Cryptographic Libraries - <AUTHOR> https://developer.apple.com/cryptography/ <comment><USER2> Don't use these libraries for new cryptosystems. They're low-level, and so very easy to get wrong. And the primitives they expose are mostly outmoded. Your code will be safer, your crypto will be stronger, and your website will look cooler if you can tell people you used Nacl/libsodium instead of Common Crypto.

<comment><AUTHOR> Isn't it ironic to see so much inline assembly while Apple is telling third party devs that they can't distribute binaries on WatchOS and that iOS apps are moving towards Bitcode too?

Apple's crypto people definitely know that assembly is key in performance and side-channel resistance of cryptographic implementations. They use it constantly. I guess at some point they will just ask 3rd party devs to call corecrypto methods if they want to use encryption in Bitcode apps.

But this means that you'll have to wait for Apple to implement whatever primitive you need for your app. Good enough in most cases but encryption apps with special needs will find this annoying.

<comment><USER2> So far as I can tell, libsodium works on iOS.

Don't write crypto for watches, is what I think.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> So, Security and CommonCrypto were already open source. The new thing here is corecrypto - but it has _not_ been made open source! If you click the download link, you get a license agreement authorizing you to use it only "for the sole purpose of verifying the security characteristics and correct functioning of the Apple Software".

I don't really understand the point of not just publishing it under a regular open source license, since it's hardly some big competitive advantage for Apple when there are plenty of other libraries to do the same thing.

Still, nice to be able to audit it.

<comment><USER4> Particularly since parts of it are just scavenged together from random other crypto libraries. A bunch of libtomcrypt code in there.

That's why people use the GPL.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> They didn't bother to remove RC4 from it before doing that? I wonder if they did any cleanup at all or just released it before the current encryption backdoor trial concludes.

</comment><comment><USER6> A mental inventory of bloggers who routinely say they did not hand over their HD unlock keys to Apple haunts my mind after reading this. Apple are one of the few tech companies who could throw money at the crypto debate and win some Internet Points, but they would have to counter the claims of many bloggers who said they don't trust Apple to guard their unlock keys

<comment><USER7> Trusting a company to provide a good client-side encryption implementation and trusting a company to safely hold encryption keys in escrow are two completely different issues.

I wouldn't hand over disk encryption keys to Apple no matter how much I trusted them, purely because they're in a form where Apple could access them without my intervention, and they could conceivably be legally forced to hand over those keys by some government entity in the future.

Apple's argument against decrypting iOS devices hinges on the fact that they _don 't_ retain those keys, and therefore can't decrypt them for the government.

<comment><USER6> It depends on what you mean by 'key' though. In escrow situations, there is the likelihood of a very strong key provided by Apple, and a horrendously weak key provided by the person. What gets a pickle from me is that Apple have some carte blanche reason to involve themselves remotely in U.S sanctioned soil to then intermediate the decryption.

<comment><USER7> Huh? AFAIK, the only keys which Apple currently holds in escrow are FileVault 2 recovery keys, and those keys are normally only released by request of the user, in the event of a lost local password (the recovery key's used in place of the user's key, not in addition to it). Apple isn't "intermediating" any decryption at any time, because that happens locally on the end user's machine.

FileVault 2 recovery key escrow is also completely optional-- you don't have to send a key to Apple at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Important: The headline was modified since I submitted this. Apple didn't actually open-source the code. They give you a 90-day licence to read the code.

> Apple grants you, for a period of ninety days from the date you downloaded > the Apple Software, a limited, non-exclusive, non-licensable license under > Apple's copyrights in the Apple Software to make a reasonable number of > copies of, compile and run the Apple Software internally within your > organization only on devices and computers you own or control for the sole > purpose of verifying the security characteristics and correct functioning of > the Apple Software;...

<comment><USER8> > _Apple didn 't actually open-source the code._

In that case you shouldn't have said they did in the title.

We changed the title from "Apple open-sources cryptography library (limited, see license)". If there's an issue with the license, by all means point this out, but please use a comment in the thread to do so. Using the story title to point out what you think is the most important bit breaks the HN rule against editorializing.</comment></comment>


SoftBank pulls out of $3bn WeWork share buyout - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/0118b4dd-f528-4b94-80d5-43805554c549 <comment><AUTHOR> Karl Marx, WeWork and the junk bond bubble [https://www.ft.com/content/16f99adf-a8a6-4716-a676-69de62d37...](https://www.ft.com/content/16f99adf-a8a6-4716-a676-69de62d37bf9)</comment>


Developer First Approach for Instant Messengers - <AUTHOR> https://amio.io <comment><USER2> This looks like a nice alternative to Smooch - whilst clearly nowhere near as powerful (yet), it is far more affordable. Pricing seems to scale sensibly, unlike Smooch's cliff edge where the plans go from free to $995.

<comment><AUTHOR> @lukebennett Thanks for comment Luke! Can I ask you for a recommendation what you'd expect in our platform? It will help us to prioritize the roadmap.

We've got some features that Smooch is missing. For example, sending messages to phone numbers.</comment></comment>


Google Living Stories - <AUTHOR> http://livingstories.googlelabs.com/

<comment><USER2> Great, they're going the exact opposite direction of what I'm willing to pay for.

I wish my local paper(s) would cancel their Monday through Saturday editions and concentrated on one great Sunday paper. I'd pay ten times as much for clear, concise, complete "dead" stories on dead trees.

<comment><USER3> Exactly - tell me all the local stuff without all the AP global/national stuff in between. I would absolutely subscribe to this and would even prefer it to an online version.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looking at this made me realize that the only news sites I really like, and actually use on a daily basis, consist essentially of a simple list of headlines.

The simple presentation makes it easy to select the stories that interest me enough to read while still giving an overview of the rest.

While the 'follow a continuing story' idea is interesting (and the presentation here is impressive), it's not something that I value. I find that I follow stories naturally, and often across multiple sites and even media types. I don't really need to see it all in one place, all at once.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is somewhat similar to a site I have been working on. <http://www.newsdive.net> I am doing filtering based on story content, but this seems to be based on tags and categories more.

<comment><USER6> Same question (as I posted in the main thread), if it possible to you to answer. Are you using machine learning, human editoring or both?

<comment><USER5> At the moment it's pretty simple matching based on a few rules, but machine learning is in development. In the case of google, it appears they are using human editors.

<comment><USER6> Thanks and good luck!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Concrete example: <http://livingstories.googlelabs.com/lsps/healthreform>

Interesting...

</comment><comment><USER8> This is a pretty fun project. Nice, lightweight, combines multiple sources. Kind of embarrassing for the news outlets though that google can produce a better version of a full-feed experience than they can.

</comment><comment><USER9> see [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/12...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120802319_pf.html) (via infowarrior - <https://attrition.org/mailman/listinfo/infowarrior> )

<comment><USER10> Interesting: "California software giant" is the tag the WP writer puts on Google.

(I put in a search to see what the net had on those words - seems mostly Oracle and a company with the SG name.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if they are using machine learning, humans editors or both.</comment>


NASA might put a drone on Mars - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/26/nasa-might-put-a-drone-on-mars/?tid=sm_tw

<comment><USER2> An aircraft on Mars would be quite an engineering feat. The average atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars is 600 pascals, which corresponds to an altitude of 35km on Earth. Since that's all carbon dioxide, oxygen- consuming jets aren't usable. The only propulsion options are battery-powered fans/propellers and rockets. And even with huge wings, any aircraft would have to be going at hundreds of meters per second to generate lift. Looking at altitude records[1], I see NASA's Helios UAV got up to 30km. Pressure at that altitude is only twice that of Mars, so a battery-powered Mars aircraft seems barely doable with current technology.

Edit: I was curious about higher altitudes on Mars, so I looked that up as well. Pressure at the top of Olympus Mons is only 30 pascals. That corresponds to 60km altitude on Earth. Good luck getting anything to fly up there. It's effectively a low-grade vacuum.

1\. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record)

2\. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Helios](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Helios)

</comment><comment><USER3> I hate how drone has become synonyms with UAV. All UAVs are drones, not all drones are UAVs.

<comment><USER4> Assuming we're ignoring obviously separate definitions, like bees and sounds, all drones _are_ UAVs. The word "drone" in the aviation context means "an aircraft without a pilot on board." A few dictionaries throw in "autonomous" as a criterion, but I'm not sure where that comes from, since "drone" referred to remote controlled aircraft at least as far back as 1946. Also note that the "drones" that became infamous in the American military were largely _not_ autonomous, but rather were remotely piloted (most American UAVs _can_ loiter autonomously, but as far as I know attack missions are always remotely controlled).

[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drone](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drone)

<comment><USER5> A drone in robotics does not have to fly, it just means that primary direction comes from elsewhere, whether or not the drone itself has any smarts. As alex_duf mentions below, the rovers currently on Mars are drones. 'Drone' has had this meaning long before Parrot and Predator drones existed (which seem to be the things that popularised that meaning).

<comment><USER4> I agree. I believe "drone" in this context was first used for aircraft (target drones), but it has been further extended to any vehicle in robotics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Back in 2000, Austin Meyer simulated Mars in X-Plane, his physics-based sim. (Nitpickers corner: some people don't like it, but it's good enough for this kind of a thing)

His summary is kind of over-the-top but interesting nonetheless:

[http://www.x-plane.com/adventures/mars.html](http://www.x-plane.com/adventures/mars.html)

TL;DR: Flying on Mars is tough. He used a JATO to take off at 600 mph, a plane similar to a U-2, and an arresting hook to stop.

</comment><comment><USER7> I wonder if this is meant to replace the ARES project which seems to have gone nowhere.

[http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov/](http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov/)

I'm not familiar with the details of either project or why a drone might be advantageous over a plane, although they have different applications. The ARES project has been around for a while though so its a mystery to me why it hasn't been implemented yet (the answer must be $$$).

