skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Internet got boring, help me?
I feel like I'm in a content bubble I made myself - by disregarding lots of sources with low quality or high quantity - and it feels as if I read everything there is interesting online - which obviously is not true. So to broaden my horizons, please tell me: What are your most interesting places on the Internet, the ones you check daily or hourly? And I mean actual places, like specific blogs, subreddits, groups or lists - and not Facebook or Twitter in general.

Mine:

HackerNews - obviously

The Verge - duh!

CAR Mag UK - http://www.carmagazine.co.uk - showing top 4 news a day is enough, I like that it's not overwhelming with content

Clients from Hell - http://clientsfromhell.net - I even get push notifications via Boxcar, looks like I'm addicted

Priceonomics - http://priceonomics.com - their blog articles blow your mind, but they post a bit too much, so I read ~10% of the lot

As you see, I'm not asking about a specific topic, but what drives your daily content - in general. I'm also looking for tweeps who share articles worth reading like I try to: https://twitter.com/f055

Thanks HN!
Les Hazlewood's talk on REST API design is one of the best on this topic I've seen, really got me confident in designing my first API: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdSrT4yjS1g
I ended up reading Neuromancer after playing the C64 game, which at the time I loved, but I'm sure if I saw it today I would laugh pretty hard at.
That's fine, I like theoretical problems too.
10 years! Congrats and thanks to all who made openstreetmaps possible.
how does this compare to chess.com, which is probably the most popular site for chess players these days? I paid two memberships at chess.com for others, but wondering what will be the 'selling' point for chesscademy to make it unique or stand out?
I was born and raised in Florida. I now live in Sweden. Because of experience, I understand C pretty well between -15 and +10, and between +80 and +100 (Swedish sauna temperatures).

Between +20 and +50 I'm still more comfortable with 70F-120F. I also spent some time in Illinois, where I learned to understand the subzero range from -15F to 0F.

At LOX temperatures of 90K and below, I'm most comfortable in Kelvin. ;)
REST + JSON API Design – Best Practices
How AngularJs will save JavaScript from its $ sign
Optimizing Generic Type Reification In Gosu
Yep can understand that. Its important to visualise values and comparing to reference points is fine.

This comes to mind for unit conversions:
http://www.weirdconverter.com
The Amiga version is definitely awesome. As a child I wondered what crystals had to do with hacking because of this game.
I recently tried to make a list of good virtual reality reads (not all of them cyberpunk, though):

Otherland - Tad Williams

Ready Player One

Daemon - David Suarez

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Shadowrun - ?? there are lots of possibly varying quality, I only read the ones by Nigel Findley which I liked

Snowcrash - Stephenson

Reamde - Stephenson

Der falsche Spiegel - Sergej Lukianenko (not sure about the english name)

Masters of Doom - Story of ID developing the games Doom and Quake - not really a VR story, but it sets the mood.﻿

Pollen - Jeff Noon

Bruce Sterling is great, too, but I don't remember which of his stories are about virtual reality.

I suppose Ian Bank's "The Culture" novels might be a candidate, but I haven't read them yet.
It depends a huge amount on age. Younger people in the UK use metric except where imperial is already the de-facto standard (pints, MpH, etc).

It is really just older generations who continue to use imperial and to push it all over the place (often inappropriately).

At least all food labeling has been standardised on metric (which honestly for cooking and monitoring food intake is a huge improvement). I can like with other areas remaining oddly imperial for now.

I just hope as the older generation disappear we start moving closer and closer to true metrification (I'd even want to see km/h so it is consistent with continental europe).
This guy plans are amazing, until they are not real, he should let the guys from Finders Keepers take a look
I cannot believe I'm seeing you here! Your Tarot of the Silicon Dawn is one of my absolute favorite Tarot decks I have ever owned (out of 50+). I once typed out an email to you (in 2011) respectfully requesting information about whether or not you would take commission for a possible tattoo design; Alas, this email was never sent. Keep up the great work!
I've posting stuff on this for the last couple weeks, it's basically been ignored on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8078194

also discussion on reddit 14 days ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8089945
The Truth About Hetzner Censoring Glavcom
As opposed to losing money BECAUSE they're using imperial as happened here:
http://metricviews.org.uk/2007/11/boeing787-grounded/
Can games create an education fit for the future? (2013) [video]
Can someone provide a bit of context here.
The U.S. uses the metric system and the customary system.

Even many countries that are primarily metric use non-metric units like stones for body weight or feet for airplane elevation.

