skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This looks beautiful. I learned BASIC and assembler programming on the Spectrum and it occupies a special place in my heart.

My mother told me recently that I used to ask her to read out the code from magazines while I would type them in to the spectrum.

I have a vivid memory of typing in long strings of hex from magazines to create graphics programs - kind of proto-photoshop things. The programmer had split them into strings of 256 characters each and when you first ran the program it would tell you which string was incorrect - which made it a hell of a lot easier to correct!

I remember creating a picture of Madonna from a poster on my wall that I thought was really great!

Ah, the 1980's :)
Ask HN: Have you tried to limit time wastage on the internet? and how?
You make it sound like you actually experienced crashes due to an unstable sort function in Haxe.

You even make it sound like that was a common occurrence due to a deliberate decision on part of the development team to not fix that alleged source of crashes, but rather refer to an alternative in the documentation.

You should clarify that you haven't made this experience, and that no one you know or have heard of ever has.

You seem to have no idea how unlikely it is that the various Array.sort implementations (they're usually provided by the respective target platforms, of course) all have some bug that leads to crashes, moreover, you seem to be unaware that most target platforms provide such basic APIs, which in turn shows how little you know about Haxe.

As the documentation already explains, "unstable" in the context of a sort function is about the order of elements that are equal from the perspective of the comparison function. That's basic CS terminology. It's not about crashes, and it's not about bugs in Haxe or the respective target platforms.

You simply misunderstood, but you keep insisting. Which sheds some light on the overall quality of your comments about Haxe here.
Pharmacist here, I spent Sunday's with Family, Ruby and some exercise :-)
Sure. People who (e.g.) pick crops by hand almost certainly work much harder than the people the OP was talking about, but they're never going to get rich.

People with that background have gotten rich, of course, but almost always by leaving that line of work and doing something else.
I don't mean to get all tin foil hatish, but why on earth do they need things like MAC addresses to count how many people are around? Is there not software that could take video of the area and count these people? This just sounds like an excuse to be overbearing...
I agree but idea of legalized drugs does not fit well with capitalism. As we know wherever there is market there is profit to be made. Companies will pop up advertising whatever drug they are selling. And as we know companies are always interested in increasing their customer base. If a substance is addictive enough it will reach millions of people very quickly and destroy society in the process. However if we keep the drugs away from capitalism that would be the way to go.
I was asked by HN to repost it.
> I want copyright to be abolished. I do use CC0 [3] for many works. For software, however, I like to use GPLv3 specifically to prevent my labour from being used in a way that limits the freedoms of others. If we abolish copyright, then I would be all the happier that my works no longer require the GPL to protect these freedoms

If we abolish copyright, you certainly no longer have to worry about protecting those freedoms, because those freedoms would no longer exist. Anyone could copy your software, modify it, build the modified binary, and distribute that modified binary without source, and locked down as tight as they want with DRM, and requiring updates be signed with a key only they have.

You could try to counter this, of course, by carefully only giving copies of your code to people who enter into a contractual relationship with you in which they agree to not do any of those things you do not like, and to keep your code secret from others who have not entered into such an agreement with you...but it only takes on person leaking the code to the public and then it is game over.
Ask HN: How to find first good client?
I can generally [figure out how to] do anything related to web development and design compelling web interfaces. I can convince people of this and figure out how they can derive value from it. I've been taking jobs off oDesk and would love better clients for obvious reasons. I've read the stuff by 'patio11 and 'tptacek about finding better clients and charging more and like the idea. Where do I find my first such client?

How does this work on a transactional level? Where are these fabled clients? How do I get in contact with them? What's step 1 of the social protocol through which I broadcast "you have problems, I can solve them and you should possibly pay me to do so?"

I hear most consultants find their first clients from previous connections, but I'm a 19yo college dropout who's freelanced his whole short career.
Writing a novela! Awesome idea!
Open source RTS 0 A.D. Alpha 18 Rhododactylos released
Happy half tau day
Right now, yes. TONS of people in the industry just got laid off.
Introduction to Arduino for Lego 9V Trains [video]
"Are you out of your mind???" ;)

But in all seriousness, projecting issues as character flaws is a really destructive thing to do, not just in programming but in any relationship. It's a really good habit to avoid it whenever possible.

I read somewhere (I think it was Blink) that marriage counselors could tell which marriages would fail by observing those that generalized around their spouses character rather arguing about the issues, ie "You always..."
Most logical explanation: trying to find people mailing marijuana out of state.
If there is an oversight your part, the amount of rebounded embarrassment is far smaller. Bad feelings on both sides are minimised no matter what the outcome with your suggestion.
A really big cold angry fist?
Edward Norton Lorenz
How to Protosketch
I loved it. But I did have second thoughts when it started turning dark after I had already recommended it to a friend as adequte reading for his very young, Potter-obsessed son. After the troll incursion, I was thinking "Uh oh, what have I done?!?".

