skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'd argue that Rails' use of DSLs and metaprogramming makes it materially different from straight ruby. It gets even more confusing with lisp where your libraries are, by definition, language extensions. Often with completely custom syntax.

It's kind of an irrelevant distinction anyways. People don't really pick "languages", per se. They usually pick "language + libraries", and the line between third-party libraries and standard libraries is getting increasingly blurred.
The amount of candy definitely changes the capacitance! That's one of the reasons we had to add the auto-zero algorithm to the code. As the candy level decreases, the overall capacitance decreases too. Even without the candy influence, the change in capacitance is only roughly 5% from no-hand to hand-in-Jack-O-Lantern states. (This is Mike from NerdKits.)
Why? We do long-term experiments in biology because genetic evolution is slow - whereas with genetic programming we can speed it up limited only by the computing technology.

Let's say biological evolution has been going for 4.5 Billion years, at an average of one mutation per second for all that time. A quick search says that a modern Core 2 Extreme can process about 50,000 MIPS. Let's say that each mutation takes 100 instructions on average (including set-up and tear-down, etc.), and that we have 5,000 MIPS available for this calculation process - then it would be possible to do all that calculation in about 9 seconds of CPU time.

Bottom line - even if my back-of-the-envelope calculation about is two or three orders of magnitude off - is that you don't need you run a long-term experiment to give genetic algorithms the same amount of run-time as nature had with us, you just need a few bucks of AWS credit.
I write medical software every day that is very close to patients. When I see our software (or maybe software I know the intricate workings of) helping doctors save patients, I am happy.

When stuff like what's in this article happens, it is quite disappointing. Luckily none of the projects I've worked on have come close to endangering patients.
Working without distraction : my minimalist Macintosh experience
I am in two minds. I have a small library and has the author's problem of carting them around with every move. I also have hundreds of ebooks (mostly downloaded for free and a few purchased).

For me an ebook is still a simulation, sort of like having sex with an inflatable plastic doll :) Nothing can replace flipping through a real book in a bookstore.
perhaps an idea would be to relate what votes count - to a time decay of when the last karma was score'd VS how much total karma the user has / length of membership.
I'm not big on Rails.. but this list is somewhat impressive:

http://rails100.pbworks.com/Alexa+Rankings
Added choice "other".
All software is faulty.

Most of these sorts of devices (patient-facing medical devices) are divided into two physically separated pieces: the part that touches the patient and the part that interacts with the other device.

In the imaging case, the system that actually shoots radiation at the patient should have a hardware failsafe, opto-coupled i/o, clean power, etc. The software is usually written in C or something on an embedded RTOS. Data processing is usually done in Windows or some flavor of *nix running well-tested software.
You can vote on "other" now.
Not that it matters, but quoting one person about what they would have done doesn't count as "widely considered". I don't believe any large proportion of people consider it at all, let alone in a consistent direction.
My only gripe with C is that most of it sooner or later start to feel like a straightjacket compared to just writing assembly.

For a real sense of the horrors behind the scenes have a look at what actually gets generated by the compiler.
>Bottom line - even if my back-of-the-envelope calculation about is two or three orders of magnitude off - is that you don't need you run a long-term experiment to give genetic algorithms the same amount of run-time as nature had with us, you just need a few bucks of AWS credit

Depends on the simulation, anything approaching an accurate simulation C A N N O T currently be simulated with the technology we have. Take for example the evolution of the brain. A human brain consists of 100 billion nerve cells. A supercomputer simulating an organ this complicated -- using current technology -- would take up the space of several soccer fields and draw $3 billion worth of electricity every year. http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-19430.html Similar orders of magnitude are applicable to the genome of a fruitfly or an amoeba. There is no satisfactory simulation of a cell ....
Ask YC: Hacker Homes
We've had requests for peoples desks and screenshots - I thought it may be interesting to see/ discuss what people have done with their homes. Such as media centre setups, eco installs, or diy.
Moblin, actually.

