skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So no schema means no validation of data for conformance? I thought these "NoSQL", or rather the ones that explicitly state to be schema-less don't do such. People who take the lack of schema as the licence to throw data into a black hole are somehow misleading themselves. The purpose of a database is to store data for later retrieval and modification. Schema-less, as we both understand it, means there is little or no validation by the database. In light of what you corrected me on data, am I correct in saying that useful data at the very least has to conform to some uniformity, from which a DBA would derive a schema, even if not enforced by the database?
I haven't read the book but I think CanAm in the 70s was pretty much racing with no engineering restrictions. Hence you had the Porsche 917 putting out 1500hp+ and only weighing 1800 lbs.
Referencing my other comment, I can't help feeling that this is duct tape. Nothing compares to Reddit and Twitter for news. What Vox seems to be trying to create is current events in historical form so that readers can keep up to date. What Reddit and Twitter have to offer is debate and perspective so people can react in real time. I wish there was an elegant combination of the two. The closest thing that I've seen has been the comprehensive timeline of the Malaysian Airlines incident [1].

[1] Part 16 Here - http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/21890i/comprehensive_t...
It might be useful if a database could enable encryption on specific columns (which would make those columns unindexable).
> and then we're programming in assembly again. (Or perhaps C++.)

Is that so bad? The reason we're in JS in the first place in those environments isn't because it's the best language for the job, it's because it's the only language that can be used in that environment.

If you can have the best of both worlds, why not?
Have a look at bemyeyes.org it is just that its in public beta:
https://beta.bemyeyes.org
> I've come to believe that these problems are unsolvable.

"Unsolvable" is strong. My take is that these problems stem inevitably from approaching the goal ass-backwards.

You're trying to force a particular testing framework on people who don't care about frameworks, supposedly in the name of "better communication". There's no reason to expect that to work.

The way I've advocated doing it, for years now, is to first sit with the people in question, discover how they communicate about business goals that the programming effort is expected to assist, formalize their notation as little as you can get away with and use that for acceptance testing.

This should be a process of active listening, not passive recording. The client should be gently nudged away from speaking in solution-terms, for instance.
New browser for windows
While there was an age reference for the "Dad’s Resume" guy, that applicant was not rejected on age, instead he was asked in for an interview.

"Dad" was reject because: "The last guy was 15 minutes late, full of himself, and he wants the moon. I’m not asking him back."
>You message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.

Was there a time when this was actually true?
The tiles should start to cycle through the colors again after 2048. From 2^12 - 2^22 it does triangular prisms, from 2^23 and beyond it does pyramids.

Are you only getting white shapes after 2048?
What if you want to plug in another DB for testing? When I use Peewee ORM with Python, I use Postgres in production and SQLite in-memory for testing. Is there a good way to do this when you put logic in the DB?
Unless you're trying to make a specific thing happen quickly. Emergent properties are are very hard to construct intentionally and are often unexpected. It's easier to reason about single-threaded programs or about multiple threads acting independently. Once you're talking about multiple threads of execution that don't act independently systems can get pretty hairy. I think that's the reason client-server/master-slave architectures dominate computing today. Here's hoping for a p2p future!
Dropbox and Square raise new credit facilities
Old Math Casts Doubt on Accuracy of Oil Reserve Estimates
The Browser Is The OS: 19 Years Later
For anyone who wants to see how it can be built: CocoaPods does it for xcode and objc.
Not entirely. In Rust, the runtime representation of enums (tagged unions) is left deliberately unspecified in order to allow for arbitrary optimizations depending on shape.

For example, The Option type in Rust (a.k.a. the Maybe type in Haskell) is a tagged union defined like this: [1]

enum Option<T> {
None,
Some(T)
}

Now say I use this like so:

let foo = Some(6);

The runtime represenation of `foo` will be as follows:

struct FooRepresentation {
discriminator: u8,
value: int
}

...where `discriminator` is the field that determines whether the value is `None` or `Some`, and in the latter case `value` will contain the associated data.

But let's say I declare foo a bit differently, using a pointer to a value rather than a raw value:

let foo = Some(~6); // the tilde denotes a unique pointer

Now the runtime representation of `foo` is only a single pointer, and in order to determine if `foo` is `None` it just checks to see if the pointer is null. Rust is smart enough to perform this optimization on any tagged union with two variants where only one of the variants has associated data, and the type of that variant is a pointer.

On the flipside, if you want to guarantee a specific data layout then you can use a struct, which have the same layout rules as structs in C.

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/libstd/optio...
All The World's A Stage
The laws are at the state level, so you'd have to dig deep into your particular state's laws to find out for sure (or hire a lawyer to do it). But since the concern is about foodborne illness, I suspect that you will run into a problem with the law in any case where you are offering food to the public that was not cooked under your state's watchful eye, regardless of your particular compensation scheme or lack thereof.

