skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Viruses are harder on Linux because running random binaries is not a common usage pattern.

Linux is exploited via remote execution or by passing payload data to be processed by the user using known vulnerable programs. The latter is harder to pull off.

Getting access to Linux systems is not usually a problem of Linux itself. It happens a lot more than you think.
Facebook seeks EU antitrust review of WhatsApp deal
"50 hours is completely crazy, and if you're doing it often, you should look for another place ASAP. Fuck, 40 hours is already on the verge of being crazy"

I feel badly for you that you've been at jobs that have made you feel that way. I've worked 50ish hours for a long time, generally in jobs I enjoy and in compensation structures that rewarded me for do intellectually stimulating work.

But 50 hours a week is hardly crazy. Do whatever works for you, but I want to combat this strange myth that nobody can be productive after 35 hours a week. It's obviously false from my experience (and I would guess the experience of many, many people on HN).
Update to Cryptographic Right Answers
I went with the approach of hardcoding few sets generated by http://tools.medialab.sciences-po.fr/iwanthue/ (which i think already been covered on HN) in my app. Just one set when i need <= 5 colors, one for <= 20, 50 and 100. Oh, and alternative set with different palette of colors when I need two diagrams on the same page. As a colorblind person I must say I was very happy with the results.
Natero (YC S12) is hiring Javascript visualization engineers
"...and proving how I got that answer..."

That's the part that counts, and is largely missing today.
The yellow line really is amazing from a "user interface" perspective. It's so natural that I had forgotten there was a time when it didn't exist. And, as mentioned elsewhere in the comments, it seems everybody has an old uncle that swears it's just nylon between the down markers (or paint, or something else that isn't "magic").
ARIEL RESONANCE by JACK SKELHORN
Before you've gotten a firm grasp on the subject, you might be convinced that your answer is right but it's not. Especially when the maths becomes more complicated. If nobody tells you it's wrong, you will incorporate more and more wrong things in your understanding.

I notice this horrible effect every time I'm solving exercises for uni and there are no solutions. I think I've done good work. Sometimes, everything really was right, other times, I made fundamental mistakes all across the exercises, showing me that I didn't understand something important.

Of course, when you're in research, there's no key. That's why it's so difficult. But it doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel, as in, researching things that are already well known.
Through the Google lens: search trends May 23-29
You're right about 0.5 and 0.7 being less than ideal, but lead holders have their own drawbacks, such as a generally unclutched propelling mechanism (i.e. one incautious nudge of the advance button and your lead's on the floor in ten pieces), the need for a sharpener, and the lack of an integral eraser -- that latter concern being of especial import in the search for a writing implement suitable for daily wear.

That's why I use a Pentel Twist-Erase III in 0.9mm. It offers a lead thick enough to be reliable without requiring manual resharpening, and the feature for which it's named is the 1 x 1/4-inch cylindrical twist-advance eraser on the other end -- easily equal to almost any rubbing-out task, and composed of some no doubt space-age polymer which stands up admirably to the harshest frictions. And, quite aside from the excellent functional design of the tool, its aesthetic qualities are matchless -- between the gloss black body finish and the chrome accents of ferrule and pocket-clip, this pencil captures a timeless elegance of style which is right at home in any company.

Plus, they're five bucks a pop and they last forever. What's not to like?
> One being "Calculating" where students do the boring calculations and all the stuff, calculus, algebra, etc. and another one where the interesting and challening part of math is taught in an accessible and fun way.

Wow. That can start a flame war. I am a huge fan of set theory and probability but since when calculus and algebra are boring? Sure if all you do is evaluate bunch of integrals, it is but what if you are learning about Fourier Series/Transform? It requires vector algebra heavily as well as calculus and I think it is just as stimulating as anything else. Sure it involves "calculating" but it is not a bad thing, calculating is at the heart of the subject.
Patterns of Software: Tales from the Software Community [PDF, 1996]
That tool helps with the parent's particular complaint, but I think the broader point is accurate. It is definitely too hard to find useful raw data, and it is even harder to find raw data that is already is a useful format. Specifically talking about the census data, their format is custom and complex [1]. They do have an API [2] which makes it easier, but I still have to write code to download a version of the census data that is in a useful format. Why can't I just have a download link to a SQL script, JSON file, or a tarball with a bunch of CSV files?

I have the same question for the United States project. Why YAML for congress-legislators? It is certainly better than creating their own custom format, but I still have to do work if I want to import the data into a database or Excel.

1. http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/

2. http://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/decennial-ce...
I first learned Ada in a university programming languages class in 1984. It was chosen by our professor as the culmination of classic programming language ideas. We did not have access to a full Ada compiler, but we used "Janus Ada", which implemented a subset. I really liked it because it was very consistent and readable and you could create sophisticated data types, and the compiler strictly enforced their use.

