I could turn off the analogies. For me, analogies only muddle the point.
It isn't that I'm convinced that it's unsafe, it's just that the intellectual dishonesty is so blatant.
Length is a red herring; compare the copyrightable poetry in 'Haiku in English' (e.g., "tundra", in full) with signature dishes, like sachertorte or Waldorf Salad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_in_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_dish
I had 450 with AT&T. It cost $35/month or so (I can't remember the intro and long-term rates). I'd gladly take 50 for only $15.
The End Of The End Of The Recession
Agreed; I already pay very little taxes in income and spending. I am going to Asia for a year soon also.
Be careful about intellectual property ownership bullshit here.
The main problem with android (for me) is the lack of CDMA phones. I am on the SERO plan with sprint - $30 a month for voice, data, and text - and I am not switching for any phone. If there were android phone in Sprint's line up, I'd be game.

I do not have an iphone, and I don't want one at this point. Jailbroken they look intriguing, but not stock. I need PDANet.
I'm probably going to be buying a smart phone in the next year. I'm finding myself leaning more and more towards an Android phone as the applications at least seem more open. I like a lot more control over my device than Apple seems to want me to have.

As I recall though, you still can't get root on any of the Android phones without trickery, right?
Are you sure you're not going overboard with that? Is spam that much of a problem for your site that this is necessary?

I've never been a big fan of throwing up too many roadblocks to real people to keep out the minority of spammers. If you already have captchas and honeypots and JS updated "type this [value]" fields in your signup process, do you really need more???
A business exists to make money. If it can't pay you, it isn't making money and either should not exist now or will not exist in the near future. There are rare exceptions, but the odds are so bad that I would not take the chance or extend the trust.

There aren't enough specifics in your write up to know for sure what to do. However, either you hold equity or you do not and that should be a major factor.

If you are an equity holder in this company and it is a funding issue, not a core business issue, I would stay and see it through. Sometimes you can cut way back on the leverage and nurture the core profit with the equity holders you have.

If you are an employee, exit as diplomatically and respectfully as you can. Why? You made an agreement with your company to trade services for pay. They have defaulted. It sounds like they have done so without a heads up. This shows a lack of integrity on the part of management and is even more troubling than the cash.

There are things in the world that can blind side a good management team - abrupt law changes, competitor introduces game changing technology, key team member leaving, etc. However, pay roll is a cash flow issue and one management teams can look ahead and predict.

If a management team can't predict, process and pay payroll, how well can they execute on the things that make your business money?

If they can execute on payroll but have chosen not to, or to not tell you, are they people that you should throw your lot in with?
That is neat and all, but it is only "transparent" to extreme ultra violet light. And even then it is only transparent for 40 femtoseconds
Wait, you're saying that you know how to provide the same service BATS offers, at a lower price? Why are you whining about how evil they are when you could be making money competing with them?
I stopped linking to HN from essays several months ago. I don't want the community to grow too fast.
how many people will actually use something like this?

More people, simply because it exists.
This is a pretty good summation of the issue. Well said.
From a strictly scientific standpoint, designing the tests around the claims of the participants is only useful so far. The anecdotal claims of people who claim to suffer from this condition would be suspect at best.

What is know is that electromagnetic energy can and does effect the human body, it is just a question of what thresholds we are talking about. It would stand to reason that some people are effected at different levels than others for various reasons. (Hydration, PH balance, even height could be a factor when talking about specific wavelengths).

All that is to say, the wifi thing may very well be bollocks, but I still would love to see more rigorous research done.
I cry and hope it magically happens while I'm not looking.

But seriously I have not really addressed i18n in my apps yet. I would say how you go about it is going to depend at least a bit on your framework/programming language. I'm using Ruby on Rails for my apps so I would probably just follow the generally accepted RoR best-practices on 18n which dictates using the file system and YAML translation files based on keys that you use in your app (at least the last time I looked that was the best practice).
Actually, no. The program still starts up when you click on it except it doesn't register itself as a foreground application until after it is loaded. The time to start the application is exactly the same, bootup time is unaffected, but the icon just doesn't bounce.
How to sell
Having come from a programmer background and minimal business experience, I'm faced with a problem that I'm sure many of you have also faced: selling your goods when you aren't a trained salesperson.

Basically my problem is that I need to get out and sell my product, but I'm not pitching to VCs so I believe the technique to be quite different.

How does one go about preparing for this "phase"?
How did people here handle it?
Are there any resources to help with the preparation?
Want People to Use Your Language Under Windows? Do This.
Its not about mentioning them, its the blatant misspelling of their names "Einstien", "Hawkins" or "Feynmann" (http://www.google.com/search?q=Einstien,+Hawkins+or+Feynmann)

EDIT: Feynman is spelled Feinman in Russian texts which andreyf maybe familiar with :)
Just to clarify - I didn't mean to say that benefiting consumers is a necessary attribute - it just adds weight to their case. Wanting to silence such speech would be against consumers interests (and in this case - health/safety) and would surely be protected speech.
EU May Allow US To Keep Snooping On European Bank Data
LOAD"$",8
I saw one of those in LA 1.5 years ago, I don't think they're exactly new.
Ah, good point.

I could be wrong about the SMS side of things but aren't there a number of web-based services for sending SMS messages that can be accessed on the iphone via safari?

Either way, it is clear that cellular companies need to rethink their business models and consider the fact that moving towards an Internet connectivity-based revenue stream as a primary on PDA devices is a smart move.
All businesses must consider competitors. :)