skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This story really highlights just how far the media witch hunt against Uber has gone. The story basically calls out Uber for its surge pricing strategy which kicked in during a siege in a Sydney, Australia cafe. People in the area were clearing out and catching Uber's. Because of the increased demand, Uber's automatic surge pricing kicked in.

This story makes it sound like Uber deliberately turned on surge pricing to capitalise on what was going on, which is not the case. Those who have used Uber before know this is an automatic mechanism, simple supply and demand, which in most cases makes sense. It is just unfortunate that this happened when this hostage crisis was taking place.

Surge pricing is and always has been an automatic thing. It isn't something that someone in an Uber office switches on when they notice an increase in demand or a crisis going on they can take advantage of. Uber are a pretty questionable company who have done some rather questionable things, in this situation, Uber did everything right (for the most part).

While I understand the fear is real from some of the people fleeing, the people actually being held captive in cafe were the ones we should be focusing on, not the people fleeing who were safe surrounded by. Calling an Uber in a crisis is the last thing I would honestly be doing, I would be calling an actual taxi because I know there are more taxis than Uber's in Sydney.

As unfortunate as it might be, the system works for the most part. Obviously there were a lack of vehicles in the vicinity of the siege, the system realised this and compensated by increasing the cost. The alternative in this situation if there was no surge pricing, there would be no additional vehicles to meet the demand which means people have no transport. It is also worth noting the drivers get paid more when surge pricing is in effect, the incentive of more money brings drivers from further away into the area.

And you know what, once Uber found out what was happening, they made all rides in the Sydney area free which they didn't have to do. Does this sound the like an action of a company trying to capitalise on a crisis? I don't think so. If Uber didn't reverse surge pricing in the area, then yes, I would be calling them out like everyone else, but as soon as they noticed, they made all rides free and offered refunds to anyone charged surge prices. Anything for a story, right?

I think Uber could have handled the PR around this so much better, especially keeping the public in the loop around complexities (if any) of turning off surge pricing or making rides free. I think this also highlights Uber need to consider pricing caps on surge pricing, a 4x increase is just ridiculous crisis or no crisis. I have heard of some parts of the US which have hit a 6x increase before and then Uber intervenes and caps it.

A fine piece of shoddy journalism. Shame on you Washington Post and every other media outlet making this into a far bigger issue than it actually is.
> What the author was writing was very standard introductory C++ taught in pretty much every C++ intro book I read in the early 2000s. That doesn't make it invalid C++, it makes it, "an older idiom".

True. But that would suggest that we also consider Rust as it was taught in the early 2000s. I don’t think this would get us very far.

> The bigger question is, "Can C++ in the hands of a novice be as buggy as Rust in the hands of a novice".

Then it would be useful to firstly point out in the article that the matter of comparison is not the whole language but merely its usefulness to novices and to secondly consider the validity of such a comparison when deciding which language to use in a new project – if most people are novices for most of the time they use the language (e.g. in introductory numerical computing course), then clearly “novice friendliness” is a sensible measure, but otherwise it’s mostly a moot issue how hard the first two months are if you end up using it for the next ten years.
Well, they don't own x86-64, either - and that worked out incredibly well for them :-)
The same thing happens to me with video games on a regular basis. Younger me simply had much lower expectations and poorer taste, back when a NES controller (with all of four buttons and a D-Pad) sufficed.
If you haven't seen it, S01E03 of Black Mirror, The Entire History of You, deals exactly with what PG describes at the end of this post: technology that lets you review and relive your past. It's very much worth watching, and was recently added to Netflix's library:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089050/

http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70264856&trkid=33258...
I remember reading something very similar to this (but can't remember where, ha), where it said the important thing about reading is how if affects your general thinking rather than the individual pieces of information that you're likely to remember (or not).

I spent several years reading a ton of different books on economics and I can recall very few facts from those books, but it did and has completely altered my world view of many things.

pg's analogy of a program where you've lost the source code doesn't feel quite right, because you can't make modifications to the program without the code. Some sort of machine learning model seems more appropriate, where you've lost the original training data but can still update the model later with fresh data (a new book), and end up with a better/different model, but then lose that training data again.
What is the root of human behavior? What are all people striving for? And how does the ensemble of individuals striving for the same thing(s) produce the systems we live in today? These questions are some of the most fundamental questions you can ask, and answering them is tantamount to solving one of the deeper meta-puzzles that life presents to you. You are your biology, psychology, and environment, and understanding how these all influence each other is incredibly useful.
It's cock. Took a course with Andrew Appel; the heroic man did not flinch once when he said it over and over again during the semester. My favorite line of the course: "You're going to do your homework in COCK."
This is an issue I've been having with the dataisbeautiful subreddit on Reddit. I submit a lot of original charts and data analyses there (http://www.reddit.com/user/minimaxir/submitted/), but the submissions that trend on the subreddit are usually either political or reminiscent of the TIL subreddit but with pretty pictures." Which is annoying, but eh.
Show HN: Facebook data visualizer
very.
The old html version is still pretty quick

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/
> Your mind is like a compiled program you've lost the source of.

