skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This practice looks set to be outlawed soon, to the the banks' chagrin: http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?st... I had an entertaining episode earlier this year where I went into a bank to dispute about $100 of charges that had been levied this way; after some effort, I persuaded a bank official to handle the call on speakerphone - literally, by refusing to take the handset she kept trying to hand me and insisting it be on speakerphone - and letting the phone staff explain at length about their large-to-small temporal reordering, before pointing out that I had made a cash deposit both larger and earlier than the withdrawals. And the phone people still didn't want to back down until I produced a digital recorder and pointed out that I'd recorded the entire conversation.

Following this debacle I had an illuminating conversation with the manager at the local branch. Part of the issue (with many large banks) is that they've internally reorganized so that the branch network is a separate company from the bank, and the outrageous overdraft fees, $3 ATM fees etc. are what finances the branch network.

This allows the bank to claim to customers and regulators that they don't make any profit off these fees (because technically the fees are collected on behalf of 'Megabank Branch Operations LLC') while at the same time claiming to their investors and bondholders that they've cut their expenses to the bone (because the branch operations no longer show up as an expense on their balance sheet, whereas the profits from things like mortgages do).

So when you try to get a fee reversed, neither the phone nor the local branch people want to do it because the reversal will be charged to them and reflect on their performance record. Local branches now have about as much influence on The Bank as an individual fast-food restaurant has on the franchise company, ie none at all. Plus, anyone who went to work for a bank at a local branch with the aim of eventually becoming a banker has been suckered, since local banking is now devoted to basic customer service and sales of financial products but they have little or no discretion the handling of customers' accounts. Working your way up the corporate ladder is now out; if you want to be in banking rather than customer service, you need to get an MBA and re-apply to corporate, hoping your time in local branch banking will give you an edge over other candidates - but word is that customer-facing experience is actually regarded as a disadvantage.

tl;dr the modern model of retail banking is to own the deposit/payment system, not get your hands dirty with it.
Why the Packtpub CMS Competition is broken and how to fix it
Because that's a pretty messy solution to what should be a non-problem. You shouldn't have to "refresh" the data in your database every now and then, just like you don't need to buy a new key for your car every couple weeks.
"The irony ... the irony."
That's the odds of it happening in 7 specific lines. But what are the odds of it happening by chance at any point in time to any person of Schwarzenegger's importance or higher?
Capitalization would be correct in almost all cases. You always capitalize first letter and chances are, first word of each line won't be the beginning of a sentence. Ditto for spacing, 3-5 line paragraphs are fairly common.
I browsed around and didn't see their hosted database solution. Is it listed, or just something you have to ask for after signing up for a server?
In fact you are wrong socialism can never work because it doesn't have proper price signals. There's an excellent paper: Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth that details this problem from the 30s.

Also, it is very hard to have a mixed plan because eventually one will exploit the other. Game theory is great and all, but most of the time I don't think it applies to multiple trials -- which is what the real world is.
Apple keyboards hacked and possessed
I agree agree that probability and statistics are much more important in life than just calculus. That is why in college I am studying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - these are all math and probabilities.

Yet, I think Arthur Benjamin is right but for the wrong reasons:

1. People should know statistics instead of Calculus.

To know probability well you need to have mastered calculus. All the distributions, all the formulas build on things like sequences, and integrals.

2. If everybody knew statistics we wouldn't be in the economic mess.

Plain speculation. The majority people who have important part in the management of banks know statistics.

3. from continuous mathematics to discrete mathematics...

Probability and statistics involves tons of continuous mathematics and Analysis. Is a Gaussian distribution discrete? Is the Central Limit Theorem discrete?

The reason probabilities and statistics is important is because it lets people better understand why stuff around them happens and lets them reason about uncertain processes. Life is behavior under uncertainty.
That works in valueable markets that are cheap to build up infrastructure - almost everyone in the suburbs of large cities have a choice of DSL vs Cable at least. But it doesn't work in cities where there simply is not the room to let people run cable at will (in NYC it is BRUTAL to get internet installed even something like commercial ADSL or T1 lines are a bitch because of the massive amount of underground infrastructure already). And it doesn't work in areas where it is less profitable becuase the area is more rural. So the government is basically making it more expensive for people in the suburbs to support those in the rural areas so that the economy as a whole is more efficient since everyone will have better access to the internet.

The "bureaucrats making deals that hurt everyone" is a strawman. Why would anyone do something that hurts everyone? Underneith the surface there is a non-obvious reason for a lot of policies but when viewed on a macro scale make a lot of sense. I feel like a lot of anti-government arguements boil down to "I set the limits on the economic value of a government action solely on what it does to my direct taxation and fees", rather than looking at the whole picture. As a programmer is it better to pay a bit more for internet but have a larger market to sell to, or pay slightly less for internet but have significantly fewer customers?

