skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Those last-mile costs exist regardless. It's just that with Wal-Mart, the customer pays the costs in occasional lump sums to the local gas station and garage and very occasionally to the car dealership, rather than paying Wal-Mart.

This is, of course, very much to Wal-Mart's advantage. Americans really hate to think about the cost of their cars and really love to drive them, so the perception will generally avoid factoring in the costs of driving to and from the store into the final prices.

However, make a big enough difference and people will notice. If Amazon can offer a price that's lower than Wal-Mart's and deliver it for much less than it costs to drive to the store, people will notice.

I don't see why they couldn't, eventually. Warehouse logistics are much easier when you don't have to deal with customers wandering around. Transport is subject to economies of scale like anything else, and it should be possible to make it much cheaper to use one truck to deliver to 100 houses than it costs to have 100 people individually drive back and forth.

In short, I think I'm agreeing with you that delivery is where Amazon should concentrate if they want to compete in this area.
What sort of project do you have in mind, for example?
Of course I do, but US etiquette is not the same as another country's.
I dont trust either. I dont know who paid off who to get a good rating. ;-) And who knows what biases are there in the reviewer?

Besides, I may not purchase a vehicle based on any of the same factors as the average person that these ratings/awards are targeted to. To some people a car has to have a certain feel. How much more subjective can that be?

It's like product reviews on the internet. Almost wish they didn't exist they're so fake most of the time. we digress...

The quality of awards/ratings aside, that shouldn't even matter here. Tesla or any other manufacturer should be able to sell directly to the consumer if that's the way the two parties want to do business. I can buy apple products directly from Apple and not have to go through Best Buy or anyone else. Why do cars have to be different, still, in 2014?
Thus the "eventually" caveat.
Not directly--with only 32kb of program space in the Arduino Uno you can just barely get a wifi stack in (see the CC3000 chip), but there's no room left for SSL or anything secure.

A better option is something like the Arduino Yun which has two processors, a small Atmel microcontroller and an Atheros system on a chip running OpenWRT linux. The linux processor can act as a bridge to let the microcontroller communicate with the internet pretty easily.
Github's Favorite Joke (2011)
Definition of disruption.

I wager "disruption" is also underpinning resentment towards gentrification in places like San Francisco.

The negative side of changing how industries and businesses work is that a lot of times those left behind has no more place to go.

Like the auto workers in Detroit or the steel workers in Pittsburgh. They committed to traditional hard work, their organization required hundreds of thousand of them for labor, to protect their interest and to maintain a fair and equitable trade of time/labor they established unions.

In turn the orgs provided care for them all their lives.

We don't have that anymore.

Instead the disruptions coming are just that. Disrupting normalcy and how the establishment are living.

Where do they go? Who is going to carry that burden? The government or the private industry that's capable of leveraging more with less, that's literally killing ways of life for many?

How do you maintain your moral compass in all this? Is this just the march of progress? Does it not bother you because that paycheck will make it better?
No, that's not what 'meritocracy' means.

Obviously, you want to hire the best people you can. There is a significant difference between "we try to hire good people" and "we objectively determine who the best people are."

And furthermore, there's a huuuuge difference etween "we try to hire good people" and "the people who currently occupy a particular place in the social sphere are there purely because of merit, and those who do not sit in places of power are there because they do not have merit." See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7406566
what I can't bear right now is their help web pages,
bad responding to zoom and cut right display... brr.
Is 'care about the non-tech-savvy audience' too ?
or bearing down on them.
Yeah, that part is a misdiagnosis. Amazon and Google (and I guess Samsung and Facebook) all seem to want the full (Gates era) Microsoft. Conversely Apple certainly never wanted to be in the maps business but when their maps partner became their biggest competitor they didn't have a lot of other great options.
That will be happening every time it rains, wind blows, river flows, something like an animal comes in etc. Repopulating it probably isn't hard and wouldn't take long as it's happening naturally. The tricky part is trying not to have every organism killed after arriving.
This is probably totally OT, but on the subject of women in CS and other STEM fields/professions:

It seems like - while I'm sure the numbers like payscale and demographics probably still heavily favor male vs. female, looking around, you see pretty accomplished women in leadership positions - Jennifer Widom, Daphne Koller, heck you can even cite Ginny Rometti. Why don't we ever hear from/about them?
> Typically one would take harassment issues in the workplace to HR.

HR exists to protect the company. In a large company, where both the victim and the harasser are relatively small in the overall scheme of things, HR is (assuming the department is somewhat competent at its job) likely to be somewhat useful to a victim, simply because the downside risk to the company of not dealing with harassment is probably much greater than the value of even a supervisory employee. Even with a higher-level harasser, in a large company the firm is more likely to have established protocols, the violation of which would increase the risk to the company, which might make HR more useful to victims.