On a lighter note, I was hoping right to the end that the last transfiguration would end up producing a house elf, ideally Dobby. :D

Eliezer, if you're reading this: thanks. It was awesome.
Not exactly the same, but one of the ways to bypass: https://realworldcrypto.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/shrimpto...
Well, it simply isn't a bug. Most sort algorithms aren't stable, and the only thing a generic _sort_ algorithm is supposed to guarantee is a sorted output according to the comparison function you supply it with. If however the method was called "stableSort", the situation would be very different...

The default Array.sort stability is inconsistent across targets _because_ guaranteeing it would prevent reusing implementations already available in the targets. And differently than what you claimed, many languages (and most Haxe targets) don't guarantee sort stability in their default "sort" APIs: C, C++, C#, JS, PHP and Neko.

Also, any remark placed in the official api docs for "Array" or in that very module, just next to sort method, can't be said to be "buried" in the docs.
Saharan 'carpet of tools' is earliest known human-made landscape
> Unfortunately those records are shrouded in many dense layers of propaganda: they’ve been selectively preserved and presented by academics over the millennia, to support whatever political, religious, or philosophical cause; and of course, many of them were spun to the political needs of the Romans who wrote them in the first place. As a consequence, most ancient history should should be taken with several grains of salt.

As near as I can tell, this is what all competent historians will tell you. We know history is biased, and that what we have is fragmentary and not reflective of the vast majority of peoples' lives. That's why we supplement history, which is the study of the written record, with archaeology, which is the study of the non-written record, such as midden heaps and old homesteads and so on.
I wouldn't say that those things are "mostly" subjective, that sounds like a defensive argument.

I'm pretty sure there are good objective metrics both for readability and maintainability, they might not be the only aspects but calling it subjective is going too far.

For instance maintainable code could be said to minimize side effects, be somewhat modularized and be as compact as possible while being readable. I find it hard that anyone could claim the opposite and be right "as a matter of taste"
Interesting. Would that depend on how close you were to the source?

Either way, I assume - crucially for the shop owner - most backed-up, drunken revellers would be unaware of this :)
Inconvenient Message Detection: https://github.com/DickingAround/InconvenientMessageDetectio...
A glimpse of the early history of machine learning – artificial neurons
Well, no. But a recent Freakonomics podcast talked about the idea of 'temptation bundling', which I'm curious to try out. The premise is you restrict yourself to only do something you like with something you don't e.g. you can only be on Reddit or HN while you're at the gym.
Ask HN: Who is hacking your box?
Someone hacks your box, uses it to mine 20 BTC and uses those Bitcoins to change the world

Are you inextricably linked to those Bitcoins in this divine tronic dance?
The backup battery is gone because Intel datasheets advised against it for years, and they got more insistent over time. It's surprising enough that they still didn't manage to kill of that part of the PC80 architecture (RTC clock and associated memory). They certainly try for years by now.

As for the TPM, Chromebooks come with them for a long time now. They're cleared when entering or leaving developer mode. The main difference is that after clearing, the devmode mechanism also records the state there (instead of in CMOS).

If you're concerned about "final keys", read the spec (eg. http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/resources/tpm_main_spec..., Part 1, Section 9.5). The only key that is never deleted is the "Endorsement Key". That one is similarly annoying as the Pentium III serial number (ie. it allows secure identification of the TPM if you let software send requests to the TPM).
UP3 Wearable heart rate monitor
Are you just using PhantomJS for web scraping to do this or are you actually getting the banks to provide you with an official API?
Apple’s Role in the Creation of USB-C
Hi all, just noticed your comments, sorry for the delay, we are still working here on the platform.

The one you see is simply a Beta experimental platform and we would like real musicians / singers to try it and give feedbacks, there is a contact form please use it if you would help.

Latency is a big problem in many countries/cities, we are 100% conscious that this will not work for all people unfortunately.

The aim is to use the best of web technologies for realtime communication (webRTC) and enable new ways to collaborate in music, so we thought to create a simple "rehearsal room" where people can plug themselves, but it's not really a definitive version.

We all are mostly musicians making things for musicians so feel free to contact us by the contact form.

We are listening all of you and we will try to adapt all your needs and suggestions to the platform!

