skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's cool that people are pulling this off, but I can't help but wonder if they're asking the wrong question: "can we?" instead of "should we?"

Maybe this is just meant as a proof of concept. In that case, it's great. But if it's meant to be a useful way to find restaurants and get reviews, I think there are much better interfaces for that. Including existing apps.
Twitter Retweet API is all about TweetRank
http://www.amazon.com/D-Connie-Willis/dp/1596061200/ref=sr_1...

It is a pretty awesome job. Most people who come to the library really want to be there. But there's lots of drunks, homeless and otherwise unpleasent people as well. Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.
In other news, Microsoft considers addition 'interesting'.
Gizmodo is just guesstimating Christmas 2009 so Jan/Feb 2010 could still be correct
Tell HN: Read the FAQ before submitting
There's an FAQ, with submission guidelines:
http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

The list isn't long, it isn't hard to follow. Yet several recent submissions have managed to ignore even this short list of examples of what not to do.

For instance:

- politics

- titles with "10 great ways to do X", when "ways to do X" is enough

- titles that include the name of the source web site (redundant)

- not using the original source (submitting a duplicate URL automatically forwards you to the original post, so we shouldn't be able to see the same topic 4 times)

My mouse is worn out from all the "flag" clicking. :) Please, be kind to your community, and read the half-page of guidelines.
U.S. tests system to break foreign Web censorship
I love Fall. All the colors and a bit of a cold nip in the air ... the really unusual lights ... yellows and darks ... uncommon moods ... brown packages of straw, too.
Deletionist rational that makes sense. "not having bogus articles" that one statement is causing me to seriously doubt my inclusionist position.
So, you're saying, "I liked you better before you sold out?" There's a t-shirt for that: http://store.dieselsweeties.com/products/liked-you-better-be...
The bad: I think it will result in even more retweets. The nice: No duplicate RTs. The good: It will be a lot easier to filter them out completely.
Well, not sci-fi, but still somehow geeky - when I was a kid, I enjoyed "Three Investigators" series:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Investigators

Also, you can introduce him to some excellent Ostblock sci-fi authors:

Stanislav Lem: "The Cyberiad" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cyberiad)

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: "Monday Begins on Saturday" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Begins_on_Saturday)
Is it that "when men in general are between 20 and 50," or is it "the specific group of men who are now between 20 and 50?"

The article seems more focused on the second, having interviewed 500 specific people this one time. I wonder if there's something different about this specific cohort, or if that's just what tends to happen to men in that age group.

I've read fiction my entire adult life. I'm 50+ male.
I miss Flooz too.
The threat that machines will make working at McDonalds economically non-viable, resulting in a large number of people who prefer not to work, is speculative.

The threat that generous welfare payments will make working at McDonalds economically non-viable, resulting in a large number of people who prefer not to work, is real. We have been there, done that, and gotten the T-shirt.

Given the option (which existed prior to the Clinton-era welfare reforms) of living on government support supplemented by various economically marginal activities versus having to actually show up 9 o'clock in the morning every single day, many millions of people were content to choose to not work.

(If I had young kids, I'd rather spend time with them than work, too. It is unsurprising to me that many people who had that option availed themselves of it.)
A nice (though hella-long) follow-up to this thought: http://lesswrong.com/lw/xy/the_fun_theory_sequence/
What it boils down to, is that systems programming is no longer a necessity for certain kind of start-ups. The applications most people were writing in Turbo C++ were, in some cases, simpler than CRUD screens in PHP. If anything, PHP is today's Basic: the language that kids start with.

There's still however systems programming going on, but in the area of client-server communications (RPC/serialization frameworks), distributed computing, storage systems. There's also great deal of algorithm development going on in the areas of machine learning and information retrieval. Just these challenges don't always occur in early-stage companies.

On the other hand, people are also doing a lot more than the early 90s/late 80s hackers couldn't on personal PCs: domain specific languages, functional programming.
Sounds like we all grew up and most of us got day jobs.

EDIT: That sounds more dismissive than I meant. The post is a great read, I miss the old days too.
The big ideas of the day is a PHP database CRUD application that displays everyone's colleges and geographical networks, with full names and whose purpose essentially, is a repository for pictures of inebriated hot chicks. Apparently, the new new thing is now this CRUD forum database application that has a character-limit of 120 words per post, but get this, it's written in a really cool language called Ruby on Rails, a la AutoTune in Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak.

This really strikes home for me. Hacking used to be very intellectual, especially in the open source world. Robert Morris created the first worm as a test to see how large the Internet was. RMS hacked out Emacs (mostly) on his own to build a Lisp interpreter/text editor. Linus made Linux so he could experiment with Unix for free.

