skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It is a little unsettling when you read these policies.

This is probably for Cortana. She has to understand and process your voice commands, learn your nickname and preferences to be effective. She already works in Windows Phone (very nicely), and I don't think a little phone processor would be enough to power her up. In fact, she doesn't work without an internet connection, at least in WP. What happens is that she takes the information you input to the cloud, processes it there with more than enough horsepower to do her stuff and brings it back to you. I suppose this is how it'll work as well on PCs.

So for all this to work, yes they need to collect our data. Face it, with any smart assistant that we want it's going to be the same, they're all cloud powered. Doesn't Siri also require a internet connection? Probably Alexa too, and any others work exactly the same.

It is a necessary evil to have a useful virtual assistant. Although if we don't want her we can opt out of the MSA account, as someone posted in the comments. Unsure if that removes all the privacy concerns, that would be useful to know. On Windows Phone it did (you can opt out of sending data to MS and Cortana is disabled).
You are correct, but how many companies you worked for had 'good' communication? I worked for 5 companies, and have been outsourced to an extra 2. Communication is a real issue in companies, and the ones that already get this partly right will win over those who don't get it right.

Like I said, it is possible to get communication right without having an open office plan. But at least with an open office plan, you have the bare minimum set up. And for big companies, the bare minimum is already better than average.

The same for small companies. If you are with 5 to 10 people, not everything will be officially communicated through email. You know stuff because it happened in the same room as everyone is sitting in.
lobbying is synonymous with legalized bribery.

Thanks for posting this story. I shared it on Stumbleupon (where apparently it hadn't been prior) along with the petition and signed it. I'm a card carrying EFF member but I don't read the site every day.

The lengths they've gone to to hide this is proportional to how bad it will be for the general public.
Thanks for this perspective.

As a programmer I haven't actually thought much about how important this link between a cell in a grid and its formula may be.

I have seen huge (i mean HUGE) Excel files full of complex formulas being built by non-programmers. Some even took whole night to recalculate. There was a programmers mindset emerging from those files - extracting common formulas to separate cells (DRY), writing 'unit' tests by using formatting (if result for sample input is less than 0 then make the cell red - which means someone broke the formula).

The question arises - is there a point where a non-programmer starts thinking like a programmer, on a different level of abstraction? Is it possible to teach non-programmers some basic programming practices to make their work easier?
As of 10:30 EST, there's no server-side validation, so it's possible to vote multiple times.

I guess this is an allegory of the modern financial system, huh?
We've released a free tool to extract and display that key, if present: https://neosmart.net/OemKey/
Would be very interested in that as well. Please also include some screenshot of the quotes/invoices.
Hi. I've lived my life with a closeted gender because of words spoken by my parents, friends, and incredulous members of the LGBT community. It lead to depression, frustration, and many wasted opportunities. Now that I am no longer concealing this I still receive regular discouragement that is extremely frustrating.

The idea that "words do not cause harm" is so ludicrous. What if I started a rumor that cost you your job? What if I planted drawings (no one harmed) of child pornography on your computer? What if I reveal you perjured yourself in court?

All these things are just words. All these things could lead to consequences in your life, of varying types.
People self-censor constantly on social media. You're not worried about the government taking a tweet out of context and driving your reputation into the ground, the mob of internet idiots has that covered. Fear of internet mobs causes people to censor themselves, and a definition of "censorship" that doesn't cover uses like that is not a particularly useful one.
> a broken start menu

I love Windows 7, but do you honestly think the Windows 7 start menu is not broken? I believe we just got used to it over time.

In Windows 7, I can either have an unstructured list of "pinned" programs, or I can manually categorize the real ("All programs") start menu.

Option 1 doesn't scale beyond ~15 items (I have 22 pinned programs and it's a mess), and option 2 breaks whenever a program updates itself and puts new links into the top level. Also, option 2 is not an option at all for 99,9% of users, so it's quite obvious why MS wouldn't optimize for that use case.

The single thing that I like the most about Windows 8.1 machines is how I can group programs on the start page. Now that it isn't fullscreen any more with Windows 10, I am pretty much looking forward to it.
Slightly better angle http://i.imgur.com/iBFnTKy.jpg

Scaffolding was old stock from a local scaffolders (I wanted the distressed industrial look, just given 'em a ring).

Fittings are from ebay (there are standard sizes and joints), the legs are spinners (if you turn the handles the desk moves up and down).

The top panel is 28mm structural birch ply (structural ply may have surface blemishes and patches rather than finishing ply so if that matters get finishing ply but since I wanted the industrial look and it's way cheaper to boot), routed with a 5mm edge and covered in 4 coats of heat resistant wax (makes it water proof without ruining the color).

Original panel was 8ft x 4ft so I took a strip of the long side for the shelf (if you work out your dimensions most timber places will make the cuts for you).