</comment><comment><USER8> I love this idea, I hope it comes to fruition and the science becomes public. I don't quite understand the NASA project approval plan though. AFAIK, the similar NASA Ares project was shelved? :( [http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov/](http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov/)

</comment><comment><USER9> why not solar-powered blimp/airship? What NASA proposes here - land vehicle with separable drone - looks more like future combat systems for Earth :)</comment>


How FireWire came to market and ultimately fell out of favor - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/the-rise-and-fall-of-firewire-the-standard-everyone-couldnt-quite-agree-on/?mbid=synd_digg <comment><USER2> > After being informed of IBM's hundreds of millions in yearly patent revenue, > CEO Steve Jobs authorized a change in FireWire's licensing policy. Apple > would now charge a fee of $1 per port. (So if a device has two ports, that's > $2 per unit.)...Intel sent its CTO to talk to Jobs about the change, but the > meeting went badly. Intel decided to withdraw its support for FireWire—to > pull the plug on efforts to build FireWire into its chipsets—and instead > throw its weight behind USB 2.0, which would have a maximum speed of 480 > megabits a second (more like 280, or 30 to 40 MB/s, in practice)...A month > later, Apple lowered the fee to 25 cents per (end-user) system, with that > money distributed between all patent holders. But it was too late. Intel > wasn't coming back to the table. This was the death blow for FireWire in > most of the PC market.

For all of you who embrace the "fail fast" mindset, keep this story close as a reminder that some mistakes are irrevocable. This was one decision, reversed after 30 days.

<comment><USER3> It's also a good reminder that Jobs, for all the posthumous praise he gets, made some rather stupid business blunders during his tenures at Apple.

Apple can be aggressive about its tech today (such as Lightning and Thunderbolt; anyone know what they charge for those?), but back then they were much more of a niche player.

<comment><USER4> Thunderbolt is Intel AFAIK. (Correction: apparently Intel made some claims but Apple owns it.)

My guess is Intel probably would have backed USB over Firewire regardless since it had a stake in USB.

The irony is, USB would probably have failed without Apple.

The fact is that Intel has repeatedly chosen its own technology to promote, and until recently it had the market power to force everyone else to follow suit.

<comment><USER5> > (Correction: apparently Intel made some claims but Apple owns it.)

This doesn't seem to be correct. While I can't find anything with a simple search, the thunderbolt technology website is copyrighted by Intel, and Wikipedia directly attributes the development to Intel.

Iirc apple was mostly a first adapter to thunderbolt.

<comment><USER6> At the time of the first technology demos, the story was that Apple and Intel jointly developed it.

[https://www.engadget.com/2009/09/26/exclusive-apple- dictated...](https://www.engadget.com/2009/09/26/exclusive-apple-dictated- light-peak-creation-to-intel-could-be/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> One major thing not mentioned is that apprently not everyone bothered implementing FireWire the same. I never learned the technical reason, but if you bought certain digital audio recording interfaces circa 2007, you learned in the fine print/after you called customer service that it only worked with TI FireWire ports . These were the ones used on Macs at this point, I had a dell laptop which used a cheaper manufacturer so (perhaps combined with the fact that my recording interface itself was not a high end one and maybe cut some corners on its end too) the audio recording quality was staticy and uneven. I ended up having to return it and get a lower-bandwidth, noticeably higher latency USB powered one because at least USB ports were consistent.

I was always curious if some manufacturers were not implementing the full spec here (maybe because by this time according to the article FireWire was already on its last legs), or if this was due to flaws in the spec that left certain things optional or something and that ruined interoperability.

<comment><USER8> I don't miss those days at all. I chose to build a fairly expensive setup ~10 years ago that is now completely obsolete. I'd have to build a 32-bit Windows XP machine to get it to even work. It got replaced by maybe $400 in USB devices and they'll power up on any computer I plug it into.

<comment><USER9> Yeah - the future's pretty awesome. I can run a three-camera live studio with six microphones off a laptop these days (for Internet streaming; higher quality obviously requires a little more work).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> My first exposure to FireWire (like many folks, I assume) was the original 5GB iPod I bought from a friend. I thought it was SO cool that you just used this one cable to connect to your computer (in my case, my first Mac, an iBook 600mhz G3), as well as to the power adapter. The charging brick was just a brick with a firewire port and flip-out prongs that could be removed from the power brick, just like today's Mac laptop chargers. You could interchange the prongs with foreign prongs (I still have the travel kit somewhere.. of course the foreign ones don't have the same flip-out functionality). You could even put your "long" laptop charger cable on the Firewire iPod power brick! This was also true of the Airport Express. All interchangeable parts.

I'm not sure if Apple was the first company to do this; today everyone has wall chargers that output a single USB port, but I don't remember it existing before then. Hell, I'm not sure if there were any devices TO charge over USB when the iPod first came out -- those little SanDisk flash MP3 players, and I'm sure the bigger Archos hard-disk based MP3 players must have had their own chargers, there's no way they charged over USB.

I'm so happy that the world has gone in this direction, where I can use your Samsung USB charger to charge my Sony phone, or whatever. And Apple has still stick with the same charging brick style where you can flip out the prongs or use a longer cable. (not sure how it is now with USB C though).

But that firewire power brick still makes me nostalgic, a simple design that felt so elegant 15 years ago, and still does to this day.

<comment><USER11> I never found the American flip-out plugs to work very well---the power brick is just too heavy to be held up solidly like that.

But then, I only visit the states every once in a while, and usually run British-style or Australian connectors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I loved FireWire. I had an external HD and DVD-RW, I could daisy chain them and connect them to my Dell, Sony, and Apple machines. Faster than USB, only needed one port... everyone complained FireWire was more expensive but the devices performed so much better.

<comment><USER13> I _still_ love it. =)

FW800 gets close to 80MB/sec, which is really as much as I need for my backup/archiving needs. And the daisy-chaining is just awesome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Speeds across networks of all sizes are now so high that there's also little > need for something like FireWire. "The packets can arrive way before it's > needed, because it's so fast," Sirkin noted. "So you don't need to worry > about being synchronous any more."

For use cases where _reliable_ low-latency transport is required (i.e., Firewire's main strength), what could possibly be meant by "packets arrive way before it's needed"?

<comment><USER15> At least on Linux, you can easily be barraged by tons of IRQs from your FireWire device. Every time some data comes in from your device (let's say some music production platform) it's going to DMA that data right on over via a PCI lane or 4 then fire off an interrupt to inform your OS "hey hey got some new information for ya!".

Now imagine the platform was poorly designed so it fires off that IRQ once for each track. You're re-tracking the drums since the drummer you're recording couldn't work with a click track. Let's say conservatively, you've got 2 overhead condensers, some ambient mic, and an SM57 at the kick. He's working against the guitarist and bass tracks along with some scratch vox. Depending on how you're patching and tracks are configured, you could easily have 12 tracks all firing a "hey I've got data for you! CONSUME IT!".

Each one of those interrupts is expensive, mind you. I mean not so much now, where we can shield processes on 16-core HT Xeons and basically dedicate a whole core to solely dealing with the interrupts. But imagine the early 2000s where you had P3 single-core's running at 600 MHzs. Each IRQ will context switch, which means whatever active process that was scheduled now gets bumped. The first IRQ is serviced and that process gets back to work and maybe it doesn't even have time to restore it's execution context before ANOTHER dang IRQ comes in. Like I say, not really a problem these days, but not so long ago....

<comment><USER16> >SM57 at the kick

57 resonant peak is at 200 Hz with steep rolloff below. It will sound like a bedroom recording no matter what you do with IRQs and DMAs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It really is a shame that FireWire didn't work out. Aside from the far better transfer speeds, when used for external storage FireWire has _always_ been more solid. USB storage has a nasty habit of periodically flickering out for a split second and has generally been more flaky, something that's actually gotten _worse_ with USB 3 — if you haven't run into this set of issues yourself, do a quick Google and you'll find mountains of posts from people having major issues with USB 3 where 2 works great.

Naturally this extra speed and solidness made for a better experience when booting from external media. One my favorite features of my 4th gen 20GB iPod was the ability to keep an OS X partition on it that I could boot from via FireWire. It worked great — well enough to get work done with, even on low power machines like 400Mhz G3 iMacs — and it saved me several times.

Also, I always loved that little click when plugging in FW400 connectors (can't remember if 800 had this feature). That little bit of tactile confirmation that you've plugged your device in properly is something I wish USB had.

<comment><USER18> On the other hand, malware would have hit commodity devices much faster. That DMA is begging to be used to root a computer.

<comment><USER6> In that time period, most laptops had one or two PCMCIA/PC Card/CardBus slots that had the same vulnerability.

They were commonly used back then to add modems, network adapters and even hard drives.

<comment><USER19> Ah, the good old "People Can't Memorize Computer Indusry Acronyms" standard. I still have no idea what it stands for.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I've used FireWire to connect external disks (verdict: as stable as eSATA, much better than USB2) and to pull video from a cable set-top-box (verdict: the cable box was crappy; no problems directly attributable to the FireWire connection.)

The major problem with FireWire, shared with Thunderbolt, is that it offers DMA to external devices: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMA_attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMA_attack)

<comment><USER21> Doesn't USB-C have the same DMA problem?

Did eSATA also lose to USB? I don't think it has the DMA problem.

<comment><USER22> I think people with actual need for eSATA have moved on to PCIe SSDs. USB3 killed everything else at the low end; I remember buying an external HDD with FW800 in the olden days of 2011, then getting a USB3 drive in 2013 which is still going strong and fast (enough).

<comment><USER23> > I think people with actual need for eSATA have moved on to PCIe SSDs.

