Ask HN: What is noprocrast and showdead settings for on Hacker News?

When showdead is on, you can see submissions and comments that have been flagged to death.

When noprocrast is on, you may only view HN for maxvisit minutes at a time, and must stay away for minaway minutes before returning.

noprocrast is a way you can keep yourself from wasting too much time on HN. Turn it on and set a "min away" time and you won't be allowed to visit HN unless the "min away" time has elapsed since your last visit. Set a "max visit" time and you won't be allowed to spend more than "max visit" time on HN in any given session.

showdead lets you view "dead" posts. Posts go "dead" due to flagging or action by the moderators and maybe a couple of other reasons. From what I've seen, most of them are pure spam, and I - for one - don't advocate turning showdead on. But you can certainly experiment with it and see what you think.

Both your questions are answered in the FAQ, linked at the bottom of every page on HN.

http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html