skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I am serious about this. I get this exact functionality with Perl, and I'm sure it's possible in Python and Ruby just as easily. Depending on where you want to draw the line, you can do this in Haskell (see xmonad and yi, for example), and even in C.

I like Lisp, but this is not particularly amazing.
I believe that in addition to the Olympics and paralympics there should be an 'enhanced' Olympics. Any artificial limbs, performance enhancing drugs, etc would be allowed. A celebration of human technological progress.
Remember that the FDIC is not funded by the government - it is funded by premiums that banks pay to get their "insurance". In this model SafeBank would have to pay a premium to the FDIC to get that insurance and as many small banks have found recently (when the premiums went up) those premiums are not insignificant. That's not to say that the government would not bail out the FDIC but to date there has been no reason to do so as they are completely funded by their clients...
Another point that the author fails to bring up is that there is no legit secondary market for ebooks, so you can't do the thing where you buy the hardcover at Costco, read it in a weekend, and resell it for about what you paid for it on half.com.
Gossipedia
I highly recommend PG's book of essays Hackers and Painters (it contains this essay).
How come every Communist regime comes so quickly and easily to the 'secret police' rule-by-fear?

Was every Communist movement that took power -- Lenin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh -- dominated by ruthless power-grabbers with no allegiance to Communist ideas except as a cynical route to power from the beginning?

(If in fact these ideas are so useful to ruthless power-grabbers, and so hard to implement 'in good faith', might that alone not discredit them? Attractive, in theory; but when you try to build a popular movement around them, nastier people than ever wind up on top.)

Why, when cracks in the secret police's power finally emerge, do the people embrace property, markets, and profits rather than a chance to finally implement 'Communism in good faith'?
Lesson for engineers: build lots and lots of debugging hooks and panic buttons into your systems. You'll need them.

I find it interesting that the initial problem amounted to what was basically a memory leak. It affects Martian rovers just as much as Firefox!

I also find it amazing that as of now, the Mars rovers have been working for over 2000 sols. For what was initially supposed to be a 90-day mission. When the blog post was written, they were at 937 sols and the author thought that was long.
The Price of Anarchy In Basketball
This is a long article but very useful, even if all you learn is how to use "git bisect".
programming clojure is good for java devs coming to clojure, functional programming, check this one out (http://learnyouahaskell.com/) for haskell
Little Schemer (and subsequent books are good too)
I personally started from the Little Schemer a few years back.
> Lolita took all of four months to write

Lolita took all of four months to type. It took years to create. (Phelps swims 100 yards so fast because he's trained for years.)
Yes. I apologize.
The comments here http://secularright.org/wordpress/?p=2373&cpage=1#commen... are even better than the essay (and it has the whole essay too). I liked the first commenter's "Crappipedia" and especially the third commenter's take on anonymous writing (which is why I started commenting everywhere with an accurate nickname, and have generally transitioned to using my full name).
Tari Pendet Diklaim Malaysia, Ganyang Malaysia Yuk?
Malaysia mengklaim tari pendet asal Bali yang dicantumkan dalam sebuah iklan "Visit Malaysia". Departemen Luar Negeri (Deplu) mengimbau untuk tidak mudah terprovokasi jika belum terbukti kebenarannya.
In the same snarky tone, I'd say it helps to easily identify masochists in a herd of brilliant programmers.
So Apple is evil.
With >600% YOY growth in iPhone sales, margins of approximately 36% and quarterly revenues/profit of $8.3/$1.2 bn, I think Apple can afford to hire and train plenty of people.

Recruiting, training and retaining 100 employees at a salary of $48k/yr - which seems like a pretty good starting wage to me - would only run them about $8-10 million a year, or ~0.2% of that profit margin. What the hell, double that amount if you need to rent/build a new office block for them. It would still pay itself in terms of positive press and developer relations.

40 reviewers each testing 40 apps per day is absurd, that's less than 15 minutes each. OK I know a lot of iPhone 'apps' do only one thing and have a novelty half-life of 90 seconds, but still.

