New Rules for the New Bubble - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/sxsw-new-rules-for-the-new-bubble-031211 <comment><USER2> It's refreshing to see someone admit up-front that its just about the money (flip). Hearing founders talk over and over again about how they want to change the world when their primary motivation is status gets old.

</comment><comment><USER3> Albert Camus once said "Every revolutionary ends up becoming either an oppressor or a heretic." From this presentation, it looks like Steve Blank has chosen to go the heretic route. Wide distribution first, worry about monetization later? Engineering a financial transaction from the beginning? I'm a long way from Chicago, but I can _still_ hear Jason Fried's head exploding.

Personally, I suspect Steve is right, but only over the very short term. We've got a nascent tech bubble (and a commodities bubble, and a booming stock market) because our central bank's glued to a zero-interest-rate policy, and is further stimulating the economy through quantitative easing - pumping about $3B a day into the economy through bond purchases. All that cash has to go somewhere, and it is - anywhere it can get higher yields than the bond market.

This economic stimulation is all being done to keep the economy healthy in the face of unprecedented federal deficits - but it's a house of cards, and it'll explode as soon as foreign investors want higher rates for the privilege of holding American bonds. When this happens, the tech bubble goes away, and any company pursuing a bubble strategy is hosed. At that time, having a bootstrapped startup generating decent cashflow will look pretty good - not as good as selling during a bubble, but a hell of a lot better than _not_ selling after a bubble.

That's why I'm curious about the timeframe in Steve's slides. Why does he think the bubble period ends in 2014? Three years is a pretty short timeframe for generating massive hype, getting huge, and flipping a company - is this advice even actionable?

<comment><USER4> Fantastically succinct market analysis and reality check.

Continuing the aside: Going short in 1998 would have been too soon, 2001 Q2 too late. Countless startups have flipped in the past few years after only a year or two of growth. There's ample time to build something valuable and flip it in the next few years. History repeats itself but that won't help us predict the market.

(I'd give bonus points for your Camus quote!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> There should be an asterisk at the of the title Steve Blank's SXSW talk saying:

While new rules are in place for the new bubble they only apply to startups operating in the bubble. All other startups should continue following the rules for their respective sphere. Entrepreneurs should continue to start startups in any sphere.

He talks about four paths to startup liquidity. I hope he noted the latter doesn't replace the former. It should seem obvious but in the world of the new iPad making the original iPad a paperweight, I don't think it is. I'd argue for the continued validity of the former business models.

I wrote in more detail about this on my blog:

[http://mattbauer.github.com/2011/03/13/new-rules-for-the- new...](http://mattbauer.github.com/2011/03/13/new-rules-for-the-new-bubble- the-warning.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> I esp liked the sequence starting at Slide 47 - Any company can be described in 9 building blocks - thru the complete picture of the idea, slide 57.

<comment><USER7> It comes from the book Business Model Generation:

<http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/>

A very very good book, I can recommend it. The way the book was written is also very inspirational.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> is there are recording of the talk that goes with this deck?

</comment><comment><USER9> Could someone point out the difference between slides 67 and 68 for me?

<comment><AUTHOR> No difference, just duplicated.

<comment><USER9> Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Interesting way of looking at it - the startup -is- the prototype. Then against I suppose that's why they're called startups. If they had longevity then the name would be misleading. haha</comment>


Going to Silicon Valley without YC, is it a good idea? - <AUTHOR>

This idea all started off from reading the article below:
http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/04/07/you-didnt-make-it-to-y-combinator-or-techstars-now-what/
In my opinion it is true that the best part of YC is the contacts you make and it got me thinking can you really get these yourself?
I didn't get accepted into this years YC like many other people here but still really want to develop my idea, it's a site for storing contact information, just like a web based address book but one you can access from various different platforms.
I live in the UK and am six weeks from the end of my computing degree, my bank balance reflets that. It's got me thinking if I really could just book a flight over to SF and see what happens, do you really think anyone could find contacts and develop their project with as much ease as the article states? Here is the UK it is very much a closed door policy and talking about your ideas is a no no.
Richard
firstname.lastname@example.com <comment><USER2> Visa problems as already hinted, plus how will you fund yourself while there?

