skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I've read multiple accounts of people who tried it and claimed they were just as rested. But I emphasize try because they no longer do it, and I bet the reason is they were not just as rested.

edit: polyphasic sleep discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=652650
The comments from 2007 (http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/anatomy-of-a-next-g...) have a pointer to this:

http://bigasterisk.com/projects/skim

which may give someone a starting point.
Stick it on Github and reply to this comment with the link s'il vous plait. I'll give it a shot myself, but my vimscript is extremely weak.
I figure you know this already as a user of vim but I thought it might be worth pointing out that vim has all of those features.
I worked on the team developing the Word and OneNote web apps this summer. Just finished on Friday. I'm happy to try and answer any questions.
Minimap for Visual Studio:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/IntroducingRockScroll.aspx
Taking c++ as an example: It would be nice if when my cursor is in function Foo::bar() it highlights all functions in Foo which depend on variables modified by bar() and highlight all functions which modify variable bar() relies upon. Pretty trivial to do, but might be useful.
I think the fundamental problem with waking up has little to do with the power of the alarm clock. If the alarm clock could detect the sleep cycle pattern, it could wake you up when you're not in REM sleep so that you wouldn't wake up groggy.

When you get into a very rigid sleeping schedule, the REM cycles are more rigid as well and you'll tend to wake up less groggy since you're able to position your REM sleep cycles away from the wake up time. Waking up properly also doesn't require a clock that runs away from you.

So there's 2 ways to solve it: get a smart alarm clock that can predict/measure your sleep level, or fit yourself into a rigid sleep schedule for a long time so that your body adjusts to it.
I tend to rely on my spatial reasoning a lot, even when programming -- as I suspect many other programmers do.

When working on large project files, I find that I have to spend a lot of time scrolling up and down trying to find a particular function, especially if a project file contains lots of similar-looking wrapper functions. OTOH, in my brain, I know exactly where, spatially, the function resides relative to the document. I just have to find it.

So for me, the mini-map is a huge win, on the level of, "oh wow, how have I been programming all this time without it?"

And I loathe pop-up and drop-down menus with all of my function names. They only resolve one tiny aspect of my hunting; I don't have to scroll, but I still have to find the function I'm looking for.

With mini-map, I should be able to zero in on any part of the code that I'm looking for with a single click. I really want that.
But do you have any idea what else was running on those virtual machines and what kind of overhead that gave ?
Must be able to check my email ;) Or really provide a extension system so I could do that.
Contextual Advertising from Social Media
I don't mean to say Java is all-bad. McDonald's is an extremely innovative company as well - they've put a lot of effort into optimizing the process of food production.

A large part of this is due to the simplicity of the language

I was with you until that part - maybe the abstraction Java programmers deal with, sure. But the question "what is my computer doing?" when you run a Java program is well beyond the vast majority of Java developers, partially because it's so complicated. This is a Very Bad Thing.
Pretty much unplayable in Opera (10). Opera's key mappings override the game's mappings, and CPU usage is way up there.
Very early (learning web programming very slowly) execution of a grab from social media, a call to Zemanta's API, and passing it to a contextual search tool (check out the google adsense button)

Below are two imbedded iframes,
one for http://frankensearch.appspot.com which is cool because its faster than normal php running on the gae (jvm/quercus) and

another for http://victusmedia.appspot.com which is lift/scala on the gae and will hopefully do something cool
yet its data frequently seems to be wrong, for anyone looking at a particular city who knows the venues.

So if they can't get it right, for a limited scope of live music events, it is clearly as tough to get right as others say it is.
After a 15-minute test drive, here are the things I liked:

- It's really fast.

- Minimap is a really great feature, especially in conjunction with search.

- Multi-pane layouts are nice, but what they lack is the ability to put the same file in two different panes.

- Multi-select is a nice feature, but it doesn't seem like something I would use very often.

- Search & replace interface is nicely placed -- as a bar at the bottom, instead of a pop-up window -- so that it doesn't get in the way.

Here's what's keeping me from switching:

- No out-of-the-box feature for opening remote files, especially SFTP. I know it says it can integrate with WinSCP, but what I'm talking about is: download, install, run and be able to open a remote file right from the menus.

- No code folding. This would have been a serious problem for me in and of itself, but it's especially annoying when you consider the next point.

- Configuration and preferences are modified by editing XML and text files, instead of having a GUI for that.

Give me those features and I'll be happy to shell out those 60 bucks.
I disagree with his assessment on rabbits. I get his point, but his example doesn't stand: He went elephant hunting and then blamed the rabbits for running away.

His piece on conquering markets that already have rabbit hunters in them is more accurate. That's the key right there though: if you want to hunt rabbits, a good evaluator of success will be that you're the only person hunting these particular rabbits, or you're hunting rabbits in a unique way that is more effective. Hunting rabbits can only be done with "blue ocean" style strategies.
How about S5, ported to jquery?

http://staticfree.info/projects/jqs5
is it not a testament to the base of the language that they've managed to build so much crap on top of it?