These #s from http://www.macnewsworld.com/rsstory/67654.html
Ouch. My first negative.

Comefrom could be usefull to implement aspect oriented semantics.

Invisible asserts are also possible for debugging purposes, that don't pollute the codebase. They also don't self-document the code but (and I might be mistaken) PHP can't just optimize some statements out so as to not have them eat cycles like compiled langs.

Both of these could sit in separate modules and be coupled in or not depending on weather one debugs or deploys.
But honestly, what if I want this to happen?

Then honestly, buy a phone you have control over.
This is an easy to solve problem.

Duplicate phone functionality: Let the user decide which number they want to dial from by changing the Settings on the iPhone and thus making the iPhone capable of making and recieving the phones calls from either AT&T and Google.

Voicemail: Let both AT&T and Google store the voicemails at their own servers and push them down to iPhone.

SMS issue: Solution is same as voicemail. Let the user decide which number they want to send the SMS from, and let both Google and AT&T deliver the SMS to the iPhone Messages app.

This solution will allow for flexibility for both the users and the service providers.
> I think we could all imagine the darker side of a legal drugs industry. Off the top of my head, the vast sums of money

If you're going to "imagine" a legal drugs industry, shouldn't it be things that aren't true of the illegal one that we have now?

Illegal drugs are universally available. They are well marketed.

However, the local Coors and Bud distributors rarely shoot at one another. And, when their customers go broke, neither one of them kills said customers.
Dang, I was hoping this article would be about the difficulty of passing the Turing test.
Interestingly, nearly all ATMs (with the exception of privately-owned ATMs in bars, etc.) in the UK don't charge for services (for about five years now). However, I wonder whether an ATM owned by bank A charges bank B itself when bank B's customers withdraw cash at bank A's ATMs.
Try our monthly magazine for this topic
DGCmagazine http://www.dgcmagazine.com

(digital gold currency magazine)
Thoughts on .tel and WebFinger
This is a really interesting discussion, spurred by Dave Winer's posts on the need for a global namespace for dispersing microblogging away from centralised services:

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/08/06/anotherBrickInTh...

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/08/07/tradingOneCentra...

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/08/13/looselyCoupled14...

What's the best way to resolve simple usernames to feeds (and other endpoints)? .tel? webfinger? i-names? Something else? All of the above?
App Store Exposed: Notes Of Interest From Apple’s Statement To The FCC
A video of a laser doing crazy weird things
That IS an interesting point-- but if you're being rationale/calculating about this, I think you'd throw in the towel most of the time. As PG says, "Bad shit is coming". There is almost always a time where you say, "I think we're screwed," and a rationale person who rationally say that there was more opportunity elsewhere.

FWIW, I don't think that's the case here.
PC Pro’s top 10 hard disk destruction methods
Or as others have told us, when are you going to accept postcards and faxes as well? And what about phone calls - voice to text?
Have you tried this yet?
http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/EclipsePlugin
An Emptied Flask Makes for Empty Promises
I can see a great many people downloading it and then getting confused for a split second every day between the two and keeping track of what they were using each for. Over time that additional mental fatigue translates into lowered satisfaction with the device. It's similar to the fatigue of maintaining different versions/copies of anything in parallel - code, email inboxes, a story that you've told people about an event.

It's much simpler and less fatiguing to have one copy of any given thing. While I might chafe at their deciding this for me, I think their policy makes a certain amount of sense in the context of keeping (most of) their users loving their devices.
Only by the word "just" which could easily have been inserted by mistake.

"How much did you raise?"

"It's, um, shy of one million dollars."