Sometimes I get the feeling these days that hacking is becoming too market and business oriented and not about the fun intellectual challenge anymore.

That said, I do think that it is really more of an evolution instead of a redefinition. I'm not sure that it's all bad and in some cases it's good; many startups have a really clever idea about software or technology behind them. Maybe it's that hacking is now about finding new and clever ways to integrate technology and computing into our lives instead of finding clever things in technology. In essence, maybe it's about writing for the world instead of writing for the programmer.

I'm not sure this is correct, but thoughts/comments are welcome (even from me, I might come back and edit this later as I think about it more).
When you can get 40% off the retail price of basic medicine because you can negotiate drug prices en-masse, let me know.

Or how about when making sure education reaches everyone's hands.

See, the funny thing about people defending libertarian positions is that if they hadn't lived in a country with a public education infrastructure, roads, fire brigade and energy, it would be very unlikely that they'd had the capacity to acquire the knowledge and stability they'd need to become what they are today.

The inescapable fact is that they did nothing to "deserve" their health care of education through their infancy, yet it's one of the core reasons they got here, and they have the gall to complain about it.

Evidenced by the high standards of living in countries which do have social infrastructure (and yes, it exists, no need to put quotes around it) it works, and works reasonably well.

Doing infrastructure planning and development for millions of people kicks in economies of scale which are unachievable otherwise. History has effectively shown that social benefits that guarantee a minimal level of rights for education and health have dramatic effects in social mobility and overall quality of life.
That's not the point. It is interesting, from a programming language theory perspective, that Perl 5 can not be parsed statically. The person who wrote the proof sketch cares very much about the practical implications of that theoretical result because he's writing Perl parsing libraries.

Also, what you're describing is no longer static parsing.
This reminds me of something I read years ago. If you move to a small town or rural area with a lot of former hippes and rednecks and want to do something different, usually the rednecks don't have a problem with it, it's the "free-thinking" former hippies that set themselves up as the aesthetics police and harass anyone doing anything they think "unattractive".
All of the enders game series including the shadow of ender books are great.

I'd also recommend the lensemen series by e.e. doc smith.

Lord of the Rings

Alas Babylon
I've read it. I wish more people were asking the questions asked by Eliezer.
When were media publications about hacker culture so popular anyways? It's true that there has been a boom is online social interaction even among the more "secluded geeky" types in the recent years, but it's also true that "black hat" hackers are now more sophisticated than ever: never before have we heard of things like automated patch-diffing exploits.

This "evolution" doesn't just apply to criminals. in the scholar community, there are plenty of security researchers writing all sorts of papers on the most obscure aspects of computing, and even outside that, there are still those hobbyists who passionately like to explore the limits of our systems, even if only on their spare time. The magnitude and scope of our systems may have become more accomodating to the mainstream culture, but the hacker culture continues to live just as strong, as you put it, "typing silently the night away".
I read fiction up until 18 because it was forced upon me at school.
Agreed. I don't find the majority of modern bands make music worthy of an entire album to listen to, in order.
Asimov's short stuff is much better than his novels. It's not SF, but you might try his Black Widower stories, I think there are 3 or 4 collections of them, they're short brain-teaser stories.
Words change meaning. It doesn't mean the underlying realities have changed. (Though it doesn't disprove it, either.)

I mean, I almost feel bad obviating your entire post, but you're just playing games with the semantics of the word "hacker", not observing useful phenomena. I even think that part of the semantic drift is quite possibly just reflecting a drift in the places you hang out, rather than fundamental changes in the real world.

If you want to go find those hackers, I'm sure you can still find them. I'm not very interested, myself, but I'm pretty sure they're still out there. Not so much on web forums, though.

In the meantime, if you want to do "hackery" things by pretty much any definition, you can find people to do it with online. The existence of "posers" doesn't make the real people go away.
I've recently dealt with Red Gate's support team for a minor issue I was having (I couldn't find my serial number), and I honestly can't remember the last time I've had such a good experience with any support anywhere. They even followed up with an email a few days later.

They seem like a really stand-up bunch of people (and I really like SQL Compare as well).
Hackers were the children of a certain generation, who spent their adolescence tinkering with systems and prodding networks, hiding their identities because of a lack of confidence that their "true self-image" had value. They instead created alter-egos that did amazing things, and participated in spreading a mythology so they could feel the same twinge of celebrity and status that the real, socially-connected people felt when they left their basements.

Then those hackers grew up, got jobs, and started making real social connections. They learned that it's much more fun when people get to know the real you, when you can cooperate on projects with other brilliant minds instead of competing in secret, and that the UI (or even marketing) of something can affect its contextual "meaning" just as much as its technical design does (e.g. text messages and IM conversations are basically the same thing—but you use them for different things, at different times. This is, oddly, a sort of postmodernism.)

