skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm still a little surprised this was necessary. Miner income depends on the price of Bitcoin. Therefore, miners have a self-interest to protect the integrity of the network. It isn't like there are no alternatives to Ghash.io. It looks they collectively voted that this wouldn't be a big deal, or it would get sorted out by other mechanics (like this), and they were right. It hasn't seemed to significantly effect the price of Bitcoin.
Of course now that many people have agreed that syntax is a silly thing to worry about, they've moved on to claiming that the impossibility is quickly picking up frameworks and libraries.

In my career I've made drastic shifts in tech stacks, including some moves to some pretty esoteric/uncommon things. In every case I've been up to speed in a reasonable time - sure I might not be the world's expert but Good Enough. And honestly, because of that experience it's only made it easier to do so over time.

I wish more people not only accepted such shifts but encouraged them as having a larger breadth of experience gives you a better vantage point in terms of design decisions and such.
Are young scientists becoming stupid?
Both https://white.ly and https://zz.cx redirect redirect to http://liz.tm/ginger/index.html. The certificate is self-signed by ginger@liz.tm of the organization TFB Technology Ltd (CN=ginger.liz.tm)

A whois of liz.tm reveals similar information to before:
Owner : Nicola Worthington

More interesting is that all three domains (white.ly zz.cx liz.tm) host an Icecast media streamer on port 8000.

Also found this: http://www.tfbtechnology.ltd.uk/
To me, HN looks better on the old one... why is this?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19746944/canary.png
Details:

We designed it based on personal needs and the requirements we saw from people dissatisfied with their workout apps (on reddit, through personal connections, etc). We even wrote up a design breakdown for those choices: https://medium.com/@dannyyaroslavski/outdo-design-breakdown-....

We've tested it on ourselves and with a few regular gym-goers, implemented suggestions, and have received generally positive responses and very active usage from testers (who still use it, some who've even switched from bulkier competitors like fitocracy).
Well, having the Académie française doesn't help the language evolve much!

Language should change over time, take on loanwords, simplify grammatical structures, etc. When they don't, they tend to get passed by by more dynamic languages.

One thing we're definitely learning is that adding lots of loanwords to a language does not mean that the language is becoming the same as the source of the loanwords. It's just becoming a newer version of itself. And eliminating baggage doesn't mean the language is no longer "pure", it's just making room in the language for new ideas.
Ask HN: My HN link sank without a trace. What now?
Earlier, having worked very hard on a very informative and important (IMO) essay, I posted it to HN, where it sank without trace. No votes. No comments.

What now?
Zigbee: "Outdoors with line-of-sight, range may be up to 1500 m depending on power output and environmental characteristics"
I had skipped the first few chapters (as had been suggested by others) and then started reading. I really liked the bits where Harry tried to figure out the nature of magic by using the scientific method (do wizards call upon magical power directly? or are their magic words and gestures simply controls for a sort of machine which unleashes the real power? Does magical ability follow Mendelian genetics? What kinds of materials can we make using magic?)

Later on, it got bogged down in an intra-school magic battle and Hermione and her crew attempting to be recognized as heroes, and that's where I stopped. It just seemed like the author gave up the whole "Methods of Rationality" thing and decided to write straight fanfic: stories and situations in which he'd like to see the characters. I gave up on it.
What's the expected value over the lifetime of a game from these 1-2% of users? Do they spend thousands of dollars, or do they just spend $10 or $20?

I still don't get why mobile games are aimed at "I want a game, but I only have $0.99 to spend." Computer games cost $60+.
Another person who calls API a DSL. It's not DSL if it's valid Clojure code.
What Kindle Unlimited Means For Authors
One of the available regions is "Earth", which offers global coordinates(they're a bit longer, four or five characters on each side of the dot).

Why not just use lat, lon, which can be shorter too?