People that specifically needed their drives to be both fast and external moved to internal drives? I don't understand.

<comment><USER22> External PCIe (whatever) is kind of the point of Thunderbolt

<comment><USER23> People use thunderbolt NVMe drives? I didn't know those even existed. Is that meaningfully better than USB with UAS?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I loved FireWire. It was faster in the real world than usb 2.0(this was fire 400 too and even 800) and my computer felt so responsive while transferring files. Ethernet over FireWire in the days of winxp was great also!!

</comment><comment><USER25> Since we're sharing our nostalgic Firewire stories... the first video camera I ever bought (almost 20 years ago) could only connect to computers via Firewire. I remember almost all digital cameras on the market only supported it. It seemed like a clear winner.

It's interesting to see an article that explains why it died.

<comment><USER26> Yeah, I remember this time being strange. I had bought a good bit of Firewire equipment for my Cameras and even got a PCI-E card for my PC. It just seemed to vanish without a trace. I still have those cables and accessories somewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I call this the "invented here" syndrome: When company management becomes so dysfunctional they don't trust anything invented at their own company unless it's been externally validated.

<comment><USER10> It's interesting that Apple, the company famous for dropping the floppy disk drive, CD drive, ethernet port, hell, even the USB port, was afraid to ADOPT something new.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is an amazing story about hardware innovation, politics and some kind of bullying. I am amazed that despite all, corporations had innovation in focus, even at the cost of decreasing profit margins.

</comment><comment><USER29> Great article - unbelievable really.

Is USB-C by all measures now superior to FireWire? Or are we still paying for Jobs' mistake?

<comment><USER30> USB-C is just a connector. Some of the devices using that connector only support USB 2.0 signaling over that connector, so USB-C does not imply complete superiority over FireWire.

<comment><USER31> Do you have an example of a device that only uses USB 2.0 over a USB-C connector? I wasn't aware of such a thing.

<comment><USER32> All phones with type c

<comment><USER31> Not true. My phone, a Pixel, has USB 3.1 Gen 1. The Galaxy S8 is also USB 3.1 but I'm unable to find which gen it is from five minutes' Googling.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I've used it for hardrives and video cameras (it was the standard way to get Video off a minidv tape camera). I always found it worked well.

But on video I Remember the different names being bing used being confusing. And while all macs had it some pcs didn't. With USB being ubiquitous and USB 2 being good enough when it finally showed up.

Somewhat oddly mac was a big pusher of USB as that's what the original iMac used.

Had intel put it in its chipsets...

</comment><comment><USER34> Article reads like Sony started using the i-Link name before iMac was released, is this accurate ?

<comment><USER35> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394)

It looks like it was about the same time

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> It will be around for a while, as noted in the comments on the article: IEEE 1394B was used in the F-22 and F-35, so unless those are retrofitted the standard will be propped up in some form for decades.

</comment><comment><USER37> Isn't Firewire that port no one uses?

<comment><USER38> Much of the reason for that is outlined in the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> surely one of the reasons is that very very few PC's came with fireware. so the customer base was limited.

<comment><USER35> It's "FireWire", and if you read the article, it is about WHY "very few PC's came with fireware(sic)".

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> FireWire: the hardware interface where the designers & implementers thought offering unfettered DMA was a good idea.

<comment><USER19> At the time it was a good idea. It avoided bottlenecking everything through the CPU in an era when CPU power was extremely scarce: A 200MHz G3 chip doesn't have a lot of surplus horsepower.

Let's also hear your whines about how the C64 didn't have protected memory and the Apple ][ was so easy to hack because you could open the lid and poke around with a logic probe.</comment></comment>


Yap: an ephemeral, real-time chat room with up to six participants - <AUTHOR> https://yap.chat/ <comment><USER2> Is the website supposed to appear and the chat is an overlay? How does that work

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> No idea why the parser capitalized "Real-Time"</comment>


Ask HN: How Much Percentage of Shares Does a Tech Co-Founder Usually Get? - <AUTHOR> I'm in talks with getting into a business partnership with someone as a tech co-founder. My main responsibilities would include leading the product development, planning the architecture and managing a tech team. My co-founder's responsibilities would be to lead the vision, bring in clients for our products and putting in the initial investment required to get things running.<p>In such a business scenario, how much equity should I expect as a tech co-founder? What other factors should I consider before getting into such an arrangement? <comment><USER2> Answer is of course, "Depends" \- but 50% is perfectly possible.

[http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-get-hired-as- tec...](http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-get-hired-as-technical-co- founder.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> You could also consider a dynamic split arrangement.

Used Slicing Pie ([https://slicingpie.com](https://slicingpie.com)) once and can never start a venture any other way. And the free excel sheet is actually better than the application ;)

</comment><comment><USER4> Make sure there is a founders agreement and other legal documents in place. Consult a lawyer

Check out the book "the founder's dilemmas" for insights into these and many more issues you will encounter. It's totally worth the $20

</comment><comment><USER5> All else being equal, slightly less than 50%. But possibly significantly less if the other person has had a previous big exit, you will be getting a salary from day 1, the business already has significant traction, etc.</comment>


How do we measure pain, anyway? - <AUTHOR> https://massivesci.com/articles/measuring-pain-animal-testing-ouch/ <comment><USER2> Simple answer is badly.

Common question from doctors is a 1 to 10 scale, I asked them about it and they said it's purely a relative scale, if you say 8 and they give you something and you say 6 they know it helped.

I used to think I had a high tolerance for pain (I've broken bones and gone to work before realising in that case my elbow) till I had gallstones which entirely redefined a 10 for me.

The other issue is the type of pain, I have chronic neuropathic pain from a syrinx - imagine that pins and needles sensation where you don't want to put your foot down or even move it - it's like that all the time which becomes deeply unpleasant but on a 1-10 scale I'd put that at 3-4.

Doctor said he was surprised it took as long as it did for me to get diagnosed, listen to your body folks, if something feels 'wrong' get it checked out, you know you you better than anyone.</comment>


Facebook announces first 20 members of Oversight Board - <AUTHOR> https://www.oversightboard.com/news/announcing-the-first-members-of-the-oversight-board/ <comment><USER2> Interesting that one of them is from Taiwan. I wonder how that would influence facebook/china relations and any attempts by facebook to make china friendly versions of the platform to gain more access to that market. Seems like they've made a big political statement just by having a Taiwanese person on the oversight board and using the word Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei

<comment><USER3> > Seems like they've made a big political statement just by having a Taiwanese > person on the oversight board

Are they? Or are you making to political statement, with this comment?

Not an attack, something to consider.

<comment><USER2> I'm making a political statement by using the word Taiwan, as is facebook. Just using that word instead of the word chinese Taipei says a lot

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I will be extremely curious to see if this turns out to be a model that works well, and if Google/YouTube and Twitter winds up doing the same thing, or (maybe even better?) Facebook+Google+Twitter cooperate to share a single board.

It seems like it would be a smart move -- as long as the board comes up with respectable policies, it could effectively immediately insulate the companies from a lot of criticism.

On the other hand, allowing/removing content is only one part of the equation. _Prioritizing_ which content to show (and to which users) is arguably a far bigger issue (with serious democratic implications) that this board doesn't appear to touch. But it's such a can of worms, I also don't see how they could.

<comment><USER5> I can see how a unified board would take a lot of pressure from their companies but society-wise it would probably be better if such boards were separate, both for comparability and power spreading reasons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is this "the free market regulating itself" I hear so much about?

</comment><comment><USER7> How many of them are conservative and how many of them come from cultures with long traditions of free speech?

<comment><USER8> Most of them, like most people in general, don't primarily identify as some loaded political identity. Out of the US members, three would likely satisfy the criteria you're thinking of: Jamal Greene is associated with the Federalist Society, Michael McConnell was appointed to a judgeship by Bush, and John Samples is a member of the Cato Institute.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> anyone else having trouble opening the webpage in frefox? opens fine on chrome, but elements don't load in firefox.

</comment><comment><USER10> Oversight, n.

... c) an inadvertent omission or error

Sounds about right.</comment>


Why did Porsche go to the trouble of designing an 800 V Taycan EV? - <AUTHOR> https://chargedevs.com/newswire/why-did-porsche-go-to-the-trouble-of-designing-an-800-v-taycan-ev/ <comment><USER2> It is not just Porsche, this work benefits the whole Volkswagen group...</comment>


Darpa Bay Area SDR Hackfest - <AUTHOR> https://darpahackfest.com/bay-area-hackfest#Bay-Area-Hackfest-Mission <comment><USER2> While I know the likelihood of a mishap is miniscule, I can't help but feel mildly uneasy about an RF hackathon happening at an airport.

<comment><AUTHOR> If something happens, it was DARPA who invited the crowd...</comment></comment>


We may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time - <AUTHOR> https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532770-400-we-may-have-spotted-a-parallel-universe-going-backwards-in-time/ <comment><USER2> A Theory..

[https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-propose-a-mirror- uni...](https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-propose-a-mirror-universe- where-time-moves-backwards)

</comment><comment><USER3> The paywall here is infuriating</comment>


Ask HN: How do you deal with a sister that asks for help very often? - <AUTHOR>

What happens is, that my little sister, who is at her second semester of an engineering program, asks me very often, to help her when she encounters a problem she cant do by herself.
For me, this is becoming annoying, in the sense that I have to interrupt whatever Im doing, and then make some time to read the chapter which contains the information needed to solve the problem, think about how to solve the problem, and after that explain to her how did I arrive to the solution.
I would add, that in general, whenever she is presented with a problem, she feels frustrated, and seeks either to find someone to blame, or sees it as a disgrace. She doesn't have that inquisitive nature, which makes people want to find a solution, even if the first approximation, didn't result in an answer.
What would you say I could do, in order to help her develop that inquisitive trait? How can I stop this endless cycle, of seeking for my help, whenever her approximations don't end with an answer?
Edit: Just some additional information. She's 19. <comment><USER2> I wouldn't be quite as harsh as people have recommended...

