skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is a real travesty. While sexual harassment deserves suspension from future teaching, the existence of Lewin's (highly regarded and instructive) lectures in no wise endorses or encourages sexual harassment, and their loss is truly detrimental.
Retro Game Internals: Contra
Let me disabuse you of that idea. :)

Consider math. It's extremely useful and people need it to properly function in modern life. And yet people are not only terrible at it, but they are proud of how terrible they are at it. They believe (incorrectly) that math is something you "just get" and that it is not a skill that can be learned. To me, those people are illiterate, but the perceived social stigma of being math illiterate just isn't there like it is with actual illiteracy.

So, if math, which is much more fundamental and useful in the every day lives of people isn't the new literacy, I don't think coding has a chance.
IMO it's somewhere in between. Not as important as writing and reading (after all, you wouldn't be able to code without that) but there are few opportunities in people's jobs to use leatherworking, soldering, etc.

I have a lot of friends who work in offices surrounded by Excel spreadsheets all day. I know for a fact they would be more productive if they knew how to use it better, write macros, VBA... or heaven forbid, use a database instead. I think this is going to happen more often in the future, too.
If you can become profitable without raising funds then why raise funds?
"we have some spies", funny :)
I also live in small-town Maine and can safely say that these metrics: "age, health, wealth, gender, sexual orientation, language, education, technological proclivity" are all much better optimized by living in the city.

And you can also get tortillas that aren't garbage.
I would be extremely interested in how you approach that-- specifically with respect to the debugger. I'm using the canonical eclilpse/cdt/gdb stack and it is nothing short of torture compared to any modern IDE.

I mean, eclipse is a broken hellscape of failed promises on its own, but gdb is.... words fail me. Truly. AND I KNOW HOW TO USE GDB PRETTY WELL.
I would be satisfied if people were simply able to identify tasks that can and should be automated. There are many, many, many people / organizations that have weekly or monthly manual tasks that could be automated if the individual or organization could recognize it - and hire someone to address the automation.

Stupid alert: I briefly worked at a startup that did push to production by remote desktop to the server and manually restarting the IIS server after copying things into place. They didn't automate it - because "it's the way we always did it." (Yes, they're out of business now.)
Founders aren't entitled to investor money.

Investors are looking for a particular curve. The slow burn, 7-figure exit that founders want is almost useless to VCs. The model requires that the winners pay for the losers. The VC has a finite number of at-bats every year, and each one needs to potentially be an out-of-the-park home run. A company that deliberately bunts is costing the VC an opportunity to recoup their losses on failures, which is the majority of their portfolio.

Founders like to kid themselves about this, but if they raise from a big institutional VC and plan on sitting on the money or executing on a "safe" 1.5-2x model, they're the ones being deceptive.

Safe, conservative plans are awesome. That's why companies should bootstrap.

There's a difference though between swinging for the fences and throwing money away.
There are a lot of tools out there like Excel that become significantly more useful with a little programming skill. World of Warcraft is a perfect example where the ability to create even simple macros is useful for a wide swath of people. Granted it's not nearly as important as reading, but it's probably on par with writing well. A core skill that's useful in most areas even if it's irrelevant professionally it's still useful at a personal level.
I like this idea.

It does assume that a user can't set the vlan themselves but my switches support this and I think it would be really cool to have segregated networks for different levels of user trust.
I actually tried to find a good simulator for that reason, but all the web simulators I've found didn't have a reasonable time slider UI.
Has this been proven with CC non-commercial licenses, e.g does the non-commercial license function as lead generation for commercial sales?

http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt/intro may be a software example, seems to be one developer.
I wouldn't say the entire experience is insane, but a lot of things feel unnecessarily difficult (hello crash symbolication, auto-layout debugging, etc...) compared to their web development counterparts.

On the other hand, you do get greater performance and stability (but not perfect stability, after all it wouldn't be an iOS release if Apple didn't break something and completely ignore radars).
The "no fucking jobs" effect also plays a role.
This is also a problem with commercial software and maintenance contracts, not to mention "certified engineers" in the adjacent ecosystem.
What's nonsensical about it? Uber is operating in Portland without meeting local regulations. The city is suing them to make them stop.
I think it assumes you want to be a part of something which makes a long term impact. If you just want a pay check, you probably aren't at a startup (or at least not for the right reason).
Burnout and Ops [video]
I agree. It would be nice if everyone was exposed to programming, just to get a feel for what is possible/plausible - plus the benefits of learning how to think through a problem logically.

But just as I don't consider someone fatally unknowledgeable about biology if they can't quite remember what, say, the liver does, I don't consider someone fatally unknowledgeable if they don't know how to write a computer program.

