skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
For the average user, git and mercurial have similar commands, a lot of the time you could just replace `git` with `hg` and it works.

I also don't believe that mercurial has a 'cleaner UI', especially when it comes to merge.

For advanced users, git has a lot more to offer by default, you need to install a boatload of extensions on hg to achieve the same functionality.
I think this only applies to mod-made self-posts.
>>>> He is, in my opinion, the foremost expert on internet anonymity (or at least he's on 4chan a lot).

Interesting comment. The man who's the foremost expert on anonymity is a well know "celeb" on 4Chan. Sorry, your comment just struck me as ironic.
I look forward to reading it, even though you will hate writing it.
I gave less than the average here so went for a second round this time with your HN pseudo mentioned.
Because they can get away with it in the short term. Millions of dollars is more than a "few bucks" but it's driving the site down hill and possibly contributing to their eventual collapse. In any case you claimed it works out for the users quite well, which it obviously does not.
I am an atheist. Forgive me if I'm excessively generous, I'm trying to dissuade people from being jerks, not push my world view.
What does tar mean? ls? df? gunzip (something with guns?)?

Every language old enough will assemble some naming problems. If you look at newer languages, even there naming is still the old problem. Clojure: What does fnext do different than nnext? Can you guess what rseq does?

With larger software systems, you'll see that you will need to look up documentation quite often. On my old Lisp Machine there are 60000+ symbols naming tens of thousands functions. So naming becomes important. When Lisp was small, there were functions which print something, then variations were added and people tried to keep the names short. After a while there were so many functions and memory was larger. People started to use longer names. CALL-WITH-CURRENT-CONTINUATION (in Scheme) or SET-DISPATCH-MACRO-CHARACTER were the results. ;-) Now we got nice descriptive names, but we need completion during input.

There is no way other than to learn a certain base vocabulary. Since the printer is essential in Lisp, you'll need to learn functions like princ or print to read older code. In your own code you can just use WRITE, which is a general interface into the printer.

Fortunately enough, the documentation of these functions is just a keypress away in any good Lisp implementation.
Tesla Model S Owner Blames New Car Smell For Deadly Accident With Bicyclist
doh-je
There are some individuals that SHOULD have negative things said about them. I'm not trying to be controversial but why do we insist that everyone deserves sugary platitudes? It would be interesting to tally positive, neutral and negative comment counts for each person mentioned.
Google had to be good because there was competition in the search space. Facebook doesn't have to be good because they're the only viable social network.
You're either working for the wrong boss, or the wrong company then.
UYI – UI Interaction Library
The thing to realize about Common Lisp is that it's not built to accommodate new users in the manner that Scheme was. Common Lisp is entirely intended to be a language for working professional programmers. Implicit in its specification is the idea that any feature that a programmer does not like will be changed, Renaming functions is largely a trivial exercise.
Pay for quality products.
Facebook Changed How The News Feed Works – And Upworthy Suddenly Shrank In Half
Beta 4 has been very buggy in my experience (yesterday) with it. S3 backup crashed the helper and then continued to crash the helper service. Tried a DreamObjects backup (hooray) but that also just crashed the helper service over and over again. That's just my experience so far.
So you shouldn't need to master all of them, but you should definitely be familiar with their patterns.

I certainly agree with that. I'd expect anyone claiming significant front-end development skills to at least be familiar with ideas like MVC and data binding these days. I just wouldn't much care which specific tools they used to implement those things, and I wouldn't hold it against them if they'd considered their options and then chosen different designs and/or tools instead.
Sarcasm can also be an art form.
Not sure if you replied to the wrong comment by accident, but the person you replied to is agreeing with you, while making a general statement about how they wish more people checked the code they're running between the download and run steps.
>>>> Personally, I am less likely to comment if my real name (coupled with a real-life social profile) is attached to the comment.

This is the very reason I have no social media accounts that use my real name. And many people on my FB feed, have no idea what my Twitter handle is and vice versa.

