skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You could say it's like "Trust Allah, but tie your camel". http://www.google.com/search?q=trust+allah+but+tie+your+came...

But really it means when you delegate, do it thoroughly. Don't just say it once and assume it's done. Confirm that it's done. Set up a system to make sure that it's done.
I find it amusing that the IMF and economists for decades pushed emerging countries to "pay the interest on their debt, or else..." in order to keep rich countries growing, but now that the tables are turned they want the emerging countries to "stop growing"... ????
Those hacked climate e-mails: Good scientists, poor conspirators
San Antonio hopes Wi-Fi lures riders to buses
Newtongate: The final nail in the coffin of enlightenment thinking
You can be verifying that they did what you had in your head that they would do. It may be that you didn't communicate the task well enough so you're really verifying your message.
This is the exact phrase I encourage people to think about when I'm training!

Reagan made it famous, https://digitalcertificates.commerzbank.com/request
I expected a thought-provoking read, but instead I get the impression that the author doesn't really understand prototyping, or the design process in general. Maybe the end has some brilliant revelation that makes it all worthwhile - I wouldn't know because I stopped reading about a third of the way through.

A couple specific gripes:

* That hammer analogy is just awful. A paper representation of a hammer loses all functionality of a hammer. A paper representation of a website loses very little. Also, which would be worse - to draw a hammer for someone and have them say "why does the claw not have a space in the middle for a nail?" or to have them say that after you've spent a month creating your prototype?

* "According to studies by J.Nielsen, users don’t scroll... None-the-less, users scroll more than ever..." ...and so clearly Nielsen doesn't know anything. Except he has long since stated that his original scrolling findings are not nearly as true any more. Times changed and users started scrolling. Anyone repeating that trope is just out of date. Anyone like, say, this post.
Ban The Debugger
Oh, please. This is about as real as applied kinesiology.

If a facilitator is moving a vegetable's hand for him, isn't it obvious that it's complete bullshit?
I think that the main difference is that FreeBSD is an operating system and Linux is a kernel.

What would be an interesting comparison is the differences between Debian/kFreeBSD and Debian/Linux which is more apples to apples.
Root cause analysis by asking "Why" 5 times.
Brilliant. I need to do market research for a product, and as I'm an engineer, I did not know much what marketing is about. This and Steve Blank's writings are great.
Aol’s New Model: Fighting The Downward Trend
Youtube without flash
Sure. Plenty of people thought of it earlier. Just not in the West. In China, they used wooden movable type as early as 1040 CE. Shortly thereafter, they developed ceramic movable type. In 1234, Korea developed metal type through a variant on sand casting.

Gutenberg's breakthrough was his method for making metal type. That's why I gave tips for that transition. But even without it, you can use wooden type to start a society on the road to literacy.
Nice to see the language maintainers finally taking the weed-whacker to the syntax.

The collection literals are nice too, but why couldn't they infer the type from the following?

Map<String, Integer> map = {"key" : 1};

to make the syntax:

Map<> map = {"key" : 1};
The solution seems obvious to me:

Have only the most notable companies listed on the main Y Combinator page itself, then have a link to a List of Y Combinator-funded startups that lists every last one of them.
It's true that many young people don't care much about Shakespeare, but some people come around to reading him later in life, voluntarily. For my part, I haven't read much Shakespeare as an adult, but I have a poster about him and his language framed and mounted on the wall behind me... I mean, I now read a lot of stuff that I should (for want of a better word) have been reading in high school and college (and Shakespeare is part of that canon) and don't read much stuff I read when I was in high school. (It's true about the poster, though.)

Jackson's style of music isn't really my cup of tea, but maybe the former young people of the future will come around to him too, much as I came around to listening to the Beatles.
Cloud Peering: A map of cloud datacenters
Nairobi car hire, nairobi car rental on vi.sualize.us
Some of the points in this article are correct (e.g. UCD isn't applicable to every single design decision), but the main thesis depends on a couple of false assumptions.

