skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The article you quote is out of date. Many of the countries mentioned, like Germany and Austria, are self-aggrandizingly wasting time and tax money pumping life into <500g babies regardless of whether the law considers these living children or not. After all it's the doctor who makes the call, not a lawyer.

You can verify this by looking at the Tiniest Babies Registry [1], which was also mentioned in the article (those 52 surviving babies -- but the toll today is already at 155). The numbers are not so skewed towards the US as they were in 2008. In recent years, about half of these tiny babies were born in Europe, Japan or South Korea.

[1] http://webapps1.healthcare.uiowa.edu/tiniestbabies/
No, I'm very pro-choice. But a 1 lb baby is still a baby. If we were talking about an actual clump of cells, I'd have agreed with you.
In professional audio (and even amateur radio) one always puts speakers rated for 1.5x the nominal output of the amp. At least. This makes sure that whatever the input in the amp, the speakers are safe.

If Dell doesn't build audio properly, how can they blame the users? They really have some gut...
I wrote an iOS SDK for the Instagram API
Most metal released these days is digitally clipped. Even classic old 80s "remastered" records are digitally clipping all over the place. The loudness wars has ruined most metal through remasters.
This is simply brilliant.

I always call the United States a fascist dictatatorship, but it leaves a bitter taste, since I know that's not entirely true.

There are subtle elements I'm not accounting for.

A "Managed Democracy" is perfect. It accounts for that the corporations took over the government instead of the other way around. It accounts for that protests and free speech are "allowed." It accounts for why people are at the same time militantly patriotic but apathetic at the polls. It accounts for propaganda being distributed rather than centralised.

This guy Wolin has put a lot of thought into this.
4 Steps Towards Total Life Transformation
"Why can we not look at hacking religion"

I'm in the camp of people that considers religion a hack already - a psychological manipulation of emotions and thoughts to bring about a particular state of being and behaviour. In many cases it's a beneficial symbiosis - and in others a spiritually parasitical one - between the 'host' religion and the 'client' believer.

So what does it mean to 'hack' region? To further twist it to your own purposes? That's been happening for millennia - large organisations have been honing their practises, others are constantly 'disrupting' it with alternatives.
Please don't!

Learn Delphi/Object Pascal, Ada, Modula-2, Rust and discover control over memory managerment doesn't require throwing safety out of the window. Performance can be fine-tuned to the 1% hotspots that really require playing dirty tricks.

That there are modular systems programming languages with compile times times that leave C to shame.

Then cry as you are forced to adopt C to be understood by the rest of the world.
401k benefit is dropping, that's what this story was about before the baby gossip blogging buried the point.
Cheap shit. Seriously, cheap shit. There are several ways to solve this, all of which boil down to "use more chips" or "use better speakers", thus increasing the price of already incredibly shitty speakers. Source: I'm involved in designing consumer electronic products and the only corners that don't get cut are those that, if cut, result in certifications not being granted and therefore in products you're unable to sell. Everyone, Apple included, does it.

The easiest way to solve this is use stronger materials for the speaker construction. This does, yes, affect the quality of the sound, which is already somewhere between catastrophic and abysmal on a laptop. The frequency response is likely to be worse, on a set of speakers that already has a frequency response that makes them quite useless for music.

You can also do it in electronics, as measuring the power delivered to speakers is not exactly rocket science. The response time wouldn't be great, but it's continuously shredding the speakers with square signals that damages them, not a couple of pulses every once in a while. You can also detect heavy slopes. You can even detect heavy slopes in software.

But no, seriously, this is a problem that can be solved. The mere fact that a lot of manufacturers manage to come up with speakers that don't break should be a testimony to this. I have (granted, desktop) speakers that have gone through a decade of heavy metal, grindcore and fucking SIDs and MODs, on bad ALSA drivers that I could barely get to work for years. They're fine. This is just Dell selling cheap shit.
Couldn't he codec chip do it by averaging the amplitude? I'm not sure if they are more than a DAY though or whether they have a microcontroller and firmware.
Here's a better alternative with almost identical physics to the original game: http://maxmcd.com/fb
It is impossible to do a cost-benefit analysis on something like that. It is worth any amount of money if the child can be saved. I'd go to the ends of the earth for my children.

Who knows what these children could end up being or doing as adults? Who knows what value they could end up bringing the world? What they might invent? What health issues they could solve? What priceless works of art they may create?
>I'm an undergraduate studying computer science

andddd that's as far as I made it
McCarthyism didn't completely vanish after the 1950s. Affiliation with communist organizations is still incompatible with naturalization:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideological_restrictions_on_na...
I disagree with you. The new code is more practical than the old code, and as standards-conforming as the old code was. There's already a precedent for using numbers after __unused to avoid conflict, and so the new code is more consistent with the old code.

