skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The comment[0] by yaur[1] pretty much says it all, and gets to the heart of why I was asking the questions I did. You seem convinced that there is some nefarious, under-handed, and sinister censorship going on, whereas most of what I see is adequately explained by the published mechanisms of voting and flagging. What makes you think there is deliberate skullduggery in play?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7827383

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=yaur
In theory, it would be quite complex, as is every refactoring of existing code. I imagine that if all the primitive functions (e.g. memcpy, malloc, etc.) would be annotated with contracts, the system could pinpoint all the places that need proof. However, most functions would need annotations; refined type inference would help with this (like [1], [2] and [3]), but I'm not sure it's advanced enough already.

In practice, this experiment isn't powerful enough for this. To support C, the refined type-checker would have to know how to reason about mutable state, and unless pointers are severely restricted, they would always enable an escape hatch (for the sloppy or rogue programmer). Projects that would help are Cyclone (an attempt at memory-safe C), Rust and VCC [4] (which, however, is focused at concurrency). Altogether, it would be much easier to start with a safer language and design for memory safety and/or verified contracts from the ground up.
That's a pretty absolute rule to live by. I think there is merit in the idea - it's nice to be able to easily know what is going on. If I was making a language - and I could do as I wanted - I would make try to make the compilation step fully "debuggable", ie being able to step through the whole compilation, even stop and modify things, mess around, etc. Compilers seem awfully black-boxy, in general.

(Forth might be one of the ultimate expressions of the principle of a fully understandable compiler - Chuck Moore even hesitates to call it a compiler.)

On the other hand, you can get very far without really losing anything if you just know the semantics of the language, and leave the nitty-gritty to the compiler. C is supposed to be simple, but given how big of a deal optimizing compilers for C seems to be, it's not straightforward to make a proper, industrial standard compiler for the language (perhaps both with regards to competition and effort). And yet C is supposedly just a thinly-veiled abstraction over assembly ("supposedly" since I'm not a C programmer).

I for one welcome giant, too-big-to-understand-for-one-person compilers, as long as they are awesome at what they do. Simple programming language? Then you seem to get complicated design patterns. Simple semantics ala "everything is X" (immutable, object, ...)? Then you get complicated work-around in the places where you can't/don't want immutability/objects... . Simple compiler? Lot's of responsibility and mental overhead for each individual programmer, in a sense duplicating a lot of the effort that could be handled by a team of compiler writers, once.
I think your comments are misplaced and I think using billionaires as examples is a poor way to try to win an argument. Larry Ellison is probably not a very good person either, does that mean all the learning about treating people well in elementary school is a waste of time?
I expect almost anything to run blink fast on a T400 though (far better hardware, far better driver support).
Maybe if they wanted the launch to be a success they should've opened it up to more than one country and more than one carrier
Some interesting things here.

It is interesting to see how many of the failings they admit now are not really gender based but more job role based (although gender undoubtedly plays a part too)
Should the IPLANG "compiler" try to detect multiple solutions?
OpenGL, Stop Breaking My Heart
Ads in my Fb feed.on mobile very much do break the experience because it takes me a moment to work out where it came from. I have intelligent interesting friends and I take time to engage with the things they post. Finding out that something I took time on is a sponsored post is invariably a negative experience and I go out of my way to post childish rude comments on every one I receive in order to devalue it for the advertiser.
I'm interested to see the reaction from the German public. Will it be as negative as it was towards the Snowden revelations?
technically it's Twitch Interactive which kind of shows you the company's focus and growth.
Because tablets are not replacing laptops and because a tablet + a keyboard is not cutting it compared to a laptop.

What you describe looks a lot like one of those old thinkpad x series tablet + ultrabase. Only difference is the keyboard is not detachable but the screen rotates to get on top of it and you get to use the computer operating system of your choice.
It's been reported that Google senior management was never really committed to Motorola or the handset business[1]. The fact they took so long to launch a new flagship product (after first trying to use the IP arsenal against Apple while simultaneously winding down much of Motorola's other lines and businesses) and then selling the company mere months after the launch of it, seem to back this up circumstantially.

I will say this, The Moto X is a really solid product. The smart display, speech recognition capabilities and Moto Assist make it one of the nicest Android phones I've ever used for practical purposes. The Moto G and Moto E look to be really solid values as well.

