skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thanks for digging into the numbers with me. Actually there are 1947 Gini numbers floating around, and the multiple sources including government census data, and world bank numbers are all slightly different, which in itself is a problem.

I understand the concern about political power, and agree that this is the best reason to be concerned about inequality. I think I have a long term solution to that problem that I will announce later this year.
Really? I'm going to have to throw my email on my Stack Overflow profile and see if it actually works like that. I didn't figure anybody actually looked at them unless they were trying to find an old answer of yours or something.
Every chart and data set I can find says the US has returned to 1920's levels of income inequality since things started getting worse in the mid/late 1980's.

So, yeah, income and wealth inequality have gotten worse, and are at a level that was considered very bad for social stability.
Getting a job at Google for PhD Students
3 tools for running Android on your Windows PC
Here and I thought that even in the absence of copyright, GPL and other open source licenses would be covered under contract law.
As a data scientist, I have to agree with his opinion.

Usually you have a team where each person is "specialized" in a few of those categories.

You can call a data scientist a statistician, but I don't think you can necessarily call a statistician a data scientist.

The truth is, you need only a shallow understanding of machine learning and stats to be a data scientist. But you also need the know-how to collect data - this ends up being the much bigger issue to tackle in my environment. (For what it's worth, you need to have a strong understanding of how data points relate to one another, how accurate they might be, why they might not be accurate, and you also need to be constantly thinking about the long term vision for your data.)
Ask HN: Text messages as identity verification a bad idea?
So this morning I'm having some fun. Someone tried to gain access to my Gmail account by turning on a feature I didn't even know AT&T had; web messaging. AT&T claimed on the phone with me that it can only be enabled via the phone, but I didn't enable it and my phone was sitting next to me on my desk, locked. So clearly there's a way to enable it through the web.

The message I got telling me AT&T web messaging was enabled for my account was shortly followed by a Google verification code. So someone was trying to use that feature to access my Gmail account.

Which got me thinking; which is the big mistake? Allowing a way to intercept text messages via the web, or assuming that text messages are a secure means of verifying identity?

Text messages as identity verification has become fairly common place, but in light of the fact that they can be intercepted on the web, is that at all a good idea?
The thing is, from economic point of view, Putin makes mistake to pay so much money just for them to participate in the union. And what Putin is known for is careful, very calculated political moves, certainly not charity. So he expects something more from it later.

Besides, saying that Ukraine will never be EU member just exposes your clear bias. Everyone knows it won't join EU for a long time, but if they elect people that work towards it (which is unlikely knowing how chaotic the opposition is) it would be a matter of time till it joins EU.
Using 2009 is very problematic. It's when the SP 500 bottomed out.

He picked the worse possible moment to measure rich people wealth in the past 40 years.

I don't know his deal, but it's obvious that income inequality has been on the rise around the world the past 40 years.
LaTeX was built to typeset documents. You have pages in documents and pagination is of critical importance in LaTeX. In the web you don't have pages, it's evolved to be seamless and scrollable. Natuarally, LaTeX was not designed for such an environment.

That doesn't mean that LaTeX is worthless on the web. The gluing algorithms that Knuth used for creating sentences and paragraphs do (for the most part) work, even in documents without pages. In all honesty, the web could benefit greatly from LaTeX, pagination aside.

I'm glad that the author seems to have a practical perspective on this:
>We think LaTeX is still the best programming language to tell a computer how to place text on a page. But the TeX project started pre-web, in 1978, and its scope and function are tightly linked to the printed page, not the webpage.

He goes on to give an example of constructing a table in LaTex which requires (or assumes by default) a suggested location for LaTeX to place the table in the page; something which is currently nonsensical in all but a few web environments. Like the author, I also find CSS appealing for a potential "LaTeX" on the web solution.

However, LaTeX was designed from the very first to be the next standard in type setting and is a turing complete language. CSS is still under debate for being turing complete, and it lacks nearly all of the features that are iconic of LaTeX, except for the ability to format math equations ( and even then...).

