skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
IMHO I don't disagree with homework. However in an education system that allows salaried teachers to reduce school hours without lowering their pay, and increase homework as a substitute is failing grossly. A child doing a 32 hour school week, should not be doing any more than 8 hours of homework per week. Anything over 44 hours for an adult (here in Canada at least) is considered overtime and cannot be forced upon an adult of legal age, so how in hell can it be forced on a minor without even parental consent?

I was regularly assigned over 16 hours of homework (2 hours a night, 6 hours over the weekend) after attending a 34 hour school week. That was 6 hours of mandatory work that I didn't consent to, and that was after several of my teachers stopped giving me homework (I understood math and science problems virtually in one go, by end of class I could be given a random equation made up on the spot by the teacher and get it right, so they quit giving me homework to save their own time).

It wasn't just the school year that was the problem. Once summer hit we'd be assigned 16-20 hour projects by virtually every teacher. Even on a full 12-month 44 hour per week standard, we were still doing far more work than an adult can legally be expected to do by an employer.

The local catholic school board to me, likely where any children I have will be attending (and where my wife and many of our friends attended) sets a maximum of 1 hour for all primary school children. Why this woman's children were receiving 4 hours a night is absurd and reeks of lazy and incompetent teaching. Sadly from my own experiences, I don't doubt it's true.
Building an OS is feasible for a small team or even a single programmer.

Providing enough of a subset of the expected APIs and the device support and the databases and web browser and the compilers and file systems the rest of the stack that the customers and third-party partners expect? That's a bigger project and a bigger budget.

Simply being better isn't enough.

Being faster isn't enough.

Being cheaper isn't enough.

Even running Microsoft Windows on your (non-x86) hardware isn't enough.

You need some combination of "betters" and of application and document compatibility, and you need to get to critical mass of applications and tools and device and hardware support, or you need to get to "massively better" in one or more dimensions to get enough early adopters on-board, or you need enough money to buy the tools and ports you need.

And then you have to get to big volume and to enough of a profit margins to get your prices down to where you attract application developers and resellers, or pay for the developers.

As for competition, you're working against Microsoft Windows on x86 and Apple, and FOSS limits your margins. Or against embedded vendors that excel in one or more dimensions.

There are little-known and niche and embedded operating systems and vendors all over the place. Wind River (now at Intel) is one. HP has at least three operating systems (NSK, HP-UX, VMS) and has retired others including MPE and Tru64 Unix and Domain/OS, and not counting embedded software platforms such as EFI and all those HP printers. IBM has its own OS offerings.

Building an OS is comparatively easy. Anyone with enough skills or enough cash can certainly build or buy one, and various folks can buy enough partners. But to create a self-sustaining environment within your target market and to avoid creating a massive write-off, you need to build an ecosystem around your operating system. That's a much tougher and much bigger effort.
Perl 5 v Perl 6 - the simple version
Barcelona Fun With Kids
I'd like to think that the more draconian they make laws like this, the faster they'll fall.

I'm just not so sure...
Microsoft, amongst several other companies, is a profit oriented corporation that has an history of predatory behavior.

You don't ask why a snake bites you, because it is its nature to do so.
Thanks for the idea, we have discussed this in the past and we needed more validation, this helps :)
I thought I'd post this since -this- is the point that both masak and I were trying to make with our respective blog posts (mine is linked from there, masak's is http://use.perl.org/~masak/journal/39912) - and since the original story linking to my rant where I'd started replying seems to have been killed, I figured a slightly less profane/insane link might be more acceptable.
Yahoo Store (formerly PG's ViaWeb) has used sparklines since at least 2004 and I think well before that. I'm sure there's plenty of other art prior to that as well.
Carbon Nanotubes Turned into an Opportunity for Agriculture
CSSEmbed: Automatically add data URIs to CSS
build a large solar power plant in some desert - will make the money back very soon. additionally, if sea is near, add a desalination plant and create a nice oasis - will bring people and reclaim desert territory - another constructive way to increase the ROI.

ps: if youre asking for inspiration because you actually got the money, dont forget to gimme a share ;]
In this case, content is material that I the consumer am interested in. I'm potentially interested in writing. I'm less interested in design. I don't read blogs to look at the design, I read blogs to read blogs. So if you're capable of creating logical, readable designs time and time again, go for it.