I am aware of one way around this, though (sort of). As I recall, if you come to my house and cook food for me in my kitchen, then I can pay you and everything is fine. I don't think you even need a food handler's license. But obviously, that's a lot less convenient for both of us.

I'm no expert on this topic. I've just looked into it enough to get discouraged!
What would you ask a YC Partner?
I have the unique opportunity to talk to a YC partner tomorrow. I was wondering if HN had any questions you would ask given this oppotunity.
Is he/she a technical partner?
It has been--that's where I started learning C++.

:)
If only there was an easy way not to have a Facebook account. Oh wait.

EDIT: Why exactly am I getting downvoted?
Show HN: Khojo – Inspiring innovation in the form of shareable visual stories
Can't read easily on an ipad. Back button pressed.
I don't get why more HN-type startups don't look at using dedicated machines instead. Every dollar counts.

Exelion.net is running a special for HN users. 50% off for life for any server. Or more than one server. Or quite a few servers. Just use HN50 when checking out.

Exelion does top of the line E3-1230v3 Haswell (8 thread) + 16gb + 2x240GB SSD RAID 1 + Gigabit port + 33TB/mo bandwidth for $115/mo.

DO does 8 thread + 16gb + 160gb SSD + 6tb/transfer for $160/mo plus another $1350/mo for the full 33TB/mo bandwidth.

And if you wanted unmetered gigabit? Exelion does it for $200/mo extra flat rate. DO does it for an equivalent of $16,120/mo for that plan (based on 5 cents per gigabyte and 6TB already included with the plan).

It just doesn't make sense financially to keep using them.
A "Movies I've been meaning to watch" queue. Sort of like Netflix's queue, but not limited to a particular provider's catalog. For each movie, show the cheapest (legal) way to stream/rent/buy it. Add price drop alerts. Monetize through commissions and/or ads.
iOS doesn't support custom pop up windows outside of your app. Which means for an IM app you need to be running it for a popup to appear (sort of making the whole popup window pretty useless IMO). On Android you can display a custom pop up window even if the user is not in your app.
I think it's hilarious, and unlike lots of "nerd" based shows I think it's even MORE funny as someone who knows the industry. Then again, I've always been a sucker for T.J. Miller.
workingnomads.co
In regards to #1, you might be interested in "Mewgenics", the follow up to super meat boy. http://mewgenics.com/
I strongly agree; the entire setup of marriage enshrined in law the way it currently is is just wrong. It discriminates against polygamists, as you note, any certainly other groups. The societal rights and burdens of marriage should definitely be available to arbitrary consenting parties.

Even more so then, that the genders of the parties involved are completely irrelevant.
Yep. There is a reason people abstract things. Sometimes people get a new toy and just go a bit overboard, want that one tool to solve all their problems.

Don't get me wrong, CouchDB is awesome, but it isn't the answer to everything.
Geoff Ralston
Then they punt and centralize.
What's been wrought using the Piece Table?
I would certainly read that reflective post, if you ever do write it you should definitely submit it. The discussion would be great I'd imagine.
Not go or rust, but I'm curious, in ocaml or haskell, I imagine it is not easy to change data representation without refactorings, because of the widespread pattern matching? e.g. in ocaml: let (x,y) = point;;
have you tried something like www.gmap-pedometer.com? that's how i plan my routes and I've been pretty happy with it.
NIST launches an atomic clock 3 times more accurate than the last
Yesterday link[1] about the Swyft Card, on hack a day, includes a short video of Mr. Willegal demoing the software.

[1] http://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/vcf-east-the-swyft-card/
If I recall correctly, the SMS permission is so that the app can read the code that facebook sends to your phone to confirm that you own the number that you're trying to link to your facebook account. Another app that I know of that does this is TextSecure, to register your number with their servers, but then again that's a text messaging app, so I'd expect it to be reading my text messages.
ARIN hasn't reached zero yet:
http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/

But if you're going to start an ISP, you'd best do it in the next few months. Europe and Asia are already screwed.
Sorry, there was a glitch in the lighting. I fixed it. The next tier of values should now look like this:

http://snag.gy/aNY0t.jpg
One could say that required permissions there are just for reading the SMS confirmation codes and easing that friction, in which situation they're actually enabler of better security of your account.
The ambiguous views that appear in the video reminds me of http://terrycavanaghgames.com/nayasquest/.
I mean, the permissions do have reasonable explanations - using your contact list to 'find friends'- for instance, or writing to your call log because they're integrating VoIP calling (I assume). The wording is just a generic Android permission explanation and comes with any app which requests that permission. If you really can't cope with it, there are apps like Tinfoil which allow you to still use facebook without that added functionality and permission requirement.

