skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state

Will they not still be paying for them through Federal taxes? If not, how do the upfront costs compare to the marginal costs of using a National depository shared by 49 other states?
I find this disturbing in a way I can't quite quantify. Kids should do things, not just appear to do things because they're clever about outsourcing to someone worse off.
Context...? Are they a custom dev company seeking new clients? Or a great group of devs who are all suddenly out if work because a company went under, and they're looking to be hired? And what's your position, evaluating/recommending them? Former/current boss, client, family member, friend?

Good luck to them; but you're more likely to pick up useful contacts for them if you fill in some details.
If we are being precise then It's two symptoms of the same flaw.
The water shortage is caused by a severe lack of rain. Not agriculture. Not people watering their lawn.

The drought is made more difficult because we don't have enough water storage to sustain our full agricultural and urban water usage when it doesn't rain, but that isn't the root cause.
>Those who thought that they would be participating in a prison study had significantly higher levels of aggressiveness, authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and social dominance, and they scored lower on measures of empathy and altruism.

So the experiment suffered from the same sort of selection bias that goes into hiring for prison guards or other authoritative punitive figures? Seems pretty realistic to me. Prison guards are not selected from the population at random.
True - but the numbers used are part of the WCAG standards (WCAG 2.0 1.4.3), which provide a "good estimate" for the average-case minimums of what is acceptable.

3:1 - minimum contrast for "large scale" text (18 pt or 14 pt bold, or larger)
4.5:1 - minimum contrast for regular sized text
What do you reason would be the benefit of doing that?
https://mosh.mit.edu/ may be of use to you as an alternative to ssh
This is pretty funny.
"Swimming in the ocean - APPROVED
Swimming in private pools - APPROVED
Slip-&-sliding on Market Street - DENIED"
Thanks for the feedback.

> You're projecting that the person's literary references are "name dropping things in largely irrelevant contexts".

I wasn't talking about literary references.

> and goes out of their way to seem elitist.

The goal of someone who is elitist isn't really to come across as elitist, dude...

> Are you sensitive that you didn't get into a school like MIT?

I got into the school that I applied for. No, you haven't heard of it; no, it isn't prestigious.

See, this is the thing with elitism. It is easy to dismiss people that are put off by it as jealousy. If I am put off by someone who thinks he is hot shit for listening to Mozart, it's not because I have anything against classical music or people who listen to classical music. It is because I don't like people who thinks they are special for listening to <thing>.
yeah, I mean Georgia and geek topics do not "marry" that well imho =)

I checked out your blog btw and I have to say that I loved this post:

http://www.convalesco.org/articles/2014/04/22/please-dont-ch...

couldnt agree more
On the contrary, I think Britain especially is sliding into an authoritative, totalitarian nightmare. The parallels between the government workers turning the wheels of oppression against their own citizens and the way the "Guards" acted cannot be ignored.
I think it will be a good change if publishers were forced to sell/deliver their own ads. The problem has always been third-party ad networks that track you across the web and sometimes delivers malware. Publishers have never had to take ownership for the ads they serve and the user experience has suffered.

The way forward is native ads (no, native ads aren't advertorials) like podcast ads, radio ads, or sponsored posts on individual blogs like Daring Fireball.
The sheer number of people with clearances who are now at risk of blackmail and other untoward influence has everyone saying how terrible it is. OK. Obviously.

But what about the obvious fix: Pull clearances from everyone who does not need one. I mean really NEED. There are hundreds of thousands of schlubs with clearances only because the paperwork they have access to is classified higher than FOUO. And that classification is the product of self-importance and ass-coverage.
None of that makes the study good science.
People still think money is important? In the case of some massive catastrophe it seems as if the skills of people to recreate society and technology would be much more important than some treasure.

In tbe event of a massive catastrophe, gold is worth MORE than money. Think of it this way, name a civlization in history. Would you rather have $100 of their currency now, or $100 worth of gold from that era now?
In some situations, yes. But Java can suffer from similar complexity and maintainability issues too.

Go, for all it's short comings and missing features, is closer to the "instant gratification" state that Python and it's ilk enjoy while having performance closer to that of Java.

I'm not trying to say one language is better or worse than the other though. Just my observations as to why Go is gaining popularity.
Agree..this article had no direct use for me, therefore it has no use for other readers or mankind in general.
Ask for an extension on their offer.