Through holes are 60mm and there are 3 on the back (UK plugs are massive).

http://i.imgur.com/YzfWv5E.jpg in construction, two cross beams are for the shelf which sits on them, the middle upright is because even 28mm play will sag.

Total height range is ~85cm (I'm quite tall and normal desks are a tad too low) to ~140cm.
There are many people on HN who explicitly believe that all philosophy is worthless, so when you say "philosophy is in crisis", I read you as saying "philosophy is in crisis."

So I do think it was not clear from context. But I'm glad that I know the target you intended.

In any case, I still disagree. I think the Chinese Room thought experiment is not a good one, and the thesis that it's arguing for is wrong. However, I do not think it is any scientific observation that refutes it. The objections I've seen to it are philosophical in nature.

Also, I do not agree with _xander. First, I do not think epistemology is in any privileged position. At an abstract level, epistemology is no freer from the findings of statistics and empirical psychology of reasoning than philosophy of mind is free from the findings of neuroscience and psychology. Second, I do not think that philosophy of mind is badly off. Of course there are people who advance positions I find misguided (Searle is one), but that's not the same as the field being misguided.
You seem to imply that total productivity isn't the aggregate of individual productivity. Which implies strange things about your metric.
Well no, I couldn't. I was paid to run the pool, not close it.

There are a lot of ways to have fun at a pool without flotation devices that endanger lives. I can provide a list if you'd like.
SSL Scan is good, but the industry standard for server configuration scanning is SSL Labs:

https://www.ssllabs.com/index.htm
"Lookie here, your compiler does some absolutely insane things with the spilling, including spilling a constant. For chrissake, that compiler shouldn't have been allowed to graduate from kindergarten. We're talking "sloth that was dropped on the head as a baby" level retardation levels here .... Anyway, this is not a kernel bug. This is your compiler creating completely broken code. We may need to add a warning to make sure nobody compiles with gcc-4.9.0, and the Debian people should probably downgrate their shiny new compiler."

Linus Torvalds, http://lkml.iu.edu//hypermail/linux/kernel/1407.3/00650.html
Assuming you're not using ImageMagick, what are you using and what makes your solution superior?
Do you have any benchmarks comparing against ImageMagick/GraphicsMagick?
Radio triangulation can take time.
Do you mean rich people don't have a soul and became rich because they rip off others?

I would think most rich people got there because they created something valuable enough for people to pay money for it.
While Google Contributor is a great first step (currently i'm using it with a $7 a month contribution), it doesn't really help that much.

It only applies to adsense, and they already have pretty strict rules on ads that make them pretty painless (only 3 per page on desktop, 2 per page on mobile, and some pretty strict guidelines on where they can be placed and how they can be shown).

Still, i see the "Thanks for being a contributor" pretty frequently, and the ability to not only see an overview of where and how much of my money is going places, but also to "disable" certain sites from getting any of my contributor money is exactly what i've been wanting for a long time.

So this won't help any websites which already use "excessive" ads as they aren't (or shouldn't be) using adsense, but instead are using more invasive networks.
The Security Dilemma of Docker Hub
> Google does not trust sites not to fake their numbers. If Google directly talks to each user IP it's much easier for Google to tell that each page load was a real page load.

If we're talking about Google Analytics, the user wants to view correct data in the first place.

> In your approach they are stuck trusting the webserver and it's far easier to add fake page loads, this is somewhat less of an issue with PPC, but there are still issues.

That's true.

> On top of that advertisers want to track a user which is far simpler when it's a separate HTTP request.

Webserver is supposed to send all necessary user's data to Google server (like IP, UA, Cookies) and Google might ask Webserver to set google-specific Cookie.

Cross-site tracking won't be possible, that's true. Probably some standard could be invented for that (e.g. Google signs global inter-site cookie to deliver to the user and browser should send this cookie to all Google-enabled sites). That'll make easier for user to disable tracking, if user wants that.

My point is that if Google doesn't want to improve their scheme, may be other advertising company will want to improve that scheme. And Google might realize that users will follow that company, that's what competition is about.

And probably Google itself is not the evil here. There are many other ad networks with huge banners and slow loading scripts.
> And yet everyone, including some exceptionally profitable companies, use them. Why?

Because they are cheaper to build and outfit.

This will always be attractive to management incapable of looking beyond the current expense period. All other reasons are simply marketing to the captive audience.
How+is+the+World’s+First+Ubuntu+Phone+Different+from+Android,+iOS+and+Windows?
F-16s have radar but it may not be in the right mode (auto-acquisition/"dogfight" mode) during an ILS approach. According to an experienced F-16 pilot, ILS does work while the radar is searching for contacts in front of the aircraft.

