Startup legal questions FAQ - <AUTHOR> http://startupcompanylawyer.com/

<comment><USER2> Yokum, I would recommend that you re-order the category headers in the top to make it more linear for the various stages of a startup: Incorporation and Founders to the left of Series A and Down Rounds, as examples. It would be helpful for me when I recommend your site to others (which I do constantly).

Also, I'd also recommend that you add something about "how to hire me/WSGR to incorporate/represent your company" in the FAQs or Contact Yokum sections. This is not obvious, and picking up the phone and calling a partner at Wilson is scary. Some semblence of the process and ballpark fees would be very helpful. As you say, an experienced attorney is no comparison to one of those online legal form mills - and people would be surprised to know how affordable quality advice actually is. Of course, if you're not interested in new business, I understand. :)

<comment><USER3> Those are both very good points. On the order of the category headers, I'll implement that today.

On the "how to hire" me comment, I've struggled with whether to put more info out there as the original point of the site was so that I could understand what blogging was about (and providing a public service by demystifying things for entrepreneurs). While I have been cold-contacted by a couple of entrepreneurs who have gone on to raise venture financing, I also end up getting contacted by a lot of people who will likely not be successful. I've generally taken the attitude that you have to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find a prince, but some people who have cold-contacted might know that I constantly joke about having to weed out potential axe-murderers. I'll probably add an FAQ in the near future to address how to engage attorneys and how much things cost.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "From a purely mathematical perspective, it doesn't matter whether there are 1 million or 10 million fully-diluted shares. However, when companies are granting options to new employees, even the smartest engineers feel better receiving options to purchase 100,000 shares as opposed to 10,000 shares, even if it represents the same percentage ownership of the company."

So very true, that.

<comment><USER5> Life is all about deception, isn't it?

<comment><USER4> I don't think so. What I meant was, if everything else is equal, perception plays a significant role.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Glad that people find the site helpful.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've not really been able to absorb much detail yet... but this seems like an excellent resource. Great find.</comment>


New book. Gray Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Reverse Engineers - <AUTHOR> http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781593271923/

<comment><USER2> Do you have any comments on it (or is it still a preorder)? I see we can't even have a peek on the table of contents.

By the way, HN, what would be your advise for a good technical book on "cracking". I mean, not a collection of ad-hoc recepies, but some generic knowledge, however something where you don't hesitate to open your gdb/wireshark/etc.. : for example I remember I enjoyed reading <http://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html> a long time ago.

<comment><USER3> I would get under the hood of metasploit and see where that takes you. Or read the old phracks. Even four years ago phrack was talking about inserting kernel modules without root perms. Neat stuff!

<comment><USER4> Permit me to geek out for a moment and point out that this trick goes back more than 10 years:

<http://bit.ly/1kQu07>

What's more, in 1996:

* amodload worked under the (then) closed-sourced SunOS

* it was written in SPARC assembly

* it shimmed its own kernel module loader through devkmem

It's basically the first real Unix virus. What's depressing is that almost everything it did was pedestrian for virus authors 5 years prior to it.

<comment><USER3> Great link! Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Darn. Its not available in safaribooks.com yet either. It looks interesting, but I'd like to get a look at it before buying.

</comment><comment><USER6> Looks as though there are many Windows specific chapters and not-so-many *nix chapters.

<comment><USER4> The state of the art in reversing is more advanced on Win32 than under Unix. Pretty much the only reason a normal person would break out assembly under Unix is if they're a toolchain developer, whereas direct x86 programming is part of Win32's cultural heritage.</comment></comment>


Mt Gox Hacked - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22026961

<comment><USER2> "Hack attack?"

I wouldn't call a DDoS a 'hack.' You would think that BBC News could hire a competent technology expert for these sorts of articles.</comment>


A Clojure library that implements the Logo programming language - aps-sids https://github.com/google/clojure-turtle

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone, author here! I'm really excited about the possibilities that this library opens up! I intend to write a blog post soon to explain in detail the ideas I have and to put them in context. Until then, here's the high-level:

1\. Yoko's talk at the recent Clojure/West about ClojureBridge curriculum ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiIJuthOhnk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiIJuthOhnk)) shows that the inflection point for difficulty for students happens around functions, especially higher-order-functions. That's exactly what REPEAT is in Logo, and kids handle that just fine. So maybe clojure-turtle can be used to smooth out the learning curve in Clojure curricula?

2\. My talk at Clojure/West was about programming in Clojure in other languages, which could open up accessibility to programming to non-English speakers ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqjMZNwnYCY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqjMZNwnYCY)). I think translating clojure-turtle shortens the first step to reaching a new human language -- the set of constructs you need to translate is much smaller and more tangible. If Logo works for kids, it should work for anyone. For those who have seen my talk, clojure-turtle is sort of my successor to clj- thamil (programming in other languages) in the sense that they can make programming and/or Clojure more accessible to much wider audiences.

3\. Logo is used to teach kids programming, and it's fun! MIT's Scratch is based on Logo -- it's a visual version of it. UC-Berkeley uses a modified version of it for its intro CS 10 class, and code.org uses a version of it in its projects to teach kids programming. So we're teaching Lisp (Logo) to beginners because it's simple (and easy), but why is it that when they get older, Lisp/Clojure is all of a sudden hard and "weird"-looking? That ought to be a short gap to bridge, right?

4\. clojure-turtle uses Quil because the ClojureBridge curriculum uses it for capstone / advanced concept material. But Quil is a great choice on its own merit. Since Quil shares a codebase between Clojure & ClojureScript code, it easily compiles to Java and JS, meaning we ought to be able to make a try-X.com website out of this, too.

Let me know if you have any other feedback, thoughts, etc. about the code or anything else.

</comment><comment><USER2> I have a real soft spot for LOGO, so I'm always enchanted by projects like this. I do find that turtle 🐢 graphics can be a distraction from some of logo's less appreciated features, for example, the REPL doesn't just provide an interactive environment, it's also an effective editor for procedures, typing TO BOX should bring up an edit in which you define what it means to box

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great. Now how can we put this in a kid friendly IDE so I can teach my daughter Lisp/Logo/Turtle Geometry? I am thinking of something like an IPython Notebook. I know there are lots of resources to teach kids to code, but many of them leave me feeling cold.

<comment><USER4> DrRacket ships with turtle graphics: [http://docs.racket- lang.org/turtles/Traditional_Turtles.html](http://docs.racket- lang.org/turtles/Traditional_Turtles.html)

I've had a good experience introducing DrRacket to early-elementary-aged kids; it's much more approachable than anything in Clojure-land.

Of course, for pre-typists you can't beat Scratch: [http://scratch.mit.edu](http://scratch.mit.edu)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, Phil! Your post about Logo ([http://technomancy.us/167](http://technomancy.us/167)) was definitely an inspiration for this project.

I hope that something in Clojure can be made to be as effective as DrRacket has been for you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is truly great. I was looking for some introduction to programming for my little kid, and I wanted it to be very flexible but also visual, and I think this just the right tool.

I ran into a problem though. I can run the commands in the REPL and I can see the new turtle position in the terminal, but there is no quil window with graphics. I can also run the example function, but I get "quil.Applet cannot be cast to clojure.lang.IFn".

<comment><AUTHOR> As far as the Quil window with graphics, I'm not sure if it's because an Applet is being used, but on Mac OS X, the window pops up for me behind my other windows and without focus. I have to hide all of the other windows on top of it to find it. It's weird, I know.

What is the command you're running that gives you the error "quil.Applet cannot be cast to clojure.lang.IFn" ?

<comment><USER5> You are correct, it works! I am on a Mac and I needed to press F3 (show all windows) to see the graphics window. It does not show up if you just do cmd- Tab.

As for the second error - I was incorrectly trying to run the core.clj, so no problem there.

Thanks for the help! I had fun drawing circles :))</comment></comment></comment>


NoSQL Databases: A Survey and Decision Guidance - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/baqend-blog/nosql-databases-a-survey-and-decision-guidance-ea7823a822d#.z0xgmd1a4 <comment><USER2> On my personal projects, my default database choice is Postgres unless I have a glaring, obvious reason to choose something NoSQL (in which case I like CouchDB if the situation calls for a document store, don't know much about the others).

At work, it doesn't matter if we have a perfect use case for a particular NoSQL solution (I'm working on something now that I think would be a great fit for a Graph database like Neo4J). We use Oracle, because it's expensive, we're already paying for it, so damn it, we're going to use it.

<comment><USER3> I do the same.

If I'm doing something where I'm storing JSON (e.g., from an external service), but only care about certain bits of it, I'll store the bits I care about in columns, then put the whole JSON object into a jsonb column.

The key advantage that I see is that when I decide that a new piece of the JSON needs to be cared about, I can do something like this:

        (modify data types as required)

        ALTER TABLE blah ADD COLUMN newthing text;
        CREATE INDEX ON blah.newthing; -- if needed
        UPDATE blah SET newthing = jsoncolumn->>'new_thing';

<comment><USER4> Just a nitpick, but I believe it would be more efficient to create index as the last step here.

<comment><USER5> Not necessarily.

If the table is already fairly large you'd have to use Postgres CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY to avoid locking the table while it sorted out the index. The only downside is that you have very little control of the process.

