skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Several countries have the death penalty for some drug crimes. Those penalties do not stop addicts. Why do you think your harsh penalties would?

If I had a loved one addicted to heroin I would not like them to spend time in prison. I'd want them to receive treatment.

Targetting heroin use as a public health problem means you reduce the impact that drug use has on society, and you save money.
I just looked over the Wikipedia on the Church Turing thesis and digital physics, and I still think that's right. The thesis says that a computer can compute anything a human can. You're right that it can't be proven, because "what a human can do" isn't formalized, but it still has almost universal acceptance. (The "strong" version does not have as much acceptance.)

As for the universe being Turing computable, I think a strong argument can be made that it is (all known fundamental laws are computable by a probabilistic TM as far as I know), but even if it isn't, whatever force and law violates Turing computableness should be useble by a machine. If some kind of halting oracle exists in human minds, and humans are not unique (per materialistic thesis), then we should be able to put that oracle into a computer.

On timelines: the argument I've seen is that it takes a long time to solve problems this difficult, so we need to start working on safety well in advance of Strong AI being made.
I'll get to your other points later.
Europe never had the white flight that a lot of American cities had.
Michael Lynton is on Snapchat's board.
Interesting that the scarce commodity is power, more so than the network, just like in the developing world. Perhaps USB-C will help.
Conviction rates matter. Also the justice system "congestion" that judges and prosecutors are always pointing to as an excuse for their failure to uphold real justice.
Exercise helps a ton with depression too. And probably anxiety, though I don't have any direct experience.

I think it's no exaggeration to say that richer countries have been experiencing a rise in mental health issues, and that is in a large part, although not entirely, due to sedentary lifestyles.
For me, LulzBot. I own 3 of their machines (2x AO-101, 1x TAZ 3), and have been printing for two years. A big reason why I support them is because of their support of open source: https://www.fsf.org/news/lulzbot-taz-3-3d-printer-now-fsf-ce...
I'd love to see more information about what this actually does, what it works on, and when it will be available. At the moment, with my cynics hat on, I'm assuming it's vaporware and that they're testing to see if there's a market by seeing how many people bite.

Can anyone confirm that it's real? Maybe I'm just a nasty, suspicious old bastard.
Not really. I've run the figures. The U.S. already spends about $1 trillion on welfare every year. A BI would not cost much more than that. And that doesn't even count the benefits in reduced crime and boosts to higher education.

A proper BI system will be, at least partially, self-balancing and should have some guards against endless fiddling.
That's how germans pronounce it.
Ultimate top ten goals
Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Bud will always be free for open source projects.

I postponed the whole licencing and open-sourcing business because I would like to determine what would suit Bud the best.

Maybe something like the GPL licence with an additional clause that projects built with bud must be open-sourced too. And perhaps dual-licenced for proprietary cases (something like qt).

Anyways, any feedback on this is topic would be very welcome!

Thanks a bunch!
Nothing revolutionary at all, its manager (Nicolas Sadirac) had created EPITECH in 1999 (I did this school). The program is exactly the same. The only things which change is that Ecole 42 is free and takes only the 3 firsts years of EPITECH instead of 5.
Just as a practical tip: use latexmk, it's an utility that runs all the necessary tools the necessary number of times to get everything right (labels, cross references, indexes, etc). It works really nice with Make.
And light rail along Tasman and North First is slow as heck.
Nuclear propulsion
McAffee: The government plants spyware on your phone to see what you're doing
It runs so damn close along North First, its a crime it wasn't connected in the first place.
In my opinion the goal (as with Epita/Epitech) is to produce monkey coders. What is at least sure, is that these school give a very limited background in cs theory, which is very difficult to overcome to go beyond the monkey coder stage.

Because of the shortage of coders, big french consulting companies (Atos, Cap Gemini, ...) hire since decades graduates from every domain more or less related to science/technology and give them a six months training (in the best case) before sending them to the clients.

So I'm not that surprised that such a school will be successful as long there is a coder shortage. When the next bubble blows, these graduates will probably be the first to be layed off.
> The garbage collector is terrible

But the section talks about immutable strings (nothing to do with GC),
syscalls (ditto), and only at the end about no manual memory allocation. Not
even a word about why GC in Java is terrible (and why automatic memory
management in Ruby and Python is not terrible).

> No pointers

Why is it a bad thing? Only because author wants to do pointer arithmetic?

> No preprocessor

And good for Java. CPP is vastly underpowered, thus being quite a trouble.
Either macro system should be powerful, working on AST, or not there at all.

> No UNIX Syscalls

Oh, my. No UNIX syscalls in web browser. No syscalls on a DVD player. What
a shame.

> It’s not suitable for big projects

ElasticSearch and Hadoop beg to disagree. I wonder how big systems has the
author in his portfolio.