However, I agree that a patch proposing a more properly portable name would be better and should be encouraged. If Drepper were a little less hostile than his usual self, he would have been more amenable to a good cooperative solution like the __glibc_ solution.
Would that be the same Lenovo range that gets regularly recommended for use with Linux because, unlike many others, it works well with Linux? If so that rather undermines its relevance here.
The thing that makes C a good candidate is that it's a very very small language. Yes there are plenty of strange quirks that the experts need to deal with but you can come up with an elegant and compact implementation of every standard data structure.

High level languages tend to favor one data structure over another. Starting with those languages can give students the "hammer syndrome" w.r.t. that structure.
Perhaps you should choose a single category (like Gmail) of your Google content, download that, then go back and download another single category until you have it all.
The FBI is the modern day Gestapo, a bunch of poorly trained policemen with the right ideology turned secret agency.
C is about as close to teaching the mechanics of the computer as you can get while staying portable. I've found that my ISA knowledge "just works" on any architecture though, so I would feel okay teaching something like C-- or LLVM IR along with an arbitrary ISA to allow the mind to have a lowest-common denominator. CS is to CE as Chemistry is to Physics. Chemistry lets you do a lot with less, but Physics is where you understand a lot and have the capability to do things that can't be introspected using only a knowledge of Chemistry. The guts of CS are a great place to expand after a certain point.
"My spouses' employer covers million-dollar expenses over 401k benefits, so the CEO is an asshole."
I'm quite glad you submitted it; thanks.

Unfortunate that such an online article could only have been written by a woman, as the likelihood of being on the receiving end of outrage is too high had it come from a man.
Are you going to put that up on Github?
Sometimes it's not about what you say but about what people infer about what you think from what they've heard.
There's no comparison. I don't think it's possible to understand parenting without actually being a parent. I certainly wasn't able to understand it before, and I thought more as you do now.
>Parents are warned to keep kids off the computer

This point cannot be overstated. I'd never have been a hacker without vast quantities of unsupervised, unfiltered internet time around age 9-12.

The largest enabling step for me was when I got my own laptop which I was free to break (software-wise) and free to take into my room so I could focus away from the distracting noises of the kitchen/living room.

Much of even the HN community would consider this irresponsible parenting. Probably even my parents wouldn't have let a daughter talk to strangers on IRC about something they don't understand. But how else is someone with nontechnical parents supposed to get started?

It's sooo much different when it's something you choose to do with your free time, rather than something half-assedly forced on you by parents or school curriculum. Especially to a kid.
Their Rxjava looks interesting. Too bad us Ubuntu Desktop Linux users with paid Netflix accounts can't watch our movies in Google Chrome yet Crackle movies play just fine. MGo movies too. Odd.
ShowHN: Lightweight self-hosted disqus alternative.
I have TWC and a IPv6 tunnel from he.net. The HE tunnels are fast! Due to differences in HE/TWC peering agreements I often find that connecting to a site via IPv6 is much faster than using IPv4. I have to imagine that the NYC tunnel endpoint is fairly close to you (network wise, not geographically.) Try ping/tracerouting to tserv1.nyc4.he.net
Very much on board with this post's perspective.

I've been very appreciative of the setup we have at my office, with our development machines being remotely accessible via RDP (through a company VPN). RDP isn't perfect, and it's not something I'd like to do full time, but definitely is good enough in a jam.

This amounts to me only needing my Kindle and phone for my commute.
Because some idiot in Hollywood declared Fanny Packs to be "out of style", now people are forced to step it up to something larger, so then people say, well I may as well fill up this big bag with junk if I'm being forced to carry it.

Solution: Let's kill that douchenozzle who declared fanny packs were bad, and go back to fanny packs. I certainly did. I never STOPPED fannypacking... because I'm not a spineless douchebag like the rest of you are who are too afraid to wear a fannypack.
My home computer is my work computer, and vice versa. I work from home several days per week, but I'm out consulting for the rest, so my laptop is usually always with me. I've thought about taking just an iPad but I like having the ability to catch up on some iOS programming during quiet periods.

The biggest reduction in what I travel around with has been to leave old PSUs at places I visit regularly to save me carrying them with me.
If I ran a business that turned over $1.05B, and you and I had some form of relationship be that employment or friendship, of course I would. If I had any reasonable number of resources I would prioritise saving lives over building a collection of sports cars or properties. Especially so if I ran a hospital.

Of course this perspective is easy to take from the UK where we don't have to face tough financial decisions over healthcare.
iOS user complains that Apple doesn't allow third parties to make better iOS apps, and blames the third party.

Back inside the fence with you!
Photoshop Script, Drew Wilson, Pattern Libraries, 80s Typography..
I still find Badland much more enjoyable and interesting.

