skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> where everything is a single character

Most things in J are actually two characters, take a look at the Vocabulary (http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/vocabul.htm)

> I'd like to see some elegant J programs "written out" with some more friendly syntax

The problem with J is that the syntax is highly context sensitive, not the length of identifiers. See here: http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Guides/Language%20FAQ#Guides....

Also, you can use aliases for every word, which are defined in stdlib. You can write "each", "cut" etc. if you want. The reason nobody does that is a little complex.

J is suited for exploratory programming and rapid prototyping. This means that expressive power per character should be as high as possible - and J delivers on this promise. Also the standard J words you can see in the Vocabulary are all there is to J. Everything else is always defined in terms of those and you can't define words with symbolic names, like you can in Haskell, OCaml etc. - so once you know those, you can say you know the language. And as for reading J code, it's meant to be read with the help of the J system: you have at least three possible representation to choose from when viewing J code, and you have ability to evaluate each subexpression to see what it does.

Anyway, J is hard to learn, but after initial hump it's a pleasure to write, and then after a while it becomes possible to read it. In exchange for this difficulty level you get incredible expressive power and performance.
To illustrate my point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
I have been a teetotaler for 7 years now.
Every now I drink some beer but not a lot
As a sovereign nation, the UK has virtually limitless freedom in deciding its internal structure. You can pick and choose which things are decided at which level, and how different subdivisions might be grouped into higher levels for some purposes but not others. You are not required to follow any established model -- and you are certainly not required to follow the US's rigid structure.

If you want to keep sending an England team, keep sending an England team. Big deal.
I'm always amazed by stories of startups that generate almost no profit and yet burn millions of VC dollars. Yes, I know that VC count on that 1 out of 100 invested in companies to generate profit larger than all the other combined, but still it's a bit ridiculous and in my opinion not healthy for the industry. It's a different story if you've a bootstrapped, profitable company and want to boost the growth - you can negotiate better terms with the VC, because a) you've paying customers and have a proven business model and b) you don't need the VC money to survive, unlike a fresh company without any profits.
Odoo 8 released – beyond ERP into digital marketing
I love that this discussion is happening. I think there are certainly more points we agree than disagree on. The entire concept of “lean branding” is such new territory, we should first think of ourselves as allies more than protecting our own dogmatic definitions, ideas or positions.

With that said…

IMO, customers absolutely think about brand as relationship. “I love Lululemon…I hate Toyota…I am an ‘Apple guy.’” As Laura said, “your brand does not exist in isolation.” This is very true.

We relate to organizations in the same way we do with people (which is where the whole ‘corporate personhood' argument was generated). We have deep expectations, emotional connection, and preference about which organizations we choose to be in a relationship with, and which we choose to ignore or treat with ill-will (to Bill’s point).

Branding shouldn’t be about trying to influence that relationship through clever wordplay, coercion, or beautiful “symbols." These things are lie on the surface of a much bigger and more meaningful depth - the relationship. More to the point, it’s not YOUR brand…it’s shared.

The best copywriting, logo design, brand positioning statement, and so on are completely meaningless without a connection to an audience – which is the relationship.

Instead, branding should be about trying to build a relationship based on co-creation, co-participation, and co-value. Which is to say, that the point of “branding” is to discover the shared value (emotional impact, shared aspirations, shared journey).

Which is to Brant’s point, "How do you discover and create a lean value stream that purposefully creates "satisfaction" from the product utility and "passion" from the emotional impact the entire organization delivers.”

That’s the key question. That’s what any discussion about lean branding should address.

Shameless community plug: the community around The Lean Brand (which has been out for a while) is tackling these questions together with innovation, intelligence, and an incredible amount of enthusiasm.
I learned J in very much this way, although instead of reading J code I chose to write it. I worked my way through a cheatsheet (http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/HenryRich?action=AttachFile&d...) inventing little toy problems to solve with particular verbs along the way. But words (verbs, gerunds, etc.) are not enough - you need to know the rules for composing them. Fortunately this is rather easy to learn.

I'd say that you need to know about hooks, forks (trains in general) and ranks before starting to learn the vocabulary. But maybe you can learn those things along the vocabulary too.
The MSDN documentation for the classes [1] clearly states the supported platforms. Admittedly the restriction to store apps is missing on the page for the namespace [2].