Here's a good guide to getting a lot of job offers really quickly:

https://medium.com/@calcsam/outsource-your-job-search-3e9909...
There is a really good BBC article on why every civilization picks gold as its currency: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25255957
Judging by the other replies to your post, apparently HN has forgotten, too.
Germany has been repatriating a little gold too, since some custodians haven't been very transparent in their auditing: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-02-05/germany-s-...
GPL is just a subset of AGPL, isn't it?
Doh! I only read the license.
The thriving open source community that has been in existence for the last two decades, run and supported by (mostly) otherwise employed engineers, and used in countless business support areas worldwide, is the most amazingly obvious evidence against it. It is so large an elephant in that paragraph's room that I'm not sure how anyone could miss it.
Lesson: no matter how much you make, you can find something to worry about.
Linux was useful to enough people to gain the momentum necessary to get better and keep up with developments. Also, it mostly cares if stuff works, not if it is the theoretical perfect thing.

Hurd didn't get to the starting level of usefulness and had no other motivator to gain the necessary momentum. The project also seems to aim for the "perfect OS" instead of getting something working out the door. And now there is this other open-source OS called Linux around which is better by nearly every measure...
The inverse is also true.
There are a few other variants. Affero, as noted, also the Mozilla Public License, which applies on a file-by-file basis and allows for proprietary code to be integrated into a MozPL licensed work as a whole and distributed.

But otherwise, yes: GPL, LGPL, BSD/MIT are the principle cases.
Go has a gc. That doesn't seem to be the problem. Google also uses Java quite often.
We learned that you can't configure your way out of impedance mismatches. You can certainly make your life easier, but only at the cost of also making it harder.

You essentially need language-level support for dealing with data at your boundaries. Even with Java's strong reflection (Go's reflection is horrible) capabilities and generics (and C# extending that with lambdas and expression trees), there's still tremendous friction and boilerplate configuration and code.

Consider Dependency Injection, an ilk. In most (all?) dynamic languages, DI is a language concern, as opposed to a library concern. By having support for it within the language, the problems DI frameworks attempted to solve in Java (or C#) via messy configurations, legalese-like unit tests and quantities of code dedicated to nothing but the infrastructure of the codebase, simply vanishes. Now people are going to Go and discovering the awesomeness of interfaces.
Type Nairobi in the search box, and you'll see that Akamai has a presence in Nairobi. By the way also in Kampala (Uganda) and Kigali (Rwanda): http://wwwnui.akamai.com/gnet/globe/index.html
I think this comment does a pretty good job of summing up my perception of Golang's opposition.
Loved the "Mistery Button" link poiting to an input validation and sanitization information page.
How does go prevent complexity?
Not that simple. Dams and canals aren't just subsides, they're system efficiency multipliers, much like the Interstate Highway system. Sure, we all pay for such things, but the benefits to transport or farming efficiency reduce end consumer costs significantly.

But, as we say in the water industry, Whisky's for Drinkin', Water's for fightin' over!
I don't think that was the case.

(usual disclaimer, not a lawyer, etc.). CDDL is file based - basically saying "if you modify this file, and distribute the software, you must provide the source code to the modified files".

Sun's intent (as far as I understand) was to appease OEMs by allowing them add additional files to Solaris (think device drivers, etc.) without requiring them to give away the source to their IP.
This presumes that any modifications to "your" code that someone else makes should be none of your business. Seems fine on the surface.

But what if your code writes files or communicates over the network? And what if, say, Microsoft takes your permissively-licensed code that is just beginning to gain popularity, changes one piece of it to make it incompatible with yours, and doesn't release their change? They use their massive marketing department or pre-bundling to get lots of Windows users to use it. Everyone is still free to use "your" version of the code, but nobody wants to, since it is incompatible with the more popular Microsoft version, now on its way to becoming "the standard."

If you are okay with that, no rabid copyleft zealot like me has any place to criticize you. Release your code with a permissive license. That's fine. (Permissive licenses are considered "Free Software" by FSF and rms as well, after all.)

But to me, that seems grossly unfair for code I spent my valuable time designing and developing, so I don't release my code under a permissive license. If Microsoft wants to build a product with the work I have done, it needs to convey the same freedoms to its users that I did. That's the cost.
Wow... as a swede, this was a bit surreal to read. Wonderful piece, what a story.
Of course you shouldn't sign. Walking out was the right thing to do.

I've always been very, very careful about reading contracts, and it's worked out quite well for me. There are online services I will not sign up for because the terms overreach.
> accept that they won’t change anything. The Go team has said time and again that the language is done for the foreseeable future. You are too late to the party. Some might cry about this, but this stability promise brings more long term benefits than any language improvement could. Breaking changes, even if for the better, are not always welcome

The promise of stability from a large software corp puts in place a solid language foundation people can rely on when building apps in the language. Someone building a successful app using the language shouldn't be able to dictate future changes to the language based on their own needs only, ignoring smaller or less popular apps. Golang's language spec is a big help with this.