Reporter writes "Am't raised: just shy of $1M" in notes.
I find it amusing that you carry a hp200lx yet describe the paper notepad as 'retro' :)

Do you just use it (the hp) as a todolist? Do you sync it with anything? What characteristics make it faster than a more modern PDA with a physical keyboard?
Paper Review of "Hints On Computer System Design"
Hard problem of consciousness raises questions of enormous practical importance
StreamToMe iPhone App Released
Apparently Google never said the app was rejected, they only said it had not been approved (which was 6 weeks after it had been submitted).
"I want nickb's"

Bah. I almost wish this place didn't have points, or at least didn't have them so visible. Just knowing they exist weighs on me, and discourages me from saying what I really think, towards what would be popular. I can't help it.
I said his opinion is bollocks.

I'm claiming that using self-recursion just makes sense. The inability to have a recursive implementation of fib(n) is a loss in both expressiveness and readability. Recursion is fundamental to computer science, and is often the best way to express many types of operations. So, in my opinion, if Guido really wants Python to be simultaneously readable, expressive and pragmatic, TCO is necessary, because recursion just plain rocks sometimes.
Small-scale drug posession legal in Mexico
I know... it's my strong belief that karma works best 'behind the scenes'. Even if the system in general would remain it would be nicer to disable the visible points next to each item & article header.

I wonder if the poster really would feel better with nickb's user id, after all he wouldn't actually be nickb...
So you'd tolerate your co-workers passive aggressive bullshit?

The "don't touch my screen" thing is fine by me, but that mardy shit can fuck off, either say it or get out.
A few years back, Linus and some kernel hackers had a good discussion about the good gotos vs. the bad gotos.

http://kerneltrap.org/node/553
New Media Conference & Competition organized by the Economist
I bet a lot of Basic code can be compiled to PHP just by changing the caps.
I think whether he spent 10 years on it or 15 minutes doesn't really matter, the work stands on its own, it is a creation. Sports as such - especially top sports where the 1/100th of a second counter makes the difference - does not create anything of inherent value.

The guinness book of records might make you believe otherwise, but it really does not matter who ran a little faster than his fellow humans.

Without Nabokov, Bach or van Gogh though, we'd all be a little poorer.
I agree, this sort of accountability is one of the reasons that I enjoy following Gruber's writing, and think that the "fanboy" label given to him by some detractors is not deserved.
What a weird title, especially on the day that the Apple & AT&T responses to the FCC have been made public.
This is awesome, I'm really enjoying the recent wave of great schools posting their full class lectures and materials online and specifically iTunes U.
Stanford's Iphone Application Programming class online, for free
Exceptions vs. goto-based cleanup is purely a matter of personal programming taste and habits. Gotos exist because there are people who find them convenient, and not because gotos are "legitimate" in the context of that particular programming language.

Making the language minimalistic is never a goal of a language design unless it's a Brainfuck. If it were a goal, there would've not been three loop constructs in any modern languages.
I caught in on the news earlier today. It's because she is a. significantly faster than her peers and b. looks , walks, and sounds like a man.
Loopt is supposedly profitable in 2009, which means they've had profitable quarters so far. Unless they do something that significantly causes money drain, they'll be able to continue for a long time. Hard to compare to TipJoy when the founders have said they were never pulling profit.
This is why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRTdsxjYbJA - from 1:30s halfway through the second lap, she pulls ahead as if she was ... well, a man running in the womens race.
Built a fouondation in Java, now what?
We built the foundation of our system in Java using Spring and Hibernate and exposing a nice service layer. We used a little bit of Struts for the early front end, but have only developed the tip of the front-end iceberg so far. Now we are at a fork in the road and would love to get your feedback.
When developing the front-end (a newspaper-like consumer site) should we:
1) Building it using Struts
2) Develop the site in PHP/Python/Ruby and have it talk to the Java service layer through some bridge technology (like http://php-java-bridge.sourceforge.net)
3) Dump what we've written so far and start from scratch (obviously a difficult one to choose)

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jay.
Some software industries - aviation and healthcare particularly, but also to a lesser extent finance - are regulated. And have strong cultures of culture. And it works - how often are plane crashes due to "pilot error" vs. due to "software error"?

