skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Working under pressure to build a prototype for a device, I ran into the BeagleBone around Dec. 2012. I was really impressed with the fact that they open sourced all details related to the board. TI has provided extensive documentation for the AM335x processors.

Sweet spot - I think TI hit the tinkerer sweet spot with the BeagleBone, which was smaller and less powerful than its predecessor, the Beagle Board. The open nature of the board itself adds considerable value as it can be used as a reference design.

Ease of modification - For my project, we just replaced the HDMI and audio connectors with an extra Ethernet and a few micro-USB connectors and rolled out our own custom board... all in the span of a few months.

Ease of use - They need some work here for the average tinkerer who might not be familiar with the Armstrong Linux distribution. However, that just worked perfectly for me. For anyone interested, the Open Embedded Core or the Yocto project would be better resources to look at. Debian and Arch have Beaglebone focused distributions too. I would recommend against developing code on the Beaglebone itself.

So for someone looking to create a customized "device" of any kind, this would be a great choice. Also, I sell myself out by the hour doing this kind of stuff :). I would be happy to help/consult with anyone if interested.
why couldn't the guy just mention Raspberry Pi in the article? Why did he have to refer to it as "that other board". Comments like this disturb me when I hear them coming from the hacker community, which is supposed to have a foundation of openness and selfless sacrifice. If something is considered a valuable asset to the community, give props where props are due. Don't say "that other board" just because you don't want to give Raspberry Pi any more market share. Market share and competition should have no place for discussion in the open source community.
I totally agree. What I think Test should mean includes testing the spec and acting as a user advocate; testing the design spec to ensure the dev is considering all relevant scenarios and cases; manual UI testing (and scenario-based API testing) to find the corner cases; writing test automation and scaffolding to catch regressions; and writing test automation using combinatorial techniques to cover as much of the input space with a minimal number of test cases.

Now that I'm a dev I really wish I had some competent testers to work with. It's really impossible to test your own work, because you're inherently optimistic about your code. Testers need to have the mindset of "there's a bug in here somewhere, and I'm going to find it."
UN commission to discuss restrictions on real-world Terminator weapons
In my opinion, current process handling is braindead, both in POSIX and Windows. That could be "fixed" with an additional unique identifier during the OS uptime, in order to allow other processes track instances, and not just the ones doing the fork.
I disagree with your conclusion. I am familiar with several sites who have no problem taking in significant ad revenue on content websites. The problem is that you can't just dump random ads on a site and expect that to work, it takes a lot of effort. The best ads tends to be curated to the point of being recommendations basically, but that may or may not work for every site.
$1200 to $350 and almost certainly back to $1200 at some point

I lost a significant amount of money thinking that way during the .com bubble collapse.
> If you think of it from a developer's view, you'll come to conclusion that you can't create a program that doesn't need to cleanup things before termination.

Nope. I did create a lot of complicated programs that work that way. Tested, shiped and got paid for them nicely.
It's really expensive though :(
If they offered a slower version at a price comparable to "that other board from the UK" (starting to sound like Voldemort) then the community base might grow similarly
Very rare?

If they want your technology, it's probably cutting edge and sophisticated. Which means they need someone to help bring it on board, and support it for awhile. If they didn't want you along, that'd be very very dumb.
> Web advertising on content is no more, nor any less, effective than web advertising in a printed magazine.

1) Things like AdSense? You're right. The real money is in sponsored content. Just ask BuzzFeed, Forbes, Huff, etc. There's a saying from advertisers when you confront them about traditional print/broadcast advertising success "when sales go up, it just works, you don't question it".

> That is why advertising on content needs to shift to a performance based model

2) Not all advertising is about direct click through to purchasing. Coca-cola, Pepsi and every car manufacturer in the world spend billions a year on advertising simply for brand recognition alone. No one is buying a coke because they saw an ad on Facebook, but they sure as hell associate drinking a coke with happiness because that brand association is pretty ubiquitous nowadays.

I think the OP is insuitating that they should have never been a $3mil business in the first place, which is consistent with your story about your purchase behavior. How many ChuckMcM's are there gonna be have to be that purchase products on Digikey in order to provide $3mil worth of business?
That wouldn't help either: In this article, the Facebook is uninstalled prior to authorization to ensure the Facebook request is forced to go through the browser. So you might be able to get away with HSTS certificate pinning, but that could likely easily be cleared out (unless it's preloaded... i dunno if you can clear HSTS preloads in Safari, or if they even have such a thing). Even then I suspect the authorization could be spoofed somehow, as all of these measures only matter on the attacker's machine
>During the last 18 months, vendors have come to realize that advertising on Websites doesn't work at all.