I would really like to see the user engagement metrics for Flappy Bird and Badland, compared to install base.
According to legend, this was done at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Hurricane Electric tunnel broker: https://tunnelbroker.net/
While not quite the same as having FTP access Ghost do offer hosted blogs from only $5 per month. Anyone that can set up a WordPress.com blog should find Ghost just as easy.
I'm not sure I understand what the definition of "hacker" is in this article:

> Young women don't magically become technologists at 22.
> Neither do young men. Hackers are born in childhood,
> because that's when the addiction to solving the
> puzzle or building something kicks in to those who've
> experienced that "victory!" moment like I had when I
> imposed my will on a couple electronic primates.

It seems to imply that people who simply make their living programming computers, and who came to programming when they were older, aren't "hackers". Am I missing something?

(Edit: Given that programming careers can be quite lucrative, and that careers in general are now quite long, it makes economic sense that people would want to join in later in their lives. Short of building a time machine to correct past parenting, must these people be permanently excluded from the industry?)
> Couldn't he codec chip do it by averaging the amplitude?

Yes in principle, but it would be rather complicated -- it would need to have its own microprocessor just to save the speaker. D/A ICs with included amplifiers are already pretty complex. Also, if a user was listening to music that had an occasional high level, the special limiter might kick in and spoil the sound of the audio for a transient that wouldn't actually jeopardize the speakers.
Remember: HN comments != Accurate reflection of the OA's claims.
One Silicon Valley, Under Libertarian Hero Senator Rand Paul
Trademark issues might be a problem, though.
I'm torn. I think she makes some really good points -- particularly about discouraging young girls and the futility of shoving adult humans into foreign social situations -- but I also think she might be rather narrowly defining the personality type of a "hacker", and dismissing behaviors that she doesn't find valuable (in her words: "ephemera -- popularity, beauty and fitting in").

Maybe it's possible that there are plenty of people out there who care about "ephemera", and yet are also capable of programming a computer or soldering things together? I think it's possible. And when I read stuff like this:

"Sometimes I want to shout 'you're not a programmer, what are you doing here?!'"

it makes me think: this might be a problem. Is it harder to be a hacker if you also have an interest in social media and graphic design and popularity and friendships? Are we defining "hacker" to include only people with bad social skills and no interest outside of technology? I hope not.
If the child lives to 80, she only needs to contribute an additional $12,500 worth of value to civilization per year for this to make economic sense.

Another way to look at this: the government has various estimates for the value of a human life. It averages about $7MM. The "extraordinary" expense of this child actually only requires a 14% increase in value over the average citizen to make sense.

Most importantly though, we must recognize that the actual cost is actually just the cost of risk spread across society, so instead of one person taking the brunt of this cost, we as a society take it together. As a whole, it is negligible on all of us, and it's a risk that any of us can fall into. The value of having a system that supports each other is invaluable. Way more valuable than a measly $1MM. We have strength in numbers and we all benefit when a society supports each other. If we ostracize the statistical outliers in this support system, then the support system itself (the one which we all benefit from) falls apart.

In short, more important than the economic argument (which I argue, still makes sense to spend $1MM on a baby), is the argument that the value to society from supporting each other results in a negligible cost for individuals and a near-priceless benefit to everyone within that society. It's exceptionally difficult to put a price tag on that, and it's orders of magnitude higher than $1MM.
Funny how the website authors failed to do research on voting systems _before_ writing the website.
PROOF the Internet is Now Being Censored – Here’s How
No, he was cutting benefits in general and used healthcare expenses as a rationale for it.

This may be a good thing for the company's bottom line, but the optics are horrible. Even if the policy was sound (and I'm not sure it is), the delivery ruined it. It will be hard to say how he can be an effective leader at this point.
> The FBI has 1/6th of the American population in its database.

And all the foreign tourists who crossed its border at least once.
Not all programmers are hackers. Not all hackers are programmers.

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html
> ...and untold millions of lines of changes to the Linux kernel are kept secret ...

Are you serious? The entire Linux kernel is open-source and public (and it is available here: https://www.kernel.org/). Most programs delivered along with the kernel are also open-source. Many Linux distributors of large assemblages of code refuse to include anything that isn't open-source.
Everybody, get your popcorn: https://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte/2014/02/msg00344.html
You are an ignorant, arrogant idiot, and a callous asshole.

BTW, we already knew you didn't have kids. We knew that both from your beliefs, and moreso from the the hurtful language you chose to use.

We all already knew you were childless. And single. And white. And male. And a programmer. And an asshole.

Now do the world a favor, and shut up. Forever.
This feels highly prescriptive.
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Yellow Media Captures Digital Market after Going through Debt Restructuring
> By the people who made the changes but never had to release them, by NDAs that people sign before they work for web companies, etc.