A good improvement for Android would be the ability to only request permission when it's required for some key permissions (the way iOS does with contacts (I think)). Enable SMS integration in messages? Android pops up a thing saying 'Facebook wants to be able to read your SMS and MMS messages. Cool?'. UAC for Android.
It's easy to get sucked in for someone people. I moved to the other side of the world recently. These FB owned services allow communication and sharing between my friend, family and wife's family very easy. It makes us all feel less distant.

I understand the downsides though.
Does FB require similar permissions on iOS?

Also, the permissions they ask for seem like FB is angling to figure out a way to play a bigger role in your life and not just restricted to advertising such as sending out a text or placing calls to most frequently dialed numbers when they figure out that you've been in an accident.

But is seems more likely that the US govt. to do any of the following if they make new laws that are an iterated version of the FISA, etc. laws that give them unrestricted access without any need for disclosure:

> Someone is lost, kidnapped, in an accident, law enforcement can figure out ways to subpoena this information.

> Send fake texts or calls on your behalf and then use that as grounds to detain / question / imprison you.

> Data mine text information to figure out if a revolution is happening in a dissident country and perpetuate this by sending texts to a wider network (similar to starting a local twitter clone in Cuba). If this is a friendly country, you can warn your allies and have these people held as political prisoners in countries such as Saudi Arabia, etc.

> Lots of other scary scenarios.
‘US annexed the whole world through global spying' – Assange
Permissions on iOS are usually asked as the app needs them, whereas on Android, all permissions needed by the app have to be granted before the app is installed/updated.
Some RLS updates coming in 9.4 . Updatable security_barrier views, as well as updatable WITH CHECK OPTION views. Can be done now sorta, but is a PITA.

Generally speaking, encryption isn't the answer. Hard to search, hard to sort, hard to index.

RLS using views works well, but has some issues such as Covert Channels. See http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Row-security .

Don't think it would be a problem regarding replication, as long as remote databases can't query as they please.
> What honest and useful reason can Facebook have to get access to my texts? Seemingly they’re running with the “It will help us target better” message.

A Facebook engineer explained this permission on Reddit when the story first broke. They are using SMS access to speed up two-factor authentication. (They send an SMS to your phone, and then read it automatically.)

Full explanation here: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1t5z45/facebook_why_the...

Should this information comfort you? It depends on if you trust Facebook.
It isn't for me either and I don't think I'm blocking js.
FB's mobile web interface has worked fine for me. No app, nor permission-granting, required.
Are other companies owned by foundations and mainly a "community"? Does it seem strange that a community to further help the Internet would be strongly for equality? Or even that they might think that arbitrary restrictions based on gender is an inelegant hack, and someone that would favour arbitrary rules to not be thinking very well?

And are other companies really beholden to their users so much?

The duration wasn't relevant as he explicitly declined to say anything about his "personal views", leading people to believe he still supports them. Other companies are fairly good at backpedaling and saying they didn't really mean it, whatever it may be.

And anyways, no one is saying he's not allowed to be the CEO. Just that apparently a lot of people got annoyed at that and felt it to be wrong in some way. I don't see any "life sentence" here. If I start promoting the idea that stupid people be discouraged from reproducing, I shouldn't be surprised that folks might not want me in a public role, even if I'm right.

The whole mob mentality is a bit concerning - I don't recall much discussing about Eich's suitability or the higher importance of what he's doing.

GoDaddy got quite a bit of hate due to the founder smiling with a shot elephant.
You can block such permissions in CyanogenMod based roms via their 'Privacy Guard' feature. And I am sure there are other solutions but most likely would require a rooted device.

I think such functionality as you described should be included into Android as standard allowing the user to grant permissions to confidential information.
There are a number of fundamental issues with this service.

1. As a recipient my privacy is violated: a signal is sent automatically to the sender without my consent to signal when I open the message. A co-founder argues "the feature exists with other systems already": the difference is, these other systems are opt-in: as a recipient, I agree explicitly to read acknowledgements when I choose to download the alternative messaging client. As an e-mail recipient, I do not agree to this "service" and it is unethical to force it upon me.

2. The "expire" feature breaks the workflow of most e-mail users I know, including myself. Most users will first open an e-mail, quickly scan it, then mark it for later in-depth processing. If the expire timer starts at the first open, chances are the e-mail will have disappeared by the time the recipient re-opens it later.

3. The service breaks search: with Pluto mail stored at Pluto's servers, it is not possible to search across both Pluto and non-Pluto e-mails in one query.

4. The strategy to "provide e-mail client plugins" is not scalable obviously, due to the wide diversity of clients actually used. (Did the founders make a market study of which clients are actually used? On mobile, my own analysis shows there are at least 6 different apps in wide use. On desktop, at least 4. The development overhead of providing plugins to all is huge.)
Get out of Africa. Africa will steal your life.