Adsense seems to do pretty well (~$12 billion/year). It's been dropping a bit, and many individual sites don't do well with it, but some do quite well. Did you guys ever experiment with it and test the earnings? Adsense and networks like it have the benefit of showing retargeted ads, so you can get considerably better CTR's and ad inventory relevant to each individual user than you would get from just showing static IDE maker ads.

Closing down an institution like Dr. Dobb's can't be something you're doing lightly, but I cannot believe that there isn't some way to generate revenue from millions of engineers visiting your site every month. There are other tech publications that seem to do quite well.
Then where is my time machine? I will pay 1 trillion dollars for it! (payment after a few successful trials)
Gibber: an audiovisual live coding environment for the browser
The great filter theory is subject to our own filter bubble. As I see it, there are other possibilities -

Intelligent life doesn't want to be found - at least by us.

Intelligent life tends towards simulation, rather than expansion.

Further to the above, we are the only intelligent life in the simulation in which we reside.

Intelligent life is far more of an aberration than we realise.

Intelligent life is actually very dumb on a macro scale, and falls prey to Malthusian collapse, either by falling into a significant energy gap or by destroying their biosphere.

Intelligent life tends to succumb to dysgenic fertility, and ceases to be intelligent.

Therefore the discovery of life on other worlds means little for the Fermi paradox, as our model may grossly oversimplify or overlook one or more variables which lead to us, now.

Personally I think we're in a sim and we're about to lose the game, as we're staring down an energy deficit Malthusian collapse, uh, right now.
As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, you're quite correct. However, that kind of advertising works primarily in the consumer market, where repeated exposure via many different channels ultimately leads to a purchase. In software development, which is dominated by small vendors, that approach is not as workable.
> you most likely have 2 minutes alone with his computer

Install a RAT and do whatever you want later. You have have a lot more fun with a RAT than just grabbing FB cookies.
Ask HN: Where were popular sites like Tinder first announced?
Using Tinder as an example. Given a hugely popular site like Tinder there had to be a point at which it was first announced to the public in a forum similar to this (except maybe not this tech crowd). How did the public first hear about it? What was the point at which it went hugely popular? Was that day 1? I am not so much interested in Tinder, but more any popular site?
How many shares are authorized?

How many shares have actually been issued?

Is this founder's stock, or from a subsequent series? (I don't fully understand how this works, but there are ways that one can have fewer benefits from different series of stock - Common Stock, Series A, Series B and so on.)
a bit offtopic but why is you username highlighted in green?
Are you management, engineer, software dev? Who is telling you the person's work needs checked?
> I do agree that "power failure safety" is a good way to go,

So you have write code to handle abrupt power shutoff? And test it, and make sure it doesn't break your data at rest or your overwall service. And you have to write to handle a paralle set of code to also handle SIGTERM.

> , but ignoring to handle SIGTERM if there is a use for it is just ignorant.

It seems having 2 sets of shutdown/failure code (one abrupt power failure, "one gentle" is the more ignorant path.
Yes I am they....re CEO =)
As you point out, using the pid alone is not reliable. FWIW, Solaris and illumos systems have process contracts that allow you to reliably track processes[0]. If the child forks, it's the new child is still in the same contract (unless configured otherwise). And both the child or parent (the watcher) can restart and then return to the normal state (parent watching child processes).

Solving this problem requires kernel support because the kernel is generally the only fault domain in the system that cannot crash while the system is still running.

Edit: forgot the link the first time.
[0] http://illumos.org/man/4/process
That's an implementation detail: the manufacturer supplies the system software, and by this argument you're not supposed to care where it runs.
Carl Sagans Cookbook series: How to bake an apple pie from scratch -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s664NsLeFM
If I understand you correctly, are you really saying that getting a prosecutors case not thrown out of court a few years later is "a direct incentive" to a police officer, but personal liability for the same officer would not be a direct incentive ?

Note that in the parent post I'm explicitly mentioning direct criminal action against the officer personally, not compensation claims against the police district; as far as I understand, fines are not an option for felonies in USA, and even the lightest possible 'guilty' sentence would automatically get such policemen out of their jobs after the first such act.
Mike's great 2012 talk [1].

Unfortunately 2 years later, we're not much further in those developments. Bitcoin has severe limitations, also because it has now a legacy to support. New projects can start with a fresh design. So far we've only seen very few new approaches. While many Bitcoiners realize the imperfections of the system, very few actually think there could be something better.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD4L7xDNCmA
In the parts of the Mongoliad I managed to make it through, there were characters and plots and swordfights the way you find characters and plots and sex in a porn flick. If that's your thing, you'll really like the book, but I'm just not that into swordfights.
> That said, it's good practice to use things (write-ahead logging, idempotent operations, etc.) that at least try to mitigate the amount of debris.