There are quite a few schemes over here that will support starving students starting businesses, then when you have a little more of a solid footing you can hop over to SF and go crazy.

Not sure why you think it's a closed door policy here, I've had great success and loads of feedback from throwing my idea out there; it's undergone a lot of transformation in the last 8 months or so, to the point where I think I'll now get the most out of it going abroad. If I'd gone to SF last summer I don't think it would actually have helped that much because I wouldn't have been able to stick around, and meeting people once with a bright idea only has so much impact.

On the flipside I'm sure if you have the resources to stay in SF for a while you can get some great feedback, maybe find people to team up with, etc. I'd just be really wary of the financials and visa situation.

</comment><comment><USER3> > In my opinion it is true that the best part of YC is the contacts you make > and it got me thinking can you really get these yourself?

If it were that easy, YC would be less valuable. I think it's still probably doable, but harder.

> live in the UK

Staying for more than the 3 months you get as a tourist might be a problem, if you are not originally from the US (you just said 'live', not where you're from). OTOH, 3 months might be the right amount of time to see if you can swing something more permanent and if you want to stay.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As for the visa issue, I believe you can get a lot done in 3 months and I needed longer, I could just go home and come back again to get another 3 months (I believe the rule of thumb is that you should stay longer in your home country than the US which would limit it to 6 months). I believe that if create a successful business in the US then you will find some way of staying, the Auctomatic guys managed it somehow.

As for the comments about the UK (I am British) I don't really know I just find that there is very little support for web startups generaly, we have an enterprise centre which I am part of but they don't really know what to say when they find out that you don't plan on selling anything. Everyone I know is very secretive about things, it's all about NDAs rather than actually learning from talking.

I'm based in Sheffield and my skills are most likely pretty basic comapared to most people on here but I enjoy designiing and creating asp.net sites which is how I want to do my contact site, probably not the best way but I think it's doable.

Richard

</comment><comment><USER4> It's hard to find the angels by yourself. The deferred legal services are easy to find though (just go to meetups and ask), and the legal services alone make Silicon Valley worth it compared to any other place to start a startup.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wrote that blog post. Actually, one of my next posts will be about which meetings to attend in Silicon Valley.

My advice (been there, done that): you don't need to show up for more than a few weeks at a time. You can find cheap tickets currently from Europe for no more than $600.

Step 1: make a friend online who can host you for a week

Step 2: fly over

Step 3: network like crazy while in the Valley

Step 4: repeat a few times

Does that make sense?

</comment><comment><USER6> You're building a website that stores contact information? That's a server running a database and some software. Why exactly do you need VC?

</comment><comment><USER7> Where in the UK are you? What are your skills?</comment>


Another Fun House Language Called Context-Free - <AUTHOR> http://hackety.org/2007/09/25/aLittleSpirographicLanguageCalledContextFree.html <comment><USER2> If you like this, check out Processing as well (www.processing.org).

<comment><USER3> And if you're on a Mac, you might want to take a look at NodeBox: www.nodebox.net

(Disclaimer: I'm the author of NodeBox)</comment></comment>


Kubernetes: Zero downtime update while handling one million req per sec - <AUTHOR> http://blog.kubernetes.io/2015/11/one-million-requests-per-second-dependable-and-dynamic-distributed-systems-at-scale.html <comment><USER2> It's easy to miss this, but the _big_ point is doing a rolling update when running at serious scale:

> What is exciting is that while successfully handling 1 million HTTP requests > per second with uninterrupted availability, we have Kubernetes perform a > zero-downtime rolling upgrade of the service to a new version of the > software while we're still serving 1 million requests per second.