If you already have the data available in a JSONB column you can create the column, create the index and then set your app code to look to the JSON data if the column is null during transition while a background job goes through and populates rows either individually or in smaller batches to avoid disrupting user experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One slightly concerning thing about this is the table at the end dictating what popular NoSQL DBs do is populated by, and here I quote - "The methodology used to identify the specific system properties consists of an in-depth analysis of publicly available documentation and literature on the systems. Furthermore, some properties had to be evaluated by researching the open- source code bases, personal communication with the developers as well as a meta-analysis of reports and benchmarks by practitioners."

Which looking at the table, doesn't seem to include Aphyr's work (Jepsen), so much of what is being said may in fact be wrong. I'd prefer a chart populated from that (though admittedly such a chart would largely be "undefined", "inconsistent", etc).

<comment><AUTHOR> We tried our best to incorporate these results in the cases where they reflect fundamental shortcomings not bugs (of which Aphyr found quite a few). But you are right, we could include a list of popular examples, where description and experimental findings diverge. Which cases did you have in mind? MongoDB being CP?

<comment><USER6> And Redis, yeah. In general, seeing his work has made me very cagey at trusting any DB's marketing claims; I'd love to see citations as to what resources went into each claim, as that would inform me "this has been tested by a third party" vs "this has been claimed in marketing docs and YMMV; you should probably test it yourself"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This article will soon become outdated: CouchDB 2.0 is in release candidate stage, and will soon be released. It features built-in and automatic sharding and clustering and a new, MongoDB-inspired document query language...and lots of small improvements as well.

For more information, read the excellent blog posts from their official blog: [https://blog.couchdb.org/](https://blog.couchdb.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm also very curious about CouchDB 2.0 and whether CouchDB will be able to make a comeback. When I talked to Adam Kocoloski about a year ago, I got the impression that it takes a very good technical approach (consistent hashing, causal hash histories, MongoDB queries, etc.). However, the implementation is now mainly driven by Cloudant and CouchDB kept alive by them. I hope they manage to rekindle the old fascination they once had.

In any case I will be happy to update the article and include it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is pretty useful for someone like me who's been in large companies using Teradata forever, just to understand the NoSQL products out there and potential use cases. On any given day, I feel like I've fallen way behind on database technology simply because we're fairly locked in, admittedly very happy with TD. It's helpful to keep up here though, because we do have some projects we'd like to do that would probably work better outside of an RDBMS.

I'd love to see something similar on the various ETL/data pipeline tools. In that regard, we still write a ton of SAS code because we have a variety of sources, which SAS does well, pretty solid if you need to do some data cleansing into the target, and the code itself is very batch-friendly and maintainable. It's been a while since I've surveyed alternatives.

</comment><comment><USER9> Great to see RethinkDB covered (although it would have been better if it was included in the primary comparison tables too).

It feels like a second-generation NoSQL database where most of the drawbacks with earlier NoSQL-databases has been taken care of!

</comment><comment><USER10> I enjoyed this topic while researching New Data: a Field Guide [1]. In my research I've come to really enjoy ArangoDB. It has good support for documents, performance, relational data queries and basic graphs. Without doing the research I don't think I would have ever dug into the new tools. If you ever get a chance to do a small prototype, looking using these tools.

1- [https://leanpub.com/NewDataAFieldGuide](https://leanpub.com/NewDataAFieldGuide)

</comment><comment><USER11> I'd point out that there are arguments[1] that 'CA' is not a real choose you can make when it comes to the CAP theorem.

1: [https://codahale.com/you-cant-sacrifice-partition- tolerance/](https://codahale.com/you-cant-sacrifice-partition-tolerance/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Not even a mention of ZODB. While it's true it's Python-only, it's certainly one of the most mature NoSQL databases around.

<comment><USER13> The context the author is describing is clustered databases, does ZODB offer a clustering option that is equally as mature?

<comment><USER12> You mean like ZEO? Yes, it's probably been around for a couple of decades now.

<comment><USER13> I don't think so. I am referring to something that allows you to scale your database cluster horizontally by adding more servers. ZEO appears to only support a single server.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is a fantastic overview of the issues surrounding DB's. Would love to see some deeper discussions on graph databases in the next version!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Felix, author of the article and founder of Baqend [1] here. I'm happy to answer any questions. If you have suggestions for the next version of the article, we're eager to hear them.

[1] [http://www.baqend.com](http://www.baqend.com)

</comment><comment><USER15> boo. doesn't include a comparison vs Google's NoSql SaaS offerings (Cloud DataStore and BigTable).

i personally use Cloud DataStore and find it a great fit, wish there was some comparisons against it.

<comment><USER16> Just wait for Cloud Spanner! [http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/06/27/google- tools-up-with...](http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/06/27/google-tools-up- with-its-spanner-database-looks-for-a-fight-with-aws/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you wish an introduction to NoSQL there is a good webinar at [http://www.prohuddle.com/webinars/nosql/NoSQL_Distilled.php](http://www.prohuddle.com/webinars/nosql/NoSQL_Distilled.php), which includes discussions, examples and comparisons.

</comment><comment><USER18> > Redis, as the only non-partitioned system in this comparison ...

This is a bit misguided, redis cluster has been in GA for over a year.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, Redis Cluster has been available for a while. From a practical perspective we did not deem it production-ready yet, due to various shortcomings, e.g.: -Redis Cluter being neither AP nor CP with rather unsatisfying justifications [1] -Strong scalability issues, for instance with PubSub [2]

But you are right, I think Redis Cluster could be added as a separate system.

[1] [https://aphyr.com/posts/283-jepsen- redis](https://aphyr.com/posts/283-jepsen-redis) [2] [https://github.com/antirez/redis/issues/2672](https://github.com/antirez/redis/issues/2672)

<comment><USER19> A couple of points, just for clarity:

1) It is true that Redis is not AP or CP, but this is not covered by [1] that covers Redis Sentinel (a previous version with different behavior compared to Sentinel v2 btw). So, while Redis Cluster is just an eventually consistent system that does not guarantees strong consistency nor availability (so is not AP nor CP), the pointed post is not related.

2) Redis Cluster is very scalable actually, since it is a flatly partitioned no-proxed system. Pub/Sub is not very scalable in Redis Cluster but Pub/Sub is a minor sub-system of Redis, most users look at the ability to scale the key- value store that is... 90% of what Redis is, so I think your claim is not justified.

3) The fact of not being AP or CP does not mean that a system is not useful. Depends on the business requirements. In fact, most SQL databases + failover setups, that is what takes _a seizable_ portion of the big services of the internet up, are not AP or CP as well.

Database systems features are related to use cases, I believe that the Redis Cluster properties cover a huge set of real world use cases, in fact is the most actively mentioned/requested feature right now, even if we document in very clear terms the tradeoff and the actual behavior of the system. So people know what they want. IMHO excluding systems because of _what you think_ being acceptable tradeoffs is not a good idea.

Otherwise you should also mention that SQL+ Main_widely_used_failover_solutions systems have the same unacceptable shortcomings, for instance.

Actually if the Redis Cluster implementation will be made the center of the future Redis development, it could easily become the most used sub-system of Redis, like Sentinel is already becoming. There are many devs that know what they are doing and know how to apply things depending on the requirements even if those things are not CP or AP.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was oversimplifying of course, Redis Cluster definitely deserves a place in the comparison. We are actually very satisfied with using Redis in production but had to work around the PubSub limitations using keyspace notifications, which is why I'm biased regarding that point.

In any case, it's difficult in terms of presentation, since a "normal" master- slave-replicated Redis is a totally different system from Redis Cluster as the distribution models of Redis Cluster also affects the functional properties to a large extend, e.g. regarding atomic Multi/Lua blocks and all types of multi- key operations.

The failover solutions for relational database systems are a good point, they too should be included.

Regarding use cases, I totally agree: every system should be discussed in the light of the use cases it tries to solve. I personally think that Redis Cluster with a choice for trading consistency against latency would open up a whole new range of use cases that are currently not a good fit for Redis Cluster. For example, we have a Redis-Coordinator project (not open source, yet) which behaves similar to a scalable Zookeeper (BTW also neither CA nor CP [1]). However, it has weaker guarantees, due to lack of tuning knobs in Redis and Redis Cluster regarding consistency.

[1] [https://martin.kleppmann.com/2015/05/11/please-stop- calling-...](https://martin.kleppmann.com/2015/05/11/please-stop-calling- databases-cp-or-ap.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> serious question, what is to stop everyone (where a K/V store is not enough) from just chucking some form of SQL server in a VM in a ramdisk and using that? I've always wondered about that idea

<comment><USER10> Lost efficiency. If you want a semi-persistent relational DB, you can use BerkleyDB. There are also embedded DBs for Java, and probably other languages. If you do this, you're not wasting RAM for the VM and the guest OS. The DB gets its memory from the large application install.

edited for typo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Slightly off topic but: As someone out of touch on the topic of DB utilizing apps for a while, what's the update on the ORM impedance mismatch? (I mean the guidelines or best practices).

</comment><comment><USER22> The TL;DR was TL;DR. Ho, seriously. About halfway through, the buzzwords and jargon got to be too much for me. Let me know if there's anything interesting Wining.

