skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My favorite thing is when there is lots of automation, but nobody knows how the hell it works (because it's been around for 3 years chugging along obediently) and nobody's wanted to look at it (because it's an ugly horrible mess of 'just ship' code) and it just happens to be the single automation that controls whether or not critical customer updates get verified before they ship (wait for it) and now we have to ship (of course) and now it's broken (of course) and nobody has a clue how to fix it (of course) because process is kind of annoying.

If your automation works perfectly, you still need process to make sure your automation works perfectly, and fix it when it doesn't.
They've opened up to other sellers like amazon does. I kind of wish they were still just electronics.
I'm having a hard time trying to imagine how financially-incentivized systematic removal of the habitats of species after species after species can be considered anything but unsustainable.
The Future of PaaS in cloud computing
Ask HN: would you consider domain names that aren't .com? 
since most good .coms are taken, and new TLDs are coming, we built something to help people more easily find "other" domain names: TLDs like .in, .co.uk, .de, and vertical-specific TLDs like .bike.

more: http://www.panabee.com/domain-name-search/free

we're curious if people are still set on .coms or would consider other types of domains.
Encyclopedia of Chinese Cities – Shanghai (Chinese)
Other cities can be found here:
http://baike.baidu.com/city/

Seems still in early stages.
That's why you should avoid using default arguments in library functions.
This doesn't surprise me.

From what I've seen on the provider side HVAC (and access control) companies want their devices right on the Internet. If you push them they'll deal with being behind NAT with a port forward but mention using a VPN and that's too much work for them.

Ask them about security and they hand wave and say it is secure because it is a "appliance" or "controller" as if that magically protects them.

This is changing somewhat as vendors move to a "phone home to the cloud" approach instead of direct access so they can get in on the revenue stream between the end user and the dealer. This removes the direct exposure to the internet but the local/insider threat remains.
Yes but do good values and work ethic come from genetics? I would argue no. That comes from the enviroment you grow up in, from your parents and siblings, to your peers, to your community.

When we're talking school quality there are a couple of different components. Funding isn't a good metric as the United States spends a lot per student but gets worse results than many other countries (not unlike our healthcare system). I think there are a lot of systemic improvements to be made on that front.

When we're talking about the significantly below average schools in the United States, those are absolutely producing worse outcomes for the kids that come out of them. Some of them will succeed anyway but that doesn't mean improving the school wouldn't lift up many of the others who struggle now.
Really? I find their selection horrible.
Timeline: How Facebook really started
If you have hired the right person they will very quickly "train" themselves and the only cost to you will be a slightly slower start (which will resolve itself in days to a couple of weeks max) at producing real code.

Well worth it if the alternative is hiring someone who knows the language/framework you're working in, but pretty much only knows that language/framework.
And, evidently, they've broken into Krebsonsecurity.com to delete this.
A lot of travel agents are genuine flight experts. If you don't believe that then you haven't spent much time with good travel agents.

Also, it's not about the commissions. That went out with the '90's

Source: I've worked in this field for 13 years now and sell a SAAS product to travel agents.
Lowering the Risk of Web Development
This is something I've been working on for a while. A friend suggested I post it here. The basic idea is that while there have been developments in improving the product (UX) and improving the development process (Agile), I haven't seen much talk or action about attacking the rigid nature of the (commercial, legal) deals struck to achieve them.

About two years ago I began working on the technical infrstructure that makes it possible to even consider incremental contracting for incremental development; now I'm working on project controls, and later this year I expect to do the legal stuff.

Anyway, have at 'er.
You inspired me to do exactly that - coded within 6 hours - http://netneutralitytest.com/
The Pragmatic Programmer – My Review
Edit: The article is back up now.

---

The article has disappeared. Here's the text of the first part of the post from Google cache.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mG2INOj...

Feb 14
Target Hackers Broke in Via HVAC Company

Last week, Target told reporters at The Wall Street Journal and Reuters that the initial intrusion into its systems was traced back to network credentials that were stolen from a third party vendor. Sources now tell KrebsOnSecurity that the vendor in question was a refrigeration, heating and air conditioning subcontractor that has worked at a number of locations at Target and other top retailers.

Sources close to the investigation said the attackers first broke into the retailer’s network on Nov. 15, 2013 using network credentials stolen from Fazio Mechanical Services, a Sharpsburg, Penn.-based provider of refrigeration and HVAC systems.

Fazio president Ross Fazio confirmed that the U.S. Secret Service visited his company’s offices in connection with the Target investigation, but said he was not present when the visit occurred. Fazio Vice President Daniel Mitsch declined to answer questions about the visit. According to the company’s homepage, Fazio Mechanical also has done refrigeration and HVAC projects for specific Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and BJ’s Wholesale Club locations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said the company had no additional information to share, citing a “very active and ongoing investigation.”

