skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm a sysadmin supporting this shit for bespoke web applications. A new piece of semi-supported crap every six months and the business expects it to be supportable for two or three years. (We're getting better about demanding they fund a damn sprint for any nontrivial work.)

Our devs are a very smart and capable bunch, but are slowly learning the Support Hangover of being the knowledgeable one on a project because you made a foolish and enthusiastic choice when the project was launched ... it's how you learn the "-ops" bit of devops.

Some year webdev will grow out of the CADT model, but it won't be this year.
I'd be really curious to know which contracting company you worked for.
What you are stating is not true: when you are transferred back to the contracting company (for whatever reason), if they are still your employer, this company has to pay you. Even if you don't work for a client. This is not that uncommon actually to be in that kind of situation.
However, contracting companies are well known to be really hard on their contractors (especially developers), if they saw that you would believe that you wouldn't get paid unless you work free extra hours, that doesn't surprise me that they'd use that. But it would never have happened. In France, work laws are much more in favor of the employee, they would never have gotten away with not paying you.
I spent my early 20's pressing vinyl in the Czech Republic (anyone who ran a niche label will know the place :) and shipping it around the world.

To this day it's my favourite format. There's a ritual; going to the vinyl shelf or bag, taking it out the right way, placing the needle - it primes your mental state in a way that pointing and clicking just can't.

The margins were super tight on vinyl though. It cost more to produce, package and ship than CDs - and costs were compounded if you were trading with other labels. I quit when the music industry went into disarray. One day our French distributor cleared out their warehouse and we got a shipment and a note saying sorry - they were selling T-Shirts now.

But it seemed to me that vinyl would endure, maybe even grow as people looked for something more. I'm so glad to see it has!
Yes, they knew about the relativistic effects. And they could obviously send some data. But somehow they can't figure out that they've been getting a repeat of the same ping for the last 10 years? And even if they couldn't figure that out, how could the person on the planet possibly send a ping every year, if she only spent an hour and half on it according to her frame of reference?
OReilly has their Cyber Monday Sale today "Save 50% on all ebooks and video training " "discount code: CYBERDY. Deal expires December 2, 2014 at 5:00am PT,"
Ah, I clearly skimmed the summary too quickly. Just saw "adjusted" and assumed index-adjusted to some year-dollar value. Thanks.
Basic DHT security concepts
> I will be transferred back to the contracting company who is not obliged to pay me, if I am not working for a client.

this is highly suspicious. In France services companies, people are paid in between contracts.
Won’t Amazon try to find ways to replace as many of those human workers
as possible? Clark says that won’t happen, because the rise in
productivity will give Amazon the means to grow. And growth means
Amazon will need to hire more people.

I find this idea pretty interesting. That the amount of jobs stays the same even though robots do more and more of the stuff humans did in the past. So far it seems to hold true. We came a long way since the stone age and there still is useful stuff to do.

Maybe this will not change until robots are better at everything. Strong AI etc. But then we will probably somehow merge with the robots. Enhance ourselves with technology. And stay competitive.

Maybe jobs are forever.
Then don't use it, or if you want to, then write some! They're quite clear that it's not production software…
The "one langauge for the whole stack" is being developed (for the web at least) through the language Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Links_(programming_language)

http://groups.inf.ed.ac.uk/links/
> Here's the rub though - code will not (likely) live forever. That's just the reality of software engineering.

Yes. Only the code you wish wouldn't!

(seriously. I'm maintaining complex logic in ant. AUGH MY EYES)
> IMO they should be declarative, that is - in the HTML - but programmable, and that's the way things have been heading.

Sounds like React. WCs templates aren't programmable that's a DSL that is specific to Polymer.
The point of the time dilation is 'plot'. It's to age the daughter to a point where she's now a prominent scientist and can interpret the main character's weird sendings, while not being dismissed as a weird kid.

In terms of the literal events of the film, it's the last planet they should have visited, given the urgency they have to find a place for the people back home - a few months round trip to come back and check it is only a few months back home, but a couple of hours at the known 'time dilation' is decades back home. Doesn't make internal sense... except for 'plot'.
> You sound like programming in another level higher than mine. I applaud that. I'll revisit Spray/Scala _when_ I found a definitive use-case for this. For now, Java seems to fit the bill for pretty much 99% my use-cases and fit my taste as well (less low-level code stuff because it is built-in the framework that is well-architected/well-designed so that I can focus on business logic code).

Sometimes you don't need it, but there are blub-paradox cases as well; I tried to sum up a few of the things I retrospectively recognize I was missing in Java in http://m50d.github.io/2014/05/16/signs-your-java-program.htm...

