skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>The question for me is why is this true? It seems like there should be.

As someone else noted, "saving the world" usually translates into economics as "generating large positive externalities". It's not just that you might have to give out cancer cures for free (in most countries the state will pay for health-care anyway), it's that you simply can't patent the Theory of General Relativity or the Germ Theory of Disease or the Dead Germ Method of Vaccination. Even improvements in nutrition and yield of crops can only partially be treated as private, excludable property.

Radical new discoveries are almost always nonexcludable, and thus can't really be treated as private commodities sold on a market. Note that I said can't, not shouldn't: trying to treat nonexcludable goods as private commodities leads to bankruptcy rather than sin.
Aren't you really glad now you uploaded all these photos to facebook?
Stephen Hawking (of all people) and Hollywood have mistakenly identified a potential desire for our resources as the main motivation for this threat scenario. But in reality there is nothing on Earth that couldn't be much easier mined in any arbitrary star system, in any arbitrary asteroid belt.

There are, however, still factors imaginable that might lead to a hostile (=genocidal) reaction from an advanced race - for example a reaction motivated by religion or paranoia. If we are within the reach of such a civilization they're already looking for us anyway though, it's unlikely additional harm will come from sending them a signal if they're already in the process of scouring the galaxy for places that are in need of a thorough ethnic cleansing.

The probability of such a scenario can currently not be estimated since we don't even have a single data point on other civilizations in our neighborhood. We don't even know if FTL is possible in practice, a technology without which an assault on Earth may very well be impractical for the foreseeable future.

One thing that might concern us, related to a potential explanation for the Fermi Paradox, is the possibility of attracting the attention of an embodied "great filter", for example in the shape of automated replicating drones that sweep the galaxy to eradicate all instances of technology they can find. But if such a filter exists, our eventual discovery will be inevitable anyway so sending an additional signal out into space would probably not make a difference.

It's difficult to construct a credible scenario where sending a signal will be instrumental in our destruction, mainly based on the assumption that interstellar civilizations or entities with the motivation to destroy us would likely not be content with sitting around on the off chance that another planet might contact them.

So who's our most likely recipient then? It's a civilization on a tech level comparable to our own. So for the sake of argument let's assume the roles are reversed:

One day we get an interstellar call. There's another inhabited star system out there, maybe not too far, let's say 200 light years away. Let's assume the worst and, upon receiving a friendly "hello" type message, the world goes completely crazy and decides the remote greeters need to DIE! At this point, there is really not much we can do to actualize that desire. We could build a huge generation ship and send it on its way but it's going to be traveling for thousands of years. When (if!) it arrives, the other civilization will either be gone or so far advanced that it's beyond the point where our puny aging low-tech generation ship can do any damage.

These are the assumptions we're operating under. Yes, they're assumptions, but for the most part they're based on the best we can do for reasoning and scientific knowledge today.
Optimization Problems and PyCon Financial Aid
It can capture all OpenGL drawing commands made by an application and then replay it frame by frame. Valve devs gave a presentation about it including a demo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45O7WTc6k2Y The part about vogl starts at around 33 minutes and the demo at 40 minutes.
I've found that even text chat is so buggy in Skype for Linux as to be almost unusable.
Instead of donating to this guy I'd prefer to advocate for a free health system and a system that doesn't fuck up a family that has had enough bad luck to see its father die.

Having someone in his last months of life begging for money to not leave his family screwed up seems like a waste of those precious last weeks.
Comparing yourself leaving for college at 18 to a 75 year old woman being evicted is plain distasteful.
The thing is that following situation is really common:

Company has an average team, maybe even bit worse + 1 good person. The managers are not that great either. Everything is average.

The team has been doing something, nobody really knows what, nobody really knows at what pace. Nobody knows what they should be doing.

Occasionally the company releases something which sells a bit and customers give some feedback. Mostly not that great.

When you tech them a bit of Scrum, help them get builds every night and help managers to try out the product once in a while (remeber, not all software is a website, some are airport weather observation systems). And help the company to get some of their customers to try out the software once in a while even though it is not "ready".

Suddenly the results of the team is visible to interest groups and interest groups needs are visible to developers, managers can get some idea of the velocity and everybody can have a better idea where we are, where we should go and when we might get there. Then iterate and improve.

What we have done here is that we improved the quality of the company with really little cost with our existing talent pool.