It’s not immediately clear why Target would have given an HVAC company external network access, or why that access would not be cordoned off from Target’s payment system network. But according to a cybersecurity expert at a large retailer who asked not to be named because he did not have permission to speak on the record, it is common for large retail operations to have a team that routinely monitors energy consumption and temperatures in stores to save on costs (particularly at night) and to alert store managers if temperatures in the stores fluctuate outside of an acceptable range that could prevent customers from shopping at the store.

“To support this solution, vendors need to be able to remote into the system in order to do maintenance (updates, patches, etc.) or to troubleshoot glitches and connectivity issues with the software,” the source said. “This feeds into the topic of cost savings, with so many solutions in a given organization. And to save on head count, it is sometimes beneficial to allow a vendor to support versus train or hire extra people.”

Continue reading →
Great, insightful article for techies; very interesting insight into your business strategy and R&D. Thanks for sharing!
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic... but if not, this is the first legitimate use of uncyclopedia as a source I've seen.
As someone facing the first terrifying steps of funding their research program, I certainly hope this works out.
This isn't actually all that secret. It's been published for over 4 years before it even managed a test flight.

Having worked in that sector, the interesting shit is always what you haven't heard about.
When you reach a certain size of HVAC system it is common for the dealer to regularly service the system and proactively monitor it. This requires access to the controllers to see a pump has failed, coolant pressure dropped, etc.

They should have ordered a stand-alone Internet connection for such things but probably figured they'd save the money and use the existing network connection.
India to extend visa-on-arrival facility to tourists from 180 nations
Additional useful resources:

* Sorting Algorithm Animations: http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/

* Data Structure Visualizations (interactive): http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~galles/visualization/Algorithms.htm...

* Sorting algorithm visualization (interactive): http://sortvis.org/

* 15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes (video, turn off sound): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRA0W1kECg

* Algorithm Visualization Portal: http://algoviz.org/avcatalog

* and I just found an old HN discussions with more resource links: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511332
>> "When you care enough about software, you'll make your own hardware" -- Alan Kay.

Sure, but why it has to be a low margin, overcrowded smartphone market? It's better to focus on new category of devices such as thermostats;-). Microsoft's situation is different here because they have no choice - Nokia pretty much the only vendor for WP.
NewEgg sells all kinds of random things now. On the front page I see perfume, jewlery, and paper plates.

I was never a huge fan of NewEgg and after dealing with them for returns and having orders not process until the day after I place them, I order from elsewhere. Most of the time you can find things for the same price on Amazon anyway.
I've got a thinkpad w530 too. It's a beast, definitely outperforms my Macbook pro. Not really a fair comparison though, totally different weight class :)
In some ways Newegg is like the Best Buy paradigm for me (try things out at Best Buy, purchase on Amazon). Newegg always has better technical details and specs than Amazon but Amazon usually has better prices + Prime. I hope this works out well for the Egg
Referring to their decision to go print-only as "DRM" is inflammatory.

It's a book, dude. Not a piece of technology that allows publishers to control your access. It has it's limitations, which are fairly well known at this point in history.
Thus far, there have been some campaigns on IndieGogo, with modest success. Usually, funding is in the realm of "Initial data collection for a grad student" or "Enough to fund some field work" not "Keep the a lab running" because of the costs involved.
Online Marketing Salaries UK – A Detailed Breakdown
Bottled water would get more expensive, true. I was more thinking, though, about coastal cities, where the water itself could just be piped up from the ocean, through desalination, and into the grid. (The puzzle, then, isn't so much how to get people drinking water--they can move toward the coasts. It's how to get crops drinking water.)
This is a non cached link that appears to still function:

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/02/target-hackers-broke-in-v...
Hm, sounds interesting but vague. I don't really understand how it will work.

How is data for the algorithms provided? A lot of times it is big. And messy, and proprietary. There seems to be an implicit assumption that you can just plug different algorithms to different data sets. But I can't think of a project where that has been the case.