For one thing, getting an education includes learning how to solve your own problems. Your explanations of your solutions may help her gain that knowledge. Assuming that because someone is not a problem solver in their 2nd semester, that they never will be... well, that is just false logic.

Even if she never does learn to solve problems, she may still get a basic engineering job. But she will not become a senior level engineer.

Ultimately, you need to explain to her that her goal is not just to solve the problems... it is to improve her own self-sufficiency. If she udnerstands that, it might change her approach to things.

And finally, she is your sister -- Just help the girl out.

</comment><comment><USER3> Help with out doing it for her. Ask her to teach it to you. You would be surprised how well people do at teaching something they "don't understand", and usually it provides that ah ha moment they need to get it. Also it will help point you in the direction of the bit she is missing. She needs to understand that she has to figure it out. Help should be a lever not a crutch. I have to agree with the others hand holding reduces creativity and originality.

</comment><comment><USER4> I TAed the second programming class (EECS 280) at UMich for 5 semesters. The canonical reply to "is this code right?" or "my code doesn't work" is "how have you tested it?" or "how do you know it doesn't work?", to be sure that the students are not using the TA as an oracle for correctness. (This causes bad reviews from students, but that's the price of tough love.)

Applying to this situation, I would recommend stubbornly requiring your sister to produce "certificates" that she has tried the incremental steps on the way to the solution. "What are you covering in the course?" "Have you done the assigned reading?" "What did you try that didn't work?" "why didn't you try X?" etc.

<comment><USER5> If only all teachers would like like you TAed, we'd have more kids who have learned how to troubleshoot instead of circle the right answer on a multiple choice

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Don't give her the answer, but it's okay to help her train of thought get to the right answer.

Give her debugging skills.

</comment><comment><USER7> stop helping her. i can guarantee she won't develop that inquisitive trait or break the endless cycle of seeking your help if you continue to help her when she can't easily find an answer to a problem.

<comment><USER8> Absolutely. She won't be able to work like that in the workplace. If she feels disgraced to ask for help, maybe you should talk to her and explain, "CS is hard. No one should be ashamed to ask questions." She won't enjoy working if she is intimidated by hard problems.

<comment><USER7> even beyond that, she's on semester 2. my engineering curriculum hit its hardest around semester 4/5/6. things are only going to get harder. take off the safety wheels now so that she can appropriately gauge the major she's picked.

better to figure out you want to switch majors at semester 2 than semester 6 when your problems are too difficult or time-consuming for your bro to help you out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It sounds like she might have fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindset_(book)>

"Those with a fixed mindset believe their talents and abilities cannot be improved through any means. They feel that they are born with a certain amount of talent and typically do not wish to challenge their abilities due to the possibility of failure. Individuals with a fixed mindset frequently guard themselves against situations in which they feel they need to prove their personal worth. Challenges are frequently viewed negatively, instead of as an opportunity for personal growth."

"People that practice a growth mindset believe intelligence, talents, and abilities can be developed over time. They believe abilities, such as athleticism and mathematical capacity, can be improved through hard work and persistence. When presented with an obstacle, those practicing a growth mindset tend to rise to the challenge. Often, people of the growth mindset do not fear failure; instead, they view it as a chance to improve themselves."

"anyone can change their mindset at any age or at any stage in life. She also provides steps or ideas that the reader can follow to achieve the growth mindset."

</comment><comment><USER10> Since she's your sister, I'm fairly sure you've known each other for a while!

How did you handle it in the past? This is almost certainly not new behavior.

</comment><comment><USER8> What about pointing her in the direction on an online forum that she could post and get questions answered? ExpertS-exchange and StackOverflow come to mind.

</comment><comment><USER11> Tell her to ask the professor or TA during office hours.

<comment><USER12> I'm not sure why you were voted down, as that's exactly what she should be doing. Study groups are good too, and there are usually private tutors available for a price.

One of my regrets about college is not taking more advantage of office hours.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just say, "Well, how would YOU approach this?" to gauge where she is at. So rather than solve it for her every time, have her give it a stab first. Let her be totally wrong, but at least have her try. Then correct her approach and set her on the right path. Then if she really is stuck after making an honest effort, then help out with the answer, but basically the more times questions like "What do you think?" are put to her, the more she will hopefully think on her own.

</comment><comment><USER14> She's not a real engineer if she doesn't fail by herself. Of course, by fail I really mean try and try and eventually get it right. What should you do? Tell her to quit engineering.</comment>


Ask HN: Help - I need a Technical Consultant. - <AUTHOR>

I do not have a technical background, but I have a project I am really excited about executing.
I have a ton of great business experience and am prepared to fund the launch of my concept. I plan to direct strategy, marketing, sales and finance.
I would love to find a technical cofounder, but I don't even know where to begin the process of figuring out what technical skills i am looking for.
I am hoping to find someone with great general technical experience who, for a generous consulting fee, would spend an hour or two with me helping me define the specs of a great technical cofounder or employee.
I am also happy to take you out to a nice dinner or a beer if you are in NYC :)
My project includes building a platform for video-chatting.
I can be reached at charley.severs at gmail.
Thanks in advance for your help! <comment><AUTHOR> Update - Thanks to the many people who contacted me via email. I have a handful of conversations lined up for today and will report back to HN on my progress.

<comment><AUTHOR> Based on some valuable input from some generous HNers, I have put together an RFP <http://bit.ly/cOLvkm> and some basic wireframes <http://bit.ly/9VytJl>

I am interested in feedback and proposals.

Thanks very much.</comment></comment>


The Cornucopia: MIT's 3D food printer patiently awaits 'the future' - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/21/the-cornucopia-mits-3d-food-printer-patiently-awaits-the-futu/ <comment><USER2> Finally, CNC kit for pastry fabrication.</comment>


Force Touch on iPhone - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMmnsU5fC8

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you guys/girls think about it?

</comment><comment><USER2> So kind of like a fancy high-tech long-press?

<comment><AUTHOR> For an app icon, a longpress would let you delete it, if you force tap on it it would take you to settings.</comment></comment>


If you don't like Uber right now, don't worry, you soon will - <AUTHOR> http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/H2szy8ZUNmD3iCxC3PwrVK/If-you-dont-like-Uber-right-now-dont-worry-you-soon-will.html

<comment><USER2>
      So, as we debate passenger safety in the context of app-based taxi services, it is as absurd to expect Uber to invest in passenger safety as it is to expect Amazon to enforce literary standards in the novels it sells. If literary value is the look-out of the reader and the publisher, mutatis mutandis, passenger safety is obviously the look-out of the passenger and the taxi service provider.

This would be a more reasonable argument if Uber wasn't actively ignoring local passenger safety measures when they set up in a city. Despite the cabal that taxi regulation has turned into in some areas, it still remains vital that somebody is regulating it.

Amazon may not be expected to enforce 'literary standards' in novels it sells, but it is certainly required to adhere to legislation on any goods it sells, and Uber is no different.

The 'build it first and regulate later' approach is only valid when you're truly functioning in a void, not just closing your eyes and pretending.</comment>


Go: How to Reduce Lock Contention with the Atomic Package - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/a-journey-with-go/go-how-to-reduce-lock-contention-with-the-atomic-package-ba3b2664b549 <comment><USER2> Since C++11 you can do this there too, and I think Rust has atomics.

<comment><USER3> It does, yes.</comment></comment>


Russia wants to cut itself off from the global internet–what that means - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613138/russia-wants-to-cut-itself-off-from-the-global-internet-heres-what-that-really-means/ <comment><AUTHOR> "An alternate DNS can be used to create an alternate reality for the majority of Russian internet users."

"Russian users are likely not to notice, unless they try to access a website that's censored. For example, a user trying to connect to facebook.com could be redirected to vk.com"

"Many observers see the move as part of Russia's long tradition of trying to control the flow of information between citizens."

"Just this week, Russia's government signed into law two new vaguely worded bills that make it a crime to 'disrespect the state' or spread 'fake news' online. The new plan to reroute Russian traffic is an escalation"

[1] [https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704600310/russia- criminalizes...](https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704600310/russia-criminalizes- the-spread-of-online-news-which-disrespects-the-government)

[2] [https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/18/putin-signs- fake-n...](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/18/putin-signs-fake-news- internet-insults-bills-into-law-a64850)</comment>


Gmail Labs: Experimental Opt-In Features - <AUTHOR> http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-06-06-n28.html <comment><USER2> snake! they just need a way to pause it...</comment>


Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft workers have all pledged to strike on 9/20 - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjwxk4/while-apple-is-launching-an-iphone-its-largest-competitors-are-going-on-a-climate-strike <comment><USER2> I find it funny that this climate strike is happening the same day as the Area 51 raid, wonder if its some sort of diversion

</comment><comment><USER3> Easily fixed: declare those days company holidays (it's a Friday anyways, when productivity tends to drop about 33%)

</comment><comment><USER4> Might be a dumb question but Google is supposed to have a carbon neutral footprint no?

<comment><USER5> Yes: 100% renewable energy consumption, and carbon neutral since 2007

[https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb- sustainability.appspot.c...](https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb- sustainability.appspot.com/pdf/Google_2018-Environmental-Report.pdf)

(No connection to Google, I just remembered looking this up once before)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Bad look for Apple here

<comment><USER7> Is it though? Even the article itself goes to some length (almost half the article) to explain how Apple's already launching numerous envronmentally- friendly initiatives, and there's the free "iPhone 11 coming out on Sept. 20" plug from Vice.