I'm not sure what the next standard in typesetting will be, but it will be designed to be device agnostic (with book existing as a supported format), it will target the web and similar digital media, it will be turing complete, and it will be created specifically to fulfill each of those goals, not to have them retroactively attached in a ham-fisted way.
The Bulletin – Motorola, Better Call Saul and Gears Of War
have never played xmoto, but sounds like a cool game if it is like Free Rider!
Travis Kalanick Startup Lessons from the Jam Pad
Yes, if he brings in hoards of H1Bs lowering the salaries of software engineers across the board.

http://www.fwd.us/
Exactly. These are fallacies that are constrained to arguments that are logical in nature. That is, the agreed upon rules of argument and discussion is to use logic. And most arguments even of your second or third category use elements of logic to help strengthen the argument.

However, not all arguments are meant to be or can be solved with pure logic. Otherwise we'd all be Kantians. People will intentionally argue using Appeal to Emotion or Slippery Slope and, within certain contexts, this can be perfectly fine. Just throwing around "That's a logical fallacy, therefore your argument is invalid" is the perfect example of Fallacy Fallacy.

Even worse, just relying on having a codex of fallacies to throw around into any context reduces most arguments into petty squabbles and making it too easy to dismiss your opposition. But for discussions of the second and third mode you need to engage the person and get to the root of their ideas and argue using the proper rules and context.

My personal revelation of all of this came from reading this piece titled "You Baloney Detection Kit Sucks": http://plover.net/~bonds/bdksucks.html
Find the Birthplace of Planets
At first, I was ready to dismiss this article completely. However, this paragraph:

"While Java or Node or something else may win a benchmark, no server has the non-blocking ecosystem of Node.js today. Over 50k modules all written in the async style, ready to use. Countless code examples strewn about the web. Lessons and tutorials all using the async style. Debuggers, monitors, loggers, cluster managers, test frameworks and more all expecting your code to be non-blocking async."

is true.

Java has had all of the same async capabilities for many, many years, but nobody uses them because the blocking paradigm is simply easier.

That said, if true scalability is required, I'd suggest living with Akka and the cleaner actors paradigm. However, it's true that eventually you're going to run into the barrier that the vast majority of the java ecosystem is built on blocking io.

(That said, with Java 8, I think we have a real opportunity to change that. I think a parallel "lean java" ecosystem is coming.)
It was my mistake to link you to a tutorial on the thing you are asking about. I don't know what came over me.
Doesn't that ignore the increased parsing time of the larger JavaScript library compared to image rendering and the fact that loading & parsing JavaScript blocks page rendering? Seems like the arguments linked only focus on the network.
The main problem with LaTeX is that it does not have a good hyperlink mechanism. So, I am thinking about how to switch from LaTeX to HTML. I have a markup system based on Racket:

http://andreimikhailov.com/slides/bystroTeX/slides-manual/in...

The main application was supposed to be slides, to replace the Beamer. But I think it is good for generic math-oriented web publishing. It does not work on Windows, though. Comments/suggestions/testing are welcome!
Are you willing to lose your job for the sake of white-knighting some crappy code?
I read the article and recognize your closing arguments are much more nuanced than the thesis of the article suggests. I apologize for not making that clear in my post.

I still feel the overall point attacking the statistics of income inequality is much more likely to be used as a gavel to silence those working to improve the status quo. Articles like this are often cited when people try to take action to correct income inequality, regardless of what the article ultimately advocates.

That said, I do think its important to get the statistics correct. I don't think you said anything wrong (except maybe with your definition of gini, as others have noted). Your headline is a bit salacious, but ultimately my concern is how this article might be used by others.
Should I learn to finally do my resume in LaTeX?
For what it's worth, 500startups has done this for long time. They don't tell companies whether they are going to provide follow-on funding (even though it's in the original terms as an option) until significantly after Demo Day, for the same reason.
Object.keys has nothing to do with Chrome's DevTools, it's part of the ECMAScript 5 spec and is supported in all modern browsers (and IE >8).
Pandoc has almost all these features: http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/

I think it's lacking the #include/#input feature, and I'm not sure whether it supports labels and internal references, but apparently it has some form of bibliography.
There's a difference between concurrency and parallelism. Concurrency is about a programming model for doing multiple independent tasks while parallelism refers to doing them at the same time. For example with node, you can handle requests while waiting for an asynchronous io task like reading a file.

http://blog.golang.org/concurrency-is-not-parallelism
When I signed up for Prime 6+ years ago, I felt the same way. I was hesitant to do it, and I expected to cancel it after my free trial.