He asks, "Which of the following ways would you think gave you the most valuable feedback?" He submits that almost everyone would agree the real hammer will provide more valuable feedback than the paper or foam ones. This part is true. The next statement is false. He states that UCD practitioners would have chosen differently had the product been a web site instead of a hammer. They would have chosen the paper prototype, he says. That's just not true. UCD advocates the use of paper prototypes, not because they provide more valuable feedback, but because they are much easier to build. This means that you can test more of them in a shorter period of time. That's a very important distinction.

His graph of the UCD process essentially depicts it as a waterfall process, where there are several design steps with big Implement and Deploy steps at the end. That's also usually far from the truth. UCD is very iterative and, if done correctly, involves launching early and using data from real-world usage at each iteration.

It's easy to criticize something if you fabricate its weaknesses. The title of this post is pretty ironic.
Phuby on Phails demo video from RubyConf
Trust now, verify later (that they are still worthy of your trust).
Sure. - http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2009/09/21/copying-y-combina...
John Arnold: the second-youngest self-made multibillionaire in the U.S.
You're not the only one, this inspired the Useless Use of Cat Award (a few other strange practices are covered here as well):

http://partmaps.org/era/unix/award.html
First, I would like to see an example of a rich iPhone webapp he has created (if any) to show off exactly how "native-like" it actually feels to use...

As for me, I have written an iPhone webapp which is located at http://tweetgrid.com/iphone/ (it is a twitter search app). I used the http://iwebkit.net/ framework (which is brilliant), but overall it was an exercise in frustration.

A few points:

1. You can create a webapp that will launch as an independent "app" if you save the page to your homescreen (i.e. it loads in a one-tab Safari "full-screen" mode, so no Safari navigation bars are displayed). As such, I built in some smarts that will actually detect whether the site is loaded from "normal" Safari or "app" Safari. If it loads in "normal" mode it shows some instructions about how to install the app on your home screen. If it loads from "app" mode those instructions are gone. I also use this mechanism to determine how many times the app has been "installed" onto phones. This is done server-side because I need to see the user-agent to determine this. This is where I ran into a huge issue with the Safari caching mechanism. I am not sure if it is part of the HTML caching spec, or something specific to Safari's implementation, but which ever page you use to specify the cache manifest file also gets cached even if that page is not specified in the manifest. This is idiotic. The only logical place to put the manifest reference is in the "home" page where the app loads. This means that any updates to the page won't be seen for a long long time (if ever). This also subverts my normal-mode/app-mode logic because the home page doesn't ping the server when it loads. Ultimately I had to do away with most of the caching in order to regain the other functionality. This means that everything loads very slowly compared to a native app.

2. The average user doesn't understand "webapp." When somebody hears "app" and "iPhone" they immediately go search for it on the AppStore app. There is no realm of understanding about webapps. Finding (and installing) webapps is hard. "Open Safari, type in this URL, click the plus sign to create a bookmark or add it to your homepage..." is orders of magnitude harder for Joe Public than "search for XYZ app, and click Install." You don't even need to say "open the AppStore" because that's already implied. I would get complaints from users saying, "I can't find TweetGrid in the app store!!!" Then I had to politely tell them that, "No, it's not a native app, you need to load it in Safari and save it to your home screen..." which just caused more confusion.

3. PPK speaks of interoperability of webapps, but he also talks about using iPhone specific javascript APIs to access hardware on the iPhone... once you head down this path, you can't really call it interoperable anymore, imho.

I didn't even deal with the payment stuff with my webapp because I made it free, but that would be a huge pain.

Conclusion: I am learning Objective-C with reckless abandon.
I'm beginning to wonder more and more whether Duby might be a bright future for writing code for the JVM.

http://kenai.com/projects/duby

It uses Java types, doesn't need a runtime, and most interestingly, has a pluggable compiler. The Ruby-like syntax may not be to everyone's taste, but it's nicely compact.
No argument there, but the discussion involved software engineers and our job in general. We'd best stay on topic.
And the amusingly titled but provocative Turn Signals Are The Facial Expressions Of Automobiles.
Cool.

