skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You have four and a half years before Windows 7 "End of extended support" occurs on January 14, 2020. You might want to transition straight to linux or OSX.

Ref: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
How about a box that shows up the first time you try to invoke Cortana, asking if you want to turn this feature on.
Well, to be fair, they spy on you but just don't sell the data.

Yet.
I like how they put that "Customize Settings" Link down there. I missed it the first time I did it completely.

Nice job design devils.
Those look like a death trap if there were a fire. I also can't help but think of Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys living in his storage shed.
It's not wrong or evil or even criminally negligent to want programs that you write to work as intended. With new systems that have fancy machine learning based features developers face the difficulty that making an accurate training data set is impossible, especially at the scale at which Microsoft ships its software. Cortana's abilities to be smart assistant all involve polling the data mentioned in the post, sure you can disable all of them and be blissfully disconnected from network assisted features like her and better handwriting recognition. It's a choice and by default there isnt any harm in leaving most of those options enabled, the average user will only benefit from the interaction. It's okay to be conscious about where you're sending your data but its just ridiculous to frame each new feature released by company as morally wrong or "having no vested interest in doing the right thing".

God forbid we become slaves to the evil corporations. /s
YC-Backed PersistIQ Raises $1.7M to Create Smarter Automation for Salespeople
Their commitment to compatibility with old software was what crippled Windows in the first place.
https://pando.com/2014/07/16/tor-spooks/

In 2006, Tor research was funded was through a no-bid
federal contract awarded to Dingledine’s consulting
company, Moria Labs. And starting in 2007, the Pentagon
cash came directly through the Tor Project itself —
thanks to the fact that Team Tor finally left EFF and
registered its own independent 501(c)(3) non-profit.

How dependent was — and is — Tor on support from
federal government agencies like the Pentagon?

In 2007, it appears that all of Tor’s funding came from
the federal government via two grants. A quarter million
came from the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), a
CIA spinoff that now operates under the Broadcasting Board
of Governors. IBB runs Voice of America and Radio Marti, a
propaganda outfit aimed at subverting Cuba’s communist
regime. The CIA supposedly cut IBB financing in the 1970s
after its ties to Cold War propaganda arms like Radio Free
Europe were exposed.

The second chunk of cash — just under $100,000 — came
from Internews, an NGO aimed at funding and training
dissident and activists abroad. Tor’s subsequent tax
filings show that grants from Internews were in fact
conduits for “pass through” grants from the US State
Department.
Why would anyone buy bricks in such small numbers, instead of saving up? A wall with two extra bricks on it isn't more useful.

Is it just impossible to save money safely?
That's just a FUD compaign. I guess you can be a genious for coming up with clever ways to FUD but I'd rather not encourage that.
" iOS users make up a significant percentage of web traffic and are demographically the most valuable (generally of a higher socio-economic status)."

What good is that if they're blocking ads, so you can't monetize them?
>So the kid can't spell, who cares?

If we had a society that would tolerate it and help the kid capitalize on it, then no one should care. But we have a society that doesn't, so the kid will be hurt by it. For dyslexia, it might not take a major change. Use fonts that work better. Not care as much about spelling and focus on their own talents. Allow them access to a spell checker. Stop using the same metric to measure their performance.

But if you take someone on the autism spectrum, the level of change needed so they won't be hurt by it seems like it would require a miracle somewhere on the scale between bringing back Elvis and world peace.

We can help them cope, we can help them leverage their advantages. But give our current society, there are some differences that are going to cause a lot of hurt and pain, both while growing and once they are adults. In those cases, anyone who cares about the kid should care.
They really need to find a way of firing patent examiners who grant these sort of patents. I'm fairly certain that would help reduce the amount of patents granted,
I have no idea if that's a realistic hypothetical. Why would drones be any different than something else causing minor damage to your property? What do police do if a kid hits a baseball through your window? I'm sorry, I just can't work up the existential fear of drones that people express.
See also "Killing Cortana: How to disable Windows 10's info-hungry digital assistant" http://www.pcworld.com/article/2949759/windows/killing-corta...
Assuming a company doesn't match their employee's 401k, what is the cost for a company to offer a 401k, traditionally, and what is the approx cost using Captain401?
It's still relevant. Some applications remain single threaded due to data dependencies.

Mechanical CAD geometry kernels are one such application. Recently, I had a use case that demanded the peak single threaded performance.

In PC land, it's this chip clocked at 4.x Ghz: Intel® Core™ i7-4790K. It's multi-core performance is pretty great too, so it's not that big of a trade-off to maximize single thread performance.

I would be very interested in knowing what faster solutions exist. Are there any, regardless of instruction set?
But the entire point of the service was to use data mining techniques so that you could use natural language directives to say "add a reminder to my team's calendar to update some presentation in O365, etc"...

