skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
In excel they're using some pattern recognition so when you start filling down a column they just fill out the rest instead of waiting for you to use the fill down feature, I thought that was just plain neat.

They're improving collaboration in all products, ie bringing it on par with gdocs.

Something geospatial, dont recall exactly what, maybe it was to do with SharePoint or colo.

The most interesting was they're letting go of forcing ms languages for plugins and allowing you to write and import widgets/plugins as html/js so all those nasty vb scripts of old are going to get some much needed love from all the web devs out there.

I could be wrong on a few of these just what I recall hearing about, happy to be corrected if I misunderstood any of what I was told. Mostly it just sounded like, as a company, they're identifying what their core products are and innovating on them. As in strategically, they're getting their shit together.
Ask HN: Open Source Projects Looking for Help
Let's start a monthly thread where open source projects can ask for specific help.

It's not required, but appreciated if this format if followed:

- Name of project

- URL

- Short description (Languages etc)

- Link to issues

- A few specific issues that you need help with.
The fact that I got a reply based on a misunderstanding of how asserts work tells me it's a point that needs to be made.

I'm just a bystander, but I think you may be jumping to unfounded conclusions here. Based on previous comment history, I presume that 'masklinn' understands perfectly well how assert() works. Yes, if you define NDEBUG your error handling will go away. So don't define NDEBUG unless you want your error handling to go away!

By contrast, your assertion that Some compilers will set that for you in an optimized build strikes me as unlikely. Some program specific build systems do this, and if you use one of them you should be aware that your assert() functions may drop out. But I don't think I've ever used a compiler that drops the assert() based on optimization level.

I don't particularly disagree with your conclusion, just your argument. I think 'awda' gets closer to the truth: the default assert() from <assert.h> with its negative reliance on NDEBUG is tricky and probably best avoided -- not just for error handling but altogether. Personally, I use two distinct macros: ERROR_ASSERT() and DEBUG_ASSERT(). ERROR_ASSERT() cannot be disabled, and DEBUG_ASSERT() only runs if DEBUG was defined at compile time.
Why I’m Bullish on the News (Marc Andreessen)
This so much nicer than SASSY buttons , which is what I have been using. https://github.com/jhardy/Sassy-Buttons
No, it was created in 2009 at Brat Tech LLC by Miško Hevery and Adam Abrons, see any of the references in the other answer above.
The bean convention doesn't help you with that one though; if you have private Date date; public Date getDate() {return date;} then people can still do getDate().setTime(1);
And how does that affect her ability to do things like get a password reset? My wife used to do a little of that, though not to the extent of your mother. (Mostly just putting in that she was 120 years old on forms with ages, and stuff.) At one point, she lost the password to an account, and to reset it, she had to enter the fake data she had supplied to get it back. She was never able to remember which years she had chosen for which account. Luckily, it wasn't for anything too important.

Also, are there any legal implications to doing something like that? It's probably fine for signing up to a web site, but does she do that on things like auto loans or mortgages? Has it ever been a problem? I like the idea, it just seems like it's inviting trouble.
How MongoDB 2.6 handles bulk updates
Are we better off using decoder rings and snail mail at this point?
Hopelessly so.

I put "No recruiters" on every single section of my LinkedIn profile, yet they still e-mailed. Eventually I removed every single detail from it. Even now I get the odd message.
And shagging.
Swartz doc director: Oracle and Larry Ellison killed Aaron’s Law
PredPol - jobs@predpol.com

We process past crime data and try and predict where crime is going to happen tomorrow. We have an app for cops that they use to check where crime is predicted so they can stop it before it happens. Police departments using our software include Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Santa Cruz, London, etc.

We focus on getting data in the hands of officers in the field with a simple modern UI, and that's why it works:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Cops-Credit-Predicti...
DISCLAIMER: I'm Experts Exchange's senior volunteer administrator. That means, for the most part, that I've outlasted everyone else.