I'm really enjoying the Moblin 2.1 interface. It's a pretty radical rethink of how you use your computer. Most importantly, it feels fast and easy to use even with the tiny trackpad and small screen of a netbook.

However, it's still not baked enough for general use. I'll probably switch back to Ubuntu Netbook Remix after Koala comes out.
They do pick the initial "technology stack", a term which concisely encapsulates both the distinction and interconnection of the parts.
CDBaby homepage from Dec. 1998 - http://web.archive.org/web/19981205052232/http://www.cdbaby....
As Bjarne has said: "There are two types of languages, those people complain about, and those that nobody uses."
Sure nuclear power stations are cheaper in China then in Germany. All kinds of things are cheaper there. Still the first two reactors cost about 3.2 billion $. Try to build them for that money in Europe.

Nuclear power is no viable technology. Mining is extremely damaging (including the emission of CO2) , substances handled are extremely dangerous, safety is not resolved and waste disposal is nowhere world wide solved.

The IEEE article is mostly misleading. The offshore windparks are currently being built and planned. The government recently has summed up the plans and activities. The plan is to get 15 % of electricity by 2020 based on wind. All renewable energy is then planned to be at 30%.

http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/windpark102.html
http://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2009/09/200...

That's the plan just last month announced.

Reprocessing of spent fuel makes the material even more dangerous. Reprocessing is already a dangerous process that generates huge amount of waste (for example the chemicals used).

France spends huge amounts of tax dollars for their nuclear industry, and has largely failed to invest money in other technologies like renewable energy. Let's see how France deals with their nuclear waste:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,654969,00....
No pretty sight, I'd say. Additionally it follows the usual strategy to build large players. Many here in Germany prefer to get rid of these large companies and get large parts of the energy production decentralized. The technology is now there and just needs to applied. Volkswagen now has a program for 100000 small 'Blockheizkraftwerke' ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockheizkraftwerk ) which will provide electricity and heating energy. They will also be able to generate electricity and provide it to the grid.

Nuclear power plants are dinosaurs deserving to die.
Thanks for the litter robot tip, just ordered one.
Excellent choice. I think that slackware is the best way to learn Linux/unix systems
I didn't say they purposely weren't removing apps to promote growth. I'm saying they aren't doing other things to avoid inhibiting growth. Things like a review process, monitoring, etc.
Until I move I've only really had a bedroom to work with:
standing desk with media pc, stereo amp on bedside table and a few lamps on the floor so far! Looking for ideas for the next place.
Fedora 11 for me on my Laptop, Snow Leopard + Windows 7 on Desktop
I feel obliged to point out a friend of mine's really great short story: http://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/coding-machines/
Intelligent behavior seems more likely to evolve if you provided a complex, usefully manipulable environment that could vary significantly and unpredictably during the lifetime of the individual.
I really don't like commercial language that makes it harder to compare products and services. There's no reason for First Amendment protection for puffery; it's not unpopular political speech. I'm not saying you can't have fun and be whimsical, but there's no consumer benefit to just outright lying (no matter how implausible).
Only when I'm a drunken mess.
Up-voted for including Mac OS X.
I run FreeBSD on my home fileserver (primarly for its stable ZFS support, but also for its unparalleled documentation and ports system).

For all production servers I run Debian because they're the easiest to keep updated and to re-deploy at short notice.
What about Centos? Any opinions about it ?
I grew up on Slackware, but I'd argue that today FreeBSD (ie, a "real Unix") is a better option (mostly for its quality documentation and sane organisation).
True - but I don't think that's what the author is talking about.

You can't simulate biological world-scale evolution right now. As you say, it's just too complex and operating at too large a scale. We somewhat know how, but the technology to actually do it isn't there yet.

