skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> What I'd like to see are new STUDIES about open offices

The article we're discussing mentions multiple studies...beyond that there's a great New Yorker article[1] from last year that references a number of studies. This blog post[2] links to a couple others and addresses costs/alternatives.

A "study of over 40,000 survey responses collected over a decade has found that the benefits for workers are quickly outweighed by the disadvantages"[3]. A Washington Post article[4] on office furniture designers realizing (citing multiple studies) "open-plan spaces are actually lousy for workers." And a TIME article[5] highlighted decades of research that associated open layouts with "greater employee stress, poorer co-worker relations and reduced satisfaction with the physical environment."

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/currency-tag/the-open-office-trap

[2] http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-flo...

[3] http://theconversation.com/open-plan-offices-attract-highest...

[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/04...

[5] http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/15/why-the-open-office-is-a-ho...
SAP star building in Germany headquarters are a good example of what to do with office spaces:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gOgdHlT33Jo/TQ7zXFqaxjI/AAAAAAAAAJ...

http://www.mz-web.de/image/view/2012/4/23/17117282,16301136,...

http://www.donfeidner.de/assets/images/P1000400_SAP_Star_Bui...

The wings have offices which can sit 6 to 8 people and at the center there are the meeting rooms, restrooms and lunch area.
I'd further add that "agile" workspaces reminds me of sweatshops in India. It makes other "open" office plans look appealing. It puts the open concept on a gradient much to your point.
>With that setup I can't hear anything to the point where I get scared shitless if someone disturbs me.

Solution for this was proposed in Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Engineers were working in big room, but they were so focused, guests had to use special protocol: stand beside desk and wait quietly until you are noticed.
This is very true.

I recently left a position as a developer where I may have been considered irreplaceable by some. I had worked with some systems and websites for so long I became a fixture of this organization.

When opportunities and change were presented to me from higher-ups in my organization my direct supervisors took it upon themselves to do everything in their power to prevent it. It wasn't pretty, there was plenty of drama, guilt, and even some underhandedness. Needless to say I found a new position ASAP.

In my new position I'm replaceable. I believe that if I left today someone could take my place relatively easily. However, I'm much happier and it's refreshing to feel like I have mobility in my career again.
Right after we fix the NFL and MLB.
WWDC 2015: Everything we think we know about iOS 9
It depends on the market conditions. If you are the only player you should spend your time investing so when the competition comes out with pointy sticks they can't get through your electrified Graphene perimiter.

If you don't then there is a risk you get iPhoned, Facebooked, Googled etc.
50% failure rate is probably pretty normal for a form asking for SSN, name, address, and birth date - I fail my bank's security questions at least 1/3 of the time because things like "Anywhere Street" and "Anywhere St" are not the same.
Ross Ulbricht to judge: “Please leave me my old age.”
>Is it suddently OK to say such things?

Only in reference to white people.
I don't think that what he was saying at all. There's a whole world of difference between if we should be teaching kids to code at 11? And calling it a joke.

It could be argued that kids should be receiving a liberal arts education at that age and not hard job skills. Education for educations sake, and inciting curiosity.

Not that I agree with him.
I fully agree. I currently work for a startup and after we moved into a new office last month our management had the glorious idea of putting the programmers next to the customer support team in an open office :/

It's horrible - I have to endure the customer support calls the whole day long and can't find even 5 min. in silence, in order to concentrate on the programming tasks I'm supposed to do. I tried putting on headphones and listening to white noise etc., but that doesn't cut it either. I need silence to work efficiently and it's been that way ever since I cam remember. My productivity has absolutely tanked in the open office and coming this Friday, I will quit the job and spend the coming weeks getting back into self-employment and working from home.
> I find it hard to grasp why any intelligent individual who knows what goes on with Facebook would still voluntarily remain on Facebook.

Why not? Keeping up with friends and family is extremely efficient, due to FB's algorithms giving me the most relevant content. There are many great products that the FB platform has to offer and it is the reason I don't need the more trendy social networks, a la Instagram/Snapchat.

Facebook Messenger is a fantastic product and it is the main communication platform that I use on a daily basis (you can easily send photos and files). Facebook Groups makes communicating within a group a lot nicer, since you can selectively choose notifications (where you can't on a normal mailing list).

