skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
What's brutal about Chinese for a native speaker of English is phonemic tone for speech and lack of cognate vocabulary, coupled with a writing system that reflects a stage of development of writing from 2,000 years ago. But what is forgiving about Chinese is that the grammatical relationships are mostly shown by word order and function words, as in English, rather than by inflection of words. That, to me at least, makes speaking Chinese "easier" than speaking Russian, even though Russian is much more cognate with English.

Arabic may be especially difficult (even as compared to Hebrew, a language I have studied much more) because the standard form of the language is so divergent from the day by day vernacular forms, as noted by a more informed participant who has kindly posted another comment.

The United States federal government language proficiency rating system attempts to identify equal levels of real-world functional proficiency for ratings of interpreters and the like. When I was last tested, the rating scale went from 0 (with a readily apparent meaning) to 5 (a rating in principle reserved for educated NATIVE speakers of the language) in the functional domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. I was quite proud of my 4+ rating in speaking and listening to Modern Standard Chinese, but I took quite a few years out of my life to get to that level, as have most westerners I have ever met who have done the same.
MIT license is far less restrictive.
This is one of the great examples of the difference between a graphic designer that charges $200 per hour and your friend's cousin who can do the entire project for $20.
I want to create a simulation for my health site to more effectively share the mental model and process for how I have gotten myself well when doctors (and most of the rest of the world) don't think it can be done. I have a compromised immune system and I have made drastic dietary and lifestyle changes over the course of the last 8 1/2 years. I routinely get strong negative reactions when I try to share that information on email lists and forums for other people with my diagnosis. Many people react like I am a loon, a charlatan, a snake oil salesman, suffering from Munchausen...etc. Even those people who feel it makes sense have difficulty implementing the ideas I present. The written word is just not information-dense enough to convey the necessary paradigm shift and level of detail. So, earlier this year, I concluded that I needed to be able to walk people through a virtual experience of the process.

My sons have suggested I need to make a rogue-like. I would want to present the normal obstacles of an ordinary day and track information about germ load, PH, and probably a few other things (to be added later).
Inc. 500 Company Canopy Financial Subject of FBI Probe
Bill Would Ban P2P Use By Federal Employees
Yes, but it still requires more exposure for the more difficult languages.
What's the benefit to me as the user though? It's neat, but does it have any actual effect on anything?
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I wonder what is meant by general proficiency?
As an aside, if you've ever been arrested, you can't (legally) enter the US under visa waiver and have to go through the rigmarole of disclosing and applying for a visa even to go on vacation there. Had to drop someone from my wedding party because of this :-(
That's a real pity. I like Steve, but his essay demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of at least two fundamental features of Perl, namely context and lists.
Granted, I'm not a PS/InDesign/etc pro, but I feel the same way: just not sure what I'm looking at here.

Can someone please explain what this is?
While this sounds cute, I'm not sure what the incentive is for anyone to actually buy something they wouldn't have, or pay more than they otherwise would. Maybe it'd be more fun to participate if the idea were very clever. This seems about as witty as dressing up as a "non-participant" for Halloween.
No one is stopping the researchers from starting a company using their findings.

But the findings themselves should still belong to the public.
this is about design documentation, right? or is there something particularly interesting about the design itself?
I'm always surprised by the downvotes on hackernews to anyone that suggests a conspiracy of any kind. Usually, "technical" people are all about pure anonymity, pure truth, full disclosure....but it seems like there are certain topics where this no longer applies.

Feel free to downvote, but I'd be even more interested in assertions that all is well, there have been no noteworthy changes in the world from a compliance or enforcement of existing rules perspective.
There might be none but that's not really the point now, is it? It's all about the quality of work.
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Is Technical Analysis a Waste of Time [for emerging markets]?
That's called walk when you talk
Trying to Explain a Drop in Infant Mortality
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I believe the world would be a better place if there were no special sale events. That way you can buy what you want whenever you want without having to worry about someone else buying it for 30% less a week later. Also saves that useless hassle of searching for deals!
"Does the HN community have any ideas on how to test a new idea out without building the actual product."

You can fease it. Basically, it's a small (feasibility) study that includes not only 'would you use this?' type questions but also 'if that doesn't work for you, what would?' type questions.
Speaking of Apache, why do none of the Linux distros use YAWS? It's always Apache.
I would be nice to have some more context on the company. I like to think this respect to detail is representative of how their service is run, but I don't know what the service is.
There is room for only one leader in the White House. A leadership team needs to iron its differences out and present a solid face in public, and this is something you will know to be true from experience. At the end of the day, it is important for the leadership team to display confidence and unity in order to get people to follow them.