It would be nice if everyone tried programming at some point, but the idea that everyone should know how to is kind of silly.
I thought the free market was supposed to be the most efficient allocation of resources.
A little dissappointed they didn't link to the code. Here's Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Hour of Code work:

http://studio.code.org/sh/32532000

(http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/39544-wit2014)
I think that you nailed it, Elasticsearch JDBC is not flexible and you need to be good in SQL if you have a complex model with many relation. Because JOIN create a cartesian product you can end with duplicate and you have to find a way to avoid that because duplicate affect the ranking. In my case I ended using UNION queries.

Also you cannot also have multiple queries but not to update and existing document(eg: adding extra fields)
The SQL query for me ended being ~100 lines but the model is quite complex with multiple languages support.
We Have a Huge Problem with the Military
What do you recommend for hosting?
What do you mean? Uber is operating in the city in violation of various regulations (judging from the article: liability insurance requirements, background check requirements, access for disabled people requirements, and caps on fees) and they're being brought to court for it. What would you consider sensible?

Here's Portland's official website on the issue: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/511920

> The Limited Passenger Transportation and Taxi Driver Permit requirements ensure the public that drivers have passed annual City-required annual background checks.

> “If Uber thinks there should be no maximum price on what they charge Portlanders, they should make their case to the Portland City Council,” Novick said. “If Uber thinks taxi companies shouldn’t have to serve people with disabilities, they should make their case. If Uber thinks taxis should not have to have proper insurance in case of a crash, they should tell us why we should allow that.”
demo of startup time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlDQTLRrcZI
I know of a company that thought they would be in this category. They ended up raising a very large seed round (1MM+) from a VC and pre-negotiating a follow-on of equal size, should they need it. That way the expectation was set from the beginning that this company might take some time to build out their product and see traction.

It's smart, because the discount for the follow-on was pre-negotiated, so investors get perhaps a more favorable discount if the company is a run-away success, and the entrepreneurs were able to buy peace of mind, and could count on the money regardless of macro-economic forces.
Ask HN: Have driving costs have been impacted due to GPS navigation?
With the growth of smartphones of GPS, and people getting more accurate directions, has driving improved? and if so, has the average driver seen reduced fuel costs?
I would think that if you're already going to do the SMTP transaction, the average (plaintext) email message body is small enough to slide into the same packet as the end of the transaction headers. It's the same as keeping the data of small files inside their directory-entry structures on disk.

On the other hand, it would indeed be interesting if email was simply a "unicast presence notification" channel to allow accounts to publish knowledge of a (private, ephemeral, encrypted, authenticated) message channel to other accounts, and then messages flowed via automated subscription-based pull. You'd still want your MUA to be a web service with active background polling, though (like cloud RSS reader services), since otherwise a user could send a message and then "retract" it from their feed before your own client had retrieved it.

But this would solve at the very least the spam problem: you could simply unfollow a channel that's sending you email, and receive no future messages on it. It'd be like every (sender, receiver) pair having its own dedicated inbox, that the true receiver consumes only voluntarily.
Forget about your repeatable terminal commands, a great app for developers
"Survival of the fittest" is an example of a coined phrase gone wrong, wherein a sound bite subsumes what it is supposed to only represent.
What's going on is Uber decided that because it doesn't like laws regulating taxis, it should be allowed to just ignore them.
Why exactly are you checking your VPS for this particular piece of malware? Look at grsecurity; everything it stops is table stakes for Linux exploit code.
Seems that $40 billion evaluation has provoked some cities into taking action against Uber. The recent valuation after a hefty raising amount proved that Uber was no longer this small San Francisco startup any more, they are bigger in many cities than some taxi companies and now cities want their cut.

While I personally do not use Uber, we need services like Uber to be allowed to operate. My recent experience going from the airport to downtown Los Angeles was absolute hell, the taxi driver tried forcing me to pay cash even though the card terminal was working. He wanted to drive me to an ATM to get cash out. This is the kind of thing I am tired of. Don't get me started on the last weekend I was in Vegas, the taxi services are just as bad there (and unreliable).

I don't get the whole safety argument either, I have always felt safe in an Uber and Lyft, I have felt unsafe too many times when I have taken a regular taxi, when they're not deliberately taking you a longer way to extort cash or trying to get you to pay cash when you only have a credit card.

I know we need regulation and fair enough, Uber are violating some local laws here, but driving services like Uber out of the city won't make things better. Local councils should be working with services like Uber, so they can coexist and operate legally. Lets get some solid legislation and requirements for ridesharing services, otherwise, they will just continue to operate regardless (as they have shown).

This feels like a cash grab from the city of Portland. No doubt other cities are going to follow suit as well. Let the people decide who they want to drive with. The better product will always win out and if that is Lyft, Uber or whomever, it really highlights the issues that plague the taxi industry.
Thanks for correcting me. I'm still just dipping my toe into erlang and forgot that there were two different versions.