No, that's just a question of marketing and man power.
I disagree. If you run a test on a virtual machine then you are testing a lot of other software besides the software under test so the picture gets distorted.

For instance, in the graphs that are in the report you can see a bunch of drops to '0' traffic, these suggest serious problems with the software under test. But knowing that the tests were done in a VM environment it is possible that the cause of these drops is not in the software under test but with the VM, or alternatively, with other software running on the host the VM is running on.

That makes it very difficult to assign meaning to all this.

If you test software you do it in an environment that controls all the variables as much as possible otherwise the results will not help you in making decisions.

If people run software 'in the cloud' then that's a different story altogether, then you test the same software side-by-side on your bare machine vs your 'in the cloud' setup and you benchmark those.

This test is labelled 'twister vs tornado', not 'twister in the cloud' vs 'tornado in the cloud'.
Feel free to post something better then instead of adding nothing to the conversation spare noise.
Or really any real content. The author didn't even try out his own example to see if it would work. And honestly how horrible the old Risk rules is really old. There are both new rules and much more enjoyable games these days.
Gross sales is irrelevant. A download costs virtually nothing. No CD to make, no shipping, no store front, not cover printing. The RIAA is misleading people with these types of numbers, no doubt they have lost money, but really, it isn't as bad as they pretend.
Ok, but why did you decide to build something rather than use an approach like I described? Is it because you needed synchronous requests, not all of them were async?
The Web and Education: We Need Scale
The author of Sublime Text is using DirectX so it's Windows only for now. Most everything in the app is written in Python so in theory he could move things over to OpenGL.
Alex Eagle from Google presented Noop at the 2009 JVM summit. Slides at http://wiki.jvmlangsummit.com/Image:Noop_at_JVM_Summit.pdf
I find looking at my gmail spam label to be more depressing than impressive, so I try to avoid looking at it -- which is why I use gmail for my catchall accounts.
Did ever something named "X killer" actually kill X?
There's a box around download album sales reading $0.60 - what's that? 60c albums only? A lot of the value for units shipped comprises of the cost of the physical value of the media and its transportation. Is the comparison legitimate if it compares the value of CDs shipped VS download sales?

Too bad the gravy train has ended for the RIAA - recouping losses by suing file-sharers is like a kid throwing a violent tantrum when their toy broke.
I think its natural for an intellectually curious person to feel doubts about whatever they choose.

Personally -- I studied Econ as an undergrad, worked at 2 startups for 2 years, then nonprofits for the next 3, and then law school and a big firm job. When I was sitting in that law firm office, I hated my life relative to both the non-profit world and the startup world. Of the 3, the startup world allowed me to live as I most liked.

The thing that I miss about the startup world is that its a meritocracy. Your knowledge and your ability will determine where you stand, not your cultural status or car or whose parents you know. If you know more and can do more than the next guy, you have a voice that people want to hear, regardless of your age, tattoos, vices, etc.
I wouldn't say Erlang is a "hard" language, especially once you understand it. Sure, there aren't a whole hell of a lot of people that are proficient in it, but I think that's just because it's a little obscure. To someone with a little experience with functional programming, Erlang should make a lot of sense.
Familiar feelings, ha ha. I believe it is human nature to occasionally doubt what you and whether directions you are heading is a right path. I have heard it countless number of times. Though at any given period of time you have to have predominant focus otherwise you will get lost in your choice and will never try either path. The way I solve it, I just act upon the situation, circumstances and intuition coupled with my desires at particular moment of making a decision. I wanted to get PHD in CS but ended up getting master because I was not sure what to concentrate in. Well, now I am in the business world wondering what is next(I might still go for PHD but likely in different field than I though or have successful start up if not both) . I have changed my directions several times but unless you try one you will never know if it is something for you or not.(and there is no negative outcome, you learn on the way plus get understanding if these is something you want or do not). Just try what you believe is desirable and most optimal at this point, listen to your intuition and keep your eyes and mind open to opportunities when they are to come(you will know it).
Other thing I noticed, is depending what direction you chose your priorities change so your choose are likely to change along the line. The only thing that works against you is time but that what our life is about.
Interesting that you mentioned philosophy, being technical with analytical mind, lately I started to get in more and more into philosophy; wonder if is a normal evolutionary trend for hackers or it is just me…
Yes, I know exactly what was running on those virtual machines. They were purpose built for this test, nothing else was creating load on those servers.
It's really nice that you've found a few spineless coders to do work for you at a reduced rate because you cater to their egos - you are a superior businessman.