This doesn't mean you should groupthink or quash dissension. The failure of the Bush Administration was that Bush apparently did not do a good enough job of facilitating a real discussion and let certain folks steamroll Powell. That is not leadership either. In any case, it is wrong for people to fault Powell for what he said at the UN, from a leadership perspective.
Did you read what he wrote, or are you just being a contrarian?

One government to rule the world. One government elected by the bankers and corporations and global slavery for the rest of us.

Absolute drivel. Where to start? There isn't only one government in this world. And most 1st world governments are republics of one form or another (elected officials representing a slice of the population). Bankers have a vote, but certainly not the only vote. Etc, etc.

He's either trolling or stupid. Either way it's not worth arguing, hence the downvotes.
We also talk too slow.
It's not that big of an issue. Both Google & Palm offer emulators. Getting a device off-contract isn't too bad. You can get an Android handset for ~$300 which is only a bit more than an iPod Touch. On GSM networks you merely need to swap your SIM card between devices instead of paying for multiple plans. There are also of course Android based PMPs and small tablets on the market already although they tend to use exotic resolutions (but so does the DROID so you gotta factor that into your Android development anyway)
My father and I both enthusiastically tried the sleeptracker when it first came out. I am horrible for waking up in the morning, and this did not help one bit.

The article asks why they did not put the alarm in the watch - the sleeptracker chooses that exact strategy and it did not work well for either of us. One, the alarm was not that loud (probably cannot be that loud in such a design). Two, if you had your wrist under your pillow it was inaudible. And three, the alarm is trivially accessible and easy to turn off - not a good thing for an inventive and persistent snooze buttoner like myself.

The product was a huge disappointment to the both of us. The price point and design for this product are encouraging - I will probably try it out.
Homepage links to http://logopond.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3578 and it seems to be a time-stamping service for graphic designers.

This too googles up http://typophile.com/node/63838.
It's not so much the simple suggestion of a conspiracy as it is the sheer over-the-topness of it all. Police overstepping their bounds in the UK equals "the end of any type freedom" and "global slavery"? Oh, please.
Please review your understanding of a human right.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, proclaimed that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care.”

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a ‘Second Bill of Rights’ for
Americans, declaring ‘freedom from want’ to be one of four essential liberties necessary
for human security. Roosevelt’s definition of freedom included “the right to adequate
medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.”
http://www.nhchc.org/Advocacy/RighttoHealthinAmerica.pdf

This is also a good read:
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/equalrights/f/Health-Care-H...

Note that there is no mention of adequate care only for those that can afford it.
See, I am, and I'm still not getting what the story is here especially in relation to "pixel perfect." The guides demonstrate an attention to detail in getting a good corner, but that's nothing to do with the final pixel rendering as such.. really just good Illustrator path building.
"Supposedly Perl Web searches are on the rise"

Fact check:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=perl&ctab=0&geo=all&#...

Perl has been losing ground, while Python and PHP gain ground, for almost ten years:

http://www.ohloh.net/languages/compare?commit=Update&l0=...
MinGW is a compiler set. Cygwin gives me a full Unix-like environment on top of Windows. It's not an apples to apples comparison.
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Be the porche. And it's free. I've noticed that porche drivers are mostly older people (presumably because, statistically, they can afford it).

To be picky: it also doesn't provide responsiveness (i.e. agility), but in isolation tends to muscle boundness. Easy to address with other exercise of course.
Yeah, this is just a PR joke
I hope you don't think I wasn't praising him in that line.
This seems like a fairly lame fundraising attempt to save a business. The main problem with that is that people do fundraisers for charitable causes, not to save a dying business. And they raise money for a charitable cause they feel is, in essence, a good investment. Keeping a business limping along -- which presumably hasn't resolved whatever underlying problem got them in this mess -- is not something most people would consider 'a good investment'.

They would have been better off posting "Sale!!" or even "Going out of business! Clearance -- Everything MUST Go!" signs and doubling all their prices. I say this in part because I read an anecdote where some new employee accidentally marked prices up rather than down on the stuff labeled as being 'on sale' and it sold like hotcakes.
If you want ZFS and DTrace, is there a good reason to prefer FreeBSD to OpenSolaris?
Games | online games
Everybody likes to play games and especially when it is not bound by time, money or space.Here u can play freeonline games and Another advantage of these free games is that they do not always require a partner.A user can play games with the computer or choose to play a single player game.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about this problem, and I independently arrived at the same conclusion. I know several agents and have spent a lot of time discussing the politics around the system.