<comment><USER3> Disclaimer: I work at Google on Kubernetes.

Yep! The IPTables work, service endpoints based on labels and the built in rolling-update functionality is what makes this possible. No agents or service discovery required!</comment></comment>


Show HN: API Bootstrap – A better way to build your API - <AUTHOR> https://apibootstrap.com <comment><USER2> The landing page doesn't provide any information what so ever about what your service solves. Only a madman would go further.

<comment><USER3> Only a madman would start a 30-day trial without entering any financial information?

<comment><USER4> Signing up for a free trial requires some bit of commitment. A couple of sentences isn't enough for most people to commit to a new product.

If you think about the customer journey as Research-Evaluate-Purchase, the 30 day free trial is the Evaluate stage. There isn't enough information (or any specifics) on the landing page to do any meaningful amount of research.

<comment><USER5> Plus, then I have to give you fake name, fake email, fake number, etc... and it's like why bother... Moving on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm not sure what it is you're actually selling. More documentation or practical examples would be great. I'm not willing to create an account / sign in to find out stuff like that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. I'll put some more work into the marketing site to explain how it works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The page doesn't really show me enough to know if I want to buy.

At the very least I'd need a comparison with a more mature system like [https://www.mulesoft.com/](https://www.mulesoft.com/)

What is the documentation in for example? RAML? Swagger? HTML?

</comment><comment><USER8> Could you provide a demo of some sort on the landing page? I have been writing APIs for over a decade and still have no idea what benefit this provides. Who does it compete with? What differs it from a starter/seed project? Do I still write code or is it a visual interface? What sort of redundancy and reliability does it have, especially since I haven't heard of the project or company before?

$20/month is a bit much for a side project. For a real world project, the price is peanuts if the benefits are there, but the lack of explanation makes it a non-starter for many companies, I would imagine.

Luckily, most of that seems to be marketing and documentation, which shouldn't be too difficult to update, if the product is working correctly at least.

</comment><comment><USER9> It's a great idea, but as other have noted, the landing page definitely needs either a lot more information or at least a couple examples of what kind of service you're actually providing.

Are you actually hosting the API I'd be building? Or just generating boilerplate code for it? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding :)

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm wondering what all the upvotes are about? I've seen fairly decent "Show HN" submissions languish down in the 0-1 range while this one (which is being universally panned) is up to 17.

The "It's so bad it's good" effect?

<comment><USER11> I clicked on it because I immediately thought, "oh that sounds useful". Most "Show HN"s don't immediately trigger that response in me. So I suspect the upvotes are because the idea resonates, even if the landing page needs improvement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hi, I'm getting "502 Bad Gateway" :( Seems interesting, so I hope you could fix it soon to let us see your webpage :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry about that. It's fixed now, any feedback would be appreciated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I agree with complaints the landing page is extremely lacking in getting me to move forward and sign up for something I need to see more info about.

</comment><comment><USER14> I signed up w/ my github creds and made a small "hello world" GET endpoint. Here's my comments & questions so far:

1) allow non-json responses 2) why would I do pass-thru? for metrics? 3) add test data generation features for mock responses 4) add at least limited scripting features for both pass-thru and mock

Looks like a good start to me and I was not particularly bothered by the current sign up.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hello all. I just want to say thanks for everyone's feedback. It is very much appreciated. I apologize if I don't have the chance right now to respond to everyone individually but I plan to at some point. Just want to let you all know I'm reading the feedback and will hopefully make this product better. Thanks.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't understand what exactly this is? Is it just starter scaffolding in the vein of create-react-app or one of those hackathon starters?

I'd put some time into showing some examples of what exactly the service is and how it works. What problem does it solve specifically?

</comment><comment><USER15> I signed up and played with the app. I think this would be better implemented as a library or wrapper on top of one. The "code using a mouse" idea has been tried and almost every time the verdict is: code is the preferred interface for programmers.