I also doubt that "algorithms" are the bottleneck in a lot of projects. I'm not an expert, but I have some personal experience to back up what people say about "data trumping algorithms" (e.g. Peter Norvig and others have written about this)

I would like to hear about some more concrete examples / success stories. "Algorithms" is just too vague. I think if this becomes successful, it will be by first narrowing it to a particular domain, and then generalizing it again.
Transcript of NYDFS Bitcoin hearing
F.C.C. to Change Program That Connects Schools to High-Speed Internet Service
This popped up on NANOG today; apparently FIOS-Cogent and FIOS-Level3 are both hosed. http://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2014-February/06411...
Shadow DOM is a very, very bad idea.

http://glazkov.com/2011/01/14/what-the-heck-is-shadow-dom/

It kills cross-browser compatibility, kills standards (since they're unreachable, undocumented elements that can handle input, interaction and affect other elements.
Horrible compared to what? For that price, you could buy one second-rate DVD per month. Or buy half a season of TV episodes for streaming. Or half a ticket to a movie theater. Or 3 weeks of Netflix/Hulu/etc -- Prime is cheaper even if you allocate $0 in value to the shipping perks. For that price Prime is giving you thousands of movies and TV series, including some awesome original programming (Betas, Alpha House). It's hard to argue there's not $6/mo of value there if you can find just one thing a month to watch.
This is the most interesting part to me. I agree with the other people commenting in this thread that advanced algorithm design (as seen in journals) isn't broken. Interesting advanced algorithms do get spun out into open source implementations.

A non-academic community based around discovery, discussion and implementation of algorithms would be an interesting place to hang around. A MVP would be, basically, a discussion forum with an index of github repos for the implementations, but there are other values to be added on top.

Good luck. I'll be paying attention to what becomes of your project.
As usual, just follow the ST:TNG playbook.
Would be cool except whenever I order from newegg I get it the next day regardless of what shipping option I choose
its not as good as using separate vms, but has arguably lower overhead

also, its not really docker doing that, its LXC. Docker is an API around it.
There are a fair number of altcoins with random rewards. I bet similar attacks are possible on them as well.
Yep, I didn't know either until the holiday season was almost over. I could've ShopRunner'd so many things!
This should be a blog post or tutorial or guide on the documentation page. It would be really helpful to have guidance on how to do development work flow using docker while avoiding bad practices like shared volumes.
Coincidentally, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics recently announced that they would look to crowdfunding for financing their fusion reactor. I find it both sad and hopeful that one of the most promising projects for solving humanity's energy problem looks for funding this way.

http://lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/index.php?option=com_l...
Another honorable mention: http://www.reddit.com/r/scholar

And: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/index.php
You'd also have to go for the 4800MQ CPU to get rMBP 15" performance. You'd be paying $2700 for a 7.8 lbs machine. Why wouldn't you get the Mac?
It sounds like what we need is the equivalent of local loop unbundling for internet services: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling

In the UK, I believe the main practice revolves around broadband, whereas in US it's all around phone (VoIP or otherwise). If you could enable competition within the same last mile service, you'd a)give a definite incentive to make sure the entire network delivers the best experience and b)have alternate sources of revenue to maintain the last mile network.

The current duopoly that exists SoCal in most areas (1 cable provider and 1 DSL provider) is a really terrible consumer experience. For those who have access to FiOS, it's a tad better, but not by much.

If you had access to 10 providers at once with comparable services, there would be real incentive for them to offer the best possible experience and lowest possible prices to consumers... but of course that would hurt corporate profits and so on and no politician getting those donations wants that...
If Netflix pre-cached content during off-peak hours it's not clear that their licensing bill would be any higher.
It appears to be back up now. It returned right around 3:40PM EST.
It's back now, it seems.
Yes, it is. It’s atop LXC (Linux Containers), which - oversimplified - is process namespacing, jails, etc.

There’s near zero overhead, because there’s no virtualization.
7 Tips For Improving Website Performance | Those DeWolfes Creative
Product seems useful.

However, as someone who has launched multiple products with the aim of improving on something inside AWS (some successful, some not), I want to warn you about pursuing this type of AWS-centric business model.

I can tell you from experience that if you start to see traction, AWS will not hesitate to rip it off and incorporate it into their console. A quick Google search will show a rich history of treating their "partners" in this fashion.

Be careful, and good luck!
Compared to other streaming services, not buying physical media.
Chemists Find Possible Precursor to RNA
I think this is spot on. We used to underplay the experience issue, but then we realized a poor user experience often hinders access to the best savings.

What made this worse was the animosity between customers and experts. It was expected between competing experts, but the concept of the "award" (and by necessity "switching award") caused tension in all directions. We still had many great results, but not to the level needed to build a great business. The difference with the current system is night and day. Everyone is on the same side; it's even a little erie since we're so used to the previous animosity.
People who are concerned about sustainability decry the collapse of fisheries & fish stocks, or the environmental impact of industrialized chicken farming. People who are concerned about ethics decry the destruction of pandas, orangutans, tigers, and gorillas.

