skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Your understanding is not consistent at all with the government census stats. French only at home: 56%. English only at home: ~10%. French mainly + other climbs higher.

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-...

It also doesn't seem true that Allophones (born not speaking English or French) necessarily are using English the most as their 2nd language. Allophones using French most often at home is increasing over time.

http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/c...

Going outside Montreal will yield 90%+ French speakers.
I set out to learn Spanish almost exactly one year ago, deciding it was ridiculous to be monolingual in a world of thousands of languages. My approach was as intensive as the author's; I completed the Duolingo skill tree, read books on grammar and slang, watched, listened to, and read Spanish media and Spanish translations of English media, attended meetups, etc.

While I'm only 23, I experienced the same "mental fountain of youth" effect the author describes. At first, it all sounded like gibberish even if reading along with what I was listening to. My mind refused to accept words and concepts that didn't map one-to-one with English. I repeatedly mixed up similar looking words.

Despite constant failure, I kept at it, and eventually it just "clicked". Spanish errors started to sound like "he hitted me". I went from barely memorizing a few words a day, to successfully internalizing hundreds. And the best part is, all these cognitive benefits have transferred to other realms. I memorize stuff on Anki now just for the hell of it because it's so easy. I am about halfway to being fluent in German after only a month of study. I really can't recommend learning a foreign language enough.
Just wondered what you're doing in Cairo? I lived there for three months and liked it, but agree that it's also frustrating.
I don't think you can re-style a SVG with CSS if you embed it with IMG. CSS styling has to be inline with the SVG, so you can embed it directly, or you can change CSS with JS.
"PTO" is an accounting ploy to avoid having to pay off leave balances.

The alternative to to accrue leave.

Where I work, we have vacation/sick/personal leave. There are different rules for each, and vacation time accrues and you get paid upon separation.
Imperative programming probably isn't math. Math describes things and their relationships. It doesn't tell other parties what to do.

That being said, imperative language has certain limits. When one party gives orders to one or more other people, then human language does the job fine. But when it's multiple people telling each other what to do, that's when human speech ranges from unpleasant to downright undecipherable.

So you get the same thing with imperatively coded programming processes that need to act concurrently in the same area. Confusion and fighting over resources is just the natural result.
I think he's repeating the urban myth of American soldiers getting "black syphilis" and not being allowed home.
On mobile, yes. Even on good networks, you don't always have a strong signal. Download size is always a factor on mobile. 35kb isn't a big deal if it were needed but if 90% of the download is wasted then you probably don't want that.
That's a really restrictive and explicit demarcation of "formal language". I'd happily describe logic as formal language and then go hunting for places which seem to have non-trivial interactions with logic.
Go's standard library is vastly smaller than Python's. (though probably of higher quality)
>	If the GRND_RANDOM flags bit is set, then draw from the
/dev/random pool instead of /dev/urandom pool. The
/dev/random pool is limited based on the entropy that can be
obtained from environmental noise, so if there is insufficient
entropy, the requested number of bytes may not be returned.
If there is no entropy available at all, getrandom(2) will
either return an error with errno set to EAGAIN, or block if
the GRND_BLOCK flags bit is set.

> If the GRND_RANDOM flags bit is not set, then the /dev/raundom
pool will be used. Unlike reading from the /dev/urandom, if
the urandom pool has not been sufficiently initialized,
getrandom(2) will either return an error with errno set to
EGAIN, or block if the GRND_BLOCK flags bit is set.

Is this complexity necessary? I'm concerned that this will be hard to use properly as there's lots of different behaviours based on the parameters, and different types of failure modes. Security code that is hard to call right or hard to understand tends to get misused, causing security bugs in application code.
It is more precise than normal English dialect, but still much less precise than math or python. At root, the phenomena that legalese describes are often imprecise. For instance, there is no perfectly precise way to describe the boundaries of a non-compete agreement, or what exactly constitutes "negligence." (This is why we cannot actually replace law with code)
Spartan Race seeks the best hackers and startups
It would be incredibly easy to use this sort of program to game visibility on HN.

This story itself serves as the perfect example. When it was submitted four days ago [0], it quickly took a huge ranking hit and dropped off the front page. When a story drops off the front page this quickly, it's nearly impossible for it to get the upvote momentum required to gain any additional visibility. And the same URL can't be submitted again, so the opportunity for discussion of the article has essentially been removed.

Then, we're left discussing a breaking story as the top item four days later, when a summary report about the original story that contains no new information is published on Slate.

