skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is horrible. It's also far from the first time I've heard of things like this happening.

My dad is a professor. I'm intimately familiar with the politics, backstabbing, and petty bickering that permeates academia. My dad survives by being positive, supportive, and staying out of the fray as much as possible.

I made a conscious choice to not enter academia. My degree is a B.A. in History; the only obvious career choice for that degree is to go through the hell that is history academia. I opted to fall back on my web development interests rather than use my degree or the network I'd built up.

Academia is abusive. The current state of things, as evidenced by the linked article and my own experiences, is holding back the real purpose of academia: a quest for knowledge.

I will reiterate: academia is abusive.

The problem is so systemic that I don't think there's any way to fix it. We need a new model, a new community.
Mining is not marketed as risk free though. I have personally made some money through automated inter-exchange arbitrage but I ended up concluding that the risks outweighed the rewards at current time (maybe intra exchange is less risky).
Research Blog: Making Sense of MOOC Data
That's interesting. I have totally lost that ability. Now when I am not working (aka I don't have a contract) and I'm not hanging out with someone, I just kind of sit at home and surf the web or do idle crap. Not escapism but not really constructive either.

I kind of obsess over some things (succulent plants, leather footwear recently) but that's the "most productive" my surfing entails. I feel like it's maybe my IT job, where I am idle all day and not challenged, that has trained me to do this sort of activity. I wish I could get a real job doing iOS development but until then I'm trying to fill my personal time with it.

It's even the case where the day is over and I realize I could have swept up my house or organized those papers or whatever. Kind of damning. But I think it's just that I bottom out sometimes after getting 5+ rejections from job applications.

I've TRIED escapism but for some reason I just can't suspend myself enough to get into it.
No.

The concept "Deserve" does not apply here. When I buy into a Kick-starter project, I do it to bring a product that I want to exist into reality: for that reason and that reason alone.

If the people doing the work are able to bootstrap that interest into a successful business, then good on them. At best, it is a validation of the original project. At worst, irrelevant. To call it a detraction, or (worse) to try to lay claim to the spoils is merely greed of the basest sort.
And the airbags don't go off.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-gm-recall-casua...
You and I know that, but presumably the kid didn't.[1]

I understood this as a story about hacker spirit in a kid, and it made me smile.

[1]: If he did already know, and presented this idea as his own? He may not be a great hacker, but he has a promising future as a manager.
So again we see that apple has been good at getting the platform profitable here is a great article that breaks this down. It ends up being less about the fact that iphone apps are better per say (which I think they often are) but more about the fact that significantly more apps for android start out free.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/03/11/the-surprising-number...

but your statement about usage is wrong see the following article on app use:

http://www.cnet.com/news/most-iphone-applications-gathering-...
If only more of us thought in the same "minimal change, maximal effect" paradigm as this teen. Good work! Keep hacking!
That might work well for someone with domain expertise. But not everyone is prepared to look at raw data and instantly extrapolate meaning. Taken to an absurd extreme, do you also think that machine translation between languages is also a terrible waste of effort? Why not just learn to read kanji fluently and skip the extra step?
How much link bait can be fit into a title
Ask HN: I've been a developer for eight months, how do I find a mentor?
I've been building software professionally for about eight months now. In that time, I've worked at two different startups here in the Valley and I'm sad to report that I haven't learned much.

At both of the startups I have worked at, there is little regard towards code architecture, requirements, quality, testing, documentation, etc. I believe that all of these things are important if your goal is to build reliable software that withstands the tests of time — maybe I’m just naive.

I place a lot of pride in doing things right the first time. Why put off until tomorrow what can be done right now? Nobody agrees with me. “Just build it for now and we can write tests later”, they say. It won’t happen. It never does — maybe I’m just ignorant.

Are all software companies like this or have I just made poor choices? I care a lot about the software I build and it seems like my colleagues don’t have the same level of pride in their work — and that’s fine, but I don’t want to work with them.

I’m not growing as an engineer. Lately, I’ve been trying to find OS projects to contribute to because these projects value the same things that I do — well-thought-out decisions, robust architecture, good style, etc. I hear it is best to join a project you already use, and that’s still something I’m looking into. HTML5, web tooling, and web performance all fascinate me, so I’m focusing on these areas when looking for a project to work on.

There is so much for me to learn and that really excites me, but with technologies and projects changing so quickly, what I would really like to find is a mentor that I can learn from and who is willing to share their trade secrets with me. In exchange, I can pay it forward by giving back to the community through OS work. Where can I find someone like this?
Kinda makes me wonder why the hell so many people are tryna tell me to slow down. Seems like motherfuckers should be shuttin' the hell up and enjoyin' the show
Thanks for sharing this, did not know something like this existed and it looks very easy to build on.
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it."

