skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There are so many things wrong with this that I don't know where to start....

> Those things might have been reasonable in the past, but we live in 2014. We live in a country that has an ethnic minority president, the first nation anywhere in the world to be progressive enough to do so. We have abolished racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism. We live in an equal, classless, democratic society.

In what world do you live that we have "We have abolished racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism" because I can tell you all 4 of those are still going strong today. Please don't associate the abolishment of slavery with the abolishment of racism, it's so wrong that it's just sad that you seem to think that they are one in the same. Just because we elected "an ethnic minority president" it doesn't mean we get to whitewash history or pretend that racism is dead. As for sexism and homophobia I have witnessed both of these first hand within the last month easily and probably within the last week if I really thought about it. And lastly I would argue classism is actually on the rise, in the US at least (Probably elsewhere but I'm only going to say the US for sure right now).

> It's totally fine to see problems, even with our highly progressive and forward-looking society. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. But we are a nation of laws, and there are established procedures for changing those laws. We have the ballot box instead of the Anonabox, and for good reason.

"established procedures for changing those laws".... Yeah how is congress doing on that front again?

> If you are a good, loyal citizen, true to the ideas of the founding fathers and possessed of respect for the rule of law, there is no reason to be anonymous. Either you are right, and the democratic voice of the people will join you in a chorus of freedom, or you are wrong and if you continue to inflict harm on our society it will be forced to defend itself.

Majority != Right. It wasn't too long ago that voicing support for homosexuality could have easily gotten you killed (there are many parts of the work were this is still the case) and law enforcement wouldn't have batted an eye. There are and always will be the need for anonymous speech/dissent because it is impossible to change unjust/unfair laws without being associated with the thing you want to change. If you remove anonymity then you also remove the ability to change the laws that you mention we have an "established procedures for changing". Democracy cannot exist without dissent and dissent cannot easily exist without some form of anonymity or dissenting will immediately bring a mob/law enforcement to your front door.
If you actually believe that people who speak out against government policies are never persecuted in the United States, your belief is wrong.
That 'Assassins Creed' debacle highlights need to fix gaming QA
That population is probably like any other: either programming concepts click for them or they don't.

I saw this in freshman year. People either struggled mightily, or nearly not at all. Hence, the huge weed-out factor for the major.

All these folks need is exposure.
What's new in VB 14 (video): http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Visual-Studio/Connect-event-...
pipeSQL author here:

Sorry, I didn't understand your answer. It is very important to understand the complex query in-order to debug or re-engineer. One way is to visualise it as mentioned in the article and convert it to SQL via pipeSQL.
I think some of the weirdness is the fashion aspect, but I think there is also more to it than that. Back in 2004 when I was interviewing for grad schools, I had an interview with Thad Starner [1], who wore a HUD eyepiece, and it was a distinctly weird experience. It wasn't weird because it made me think he was a nerd—that wouldn't make him stand out very much from the average CS student or professor who I talked to that weekend.

It felt more like this odd space where I wasn't sure what the socially appropriate behavior was. More than anything else it was like talking to someone with an obvious disability, where there are delicate social conventions around when to acknowledge or not acknowledge it. Sort of like a glass eye. Except that here it was deliberately installed, and not related to an injury or disability. It particularly disoriented me with regards to eye contact. I constantly felt like I was supposed to make eye contact with him rather than staring at his facial device, which took conscious effort to do. But at the same time, I found myself frequently trying to discern whether he was making eye contact with me or rather was looking at the display in the glasses. The normal eye-to-eye gaze part of conversation was completely disrupted for me. I find smartphones much less disorienting simply because it's much more obvious when someone is looking at the screen vs. at you, which simplifies the social conventions. So to me as the "other party" in a conversation, the HUD form-factor is a downgrade in functionality from a handheld screen.

[1] http://www.cc.gatech.edu/home/thad/
The thread started with you giving a link that I had to digest before realizing it didn't say what you claimed. Now you're giving another link to a less neutral source.

Suggestion: learn legit example of oil subsidies and describe them in your own words so that I can first vet whether that would count as a subsidy before reading further.
>I think that prisons should be schools by default

Indeed. Good work you're doing there.

Now, if we can make schools schools by default, then maybe we can skip the prison step altogether.
Thanks! You are very sweet. I sincerely hope tänzer sets the right tone for not just the Tcl community, but also so many others that appear to be aging only on account of lacking an influx of new (young) developers. Writing quality code seems to be a pleasant side effect of that.

And now, to have a celebratory time over some beer and Dr Pepper and Cajun-flavored wings.
F.C.C. Asks AT&T for Details on Plans to Halt Fiber Expansion
John Carmack: Functional programming in C++ (2012)
> I personally think they launched without a killer app.