For most things, though, that's just plain unnecessary. If my free web browser crashes - well, I'm a little annoyed, but I suck it up and restart the program. And I'd much rather use that free browser that crashes than wait until they can make it perfect and crash-free.

There's an opportunity cost to everything. Time spent making sure your program never crashes is time not spent on solving new problems, and it's likely those new problems are a lot more pressing than "I need to reboot Firefox every 2-3 days because it has such horrible memory leaks."
Startup Day 2009, Seattle, Sat 09/26/2009 - $100 registration ends today
Graph Theory in Practice (2000)
There are 14 focussed 20-minute talks. The event is in downtown Bellevue on Saturday, Sep 26, 2009, and is from 10 AM - 5 PM. The book, "Seattle Startup Guide 2010" is also being given away free for registrants. I'm hoping to see some others from HN over there :)

[Edit] Price rises to about $140 if you miss today's deadline for early-bird registration.
Your e-cash for the Internet must be transferrable in and out of your pocket as well. The same money you use on eBay should be usable at the convenience store. Mondex, etc. were the right idea (though tied to local currencies) but ahead of their time for the technology. Maybe time to start thinking along those lines again?
s/fouondation/foundation
Real Time Search Over Federated Networks
#2. In my experience, Java frontend development (particularly with Struts) is so painful that you'll almost always be better off with Django or Rails talking to a backend via some RPC technology. This also enforces a strict separation of UI logic from application logic. It'll slow you down at first, but your devs will thank you for that separation when they try to run analyses on the data you've accumulated in the app and have a nice API to work against rather than scraping HTML off the webserver. (If they're any good, they'll probably thank you for not having to work with Java web frameworks, too. ;-))
"We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things and yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy for us." -- Mark Twain
Malware Turns Software Compilers into Virus Breeders
Yeah, looking at my Canadian paychecks vs. American paychecks, it's basically a wash (you didn't mention the nightmare known as FICA). There are a couple of other things to consider - In Canada your healthcare is paid for by your taxes, but in the US sales tax is generally lower (and on some things like liquor and cigarettes, significantly lower).
They do have an existing, simple standard to transfer money. It's called ACH, and it's been around for decades. It works quite well.

ATM fees should not be run by separate companies -- then you'd have a company that would need to profit off ATM transactions, instead of using them as a loss leader, which means higher fees and more of them.

Credit cards can't be run by non-banks, b/c they are loans, and state and federal law limits the institutions that can issue variable-size loans.

Furthermore, the OAuth system would not work. Period. A customer being able to cut off the card issuer's access to their account? You would never get any card issuer to agree to use the system, because of the enormous potential for fraud (run up the bill, cancel the issuer's access before payment). BTW, you can already manage your card's limits -- just use the online portal, or call your company.

Finally, advertising is an overrated business model. Believe it or not, at some point, you need to make money off an actual valuable service or product. As mentioned above, transaction fees would need to be jacked up (for the institution to make money), eliminating any reduced costs benefit to consumers.
Really ? This beautifully straight answer does actually not cover the case of AT&T calling Apple and asking to not approve the GV:

* It would've not been an act of "Apple consulting with AT&T"

* It would've not been a contractual condition

* It would've not been a non-contractual understanding

It's all legal speak. Apple said what they had to say not to fan the flames.
Renthop inexplicably seems to think I want to move to New York. I presume this is just while they're testing, but still.

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention kijiji.com, which is very CL-like in terms of categories, has national reach, and is enjoying some traffic.

I personally don't like it because of the overly-colorful graphic design and the fact that it hasn't built a network effect yet (so CL is still better in terms of selection) but it does seem better in terms of searching and preventing spam.

However, Kijiji suffers from some major flaws...no dating categories (duh!), no way for users to flag, and they want to be the intermediary for all communications.