A few years later (1988), I was working an a large military aircraft project that used Ada. We did a huge up front design with reams of design documentation. The first code that was written was a package of data types to ensure consistency. Unfortunately, there was very little Ada experience among the team and we sometimes designed ourselves into corners. Such problems were often solved by using "unchecked conversions" to get around the type enforcement, which defeated the purpose. The problems we had were similar to problems huge C++ projects would have a few years later.

The other problem we had was with the compiler. The government had placed high performance demands on the compiler, so it was highly optimized. Unfortunately, it would sometimes optimize away code that you needed. Fortunately, we could generate a code listing that interspersed the assembly output of the compiler with the corresponding Ada source code and thus find the problem. Usually adding an intermediate local variable to break up a complex calculation solved the problem.

In 1990, I got hired by a start up that was doing military contract work simulating radars for flight simulators. They had done all of their work in C, but now they had a contract that required Ada, so I became their "Ada expert." All of the C guys hated Ada because of its strictness. Ada wouldn't let you mix numeric data types without an explicit conversion, and that really chafed the C folks. It reminds me of today's dynamic/static typing debate.

The Navy ended up canceling the aircraft so they no longer needed our radar simulator. The next project I was on decided to use the new C++ language everyone was excited about. Ada was starting to fall out of favor, so waivers for the Ada mandate were getting easy to obtain.

At they time, I was thrilled to use C++. It seemed edgy compared to the bureaucratic nature of Ada. Now, however, I don't know if C++ was an improvement overall. It has some advantages, but also some disadvantages. I'm happy to see that the Rust guys are trying to learn from Ada. I was an inexperienced kid when I used Ada, so I am by no means an expert, but from what I do know, I think it still has something to teach us.
Proofs don't have a single correct answer they have a range of acceptable solutions. Any time your told to show your work there tends to be a multitude of acceptable answers.
Qoc looks similar to Haskell. I have been learning Haskell for years. What would Qoc offer that Haskell doen't?
The Correct Answers to 'How Will You Use My Money?'
Although many folks from the Sunlight Foundation support the project, it has relatively decentralized control:

> This is an unusual, and occasionally chaotic, model for an open data project. the /unitedstates project is a neutral space; GitHub's permissions system allows many of us to share the keys, so no one person or institution controls it. What this means is that while we all benefit from each other's work, no one is dependent or "downstream" from anyone else. It's a shared commons in the public domain.

From http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/08/20/a-modern-appro...
Dots in gmail don’t count… and this is idiotic
So many schools seem to "teach only towards the test" because of the heavy reliance on standardized testing. I don't claim to have any answers, but society has pushed for this and it's a logical result IMO.
SAAS Ecom, check it out if you're starting a SAAS business.
I'm not at all convinced that has changed.

I've read the Common Core (and the Australian equivalent) and they certainly require proving how answers were obtained.
I think the actual issue is their approach to learning, rather than their approach to math. The exercise with probability was meant to help them understand what probabilities are, so the process was more important than the result in that case. When learning math, it's often more important to make sure you're taking the right path toward the answer. And there's also a place for exploratory activities like this, where you figure out what your assumptions are before worrying about whether they're right.
From what I can tell, the author of the article wanted her students to engage in philosophy rather than mathematics, but maybe didn't make this clear to them.

Mathematics is indeed all about rigor, proof, and finding "correct answers". Philosophy, on the other hand, takes a more lenient approach, with emphasis on the process of thinking, rather than the final result.

Perhaps the children in this class merely thought that a more mathematics-oriented approach was what the teacher desired. That's reasonable, if that's how their previous classes had been done.

Apparently the students themselves adjusted quickly enough, once the teacher made her expectations clear. As the article states, "Things went so much better the second time around with not one student asking me if their answer was “right”".

So this could very well come down to a simple misunderstanding between the teacher and her students, in this rather isolated case.
Practical applications of math are about getting answers, and unless you do math at university, that's probably all you'll ever do. But the problem is that if you don't learn to understand how the math works and why it gets you correct answers, you're unlikely to spot mistakes and likely to accept misleading reasoning and calculations at face value.
In real life there is no answer key but there is still validation, which is all your parent is asking for and probably what those kids were really looking for.
University IT, local cheap supplier, about 10 years ago.
Perfect timing. I'm considering starting a mentorship group in NYC for people who are underrepresented in the tech community.
Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” Cinnamon released
I could give you some advice there. Of the last 5 months, I spent 2 in India (I'm Indian), 1 in Singapore, and 2 in Thailand. I am going to visit my parents in Oman for 2 months next. What citizenship(s) do you hold? Most western nations require a paid-for visa to India that is not cheap to get. I am not sure how difficult it is to secure/renew either.