Worded slightly differently, this article could have been an Apple press release.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Number of people who strike will be larger than the number of customers who care

<comment><USER9> Sad but true... May receive a tiny bit of media attention but I don't expect anything to come out of it.</comment></comment>


Amazon is Looking For the Perfect Warehouse Worker - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-28/robot-with-a-human-grasp-is-amazon-s-challenge-to-students <comment><USER2> It is because of Amazon's unfair and abusive labor practices that I choose not to purchase from them.</comment>


Internet Archive's Trump Archive Launches Today - <AUTHOR> https://blog.archive.org/2017/01/05/internet-archives-trump-archive-launches-today/ <comment><USER2> Its quite interesting

Anti-Hillary has gone about leaking private correspondence and documents to "attack" her

Anti-Trump (which I'm considering Archive to be, considering their prior reactions), has gone about collecting and documenting public data to "attack" him.

As a nice side-effect, it does mean that (for the most part) truth is being used as the weapon of choice, which I think is pretty great. I hope the act of publishing truth as a political tactic becomes more of a thing over time, even if partisan.

<comment><USER3> I'd not be surprised if many individuals at the IA dislike Trump, but why do you say the IA is biased against him?

This effort is a direct continuation of their Political TV archives which have over the last years become more and more important and popular. They catalog every political ad around elections, every speech given by every candidate, etc. As far as I can see, all they're saying here is that they've put the Trump videos into their own category, which seems reasonable given that he's an important figure and a lot of people are looking for this data.

I suspect they would have created a similar thing for Hillary if she'd won. Don't know if they did one for Obama, but as I said this part of the archive has been growing fast for the past years and gotten them a lot of visibility from mainstream news media that uses this data, so it's not surprising that they're using the election result to draw attention to their archive.

<comment><USER4> For their bias, I'd look to their November announcement of creating the Internet Archive Of Canada:

[https://blog.archive.org/2016/11/29/help-us-keep-the- archive...](https://blog.archive.org/2016/11/29/help-us-keep-the-archive-free- accessible-and-private/)

"On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change. It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change."

<comment><USER3> Interesting. I'll agree that this points to the organization having a preference in the outcome here.

However, the original post that started this thread seemed to indicate that their data was suspect due to their bias. I remain very skeptical of this, given that their goal is to collect all the political ads and speeches, regardless of party or candidate. Time will tell I guess, but until we have indications otherwise I will continue to consider the Internet Archive's library a reliable source of unbiased information.

<comment><USER5> Lessig actively campaigning for electoral revolt left a bad taste in my mouth. I respect what he/they have done for the common good in the past, but lately he/they seem more biased vs. Trump than fighting for civil liberties and the _common_ good.

<comment><USER6> Lessig has nothing to do with the Internet Archive, as far as I'm aware.

<comment><USER5> Wow, thanks. I made an erroneous connection between the two over a decade ago and have assumed ever since that Lessig was somehow involved with the Archive(board member, legal team, early Kahle collaborator). TIL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Why is the archive going political? I would hope they'd be a bit more unbiased than this.

<comment><USER8> When they launch something that overtly flaunts their political affiliation like this, my first thought is: _what will they omit?_

Are we going to get 'curated' history now? Will everything they archive going forward come with a third-party annotation by a 'non partisan' fact checking group, or disappear into the ether? The latter option is far cheaper and less prong to scrutiny, after all.

One primary use I have for IA is to look for things that have been censored off their original platforms. Will I only be able to find those that align with their views going forward?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> National Library of Memes.

</comment><comment><USER10> Awesome record for history.

Go for it!</comment>


FizzBuzz 2.0: Pragmatic Programming Questions for Software Engineers - <AUTHOR> https://triplebyte.com/blog/fizzbuzz-2-0-pragmatic-programming-questions-for-software-engineers <comment><USER2> I think the 5th one is harder because it has a lot of reliance on recognizing a specific syntax for key/value stores, and may rely on realizing that a key/value store can have another key/value store as one of its values. This code couldn't be written recognizably-the-same in at least a couple of the languages I use which have key/value stores, and would be syntactically quite different in some. If you don't recognize the syntax, you have to start thinking about the problem and ruling things in or out, and that's harder. Probably still possible, but it's going to be testing at least some amount of a test-taking skill that isn't always taught.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yikes. Only 42% going 5/5 from the already rarefied pool of people who would bother to go through the TripleByte quiz is a little scary.

<comment><AUTHOR> (Article author here.)

I'm not sure to what degree I'd call it "already rarefied", as Triplebyte is a totally open platform that literally anyone with a web browser can join. But as an experienced engineer myself, the 42% number is definitely "a little scary", which is why I thought it was so interesting to be able to share this data.

(Hopefully anyone reading here on HN finds these questions to be quite easy.)

<comment><USER4> Note:

Even nowadays I find there are large swathes of the Internet I have never ended up in have great difficulty even piercing due to search engine optimization. I actively have to torture some search engines, and get 3-7 pages deep to get passed most of the usual suspects just to get to places I haven't seen before.

Just because it is on the Internet, does not mean it is readily visible to everyone, or that the audience you will attract is actually the audience you want to.

I generally never look at those types of things before an interview. I'll catch up on recent tech usually, but I'm generally good enough at the basics and being able to explain the depths of where I've been previously that that sort of thing doesn't register as a useful application of my time in the long run.

I try to warn businesses away from that sort of buffoonery, because at the end of the day, the "Engineer" part is more important in the long run than the "software" bit, and engineering mentality is a lot easier to pin down in my experience than whether someone is a virtuoso in your current tech stack.

My two cents anyway.</comment></comment></comment>


Why CarMax Makes More Money on Used Cars Than Anyone Else - <AUTHOR> https://jalopnik.com/heres-why-carmax-makes-more-money-on-used-cars-than-any-1826415410 <comment><USER2> They can make money because used car dealerships are an anachronism run by sales morons who are hoping to find a bigger fool to siphon money off of.

Interacting with a car dealership feels like you're walking into a poker game with "sucker" stamped on your forehead.

I recently tried to buy a barely used Lexus from a Lexus dealer and couldn't believe they used the same bullshit New Jersey Pontiac dealer tactics to sell me the car that were dated and transparent in 1987.

The only easier industry to disrupt is probably furniture or mattress sales.

<comment><USER3> >The only easier industry to disrupt is probably furniture or mattress sales.

I walked into a mattress store recently, and was absolutely horrified. It's very obvious what their tactics are. The sticker price on everything was easily 3x what the cost of a decent bed/mattress should be, to the point it was obvious none of the clientele in there would be paying that full price upfront. They only talk about everything in terms of "monthly payments". It's very obviously just a scheme to trap poor people who can't just put an $800 mattress on a 0% credit card into making 5 years worth of payments and interest on something they can't afford.

<comment> ryan-c Buying a mattress is aggravating, but my experience has been rather different. Maybe I went to different types of stores, I don't know. I did notice that each store/chain seems to sell very similar mattresses that are somehow technically different models so you can't directly compare prices.

First mattress I bought had a sticker price of I think $850 plus tax. Ended up haggling and paying $550 cash (tax included) for the mattress with a cover included.

Second mattress I bought had a sticker price of around $2800. Haggled down to $900 after tax again with a cover included. It was significantly better than the first one.

Both were queen sized, included delivery and offered haul-off.

<comment><USER4> >Second mattress I bought had a sticker price of around $2800. Haggled down to $900 after tax again with a cover included.

You have great negotiation skills

<comment> ryan-c My negotiation skills are okay, but mattresses have absurd markups.

Sales guy said $900 was the wholesale price, but I highly doubt that. I'm sure they still made at least a few hundred dollars on the sale. I've heard the wholesale price on a $3000 mattress can be as little as $300.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There's value in removing negotiations to end consumer. The expectation to negotiate can introduce stress and uncertainty into an already-stressful large purchase. CarMax removes that, and captures the value in higher prices.

But it is interesting that more people don't do a quick check of Kelly Blue Book. For example BMW 328i in article at Carmax is $27k. On KBB selling to private party value is $21k-$23k. Maybe there are some special features on one in Carmax inventory but doubtless there is a markup there.

<comment><USER6> A lot of people are probably happy to pay the premium to avoid the relative uncertainty, risk and awkwardness of a private sale.

<comment><USER7> Not only that, CarMax will support you if the car turns out to have problems. Try getting that when you are curbstoning

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Carmax makes a ton of money because they bring new meaning to "low-ball" when they offer to buy your car. Go see what they'll offer you for a car just as a test, then go look up your car value on KBB, edmunds, anything.

When I sold my last car, they offered me $2k and I ended up selling it the next week for $7k.

Carmax goes after people who are either too lazy to sell it themselves or too desperate and need the money immediately.

<comment><USER9> This is just anecdata. We bought a used car at Carmax and they gave us way, way, way above bluebook value for our trade-in (and all other offers, too -- and we were pretty aggressive in researching trade-in offers at other places and were prepared to be underballed by Carmax).

My anecdata is no more useful than yours. Unless someone provides some actual reliable data points to produce a real, known trend, there's no proof here.

<comment><USER10> A trade-in is not the same as an actual sale for cash.

If you indeed got a great deal on the trade-in it just meant you got less of a great deal on the other components of the sale.

<comment><USER11> As far as I know, CarMax doesn't negotiate on the price. The price they list is the out the door price. So it's not like OP walked in and they added document fews and headlight fluid fees. He knew the price he was going to pay for the CarMax car, and was pleasantly surprised with the trade in value of his old car.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> A lot of people will pay extra to avoid the typical used-car bullshit process, when buying... Shady dealers where you spend 2.5 hours haggling, encountering a $295 "documentation fee" you need to threaten to walk away to get removed, etc.

</comment><comment><USER13> If I go to Carmax I know what I'm getting — a standardized but low-balled price for my car and no hassle. My time is worth money and the car buying experience is fucking miserable.