At the time EE imposed the cloaking / hard and fast paywall / masking / whatever you call it, we told them it was a bad idea. We understand why they did it -- it was to counteract the effects of a prior less-than-advisable decision -- but that didn't make it a good idea.

Long term, obviously, it resulted in 1) major penalties from Google and 2) a lot of competition EE didn't need to provoke.

New management has removed the paywall and redirects from external search results and links about two months ago; we expect that it will still be a few months longer before the penalties will be overcome.
I would love it. I want to work in some open source project, but can't find any small project where i can start. I haven't worked on any, so this can be a way to a great start.
Fairfax VA (Washington DC area near metro) local preferred REMOTE possible for the very talented.

jobs@lastpass.com

LastPass, you know it, you love it, you want to make it better.
SEEKING WORK (remote, located in Connecticut)

Developer and designer (4+ years), work out of my own shop, HetaThemes (http://hetathemes.com). Our flagship theme is MidLaw, a theme for small to mid-sized law firms.

Primarily develop, design, and customize WordPress themes, or convert PSD designs or HTML/CSS/jQuery to WordPress. I'm also building an app and run my own server as a hobby.

I've worked on complex sites for digital agencies (30+ templates, 25+ plugins), as well as on smaller sites for small businesses/individuals (10 templates, 10 plugins). References available.

Technologies I use: PHP, HTML, CSS/LESS, jQuery, CodeIgniter, WordPress, mySQL, ZURB Foundation (3/4/5), Bootstrap, SVN or Git for version control, Fogbugz or Sifter for issue tracking, HipChat to keep in touch with clients. Self-taught and resourceful.

Reach out to me at: hn [at] heta [dot] co (not com). I can send you links to live sites I've designed and developed, sites I've converted to WP, etc.

Note: Will have capacity for new projects after May 14.
I was hoping this might be an internet version of the old shortwave "numbers" stations [1] but now I see that there is likely a more mundane explanation.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
They had already been doing this for IE since it became the default. I think it's time to implement browser "Do Not Track" as a built-in proxy server service along the lines of an anonymous version of Opera's Off-Road mode instead of a request.
So, that is actually an interesting thought experiment, thanks for that.

However I'm not sure it is directly applicable here. There are two courses of action that could solve this problem:

A, an action that improves kernel builds

B, an action that improves several workloads

For A and B of similar cost, it makes sense to do action B in preference to action A.

Your argument speaks to A being of positive utility, but given a finite knapsack of effort smaller than the set of possible actions that fit in the knapsack, a greedy algorithm that places any positive item into the knapsack is not optimal.
Palantir Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) is hiring Software Engineers for our Simulation team!

Palantir’s Simulation Software Engineers focus on solving some of the hardest, most interesting problems in delivering high-quality enterprise software. We are responsible for accelerating the delivery and improving the quality of Palantir’s world-class information analysis platforms. We accomplish this by designing and implementing software tools that can be used to automate the production of Palantir’s platforms. We design and develop a wide variety of tools, including automation infrastructures for various domains and distributed systems and VM cloud management tools that are capable of dynamically provisioning thousands of VMs used to perform concurrency testing. We work on a huge variety of projects in different languages, using many different software tools. This variety exposes us to a vast set of engineering challenges every day and allows us each to become masters of many different crafts. Communication is key for us; we have no problem coordinating with others on projects and making time for team game nights and happy hours. When we see opportunities, we go after them without needing an org chart to tell us what to do; this lets us choose projects that are the most interesting and impactful.

To apply: https://www.palantir.com/careers/OpenPosDetail?id=a0m8000000...

For questions, email me at jscalisi@palantir.com
Have you suggested R?
"The largest technology stock offering in history is looming, but few in Silicon Valley seem to care."

Zero comments on this article after an hour on the front page of HN seems to prove the author's point.
"soon to be fired Fridays"
Show HN: A grid system for humans
Kronos-Command can now poweron a Digital Ocean node too.
It's a lot easier when Matt Cutts is listening to you tell him what to do about the competitor you're trying to overcome.
How to build the perfect app – Part II.
Her experiment while interesting does not demonstrate that all of her elaborate steps were even necessary, just that she put a ton of work into doing this and was successful, who knows how much of that work was needed.