I agree that metric would be a better system, but your implication that we can't compete in the global economy with our mixed unit system seems hyperbolic since we have already been competing just fine.
And how many entry level recruiting employees or their immediate managers do you think even want to have this conversation with someone like Steve Jobs? No single candidate is going to be worth having to defend yourself to the CEO, whether it was unsolicited or not. Practically speaking, these people are going to be the untouchables.
Agreed, one friend told me, 'if regular overtime work is needed, then you did not do a good job in the first place'.
And "codes" !!
Lower e-book prices are certainly good for Amazon. It's unproven if they're good for everyone else.
Have the movie plans moved forward at all? I seem to recall that something was happening relatively recently.
Sounds like they don't really know what Watson would be best for and are hoping their customers can tell them. Not a terrible strategy but really doesn't look right coming from IBM.
This is marginal drama from ~2 weeks ago. Who cares? This is such a lightweight post --- on "conweets.com" posted by user "conweets" --- that I flagged it.
> Both ast and tanenbaum point out that they'd deduct points/fail

I agree with your post completely, but you do realize ast is Tanenbaum, right?
I'm a bit confused about the require refer all vs use. Can someone explain why use is bad in that context (or in general)?

Link: https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide#prefer-requir...

UPDATE:

Looks like there's a GH issue thread on the subject: https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide/issues/16
I agree that long term, there is a danger in Amazon becoming even more of a monopoly. That said, I find it ridiculous that a non-transferable eBook can sometimes cost very close to the cost of a hard cover print book.

I was not making my previous comment out of self interest, BTW. In 25 years of being a published author I have only made chump change (less than $150K) on my writing. I earn my living as a software developer. I write because I enjoy it and through writing I have met some very interesting people who I would not have had a chance to meet otherwise.
Interesting idea, I think it will be cool to watch this evolve as a media hub. I wonder if we will see any high quality long form work on the site like what Vice releases.
This video is awesome. The guy to my eyes - I don't drink alcohol, let alone whiskey - is as 'expert' as one can get on the subject. I don't expect any of my whiskey-lover friends to know any of these things.

Really awesome video, thanks.
Other PBR demos for Siggraph here https://labs.sketchfab.com/siggraph2014/
I am not anti-metric by any means, but having done carpentry a lot in the past it always strikes me when this comes up that one of the central arguments for (a limited use-case of) the imperial system is usually glossed over: the fact that in many crafts (especially historically), using base-12 makes certain things much easier. It divides into 3rds far more easily, divides into 4ths slightly more easily, and still divides into 5ths with only one digit after the decimal.

Just like computer programmers have no problem immediately recognizing that 256 is 2^8, it became intuitive when working with the Imperial system (at limited scales) that 48 inches is the same as 4-feet but that it is also 3-stud-distances long (studs in walls are often placed 16 inches apart).

Even if you don't work in crafts where dividing things by 3 is more frequent than dividing by 5 it is easy to imagine how certain things might be more difficult if we used base-10 for time (as, it has been pointed out, has been attempted)- and thereby using the ability to easily divide an hour into 3 parts (for example).

Consistent base-10 and international standardization has advantages that far outweigh these minor things- but I think it's important to recognize that there is, surprise, a rational practical reason for sticking in some cases to Imperial units- it's not purely tradition or politics or their "organic-ness" (anymore).
Interesting re header data. Could you elaborate as to what kind of data belongs in headers, and explain why putting this data in headers should be a bright line requirement or a "sane default"?
Site isn't loading, here's a direct link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/netik/status/493506267910901760
For others wondering how to escape this page on an iPhone, rotate to a vertical orientation to show the address bar, then tap the address bar to bring up the Safari controls.
There's still debate on this (https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide/issues/44). It's the suggested style mostly because Rich (Clojure's creator) promotes it.
I wrote http://standardjavaScript.info some time ago to counter this JavaScript is not jQuery thing.

I don't think angular.js will change anything (after all everyone is now talking about polymer.js). Knowing that modern browsers offer most of what jQuery offers for free is what will change things.
Internal Server Error

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Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@club.cc.cmu.edu and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

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Apache/2.2.16 (Debian) Server at www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu Port 80
> What's going on now is one side (employees) taking advantage of the other side.

No, its not. Both sides voluntarily entered into an agreement with knowledge of the legal context (well, at least constructive knowledge -- in terms of actual knowledge, there is a real imbalance, here, but it almost always favors the employer, as the side who is more likely to both motivated and able to secure expert assistance prior to making decisions whether, where, and on what terms to engage in employment agreements.)

> I don't care how rich Elon Musk is. If he made his money honestly, he doesn't owe a cent to those employees.

To the extent that SpaceX makes money by not treating people according to the law under which they agreed to employment, the money is not made honestly, so even if I accepted your maxim, it would be irrelevant.
Giving Amazon pricing power over your product, whatever that is, is a bad idea.

