skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Joel Spolsky has also argued for this:

"I think the solution would be to create a programming-intensive BFA in Software Development--a Julliard for programmers. Such a program would consist of a practical studio requirement developing significant works of software on teams with very experienced teachers, with a sprinkling of liberal arts classes for balance. It would be a huge magnet to the talented high school kids who love programming, but can't get excited about proving theorums.

When I said BFA, Bachelor of Fine Arts, I meant it: software development is an art, and the existing Computer Science education, where you're expected to learn a few things about NP completeness and Quicksort is singularly inadequate to training students how to develop software."

See more here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/01/08.html
Exactly. I see "Computer Science" degrees being used for 3 distinct purposes.

First is what I consider the primary use for a CS degree: researching the science of computing. This includes all the specialties, from AI to Algorithms to Databases to whatever, but it's different than the next two. A true CS major should primarily be a research scientist but possibly a software architect. Chances are good that a BS CS isn't that employable in that role and would require graduate school for more depth.

Then there's software engineers that specialize in designing and delivering software. There's certainly some overlap with the CS degree coursework.

Then there are computer programmers that just write code. These don't need a 4-year degree. They could be trained at junior colleges or even modern trade schools.

So if I compare that three-fold path to electronics, the CS degree is closer to a degree in physics, the software engineering degree is closer to a EE degree, and the computer programmer went to soldering school (or was trained on a wave solder machine). EE students take physics classes, but then branch off into "applied physics" specialties.
Probably true. As others have pointed out, the best way to learn this stuff is to do it, hopefully with a mentor to speed you along. If you are going to learn that way, you might as well earn a paycheck at a company rather than paying tuition to a University.

If you were setting up a Software Engineering degree, one good route might be to partner with some local company. They get cheap work, and the students get real world experience and access to mentors (senior people at the company) to rapidly improve their abilities. Courses would probably center around languages and classes of tools (Introduction to Source Control Management, Introduction to Automated Testing), and, like Architecture, lots and lots of studio time.
Organic milk has other ancillary benefits you won't find in "plain" milk: The land and animals are treated much better. If you have ever seen a "normal" dairy farm, and watch the amount of antibiotics used to prevent the cow's udders from become infected, it becomes clear that life (for a cow at least) on a organic dairy farm is much a much nicer existence (and thus one I personally want to encourage). Also - the grains that are fed to organic dairy cows must be organic, which means more acres of organic grain production. Many organic dairy farms also do not milk cows that are in the later stages of pregnancy, which reduces the amount of estrogen in the milk fat (high levels of estrogen in the diet are linked to cancer).
For what it's worth, 100% of my fear wasn't about you being right but about Yahoo being officially dead.
I actually own a G1, and I'm very pleased with it. it needs a little polish and more speed, but overall using an iphone and using the G1, I'd pick the android anyway.

And yes, largely because I feel comfortable with the level of customization I can do to my G1, and if I wanted it even further unlocked, I can purchase a developer version for fairly cheap.

Oh, and the 5+ years I've been with t-mobile, they've taken care of me many many times. I don't think AT&T could touch the support I get from T-Mobile, who repays you for customer loyalty.
Having no spiritual beliefs/religion (aka atheism) satisfies human desires.

Ex.
Evolution has several flaws and can never be proven. Even scientifically it cannot be proven. It is purely the fruit of an individual's imagination, conviction and desire. Nothing more than this.
It's worth reading to understand what he means when he says: "that liberty, surely, is the product of -- what shall I call it? -- the enthusiastic irreverence of a zero-to-one relationship." Reminds me of some code I've written.
Ask HN: Fighting spam on Craigslist any alternative?
I posted my macbook for sale on Craigslist (http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/bra/sys/1290256034.html) and all i have been getting is scammers emailing me and asking me to ship it to Nigeria..

so wondering which sites do you guys use besides Craigslist for selling electronics?

Thanks
Yes, it would be advantageous to begin your attack during an opponent's blink. However, the blink is faster than your reaction time. If you see him blink and react, his blink is over before you react. His eyes are open when your attack begins.
I also climb in SF (Mission Cliffs) and try to go outdoors but not enough. Usually local though, Diablo, Mickey's Beach, Castle Rock, etc
GMOs significantly increase crop yields and are helping feed a growing world population. I think most of the world is willing to take the risk of a few genes getting loose for the benefit of keeping the world fed.
It sort of depends on how you define Academia. If by Academia you mean "Liberal Arts + Sciences" then I agree, but by that definition all major universities go far beyond that.