At smaller companies, its less likely that HR will be useful, and, at any company, its a given that HR's primary interest isn't protecting the victim its protecting the company (including, especially, against a potential lawsuit by the victim).

And, all that aside, yes, there is often a stigma attached to reporting the kind of things which constitute sexual harassment (a stigma which is reinforced by a society which engages in victim-blaming and slut-shaming), and, despite the laws against such, a very common fear of retaliation.
They have certainly noticed, but likely won't do anything about it. IANAL but I am not even sure if emulation of this kind can be considered illegal. And if I were in their shoes I would much prefer a group of random people create a playable open source emulator of my old hardware. If they ever decide to leave the hardware business it makes going down that path themselves much easier.
Why do the demo pages have different styling (esp line-height, it looks like).. makes it harder to see differences in two different windows.
> because Amazon bundled in a video service nobody wants since 2011

I like Amazon video quite a bit actually.
> I just don't see the problem in holding up "meritocracy" as something to strive for.

Please read the article I linked in my first comment, which directly explains this.

Or this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7406566
I've done some fun stuff with Arduinos, but sadly when I try to post it here it never makes it to the front page. For example check out this smart cocktail shaker project that uses Arduino & Android with a kitchen scale: http://learn.adafruit.com/smart-cocktail-shaker
There's more than two maps suppliers out there. While it's true that Apple probably couldn't realistically proceed with Google, nothing forced Apple to partner with the cheapest and worst one out there (TomTom) when making the switch.

Apple Maps could have been much better if Apple had cared to make it so. They didn't, and that's on them, not anyone else.
While mechanical switches are everywere, it's simply impossible to find decent and decently priced scissor-switches. Does anyone know where to find such for less than $1 each?
Jonathan good luck man I have stage 4 Melanoma with tumors throughout as well, been on b RAF for a few months and getting in to til ( I hope) end of month. If you ever need someone to talk life or death with please reach out. Jordan jordangurnzz@gmail.com chemoblog.WordPress.com
But I just fundamentally, axiomatically do not see anything related to how software is written and distributed as being one of those things.

It's simple. I don't know about a "fundamental, axiomatic" proof, but the situation is that proprietary software is obscurantist in its nature and is in direct conflict with information dissemination and the openness that we herald our computing and the Internet as being so important for.

Our society is destined to be dominated by digital technology and computers. All facets of our lives will become digitized and as a result, the ones who control our computing control the way we live. Proprietary software is tantamount to slavery, where the users are helpless and unable to exert control over the technology that governs them.
Another way of looking at it is that those who are willing to uproot their lives and move to another country are much less tolerant of such practices in their home countries than the average person there.
PEP 465 – Dedicated infix operators for matrix multiplication and matrix power
I don't know, I've personally seen both men and women be criticized for domineering attitudes in similar situations. Some men are less likely to criticize men for their domineering attitude for fear of starting a fight (some men don't physically attack women, but will attack men), making an enemy with bully tendencies, losing their job, etc. Perhaps it's not that men being pushy and domineering is really appreciated, it's just accepted as a fact of life to prevent uncomfortable repercussions.
ReliableTimerJs: A better windows.setTimeout()
In this context equal does not mean the same.
This is the reason I opted not to get Lenovo's new X1 Carbon ultrabook; it replaces the function keys with a programmable touchscreen like that, which I think inhibits usability.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca...
Julie is an active speaker at conferences as well.
I have a decent netgear 5g router that lets me get the full 50/12 out to the internet. You'd think that would be enough for airplay, but I've never - NEVER had a good experience. (and the appletv is hardwired to a gigabit switch.)
It appears to be around 10W for and LED equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_lamp#Comparison_to_other_li...
I Defaulted On My Student Loans (And It Was The Best Decision Of My Life)
> I have no idea whether her claim is true or not

The Internet has worked very hard in the last couple of decades to make the truth, the actual truth, completely nonexistent in our lives. It's a discouraging threshold to realize that it doesn't even matter if what she is saying is true or not. I'm serious. It doesn't. Those days are over.

There is no truth any more. We now live in an age where one's interpretation of what is said first is the truth for them and they act accordingly. Some will interpret it as "pissing on a parade," as you see here, and will harass her. Some will interpret it as God's honest truth and will advocate accordingly. As a species, a lot of thought leaders have patted humanity on the back for how well-connected and well-informed we are with the Internet and 24/7 mentality being such a focused point of our lives, when in fact I think the truth is we're now a post-fact species.