But why?
While I disagree with you about capitalism, I think this concept of "the means justify the ends" is a very interesting one. It seems to be providing a name for a problem that befalls people on both sides of the political spectrum - following an ideology to its logical conclusion, regardless of its actual effects on the world.
I guess because it's more popular there? Like Opera[1] or ICQ[2].

[1] http://www.google.com/trends?q=opera

[2] http://www.google.com/trends?q=icq
Rogue Amoeba leaving, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=940689 got 105 points and 72 comments. The resolution, admittedly less than half assed, scores 7 and no comment after 22 hours?

To summarize the resolution: The app is in and can display little pictures of the sound source programs' icons. Rogue Amoeba still does not consider the AppStore compatible with professional software and no longer targets the iPhone.
Yes, software can possibly be engineered.

It comes down to there being an objective, complex or sufficiently interesting, and usefully applicable material at the base. Software has this, it is just abstract: instead of atoms, it is bits and operations.

A 'material' means understanding, and rules, can be formed. Instead of force mechanics, software has algorithmic complexity. Sorting's lower bound of O(n log n) would be an example of basic knowledge. Of course, with only 50 years history, understanding of software's material is immature, and there is much to be discovered. But merely assembling pieces in regular, predictable ways, is sufficient for a simple kind of engineering status.

Engineering seems often conflated with process. But this misses the essentials. Process is only support. It doesn't tell you about the material, or about design. It only helps you be better organised in what you can already do. Buildings don't stand up because the designers rigidly followed a process, they stand up because there is an understanding of how forces work in structures (etc.).

In a large, industrial, sense, software engineering lacks in certain ways, in certain areas. But at the core, it is essentially engineering.
I thought it had a good effect with the Turing apology. It's hardly likely a Prime Minister would resign based on an online petition though.
I quit Joost to join Cloudkick in August. I was originally working on the P2P team (working on the code that the whole Skype Lawsuit is about), but after we changed to flash based, I worked on http based content distribution and the webapp.

Joost certainly was a ride as an employee at times, there were massive mistakes in Technology (RDF?, P2P?, server side javascript anyone?), and Management Team (read the depositions from the closed lawsuits, the Mike as CEO was making deal to buy Skype while laying off Joost Employees).

I personally saw much more of the faults in content acquisition. Once Hulu struck deals with most of the major premium content providers, nothing could compete. And without high quality content, there was nothin you could do on the site to make up for it

Even today, YouTube is locked out of the content by Hulu.
I also could have done without the official "BIOINFORMATICS POLICY OF INDIA" section...
This is rediculous. GA is simply a log of ip addresses that request data from your server. Its no different than a hotel keeping a guest log.

If you weren't explicitly giving away you ip address, there's no way the server could send you data.
Very nice. I'm not sure what your revenue model is going to be nor how it compares other document sharing platforms like Slideshare or Scribd or whatever is comparable (I don't find myself using that sort of service often), but I really like the simplicity. I found it intuitive and easy to use.

One thing I noticed, it didn't seem to accept the new Microsoft Office formats (pptx vs. ppt), which may create a problem for you eventually.

Also, in addition to PDF I think it would be useful for you to offer Word (doc/docx) sharing. I imagine many potential users would be more likely to have a Word doc than a PDF to share, and may find it difficult to convert to Word document to a PDF file.

Personally, I may be more likely to use a service like this if (a) I could establish a password to protect viewing the file, in addition to the obscure URL and (b) I could offer the people I share it with the option of downloading the source file directly, rather than just viewing it online.