The question becomes - how best can we provide the internet connection people demand in this country for the least amount of money? Somehow running fiber twice in one town and not at all in another doesn't seem like the best position. I think the solution is to make the system completely free market and competitive in a lot of areas where it works, and completely government subsidized areas where the market fails. Half and half in a patchwork fashion across the country is probably the least inefficient method that could possible be derived, yet that is what we have.
Where does the money driving the boom come from? I am unclear how increasing the cost of production of good and energy will generate an economic boom.
1. The Wall Street bonus culture led to the financial crisis.
"The crisis was caused by a combination of lax monetary policy, loose regulation..., ... institutional investors ... global banking industry..."

Aside from lax monetary policy, these causes are only exacerbated by huge bonuses.

2. Wall Street is totally indifferent to Main Street.

Yeah... looking down main street I don't see a lot of large corporations or financial institutions ready to trade. Swing by BofA and pick up a small business loan. Not that they should be. and investor's job is to find the best possible deal. maybe it's no main street, maybe not. but technically you ought to be indifferent if you're good at investing.

3. With the job market like it is, Wall Street doesn't need to pay huge bonuses to retain key people.

If you can't figure out what <key person> does to make all that money, you are not smart enough to keep that money. Since you are not smart enough, why don't the taxpayers just fund <key person> instead? What are you bringing to the table? phones and bloomberg terminals?

4. Wall Street will never restrict its own pay.
Yes, clearly with all the laws and contracts requiring it, wall street will restrict its own pay.

5. Wall Street pay is so out of line, only the government can fix it.

The first goddamn argument was "lax regulation" WTF?
A manager will never be happy to see a worker paid more than him,

Hospital management doesn't seem to have too much trouble with it...
Why so complicated? Just buy a failing bank and ask the treasury to give you the money. Futz about for a year or two then complain that your hands were tied by regulators and you weren't able to make a profit. Resign in tears, collect a fat severance check, and go to work for the SEC.
I think that's a good argument for why municipalities ought to, at the very most, maintain the bottom-layer infrastructure itself and not try to actually operate services over it.

Somebody in Shrewsbury probably thinks the services and price structure they're offering is reasonable, but that "somebody" probably doesn't have the knowledge of the market or interest in making the ISP a success that an entrepreneur would.

As I said in another comment, there are good arguments in favor of publicly-maintained roads, as an alternative to having multiple parallel toll roads, all poorly maintained; but there are also good arguments why the government doesn't own all the vehicles or operate all the services that run on top of those roads. A government-run trucking company would likely be rather unpleasant to do business with.
In 2004 I was using a 2048x1280 display at 112 ppi. Today I can't find a screen over 100 ppi. So in pixel density we have actually gone backwards, except for laptops.
I tend to agree. If it's tethered to a cell tower, it can't completely replace dedicated navigation devices.

Also - Like other navs, this solves the problem of 'what hotels are near me'. Unfortunately neither this solution or existing dedicated navs solve the problem of 'what hotels near me have available rooms, and how much do they cost'.

That's a much more useful problem to solve.
Doctors and managers (and civil servants) are of the same class.
NetApp monitoring made easy with Logicmonitor
Introducing an AJAX Solr library
Actually there is no rational reason for you, personally, to vote. However voting is a level of commitment that is sufficiently small that many are willing to put the effort out to be heard.

And yes, I do vote.
Great Question.

I use delicious to find tags for blogs that would like to write about my product.
This is an interesting idea, but honestly I'd probably end up rear-ending someone if I did it.

However, have you ever tried programming using text-to-speech? It strikes me as an experience that would be maddening.

I have thought about taking a voice recorder with me just to dictate ideas though.
Well, you could explain _how_ this will happen. Many of us, including me, simply don't get the argument. What differs this from assigning a monetary value to, let's say, _any_ new government license? (e.g. for opening a restaurant, or virtually anything)

Seems like a rehash of the broken window fallacy.
Helium balloon and a few miles of garden hose -- Solution to Global warming
I saw that there are a lot of people used to post just to take track of discussions, like some form of bookmarking. This is especially a plague on reddit. What about opening a delicious account? It's better both for you and for the community.
Someone really should have proof-read these captions.
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm in the same boat. Does anyone have any recommendations for podcasts or audiobooks that discuss/teach various concepts in computer science or software development without being impossible to follow while in a car?

I tried listening various lectures, but at some point it becomes too difficult to follow because I'm unable to write down/work through anything as I'm driving. I found a few podcasts, but the content was largely hit or miss.