</comment><comment><USER23> Great work!</comment>


Google discontinues its daydream VR headset - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> For a source, here's the Verge: [https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/15/20915609/google- pixel-4-...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/15/20915609/google-pixel-4-no- daydream-support-view-vr-headset-discontinued)

And Pixel 4 won't support it.</comment>


Predictive Sales Tool 6Sense (YC W13) Raises $12M - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/19/6sense-a-predictive-sales-intelligence-tool-exits-stealth-with-12m-led-by-battery-venrock/

<comment><USER2> What are other similar companies? I came across some few days/months back. But I just cant find it anymore, I think it concentrates more on ecommerce websites like amazon, flipcart etc., they too are b2b that provide them with services like identifying potential customers from all data they obtain.. Something like that.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this a sales tool for companies that don't know they are already dead?

<comment><USER4> Hah!

Maybe we can change our tagline to be: "sales tool to know which of your customers are alive"</comment></comment>


Apple's new battery case is awful - <AUTHOR> https://www.techinasia.com/disconnect-apples-battery-case-awful-buy/ <comment><USER2> The Verge has a pretty nice write up about how they might've been designing around Mophie's patents. They make a good point, but still doesn't make the design any better.</comment>


Factor Playground - <AUTHOR> http://factor.openeducationtools.com/

<comment><USER2> Neat. This isn't just an ajax front-end to a Factor interpreter on someone's server, it's an actual interpreter for (a subset of) Factor in JavaScript.</comment>


The Platonic solids and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics - <AUTHOR> https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2020-07-09-293/ <comment><USER2> Whole article rendered beyond the summary (this link is from the page in the OP):

[https://www.arxiv-vanity.com/papers/2001.00188/](https://www.arxiv- vanity.com/papers/2001.00188/)

<comment><USER3> Thank you for introducing me to arxiv-vanity. I've always hated reading PDFs of papers on my phone.

<comment><USER4> > I've always hated reading PDFs of papers on my phone.

I've always hated reading PDFs of papers on a desktop PC as well. It's a horrible format for reading on-screen generally. No automatic text-flow or fit screen by default, fonts are usually too small, too much margin white space etc etc

<comment><USER3> I agree to that as well. When I'm at my PC/laptop, I usually have my iPad at my side, which with the pencil, is ideal for pdf reading and annotation, so I have less complaints there. If I'm travelling or in bed, the phone is often easier.

But yeah, we really need to move on from formats designed for print. HTML/CSS needs more typesetting options and native math support though for that to be feasible, unfortunately. There's no math typesetting conventions for responsive design yet.

> No automatic text-flow or fit screen by default

Aside: While it's a hack, and only useful if you've a supported e-reader, I've found Koreader does decent reflowings of LaTeX-rendered pdfs these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Bell's inequality was used to prove incompatibility between local and hidden variable theories. What's the point of fancier Bell's inequalities?

<comment><USER2> From the abstract, among other things:

 _[We] find a Bell inequality that is more robust to noise than the celebrated Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell inequality. Finally, we elaborate on the tension between mathematical beauty, which was our initial motivation, and experimental friendliness, which is necessary in all empirical sciences_

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't get it, is there something special about Platonic solids in this context, or can you construct Bell inequalities that are maximally violated along any set of vertices? Randomly gluing two things together isn't "beautiful mathematics," beautiful mathematics is when you _discover_ a connection.

<comment><USER7> I don't know the physics well enough, but having skimmed the paper it looks like it has something to do with crystallographic point groups[1]. The point sets are invariant under some of these groups, and that symmetry can help you do some calculations. They also seem to make some use of dualities of the solids, which correspond to polyhedra with the same point group. It might have been more interesting to consider _all_ of the point groups, but, again, I don't understand the physics to know why they did what they did.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_point_group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_point_group)</comment></comment>


Google Music falling short of expectations - <AUTHOR> http://www.thetechblock.com/articles/2012/google-music-falling-short-of-expectations/

<comment><USER2> I upload my music to Google Music. But just so I can access it when I want to play some music when at a friend's house. It just don't work on my mobile phone, because when I leave my house I got no mobile connection, so I NEED to rely on music saved on my phone already. And why I don't use it at home: My local music player (mpd) makes it so much more comfortable (shortcuts, remote control via phone, ...)</comment>


How Congress Censored the Internet - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/how-congress-censored-internet <comment><USER2> This seems to be very bad, and there doesn't seem to be any discussion of this news yet. I guess Cambridge Analytica is eclipsing this.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, first I've heard of this and I read a lot of different sources for news.

>The bill is worded so broadly that it could even be used against platform owners that don't know that their sites are being used for trafficking.

The legal creep on this will be astounding.

>SESTA/FOSTA upends that balance, opening platforms to new criminal and civil liability at the state and federal levels for their users' sex trafficking activities.

Hmm, so if traffickers happen to check the weather from noaa.gov would it get shut down? I'm sure not but this seems like a similar site could.

>While we can't speculate on the agendas of the groups behind SESTA, we can study those same groups' past advocacy work. Given that history, one could be forgiven for thinking that some of these groups see SESTA as a mere stepping stone to banning pornography from the Internet or blurring the legal distinctions between sex work and trafficking.

Ahh, the moral police are here to save your soul.</comment></comment>


ReadWriteWeb DeathWatch: Groupon - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/readwriteweb-deathwatch-groupon.php

<comment><USER2> No.

See? Now you don't even have to read this article. You're welcome.

<comment><USER3> I apologize if I'm missing some blatant sarcasm, but could you elaborate? All of the points in the article (which I'm hoping you read) seem valid.

Groupon has _never_ felt like a good deal at even half it's current share price. To me, it seems like a company who got lucky through a serendipitous combination of our "bubble 2.0" frenzy, great marketing, and cherry-picked success stories.

I really want to understand what I'm missing. Why is Groupon this titan of deal sites? Is is their color scheme? Is the technology behind their site so amazing that other companies can't conceive of them? Are Facebook and Google too stupid to come up with a decent competing product? Is it brand recognition? Is it because they have Derrick on their unsubscribe page? Please help me understand.

<comment><USER4> You don't understand massive revenues, massive growth, massive cash on hand? You don't understand how valuable it is to have cracked one of the hardest industries: local advertising? You don't understand how much it has diversified its business? In order: because it is the best and the biggest. No, stupid question. No, it's not a technical play, it's a marketing and execution play (like most things). Yes, as we have seen. Yes. No, but that is representative of clever culture. You need way more help than I can provide.

<comment><USER2> Do we really need to pretend that this article is worth driving to the top of HN with a long discussion about the merits of Groupon, or can we just recognize an cynical, intellectually bankrupt attempt at grabbing pageviews by stirring the pot for what it is?

This was a thoroughly stupid article, no matter what you think of Groupon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A faintly warmed-over rehash of arguments we've discussed many times on HN, without depth or fresh perspective. Worth reading if you've never read anything about their business model before. Otherwise, pass.

<comment><USER2> Worth reading? "Is Groupon about to die? Yes! See: here's a video of Andy Mason doing yoga in his underwear."

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What always struck me about Groupon is nothing to do about vendor complaints. If that was going to kill them it would have manifested as failing demand. It's a kind of no one goes there, too crowded argument.

The problem was/is almost the opposite, competition. I never saw, understood Groupons sustainable competitive advantage, especially in new markets/cities. They're obviously competent, but they are _so_ easy to copy. $10k site, $100k ad campaign, 3 salespeople and you have a Groupon clone ready to compete in any city. We have a Groupon clone in the building I work in.

Anyway (getting to the actual content of this article), GRPN & FB seem to have something in common, at least to the extent that this article is correct. By IPO time all the value was already taken off the table.

<comment><USER4> You would think that with 100s of failed efforts to copy that people would not be making this argument any more. It is obviously extremely difficult to copy and there's a very big scale advantage (deals go where the eyeballs are, eyeballs go where the deals are). And I don't think Groupon has capitalized too well on that as the deals have become incredibly generic (like the photography is not even business-specific).

<comment><USER6> Also 100s of successes. Also a bunch that are a success for a while and then fail for a while. Exactly how you expect a market with low entry barriers to behave.

There are lots of cities where Groupon are one of several similar sized sites.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> With the "Macbook Boondoggle" article and now this I have to wonder what the heck is going on at RWW? Is there any quality control about what articles go up? Any editing process at all?

</comment><comment><USER7> Wizard... is about to die

The interesting point: the couponing market is saturated, so Groupon must grow into new markets or find new products for its existing systems and software.

I wouldn't bet on this kind of metamorphosis. A slow death spiral is more likely as Groupon runs out of room to maneuver.

</comment><comment><USER8> TIL Amazon has its own version (local.amazon.com)</comment>


The mystery of the vanishing gun inventor (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23709471 <comment><USER2> More like 'mysterious vanishing of gun inventor'. Was so excited when I first read the headline.

</comment><comment><USER3> Do people generally understand that there's almost never a single inventor? That the popularly credited inventor may not be?

There's some air of hidden secret about these articles: Did you know that Edison didn't invent the light bulb! James Watt didn't invent the steam engine! etc etc.

I don't know about you, but I can only invent one thing at a time, and complex systems require a lot of invention. The incandescent light bulb requires electricity, glass, partial vacuum, and very precise tungsten, among many other things.

An efficient steam engine wants high quality steel, tight tolerances, good valves, and no explosions (relief valve, vessel proofing).

A machine gun wants smokeless powder, good belts, many excellent identical bullets with identical powder loads in identical cases with identical primers.

A machine gun needs some way to convert the energy of firing into the cycling of the action to feed and fire the next round.

A machine gun needs to fire when the trigger is pulled, continue firing until the trigger is no longer pulled, and stop firing when the trigger is released.