None of these are good, but we don't eat pandas, so which examples of habitat destruction are used is informative.
can't wait for Clojure support
If anyone else thought that last name looked really familiar it's Sergey Brin's sister-in-law.
When is it worth it to buy ads on Twitter or Facebook?
How do you guys handle chargebacks? I've been considering doing a run of "physical" dogecoins but as everyone knows cryptocurrencies are a huge market for credit card fraud.
Except that they are still doing business in the countries with high taxes; they just have their headquarters elsewhere to avoid paying the taxes.
> Is it really possible that not a single person at Microsoft tried changing a setting on their Windows machine and realized how difficult it was to even find the setting?

When I was at MS, we usually used the command line to change settings. It was horrible. It used GUIDs. Literally GUIDs. But it was a stable target. You didn't have to relearn it every nightly build. And you could script it.

We sort of assumed that if the control panel would sit still we could learn it easily enough, but that assumption couldn't be tested until it was too late.
So now everyone writing code has to fear the state of New Jersey will overstep its bounds and try to get them into court when they clearly have no jurisdiction or right to do so? I don't even see why this subpoena has to be answered by an out of state resident that has nothing to do with the state of New Jersey. Will the state pay for all these expenses?
GitHub Sign In is a plus
You're right. Raising awareness is a waste of time. It's probably best to do nothing at all.
Grunt Cookbook
Game: How it feels like when your music is pirated
It looks a lot like the one the US Navy has created for carrier-based operations - are they sharing technologies like the NSA and GCHQ?
I was involved in a software development project last year, in which the entire remote development team of 20 people got fired, because the software architect implemented a bunch of best practices, design patterns and state-of-the-art frameworks, without any thought as to how this would impact development time. The problem was that he was the only one who was familiar with most of this stuff, so there was a very steep learning curve for the rest of the team, who one by one either dropped out or became totally unproductive. After 18 months in which he burnt his way through the budget, with very little to show the client by way of results, the project was drastically scaled back. So this is not just about straw men. People like this really do exist.
Currently .io seems to be pretty popular ;)
Was anyone else put off by the link github/enlist to continue after only two brainteasers? I felt like I was just starting to get really engaged in using the site and enjoying it, to only have a "paywall type obstacle" in the way and take away my good vibe feeling. Maybe rephrasing enlist to something like login to track your progress would be better?
Glad to hear it, it's in the works - we're just deciding the order to launch them, so the voting feedback on next languages really helps us
Don't Learn to Code, Learn to Program – But Come Back in 10 Years
Have you read the rationale they published? They said they're releasing print only in part because of ebook piracy

(my reading of their statement is that print only was mostly because of piracy)
I agree that the existing libraries are great, and if anything that success is what we to encourage even more of. We want to build a community around algorithm development, and have a central place for developers to share their work, and collaborate with other developers to make Huge library of algorithms so that everyone can benefit.

The first language we implemented was Java/Scala, largely because of the excellent libraries like Mahout and Weka easily available in Maven Central. But even though the code is there in maven, it is still not trivial to deploy those algorithms as a service. We are trying to make that easier, while at the same time supporting the developers of those libraries in the process.

Being able to run the code locally is in the plans. For the most part, the algorithms in our system are already simply maven packages, or ruby gems, npm packages, etc. Being able to distribute them in binary form is definitely possible. We're still figuring things out right now, but our focus is always on doing right by the algorithm development community.
However, did not work when pressing Sign In and going through that process. I came back to homepage with no difference.
Didn't know about Wikipedia-over-DNS, that's pretty cool: https://dgl.cx/wikipedia-dns
http://www.4clojure.com/ is available in meantime. Actually its what I used to learn it.
Someone from the FSF suggested the FSF's current license? There's a surprise!
$1600 actually, I have no idea where you pulled that $2700 number from.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=smp480...
The Retrofuture Shock of Post-Soviet Architecture
Similarly, paraphrasing (as I don't have my copy right here with me),

Not all software projects are the same, no more than all construction projects are the same. You can quickly nail a dog house together with only vague planning and minimal craftsmanship. But if you want to build a house for people, you have to plan more, pay more attention to what you're doing, and make sure the result meets the local codes. If you want to build a skyscraper, you have to put even more work into planning, robust engineering, and code-meeting than you do with a house.

http://www.amazon.com/Software-Architecture-Primer-John-Reek...

I've worked on software for iPhones and on software for jumbo jets. The two activities almost aren't even the same thing. Drawing on other life experiences, I might liken it to jazz improvisation vs. classical performance, or to mobile phone snapshots vs. professional portraiture. Overlapping, yet different enough that methods which work for one do not necessarily make sense for the other.