Yes, this is really common.
By 2035 there will be almost no poor countries left in the world
We've been saved by falling reproduction rates. First world countries have around 2 children per couple. If growth stayed exponential, then no amount of increasing crop yields would help. Exponential growth is a terrifying thing. After a few generations there would be more humans than could fit on the surface of the Earth.
Apps NO, Prototypes YES
The Challenge of Emotions in Software Development
Huh. Hold on. Let's go check the "Who's Hiring" monthly job listings here on Hacker News. Usually, when I read those, I see about 40% stupid-but-sexy bullshit, 40% dull but genuinely significant companies whose product does make life better for its users (for example: healthcare analytics companies), 15% awesome idealistic ventures, and the remaining 5% is either complete weird bullshit or the awesomest, coolest radical ventures I've ever seen.
Found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(American_band)

Interesting way to get your name out, "Is this a band or a typo? I must search Google to find out!"
Pure JS In-Browser SQL Queries on Excel Database
A presentation from the developers about vogl and ToGL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45O7WTc6k2Y

The part about vogl starts at around 33 minutes and a demo at 40 minutes.
Has this game beaten the record for HN front-page time? It's been 4 days now!
It matches your face to your name with 97.25% accuracy, assuming that they have at least 1000 labeled photos of you to start with.
That's what the majority of people in this thread seem to say, and this lack of empathy is disheartening. There's some dick a few comments up that said people uproot themselves all the time, "he did it when he was 18 and left for college". Unbelievable. It's sad to slowly see where all the techie-hate comes from, the entitlement and lack of basic empathy demonstrated in this thread is eye-opening.
There are ways around having to apply a patch 20 times, too. Libraries and git submodules to name a few.

Secondly, if you use 20 version control systems, you're doing it horribly, horribly wrong.
Flappy Bird for PC. It's simple, addictive and really, really hard
'I cannot report electronically to the authorities!' - I am amazed. In the UK, individuals and virtually all companies and organisations must file their Company Tax Returns online.
20k for a funeral? Really? Seemed legit until that.
The better question why aren't we subsidizing murder?
That's true only in the specific case of HIV in the USA - the funding in the USA for cancer vs HIV is about right for the global number of deaths from those diseases. Especially if you consider that cancer is showing no sign of being a curable problem, while HIV is.

For other diseases - malaria, dengue, hepatitis, typhoid etc., not to mention malnutrition - global spending is massively disporportionate in favour of cancer.
Best Android Zombie Games of 2014
Best Zombie Games for Android to survive the Zombie Apocalypse in 2014
Important to note:

- they still need 1000 labeled samples per identity

- their network can only handle 4000 distinct identities (at 97.25% accuracy) at a time

It's still a very worrying development for online and offline privacy.
My biggest hurle is payments processors. Everything good work in USA (think stripe).

So, if not USA, when? That make possible to be in latinamerica but be incorporate elsewhere?
Looks like this was a mistake according to the Guardian - http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2014/mar/13/mh370-no-s...
How To Excel At Customer Support – Across the Board
It was announced here: http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2012/09/source-code-pro....

the last paragraph of that post has links for the source, web fonts, etc.

DL link (from sourceforge): http://sourceforge.net/projects/sourcecodepro.adobe/files/la...
As far as I know/understand the company would pay its own taxes in Denmark except for employment-related tax, they'd have to abide by portugese laws for those (e.g. social security schemes and the like) when in comes to the contract of that specific employee.
Better to replace it with an embedded controller with no moving parts. Buy a couple of these and flash them with the same firmware and replace the whole thing if it ever dies.
Vupen Cashes in Four Times at Pwn2Own
> All developers should be able to assume that the history in the central repo is immutable. Most likely, they will rely on that assumption.

Amen.
Stone is a construction material, not a power source.
> It's indubitable that the nordic countries are well-run places.

Note that the online stuff isn't limited to nordic countries, even in France (a country which nobody would say is well-run) you've been able (and encouraged) to fill taxes online for a decade.
Why We're Dropping Freemium In Favour Of A 30 Day Trial
Valuable case study from a company that's closely following their marketing and conversion metrics. Check it out if you're in SAAS as well.
IQTELL Puts GTD, Notes and Email in a Single Productivity App
We just launch our app on lifehacker!
when the game launches?
If you get people who aren't customer focused, aren't testing, and are wasting huge amounts of time in pointless meetings focus on their customers, do continuous builds, tests, iterative releases, and have fewer meetings I suspect you can and will reap significant benefits.

But that isn't "agile" it's just some good practices with a label du jour. Good software companies were doing nightly builds twenty years ago (when doing such builds was a major technical accomplishment). The agile cargo cult against which the writer is ranting is far larger, more insidious, and counterproductive than that. E.g. Our project is infested with "release train engineers", "coaches", "rally consultants" and other highly paid morons who actively damage the project while claiming credit for any improvements we manage to accomplish behind their backs.
Do accelerators need to change?
Download Google Chrome Themes
That's very true. Although I think there is a good chance they could have incompatible values to us. It'd be pretty unlikely for two intelligent beings to evolve exactly the same morality. Imagine if they killed us all for eating meat, or if they were strong environmentalists like in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Or something else completely alien to us.
Cutting through the bullshit surrounding flight MH370
What good would it do a single person?