William Munny
What you've said may reduce paper but will not get rid of it.

From your figures, 20% of parents do not sign up and 22% of the US does not have internet at home. These are non-trivial numbers. Also, your wife runs the lists on a volunteer basis so the cost of her time is not accounted for. It's great that there's a system working for you but that doesn't mean it would work elsewhere.

Sometimes I want important messages to come via paper. I get through so many emails a day that one from school might easily get lost in a busy day whereas a letter would always stand out.
This provides a lot of insight into how executives think. Employees aren't people, just pawns to be traded and weighed against the value of their own friendships and animosities. It's pretty disgusting, but not surprising.

What I like about the new Silicon Valley elite is that those asshats are too socially gauche to realize that their attitudes are considered completely unacceptable by, well, everyone else. It's really fun to watch them humiliate themselves in Valleywag.
Simple arse passwords
Found this in my feeds, seems legit. Tried out https://howsecureismypassword.net/ and got 88 nonillion years. Anyones get better than that?
Actually, in the particular case of an object such as the trailer hitch that can easily pike into the body of the car when struck, it is less likely that it would damage the fuel tank of an ICE than the battery compartment of the Model S because the gas tank on an ICE is at the rear, and the object would likely pike well before getting all the way back there. Since the battery of the Model S extends all the way to the front axle, there is a greater risk.

All that said, there is still the risk of the object striking some critical component in the engine of an ICE which is typically in the front. And the strike could easily damage something like a fuel line which could possibly start a fire.
3-D Printed Skull Successfully Implanted In Woman
A transaction is not "malleable" in the hammer-hitting sense. It is only "malleable" in the abstract sense (of pliable). It makes more (common usage) sense to "exploit the transactions malleability" (pliability) than to say the transaction was "malleated" (ie, hit by a hammer). That's all I was trying to point out.
Maker of hit puzzle game '2048' says he created it over a weekend
How is that expected?
Try http://pixlr.com - they got both express version for simple tasks, and full photo editor with rich features. For my needs it's better as PS - load faster, dont crash, and I can work with it everywhere.
It was definitely also one of the things that stood out to me as being an odd example for inappropriate behaviour.
The parent comment implies that they are worried about unknown potential health consequences of the relatively new ecig products and would rather deal with the product with known risks.
> even people who practice half-hour daily buddhist meditation praise its beneficial effects on mental and physical well being.

Wanted to lend some weight to this. I've practiced mindful meditation on and off for a year or so. I've never hit an hour or even half an hour at a time, but I will say it is fairly effective for recalibrating your mental state even with just a few minutes a day. I find myself much more patient, accepting, and clear-headed when meditating regularly, which was exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. I occasionally find myself re-centering and focusing on breathing while not meditating - just a reflex that develops with the practice, and even if its effects are strictly physical (eg more oxygen to the brain), it still feels good, mentally, to get that shot of clarity throughout the day.

I can't speak to its effects on addiction, or other forms of pain, but I would definitely recommend some form of meditation for everyone.
Much has been said/written already about the Facebook community and where users are. There is a long term trend that early adopters of Facebook (read Western world) are using Facebook less (though using their OAuth identification more). Facebook is growing in the rest of the world (read Asia - WhatsApp has a billion non-US users). The main means of internet access (almost exclusively) for these users (the next billion Facebookers) are feature phones and smart phones. Through this context, it is quite intuitive why they are making the decisions they are.
Anecdote: After running some net-install 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10 for a long time with a tiling window manager and recently trying out Unity and Gnome for a few weeks I decided to get back to Debian and Gnome 3.4 + awesome because it runs way smoother on the latest live-CD. And I am in the mood for some long term stability.

My main point of contention is that Unity's dash isn't fast enough for me and I am tired to dig the registry to get rid of the on-line suggestions. But overall I think Unity has a better App/Window management than GNOME (the dock is much more functional for instance). So no 14.04 for me. Except if performances are okay and if the team pulling Ubuntu GNOME show good support.
aint' you heard of the ballmer curve baby dick
Wait a minute his school is using ink? I didn't think people at home even still used ink printers. Pay the extra $30 and get a laser printer you cheap bastards! It prints way faster and you'll save $30 within weeks.
>Not supporting your pet feature !

See, your arrogance will be your doom,i'm sure devs that take HTML seriously will appreciate your contempt and disdain.

>WebSQL is not even a standard.

Because Moz folks did not support it. And you want me to use a (synchronous) javascript when browsers already cheap with sqlite?

Did you even test sql.js ? No ,that's not even production ready
Then they have to track WHO to give papers too and who not to.

So what? They already must have profiles on the kids, it's just an extra mark somewhere.

And also sending a kid home with info doesn't require parents to be tech adept or to check their email often which a good number of people don't.