The killer app, the one that will override peoples fears (by praying on them) is 24/7 recording to the cloud. The first mugging/assault that is foiled (or perpetrators caught) cause their faces and actions were streamed realtime to not personal storage will get every paranoid parent and frightened wealthy person wanting one.
The Faking and Making of Precious Stones
You could have said the same thing about hookworm, and yet: material reality.
> You give up a certain amount of security, but gain a lot of comfort.

He who sacrifices security for comfort deserves neither :)
Learning a New Language Changes Both the Structure and Function of Brains
Please don't post links to other aggregators. HN wants the actual stories, preferably from the original source.
Amazon Lambda looks like Greek
It looks so cool in the photos and then I played the video and all I could think was, "wow this looks incredibly lame."
When I've done searches for redshift I have actually ended up having to clarify which type I mean.

As someone who does use AWS a lot and lambda functions, then yes, overloading the term is dumb. I'll also probably end up using Lambda functions.
Well, it's possible if you're somewhat interested in linux in general.

I'm a webdeveloper, mainly doing php, and I found a use case for php-fpm and systemd thanks to a blogpost of a friend. Its php-fpm pools ondemand, if you're interested I've written a blogpost about it here: http://thanatos.be/2014/04/12/php-fpm-ondemand.html

I guess It all depends on what your goal is or what you like achieving with your code, but imho systemd has some nice features for developers (and doing fun stuff in general). Also have a look at Joey Hess his blogpost about his systemd alarmclock: http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/a_programmable_alarm_clock_usin...
To be fair, it's not entirely the same sort of thing. Git is an open protocol. Github just happens to be one of many sites hosting git repositories. Moving a repository to another host is trivial; you already have all the data in your local tree.

Facebook, on the other hand, is one of a kind. I absolutely must have an account there if I want to do anything Facebook. And good luck getting your data out or interoperating with other social networks.
BSCS at a damn tough school. Gave me both theoretical and practical foundations for everything technical I've done since.

(and the obligatory xkcd for this topic, http://xkcd.com/519/)
> I don't want to pay too much for coolness.

That puts you in the vast minority of consumers. Almost all products sell on coolness. Even food.
The U.S. Navy has been looking for some option to use against small boats short of blowing them out of the water. US Navy ships have at times swamped suspected pirate boats with the wake from a warship, but it took a few tries before the boat gave up. A moderately powerful laser weapon is a useful option for that. The Navy can start with "dazzle" and crank up the power to "punch holes in boat" if they don't surrender.
The Fastest For-In Loops in the Whole Wide Web
Front of the queue I hope :)
That's my recollection from the original VF article, yes. And yes, his explanation was perfectly plausible. If I were in charge of loss prevention at GS, I'd be more worried about folks who don't clear their shell history when sensitive passwords are used.
Shows some videos of anti-mortar tests.

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/ic/des/hel_md_0514_vid.h...
Well, I would think that the gun barrel is continuously stabilized as:

1) That's how tank guns work
2) To enable manual single shot capability, the barrel must always be correctly oriented (as much as possible), since a computer cannot predict when the operator will actually say fire
3) Many naval guns have quite high rates of fire. Even outside of low caliber close in defense weapons (like the Phalanx), even larger weapons (~76mm) can fire more than once a second. At these rates of fire, you're basically continuously stabilizing anyways.
This looks good, but I doubt that HN users will tolerate two stories from gcaptain.com on the front page. Maybe repost it tomorrow?
I'm reading through the sample on my Kindle now. His similes are a little forced ("battles like this one raged across Beijing like a multitude of CPUs working in parallel, their combined output, the Cultural Revolution"), but he does know how to tell a story. By the end of the second chapter I was sold.
Since before WWI. I'm reading up on that war, and am in the middle of the overview of all naval action in that war (not just the North Sea/Jutland): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870212664/

Quite good, e.g. one Admiral really needed a Nelson era signal in one early battle, a not uncommon way to deal with submarines was to run over them. And it really brings home how it was a "World War" (although not called that at the time).
Thank you for the information. From your link: "the EFUP is the period of time before any of the RoHS substances are likely to leak out, causing possible harm to health and the environment - See more at: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/directive-decoder/china-roh...
"
> Have I interfered with your first amendment rights?

Not unless you're from the government.

Otherwise you're probably just disturbing the peace or trespassing.
Lantern One Device = Free Data Forever
Ahh! Thanks for that! fixing it now!
not defending the shirt - but find it ludicrous that people spend time on this in the face of corruption/crime/unethical behavior etc.
This is a silly example. It's harassment (at least). It's not protected, just like DDoSing a website is not protected speech.

And money is necessary for speech. Where do you draw the line? Can I spend $10 on a domain? $100 on hosting? $2000 on design? $5000 split with a friend on video equipment? Take submissions from site's users? How much can they spend on materials and licensing?