A machine gun needs a supply chain. It will consume _at least_ 20x more rounds than an individual soldier (30 vs 600 rounds per minute). WWI was an industrial war.

A machine gunner needs a place to stand. A machine gunner wants to be not shot by snipers, not exploded by artillery or hand grenades. A machine gunner will attract attention.

\---

This merely scratches the surface, of course, but I do wish people had more respect for the complexities of the real world.

<comment><USER4> Your knowledge of early machine guns needs some work. They weren't belt fed, but rather spring and crank run, more commonly box magazine fed than belted/linked where the spring mechanism was in the magazine. The early rotory/Gatling style guns were tube fed. Machine guns werent as common during WWI as you may think, and this had nothing to do with "snipers" or obviousness of machine gun placements.

The point that no one man builds everything is fine - except people like Samuel Colt, Eugene Stoner and John Moses Browning were amazing inventors who did single handedly change their industries, and I think fit the definition of "single inventors" even if they weren't smokeless powder chemists.

<comment><USER5> I thought the first firearm generally considered a machine gun (as opposed to human powered Gatling guns) was the Maxim gun, which was belt fed. All the major military powers in WWI other than France and Austria used Maxim guns or derivates of it. Austria used what is essentially a delayed blowback operated Maxim gun, and it was belt fed. Early _light_ machine guns were magazine fed (e.g Bren Gun, BAR, Lewis Gun), but these aren't typically what militaries typically refer to as "machine guns". Some called them automatic rifles to distinguish them from machine guns.

<comment><USER6> I think Gatling gun and friends are definately considered "early" machine guns, in that they fulfill what is probably the most important distinctive feature of machine guns - relatively sustained periods of high rate of fire.

There are lots of ways to argue about what exactly defines a machine gun, but if we take the perspective of what it's like to be shot at by one, I think we can say that Gatling guns and friends are close enough that I don't really think it matters.

This helps highlight juts HOW MUCH BETTER the Maxim gun was compared to everything before it though.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Tunngle is shutting down tomorrow due the new GDPR - <AUTHOR> https://www.tunngle.net/community/topic/219881-important-information/ <comment><USER2> And yet as soon as I clicked on their brand in the navbar I was greeted by 10+ redirects and a shady ad for mobile games (probably including malware).

Good riddance, you will not be missed.

</comment><comment><USER3> This sounds to me more like:

"Abusing your data is vital for our business model and we will stop our operations before you have the right to request information how we use your data"

</comment><comment><USER4> Most startups simply don't have the resources to figure out what to do to be compliant. I'm guessing that Facebook had a dozen lawyers working on this and even more engineers. This is only going to put up a barrier to startup creation and give large corporations more power.

<comment><USER5> Bullshit. For most startups, the recipe will look something like:

Write a set of scripts to pull user-related lines out of your database(s), write another script to sanitize the output, write another script to delete the lines from script #1 and act as the big red delete button.

This is giving large corporations more power? Seriously?

<comment><USER6> Context: I'm currently responsible for GDPR compliance within a small corner of a Very Large Company.

I'm going to avoid making a statement about GDPR as a whole or about the OP, but I will say that I don't think large companies having an advantage at this phase is "bullshit."

One specific aspect of GDPR seems a good example of this. Third party data processors. If you use various third party products that provide tracking, testing, or other shims, you're responsible for ensuring export and delete of any PII associated data that flowed to those channels as well. Now, you can say the response is "if your partner doesn't have responsive channels, you have to pull the data" to make onesself compliant, but BigCos have the implicit advantage of being able to push the other direction, and get systems/functionality built into the third party product to allow them to be supported easier.

The amount of face to face time, support, and "deep touch" I can get with third party companies when compared to prior smaller corps is very apparent to me, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't make my task of ensuring GDPR compliance easier. Whether that translates to "more power", I don't know. But it's certainly an enabler.

<comment><USER7> except BigCo also has tons of systems, autobackups, legacy code, and S3 buckets that's no one understands or has enough knowledge about. you know it's secure but you don't know what the downstream impact would be of making changes to those systems. so now you have to divert a ton of resources to figure things out - and no SWE in the company will willingly move to _that_ project.

while small companies don't have the big legal teams, they can just hire a consulting firm to go over it with them. they also have the benefit of being nimble, having smaller dependency trees, and typically using 3rd party tools which will generally implement this tooling anyways since their customers will likely need it. BigCo likely did a bunch of roll-your-own projects that have become black boxes over time.

<comment><USER4> Just hire a consulting team? Yes, that's the first thing you should do as you start a company in your basement with $0.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think there might be some pretty draconian side effects to properly implementing GDPR, but I'd like to hear from someone who knows to what extent these things might be true:

* The legal tracked information includes IP addresses, which means all logs must be able to selectively expunge IP address info.

* You can no longer have soft-deletes as a safety mechanism to maintain referential integrity if your data is (as is common) related to a user/account as you are responsible for being able to expunge that data.

* There are no exemptions for first time visitors, which means you can't just put up a no-EU unwelcome mat and serve up any third party tracking.

* The penalties are pretty draconian for a small business.

* It looks like retargeting businesses might be in trouble? Maybe?

<comment><USER9> The penalties given are a max figure. A small business isn't going to be fined 20 million euros for slipping up. In fact, in the UK the ICO have stated that their preference is to avoid having to impose penalties as much as possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> GDPR issn't that hard to achieve. You simply need to follow the rules and fill out some "paperwork". If you are smart, you make your life easier with ISO27001 (don't need to certify, but build upon it).

</comment><comment><USER11> Goodbye, old friend.

</comment><comment><USER12> RIP</comment>


Death by Flaming Water Ski, and Other Misfortunes - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/death-by-flaming-water-ski-and-other-misfortunes-in-the-international-classification-of-diseases <comment><USER4> Don't these come from some kind of base grammar? I'd assume they'd just have something like:

10\. - Bitten By

11\. - Struck By

..and

a12 - <USER2>

b36 - <USER3>

So 11.a12 'struck by orca' would just be a funny consequence of having a large dictionary, not a sign that the codes were really inflated.

<comment><USER5> Pretty much. There's a syntax and grammar to the syllables involved that leads to the ones that will probably never happen, but are still amusing to read. With its layout, you can determine what the injury is, if it was intentional, how many times the person was injured, etc. It's a pretty dense, nicely designed coding format that some people just don't understand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> So apparently Rand Paul said "I've asked physicians all over the country: Have you ever seen an injury from a macaw?"

What a myopic and short-sighted way of viewing the world. I note, with interest, that he never said "I've asked physicians all over the country: Have you ever seen a child with Abderhalden Kaufmann Lignac syndrome?".

I suppose that in his quest for "small government" he will shut down the Genetic and Rare Diseases (GARD) Information Center. [1] After all, most physicians won't have to deal with many of these diseases in their lifetime.

I'm telling you, it's Obamacare run amok!

1\. [https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov](https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov)

</comment><comment><USER7> Presumably the "burning water-skis" cited refer instead to burning personal watercraft, also known by the trade name of "Jet Ski". A water ski is a wooden or plastic board that is mostly submerged in water while in use, making it quite difficult to burn. The whole ICD exercise seems to be about the accurate use of the English language, so this error does not inspire confidence.

<comment><USER5> It's water skis. V90 is Drowning/Submersion, .2 says that the craft was on fire, 7 says it's water skis, X is there because there's no need for further description, and A is the first occurrence. If you look through the whole list of drowning incidents, you see they all follow the same pattern.

[http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/V90-V94/V90-](http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/V90-V94/V90-)

<comment><USER7> OK you've convinced me; this makes no sense. Where is V90.07?

<comment><USER5> I don't know. This was just a website I found that seemed to have a fairly complete listing, such as someone being repeatedly beaten with a portuguese man-o-war [1]. Some of these are rather ridiculous, but it is well categorized and thorough ridiculousness. Either that, or someone /has/ been beaten with a rather deadly critter, which sounds more like the plot element of a comedy horror film than anything.

[1] [http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/S00-T88/T51-T65/T63/T...](http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/S00-T88/T51-T65/T63/T63.6-/T63.613S)

<comment><USER7> What I meant was that apparently they have enough editorial oversight to realize that it's silly to talk about water skis "overturning". However their editorial judgement apparently does not encompass the impossibility of water skis burning.

<comment><USER8> Have you checked the ICD10 entry for burning waterskis? Specifically: Do the skis have to also be in the water?

[http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/V90-V94/V91-/...](http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/V90-V94/V91-/V91.07XA)

<comment><USER7> You're using a different code! b^) Of course one might suffer burns due to contact with burning material. (Although in that case, why call out water skis but not e.g. coffee tables, which also might burn?) Upthread, however, we were talking about _drowning_ due to burning water skis. That would indicate skis in use in water.

The whole problem stems from classifying water skis as transportation, which they are not. Like wakeboards, kneeboards, towable tubes, etc. they are recreational equipment used in conjunction with powered watercraft, which _are_ transportation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm not at all an expert in this area, but it seems like the codes are poorly designed.

Changing them to be less descriptive, and allowing for more codes to be applied to a single case would be more efficient. "Bitten by" and "Orca" should be two different entities applied to the same case, and together they describe the incident.

Although given that these codes are probably used in hundreds of thousands of systems, changing their fundamental structure is probably nearly impossible.