Hence the important art of keeping a journal. You can keep a transaction log of changes. The act of replaying the journal allows you to identify patterns in your thought processes and identify cognitive dissonances. The very act of reading should induce a reactive compulsion to write.

As Burroughs taught in his later creative writing courses -- in order to become a better writer one must first learn to read (I'm paraphrasing here).

Part of becoming a better thinker is learning how to think. In order to do that one must catch one's self in the act.
What Uber’s Sydney Surge Pricing Debacle Says About Its Public Image
There's also a danger associated to this phenomenon. If the source of your mental model is later debunked, you may not realize that you need to revise your model precisely because you don't remember what your source was. You may even read about the debunking of the source but fail to draw the connection and realize the implications that it has for your own view of the world.

I think that perhaps very squishy subjects like politics are particularly vulnerable to this sort of disconnect, where a complex viewpoint is formed based on the hot topic of the day, and this viewpoint persists for years or decades even if the basis for its formation is completely forgotten.
"What use is it to read all these books if I remember so little from them?"

Well for one things it gives you pleasure. You could also say "what's the point of listening to music" or "what's the point of watching comedy". Other than pleasure, as a generality, you might read because it makes you feel good to do so.

I find that a key to good mental health (that works for me) is not to question what harmless things make you feel good and why. If I did that it would make me unhappy. Just go with the good feeling.

One thing that I'm sad about is that I don't get the same pleasure that I used to from browsing books at Barnes and Noble. With the internet there is to much to read already. I don't find the same utility that I used to from books that are essentially a single perspective (at least the ones that I used to buy, non-fiction).
The nice thing about Heinlein is he has a book for all stages. As I've gotten older I really prefer his "Time Enough for Love" novel, which is about looking back on a long life.
"I'd go with your gut on this one"
- That's what I've been telling myself for a couple of months now, but I haven't been able to convince myself of it yet! So thank you!

And as for the management part... it's a lost hope to be honest. I think one of the reasons they switched from Rails to Spring was finding the right Rails developers was difficult. The company doesn't pay competitively, so that was a big hit on offers to Rails devs. Additionally, it was harder to find Rails devs.

The funny part is... we got this offshore vendor for Java Spring and none of them knew Spring. So we would've been better sticking to Rails and had them learn Ruby from the get-go.
This wasn't an "automatic price increase" unless software got really good at explaining why they were increasing prices.

http://cl.ly/image/2U3l242l350p/Image%202014-12-15%20at%2012...

"We are all concerned with events in CBD. Fares have increased to encourage more drivers to come online & pick up passengers in the area."

Somebody wrote that sentence, and it's a gross one. The same doesn't belong on the Post, it belongs on the person who wrote that and upon the culture that allows for sentences like that to be written.
Yeah http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/understanding-the-econom...

There's no economy of scale that's typical of technology companies here - Uber drivers are not able to buy cars cheaper in bulk, get a better deal on gas, or buy commercial insurance at much cheaper rates. Hertz or Avis have a better cost structure than Uber.

The price advantage comes from skirting the regulation on taxi medallions (only relevant for a few large markets like NYC) and skirting commercial insurance requirements.
PipIndex Is Looking for a Lead Front End Developer (£55k+ OTE, Central London)
Or, instead of writing temperature control logic yourself, you can buy a really cheap PID. There are nuances to good temperature control that warrant using chips that optimize for the environment they are heating.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Sous-vide-cooker-for-less-th...

Also, a PID is not a thermostat - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller

I'm sure that in water, a simple thermostat can be good enough, but its probably still best to have a controller that optimizes for its environment. A major point of sous vide is that the cooking temperature is very close to the minimum pasteurization temperatures. Cooking steak at 137 degrees requires that you are SURE it actually cooked at 137 for the amount of time you specified. Also, 90 minutes for a steak is insufficient at 56°c

http://www.polyscienceculinary.com/blog/food-safety-with-sou...
I experienced this phenomenon starkly when I started a book, and felt it was filled with obvious remarks and little novelty. It took me 50 pages to realize I had already read it.
The knapsack Problem (the classic 0-1 version) is solvable through Dynamic Programming in O(n^2) time

The problem you described is the Multiple Knapsack Problem, which is indeed NP-complete.
IBM Design Language, Netflix’s Atlas, and the Codealike Extension
Or possibly a result of the number of people using the language. Including those with only limited experience.
I find it extremely hard to believe that an artificial shortage reduces externalities.
Appears to show for me.
Why not take notes? Whenever I read a book I want to remember, I just pencil a dash in the margin next to any key fact, insight, or quote. Then after I'm done with a few chapters I retype these sections into a mindmap. It probably only adds 10 - 20% extra time, but you're getting 1000% more value.