Central park, NY - 40.78 -73.97

Hyde Park, LON - 51.51, -0.17
Right. As with Overstock, this is marketing ploy to a target demographic.
Hey, Chris Anderson here, this article is about my project. Here are slides from my Open Source Bridge talk on the subject. First half is philosophy the second half is tech: https://speakerdeck.com/jchris/subjective-crypto-currency
It sounds scary but just like someone else pointed out it only applies if you're in a country with a lower tax bracket. Since federal income taxes are fairly low in the US it's not likely to be an issue unless you migrate to a country with even lower taxes. On top of that, some (Western) countries have a treaty with the US to avoid double taxation and exempt you from filing taxes in both countries if you reside in either country for the majority of the year that the taxes are filed for.
I'd buy one of these GoTennas before you get too excited about the range.

"Oh, but it's VHF so you can get Es propagation and talk to Europe from the US!"

Good luck with that.
What happens to a message if it's not received? Will it be retransmitted or is it lost? Do I know if my message has been received by my contact (1:1) or anyone (1:all)?
So now you just have to trust that they don't have 11% more unused CPU power sitting around waiting to suddenly take over the network at any moment.
I don't think my wife would agree to that, but it's a thought.
A week in Mexico starting tomorrow :P
The Future of San Francisco’s SRO’s
"10m of accuracy" + "instead of giving people addresses" seems to leave a lot of people with the same 10:10.

All of NYC (with the possible exception of central park) for starters.

And even out in podunk, most of the prisons, hospitals, old folks homes, starter apartments, etc stack people in denser 2D areas.

And should people in low earth orbit be left out?

Perhaps a 10:10:10 code, including some Z dimension would be more future proof, and meet the goals better.
I'm refactoring "Xenstore" (part of the control-plane for a Xen host) to use it. I want to make the server stateless so I can restart it if it crashes.. this mainly involves remembering lots of bits of state: connection information, watch registration, pending events etc. I also want to make it easier to debug while I'm at it.

I've got a draft of a blog post here:
https://github.com/djs55/mirage-www/blob/a1ab2fec78fa7d96c64...

edited to add:

This work is a natural evolution of the "OXenstored" work presented at ICFP 2009 http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~apt/icfp09_accepted_papers/83.html
This story was in the first position on the front page less than an hour ago. It was there for hours. The link was then changed from [0] to [1], and within thirty minutes, it was on the second page at number 47. (It first took a drop to around 17, hovered there for a while, then hit 47.)

Could we have an explanation of what's going on here? How can penalties from flagging be this steep for a story with 200 upvotes and 90 comments? Why did the position suddenly change shortly after the link was changed, but not right away?

[0] http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/07/15/documents...

[1] https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-o...
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8053860

That also links directly to the dell blog announcement.
Mobile-friendly data visualizations
Post it someplace else. These days I consistently get upvotes when I post things to reddit, so long as I choose a subreddit where the people have a PMA. (That is, not proggit!)

This best thing you can do to help other people escape this fate is look at the "new" page often and upvote things that look interesting to you.
Running completely gameable, "unscientific polls" should be considered journalistic malpractice. It was annoying and stupid before, continuing to do so going forward knowing that it will be abused by governments and hidden organizations to manufacture consent is unacceptable.
This isn't Reddit. It is perfectly acceptable to downvote out of disagreement, as pg has stated before.
A simple cryptosystem that provides provable plausibly deniable encryption
And 10% of those will probably burn out their Alienware systems trying to mine bitcoins in them anyway.
A huge win for Coinbase. Congratulations Brian and the rest of the team!
Ghash.io makes money from hosted mining, and takes no mining fees from the pool. So some miners in the pool might go elsewhere (and pay mining fees) for those reasons, but it looks like lots of people are just hoping that someone else will leave.
What I can tell you is that any marketing effort takes about 20 times the effort that you think it should.
Weren't Dalton, Alexis, and Qasar already part-time partners? Little confusing... Awesome nonetheless.
You would have to take a look through our code on githhub.
http://github.com/storj

That paper was written before decentralized storage was really just a new idea. I've since implemented a baseline core algorithm, and we have one application running.

