skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/essay.html?id=98

Hiding $12 million from a federal bankruptcy judge in a sham bankruptcy is a bad idea. But maybe there's more than that even.
Ask HN: What are the crazy/clever ways you use and abuse spreadsheets?
I'm thinking on making my own "spreadsheety" system for software development – http://spreadsheets-on-steroids.tumblr.com

I'd like to hear some interesting unusual ways you use spreadsheets. Especially some use cases for which Excel seems like a total kludge but manipulating visible data instead of symbols still helps.
My understanding is that taking supplements isn't enough; you still need to go out in the sunlight for the vitamin D to activate.
I would really love to use Balanced, I'm really excited for the escrow and the bitcoin features... If only they accepted customers from the Netherlands.
Sorry, but are you young?
Good question. This won't happen. You know why? Whether a test fails, or succeeds, the PHP request is over.

What happened to all those people proud of PHP's principles? "Shared nothing", remember? Why on earth would your tests share resources and state? This is not Java. It's PHP.

Look at PHP's own tests: PHPT files. They're simple files containing code to setup a test, and the result of a test.

How tests run, well, in a nutshell:

foreach (glob('/tests/*' as $test)) exec('php ' . $test);

Then you check the logs. You can have your little pretty log formatted if you want, but it's not that important:

- If there's stuff in the log, your test failed, you go check why.

- If there's no stuff in the log, you're good to go.

It can catch output, exceptions, even fatal errors. Can PHPUnit catch fatal errors? You need to use its "process isolation features", which is just reinventing the wheel by doing... what I just did in that one-liner above. Well I did it! Process isolation! And I didn't need PHPUnit to do it.

A lot of those "modern PHP" libraries are basically a masochistic exercise in copying designs that make sense in Java into PHP where they make no sense.

PHPT style tests wouldn't make sense in Java. And Java style Unit test frameworks make no sense in PHP.

However all those blindly supporting this, can please continue to waste their time, for the benefit of making sure they're buzzword compliant & in sync with groupthink.

"I write my mocks and fixtures in PHPUnit. Oh yeah it has all the latest assertions, like you can assert XML using CSS selectors". I can almost hear the collective taps on my back just saying this out loud.
That's just false. The automated cleanup could be done manually, but the type safety is invaluable. Change how you want to handle ownership of a particular object as part of a refactoring. Now, find everywhere that assumes the previous model - if you use bare pointers, it's a pain in the ass. USE TYPES TO HELP YOU WRITE CORRECT CODE. I do a lot of this in my C code.
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By the way, I posted on the GOLang list a while ago my suggestion for error handling. It's like exception handling, but it's all done through function calls, (no try catch and jumping forward). Example:

ret, e = _some_function()
# e is non-null if an exception/error happened

ret = some_function()
# on error, an exception is raised and caught by the first parent function that used _call() syntax (leading underscore)

So basically, _func() means call func(), and have an extra return value that is an exception or Null if no error. All one has to implement is either a _func or func, not both, the compiler handles the conversion.

So bottom line, you can write real exception safe code and not have to worry about a panic/exception breaking the flow, by using _func() calls, or you can bail by using func() calls, it's your choice.

edit: not sure how this ties in to RAII, if at all. Guess I should get back to the drawing board... :-)
> That way, many of the students will have already read through it once, and will be able to ask more thoughtful questions.

You haven't taught before, have you? :) I'm only slightly kidding. I would love to have students engage with the material before class. I typically assign readings that introduce key concepts, then cover those concepts from a different angle in class to give students an incentive to 1) read before class, and 2) actually show up to class. Based on scores from ridiculously easy pop quizzes about the readings, its seems that a minority of students do even the assigned readings; I doubt many but a select few would review an entire transcript of a class before attending.

But it's something worth trying, at least, so thank you for the suggestion.
A real programmer can build their slide deck in code. Not that this fixes the problem, but I was greatly inspired when I saw Matthew Flatt present with SlideShow [1] for the first time.

[1] http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1166020
I don't think it has to be that hard...I bought a small plane from a Navy pilot (an instructor for F-18s at the time). I asked him how he got the job, and he said he joined on a whim, after being recruited at the mall. The deal he got when he signed up was he'd get to be a pilot as long as he didn't wash out of the program.