This is absolutely NOT a technical problem. The real problem has several facets:

1. Politics. You covered this.

2. Agent resistance to change. This is a huge issue. Roughly 80% of agents I've encountered are tech neophytes and can hardly use their own existing MLS system, which hasn't changed in a decade. Technologists look at Web 2.0 as being an ease-of-use panacea, but this is a group of users that literally run away from anything new or different, especially technology. Not every agent falls in this category, but most do.

3. Most users see the existing MLS as good enough. Web nerds cringe when they see circa-1996 web UI and fully closed data silos. Agents see a system that technically gets the job done, even if it's a bit cumbersome. If you ask an average agent what his or her work-related biggest pain points are, the MLS UI will not be in the top 5.
Health care is a human right - even in America where i'm led to believe that you will receive life saving emergency treatment even if you cant afford it.

If you want to improve you understanding of this human rights issue then read:
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/equalrights/f/Health-Care-H...

"international human rights law is unambiguous on the matter: Universal health care is a right, and the government must step in and provide it if the private sector fails to do so. If there are such things as human rights, under the international framework, then health care is definitely among them."
I'm guessing it's about pouring a lot of work into 3 pixels worth of an end-user deliverable, i.e. not cutting corners and such.
Their ability in a given domain is limited by the average knowledge of that domain in the market. When that knowledge is high, the ability to intelligently allocate resources approaches optimal. When the domain is not well understood, it can be extremely sub-optimal.
Does FreeBSD have something like Synaptic?
Good for dual licensing: free for GPL use, commercial license needed for otherwise.
Studying the science gender gap at the high school level
Invite HN: Pitchmasters Chicago, Nov. 30
Ask HN: Please review a Craigslist mashup [alpha]
FreeBSD setups typically use the BSD Ports collection for package management, which compiles from source + patches (vaguely similar to Gentoo Linux).

There doesn't appear to be a mainstream UI for BSD ports.

(Curiously, the Mac OS X equivalent, MacPorts, has at least two current UI projects.)
I agree with your first paragraph analysis but I doubt the doubling of prices would work very well as books (especially used ones) are commodity purchases where price is not really a signal of value. Btw, I think the anecdote you are referring to is from the book "Influence" by Cialdini and in that case the product was jewelry where the customers did not have a good frame of reference in judging quality and so fell back on the "high price = good" heuristic.
Metal Hangers, metal hanger, Aluminum Hangers,
According to this list it should work: http://wiki.freebsd.org/AsusEee#head-6d00dcb960b731976447f25...
I've successfully ignored it for a quarter century. It's an abomination.
I think it has to do with how to get perfect pixel in illustrator. If you just draw a line even if you have your rulers set to pixel you will get anti-aliasing once you render it in for instance photoshop. So what you do is that you offset it in points as far as I can remember by .5pt that way PS will render it nicely.

Having said that I still don't know why someone thought of this to be HN worthy it's a rather old problem with a rather old solution.
It was jewelry. I probably read it in a magazine article, which may have referenced the book. It's currently after 2am where I am. What I really mean is that raising prices (by however much) or not changing the prices at all and calling it a "sale" might have worked better than this tactic. I don't expect this tactic to work at all well. It is essentially asking for donations and doing so rather badly.
I have heard that they (Craigslist) do not encourage third party sites doing mashups (or enhancing the default search facility).

See http://www.codinghorror.com/craigslist/

They may block your site if they find out you violate their policies.
5 Star Wars Status Updates ?
this could also just be some "clever" marketing trick I guess. Given that if you go to the front you can sign-up.
It's not about someone else buying it for 30% less a week later, it's about me buying it for 30% less a week later.
much. I'm sure he has problems, but he seems also to not suggest what he believes to be the right way to do a couple of things.

also, he might be a bit misinformed. sure, itunes makes you install apple software update, but safari and bonjour and all that? I don't think so. power user customization that Linux, Windows users expect? I think he hasn't discovered the terminal.

and the "1 button unless you buy a peripheral" er, no. two finger tap on the mousepad, better than sliced bread.
Yup, they're not very friendly to 3rd parties.

But Jeff pissed them off by going against a core value -- staying local. On the flip side, sites like housingmaps.com & craiglook.com have been up for many years.
The death of the printed book is closer than you think
It wasn't obvious to me what this sight is for until I hit the search button.
To append to what your are saying this is because ports is set up for unix people to work it.

To search you use ls, cd, and find. To install you "cd <dir> && make install".

If you are installing freebsd you should already be comfortable enough to not need a pretty gui hiding these very simple details.
Please let me add to that.

