Hacker News Reader

jdmitchon Y Combinator’s New Head

great story: “I think I went to sleep at four, I slept till six, I got on a flight at seven to Orange County where Boost was. And I just got to that office and sat there, and the guy was like, ‘Weird, you’re in my office.’ I said, ‘Just meet me for 10 minutes, and let me know what you think.’ He said no a few times, but I showed it to him, and I could tell he was really impressed.”

jdmitchon Testing with Cucumber – best practices

Tip #2 "Insert a Narrative" or describe what the test is and why it is important seems to be a lot more about "literate programming" than BDD. I am actually coming to TDD/BDD not for the testing but for the fact that it seems to be a more useful way of writing specs that can be integrated with UX design quite well. I keep feeling like maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick with my approach to cucumber...

jdmitchon Hapax legomenon

I had thought Alice in Wonderland would have quite a few hapax legomena, even if mostly nonsense words I think (ie 'twas brillig and the slithy toves...), but I found from this academic article [0] that Twain's Tom Sawyer actually has 5% more hapax legomena. The article has some pretty surprising findings about ratios of hapax/vocabulary - though hapaxes fairly consistently make up around 50% of the words in any text, they steadily increase in corpora over 3,000,000 words.

[0] http://aclweb.org/anthology/J/J10/J10-4003.pdf

jdmitchon Levels of Excellence

Thanks - really helpful for me as I am "finishing up" my PhD. It never occurred to me that I need to see it as a more mundane task than I do currently! (Probably also wouldn't hurt to stop reading HN :)

jdmitchon How to Start an Anonymous Blog

> One problem is that Google can see my original messages, and the NSA can probably see them too. If I wanted to avoid it, I could post some anonymous translation jobs and pay the translaters via Bitcoin.

Wouldn't this then make it almost trivial for Google or the NSA to find you with textual analysis by matching what is pasted in translate with any other writing sample you've done? So the OP isn't really concerned about anonymity from Google or NSA at all... amiright?

jdmitchon Personal Computers – Hardware Review – Apple Weighs in With Macintosh (1984)

>"The roughly 17-pound Macintosh comes in a square bushel-basket-size canvas tote bag with an oversized zipper. The preproduction version I saw did not sport the Apple-with-a-bite logo. The addition of this emblem could well turn the bag into a classic status symbol, and even if the computer stayed home, the bag would accompany people on the move, stuffed with picnic goodies or laundry.

It seems that their packaging was spot-on even then!

and reading this feels like trying to describe to a fish what walking is:

>"As to the mouse, it is part and parcel of the Mac revolution, and it will probably be the reason you either sign up for or turn your back on this machine. To a large extent, the Macintosh works with what has been termed a ''finder environment.''

YOU find either a word or an icon or pictogram on the screen representing what you want the computer to do, then slide the mouse on your desk to move the cursor into position over that screen object, then press the button on the mouse to activate that particular part of the program."

jdmitchon Jan. 1 has become the birthday for Afghans who don't know when they were born

In a lot of the world Jan. 1 is everyone's birthday. Or Dec. 31 (The article cites Somalia, Sudan and Vietnam as other examples, but I have been to several other countries where the majority of the rural population has the same issue). It's not really a big deal - some people just don't care what the exact date was that they were born. It seems a bit culturally imperialistic to impose that norm on a lot of issues (aid distribution, human rights, passport standards, etc.)

This is the quote cited from the UN report, which makes a case for the importance of registration pragmatically:

>“Birth registration is instrumental in safeguarding other human rights because it provides the official ‘proof’ of a child’s existence,”

... but it begs the question for any parent in this situation: "Why do I need proof, my child is right here in front of me?!"

jdmitchon Rap Genius is Back on Google

Interesting closing paragraph:

>Though Google is an extremely important part of helping people discover and navigate Rap Genius, we hope that this ordeal will make fans see that Rap Genius is more than a Google-access-only website. The only way to fully appreciate and benefit from Rap Genius is to sign up for an account and use Rap Genius – not as a substitute for Wikipedia or lyrics sites, but as a social network where curious and intelligent people gather to socialize and engage in close reading of text.

ie, you should really just become a member rather than relying on google...

Also, where was bing in all of this?!? ;)

jdmitchon Building a Mesh Network in Rural Somaliland

> Somaliland receives its Internet connection via microwaves across the desert from Djibouti.

Surely the main way people access the internet is through 3G either directly on the phones or on mobile broadband. When I was in Hargeisa in 2008, 3G connectivity was common, and I would assume that it is still the case (though its possible Abaarso doesn't have a very good mobile connection).

jdmitchon South Africa's Nelson Mandela dies

Amandla!

   Awethu!

jdmitchon Meet the BRCK

To be fair, the site was designed to accompany a kickstarter campaign I believe, which ran a few months ago and would have had all of that info up front.

The original (successful) campaign is here on kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776324009/brck-your-bac...

jdmitchon Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

I think Winklevii is more commonly used on reddit

jdmitchon How the Feds Took Down the Silk Road Drug Wonderland

This seemed a bit worrying:

Federal agents say the use of Tor and Bitcoin were major obstacles for them and that investigating the site was “uncharted territory” that involved a reversal of their usual investigative methods. Instead of starting with probable cause against a specific suspect who is already identified and then obtaining a search warrant to collect more evidence, the investigation of Silk Road involved collecting evidence from the site first and then trying to identify individuals.