I'm in the process of rewriting the whitepaper. Hopefully will put out a draft in two weeks(I'll be at conferences all this week). From there I want to actually collect network data(after all I'm trained as a researcher and what is good paper without any data?) before putting out a solid draft to be peer reviewed.
I'd doubt limiting land space would be very helpful -- given that the each character encodes 33 possibilities (alphabet + digits, without O, I, or L for clarity), you'd need to reduce the space by a factor of 33 (~97%) to remove a single character.

Huffman coding would be interesting, but the tradeoff would be that since locations are no longer standardized to 10 characters, you'd lose the validation aspect of it (not to mention you'd have to change the name =).

Edit: Apparently S and Z are also missing, so 31 possibilities.
It happens, alas. It seems like the volume of submissions has been going up, new links scroll off the first page of /new faster than they used to. So it's harder to predict what will catch peoples' attention and what won't. It feels like there's a bigger element of luck to it -- of having submitted it at just the right time -- than there used to be.

All you can really do is look for other channels to get the word out -- appropriate subreddits? High-profile people on Twitter who are interested in the subject?
Can't get a Dell Chromebook? Buy one of these 5 alternatives instead
Acceptance of bitcoin continues to increase, but has a store seen sustained usage? I recall a chart from a few weeks ago after newegg(?) began accepting bitcoins an initial glut of bitcoin transactions quickly dwindled to background noise. It seems once the novelty wears away people find it easier to just pay directly in USD.
I think it's probable that someone in marketing created this campaign ... and they're careful to call it a "pilot" in the announcement (so they can pretty easily back out). On the other hand, if Bitcoin sales are adding to their gross income, why would they get rid of the program? If it's cannibalizing other sales channels, it may not be worth the extra effort.
Why wouldn't they want to promote the currency? Bitcoin is win-win for the merchants, with no fees and no chargebacks.
They're transitioning from part time to full time :)
At $150 for two devices, it seems like a good deal for something that you would use once or twice a year. If the price goes up (as the website suggests that it is currently being offered at a 50% off promo), then I doubt it will become a mainstream device.
Is there an epub version of Worm?

If not, would the author object to someone scraping their site to make an epub version?
My company started accepting bitcoin a few months back. We use BitPay.com to offload risk (they instantly convert a BTC payment into your preferred currency and cash you out at the going rate).

We haven't made any sales with BTC yet... (as my VP reminds me weekly ;-), but none-the-less, the company views it as a great alternative to what normally would constitute a "high risk" shipment (usually to countries were high credit card fraud rates or other scams originate from... if we get our money now, and there is no risk of chargeback, etc, then we will ship the order).

So, it's not really a "marketing ploy" as you put it, but rather a good vehicle to accept orders the company may have normally rejected due to too much risk.
This exactly. We also wanted to separate the payment protocol from the data protocol.

If sidechains or treechains become viable we plan to merge it back in to Bitcoin proper.
I would never recommend using this for mission-critical passwords like your bank or Gmail, but I think for most throwaway sites in the past, this was OK. Now with the availability of password managers, I think the clear winner is to use a password manager.
"Please visit us again when it is available in your country." makes it sound like they are motivated to rewrite them. But you can't just rewrite everything at once. I understand the frustration that people outside the US feel when a new service is launched as US-only first but you have to start somewhere. And a US-based company is most likely to start at home and then branch out.
The "what if" concept is an interesting one, but you can really only keep that up for a few chapters, to show how all the obvious consequences will pan out.

After that, the author has to create additional divergences to justify an original story line, particularly with respect to Quirrell. There is a bit too much emphasis on deconstructing the very powerful, yet somehow mysteriously unimportant, plot devices from the source material, particularly the time turners.