Any suggestions would be awesome.
Palm has a GV app too.
Your argument doesn't work, as they're subsidized by taxpayers in many ways (it was true long before the bailouts). They can be as inefficient as they want without making their companies' shares collapse.
I agree it's probably just boilerplate that they're unlike to exercise, but I do think it's part of the SLA and so it's entirely appropriate to single it out and ask for clarification or change.
lol, uh no. sounds like they mean it's up to apple to decide if they want to develop it since they screwed us over with other products why should we bother to develop more good ones on their platform. good for google, screw apple for not allowing google voice.
I have had an easier time with applications for the Mac then websites. There doesn't seem to be the website version of MacUpdate, rumor sites, or Apple Downloads. Maybe it is the difference between blog and community site.
Consumerism and Programming Polyglots
I agree, but markets do change. What was a successful business model in 2000 may not be viable in 2009.
I realize this topic is probably wearing thin and I risk a backlash along the lines of "seriously, just stfu already," but this is part two of something I did not expect to have two parts.
Are you asserting that Britain is now a Blairite classless utopia? I don't think even he himself would agree with that... And neither would his buddies Lords Falconer and Mandelson.
Neat project, but some things I am wondering... What do you mean by recovering an account? I assume you don't have the password? Will people have control over their old content? Is this legal--don't the authors own the copyright of their pages?
How do you figure "almost all"? Even if the text could only contain paragraphs of length 3 and 4, the spacing alone would be incorrect in half the cases (assuming that a 3-4 and 4-3 split is equally likely).

(Of course, we are leaving aside the fact that the full body of the message contains an additional one-line paragraph, which could also be considered part of a correctly capitalized and spaced message.)
Because everyone's needs and workflows are different.
Hmm,

Oh where to begin?

The guy's rhetoric is pretty divorced from the sad state of actual math education today. The way that the standard math curriculum today heads up to a point in a pyramid is a problem in itself since a lot of the topics are made dull in themselves ("This is just something you need to learn for calculus" is a terrible answer for "why should I learn this?" but substituting "Statistics" wouldn't change things much). It doesn't really matter what the point of the pyramid is when most people never get there.

Just as much, the latest economic meltdown was engineered and believed in by statistics experts. For every Mandlebrot debunking the events, there were ten Myron Scholes basking in the glory of validating Wall Street's delusions with some mathematical magic. Statistics doesn't protect from wishful thinking outside of controlled, experimental situations.

And statistics in daily life? One might use some basic probability but the only other use it would have would sorting the pseudo-statistical rhetoric used by the media. A simple course in mathematical literacy with an emphasis on fallacies would be best for sorting this stuff. BUT again, no course can protect from wishful thinking, can protect people from the fallacies that let them ignore possible later dangers for immediate apparent gain. Further, a non-calculus-based statistics or mathematically literacy course isn't a basis for further scientific study the way calculus is, and believe-it-or-not some students still become physicists, chemists and engineers where calculus is indeed the foundation.

I could narcisistically say that my favorite, evolutionary game theory, would make a much better "point" for the curriculum pyramid but really, what is needed is to make every math class interesting in and of itself. With TV-dazed kids and math-apathetic teachers, I don't know if any curriculum could change things BUT I would want to have the curriculum of every class interesting and mentally challenging - taught axiomatically, Algebra and Geometry ARE interesting in and of themselves and a student needs no background at all for them. Math should be rigorous, conceptually challenge and optional past the basics. It seems like we'd need a different world for this but small steps are being made.
Are VCs Lemmings?
As well as leaving .gitignore exposed also.
I can't recommend http://burbed.com enough for people around here for some good perspective on Silicon Valley real estate.
Often political decisions are driven by short term concerns with no real idea about the long term consequences and there is no way for an individual to opt out. If a company makes a bad deal, they will eventually go out of business or renegotiate the deal (the other party doesn't want them to go out of business). There is no such constraint on the government, you can see this in all sorts of decisions.

Some examples:
1. Burning crops while people starved during the great depression.
2. Printing tons of money, devaluing the currency.
3. Current Cable Monopolies.
4. Software Patents
5. Never ending copyrights
6. The war on drugs
7. Prohibition
8. All sorts of developing countries that take on massive debt.
9. Paying farmers not to produce
10. Minimum wage laws
11. Maximum hour laws (can only work 35 hours a week)

Just to name a few.

I understand the concept of network effects, but you have to remember to look at what else that money could be spent on -- that is what is truly hard. By subsidizing rural/suburban living we encourage it and thus people waste more time commuting, wasting fuel, increasing traffic, requiring more subsidies (larger roads) and so on.