Hence the choice...?
April Fools setup anyone?
I've wanted to be able to automate setting up a new Linux desktop on a new laptop for a long time. It's a drag setting up a new box, it takes nearly a month to get everything tweaked right after I switch to a new distro (which is far more often that I should be responsibly doing it).

I've been thinking about setting up an Ansible script, I've never used it before though. How would this work on a new machine? Is it something you run post-OS install? I want to try it out with Arch Linux.
He may have used the federal government in the U.S. as an example of the amount of ink that would be saved, and the money it would save, but really, it's just a data point.

However, a school or small business may read this and save thousands this year.
Biggest thing for me was learning to get up early, and sticking with a schedule even on weekends.

A lot of us have the privilege of working flexible hours and for me that meant getting hammered and showing up to work at 11am still a bit hungover. I now show up to work at 9 and leave by 6, and don't go out with my old drinking buddies. Likewise I don’t try to pull crazy hours because that shit stresses me out and I cope with that by drinking/recreational drug use.

I've wanted to write more about this topic but never have the courage, in part because I still drink sparingly and am not sure that makes me an authority.
My main issue with him is that he didn't spend 5 minutes researching this on the internet because it's come up many times previously and doesn't count as a nice hack worthy of any praise. Sorry kiddo.

As an example, these links are all 2010 or earlier.

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/the-right-font-can-save-you-mone...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1256396...
http://www.sitepoint.com/cut-costs-by-saving-ink-with-ecofon...

etc.etc.
I've found Martial Arts helpful to get myself out of my head and take the edge off the monkey energy that isn't being released through my sedentary, code -> video games -> sleep lifestyle through the working week.

In particular, pick one that's as close to actual combat as possible. MMA is great, but perhaps too intense. I've started training brazilian jiu jitsu and can't recommend it enough. Something about fighting for your life against someone who could easily put you to sleep/manhandle you that's therapeutic.

Sam Harris blogged about it here: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-pleasures-of-drowning

I wish you all the luck in the world in getting past this.
Yeah that's crazy. Because in the old Beetle I got, you had to be careful not to push your feet through the floor to the street. So why would car need to be protected from such extreme underbelly damage, it's not normal in any circumstances.
> I'd say this is true of cars as well. When your used Ford Escort breaks down, you're hardly going to be surprised. When your exceedingly expensive Tesla breaks down and/or catches fire, you're going to be a tad upset.

Actually the doctor who owned one of the Tesla cars that caught fire said the car saved his life. He was happy to have been in a Tesla and was going to buy another one (before Musk actually gave him a replacement).
Craig Ferguson did a good piece about his alcoholism, a year or two that went missing from his life, 15 years of being sober, etc.

It's really good, and there might be something in it for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZVWIELHQQY
It is a leap, true, but not an unfathomable one.

My point is that such software is a nod to the primacy of expediency in the field of breaking news. I'm not certain that other kinds of breaking news would be treated differently, particularly those from official sources that utilize standard formats (like corporations and governments).

If I may dig at your comment a little to illustrate my point: Your comment is shorter – more expedient, you seem to think – but you have not actually laid out any of the 'several logical problems' with my 'jump', you've merely made a claim that leaks/war declarations 'tend to require much more information' for complete coverage.

I agree such issues should require that, however, I don't feel they get it. I humbly submit the coverage of the latest US invasion of Iraq, where the evidence overwhelmingly indicated a dearth of WMDs, and yet US government talking points were rarely disputed, and sometimes printed without critique.

So, my hypothesis is that similar issues will definitely not get said coverage if expediency-by-software is valued more highly than analysis.

There's no real solution to our difference of opinion, but you haven't actually refuted my logic, as you claim.

We both agree there are different types of breaking news, and that they need to be treated differently. You trust that they will be, while I do not.
How well do you know mobile browsers? (iOS survey)
An effective outsourcing system you'll actually use (solopreneurs, small teams)
Did you even try that shim? it's broken,and i'm not interested in using a slow nosql db where i'd have to do manual join or write javascript for queries to persist my complex datas in my offline apps
I could, but I won't. Because some post on the internet would be far far less effective in working this out than seeking professional help. Please do that. You'll thank yourself for it later, and isn't such a big investment anyway.
A new IR Rangefinder for Robotics
Gotta say, I don't know a single Model S owner who uses it as a second car. In a recent thread on the forums asking whether there had been any reported thefts, one person shared the story of how their wife will occasionally come to where his MS is parked and swap it out with her car so she can drive it on her errands. A couple of other owners mentioned this happening to them, and I can attest it has happened both ways with our car.

When you are fortunate enough to own and drive one of these, most people cannot be content ever going back to an ICE.
Really appreciate the initiative. Need to point out a couple of things (using an Android phone):

Cannot do a search. The menu items are on top of it.