> It’s not good as a PoC language

Because...? Only because it's verbose? We've been through this few arguments
before.

> No global variables

Author fails to provide any argument why this is bad. "I use them for
debugging" is very, very, very weak.

> Java browser applet are insecure

So don't use them. Implementations of applets suck, we all know it, but nobody
uses those anymore for anything serious (except for hardware vendors, who are
generally clueless with regard to writing software).

I don't see why should people abandon Java for writing services because
applets suck.

> Why then there are non-free implementations? What’s wrong with OpenJDK? What is IcedTea? Which implementation belongs to Sun?

One could say pretty much the same about Ruby, Python or C. I don't see why
should this be held against Java and not against C.

Most of the arguments are pure trash. Don't bother reading.
Yeah, in San Francisco the cool neighborhoods for techies with tons of money are SOMA and the Mission, not downtown.
Duck Duck Go actually proves my point. It is arguably the most successful of the alternative search engines. Yet, if you stopped 100 average people on any street in the US and asked them, I'm guessing that less than 3 of them will know what Duck Duck Go is. Ask them what Google is, and you'll get at least 99% accuracy.
Show HN: Snapzu – Start a web community, grow it, earn money (50/50 split)
A lot of these points are bad.

Java is verbose. Any language used outside of its sweet spot is verbose--the PHP required to read a header, for example, is much shorter than the equivalent C. The MATLAB for backsolving a matrix is much shorter than the equivalent in Ruby, but at the same time, accessing the AST of a MATLAB program is magnitudes harder than in Ruby. For the benign task of shuffling a bunch of registers, a single assembly instructions beats out every other language.

The GC is terrible. Author points out that they really care about what they're program is doing (why, one wonders?), and so of course any GC solution is worse than bare hands and sbrk() and mmap(). There are well-establish issues with GC in the JVM, especially for graphics or anything with a bajillion little allocations, but those are also all well-solved problems.

No pointers. Author complains about not having pointers, which kinda makes sense for a GC'ed language. Pointers are of limited utility if the language is high-enough level, so their omission in Java is perfectly reasonable.

No preprocessor. One of the only things I agree with for the author--the lack of easy metaprogramming tools in Java is kind of sad. At the same time, it means that Java looks the same everywhere. C, also, is probably one of the most braindead preprocessors you could ever ask for. Nothing is stopping you from using sed as part of your build chain for Java, if you want equivalent power.

No UNIX syscalls. So, first, this is wrong--you can do this with native extensions. Second, though--the entire point of the JVM and runtime is that you just let it do the right thing (or its closest approximation) and get on with your project. What good would Unix syscalls do me when running a jar on Windows?

It's not suitable for big projects. This is absurd. Java is one of the few languages I would actually consider as having large-scale development as a selling point. All of the other stuff the author complains about? Yeah, that makes a Java codebase easier to have plug-and-play development on. Lots of large projects use Java, successfully. They're jungles, sure, but they're jungles that work--and consider how awful they'd be in Javascript or C or (urk) C++.

It's a bad PoC language. I've heard a lot of complaints about Java, but its lack of ability to be exploited has seldom been one of them.

There's more, of course, but I'm bored.
A new way to approach language learning
I have different observations. In Germany most people don't own a credit card, yet online shopping is alive and well. From my observation, when people don't fully trust a store they even prefer wire transfers (which are common, easy, and free, but offer no way to get your money back).

People simply trust the law to protect them. Doing a chargeback already implies that one of both sides is committing fraud. If an online shop is committing fraud we trust the police to get our money back.
It is likely that mobile app install ads are far more lucrative than any other kinds of ads and they work particularly effectively on mobile.
Many people, at least on O'ahu, live in urban areas with serious "heat island" going on. In those locations, if your windows catch the prevailing winds, you don't need a/c, or perhaps only rarely. If there are buildings or terrain blocking the breeze, however, you'll be more comfortable if you have a/c, or if you make some lifestyle changes that make it less necessary.

That said, when I lived there, my bills never approached that figure, even with a/c.
> something like the GPL licence with an additional clause that projects built with bud must be open-sourced too

Would this be enforceable, though?
You have lost the ability to differentiate between what you want this industry to be and what it is. Therefore, your view of it is rosy.

That said, I think we can both agree that this thread is tired.
Well the teachers are(will be since it's the first year) the students. Several engineering schools do that in France and abroad.

It's a good PR for Niel.
> The first part of this sentence is true and interesting, but it makes the second half not very scary. Essentially, since we don't know what if anything, we want morally, what is the danger in letting AI's do whatever? Don't you think if they did do something we objected to, we could respond at that point?

The problem is that with powerful enough AI, we won't be able to effectively respond. With such a system it is vital for it to have its goals almost perfectly aligned with ours - otherwise, any conflict of even the tiniest of values may mean anything from our value disappearing from the universe to us disappearing from the universe. A lot, if not most of the AI-related problems are in fact corner cases of value alignment issue.