In general what matters isn't how much you read, but how much you retain and what sorts of connections with past and future insight and information. It's important to have the full experience of having realizations and making connections while you're reading, which is why I just make a dash in the margins as opposed to taking actual notes in real time, but I feel like by not circling back later you're cheating yourself out of the true value of learning.

Especially since you have no idea if the books you're reading are even true or not until you vet the facts with primary sources.
Great project, and great write-up. But most people don't have access to a 3D printer... which significantly changes the effective "cost" for such folks. Still, thanks for sharing! Hope you enjoy all of that perfectly-cooked food :)
The problems is figuring out which books provide those useful mental models. I found that fiction usually doesn't but a list with recommendations in the comments would be great.
It's deeply heartwarming to see another “OG” PG essay enter the canon. (Obscure reference to historical French prose in the introductory sentence? Check!)
Herb Sutter's Guru of the week is a nice collection of gotchas/best practices: http://herbsutter.com/gotw/

And of course, his books (More) Exceptional C++ (http://www.gotw.ca/publications/xc++.htm, http://www.gotw.ca/publications/mxc++.htm) also contain nice examples.
Which makes me think of a saying. One that I remember. "Sophia Loren without a nose is not Sophia Loren". Here's another one "if my grandmother had balls she'd be my grandfather".

The point is PG wrote it so just like if anyone of note wrote it it would be more of interest than the same thought from anyone else.

After all these are analog thoughts and subjective this isn't science.
What colour is it? Screensaver for OS X
Emacs Major Mode for Sequence Diagrams
> The truth is if the problem is management then it's very unlikely any meaningful changes will ever be made.

I agree that it's unlikely. But if nobody says anything, then it's even less likely.

One truism of business is "The higher the management level, the less truth you hear." If you're on your way out (having another offer in hand that you're taking), your downside for telling them the truth is very small. Management might listen. It's unlikely, and even if they do it still won't help you any, but it's still worth the attempt.
Moonjs: Apollo Guidance Computer Simulator
Internally it is using an iframe.

So that should continue to work decently. It's the building and packaging of the thing that will break.
I think the art described in this piece is quite interesting, and the Hal Foster essay was a good read, but "x is like y ON ACID" is like a huge flashing neon sign stating 'this is a lazy piece of writing'
That doesn't discount the fact that the surge pricing algorithm is still automatic. They don't have people sitting at their evil corporate HQ clicking buttons trying to maximize screwing people over.
Business, Media and Civil Society Speak Up in Key Privacy Case
It's exactly the reverse. So far experience has shown that the scientific method has been able to come up with answers for most things that at some previous time seemed mysterious. Thus, your claim that it cannot for "mysterious thing X" is a positive claim, putting the onus on you.
Specialized pattern recognition in extremely constrained environments is only a hair's width away from higher order intelligence, self-awareness, and a desire for independence.
Yeah, the only thing I'm afraid about is leaving this job for another job of the same quality.

I did an interview at a company where my old mentor works and they've been looking to expand and hire new engineers, but it's been 2 months. I just sent his boss an email to see if anything's changed, because that'd be my #1 choice -- work with a mentor I know is good and if he says the place is good, I trust his judgement.

Now to wait and see if luck is on my side -- but I've started applying elsewhere, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

It's just scary leaving a job when I don't have another lined up.
Great point - a possible explanation for a wide range of phenomenologically bizarre viewpoints (e.g.: anti-vaccers, birthers, chem-trails, creationists, etc.)
This is an important corollary of Paul's essay that I wish he mentioned. Sometimes when you update your model of the world significantly, you still have a cache of previously computed facts that were computed using the old model. You have to clear out that cache and recompute with the new model, and that takes a significant amount of time. Often, rereading is a core part of that, since it forces you to revisit a lot of source material and recompute.
A "correctly layered" app with UI view separate from UI logic separate from server-side logic etc. will show up as coupling, if commits are feature oriented.

There's certainly a hint as to where to look for bad coupling, but expected "coupling", like tests, need to be discounted.
> Wrong.....

I don't touch Perl since 2004. Back then it used reference counting, not a GC.

Second, the post reads like a problem in the C code.

> ParaSail and Rust don't have a GC, period, AFAIK. ATS is too strict for my liking.

I was replying about GC alternatives for automatic memory management.
I was talking about native British and American speakers. Not to mention that most of the people I've been in contact with were (highly) educated.
Now you're just insulting artists, of which I am one.

We create for many different reasons. Don't reduce us to just wage-slaves.
Open sourcing the way we centralize logs for our web/rails applications
I think this is the phenomenon that forms the basis for Gladwell's BLINK.

