skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The trader self-justification spiel is that traders provide liquidity; they tighten the spread, so you get a better price if you trade on the market.

However, the actual effect of arbitrage is to make things that are already reasonably liquid much moreso, which means that the benefit to buy-and-hold investors is low. Illiquid stocks are avoided by arbitrageurs (too risky). So the net benefit to society is nonzero, but minuscule. Plus, rich people are the biggest beneficiaries, which makes it even less appealing.

Trading isn't something you do to make the world a better place. On the other hand, it's one of the few high-paying finance jobs that doesn't make the world a worse place.
Facebook tracks actual activity, not just the tab being open, and they expose this to your friends by default: Facebook IM!

They know when you're sleeping
They know when you're awake
They know if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
Ask HN: Regression to the mean math question
This might be too off-topic, but just kill it if you think it is. Otherwise, here goes:

I have a question about regression to the mean.

Suppose you have a set of pairs (a,b) corresponding to students in a class. a = the student's score on the first midterm, b = score on second midterm.

If you plot the pairs with a on x-axis, b on y-axis, then get the least-squares line, you have an upward sloping line.

The line slope should be less than 1, indicating regression to the mean.

If you plot b on x-axis, a on y-axis, the slope is necessarily now greater than 1. But I fail to see what has changed in the analysis -- a and b are both just supposed to be samples from the same distribution, right?

This has been driving me crazy, so I'd love some help.

Thank you!
It's pretty well documented that value investing in general will beat the market over the long term.

See: The Super Investors of Graham and Doddsville
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Superinvestors_of_Graham-an...

How the Small Investor Beats the Market by Greenblatt, Pzena, Newberg (Journal of Portfolio Management, 1981)

More recently, James Montier has released research at Societe Generale reflecting the fact that Graham and Dodd-style investments also beat market averages.

The problem that arises nsoonhui is that most investors lack the emotional discipline which is necessary to invest in these types of companies, because of the psychological biases (people have a hard time embracing contrarianism, they usually cannot stomach the occasional stretches where value under performs the rest of the market, i.e.: dot com bubble). This is precisely why the law of large numbers has NOT set in. Many investors will pick up value investing and then drop it once it under performs. So, inefficiencies in markets continue to persist.
StackOverflow primarily exposes their addictive game-playing, not their communication skills. The rep/badge bullshit encourages inane responses, and the wiki aspects cover the tracks.
FWIW, Google does pretty much the same thing with weather searches.
Thank you! This is impossible to find!
Check out the comments. It seems like there's something going on with the new pricing.
Regression to the mean does not imply that the first slope should be less than one.

If for some reason only the above-average students regressed, then the slope would be <1. But regression to the mean also affects the scores of students who started below average; as a group we should expect them to regress upward toward the mean. Combine the two groups, and the effects exactly cancel out, leaving a slope of 1.

(Since you say the slope "should be" one, I assume the scores are normalized somehow so that the mean score for exam A is the same as the mean for exam B.)
Sometime ago I delete my facebook account. One of the primary reasons was the time wasted on it that could be better spent doing something productive. I was adding no value to my life by using it.
Yeah, I don't think even he wants to hire anyone managerial enough to love FogBugz for its own sake, much less anyone dull enough to use CityDesk.
Watch the video link posted by Ezra http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=973677 and you can see what they do with each slice.

They store it in a tray with square holes (all bunched up). Later they remove it, wash it, mount it on glass, and stain it. Then it goes under an automatic microscope that scans it.
I think Political Leadership allover the world want their voters to be subservient and they mask this is as Patriotism/Nationalism
He said "probably." And I for one agree that starting an internet company is "probably" better than what these people are doing.
> However, the cognitive load of this distraction is lower than that of having to remember keyboard commands.

I do not find this to be the case. But then, there are various keyboard commands, both in Vim and on the command line, that I do not really have to call to mind before using. I just type them when needed.

It’s really weird how that works, actually, how with many things (I’ve noticed this with GUI interfaces, too) the mind will learn it to the point where you don’t need the conscious part of you to be aware of it anymore.

So I think this is really about what we’re most used to, what our mind has adapted to. I feel very clumsy if I’m editing in something other than Vim, because that’s what I’ve adapted to.

For a time, I had gotten used to typing correct apostrophes and quotes ( ‘ ” “ ), such that I could no longer automatically type a ' or ". I had to think about those primes if those were what I wanted, although the quotes are certainly harder to type.