<comment><USER14> This exactly. When I compare my experiences buying houses and my experience dealing with car dealerships, I had s much more pleasant experience dealing with house buying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> One of the appealing aspects of Carmax for investors is that they're the only dealership that makes money both on purchases as well as sales. Their appeal for consumers is that they're friendly and transparent, even if it's not the best deal.

</comment><comment><USER16> Entire article summarizable under "because people pay more per-unit for service equivalent to elsewhere":

When it comes to gross profit per unit, on average, CarMax raked in $2,147 per vehicle. Lithia Motors wasn't far behind at $2,038 while other dealer groups such as Asbury, Penske, AutoNation and Sonic had a profit range between $1,565 and $1,090. Startup Carvana only managed to average $902 per unit.

But the fact that CarMax makes is the most profitable used car retailer in the country, is mostly the direct result of buyers often paying more for cars then they could have found elsewhere with a similar "no-haggle" experience

<comment><USER17> Gross profit per unit doesn't mean they are the most profitable used car retailer, or even that they are profitable at all.

Gross profit in accounting terms means the price the car sold for, minus the fire that cost of purchasing it. It probably doesn't include sales or marketing costs, and unclear whether it includes Warranty costs. For example, Carvana is listed at making $900 per car, but a Carvana isn't profitable at all because of those costs.

So I wonder if CarMax's gross profit might be overstated because it's driven by a more expensive base warranty?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> >CarMax is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to pre-owned vehicle retailing.

I never understood the use of the phrase "pre-owned". I know it's short for "previously owned", but why not say "used"? My brain keeps parsing it as "before it is owned". And does anyone use this outside of the US/Canada?

The other day I went to an event where the check-in clerk asked "Are you pre- registered?" I asked "Is that different from being registered?" Turned out it wasn't different. So why say "pre-registered"?

<comment><USER2> Yeah. And if we're being honest only new cars are "pre-owned."

It's a car before the state of ownership... New.

Pre-registered? It's someone who hasn't resistered yet.

Shouldn't used cars be post-owned?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Interestingly couple years ago a BMW dealer offered me $2500 more for trade in of my 2014 5 series than what Carmax offered. Since then I always try to double check what other dealers offer

<comment><USER20> This is how carmax works. They'll never give you the best offer, just a convenient process.

<comment><USER21> I ended up getting nearly twice as much from CarMax as I was offered from any dealers. However, I suspect this was because there was a serious problem with the steering column that CarMax missed in their inspection that the dealers did not.

Either way, the process was painless enough that I don't think it can hurt getting an additional valuation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The article kind of dismisses carvana because their profit per unit is low compared to the rest. But, carvana's model is the future. I don't know what their financials are like, but if they are surviving on $902 profit per unit then they have the potential to surpass carmax and be the walmart of used cars... low profit per unit, but huge volume.

<comment><USER17> Carvana is losing lots of money according to original article. Their model is thus unproven.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> CarMax is awesome, when you need a new car, you can go there and get one without too much worry about hidden problems or being overpriced. Markup they charge, provided they didn't change much in last few years is totally worth it.

Saving few bucks but risking having a car with problems is not worth it. This is where CarMax provides most value.

</comment><comment><USER24> What I didn't see in the comments is that CarMax has probably the best selection of vehicles in a given area.

To those who know exactly what they want, it doesn't matter as much, but for those who want to compare a RAV4 to a CR-V from the same lot, it's unbeatable.

That said, the recently reported glut in used cars probably negates some of CarMax's advantage. I bought my last car from a curbside dealer.

</comment><comment><USER25> CarMax is not the cheapest option, it never was. Their whole business model is to sell the car at a good-enough price, and to make the sale frictionless. And they've succeeded.

Today they are the market leader, but as the article suggests, if they start to use that leverage to sweeten their markup too much, other competitiors will come along and offer something better.

This is really just a news article about how a free market works.

<comment><USER26> Dealers lose money every day a car sits on their lot. You want a good deal from any dealer, scrape results each week and hit them up on cars that haven't moved for months. They will flip it for $1 over cost just to get it from going red on their books and management getting upset.

<comment><USER27> Also make a point to go at the end of the month / quarter / year as they'll want to juice the sales numbers for that particular block.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Carmax is so successful because they emphasize the "why" and not the "how." Carmax believes buying and selling cars should be easy not cost effective for consumers. I sold a 2000 Toyota Tacoma with over 100k miles for $20k that I bought for $24k and drove for 7 years. Thought I got a good deal, literally took one hour. I just miss the truck.

</comment><comment><USER29> Why do people pay $100+ for Windows/Office when linux/Libreoffice is free? One takes a lot less effort than the other.

<comment><USER30> My experience has been that Libreoffice tools are significantly easier to use than MSFT Office products, and also easier than Google Docs and related Google enterprise products. It has usually just been the case that a company has many employees already standardized on Windows machines, and wants enterprise support contracts.

I'd argue that Libreoffice being harder to administer and provide as a common tool is due to mistakes made earlier in the decision-making process, when originally standardizing on Windows or expecting browser-based solutions for these workflows.

But I agree that conditional on someone already having sunk money into those mistakes, the marginal extra cost of a turn-key solution for their environment is what makes the enterprise products attractive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I had a good experience buying a car from CarMax. Their maintenance and service quotes were extraordinarily high though.

</comment><comment><USER32> As an aside, the Tom McParland articles are always interesting to me because he talks directly about auto sales, where if you go to a dealer if feels like you always get half-truths and the runaround.

</comment><comment><USER33> They buy from people in need as well.

I debated on selling them my F150. They offered me 17k and I told them to go fuck themselves.

It got totaled ~4 years later and I got a bit over $17k.

So the people that need cash will bend over. Those too stupid to shop around (marketing works as well) will overpay.

Almost everyone I know falls in love with a car or house when they're buying because it's such a huge purchase. For me I'm only in love if it's a good deal. That's one thing my parents certainly taught me well (thanks!).</comment>


Confused about Me – Don't wanna do a cooperate job - <AUTHOR> I am presently 3rd year student. I am good with programming and have done two internships and everything is going pretty smooth. The Problem is that I don't wanna endup working in a MNC. I wanna build stuff. I like to work with startup and I want to build one But I am not getting any good ideas. So, Stuck with it.
Any Suggestion of what I can do know. I even don't like being in College I am thinking of dropping out but I don't know what I am going to do afterwards.
Or anyone with some great idea and need a developer and cofounder I am ready to quit my college. <comment><USER2> Get a full-time job. Build stuff in your free time. Make money until you can launch your own thing to make money.</comment>


Let's Make 2017 the Year of Simply Secure PHP Cryptography - <AUTHOR> https://paragonie.com/blog/2017/01/let-s-make-2017-year-simply-secure-php-cryptography <comment><USER2> Thanks for putting so much effort into making PHP secure :)</comment>


Massachusetts Is Considering Changing Its Time Zone, Because Winter Is the Worst - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcoexist.com/3063303/massachusetts-is-considering-changing-its-time-zone-because-winter-is-the-worst <comment><USER2> Why do they always focus on the daylight after work? I need daylight to get going in the morning. I've hated moving daylight-savings earlier. Now I have to wake up for an extra month in the dark. Waking up in the dark makes me damn grumpy.</comment>


Microsoft Sptag - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/microsoft/SPTAG <comment><USER2> Is this piece of open source used by Bing search engine?

<comment><AUTHOR> Other way around: It's a piece of Bing that was open sourced.</comment></comment>


Sorry Middle Class, You're Just Not That Important Anymore - <AUTHOR> http://greyenlightenment.com/sorry-middle-class-youre-just-not-that-important-anymore/

<comment><USER2> The middle class only seems important to those who cannot easily uproot themselves to move to another country, those in the middle or lower classes.</comment>


Screen by screen comparison of deployment on AppHarbor (YC) vs Microsoft Azure - <AUTHOR>

This guy did a great write-up.
tl;dr: Azure had many more steps and inferior client experience (Silverlight bugging out for example).
AppHarbor: http://jasonsirota.com/deploying-an-on-premise-app-to-the-cloud-a-pa
Azure: http://jasonsirota.com/part-2-deploying-an-on-premises-aspnet-mvc-ap <comment><AUTHOR> Clickable:

AppHarbor: [http://jasonsirota.com/deploying-an-on-premise-app-to-the- cl...](http://jasonsirota.com/deploying-an-on-premise-app-to-the-cloud-a-pa)

Azure: [http://jasonsirota.com/part-2-deploying-an-on-premises- aspne...](http://jasonsirota.com/part-2-deploying-an-on-premises-aspnet-mvc- ap)

</comment><comment><USER2> <author> Thanks for posting. Azure did indeed have many more steps, I almost tl;dr my own post.</comment>


Apple Event for iPhone 5 announcement on October 4th - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20110921/apple-to-hold-special-event-on-october-4/

<comment><USER3> Expected: A5 CPU, higher spec CMOS camera. Let's hope it has larger screen, longer battery life, Bluetooth 4, faster 801n. Or maybe NFC chip for wallet type application? I suspect Square people already has some insight.

Its more than iPhone 5 event: iOS 5, iCloud, new iPod touch, new iPod refreshes or even new Apple TV.

Updated: Not sure why its voted down. I don't work for Apple.

<comment><USER4> I would trade all of those features for a case design that didn't require me to use a cover without shattering the screen and/or back. I had dropped my 3G/3GS dozens of times with just some scuffs- I've cracked the screen or back on my iPhone 4 thrice :(

<comment><USER5> I've dropped my caseless iPhone 4 on sidewalks and other hard surfaces a handful of times. It's gotten dinged up, but nothing's cracked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Still unconfirmed, I won't believe it until I see the invitations posted everywhere... because they will be posted EVERYWHERE

<comment><USER7> Paczkowski is well-respected and is a reliable source. If he's saying it with certainty then there's an extreme likelihood it is true.