It's a great feeling to have a completely unencumbered sounding board where you can spew whatever you want (within reason of course) and your friends, co-workers, current or future company employing you will never know.

Recruiters and companies always ask for my social media user names and I never tell them. It's nice to know with great certainty they won't ever find them unless I give them up willing.
Do you believe it's possible for Facebook to improperly curate content?
All words are like that. They use the sound from another language, not the meaning.

Go see some of the examples in my reply to him. I could type for hours showing you examples. Just because it's technical doesn't make it special.

Do you call it bokeh or do you try to explain it in English? What about schwa? It has a meaning in its original language after all. But instead you just use the sound from that language. (And I deliberately picked obscure examples.)
Why should we throw away old code?

In your own code, you can use FIRST and REST for lists.

But if you want to program you need to deal with that. Stuff was there before you and has a history. Changing things has a benefit, but also a cost. For a small community like Lisp, constantly rewriting code because some names change is not such a good idea.

Given that we can remember thousands of words in natural languages, a few hundred core words of a programming language is not such a huge hurdle.
Could someone he trusts and someone capable of setting up a cryptocurrency account do so for him? I imagine a community like Dogecoin would help any way that they can.
When are these comments going to stop? Everyone lazy enough is going to keep suggesting "curl install" and everyone lazy enough is going to keep using it, and everyone that has something worth protecting and cares enough is either not going to use it or is going to audit it anyway, and comments like this aren't going to move anyone between those camps.

If you all think "curl install" is so evil then build something secure to replace it. It's got to be as easy from a "package maintainer" as well as a user's perspective, and you have to figure out some way to validate security. But until then, warning people that they should read code they execute is a waste of bandwidth.
Unprincipled Component Analysis
Algolia (YC W14) How we made our onboarding frictionless
> they need anonymity for mean things and things they are embarrassed about

In my mind, it's the "embarrassed about" point that makes such an app interesting.

Facebook, twitter, etc, is all cleaned up - the things you aren't exactly proud of, the dark moments, etc, are removed.

Which leads to a whole lot feeling like everyone on Facebook is doing better than you. It's nice to see the darker side of people, sometimes.
Who's to say monkeys are not also socialized by gender?
Well that's not a great support response -- I'm sorry about that.

Arq 3 is good about this when backing up to S3, but not to Glacier. It uses the most recent backup record as its starting point and backs up new/changed files. (When backing up to S3, it gets an object list from S3 so it knows what's there.)

But if the most recent backup record of your Library/Mail folder has the files in it, then it shouldn't re-upload everything. Arq backs up in 2 steps. First, it estimates the amount to be uploaded by comparing the timestamps and other metadata of files on disk to the most recent backup. Then it does the backup. For each file with a different timestamp, it calculates a checksum of the file's contents. If the contents are the same, it doesn't re-upload.

Was it really re-uploading everything?
Just because it is called insurance doesn't mean it actually is. The health care industry is pay by activity/procedure/items consumed, and everyone has a vested interest in others not knowing what is paid while (usually) increasing activity. In general everyone is spending someone else's money.

"insurance" doesn't cover catastrophic stuff (there is some) but also covers everyday things like checkups. (The analogy is car insurance covering oil changes and tire rotations.) You'll pay a deductible (eg $30), the insurance company will pay the health provider, you'll get half a rain forest full of numbers in the mail, none of which reflect who actually paid what to whom. (There are extra negotiated charges and discounts between various parties.) The health care providers try to make their numbers as large as possible.

"Insurance" companies won't make money if they pay out, so they have all sorts of limits. For example there may be annual or lifetime limits which are trivial to hit in cases like this.