In my opinion any "great" programmer will strike out on his own doing exactly what he wants to do before taking a pay cut to work with pet technology X at your shop. Especially if he knows you're on the internet bragging about how you pay them less than what they're really worth.
As well as LLVM being the new up-and-comer of the group.
But if you're testing them both in a VM, wouldn't you consider this a valid performance benchmark for those looking to run their instance in a cloud VM?

I mean, I think I get your point, in that this benchmark doesn't apply to those running bare metal... but isn't the obvious counterpoint that this is an especially useful benchmark for those running in a VM?
It is the nature of the hacker to question everything, even his inherent hackiness. You're perfectly normal. Now relax and go build something.
A Zen student once asked his teacher, "Master, what is enlightenment?"

The master replied, "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep."
Choose your Browser before Opening any Hyperlink
If you compare two things running on a VM you have to have a play-by-play idea of what else is running on the machine the VM is running on otherwise your test could be seriously affected by something outside your view.
I could not agree more. Technical skills are empowering, especially in this world before us where software is still a growth industry.

Also -- if you're like me and you end up feeling guilty for making a shameless run for money, you have a set of skills that you can step outside and help any non-profit with. Its what drew me to law as well -- I figured I can be helpful to many that otherwise lack money for these sorts of things.
Who really knows, but Google loves to spoil other people's releases (c.f. Wolfram Alpha vs. Google Squared).
The most interesting part of this article is the date (2006). Nice find.
Thanks, this is helpful. Not to be a stickler, but two things on your summary:

* Where are you getting your estimates from? The numbers on the spreadsheet in the article do not match your rounded summaries.

* Twisted is faster at the same proportions for all the concurrent request numbers. Your summary makes it sounds like it's only slightly better at 500, but significantly better at all other request numbers. In fact, it's about 120% faster across the board.

Since yours is the top rated comment, I think you should ensure that it's accurate.
Summary: Be smart, work hard, take customer service seriously, and measure everything you can.

This is way better: http://paulgraham.com/start.html.
Reasonable explanation, thanks.
The idea of a meritocracy is something that appeals to me greatly. I hate the feeling that a person's credentials define who they are, and their abilities.

Interesting also that you mentioned law school, since I am also considering looking into that! Are there any law startup type operations out there?
I think he lost me somewhere around "Microsoft is finally doing good user interface design."

If all you're using your OS for is some kind of browser hosting facility, then you can judge your OS by the chrome.

I think Windows 7 has some appeal here only because it's shiny and new and OS X is boring and old.

In the unlikely event Windows ever gets serious about their command line, then maybe it will be a viable development platform. Until then it's some kind of hilarious joke.
This is definitely true. Investors and acquirers are noticeably more active than they were 6 months ago, and maybe more than they were a year ago.
No.

You have to work, every day, whether you are too tired or not. You must push yourself, every day, and have discipline.

Extraordinary results require extraordinary efforts.
I dunno. I think it could be turned into a "CL's loop macro rocks like NOTHING ON EARTH" post quite easily.
Deep Green & Augmented Reality Pool (Video - Warning: awful music)
I wonder whether this is other copyright holders trying to get the BBC on-board. I've read an article before HD could represent the end of unencrypted analogue output, and how companies are trying to control the recording of programs.

http://writersblocklive.com/hd-boycott-2006-02
http://www.aacsla.com/specifications/

It seems to me that the license fee in the UK is under constant attack for being "unfair", but in reality it sets the bar and makes UK television cheap and high quality. For example I think if you wanted Sky TV it would cost you £17 per month for a basic package.

The more that people have to subscribe to television the more we have to pay for watching the same programmes again. I'm all for copyright holders making a profit but not sitting on stale programming for 30 years. At some point this content should be in the public domain, like the Gutenberg project.
But if you're using 3G GSM, you're really using UTMS, which is barely GSM at all. It uses a completely incompatible air interface that ditches TDMA... for CDMA.
http://www.supermemo.com/help/faq/polyphasic.htm
This was a great find, thanks for the link. Pretty much proved all my thoughts true
> There's a box around download album sales reading $0.60 - what's that?

I think that's in millions (or billions) of dollars. Notice that there is also '1978: $8.1' next to LP/EP and '1988: $6.1' next to Cassette. I think they are trying to label the peak of sales (those black bordered sections) with the volume of revenue.

{edit} It says 'billions' at the top {/edit}
WebKit adoption shows strong momentum for WebGL 3D graphics
MS is $97 one time, no subscription. it really is one the best search data tools I've ever used
I was only referring to the mini map feature. While you, my friend, are definitely rooting for an emacs discussion :)
I like how much of the screen is lost due to horizontal crap up the top. The fake title bar, etc.
Medusa Brute-Forcer- A better Alternative to Hydra
What's important is that PAIP is on it: Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence (case studies with Common Lisp).