That said, clearly standardization is coming to the world of APIs, and code reuse/generation along with it. Have you looked at Django REST framework? They have a pretty good approach. [http://www.django-rest- framework.org/](http://www.django-rest-framework.org/)

</comment><comment><USER16> This seems way too cheap for what it's offering! If you're saving developer time and effort then you should be charging 100/mo at least.

</comment><comment><USER17> Agree that more info is needed to proceed, but lovely theme though! Is this a bootstrap theme or something made from scratch?

</comment><comment><USER18> Signed in. Built a fake endpoint. Not sure what this is useful for.

</comment><comment><USER19> Making me sign in before you tell me anything is a non-starter.

<comment><USER20> What's worse is you are not guaranteed to get any useful information after registering. I suspect it's just a lack of information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> bad gateway, is this for building write-only apis?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!, should be fixed now.

It's targeted for any REST/Json based api. (reading or writing)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> 502 Bad Gateway

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the report, should be fixed now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> 502 Bad Gateway

nginx/1.13.3

<comment><AUTHOR> My apologies, should be fixed now.

<comment><USER23> Thank you for fixing this. I would like to see whats possible with your product. Maybe some screenshots + some text or maybe a video?

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a good point. I will spend some time on the landing page to communicate how it works.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The irony

<comment><AUTHOR> I "hope" it will be better, its working now!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Oh god, this is awful, enjoy the 15 mins of fame because most likely this is the last time this website will enjoy such a spike in traffic</comment>


I've started wiretapping my kid because he hates photos - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/3/14800098/recording-child-audio-phone-photos-parenting <comment><USER2> It seems to me that as a parent of a child you are entitled to insist upon one nice photo of your child per year. Outside of that, you can make a request of your child for whatever kind of photos or audio recording that you like, but after your child declines such recording for the 3rd time, you must go one year without asking again. If you fail to follow these guidelines, you will likely one day be labeled a creepy parent. If you ever acquire that label, you'll wish you had a time machine, because there's no other way to remove that label.</comment>


What Brought You Here? - <AUTHOR> https://milancurcic.com/2019/09/28/what-brought-you-here.html <comment><USER2> When I applied to a major university at age 17, I put down two potential majors. One was Geology.

I didn't attend that university. I went for two years to a local college and didn't bother to declare a major the first year. The second year, I declared as a History major because I was taking a lot of history classes and my counselor was in the history department. It let me keep the same counselor.

I dropped out in part because I knew two people with substantial amounts of college who were delivering newspapers. One was living with his mother. One was financially dependent upon his wife.

I figured I could deliver newspapers for a living without a pile of student loans and my quality of life would be higher without the student loans. I decided I would return to college if I ever had any idea what I wanted to do with a degree.

I eventually decided I wanted to be an urban planner, which was a good reason to go back to school. Most urban planning programs are Masters degrees. You typically have a Bachelor's in something else.

I decided to pursue a Bachelor's in Environmental Resource Management as background. I felt I needed to understand the underlying natural environment in order to do good things with the built environment.

Most Environmental Studies programs began in Geology departments. It's possible that I might have ended up sort of where I am currently even without the long, winding detour in between.

</comment><comment><USER3> Ive been reading some books about innovations and it often seems like this. A lot of random encounters (is word serendepity correct?) coming together to create new idea.

Now if only there was more options for this random encounters on the Internet. For me only HN and reading nonfiction helps in this

<comment><USER4> On one hand it is dismissive to say that any innovation occurred due to the laws of physics and the starting condition of the universe at the Big Bang. On the other hand it makes your insight that most innovations were chance happenings less surprising.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Reminds me a bit of a scene in _No Country for Old Men_ , when Chigurh is in the hotel room.

 _If the rule you followed brought you to this - of what use was the rule?_

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=_fv7XSrrI9M](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_fv7XSrrI9M)

</comment><comment><USER6> Backtracking life decisions like that is fun :)

But I find it hard to believe that HPC in the cloud is cheaper than HPC on bare metal, assuming high load most of the time. For computing weather models, that should he the case.