Life insurance is to protect the people that rely on your income, not pay off your debts (I don't think this is a deep insight, I just think it is the sensible way to talk about it).

If you have children and only insured the value of your house, you probably need to buy more (but of course you might have discussed a simplified version of your situation or whatever).
This Advice Will Change the Way you look at colors
Looking at some colors can help us to focus, get more creative and even relax.
OpenSMTPd Now the Default MTA in OpenBSD
Minor lacerations detected.
It's a ton better now. :)
" > Sendmail gone, Apache gone, BIND is next." :)
Android Development Tips For iOS Devs
Just a small correction on the last part you said, some countries tax per citizenship and not residence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Citizens...
Good software is the one that fulfills a need and pays the bills, period.

The Moon Lander software on the Apollo spacecraft probably had several defects, was unmaintainable, but it got the job done several times.

MS-DOS had several defects, was more maintainable than the above software sure, but it transformed MS.

Sure, it is better when the software is maintainable, more flexible, etc, and I don't advocate against it. What I do advocate against is overthinking all of this and not shipping.
But you would not have to incorporate in Texas. Which is at least one of the things the article implied.
Actually no. For one thing, this isn't exactly a stealthy or cheap thing to do. It involves datacenters full of computing resources even for 4000 identies.

I also don't believe it's so much a privacy issue. If I upload pictures to facebook I actually want them to be seen by human beings. The face-recognition only helps with that.

If facebook recognizes me on a picture someplace else, I actually rather want to know about it. I'm not super famous, so unexpected pictures of myself can be more of a bad thing...
WSJ tends to be pretty accurate on fact based scoops.
HN Plays 2048
It's 2048 "Twitch Plays Pokemon" style!

Contribute: https://github.com/grant/hnplays2048
This hits a nerve - a neighbour (in the UK) is dying of a brain tumour and the NHS does not have the facilities for effective treatment. There's a fundraising campaign to send Gavin to the USA for specialist treatment which may save his life, and he's just been told he may not be around this time next year without it.

http://www.helpgavin.co.uk/

Good luck to everybody facing similar timelines.

[Edit: I can't spell]
And ... the article doesn't touch on it, but that goes triple on personal tax issues -- especially if you do not sever your ties to your previous states of residence.

The US tax code, as evidenced by FBAR and FATCA, assumes that the only purpose of any financial transaction or account outside the US, is to hide money from the IRS. You have to report each and every "account", with contact details at the institution, every year, on two independent forms (similar yet different), as well as every transaction in securities (if you can actually do them anymore - most places won't even let you if they know you are paying taxes in the US).

If you are not a US taxpayer already and planning to do anything in the US, be sure to talk to a CPA that specializes in those kinds of things (preferably, one who is also familiar with the treaties and tax code in the country you are moving from). You need to do this both on the business front and the personal front, or you are likely to be seriously and horribly surprised one day.
Hi johnathan. My father just passed away from stage IV melanoma. He was 52. Luckily he left us financially sound. But if there is anything I can do to help you out please don't hesitate to ask. I've done my research on any treatment you could possibly have to beat this cancer. Melanoma is becoming more beatable every day and people are living for years even when they are stage IV. If you have questions please email at jreed91@gmail.com
I have used Nimrod daily for several months now, and I fully agree. It is actually one of the most productive languages that I have encountered so far.

Perhaps you should add two more things to your feature list:

1.) Native Perl syntax

2.) C imports for seemless use of C functions:

const txt = "x"

const x = 123

printf "%s is %d\n", txt, x // or

printf "%s is %s\n", txt, $x
https://www.braintreepayments.com is just as easy as Stripe to use, and can be used in Denmark and other European countries right now. Stripe is coming to Denmark soon and is already in several other European countries. I don't see the problem?
sent both to @jknupp and @benplant. no more invites left.
While this thread is bound to fill with anecdotes...

> Tourists are already turned off from coming to the US because of the TSA issues.

I'd love to agree with you, but there's that pesky reality that disagrees with your claim:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/a-record-year-f...

>Even countries like the UK with it's constituent nations and territories work hard at having a uniform and efficient system for businesses to do what they need to do.

Population UK: 63mm
Population USA 310mm

and support your claim that the territories work hard at having an efficient system for businesses.

> Having a "Just deal with it" attitude will also drive away business.

