skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That's wholly untrue. Yes, the tax preparation industry has made token donations to efforts to preserve the current tax code.

But I would argue that the failure of tax reform is not so simple. Major tax reform is a massive, massive legislative undertaking. And doing so redefines many of the basic American incentives. Having your say in tax reform is the equivalent of leaving your mark on the next 20-30 years of American society.

Suffice to say, the massive polarization of our Legislature, combined with the hyper-efficacy of Senate obstruction, and finished off with the fact that tax reform is hard to campaign on means that there is no real incentive for our legislators to reform. But sure, a token campaign contribution making up a miniscule fraction of total donations doesn't hurt...
Special offer for Hacker News Readers on iOS Course [kickstarter] Please +1
We'll be sending out emails before the end of the day PST. Definitely after 7pm PST.
A plug adapter doesn't have to be as large as a transformer.

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/theshorelinemarket_2310_643977735

Inelegant? Sure. Large? No.
I've struggled with procrastination for years, and a few months ago started using Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain" method[1]. This works for me:

- Prep: Define my chain goals in a spreadsheet (like "work on project A at least one hour per day") with a row for each day to track the chain.

- Execution: As soon as I sit down at the computer, start up a timer to track my work that is visible running right there below my screen, put on my headphones, and listen to Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" on continuous loop.

- Wrapup: Whenever I'm done working, log the time in my spreadsheet and mark the X to keep the chain going.

Something about the timer running and the song playing just kicks me into gear. Usually after the first ten minutes or so, I'm in the zone pretty solidly and can even switch playlists if I'm so inclined (don't usually bother though because I'm usually just focused on the task at that point).

The key is just starting and then the positive inertia takes over. So even if I only need to do 30 minutes to satisfy the chain, it usually lasts at least a couple hours once I'm on a roll.

[1]http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...
Same here. Added an extra clock on my systems, just to keep track of time there.
To me it always seemed like DevOps is about Devs who do Ops.

Like, I could use an Op for my stuff, but I also could automate "him" away.

When I was studying CS, there were a bunch of people, who didn't like to code, so they became Ops.

If Ops is now about programming, they can't even resort to this branch of CS...
I may have overstated then.

From rwmj's comment that "every distro except Ubuntu has to set up an external CI server in order to get their drivers and changes in" I gathered that Ubuntu was the distro of choice for CI, so that's what I should have written: for CI. I didn't mean to say that Ubuntu is the OpenStack project's preferred choice for deployment.
I find the "well then just pay your taxes" answers to be on the same level of "well if you have nothing to hide...".

You can be a honest and tax-paying citizen of society and still get audited. There's always the chance that there may be a mistake somewhere. The US tax code is not simple. Even if you shell out $20-$80 a year to do it via TurboTax, H&R Block, whatever, there's always room for a mistake.

And even if there are no mistakes, simply being told you are being audited would make most people's heart skip a beat.

The article didn't quite cover what approach the IRS is using.. Whether they are taking already flagged people and getting more info via social network profiles, or if they are using social network profiles and using that as a deciding factor on if one should be audited or not.

The former I don't have much of an opinion on. The latter I don't like the sound of one bit.
The Big Growth Opportunity That Netflix is Missing
Except it's exactly the same.
Just because society has been getting gradually coarser for years doesn't mean we should dance with joy when the next step downward comes along.
Galaxy S5 Fingerprint Scanner Hacked, PayPal Payments At Risk
I have a somewhat different mindset. "As a developer, I am a demonstrably capable sysadmin, but the organization's discrete silos have made it impossible for me to contribute to ops"
Mint is misleading users about Heartbleed (and may still be vulnerable)
Hi! I'm the developer of GCC Explorer and ... sorry for the slow service! This is the second time I've made it on HN - thanks for all your support. GCC Explorer runs on an Amazon EC2 instance and my "secondary" instance that I spin up from time to time is woefully out of date...
I have. It will be posted on GitHub as soon as I have a bit of free time. I want to make sure the code is well commented & readable.
I don't think that there is much that the major PC brands can do to prevent the device from powering their future devices. However, you are right that a certain a certain amount of risk exists and I don't think that one would actually save a lot of money by ordering early. Given that they use no custom electrical components (according to the project description), $89 seems like quite a hefty price. I assume that by the time the device is mass produced its price will be lower due to pressure from competitors.
Yes, I'm really just reinforcing your point. These examples of historic, static landmarks are relatively new.
Agreed! It's on the backlog of TODOs! Patches welcome, of course :)
Open Rights Group – Stop UK Internet Censorship – Crowd Funding Project
They actually do get a mention in the article.