Observe the reaction to @LeaVerou's timeline in the last couple of hours to see what I mean, in particular Ashe Dryden's condemnation of her (reasonable) position. We've long passed the era of human history wherein reserving judgment until all the facts are known was the most ideal course of action for all parties. We're never getting it back, either, and we have to live with that now. I can think of unbounded examples of this. Sunil Tripathi is the first to spring to mind.

As for the topic at hand, my cynicism tells me that I'd bet the farm on everything she's said being accurate. I do, however, wish to withhold judgment on both sides without being accused of enabling the decried behavior. That's an alarming trend from a certain vocal group in this industry, a "with us or against us" mentality that bothers me a lot. I've been called a "rape apologist" in the past for simply saying I didn't have enough information about an alleged rape to reach a conclusion.

I have to be honest, it's discouraging to be intelligent enough to see this, because it makes life feel hopeless. I can see what the old idiom about ignorance and bliss means now.
There can be no validity of the claim until we hear more. Anything henceforth will be speculation.
> But if you're an ordinary office worker, and aren't doing heavy labor, no, pregnancy is not generally an obstacle to doing work.

It’s been a while since I last saw a televised brawl in the Italian parliament, but I would not expect such a job to be remotely comparable to that of an ordinary office worker (even without the fighting…). Just think of e.g. flying, which is apparently to be avoided during pregnancy, yet bouncing back and forth between meetings all over Europe happens fairly often at least for German ministers.
Well what I mean is that these are serious accusations, not just something you say "just like that". So there is a backlash, because people try to defend their turf (a ka their parade).

Society seems to be divided in people who automatically believe all such accusations, and people who ask questions (and probably also people who automatically disbelieve them, to be fair).

To me it seems fair to ask questions if so much is at stake.
OK, the only difference is in the link to show the other sample and the use of Brick versus Google Fonts.

The ligature is nice. My eyes aren't good enough to notice kerning differences--but that may be because the HUGE difference between the two samples is the line spacing. Brick jams those lines together like sardines, and while Google Fonts goes at least somewhat overboard in the other direction, if I had to choose, that so-tight-it-squeaks line spacing makes Brick painful to read.

UPDATE: Whew, thanks! Much better. I'll have to take a look and see what changed.
Infrastructure and people's lives have been organised around today's tax regime. America's historically low gas prices mean houses, jobs and retail are spread out over more area, and public transport is comparatively poor.

If gas prices trebled tomorrow, you'll find a lot of hard-working poor people who have to pay three times as much to get to their low-paying jobs.

There will be sob stories on the news about regular people people who can't afford to move closer to work (houses there are expensive now due to high demand) and who can't afford a more efficient car (as they can't pay off the loan on their SUV which is now worth less than the loan value).

Maybe some young people get fuel efficient motorbikes, like in the developing world. There's a rise in road deaths, of course; everyone knows motorbikes are dangerous.

And it won't just be people commuting to work. It'll be more expensive to get to the shops for food - bicycling or walking isn't an option for the hard-working american mother who has to shop for the family, and who has a newborn baby to look after (which is what your political opponents' attack ads will show).

And how do you think that food gets to the shop? On a gas-powered truck of course. And farm machines run on gas as well. Order everything online? The delivery truck runs on gas. You get your trash picked up? Someone's paying to gas up the truck. You're doing construction? Those backhoes and generators all run on gas. Tradespeople like plumbers and builders? Can't carry that roofing ladder on a bus you know. Fire trucks, police cars, ambulances? Gee, I guess they all run on gas. Buses and removal trucks? Same thing. It costs so much to get Jenny to soccer practice now, and how is little Jimmy supposed to get his double bass to after-school orchestra?

Now everything is more expensive, and everyone has less disposable income. People have to get by with less, so they don't go to the restaurant, they make the old car last a few years longer, and the restaurant and car plant have to lay people off, and you've triggered another recession.

Meanwhile, your busy job as a legislator means you still get driven everywhere, so you come across looking like a huge hypocrite.

Now you've put a regressive tax on getting to work, you've caused a rise in traffic accidents, you're anti-family, you've raised the prices of everything, you've triggered a recession, and you're a hypocrite. In exchange you've got the support of the green lobby, but many of them are having second thoughts.

Good luck with your re-election campaign.
Meritocracy isn't an ideal – it's a joke, and everyone should be fighting it. (Quoting another comment of mine:)

Meritocracy is not a desirable state of affairs, because it should be obvious that "merit" is a false currency used to justify what is, rather than work toward what should be. It is the quintessential naturalistic fallacy. By definition, an is-ought fallacy such as Meritocracy can not be an ideal (if you misunderstand meritocracy to mean "everyone gets what they deserve" that cannot be an ideal either, as it would be no different from "a world ruled by God", which is an imagined state rather than an ideal).