A great hacker (who unfortunately passed away: http://rabbi.vox.com/library/post/in-memoriam-eric-s-tiedema...) described it to me as "the best programming book out there" (even if you never touch AI or Lisp again).

One key technique described in that book was Memoization. Few weeks later, I went for a job interview with $BIG_INTERNET_FIRM_THAT_ISNT_GOOGLE, where I was asked to what Memoization was and to implement it on the whiteboard. I did so (in Common Lisp as I didn't remember the syntax for a coderef in Perl; the interviewer, being an avid emacs user, understood the code) and got the position.
"Imitation isn't always flattery"
Surely Google imitated in the first place
The virtual machines were not running anything else, but the machines they were running on might have been running something else.

Or are you sure that the machines these virtual machines were running on were otherwise completely idle ?

And if they were idle then why bother with the virtual machines, then you could have just run your tests directly bypassing the whole VM overhead.
Anybody else in Vancouver suddenly worried that our infrastructure will be messed with now? Hey World, you know those Olympics in Feb, well here are some electrical conduits you can fuck up for the event! WTF?
What would you say is the correspondence between OneNote desktop and web? If it is as flexible on the web as the desktop, I would be very impressed (and happy, it's a great app but it never made a lot of sense for me since I use a lot of different machines).
Rocky planet found outside Earth's solar system
>> @When things are truly late-bound, it makes as little sense to split computational instructions into these "language" silos.

> I can't understand you. Can you rephrase?

Oops, think-o, that should have said "it makes as little sense to split computational abstractions into these language silos".

To clarify: there are "languages" like Haskell/Ruby/Python/Java/C that make an enormous number of decisions about the kinds of abstractions we use to describe what it is a computer is to do. A "language" is a set of decisions about syntax, type systems, functional or object-oriented abstractions, memory allocation and garbage collection, call stack traversal. If one decides to compile to a VM instead of machine code, that introduces another set of variables - from JIT compilation techniques to the kind of VM specifications you publish (do you publish a reference VM like Squeak, or a bunch of papers and tests like the JVM). "The Java language" is a set of hundreds of those kinds of decisions. So is "the Python language". Comparing the two is really difficult, because for almost any problem, some subset of Java's decisions will be better, while another subset of Python's decisions will be better. But these sets of decisions aren't atomic (they can be split!).

Every time you late-bind a decisions to the user, it removes a dimension from the decision space that the "language" lives in. It expands the power of the language to span that entire dimension. Hence, the most powerful language is one that makes the most irreversible decisions.

talking [...] in broad strokes undermines attention to good engineering and striving to be great engineers

That sounds right, and I should avoid it if it's needless. However, it's also important to always try to unify concepts to simplify our models of things. The important thing is to make sure the simpler model is just as accurate.
> Obviously the answer was MP3s, but I think they might have missed the boat there...

The problem was that it was too close to their current bubble at the time. These are the kind of things that large businesses try to artificially separate out so that they can maximize profit. Why bring in a new technology now when I can wait until later and make more money in the interim?
So far I have been quite fortunate to try many technical things, due to a variety of internships (6!) at a seriously varied set of companies. I have tried to pursue what you mentioned, being open to new and interesting paths that present themselves.

I'm glad that there are other people out there like me, and that compulsively trying new things is not necessarily a hindrance.

Also, on your comment about philosophy: I think that on some level, all hackers are philosophers. The field of philosophy itself is often marginalised by technical people (and perhaps rightly so), but the application of logic and analysis is universal in the hacker world view.
NYT does a great job of pushing the limits in infovis, but they don't always hit the mark. This vis seems to show an approximate fixed scale on the y-axis, which is good. It means the differences in heights between the blobs are relevant. The fact that they layout multiple charts along the y-axis seems acceptable, in fact it allows for quick comparison between graphs. However, the x-axis is unlabeled and unclear. It seems to roughly represent time, but has no origin. One can sort of deduce approximate time but without a clear label I can't dive deeper into the information. This seems to be the failing of many info visualizations I come across these days. They either optimize for the "quick glace" or the "in-depth analysis" when you can get a happy medium by usually just tweaking one or two aspects of the display (in this case I would argue a labeled x-axis).
I've found very few places that are good about blocking all of the disposable e-mail domains - I can't recall ever finding a site that blocked all of them.
Big state research institutions are dead - they are just way too expensive to run. Four year community colleges with faculty that teach full time are going to become the norm.
Cities, Creativity and Genius
One could make a similar argument that open source operating systems are inherently less secure as malicious hackers would know all the weaknesses.
I think your point is really valid, though I think the relevancy of the tests were to test the claims made by Bret from tornado.

Glyph made a really good point, tornado comes with zero automated tests... Ultimately after conducting these tests and listening to the discussion that has taken place, I am personally glad that we're writing our code with twisted.web