Maybe you don't find it that useful, but I think that a lot of people would. It will, in a future release, be genuinely useful. It's getting there.
They can technically do anything they want with the input you provide. Personally I would never trust an opaque operating system even if they provided clear details as to what the configuration options are and how they are used.
The late Earl Nightingale had an excellent article on the subject of problem solving; which a refer to a couple of times a year.

The Great Problem-Solving Tool> http://www.nightingale.com/articles/the-great-problem-solvin...
Some things to consider.

If you are starting out, keep in mind you are coming into a live and running environment. What looks chaotic to you may just be something that grew up organically over time and has an internal logic that isn't readily apparent. If they have money to pay you, they must be doing something right. Consider seeking that expertise out, even if you feel you are not necessarily being challenged at the technology level. You can always change jobs later when you have this experience under your belt. First jobs out of college are supposed to be "stepping stone" jobs anyway. "Get what you can and move on" is an entirely legitimate way to approach this.

Think about where you want to end up eventually. If you want to move into corporate-land writing reports against business databases, go for the .Net shop. If you want to eventually do "fun" stuff in startup-land, then stay where you are. Because the reality is the complexity of what people are doing with .Net is relatively low - they use it to run businesses, so you're always writing a variant of a shopping cart or accounting program. When people want to do something interesting/new/really challenging, they tend to choose other tools than those provided by Microsoft, inclusive of .Net.

So I guess if you want immediate security, go with the .Net shop. (Though be aware that in any large or even medium-sized organization you are as likely to have to learn politics as programming.)

Otherwise, stay where you are a little longer and see if you can find some value in what you have to work with now.
Focusing on things you can control
> On the other hand, it's a cloud-based solution which to me is still a cause for caution, and I'd feel more reassured if someone (who knows JavaScript and security better than I do) conducted an audit of this.

I can extend an offer to them on behalf of Paragon Initiative Enterprises and, if it's accepted, post our findings on HN at a later date.
but now there's the risk of the entire OS learning someone else's habits when they just need to use the computer

They already do pollute the OS history with their behaviours. Examples would be the DNS cache, the thumbnail database and the temp directory. Most people just don't know about these or look at them. But they can be very revealing. The problem I have is that the OS is so ready to upload things. I don't want my OS to upload anything at all, unless I command it to do so.
That we know of.

Seriously, it's not like every contract they have is public information (nor am I saying it should).
Interesting! I'm running this one: Intel® Core™ i7-4790K at 4.x Ghz (currently 4.2 for long term big problem stability)

What does your setup look like? Cooling, RAM, etc...?

And is it good for long term, like say crunch on it for a week type problems?
But it is reach we are talking about here. I am from China, so I understand how crazy Single's Day is and what an amazing job Alibaba has done to handle that amount traffic.

However, the overwhelming majority of Alibaba's customers is still Chinese. On the other hand, before AWS takes off, Amazon already sets up data centers in different countries and continents, because they are the leading online retailer over there. Same reason applies to Google. Their cloud business then cloud easily benefit from those established investments.
Scroll up. TheOtherHobbes claimed: With something like GS regulators would have been able to...It's not always the specific regulatory details that matter, so much as the culture they create.

Apparently the existence of GS did not actually allow regulators to have this magic culture and prevent the S&L crisis. But you do have even more vague generalities that don't mention any specific mechanism.

Tomorrow I'm going to my boss and telling him "we need more code!" I'll refuse to say what the code should do, but I'll point out that Homejoy refactored their codebase before dying of a bad business model.
Facebook Expands in Politics, and Campaigns Find Much to Like
Yeah, you're right, we certainly won't know until hindsight shows up.

> "One outcome in a sequence of tests does not mean that others are more likely in the future. If you flip a coin and get 10 heads in a row, your likelihood of getting a tails on the next flip (assuming a perfectly-balanced coin) is still 50%"

True, but I am arguing that out of 10 flips, the average number of heads will likely be 50%. If you got 10 heads in a row, that would be 100%, an exceptional event, possibly like Brazil's good year. However, if you were to flip 10 more coins, it is much more likely that you will get less than 100% heads flips, as it will regress closer to the mean of 50%.

I guess the main point I was arguing is that just because Brazil might have a good outlook in the future, does not mean the article is invalid and too presumptuous.
Ummm if by "unused land" you mean open space preserves, parks, amazing redwood groves, etc...then yes, there is "unused land."

Building out on those areas because there's currently demand over on that side of the Bay (because it's closer to Stanford and Sandhill road) would be a big time shame.
I've been waiting for this comment, I can see how the first set of customization options really seem like they'd help with the personal assistant. It would be interesting to get a full audit of where your data goes and what they can use it for (training your personal assistant, improving their algorithms, responding to Govt data requests, improving ads, etc).