It amazes me time and again how people can take the term seriously, which only demonstrates how dangerous it is. Such a blatant, perverted joke, a dystopia that some intelligent people mistake for a utopia. Wikipedia says this: "Although the concept has existed for centuries, the term "meritocracy" was first coined in the 1950s. It was used by British politician and sociologist, Michael Young in his 1958 satirical essay, The Rise of the Meritocracy, which pictured the United Kingdom under the rule of a government favouring intelligence and aptitude (merit) above all else... In this book the term had distinctly negative connotations as Young questioned both the legitimacy of the selection process used to become a member of this elite and the outcomes of being ruled by such a narrowly defined group."

I still can't fathom how meritocracy can be taken as anything but a negative. I mean, the first question that comes to mind (or, rather, the second after "what is merit") is, "who has merit and why, and who does not?" Once this question is asked, it is immediately apparent that any attempt to paint "meritocracy" in a positive light is ludicrous.
> Given that this is nothing but one big he-said-she-said

At least the linked article seems to just be a "she said", so, unless there's more info somewhere, I don't think this has even reached the he-said/she-said stage.
Partly this is driven by the full stack (if you want to call it that) being cheap and easy now. It's becoming commoditized by Amazon, FedEx, etc. Whatever your product is, you can make it globally available (to the developed world at least) with minimal staff and infrastructure.
If I recall correctly, 'retard' has a very different connotation in Spanish-speaking cultures than in Anglophone ones.
No, I'm using risk analysis to conclude that the cost to me of accepting a job there if she's telling the truth is much higher than the opportunity cost of not taking the job (assuming I have other options) if her complaint turns out to be wrong.

Edited to add: the process of deciding the best action to take given uncertain information is fundamentally different from the process of trying to decide what is most likely to be true when there is nothing in particular at stake personally.
Sorry about that! It's probably a difference between the fonts served by Brick and those by Google.

Just pushed the commit, should be fixed now.
Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science
What did I learn
At that point, just use a RaspberryPi unless you're specifically doing it for the challenge of it. Arduino is fun though.
Censorship? Slander is illegal.
Alfred, I applaud the effort, but take a look at the baseline of /w/ and the stem of /a/ - http://imgur.com/O3QoCO8

Top is Brick, bottom is GF, both rendered in Firefox 27 on Windows.
The App Store
They aren't slurs when used in certain contexts. Here's the internets new favorite primer on linguistic context:

My father’s name is William Paul Coates. I, like my six brothers and sisters, have always addressed him as Dad. Strangers often call him Mr. Coates. His friends call him Paul. If a stranger or one of my father’s friends called him Dad, my father might have a conversation. When I was a child, relatives of my paternal grandmother would call my father Billy. Were I to ever call my father Billy, we would probably have a different conversation.

I have never called my father Billy. I understand, like most people, that words take on meaning within a context. It might be true that you refer to your spouse as Baby. But were I to take this as license to do the same, you would most likely protest. Right names depend on right relationships, a fact so basic to human speech that without it, human language might well collapse...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/opinion/sunday/coates-in-d...
This sounds like throwing all standards out the window.

Should we have a coding test during the phone interview? No, because that sounds like we're making decisions based on some concept of merit.

Should we have the candidate write some code on a whiteboard or a laptop? No, because that sounds like we're making decisions based on some concept of merit.

Should we have the candidate take home a problem and spend a couple of hours on it? No, because that sounds like we're making decisions based on some concept of merit.

Should we promote people who inspire their coworkers, take on extra responsibilities, and get more things done? No, because that sounds like we're making decisions based on some concept of merit.

Companies are going to continue to hire, fire, and promote based on something. Every workplace is going to have some concept of what is merit, what is valued there. Better that it be explicit and understood.
Was there such a time? A quick google gives me, for trees, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_history_of_plants#... "The early Devonian landscape was devoid of vegetation taller than waist height." and "The first plants to develop this secondary growth, and a woody habit, were apparently the ferns, and as early as the middle Devonian one species, Wattieza, had already reached heights of 8 m and a tree-like habit.",

Comparing that with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_fungi "A rich diversity of fungi is known from the lower Devonian Rhynie chert", and lower Devonian = early Devonian, I very tentatively conclude fungi precluded trees. Given that, I (not hindered by much specific knowledge of the subject) expect that fungi breaking down cellulose co-evolved with trees.
Who exactly are you suggesting they should have partnered with, and what do you know about what those other partners would have demanded in return?

Seriously, if it's so easy for you to righteously deride them, you presumably have some credible suggestions about how they could make it better if only they wanted to.
I didn't see anyone suggesting worldwide rules.
Please see my response to your sibling.
Thanks!
Hmm, seems to be an issue. Renders fine in Chrome though, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong in FontForge either.

I'll look into it for sure.