The paperwork really isn't hard. What makes you think that filling out some tax forms is keeping people from opening up shop in America?
In my opinion the problem with Agile is that developers are focusing too much on the process and not enough on the product:
http://effectivesoftwaredesign.com/2014/01/20/attention-agil...
By the end of the post this starts to look like a spy handbook.
Panasonic Will Pay Their Employees In China Extra For Living With Pollution
There's also an api: http://hnplays2048.herokuapp.com/api

:)
> A lot of people look at the video thinking “I want to be free like that guy!” – but they don’t realize that I was driven by something, and maybe I was losing control over it.”

very interesting
>I really don't understand this fetishization of the US for business.

The USA is a huge market.

> If you want to be sued into utter oblivion and live on the streets with a nonexistent social safety net I guess it's all right.

Oh come on. This is ridiculous even for hyperbole.
I speak three languages, more or less. Much of what this guy says is either obvious or wrong. There's not much in-between.

The big irritant is his absurd claims about adult learning capabilities. When I was in my teens, I learned Cantonese as a native English speaker. In my 40s, I learned Italian. Cantonese -- an extremely difficult language for English speakers -- was far easier to learn.

In truth I think there is one overriding rule to successfully learning a foreign language. No matter how many classes you take or Rosetta Stone CDs you buy, will never really learn a language unless you are forced to speak it ALL THE TIME. If you want to learn German, move to Germany.

When foreign PhD students come to the US, I tell them that if they want to be effective researchers in computer science, they must know English well. And step one for doing that, as PhD students in the US, is to get roommates who do not speak their native language.
It was softening it so the reader would know that I'm not trying to be obtuse. Part of language is communicating meaning, not just trying to get a string of words together.

None of that was being a jerk.
I haven't found a need for Lapis, although I think it is an interesting project and enjoy all his work. I use leafo's template engine: https://github.com/leafo/etlua
He has four kids. He should have life insurance, and he should have gotten it when he first had kids and presumably was fairly young so that the rates would be inexpensive.

Even if it wasn't for the mortgage or the van, you would want your partner to have sufficient resources to make rent.

A level term policy can often be had for as little as $30/month and it would have been more than adequate to cover the $250,000 in debt and final expenses. The service (assuming 4% and 30/5 years for the house/car) on this debt is probably about $1500, which means he should probably be able to afford an extra $30.
And yet there's a star for each state and stripes to denote the original handful.

We have federal laws and state laws to accommodate regional preferences.
A friend of mine has been doing this for the last several years as well [0]. There's still a pretty active scene worldwide, although I guess machines are still only 'popular' in the countries they were originally popular in (e.g. MSX in The Netherlands, Japan).

[0] http://www.revival-studios.com/
My stepfather died from stomach cancer last year, the public health system here in Paraguay covered all the treatment, some of the drugs cost more than 15 or 20 times the monthly minimum wage.
Well, for one, more people could go into cancer research instead of pursuing useless startup ideas.
It's hard not to look back at the past with rose-colored glasses, but in the case of the NES, there were so many low-quality games out there that it's easy to remember how bad some of them were even back then.

I know I wasn't the only kid who would shell out $2 or $3 and rent a game for the weekend, only to find out that the game was flat-out terrible. Sure, there were a lot of good games back then that are still fun to play now (Super Mario Brothers, Contra, etc), but going back and playing a random game in an emulator really drives home the fact of how big of a bomb most of the games were.

That said, who hasn't been interested in how NES games worked or how they were programmed? There's a great video on Youtube about converting ROM city Rampage over to run on the NES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx4xXhZMrU
Care to fill us in with details to go along with your snark? Which part of 3rd world America did you visit? Anecdotally I enjoy decently fast broadband and mobile data coverage.
Braintree is actually better for international companies as forex doesn't incur extra charges like it does with Stripe.
>"than nice nations like Denmark."

Qualify what you mean by "nice."
107 bytes of css
Actually, based on my reading of the paper, it seems that they learn a representation using one data set (the one with 1000 labeled samples per identity), then use that representation to classify on other training sets (like the Labeled Faces in the Wild, which has 13,323 photos of 5,749 celebrities). In fact, from what I can tell from section 5.1, they seemed to use face pairs (and so trained on 1 sample per person, and then tested on the other sample).

tl;dr: They don't need 1,000 labeled samples per identity (once done with the representation phase), and they achieved 97.25% accuracy on ~6,000 distinct identities, with only one training photo per identity.
It´s kind of natural for me. I am a geek and I have a genetic disease that is slowly destroying my body. I find lots of similarities between us/computers and god/humans. I am not a religious - in the strict sense - person, but the phrase "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26) really applies to us, "makers" of computers.
We got a professional CPA and lawyers on this. In the US it is such that when you hire someone (remote work) and he lives in, e.g. Philadelphia, you have to "incorporate" in that state.

This is not the case in every state, but in some.