People need to understand that the market is the worlds most powerful information system -- it instantly conveys the wants/desires/needs of every individual in the world.
Bandwidth costs are actually a small fraction of what they were back then, it should be easier today.
nice, all this needs is a Class object and it'd be perfect (though i guess you could just add base.js to the mix).
The US isn't fascist yet.
It makes sense to me; there is little to no profit expectation for Yahoo with regards to GeoCities at this point. Since they are a for-profit company, that's at least a little bit important.

I'm not saying GeoCities couldn't make money, but you have to remember that there is a bureaucracy charge for every big company that wants to maintain software. If there is a developer on the project, there has to be a manager. If there's a manager on the project, there will be reporting requirements. If there are reporting requirements, there must be an analyst, etc.

It's easy for me to see Yahoo considering this not worth their time; I don't think there were any nefarious intentions at all.
I used to work right next to Google. It was fine - plenty of small cafes in office parks, and the incredibly awesome Country Deli a 10 minute walk away. I miss those sandwiches a lot.
It's Not a Good Day to Be a GPS Manufacturer
No, I don't have the password.

The plan is to give people control again, but that's not a very easy problem. A number of solutions have already been suggested though, and I think that's something that can be dealt with.

Obviously, if someone does not want their content on there I'll remove it immediately, as far as I'm concerned I'm just hosting it.

And yes, of course the authors have the copyright to their pages, that's an inalienable right.

So far though, the only things I've received to that effect are people that are actively contributing their content, nobody has asked to have it removed. (And the number of 'contributors' is quite significant already (50+)).
Thank you! My friends have told me it's a good idea, but it's hard to tell if they are being honest :)
it's because doing it is much easier. This way you can find the threads you participated in with 1 click
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This is great stuff. With batteries and capacitors constantly improving we should soon have quiet humanoid robots walking around. I find it fascinating to think where they will be first used as more then a proof of concept curiosity.

I would guess in nursing homes. It seems Japan is concentrating their humanoid robotic efforts on that. And with an ageing population but without much (or any) immigrants, I would think the economics are most likely to work in favour of humanoid care taker robots there first.

Perhaps soon after we'll have them here, I can just imagine the advertising being very similar to the "I've fallen and can't get up ads." Except now I have a robot helper to help me and call my family and even call the hospital.
Maybe it's built in "pyramid" like this because:
1. Knowledge is hierarchical
2. Calculus has a longer list of skills that needs to be mastered before learning the subject.
3. Historically, calculus came around first (am I right?). This might not be a coincidence.
Good idea. Amazon voucher would be ideal.
First, you're not increasing the cost of goods and energy, you're increasing the cost of carbon. The idea is that the money flows to whoever can create those goods and services using the least carbon. While the cost of goods does go up, the increase is minimal because the system is designed to find the least expensive solution. The money comes in because the entrepreneurs who are able to find the most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon will get billions of dollars. So tons of highly intelligent and competent people will flock to the valley in an attempt to make it rich, creating dozens of public companies and several million jobs in the process.
Because unlike, say, rocket science, painting, music, or programming, banking is a largely unfulfilling, yet incredibly stressful job. Without the gigantic and absurd financial incentives there's really no reason to get into it.

I went to school in engineering and knew more than a few people who went to Wall Street because of the pay (and social status, since our society worships bankers and the ground upon which they tread). I'm not proud to admit it, but there was schadenfreude when the banking industry collapsed - most of these engineers-gone-Wall-Street are still as of yet unemployed. They spent their time dreaming about big money and not enough on, oh, being capable engineers... so now they're stuck up shit creek.
It also causes comment spam and it's clearly not sustainable at scale. If everyone interested in a comment thread posted there just to be able to find it later, I think we'd quickly find ourselves buried in bookmark comments.
If you were disciplined about it and left home at 6:30am instead of 8am, you could save time on the road, and then still be home at 6:30pm for dinner.
Adobe is Bad for Open Government
Cool stuff. The only thing that keeps me from writing in a more functional style is the fact that no current browser implementations perform tail recursion optimization.
It's part of cloud sites.

If you want to check its track record: http://status.mosso.com/
Not quite Comp Sci, but I like to listen to NPR's Science Friday podcasts. I have to rewind a bit once in a while if I have to pay attention to traffic, but it's nice to be able to listen to them, instead of "wasting" time listening to the radio.
What every aspiring photographer should know
Is Your IT Business Scalable?
Help us make the web better: An update on Rich Snippets
Microsoft's 'Signature PCs' show its vision of computing perfection
pretty neat. but what happens to OS level abstractions like the file system, sockets, ect?
Many of these are helpful reminders for the tech startup process as well.