Singapore has wonderful internet, amazing public transit, and just the right amount of crowd and bustle - you're not choking, but it's always lively. And people love their technology. Wonderfully conducive immigration atmosphere. However, although everyone speaks english, the people are not very personable, so it's hard to grow a social circle through random acquaintances if you don't already have friends there (I did). It is also a fairly expensive place (comparable to Berkeley or Seattle), one of the top 5 in Asia.

Thailand has great internet, extremely nice people, and is ridiculously cheap to live in. Bangkok is lively and bustling with lots to do, but a bit too crowded. Public transit is not nearly as well-connected except in BKK city, but taxis/bikes are affordable. Unfortunately, very few locals speak English, so again growing a random acquaintance social circle is difficult. You can however meet lots of like-minded foreigners at the co-working spaces.

I personally strongly discourage bootstrapping from India. The internet situation alone was probably enough to call it quits. Terrible ISPs, high cost, slow speeds, data caps on wired connections, bad customer service (they left me without internet for 3 days before I had to have my complaint elevated), etc makes it nearly impossible for bootstrapping a software product. Public transit is mediocre in most cities and requires knowledge of the local language (and there is a different one in every state). Electronics are expensive (heavily taxed). Majority of local vendors will try to pillage any foreigner. They even try to rip me off because they can tell I haven't spent much time locally.

If you have a close friend who is more familiar and comfortable with a part of India that you will live/work with, it can be a lot better (you mostly just need someone who can yell at them right when necessary).

Don't get me wrong though, it's a beautiful country and wonderful to spend time in, just terrible to try to get any work done.

I hope that was helpful!
Regarding tptacek - 2001 was by far and away the worse tech job market of the last 20 years.

There are advantages to the job security that either approach offers. If you can be a successful and well-referenced member of multiple startups, then you are a known quantity for groups trying to start a company. Also, your skills are more likely to be closer to the cutting edge and in greater demand.

Finding that next job in startups is always going to get tougher as you get into your 30s and 40s and your salary is more expensive. So corporate jobs have the edge as far as having a clear-cut 40 year career path at the same place. But you risk falling into a middle management trap... I wouldn't really want to be job hunting after spending 20 years as a front line manager at IBM, for instance (although that would be a lucrative 20 year career).
Given layers upon layers of abstraction, it's often impractical for the programmer to understand exactly what's actually happening. Indeed, that's the entire premise for the existence of more safe languages, which (hope to) eliminate entire classes of bugs.
That's not the point: they have a correct sequence of steps.
Thanks for this! I wrote but didn't post a comment about how I hate that I'm starting to feel guilty for my lifelong interest in and enjoyment of a bunch of stuff that now seems to be scoffed at as "boring".
Indeed. For many people this issue is premature optimization.

When I tried to decide between a Middleman app with minimal configuration work and easy deploy (Heroku), or Ghost, Wordpress, or something like that, one consideration was page generation time.

I calculated that most optimistically, I'd probably write at most three articles a week (which is very optimistic). That means approximately 150 articles a year. That's pretty quick to generate, so I could even leave the generation process to heroku on first page refresh if I wanted.
Depending on how you count things, I've been part of 5 startups and 3 megacorps (none smaller than 40,000 employees) (plus a couple regular old mom and pop small businesses when I was young).

If I can draw any conclusions, I liked the megacorp work much more while I liked the small business work environment more. I've spent about twice as much time in startups and small businesses despite having significant opportunities in the corporate world.

In the small business (startup or mom & pop) everybody is pulling their weight or they're gone. But the work, especially the startup, tends to be lots of "getting set up and doing things for the first time". You want to solve your customer's problems, but first you have to set up this or that server, or get the dev team using some new code profiler, or building up the QA team from scratch. It's a long walk before you can really start attending to customer issues directly because there are so many issues internally to work out. However, your individual contributions can make or break a company, your impact locally can be huge. That's really rewarding.

At a corporate job, the problems you get presented with are bigger and often very interesting, you work for a 1,000 pound gorilla who can (in theory) throw lots of weight and maturity behind solving it. The biggest projects I've ever worked on were at these kinds of places. You won't ever really have a big impact on the company, but you might participate in having a big impact on the world. At the end of the day, the single most rewarding things I've ever done have been while getting a paycheck from a megacorp. However, there's tons of dead weight you have to deal with. Bad employees get masked over by the size of the organization and work they aren't doing simply gets shifted onto one of the other nameless drones there.