Sure it is "uncharted territory" in terms of the technology for maintaining anonymous identities, but shouldn't most investigations start with evidence of the crime and an empirical investigation into who could have committed it, rather than starting with suspects and trying to link them with the crime? Maybe I am naive, but sounds like dodgy criminal investigation methodology to me...

jdmitchon Lebanon's forgotten space programme

There is also an interview with Manoug Manougian, the founder of the rocket club, here:

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/10questions/10-questions-with-ma...

apparently this year is the first time he has been back to Lebanon since he left in 1966.

jdmitchon Amazon WorkSpaces

at 12 seconds in the video:

"How come these virtual desktops are about as common as bacon in a vegan sunday brunch"

ha ha!

jdmitchon Microsoft Research Publications

How is it that they can say "Our research" about publications from 1951, like:

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=6500...

and

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=6503...

are they just part of Microsoft's IP portfolio, or are these authors previous incarnations of Bill Gates?

jdmitchon Moscow subway sells free tickets for 30 sit-ups

According to the BBC coverage of this story(and what is actually shown in the video), it was squats rather than situps:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24873180

jdmitchon [dead]

It seems like a lot of this comes down to simple confusion of how to identify individuals who have been broadly known more publicly under one self-identification which they no longer identify with. Most people came to know about Manning under the original name, just as I came to know about Prince as "Prince" and not [Unpronounceable Love Symbol]. Confusion, convenience and ignorance does not amount to "virulent hatred" in my book, and it is unfortunate that Manning is not consistently identified with her preferred self-identification, but Wikipedia is an empirical indication of how your average person would identify her, and isn't a claim to "correctness." In time it will reflect the changing awareness of Manning's identity as it is brought to the attention of the public more broadly.

jdmitchon Why Do Brits Accept Surveillance?

I don't think any Lords Spiritual (whom one would be hard-pressed to qualify as extremists in any case), or other Lords for that matter, could be construed as having significant influence on Parliament.

jdmitchon Qatar: Abolish Exit Visas for Migrant Workers

This is related to a broader international anti-slavery campaign, as the exit visa system is essentially the instrument for enforcing wage slavery in Qatar. cf. recent Guardian articles related to the world cup construction:

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2013/sep...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars...

jdmitchon NodeKnockout is in Full Tilt. Checkout some demos

Love the "Simon Says" app from Los Noders:

http://los-noders.2013.nodeknockout.com/#

brought back some memories (and smiles!) :)

jdmitchon Russian forensic report on Arafat's Death

only 17 pages - very short compared to the much-discussed report yesterday from the Swiss:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6684314

jdmitchon Bitcoin - A Primer [pdf]

> What, in the end, is this new currency? It is a list of authorized transactions, beginning with the creation of the unit by a miner, and ending with the current owner.

Eloquent summary from a skeptic :)

jdmitchon Absolute Horizontal And Vertical Centering In CSS

> This will break cross-browser compatibility.

That kinda ruined all the excitement for me :( Good of the OP to include all of the alternative techniques that might be better for cross-browser or other specific situations.

Seems like transforms are better than the original main suggestion though... why not stick with those?

jdmitchon Indian generics and AIDS

Very sobering, and an inspiring stance against big pharma by India. I always had the impression (fuelled by big pharma propaganda?) that there was some debate around the effectiveness of generic ARVs, at least initially. Unfortunately, it sounds like there is much more that could have been done that wasn't until the Clinton Foundation's initiative.

jdmitchon Swiss forensic report on Arafat's death

Interesting that on p. 59 they discuss the theory that the Po-210 was because of smoking, as smokers have twice as much. Conclusion: smoking still wouldn't account for the total amount in some samples, and he wasn't a smoker anyways.

jdmitchon Swiss forensic report on Arafat's death

I think a lot of people may agree that "of course he was killed," but it is particularly interesting because of the poison used (polonium-210) which has only been confirmed in one other poisoning case, that of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident.

Secondly, it is of interest because Arafat's movements and those he had contact with were very limited around the time that he fell ill, so it raises interesting questions about who could have done it.

Hopefully this won't have a negative impact on ongoing peace negotiations.

jdmitchon Being an Introverted Entrepreneur in an Extrovert’s World

It's interesting that the OP says this:

> When we think of entrepreneurs we stereotypically expect them to have extroverted traits.

and then near the end of the article essentially agrees that he had to learn those "extroverted traits":

> over time I gained the confidence I needed to speak in public to large crowds, attend packed networking events, and pitch to powerful and wealthy individuals

I think most people would agree that introverts can be entrepreneurs, but there are certain "extroverted traits" that fit hand-in-glove with building a successful company, and I would say they are learned behaviours for everyone, simply at different times in life, or depending on one's role. Extroverted entrepreneurs (who are technical) also may need to learn to enjoy spending lots of time alone on code. This is no less of a learning process than the opposite.

jdmitchon How Minecraft Was Born

I wonder if minecraft's financial success (after the initial stage where Persson couldn't have done it another way as the article argues) was because of the pricing model that bucked trends in the gaming world, signalling "this game is different", or if it was despite the difference?

jdmitchon Media for Thinking the Unthinkable

>This page is an attempt to "explode" a demo-driven talk into a skimmable, browsable, gistable form, where individual ideas can be quickly referenced later.

This reminds me of another tool, Korsakow[0], which attempts to do a similar thing in a different way with documentary material, by presenting it in "shortest narrative units" or SNUs that relate to each other. It is one of a number of "interactive documentary" tools (like Mozilla's Popcorn [1] to some extent) but I wonder if it could be repurposed to "explode" a talk in a slightly more digestible way that could be reproduced by those of us who don't have Bret Victor's skillz.

[0] www.korsakow.org

[1] www.popcornjs.org