The various estimates are that around 70% of bankruptcies are due to medical bills and that 75% of those are people who had insurance. Example story http://www.cnbc.com/id/100840148

This was my experience just trying to get some blood tests http://www.rogerbinns.com/blog/gplus/the-first-rule-of-the-a...
I think another factor is that while the primitives for modifying readtables made it into the standard, an interface for using them in a way that limits the changes to the code you own (and not, say, additional libraries you load) is something that the users had to come up with.

It's not a lot of code or too complex to do that, but it's not obvious either and some people got it wrong or do it differently and I think that made reader modifications less common than they otherwise might have been.

I haven't looked too closely at the details but some of cl21's changes look like they might try to address this issue.
‘CoinThief’ Mac Malware Steals Bitcoins From Your Wallet
I've always thought the best way for Snapchat to monetize would be to offer you one more glance at a photo if you watch an ad first. They could even make it opt-in on the photo-sharer's side. Give them a small percentage of the revenue generated by that advertisement to encourage opting-in, and also spur continued use of the service.
I second this. I will definitely donate some of my dogecoins for this cause.

Can anyone confirm that this is his twitter? https://twitter.com/LynchRichard

We can send Dogecoins via Twitter.
_Ancestor's Tale_ is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it.
> any more than you see English people using French nouns to describe English objects

Oh really? I suppose people don't eat pastries or croissants? They don't send resumes?

That was a really silly thing to say considering just how many French words there are in English.
Sorry! I've got a fix, but I'm doing more testing before I ship it. (I wasn't expecting this to be on Hacker News today)

I'll ship it hopefully tomorrow.
The problem with demanding a login / email address up front is that it has value and is implicit permission to spam away. This is before someone has the opportunity to see if the app/site is what they wanted in the first place. It is a terrible way to start a relationship.
New study shows click chemistry could provide total DNA synthesis
Revised a book using only a Windows8.1 Tablet + Stylus
I was wondering why I missed the facebook takeover..
I feel like that is a false choice. The only options are to either not do anything and be 'butthurt' or use facebook?

What about relationships with people?
What about carrier pigeons?
What about personal servants?

All of those things are able to do what you're complaining about, they just take slightly more effort.

I guess it's to each his own - is your support of a terrible, invasive company more important than your convenience? That's up to you.
Silly question: What the hell is SnapChat? I feel like Cave Man living under rocks. I looked up SnapChat's website and there is hardly any info or encouragement why I should use this thing. It totally smells like Instagram which also I never used and know no one who uses it to date. I guess I'm just not cool.
My oldest son appeared "addicted" to video games at one time. When he got enough out of it, his behavior changed. So that may not be hopeless.

As a divorcee who spent all my time sitting next to a man who was playing games, watching tv, etc and ignoring me, I don't really recommend you play games as a cheap assed substitute for actual attention from him. It accomplished absolutely nothing in my marriage. If he won't pay attention to you at all, sitting next to him while he ignores you isn't some kind of improvement.

Sorry you are dealing with this.
The Marshall Project
One can be built in months if it has the right model.
Does anyone else suspect there is a coordinated smear campaign against Facebook right now? The number of posts about the death of Facebook seems to be growing faster than I can read them.
As an electrical engineer who briefly flirted with computer engineering, I had 4 semesters of continuous math and 1 semester of discrete math[1]. I also had classes like linear systems and electromagnetics where I had to actually use continuous math heavily.

While I do not think continuous math is particularly useful for general software development, I think it is very valuable for specific problem domains. I have found my Calculus/DiffEq foundation to be very valuable for my work with radar signal processing and NLP code, more so in the former because it was basically translating electrical engineering algorithms, formulas, and concepts into C. It is also important for any type of development that makes heavy use of geometry.

As a side note, I saw some of the bias you describe out of the more "pure" EEs I worked with when I first started. There was a strong bias against software engineers, particularly those who went the CS route, because they didn't understand the math and physics behind the hardware. Admittedly, some were clueless and probably should not have been writing software for multi-million dollar hardware[2]. Most were competent, though, and able to pick up the basics they needed to know when tutored for a bit.