Yes, a device that allows you to travel backwards in time that is somehow available to barely competent wizarding students probably would not have been used once as a plot device and discarded forevermore. But there is such a thing as the MST3K rule: it's just a book; I should really just relax. We purposefully ignore more details like the fact that spacecraft drive systems powerful enough to not be boring must necessarily be powerful enough to completely demolish whatever interesting plot we had in mind, simply because it gets in the way of the story. If you look at Star Wars, you know in your rational mind--from the first moment a hyperdrive engages--that Death Stars are not the best way to destroy planets, but you throw popcorn at that part of your brain and scream at it to shut up and watch the movie.

HPMoR doesn't throw that popcorn. It enthusiastically joins in, and spoils the suspension of disbelief for everyone.

But there is that one little bit of the very first original HP book that justifies the premise. It didn't even make it into the film version. Prof. Snape protects the MacGuffin with a logic puzzle, rather than magic, because the vast majority of wizards are completely unfamiliar with common sense.

But you can't have a hyperrational wizard among cloudcuckoolander wizards, in the same way that you can't have an interstellar hyperdrive that doesn't destroy planets. Because then you end up with an undestroyable horcrux and a first-year wizarding student who performs tasks nearly without assistance that a full caper crew of adults might find insurmountable. Your suspension of disbelief just has to attach to the chassis at a different point.
Probability, Why Intuition Fails Us and How Design And Simulation Can Help
added clarification.
People who already have bitcoins can now spend them to get an Alienware. I know I would if I didn't lose mine.
Post it somewhere like Medium and spread the word through channels other than HN.

Heck if it is good enough, it'll be re-posted on Reddit and HN like everything else always is.
This is an awesome post, I love seeing these kind of projects. The money shot at the end with the BB is very cool. Nice job!
Do you have a UK-based, secure, and trustworthy alternative?
If you don't use bitcoin, there's absolutely no reason. Same reason for paypal et al. There are a group of people who prefer to use bitcoin as their payment method, and this is for them.
The Brandery Accelerator Launches Its Latest Class
> side effect free

In which way(s)?
Smash Hit isn't really that bad - basically the free version is a trial, and you pay one price for the full version.

I think this Google move is more targeted at the sort of games that don't fall into the trial/paid category, rather the sort that constantly try to bill you for microtransations.
They look nice. You should let icomoon.io know, they also presently have Meteoicons from Alessio Atzeni:

http://www.alessioatzeni.com/meteocons/#about
Not really.

For an attack to be possible, the attacker needs to generate an alternate blockchain faster than the honest blockchain. This problem can be thought of as a binomial distribution where the "success" is the honest blockchain mining a block and extending its lead by a block and the "failure" is the attacking chain being extended by one, reducing the gap by 1 block.

p = probability of honest blockchain extension by 1 block
q = 1 - p = probability the attacker extends by 1 block

If p <= q, the probability of the attacker catching up at some point in time is 1. This is what makes a 51% attack possible.

If p > q, the probability of the attacker catching up is (q/p)^z where z is the number of blocks behind at the beginning of the attack.

There is a reasonable possibility for small values of z (small number of blocks behind), that 40% control would allow for the creation of an alternate blockchain longer than the honest chain, but this is mitigated by the fact that transactions require confirmations, which extends the number of blocks and makes the likelihood of an attack very unlikely.
If it means that I can get $150 off a new Alienware machine I would go and create a wallet right now to buy some bitcoins.
Agreed. It started out rather insufferable, but had a good enough concept (somebody trying to figure out how magic actually works) an a good enough execution on that concept, that it was a very enjoyable read anyway. Recently, he's largely abandoned the "figure out how magic actually works" part in favor of the not terribly interesting plot and characters.
Alternate theory: Bitcoin owners are disproportionately likely to be speculators who have no interest in ever spending Bitcoins except maybe once as a novelty.
Japan checking in.

> experience?

Japan is a country that suits some people very well, and others not at all. It's not great if you like driving, lots of personal space, fitting in, etc. Personally I find it almost entirely very agreeable. It's such a homogeneous society that some things might depend on your background.

> particular career?

Miscellaneous web/front-end/content development; later tech evangelism.

> moving expenses?