One might be quick to blame moderators, but in the discussion of another recent First Look story, dang said most of the penalty came from users flagging the story. [1] How many users flagging the story does it take to produce this outcome? Does GCHQ just need three accounts with a little karma to seriously diminish visibility here for days? Safeguards should be developed to prevent this sort of malicious activity. Maybe some sort of collusion penalty, where if the same users are flagging the same stories, the effect is diminished? Or a greater restriction on the maximum penalty?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8031791

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8008472

EDIT: And it's happened again! This story was #1 when the link was to [3]. About a half hour ago, the link was changed to firstlook.org, and within minutes, the story fell to the center of the main page. Now, thirty minutes later, it's at number 47 (with 200 points after six hours). It was at the top for hours, then dropped to 47 within thirty minutes of the link being changed. The fact that flagging happened right after the link was changed seriously suggests that some someone has automated monitoring for First Look links to flag.

[3] http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/07/15/documents...
> Currently, it exists because the formal education system teaches everyone that the formal education system is very important, that economic growth and our national competitiveness depend on more and more people going to college. People believe this myth, and then vote for politicians who sustain the institutions.

It also exists because the gatekeepers for many professions require it. In many cases, they require multiple levels of it.

This problem keeps getting worse, too. For instance, NCEES guidelines require an accredited engineering Bachelors degree for a PE; they want to add mandatory post-Bachelors education to the licensure requirement because they feel engineering Bachelors degrees are too short.
That may be true. But why does that affect someone's interpretation of the word "civilization"?
My SAT scores were similar; maybe lower math and higher verbal.

I was always much better at writing than I was at math, and in retrospect I think being able to write well can help one program better.

If people are thought to plan how to express their thoughts, organize them in a cogent manner, remove redundant phrases, tighten up wordy expressions, they are picking up skills that can be transferred to programming.

Plus, being able to express yourself well at work is like a super power.

Not that I think programming is more a language skill than a math skill, just that abstract organizational skills are applicable to both writing and coding. I suspect that getting better at writing software might make one a better essay writer, or at least a more organized writer.
Would you please get in touch with me? My contact info is in my profile.

I have a relative who has some similarities, though it's very unlikely that it's the same.
I was disappointed this was just logos, rather than an icon font for developers. I was expecting useful icons that aren't a part of sets like Glyphicon (databases, servers, etc.).
Google is the new Microsoft. the founders get down from their clouds and shit happens.

remember the history about why ctrl f in outlook is not search? this is the same.

probably someone was working a smart system to see when the game either had purchases or players dropped, and was working out a clever way to weed out the pay to win one... then one founder got fed up on pay to win bejeweled and dictated everything with in game purchases is now paid, even if it's just a donate button or skins.
Thanks for the detailed response.

I didn't really think that the lines with 161
characters were pre-formatted.

Most of the pages at HN look fine on my
version of Firefox -- 27.0.1.

I have understood and used the HN
feature for pre-formatted simple text,
say, programming language source code,
and I'm sorry about
indenting the URL. I'll try not to do that
in the future.

I would have expected that if a formatted page
is too wide for the Firefox screen window, then there
would be horizontal scroll bars at the bottom of the
HN window in Firefox. Looking at some CSS documentation,
apparently there is a CSS keyword overflow-x which controls,
at least for a DIV, if there are horizontal scroll
bars.

In the HTML/CSS of the Web pages I've written, I
said nothing about overflow-x and get scroll bars
when the data to be displayed is larger than the
associated Firefox window. I don't know why
that isn't standard on Web pages.

Thanks for your help.
Now Accepting Bitcoin on Dell.com
Ask HN: Facebook Fan Page Settings Bug
Is anyone having issues with going into Settings on their Facebook fan page?
Actually, you can renounce with only permanent residency.

I personally know someone here in Paraguay who has done it. He's now stateless. The Embassy highly suggests that you have another citizenship. However, they will accept a renunciation if you don't have one.
In the last two years I've

* gotten cancer

* gone through surgery and chemotherapy

* beaten cancer

* watched my stepfather die of cancer

* wrote and self-published a book

* gotten married earlier than planned

* moved across the country

* watched my mother-in-law die of cancer (why we got married early)

* bought a house

* gotten married again on our original date

In that time I have been away from work for quite a bit of time but I have taken exactly three real days of "vacation", when we went on a short honeymoon after the big wedding.

I need a break, preferably multiple consecutive months, but we don't have the cash to make it through. And so I continue.
My mistake. I didn't mean for the #comments bit. I was wondering why nobody had posted it before.
We'd tend to do that for stories, yes; take an overall story and assign it a number of story points. We'd then try and make time estimates for each of the story's subtasks, which is where I would have trouble. Time was a bit like a currency - "We have X number of hours available in this sprint, the sprint is big enough when we've 'spent' all those hours on estimates".

My experience actually matches what you're saying, in that there was always much better discussion around the number of story points and I never felt like my story point estimates were guesses. If there were any disagreements over story points, we'd at least be able to discuss it concretely ("here's why I think this task is more complex / more simple").