The bad thing about this kind of corporate maneuvering here in the states is it makes the "American-made" angle they were playing for PR & political purposes seem manipulated and cynical. Maybe that's just not that important to most people though. I'm sure it was important to the people working there.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/motorolas-super-powered-googl...
Uh, thanks for this. I think I saw this before, but I haven't read it thoroughly. Skimming through it, it looks like a similar idea (but probably much more advanced). Of course, F# wasn't designed with refined types in mind, so the syntax is IMO a bit more awkward.
Why would the police give two shits about the EU election? I don't know what corrupt hellhole you are from, but Sweden doesn't work like that.

Not that it would have been an issue. The Pirate Bay trial is old news and it's hardly a major scandal that a convicted man has to serve his time. As it is, the Pirate Party was wiped out and were far from getting a seat.
Whether you are small or well known will impact your terms with the label, but that's a private business negotiation and not related to my point. The premise of my original comment is that they have aligned interests and that's because they provide value to the artist that signs with them. There are plenty of artists that are with indie labels or who are independent and the artist is free to choose whatever arrangement they want.

Trent Reznor went back to record labels because he's going to make more money with a record label, even if he's going to keep less share of the profit.
Heh. Whoops. I got the link from MIT Opencourseware originally.
To summarize what you're saying in a sentence, desktops are a boon for IT departments.

People often miss this factor, but an office full of desktops on a Windows Active Directory domain is probably the easiest way to manage a large office's computing experience.

People often cite compatibility with legacy applications as the reason most offices are windows based, but in reality this is less true every day, as a most offices are heavily reliant on web services (for instance, my office uses a corporate GMail as opposed to MS Outlook).

Features like Active Directory are Microsoft's real footholds, IMHO.
He's in Laos, and according to TPB AFK he will stay there wanking for 5 years.
Truthfully it's the kernel rather than userland I'd be more concerned about. It might be open-source but it's an enormous piece of software. Heartbleed showed us that serious vulns can slip through, and AFAIK the kernel hasn't had a truecrypt-style security audit (which I believe it deserves).

I don't think BSD is necessarily more secure, despite what that Theo blowhard has to say.
That's what package maintainers are for, it would be a highly targeted attack if any of the code I compiled managed to be compromised. I would be impressed at being so important.
You might want to look into the Thinkpad Yoga. I use it mainly as a laptop, but the few times I've used it as a tablet, it's worked out pretty well for me. (I also think it's the perfect device for Windows 8.1). If there is a Microsoft Store in your area, check it out, they should have some Thinkpad Yoga demo units.
Python Interview Problem – Parsing CSV Files
Moto X is a good phone. It was a huge disappointment when I heard about the price at launch. It could not compete on price with the Nexus line. Add that to the fact only AT&T customers get the moto customizer. Too bad, I live within a few miles of the factory.
That completely ignores the fact that people don't know what they don't know, or tend to erroneously assume that something they don't know about isn't relevant.
I think the only people who access IEEE Xplore are though who have library subscriptions. Otherwise these per-chapter prices don't make any sense.
never having heard of that before, I did a search and came across this wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreaker_(short_story)

I'm guessing this is what you're referring to, I found the idea interesting. Do you know where I can get access to this story? I'm willing to pay if necessary.
I often see an admin posting a comment saying that they are burying a story (or marking a story as dead, I forgot the exact wording) because they don't agree with it... don't tell me that you have never seen it before? I will repost my question when I see it happening again and I will include examples, thanks for your input.
I fly FPV aircraft as a hobby and don't find anything particulary scary about police use of drones for increased situational awareness. They are excellent low cost tools that could probably save both civilian and law enforcement lives when used correctly.

A point that I find interesting - not brought up in the discussion here so far - is that the reduced cost in equipment also makes it easier for ordinary civilians to oversee police activity to some extent.

We're living in the world where anyone can make and own this amazing bit of technology. It strikes me as bizarre to limit police from using them.
After the whole Horvath incident, I take what they say with a grain of salt. It's hard changing company culture, especially one that's Bro Code heavy. You can probably make big changes within a small company, but there are currently 239 employees.
I suppose it could, and would be fairly easy to do!
This Guy Trademarked the Symbol for Pi and Took Away Our Geeky T-Shirts
Not even. They will "hire an initial team of engineers to help us make a few needed tweaks in our product and streamline our process so that we could go from prototype to production." My emphasis on 'could'.
Technically, lacking in any evidence one way or the other, 50% is a correct prior. There were two mutually exclusive possibilities, the laws of probability demand all mutually exclusive propositions add to 100%, and we become subject to various biases if we refuse to assign uniform priors in this case.

Source: Probability Theory by E.T. Jaynes
Agreed.

I find tablets have a few niche uses which may continue to warrant new tablet development, but I really don't see the desire to push them into the role of "main computational device" for the majority of users.