Minimal, but that was ~15 years ago and I had very little stuff. I brought two suitcases and shipped a few boxes by sea. It was under $1K, perhaps half that.

> How much is your rent or did you buy?

Tokyo center is on par with downtown S.F. - i.e. egregious. But due to unbelievably never-want-to-leave public transport, you can live well outside the city comfortably. My rent is around $1300/mo; commute ~40 minutes.

> Where did you move to/from?

From midwest US to Tokyo environs.

> How are the schools?

Mixed. Japanese schools are excellent at many things - fostering discipline and responsibility, math/science, work ethic. Having students fetch/serve/clear up their own lunches, sweep their own corridors etc. is something I wish I could export. On the other hand schools here are terrible with initiative and English. International schools are super pricey - possibly beyond the reach of a typical programmer.

> fluent in the native language, language barrier difficult?

Yup and yup. You can live in Japan easily with very little language skill; career-wise being bilingual is a massive, massive boon. I sailed into my first tech job purely because I could speak very basic Japanese, and I could learn the tech faster than some other guy could learn the language. The language has a high initial hump, but is relatively sane and has very few rules to learn. (Apart from kanji, which are hard but for some purposes optional.)

> How long? Permanent resident? return to the US?

15 years or so, and yup for PR. I could see myself returning if there was a good reason though - I don't think it's very useful to try to plan such things very far out.

> process to become a permanent resident?

Easy if you meet a few well-defined requirements, impossible otherwise. I vaguely recall it being: 10 years residency if single, 5 years if married to a national, but there are a few addenda.

> already have a job when you moved?

Nope - just arrived as a tourist and poked around. With tech skills and a smattering of language ability you can trip over an entry-level job; with one but not the other it's doable but might take some looking. If you're a senior person with no language skills, it's still very possible but having several leads before arriving would be well-advised.

> cost of living? quality of life?

These are subjective, but for me, absolutely. Clean, safe, amazing public infrastructure, etc. It's fairly pricey but salaries tend to be commensurate. If I was more bohemian I might hate it - I've known people who came intending to live here and left within three months. But I'm not sure it's possible to know what you want until you try living with it.

Do hope this is helpful!
Never expect to get any upvotes for your submissions, no matter how good you think it is, and don't be offended if you get zero upvotes. There's a lot of luck involved.

Helpful links:

Analysis of all HN submissions before Feb: http://minimaxir.com/2014/02/hacking-hacker-news/

Analysis of Show HNs since new Show HN feature: http://minimaxir.com/2014/07/show-hn/
Ask HN: Why don't we use ICBMs for transportation?
Seeing the progress of spacex's VTOL rockets has made me wonder what's stopping us from using rockets to move things and people (if they don't mind the g-forces) around the planet.

I believe I read somewhere recently that you can move an ICBM between any two points on the planet in less than an hour. Seems like there are things - and people - we'd pay a big premium to move around the planet that quickly.

Is there some fundamental reason that makes this not work?
I think "I want a diversion" is more common than "I want a game". Mobile games compete against Facebook, Twitter, the news, text messaging, anything else someone can do as a diversion on their phone. And none of those things cost anything at all. People who want a game and are willing to pay good money to get one generally expect a better experience than mobile can provide.

I guess as more people go mobile-only, there will be a bigger market for higher priced mobile games, but I can't imagine anyone who considers themselves a gamer right now doesn't have either a console or a relatively high-end computer. (And I don't see anyone who doesn't consider themselves a gamer dropping more than $5 to play a game.)
> Well Dell wants to promote the currency

Dell wants to promote Dell.

And the Alienware promotion? Alienware is used primarily for video gaming. There's quite an overlap between the demographics that play video games and own bitcoin ("geeks").

This is Marketing 101.
7,500 Social Shares: The Anatomy of a Popular Blog Post With Kristi Hines
You were lucky that you were able to find customers :)

I have faced problems with HR people demanding "commercial" experience in some technology and not caring at all about your open source work.
it is really strange that this is hosted on the "google-mkto.com" domain.