<comment><USER5> That's exactly how the codes are designed. Categories, sub-categories, etc to describe what caused it, what damage it did, and how many times it did it. For example, let's take an example of an "Angel of Death" situation, where a nurse has been repeatedly overdosing a patient with morphine in order to try to kill them. You're going to want to discuss all of the details of what went on, so you choose T41.1X3S [1], which is Poisoning, or other effects from anesthetics. First you look up where poisoning is, T41. Then you look up the code for anesthetics, which is 1X. It's intentional, so that's class 3. From there, you can describe each incident, A for the first, D for the second, and S for any incidents after that. If you look at other areas, like an insect bite, you'd do similar, and some up with S80.262A [2].

Standardizing the format for the codes is really useful, because it can give precise instructions as to what happened. But, you can quickly figure out what happened byt the first code, with the code after the decimal point giving the exact details, if needed. Yes, it allows for ridiculous combinations, but any decently designed charting system has similar. Medicare, for example, has beneficiary codes extending to Second disabled surviving divorced husband [3].

[1] [http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/S00-T88/T36-T50/T41-/...](http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/S00-T88/T36-T50/T41-/T41.1X3S) [2] [http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/S00-T88/S80-S89/S80-/...](http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/S00-T88/S80-S89/S80-/S80.262A) [3] [http://www.ncdoi.com/_Publications/Beneficiary%20Identificat...](http://www.ncdoi.com/_Publications/Beneficiary%20Identification%20Codes_SNE1.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> So, to bill for Medicare and Medicaid services you need to use ICD ( [https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/ProviderResources....](https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/ProviderResources.html) ). ICD-10 is effective October 1, 2015. Here is the quick start pdf [https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/Downloads/ICD10Qui...](https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/Downloads/ICD10QuickStartGuide20151001.pdf)</comment>


How To Create A Keypress Navigation Using jQuery - <AUTHOR> http://nettuts.com/javascript-ajax/how-to-create-a-keypress-navigation-using-jquery/ <comment><USER2> Isn't this already built into every web browser as "access keys"?

<http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/accesskey.html></comment>


Runscope phasing our their Traffic Inspector - <AUTHOR> https://blog.runscope.com/posts/phasing-out-traffic-inspector <comment><USER2> If anyone has any questions, let me know.

<comment><USER3> You suggest Requestbin has an alternative, will you continue the development ?</comment></comment>


Illinois pushes for smartphone "kill switch" to deter thefts - <AUTHOR> http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Madigan-Encourages-Smart-Phone-Kill-Switch-211422351.html

<comment><AUTHOR> While I understand the theft deterrent part, I have some concerns that such a "kill switch" could create a vulnerability that could bite us in the butt. I presume Madigan and her compadres are thinking of a central control through which the switch could be activated... sounds like a very bad idea to me.

Combine it with the NSA revelations and the last few years of social media fueled uprisings and this gets my conspiracy theory engine revving...</comment>


Do you work as a contractor (incorporated) in Canada? - <AUTHOR>

context: I recently incorporated my business What's the right process to follow to save as much money as possible from the tax man? Any advise on what accounting firm I should get in touch with? I would like to know the things you would have done differently if you had to do it over. I would like to avoid the mistakes you made along the way... <comment><USER3> Finding single-experienced-person accounting firm really worked out well for me. I am on a lookout for something like that again as my past accountant retired. The guy made me ~$100k on top of what anyone else would do.

Stay away from big, fat, multi-employee accounting companies.

I tried that route, asked question, received an answer together with $500+tax bill. Sent "WTF?" email, received 50% cut off the bill and cut them off loose for good as well.

Once you found your accountant - ask him/her the same question - <USER2> situations are likely different.

I working for US company from non-home province, living in rented apartment and getting paid in US dollars. This deserves specially-skilled accountant and I still looking for one.

<comment><USER4> I agree with this. Went with a "big, fat, multi-employee accounting company" for doing my 1st year taxes. Ended up getting a bill for $3200 for a pretty simple return. Looking into it more, it seemed half the cost was a junior accountant fiddling with numbers in Excel. I was not happy and didn't use them again.

I do my own taxes now since my bookkeeping is pretty simple and it just takes a few hours. But I would follow this advice should my situation become more complex or I don't want to do it anymore.

Pick a few accountants out of the Yellow Pages with modest ads and go visit them for an initial consultation which should be free. Avoid any with fancy offices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Consider your year end choice carefully.</comment>


25% of Americans say they worry about money 'all the time' - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/24/25-percent-of-americans-say-they-worry-about-money-all-the-time.html <comment><USER2> A question for you folks: when you spend money on goods and services that you know represent conspicuous consumption, and on ones that represent luxury, and provide little practical utility, how does it make you feel?

Using a 3.5% safe withdrawal rate, I've recently crossed the threshold where I could retire indefinitely at my current spending rate. Each day I continue working is now essentially only so I can spend more on a more luxurious lifestyle in the future. I'm fairly frugal, and it's been changing my perspective on work a bit. The first place I've been loosening up on is food.

<comment><USER3> Once our house is paid off (about 8 more years), the same would be true for us and we are not living a Spartan lifestyle even now (I'm also using the 3.5% SWR for planning).

Even if I could shorten the time-to-full-retirement by a couple years, it wouldn't do me any particular good. I generally like my field and my job. I'm tied to the area (can't freely travel 25+% of the time) by virtue of having kids in 2nd and 4th grade. So, there's no mathematical/financial reason to pursue a more Spartan early-retirement-extreme or MMM-approved spending plan.

With that in mind, I find I'm able to enjoy the luxury expenditures, because they aren't taking us off our plan. We travel for a week each winter to "someplace warm". We travel to visit family quite freely. The kids engage in whatever activities they want to try, without worrying about the costs. We own an airplane. We have cleaners that come by every other week. We buy quality food. We give to charities that are meaningful to us (many with money, some with significant amounts of our time as well).

On the other hand, we cut our own grass, do 95+% of our own car maintenance, almost all of our home maintenance, and cook most of our own meals, because we value the savings and example it sets for our kids (especially around charity and talking through the value of money).

<comment><USER4> >We own an airplane.

That escalated quickly!

<comment><USER3> They're a lot less expensive than most people first think. (think "price of a fairly nice car" not "price of a nice house"; though obviously they go up in price to "whatever number you have in mind", most are in the 5-figure or just barely-6-figure range.)

<comment><USER5> What about the upkeep, insurance, storage, and maintenance? I suspect(?) those would be substantial.

<comment><USER3> Similar order of magnitude as owning a ski or other boat over 21' or so. Not "cheap", but not outrageous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I haven't had to worry about money so long as I've been in software development. It's a great feeling. I grew up in rural poverty and I live in fear of losing what I have. That's why I'm currently working more than one remote dev job concurrently and earning 2 fulltime salaries; to amass as much wealth as I can before the current bubble pops.

<comment><USER7> > I haven't had to worry about money so long as I've been in software > development.

Wait until your kids get close to graduating high school... my oldest will be starting college in about 3 years and even though I've been saving since he was born, I still have no idea how I'm going to pay for all of it.

<comment><USER8> Don't?

My parents never paid for my college and I Graduated debt free with an engineering degree.

Maybe having to pay for college will cause them to take internships to pay for college.

<comment><USER9> I'm guessing you didn't go to college in the past 10 years. Things have changed. Nowadays it is impossible to pay for college with any kind of job you can get in college. And many internships are unpaid. So by not paying for college, they would be signing their kids up for $100k+ of debt to start off their lives.

I think maybe their kids should consider "not going to college" but that's a hard idea to sell, since it does have a measurable impact on the work and income a person can get.

<comment><USER8> I graduated in 2012.

My total bill was 30,000 USD for my bachelor's degree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> BOOOOOOOO CNBC:

Headline: 25% of Americans say they worry about money 'all the time'

Body: 25% worry 'all' or 'most' of the time that their household income won't be enough to cover their expenses.

Link to 25% worry 'all or 'most' of the time: Leads to unrelated article about New Yorkers.

Underlying poll: "11% of Americans say they worry about money 'all the time.'

<comment><USER11> It's even worse: the body is actually that financial optimism has "reached levels not seen in more than 16 years"

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The actual findings are that Americans are feeling better about their finances than any time in recent memory. The headline seems to imply that there's an emerging crisis of confidence (there might be, but the data presented in the article certainly doesn't support it).

<comment><USER8> CNBC quality articles for you.

I'm surprised they are considered mainstream media. Is that only because they have a TV channel?

<comment><USER11> The article is fine! It's that the headline implies a different article that is frustrating. I know headline-writing and article-writing are often separate functions, but this is a headline for an entirely different article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> So 1/4 people worry about money constantly. My guess is you could ask that question about a great variety of topics and get a similar result. I think the thing we are testing here is the cross section of those who are by default fearful and their exposure to whichever topic is on offer.

<comment><USER12> The pew numbers for terrorism are pretty similar

[https://www.people-press.org/2010/12/02/despite-years-of- ter...](https://www.people-press.org/2010/12/02/despite-years-of-terror- scares-publics-concerns-remain-fairly-steady/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> 25% worry about money all the time and 33% can't cover an unexpected $400 expense. Yikes! Seems like the gap between those two should be a lot smaller.

</comment><comment><USER14> Another recent study (I saw it on HN) said that the majority of people worried about finances spend every discretionary dollar on entertainment.

This is nonsense. Financial education (from a young age) should be mandatory. The number of people in dire financial straights should be miniscule, if everybody acted with good financial sense consistently.