I still have it, and I've never let the service lapse, because I now do the majority of my shopping on Amazon. I buy everything from cat food to toilet paper, and I buy a lot of things (like DVD/Blu-ray) that I never previously had the motivation to go to a store to buy or that I don't have the ability to transport (like shelving units and chairs). It's supercharged my hobbies (electronics and 3d printing), and saved me days in back-and-forth to stores.

So I suppose I'm one of those customers that can easily justify the $120, and would be more than happy to pay more, especially if it means that Amazon will put a little more effort into faster delivery.
Pandoc does a lot of that (but I haven't used it).

At a minimum, it does markdown with embedded LaTeX and outputs pdf.
I complete agree. More and more items are showing up as Add-on Items, even things that didn't used to be (at the same price too). At least give me the option to explicitly pay for the shipping.
What do you find complicated/logically-inconsistent about LaTeX? The job it is supposed to do is nontrivial, so it seems appropriate that the tool is at least somewhat nontrivial, too, especially if you don’t like defaults.

It admittedly doesn’t compile to HTML and the compile-time can be on the order of minutes for very large documents, but are these really deal-breakers?

If you really don’t like LaTeX, have a look at org-mode, which seems to be able to fulfil most, if not all, of your requirements (not sure about compile times).
Taking on the Snowdenistas
" But the downside is that it makes employers hesitant to hire someone in the first place if they know they will be stuck with them for three months."

The 3 month notice period is actually not required by law, but is so widespread that most people assume it is the minimum.

The minimum mandatory notice period depends on how long you have worked there. 0-5 years (1 month), 5-10 years (2 months), 10+ years (3 months).

The notice period specified in the contract do not apply to new hires. When someone is hired they are often put on a "probation period" that can last up to 6 months. In that time you can leave or be fired with a minimum of 2 weeks notice without having to explain why. Usually the contract specifies the maximum probation period (6 months) and a longer notice (1 month).

The probation period is completely optional, but most employers include it in the contract to avoid situations like the one you experienced.
For better or for worse, the guy working hard to replace your roof is easier to replace than you are - this is because you have a skill set he doesn't that takes a lot of time and resources to develop. In addition, your work (likely) brings in more money to a company than his. As such, you get paid more.

As an aside, have you ever noticed that (certified) plumbers and electricians make a lot of money? Same reasoning.

I don't have a problem making more money now that I made myself valuable. I started off in retail, where you literally are one step away from being replaced by an automated kiosk.
The law here is uncertain and differs between states. Until we get some definitive court rulings or clarification from regulatory agencies, it's hard to say.

There is one reading of California's law where practically anything that takes money from A and gives money to B is a money transmitter. Therefore, Uber (which takes money from passengers and gives it to drivers) or iTunes (which takes money from customers and gives it to artists) could be money transmitters. This is probably not the case (or at least, the law isn't being enforced that way), but it's far from settled. See http://www.businessinsider.com/california-rethinks-money-tra....
>The point being: the system is there and there is competition that drives the prices down.

Eh, not really. Many countries still use the state-run monopoly. Connecting to them has a specific price. The demand for calls into their country is more-or-less fixed, and will remain so no matter the price. If you're seeing a price much below the actual price, then it's due to someone doing some illegal maneuver, such as sticking their cell phone on a VoIP system. (Despite it being illegal, I applaud such efforts.) Even for countries that aren't run like that (Europe?), prices can be well in excess of $0.20 a minute. The price to the receiver of the call is $0.00 so perhaps that limits competition. Some places even put an international tax on all calls, so that calls from outside the area are forced to pay more. Some places do the inverse.

Do you have info on people that use SMS across countries? For many countries I've seen, the price-per-message makes it a true last resort. (Inside the US or inside EU, this may not be an issue.) This makes WhatsApp so useful.

Do you have a real proposal, or is this a "it'd be nice if our government helped some companies build and run an IM infrastructure for very low cost for us"?
OwnCloud is jelly because DropBox just got that money.
I can die happy now. What an accomplishment of the human race.
Well, I'm running Windows 8 which repeats the taskbar on all monitors.
Wow, as soon as I read that article about this I KNEW it was going to explode. Even at that low rate of exchange. Great idea, but stay away from the shady ones.
Author here: I write for mostly my own thinking and hadn't actually put something out in a week so wanted to get it out the door. Sorry to the extent it was unclear.