Universities teach those, but they also have some programs focused on practical applications (and some people think of Academia as simply "what universities do"). The obvious example are the professional degrees such as the JD, MBA, MD, etc. Engineers and architects are also expected to emerge being able to put those skills to use almost immediately after graduation. They all come with some on the job training, but that is true of virtually every job/profession. Those with "applied degrees" are expected to have received the vast bulk of the training they need to enter and work in that industry at college and it would be catastrophic for industry if they did not.

Now, CS as it (mostly) is now is an academic degree in the former sense. The question is whether "Software Engineering" should be separated out form CS as an applied degree similar to other forms of engineering.

Personally, I think it should. This would free "Pure CS" to focus on theory and algorithms and the mathematics behind them and general research while providing employeers and those students primarily interested in becoming employed with a more focused degree that can include more methodology while deemphasizing the theory.

There would of course be vast overlap between CS and Software Engineering, but this is just like chemical engineering and chemistry being separate. The overlap between the two is huge, but they are not identical and different people chose one of the two deliberately and with good reason.
If you don't already have this I'd very much like a feature which would alert me to friends/family being nearby while we are travelling. Like that you could meet up for lunch in places where you'd otherwise never meet.

A proximity alert so to speak.

I think this is what you are getting at with your 'meet friends while on the go', but just to be sure...

Say you're driving from one town to another and a friend of yours is travelling a different route and you don't know about it but your paths cross +- 20 minutes or so. The application would then warn you that this is about to happen and ask if you'd like to hook up.

I'm sure it wouldn't happen very frequently but every time it did that would be a pleasant surprise.

Is that what this does ? If so then count me in !
Exactly.

All you need to do is infect a few phones. They will then send the infected SMS to all the phones in their contact list (some of which will be iPhones), which will then send the infected SMS to all of their contacts, etc. That probably covers 80% of all iPhone users.

Of course, the networks would likely be able to put a stop to this by filtering SMS messages containing the payload, but that would take some time and cooperation. If someone launched an iPhone worm, it would be likely that almost everyone was infected before AT&T and others had time to implement a patch.

If I were Apple, I'd be working ASAP to get AT&T to start working on the filter, because at this point, even publishing an iPhone update is not going to be enough.
needs a tour on the main page.
I wouldn't sign up without knowing what exactly I can do and how.
IEEE used to offer special tours. Don't know whether they still do.
But no hardware keyboard...
BTW, have you read the novel 'The Loser' by Thomas Bernhard?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loser_(book)

I bet most people here would like it. One of the three main characters is a fictitious Glenn Gould.
I am sorry I rambled without answering that...

I guess I have yet to learn of a GMO product that I want to consume. Breeding for traits, as I understand has been done for many, many years would seem to offer natural selection a way of killing of the inappropriate strains, in addition to giving humans time to consume, then observe any possible negative reactions (Don't eat the mushrooms with the red tops - bad!)

Having a food factory produce vast quantities of recent experiments that overwhelm other sources of non-experiment strains gives me pause for concern. I understand from general consensus that we were told DDT was perfectly safe, and I vaguely remember seeing a promotional video showing children being sprayed with it, to show how "safe it was." I now understand that it is not safe at all.

I guess it again circles around to whom do I trust? And is the information I am receiving accurate?

I guess I am being a bit of a food Luddite...
It's getting closer. The "body of knowledge" today is substantially improved over 2000. Just look how far design patterns have come in that time. End-user expectations are also climbing higher, especially for enterprise customers that have been burned by failed projects.
Organic milk is literally inferior to plain milk

I'm not sure about that when you factor in that in the US (and Canada?) antibiotics and recombinant bovine growth hormone are commonly given to cattle. The side effects of rGBH include puss in the milk.
I'm more interested in not having my iPhone hacked and not having lots of support calls from customers who have had theirs hacked than whether Apple gets whatever comeuppance you/he decides they deserve.

Whatever comeuppance the market decides Apple deserves after they've failed to adequately serve consumers (or not, depending on the consumer's opinions).

Apple created the vulnerability, and then left it unpatched for an extended period of time. It's Apple's responsibility to not produce vulnerable software, and it's their responsibility to fix software that is vulnerable. They should be held accountable.

C does not equal 'buffer overflows'. Mistakes in C mean buffer overflows.

Humans mean mistakes, ergo, C equals 'buffer overflows' (or NULL dereferences, or format string vulnerabilities, or integer overflows, or ...).
5 Ways Voice 2.0 Will Change Your Life
Dean Kamen has got to be one of the most arrogant engineers in the world (though obviously really talented too). You can't bring up why Seqway's were retarded without mentioning that personality.