Thank you a lot.
Show HN: A modern torrent search engine that learns to give better results
Is there any hope for the future of freedom, privacy or government accountability in America?

I'm not trying to make an overdramatic statement. I am genuinely curious what people believe. I am having a lot of trouble having any kind of faith in the future here.

I was extremely down about the future of the U.S. until the Obama candidacy. When I saw him promise to reduce the NSA warantless wiretapping programs, I believed there was hope. I donated time and money that I could not afford because I believed that this was the one chance we had to change.

It is clear now that was a complete lie, and Obama either endorses or is helpless to stop the NSA, CIA, the militarization of police and the utter vaporization of privacy and personal rights in the U.S. in the name of protecting us from terrorism.

As a result, I have given up on the ability of the U.S. political system to protect or even stand for personal rights. I can never believe the words of another 'change' candidate, and I believe it to be totally impossible for a candidate who actually supports the dismantling or reigining in of the NSA to be elected, since the NSA actively spies on potential candidates and would use their power to stop a candidate working against them from being elected.

The U.S. government's trajectory is towards more repression and more privacy erosion. Once these kinds of laws and programs are in place, it is nearly impossible to repeal. This is the nature of power. Many other governments have noticed how easily the U.S., supposedly the bastion of world freedom, is able to pass these laws and are following suit.

As each year passes, I grow more depressed, more paranoid and more angry with the government. I battle with the idea of starting a family and bringing a child into this world who will likely be subjucated to an even more repressive society. How could I tell that child to trust the police or the government when I cannot myself?

What are my options here? How do you repress your anger? Do I cut myself off from society? Try to gain citizenship to a Nordic country and pray their government isn't poisoned as the U.S. has become over the next 50 years? Comfort myself with the fact that at least the U.S. isn't North Korea? Kill myself?
GPS could still be used for that, but what is wrong with opening the doors in the tunnel not at a station? I would think that would be helpful in the case of emergencies where people need to get off the train between stations. If a driver accidentally pressed the wrong button they might want to check to make sure no one is outside the train when they drive off, but I would think that wouldn't happen to much.
Well there are people voting it up, which I can understand as the concepts are always popular. Not sure on the algorithm that's used.
The most important institution to control in any coup is the media. I would be surprised if Brazil's big TV stations were all based in Brasilia.

In any event, I really hope (and believe) that Brazil is not on the brink of a coup or civil war. It would be insane to throw away the progress that has been made in recent decades. There should be a way to sort out the Petrobras corruption scandal without resorting to violence.
Yes, that is exactly what I do too. When I just started I treated code reviews as a way to show my knowledge and feel superior, which reflected the environment I was in. Once I moved to a new job with a jelled team and a positive sharing environment I noticed the use of questions in CR, and now it is my default mode.
Would it be possible to use CSS to draw glyphs using data from Metafont source files?
Ask HN: Building a mobile app; what's necessary to start a waitlist?
Between website, screen shots, etc. What do you feel is a necessity to began reach out to line up potential beta users?
Is there an example of a successful government-planned city anywhere? Best I can think of is Canberra.
I've had a lot of fun with space team over the last year, thanks for making a unique and great game.
To be far this is HackerNews, a discussion board backed by a business accelerator program and home to startups and VCs alike.

If there's anywhere that should be okay with commercial promotion its here.

And that's what I like about the place. No where else on the internet can you find people at the ground level, promoting themselves and engaging in discussion. If you want to ask hard questions about the product, its hard to do it to a billboard in time square, but a lot easier to do against someone who's promoting it on HN.
This short lecture is not intended to be a comprehensive introduction to what Hestenes calls “Geometric Algebra” (some other people call this the Clifford Algebra of a real vector space, or similar).

For that, see his numerous other papers and books about the subject, or the several books by other people in the last 10–15 years.

It’s unfair to label this expository sketch “mathematically unsound” on the basis that it skips a bunch of steps... when there’s no space to be fully rigorous in the context.

> On page 9 he discusses what he calls the geometric product. The problem is that the geometric product of two vectors is not a vector. This means that the space he is really working is larger than the vector space he started with. This isn't explained to the reader. What is this larger space?

Anyway, you are absolutely correct that the geometric product of two vectors isn’t a vector: instead, it’s a scalar plus a bivector (scalars + bivectors form a space isomorphic to the complex numbers, conveniently).

You might notice that the conventional inner product (dot product) of two vectors is also not a vector. Likewise, while the cross product of two vectors is defined to be a vector, it’s not really the same type of vector as the two original vectors and must be treated differently, causing endless confusion, especially for students. Reducing this confusion by clearly embedding geometric products of vectors in a larger space is the whole point.