PS: I don't think I'll find that name (doxela) memorable.
I would teatch them to learn from different cultures, I think it was a waste of time destroy everything they found in each civilization they conquered like Incas, Mayans and other civilizations in europe. Probably there were a lot a writing documents that would be very useful to our society today.
Ask HN: Is RAII sufficient for memory management?
In C++ the RAII idiom is common for managing memory. Any resources(such as heap memory or files) needed are acquired in the constructor of an object and releases in the object's constructor. Since stack-allocated objects destroyed automatically upon leaving scope this ensures that the resources are released.

Are there any memory management scenarios for which this is insufficient and for which garbage collection is necessary?Are there any other memory management techniques(other than GC, RAII, or manual memory management) which would be more effective for those scenarios?
First, I think just based on your description you are indeed asking a lot of the user. For our service, we simply ask the user to vote up or down a piece of content and our dataset is pretty sparse. Users like to consume-they don't have any interest in helping you tune your algorithm.

With that said, now let's address the algorithm. You're using SVM? Is that quick enough? Are your recs computed offline? To be honest, you don't really need SVM or any complex technique to do recommendations well. You can get by just fine doing hand selected recs even though that might not scale well. To scale you can use something like Pearson correlation or naive Bayes and you'll do just fine.

With recs it's all about the quality of data and not so much the fancy algorithm.
yeah I understand that, but the thing is that Mint didn't really have competition when they started. So they wrote their own ticket.

If you try to go after Mint now, coming out with just one bank and a crappy design won't get you anywhere.

Sure you can release, but you won't get the right level of adoption, until you catch up to your competitors.
It's a really bad way to say something that's obviously true. It's a bad way to say it because it sounds and feels paradoxical, so it often gets dismissed by people who know how to think, and think they know what it means.

It really comes down to one of the fundamental components of management - communication - which isn't one way.

Communication requires saying things, then confirming that the message arrived without distortion. Further, when this communication is delegation, part of the message should be that you get a message back when it's done. Not least, the delegation should contain a clear statement (verified by having repeated back to you) of what it means for the task to be completed successfully.

Let them do the work, then get confirmation that it's been done. Trust that their statement that it's done is truthful.
MongoDB Aggregation I: Counting and Grouping
Verification doesn't have to be about trust. It's a feedback loop.

When delegating work, I always trust the people I delegate to. However, I verify what's done in order to make sure we're on the same page in terms of how things got done, and even to make sure that I communicated what I needed done effectively.

You can distrust and verify as well, but you're verifying for different reasons.
Autism treatment: Science hijacked to support alternative therapies
The Unlikeliest Freedom Fighters: Microsoft and News Corp
Thanks for the info! One question: would it be possible to release a web app as a "normal" app, too? Like submit the "app Safari" version to the app store or something like that?
How is the link related to your comment?
"On reentry, you’ll be able to hear the distinct pings of single molecules of helium and hydrogen hitting the carbon-fiber vessel as it begins to encounter the atmosphere."

Is that true? If so ..... wow.
Not EU, this is how Europe works (certain parts of it at least, and certainly where I live). There is a certain political culture in european states that causes a sense of unease when anything of no trivial size is not "regulated". The "regulation" instinct is almost theological, it does not stem from problems or desired results or policies. When something important is not "regulated" somehow, it is perceived as potentially dangerous.
Ask HN: Feedback on my startup (iPhone related)
Hi HN -- Long time listener, first time caller. (Been busy coding!)

Would love the HN community's feedback on my new site, Apptizr. It's a recommendation engine for iPhone applications that's currently in private alpha.

It learns a bit about you, then suggests iPhone apps that it thinks you will like. You can fine-tune the recommendations by giving it thumbs-up and thumbs-down feedback on the suggestions it makes. By default, it will email you new suggestions every week.