For what it's worth, before I was gone our process was moving more towards a velocity focus, where story points were getting more importance than time estimates. Generally Scrum was a new thing for our company and our group was one of the first to use it; I don't think they were using estimates as a whip, at least not intending to. However the business still needed/wanted concrete dates that the group had to commit to.
If your looking for a wider scope project for your NGO, you might want to consider something more like the Mesh Potato

http://villagetelco.org/mesh-potato/
i for one would rather they block apps that are full of ads but the screenshots show none. those drive me crazy.
I think they are legally forbidden from doing voice by the FCC, on the ultra low band spectrum they're using. (see http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/multi-use-radio-service-murs... search for "you can not make telephone calls")

If you want walkie-talkies, there's another entire band dedicated to unlicensed voice calls - http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/family-radio-service-frs

You could ask them to make a dual mode device. MURS for text/sms (and greater distance), and FRS for voice and picture messages (with less distance).
I've spent a few 5 month winters down in the Algarve, mostly to escape the cold in SW France while still being able to grab some waves (surfer).

Weather's generally sunny, landscape (as you, the OP know) is surreal, and the people, both locals and expats, are generally friendly.

A bit insular compared to Lisbon area, not a whole lot going on (expect for summer when it's apparently a complete holiday zoo).

The language is next to impossible to grok (can get by well enough in Brazilian Portuguese but the dialect down here is just something else, they seem to swallow their words). Fortunately the Portuguese as a people generally speak decent English.

Dirt cheap in the off-season (was renting a massive modern apartment with 20 foot ceilings for 500 euros per month) and internet is decent for being out in the sticks, had @8mbs/2mbs near Sagres.

Can definitely reccomend the Algarve, just not sure about long-term, it's truly another world ;-)
Regular testing with users is key to an approach like this - we mostly test every couple of weeks, sometimes going weekly if there's a particularly sticky problem to solve
Very good point; pthread_atfork does not suffice. Thanks for the correction.
There is in fact a whole range of software types to distinguish here:,

- apps that are entirely free

- apps with ads

- apps with removable ads

- apps with premium features

- apps that are demos (unlockable to the full app by paying)

- apps that sell cheats (99% of IAP games, the ones that disguise their cheats as "energy" or "coins" or "gems")
"'I don't see why it wouldn't be,' Harry said. 'A buckytube is just a graphite sheet wrapped into a circular tube, basically, and graphite is the same stuff used in pencils -'"

Well, technically....
You can indeed renounce your U.S. citizenship and become a stateless person. See the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/115645.pdf

I've seen it happen.

Not that I would recommend it, however.

Source: I'm an international tax lawyer and have 18 expatriation projects open in my office right now.
18 interviews with speakers of upcoming OSCON
It sounds like you don't even need the hard part for a viable product: range extender for cell phones targeted at people engaged in outdoor activities but parked somewhere with cell phone reception.
Surely many will ask "Why would I pay Dell in bitcoins?". Well Dell wants to promote the currency so much they will be giving a discount:

"we’ll be offering a special Alienware promotion wherein customers can save 10% off a new Alienware system purchase (up to $150 limit) when checking out with bitcoin"
Linux Kernel Coding Style - https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/CodingStyle
Check out http://honestandroidgames.com/ They will tell you what type of game (free, free with ads, paid, etc)
I am aware of that. As the developer of Devicons I am not claiming any rights upon the logos.

Also take a look at the note at the very bottom of the page:

Note: All brand icons are trademarks of their respective owners. The use of these trademarks does not indicate endorsement of the trademark holder by the author, nor vice versa.
For those who don't know about the MaidSAFE project,
The Whitepaper (a good read): https://github.com/maidsafe/Whitepapers/blob/master/Project-...
here's their code: https://github.com/maidsafe
This project is something that's quite interesting in its scope. It goes to see how successful they'll be in implementing all of this, and how robust the system would turn out (e.g. would someone lose data if 10% of the network magically disappears overnight)
The most uncomfortable thing on an SF-86 would probably be your past convictions, but it's unlikely you would get a TS in that case. After that, maybe the names of family members. It also would have your current address and foreign investments, but nothing extremely personal.
In the language of apt-get, the OP is saying that MATH is not Required for being a coder, but a Suggested package... which is true enough.

When learning to code through, it helps to have experience with functions and math procedures, even if it is only for the sake of analogies...
Go is about the easiest language to learn from my point of view, due to being extremely small and side effect free, while having GC, etc. What are you comparing with?

Other than LISP maybe, but I never really learned that
I'm not as dogmatic as this could sound, but there's some truth to the position that if you're in Asia buying groceries resembling what you'd get in the US, you're doing it wrong. :)

(Seriously, native-style meals are part of the experience, and much more budget-friendly. In many countries you could even hire a cook and still come out ahead, depending on how many family members you're buying for.)
Dell now accepts Bitcoin thru coinbase
Games For Thinkers
> George Lucas has already famously done repeated "updates" to Star Wars. If it existed only in subscription form, you'd never be able to see the original.