Also no where in her article does she reference someone else thinking she looked like a criminal. Yes there was the sign at the store about gift cards but nothing about the cashier caring at all. She alternates between 'look like a criminal' and 'feel like a criminal' while I agree she might of felt like quite a badass criminal using tor and paying for everything in cash and gift cards, the article in no way indicates others thought she looked like a criminal.

It does however show that she negatively views people who perform those type of actions, since she views them as actions that make her feel like a criminal; and, as with many people, views criminals negatively.

Also if you are going to have to go buy the gift cards to use at Amazon in the first place? Why even shop at Amazon? Why not go to your local Babies R Us (or wherever people buy strollers and such) and buy your items with cash there. The convenience of Amazon seems lost on me when I have to go to a physical store prior to ordering something on Amazon.
Professional profiles do not have to be boring
Do you have links/pointers? I'm familiar with several well-running systems of this type, so I'm just curious.
Why building a data science team is harder than you think
Foursquare is about 6 years old, so it's hardly 'lately' - perhaps that's why you're being downvoted. (I didn't downvote you, someone seems to have done so without replying.)
In the past, I've considered Simpson's paradox to be nothing more than an amusing quirk of statistics. But, the parent example has helped me to see that Simpson's paradox is frighteningly inevitable.

For example, a conclusion like:

"People taking a particular drug have worse outcomes."

doesn't reflect on the efficacy of the drug at all - because people choosing to take the drug are presumably in greater need.

Same in the piloting example above - Alice is scoring worse only because she has the more difficult assignments (perhaps because she is indeed the better pilot).
If you're looking for something now, you might want to poke around my GitHub profile: https://github.com/SirCmpwn

I work on a bunch of interesting stuff and all are open to pull requests.
No doubt there is more opportunity today than before as the Internet has grown, but 15 years ago, I got my start as a young teenager selling shareware, which was quite common back then. I don't have any data on this right now, but I bet the economics of it was better back then for the little guy too because there was so little competition versus the millions of apps out there now. I made more money back then selling shareware than 99% of people do now selling apps.
How to build the perfect app – Part II
This blog post by the same author looks pretty good too. "What Can Go Wrong: My Favorite Example" (27 April 2014)

http://matloff.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/what-can-go-wrong-my...
Feel free to drop me an email if you have any feature requests.

james@tradewave.net
Myself and a couple friends have been working on this for 2 months now, just got transcoding stable (we think) in the last couple days.

Early tests show it's very capable of handling 720p video + audio in realtime

We're using Chrome's Native Client (NaCl), some Chrome socket stuff and of course FFmpeg. Happy to answer any tech/non-tech questions!
Reddit in react.js
500+ hours of similar video content, most clearly computer-generated, with junk titles (from mkfile), and a new video being uploaded every 20 seconds. No "normal" videos other than the one behind a paywall and the one of the Eiffel Tower.

I don't know what the YouTube TOS says about automated bulk uploads, but I think such a user would have raised many flags on the system, regarding abuse, and the account would have been deactivated by now, right?... I'm betting that whoever is behind this has a special permit from Google.

edit: grammar
Hahaha, the intro is (probably unintentionally) ironic. They talk about the "compiler" getting in the way of what is truly happening down below. But x86-64 is just as much of a intermediate language, and because of the madness of microcode, reordering, caches, hyperthreading, and a hundred other things, it is not all that good of a description of what is really happening inside the processor.
Mayday for the republic A SuperPAC to end all SuperPACs
Continuum make a free alternative python distribution, Anaconda, which is listed on python.org as an alternate. They also sell other python tools on top of Anaconda.