When you've tried working with a language whose backers cancel work on a spec for 10 years, then tailor the language's functionality for the one application they themselves are building, you appreciate the promise of stability. When the language's backers open up their AST to programmer addons via annotations, then later duplicate the functionality of the most popular addon, you appreciate the backing company's understanding that long term benefits come from nurturing the community.

When you see a backing company suddenly retrench all the staff working on a programming language, you appreciate that Google is using Golang internally and is unlikely to do the same. Although Golang was born of a Google internal need, let's hope the needs of their own systems won't dictate future changes at the expense of the external community, and that they keep their stability promise.
I'm wondering whether there's any way for journalists to verify this, and if not, why we should trust statements by the U.S. or U.K. governments on this topic, given their repeated falsehoods in the past.
This seems fundamentally unresponsive to the parent. What is the true cost of water and infrastructure? Who decides? In any case it's not a desert which was your original statement so do you retract that?
nope, missing "l" at the end:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchfork...
The scope of motivation that drives you to code is extremely narrow.

Some people code to enjoy themselves.

Let's not forget that this profession is also a hobby for many.
> If it really was the Chinese behind it, then the data likely won't ever end up dumped on pastebin

What if the calculation of both maximum effect and maximum deniability is exactly that: Create a shadowy, possibly composite hacker persona (a "Satoshi Nakamoto"), release a bunch of signatures and generate publicity, and then roll out the database, verifiable by the previously released signatures.
This is too cute by half. Yeah, I suppose you can try to dissect something like this in terms of the subtleties of language and the forces they have on interpersonal interactions. But then, to do that, you'd have to be ignoring some of the huge, gaping differences between Chinese culture and Western culture: those same people who are shouting "off the car!" are probably also pushing you out of the way while they say it (welcome to China!)

In other words, it isn't just language, or even mostly language. By western standards, Chinese people are damned rude, in general. They can certainly be lovely, warm people, and there are deep cultural explanations for the behavior that are fun to explore...but still, don't get lost in meditation about it when you're walking in Beijing, or you'll get run over by a grandma who is driving her motorcycle on the sidewalk (hey...you were in the way!)

Likewise, the whole extended meditation on what shopkeepers say to you on the way out the door is...overwrought. There are a few comments in this thread that suggest that the author's translation is perhaps a bit too literal:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9712050
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9712559

...which wouldn't be surprising in Mandarin, where words/sounds/symbols are overloaded, and meaning depends heavily on context.

Also, sometimes people just say things because that's what they say. Every shopkeeper in Paris will say "good journey!" to you as you walk out the door. You could write an essay on how beautifully meaningful it is that they're wishing you goodwill in your life's journey -- or you could remember that the dude who just sold you toilet paper doesn't really care. It's automatic. (Fun fact: the greeter at WalMart doesn't really care if your day is nice, either.)

This essay strikes me as someone fetishizing a culture, deeming it "mysterious", and trying to find great meaning in the self-imposed mysteries, when simpler explanations are at hand.
That's what I like about it too. All they way down to the black/white design.

You don't see things as extreme as this everyday. Even with the focus of late on simplicity and flatness.
You're missing a _technical_ reason for using a BSD/MIT license, and one that's been relied on to great effect: to promote use of a standard.

Apache was licensed under the BSD license in part due to philosophical preferences of its creators, but with the effect of promoting HTTP as a standard transport for online documents. Nobody had to ask for permission to use Apache, or to incorporate it into their own products (as IBM did).

Arguably the orginal use of the BSD license, to spread use of Berkeley Unix, achieved similar aims.

From the ideological standpoint:

* If your goal is to promote Free Software, use the GPL (or a variant with stronger ties to distribution for Web or online services).

* If your goal is to promote use of Free Software Libraries, in an environment where there are numerous non-free alternatives, the LGPL has benefits.

* If your goal is to promote use of an open standard, the BSD/MIT licenses are more effective because they allow for proprietary use.
> program in Haskell for fun.

What about the people who program in Haskell for work?

> Go is for people who have a job to do.

People use Go for fun.
I suggest looking for 'python' and 'remote' in the fairly recent 'Who's Hiring?' thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9639001
download.google.com is completely powered by Go at this point, iirc.
that's because it is bad. men need normal levels of testosterone. anyone who tells you otherwise has another agenda they're pushing (take a wild guess).
I completely disagree.

If you work on a small engineering team and want to broaden your knowledge of technologies you might want to use, reading about approaches that larger companies use is a great source of information. Most cutting edge software engineering (not computer science), occurs in technology companies. So if you ignore "corporate" engineering blogs, then you are hugely limiting your exposure to how software engineering works in the real world.

Of course the companies are not blogging about everything, but that is irrelevant. Your choices are either a) not learn anything or b) learn stuff that might be dated (but probably also battle tested and rock solid).