Inspired by their newly discovered social reality, and the suddenly-available power of the Internet to achieve it, the focus of hacking turned from "technical hacks", (which stood on their own and, as much as they positively benefitted you, never benefitted anyone else, and possibly harmed them) to "social hacks", which revealed that it was possible to have a non-zero-sum game, a program that benefits both you, and other people, because of the new interactions conceivable through it.
Not to sound dismissive but honestly who cares if most hackers have sold out? Who cares if the culture is changing? Hacking was never about a culture, it was about making cool stuff because you feel like it. Hackers don't need cultures, they don't need main stream media attention. The beauty of the "culture" (for want of a better term) is that it is really a culture of one, however you decide to define it is ok. Hacker really is a loose phrase for anyone who makes cool stuff for no other reason than they want to.

This is just my definition but I will admit I missed the 80's and most of the 90's.
There's a difference between the word "hacking" as defined by mainstream culture and the concept/ethos of hacking.

The former has definitely been diluted. But the latter is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof (apologies to Alan Moore).

If you want to know the internals of a project/framework, other people's perceptions of what 'hacking' means doesn't stop you from looking at the code (assuming foss).

You say "Does anyone really understand the internals of Ruby on Rails". Well, go look at it and understand it. Then look at the MRI and JVM implementations of Ruby -- and understand those. You can keep drilling all the way down until you're generating assembly.

The majority of your complaints is that the industry has moved in the direction of the assembly line. That may be the natural gravitation, and you may just be filling in a spot at work. But no one can stop you from learning the lower level details on your own time.

Read the linux and bsd kernel mailing lists. Find some irc channels for embedded systems. Check out what people are doing with CUDA. By definition, the mainstream will always bubble up on social aggregators. If you look elsewhere, you'll find the hacker culture is alive and well.
I was unaware that inanimate objects can be morally bad. when guns aren't available in africa villages are simply butchered with machetes. at least a gun can be used equally well by a woman or child as well as a man.

there is a simple solution: don't do business with people who use force, since there is no indication they won't eventually use force on you. do not do business with people who do business with people who use force, they aren't very bright for the above mentioned reason.
I actually have a lot more respect for people who come here and type their heart out in the open for no other reason than bringing in content and sharing their ideas.

Getting a blog is lame compared to that. You get a blog to get ads and attention and a following.

On the contrary, noname123, came here, created an account, and wrote his/her heart out for nothing. Expecting nothing, wanting nothing except to be honest and straight forward with an opinion -- a valid opinion and an astute observation of a topic that the real hackers are feeling inside.

Hacking is dying. It has taken an outsider, a liberal artsie fartsie to tell us the truth about it. To point out the absurdity.

I went to sxsw interactive this year and was appalled at what I saw. There were few hackers there. Most of them were socialites running around promoting their word press blog or django customization. These people didn't know anything about hacking. Perhaps it was the wrong venue, but the art and the culture and the expertise of real hacking is probably already dead.

It's too easy now. You don't have to love hacking to build something with computers. You don't have to have passion to build, you just throw some parts together, copy and paste some graphics and change the colors in photoshop to match a named swatch you found at colourlovers.

It's kind of sad.
I upvoted because I have to agree. With that said, if I were really concerned about information, or the quality of the information, I would go to a legitimate source rather than some place that allows people with huge egos to decide what is and is not worthy of a quick internet search. But perhaps that point of view breaks the tradition of the Internet.
FIXED: FacebookConnect for the iPhone has UID Overflow Bug
Dogma and cruelty kill, not technology
I went to sxsw interactive this year...

I think you went to the wrong place.
I've been in roles where sales reps from various OS companies, and I've been asking them about their sales processes. I think that most sales are of the "we tried it, liked it, are using it, and now we want a support contract" sort. However, I think that JBoss often goes into large organizations where the maintenance fees on Weblogic, etc. exceed the annual support costs for their OS replacements. I'm also told that OS offerings like Hyperic do well because operations groups have more money to spend than development groups, and their asses are on the line to keep stuff working.
I wouldn't call myself a hacker simply because I don't like being labeled. I like being different, for better or for worse.
I've heard this line hundreds of times before. Hacking is not dead. Something can't be killed if you have the ability to turn on your computer and start doing right away. If you are concerned about whether hacking is alive or dead, perhaps you should fire up your computer and bring it back to life. It's that simple.
Hi Octopart guys,

My company buys millions of dollars of electric components per year. Our products go into potentially explosive locations, so our quality and certification standards are very high.