The venture capitalists who’ve sunk tens of millions into
Cheiky’s startups have a lot to lose if his suspect science
is discovered — exposing Cheiky might stop him from raising
money again, but it would also tarnish their reputations.
None of the firms who backed Cheiky would speak with The
Verge about him on the record, but several shared negative
impressions on background. Unlike many serial entrepreneurs,
who return to previous investors for favorable terms,
Cheiky’s last three startups all have a very different set
of backers.

Seems they're just playing the same game.
You're not the only one!

I've had to put a variety of "anti-hacker" features into the public instance, even though it runs on a (somewhat) throwaway EC2 instance.

Check out the source, and the LDPRELOAD stuff I do to try and make the compilers vaguely secure...!
This is a really good post, if only because it reiterates that code isn't the only way to help an open source project.
To get around the Apple patent, they should have made the device compatible with a cigaratte lighter socket or the old-school plane power socket, which would enable customers to buy the official Apple Travel Adapter. This is how HyperJuice has done it.

Additionally, If you have a MacBook Air it doesn't seem significantly enough smaller than the 45W MBA power brick - not to justify the higher price, anyway.

UPDATE: meant 45W, not 65W, corrected
Definitely was - I do do a lot of long distance running, but I'm hesitant on laying out $1500 + cost of lenses.

I think I'll hold off a little longer, but I could see myself purchasing one at some point.

Thanks!
Open Rights Group – Help us to re-start the debate about Internet filters
Very nice product. I have an (fairly) old compaq laptop with a built in adapter and even though its heavier than it should be, pluging the cable is a delight.

I use the HN facebook feed (yes I do) and there is no direct link on it, just the video (maybe specific to KS?).
Also the music in the video is distracting. It is way overcompressed.
I am pretty sure they are talking about diamagnetics. Bismuth demonstrates this, and graphene also. These are materials that are repelled by a magnetic field.
Because who made it decided he liked to do it with js instead of serving static html. There is nothing wrong with that. It's not an api, it's designed to be consumed by browsers. And browsers have js enabled by default and make it very difficult to disable it. It's a problem only for you because you willingly decided to browse in crippled mode.
Betterment Secures $32M in Funding
While similar, Serf and Etcd solve a different problem. Etcd is strong consistent (all nodes will see the same data, however a partition may cause the system to not accept writes) while Serf is eventually consistent (all nodes are not guaranteed to see the same data, however the system will always accept writes)

So somethings like a distributed lock is impossible to implement with Serf.
The simulation is always done with the same time resolution (time step). What the speed factor does is just change how many integration steps are taken between frames, so speed should indeed not affect the evolution.

If you have a reproducible case, let me know.
No, this is: "if you have something to hide you should take care to hide it."
I think that you might have just been insulated from the large parts of Polish software industry which straight up wouldn't hire someone who doesn't speak Polish. And it's not just some small shops doing websites for locals, some of the projects I've been on had hundreds of developer-years worth of work in them, tens of thousands of pages of documentation - and were being performed in Polish exclusively.

For a foreigner, IMO the best bet would be to get work at places like R&D centers for Google, ABB, Motorola, IBM (all in Cracow), Intel (Gdansk), Samsung (Warsaw), Nokia (Wroclaw). Since they're multinationals, English shouldn't be a problem.
Will there be an option to turn this off?
Except that I don't evade taxes, and I don't want the IRS using my online presence to profile me and decide if I fit the profile of a tax evader.
It depends on whether or not they mean "a plug adapter" as being 'swap out the existing plug with an interchangeable fascia' or an external adapter such as tourists use. The latter is not a solution.
As a guy who dabbles in hardware this is a really cool, toying with my side smart watch idea (timepiece.io) may be somewhere good to test out what other IC people think of something like this!
You're missing the obvious here: they have no idea what they're doing. Which is pretty evident from every aggrandizing post on their blog.
FWIW, one more data point on this: I haven't tried using Glass while working out. I always leave it at home when I go to the gym, mostly because I just assumed that getting my sweat all over it isn't great for its longevity. It doesn't feel very rugged (but I've accidentally sat on it quite a few times with no apparent harm).
Lob (YC S13) is hiring its first Growth Engineer
Lob is hiring its first Growth Engineer. If you are interested, please email jobs@lob.com with your resume, Github, and any personal projects (blog posts, open source, speaking, etc.) you are proud to share.

Background

Lob (YC S13) is creating a suite of cloud APIs for businesses to enhance their operations. Our first API is a print and mail API. Our API is the AWS of printing, it enables companies to integrate printing directly into their web/mobile application We’ve been featured prominently on Angellist and recognized as one of the 10 hottest startups. We’re profitable and growing fast.

Position Overview

We are seeking a Growth Engineer that has a passion to find repeatable and scalable ways to increase customer growth and conversions.

You will be one of the first engineers to join and as such will have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the future of Lob.

Responsibilities

-Analyze our customer funnel, identify barriers, and implement solutions at each step along the way.

