skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
While incapacitation is a valid need, the current American justice system appears to completely disregard the possibility of rehabilitation, especially for non-violent/victimless crimes. Incapacitation isn't so important when rehabilitation is possible, and accepting the lack of supernatural free will should help with acceptance of rehabilitation.
We can't since the OP would like us to first solve the "ageing problem" before anything else. But I suppose war wouldn't easily nullify your potential of advanced age if you close your eyes hard enough? Perhaps those living on $2/day will be comforted by the fact that they can continue to do so for another 150 years.
Great summary of your architecture. Thanks for sharing!

A few questions:

- Is everything in the same datacenter or in different datacenters? What happens if the datacenter is unavailable for some reason? Are data replicated somewhere?

- You moved from 2 machines to at least 10 (at least 2 load balancers, 2 front ends, 1 MySQL master, 1 MySQL slave and 2 pairs of fileservers). That's a lot more. Do you need more machines because you need more capacity (to serve the growing traffic) or just because the new architecture is more distributed and requires more machines by "definition"?

- I understand the standby fileservers are idle most of the time: reads go the active fileserver, only writes are replicated to the standby. Am I understanding correctly? If yes, it looks like a "wasted" capacity?
Here's just one article I found real quick that cites many examples.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/world/americas/03iht-slave...

The term mostly used nowadays to describe the selling of people is "human-trafficking" even though human trafficking is a little bit broader category. Its common for organized crime to deal in human trafficking.
Apple controls everything in their walled garden.

Android controls next to nothing - so you can pass the buck pretty well.
Seems pretty straightforward to me actually
Here's the thing, though: they absolutely could do that without the user knowing (I'm sure plenty of companies do). By showing the location information to everyone, it makes this much more readily apparent to users and gives individual users way more information than is necessary. If Facebook wanted to get your location data through Messenger, they absolutely could do that fairly easily without notifying all of your friends of your whereabouts with every message.

Honestly, and maybe I'm in the minority, showing that information readily to my friends is MORE of a red flag than if Facebook solely had that data. Because let's be honest... they already have that data from my usage on the FB app (albeit at a lower frequency).
SnappyDB – NoSQL database for Android
In Finland the social security services subsidize private psychotherapy for up to three years by roughly 40 euros per visit (typical therapist's fees are 60 to 90 euros per visit.) It's not an automatic benefit, and it's reevaluated every year, but it's pretty cool.
I somehow ended up with a manual for Mandriva long before I had a machine of my own or that someone would let me install Linux on - I read it thoroughly hoping to learn everything I could about *nix. I never did end up using Mandriva, but it still feels like my first distribution... Sad, in a way, to see it end.
Yeah I figured I would be off by a fair bit off when it came to the income tax math. I'm not sure whether there would additionally be some tax burden due to NY state income tax and NY city income tax. You're right that $2000 is huge to a minimum-wage earner -- that's almost 11% more disposable income.

On the flip side, minimum-wage earners are more likely to be employed part-time instead of full-time, but only 10% and 2% respectively of those groups are paid minimum wage or below, so it's pretty tricky to come up with a good estimate here.[1]

My main goal was to illustrate that the poor spend disproportionately more of their income on basic needs compared to the middle class, and inspire some empathy when we discuss the economics of poverty.

[1] http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2013.pdf
It's just an extension of the fact that life seems unfair to the poor.

Having less money means that you end up with lower quality food, water, air, sanitation, housing, education, medical care, legal representation, law enforcement, transportation and probably a dozen other things that didn't immediately come to my mind.

Societal problems don't spontaneously develop overnight and it won't be quick or easy to address them without causing a lot of other problems.

Still, we should be aware of them and their causes.
And if anyone is curious this is the bail schedule for san francisco:

http://www.sfsuperiorcourt.org/sites/default/files/images/13...
I know this has been said a lot of times already but I don't think we can say this enough. If Oracle wins, this will set a terrible precedent for software development. If any software company deserves to be qualified as evil, it is Oracle without a doubt.
When I was in college, my Native American roommate introduced to "native time" which is the same as you related it while you were in Brazil.

If he had no set time to meet, he'd say he would be there around "native o' clock" which meant he would be there at the time +/- 30-45 minutes. If we agreed to a specific time, he would be there on time. It really helped me and I learned a lot about how Native American culture operated while we were roommates.
Can anyone explain to me what it actually is? Everything I've read about it is through this sort of know-nothing journalistic filter.