Most fighter-to-fighter mid-air collisions occur during dogfighting practice, or during formation join-up. In both these situations, the radar might not show the other jet. Again the radar has to be in "dogfight" mode to have any chance of finding the other jet in close. The pilot would not be manually adjusting the radar scan position during a a visual join-up.
Go premium button on the top does nothing
Plaintiffs find smoking gun in happy birthday case
"Free Trade" is like "Frictionless Wheel". It's trivially easy to talk about and is simple in theory, but in practice they both involve a lot of messy engineering.

For example, free trade in mayonnaise. That should just mean that anyone can import/export mayonnaise right? Well, no. Mayonnaise is food so there's certain health standards and facility inspection regimes. And you and I have different ones now they need to be harmonized. Also, what is Mayonnaise anyway? We need to harmonize our labeling requirements. Also. is your country producing subsidized eggs (major ingredient in mayo)? Well now we need to add a line to our contract that eliminates those subsidies.

The lists of this kind of stuff goes on and on.
They have lots of money so they figured they'd get more money out of a quick settlment. They miscalculated of course on Newegg settling.
I don't understand how censoring something because "it's offensive to someone" came to be acceptable in the first place. Nearly everything is offensive to someone, it's simply too low a bar.

I'm certainly not campaigning for more use of the terms "retard" and "retarded". On the other hand, I've experienced first hand the very common, reflexive and thoughtless use of these words. Whenever it's used in my presence I make a point to express my distaste for the term and I encourage others to stop using it. I've gone through these motions with countless co-workers and two people higher up on the management chain, including my direct supervisor. But where I live, it's practically a regional colliquialism.

In this case, perhaps removal or correction is reasonable and Github is acting responsibly; I've already established that I have problems with these terms and do find them offensive. Still, I am uncomfortable with the whole episode and I don't feel at all confident that the next time this happens, it will seem as reasonable. On the contrary, I expect that the next time this happens, it will end up being more about ideology as it seems more and more people conflate "I am offended" with "I disagree".
My favorite tool is the Calomel Firefox addon.
https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/calomel-ssl-vali...

The article links to https://badssl.com/, which shows a list of links to good and bad configurations. Calomel gives more details about what is right and wrong, and sometimes surprises with its rating.
This is really cool. Thanks for doing this and sharing the instructions. Also note, James created the Gameduino 1 & 2, which are worth checking out.

http://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino/
http://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino2/
The Factory of Ideas: Working at Bell Labs [video]
free 30 day test I tested it out, you can customize templates, but they should add the ability to set it up completely in html and via a builder for non-technicals
Among people I know, I can think of a few who rent DVDs from Redbox and watch them on their laptops (we're out in the country, so the internet isn't fast enough for streaming video). They're not technically adept enough to know that they would need something like VLC after this update.
Not interested in design awards ;), I wanted something brutally simple that would be the last desk I ever need (worst case I replace the panel if it gets battered).

As for sturdiness, it's weight and rigidity make it a very stable desk.

I've already had two people ask me to make them one (with a nice margin on top), I think a lot of people are tired of crappy fall apart desks.
1. Still censorship.

2. "Github asked the repo to change it." Did github say: Can you please not use the word retarded?. No, they shut down the repo. Huge difference.

3. What a rediculous hill is is quite subjective.

4. Github can improve even though it's not sourceforge. The argument there is no need to fix any problem that is not "truly abusive" does no hold.
As a non-“git”, I personally find the association of “git” with “retard” appropriate, correct, and a fair use of free speech.

However, as a private company, GitHub has every right to define their own house rules and enforce them. It might even be mentioned in the Terms of Service somewhere.
There is a whole ecosystem that is funding these lawsuits. It also operates somewhat anonymously, with funding sources working directly with law firms and indirectly with inventors (if they are even involved anymore). I've seen emails between law firms and the inventor that literally title the investors as "the funding source." The original inventor need not put any money at risk, and the law firms and funding sources do their own diligence to decide if it's worth proceeding to file suits. In most cases, the entity filing suit is created for each series of attacks so that if they actually lose a suit and are supposed to pay out, there are no assets from which to pay. Therefore, low risk and potentially very high reward.

The biggest factor for that is not the validity of the patents, but the breadth and ability of the patents to be filed against "juicy" targets with a lot of cash. The cost of filing a suit is literally in the hundreds of dollars (I think ~$750) and most of these cases get settled out fairly early because of the immense cost of the defendants to complete the discovery process.
This was somewhat of a contrived example.
I'm a software engineer. Consequently I have to admit ignorance about this concept of a valid and useful patent. All I ever see is patents that hinder the Progress of Science and useful Arts. Are there really enough valid and useful patents that we should hesitate in our fight against the rest?
The First White Laser
I would care if tbe Xbox one, which will soon be on Windows 10, stopped playing DVDs. But I don't think this would be the case, there is probably a specific player for it.
It might have more to do with running GPU-assisted tasks through remote sessions. You need to either leave a screen attached and on or trick the device into thinking one is attached and on to take full advantage of the GPU on Mac hardware. You can actually do it with any mac hardware (even headless devices like Mac Mini's and Mac Pro's) but it's not advertised well enough.