[1] Which was actually titled "Discrete Mathematics", and was just covered basic set theory, combinatorics, and linear algebra.
[2] Like the one who added a reset routine that blindly opened power contacts on the UUT without verifying that the power supplies were off first. Fortunately, that was caught before they actually opened with hundreds of amps going through the bus.
In USA it's still much better. In many countries including India for example, people pay taxes for their whole life but if they lack money in the end, there's no health/food/shelter security - you are basically on your own. Legislative Bills are there, but they are just that - dormant bills. Nothing exists in reality.
That gives me a measure of confidence. Thanks!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7211514
I've long wanted a shell with logical separation of each command/output pair.
It looks like a Novocure TTF System. A fairly brilliant piece of technology that unfortunately is only useful in patients with glioblastomas that are past the point of surgery or chemotherapy.

Good video: http://www.novottftherapy.com/patients-about.php?ID=3

It applies an alternating electrical field to the brain to prevent cellular replication. It must be worn for 18 hours/day for several months to see 'better' outcomes. I scare-quoted 'better' since the therapy improves a 0% survival rate at 36-months to a 10% survival rate, which is obviously an improvement, but just highlights how awful glios are.

Paper which led to FDA approval: http://www.virtualtrials.com/pdf/Stupp_NovoTTF.pdf
I think he's got the same thing going for him that Andy Kaufman had. No one famous wants to look like they don't get it, or look dumb, so they play along.

Something, something, emperor's new clothes.
There are lot of different tools, alternatives you could use, here are preferred ones by me:

MiddleMan as a static site generator, I also use Foundation by default or can use Bootstrap if someone prefers it. Slim templating engine as it is very easy to read.

ConceptBoard or InvisionApp are good for iterating over feedback.

Trello or any other of similar tools can help you allow visibility what is happening.

It is very important to do things at the right time. First develop wire that would capture requirements, original idea. Then design interface based on wires, and model data (very important step). This is when you can start writing tests, not before. Then coding rest of the interface.

BTW, this also works for developing API and works really well.
What is to stop click farms from evolving into selling engagement as well as likes?
Hey startups: Here's one easy way to avoid getting hacked
This is so true. And not even amusing, it is like we can't come up with anything new, we even go backwards.
ASCII doesn't have box drawing characters. ASCII is codepoints 0-127.
Microsoft have been submitting kernel patches for years now, you know.
One jvm, one way to monitor it, one way to deploy it, one way to upgrade it, one way to recover it.

These are some of the things about code that stays inside the jvm bounding box that I personally find valuable. It's one of the ways we keep our operational burden down.

It's a high price, but the community has surprisingly deep solutions.
"The most glaring deficiency is the limited authority of the President and the absence of an official corresponding to the Chief Operating Officer of a private corporation. ... The President should also be authorized to control the finances of the states, alter their boundaries, appoint their principal officials, and veto their laws."

Brilliant. What could possibly go wrong with a stronger Executive Branch?
I wonder how it would score the NSA slides.
"a coordinated smear campaign" ? no but once something or person gets to successful then writing about success gets boring, people like to see things fall. If writers see a trend, be it real or not, then they jump on it. News is a business not always a pursuit of what is accurate.
The Kiva Fairytale
Yeah...I won't touch it with a facebook login.
No, $3-$5 last time I got one.
Yes, we know what "proprietary software" means. We're looking for clarification on how using a proprietary tool that allows students to better share source code and collaborate with each other and the society at large counts as "anti-educational".
Well, proprietary textbooks about ancient math is kind of silly.

And Blackboard is anti-educational. Have you ever tried to use it?
Ask HN: Btrfs or ZFS on Linux in production?
My understanding is that btrfs is the likely successor to ext4, but that zfs on linux is further along and more featureful.