This is wholly a man-made crisis. Participation is completely voluntary.

</comment><comment><USER15> That seems low if 40% of Americans can't find $400 for a surprise expense...or maybe the fact that it's so low is why they can't $400 if they needed it.

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nearly-40-of-americans-cant- cov...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nearly-40-of-americans-cant-cover-a- surprise-400-expense/)

<comment><USER5> Because people like using credit cards for everyday spend, apparently?

"With cash or money currently in checking/savings" is at 45% but the next highest percent is "With a credit card, paid off in full at the next statement" at 33%. There's plenty of reason to use a credit card for a $400 expense even if you have $30,000 sitting in your checking account, so those who expect to pay off their credit card in full when the balance closes should be "counted" as having the emergency covered.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Instead of worrying about money all the time, people should probably just be saving and investing their money. Even on minimum wage it's possible to save a little bit every month provided you are willing to sacrifice other things for it.

When I was younger I had a lot of friends that were making minimum wage as cooks or whatever in Boston. They (and me) had plenty of money to spend on alcohol, weed, bars, pizza, etc. If anyone had wanted to, they could have made sacrifices and put away over $250 a month.

Of course, things are a little different when you have a family, but then again, in my opinion, you shouldn't have a family until you're financially stable.

I know live in Tanzania and the situation is so different that I find it ridiculous when people in America complain about income inequality or the lack of a "living wage."

Even the poorest employed people in America are far better off than most of the people here, and if you told them about how the so called "poorest" in America live, they would literally kill to switch places with them.

<comment><USER17> Immutable law of the internet--if you write a piece about financial hardship, you get out of touch scolds in the comments preaching frugality and self denial.

Take one single second to consider that maybe virtue alone isn't enough. The world has changed since you were young. Take some time to learn about it, and develop some empathy.

<comment><USER8> I have been teaching people how to save money and time, and I've yet to meet anyone to change my mind on this.

You either accept that people choose to live outside their means, or people have no control over their bodies and therefore should not be punished for crimes.

I don't expect people to share ideas about this topic, it's silly too. Most of us want to help people, but many hn voters would rather by publically empathetic than discuss.

<comment><USER18> So, being poor is a binary decision between spending too much, or some extreme autonomous-body conclusion?

I reckon there is a middle ground, but what do I know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm probably one of those, despite making well over six figures.

On introspection, I realized that I was worried about money because the system is set up as a casino. You just HAVE to gamble to save the fruits of your labor. Every investment is more speculation than production. In addition, inflation is way way over what the fed thinks it is.

To add salt to the wound, I'm actually capable of understanding these problems mathematically. My friends/relatives who don't understand all this are blissfully unaware. They live out their lives until a crisis hits and need to beg for money.

I sometimes wonder if I should really take the blue pill and live with the mantra ignorance is bliss.

<comment><USER20> > the system is set up as a casino. You just HAVE to gamble to save the fruits > of your labor

Is a savings/checking account a "gamble"? Is a money market?

<comment><USER19> Have you seen real world inflation lately? If not, I encourage you to do so (disclaimer: stressful days follows)</comment></comment></comment>


Plates vs. Coils – An alternative approach to wireless power transmission - <AUTHOR> http://wp.josh.com/2015/07/11/the-other-way-to-do-wireless-power-capacitive-power-transmision-proof-of-concept/ <comment><USER2> > Q: What is the relative efficiency of the two systems? > A: I don't really > care for this proof of concept.

Looks like he'll have a ton of fun _after_ this proof of concept...

</comment><comment><USER3> From the last issue of The Economist (Edited by me):

"..a company called Wibotic that plans to recharge drones (and also earthbound robots) without them having to establish an awkward physical connection with a plug.... LaserMotive, another Seattle-based company, .. is developing a system designed to replenish the batteries of drones that are still aloft, using lasers and photovoltaic cells..

Wibotic's answer is to use tuned electrical circuits in place of simple transmitting and receiving coils. When such circuits are tuned to the same resonan"t frequency, they exchange energy more efficiently. That permits power to be transferred over distances up to the diameter of the coils, or even slightly farther."

Reference : [http://www.economist.com/news/science-and- technology/2165613...](http://www.economist.com/news/science-and- technology/21656134-electronics-has-already-cut-data-cord-can-it-now-cut- power-cord)

</comment><comment><USER4> >Note that we only need one LED for the inductive coil since there is a loop though the coils, so the electrons can keep going around and around in the same direction and never get trapped. Nonsense. The current in the secondary coil is caused the changing the magnetic field. This cannot keep changing indefinitely in the same direction so the current in the primary that generates the magnetic field must be alternating and then so will the current in the secondary.

<comment><USER5> The second LED is required for the capacitive example because without it all of the charge would eventually accumulate on one plate. This isn't a problem with the coil as there is a complete circuit for the charge to move around.

He is not saying the magnetic field is not alternating (he even says the coil is being driven by a 1 MHz sine wave). The current in the coil is _not_ alternating, because of the LED.

<comment><USER4> I see your point, and I was a bit hasty, very embarrassing.

That'll teach me to just skim an article quickly.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019? - <AUTHOR> I'm a frontend developer and I know enough JS (with JQuery) to get by to create simple web interactivity. It's time for me to learn the fundamentals, so I can then learn libraries like React.
What's the best way to learn? I've completed some beginner level courses on codecademy and others, but forgot much of what I learned within a month or two. I searched here to find books that are recommended, but it seems that many are outdated (without ES6), for instance: Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, which has great reviews, but no ES6. What I know about JS has been learned through doing it and researching the solution and learning bits at a time-- not a great way to learn.
I'm thinking of trying a course on udemy. Along with finding a book to read on the side. Suggestions? <comment><USER2> There is also the "You Don't Know JS" series, which is free online. I have heard positive things about it, the last installment includes ES6.

From the linked README:

"This is a series of books diving deep into the core mechanisms of the JavaScript language. The first edition of the series is now complete.

[...]

These books are being released here as drafts, free to read, but are also being edited, produced, and published through O'Reilly."

[https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know- JS/blob/master/READM...](https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know- JS/blob/master/README.md)

<comment><USER3> I'm a big fan of this one for getting to grips with the nitty gritty basics of JavaScript - in particular it's my go to when I forget how prototype inheritance and `this` work exactly for the umpteenth time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I suggest you really practice the fundamentals, especially es6. You're gonna use a lot of es6 concepts in React. Really learn the fundamentals and you'll be fine.

Most importantly, practice everyday. Take 10 - 30 mins to create a small react app. Spaced repetition is a very powerful concept in mastering any skill. Finally, try building a small project with React. Anything you like. Just build something, here's why:

1\. You'll learn more by building a small project yourself than watching those videos/tutorial of any kind, because you'll get to a point where you'll have issues with your code, things won't work, (trust me, this happens alot to beginners), then you'll research online. This'll give more understanding about how React works, than just watching tutorial.

2\. You'll have a small project in your portfolio, which can be useful later on.

Good luck.

<comment><USER5> When you mean small project, do you mean try building a CRUD app?

If someone were to dive in to this to learn React as part of a Full Stack, what are some ideas where you'd use React, but also all of the back end tools to make it a full stack application?

<comment><USER4> By small project i mean, something not so complicated. It can be any size you want. For example, think about building an e-commerce website's front end with React, or a calculator app front end, anything you can do.

You can't really build a CRUD App with React. It's a JS lib for building front end user interfaces. For the backend is when you'll need a CRUD app, not front end, backend can be built with Node, and understanding React makes it much easier for you to understand Node. Your React app will connect to an API endpoint for communication and for the app to work, you may be able to find free public API to use and connect to. If you can't find an API or a backend to use, use arrays or read from a local file, use that as a replacement for connecting to the API or database.

For full stack: Front can be: React, or Angular, e.t.c. Backend: Node, Python, PHP, Java, C++, e.t.c.

You'll use React pretty much for the whole of the front end. From user login, to admin dashboard, to JS animations, e.t.c.

Hope this helps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > It's time for me to learn the fundamentals, so I can then learn libraries > like React.

There are more effective ways to learn. Instead of learning "bottom-up", start with your end-goal, e.g. creating apps with React.

This is a good start:

[https://reactjs.org/tutorial/tutorial.html](https://reactjs.org/tutorial/tutorial.html)

You'll find out what you need, and, more importantly, what you don't need to know along the way.

<comment><USER7> This is good advice. Learning something of a higher level of abstraction (e.g. React) without knowing how JS works sounds bad in theory, but it appears OP knows enough JS that it'd be better to just dive into React.

A pure, fundamentalist "bottom-up" approach will make you drown in boredom really fast, because you'll be learning very specific syntax details and language gotchas that you don't even know what they're useful for. But when you've been coding in React for a while, and you've had quite a few problems with the "this" expression, then going back to really understand how "this" works will be much more enlightening.

So my recommendation would also be this: Dive into React, or whatever is your end goal, and create stuff. Once you get stuck or feel like your knowledge of JS is inappropriate or you're falling for the same language gotchas without really understanding them, then read "You Don't Know JS".

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find that learning "pure JS" is the key. The various frameworks are great for productivity but it is easy overlook the principles and learn the framework specific way of doing things. ES6 introduces features that were missing in earlier versions and needed polyfills, external tools and frameworks.