A lot of it is just being able to track things in the type system that you wanted to track in Java anyway, but it seemed too hard. I mean, I've worked in Java codebases where it would have been very nice to see which methods accessed the database as part of their type. I've even seen one that used a kind of Hungarian notation to express this - in fact if I can point to a single place that set me on the road to Scala, it's http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Wrong.html . Because I read that and then thought: hang on a minute, why not just make whether a String is encoded part of its type-type, the type that's enforced by the compiler?
> Seriously? If I build my Gentoo differently it won't be Linux, because I used a different userland?

You're misunderstanding. It's not criticism, but a statement of facts that the only thing Android has in common with most desktop Linux-distros is the kernel. Apart from that they share literally nothing.

Tweaking your Gentoo installation still makes is a Gentoo-installation, and thus a normal GNU/Linux environment.

But if you change the init-system, remove all userspace tools, lock it down so users can't have root, ditch X for something else and only run apps designed for your non-X graphical environment, with each user-facing app running as their own Linux user-account...

Would you call that a "normal" Linux desktop? Probably not. And that's the point. Android isn't conventional Linux. (Which is probably why it's so successful, but that's flamebait for another discussion)
Quite a good idea. I like the simple user friendly interface!
I get page-not-found. Did you submit a link to a private repository? I'm looking forward to the list if it's even remotely like your https://github.com/bolshchikov/js-must-watch
telemarketer is, IMHO, clearly tongue-in-cheek, so don't take it personal, please. I found it funny because I fail to see how the tips pertain to JS, while they are worthwhile nonetheless - and I hope that was the commenters intent, instead of aggrevating anyone (e.g. for mentioning ember without it adding anymore insight than an argument of authority. edit: although, anecdotal evidence is welcome.)
This Cyber Monday, Don’t Let Cyberthieves Fill Their Pockets with Your Identity
How long until a daily brain scan and body scan is a part of everyone's routine, the same way brushing your teeth is?

Problems like these are untreatable if left for too long, but if caught early, there's sometimes hope. The solution seems to be to develop as many types of passive scanners as possible.

The problem is false positives. But wasting a month needlessly visiting the doctor doesn't seem that bad.
DIY Exoplanet Detection with a DSLR
I don't remember how many pings they received in the movie. I've understood that they had received just one ping from that planet.
Show HN: Find related GitHub projects
Going to the extreme, instead of using blogspot you can write your post in raw html and host them in your own server. But the blogspot abstraction layer is much easier (and it can handle the HN load), so you have more time to do your unique activities.
That's true. There are some annoying limitations, though usually they're easy to work around at the app layer (e.g. no flexible type system).
Requirements:

*Understand the implications of the weather and make contingency plans
I understand that time dilation was necessary for the plot. They should have found another way to age the crew, though, that didn't violate common sense.

The crew knew about the time dilation before deciding to try that first planet. They should have realized the data they were getting was only about an hour old. Didn't they say something about not getting any communication from the scientist, just automated transmission of probe data? Only an hour's worth of data and no communication from the scientist should have easily put that planet in the last resort category.
Q&A: Itch.io Interview with Leaf Corcoran
APaaS for the unconvinced
economy, when confronted with physics and mathematics, always loses. exponential growth is not sustainable. i recommend thinking how much energy we can release before the oceans boil off and how long will that take assuming 3% growth yoy. (hint: sooner than you might think.)
12Kbps Simple Audio Data Transfer for AVR
Falsehoods you might believe after watching the Imitation Game
Yes, not allowing comments for example. How could one come up without such a basic feature?
Won't the audio that's pressed onto the vinyl be digitally mastered anyway these days?
For me, "The amount of jobs" is not the only factor, the quality of the job matters as well.

That paragraph suggests that the productivity gain benefits workers (labour) as well as the owners, (of capital) because it creates jobs. But each of those jobs could be a low paid, low quality job; as is suggested by the following:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f...

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazo...

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_...

Yes there may be more (or the same) number of jobs; as suggested by the paragraph. But each of those jobs could be lower paid and lower quality in terms of job satisfaction. So it may still be the case that a greater share of the productivity gain accrues to capital; instead of labour.

Rather than freeing us; our existing societal structures may mean that technology instead helps to create a story of inequality - a hollowing out of today's society with "barristers and baristas and no-one in the middle". Whether that society is a moral one; or even a functional one, is a separate question I suppose!
Honestly, I am not sure about anything related to this law. I am also not UK-based so I don't know haw exactly is the EU directive implemented in UK.

I live in the Czech Republic and here you can become so called "person identified for VAT" which (if I understand correctly - IANAL) enables you to use mini one stop shop for selling over the border while internally (selling inside the country) you remain in non-VAT regime.

Our law is based on the same EU directive as yours so I suggest you check whether your law also offers something like that.

It is still more complicated than it should be (I think the whole concept of VAT is bad) but I hope it is not as bad as registering in all EU countries.