It will be interesting to see how Cook performs since his style is very low- key compared to Jobs. There is no doubt Schiller, Forstall, Ive and Cue will be there to lend assistance.

<comment><USER8> It's extremely likely that there is a plan for an event on this date at this time. But since it hasn't been announced, it's also quite possible the date will slip, because they can let the date slip if they wish. So it can be both a reliably sourced fact and something that might not happen. Fun!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is total speculation, and probably easily explainable by any number of things, but: I bought the iPhone 4 the day it came out, subsidized price. I just called *639# to check my upgrade status, and the message says I'm not eligible for a full upgrade now, but "may qualify on 11/25/2011". That isn't any sort of upgrade anniversary for me - at least, I don't think it is - <USER2> that's an interesting date.

<comment><USER10> Sometimes the upgrade date can be moved up if you pay a lot per month because of a larger plan, unlimited sms/data, etc. You pay off your subsidization quicker.

<comment><USER11> Yes-- i pay $250/mo on my plan (international data & etc) and also bought the iPhone4 subsidized day 1, and my message says I am eligible for an upgrade now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> By most accounts the iPhone 5 will not have LTE. That's going to sting with Verizon customers in the United States. While it will probably support HSPA+ on AT&T which is already decently fast, Verizon CDMA is direly slow.

It will be a hard sell to get Verizon customers to pass up LTE for the next two years when there are already a few really good Android phones with LTE and most major cities have LTE coverage right now. Not to mention the many more cities will have LTE in just a few months.

I suppose that is just a sacrifice Apple will have to make. It will not matter for AT&T or most of its other carriers around the world.

<comment><USER13> I agree with the sentiment, but to play devil's advocate:

Last quarter Verizon had a couple LTE Android handsets. They sold 1.2M LTE devices (both handsets and modems) while they sold 2.3M iPhones. The iPhone 5 will be coming 1-2 quarters later, but a lack of LTE might not be as big a deal for the majority of users as it is for, well, people who read this site. Verizon should be posting third quarter numbers in a month so we'll see if LTE has taken off in device sales since then.

Likewise, many users might appreciate the battery life of not having LTE. I don't like not having the latest technology or the best processor. However, I know that in my laptop my quality of using it would be better served by lower temperatures than the faster processor that I have. Likewise, I know that I would be better served by a longer battery life than faster web access on my phone (again, a personal statement not necessarily applicable to you). Just as it is a hard sell to get a phone that won't have the new technology and be stuck with it for 2 years, it's also a hard sell to get a device with significantly reduced battery life knowing that batteries will lose a good bit of capacity over those two years. And which is going to be more meaningful to your usage? It isn't a rhetorical question as users have different usage patterns.

\--

Frankly, it's a little surprising to me that Apple has waited until October to release an update. I understood why a June/July update wouldn't come with LTE. The chipsets that would offer decent battery life were a good 6-9 months out. However, the Qualcomm MDM9615 (which people have been thinking would be the chipset for the first LTE iPhone) is going to be shipping in samples in "late 2011" and volume in early 2012. That makes the timing a bit harsh. Will this iPhone have a lifespan of 6 months after the last one lasted 15 months? I don't think Apple can wait until October 2012 for an LTE iPhone given that better chipsets are coming soon.

You never know what Apple can pull off. With their cash on hand and chip design abilities, it's possible that it will include LTE. While I don't think the current Verizon LTE lineup offers the size/battery life that Apple would demand to go LTE, the chipsets that would allow that are too close for Apple to be releasing an iPhone that will last an entire year. I _can_ see a non-LTE iPhone selling well through 1Q2012 and not costing Apple too much in terms of marketshare. At the same time, I think a non-LTE iPhone would start becoming a hard sell before the 4th quarter of 2012 (a year from this October).

It's why I'm surprised that Apple didn't release a new iPhone on its normal schedule. A non-LTE iPhone then could have been replaced by an LTE iPhone in the March-July 2012 period and not made those who bought the 2011 iPhone feel like they didn't get at least close to a year before it was replaced.

<comment><USER14> All of the Android LTE phones have user replaceable batteries. If the battery loses capacity they can easily be replaced at decent prices which makes your point moot.

<comment><USER15> Actually replaceable batteries don't make the point moot at all. I certainly don't want to have to carry around spare batteries just so I can use LTE. If LTE is as hard on battery life as suggested, that makes it a very real problem regardless if I can carry around spares.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Personally, I feel product announcements should be made by the head of the team that developed the product in the company. That's what Google does, for example.

It gives some well deserved spotlight to that person for their hard work.

It also prevents the company from developing an image that it is entirely dependent on one person for all it's product development, be it true or not.

<comment><USER17> > Personally, I feel product announcements should be made by the head of the > team that developed the product in the company. That's what Google does, for > example.

At Apple, the head of the team for any major product release is effectively the CEO.

<comment><USER18> Do you speak from experience? Or from what you've gathered from various media? I ask b/c I've heard otherwise (especially during the last years of Jobs's tenure as CEO).

<comment><USER17> I speak based on the fact that every profile of Steve Jobs has been consistent on the fact that he was usually involved in even minor details on products they release.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> AllThingsD has interesting points to make here; I wish they would write with proper grammar.

Also, I hate when they say "according to sources". What sources?! At least macrumors states exactly where they get their info from.

</comment><comment><USER20> Cue the chorus of "Finally"…

<comment><USER20> Oh do lighten up folks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hopefully they'll ditch the external antennas so you can actually make a phone call no matter how "incorrectly" you hold the phone.

<comment><USER17> You must've missed the videos of BlackBerry and HTC phones doing the same thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm still hoping for a new Performa… (like they say, hoping for a miracle, but preparing for a Hackintosh)

<comment><USER22> Why the downvotes? Am I the only one missing a somewhat expandable desktop Mac without an integrated display, but below the requirements / costs of an Mac Pro?</comment></comment>


Sept. 13, 1833: Imported Ice Chills, Thrills India - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/09/0913calcutta-ice-ship/

<comment><USER2> There was plenty of ice in Himalayan glaciers but, even though it was much closer than the United States, there would have been no reasonable way of getting it down from the mountains.</comment>


What filesystem to use? - <AUTHOR>

I'm setting up a system to store hundreds of millions of files distributed across many servers. Total storage is several 10's of terabytes, output is tens of thousands of requests per second.
Modification rate is on the order of several hundreds of files added and or deleted per minute, deletions can be totally random.
The system will use varnish on top of apache to serve out the content via http.
What filesystem would you recommend to achieve these goals ? I've so far looked at XFS and EXT3 (this all runs on linux, redhat 4), with varying results.
A trial system has been built using XFS, but I can not get it to perform well, even after reading lots of tuning guides and tips.
Especially deletions are very slow, but archiving data is slow as well (4 Mb/sec is not unusual on an otherwise unloaded machine).
Pohmelfs looked promising but I could not get it to work reliably (and it would still need an underlying filesystem), ditto glusterfs.
Any information you could give on this subject to guide me in the right direction would be much appreciated. <comment><USER2> XFS is always dog-slow at deletions, and is pathologically slow[1] in the most common use case -- "rm -R". It has a huge amount of synchronization overhead for deletions, made much worse by the fact that rm is listing directories while it deletes things, and XFS is trying to do these things in parallel.

If you build the list of files to delete up-front, it is almost normal.

[1] I have repeatedly run into cases where it takes much longer to delete something than it does to write it, especially when your disk has bad latency spikes.

</comment><comment><USER3> Here is some good info on the advantages and disadvantages of various file systems:

<http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/388>

I've had good results with JFS, but with much less data than what you're dealing with. Chances are most information you find will not apply to such a large amount of data so you're probably going to be stuck doing your own benchmarks.

</comment><comment><USER2> You have an advantage with a distributed system -- it's totally feasible to migrate between filesystems / tunings after you get started.

I highly recommend using netboot and an NFS root filesystem for the storage nodes.

RHEL4 is going to be a thorn in your side if you ever want to try ext4 or btrfs. Even if you stick with the mature filesystems, VFS improvements in newer kernels will give you a performance boost.</comment>


California's Woes and Prop 13 - <AUTHOR> http://volokh.com/2010/05/04/californias-woes-and-prop-13/

<comment><USER2> I think I saw somewhere that California state spending DOUBLED between 1996 and 2006, going from $100 billion to $200 billion in just a decade.

Localities could have used all that housing bubble tax revenue to pay down their debt, but instead many choose to spend it as fast as they could get it. And now their ability to meet their commitments is collapsing.

I'd like to see spending growth limited to the 5 year moving average of a municipality's revenues, with the excess going to pay down debt. Politicians are just too short sighted to be allowed to spend everything.

<comment><USER3> I have had EXACTLY the same thought about the 5 year moving average. Although I think having the excess going to pay down debt is just an encouragement to run up more debt. Instead, why not hold/invest, like a private university would?

<comment><USER2> because then they would continue to be in debt in order to invest and thats something that doesn't quite make sense.

and when they go cash in those investments during a down economy, they'll all be down. unless they put it all into derivatives.</comment></comment></comment>


UEFI boot: how does that actually work, then? - <AUTHOR> https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/25/uefi-boot-how-does-that-actually-work-then/

<comment><USER2> A very long read, with a lot of noise, that might be refreshing, but I personally did not like.

Some facts that I learned by reading this article:

"Now, for ARM machines, the requirements are significantly more evil: they state exactly the opposite, that it must not be possible to disable Secure Boot and it must not be possible for the system owner to change the trusted keys. This is bad and wrong. It makes Microsoft-certified ARM systems into a closed shop. But it's worth noting it's no more bad or wrong than most other major ARM platforms. Apple locks down the bootloader on all iDevices, and most Android devices also ship with locked bootloaders."