The two resources that I found to be most useful are:

[http://eloquentjavascript.net](http://eloquentjavascript.net)

and

[http://exploringjs.com/es6/](http://exploringjs.com/es6/)

<comment><USER9> I second "Eloquent Javascript" \- it's excellent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Go through around 100 exercises on [https://freecodecamp.com](https://freecodecamp.com) for the fundamentals, and then maybe 50 or so on [https://algodaily.com/challenges](https://algodaily.com/challenges) for more advanced techniques.

This should take you roughly 100 hours, but afterwards you'll be extremely well suited to start tackling JS libraries and building your own projects.

</comment><comment><USER11> > What I know about JS has been learned through doing it and researching the > solution and learning bits at a time

I don't think there is anything wrong with this approach. Most developers learn this way. And many React developers don't know the fundamentals of JS all that well, because you can go a long way in React just by following conventions. So if React is your goal, just go find some tutorials and start doing it.

</comment><comment><USER12> > _... but it seems that many are outdated (without ES6), for instance: > Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, which has great reviews, but no > ES6._

 _Professional JavaScript for Web Developers_ was the text I used to deep dive on the language in 2012, and it was _fantastic_. The chapters that dealt with prototype inheritance, scope chains, and execution context provided for a very solid command of the language at the time. Nicholas C. Zakas is an excellent author.

 _Understanding ECMAScript 6: The Definitive Guide for JavaScript Developers 1st Edition_ was also written by Zakas, although I have not read it. Unfortunately since it was released in 2016, it likely lacks some of the later revisions to ECMAScript that have been ratified since.

Honorable mention includes _Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja_ , but it's also an old book. Despite its campy name, it provided some of the best visual explanations of advanced JavaScript topics I've ever seen. Granted, I just read a few of the chapters.

I recently had to skill up and take the leap from my pre-ES6 knowledge into the bleeding edge, and the way I did that was to just read MDN (Mozilla Developer Network) pages where necessary, maybe the occasional blog post assuming it seemed of sufficient caliber.

Of course, the hardcore way to deep dive is simply read the latest ECMA spec directly, but I wouldn't recommend that route for where you're at right now unless you're really curious about a particular mechanic.

Based on a cursory search and taking a gander at its index, _Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition: A Modern Introduction to Programming (December 4, 2018)_ looks pretty good.

Some other commenters are saying the "learn as you go" approach is sufficient, and it certainly is initially, but at some point I highly recommend deep diving into how more advanced features of the language work so that you have a solid command of the language.

Either way, best of luck and happy learning!

</comment><comment><USER13> My book may work for you (free to read online): "JavaScript for impatient programmers". [http://exploringjs.com/impatient- js/toc.html](http://exploringjs.com/impatient-js/toc.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> If you already know jQuery then you understand what all these frameworks and libraries are trying to solve.So....

Tip 1 So find some introduction videos just to get a hang on the concepts. Avoid those "Airbnb in one hour" type of videos. Just the basics. I suggest thenewboston.

Tip 2 Go to Medium and Github, then find some well written code and read it try to understand what is happening and why.

Tip 3 Break down a few of those projects. Especially the simple ones. Simple CRUD, todo lists etc.

Tip 4 Try to reconstruct some of the projects from the ground up.

Tip 5... You are already there. Explore.

</comment><comment><USER15> There is a lot to be said for reading Mozilla Developer Network articles and playing in the chrome console. The fast feedback of a REPL makes you learn fast

</comment><comment><USER16> Is your knowledge of basic vanilla JS good? If that is the case then I recommend looking at [https://babeljs.io/docs/en/learn](https://babeljs.io/docs/en/learn) for a simple overview of the new features in ES6. There are more in depth sites for ES6 but I think the above link covers what you probably are going to use.

</comment><comment><USER17> 33 javascript concepts is a great repository for learning js especially if you already proficient in one language. It contains material for every topic in forms of blogs and video links.

[https://github.com/leonardomso/33-js- concepts](https://github.com/leonardomso/33-js-concepts)

</comment><comment><USER18> Do a trello list on the topics of this video and follow 'em religiously, Is working wonders for me:

10 Steps to Master Javascript within 15 Months | Is it possible? - WhatsDev: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JVNjwilPMU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JVNjwilPMU)

</comment><comment><USER19> I think a good way is to pick a framework or library and start building something that you would use for yourself. If you choose react then just start building and as you hit things you don't know how to do, refer back to the course or search the Internet for the solution. Just start building something.

</comment><comment><USER20> You could take Vue.js course at Laracasts.com. It is really well done. Most of the course is free.

[https://laracasts.com/series/learn-vue-2-step-by- step](https://laracasts.com/series/learn-vue-2-step-by-step)

</comment><comment><USER21> Try messing with the DOM In the browser console (I use Chrome). It feels close to playing a music instrument because it is reacting fast and you can preview what your code does. I find this most enjoyable.

</comment><comment><USER22> read code and practice</comment>


Macro Man: Peter Thiel - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/thiel.pdf

<comment><USER3> Hedge funds are leveraged to the hilt. Works great when you make the right bets but when the whole world gets scared and starts calling in their loans, you're SOL.

I wonder if you could relate financial hacking to code hacking. Once any system grows so large, you can no longer keep it in your head. Many financial instruments didn't exist when Buffet and Soros were making their money.

Of course we're now back to Taleb and his black swans.

<comment><USER4> Clarium is leveraged about 3.2 to 1, according to industry databases. Not my cup of tea, but less than many of their colleagues, especially given that Clarium is so active in debt and currency markets.

Buffet and Soros both invest in derivatives these days, they just use more common sense than your average quant when doing so. There is a huge difference between mark-to-market and mark-to-model. [It's common practice, for example, to have derivatives leveraged at 10-30X the value of a company while basing all contract prices on things like the volatility of the company's stock - <USER2> completely IGNORING the actual underlying value of said company and its prospects. Quants can build entire models projecting stock prices far into the future without even looking at the company's existing financial statements. It's ridiculous.]

I've been thinking about the relationship between financial hacking and code hacking a bit lately, because I know so many coders and quants that exhibit similar negative tendencies...to the point that they even have the same mannerisms, speech patterns, and physical tics. (To be painfully honest, my thoughts were prompted by the passing of Erik Naggum, the reading of an article about Asperbegers, and a conversation with a a quant @$$hole I occasionally have to deal with - all in the space of an hour or so.)

I think there is a (vocal) subset of both financial and code hackers that are so impressed with their own genius and the intellectual rigor of their models that they forget to keep one foot in reality and to use common sense. They forget or lose sight of the end goals and forget to be civil. They often win the "smartest person" ribbon for the day, at the expense of being unsuccessful in life. I'm oddly thankful that I lack the math or programming skills to be so dangerous. My discomfort with - and distrust of - elegant mathematic models has saved my fund from being clobbered a few times.

I'm genuinely baffled when people who are clearly so much smarter than I am can't see to apply their skills in positive or obvious ways. I'm conflicted, because I'm often jealous of their intelligence and skills, but I pity them for never seeing the forest for the trees. I think there is a subset in both types of 'hacker' communities that have this 'affliction.' They operate at a higher level of analytical/abstract thought in one way, but are crippled a bit in other regards. Different strokes and different folks make the world go 'round, I guess, but it is sometimes painful to interact with 'em.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> wow... he must have made a killing... again. He's following libertarian/austrian school economic predictions, so I suppose now he's betting on the collapse of the dollar.

<comment><USER6> This article is 2.5 years old. His fund got clobbered in the financial meltdown. None of the people mentioned in the article still work for him.</comment></comment>


Scientists Once Nuked Beer to See If It'd Still Be Drinkable After Atomic Blast - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-once-nuked-beers-to-see-if-they-d-still-be-drinkable-after-an-atomic-blast <comment><USER2> Seems like an obvious thing to do</comment>


Show HN: Skyscanner for German Mortages - <AUTHOR> http://www.hypofriend.de <comment><USER2> The language selection doesn't seem to work properly. I'm on Chrome 66.0.3359.139 on Mac OS using english (UK) language settings for both OS and browser. However, selecting "German" from the dropdown on the landing page does not have any effect. Clicking the "Find the right mortgage" button forwards me to a selection page which allows me to choose between "Continue in EN" / "Weiter auf DE", however, the second button has no effect.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey there! Thanks for reporting the issue, we will fix it ASAP!

Nick @ [https://www.hypofriend.de](https://www.hypofriend.de)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Does your platform work for EU nationals in other countries looking to buy Berlin property? I'm in the U.K. and have been hoping to purchase for a while but it's difficult to break into as I don't speak the language

I did make an appointment through the site but I am not in Berlin and can't do a F2F

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey - Yes! We support foreigners abroad, I'm sorry I'm only reading this now, you can make an appointment via Video or Call as well:

Here: [https://hypofriend.de/en/appointment/](https://hypofriend.de/en/appointment/)</comment></comment>


Todo app is the new Hello world for front end technologies - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/hussainanjar/angular-firebase-todo

<comment><USER2> I would say old at this point (seems like the Backbone todo app has been around for a while). Personally, when I teach people programming I go for NodeCellar ([https://github.com/ccoenraets/nodecellar](https://github.com/ccoenraets/nodecellar)).</comment>


Why and how to transition to a better date format - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/RobertWarrenGilmore/32da7da00cfa676cffe1 <comment><USER2> That must be satire.

Either that or it's the best demonstration of why techies often totally miss the point when talkng about social issues.

Not knowing enough, but believing they know everything best.