For more, see:

http://geocalc.clas.asu.edu/html/Evolution.html#References

http://geometry.mrao.cam.ac.uk

http://geometricalgebra.net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_algebra
Cf. Greece.
I would really like to sign up for this course - is there a way to do so without using Twitter or Facebook?
You're going to be using a framework when you work for a company. Whether its a custom in-house framework (pray to the holy death it isn't) or something third-party (cry me a fucking river, you have to learn something new).

Just make sure you don't forget how to not use frameworks.
What are other developed countries where public urination is common?

You don't drink alcohol, do you?
Out of state license plate and visiting a post office in Colorado? I'd bet that whatever you mailed to your home address would have a great chance of being intercepted en route.
It would be cool if a company such as facebook supported this. Seeing them as an enabler for free/uncensored internet, given that the country was chosen for a internet.org campaign.
Beach Resorts Cebu – Your Holiday Destination
> Maybe the situation has improved now though. But the whole KMail transition was really painful for no tangible benefits to the user. This really feels like a prime example of overengineering.

That's how I felt about most of KDE4.
When I first read this back in 2005 I was skeptical. Turns out Joel was right.
Also because zippers and belt pieces made of metal can cut.
My first thought. It's almost certainly this. SFians could probably check for these as well, given that California has been a medical state for a while.
I feel obligated to mention that this strategy, while it often works to some degree, sometimes doesn't work. For people like me, phrasings like that sound passive-aggressive.

I prefer the strategy of wrapping my sentences in things like, "I think" or "I prefer".

So, I'd write, "This loop doesn't seem to terminate." or "I think that this condition needs a test." It's an implicit admission that I could be wrong and an invitation to push back. Just as often, I'll walk over and say, "Could you explain why you did that to me?" This is especially acceptable when it's agreed that a good review requires the reviewer understand what's going on.
Oh I definitely have nothing bad to say about Haxe. I was mostly just referring about some of the external libraries that never made the jump over from legacy, which could be indicative of developers jumping ship.

You make a great point; just because a project doesn't put out updates once a week doesn't mean it's stale. There are some other great projects like haproxy and redis that are clean enough and stable enough that regular updates aren't necessary.

I guess you sort of grow accustomed to that mentality when dealing with some other common OSS projects
Thanks, we added that.

Reposts are fine on HN when a story hasn't had significant attention in the last year or so.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
I have a definition of success that is a bit different. To me, being successful is when you take a series of actions with the intent of reaching a goal, and you achieve that goal or a positive outcome. The measure of success is how well you achieve your goal, and how important that goal is to you.
There is clearly a production boom in the US:

http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=50&p...

(I threw in Norway and Brazil because they are big producers that aren't OPEC)

The Saudis would normally have been expected to cut some of their production as prices fell, they haven't. I think their motivations for that are a big piece of the puzzle (and tend to agree with your theory that it is somewhat aimed at Russia.)
Very true. The difference lay in the benefit of not having to implement the compression logic as part of the server, making the server implementation much simpler.
Which is perfect. We can Peter Principle away the egotistical programmers.
Hi, Christian from Platzi here. We'll include an email/password login for future classes. Thanks for asking.
Why the secure web isn't ready for primetime (but we need to use it anyway)
You can already do regular fonts in pure css. See. Here's open sans in pure CSS.
https://github.com/steakejjs/OpenSans-CSS

I've actually found its much nicer using this in my projects than using a font cdn or self hosting woff files.

I do like the minimalism of css rules to creating this font as opposed to having a giant data section. It's pretty neat
Really cool exercise in CSS. My first thought is that texts displayed using this font can't be selected/copied & won't be screen reader friendly. Might make for a great way to display your email or phone number on a site without worrying it would get scraped by marketers.
Their website doesn't exactly go out of its way to be clear about what it is, that's for sure.
This comment from before begs to differ:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9172553

> (Look at who attended what meetings, and where it was proposed, how far it was along when it was proposed, and then when apple started showing up. It looks like they saw the writing on the wall, and joined in to make sure they weren't going to get left behind)
Which was itself based off of things like COM and CORBA. How far back do we want to go?
We have regulations in place, outside of that telling businesses to just "be nice" is naive. It's not like these corporations are filled with evil people, all of this tracking is to deliver better products and increase bottomline. In this case, Facebook sells advertising and the effectiveness of that advertising increases with tracking.

It's always easy to just say "innovate" as if the entire industry is just sitting around for some enlightenment... there are other ways to make money but this is the model that works best for them. Advertising is a fine business model, I've yet to really see an actual objection to this.