Or, as some people say, any powerful AI that is not explicitly designed to be Friendly (i.e. have values strongly aligned with ours) will bring doom to humans.
I also live in Seattle... yeah, I don't know that I'd characterize the Central Business District ("downtown") as interesting or active after 5, save for a few high-end restaurants. Belltown, sure. Capitol Hill, sure. Pioneer Square has a functional bar district. The big City Center area in Downtown - Westlake Park - is well known to be sketchy, and the black market is about 3 blocks north of that last I saw. Tons of tourists, but not an inhabitable place.

There are no schools downtown, there aren't affordable apartments with enough space for kids, which essentially siphons the entire kid-oriented group out of downtown for their condos/houses. The high end stuff downtown is high end, so you get an entire coterie of very rich traveling place to place in their cars from the parking garages, as near as I can tell.

Pike Place is cool, but largely a tourist trap.

So I think maybe the author of the essay should roll down the CBD about 7pm on a Tuesday night and think about his piece.... :-) might have a few corrections.
Fighting "stuck" elements seems easy: similarly to how Adblock works you would define a regular expression to identify a page element with position:fixed and the plug-in would remove that CSS style (I can do it manually via developer tools, a plugin would make this change automatic/permanent).
In New Zealand and Australia, the landings at Gallipoli are commemorated with a national holiday (ANZAC day, 25 April). I've always found it ironic that what is probably our most important holiday is a commemoration of one of Britain's greatest blunders.
The issue is that the authorities did have a talk with him, but the airlines have deemed that the authorities' assurances are inadequate. That was the portion of the example that I was referring to. The airlines have said "FBI says this guy is ok? Screw that, don't let him on anyways!"
Well that's true to some extent, however with both straights under control Iran can attempt an asymmetric blockade.

It did try to do it in the 80's and it caused havok with oil prices. While they can't beat the US navy they can always mine the gulfs and use anti ship missiles room shore.

In any case in world politics you can always extort aslong as its cheaper to pay than it is to break you this is why north Korea gets aid from the west.

And since breaking even a flimsy Iranian blockade will cost billions if not trillions they'll be able to get away with quite a bit just on the threat alone.
But in a library silence is expected; not conference calls, chat and collaboration.
The white font on brown background is killing my eyes...
> AGI must not, even though it would probably be much easier to build it if it did.

Which is exactly what raises the issue to the level of an existential threat - it's easier to build an Unfriendly AGI than a Friendly one - which means the first GAI ever built is likely to be Unfriendly - and it takes only one impatient team / person unleashing an UGAI on the world to kill us all.
I take it you're predominantly inattentive (you omit the letter H). I see on the ADHD web sites they always advocate exercise, and I dismiss it out of hand every time as something I don't think would apply to me. I tend to think of the typical /r/ADHDer as being quite different from me, and not someone that I would even like, really.

So you're saying that that stuff applies for inattentives too?
You are conflating lending and fractional reserve.

It's possible to have lenders and borrowers without operating a fractional reserve.
ヽ(°▽、°)ﾉ

Also, you're missing Kyubey:

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
／人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人＼

EDIT:

Also, consider changing it so that there's just a little clipboard button next to each one, so I can just drag and copy myself, or use if I don't have flash enabled.
No doubt. But it's pretty funny that Google refuses to add a few lines of code to do it via the OS installer.
I think Itai Benjamini is at MSR. http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~itai/
The whole premise of the book is looking at some of Einstein's actions through the lens of his Jewish identity and heritage (and also as a philosopher). Which is quite different compared to the prism he's usually viewed through, namely as a scientist.

I don't understand why that bothers you so much. Are you equally bothered when people identify as a 'coder' or 'entrepreneur' as is quite common in this forum?
FWIW I have heard terrible things from people studying there. While it looks good on paper, the sad reality is that it's basically a code monkey factory. Also, I don't really think that this kind of trade school are relevant in France where access to education is low.
It's fairly mainstream in Australia, at least in Metro areas. Rural areas have a mix of DAB, FM, and AM (with AM being the default for those living way outside of metro boundaries)
Android libraries used on Trello
> Exercise helps a ton with depression too.

It probably doesn't.

http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depre...

> When only high-quality trials were included, exercise had only a small effect on mood that was not statistically significant.

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms of depression.

> Exercise is no more effective than antidepressants for reducing symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on a small number of studies.

> Exercise is no more effective than psychological therapies for reducing symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on small number of studies.

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

> Attendance rates for exercise treatments ranged from 50% to 100%.

> The evidence about whether exercise for depression improves quality of life is inconclusive.

You say

> I think it's no exaggeration to say that richer countries have been experiencing a rise in mental health issues, and that is in a large part, although not entirely, due to sedentary lifestyles.