Genetic programming, on the other hand, we can do. It's generally used as part of an optimization process, and is simple enough that we can simulate it quite well. To give those processes the amount of run-time that resulted in us (which is what I interpreted the author as talking about) would be trivial, as I showed. To create a virtual world, start it up with some amino acids and a jolt of lightning, and end up with us is way beyond our capability right now - and probably wouldn't end up with "us" anyways, owing to the randomness in there.
Google Editions aims to bring e-books to all devices
A comprehensive software development contract might not be worth the expense
that's strangely undemocratic
it is POSIX compliant!
imdb was what got me interested in computers

its such a shame its actually got less useful since that first time I used it.
Databases Should be Dynamically Typed
Would you expect HN to be democratic when most people aren't paying the server bill?
This is turning out to be interesting. Ubuntu and OSX are top choices and everything else seems really distant. From the top clicks on distrowatch.com, I had assumed OpenSUSE,fedora, debian and mint will be closer too.
If you get a cat you might want to get him/her another one to have company if you work long hours.
One who sold his startup, or has a big enough 401K, and feels like changing the world instead of making more money.
In my experience I've seen it used in servers quite a bit, typically those running cpanel. Its very similar to RHEL but without the pay-support plans. I've helped to run a machine running it for 3-4 years now, with no real issues.
Part of the problem with ORMs isn't the ORMs, it's the programmers of database systems who don't understand relational models. They understand OO models so they need something to do the conversion for them.

ORMs make programming easier, but with anything that makes something easier there are certain things that will be harder, as the author mentions, finding bugs created at the ORM level.

Anyone using ORMs is going to be hindered in some way, if they are very creative and if they are creative, but not adept at doing what it is they will want to do without the ORM, then the application and end user may suffer.
out of curiosity, why Fedora?
MIT helicopter uses lasers to navigate indoors
This is the shipping confirmation. There is no use of such copy before and during ordering.
I wonder how something as utilitarian as a volume control or battery status icon could disturb or distract someone. Sure for a minimal aesthetic it could be considered superfluous, but a distraction? Seems a bit neurotic to me.
As phishing becomes more and more of a problem this is getting wider 'play', people that are security conscious have commented on this for years, and the hierarchical break between domain names and paths always was an eyesore.

I've seen this crop up in many places, I was looking for Tim Berners-Lee statement if I could find it because I figure he's the authority in the field.

You may disagree with that of course.
I use it in combination with perceus to run my cluster. very smooth install, but I don't update it very often. Best thing for that sort of application, in my opinion.
just general usability, you never used to have to be logged in to view discussions (logging in loses your location) along with the crazy default of seeing 1 post per page in a conversation, the adverts (I am sure ive seen some pop ups in there as well) and general cramped ui.

to be fair the ui hasnt changed all that much since the early days, but my expectations have :)
I use the following in my home setup: 16 ubuntu machines, 3 OpenBSD machines, 1 freebsd, 8 centos (one headnode, 7 diskless compute nodes) 2 osx, 1 windows (oops-two; wife's laptop). Several of these are old recycled boxes, but every one of these has a job.

In retrospect, I wish I had done 8 of the ubuntu servers as freebsd.
Tom Ray of Tierra fame started a project like that: http://life.ou.edu/pubs/reserves/node1.html

I remember downloading the source code sometime years ago; but if they ever published any results, I haven't seen it.
That was exactly what I told one of my professors. She pointed out that then I would also deprive the users of the benefit.

Never mind that - let somebody really good work on that.
One trick we use for our applications is have an url endpoint that checks for db connection, filesystem, etc and formats it in a human readable and machine checkable format (ie. "Load is OK at .4 .4 .4"). Then you can use a similar "request contains" check to make sure everything is up.
Uhh, do you live in a server farm :) ?
As someone who works with software that is audited by the FDA (we build devices to collect data for clinical drug trials), I'm assuming the regulatory agency knew about this issue before the equipment was certified for use. Any bugs that we defer from a product release are documented, and therefore reviewed by anyone that decides to audit the company. We are routinely asked by auditors to explain why certain bugs were deferred prior to release.
That long list of machines leads me towards two questions:

1. What are you using them all for?

2. Vertical or horizontal?
The problem with that is that not using the machine can also cost lives.
Plus when saying a date it is usual to say the day first in the UK then the month if it's not clear from context. The US date ordering is one of those things (like non-metric units) that make me feel that they're being purposefully obstructive; kinda like Microsoft, always avoiding using other peoples agreed standards.
To be honest, a literate person with English as their first language will almost certainly mispronounce GNU the first time, particularly if they see the logo as well. Not that this in any way actually contradicts your point, admittedly; it's more that I don't really understand the significance of pronounceability in the grand scheme of things.

Clojure, too, for that matter. I got the reference, but thought the j was pronounced as a j the first time I saw it.
Heheh... it's amazing that little confirmation email I wrote in 1999 is still in use today.

When I started CD Baby, I just wrote the typical "Your order has been shipped to the following address..." type email, but after 6 months thought, "I can do better than that. There are enough boring notices in the world," and wrote that one instead.

It was no big strategy. Just having fun. But it's been so blogged and forwarded it's amazing how tiny details can make the difference that make someone tell their friends about your company.

On a similar note, at the end of every order, we asked the customer if they had any special requests. People would often say things like, "I'd sure love a Snickers bar about now." So we'd always go down to the store and include whatever they asked within reason.

One day we got a totally unreasonable request, but let the customer tell that tale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCIXkbfgR6g

:-)
Other: Archlinux
Credit Tips
There should probably have been some punctuation: if I walk down the [whole length of the] beach, 3m is not much further.

Metres, not "mi" miles.
Richard Swanson: Solar Cells at the Cusp
Seth Godin wrote about this in 2002. I guess they've been doing this for a while: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2002/06/a_big_smile_...
Fedora on my media machine, Fedora on my laptop. My next laptop OS is very likely to be OSX though.
I did a science fair project in elementary school where I looked at all the ways to calculate Pi. I ran a monte carlo simulation written in QBasic on my 386 overnight. It converged to 5 or 6 decimals. The beefier Alpha that I could dial into at the school district converged much faster.

This brings back memories. I should go reimplement....
ROR is absolutely a language. A language built on top of Ruby, of course, but a language.
I use Fedora for several reasons:

* Close to upstream, for early access to packaged software,

* Security is a primary concern: SELinux by default, Firewall by default, PolicyKit, Exec-Shield, Compile Time Buffer Checks, ELF Data Hardening, Restricted Kernel Memory Access, Stack Smash Protection, Buffer Overflow Detection, Variable Reordering, etc.

* Complete transparency of the distribution (including open sourcing all software they create for their internal processes),

* I prefer PackageKit/yum/rpm,

* They contribute heavily to upstream, as part of their process,

* They drive the development of a lot of the software other distributions use (NetworkManager, D-Bus, PolicyKit, PackageKit, ConsoleKit, HAL, SELinux policy, PulseAudio, etc.).

Those are some things that come to mind.
Asian-Americans and Competing Rationales for Affirmative Action in Higher Ed
It's a matter of choosing choosing the right tool for the job, plain and simple

I have a lot of trouble with this statement. It is a tautology, it is necessarily true. Now that we both agree, what is the best tool for the job and how do we choose it? The OP gives the author's perspective. If you don't agree, perhaps you could share yours.
Newly Discovered Natural Gas Deposits Change the Energy Map
The Non-Tragedy of the Commons
<sarcasm>
Yeah that would be totally awesome! Now our databases can't optimize our query plans and any aggregate functions will be doing super cheap type conversions between strings and number types!

And, really, who cares about data consistency? Sure that stupid little script is inserting strings into what should be a numeric column, but I'm sure that won't cause any problems at all when the monthly reports run, or the batch processes that charge our customers run, because the database will know how to handle such cases because the DB developers have written all that extra logic in it for such cases.
</sarcasm>

<reality>
Stop being lazy.
</reality>
> Sure nuclear power stations are cheaper in China then in Germany. All kinds of things are cheaper there. Still the first two reactors cost about 3.2 billion $. Try to build them for that money in Europe.