What's WRONG with CL? It's hideously ugly, the search function is a joke, and they exert little or no spam control (to the point that I can no longer stand looking for computer parts there). And yet...most people don't seem to care that much. Fast loading, heavy traffic, and guaranteed first-option in most US local jurisdictions seem to outweigh the negatives.
More to the point, why would he want to be? What is the actual value of HN karma, outside the confines of one's head? I know none of my friends could care less - in fact they'd probably call me an idiot for spending so much time here. And I would like to think HN members resist judging each other by their karma; except in extreme cases the text should stand by itself.

Still, the system does seem to work(1). Perhaps this eternal fight with the inner "karma farmer" demon is the price we have to pay for effective group moderation.

(1) Unfortunately, there is only one data point, insufficient to form any firm conclusions
Ask HN: If you had to remake ratemyprofessors.com, what would you write it in?
I chose the website as an example because what I'm working on would be laid out in a very similar way, and we're not quite sure what to code it in. That said, what would you write it in?
Thanks in advance
I was (am?) still confused by this. I had assumed all this time that the FCC questions were regarding the approved-then-removed GV Dialer application.

My understanding is that on other platforms, the Google Voice dialer does actually hijack the actual phone application. (see [1] for a testimonial) To do that, you would need to reach into unauthorized API's. Google has done that in the past and gotten away with it. They used the proximity sensor to detect when they were near the user's ear for their search app. In my reading of it, Apple is implying that this is what the Google app does, and seemingly wants you to connect those dots to the other three apps.

If it is the case that they are reaching into unofficial API's, then Apple had every right to deny that application. What I still don't have an answer for is why was GV Dialer approved and later pulled?

[1] http://www.joyent.com/joyeurblog/2009/08/03/why-apple-probab...)
Thanks to the HN community
For the past two months, I have been lurking in and about the HN community as a "noobie," making a few submissions and a fair number of comments on topics to which I felt I could contribute, even as a non-technical person.

I am now constrained to "sign off" for the time being. I did not want to do so without saying thanks to you all for your graciousness. I have felt most welcomed here, even as one who is not strictly a hacker, though I have concluded on my own that I am misplaced as a general contributor to the site.

I do hope to contribute or comment occasionally in the future on startup law-related items, as time may permit. Thanks again and bye for now.
duplicate of http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=771940
See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=650027
You seem to be confusing state law with federal law, and how preemption applies.

Banks are governed first and foremost by state law. State banking laws are very easy to adhere to. State/local banks do not have to be FDIC insured.

HOWEVER, once the state tries to offer services over state lines (to out-of-state customers, or out-of-state locations), then federal laws kick in. (Federal laws automatically kick in if a bank reaches a certain size.) Federal laws also apply to transactions between banks, where either bank is subject to federal laws (or if one bank is in a different state from another).

Finally, you vastly overestimate the lobbying prowess of national banks. Local/state banks have significantly more influence with politicians b/c they are in-state institutions (i.e., profits get taxed by that state; their executives are local businessmen instead of New Yorkers).
Gruber makes many good choices, this being one of them. But his writing is overwhelmingly pro-Apple. You can call it being a fanboy or not, it's up to you.

Separately, I'd probably be as inclined to believe the source as I would Apple's public response.
The fear of a terrorist attack isn't really a reason not to do things. And it's not like it hasn't happened before, remember the madrid (commuter train) and london (subway) bombings?
It's usually pretty easy to spot bad PHP code anyway. Just open it in a text editor.
Django, for sure.

The docs are awesome, and it's getting momentum. It's simple to get started(the admin feature provides you free CRUD), runs on sqlite that's bundled with python >2.5 and it's written in Python :-)
Hmmm... wonder how Tipjoy would work folded into Disqus or somthing like that...
I've been thinking about this, I suppose I'm going to definitely put that on the possible list. Thanks!
good overview. Hopefully, the FCC will decide that the iPhone belongs to the user once its purchased and not Apple. If the user decides to change the user experience or even brick their device, that's their choice.
If you are raising an error/exception, shouldn't you be doing that explicitly, instead of just outputting catch all error handling at the end of the routine?

Otherwise, we may as well just do: "on error resume next :-)"