My understanding is that it might become bad for Linux on ARM devices. How comes that there was no big reaction to this?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's only for ARM devices that come bundled with Windows RT. On the other hand, like mentioned in the article, we are sadly used to locked ARM devices.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where do you get your ideas? - <AUTHOR>

I want to start programming but I would like to learn through doing instead of just following meaningless tutorials or reading boring books. So HN, where do you get your ideas for projects? <comment><USER2> A few options :

1) Questions you want to answer... I had a question about the quality of two investment strategies so I'm in the process of solving them in R (where I'm proficient) and then later Python (where I'm learning)

2) Problems that have been posed... Euler problems may be the best for this <http://projecteuler.net/problems>

3) Finally, as others have said, real world problems that you or those you know have themselves. One thing I would like is an easy drop down wiki-style notes editor that has tree organization, that solution exists in multiple forms but not for free on OSX that I've found so it's something that I've considered building and open sourcing if I get back into compiled languages.

One anecdote : I share you're feeling about reading boring books, I'd rather do something real. I taught myself R by solving real problems one by one. An acquaintance is the opposite, he prefers to read the books, work through examples, play with them to be sure he understands them, and continue on. In the end he was able to show me a ton about optimizing code (as well as explain why certain things were slow). Just be aware that you might be skipping something intangible by skipping the book.

</comment><comment><USER3> Usually when I need something and I can't find a simple/suitable solution I take that as an idea to write something on my own.

I mostly program "on demand".

So focus on tasks you often do that you could automate or programs you use that you think are way too heavy for what you need them for until you find something.

Keep in mind that you have to start with the (language independent) basics no matter how boring books and online resources are.

</comment><comment><USER4> There was a good thread on here recently about Solving Problems your Parents have: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5232716>

I tend to solve problems that I have, sometimes others. Or, if I interested in something and believe it might do okay, then I build it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Finding problems that need fixing in the world, creatively solving them with technology.

</comment><comment><USER6> I would find an open source project you find interesting and hack on that for a while. It will allow you to learn from code that others have written, while also creating your own.

I ran a website a while back that ran on TikiWiki, and I learned a lot by hacking on its internals. I think it's hard to start from scratch, so seeing other people's working code can be useful. However, partly it's personal preference also. There is a downside to open source, which is that you might start off learning bad habits or learning from poorly written code.

</comment><comment><USER7> Something which you think you can do better.

Doesn't matter if you can do it right away, but you probably have a passion and know the process/concept and want to improve on it; from there you have a good idea on what you want to do, so now its a matter to research the coding to accomplish it. With such you might also figure out that certain platforms languages are well or worse suited for what you want to accomplish.

</comment><comment><USER8> Meditation helps</comment>


Arizona passes law aimed at refusing service to people who are gay - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/21/us-usa-gays-arizona-idUSBREA1K06M20140221

<comment><USER2> We seem to have a freedom to choose who we would be employed by; i.e. turn down an offer of employment for moral reasons; say I don't want to work for some animal testing lab.

But say I own a restaurant and a animal testing lab moves to town; now do I have a choice but to serve dinner to the executives of said animal testing lab?

What is the difference?

Per U.S. law; I think you would first need to establish 'sexual orientation' as a protected class like race or gender; to allow people to decide that they don't want to serve people based on some moral judgments but not others.

see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_class](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_class)

</comment><comment><USER3> Can't wait until someone hangs a "No Christians" sign above their establishment and people flip shit over it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yeah Russia is one with the third-world attitude.

Maybe we should fix our broken country first.

</comment><comment><USER4> No, the legislature passed a bill. The governor hasn't signed it, so it's not a law.

</comment><comment><USER5> By the time I get to Arizona (Reprised)</comment>


Bitcoin Wealth Distribution - <AUTHOR> https://blog.lawnmower.io/the-bitcoin-wealth-distribution-69a92cc4efcc <comment><USER2> The text on the bottom more or less explains why this kind of analysis is almost worthless:

Due to the nature of easy & anonymous address creation, and corporate account management inherent to Bitcoin & the companies in the ecosystem, estimating the actual number of unique bitcoin holders as opposed to addresses is unfortunately much more difficult — & not something we can glean from observing its blockchain alone.

Addresses can not only overstate user numbers when single people unknowingly control numerous addresses, but also understate user numbers when single addresses hold the funds of numerous unknown people, like an exchange who may control balances in a traditional database.

</comment><comment><USER3> The thing I don't get with CS pop graphs (like this one) is if you want to show something is an obvious power law distribution, why don't you plot it on a log-log graph? Then it will be perfectly obvious.

<comment><USER4> Most people don't understand log-log graphs. Also, taking the log-log is so powerful that even distributions that don't strictly follow a power law can look as if they're approximately following a straight line.

<comment><USER3> Plot two graphs, one loglog, one not. Also, "nearly linear" on a log-log graph does mean almost power law.

<comment><USER5>
      being roughly straight on a log-log plot is a necessary
      but not sufficient condition for power-law behavior

Source: [https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.1062](https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.1062), p.15

pp. 24-29 have nice log-log plots of various data sets, along with whether they can plausibly described as power law distributions. 'Wealth', interestingly enough, looks like a pretty straight line, but fails the statistical test badly.

Btw, if you just take logs and run a regression to estimate the exponent, you get a highly biased estimate.

In general, it's much better to do a _direct_ statistical test, although the method described in the paper is somewhat involved.

<comment><USER3> I like what you shared. I actually can't believe I haven't seen that paper before (it has >4k citations ffs), but I admit, I work in a less statistical side of physics.

What I'll say is that what something _is_ is a fuzzy term, although I generally agree what you mean especially about a power law says about the behavior in the tails especially. That comes from thinking a small deviation on the tail is "small" due to optics and not realizing it is deviation on orders of magnitude. That might be what the replier to my comment was referring to. That's why "two graphs" is usually a good answer.

PS Also, I would _never_ fit a straight line on a loglog or semilog graph, nor should anyone ever. People who do that don't understand what least squares is at all.

<comment><USER6> It can still be useful to do a polynomial regression on log-log data that doesn't quite obey a power law.

<comment><USER3> No I meant log'ing the bins and then doing linear regression and calling that an "exponential fit". Not so.

A polynomial is a power law...with more terms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Many bitcoin are stuck in addresses with lost private keys".

Lol yep. Had a few thousand when they were worthless and don't remember what happened to them.

<comment><USER8> It's extremely hard to exchange them into USD and trying to dump any of them would trash the price. Don't worry, you didn't lose much.

<comment><USER9> Actually this isn't 2011. Going from zero to trading is about as complex as stocks or any other security.

<comment><USER10> How do you figure? I can buy some bitcoin's, send them to btc-e and start trading immediately. There is no friction involved aside from acquiring your initial BTC.

<comment><USER9> I know, I was really replying to parent comment that it was "extremely difficult" to trade, and drawing comparison to other markets seemed the most apt. For those in the know, it gets easier.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Interesting, although I think graphs like this one give a better idea of the distribution:

[https://medium.com/@jony_levin/the-lorenz-curve-of- bitcoin-i...](https://medium.com/@jony_levin/the-lorenz-curve-of-bitcoin-is- crooked-how-to-make-it-straight-f9179041b984#.43vun7u0s)

</comment><comment><USER12> Now I'm curious who holds the wallet with 100,000 BTC. Is it publicly known who owns it? My best guess would be either one of the early developers, or a major exchange or bank.

<comment><USER13> Someone estimated that Satoshi Nakamoto (founder of bitcoin) has around 1 million bitcoins spread around multiple addresses.

<comment><USER10> Awhile back I remember reading an article that found many addresses with 10,000 BTC (I might be mistaken on the exact number) deposited into them all around a similar time frame and the coins have never moved.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Isn't it inaccurate to base this on addresses, since nearly everyone uses more than one?

<comment><USER10> If you define wealth distribution strictly against individual people. You can report on distribution against anything really, in this case addresses. I agree with your point and most naive readers will assume distribution is per person.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> So those 7.4+9.4 million bitcoin address with a balance of less than 0.0001 ($0.06) are basically unusable at this time (due to current fee and blockchain being constipated for most of 2016), the sum up to about 2600$ worth and result in millions of "spam" entries on the blockchain

<comment><USER16> You're mostly right, Fees are not paid per address but per transaction.

If I had a thousand addresses full of these amounts (0.0001) I could spend them all in one transaction into a single address.

The fee would end up being higher than the standard due to the recommendation that fees are per byte.

So I might end up with 0.099 in the final address.

So it's possible to move them if you can combine enough of them together to make the transaction worthwhile.

Of course the part where you're right is that it's unlikely a single person owns a large number of these spam transactions and thus the economics doesn't make sense for them to move at this time.

However, if Bitcoin were worth 100x and the fee remained in dollar terms roughly the same , it would now become much easier to move these spam amounts.

<comment><USER17> Transaction fees are really a function of transaction size in bytes not per transaction. Adding an additional input address increases transaction size by 180 bytes. The output address and other common overhead is around 44 bytes. The current minimum cost of block space is 0.0000001 BTC per byte if you are willing to wait several hours for your transaction to confirm. At that rate adding an additional input will cost you 0.0000180 so anything less than that is not worth moving under current conditions. To be confirmed in a timely fashion you need to pay a per byte fee of about 5x so in reality amounts under 0.00009 are currently not worth spending.

[http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1195/how-to- calcu...](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1195/how-to-calculate- transaction-size-before-sending)

[https://bitcoinfees.21.co/#delay](https://bitcoinfees.21.co/#delay)</comment></comment></comment>