-Understand and improve user signup and API integration flow

-Use data and analysis to help impact business decision making

-Integrate A/B tests across the application and create deterministic ways to identify success/failure

-Implement strategies to acquire users, increase conversion and engagement among current users.

Requirements

-Experience with Node, Angular, PostgreSQL, HTML/CSS

-Fluent with multi-variant testing, and conversion analytics tools.

-Knowledge of delivering and measuring the success of onsite advertising, off-site syndication, or email marketing is a bonus

Benefits

-Health benefits for you and your dependent(s).

-Open vacation policy.

-Commuter benefits.

-Free lunch, dinner, and snacks. (Our fridge is always stocked!)

-Ground floor opportunity as an early member of the Lob team; you'll directly shape the direction of our company.
I remember taking Moore's grad level Machine Learning course in 2005 (was co-taught with Tom Mitchell). I have great memories from that course, especially interactions with my fellow robotics friends: Mark Palatucci (now a co-founder and officer at Anki), Geoffrey Hollinger (now a professor at Oregon State), and Jon Huang (now a postdoc at Stanford).

Moore gave us a very intuitive way to understand machine learning algorithms, and Mitchell gave us a more theoretical account. I remember working with Jon Huang on a Latent Dirichelet Allocation algorithm implementation for the final project. It was a lot of fun and very intense at the same time. Such great memories!

Moore have me an excellent foundation of concepts, and I'm really glad for CMU to have such a respectable figure back on campus.

I expect great things for CMU, especially Robotics and Machine Learning!
I deal with 3 tax agencies every year. I submit my personal and my business's tax returns to the British HMRC as that's where I live. I deal with my home country's (Hungary) tax agency too for various, boring reasons. And, ultimately, as I tend to do my wife's tax returns as well and she's a citizen of the United States I file taxes with the IRS.

I don't know how else I could put this: the US tax system is absolutely insane. It's several orders of magnitude more complicated than any other I'm familiar with. It's simply ridiculous. It's really, really bad.
They always audit your tax, no matter what. I just got audited and boom they wanted $63 more. Whatever you paid this year, a few years later they will review again...
Richard Hamming – You and Your Research
Suppose we throw the concept of a Sundown Town (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town) into the mix.

It seems reasonable to me that laws or policies that favor people who have been residents of a town for a longer period of time could be used to preserve Sundown Towns. It's fairly easy to see how these policies would benefit those who seek de facto segregation.
I wonder if tax credits on mortgage payment interests is a contributing blocker to tax reform. If they got rid of it, buying and owning a house would be so much more expensive. It would make renting more worth it.
It does suck, and I can't imagine anybody wants to be audited, and there can be mistakes. That's the cost of any government bureaucracy, I'd wager.

But I'm not clear why it's unsettling to use social networking posts—that is, public broadcast publishing by individuals—as a source of information. It's as legitimate as any other.
Well with the rate Ubuntu changes core services I don't see how you could view this as a stable server platform in the least.
Well, there's always the patent itself :) http://patents.justia.com/patent/8542509
First gen hardware product that's innovative and accomplishing something the hardware manufacturers haven't yet. A slightly uglier version isn't really a big deal when, if they're successful, they'll be able to start offering proper international versions. Remember, this is a hardware Kickstarter. The number of different and short production runs to support the variety [1] of sockets makes their proposal far more reasonable and cost-effective (for the first production run). This way, they make one device modulo the outside casing and the limited run Macbook compatible ones.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#Type...
No, like actual the actual moonshot. No one really knows that Google X is working on, and this is the first media visit to the lab, so it is hardly just PR stunts.
The funny thing is, they were worried about concurrent programming in the 80s too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transputer

Guess what, there was no real crisis then either...
Network of 75 Million Neurons of the Mouse Brain Mapped for the First Time
but dont they already have a different R and D department for "usefull" products ? (mentioned in article)
Best way to get me to buy one... Let Ken Shirriff do a teardown. He's done some amazing work analyzing various AC-DC adaptors [1-2].

[1] http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-ap...

[2] http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-...
There's a difference between walking to your house exhausted and walking for no reason. I like to go for a run everyday, I feel good after it. Never tried yoga, and don't have any plans to try it.
Great product. Cant help but feel this will be extremely losable, if consumers are anything like me..
Oh, brother. I -- like everyone else in the Bay Area -- also say "the East Bay", "the Peninsula", "the North Bay", "the South Bay" and "the Central Valley" -- even though all of these things are just nouns with minimal adjectives that aren't unique to the Bay Area. (Hell, even "Bay Area" isn't unique to the Bay Area.) So yes, I (again, like everyone around here) say "the City" -- and I know that New Yorkers and Londoners and many others say the same when they're talking about their burg. But this story wasn't a story about New York or London or whatever -- it was about San Francisco, which to me is the City. And if you can find it within yourself to abide my my use of the City in this context, I'll return the favor when we're talking about where you live by letting you refer to it as you do!
Well... I see the next Firefox "feature" that will need to be disabled.
I haven't considered that: porting the variety of compilers to Javascript is a bit tricky. Plus the closed-source Intel compiler wouldn't be an option. It's an interesting thought though!
Property taxes are used (primarily) because states & localities don't have clean jurisdiction or nexus on a household's financial assets.