Minimum supported client Windows 8.1 [Windows Store apps only]
Minimum supported server Windows Server 2012 R2 [Windows Store apps only]
Minimum supported phone Windows Phone 8

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi...

[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi...
You're reading my mind here. (4 AM here so please excuse any ill-formed logic)

Excellent points regarding the exceptional breadth of requirements necessary to effect change.

I don't think this precludes my earlier belief concerning individual responsibility for our collective progress. This is a conversation that everyone needs to participate in precisely because there is such a rare chance any one individual will have the necessary pre-requisites to take action.

Even the most plebian among us may one day find themselves flush with cash, and when they do, they could wield those resources responsibly. The concept of "noblesse oblige" (or, the more modern Spider-Man variant: "with great power comes great responsibility") comes into mind here. Interestingly, Elon made a veiled reference to this shared outlook in his "sinking ship" metaphor recently on Colbert.

I too was deeply troubled by Notch's attitude toward unwanted success (and more importantly, the worrying precedent it sets for others). It's disappointing that he has no apparent desire to utilize his position in a useful manner but I wonder how much of that mindset is a product of our current environment.

So, where is the Elon Musk of high-energy physics? Where is the Elon Musk of terraforming, both off-planet and on Earth to reverse climate change? What of cancer, antibiotics, longevity treatment, machine intelligence? Et cetera

At the risk of sounding rather trite: the next Elon Musk might be reading this page right now.

Elon is not an island. He had to have gotten his attitudes from somewhere. Teaching kids about our shared responsibility and to dream big about real problems is an act that every adult can (and should) participate in. Those who are in a position to mentor or inspire another (even if it's a boss to an employee, VC to a founder, or friend to friend) should also take part.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/sep/02/dying-russi... was here on HN recently and it had an interesting take on how "no significant social differences" was an illusion that helped keep people positive etc. Good reading.

The National Geographic ran a story on hunger in the USA last month. It was fascinating, and talked about the 40M (really!) who are foodily-challenged or whatever the term is. If those people took a longer term vision and started growing vegetables etc, as one the Nat Geo story interviewed did, their lot would improve dramatically.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus take a beating in first ever drop test video
Be aware that SWT is patented [1] if you want to use it commercially.

[1] http://www.google.com/patents/US20090285482
Germany doesn't send Saxony and Bavaria to the world cup.

As I noted in a different comment: The current situation of an England team is an historical oddity: England, Scotland and Wales are considered constituent countries of the UK. Only a handful of countries worldwide have constituent countries, and the exact details of in what context they are treated as countries vary greatly.

But if the UK was turned federal, there's no reason why the new federal entities would be considered countries any more than e.g. the states of Germany are, even though in the case of the states of Germany, many of the states still closely match countries with a long history as independent states.
Agree and I think if Caruana has the passion to be the best, he will be better than Carlsen.

"Caruana is earning a reputation as the most prepared player of his era—a man who studies everything and forgets nothing."

"If there’s a rap on Carlsen, it’s that he’s the anti-Caruana: He doesn’t prepare as diligently as he could."

"It’s as though he [Carlsen] serves underhand to just get the point started because he knows he can beat you in the rally. But Caruana has the booming serve."

Caruana has been in the top 10 for 2.5 years though [1], and hopefully he can breakthrough and firmly be someone who can give Carlsen a challenge. As a data point [2], it took Kasparov 2 years to get in the top 10, another 2 years to become #2, and another 2 years to become the best.

[1] http://ratings.fide.com/top_files.phtml?id=2020009
[2] http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/player/Kasparov,%20Garry.html
There is a subtle difference between "all later generations" and once in a generation. What if every land did this? It would not scale to be permanently debating this kind of thing.
Is this all the software necessary to run your own little keyless-like infrastructure with a couple of nginx server not having a key and talking to this reference key server over the Internet?

BTW I probably should have asked yesterday but which CloudFlare plans will include the keyless feature?
I realise they think this approach encourages a better "work/life balance" but I just see it as another way for managers to say "If I'm in the office, you have to be in the office. If I can't see you working how do I know you're working?"

I can't help but be reminded of an interview I had for a web development company in Melbourne several years ago.