On the other end of the spectrum, how much can a tv network spend on political programming? Can they invite whomever they like or will the government set the guest list and how much air time they get? How much can a newspaper spend on investigating misconduct of a candidate they don't like?

It's easy to cap donations to candidates' committees. Everything else is a mess.
Very high taxes on rich people.
Those aren't the only downsides. The other downside is dramatically increased first byte latency due to the handshake.
Largely because of the difference from vanilla JavaScript syntax. PureScript looks great but would be asking for a lot of change just like Scala.js. We also looked at ClojureScript and LiveScript
In an Era of Robots, Why Do Window Washers Still Climb Skyscrapers?
Russian media releases image claiming to show MH17 shot down by Ukrainian jet
3 lessons learned from starting a startup
The best part? They're using commercial welding lasers:

> The prototype focuses the light from six solid-state commercial welding lasers on a single spot, according to a July 31 Congressional Research Service report.
Effective has many parameters. It's already more effective in that it doesn't require ammo logistics and it has multiple modes from warning to lethal. I bet it sucks in the rain and has no over the horizon capability. But systems are trade offs and it is rare for one to be best in every way / situation.

Also comparing results of hundreds of years of engineering (modern naval gun) to 1st gen / prototype is disingenuous.
Yeah--not very YC of them to discourage me. But then again, I didn't seem like I was YC material at the moment they talked to me. I'm glad PB and my interview team took a chance on me though, I'm still going strong!!
Also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8609302.
Also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8609203.
Because the foundations upon which AI shall be built aren't exotic. They're still programs. They still need an architecture to run on and they need electricity.

Even if new architectures that are specifically designed to leverage neural nets[1] or some other variety of processing are developed, the fundamental realities of computing, programs, physics and economics are not immune from being sufficiently underwhelming as far as AI is concerned.

Of course, this is precluding cloning technology where actual biological brains and therefore legitimate "life" and therefore intelligence can emerge.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/science/new-computer-chip-...
The joke is the current #1 spot is occupied by a broken machine that has never run at full capacity and spends most of its time OFF or hamstrung to save on power. Tianhe2 was a huge mistake, poorly planned out and poorly implemented.

The American National Labs seem to have the experience and patience to implement new systems that work well enough and deliver on a dollar/flop ratio.
Twitter Is Junk. Why Are You Surprised?
As a smokeless tobacco user (common brands include Skoal and Copenhagen, if you don't know what I'm talking about), I found this paragraph most useful:

"It’s true that smokeless tobacco is not entirely safe, but even products high in nitrosamines—an element believed to be highly carcinogenic—present a much lower risk than smoking. In the case of newer low-nitrosamine smokeless products, research suggests that the risk is no more than 10 percent that of cigarette smoking, and possibly much less. If smokers substituted one of these products for cigarettes—assuming they would not quit otherwise—their health gain would be immense."

I have spent considerable time trying to track down actual data on the dangers of smokeless tobacco beyond the government-mandated scare messages ("...not a safe alternative to cigarettes." Yeah, but how much "not safe"?) What are the dangers? Is nicotine the problem? Other chemicals?

Also interesting, regarding snus:
"Yet <Swedish males> smoking rate is very low, and extensive research has found little evidence that sustained use of snus causes any serious health problems, including cancer."

I haven't finished the whole article yet, but those two paragraphs alone answer questions I've left unanswered for years. Those kinds of informative articles are why I continue to subscribe to the _The Atlantic_ despite a dip in editorial quality in recent years.
> In the train-track problem you reference, the utility of saving 10 people at the expense of 1 life is obvious and I would do so without hesitation (though not without regret)

Even if it were your own child?
I may be wrong but didn't they write their own language that compiles to javascript?
The press release says that this particular system is basically just 6 welding lasers focused on a single point. Welding lasers are usually solid state or gas lasers (not chemical lasers).

In general, while the Airborne Laser used chemical lasers, and some mobile land lasers also use chemical lasers, those applications have a clear limitation on power generation. It's hard to get all the electricity to power a big solid state laser on a plane, or on a truck. But its a lot easier on a ship.
Same here. I've actually done some A/B testing on my diet and I've found that I have MUCH more energy when I limit my carbs during periods when I want to be productive.

Getting all your carbs from fruits and veggies sounds like an incredibly good plan.
Interesting, thanks for responding!

Are there any other forum moderation tools you would recommend (not competitors, obviously)? I'm curious what else is available to the homebrewer.
On one hand this is undoubtedly a very clever use of ++ features. On the other hand that heck of a lot of scaffolding (just look in /iod directory) and the more scaffolding there is, the more caution is needed in adopting the code.