If you have the time/interest, I'd love your feedback. www.apptizr.com/invite/vip, code 'HackerNews' (no quotes)

Thanks!
Clickable link: http://www.apptizr.com/invite/vip code 'HackerNews'
Reid Hoffman on Entrepreneurship
Living without money
Regarding "Editor redirection": why should we complicate ourselves with /etc/alternatives when the EDITOR and VISUAL environment variables can be used?
So maybe the point is to find a small enough niche where you have little competition, and build something that fills that tiny niche/solves that core problem very well (and nothing more). And you can expand from there with features, etc. to build a big company?

I don't know, but that makes a lot of sense to me...
I understand the difference, which is why I said 'lower resolution, spatially and dynamically'.

Are you saying definitively that chrominance is not encoded at lower spatial resolution?

I also said it might be another cause of difference, not the cause.

Anyone might want to look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4:2:2 before simply assuming I am talking nonsense.
To make ruby programmers feel uneasy. ;-)
How do you know it isn't a Map<Object, Object>? ;-)

It's kind of trivial in your example, but with complex objects that implement a lot of interfaces it isn't as obvious what the programmer means.
> How many software engineers are willing to make their careers dependent on the correctness of their code?

You're assuming that correctness is binary. It isn't.

If you prefer, math is the only opportunity for binary correctness. Everything else is "how likely is undesired behavior" and even that is non-trivial.

Every software engineer's career depends on whether her code satisfies the likelyhood for her circumstance.

How do I know this? Because folks whose code doesn't satisfy the relevant likelyhood get fired (or at least moved to other activities) or their company loses the biz.

Yes, software fails. If certain failures (or their likelyhood) of certain software is a problem for you, stop using it and stop paying for it.

Many software failures simply aren't worth what it would cost to fix them.

No - you're not entitled to software that has the likelyhood of failure that you'd like for the price that you'd like to pay.
Also a great way to distinguish good programmers from bad.

If they can't explain a phenomenon beyond "when I do <x> it works/breaks/quacks like a duck" and are satisfied with that level of understanding, that's a massive red-flag.

This is a very efficient way of picking out even the young guys & gals who will end up being good engineers.
Virtualize securely in the cloud
Simple LinkedIn companyinfo deployment from hover.in for blogs/sites
An e-peititon is going to do nothing. This nonsense distracts people from actual effort and helps bills like this get passed.

If you want to make an impact, the minimum you should do is write a letter to your MP, on paper, sign it and send it to them by post. Letters and phone calls (but particularly letters) are the currency your MP uses to gauge public opinion. Use them.
Google's New Flu Shot Finder
Excellent, excellent. Could this be applied on a wider scale, or would the loss of novelty dull the effect on students?
RAII doesn't provide an obvious, simple way to release memory in the presence of cyclic references. You may be able to use weak references to fix this, but that requires the programmer to notice the problem and explicitly specify the solution. Automatic GC takes the burden off the programmer in this case. (On the other hand, RAII provides for greater control, and works for resources other than memory too. Both techniques are useful tools.)
In Russian, "trust but verify" is not a paradox but a wise saying. I think all cultures have something similar, maybe not so succinctly put.

I think it simply refers to avoiding micromanagement but still checking the validity of results.
This is one of several ways to do self-promotion. Zeldman is one of those who curates projects and links to other sites. But for every curator, there are dozens of artists.

I work mainly in the data visualization realm, where sites like FlowingData and DataVisualization.ch act as curators. They have solid brands, sure, and everyone knows them, but there are so many other designers, artists, hackers, etc that form the base community from which those sites pull their content.

Zeldman is right that there are a lot of spammy linkrolls and Twitter feeds that simply link/retweet without adding additional value. Frankly, we could use less of those, and more people with original thoughts to add to the conversation. So I have to disagree with this point of Zeldman's article and say instead: curate if you must, but be sure you're adding value to the conversation.
Emacs Go-mode
As a Myers-Brigg-identified extrovert I object to being labeled in this way. I find these sweeping generalizations to be invalid and divisive.

I think before I speak - and I certainly do not use out-loud speech as my reasoning playground. Broad brushes like these really should be avoided.