<comment><AUTHOR> At peak capacity, bare metal pays off soon. Even when they run at near 100% of CPUs, weather models never run 24/7 but only fraction of the time.

Examples: A national weather service (any country) may run at 20-50% capacity. In a research setting, 5-10% is more common (personal experience). Consulting businesses are somewhere in between. The lower the fraction of capacity used, the longer the time after which bare metal investment pays off.

For businesses that need to do a one-off feasibility study or to work on a few projects/events, upfront investment of > $100K for bare metal is prohibitive. And this is before hiring a sysadmin and a weather modeler to run the thing.

I appreciate your comment, it motivates me to take some time soon to write up the unit economics in more detail.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the reply, that makes sense!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > I think about what gets me to make certain turns and decisions in life. For > example, co-founding Cloudrun

Huh. Google Cloud Platform has a product with the same name now.

[https://cloud.google.com/run/](https://cloud.google.com/run/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, we joked about it on their launch day, "welp, there goes our SEO!" :) Probably not a big deal as we're in a quite narrow niche.</comment></comment>


The Racket Manifesto - <AUTHOR> http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Tmp/manifesto/ <comment><USER2> The book _How to Design Programs_ [1], with its "student languages", is an excellent example of how languages created with Racket can be used to achieve specific goals (or solve specific problems). In the book's case, the goal is to provide a programming environment for explaining and exploring a successively refined software design recipe.

Also, the _Manifesto_ and Racket's documentation (and HtDP) are written in Scribble[2], another language built with Racket.

[1] [http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/](http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/)

[2] [http://docs.racket-lang.org/scribble/](http://docs.racket- lang.org/scribble/)

<comment><USER3> I can't praise HtDP enough (disclaimer: I've only done through chapter 4 of the first edition). Still, what I did was sufficient to fundamentally change me as a programmer.

When I first began learning how to program I started off with Python using some courses on Udacity. But somehow I found HtDP (I think via HN) and it really taught me, well, how to design programs.

It also made thinking functionally my default mode of thought. I remember hearing about FP and asking a friend experienced in FP "How do I think this way?" and he wasn't really sure how to answer. HtDP helped teach me that way and made it natural.

The only criticism I can give of the first edition is that it was at times verbose, but it is clearly written as a textbook (and is definitely suitable for self-study). The second edition appears to be more streamlined. Something that might be more of a "dive into it" kind of book is "Realm of Racket," although it doesn't appear to go as deeply into Racket's language-making capabilities and lispy features like macros.

<comment><USER4> Indeed, the first edition is draggy at the beginning. The second edition is meant precisely to dive right in and get cracking, without sacrificing any principles. I recommend people read the second edition instead of the first one. [Why should you trust me? My name's on the cover. <-;]

<comment><USER3> Thank you, that is good to know.

Also, please know that I am sincerely grateful for all of your work. Without the software and materials that you and your team labored to create -- and which you provide freely -- I might not be a professional programmer today.

<comment><USER4> Wow, thanks. I passed this remark on to the rest of the team. Totally made our day!

<comment><USER5> I'm teaching my kids how to program using the 2nd edition because it's the introduction to programming that I always wish I had received. They love it! Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I sense the whole area of domain-specific languages is due for a belated renaissance.

Everybody shirks away from it, but most languages are not very good for solving most problems and the standard libraries bloat out as more and more gets crammed in.

I don't think in a commercial context we can all step back and say "to solve this problem, let's first design an appropriate language" but as a means to define the problem better, or to encapsulate learning we've made in building a prototype in a general language, it can be very powerful.

If you aren't able to best describe the problem space, how do you intend to solve a problem within it?