So what am I saying here? I guess I’m saying that we can’t rely on our own experience too heavily — whichever interface we find we have to think more to use may be far more natural for another, and all of that may be entirely irrelevant from an objective standpoint.
"Atoms are the new bits"
Scientists as Proxies for Political Battles (Climate)
You have to release data and methods that allow other people to recreate the research. (And, obviously, your colleagues are free to object that you haven't published enough, and to ask you for more.)

But that's not the same as releasing everything you ever write down to anyone who asks, which is what the original comment seemed to be suggesting.

The problem with your raw data is that, in the hands of an opponent, especially one who argues in bad faith, the word raw is quickly and easily filed off and it gets described as "your data", despite the fact that you threw it away and didn't publish it, presumably for a reason.

It's easy to make a scientist look ridiculous -- to a nonscientist -- by poking fun at their unpublished data, just as it's easy to make a great novelist look ridiculous by poking fun at their grocery lists, their kindergarten handwriting assignments, or their unpublished first drafts.
My girlfriend lives with a girl who works at that lab and is probably working on that brain right now. She's explained a lot of the process to me, it's pretty fascinating stuff. I think they save every 10 slices or so, and the brain has been being prepared for like 6 months so as to allow for them to do the slicing like they do. They then go on to create the slides that will be digitally archived for other labs to study.
Three Simple Rules for Stealing My Money
Kerja Keras Adalah Energi Kita Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I downloaded it for you. Give me an email address to send it to you.
A seasoned CLI user will trump a seasoned GUI user every single time for the majority of tasks.

Take a task like thumbnailing every image in a directory to a certain size. With CLI it's just looping over convert(1). With GUI you have to clicky-clicky to get to the directory, drill down to the options, swap to keyboard to enter sizes, etc.

Not to mention the richness of CLI options mean that an equivalent GUI offering would be insanely complicated. Try designing a GUI frontend for sed or awk. Or a file rename utility that matches Emacs Wdired mode in power and (interface) simplicity.

Configuration: changing a text file vs clicking on/off a checkbox. You can write a tiny script that flips options between two configs you like, versus more clicky-clicky. You can copy configs around, diff them, grep them.

tl;dr - yes CLI has more cognitive load (in that you need to be more familiar with your tools vis-a-vis GUI equivalents), but you get so much more in return.

EDIT: quick list of CLI utilities if anyone is interested

* feed reading: newsbeuter

* music playing: ncmpcpp+mpd

* irc/im: irssi+bitlbee

* torrents: rtorrent

* git browser/pager: tig

Many more here: http://cli.homelinux.net/CLIapps.html
Facebook is just the Solitaire of the younger generation. ;)
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/ has implementation of algorithms in all programming languages.
Alright, I get that it's cool to "lament the failings of the common man" or whatever you're doing here, but I'd like to point out that both Red Black trees and Strongly Connected Components are just SUPER trivial. In fact, most thing covered in CS classes are trivial. With the book and provided notes/slides, you should be able to do just fine.

Class time should be productive time. Work on something important instead of the low-bandwidth information exchange that is the lecture.
Google Vs Facebook : Fight for Web dominance
how is this different from a flat-twin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat-twin
According to Nielsen, the United States alone watches about 1.4 billion hours of television per day, so 3 billion worldwide is probably not too far off: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/nielsen-news/americans-w...

In fact, with India and China together having about 4 times as many TV households as the US, I bet the total is significantly higher than 3 billion hours, probably more like 10 or 20 billion (1/16 to 1/8 of humanity's time). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/business/yourmoney/11india...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.j...

1/5 of human life in the US is spent watching television. Probably around 5-10% of human life worldwide. Now that's cognitive surplus. Obligatory Clay Shirky link: http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/2008/04/looking-for...
Meant to add: Lua's not perfect, but its whole design favors embedding it in another language, so it's a hell of a lot better about gracefully getting out of the way when it's better to write the parts that matter in other languages.
Hit ^F7, or System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > Full Keyboard Access > All controls

You know how the default action in a dialog is a solid blue aqua button, and hitting enter presses it? When this preference is turned on, there's an additional blue tab-selection halo that fires its button when you hit spacebar, and it always defaults to the cancel/don't button.
>They're doing it to put the gmail logo on your fireplace mantle.