I own a tablet that hasn't had the WiFi turned on in over a year. I use it exclusively as an e-reader (soon, I may just buy a proper e-reader). I think these devices have a place, but I'm not going to code on it, or write my cover letter on it. People need to stop telling me I should be able to, because even if I could, I wouldn't want to!
I had no such thing happen to me, don't know if it's because I block everything facebook or because I disable javascript by default.

Point is nowadays most websites try really hard to get in the way between visitor and content to push for some pointless marketing. Disabling javascript or at least third party javascript is the modern popup blocker.

Maybe give a try to noscript or requestpolicy with firefox, no advice for opera which used to be something but now is just a skin for google chrome, speaking of which if you're using google chrome you deserve to suffer through overlays.
>Meanwhile, wages have been stagnant and debt increasing for everyone who is not in the 1%.

But the article contains graphs showing that wages for people with bachelor's degrees are growing, and wages of people with master's degrees are growing faster.

And I don't really see the logic of your argument: your could say "X may be true, but it distracts us from talking about Y" about literally anything.
JavaScript Apps Timing Attacks
Nope. There is a presentation on cookie tossing, but scant else.
https://github.com/blog/1823-results-of-the-github-investiga...

"The investigation found no evidence to support the claims against Tom and his wife of sexual or gender-based harassment or retaliation, or of a sexist or hostile work environment.

...

As to the remaining allegations, the investigation found no evidence of gender-based discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or abuse."
I've always felt that what we used to call the Shannon Limit (more accurately, the Shannon-Hartley Theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theore...) was more useful in conversations like this than any reference to the speed-of-light or motion of particles in a medium.
Preposterous, perhaps, but it also creates a class of people who can afford to break laws.
> Why would the police give two shits about the EU election?

Because police are part of the government, and the government of Sweden has obvious reasons to care about EU elections.
Your Design Team Needs A War Room. Here's How To Set One Up
> And as far as nagging users to update, that can be a little difficult if your software is embedded in the controls of a diesel engine somewhere in the South China Sea.

Yes. There are, of course, exceptions.
Lol... I only use emacs if required to. Which, it seems, with Coq or Agda is the case. :(
Even if you have to show your work, a lot of students will just blindly try a few canned approaches until they get something that looks about right. Actually understanding what you're doing is definitely more efficient, but a lot of people muddle through without really understanding the reasoning.

One of the worst examples of that mentality I saw in a first year university course was a multi-part question where one part had the student calculate something and the next part had the student do something to sanity check the answer. One student got the first part wrong and then fudged the working in the second part to get it to say that the first answer was correct. Of course, this completely misses the point of checking the answer. Worse, they came up to me after class and argued that they deserved full points because the second error was "a consequence of" the first one. They seemed totally perplexed that I didn't agree.
and want to look good on cost sheets

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!

Seriously, there can be no explanation for the ridiculously short notice other than YouTube said, "You look good, but your costs are just too high." (Or, if not YouTube, somebody else Twitch is trying to get into a bidding war with YouTube.)

Any other reason and management would have looked at the costs and said, "We need to transition out to save money," and provided a reasonable runway for their customers. As it is, this has nothing to do with making things better for their customers.
This was true for at least 80-90% of CS grads at least in my year in a real university. They were going for the degree and were smart enough to get in that way.

Very few were interested in the material itself.

But yes, once employed as a developer consultant, I must say, at university people were way more interested in the material at university. That's mostly a way to say that it's extremely rare to find even a single person interested in CS at most developer employers though.
Nice catch! I'm going to assume, since GT really does handle all of the admissions stuff, that their page is the correct one. It does look like, on our page, we are displaying GT's "preferred prereqs" but labeling them as "required prereqs".

I've emailed the guy running that program and will post a reply if I'm told there's a different reasoning behind it (and hopefully we'll get our page updated too).
I meant that sending logon + password is somewhat pointless if it's plaintext over the internet, while if you have some encryption going on, someone intercepting the data in transit would have a harder time using it to trick the client or the server. In that sense authentication is more meaningful with a certificate -- even though using a CA still allows interception by a government actor. It narrows the range of those who can "break" the attempted security.
The Shannon-Hartley Theorem on the maximum rate of information transfer
I've seen it - dang[0] does it regularly. It's not censorship - it's curation, and so far every instance I've seen I've agreed with. That's why I asked if you could provide specific examples that you don't agree with.

In particular, look at these comments:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7826954

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7826943

In both cases the posts were explicitly unkilled - the opposite of censorship.