What makes you think this? Plenty of very active people suffer depression and anxiety. There are a couple of sports people who have talked about their depression. You may have the causal link reversed - depression lowers ability to do stuff, and so depression causes inactivity. That's at least plausible.
Really? I would have no problem bringing a wrapped gift from a friend or colleague, the contents of which I do not know on a plane. And lying about packing my bags myself.

In fact, I don't see why anyone would have a problem with that...it's a constant and (imo) fair assumption of mine that my friends are not trying to kill me.
I suspect if this weren't the case we would already have heard about all the burned houses. There's nothing the media likes to hype more than something scary and new. Of course, this is why engineers and electricians are licensed.
This is a fantastic initiative, and like a lot of businesses built by Xavier Niel, I hope it leads to positive changes in the industry.

This said, what I would be worried about with this system is how long it will take for the employment market to adapt to this/those schools. When it comes to jobs, French companies, especially large ones, have a really strong bias towards applicants from well known and somewhat elitist public schools, no matter how efficient those might actually be at their jobs.

Unlike the US, France doesn't really have a strong and major software industry competing for raw programming talent, so developers have nowhere near the salary, status, or lifestyle they could expect in places like SV or NY. Very few companies have a real incentive to hire a great programmer over a good one, which might reduce the efficiency of a school that focuses on training very good developers without giving them the access to the prestige of the (also free) traditional public schools.

It will be interesting to see how salaries and career paths available to programmers trained at École 42 will compare with those hired after they graduate from École Centrale Paris.

Nevertheless, I look forward to hire from this talent pool.
Why Apple Is Permanently Protecting Working Forests
On Einstein's Brain
Hmm, great question. The caret package made for R might actually make that loop possible: http://caret.r-forge.r-project.org/ However, in my experience it's really easy to accidentally ask caret to iterate over a grid of parameters for just one model that would effectively take forever to complete (the useful grids change for each dataset). My bet would be that the algorithm space will expand with more and more computationally intensive methods such that we're always chasing this brute-force method. Even with this great 'caret' abstraction layer today, boy would it be hard to run through even a handful of algorithms in an algorithmic way (not having seen the data ahead of time).
Chrome OS with Crouton running Ubuntu CLI. My favorite setup of all time.
The story that Xavier Niel (school founder) is trying to tell is that there are many bright students that didn't fit in the traditional/oldish education system, but they could reach their full potential in this new school.

I don't buy it. First, there's a large panel of CS formations in France, most of them virtually free. It goes from highly selective schools "grandes écoles", to universities or undergraduate programs that anyone with a high-school diploma can attend. There's room for many different student profiles there.

Then, I don't see why it would be such a progress to get rid of the teachers and the books, are they that bad that they prevent the students from improving?

> The students are given little direction about how to solve the problems, so they have to turn to each other — and to the Internet — to figure out the solutions.

Usually, this is what professors do when they are too lazy to cook up a real project.
A good book to read on this is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. While his experience was that of a writer overcoming difficulties with motivation and persistence, most of it applies very generally.
http://rebrickable.com - Figure out what new cool stuff you can build with your old LEGO collection.
This is the world we live in. Question, detain, and let the courts handle the interpretation of the law. Whether it's the NSA, FBI, CIA, it matters very little to them. After 9/11 we as a country wrote them a blank check. And while this guy shouldn't have taken to twitter to say planes can be hacked pretty easily, it's not shocking to see what happened after he did.
Walmart Special - Acer quad core amd 2.2ghz, 17inch screen still going strong after five years. Only 350 bucks so I bought 2 of them.
There is Orthogonality Thesis [0] that says that (tl;dr) intelligence is orthogonal to goal system. So an agent may be very intelligent (be a powerful optimizer) but this doesn't imply it's goals will be "very good" by our (human) standard. You can have supersmart human-values-promoting AI, and then also a supersmart paperclip maximizer, just like you can have dumb versions of both.

The core of the "danger of AI" thesis is that any superintelligence that doesn't have its value system perfectly aligned with ours is a serious danger that will likely kill us all.

[0] - http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Orthogonality_thesis
Doesn't prove anything but Google Paris organized a programming contest last month and 42 along with all Epitech perform very poorly

https://sites.google.com/site/hashcode2015/results
Show HN: A better handoff from PC to Phone
I built this little tool to make it easy to handoff links/text from computer to phones. Would love to get some feedback from HN community.

In a nutshell once the app is setup, you can start sending links/text via drumroll.io to your devices. There is also a chrome extension to make it super easy to capture links drumroll.io/chrome.
Meet the lawyer taking on Uber and the rest of the on-demand economy
ANZAC day is a commemoration to those that died. Don't confuse commemoration with a party/celebratory sense, the event is usually pretty stern.