In addition to the many, many libraries included with Anaconda, it installs ipython (and ipython notebook). I believe using Anaconda is among the easiest ways to get ipython on Windows, and you get all the other libs too.
As someone who is always looking to interview strong developers (but have often-weird criteria), I'd love to be able to browse through a thread full of folks looking for work.
Then here is another type: a previous security bug:

Apr 12, 2014

http://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/5.5/common/004_op...

-->>

2014-04-30

http://www.freebsd.org/security/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-14:09....

needed 18 days to reach other OSes, ex.: FreeBSD.. interesting lag..
Are there any write ups for this yet? I can't find a CVE or anything on this one. No word from OpenSSL yet either.
so here's the agreement Oculus allegedly broke: http://recode.net/2014/05/01/heres-the-agreement-oculus-alle...
Apple never showed the path prominently in the first place. Since System 7 you can Cmd-Click the title bar to show a menu with the path, and you can use Cmd-I to show the path in the Info panel.

Not including a path bar by default doesn't mean they "try to hide the information", it's just a different UI design.
As someone who also does this, my advice:

Pick a destination, but vary the route. Don't take the optimal route. It's easy on grid streets; just move laterally a block or two on the way. And give yourself permission to explore, by making sure you don't have anything planned: just stop and poke your nose into anything that sparks your interest.
I think it would add more to the discussion if you explained your reasoning.
See Phillip K Dick
Another interesting aspect of your link shortener is that it gives credit on the linked page to the person who shared it. Khoi Vinh had a very interesting idea[1] like this for the New York Times' pay wall, but Snip.ly works for any site.

[1]: http://www.subtraction.com/2014/02/12/an-idea-for-the-times-...
If they're looking for you, specifically, then yes. It is possible to have the smoke trail have an erroneous local maximum, but it's unlikely that you can pull this off.

If they're just looking for patterns of which you are just a statistic, then it'll merely be hit-or-miss; you're unlikely to generate enough "smog" to make it so they never actually tag you correctly.
Most of the non-technical users I interact with feel the same way about the feed as the upthread complaint. I do think the feed is ordered very deliberately based on Facebook's data, but not around pleasing users, instead around assuring the marginal value of spending money for reach so that more people will do that. That's why "get stories sorted by our in-house secret-sauce algorithm" keeps getting pushed forward while "most recent" keeps getting made less useful and harder to get to (to the point where it is no longer possible to have it the default feed display on the Android app.)
Carl Sagan wrote about this in The Demon-Haunted World I believe. I recall him talking how in the middle ages, before any UFOs or alien concepts came to be, people saw witches, demons, succubi, etc. Then the "scientific era" came to be and people started to see more "aseptic" images, i.e. aliens wearing lab coats, or other "science-y" stuff.

When I read it, it made a lot of sense. It is quite obvious if you look into it, that people's hallucinations or visions are strongly correlated with their current culture or world view. So you if you see something inexplicable, you are going to call it a ghost for example, but a medieval knight will call it a demon, but maybe someone from 2100 will call it a perturbation of the higgs-field or whatever makes sense then.

Quite interesting effect actually.
One interesting question to think about is what we can learn about the architecture / algorithms used by the human brain through its failure modes.

The article explains Tausk's views on this specific question from 1919 (schizophrenia, he said, involves "loss of ego-boundaries"), but surely others have looked at the question since then -- what have they found?

If schizophrenia has something to do with some self-referential part of the cognitive machinery being broken, it seems like this might be a very important clue to how the brain works algorithmically -- self-reference is very important part of the theory of computation (recursion theorem, halting problem, Godel, etc.), and understanding how the human brain handles it seems like it may be informative.
Excellent point. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book is filled with absolutes about certain instructions or groups of instructions being faster than others, but nowadays there are so many complex interactions like the ones you describe. Unfortunately, I feel that those complexities are used as justification to dissuade the learning of assembly language.
I have bought two or three Packt books.

They have very light DRM: they print your name (or whatever you give them as your name) in the book. There are no copy prevention measures, they're just straight pdf or other format.