(I also spent an evening at the bar w/ a class of his students. I was expecting super gung-ho jock types, but they were actually very laid back and a little bit dorky. Interesting experience for a boy raised by hippies in the Oregon woods.)
Banco do Brasil was placing Facebook share buttons on account pages
Good thing Python isn't a strict language then. That would be Scheme. ;)
if it's not too private, i'd like to hear about some of the details of the debate you had! What was the arguments against GWT? what was the arguments against pure js?
I remember reading that. I love Nintendo, but not only was that line incredibly sad, but it spoke volumes about my experience with Nintendo's software in recent years (outside single player games). It rang too true.
"C++ is meant to be hard."

If you are making your programming harder to zero run-time benefit, you are a poor coder whatever skills you may have.
I thought FCC regs involved a distance component? Like, they don't measure EMI right on the surface of the device.
I thought of it. And sort of started doing it. Means it's a good idea :)

To give the reasoning, I go by this simple rule: Show me your toilets, I tell you who you are. I only eat at places that have really nice toilets, not because I empty my tripes there (I don't do poopoo in public places) but it tells me a whole lot about how the people running the business view their customers.

If they don't give a crap (pun intended) about it, then they probably don't give a crap about me, and it's a no-no. It's not justified. The cost of building nice toilets is really low, considering the effect it has on people, and the fact it's there to last and not a recurring big investment.

If a restaurant/café has nice toilets, I instantly love it and become a customer. I tell everyone around me about it. I insist we go there, even though it has no practical utility for me. It's a screening tool, and I'm ruthless.

Good luck !
Not really. In Java it's a leaky abstraction - it's true that the JVM does a lot of micromanagement for you, but if you are careless you start getting exceptions (best case scenario) or start to get mysterious changes in your data (worst case scenario).

I agree with grandparent that understanding what a pointer is and that almost everything in a Java program is a pointer it's critical for a Java programmer.
This guy has an horrible writing style for somebody who is meant to be releasing ground breaking information.
For those firmly lodged in the center of the US, there's an SR-71A on permanent display at the Strategic Air & Space Museum near Omaha, Nebraska: http://sasmuseum.com
The adjusted EBITDA the author talks about is on page 12 of the S-1 filing[0]. The largest items that take the $11M net loss to positive EBITDA is $7M of depreciation & amortization and $5M of stock based compensation.

[0]http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1115128/0001193125140...
An experiment in passive income
Ask HN: How do I give an engaging presentation on Machine Learning?
Hi folks

I'll be giving a presentation (5-15mins allotted) on Machine Learning to a non-specialist audience, consisting of web developers, business analysts and some project managers within my business unit in the firm. These are all my colleagues.

To be sure, I'm also a non-specialist. I've gone thru the Coursera ML course (not really finished) and have talked to a friend who's implemented a few algorithms at his startup job plus random reading on the internet.

So, how can I make this interesting, fun and engaging?

One idea that I had was to pass around a printout of a basic Naive Bayes classification problem as applied to spam detection and have people solve it.

Any and all other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!
I was able to pick up an indoor transmission from my car up to about 1000 feet away. However after losing the signal the car radio had to be within 400 feet before it locked on again.
Hey, great stuff. I already commented, but I think it really has potential.

Keep it up, man..
Slightly off topic, but when I was in college a few years ago nobody ever expected slides unless the teacher actually used PowerPoint slides.

If a teacher gave boring PowerPoint presentations and then refused to provide them to their students, that did hugely impact the way students viewed them and the class. It feels like resources are being withheld and amplifies the feeling that the class is just jumping through hoops, a game to be gamified, not something to be taken seriously. Sort of like extremely restrictive DRM on music or games--it just feels disrespectful.
I think you could use the Phonegap Build service to avoid running OSX.
This guy must not have been involved with bitcoin for long if any of this rustles his jimmies...
This is a personal favorite -
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/01/spreadsheet-as-music-t...
What's wrong with it? It's a bit colorful for my taste, but the writing seems precise and clear enough.
Holy crap, was this build by a team of 14 year olds?
Does he indicate that he is surprised? He sounds disappointed and angry, and highly motivated to change things, but I caught no implication of surprise.
After all, there definitely has never been scams, blackmail, or war (literal or figurative) related to traditional currencies.
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We repurposed the glass tabletops from IKEA desks and threw them on the wall for white boards ;-)
another example of the bitcoin community slowly learning why financial regulation and oversight exists...
There is More To Targeting Than Just Cookies: Adtile Weather Ads
Show HN: I built an open-source kernel for Texas Instruments calculators
You know that old TI calculator you used in high school, then put in a box and forgot about? Have you ever wished you had an operating system for your calculator with preemptive multitasking, dynamic memory management, a tree filesystem conforming to the FHS, and all the comforts of Unix?

Well, good news: that's totally a thing that exists.