Cannot close the information box about cookies.

Overall, a very good initiative.
What's your programming language?
Just keep your eyes and ears open. The set of all possible startup ideas is an infinite one, so no matter what your age/position/domain is, you can, at any point in your life find one or more ideas that can be turned into a startup.
How to find them? => Just be a keen observer for a couple of days. Look at the people around you and assess the stuff that you go through on a daily basis and ask yourself whether you can fix something that's broken or do something to make it easier. The next question is, how better will your target customers' lives be when you solve that problem. If the answer is "a lot", then eureka! you have it. It's perfectly okay if the initial user base that you have considered is very small. But your solution has to make them love you very much
Are you suggesting that every high-school science project should be original, ground-breaking research?
I'm on HN, how did I not expect this answer?
I've tried it long ago. Back when consumers could only afford poor-quality inkjets, the hopeless ink smearing actually worked to this font's advantage.
Race for Rogers' seat is wide open in 8th Congressional District
Microsoft Office for Android phones to be available for free starting today
A copy of you is you[1]. And likely the original will be destroyed in the process.

[1]http://lesswrong.com/lw/pm/identity_isnt_in_specific_atoms/
6 Concerns Startups Face When Considering Outsourcing Software Development
I'm a 32 year old software developer and I've been sober for over 6 years now. Had a horrible drinking problem, that got progressively worse since my teen years.

Today, I have a wife and two sons and I don't miss drinking one bit. But I had to get pretty low to stop. Everyone's bottom is different, I was lucky that I hit mine so young.
I can't speak for 001sky, but I believe you misunderstand the origin of the problem here.

The means of production in academia is overwhelmingly socialized right now. This top-down decision making is both what causes funding to stagnate (since it's up to bureaucratic and political whims) and causes labor issues to fester (since the number of alternate employers is so low).

With that in mind, a call to unionization seems rather futile. There is no body to bargain with, just bureaucrats and budgets. What leverage would a union have against that?

Fixing loopholes in labor laws is overdue, but why unionize and create yet another special interest group? Workers in all sorts of industries, including tech, are exempted from labor laws. Why not start a broader movement to fix those loopholes?
Sugary Foods Are Killing Us. The Internet, Not So Much
Not to mention an off-the-shelf tool to actually do the calculation, meaning others have been working on this problem too.
EU high court says ISPs could block piracy sites – CNET
5 Secrets to Getting Acquired: SXSW Panel Round Up
Yeah, sadface too. Because unless that screen has killer touchscreen firmware to reject stray palms and wrists it's going to be completely unusable for anything other than a reader.
Adoption of Go is rapidly gaining on Java and others
I don't think you explained it well from the boss's perspective. Why didn't he want you to rewrite the app from C++ to Ruby? Maybe it's not just that you did too much work, but that you're making things tougher for everyone else. Do you have other ruby developers on staff? Does the support staff know how to support a ruby app? Maybe he wants you to take a weekend off so that you can be fresh on Monday.
Fwiw, I'd like to share some the way I approached alcohol, after going through some times where I drank more beer than water.

Now, I still drink from time to time, but it is easier for me to decide not to drink in a given situation.

http://mitko.github.io/2013/11/09/overthrowing-alcohol/
The premise of the article is that you should be able to have a dialogue with anyone. But this isn't the case; some people want a way to shut you out - not because they hate you, but because they're tired of seeing the same discussion over and over.

w/r to today's feminism and sj, it's the norm to get called out provided you are active for long enough. This is not entirely bad, but it does reflect the ease with which post-structural theory can be weaponized.
Fixing The ~10% Funnel Rate in Smule's AutoRap With V2.0
I can relate. I also live a dual work existence.

Contracted/consulting work pays the monthly bills. I am fortunate to currently have one main client that pays well and in a very timely/reliable manner. If careful on the spending side of the equation we can make it with me working about 12 to 16 hours a week.

Secondly, I have built a technology-platform to enable me to deliver premium structured services very efficiently. But now that I have done most of the technology build I am into trying to build the business connections. I have more trouble disciplining myself to do the sales and marketing tasks that this phase requires. And, even when I succeed at disciplining myself there is rarely the immediate feedback that you have been productive. With coding the feedback that says "productive" is almost immediate. At the end of the day I can point to a new feature that I created and tested and rest easy knowing that I have been productive.

With enterprise sales there are so many lags between what I do and the results. And, it is also a number game. Even if I am ultimately successful, I may well have faced 40 or 50 or even 100 rejections before the big break. While in the middle of a string of rejections, it feels more like "foolishness" than "productivity."

I like reading and learning like you mention. But those too can be distractions from what is really needed. Learning is fun and often productive but I find it can keep me from the business building activities that I know I need to engage in.

Back to Work!