The publishers would like to set a price. That is their right. Amazon can pay that or not. That is their right. What's happening now is that a near monopoly on book distribution is throwing their weight around. The little players on the margins are going to get hurt.
I think for "work" the UK has switched to metric as Imperial is just such a PITA for anything technical.

For social/general use it still pretty much Imperial
Building An Internet Connection Through The Arctic
There already are many apps based on data coming from OSM. The notorious Apple Maps takes some of its data in OSM. I've also heard good things about City Maps 2 Go [0] [1], which is also based on OSM data. I personnally use OSMAnd [3] on android, which has the benefit of being open source.

> I feel OSM lacks compared to GMap or Bing map.

OSM compares quite well to contenders when talking about raw geographical data. However, where GMap shines is locations: you can search a shop, a restaurant or a diving club on GMap and it will give you its position. OSM doesn't have this power, which is actually understandable given that OSM's goal is mostly geographical data.

[0] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/city-maps-2go-offline-map/id...

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.andr...

[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OsmAnd
Julia Performance Tips
I don't know if it's a "hit", but Ulmon makes maps based on OSM data which are a great resource when traveling. Being usable offline is particularly awesome (and something we should be able to take for granted, but I digress).
Here's hoping for OpenStreetView and OpenAerials ;)
After reading this book a few months ago, I had the idea to make an iOS game based on secretly signaling others in a group while others attempt to catch who signals . The games called "Hand Jive" and its free if you care to check it out.
Python's setup.py and the oft neglected uninstall feature
Canadian here as well, but I always thought that we had metric system all along!

I just assumed that everyone was using such standards when I was little and then came things like miles, pounds, yards, foot and I was like wtf, it's so complicated.

I know how long a cm is by pinching my index and thumb finger and measuring the distance between the nails. I know roughly how long is a meter based on my height. I know roughly how long is a km based on my running distance.
Rudy Rucker's Ware tetralogy[1]. I've actually not read the 4th book, though (yet).

A fantastic tale, with lots of robots. And icecream trucks...

[1] http://amzn.com/1607012111
It's not cyberpunk, but I enjoyed Altered Carbon quite a bit, which does a good job of capturing a similar noir feeling.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon
Screen size is measured as screen's diagonal.

It comes from the times when the screen were cathode-ray tubes. Late CRTs, as in old TV screens, were rectangular. But early CRTs were made circular for technological reasons, even if the device used a CRT as a rectangular screen. For a circular CRT, the diagonal of the rectangular "screen" part was just the diameter.

Since CRTs were invented long ago, and the first scanned video signal image was transmitted in 1907, the industry had time to develop a tradition which is not going to go now.
Hilariously it does not throw that warning if viewed in Chrome on iPhone, even though Chrome on iPhone just uses a slower version of the Safari rendering and JavaScript engines.

In fact on my iPhone, the page ran fine in mobile Safari, but completely bogged down in Chrome.

This is one example of why browser sniffing is not a great way to determine the actual capabilities of a browser.
This is a great link, thanks for sharing!
Are These 8 Great Dividend Grower Underestimated By The Market?
From the geek point of view we should really all switch to Planck units of course.
Exactly. And obviously there are exceptions (many of them), but studies have conclusively shown both in usage and proficiency that younger generations are more comfortable with "the web" than generations that came before them. If you look at Pew's studies and others like it, you can see that the comfort level/usage patterns for the web (and smartphones, though not cellphones) mirror the age break points between the Baby Boomers and Gen X (defining Gen X as 1965-1980, which is how most socialists say culture has determined that generation) perfectly.

I'm not even saying its a good tagline, I'm simply saying the gendered aspect is unnecessary because if we're dealing with stereotypes, old[1] people get confused by the Internet is far more valid than the inference that it's just older women who are uncomfortable. That's the distinction.

[1] to be clear, I'm not saying anyone not born in Gen X or Gen Y is "old" or less comfortable online.
Maybe. Maybe not.

I can borrow e-books from my library, nearly as fast as buying them from Amazon.

I can borrow physical books by hitting their site, putting a hold on it, and then next time I'm in town, I pick it up. It's not UPSd to my door, but it's not that big of an investment. (or, more likely, Wife + kids pick it up next time they bring home 40 books from the library. We sometimes have a good couple feed of the holds shelf.)
"Ignored" is probably too strong a characterization, it's capricious which submissions get attention and front/2nd page positioning.

And your first link about got 35 comments and some high quality discussion, that's not bad at all.
Multi-Year Observations Prove Cosmic Dust Are From Supernovas
I have the cheapest possible paid AOL account. I maintain it because I like having a backup method (dial-up) for reaching the Internet. I also used to work for AOL and I know what I'm getting.

I signed up for my account right after I left AOL, and back then, tethering to a cell phone was still gaining acceptance with the cell carriers, and WiFi was much less common at motels.