Facebook events is great for inviting people to parties, social gatherings, study groups, etc. and you can invite by group.
So little they even wrote a book about it.

Violence and the Euro 2004, in Portuguese.

http://ielt.fcsh.unl.pt/ielt/pt/acontecendo/no-passado/132
I don't think that is fair to Science. They did not say what you said, and they are a group, so it's reasonable to expect them to take time to deliberate.
We need more control because of fear.
Yeah but still. Yawn.
I think anyone who has programmed for a medium- or large-sized organization will be familiar with the experience of getting a stupid technical directive from above (e.g. "this part must be XML") and treating it as an obstruction to be worked around (while technically abiding by the letter of it). It's not an undefined state, it's just a case where the rule is unhelpful.
Sony Buys a Facebook Spinoff to Give New Life to Blu-ray
Better Environment, Better Team – How  Changing Conditions Can Solve Problems
Do Rust newbies also complain about the lack of exceptions like in Goland (myself included even understanding their reasons..) ?
If you don't like this article, why not go start your own website or find a new website to read? There's nothing forcing you to stay on this website.

Or maybe there is more to consider than just one issue, but it's still worthy of criticism? Maybe an job can offer great benefits, exciting challenges, a valuable product and great coworkers but still have room for improvement in the office layout. Your solution to that situation would be "shut up and quit" over "raise awareness of the issue to improve things for everyone"?
Dell Ventures and Intel Capital Invest $45M in DocuSign
Interesting read. I have a somewhat provocative question currently roaming trough my mind - you said that you "really appreciate the opportunity this country gave" to you (which is nice, BTW, but that's from a patient frame), considering now all what you've paid and what you're giving (i.e. from an actor frame), do they deserve you?
NY State school libraries fund flexible software
Meetup seems more oriented towards public events. I'm not offering an open invitation for random folks to come see [band], I'm trying to arrange it with these specific named friends. Who are already my friends on facebook (which is not to say we couldn't equally well become friends on meetup, but does it even have that functionality?).
The Japanese Workers Who Live in Internet Cafes
Spain actually ruined their economy by doing so.
These combos are called "structured products"
Apple Surpasses Google to Reclaim Title of World's Most Valuable Brand
The power given to the mining industry in Australia has really poisoned the country in more than one way.

My friend studying in Australia ( Perth ) constantly complains about how his only option is to work for some mining company as Australia has no viable industry outside of it.

Its great if you want to get into mining though.
Building the optimal user database model for your application
Indie Online Pixelart RPG with for PC and Mobile
Fair enough. I think other people tend to be happier with an "overflowing inbox" than I am; I ruthlessly prune mine (e.g. I don't sign up to mailing lists) to the point where any email should be important enough to interrupt me. And I find it particularly infuriating to keep getting emails about this cool party if I can't make it. But maybe that's just me.
Here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2013.871...

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

But seriously, how can NOT putting large number of people together for long times not cause diseases? That's one of major reason flu starts during the winter...
Didn't you get the memo? It got revamped into Go after a conversation with Oberon-2. :)
> an average IQ of about 112

I am very curious about the new indian elite white collar crime rates. It seems like most of the time I see a headline about a bust of medicare/medicaid scams or insider trading. Then you get multiple anecdotes of guys like Vinod Khosla trying to steal a beach. Cheating and bribery is certainly rampant in india. IQ ain't everything, you know.
iOS 8.3 Interactive Transition Bug
Let Rural Housing Service Provide Direct Endorsement Authority to Lenders
We had an IT candidate with the same problem. Extremely strong interpersonal skills allowed him to skim past the first three interviews, but couldn't get past "how do you view the IP of your computer" in the technical interview.

And he also got really mad at the interviewer for daring to ask the question. Amazing what you can get away with if you have strong interpersonal skills and no sense of morals to hold you back.
Indians in the UK are similar - tend to be high achievers, middle-class, model minority etc.