I'd buy the argument if I was allowed to send, say, ten of them instead of just one. One would think that, if the value of piquing the interest in GMail of my first choice recipient exceeded $0.25, then the value of sending a card to my third or forth choice would also have a positive ROI.
2-2.5% and a lowball salary is right. I would argue that folks are only getting more when the founders are weak in some area. If you are weak and the 1st emp is a sick engineer give whatever it takes to lock up the talent. Otherwise 2% and 50k is right.
How to choose your VOIP Service?
Are you planning to get your VOIP service? Getting a VOIP connection is indeed one of the best ways of saving money on your telephone bill. You will be able to get the maximum benefit from your VOIP connection only when you make the right choice. There are hundreds of VOIP packages available today from various service providers. You can easily get confused with all these options before you. Here are some tips on how to choose your VOIP service and package.
Preparing for UK DSA driving theory test
You need to pass your DSA theory test before you can appear for the driving practical test.
Once you have passed your driving practical test, you can complete Pass Plus course.
Pass Plus is a training course specifically aimed at new drivers. Statistics show that new drivers are more likely to have an accident in the first two years of passing their test due to a lack of driving experience - this is where Pass Plus comes in! The course aims to build upon your newly acquired driving skills and knowledge.

What is Pass Plus?

Pass Plus is a training course specifically aimed at new drivers, designed by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) with the help of insurers and the driving instruction industry. Pass Plus will build upon your existing skills and knowledge, it will teach you how to anticipate, plan for and deal with all kinds of hazards, and can help you to become more confident on the roads.

How much does Pass Plus cost?

Fees for the Pass Plus course will vary depending on where you live and the instructor or driving school you choose. You should bear in mind that the course will take a minimum of six hours, if more sessions are needed for you to successfully complete the course, this may add to the cost.
When you have successfully completed the course, you are advised to check available discounts offered by the insurance companies taking part in the scheme. The amount you save will depend on the company you choose, you may even save more than you paid for the course.

Pass Plus is made up of six practical modules which include:
•	driving in town
•	driving in all weathers
•	driving on rural roads
•	driving at night
•	driving on dual carriageways
•	driving on motorways

Anyone who holds a full UK licence is eligible to take part in the scheme. You will not have to take a test at the end of the course but you will be continually assessed. You must successfully complete all the modules in the course to an achieved or exceeded standard.

Are you preparing for driving theory test?

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Yes.

http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2009/11/youve-been-sho...

"SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) was the fictional artificial intelligence bad girl of the computer game System Shock who, once she was hacked and her ethical restrictions removed, destroyed or subverted all around her with the exception of her hacker."
One of the most depressing sights I see these days is lecture halls full of students on Facebook.

Ettercap, there's a plugin for that.
I don't think they're evil unless the taxpayers happen to be bankrolling their downside.
exploits != just low wages.

If I kidnap your children and force you to work for me -- Even if I offer to pay $1000/hour I'm still exploiting.

In general - "sweat-shops" with low wages are good for the people/country involved.

But any contract should be a two-way street. If I can't leave (see the international sex trade, immigrant workers in Dubai, etc) Or am being compelled to doing something I otherwise wouldn't - then that is an infringement of human rights.
Fiction or Nonfiction?
I'm sure that no more students care today than cared back in my day. Which is to say: At least half of them don't care.

But there's more to it than that. Lectures suck as a means of learning about red-black trees. Unless the lecturer is literally world-class, I can better spend my time by watching the world-class version of the lecture on iTunes U. Or by reading the best book on the subject -- books move faster than lectures, except when you need to slow down and think, in which case they obligingly slow down for you.

Of course, while lectures are a fairly low-efficiency way to learn many subjects, it is necessary to give them at least a little attention in order to learn about what will be on the specific test that the professor will give you at the end of the term. And, of course, some lecturers are world-class. If you find one, put Facebook away, for god's sake!
Super-Maps
Why is mapping so important again?
GitHub showcases communication skills via project documentation (the documentation for bottle[1] is great), commit comments (kangax[2] often has concise, prescient suggestions for changes), and the like.

[1] - http://github.com/defnull/bottle/
[2] - http://github.com/kangax
" are fundamentally a better input interface for expert operations than the mouse/trackpad/pointer (with a rasterised but basically more analog feel that makes me "look where I'm going")."

This is fundamentally incorrect. See the millions of Photoshop, Visual Studio, Notepad++, GEdit, Eclipse, Microsoft Office, Autodesk, Blender, Visio, Labview, Mathematica, Quickbooks, SAP, Oracle and other users of proprietary application-specific software. Do those users consider themselves to be experts? Do the accountants working at your company consider themselves to be experts? Do you really believe they would be more productive if they had to work in a terminal all day?

-------------

Um, isn’t that particular quote you have there about keyboards vs. mice, rather than command-line vs. GUI? (Next paragraph he talks a bit about one advantage of command-line, but it is a different point than this one).

Expert photoshop users rely quite heavily on the keyboard (keyboard shortcuts specifically), for many operations. The mouse is also used heavily, of course. The keyboard just can’t select portions of an image very effectively, or help you point at a pixel you want different, etc. Whenever I see a Photoshop expert do something to the image, though, they’ve used the keyboard, where beginner users (like me) just use the mouse.