It took me a while to learn that almost everything I have heard or seen has already been stored. The problem of memory is in retrieval.

This also applies to creative work. When you have seen quite a lot of things, it ends up influencing stuff you could swear was original.
Just train it to predict the actions of people with self-awareness and a desire for independence, and presto!
Just to be clear, you do realize that any pw manager that runs as a browser plugin has the same issue, right? If you want the convenience of being able to auto-fill your passwords into the browser, that kind of limits your options.
No offence, but you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Surge pricing is indeed an automatic thing. It triangulates demand in a particular area and if there are not enough Uber drivers to meet the demand, the price increases based on the demand and supply, thus bringing more drivers into the city and then eventually bringing the price down. There isn't someone in an office somewhere going, "Ooh, a hostage crisis, lets bump surge pricing by a factor of 4 for some sweet profits"

The person who wrote that sentence explained what happened, of course a real person wrote it, it's a blog post. Automatic surge pricing kicked in, like it does anywhere in the world because there was high demand and not enough Uber drivers. While the app is smart, it can't automatically detect when there is a hostage crisis happening in the area and turn off surge pricing...

Such an uninformed response from the likes of a Hacker News user is actually worrying. I thought everyone here mostly understood how Uber works, obviously not.
Related: proquints (PRO-nouncable QUIN-tuplets)
http://arxiv.org/html/0901.4016

127.0.0.1 lusab-babad
63.84.220.193 gutih-tugad
63.118.7.35 gutuk-bisog
140.98.193.141 mudof-sakat
64.255.6.200 haguz-biram
Biology is hard and confusing. If it's just one experiment, I would hold off before drawing conclusions. There's a long history of studies and experiments that appear to show something which is then later discredited.
When a renowned writer writes something weak, it doesn't give credence to the piece, it takes credence from the writer.
Node.js Best Practices Reloaded
Looks neat, but really wish there were examples of the output (screenshots).
What are you deliberate about not doing?
HN Users have a constructor similar to this one.

class HNUser
{
public:
HNUser() {
if (commentPraisesCorCPP()) Downvote();
}
};
GMail always had a memory leak problem. Back in the early days of GMail (2004-2005), Internet Explorer 6 "trident" JS engine leaked memory like crazy. Manual garbage collection was always needed.
Aside from what others have said about Quanta being a layman's website, I would also like to point out that the special thing about science is everything is subject to debate and discussion, no matter however established it might be. We often bring relativity into discussion, why should Darwin's theory of evolution be kept out of it?

It seems like lately science is getting more and more defensive to protect itself against religious forces. While understandable, such a change is not good for the progress of science. Science is a free-thinker's religion. Let's keep it that way. Nothing at all is above getting challenged or questioned. Neither god, nor evolution.
What is meant by "OG" in this context?
I think it is a mistake to think of coupling caused by TDD to be a false positive. What this outlines really is that TDD will force you to edit two files instead of one for many changes. This is a clear indication of how TDD will slow you down.
Seriously, I read this elsewhere and it's a lot more believable that people in other corners of the Internet actually think there's a guy with a knob at Uber HQ setting the surge price (I'm being only slightly hypberbolic).

It's a damn sight more disappointing to see this on HN.
I'm definitely a fan of taking notes on things you've read (among other things, the effort to write notes makes you choose what you read more carefully). And I agree that it will help you remember the sources for various ideas.

But I think a journal is the wrong model (i.e. time ordered entries, either electronic or paper). I have used a paper notebook in the past, but I would rarely go back and look at things, and it's not searchable, and paper is not editable.

For the last 10+ years, I've used a Wiki. Hyperlinks are huge. They really do model the associations your brain already makes. I have wiki pages that are 10 years old and that still grow new associations. I think it takes a big load off your brain to have all that stuff written down, and searchable with ease. (I had to write my own Wiki to get it fast enough though.)
For those (like me) wondering how strong Feugo is, I found this: http://www.gokgs.com/graphPage.jsp?user=fuego19
Does BoB approve?
It should be pretty neat to see where this goes. I'm particularly curious what it would take to bridge the gap from 4-5 kyu play to dan-level rankings. I believe there are computer go programs that play around 5-dan level (e.g. Zen19D, CrazyStone), using Monte Carlo, of course. Will the techniques in this article be able to scale up to that?
I really enjoyed Paul's compilation analogy. It reminds me of a quote by Robertson Davies. "A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."

It also reminds me of that MIT paper that gives advice on how to do research. The part it talks about why it is that when your colleague gives you a paper to read and says it's particularly poignant, but when you read it it doesn't seem like anything special. Maybe it's because your colleague had the dependencies in his state of mind that you did not have in yours, so it didn't seem as memorable to you as to him when the code compiled.