But that's not happening. This article was not very readable: It broke itself up into fractious chunks, highlighted words in the middle of normal sentences, and generally jizzed.

I love that it brings up normal magazines and says they'd be boring if they looked the same. Newsflash: Normal magazines do look boring. When I read an editorial, it looks the same week after week. When I read articles, sure, there're big quotes and pictures and the text is laid out differently, but the writing itself sticks to the same font/size consistently. That's what makes it readable.

The problem with the blogazine is that most blog posts don't have enough content for what they're dealing with. A 10-page magazine article with a hundred potential photos can use a layout. A page-long article that's blogazined is fluffing up without providing shit. People who're so easily wooed by designers that they still ooh and aah at big fonts, they eat it up, but readers who want a no-bullshit presentation are turned away.
Yep, that's closer to a netbook. Oh I'm excited about the future.
No more overdraft fees. That's a start—a big start.
There's server configuration, but not "coding" as traditionally defined.
You need to have an SSL certificate, and your webserver has to have the appropriate modules and such installed and accept requets on port 443.
This smells like an MSFT PR hit. I bet this goes the way of ".NET" or "HailStorm" or some other all-encompassing, vague-enough-to-impress-corporate-types acronym-laden "vision".
Google has an interesting hybrid approach: http://sites.google.com/site/oauthgoog/UXFedLogin

If the user is logging in with an email account on a domain whose email is handled by an openid provider, it will switch over to logging you in with openid.

Though I'm dubious though about their wording suggestion of "No, help me log in" for the situation where you don't need a password because you can use openid.

A combination of your idea and Google's idea: let users login with only an email address. If the email's domain supports openid, use that, otherwise send an email with a link to log the user in.
I thought this article wasn't well done, but they do link to some examples that are better. This is one:

http://gregorywood.co.uk/journal/top-5-spielberg-films

I really think consuming that article is more satisfying than yet another top 10 list with a hastily pasted thumbnail of the movie art.
Designing a .NET Computer
Honestly, I hope this sort of subversive advertising never takes hold.

No need to be worried, adblock seems to catch those just fine. I certainly have never seen one of those. In fact, I can't quite remember when I have last seen any kind of ad.

The only ad-related memory I have would be that I (very rarely) run into a scammy site that tries to launch some sort of pop-over <div>. Adblock doesn't seem to block that javascript but it blocks the content. The result is usually a blank overlay; a very nice (and often red!) indicator that the content wasn't worth my time anyways - that's what I call good customer service.

Adblock - highly recommended.
I also feel that I should point out: Putting forms behind SSL does not absolve you of secure coding guidelines! SSL does not influence whether or not your webapp is vulnerable to traditional injection and logic flaw attacks.
IxEdit - Visual Tool for Prototyping with jQuery
They're already all but gone. There will be an election by next May and they are expected to lose heavily - there is currently a spate of legislation they're attempting to shove through in a rush before they're booted out.

However, I can't see the next (Tory) government being particularly sympathetic to the interests of file-sharers. We can expect more of the same, if not worse.
I like this and also really like http://codepad.org before it, but all I really want added is an embed feature. So you can post code snippets on your blog, and as people read the examples they can run the code.

Consider this a feature request for either service, it would be great.
I don't see any reason to think a company like Dell or Sony would be well positioned to create an operating system. What software have they created that suggests they could do it? If Windows is so unsatisfactory doesn't that suggest that merely having resources isn't nearly enough? If Dell decided to create an operating system they would have little advantage over anyone else, and would have the disadvantage of being a huge company attempting an equally huge software project from scratch. They might as well just light piles of cash on fire. The sensible way to do it would be to buy a company that is building an OS.