I chose a level of AOL account at which, if I did have to use it, I'd be likely to end up paying for extra hours, because it's a good old fashioned metered hourly account.

Technically I am old enough to be a senior citizen, but I do read my statements and notice that I'm still paying AOL.

I'd love to see war stories here by people who have had to resort to unlikely means to get access to the Internet due to unexpected events.
Same here, they have a lot of tools called x-monitor, or xmon for short. I think we are subconsciously substituting the generic names like: file, process, disk.
There's not really a good correlation between price and "goodness" of wine. The real rule of wine is, if you like it, it's good wine. If you don't like how it tastes, it's not good wine. That's it.

The wine world is notoriously pretentious.

It's good to know locations, varietals and aging a little because it can help you narrow the window down to find a wine you'll probably like well enough vs ones you won't. I for example, tend not to like Malbecs. Why? I dunno, just something in the flavor. I also don't like Mountain Dew.

Wine can help accent or suppress flavors in your food as well. Just like drinking beer with pizza tastes good, you probably wouldn't drink coke with your morning cereal.

If you really want to get into wines, there seems to be a correlation between rating and flavor complexity. And there's all kinds of ways to taste (or miss) complexity in wines. Just like a good bbq sauce has elements of sweet, sour, spicy, etc., wine can be more or less complex in flavors. But not everybody likes complex flavors and that's fine. That's easier in fact since complexity is usually a result of more expensive wine making processes like aging so your local Two-Buck Chuck might make those people happy. But detecting the differences or preferences for flavor complexity is like detecting the differences between two different batches of your grandmother's home-made Spaghetti sauce. You can probably describe it (the first had more garlic, the second more basil), but absolute comparisons are really impossible and don't really matter all that much. It's like asking "which is better a sponge or the number 7?"

Something revealed to me during trips to various places where a glass of wine with lunch or dinner is normal, is that wine is just another drink. Some of the better meals I've had were had with a 2 euro 1/2 L carafe of the local watered down table wine. In these places, wine is just a drink, like juice, water or soda. People who drink wine with every meal really don't care what the wine is so long as it doesn't taste bad.

You can probably find more than enough wines anybody will like for under $10 a bottle.

It's just a drink.
What distinguishes Chesscademy is our focus on education. There are a lot of sites that offer a variety of features - multiplayer, tactics, etc. However, no other service offers educational content structured in a way that provides users with a feeling of progression. We aim to incorporate qualitative feedback into every aspect of the site so that your specific weaknesses can be tackled.

Chesscademy is also aiming towards the edtech market - schools have expressed interest in using our service in the classroom as part of their chess program. Chesscademy works both in and out of the classroom and complements instructors of all levels. For example, teachers can assign students courses and track their progress over time, using these data points to address particular topics.
Amazon Gets Increasingly Nervous
Ask HN: Who IS in the software industry or a hacker?
I found the earlier post for non-devs and non-hackers fascinating: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8154625

I thought it would interesting to have another thread which is the opposite.

So what type of software developer / hacker are you? What kind of company do you work for? How did you start off in the industry? What new technologies do you want to learn next?
When I consulted on Wall Street I felt my mind turning to mush. Some of my co-workers would kibitz or play chess in the park, and I began playing as well. I became very focused on improving as I felt it was keeping my mind sharp, as my day job was not doing that.

One way to improve your chess skills is to play tournament length games against opponents at or slightly above your skill level. Then you go over the game with a better player (or a chess engine) and see where you made your worst mistakes. Then you look at those positions and remember what the proper move to do is.

So that's what I did. I ran crafty against my online tournament games and had it find what my worst moves were (missed opportunities and blunders). Then I ordered the moves in terms of how bad the mistake was. Then I kept looking at the boards over and over to train myself in what the right move was. If I did it long enough, I'd memorize the boards and instantly know what the right move was. Doing this improves your game.

I put the results here - http://blunderchess.sf.net . It requires a LAMP setup. It also has components which are useful in and of themselves - a program that converts PGN format to FEN format, a PHP function which converts a FEN line into a graphic chessboard and so forth. I put development of the suite of tools aside as I got busy and stopped playing chess and stopped working on the tools.
Tips to Prevent Domain Name Hijacking
"GIBSON: I was afraid to watch Blade Runner in the theater because I was afraid the movie would be better than what I myself had been able to imagine."

http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-blad...
http://hillhacks.in/blog/2014/07-29-hillhacks.workshop.tools... for anyone interested in a complete read
Iain (M) Banks' "Culture" novels are great fun, but they are (IMHO) in no way cyberpunk, nor do they concern VR. His SF is about people running around in meatspace doing things.

well okay there's a decent chunk of VR in 'Feersum Endjiin' but that's very much the exception