When I asked "what's your policy on flexible working hours - in previous (government office) jobs I've usually been most productive working from around 11am - 7pm". To this day I cannot understand the thought process required to produce the answer I got, and say it with a straight face:

"Oh yeah, flexible working hours, sure. I mean, we have a daily sit-down meeting at 8am which you're required to attend, but you are free to take your lunch hour any time during the day..."
Well, it's better than watching a movie instead, but not much.
Ah, don't know how I missed that. Thanks.

Crazy that it's limited to 8.1, and not even working on 8.0.

I really wonder if there is a valid technical reason, or they just use it to push upgrades.
The good news: there is a simple rule you can use instead of understanding all this. The simple rule? Write simple code.

Don't write multiple assignments in a single statement. Don't overuse the ternary operator (?:). Don't overdo it with assignment inside larger statements like comparisons. These "don'ts" will make your code clearer to humans and you are much, much less likely to wind up with holes in your feet.
Means, ends...
Now that is possibly the cruellest irony I've seen for a while. Well spotted :)
Warning - opinionated rant. I might be completely wrong.

I don't think this is helpful.

The big problem isn't oppression. It's a problem, but it hasn't been the main one for a long time. The big problem is the poverty cycle.

White flight is another problem. Peer effects (black kids bullying black kids who "act white") is a problem. These are not racial oppression.

Prejudice and oppression (from teachers, employers, police) is still a problem, but it's not the big one. And pretending it is will encourage people to fight black poverty in ways that probably won't actually work very well.
Depends on what you want to do with it. If you're looking to develop mobile or desktop applications it's almost useless. The desktop GUI is stuck in the 80s and as far as I know even that isn't an option for mobile.

If you're doing web apps, it's probably worth a try provided you don't mind writing your own libraries for a lot of stuff.
Use this all the time for me and clients (Version 7 though). It used to be called OpenERP.
This is very facile I'm afraid. Did George Washington not have anything to lose? Osama bin Laden, born to an incredibly rich family? No, sometimes people actually risk losing what they have to struggle for what they believe in.
It's crazy that it's Windows Store only. On my only Windows machine the Windows Store won't even open because I have UAC disabled.
Wales already have the Welsh Assembly, yet the EU does not seem to have tried this.

I think you'd find that on the contrary a lot of EU states are terrified of any steps that would legitimise more demands for devolution because they have their own independence movements to deal with.

And if anything, if the UK vote in important EU organs were split, it'd greatly increase UK influence on many matters in all the situations where interests are aligned, because most EU organs does not have representation proportional to population size, and many have requirements for super-majorities or even unanimous decisions on many things. That too would make many of the other large EU countries push back against any attempts to bypass a federal government.
Skimming would imply that someone physically altered the self-checkout lanes to capture credit cards in the same way an ATM skimmer works. Since this was installed malware, it would mean access to Home Depot's network. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that credit card data was stored in plaintext somewhere in their system.
[Wikimedia-l] Invitation to beta-test HHVM
Oracle founder Larry Ellison is stepping down from CEO
Osama didn't do it alone. Hitler didn't do it alone. They both had a number of people that were disillusioned with their lives, hopeless about their future, looking for someone to hate, and wanted to be a part of a cause.

(I'm not sure how George Washington is relevant, though.)
Yeah, the only one that I know is my friend Adolph Mussolini Stalin. He always gets weird looks for some reason.
Are you saying once in a generation is too often? Because the comment you initially replied to implied that there might be another referendum in the next couple of generations. Exactly how many generations do you think need to pass? And why should even one later generation be bound by the previous generation?

I don't know what you mean by "it would not scale". How would it not scale? Every ~2-6 years, voters in many countries around the world are invited to peacefully overthrow their governments. The debates surrounding those votes commonly become existential, and debates about independence for some regions are common, if not constant.

It sounds like you're saying you don't want to have the debate. But it's simply not up to you. If lots of other people want to have it (say, 45% of the electorate, in this case), what gives you the right to say "it's not fair"?

When did it become unfair to have debates and votes?
Sure, it's workable but how people would feel about it is another question. It would probably transpire that the countries of Wales and NI would both map directly to states with the same names (with powers). You then have a country of England (with no powers) broken into constituent states (with powers) and the whole thing starts to look like a CGP grey video.