I think Gruber is underestimating the fact that Apple has been developing not just the Macintosh OS, but the ecosystem and community for like a quarter of a century. I don't know that there is a shortcut to the latter two. When I switched back to Windows from Ubuntu it wasn't because of any failing of the operating system. It was because I was unable to find suitable replacements for all the Windows applications (and drivers) I used.

Web applications have not yet usurped desktop apps across the board, and when they eventually do, won't it be a worse environment for a new proprietary OS? At that point what would a proprietary OS offer that a free OS on inexpensive hardware couldn't?
I actually really like the blogazine concept, but it's very unlikely for me to have the time and the effort to put into creating a unique, story-led layout for a post. On the other hand, doing it for content that really deserves it would certainly stand out. Even at the base level the 'blogazine' approach of using illustrations alongside text is something that blogs are forgetting how to do.
I guess I should be flattered that none of the 2403 people I've one stared didn't return the flavor though truthfully I think I'd get really interested in whoever rated me back. :)
It has had a barcode reader / price comparisons based on the barcodes for some time now. http://redlaser.com/ In fact it was the #2 selling iPhone app for quite awhile.
Buy Crush It and Rework for access to a 3-hour online talk with Gary and Jason
"It’s not about hiding from the truth. ... what you want to advertise."
I haven't read Collapse but Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures had an idea for "black swan philantrophy", which would be "focused on funding projects aimed at preventing or coping with very low probability events that would have cataclysmic outcomes for humanity."

I don't know why threats.org is down at the moment; perhaps it's due to the fact that there weren't that many people willing to actually help with the non-profit a few months ago.

http://continuations.com/post/106672598/looking-for-help-in-...
I'm not sure if this really belongs here, but it looked like an interesting deal to me.

The talk is tonight from 6PM Eastern according to the website.

I'll delete this if you guys think it's too spammy.
Yes and no. If you compare memory capacity and GFLOPS, you will often find that those computers seem relatively unimpressive compared to what we have now. The value (and cost) in that hardware is often in capabilities and features that aren't necessarily reflected in numbers and bullet points.

If you were to take that machine and put it up against a 1 GFLOP desktop with the equivalent amount of RAM and disk storage, the Cray would annihilate it on the tasks that it was purchased for.
Google Chrome OS Webcast in an hour
Interesting to see that not only does Monster cable rip-off un-knowledgeable customers but they also shelter their profits from US taxes by paying an offshore holding company a royalty on the designs. Truly an odious company.
I believe the class struggle that you are suggesting is not so clear-cut here in China. Most Chinese I know work in the city and have their parents in the country-side. So, the "middle-class" that we normally talk about is the sons and daughters, and the "peasants" are their parents. They are not going to revolt among each other.

Their situation improved hugely from what it was 20 or 30 years ago. They went through hell during all these decades, so they built up such resilience that I don't think that they will revolt simply because they cannot get a job right now.

Also, the Cultural Revolution is still fresh on people's memory (even though no one talks about it). That was a "class-struggle" revolution (supposedly), and I don't think they would want to get back to that time, even if the gap between rich and poor keeps widening.
Litl - a recently released "webbook" with a novel user interface
New Life and Task Manager
Neal Gafter has updated his java closure info page with the infromation from Mark Reinhold's talk.

http://www.javac.info/closures-v06a.html
http://www.jroller.com/scolebourne/entry/closures_in_jdk_7
I'm getting an infinite (>5m wait time) "waiting for compilation" message with the above code.

Are you trying to traverse function calls before compilation? You'll eventually run into the halting problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem) if this is your approach, though there may be a way to determine cases as simple as mine.
IT workers voted the unhealthiest employees
Hey, it's Langer! I didn't know you were an HNer.