(And thanks to lambdadmitry for the additional insight.)
1. Body by Science - changed my view about exercising. HIIT for 12 minutes a week seems more doable and fun for a busy life. And it actually works.

2. Mini Habits - the only routine building method that worked for me.
Or, for a much more direct example, just plain old normal literacy.
Anyone else surprised the site wasn't just a blank white page with the word "No" in 200px font?
I tend to agree. The determinism of random() is a feature, but it's a feature that almost nobody actually needs. It's just that the alternatives are either more trouble than they're worth or platform-dependent.
Isn't this just another way to say that a capital-intensive business requires lots of capital?
I agree. Willful, blatant, knowing violations of law on the part of corporations should not be met with injunctions or fines, but with revocation of the corporate charter, dissolution of the company, and criminal prosecution of the executives and of the board.
What is the usage of random numbers in your case?
Probably not. Agriculture in the western US relies on irrigation due to water scarcity, but places like Iowa have the opposite problem. They actually shunt water off of their fields. Also, losses of agricultural water due to evapotranspiration are higher in CA than in a state like WA due to the hotter, drier climate in CA.
Hello,
What are your issues when trying to Network in your university ? We are working on a networking + location solution, so I'll be glad to see if we can help you, send me en email to: isaac@nearapp.co if you are interested.
Thank you.
Isaac.
MIT removes Walter Lewin lectures
Senior Android Dev here, moved from Eclipse to AS when it was still in preview earlier in the year. It's loads more stable and much easier to use. Definitely recommend giving it a go if you were turned off by Eclipse + ADT earlier.
ha funny in a kind of sad but true way.
Yeah, I am. It's sort of like stuff at stores where the price isn't listed: if you have to ask, a Ph. D. isn't for you.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California (CA), USA

Remote: yes

Willing to relocate: no

Technologies: python (Django, Flask, Google App Engine), JavaScript (Backbone, Marionette, jQuery, requirejs, grunt, bower), SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL), AWS (Amazon Web Services), UNIX terminal, full stack, front-end, back-end, junior product management

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcraciunoiu/

Email: paul [at] craciunoiu {dot} net

---------------

Freelance independent consultant looking for web or software work.
What do you think of "Mindstorms" (the book)? One of the themes of that book is that math education has failed most people because of the way it has been traditionally taught (see also Lockharts's Lament). But that computers could provide a new, better way at allowing people/children to learn though exploring simulations. I found it to be really quite the impressive work, and while I began my Logo investigations to teach my kids, I'm now also trying to track down some great looking Logo books from the long distant past, like "Turtle Geometry" by Harold Abelson for myself. Yes, that Abelson.
Alum here too and like you I've managed to drop off the fund-raising radar. I wish I could say the same about Williams College where I spent my last semester (exchange program) who, despite my protests, seems to regard me as a graduate for fund-raising purposes. Every year I get a new guilt-inducing calendar "gift" in the mail.
Does anyone have tips for quickly and responsibly finding a spot on the slippery slope of consulting? We have found our few distractions so far to be too distracting.
Weebly story is amazing
I don't think so. Being rich/connected is great, but there's a third option: Show early traction.

Absent other advantages, you will need to get to product-market fit pretty quickly if you want to survive.
These days, the stakes are higher for everyone. Investors expect faster growth and want a "meaningful stake" (15%+) early on.

Meanwhile, entrepreneurs generally try to raise more too. Who doesn't want more cash if they can get it?

This is dangerous for those who don't understand these dynamics. The growth trajectory needs to align with the incoming cash. The second you raise a $3M seed round, you're on the roller coaster. You will need to show "hockey stick" growth in 12 months, and raise your A in 18. If not, you're dead.
In my non-tech job (basically school registrar), writing userscripts saves me a lot of time--in some extreme cases, it's allowed me to complete what for any of my coworkers would have been a week's worth of work in a few hours, and with far fewer mistakes.

Regular expressions and basic Unix utils are also amazingly valuable in non-tech jobs that involve computer use.