As for incognito, can you sign into windows as guest now? Or even have multiple accounts on the same pc? If so you could create a guest/dummy account if you are interested in giving the personal assistant pure data.
>security

Can someone still using XP really claim to care about security?
I am on Linux too and it doesn't. Not just this tool: in general.
I made a similar suggestion in a somewhat related topic concerning browsers and was told this is bad UX so it shouldn't be done. Informing people of what's going on and giving them power over their choices is bad UX. Somehow.
Specialization is just one tool in the modern toolbox. It's a good one, but not a silver bullet. Whether it makes more sense to defer to a specialist or invest in bringing a skill "in-house" is a function of how expensive the specialist is, how much investment it takes to gain the skill, and the duration and frequency of that skill's usefulness. Being able to fish (or farm, etc.) to the degree that you can feed yourself has enormous upfront costs (a boat, farming equipment, education, etc.) relative to the cost of outsourcing it. Managing your personal finances is quite a cheap skill – it requires no specialized equipment, and only up-front self-education and ongoing self-control costs – relative to the cost of paying someone else to do it for you.

I'm speaking in absolutes, but of course it varies person to person, and I don't mean to suggest that I think there's no place for this sort of service, only that I think it seems expensive relative to the effort required to gain what is an extremely valuable skill. I think we can agree to disagree!
And you would still visit their site?

So basically you're an ass.
I can guarantee this technology is going to be abused by hackers to infect your computer with malware.
Effective JavaScript Codemods
Awesome work.

Can you share tech stack used?

And what exactly you use to store the photos?

Edit: I see you are using imgix but I feel they are bit costly. Did you compare them with anyone before finalizing them?
Rhapsody allows search by composer. Search "Gustav Mahler" and you get all of the recordings of his work, regardless of the orchestra or if it's in a compilation with other composers. Looks like Google All Music does the same; no experience with Spotify, though.

I share one of the higher-level commenter's concerns--the degradation of the sound quality. Being able to hear the valves on the instruments and the full range of music gives a much more immersive experience. I had a recording of Count Basie opening for Frank Sinatra (it's basically the hour before they recorded Sinatra at the Sands), and you can hear the audience's glasses like you were sitting in the venue. I love streaming for my DeadMau5 and background music as much as the next monkey, but I still buy the classical and jazz recordings on CD for those extra effects.
The phone was perhaps amazing, but Meego the project was all over the place. Sure, Intel and Nokia was supposed to cooperate. But just as Meego was announced, Intel had moved from Moblin v1 (deb) to Moblin v2 (rpm).
Yes, and Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent this year.
Forgot that HN rolls 3 on sarcasm ...
But how many millions of dollars will potentially be wasted until it gets killed?
It just makes you reminisce back to a simpler time when you'd save all of your personal data and key logs to floppies and then mail 'em to Microsoft.

Sigh...I can still smell the sharpie ink and wet postage drying on the back of a manila envelope.
Ask HN: Should I resurrect my Chrome extension?
I created a moderately successful Chrome extension called Deeper History. Basically it captured the text on pages you visited, stripped all the meta-data, and stored the condensed contents in IndexedDB.

You could then search your history from the navigation bar. Not just the URL and title of the pages visited, but the contents.

I removed it from the webstore b/c found it was storing people's private info like bank account balances. I did build encryption into it but never released that more secure version. Your thoughts.
> there's a ton of unused land near 280.

It's not "unused", it's just not being used for human development. Wildlife and nature enthusiasts make very effective use of that land, and the fact that it exists is one of the things that makes living in the developed areas so desirable.
People want to be connected, join social networks, download apps, be able to control their appliances from across the ocean, carry devices loaded with sensors everywhere they go--and on top of all it, they want privacy.

These are fun and interesting times.
> The older generations went through many decades living without the internet. Do you really think that the internet is necessary (or even desirable) for them to live productive and happy lives?

I think that access to the internet is human right.
Why not just stop going to the site?
No, the concert analogy is valid. It still costs the website bandwidth and server time to serve the website to you.
> We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including [...] files in private folders

I don't see any language that restricts that to their cloud offerings. It's in the privacy statement that covers windows too.

So unless i'm missing something they're granting themselves the right to disclose your harddrive to government agencies or their own legal department on a good-faith basis.
Hasn't Don Melton discussed in a number of podcasts that Apple places a priority on energy efficiency? Battery life is a key selling point for Apple devices. Chrome's priorities have simply been different.
>You just don't hang out with people with severe disabilities as much. Maybe they just stay home, with a family member to look after them. Some of them are in institutions, cared by professionals.

And some of them have already chosen to not be part of this world anymore. It is often called a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but some problems are just as permanent.
There doesn't appear to be much crypto in this project; it's a small application built on SpiderOak's Crypton.io. I'm not a fan of Crypton, but it's not clownshoes crypto.