In fact, perhaps even more so, because a big proportion of the British Indian population were the professional class ejected from East Africa by people like Idi Amin.
Not Exactly the Best Place to Put a ‘For Sale’ Sign…
Where does slavery exist in the US? You know we had a war about that an all... It didn't end up super well for the slavers.
Who Needs Architects? – Monoliths as Systems of Stuff
> I talked to several lawyers and all of them told me that I’d get into trouble if I incorporate a company in the US

Wow, I never knew that. I would never have expected it to matter, since you can incorporate a company in the US while not being in the US, no problem.
Awesome job! If you haven't already submitted this to hackaday then you really should: http://hackaday.com/submit-a-tip/
Even more ironic is that these 2/3rd gen Brits are not to keen on the newer Eastern European immigrants.

I remember being a bit shocked by one of my school mates (on of the Ugandan Asians expelled by Amin) saying that he could understand voting for the BNP.
Convert a File to directory
Mechanical keyboards? Luxury. Most (all?) places cheap enough to go with open offices give everyone cheap rubber dome keyboards.
> The same package cost ESPN just $100 million for the previous two World Cups, in 2010 and 2014

It's clear the TV broadcasting price has jumped rapidly over the years. You can't compare the current revenue with a future deal. 100 million over two world cups is still a tiny portion compared to 2.4 billion in one world cup.
As other users said, It depends on what would be the purpose of learning it. I'm currently consuming data from different API's and currently using Python. So the next step is learning Java and some Apache technologies: Kafka, Hadoop, Storm which are built in it.

I also will need to code a native mobile app and Java is the language of choice for Android.
Ask HN: A coding test or working for free?
I recently interviewed for a company called Rxdata.net here in New York.

The task was a data ETL problem transforming natural language text into specific parts of data. I opted to use pyparse to create a working recursive descent parser to pick out the relevant bits of text.

At this point I was wary of completing the parser for all cases found in the database table, so I decided to build it only for a few base cases which I threw in to a unit test. I reasoned I could still demonstrate my skills without giving them much free work.

The solution worked well, and I submitted it to Joe, the CTO, for review. A few hours later Joe contacted me complaining that the code crapped out after trying to run the code against their database table. He then offered me a github branch to continue work on the problem. I sent them the nicest e-mail I could muster explaining that I felt the code adequately demonstrated my skills and that the error is due to the parser not handling all cases of the problem text.

Joe's responded with "I am only trying to evaluate your work, not on just how the code looks, which is clean and well organized, but that it works correctly on the data as well. I asked advice since the program crashed on the 5th package, which didn't give me enough data to verify, and I wasn't sure if it was just a system-related issue or something quickly fixed."

Lastly I responded with "Sorry for any confusion, I was just giving you a sample of my work. The system error you mentioned is a result of the code being a sample. The cases that do work are found in the test."

Naturally they haven't gotten back to me, even though my code more than adequately met the challenge. Perhaps Joe the CTO did not understand that the other cases would be trivial to implement. In that case, perhaps I've dodged a bullet. A CTO should know better.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences. How did you handle it? How did the interviewers respond?
No because Rust offers a more natural way to deal with them, instead of ifs everywhere.

Also known as railway programming in FP circles.
Building better assistive technology with open hardware
You might wanna checkout out my recent project if you're using Git: https://github.com/timeglass/glass - fully automated using git hooks and file monitoring and 100% offline, no account required
Could it also be what was in the food then versus now? But the portion size is a big factor.
Ask HN: I hate my new job, Need some advice
I'm a PHP developer with about 3-4 years experience , living and working in UK,
About 2 months ago i had to move to Manchester, because of a personal situation, so i had to leave my job ( which i regret now ), I was the lead developer of a high exposure web application and i enjoyed what i was doing over there , architecture design, coding, testing, monitoring ..., I was really motivated, keep myself updated everyday, learning new things everyweek and use them in projects right away.
Anyway when i moved to Manchester i had many job offers ( hard to find developers in UK i guess ) but i accepted a digital agency offer ( without actually knowing what i have to do everyday ) , Salary is about average ( £26k ) but i don't like my job at all, creating pointless websites for clients, jumping from Magento to Wordpress to Drupal and now, I'm not only developer, I have to do some designing ( which isn't my thing ) and integrate them into CMSes.
I'm doing the junior developer's job now and its hurting me, I feel pain everyday i want to go to work, and i just want to kill time to finish the day and count the days waiting for weekend to come ...
I know I should have done more research before joining this company, its my own fault to put myself in misery, I feel bad for this guys , They have probably spent a few grand for recruitment agencies fees to hire me and if I want to leave them and it takes them another month or two to find a replacement for me.
I have good amount of job offers , But I don't know what do to now, I hate my job and I feel bad to leave them, What would you do if you were in my place ?
Not a single mention of Norton Commander in that entire article. For shame.
Wow, I was just in France last month and visited the Douaumont ossuary near Verdun. The whole area is eerie. The landscape is just as shown in those photos. It looks like a moonscape. Just driving along, you see craters and hills on both sides of the road. Metal still sticking out randomly. Decaying bunkers all around.