I'm going off-line now, but I'll see any replies in the morning. To answer your question, my feeling is that, in general and overall, the actions of the moderators are having a positive effect in the quality both of submissions and discussions.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dang
If you rely on XCode is moving to Windows really an option? (honest question - I know nothing about XCode but I was under the impression it was used only for OS X and iOS development).
>Maybe that's just not that important to most people though.

It's not important to me: I'm satisfied that the theory of comparative advantage shows that free trade is good, and protectionism (even in the form of individuals preferring goods made in their own nation) is harmful to all countries. Presumably Google will put a positive spin on anything they do, and make the arguments that are best received by the public, not the most logical arguments.

>I'm sure it was important to the people working there.

Switching from supplier A to supplier B will always be bad for supplier A. Does that mean we should never switch suppliers? Or maybe it means we should always switch supplies (since it's good for supplier B).
Because w/o damning evidence of any wrongdoing at this point I don't want to turn it into a witch hunt. Watching.
I've yet to see any evidence that GitHub is "Bro Code heavy."
Business School, Disrupted
I was with a tour group right before this happened. The group of people is blaming me as I made a show of jumping on it to prove its integrity. Hopefully I didn't, uh, encourage the breaking...

(Here's me jumping on it an hour before: http://imgur.com/kk1DTht)
If you want mathematics to be it's own little walled garden free from ambiguity, that's fine. But don't you think it's kind of important that people be able to translate between problems in the messy non-mathematical universe and mathematics.
It seems more likely that he provides enough value to them that they're willing to agree to his terms.
Maybe not, but it's bad strategy to give away that you're bleeding money while in acquisition talks.
This was my impression of undergraduate university: cognitive dissonance. Why? a) why do we have this ridiculously inefficient model of pedagogy, and b) why are all these people here who don't express/display any real interest in their subject.

You have been through primary and secondary school, where the function is pretty clear: you are children, so you need to be somewhere supervised by adults; you need to learn to socialise with other children; and you need to learn basic skills like arithmetic, reading, composing essays, studying, punctuality. Then you go off to university which doesn't seem to make any sense. I think it depends on your course - it will be much better if you already have a strong, realistic idea of what you want your career to be, and find yourself among like-minded students.
> So what about a good, solid, liberal arts education? The one thing that universities were supposed to be masters of for centuries? The one thing that allows each of us to participate in and enjoy life to its fullest? Where does society go for that?

Any liberal arts college?
Actually, you may have proved exactly how safe it is by damaging the protective layer and leaving the main glass unharmed.
Having read about this in a Fort Worth paper, apparently most of the current "employees" are contractors. I gained the impression that this was always the case.

P.S. Meaning, people employed by a third-party contracting company. You know the drill...
Doesn't matter, got your browser cookied with the affiliate program. ;)
They rarely think about what they are doing as long as at the end of the day their answer is “correct”.

Agree. These kids are just playin "THE GAME".

I don't know why this is bad. It shows the kids are smart.

At the end of the day, the only use of education is getting stuff.

The kids are focused on the "getting stuff", and see the eductation as hoop to jump through.

The truth is they are right.
I find that I've gotten to a point too where my mind subconsciously blocks out ads, even the ones at the top of Google searches. I also don't believe I've ever clicked on a banner or display ad (purposely) since I've been on the internet. They just always feel scammy or not targeted well enough in my opinion. But that's also just the nature of the internet...
Sounds like an Aphex Twin or Squarepusher video.
I just did the same ping from Stanford to Mit:

90.340 ms

It's interesting to me that the latency has not improved since 1996. I guess it's probably hard to maintain (let alone improve) latency as network complexity greatly increases.
There is also the simple fact that there aren't enough nurses, and there aren't going to be. Baby boomers just didn't have enough kids to ensure a decent level of human care. Look at the numbers.

One thing's for sure : one person cannot make a difference here.
>>> Is there some delivery mechanism for a liberal arts background that we haven't considered yet?

The printing press?

I don't mean to be snarky, but it does occur to me that the heyday of the liberal arts education was also a time when traveling to the university was necessary in order to have physical access to the sources of knowledge.
In fairness Peter's book is freely available online too, and sold like normal reasonably so it's not like IEEE are locking it down or anything. Definitely ridiculous pricing though.
I don't know which profession you mean; your example is a failure of consumers of technology to "get" latency more than it is a failure of producers to get it.
Poll: Designers, do you have a design degree?
My wife is debating on whether or not to go back to school for design. She knows how to do decent enough web design and some photo editing via photoshop but feels she needs to both learn more and/or potentially get a degree. Anyone have any advice for her if you are a designer?