(which makes "wealth" taxes problematic or impractical)
That's better, cheers.
Heartbleed: A postmortem
I wonder about vampire power usage. If I leave it plugged in to the wall, but not into my laptop, how much power does it consume.
In the longterm, no, but in the short term to be an early adopter? Maybe, they've got 160 of backers for the global versions.
Yes, there's an option called "Enable origin chip in Omnibox" which you can set to disabled.

This option is available via the Chrome flags: chrome://flags/
Quote: Your "predator" description fits panhandlers with manipulative stories, but not all "homeless people asking for money."

The genuinely needful have long been run out of the public spaces/territories that have the most pay-out. The 'predators' in traffic making more than working at 7-11 don't abide threats to their income and will defend it unscrupulously. Stop and walk on that center median sometime and see what response you get.

Edit: I'm referring to occupied PH zones, I'm also half kidding. Be prepared for a confrontation if you do that.
This looks legit backed by MIT patents and grad students, but I wonder why a group making this "breakthrough" is going directly to Kickstarter to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, instead of selling the technology directly to companies like Apple or Samsung and make tens of millions of dollars.
What's special about property taxes that they should be held constant? A person could just as easily be pushed out of their house by a general rise in the cost of living in their area, or increasing traffic, or a regional economic collapse. Shall we legislate those to be constant as well?

If the local government is well run, then an individual's property taxes should approximate the cost of providing local government services to them, regardless of the value of their house. If real estate values in a local jurisdiction double without changing the government's costs, property tax rates should be cut in half to compensate. I realize that there's a big "if" when it comes to the "well run" part, but if that's not being done, then you need to fight over the "well run" part, not giving people massively different tax rates based purely on when they bought their house.

I don't think this idea is all that outlandish either. My understanding is that a lot of jurisdictions work this way, either explicitly or effectively through the legislative process. A budget is set, required revenue decided upon, and property tax rates set such that the required amount is obtained. If values go up, rates fall, and vice versa.

This doesn't solve the problem of hyper-local changes, like if just one section of a county becomes extremely popular and prices are driven through the roof, while the rest is unaffected. But again, what's the difference between being driven out due to that and having, say, the local food stores double their prices to to huge demand and drive you out that way?
My point was that the first paragraph of the post is simply misleading.

Now that I understand Elm is an esoteric system and these results are irrelevant outside its solution domain, I don't really care.
Approximately? Either it does or it doesn't. What I'm thinking is that a 4x increase in sampling rate doesn't necessarily lead to a 4x increase in waveform complexity except for certain types of random noise.

With the references to 192kbps and mistakes, it wasn't clear what parent was talking about.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” -- probably by Ford.
Nothing. As they've stated, Google X isn't even working on space elevators. It was just an off-handed comment that someone made, that the Reddit crowd now fixates on.
> "Likely there will be a ton of hacking involved before you get to the stage where a transputer dev-kit was out-of-the-box 3 decades ago but this feels like it is within the realm of the possible.

I have no illusions that there would be a ready-to-run package available right now that would give you all that, clearly some assembly is required."

You're in luck. All the hard work in putting together a transputer devkit has already been done. XMOS dev kit (e.g. https://www.xmos.com/products/xkits/starterkit ) + XC programming language (e.g http://www.iraqigeek.com/2014/01/02/an-introduction-to-xmos-... ). Adding more cores seems to be plug and play.

XMOS sell ARM (Cortex M3) + XMOS hybrids, if you wanted to ease yourself into it. One of the later Amiga (post Commodore) computers has an XMOS in it too (though I haven't followed Amiga news for a couple of years now, so don't know if it's still available).
Thank you katm.
One thing the article doesnt really touch on is how rent control, as well as San Francisco's many other pro-tenant laws, actually incentivizes landlords to keep rental units off the market. It's basically impossible to evict bad tenants in San Francisco for reasons other than non-payment of rent. I'm not a real estate lawyer, but my impression is it can take years and tons of legal fees to get a bad tenant out, even for reasons that in most other cities would be easy cause for eviction.

I personally know a lot of mom-and-pop landlords with vacant rental units who cant be bothered to rent them, because dealing with bad tenants in SF is such a pain. These are middle-class people who bought multiple-unit buildings 20 or 30 years ago when it was affordable and dont need the rental income, and dont want the hassle. I would guess that there are thousands of units like this across the city.