Just to be clear to everyone on the thread: it's very unlikely that there's anything practical an attacker can do with the modulus bias in a situation like this.
There are dialogs and UI hints that come up when the service is first accessed. Is it enough to placate someone who is seriously concerned with online privacy...probably not. It meets the minimum requirements to not be too sneaky.
This looks like all the same sort of stuff Google defaults you into on Android. I mean, not that it's any better because of that, but this is the state of things now. You're not going to find better unless you install FOSS. Unless you're ready to go full-in on one of the BSDs or a Linux-that-isn't-Ubuntu, navigating the waters of figuring out how to get a phone that has all the features you want with such an OS, figuring out how to do all the work you need to do, then you're in for a penny, in for a pound.

Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, the FBI, NSA, CIA, DHS, they all have my data already. Thanks to OPM, the Russians and Chinese probably have my data now, too. What does it matter if Microsoft has it? They probably already have it. Maybe it's even better to make sure everyone has my data, rather than allowing it to be used as a competitive advantage by one or a small set of corporations. Cat's out of the bag. Horses have left the stable. Whatever other metaphors you want to throw in there.

So decide, and decide now: either go full-in on FOSS, or shut up and eat your cookie. Otherwise, this exercise hasn't been about privacy, it's been about anti-Bill-Gates-and-Steve-Ballmer-Microsoft sentiment.
I beg to differ, there most definitely is a series of patented technologies that in total enable replacement of people, objects, environments and audio elements in traditional media. That key is traditional, linear media. New forms of media, interactive forms, VR/AR and hybrids are wide open fields. That's a big reason new fields of technology are so exiting - it's not just interesting to us geeks, but valuable to the businesspeople.
So don't visit their website. Problem solved.
When a webpage is served to you, you are under no obligation to not modify that webpage in any way. They gave the bytes to you for free. You can do whatever you want to them once you get them.

If my modification of that content is depriving them of income, then that's a flaw in their business model, not my ethics.
Sounds like a circlejerk for the rich.
I actually like the shipping containers. They're a bit expensive, but I guess at the rate of everything else it's about what you're gonna get.
Thanks for the suggestion - I just registered for an API key.
But shipping containers do provide a structure to work from, and don't require knowledge of framing, masonry, etc. that building something de novo would. Also, for SF, they are pretty earthquake-proof (unless you stack them Ready Player One style).
And then you'd cry and moan that the big bad website is forcing you to view ads.
Diet Rite is my cola of choice. No Caffeine, sweetened with sucralose instead of aspartame. They could use some help with their product packaging, it looks a lot like generic/store-brand soda :)
“Failure” – The Secret to Success
No surprises there, Apple controls both Safari and OS X. Microsoft has done the same thing with Edge on Windows 10. Does that mean I use Safari on my Mac or Edge on my Windows 10 machine? No.
Software Engineer Intern: 101
Maybe because of transportation? They probably need to walk those bricks to the house.
This is like the places that make me store my backpack behind the counter while I'm shopping. Yes, I totally get that it's one way to combat theft, but it's also treating me like I might steal something. From a UX perspective, it's hostile. I'm having to do work to solve a problem that I've never been the cause of. So if I have a choice, I don't visit those establishments a second time. They have chosen to put those extra roadblocks in place, and I've chosen to go somewhere where I don't feel like I'm getting punished for someone else's crime. Seems like a win/win to me.

To suggest it's a "dismissive attitude" to not want to be hassled due to some other bad actor implies looking at it from the business perspective, and not necessarily from the perspective of the effect it has on users.
Not that you're missing out, not being able to access the universal apps. Hell, Skype even pulled a 180, got rid of their universal app and went back to regular, ol' desktop apps.
Haha, my God. Kids.
Ask HN: What are your note-taking techniques?
Being swamped with projects and wanted to find a better note-taking system to manage all my information. My plan is to eventually transfer over to something digital - looking at Excel or OneNote for a GTD system.

My constraints are that I'm in an enterprise environment so cloud solutions aren't viable.
UX people can't seem to agree on much of anything. On environments where permissions must be explicitly granted (like iOS), I've seen articles saying to go both ways: "ask for everything right at the start", and "ask immediately before use".
OK. What I'm trying to say is that backing up to OneDrive is optional. You get the choice. You can protect the key with a TPM or a smart card...It's not an all or nothing thing. You have options there, if you are interested.

The other thing is that it sounds like a lot of privacy minded people can't trust BitLocker despite any number of assurances from MS or code reviews by third parties. AND THAT'S OK. Use something else.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that if you are an admin or just operate your own AD installation you can store the key in Active Directory. The behavior is version specific, I think.

EDIT EDIT: I believe that the TOS you are talking about is specifically referring to online services. I don't have time to stop and read it right now, but I think that you are misconstruing the intent.