What's the difference between your theoretical CMS and a WYSIWYG HTML editor? Something like Weebly or Google Sites? I'd think they already cover the "custom HTML" tactic pretty well. Beyond that the only thing you could possibly offer is custom graphic design, right? Or were you thinking pre-build templates in certain styles, the way iWeb offers for web design?
The Reduceron: Functional Programming on FPGA
Tool of the day: Keep track of warranties with Warranty Elephant
Start-up Ville
The idea of okcupid "doing science" reminds me of the quote from the video game Portal, which is appropriate, because both things involve the thought that something is "doing science" when it really isn't.

Doing science, if we are to go by Feynman's exposition of it, involves more than just gathering data--it also means accounting for everything that can make your data wrong. OkCupid is just gathering data and presenting it. This is an important part of science, and it's interesting to read about, but it is not a sufficient condition for having done science.
How to lose weight. No, really.
Wow, I've been thinking about this a lot. I thought I was the only one :)
Although I was kind of thinking a bit larger - building a whole new city within a city - completely self sustaining. With 100M it might be possible :)
So, they applied a patent for embedding "small graphics" in a document.

Small graphics that depend on other data in the document and are updated when that data is changed, to be a bit more precise. Still pretty obvious, of course.
Not sure how I misunderstood. It sounded like he was irritated that it was his job to ensure his children completed their assignments by being forced to check and sign something, and would rather that they be taught, in school, to handle that responsibility themselves.

My point, probably poorly expressed, was that it's not realistic to expect the school to instill that sense of responsibility in the child, and that the "check and sign this" policy is really just a gentle encouragement to parents to take an active role in their education.
Founder of mynameise, impressed by his determination.
Some good takeaways there.
I'm not interested. From the signup page:

"DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD!
We protect all your information using your own private security key. This private key is protected with your password and information is not accessible after the password is lost. Thereby we do not provide password recovery feature."

I will forget my password, that much I promise you. If you are telling me that I will never be able to get back into my account once I can't remember my login info, then I won't even start.
Note that both litl and chrome use Linux under the hood, so you don't have to do all of that to make a "new" OS, for values of "new" used in this article.
StackOverflow Site: Helping Smart Men Get Hot Women
Depends what you mean by "secure": do you mean protecting against attacks or do you mean impenetrable transfer and storage of information?

For protecting against attacks, the absolute rule is: Never trust anything that the user has provided. This includes form submission, URLs for requests (i.e. it could be a malformed URL), the HTTP headers, the cookies, etc. They are all vectors for an attack. The corollary to this is: validate everything. From here, you can start learning more about the creative ways your app can be exploited.

For securely transferring and storing information, you'll need to look at encryption strategies like SSL and hashes (for, e.g., passwords) and the like.

Of course we can only point you in the general direction. This is a very big topic!
Ugh. You are right. Should have opened my copy before I shot my mouth off. But the point is that style of Spew is appropriate to that narrator in that environment.
Beep. I wrote this. Questions, comments -- ask away.
My only experience with Boo is Renraku and I was able to quickly figure out the existing codebase, despite its current lack of documentation and comments, and contribute shortly after. I have used Python a lot, so I felt immediately at home with Boo's syntax, so maybe that had something to do with it, but the choice of using a really high level language to develop an OS is a good one, despite the obvious challenges to be overcome.

Renraku has come a long way in a very short time (now with the new design decisions, I expect development to progress even faster still, once the base infrastructure is in place) and I attribute this to Daekens decision to use a really high level managed language.
Hacklab.to's laser-cutter plays Mario Bros theme
3D Printers, mind controlled pong and other DIY projects with open source hardware on Webnation.tv.
True. Because it was designed for this kind of tasks.

That is true for almost every specialised hardware.