It's actually a nice compromise.
I doubt many people on HN check that frequently during the work day. I know I generally only check a couple times.

I'd say the reason most don't care much is there is massive cultural differences in the way the US and Chinese markets operate. Successful US companies have failed to penetrate China and many probably expect the reverse to be true as well.

How many people here buy from http://www.alibaba.com/ despite it being 15 years old?
Foursquare Swarm and The Business Of Cross-Pollination Across Mobile Platforms
How to use science to win at rock-paper-scissors
Glad that you're not offended.

As you correctly stated, my dislike for the pkg_* tools is probably without merit here and based on incorrect assumptions. I'll make sure to learn about the OpenBSD variants.

The ports tree.. Well, that's what I'd like portshaker [1] for. Yes, you can do that manually, but it's a pain.

Bumping ports: Same for FreeBSD, but unless OpenBSD has a much more responsive ports teams/mailing list, this won't usually work fast (I know, I'm extrapolating again). I have currently a meager list of four ports in my overlay that currently don't exist in FreeBSD or are outdated, but these exist for quite a while now ("weeks"). I try to be a good citizen and submit these things upstream, but I don't like to depend on someone having commit access.

1: http://www.manualpages.de/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-ports-9.0-RELEASE/...
What are the Options for Storing Hierarchical Data in a Relational Database?
Checkout Dalesbred, http://dalesbred.evident.fi/

It's our in-house jdbc library, and has IDEA plugin. We use it in many small projects, and in one major.
I had a roommate in college who had latent schizophrenia that was triggered by cannabis. His mental illness seemed to drive him to smoke more, which only aggravated the symptoms and led to a pretty bad cycle. At one point, before his parents talked him into having himself committed, he was hitting the schizophrenia checklist to a tee--He believed he was Christ reincarnated, his girlfriend was the Virgin Mary, his coworkers were all FBI agents, and the radio was sending him messages through the songs they played. After he got out of the hospital he smoked weed again and completely relapsed. It took him two more trips to the psych ward before he figured it out and quit smoking.
Yeah, but getDate().setTime(1); works the same way.
I'm not above admitting to using printf debugging. ;) rayiner found some great answers to your question.
SEEKING WORK - Remote (occasional on-site possible, Bay Area based)

Experienced generalist not afraid to get his hands dirty and more than capable of coming in and getting things in order when things are ugly.

Primary strengths are on the back end, from restful services to distributed systems and scaling. Particular experience in embedded/constrained systems, security/PKI, image and video coding. Platform agnostic, primarily spend time in C/C++, Python, and NodeJS. I've spent time in other areas as well -- including devops, system administration, and the like.

I'm mostly am looking for projects that are either well defined, or if experimental/prototyped, we come up with a clear set of goals.

While Bay Area based, my schedule actually typically has good overlap w/ the East Coast and Europe.
Thanks. I am learning Angular these days. Do you have something regarding that, I would love to work on.
Seattle gets first Bitcoin ATM machine
May Is For Miracles: Children's Miracle Network
Ask the Google employees at JSConf what they think, and you may hear a different story. :^)
Why you need to be a living donor
The importance of living donation - Watch as Dr Sander S. Florman, Director of the Recanati Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, shares his views.

Let's continue to raise awareness around this issue. SHARE WITH THE WORLD!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqc6xma7LZY
You are just adding on to the ambient conspiracy.

It may be abusing terms, but I doubt google (especially the youtube team) is bothered at all by this.
Well ... I'm fortunate enough to not have to constantly battle for a paycheck and so I'm not interested in a full-time job, but I'm always looking for "interesting things to work on". I've made a couple promises to two open-source projects (for low-level networking support) but I'd be interested in seeing what other consider interesting!
Non-technical alien looking for technical alien co-founder (Centaurans preferred)
People use throwaway accounts all the time. All you need to do is describe your skills and what you're looking for, as well as a way to contact you.
webdriver = selenium automation. nothing strange
Knight Foundation Prototype Fund