I will also consider 3rd party services like http://www.taxamo.com - I am not related to them, I am just sharing that because you might find it useful.
False positives don't mean a month of visiting a doctor - they mean several months of anxiety inducing "watchful waiting" or invasive biopsies.

And false positives are not a rare event. False positives are very common.

On top of that the radiation (from CT scans) increase the risk of cancer.

Scans for healthy people are strongly discouraged.

There's a possible benefit if you have any of the genetic markers for lung cancer or are otherwise at risk of lung cancer - heavy lifelong smoker for example.
Just wanted to say that I'm not a programmer, but there are still things I can contribute to Open Source projects during this ace project. Fix those typos, add some documentation for a piece of software you use or myriad other things. I only mention it because I didn't realise this until somebody pointed it out to me!

Also, for any JavaScript types out there looking for something to contribute to, this plugin[0] would help me fly a Quadcopter much easier! Just sayin' ;-)

[0]:https://github.com/andrew/webflight-onscreen-keyboard
From a technological perspective it's interesting to note that vinyl is also a very "open" format in the sense that you can actually (with a magnifying glass) see the physical manifestation of the audio data on the disc, and to be able to play one doesn't require the sort of complex electronics technology that a more modern format like a CD would need. Of course, there is also no DRM.
TransferWise's Co-Founder on Banks, Bitcoin and Branson
X-ray and CT imaging however slighly increases the cancer risk.

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/radiationexposurea...
That I shouldn't tell HN that I threaten people (I maintain that I don't, but I guess it was read that way), on ground of it being possibly bad for business.

To me, honesty remains the best policy. Even if not for me particularly, a society that believes that is more robust, and well, lead by example.
I thought a MRI is both more accurate and safer.
I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with. I never made any claims that supported (or opposed) the current EU set up. I merely pointed out that the comment I replied to added nothing constructive to the conversation and that Tax is an important issue.

I'm not even sure what argument you're trying to make as it simply comes across as a rant. Wealth creators should decide tax policy? Career politicians are career politicians? Do you actually know how such policies are put together and the processes/consultation they go through? I have no idea so I'm not going to form a strong opinion either way.
If people donate nothing towards ameliorating diseases of ageing[0], then what's to be expected?

People die. People get sick. Everyone you, and I, know is probably going to suffer and perish.

The poor soul in the blog post sounds like he got struck down in his prime; but rest assured, your time is coming in a matter of decades.

Accept death/disease or do something about it; but don't be shocked when it happens! Statistically, it's going to happen in increasing rates as you, your family, your friends, and everyone you know gets older.

Being blindsided by death is odd. A cognitive bias?: 'It won't happen to me'. But, quite frankly, it most probably will!

[0] http://www.sens.org/
I think they do understand but the pressure to increase revenue outweighs those concerns.
WANDERERS – Short Film
False positives aren't inherently a problem. If you have accurate understanding of the sensitivity and specificity of a test, then you can take action to maximise the utility of the expected outcome.

This means, for example, not necessarily performing a biopsy just because something is there (but it's probably benign). The cost of invasive procedures such as biopsies, and risk-increasing tests such as CT scans has to be balanced against their benefits.

Of course, there is no risk with a full-body MRI scan. The machine itself is expensive, but otherwise it nominally only costs electricity, maintenance and operation. If full-body scans were, as you say, routine, the cost of the machine would be amortised and an economy of scale should prevail.

The problem is legal; if a doctor sees something on a scan and doesn't take action, they can be sued. This is the case even if there is negative expected utility from performing the test due to the low probability of an actual malignant condition. Due to this, it is not uncommon to hear doctors say that full-body scans do more harm than good.

Until the legal system starts to account for rational choices based on statistical information, this problem is going to persist.
Yup. I don't really miss usenet, I never was that invested. But I miss BBSs - and I prefer proper mailing lists to web forums (although I take a perverse pleasure in how HN leverages poor UX in an effort to meet its goals as a news site with comments, rather than a forum for discussion. Is there a hn-lovers mailinglist?).

I'm not aware of any platform that combines a reasonable API/protocol with a good web experience. I have some hopes for mailman3, is a bit sad that lampson appears dead, that edgewall killed their webmail frontend (I thought it might make a good basis for a proper web frontend to a proper mailinglist). And there is of course the D forums that as I understand it build on usenet news as the backend, and with some styling/templating might make a decent web forum.
Versus ext4: online resize, better at handling large directories. Versus xfs: better at handling power loss/crashes (no "trailing zeroes problem"), reiserfsck is not 100% reliable but it can sometimes save you whereas if you reach the same situation with xfs then you have 0% chance of recovering your data. Versus btrfs: more mature (isn't btrfs still tagged as experimental?), same situation wrt fsck.