On the other hand, take a GPU fitted to the graphics card of your desktop. I suspect it will outperform Cray in this kind of task. Especially if one takes price into account.
I'd start a Bank.
Where's the story?
I have an SGI Indigo in my office. It's a paperweight now; 10 years ago it cost around $10,000 and was the CAD workstation to have.

Sigh. At least it's pretty to look at!
Well, for this hypothetical scenario, its for the ability to write all your code within the one language, but tuning each code block or abstraction to the particular problem being solved at that precise time.

In real life, you're right. It doesn't make sense to try and mash every language together just because. Its also potentially not possible anyway, since theres too many conflicting design decisions - though the ability to mold a language, through powerful abstractions and macros, like Lisp does, does indeed solve a lot of this.
Computer makers that want to succeed? I wouldn't buy a computer from someone that locks me into their product line for ALL my needs with that computer.
&lt;script type="text/jquery"&gt;
yes, properly sandboxing all of those languages would be quite a feat, amirite?

letting lots of people execute arbitrary code in lots of languages on your servers seems like a huge "what could go wrong here?" from a security perspective.
Thanks for your detailed response. I agree that smashing did a piss-poor job in presenting this stuff - but I think they linked to some examples that do it really well. You are 100% spot-on with the font size/color/weight stuff.

I think the idea with some of the posts is that it allows for random access rather than linear - and I think there is some value in exploring a page to see what it contains for some readers. Quality is still probably the most important aspect as you said.
Source: http://ejohn.org/apps/jquery2/parse.js
If it's diversity in operating systems you seek, get into networking or storage.
I'm caught in the middle of all this. I'm flying out to San Francisco connecting, of course, through Atlanta. It's definitely a madhouse, but mostly people are acting calm.

This is why when travelling cross-country or internationally I always give a full day for stuff like this.

Interestingly, CNN and Fox News are scanning for annoyed passenger tweets (they found mine) and have been contacting them for interviews for their reports.
Agreed.

It's not like emailing me a link to change my password isn't reasonably secure. And the site isn't keeping nuclear launchcodes - just my to-do list.
Everything is pretty much as efficient as vanilla nginx. There are some O(log(n)) lookups, but i've not noticed CPU usage hit anything even remotely suspicious (fixed bugs aside).

Memory usage for long-polling requests is regular nginx usage ("2.5MB for 10K idle connections"), + around a hundred bytes or so per ling-polling requests. A channel eats up about a dozen bytes.

The only limitation that one might run into is the maximum memory allotted for shared messages -- but that's a configurable value.
This is just another retelling of the "Four Horsemen of the Internet Apocalypse": Child Porn, Terrorism, Drugs and Identity Theft.

Absolutely no outgoing links to add verisimilitude, either. Bad PR person: no latte.
It won't compile ;) (no stdlib.h/string.h)

And it won't crash the server (at least... should not). There is a fixed limit on how much memory a process can allocate. This program will crash, but not because of malloc, just because the recursion gets too deep (stack overflow).
Gadget potpourri from CES preview in New York
PSD to HTML to Wordpress tutorial (2nd part: Slicing layer with effects)
Spectator Sport: Watching Google Lose China in Realtime
So, something like:
http://brad.livejournal.com/2357444.html
I would implement a "system" in the "franchise prototype" sense of the word that allows radiologists and cardiologists (they read nukes, echos, and CT's) to sit at any PC in the world and just analyze studies whenever they get a chance (or all day if that's what they want to do.)

I would use the rest of the money (there would be a LOT leftover) to send teams of techs with portable equipment to poor areas and then inject these studies into the radiologist's work queues so they get analyzed for free.

I think this could be a self-sustaining system where the profits from reading studies could pay for the charity work.
All the "OS"s in the article run GNU userland, X windows, webkit or gecko browsers. So yes they are the same operating system. They just have different applications in different configurations.

Android is it's own operating system. It has own user space and GUI technology. But the article didn't mention it.
Sounds like Asimovs 'Foundation'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series