They often focus on the "kill a monster and it stays dead" angle, so that seems like a real aspect of the system, but it's not an advance. Other companies have aimed at this "persistent virtual world-building toolkit" target before, from Second Life to Blue Mars to Metaverse to Metaplace. What distinguishes Improbable from these other ideas?
People already do that, it's called Suicide, and is generally frowned upon.
For example, as a criminal defense lawyer, if the Gov has a really shitty case against my Client (not saying they are necessarily innocent), guess what it will never go to trial, b/c either the case can be won on pretrial motions or I can have a case broken down to a lesser charge and it makes sense to work that out (plea) rather than risk the conviction on the original charge.

Isn't this (plea to lesser charge) a part of the problem the parent post was describing, that the sheer might and vindictiveness of the criminal justice system intimidates innocent (or even guilty) defendants into pleading guilty? If justice would be served by a lesser charge or a lesser sentence, how is it fair to increase the charge or increase the sentence because the defendant wants to exercise their constitutional right to a trial?
This is not a valid reason. Having access to all my private data, my banking website, my gmail, and anything else you want is unacceptable. I'm shocked that anyone at all would install your extension.

It's no wonder so much private data is leaked all the time when people make our these sorts of permissions are acceptable and defend them when questioned.
> Now I spend more time on side projects and lately my own start-up. Learned alot in the process and wouldn't trade it.

This comment really resonates with me as I think this is going to be a crucial learning point for me down the road.
Fresh Business Ringtone App for Android
Obfuscated code plus these permissions isn't helping me trust you. As a Chrome extension developer, I can tell at a glance that many of these permissions are not necessary to implement the functionality as described.

"permissions": [
"<all_urls>",
"activeTab",
"alarms",
"background",
"browsingData",
"chrome://favicon/",
"clipboardWrite",
"contextMenus",
"cookies",
"declarativeContent",
"fontSettings",
"gcm",
"identity",
"idle",
"notifications",
"pageCapture",
"power",
"proxy",
"sessions",
"storage",
"system.cpu",
"system.display",
"system.memory",
"system.storage",
"tabCapture",
"tabs",
"topSites",
"tts",
"unlimitedStorage",
"webNavigation",
"webRequest",
"webRequestBlocking"
]

Definitely not taking any chances installing this.
Were you ever worried about your reputation?
While that was designed in 1984, the US DoD had successfully tested laser weapons over a decade earlier:

'The first was in 1973 when the USAF shot down a winged drone at their Sandia Optical Range, New Mexico, using a carbon dioxide GDL and a gimballed telescope. Subsequently, in 1976, the US Army employed an electrically pumped HEL to destroy a number of winged and helicopter drones at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. The USN, in March 1978, then engaged and destroyed an Army TOW missile in flight' [1]

The first targets destroyed from an airborne platform (KC-135) were in 1979.

[1] http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-DEW-HEL-Analysis.html
I love this.

The key words "WHAT", "DAMNIT", "GOOD GRIEF", "FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE",
"RIDICULOUS", "BLOODY HELL", and "DIE IN A GREAT BIG CHEMICAL FIRE"
in this memo are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
Not offended at all. It's something that I've encountered and understand. There are certain fundamentals that can be hard to pickup without someone teaching them. I definitely feel the difference between myself and people who have CS degrees. I do, however, try my best to keep my code clean and organized (and am always open to advice from others).

I find that I end up in an intermediary role at times in meetings, translating between engineering and business. It's pretty fun.
I'll give you an example. The entire justification for the ROI on three different systems I have built in the last 5 years was that they wouldn't have to hire the dozens of people required to do the job without automation. In my current job, we are currently looking for ways to automate currently manual processes for purposes of reliability, but they also have a side effect of reducing labor costs.

I have been personally responsible for automating dozens of jobs throughout my career. These weren't layoffs in most cases - these were people that would have been hired without this software.

Paralegals are becoming more rare precisely because lawyers can search more effectively, are they not? Due to the search , one lawyer can be more effective than two decades ago, no?

One secretary services multiple Vice Presidents and directors in many organizations, and handles extra duties on top of that.

It isn't eliminating all jobs - it's making one person as efficient as three, five, ten, and even more were a generation ago.
Kontalk – Encrypted and distributed instant messaging network
A disturbing number of people immediately stopped having any sympathy the moment they found out that e.g. Michael Brown had just robbed a convenience store or that Eric Garner was selling cigarettes illegally. They would generally not come out and say that people deserve summary execution for these crimes, but that is essentially the argument that they end up making.