For most of the others, I expect expert X users are similar to expert Photoshop users. Then there are the rest, which are very text-oriented and therefore mostly keyboard-driven by default.

On to the actual GUI-vs-command-line argument.

You say “The way this works in interactive GUI applications is that they provide input forms and status indications to communicate with the user.” His argument was that this is less straightforward than just typing the arguments next to the command. I do not think you have refuted his point.

The simple fact is that both interfaces have their places. I do a lot of work in both, and I think it will pretty much always be that way (for me).

I do not think text-oriented command interfaces will go away while we still read & write, though hopefully they will indeed become friendlier with graphical interfaces.
Please fix the "Brian Khernagin" ;) Other than that, a great list, and definitely bookmarked.
Heh the hazards of A/B tests... I often wonder what percentage of A/B test subjects casually use one anothers' computers and get confused/annoyed.
Roughly how many points does a recruiter get?
The percentages are out of control. 20-25% makes it really hard to even consider using recruiters. I only form relationships with some of them to get an agreement that they won't recruit from my firm.
I beleive that, even as the idealistic "curious scientist", one would have priorities. Perhaps it wasn't interesting enough compared to the myriad of other things one could be working on.
@jqueryin -- yes, that hack in that jquery-dev thread is now included in LABjs. So all we need is the updated jQuery 1.4 to come out, and we'll be all good. :)

And really, the point should be made that if you don't use jquery's $(document).ready(...) then there's no problem at all, you can load jquery with LABjs with no issues.
Intel sees rush to Netbook app store
As Google Backs Away From A Plug-in, Microsoft Rushes Towards One
V for Vendetta.
If a GUI tool is written where you can just select items in the explorer/finder, launch tool (from keyboard), enter thumbnail sizes, then GUI may win, since you won't have to switch from file browser to CLI in the first place.

Problem with GUI is that you need a new tool for each such task; we don’t yet have a generalized way of handling such things.
Maybe in some parts of the USA. I have a wooden dreidel on my desk. I grew up in an area with a moderately large Jewish population, and have long been interested in their culture and history.
That depends. Their profit comes from somewhere, and it's everyone else's trades. The average investor is giving the HF traders a few pennies on each trade.
I don't see a good reason why any of them had to go to Harvard to do that.

I truly doubt Zuckerberg would have been able to convince people from Harvard to use Facebook back in it's inception without being from Harvard himself. Harvard is a seed market because it's Harvard. Podunk state college is not a seed market because people back then would rather have used one of the better existing solutions such as Friendster back then.

The only reason that I and many others joined back then was because of it's exclusivity. We would have used Friendster, Livejournal, or maybe even joined Myspace for the sake of a superior product.I am quite confident that Facebook would have died in it's infancy had it been created in some state college.

The whole exclusivity in the beginning was the sole reason that it was able to make it this far.
That does not seem to be strictly foreclosed by the rules ( http://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/rules.aspx ), but there is this nice catch all clause which I suspect would come into play ("DARPA reserves the right to disqualify a participant whose actions are deemed to violate the spirit of the competition for any reason, including but not limited to, the violation of laws or regulations in the course of participation."). I do note that "[b]alloons will be in readily accessible locations, visible from nearby roadways and accompanied by DARPA representatives." I suppose you'd want to make sure to hard check the balloons and verify the representative part.
Classic 1950s Science Textbooks Get a 21st-Century Update
Take a look at the publication dates of those articles. 1981 and 1984. Right after the "U.S. is going to hell and stocks will never be a good investment" years of the 1970s, and right before the "If I put my money in a good mutual fund and leave it there, I'm guaranteed to make money!" years of the late 1980s and 1990s.

Any investment strategy becomes less useful when large numbers of people pile into it. They bid up the assets that the strategy dictates they buy, which raises prices and lowers returns. I ran some cross-market analyses of stocks in 2006 when I was working at a financial software startup. I found that basically everything was overvalued: there were no values to be had in the stock market at that time.

A true contrarian right now would hold cash, in the form of physical U.S. dollars. What's the one asset class that everyone is certain will decline? Cash. However, there're fairly good reasons why everyone thinks this, so even now the picture's pretty muddled.
The average mutual fund will not beat the market.
That domain is no longer the one indexed. It knows.
Twitter developers, entrepreneurs - meetup in SF 12/7, and NYC 12/10
MySpace Music goes live in the UK
The Delayed Job add-on used to be $15, and it included one worker. Now, under the new pricing it's gone up to $36/worker overnight. Heroku really charges a premium for their services, and things like this make me feel uneasy about relying on the service.