I might also point out that the reason they failed so spectacularly was a ridiculous level of hype. "Revolutionize transportation" just doesn't fit a reconfigured motorized bicycle.

Having aggressively ridden one while towing a rollerblader with a bungee cord, I can say for sure the most successful marketing would have been as an entertainment and recreational vehicle. Then they'd be like ATVs, but permissible in urban areas. Also, you wouldn't compare the price to a bicycle (10X) but to an ATV (0.5X depending)
Norman Borlaug is an agronomist whose work has been credited for saving a billion lives from starvation. His work transformed formerly-starving nations like India into net exporters of food. His take on organic farming:

That's ridiculous. This shouldn't even be a debate. Even if you could use all the organic material that you have--the animal manures, the human waste, the plant residues--and get them back on the soil, you couldn't feed more than 4 billion people. In addition, if all agriculture were organic, you would have to increase cropland area dramatically, spreading out into marginal areas and cutting down millions of acres of forests.

At the present time, approximately 80 million tons of nitrogen nutrients are utilized each year. If you tried to produce this nitrogen organically, you would require an additional 5 or 6 billion head of cattle to supply the manure. How much wild land would you have to sacrifice just to produce the forage for these cows? There's a lot of nonsense going on here.

If people want to believe that the organic food has better nutritive value, it's up to them to make that foolish decision. But there's absolutely no research that shows that organic foods provide better nutrition. As far as plants are concerned, they can't tell whether that nitrate ion comes from artificial chemicals or from decomposed organic matter. If some consumers believe that it's better from the point of view of their health to have organic food, God bless them. Let them buy it. Let them pay a bit more. It's a free society. But don't tell the world that we can feed the present population without chemical fertilizer. That's when this misinformation becomes destructive.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/27665.html

I now say that the world has the technology – either available or well advanced in the research pipeline – to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology? While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra low-risk positions, and pay more for food produced by the so-called “organic” methods, the one billion chronically undernourished people of the low income, food-deficit nations cannot.

--30th Anniversary Lecture, The Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo, September 8, 2000
I entirely agree. One thing to add though:

Then there are computer programmers that just write code. These don't need a 4-year degree. They could be trained at junior colleges or even modern trade schools.

This already happens. Lots of junior colleges and specialized trade schools will teach this. I also know several good programmers that are entirely self taught (or similarly, taught by a mentor).

Personally, I transitioned to software design after getting a degree in math. It is certainly a related field, but I made the jump through self study of the practical aspects and picking up a couple of certifications just to help with HR.
Interestingly enough that has been done with rats: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/dining/03curi.html

And the rats preferred organic.
What I don't understand is why iPhone developers expect decent treatment from Apple or continue to be surprised when their apps are removed. This developer considers Apple a "partner" (their words). Apple is not a partner. Apple has opened up an application repository where you can sell your apps through the store, but has not extended any further benefit, or made any apologies for their policy of arbitrarily removing applications that it doesn't want, for any reason. It doesn't want to discuss your applications with you, it doesn't want to hear explanations or reasoning. It makes the rules, and it does what it wants. When you operate within Apple's closed ecosystem, you play by their rules or you don't play at all.
Saturated fat?

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&...
I had a serious of "spiritual experiences" that utterly, utterly changed my life ... I don't believe in the supernatural

I'm curious, why were the experiences–while life-changing–not able to change your stance on the supernatural? Did they at least cause you to question that belief?
GPL FUD round N+1
I've used the Segway example before when arguing with people against stealth startups. The big reveal just isn't worth the potential downside.

Expecially with something like the Segway, where they needed buy-in from local government to let the things on the sidewalks.

But, yeah, North Dumpling Island is all you need to know about the wackiness that is Dean Kamen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dumpling_Island and http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/dean-kamens-led-nat...)
Funny, but not news.yc material.
Agree, thanks for the comment. We're working on a tour/wizard to explain the concept better.
I ran a home server with dyndns, just used it for family stuff. The issues I had weren't with bandwidth but with upload speed (important for your app) and mostly with uptime, between regular home pc outages, dyndns snafus, and occasional outages from the provider.

in my experience, this would work for a "closed beta" but not for 5000 users.

If you're willing to use python or (java) for the server-side stuff, take a look at google apps if you are price sensitive. You can host a pretty substantial site without paying anything.
"Scientifically" nothing can be proven. Theories are simple suppositions (hypotheses) supported by evidence. When we have found an overwhelming body of evidence in support of a particular theory we consider that theory "proven." By this standard, we can consider evolution "proven."