It's less that these men "deserved" death for what they did or didn't do, and more that they made decisions that spiraled out of control and led to unfortunate consequences - in Brown's case, physically attacking an armed police officer; in Garner's case, refusing to go along with police when asked ("resisting arrest"). Neither crime is punishable by death, but when you take actions that lead to police escalating use of force [1], the consequences are unpredictable and generally not going to be good.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_force_continuum
I'm incredulous that this tiny device could possibly deliver on its claims and I don't see enough detail on the site to sway me otherwise.
Excellent overview of problems in the bail system. Here's a nice supplement to it from the other side by a judge. The two together show why the situation is extremely one-sided if the accused is poor.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/why-inn...
> You don't get to have kids if you're going to live forever.

Well, we can make it so that every human can have at most one child. If the rule is enforced perfectly, each generation will have at most half as many offspring, and the series sum of 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... is 1, leading to at most a doubling of the population, even if everyone lives forever.
They know who you are. Rather, they know that someone exists with your cultural, political and social preferences, and with all the people with whom you're friends.

And then people tag you in their photos. So Facebook may not strictly know your name, but any agency (of course, never in America!) who backdoors or coerces Facebook could learn everything about you.
Well, you don't "will" yourself into a false arrest. That is a point I think even those who value retributive justice can appreciate.
I read the entire 5 pages and I have absolutely no idea what this company is selling
Now that is interesting.....
Spain is strong as a Club League, not so much as a National Team. Germany is important to the World Cup, but it's not enough... Remember that in every World Cup, some "important" countries are left out in the Qualifiers.

To really hit the tournament, you would need the support from several historical and relevant members in each Association. As an example:
USA, Mexico in Concacaf; Argentina and Brasil in Conmebol; Italy, Germany, France and England, Spain (mainly for their leagues) in UEFA.
Show HN: iOS/Android system wide AdBlock and bandwidth saver
You say that taking a plea serves the interest of both your client and society. You're right for each individual case, but the net effect is that innocent people are going to prison without even getting a trial.

People should be allowed to plead guilty if they're certain that they'll be found guilty in court, and don't want to go through with the hassle. But I don't think they should in any way be rewarded for it with a lighter sentence, because that situation is indistinguishable from punishing people who insist on a trial.

Every person accused of a crime should have the right to a trial if they want one, and they should never be subject to additional punishment for insisting that they get it. As it stands, insisting on a trial when you're guilty is de facto a crime punishable by potentially years in prison.

This is not strictly a rich versus poor thing, either. Even a person who can afford an excellent lawyer can be potentially faced with the choice of a certain lesser prison term or a trial and an uncertain greater prison term.
Adding to the suggestion of HPMOR, Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/) is excellent and well worth a read.
And, as the saying goes, whomever the prosecutor wants indicted by the grand jury, up to and including a ham sandwich, will get indicted. Exceptions to this rule fall into the man bites dog category.
Surviving an Alcoholic
For those using MySQL: https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-toolkit/2.2/pt-online-sc...
In contrast, I believe that reversing aging would likely also improve a person's quality of death. Death by aging can be a horrifically prolonged and painful process. In the case of Alzheimer's, you slowly watch your mind and identity slip away. In the case of cancer, you may submit to vomit-inducing therapies to prolong your life; whether or not you do, you may end up dying slowly and painfully while bed-ridden and utterly exhausted. Spending years in a nursing home while someone else wipes your bottom isn't exactly a glamorous, graceful way to go. On the other hand, the "brutal" deaths you complain about involve what -- something between a fraction of a second and a few hours of physical pain? When my time comes, sign me up.

As an ancillary point, there is no such thing as "aging in good condition". Aging is the process by which your body gradually fails to function until it can't function at all. It can be better or worse, but not good.
In 5 years, 80 percent of the whole Internet will be online video
Working in an enterprise and having bought enterprise software, my suggestion to the sales staff would be: Learn to say "no"!