And I think you are way off with the advertising thing. The reason most companies make these engineering blogs is to attract engineering talent, thus their incentive is to post cool stuff which is interesting and exciting. Look at Etsy's great engineering blog [1] which I've personally learned quite a bit from. Read a few posts... they aren't trying to sell arts and crafts.

----

1: https://codeascraft.com/, in the OP's list
Ask the people who were displaced during WW1 and WW2. The ones who were able to migrate to safer places with gold, restarted their life much more easily compared to the ones who had nothing more than clothes they were wearing.

Gold is still important and will remain important as long as people consider it to be value of last resort for bartering or exchanging product and services. What good is the skill if you can't exchange it for more important things you need for survival? Generally in economics, capital (gold) is always considered more valuable than labor (skill).
Borland was beloved company that made tools that made programming enjoyable. Answer covers all the main points, I can only be sad that they don't exist today and can make tools. Delphi with all my good will is simply not the tool I would use today even if it wasn't priced as it is.
Sadly I always wanted to get into Delphi, but it being unaffordable (even as a student - which JetBrain and MS give me their IDE's for free...) as well as the lack of books or online documentation are a factor. I try using FreePascal with Lazarus, but Lazarus / FP still lack the proper documentation as well sadly.
The Discovery of Sunspots (2011)
For the sf-86 data it really should have been stored on an air gapped network, encrypted, with physical security. That type of data is far too valuable to leave connected to a publicly accessible network in any way.
Speaking of kindness, I work on free code simply to express my creativity to the world, not out of kindness. If I wanted to be kind, I'd go volunteer with kids who have cancer.

I believe copyright is complete rubbish; it's just a legal extension of a sense of entitlement.

Since I believe copyright is rubbish, I must believe that all that is based on it is rubbish, including the GPL. Therefore, I won't use it.

The MIT and BSD licenses are good "interface adapters" between creators who believe copyright is rubbish, and the practical world with its legal framework which insists that there must be copyright.

Stallman also basically believes copyright is rubbish, but he used it to forge the "copyleft" which exploits it for an agenda.

My view is that if you disagree with it, don't wield it.
Texas is not the first to do this. Over the last year, The Netherlands, Austria and Germany have also started repatriating gold from the NY Fed. In a way this points at a lack of faith in central bank trustworthiness.

I actually wonder about two things here:

a) What if every other state follows Texas' example and repatriates their gold as well?

b) Perhaps a ridiculous hypothetical, but could this be the first step down the road towards secession? They'd need that gold if they ever wanted to establish their own country.

Also an interesting tidbit in the bill which may point at raising fears of confiscation among the more paranoid-minded: the bill includes a provision to prevent seizure, for private parties who want to avoid another 1933 style confiscation of their bullion by Federal authorities.
You can build commercial anything with GPL. GPL isn't anti-commerce. So, you don't need anyone's permission to do commercial things with GPL software.

If a company says, "here's this under GPL, but if you want a commercial license, pay us specially" they are being deceptive. You don't need a special commercial license. GPL allows any commercial activities, period.

You don't need to relicense in order to use the software commercially or to do any other use. The GPL respects freedom 0: freedom to use the software as you wish in whatever way you wish.
Formality versus familiarity ...it's a puzzle for us westerners.

As a states speaker of english i have always suffered when to use the familiar 'you'. French: Vous/Tu, German: Sie/Du, Russian: вы/ты ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction

The most amusing guidance i ever received was from a French postdoc: "So, once you've slept with someone, -then- you can use 'the tu'"
> so all the husbands in the world have weak muscles and mental fog ... ? :D

uh, yes, a lot of them do. it's just seen as 'normal' to be a lackadaisical limp-wristed fatass "man" these days.
How to Cut Through the Bullshit and Read the News Like a Defense Analyst
How many startups are looking at the source code for Linux, ever?

Many or most. They benefit for being able recompile the kernel or compile in support for a device or service. Or to be able to make use of tools provided by others who've done just that.

Which is to say, pretty much every startup I've worked at over the past 15 years.

Rather boggled we're even still fielding this level of ignorance and/or FUD.
s/bear/beer
Were the snowden files encrypted? If so, maybe an attack vector was the journalists.

Or maybe we're confusing the wiki leaks insurance file with the snowden files?
Tock Is Hiring Front End Engineers and Product Designers
yeah, they actually do!
This is said with tongue in cheek, but they could have bought that CyFIR product a year earlier.
In a 2014 talk at the Council of Foreign Relations, Alan Greenspan said:

“Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency. No fiat currency, including the dollar, can match it.”

http://www.cfr.org/financial-crises/alan-greenspan-central-b...
I think this is a trend, it is wise move for Texas. It might be also a move to make more independent Texas.