In essence, it would take a significantly large corpus of data to refute the theory of evolution.
I disagree with the assertion that the reason people dislike Segways is because they make the rider look smug. I think it's because the people you see riding them ARE dorks. It's more of a guilt by association issue than anything.
I think what he wants is instead of defining a table that a model maps to he could also just definea SQL query to select from. This is somewhat possible with Django 1.1 if you use a DB level view and unmanaged models.
Try this thought experiment and it becomes clear: imagine something that worked like the Segway, but that you rode with one foot in front of the other, like a skateboard. That wouldn't seem nearly as uncool.

So there may be a way to capture more of the market Segway hoped to reach: make a version that doesn't look so easy for the rider. It would also be helpful if the styling was in the tradition of skateboards or bicycles rather than medical devices."

There's such a thing as an "electric skateboard", Randall Munroe (creator of xkcd) is fond of them.
Dropbox (YC S07) looking for lead automation/QA hacker (Python/C++)
Well that feature is not implemented yet, but we though about a proximity alert for friends nearby. Actually you'll configure your distance radius and friends you're interested in.
Thanks for the comment!
Him and Wolfram seem to have a lot in common...
Counter-Point to Calacanis on Yahoo-Microsoft Deal « abovethecrowd.com
Those list just a few studies and it looks like they are conflicting? I can't discuss this issue properly because I don't know enough about it.

I would prefer whichever method is both efficient and environmentally-safe. I'm just annoyed by the currently fashionable knee-jerk reaction of people that assume organic farming is better.
http://www.google.com/search?q=focus+groups+site:headrush.ty...
There's nothing wrong with GMO.

The current applications of it are however completely uninteresting to me. They center around higher yields. That's achieved through pesticide resistance and pest resistance. There's also some for other properties like shipability.

None of those features interest me. And despite the fact that the risk from them is arbitrarily close to zero, I chose not consume them, simply because again I don't see anything I care about.

Lower prices don't tempt me because I can easily afford food. Additionally I am quite upset about agricultural subsidies and protectionism and would like to see those go away. Thus price reductions not related to the elimination of farm subsidies only serve to remind me of my anger at this policy.
@radley, this is interesting, given that the effective filing date of the patent was in November 2003. If this was a January 2002 podcast, it would come under Section 102(b) of the patent statute, which says: "A person shall be entitled to a patent unless - ... (b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States ...."

And section 103(a) says: "(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. ..."
Review my startup - Philtro: a Personal Noise Filter for Twitter
Check it out at http://www.philtro.com and bypass the beta waitlist by signing up here: http://www.philtro.com/openinvite/351

In short, Philtro filters your incoming tweets by figuring out which particular topics & users you're actually interested in. Just use the thumbs up/down on each tweet to help us learn just a little quicker and you'll start to see results immediately.

Would love your feedback on the idea and its direction!
Yes, but the key word is some. There is a major difference between expecting someone to grow through experience and giving them some initial guidance and training on that specific job and teaching someone everything they need to know in practice when they have some hazy idea of the background theory.

This is particularly true in software. I do not know about other companies, but when I got my first "real programming job" I was given two weeks of on the job training. That focused on things like that particular company's code layout standard, naming conventions, an overview of the code base already written for the piece I would be working on, and some of the HR/administration requirements and procedures.

I was expected to know how to program already.
Crowd Sourced Venture Capitalism
The trouble with the segway is that is isn't better than a bicycle. The 12.5 mph top speed of the segway feels slow to me when I'm on my bike. My range on a bike is also further than the segway and it also makes me healthier.

What the segway needs is to be made faster, you must go faster than 25 mph and it needs to compete better against bicycles and scooters.
Yes, saturated fats are the molecular basis of many hormones including testosterone and estrogen. You may need very little of them but you do need some.
Separating CS and Software engineering is a must in this case. But thinking of Software engineering as a "applied degree" is downgrading what Software Engineering could be. Software Engineering can be a research and innovation degree. But nowadays it's not thought as one.

There are just "programing degrees" specialized for these cases. (there are in Turkey. But I'm not sure about USA and Europe)
The Future of Capitalism in Five Minutes: Meaning-Driven Business in Fast Times
Dean may be arrogant, but I find it hard to fault him when his foundation of the FIRST robotics league for high schoolers has impacted my life so significantly. I participated in the 2006 year with my high school as a senior and now I'm working at a major commercial and government robotics company. His outreach to students through the FIRST organization is one of the best science technology activities for teenagers.