<comment><USER7> The problem with Lisp-like DSL construction, is that the interface doesn't play well with many populations of domain experts. Even Smalltalk, with its syntax designed to be usable by children can fulfill the technical side of constructing DSLs easily, but still leaves something to be desired when it comes to domain expert use. (Various Smalltalks had their rough equivalent to #lang.)

(I know there is at least one Ruby based DSL which made some inroads to mobile device software testing.)

Basically, DSLs tend to only get used by experts who are already programmers or otherwise technically disposed. Maybe we're getting to the point where rudimentary coding is just going to be a new kind of literacy?

<comment><USER4> This is a criticism of Lisp-based DSLs but not of Racket-based DSLs. Racket actively enables you to impose different, non-parenthetical surface syntaxes on the DSL. It is not a "this sort of works if you arrange it carefully _and nobody screws anything up_" thing like in Ruby, it really is an explicit language definition.

The easiest way to understand this in action is to read about Danny Yoo's Brainfuck embedding in Racket: [https://www.hashcollision.org/brainfudge/](https://www.hashcollision.org/brainfudge/)

<comment><USER3> I really liked the following article, which creates a text adventure language in Racket that looks like this:

      ===PLACES===
      ---desert---
      "You're  in a desert."
       [cactus, key]
      north    start
      south    desert

[http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2068896](http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2068896)

<comment><USER4> Scribble is another great example. It's amazing in its own right, and by being embedded into Racket, gets all the Racket benefits: for instance, separate compilation! (Thirty years and waiting, LaTeX.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A great podcast interview with Mathew Flatt, one of the core members of the Racket team.

[http://blog.cognitect.com/cognicast/061-matthew- flatt](http://blog.cognitect.com/cognicast/061-matthew-flatt)

</comment><comment><USER9> I agree with Page 1 alot. You can teach a kid to count in 1s and 0s, but that doesn't necessarily follow that you can teach him to code in machine language. Even the pros' have to use tools like hex representation to make machine language programming easier.

</comment><comment><USER10> For some time, I've daydreamed about implementing R in Racket ("Arket"?) as a means of shining a flashlight in all the dark corners of my R knowledge. Then I realize this would take me a heap of time and it goes back to being a daydream.

<comment><USER4> Look at how we've structured the semantics of JavaScript, Python, etc. (E.g.: [http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/pclpk-...](http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/pclpk-s5-semantics/), [http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/pmmwpl...](http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/pmmwplck- python-full-monty/), [http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/gsk- es...](http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/gsk-essence- javascript/)). This is how you should go about creating a core of R, followed by an elaboration from the full language into the core. Steal an existing parser to get ASTs, then most of your time goes into desguaring.</comment></comment>


Show HN: AVP 42 – A Puzzle Website - <AUTHOR> http://www.avp42.com/

<comment><USER2> This shouldn't require registration. At least let me try a few levels first. In fact, I think you should just be thrown in a level straight away.

<comment><USER3> This doesn't even need an email. So what is the problem.

<comment><USER2> The problem is that most people won't even click the "Register" link. For me personally it has nothing to do with email though. It's an obstacle which I can't be bothered with, even if it's just username and password.

<comment><USER4> The advantage of making you register is tracking your progress (and analytics, for the benefit of the webmaster). I suppose it could give you the option to just set a cookie, but that has the disadvantage of being device-specific. Also, some browser crashes can wipe out recently set cookies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've solved level 4 but regardless of what I enter:

\- the whole phrase with and without spaces

\- each individual word

...and in upper and lower case, yet it still won't let me move to the next level.

I'm bored now and going to the pub.

<comment><AUTHOR> Try sending an email to email@example.com with what you think the answer is and I'll look into it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I fixed that issue with level 4. Anyone who wasn't able to get it should be able to now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am stuck in the 8, maybe is something related with the american culture and I don't know it because I'm spanish. The first part drives me nowhere, The second one is a christmas song The third one Legendary -> Barney? What I'm missing?

<comment><USER7> Is it Jesus Christ? Does anyone have the answer?