The ossuary itself was an incredible place (120,000 buried there). For those of us not from Europe, it was a lesson in the horrors of WWI that was present for the residents of the continent that has no equal in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douaumont_Ossuary
Hotels can do that because their revenue is directly dependent on the quality of their rooms. No hotel can sell rooms without windows, so every hotel has to invest in architecture that gives every room a window--either through exterior convolutions, or a giant hollow atrium to soak up useless interior space.

This is not true of other businesses. A software company makes no money at all from its architecture, so it can gain a competitive advantage by making more dense use of its available office space.

Also: who wants a meeting room or common area with no natural light?
For me Python's only purpose in my workflow was scripting, I never considered it for application development.

Nowadays that scripting urge is covered by Powershell/F# on Windows and OCaml/F# on GNU/Linux.
Agree with all of it except the end. Don't fall for the "work from home" bit. Sure there is privacy, but it's also isolating and destroys the primary barrier to working around the clock.
A great example of how to take something someone said and make an almost completely BS article from it in order to generate links.

Here is the ACTUAL QUOTE:

"Let’s just understand exactly what the Leader of the Opposition has asked. He said that he wants primary school kids to be taught coding so they can get the jobs of the future. Does he want to send them all out to work at the age of 11? Is that what he wants to do? Seriously? Seriously?"

He didn't say coding was a joke. He simply seems to think that it doesn't need taught to someone that isn't going to take a job that needs it and that at 11 years old your career isn't a concern. Understandable. Maths and English will be required no matter what you go in to. Coding not so much. Coding will teach you useful skills of course but imo you already get these through things like Maths which has a wider application for everyone. Especially for primary school aged kids.
I think it's possible that some form of 'digital literacy' might make sense for all to learn in school, although I'm skeptical of our (US) school system's ability to execute it well.

I'm a software engineer, and I don't believe that "coding" is a necessary specific skill for all people to learn. I certainly believe that lots of people could learn it, love it, and benefit from it, but to declare it specifically as a skill that every last person must have seems like too broad of a position to take to me. I think we should present it positively as a choice for those interested and inclined, and let the students decide how interested they are.

When you let students decide for themselves, it's remarkably transformative. There is a lot of hand-wringing, but it appears they make reasonable decisions, and importantly they are suddenly hugely invested in learning and their future. They feel in control. It helps make learning fun, as it should be. Instead of dictating choices, perhaps we should let the 11 year old decide. Many of them may choose code, even at 11 or earlier. Others will choose what is right for them, and when.
Also recently discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9472409
If you're using git: https://github.com/timeglass/glass
Well, first I wondered, but the key sentence to this article is this:

> "if the Labor party should win government they would introduce coding and digital technologies training in Primary Schools"

Opposition to that plan is understandable I think...

"Technologies training" in primary school is not necessary, and i doubt that it will be of any benefit. If I would have been confronted with "computer tech"-courses in primary school, I sure-as-hell would not have developed any enthusiasm for this topic in the first place...

(Most) kids at that age lack the ability of abstraction that is nessesary to understand this topic.
I'm pretty sure there is something like this generating fake ad impressions on the routers used by Time Warner Cable. I constantly see what appears to be fake user agents with screen resolutions that don't match hitting our ads to the tune of tens of thousands per day (if not more).
I honestly respect the power and rapid development of Rust but I think that Nim (http://nim-lang.org) is a much better alternative to Python than Rust, as its syntax and "feeling" is much closer to Python, and also the productivity level. In Nim I get things done much faster than in Rust. Nim is easy to learn but Rust requires a certain amount of knowledge and experience for good productivity.

I consider Nim the "better Python", and Rust the "better C++".
It's a total waste of resources, energy, money... they're single-use stadiums. Most will go derelict after the tournament ends.