If we send you twenty pages of requirements, we do not expect your product to cover each and every one of them (especially not those labeled as "nice to have", and also not those that were inserted just to please some internal egos and will be ignored in the decision-making altogether... although I grant you that this will be hard to judge from the outside). Nevertheless, I have experienced time and time again that sales agents waste 45 minutes of their two hour presentation to try to explain some clumsy workaround for something their software cannot do instead of spending that time to focus on what their software can do. Also, a software that supposedly can do everything makes me wonder if it can do these things well... or if we might end up with a solution so customized that every upgrade turns into a nightmare.
In quantum field theory you frequently do integrals in 4-ϵ as a way of regularizing divergent integrals.
SourceForge grabs GIMP for Windows’ account, makes installer push adware
As noted in other comments, the GIMP installer on http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/files/ is now bit-for-bit identical to the one on http://download.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.8/windows/ (let's call this one official).

Does anybody have a copy of the "value added" installer?

How did it work? Was it a wrapper which contained a copy of the official installer? Did it have the same filename? Was there some identifier in the URL? A cookie?

In other words, can we programmatically identify other hijacked projects?
Ah, thanks, wasn't aware of the update!
Some time ago, I made some ASCII art to illustrate the various steps where things can go wrong:

[user-perceived characters]
^
|
v
[grapheme clusters] <-> [characters]
^ ^
| |
v v
[glyphs] [codepoints] <-> [code units] <-> [bytes]
We should not be glorifying drug use.
Good post. It's worth pointing out this is diametrically opposed to the "Web vs. native: let's concede defeat" piece that was popular yesterday.[1]

> When a user pushes a button in a website or a mobile app, they don't want to wait for a request to be sent all the way to the server to calculate the new state of the screen.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9603845
You said the phrase "risk a conviction" a couple times, in favor of plea bargains.

That is precisely the problem. If I am wrongfully charged with a crime, and my best option is a plea bargain, then it is effectively irrelevant whether I was innocent or not - I am screwed the moment I am charged. It's removing the "justice" part of the justice system.
The idea would be that ideally—assuming sleep isn't actually necessary for anything (and it seems not to be, in most species, but our brains might make us a special case)—we would have 50% more man-hours to put on the aging problem. (And solving the sleep problem would likely require solving the tiredness problem, which would then solve quite a large part of the motivation problem, so we could put much of those hours to use.)
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I would say that about 20% of the time he nails it square on, and another 70% of the time he goes overboard but he is still closer to the truth the current mainstream view. I think he appeals more to people who 1) are significantly disaffected with mainstream politics, and 2) do not believe that that problem with politics is insufficient progressivism.

If you believe the political situation is more good than bad, or if you believe it is bad only due to not being progressive enough, bad due to America not being enough like Sweden, then you won't find Moldbug at all convincing.

But if you are disaffected with both the mainstream right and progressives, then you are in search of an alternative theory of why everything is going so rotten. And in that case, Moldbug's theories are a revelation.
Of course what I say is not feasible at the moment, but as a thought exercise, I'd rather re-cycle through life rather than potentially extend life more or less indefinitely, because, as I see it, as you grow older, you start tiring of things. You tire of others' silliness or injustice or immaturity or seriousness or selfishness or suffering and one could more easily become disillusioned. Re-cycling through, at least you go through the learning and pains again, so all those ills aren't that distant or unsavory, they're more personal.

So difference is live one life to 500, or

Live 5x100. Come back at 10 or 1 or whatever. I know this idea is totally fantastic, but, as a thought experiment, I'd prefer this.
The wikipedia article linked in another comment has an animated 2d graph that gets you part of the way there.
From the article:

"MBDA's tests have also helped to debunk the science-fiction idea that reflective armour would defend against laser weapons. They found that any dust on the mirrored surface would get burned in, and lead to the destruction of the target even faster than with a non-reflective surface."

gliese1337 also explained it more in details in this thread.
This doesn't refute my point. It supports it - you can't survive in NYC on $16k/yr.

I doubt all these people who can't afford $1k bail make within $2k/yr of each other. They might make $25k/yr or $30k/yr, but whatever it is, they'll never have $1k saved.

It's your prerogative to think I'm "blaming" poor americans by stating this, but it is also the reality of how these people live, as you would agree.

The point is, no bail amount would work.
That's a different thing altogether. I have problems with that approach as well, but it's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about people who literally cease to care about Brown's and Garner's deaths the moment they found out that they were criminals. Not even getting into the specific police interactions, just straight to "well, he had just robbed a convenience store, so who cares?" I understand that you presumably don't believe that, but I saw a lot of people who did.
How to Hack My Bank Account