Are there any data integrity, performance, or other issues to beware of?
But for a Java developer looking to make use of ZeroMQ, that comparison wouldn't make sense as they already are taking on the burden of the JVM.
'Godfather of multiculturalism' Stuart Hall dies aged 82
I don't know Rich but anyone who makes as much of a commitment to the web as he has deserves a lot of respect. I donated and am looking forward to see how the HN community helps out in a few weeks.
Chrome Incognito Tracking
WhatsApp, Kik, Line, etc.
Better idea: allow users to pay to "keep" the snaps for a bit more longer.
That sucks in regards to India, but not an excuse for our politicians not to get their shit together.
To me, "laid off" means it was structural, whereas "fired" implies that the specific individual was deliberately gotten rid of. Also, I think "fired" carries a connotation of blame. You don't get laid off for calling your boss an asshole, you get fired.
I've often wondered if there is a terminal which supported the "jump to previous input" functionality described in the stackexchange question but I've never seen anything better than what is mentioned in the answers. I've heard Plan 9's Rio supported something like this but searching around, I can't see any mention of it.
This is a serious question. I find it hard to read.

But thanks for the downvotes anyway.
It judges the reading age is too old and there is too much text and bullet points :)
Don't really know anything about the guy, but I donated too.
I got to 12 and have to get some work done :-P
Large DDoS hitting CloudFlare
Cloudflare confirms that a big DDoS is going on right now: https://twitter.com/CloudFlareSys

There are a lot of people out there talking about the DDoS as well, some of them are talking about 400+ Gbps:
https://twitter.com/search?q=ddos
Yes, it took many years, and there are good technical reasons. Other communities rewrite everything in their language for less technically good reasons.

It divides all the code into JVM, Posix and Windows (and a few other things) that don't share ideas much; some of the better ideas get ported in one direction or the other, many do not.
This is just sensationalism piled on top of the original discussion (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7211514)
Do you have a direct link? I couldn’t found it.

But there is a strange linked press note about the male-typical digit ratios: http://www.livescience.com/18484-finger-length-masculine-fac...

> The researchers studied a group of 17 boys ages 4 to 11 and measured their finger lengths, and took images of their faces. They digitized these images by marking 70 measurement points to compare the face shapes. Analyzing the data on the computer, the researchers were able to see what parts of the face could be linked to digit ratio, and how strongly they were correlated.

It’s a small sample number, too many fuzzy criteria and it looks like an easy set of measurements to cherrypick or find spurious correlations and "explanations".
oh ok, too bad
RubyConf AU '14 – Interview with Keynote Speaker Cameron Barrie
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/
The brain is remarkably plastic, and can compensate for all sorts of damage ... right up until the point that it can’t. This is a tautology, but the point is that there usually aren’t any symptoms until these are fairly far developed, which is a big contributor to the fairly terrible prognoses, and the fact that deterioration after the first noticeable symptom is rapid. The effect is magnified in the young and those otherwise in good health, as they have more effective reserve.
Mostly GCC based, some now clang based, the rest MS.
Well, if he could identify these accounts as illegitimate, surely Facebook could automatically do the same with their vast amount of data. However, they really have no incentive to do so. The average advertiser just wants to see a higher like count, and they're not paying as much attention as they should to actual conversions. If Facebook can serve 5x as many likes, with the help of illegitimate users, and no one is complaining about low conversions, they're not going to stop. Why chase down the click farms, if they're generating 80% of your revenue for free?
I get that part of GitHub's pitch for longevity is the social aspect, but this feature confuses me. 90% of the time I get to a new repo, I'm there because it showed up in my feed when one of the people I follow starred it, or because I saw it on HN. If it looks sweet, I pass on the love by starring it, which then makes it show up in the feeds of folks who follow me.

I'm likely not the Typical GitHub User, but "who do I know that likes this repo", is a question I can't remember ever asking myself.

As an Atypical GitHub User, I ask the rest of you: what benefit should I be deriving from this page, that I'm currently missing out on?