If you have a silly canned response that is equally (not very) on any comment thread that relates to information, privacy or rights in any way you get downvoted. It's usually just trolling. Even when it isn't, it's annoying because its' a combination of grandiose claims & stupid, simplistic or non-existent support.

I think we welcome loopy conspiracy theorists, but not dumb ones.
Robert Laughlin, Stanford Physics Professor and Nobel Laureate, reaches many of the same conclusions in his book,The Crime of Reason: And the Closing of the Scientific Mind (http://tinyurl.com/ydfyozk).
Marcus du Sautoy: Without maths we’re lost in a dark labyrinth
Wow this is awesome. Very intuitive and it looks great.

This is incredibly minor, but a favicon would make it look nicer.
So I'm assuming the appropriate response is to come, and buy the same amount or less?
Having acquired Finnish (twelve years ago) and German (in the last two years), coming from a Bulgarian background, I've been thinking about language transfer. I don't think this list is very specific to English.

My own limited inquiry into the matter (collecting general opinions from people who have learned foreign languages and ordering them by subjective difficulty) seems to generate a list where difficulty correlates strongly with distance from Latin. I suspect this is related to the way languages are taught, rather than the way they are structured. Our formal grammars appear to fit Latin very well, probably for historical reasons. Here's some ideas:

1. Finnish is known worldwide as a difficult language to learn. It has an extremely complex grammar (when put in Latin terms). Finnish-born children acquire Finnish in about the same time Spanish-born children acquire Spanish, but Spanish adults have much more difficulty learning Finnish than Finnish adults have learning Spanish. This suggests that teaching methods might favour Latin-like languages. A further supporting data point is that foreign people living in Finland who take Finnish courses do better at tests than people who don't, but take much longer (many years) to start actively using Finnish in casual situations (conversation) and are never as comfortable as people who acquire it without courses. This might of course be a factor of what kind of people take courses.

2. Finnish sentences are structurally some of the simplest, possibly the simplest of any European language.

3. The European languages furthest away from Latin appear to have the most complex case systems. Cases appear to be a hack to fit a language into a Latin grammar. Cases in point are Russian, Hungarian and Finnish.

4. Constructing a Finnish grammar that is almost entirely correct is possible without the use of cases.

5. This sort of grammar is more than sufficient for everyday casual communication.

This leads me to think that people who take Finnish courses might be too afraid of making mistakes to actually communicate. People who don't know they're "doing it wrong" focus more on the result of communication rather than the formal correctness. I know I am consciously ignoring a lot of the grammatical rules in German, but I can communicate in it freely. Native German speakers may get confused by me switching cases and articles at times, but I am always understood. I tend to prefer German to all other languages I know (all of which I have used for many more years than German) when speaking to native German speakers. I wonder how the list in the OP would look like if the target was a "conversation-sufficient" subset of the language. This would be much more meaningful than "general proficiency" (and much less testable).
Maybe I'm more upfront or something than most people, but tip #1 seems kind of dishonest. Why would you tell someone you're trying to build a trust relationship with that everything is just fine when it's really falling apart?
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Self Actualization - Maslow
I just discovered that a Perl script has made it possible to view 44 channels of live British television. Incredible. http://www.myp2pforum.eu/live-tv/41045-british-tv.html
Consider this message a standing ovation.
He made sure Carrie Fisher got her daily dose of ...euh... 'Rouge'! Oh, wait... that was on on 'War Of The Ewoks' (aka Bikini Harvest).
If two Google engineers couldn't build something better in two weeks then I would be shocked.

In Michigan I had the choice of three national chains, no local stores. I searched Barnes and Noble for 'Going Rogue' by Sarah Palin and was offered F Troop reruns. Yet the query worked fine on the BN site.

They can't even get search right and you want Google to buy them?
Thanks and done.
Which one, Python 2.x, or Python 3000?
I think that you should do an automatic initial search for new users, perhaps using their IP as a location hint.

This is a really cute way of browsing the Craiglist data.
Oddly enough, vim has had this functionality for ages (at least since the mid-90s; ^K triggers it as the "compose" key), but they broke it in a fundamental way during an "upgrade" a few years back. Originally, the compositions were as described by Mr. Sivers: just the pair of keys you'd expect, for instance a + ^ to get â. But then, for no apparent reason, they changed all the defaults to totally unobvious things: it's now a + > to get â, and a + ! to get à, and a + ? to get ã. You can reprogram your own, but the whole point of the system was that you'd just know, which is no longer true, alas.
Model Plane Flies the Atlantic [2003]
Because the FreeBSD userland enviroment and ports collection are sane, and there is a reasonable way to do upgrades, while with OpenSolaris you have... what?