The same goal - not parsing what's not needed - can be done with a conventional callback-based C code. You basically go through the json data, parse, say, a field and call the app asking "is this ok? shall I proceed?". If it's a yes, then you indeed proceed and parse out the value chunk and pass it to the app the same way. If it's a no, you either abort or skip over the value. The end effect is the same - parsing of an invalid json input is aborted as soon as the app flags the first bad entry; and unwanted fields are never parsed in full.

So I seriously doubt that this is a little more than a marketing spin of a proud developer -

This makes its performances impossible to match
in other languages such as C or Java that do not
provide static introspection.

I am fairly certain that vurtun's code [1] can match and most likely beat this lib's performance, with ease.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8609236
How to spot the artefacts of lossy audio compression (like MP3)
I am going to read the 38 pages of the Yudkowsky paper you link to, but for starter using the word Friendliness to describe the research for a safety IA that is not going to convert human in slaves is a comical term that don't reflect the risks involved and try to water down the problem.
I didn’t have enough Facebook friends to prove to Airbnb I was real
"What we don't have to worry about is the AI algorithm running them, because that's speculative. There isn't an AI algorithm that's good enough to do that for the time being."

By the time a risk does hit, it will be far too late to invent the requisite mathematics necessary for machine safety. There are many paths towards dangerous AI futures and many powerful forces that could inadvertently tip the boat the same way we are escaping the implicit "goals" of our genes, so the union of the respective probabilities is very much not speculative and must be taken seriously.

"There's a whole other problem area that has to do with neuroscience, where if we pretend we understand things before we do, we do damage to science, not just because we raise expectations and then fail to meet them repeatedly, but because we confuse generations of young scientists. Just to be absolutely clear, we don't know how most kinds of thoughts are represented in the brain. We're starting to understand a little bit about some narrow things."

Appealing to scientific ignorance is always a bad idea: http://lesswrong.com/lw/kj/no_one_knows_what_science_doesnt_...
Next post is also worth reading: http://elakdawalla.tumblr.com/post/102615327170/philae-updat...
Scaled Inference Lands $8M from Khosla to Build Cloud-Based AI Platform for All
I think that's mostly a socioeconomic issue in SF, very similar to how many New Yorkers resent bankers.
> Personally, I prefer explicitness

Of course, that's one way to look at it, and a valid one. Most of the time I do too, but I can accept some degree if implicit behaviour if it's consistent and (conceptually) simple enough.

> the amount of overloaded meaning of existing operators

But this is not true in regards to J. In J and other array-based languages the number of overloaded meanings for operators is actually less than in "normal" languages. That's because in J all the operators work on arrays and only on arrays. No operator ever deals with things other than arrays, and in basic J there's just one thing other than array anyway (a box).

In Python this:

2 + 2

and this:

[1, 2, 3] + [1, 2, 3]

are two different operators, but in J (ignore syntactic differences) this:

2 + 2

and this:

1 2 3 + 1 2 3 NB. resulting in 2 4 6

are both applications of the same operator.

There is a certain appeal to languages built on "turtles all the way down" principle - one of the benefits is that they tend to be compact, simple and consistent. On the other hand, when you're not dealing with turtles, they tend to be irritating at best and completely unusable at worst.

Anyway, I'm not trying to convince you to adopt J right now and start using it for writing web apps, I just want to say there are some interesting concepts in J which, while being unfamiliar, are not necessarily worse than the things we're used to. And they're not useless either: a week of learning J made my NumPy code much better, for example.
+1 for Leaflet. Really easy to use.
I have a pair, and while I haven't had much time to experiment with it yet, the little bit I have done, I think they got several things right.

1) The 'viewport' is out of sight if you're not looking up and to the right. This gives it the non-intrusive aspect that allows someone to wear it while engaging in everyday activities.

2) The 'pairing' with another Android device I think allows the developer to leave heavy computation / work off of the small Glass device to conserve battery.

3) The form-factor. I think it's very lightweight, and again non-intrusive aspect that doesn't make it a burden to those who don't already wear glasses.

I haven't dug in deeply recently, but originally I had the sense that there's not enough integration with popular 3rd party apps. Engagement from Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. would probably help with adoption, though the pricepoint is definitely something I see most people struggling with. Perhaps tight integration with things like Google Apps might make it appealing to small or larger but agile businesses.

I think this could be both a consumer and business play in terms of adoption, though I think the path to business adoption may be more straightforward in terms of the kinds of apps that would need to be developed.

I can imagine alot of really interesting things might start happening once Google has made Tango available for mass adoption.

https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/#project

Let's hope they don't shut the door on this too quickly. The idea is so new and different that it could take some time before folks really sink their teeth into how it can be used where there's real value to the consumer / business who is going to make the investment.
The free software version is Zeal (http://zealdocs.org/).
Trade Tales and Tiny Trails: Glass Beads in the Kalahari Desert
So not anymore than I can do with Mesos and Docker on other cloud providers. I can use Marathon for a nice UI as well.