I think psychologically you are correct in that most people would probably be less upset with income disparity if the economy was doing better overall. We are in a long, slow recovery.

I do disagree with your main premise. I think in the technology economy we would see increasing income disparity over time. My only real solution to this problem is basic income.
Different places in the world should have different poverty lines related to the purchasing power needed to acquire at least the basic living needs: food, shelter, and clothing. (and healthcare)

Comparing the numerical figure of the poverty line around to world is nonsensical.
Lightning bolts love wind turbines a little too much
Cached: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

TL;dr

Ultimately, the lessons I took away from my own experience are these:

If you haven’t already created an SPF record for your domain, do so.
If your mail server allows its users to forward mail off-site, then implement SRS remailing on it ASAP.

Note to author: it's better to put the conclusion at the beginning instead of burying it 1000 words down. What you learned is more important than how you learned it, even though the latter ultimately validates the former.
Question for PG: Do the partners commit to fund companies in secret immediately on demo day or do they now make decisions based on how well external funding goes? In some ways, it sort of seems we have the same problem, but now the partners are the ones to take advantage of 'signals'.
But this is so general that lots of business would fit.

A bitcoin pool ambiguously, perhaps, transfers value too.

Why are they so non-neutral about this, and does it help us that they are?
Ask HN: any developers making apps for wearables?
In particular, motion tracking wearables like wrist bands and watches. Examples are FitBit, Jawbone, Pebble, Kiwi, etc.

I want to know what your experiences have been so far, but I'm also very interested in why you might have not started developing on wearables. E.g. is it because there's too much fragmentation and you don't want to make an app for one device that's going to fail, and then try rewriting for another device that could fail, etc? Do the devices and API platforms currently not provide enough to do useful things with? Is there something you wish existed for these wearables that currently doesn't?

Cheers
"We think LaTeX is still the best programming language to tell a computer how to place text on a page."

No. The output might be beautiful, but the language is most certainly not. Awful to debug.

I consider a more modern language that compiles to LaTeX and leverage its rendering engine for paper docs (while giving you sufficient control over the output) and also gives you a nice web output more pragmatic and a nicer way to approach the problem.
Microsoft's InfoPath comes to the end of the line
I'm not all that impressed with graphs over several decades of certain government-published statistical indices, because they have a nasty habit of redefining them, and those fractures are almost never indicated on the charts.

So when you show me the Gini coefficient over time, the first thing I wonder is if either the methods of calculating it or the methods of collecting the data have changed during that time.

Anecdotally, it is readily apparent to me that inequality is increasing, and not just in wealth or income. It is also increasing with respect to health care, legal processes, job satisfaction, consumer confidence, and trust in institutions.

It feels a lot like the guy trying to figure out what is stuck to the seat of his pants in the instant before the bartender gives him the bum's rush out the door. And the bartender himself doesn't realize that the guy is the only one left in the bar that actually intends to pay for his drinks. So really, just cruel and sad all the way around--America since 1970.

The only people who now have the ability to change the system see absolutely no benefit to themselves in doing so.
I do think income inequality is an issue. In part because people above a certain threshold have no pain when they get towed, get a traffic citation or go to the doctor. The people below suffer greatly and enter economic ruin even if they get a parking ticket. Hell, skipping jury duty isn't even an issue, $1000 fine is nothing for some.

On the other hand people aren't really starving, and I don't see things like the Haymarket Affair yet. Maybe it won't be an issue this time around because factory farming has fed the world for cheap enough that people don't starve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair
> Asking those who were able to extract the most wealth to help the most in paying to protect this shared system, and help those who were exploited by it

That is already what happens. e.g. the top 10% by income already contribute >70% of the total federal income tax revenue.
Thank you for reminding me that it's necessary to use my own judgment when deciding which approach makes the most sense to me.
> Everyone has an old computer with more storage space than you can ever afford from Dropbox.

Weird definition of everyone, even in the HN reading crowd. Lot's of twenty-somethings have moved several times in a short amount of time, and tend to ditch the cruft. I know I did.
Leo v2: ephemeral group photo chat w/ texts that last 24h
"Calling progressive tax systems institutionalized theft is incredibly clever"

Or would be if it were original.