<comment><AUTHOR> The last section is meant to be ironic. The rest isn't. I'd be curious to hear what I've missed. I've addressed every concern that I've ever heard on this topic, and it is a favourite topic of mine.

<comment><USER3> Time is a favorite topic of mine too. It began when I read Kant and his conclusion that ~time is an _a priori_ condition of all inner experience [i.e. that time is something that the human mind projects out into the world]. Buy into that as the strong scientific claim that there is no independent process of time independent of our experience of it or not...there's no denying that our systems for measuring and expressing time are artifacts of human culture and that scientific definitions are _ex post facto._

The idea that noon is not when the sun is on the meridian and a mere footstep east or west changes time by an hour with all the force of the state's instruments of violence [1] is a mark of tyrannical authority. The Gregorian Calendar is a product of a system in which people act upon a belief in a divine mandate for their authority.

Which brings me to the objection that was not addressed. I don't want to cede my freedom to a theocracy even dressed in technocratic robes. My time isn't yours to decide.

[1]: aka, don't be late for court 'cause the judge will throw your ass in jail.

<comment><AUTHOR> That seems pretty far removed from any kind of practical concern. The intention is not to rule over people's lives or something. The intention is to make it easier to schedule stuff.

I think you might just have a problem with the concept of timekeeping, and not with this particular system.

I will concede, though, that the hypothetical situation of being late for a court date is plausible near a time zone boundary. More reason to eliminate time zones, right? The time is the same everywhere, so nobody is going to make a mistake due to a time zone discrepancy.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Roundup of 40+ bookmark managers and Del.icio.us alternatives - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@DominikSerafin/roundup-of-40-bookmark-managers-and-del-icio-us-alternatives-54b77cb6c702 <comment><AUTHOR> I wrote this article. If anyone thinks I've missed something or wants to suggest another bookmarking service then let me know and I'll add it to the article.</comment>


Wilderness of Mirrors - <AUTHOR> https://theintercept.com/2018/01/01/the-complex-legacy-of-cia-counterintelligence-chief-james-angleton/ <comment><USER2> Whenever I read pieces like this on these nuts in the CIA, I start to think that if they weren't the ones creating the conspiracies, they'd be in some asylum imagining them anyway.

<comment><USER3> The CIA at times both imagines and acts on non-existent conspiracies and dismisses very real intrigues, e.g. the belief that Soviets can't have a mole in the CIA instead the soviets must be detecting CIA sources using secret spy dust. The burden of proof is much lower in intelligence work than police work and given the nature of counter deception campaigns evidence which contradicts an organizationally important narrative can be dismissed as misinformation. This is a recipe is self-delusion, but if one believes that intelligence agencies are necessary I'm not sure such problems can be all together avoided.

<comment><USER4> Do you have much familiarity with those inner workings and workplace tendencies in the intelligence agencies? What are your thoughts on Richards Heuer's work[0] on empirical methodologies to eliminate as much cognitive bias from analysts' assessments as possible (I've read a few techniques from his most recent book "Structured Analytic Techniques for Intelligence Analysis" but haven't read any of his earlier "Psychology of Intelligence Analysis" book). You mention burden of proof being lower for them than in police work, which might make sense given that it's a field where deception and operational secrecy are practically situational constants, but I guess I haven't gotten that impression from reading his work. I'm curious to hear what went into your conclusions.

[0]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richards_Heuer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richards_Heuer)</comment></comment></comment>


Effects Analysis in Guile - <AUTHOR> http://wingolog.org/archives/2014/05/18/effects-analysis-in-guile

<comment><USER2> Guile 2.2 is going to be one hell of a release.</comment>


Scala API Client for BTC-e Cryptocurrencies Broker - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/kushti/btce-scala

<comment><USER2> Cool, good job releasing.

What was the motivation behind blocking by using `Await` in btce.scala (line 70 and 81)? Without it, you could return a Future, which would keep you from blocking and would allow you to compose them.

Also, curious: Do you prefer Lift's json libraries to Play's? I noticed you used Play for their WS call, and also Lift's json libaries.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for reviewing!

Async approach could be better, for some cases, but I have chosen synchronous approach for simplicity (or even to be close to other implementations).

Only WS to be used now, but I'll add other http libraries support(I think about Apache HttpClient) to avoid lock on PlayFramework (in case of using Play, WS is awesome). It's easy to implement other options though(you need to implement HttpApiClient trait functions).

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> You can find implementation and usage examples in my blog [http://chepurnoy.org/blog/2013/04/scala-clients-for-btc-e- tr...](http://chepurnoy.org/blog/2013/04/scala-clients-for-btc-e-trade-and- public-data-apis-my-first-opensource-released/) . BTC-e com is #2 broker(after MTGox) for Bitcoin , #1 for Litecoin/Namecoin/some other cryptocurrencies. I have implemented both Trade and Public Data APIs. It's my first opensource released!</comment>


Ask HN: How to perform due diligence on an affiliate website? - <AUTHOR>

I've found a website seller that's listed an affiliate site that I'm considering purchasing. I do not have any experience in affiliate marketing but I'm a seasoned software engineer that's been programming on the web for over a decade. I can think of ways to improve the site in the future to hopefully grow the monthly revenue that's already being generated.
I'd like to know what I should be on the lookout for though when doing due diligence. Aside from the obvious things like verifying existing revenue and traffic metrics, how would I determine potential threats like other sites in the same niche, future threats, making sure existing revenue does not dry up, etc.
Sorry if it's a bit of a naive question. Just looking to get opinions from the HN community. Is anyone else doing affiliate marketing? If so, what has your experience been like? <comment><USER3> I think first you need to separate doing an Assessment from doing Due Diligence.

The Assessment looks at things like

\- The domain (does the seller actually own it, can you legally own it - <USER2> example .au domains require an Australian business licence)

\- The site itself (is the copy unique, are there any violations of Google's Webmaster guidelines, does it rely on any third party apis etc)

\- The traffic (where does it come from and in what proportions, how dependent is the site on search, which sources convert, how sustainable are they etc)

\- The revenue (can the revenue sources be transferred - e.g. Paypal recurring subscriptions can't, does the seller have a special arrangement with the merchant / affiliate network that you won't have access to etc)

\- Operational Requirements (what are the costs / responsibilities / resources that HAVEN'T been disclosed, how much non-accounted for time (seller's time usually) does it take to run the business)

\- The Seller (what else do they own, do any of these properties potentially compete, do any of these properties contain useful backlinks to what you're purchasing etc)

Due Diligence then covers verifying the information you have been given

\- Does the actual monthly revenue for the last 12 / 24 months accurately match what has been claimed in the P&L \- Can you prove the transactions ONLY originated from the site being sold \- Do the customers seem unique and genuine \- Is the traffic genuine and spoofed \- Are the mailing lists genuine and in good health \- Are any supplier / contractor agreements in place \- Has the business submitted tax returns? In the likely event they don't match the P&L, why?

I've massively oversimplified both processes and doing them properly is more than a Hackner News post could cover. You can have someone do it for you professionally ([https://centurica.com](https://centurica.com)) or you can go down the DIY route ([https://exitplan.co](https://exitplan.co)).</comment>


Tech Journalism Sucks - <AUTHOR> https://www.yegor256.com/2018/11/20/journalism.html <comment><USER2> It's funny that the person who wrote an article titled 'Don't aim for quality, aim for speed' is talking about how tech journalism sucks. Part of me snarkily thinks that's exactly why journalism sucks now. 'Get the article done and out there in any way possible, quality be damned' is virtually the mantra of the modern media landscape.

[https://www.yegor256.com/2018/03/06/speed-vs- quality.html](https://www.yegor256.com/2018/03/06/speed-vs-quality.html)

I guess go fast and break things works a bit worse in journalism than it does in startup land.

But as for the actual subject... well, the issues mentioned here seem common with every field. Being more open to publishing articles on widely agreed upon ideas, denying a writer for political or personal disagreement reasons, not having much knowledge of the subject and how the new take could affect the community... these are things you can see in everything from media to science and government.

They're all issues with humanity and human psychology, not the media in particular.

</comment><comment><USER3> This story is software not journalism, but React had a similar reaction. Best practices at the time were to slice things vertically (MVC) rather than horizontally (components).

The mere fact it was Facebook pushing it basically saved it from being drowned out by people in the audiences at the first two conferences (jsconf / jsconfeu) it was presented at who simply didn't like that it wasn't MVC.</comment>


Going into Business? Learn a Programming Language - <AUTHOR> http://www.charleshooper.net/blog/going-into-business-learn-a-programming-language/

<comment><USER2> "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Anon.

</comment><comment><USER3> Or just use a spreadsheet maybe??

<comment><USER4> A spreadsheet would have prevented the author from using floating point to represent money.

<comment><USER5> What is the issue with using floating point to represent money?

<comment><USER6>
      Time spent writing obvious reply:        $2.50
      Good faith deduction:                   ($1.00)
      Deduction for joke comment opportunity: ($1.50)

      Dear jbl, your invoice total is $0.00000027.

<comment><USER5> Ah. Right. Rounding errors and other floating point issues. Guess I should have my coffee before reading HN. _headdesk_

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> FYI, Ledger is CLI and designed for accounting and keeping books:

<https://github.com/jwiegley/ledger/wiki>

There's a python implementation as well, if that's more up your hacking alley: <https://furius.ca/beancount/></comment>