"Life skill"? Maybe not. Enormously valuable in bureaucratic jobs? Definitely.
SEEKING WORK, consulting ONLY (part time or contract)

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California (CA), USA

Remote: yes

Willing to relocate: no

Technologies: python (Django, Flask, Google App Engine), JavaScript (Backbone, Marionette, jQuery, requirejs, grunt, bower), SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL), AWS (Amazon Web Services), UNIX terminal, full stack, front-end, back-end, junior product management

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcraciunoiu/

Email: paul [at] craciunoiu {dot} net

Freelance independent consultant looking for web or software work.
Come on, he's not going to get mixed up in those politics...
Yeah, I'd say this would lead to a cottage industry in selling hacked sites for C&C purposes except that market has been thriving for many years.
Go is quite possibly the worst possible language for this example. You don't have generics, so the best you can do with an option type is return an interface {}, and any error checking you have to do has to be done manually. The problem is not that there is no way to do it properly in other languages (well, except lua), the problem is that the most natural way to do it is wrong.
If anyone wants to contribute, the online tool is really accessible and drive-by contributions (e.g. sub 10 minute) are totally fine: http://tasks.hotosm.org/
> Lets get some solid legislation and requirements for ridesharing services

Sounds like what the city is trying to do. And I don't see the "cash grab" from the city when their criticisms are not about taxation but fair use for the public.
Hyperbole. It depends on what law they're breaking. You're proposing the equivalent of life imprisonment for unpaid parking tickets.
I wouldnt be surprised if a president had written VBA before. Excel is everywhere.
Uber can honor city rate caps, require the appropriate insurance for their drivers and take financial responsibility for drivers that fail to maintain that insurance. Uber can also comply with the same rules about coverage areas that cabs are required to comply with. They can do all these things but choose not to. What's to "work around"?

One of the blinders people wear when talking about Uber is the "it's just Uber" blinders. No: if Uber's regulatory arbitrage strategy succeeds, they'll be followed by even less scrupulous companies looking to exploit the same loophole.
They ended up raising a very large seed round (1MM+) from a VC and pre-negotiating a follow-on of equal size, should they need it.

So my guess is that these founders were either already successful previously, were well connected or had already bootstrapped quite a bit of the technology that would underlie the product (ie patents, team, etc...). Any or all of that the case?
The use cases are more about being able to repeat a run on a given system - a particular simulation or a unit test that triggered an error (e.g. a sequence of values in a hash table). I could probably come up with a story where I'd want rand to be portable across systems, but it wouldn't be plausible.
Not really. If you're ramen-profitable and looking to raise money, that means you want to spend money to get on a path to greater profitability. On the path to greater profitability, depending on your burn rate and profit growth rate, you may still experience the "fatal pinch" even if you were previously ramen profitable.

You may be able to revert to ramen profitability again, but it will be painful (cut your burn rate).
I'm not against a three-button mouse, I'm against its overuse. Example: in plan9, you can't hit "up" to re-use the last command you typed into a terminal. You have to copy+paste it with your mouse.
>Investors are looking for a particular curve. The slow burn, 7-figure exit that founders want is almost useless to VCs. The model requires that the winners pay for the losers. The VC has a finite number of at-bats every year, and each one needs to potentially be an out-of-the-park home run. A company that deliberately bunts is costing the VC an opportunity to recoup their losses on failures, which is the majority of their portfolio.

This is the problem isn't it. Investors are basically saying unless you can hit 30% month on month growth then we aren't interested in you, but if you do what is required to hit this target then we won't give you the funding to do this with a reasonable runway.

>Safe, conservative plans are awesome. That's why companies should bootstrap.

I agree 100%. Almost all founders should avoid taking VC money and just bootstrap. This of course is not the sort of meme that is popular with VCs.
> The MAS is relatively new and is not replacing any existing software delivery mechanism

Really now? I feel like I need to preface this by saying I love all my Macs, my iPhones (all 5 that I've owned), iPads, etc. I also love the convenience and simplicity of using the MAS compared to any other way of getting free and paid software.

But even I think there is a nearly 100% chance that by, say, 3-5 years from now, Apple will prevent installing software from sources other than MAS. You can tell by the trajectory of MAS. It started out as just an equally-supported option. Now installing software not from the MAS is a warning, and installing software from a developer entirely unblessed by Apple entirely is disabled without already knowing the "right click workaround" (try successfully explaining to a casual user how to install that kind of app). It's only logical to extrapolate that to the next steps. maybe in 2015 all non-MAS will require the right-click open. In 2016 or 2017 non-MAS will probably mean not runnable without obtaining a limited-use developer or enterprise certificate from Apple for a fee. Given that iOS doesn't have any supported way to sideload arbitrary third-party apps the way, we should expect this to be the case for the Mac as well. You will be able to run apps you've signed with your own developer or enterprise distribution certificate, but I doubt you'll be able to download & just run an app from Panic or anyone else without jumping through hoops or "jailbreaking."
Holy shit. There's only like 700,000 of us. We're probably related.

Also, my point had nothing to do with optimization and everything to do with segregation. I would continue to argue that rural Maine struggles with age, education and wealth segregation even though we're racially not very diverse.
This is a cool weekend project! Do you have the source available?
This is because everyone at the border moves away - both the majority and the minority. When the majority at the border moves away, that exposes more border to move into.

Bias near 2/3rds segregates hard, since even in the presence of interlopers, the border gets defended.