For example, with mac Mini's in a server environment, you need to plug in a hdmi enabler to get full GPU performance front the system while using it over remote access.

Here's more information: http://www.macstadium.com/blog/osx-10-8-10-9-headless-gpu-en...
As a user I have issues with Windows removing a built-in DVD player. I'm one of those dinosaurs who still watches his DVDs from his laptop. It was news to me and I appreciate that it was at the top.
Open allocation at its best...

We need more of this to counter the MBA/Business closed allocation model.
There's 8 of us in our programmer section; people take Google Hangouts and their phone calls within the section. It takes a few minutes to walk out to a private phone area and the other conference room's door doesn't close properly so you can't block off your noise. So what we do is just wear headphones and try our best to ignore other people's conversations. Which is a problem because all the other office workers are usually so quiet that it's like a library in the office.
Show HN: Use Twitter's Digits for Web in Your React App
Your child is eating something. You ask if you can try a bit. They laughingly say "no way! These are mine!"

Do you then continue the joke? "stop being such a Jew! Give me a chip!"

Are you saying it's fine to use that word because it's just a joke? It's not a serious insult?
Stanford Students Teach Robots to Play Ping-Pong, Land a Drone
I don't know what it is about this particular topic that compels people to flood the conversation with egregious strawman fallacies, but anyway: I never suggested any of the shit that you're implying I did, so your argument falls totally flat and completely misses the point.

Probably no one posting in this ENTIRE FUCKING THREAD is arguing that Github broke the damn law. Quit pretending otherwise. TIA.

I mean, it's right in what you quoted! Read it again:

> Free speech doesn't start and stop at the first amendment to the US constitution.
ADS-B [0] is going to be required equipment in all airplanes by 2020. The problem is there are a LOT of general aviation aircraft out there.

Drive by a GA airport and look at all the planes; many of them are 30, 40, sometimes 50+ years old. Now, this is not a big deal in the aviation world. Airplanes are pretty simple compared to most modern cars. They are also required to be inspected once a year by a mechanic (an "annual"), engines are replaced or rebuilt after a certain time interval has passed (usually around 2000 hours), extensive documentation is required to be kept, etc.

But there are just a LOT of them out there, so refitting all of them takes time. Unlike the car world where, if you make a change in the law, you can reasonably expect in 10-15 years the majority of cars would be compliant just because people buy new cars. In the aviation world that isn't the case. New airplanes can easily run $200k+, so people hold on to airplanes for decades.

It's also expensive. Anything involving airplanes is hellishly expensive. :)

You're looking at probably about $5k for equipment + installation costs (which must be done by a mechanic, pilots generally aren't allowed to work on their own aircraft [1]). And that only broadcasts your position; a separate ADS-B receiver must also be purchased if you want to actually see other airplanes around you. The cheapest one I can find is $500, and that also requires a tablet and software.

So yeah, we're going to get there. But it's going to take some time.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan...

[1] Unless you are a mechanic yourself or you are flying a homebuilt experimental airplane that you were the primary builder.

[2] http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/dual-xgps170-ads-b-receiver...
I meant to research this aspect: what would you suggest to do if I still wanted to use Android, but want to avoid spyware/etc?
Hey, just saw your response a few minutes ago, and shortly thereafter I received a message from your service.

Thanks!!
On Windows 10 you can opt-out as well. In fact, using Microsoft account is an opt-in while installing. You can just make a local account and certain features would be off by default. If you try to access them it will remind you that you need an MS account to access them.

The fundamental problem with this privacy policy is the scary wording. When Gmail first came out, Google was (probably) the first company to read emails to figure out ads. But they enforced the not-touched-by-human-handsiness claim hard throughout. MS, on the other hand, not only says it will collect data but again and again mentions "disclose when necessary." There are too many uses of "disclose." It almost sounds like they will just hand over data without much conviction.
Good point. That will be compatible with other computers too. Apart from the new MacBooks which you'll need a USB-C to USB adaptor for.
1 no 2 yes, the contract states that everything that I do outside of work hours and not using the office equipment is mine 3 ah didn't know that 4 I did that, yes, that was definitely useful
I despise SJWs.
HTTP/2 isn't really going to help here. When you request five different CSS files and ten tiny images all from one server HTTP/2 does the equivalent of resource combining and helps a lot. The core issue with ads, though, is that no one trusts anyone else, and so all of those requests are going to different servers operated by different groups. Each of those servers will need its own connection with connection startup costs, and if the only purpose is to logging an access and maybe drop a cookie HTTP/2 won't help at all.