If you choose to stay in Africa and have your potential limited by silly things like bad Internet and no electricity, then make that choice consciously, and for good reasons, like wanting to be near family. If you stay because you feel some deeper connection to Africa because you were born there, get over it. Get out of your comfort zone, live your own life. Consider carefully the costs of maintaining that irrational connection. Personally, I think it's a cop out, an excuse to be mediocre. It's a global world, stop thinking locally.

What would Elon Musk have achieved had he stayed in Africa? Substantially less. Get yourself into an environment that is supportive of your dreams and goals, not one that works against you.
It is debatable whether the Australian government got that right.

The Australian government has set up a single corporation to roll out a broadband network to every house in Australia. This is something that the government has no special knowledge of, and no demonstrated ability to do. Governments have no business doing this thing. There is a very real risk that ideological differences between the Liberal and Labor parties will see NBN Co. mired in a similar situation to Telstra - a privatised monopoly with massive and unrivaled infrastructure funded by taxpayers with terrible customer service.

What should be done is for the government to maintain an inter-town and inter-city fibre backbone, and cover the cost at taxpayer expense, then let local council and small business wire up individual towns and suburbs. Then let consumers hire an ISP who also handles maintenance of the fibre cables. Maybe give the installer of the cable a 10- or 20-year monopoly on maintaining the cable to allow them to recoup their cost.

Granted, technically the government would want to retain official 'ownership' of the cables, and would still need some sort of administrative group to oversee who was responsible for which cable, but this would be a big improvement over how the rollout actually came together.

Creating new government-backed corporations to own the infrastructure is not a winning formula. The entity building and maintaining the cables needs to be exposed to market forces, and it isn't difficult to see how it could be done.

The government can handle the expensive parts like satellite connections for rural Australia and the inter-town links, if the market isn't likely to provide those things.
The no poach pact ended around the time of this document.
I would also like better feedback from compilers, and not just in the form of messages. It seems that throughout most of history compilers have been traditionally "one-way", i.e. you give them source and they produce a binary. To assist with code generation, what they should really be doing is some sort of "decompiling" of their optimiser's output back into e.g. C, maybe even with comments, so you can get an idea of what high-level optimisations it performed and where.
Yeah, that's what I meant by "the schema is still there" - "useful data" is data that has meaning according to how the system (software processing the data) interprets it. But my point is that the uniformity can not be derived from the data, but only from the interpretation rules of the software.

I mean, you can, of course, derive some "rules of uniformity" from the data, but that most likely would be completely useless, as you might just find patterns in the data that emerged by chance rather than because they distinguish meaningful data from nonsense, and you might easily miss important constraints that are required to keep nonsense out of the database. Of course, sometimes you can infer from data heuristically what sensible constraints might look like (because field names have some meaning to you, for example), but that really is just a heuristic shortcut for finding out how the system interprets the data.
"Perhaps more important for its long-term survival, Vox’s formats attract attention directly, so the site does not have to turn to gimmicky features like quizzes, teasing headlines or lists to generate traffic through Facebook or Twitter."

Vox's front page:
"How politics make us stupid",
"11 books series to satisfy your 'Game of Thrones' craving",
"Amtrak's insane train boarding rule"

Oops.
Here's facebooks response as to why the android app requires what it does. https://www.facebook.com/help/210676372433246

I think this article is sensationalist garbage with no proof of facebook mistreating user data.
how about Facebook ads application for android?

http://www.printandpromotions.co.uk
Many Android fans have a persecution complex. See Reddit's Android subreddit for more. I can't stand the place, even when I used Android phones.
Indeed. Facebook has a repeated pattern of going too far infringing people's privacy and then apologizing [1], so why would anybody trust them not to abuse the permissions once they've been granted?

I just got a new Android phone and it was an easy decision not to install the Facebook app.

[1] http://allthingsd.com/20111129/the-apologies-of-zuckerberg-a...
Google Now is integrating some information extracted from the user inbox, when the received e-mail includes the right schemas:

https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/

By the moment it requires registration, but we are using it and works nicely. It's one step in the right direction, I suppose.
He could not clarify his views if they conflict with Mozilla's (if they're exclusionary). So if that was the reason, then that sort of clarifies his views, doesn't it?
I guess the /? in the url is here to defeat the dupe filter, but the site loaded much faster for me without it.
> Or try to find a better Fisher-Tropsch process

One major use of the Fischer-Tropsch process is converting coal (via gasification) into hydrocarbons and eventually fuel/petrol. This is a disaster for global warming because we have very large amounts of easily accessible coal available to turn into petrol. If you make FT easier you'll do more harm than good.
I have App Ops on my phone and Facebook app installed for a while. It says Facebook app read contacts recently. But it 'never used' other sensitive permissions, like read messages, call log etc. I agree that Facebook app probably should inform us why it actually needs these permissions.
I thought HL1 used quake 2 engine (or a modification of it), no?
2048: LoTR Edition