Historically, Germany is quite different to the UK for obvious reasons. I also suspect Scotland , Wales etc would be more likely to table flip when dealing with a UK parliament than say Saxony would.
I really like this kind of game, and I congratule you for doing one that seems kinda cool (although too simple), but I will not play, because I don't have an Android device.
Hey - thanks! I've been using faxaway for years with their email interface, but this is handier. But I'd still like to be able to handle voicemail and incoming fax on the same number and nobody can give me that yet. (As far as I know.)
A few months of debate every 20 years is hardly something that is difficult to deal with. Somehow the UK manages to deal with substantially more complex elections much more often than that.

And you'll note that there was good reason for this: Scotland has gone from barely supporting devolution to getting it, to substantial increases in votes for a party whose goal is independence, to 45% voting for full independence, in a matter of 25 years.

It's then a fairly good chance that the views on independence may change substantially over the next 20-25 years too. In either direction.
There's many more issues distorting or distorted by academic publishing. For example, grants being awarded to the most productive members. Sounds fine at face value, but compare biologists working with ecological systems and biologists working with DNA. In the first case collecting data by definition has to take decades, in the other it's a matter of hours these days. The ecologists needs more money because it inherently takes longer to research, yet the grants are more likely to be awarded to the DNA researchers because they publish more.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a biologist myself - this is a second-hand story from a biologist friend so if the story doesn't hold up under close scrutiny, my apologies.
Formula for Perfect Productivity: Work for 52 Minutes, Break for 17
Hmm, it's got a few bugs but I guess that can be expected in a first release.
Tax Freedom Day
This is a slap in the face to everyone who tries to get ahead in life by, you know, learning stuff (like programming) and improving their skills.

The gangster route is for people who don't like the modest work to reward ratio that ordinary work brings - they want to risk more to get more. And by doing that, they make other people's life miserable.

Malcolm Gladwell has just lost every respect I ever had for him. The way he argues is like saying: "Yeah well, they were bad guys back then, but only because weren't rich yet, so they kind of had to be gangsters".
I was trying to investigate what Concur was about and went to their website. They don't show any screenshots of the program (programs?). You have to give contact details to try out their program (so their sales team can contact you I guess). You have to give contact details to download any brochures about their products. Ugh.
Author here - absolutely! This is only for those with an interest in the details of C++ evaluation. Considering the number of times I see these expressions in a purely theoretical context, I assume many people are at least intrigued.
Seems like a fairly good case for speed reading.
Sounds like a fairly niche product. Have you given any thought to that aspect? I've build a few too many products that are too niche. When eventually I woke up to that I just abandoned the projects. What's the point of building something for a handful of people.
You don't see how George Washington is relevant to analysis of motivations behind conflicts and revolutions?
teetotaler.

If you can you should do this as a poll: http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll
It easy for me to avoid alcohol because every drink I have ever tried tasted like it was full of poison.
The Story of the Fine Young Capitalists
Awesome Java
Fresh out of university and having already finished projects for several companies, I asked myself what to do next in the big Java world to gain proficiency. The typical answers suggested to learn Java EE or a specific web application framework.

In attempt to find important, good and inspiring libraries for Java, I searched and searched and finally saw that there was no concise list of interesting libraries for this language. So I created a simple GitHub repository where everyone can contribute and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Unfortunately, this list depends on practical knowledge and not just the theoretical advantages of a specific library. So we need individuals that contribute their knowledge to fill the gaps. If you are interested, please have a look and add new or remove old items. Thank you!

https://github.com/akullpp/awesome-java
Doblet (YC S14) is hiring awesome hardware team (EE, ME, Firmware) and Android dev
Doblet is a SoMa-based venture-backed startup that’s solving the battery life problem (http://doblet.com). We’re building a network of portable app-driven batteries initially in bars, restaurants, coffee shops and hotels, to ensure power for your phone is always within reach. We’re putting together a team of world-class engineers who want to help build the next big thing!

Check out our job postings & perks on AngelList here:

Lead Firmware Engineer
https://angel.co/doblet/jobs/26896-firmware-engineer

Lead Electrical Engineer
https://angel.co/doblet/jobs/26897-lead-electrical-engineer

Lead MechE
https://angel.co/doblet/jobs/38705-lead-mechanical-engineer

Lead Android Dev
https://angel.co/doblet/jobs/30923-lead-android-developer

If you're interested, or have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at jeff@doblet.com -- thanks!
120+ points, and who says HN has no sense of humor :)