I've been working on my kernel for about three and a half years now and I'm looking for new contributors to help out. It's written entirely in z80 assembly, and it's both challenging and fun to work on.

There's an IRC channel for contributors or people who are just generally interested. You should stop by! It's #knightos on irc.freenode.net.

https://github.com/KnightOS/kernel
I love it when people without deep knowledge of a subject try to learn about it and explain themselves to others.
Different market per se. Not cheaper; its made to help contribute to a sensor fabric, less about your home environment.
Ah, yeah, though I wasn't aware they really did start with the particular gun and work their out. Ok, yeah, they even had the specific gun in mind! The Oldsmobile T9 Cannon, you learn something new everyday!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-39_Airacobra#Circular_Pr...
It seems to me that your example has nothing to do with PowerPoint and everything to do with the fact that it's John. Effing. Carmack. giving the presentation. I'm sure he could give a great presentation using only PowerPoint, and I'm sure there are thousands of people who couldn't give an enjoyable presentation with any technology or medium.
Persona was launched in July 2011. It has gotten a fair amount of publicity in that time. Yet the adoption rates among websites and users are still very, very low.

I just don't think that there's any significant demand for this product, realized or unrealized. People know about it, and people could choose to use it, but doing so would likely not make them sufficiently better off.

Maybe that's not ideal, from an ideological standpoint or when it comes to "openness". But I think it is the, perhaps unfortunate, reality. It really doesn't make sense to endlessly waste resources on a product that has been proven to be unwanted, or at least not valuable enough to use.
[Regarding Rust:]
> I dont think programming with regions is easy and you would want to have a garbage collector anyway.

I agree and I've been wanting to emphasize this too for a while.

I think it would help Rusts adoption a lot if it would get a good garbage collector while it's still young. Otherwise I think a lot of programmers will give up after stumbling around with borrow-checker errors when doing some things that are pretty trivial in other languages.

If we had a garbage collector, we could only worry about regions in the hot spots, that would ease many people's way into the language a lot, IMO.
Where do you think new standards come from?
Balanced will and has.
AirBoss is really neat!

Are you in SF? I'd love to see it in action. Can lend a Moto X for testing if you want to add to the database of phones, too.
[Video] marine protected areas app looking for financial support.
This guy sounds like he lost some bitcoins in mtgox collapse.
> There was a titanium bulkhead between you and the backseat. [...] Literally, a wall.

This is what makes the famous "speed check" story about the SR-71 so effective (http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/favorite-sr-71-story-107912...).

There is no eye contact or body language possible between the pilot and the communicator in the SR-71. What makes that story so perfect is not just the speed aspect, not just the smugness of the other planes, but the interpersonal relationship between the pilot and his crew member. It's just perfect story-telling.
This isn't meant to be derogatory. I scrolled down to the team page and they look really young.
w3c standards are for what gets rendered by Gecko. The browser itself has many things that do not involve w3c at all (search box, bookmarks, sync, etc.)
Yes, I can't see that being abused.
MA lost contact with MH370 at 12:40 AM. Waits until 7:30 AM to say anything
Precisely.

Python has exactly the same problem -- control-structure nesting quickly gets confusing and hard to read beyond a certain (fairly small) size -- but at least with python, you have the option of splitting off stuff into separate functions to limit the amount of nesting and size of blocks.
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I am a freelance Ada developer who is currently working on a contact management system for call centers for a small company. It's the usual array of DB access, webserver and AJAX/websockets. The product is exclusively in Ada though it relies on Freeswitch currently and has recently allowed some Python scripting for calls. The front-end is handled by Ada Web Server which is a rather good Ada HTTP library among other things. Mounds of concurrency and threading in the product back-end.

http://libre.adacore.com/tools/aws/
This is hacker news, not reddit.
Oracle Server (1992)
Camp Invention
You are aware that recompiling with c++11 can improve the speed of existing STL code bases, right? (some bloat, move constructors are, and guess what, that makes transferring unique_ptr free [edit: as in no overhead over manually doing it]..) And you are aware that 95% of the code should not be performance critical, and be made easy to write? And you are aware that before standardized smart pointers everybody wrote their own by hand, to take advantage of RAII?
Grammatical nitpicks aside, it's just not what you'd expect from somebody who is playing the good-hearted blogger with a lot of sensitive information under their belt.

> Not a happy Friday, Idiots. War.

> To the chagrin of the less confrontational, I plan to attack. And in putting my personal and professional reputation on the line, I will attack ruthlessly, from the front, and (figuratively) shoot to kill.