Or, you might sign up for a service where access to more than one version is a differentiating feature, and get both for the same subscription price rather than having to buy multiple re-releases.
I think the main difference is that in Dublin you can get cheaper without going terribly far from the city center. The sense of scale here is drastically different; the "suburbs" are 4 km from the city center. I live right in the middle of the city (not the poshest part, admittedly) a 5 minute walk from work and a 10-15 minute walk from basically every major attraction, and pay €800 per month for a 1 bedroom. By comparison, I used to pay $650 for one bedroom in a Victorian in Berkeley near Ashby BART, and that was 4 years ago before rents quite blew up. That $650 was stunningly cheap, in my view; my friends had higher rents for worse places. Fortunately I had awesome roommates.

Also, while it is certainly possible to live in SF without a car, it's even easier in Dublin, which saves money as well.

And again, I'm just a sucker for Europe. I was spending $2 grand a year on plane tickets to get over here, and now it's an €80 (or so) flight away.
I thought that would be a good catchphrase to grab some attention. My apologies.
Deal. Heading to Portland in a few weeks!
Naive question: "language skills were not considered".. this mean them not think in include it, or that it test for it but not see a correlation?

"Research into Comp Sci has been going on decades becuase apparently its one of the hardest classes to teach effectively"

This apply to math, rigth? So, if (as I experienced) programming in university is teach as math, and get the same bad results, them the solution is double-down in be more math-y?

I learn programming in a tech school. Far more effective. In my experience with interview more than +100 developers, the people that go to university (and be their introductory at programing) do worse at programming than the people that don't.
But at least if it lasts longer than your lifespan, you can be sure it will be someone else's problem when it goes wrong.
Is it really as simple as putting a binary on S3 to deploy. Anyone know where more detail--exact steps to take--about that can be foundS3
Techniques To Bypass The Chinese Firewall In 2014
Which is quite easy to manipulate, with amusing results: https://github.com/jbranchaud/commitart
Certainly. The question is really who is in charge of carrying out the "should". Currently it's the programmer, who needs to write an adapater. That adapter needs to know to convert any mutable values (dict, list, set, etc) to immutable form (frozendict, tuple, frozenset, etc.)

I personally think the use case is better handled with the unique_everseen in https://docs.python.org/2/library/itertools.html :

uniq_res = unique_everseen(res, lambda d: sorted(d.items()))
Although there are real world programming jobs out there that dont require deep mathematical knowledge i would be very sceptical about the programming skills of a person that has difficulties actually learning math.
Quantum bounce could make black holes explode
My father grew up in a very rural part of the U.S. and had a very rural accent as a result (all his brothers still do). When he moved to Chicago as a young adult, he realized the social stigmas attached to his accent were hurting him and he set about to get rid of it. I'm not quite sure how he did it, he says he just read the dictionary and practiced the pronunciation guides for each word. But it was pretty total, he can't affect his native accent anymore even when he tries.

Here on the East Coast, there's actually quite a few dialect coaches who make their living teaching Asian immigrants how to pronounce all those terrible English 'L' and 'R' sounds (among others) they struggle with. The immigrant community here is pretty large, and the desire to succeed is very high (and their accents are often seen as barriers to success, often rightly so), so there's actually a fairly robust accent/dialect industry here.
For something a bit better, check out https://chat.echoplex.us
Or description at https://echoplex.us
I'm not getting at "with math you can solve task X with efficiency". I'm getting at "even if you have a stunted view of math, you're still doing math by programming". I gave examples to the effect that if you don't understand math, and you believe "programming is not math", you'll be puzzled by your inability to perform tasks that when viewed as math, are known to be impossible, and you'll end up with false-to-fact views of what's lamentably called "software engineering".
The article isn't making a silly distinction. The conclusion the article is trying to refute is that Computing is Math. Your point is Math is Language. His point is Computing is Language. Dogs are animals, cats are animals, but cats aren't dogs.

So yes both Math and Computing use symbols and rules to represent things and relationships between them. But that doesn't make them the same. In computing, symbols are mostly used to represent actions to be performed by a machine which is very different from most math.
geekam - I don't see any contact info in your profile; email me if you want to chat re: visa stuff. gettingoutofamerica.com can be helpful as well. I actually have meant to start my own repository of immigration information at pond-crosser.com but haven't gotten around to really getting it up and running.
That is not the initial purpose of Devicons. You can try some other free font set such as Ionicons or Font Awesome.
They're naturally occurring in soot http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1782 and I suppose pencil lead as well.