If you want to be rewarded on both levels, don't think of the megacorp as the company you work for, think of the program or project as the "company" and try to get put on lean, thinly staffed, high risk projects. Your impact will be to the project, and it'll be huge, but the corporation will bring huge and interesting problems to you to work on.
Ask HN: How about we have a way to mark wrongfully linkdead accounts for revival
Visiting HN i've had the showdead option on for quite a while now, and often come across insightful, meaningful linkdead account posts, who seem to have been wrongfully killed by a trigger-happy algorithm.

I was wondering if just for linkdead accounts or comments, we could have a link or button to mark that account for review by a moderator and for possible revival.

It's a real shame when good comments and posts are invisible to most HN participants and visitors, and we really should have an easy, hassle-free way to fix this.
Would this work with all those old routers on the defunct laptops we have lying around?
Google Opens Privacy Web Form For 'Right To Be Forgotten' Requests
When I was in school, a lot of testing, including college placement exams, was scored by means of electromechanical devices ("Scantron") which identified answers by testing for the difference in conductivity produced by filling in one of several multiple-choice bubbles with pencil lead. Using a pen would result in a score of zero because the machine couldn't tell you had filled in anything. I don't know if this was used at university level because I never ended up going, but it certainly was used on the placement exam. (Four hours of multiple choice questions with exactly one -- one! -- essay section to break up the monotony, my God, I was ready to die afterward.)
Wow, sentiments about this differ very strongly in Europe vs. the US. What if the employer isn't asking you to work extra, but the person is amibitious and interested in the work he is doing and ends up working 50-60 hours without it getting in the way? To suggest that beyond 35 hours is non productive sounds ridiculous to me as a hypothesis. I would think it varies for every individual. Different folks can run different distances without getting overly exhausted. It is very similar for intellectual or creative work and even more so for technical work.
Is your lisp interpreter's C source code available anywhere? I'd love to dig through it.
That just moves the goal post, doesn't it? Such a parent is as much a broken kid as their offspring in this respect.
The algorithm doesn't, but the results absolutely have.

Celebrated photographers "styles" can be two things:

a) a way of seeing (composition, sense of space, etc, etc)

b) a specific look, based on favorite film stock, preferred lighting schemes, post-processing etc.

This can immitate the second. Which you can also get, with a more manual process, from global filter/film emulation, like VSCO.

The local vs global application of the filter doesn't have as much impact in the final output. It's just a slightly more accurate (b).
This one is better, indeed.)

My point wasn't about mr.Norvig's essays - they are extraordinary and elegant, my point was about what is a toy [Lisp] and what isn't.)
Do you assemble your own machine code as well or do you trust that someone else has taken care of the gritty details of the assembler so that you can work at a level of abstraction higher than that?
Is it me or is this the first time we have seen an MP4 working in tandem with javascript? Does anyone have any other examples of this? Looks great.
I was curious about other mechanical digital logic projects and this stood out in the reading:

http://www.elazary.com/index.php?view=article&id=46

The rest of the blog is pretty interesting too.
Weird, I'm 26 and in college math was all about 'how you got there'. Our tests were like essays, a single problem in either paragraph form or formula form, and several pages to write down how you achieved your goal. Following proper procedure was rewarded, even if the answer is wrong.

In high school, however, my school implemented a 'pass the test first' policy. We learned what the Regents (spelling on this) exam would have and learned only that. Still, most of my teachers always graded the procedure and not the answers (in fact, my teachers suggested we look at the answers afterwards to compare if our answer is right).
It's still dead, Jim.
It's not like imagemagick has any tradition of these kind of things -- or that it's ever the first program to get those.

You'd might see something in Gimp long before there's any imagemagick implementation.

And usually those come from proprietary sources first.
Which ones? How do you evaluate it before you get there?
I used the blade of a pair of scissors, because my sharpener was usually missing.
Leadholders are by far the best option. If all else fails, you can even re-use to short to write with pencils to get the lead out and put it into the lead holder. There exist special lead holder sharpeners but when needed they are usually not at hand (and my lead holder has no sharpener at the end) so I carefully use my knive to sharpen.

But that all has little to do with programming ... ;)
How does a dead link have 12 votes? Curious...
>One student had seen the weather and knew there was a 90% chance of rain the other had not seen the weather and though the probability was 50% since it would either rain or not. They compromised and picked the middle but that’s not the part I cared about, I cared that they had a reasonable discussion about their thoughts.

Wow. One of those students was right and the other was wrong; if the teacher praised the discussion instead of pointing out AND EXPLAINING the right answer, then the teacher did a disservice to the entire class.

I've heard jokes about touchy-feely "Bill has five apples and John takes two, how do we feel about that?" math, but I honestly believed they were jokes.
John black
Who knows about John black he hacks into ur facebook