If you were to go down this particular path, the article just needed to be a clear statement of the information he has and the outcome he expects before he releases it. Instead it's more schoolyard nonsense from people pretending to be better than it all, painting himself as an outspoken martyr and a savior of the community.

> This egregious behavior and negligence may not be the worst of the information to come.

> If I get hit by a bus this weekend, my lawyers will release it.

At best it reads like a blackmailer, extortionist or market manipulator. I'm inclined to believe the latter.
Angular 1.3 beta released, drop support for IE8
I fly a lot and am very very interested in what happens in the airspace with large planes. When the plane is found there will also be detailed technical discussion, undoubtedly.
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Point taken.

However, by positioning Bitcoin as a alternative to what most think are corrupt financial institutions, the Bitcoin community is automatically held to a higher standard. So far it's failing miserably to meet that standard.
Do any of your examples (generic programming, templates, Boost libraries) actually utilize the concept of testing the truthiness of an object of unknown type? I think your criticism is invalid. I like generic programming in Java, though I admittedly have not used templates or Boost libraries for anything substantial.

> In Python it absolutely, positively, without a doubt is not a bad thing to have a function which accepts multiple data types. Some trivial examples are len() and iter().

I'm not arguing that this shouldn't be the case. My argument is specifically about bool(). If len() or iter() worked as strangely with basic data types as bool(), then I would probably extend my argument to cover them as well. For any data type I'm aware of that works with len() or iter(), the logic of what is returned is pretty clear and obvious, but that's not the case (in my opinion) with bool(). If len(-5) returned 5 (i.e. absolute value or "length from zero") then I would argue that it's a bad idea.
Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for
the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its
page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a
karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I couldn't figure out a way to import transactions sanely into Yayoi Kaikei (the Quickbooks of Japan) to satisfy Japanese requirements for double-entry bookkeeping, so I implemented double-entry bookkeeping up to Japanese GAAP with about a dozen spreadsheets. It had to reconcile with information I got from a half-dozen systems, in varying formats. Also, most of the information coming in was in dollars, English, and either PST or GMT -- all three of which would get a look of disapproval from the Ogaki tax office -- so there's extensive use of historical lookup tables to massage the data to meet requirements without having to pay a bilingual bookkeeper to manually process everything.

If you add in the one-and-done Ruby scripts that I made to grab the information from the various computer systems and then spit out CSV for copy/pasting into Excel, this is unquestionably the worst bubble gum and duct tape programming job I've ever had the misfortune of participating in -- but it let me submit my tax return in time for the deadline, with numbers that looked pretty reasonable.
We can sympathize with the frustration many people are experiencing while traveling via airports. If we can assist them, travel with a little less stress, and with all their rights intact, than mission accomplished
What are you interested in specifically? I'm a pilot--private, not commercial--and would be happy to explain the basics of airspace and flight rules.
Make it happen cap'n bennyg!

https://air.mozilla.org/product-design-at-mozilla/

No paid staff are working on this (AFAIK), but this is a pretty good sketch of how this could work in this presentation.
That's like asking a marathon runner why he doesn't just hop in a car.

I use many languages. I use C# to knock out a GUI. VBA for a bit of spreadsheet work. Q/KDB+ for database/functional work. R for stats. All of these are far more productive than C++. If you want fancy abstractions, other languages have them by the bucketload.

I don't use C++ to be productive, and I don't expect to be. I use it to get close to the metal and have full control. Everything you code will take 4-5 times longer to write. And longer to compile. You will be careful because you have to be careful, and that's a good thing because with that care comes quality.
From the 80's? You have a link to which one you mean?
Definite chip on his shoulder. View a persistent legacy of angry blog posts:

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/archive

Back story? Anyone know?
Thanks for the kind words, that was actually one of the reasons we started AirHelp.
Oh, I would too... but whatever happens, it's not going to be pretty or look good for Bitcoin.

I'm not sure if that's an overall good thing or bad thing.
Jekyll Slides
> Okay, spammer...

Oh please, it's not as if Tent wasn't entirely germane to the topic of conversation. People plug their stuff all the time on HN, and as long as there's disclosure and it's relevant, I don't see the problem.

Also, you're missing the fact that users aren't the ones building services. A service that doesn't attract any services is useless to users. I'm not saying that Persona fits that description, but it's a fair point to bring up in terms of the spectrum between compromise and ideological pureness.
That is very instructive, thanks!
Thanks for this feedback, that's really helpful to us.
Pilots were wearing HEV suit!
> I'm currently following a compiler class with its author.

Is this an online source? I would love to see a compiler course by someone like Marc Feeley!