Coal Prices are almost the same the world over. The price increased significantly the past few years (that is one reason for a steep rise in electricity prices in many countries).

In my country we are lucky – we have low quality sulphur rich coal which we do not export. Thus we can burn it cheaply for electricity and the only side-effect is acid rain.

> Nuclear power is no viable technology. Mining is extremely damaging (including the emission of CO2) , substances handled are extremely dangerous, safety is not resolved and waste disposal is nowhere world wide solved.

Mining of Uranuim is much cleaner than coal – and much less needs to be mined. For coal they actually remove mountain tops to get to the coal. Remember that more than 5000 people die each year only in China from coal mining.

> The IEEE article is mostly misleading.

The IEEE article is extremely accurate. It is a magazine of the largest Electronic and Engineering groups (i.e. a specialist magazine). The article you linked to is for general consumption.

> Reprocessing of spent fuel makes the material even more dangerous. Reprocessing is already a dangerous process that generates huge amount of waste (for example the chemicals used).

Not true.

> and has largely failed to invest money in other technologies like renewable energy.

How much energy does countries with “renewables” generate? (hydropower excluded). There is no serious renewable energy projects – most of it is toys when compared to real power stations. It is just window dressing and none of it is feasible.

> http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,654969,00..... No pretty sight, I'd say. Additionally it follows the usual strategy to build large players.

The Spiegel article is sensationalist (and half true) as most of their articles are. The nuclear fuel are stored above ground in containment drums – this is quite normal. The problem is that the reprocessing has a huge backlog (since the demand is so high).

> Volkswagen now has a program for 100000 small 'Blockheizkraftwerke' ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockheizkraftwerk )

And they should be driven either by diesel or gas. Will this really solve any problems?

> Nuclear power plants are dinosaurs deserving to die.

Another thing is happening and will happen more in the future. Manufacturing countries (such as China) will build nuclear power stations (as part of a sensible energy policy) and manufacturing will be exported. With high energy prices German products will become uncompetitive.

I think that we can only agree to disagree.
Great catch, it's surprising how many large companies do not practice converion-oriented website design. Multivariate testing would have eliminated that site design in 15 minutes flat.
Blog Stars and Niche Communities
You correct about the usefulness of GP in CS, I am not so sure of its usefulness in Biology (since we define the fitness factors rather than nature and an uncontrolled environment). My favorite application from the Hummies Awards, self-correcting programs http://www.genetic-programming.org/hc2009/1-Forrest/Forrest-...
By definition you are trying to solve something where both the problem and the solution unknown so you don’t know what you need.

And what definition would that be? Could someone please enlighten me because I have no idea where this comes from.

If the problem is unknown, then what are you working on?

If the solution is unknown, then figure it out (at least conceptually) before you start coding.

Am I missing something? This makes no sense to me.
About the only really useful hint here is to turn off notifications. I tried out Growl when I first got my mini, but after a few weeks I realized it was adversly effecting my productivity, bouncing between email, IRC and IMs almost constantly.

Minimalist screens, docks, etc. are a matter of taste but I don't seen any real productivity improvements.
Advice on Research and Writing
Two Steps to Circumvent a Network Firewall
Yup, and now with things like Cython you hardly have to make any distinction. It lets you write in Python by default, but you can drop down to a special Python dialect that compiles to C whenever needed. http://www.cython.org
It's something for the eye to focus on and the mind to be aware of, something to think about, remember, and compare to previous memories, to examine for changes. Imagine how distracting the shell would be if every command finished with a bell and 'Command completed!', or if there were a menu bar listing every possible command (or even just a subset), or if your room was wallpapered in lorem ipsum. Unless the volume actually changes, or you specifically want to mess with it, it being there at all is an issue.
Google Wave Extensions - Wave Toolkit