I use ZFS where I can, but for root filesystems on linux machines reiser still seems like the best tradeoff.
The state of JavaScript in 2015: it still sucks.
I just wish the webbrowser creators would implement a way of other languages to be executed as a replacement of JavaScript. Not gonna happen, I know...
I always found it diffult to focus behind. However it's much easier to focus before, but it makes the depth inverted.
As a kid I always did it this way and was frustated because it makes it very hard to recognize the subject.
Embedded in that is the premise that increasing the number of working hours is a good thing. If the law insists upon a maximum of 30 hours per week, then the number of hours that one is willing to work is no longer a way to distinguish between employees.

This thread started with the observation, quoting bato, "as work gets "easier" the way forward would be to reduce hours worked, not increase them".

If you build into your analysis the assumption that working more is better, then of course you'll end up with that conclusion that working more is better.

You believe there is a negotiation lever by not having a cap in the law. To start with, I would rather have strong unions able to negotiate the cap as appropriate for the given trade. Failing that though, the US has laws limiting the number of hours to work, such as the Libby Zion Law in New York, which limits the amount of resident physicians' work, and hours-of-service rules for truck drivers.

Regarding the maid example, I believe you are suggesting that it's rare enough that it can be ignored for purposes of economic analysis. My suggestion is quite different - your justification says that we should not do things that reduce the GDP. I question the primacy of that argument. We make policy decisions to have our country more in the way we want it to be. GDP is easy to measure. That doesn't mean it's the right metric, or even a good rough gauge.

If we wanted a country where people had more time for personal enrichment, then we would have a lower GDP. So what? Studying French poetry of the 1800s or building sand castles on the beach or watching football games are cheap.

And if you're worried about the poor needing to catch up to the rich, then increase taxes.
Yep. My wife has yearly scans because of a tumour supressor gene mutation and last year they thought they spotted something on the ultrasound, so sent her for a CT.

CT showed that it was pretty bad, que months of stressing and worrying about what was going to happen.

Turns out it was a false positive, caused by an accessory spleen looking like a tumour. False positives do happen, and they can be pretty devastating - it took quite a while for her to get back to normal.
There are a couple of things that have pushed me towards buying more vinyl:

- Increased prevalence of bundling high quality MP3 downloads with a vinyl purchase. Independent artists often do this and (at least in Germany) Amazon's autorip also is usually good for vinyl purchases.

- Flea markets. I often find albums I'd like to own for €3.

I kind of have mixed-mode listening -- in the living room, when guests are over, it's nicer atmosphere-wise to say, "Nobody's plugging in their smartphone to play some track from YouTube; we're listening to records." But on my own, even when I buy CDs (which I still do) I usually rip them and then listen to them exclusively from my MP3 collection. With the bundling of vinyl and MP3s, it makes it easy to replace the album that goes in my physical collection (I have several hundred CDs and about 100 records) with an LP, and still get the benefits of having high quality digital music. For those of us that still have a bit of a fetish for physical collections of things (I like paper books for the same reason), that hits a nice sweet spot.
Accuracy aside, from a scientific point of view Interstellar was one of the most interesting movies in a long time, and it really made me think about Physics a lot again.

It's really cool to see how much you can actually learn about the universe of Interstellar by making use of some Physics knowledge and the information given to you in the movie.

An example: The first planet they visit orbits Gargantua (the supermassive black hole mentioned in the movie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermassive_black_hole) at a distance very close to its Schwarzschild radius (or event horizon). In the movie, they say that the time dilation there is such that one hour passed at the surface of the planet corresponds to 7 years (!) on Earth. Interestingly, with that information alone we are already able to calculate how close the planet is to the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole by using a really simple formula: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius (here we have to assume that the black hole is not rotating very fast).

Making some assumptions about the mass of the black hole then allows us to see how large the actual Schwarzschild radius is in fact, and if the time dilation shown in the movie is possible (it is). Similarly, if we use the information they give us about the gravity constant on the planet (about 1.3 times Earth gravity if I remember correctly) as well as an estimate of the height of the tidal waves they find there (maybe 200 meters?), we could even estimate the rotation period of the planet.

There are many more examples of clues like this in the movie, which offer great 'Fermi problems' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem) and allow us to learn many things about the universe presented to us in Interstellar.

Of course I also have to mention the absolutely stunning rendering of the black hole, which incorporated the gravitational lensing effects (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens) that make the accretion disk of the black hole appear like a halo surrounding it. Also, the rendering of the wormhole as a four-dimensional "hole" embedded in three-dimensional space was absolutely gorgeous.

Amazing movie, amazing science, amazing universe.
Slightly off topic, but for some reason, reading this post and the comments made me think of PG's essay on startup hubs, where he mentions startupicide. These VAT rules seem to (inadvertently) act that way.

http://paulgraham.com/hubs.html
Read Before You Write