This is complete nonsense. There is no proprietary, closed-source code in the Linux kernel.
Like many transactions, the fact that it enriches the company does not mean that it is not a mutually beneficial transaction.

That said, I'm pretty happy with health care here in Europe, even though it's certainly not perfect.
Less attractive faces carry more information (visually) because they are not as symmetric, have distinguishing blemishes, malformed shapes, or whatever, and therefore trigger more neural pathways than the "average" face does, and therefore makes them easier to recall. Each abnormal aspect of a face triggers a neural pathway to remember that attribute, and the worst faces therefore trigger the most pathways. And each pathway improves the statistical probability of a future recognition (recall).
In some countries, like New Zealand, almost the inverse of this "steamroller" concept is true and you're potentially disadvantaged in this job market if you have focused on developing 'contemporary' software skills. The vast majority of software jobs here are .Net, php and Java, and I haven't seen anything to indicate over the last 10 years that the status quo is shifting.

As much as I love learning new things, and would love a day job working with Clojure/cljs or contemporary js on regular basis, in terms of my career I potentially would have benefitted more from consolidating skills in the aforementioned ecosystems. In the valley these things may be perceived as legacy and completely outmoded, but in the rest of the world that's hardly the case.
Learn C and learn computer science.

Let's get away from subjective "shoulds" and talk about practical stuff. You want to learn things, as much as possible, that (a) are likely to remain useful in 15 years and (b) are going to qualify you for the highest quality of jobs.

C, as a language, passes this test. So do the fundamentals of computer science; they may not bring you quantity in job opportunities, but they'll give you access to quality. Aside from that? Well, it's hard to predict the future. I can't make individual calls. Who would have thought JavaScript would be so popular in 2014? The whole language is a hack. But if you learned it in 2000, you still have a high-demand skill set.

Learning one thing or one small set of things won't do, though. You need to future-proof yourself with a wider knowledge portfolio, and very few jobs will teach a person to do that.

On the other hand, if you learn a lot of useless and parochial crap that won't generalize (i.e. the quirks of your own corporate codebase) you get to a semi-depressed state of "learnout" (you struggle to assimilate new things, because you've filled your brain with unrewarding crap) and that's no good either.
Also, besides apt-pinning, I sometimes just do a build-dep for certain softwares and build them manually, the good old way. ;)

But obviously you try to avoid this in production environments if possible.
Zen and the art of case-sensitivity
I only posted because if no one objects, non-quotations often take on a life of their own.
I see this a lot with functional programmers and linked lists. Yeah you can derive a lot of data structures from a list, but sometimes it's like putting a square peg into a round hole, and a custom data structure would be more efficient.
I suggest you inform yourself about the gestation process. I used to think the same way, but when we had my daughter I was surprised how early everything happened. First, embryonic age is measured from the date of the last missed period. So even people who find out early are already several weeks along. By six weeks, before many women even realize they are pregnant, the embryo has a heartbeat. By 13 weeks, most of the basic functionality is already there. By 24 weeks, or the time the baby is a pound and and a half, the fetus isn't a glob, but a fully recognizable, if fragile, human. Much of the development after that is external: hair, subcutaneous fat, etc. I don't know what you consider a coherent thought, but at our 24 week ultrasound our baby already responded as we tried to push her into a position to check her gender. I don't think infants who are born full term are more intellectually sophisticated in some fundamental way.

Yes, this has implications for abortion. I support abortion rights, but the "its just a ball of cells" is a rationale that isn't convincing after week 6-9. And lines drawn on intellectual abilities don't justify in a principled way why it isn't okay to abort full term babies. Lines based on viability are susceptible to the progress of medical technology. The typical 24-26 week line we use is fairly arbitrary in all three regards.
My biggest problem is that on her twitter account she suggested forming a "non-violent militia" which is an oxymoron. Also, pando seems to consistently write articles that's main purpose is to stir shit. read: linkbait.
I find it is usually possible to convince your employer to give you time to study up - whether this is extra time tacked onto a project because "I need to learn the framework", or actual formal training.

I think not making your employer pay a fair share of your training is like being one of those people who stay 4 hours extra when their project isn't late. People do it through a mixture of anxiety, peer pressure, and possibly not liking their children all that much.

To me, it is your responsibility to learn the tech you want to use in your next job, but it is fair to ask the company to pay for new skills you need for them.

From the companies perspective, it is worth spending the money up front so that you don't mess up a project by not really knowing what you are doing.
signed-up, ETA for the beta?
As a bike commuter, I look at those areas marked in green as places where I can escape to if I get cut off, or where I can let a car overtake me. In fact, the narrowing of roadways due to piled up snow is one of the main dangers of winter cycling.