Yap that are some of the things I used. Append only mode for files. Code that handle roll-back to last consistent state that runs on every startup. External monitors and watchdog that know how to monitor and to extra cleanup is necessary.
> Most of the people that dismiss the security advantages of open source either don't understand them or are trying to sell you some closed source code.

If you wish to imply the issue is due to my lack of understanding then go right ahead, but at least first explain why what I said is wrong.

A lot of people get their apps from the app stores on Android/iOS/etc. App stores do not provide the raw source and let you compile it last time I checked. So in order for OSS to provide a security advantage over closed source you'd have to sideload your apps after doing the inspection and compilation stages yourself (or having a trusted third party do it).

People throw the "open source so secure" justification around all the time, it is rarely justified. Really you aren't trusting OSS, you're trusting third parties who inspect the code on your behalf (e.g. distro' vendors in the Linux world). In the app world there are no third parties doing the verification step for you, unless you count Apple.
That's true. But if you leave automatic updates enabled then the whole exercise is nearly pointless.
I've had good and bad experiences:

Good example: Domain is already owned, but the owner is in the business of buying and selling domains (you can usually tell these domains because when you visit them, they redirect to sales/contact-us page). I make an offer, he counter-offers, we're good.

Another good example: Domain is already owned and listed on a marketplace like Sedo.com. I purchase for the buy-it-now price, sedo takes care of the escrow and name-transfer, we're good.

Bad example: Domain is owned by some random person who bought it years ago and isn't really sure what it's worth. I check the Whois listing and email the contact address there. I might hear nothing back at all. If I do, I make an offer, their counter-offer might be an order-of-magnitude higher, or they're not interested in selling at all. Nothing you can really do in that situation.

Another bad example: The domain has not been renewed by its original owner, several folks have tried to backorder it, so the registrar puts it up for auction. This is worst case scenario. There is no option for tactful negotiation, just unbridled bidding against everyone else who wants the domain. I've never come close to winning such an auction, and I've tried several times.
> whitespace wastage

there is no such thing. Think more whitespace equals more focus around the content and less clutter.
The main point of blocks is not to release bitcoins -- it's to timestamp and "lock in" blocks of transactions. You want to vary the reward or fees of you do anything here :)
Inventing to Nowhere
Nmap in a nutshell
I dunno, I find Snow Crash dates much better than most cyberpunk - William Gibson included - precisely because the ridiculousness was intentional. Neal no more believed we'd actually be living in an anarcho-capitalist dystopia with samurai-wielding hipster-heros delivering pizzas for the Mafia than Aldous Huxley believed we'd actually be letter-graded and programmed into praising his Fordship from birth.

Some of the space opera, on the other hand, was so earnest and certain that we'd be flying around at light-speed by now you feel almost disappointed for the authors.
Medvedev. Just admitted very recently that a country occupying half the globe with 130m population can't even grow enough apples. They need to be imported from Poland. The same is true with everything else. Are you kidding me? And then Over 50% of the Russian budget comes from gas and oil exports. The country gdp size is the same as Spain's... So all it really took was to drive oil prices below 60usd a barrel. And the Russian economy is ruined. Wow...
If we will find them then this is an intersection on our technology advancements and proximity of such lifeforms, considering how little effort is currently put on space exploration it will take extremely long, things will probably accelerate when we find alternatives to the primitive combustion engine that makes fuel tanks bigger than rockets and makes the process very expensive.

If they will find us and this only means more advanced intelligent life then this obviously can happen any time or might already happened and can be delayed by us not being considered ready/worthy for contact or according to many conspiracy theories our governments considers we are not ready.
Ask HN: Help me help my cousin learn to program
This is an unusual thing to do, but I'm stumped, and I'd love help from folks who've had experience helping to mentor new developers.

My 18 year old cousin has just immigrated from Iran to Canada. He's quite smart: in Iran he was one of the finalists for the country's Physics Olympiad team, and was academically very strong. However he's unable to start college in Canada until next year, and wants to spend the time between now and then learning how to program.

Ideally I think he'd do that in a social setting so that he can also practice his English and make friends. I've already recommended things like Codecademy, Treehouse, and Udacity, but I think he really wants a more structured and social learning experience than those services can offer.

Unfortunately he needs to stay near his mother in Oakville, ON, and can't make it into Toronto on a daily basis. There really aren't any decent programming classes near Oakville or Mississauga. I've spent lots of time thinking about it, but I'm really not sure how to best help or mentor him.