One requirement put on us by the certification bodies is that we maintain full traceability of parts. We need to know that the chip we bought is the exact same make and model as the one the certification body tested when they examined our product.

Now maintaining this paperwork is a nightmare. We buy dozens of critical components per board, many thousands of boards per year, and all from multiple suppliers. Further compounding the issue, we have multiple sub-contractors around the globe also purchasing components to place on boards for us. For ten years after we ship a product we need to be able to look up Fuse 1 on serial number XYZ123 and know the part came from the part manufacturer listed in the certification document.

I really wish that there was a part supplier that would maintain all of this paperwork for me, and all that I had to do 10 years from now was match up my customer sales order with POs made to get the parts in house. I log into your site, type in my real old PO number, and then BAM, my traceability data shows up, RoHS compliance data shows up, SVHC conformity data shows up, etc.

Extra bonus if I can upload my BOMs to your site and just place POs for top level assemblies, and your servers handle ordering the parts online or sending automated emails/faxes on my behalf with my company letterheard to the parts suppliers.

This is probably way out there to what your business model is. Half of this is venting on my part as I struggle to deal with this major supply chain issue. Someone should start this business. I should start this business.
The last comment is from a Facebook employee:

Malorie Lucich Says:
August 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Hi,

I wanted to share the latest on the SDK:

The bug in the Facebook Connect for iPhone SDK has been fixed. Developers can download an updated, more scalable code from http://svn.facebook.com/svnroot/platform/clients/packages/. iPhone applications integrated with Facebook Connect will continue to function as normal.

Thanks,
Malorie
Facebook
If you think that an hacker is a criminal that hides behind its CRT monitor, than you never knew what being a hacker means.

You're just mad because those damn kids stole your cool.

"I was really into Nirvana but then MTV came along and made it mainstream so I stopped listening to them. Sellouts!"
Virtualization's Next Big Leap will Transform IT
Hacker Dojo, finally a hangout where coders can go 24/7
Apple, AT&T sued for lack of MMS capability
Malware just need a C2 for a day or two and then they mve along to another. The days of clinging on to one source are long gone. Please see http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/homeusers/media/press-relea...
I (male, 41) have stopped reading fiction at one point (was only rereading some). Then, after several years, I joined a group of friends in a book club which forced me to read new fiction books. I enjoy discussing what I have read more than reading it, though.
I went to DEFCON. The signal-to-noise ratio is kind of meh.
I have to cosign this notion. I am a 28 year old man, and I have always not liked fiction. I only read non-fiction. It is most interesting to me, and I enjoy learning, and like to learn from people and things that have actually occured. At this age, I am extremely focused on my career (aka: business), and therefore I read mostly non-fiction business related books. And just because thats what I'm interested in, I dont think my preference will change even as I grow out of the 20-50 year old bracket.
I spend my time reading books on mathematics, finance, or programming. If I'm going to escape from nonfiction, it's going to be through a movie.
No, I'm not looking into getting into ecommerce as I have neither the time (I start my masters program in two weeks) nor the money (I start my masters program in two weeks). Just thought it might make interesting conversation.
too good to be true?
And when they don't take care of themselves?

And really? you see no correlation between the internet bubbles and India's recent economic growth?
Video seem to be loading for ever. wtf?
Thanks, my concept of introspection borders on meditation. Looking at an idea detached to see it as it is. Then feeding that back into my thoughts on what is good or bad, or whatever may be troubling me. Though I admit, I have taken it too far in the circular non-direction before breaking out before. But that's what I used to enjoy about introspection. Once you found a circle in your reasoning it gives you an opportunity to step out and examine what is causing you to reason in circles. Thus allowing you to glimpse the restrictions of your categories. Thanks for pointing out the danger of categorizing within our experiences. That is a much more pressing fault to me.

(I knew the definitions in theory, but I questioned them in practice; I don't meditate.)

[edit: You know, after watching the TED speech on success, and a bit of introspection, I see where you are coming from. Introspection has pulled me out of a depression, but it has also contributed to my high difficulty relating to other people. I guess I just reacted to the phrase "'highly' overrated". Which just reinforces my thought that most non-measurable disagreements between people are a failure to communicate effectively.]
Apple needs to move away from exclusivity. Networks would be falling over themselves to cater for iPhone users if there was a choice in the matter.
Video looks good to me.
What are you talking about?

I was unaware that inanimate objects can be morally bad.

I don't remember saying anything remotely like that. I was talking about selling guns to both sides in an armed conflict for profit. Every comment you seem to change the topic a little bit more.
Finally, someone thinks like I do! It's amazing to see that people from outside of America think along the lines of preventing government from overstepping its boundary while many Americans, (NOTE: I am American), are happily starting to let the government intervene in their life.