So I'm reaching out to HN: does anyone have much experience with anything similar? If so, what have you learnt and what would you recommend?
That's not really going to take off. You need to be THE math/machine-learning job board. You need to be top-of-mind with job boards.
I hear what you're saying, but the flip side is that all that software also won't work when you lose power or the system panics. I've found it much easier to just always use SIGKILL. That way, you're testing the recovery code all the time, especially during development when you restart, upgrade, or after a crash. You fix the bugs, and you have high confidence because you're exercising this path all the time.
Weird that they don't lump together IAC/InterActiveCorp's properties (inc. Ask, Answers & About)
I dislike the fact that they conflate being a hipster and being a maker. In my experience, the segment of makers that are also hipsters isn't really all that different from the general population. Hipster is a pejorative. Connotating it with maker puts makers in a negative light.
Show HN: Random Airports
I really don't understand why Oracle, a company that rakes in almost $40 billion a year, is begging for pocket change from Ask Jeeves. Someone please explain this to me.
No I'm not, but I guess there was a possibility of you thinking that. Let's erase all ambiguity.

> TLDR; Optional type systems are the future

Optional type systems have their place, but I think you are ignoring applications that types can have besides type assertion and documentation.

> I hear a lot about Haskell but I don't see a lot about Haskell...

It's a shame you haven't "seen" Haskell and have only heard about it, I know how that can make the entire language seem like vaporware. I personally have seen at least one big thing from a large company that used Haskell. I'm guessing you didn't see Facebook's semi-recent release of Haxl[0].

> Clojure has two optional type systems known as the core.typed library, and Prismatic's schema library. I don't think it's an all or nothing situation. Use types when you need them and don't when you don't.

Optional typing is cool, but it's not useful for type based programming since it makes types optional. You can do some cool stuff by programming types. Haskell does some of this, but Idris[1] does much more by taking advantage of dependent typing[2].
Can you show me where I'll be sitting? (I once thought I'd get a private office, but was made to sit in - I swear I'm not making this up! - "The Boiler Room".)

A company of just 10 people wouldn't have a lunchroom. Before you accept an offer - preferably before you interview - explore the neighborhood around the office, to determine whether there are good places for lunch, or for coffee or beer, if that is to your taste.

I would not consider working for a big company unless they had a good lunchroom. It's not that I can't go out to eat, or bring my own lunch, but there's something about a lousy lunchroom in my workplace that I find quite depressing.

If I drive, can you cover my parking, or alternatively will you cover public transit?

Do you have an employee library? (Most companies don't. That is the essence of stupidity. There should be at least a few technical books, for the languages, tools, platforms and APIs you use.)

Have any of your products been reviewed in the trade press? (Better if you find this out on your own, but you might not be able to find the reviews. The products might have online reviews though.)

Don't ask in the interview, but search around for dirt on the company principles. Like maybe they robbed a previous company blind, then invested their ill-gotten gains in the firm you are interviewing with. I actually worked for one such company.

Do you provide on-the-job training? (Even if you have the chops to fulfill your job description, work will get uninteresting if you don't get to learn anything new on the job.)

Do you pay for conference tickets or travel?
Russia doesnt want cooperation. They wanted war, they got it. Crying for mama, now? Sorry, a bit too late
Peerflix: A torrent client for streaming video
The current situation can also incentivize organized crime to hire law enforcement officials - "Listen, officer Mike, we can't figure out how to safely distance ourselves from this stash of bodies/drugs/guns/whatever. Break into this house without a warrant based on an anonymous tip. Penalty for this is, what, a written reprimand? We're just certain we can give you better bonuses than the county district can afford.

(Assuming that the doctrine works in the way I understand and there aren't nifty extra failsafes built in)
Guaranteed stable, well known, monolithic blob or write something yourself that fits your needs perfectly.

Fear or Love on the web developer scale of needs.
I think the idea is not that they wouldn't have goggles—these lab prototypes have goggles—but that they might be much more constrained than a free, walk-around head mount. Think: Imagineering-like controlled experiences down to arcades rather than a personal walk-around device like Glass^n or Rift AR. Controlling both the environment and background they augment and the head movement (and not worrying as much about miniaturization) could make the problem easier enough to be manageable.

Still unclear. They do seem to imply they want it to be an unconstrained mobile AR device, but that is indeed ambitious enough to warrant skepticism. Walk-around tracking for home/anywhere is still an unsolved problem for Oculus, and overlay AR is at least several times more demanding.
Clearly we should replace it with a more pornographic test image, since that's the most common use case.
Slackroulette – Chatroulette for Slack
Probably.

They make most of their money on Google search anyway - and with just the queries, no personal context as far as I know. No privacy issues arise here, in fact, it would probably work in incognito mode just as well.

Are there any numbers on how much profit they actually make on Google Mail?
If your board authorizes more shares, will my options - or my stock, if I have exercised my options - be diluted?

It might not be such a bad thing if your stock gets diluted, if by doing so you attract the RIGHT KIND of investment. Unfortunately, VCs aren't always clueful.