<comment><USER8> He is related to an inventor in one of those things :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I am a Web Analyst and I see a big point here in using google analytics. Are you adding/removing hints based on the through-put rate, average-page-time per each level etc? This would give you bare data on where you need to add/remove hints.

</comment><comment><USER10> I know what ^ operator means in python and I tried that on given binary strings, It says password is not number so I am trying hex, still no luck ! Hints please : Level 5

<comment><USER11> bytes

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Haha, I'm on 11.. On the verge of it and I can see

YOUTRDLOGETMTEOTHENNEXTLEVIEL

"YOU GET ME THE NEXT LEVEL" in it.. Ffffuuuuu!

</comment><comment><USER13> Need help on 16. I think I've figured out the first part from the hint, but I'm stuck on the second part. Any hints?

</comment><comment><USER14> I figured out what to do for puzzle 4, but not the keyword I need. I notice the title is the word keyword, but not sure what that means.

<comment><USER12> .. You may already have all you need. ;)

<comment><USER14> Gah! The tool I was using has a version 1 and a version 2. Only version 1 worked, version 2 (the default) did not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> So I managed to get passed level 11 with a little hand-waving but am still not sure how to get to the answer properly. Any hints?

<comment><USER16> It's a word search. There are 11 countries. Find them all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> You're going to kill my productivity tonight! ;)

Isn't the answer on level 2 "robot"?

<comment><AUTHOR> Robots can have names, too.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> If anyone has any questions or needs help on any puzzles, I'd be happy to answer them in this thread.

<comment><USER18> Any more hints on level 9? The ones given don't help me to figure out how to even start.

"Flip-flop", like in a circuit? Those could do a myriad of things to encode the message.

"the second word" .. is the decoded message the first word or is it refering to 8bit words or something?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think you're trying too hard on the "flip-flop" clue.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> You have a typo in level 2 - you have <title> after </head>

</comment><comment><USER16> Level 7 should specify that C can't be 0. That held me up for a bit.

</comment><comment><USER19> I have to register to try it. No-go.

<comment><USER14> Nah, the registration is nothing. Username/password, no email address.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Site is down ...

<comment><USER21> is not [http://isup.me/http://www.avp42.com/](http://isup.me/http://www.avp42.com/)

<comment><USER20> It's back up. Was giving bad gateway errors for a few minutes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The questions need to accept more alternate phrasings.

I spent at least five minutes feeding alternate phrasings and spellings to 3 until it accepted one. They were all semantically/informationally equivalent. They would all have been accepted by, say, a fair pub quiz judge.

<comment><USER21> I'm feeling so dumb right now; I've tried so many Caesar's Cypher combinations for problem 3 and can't seem to find the right answer. Tips?

<comment><USER22> You could bruteforce all 25 possible keys ... but the key is right next to the Caesar cipher clue.</comment></comment></comment>


Braingate2: Your Mind Just Went Wireless - <AUTHOR> http://singularityhub.com/2009/06/17/braingate2-your-mind-just-went-wireless/

<comment><USER2> They've already done one round of clinical trials on people with this? I wonder what the profile is of their average volunteer. It sounds pretty cool right up to the whole "implanting a device in your skull" part.

<comment><USER3> BrainGate used severely paralyzed adults from "spinal-cord injury, stroke, or muscular dystrophy". Like with anything implanted, the biggest concern is infection but which can be easily monitored at the implantation site.

Similar work has used locked-in patients (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-In_syndrome>).

<comment><USER4> If you've ever watched The Diving Bell & the Butterfly you can understand that this could be a big deal to thousands of people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think I'll wait for the non-invasive version. My trusty old Logitech will do just fine until they figure out a way to do this without opening a hole in my skull.

<comment><USER6> I wonder what part of invasiveness you don't like.

So...you don't want your brain to be invasively housed in a super strong skull that can survive being stomped on by tanks, underwater pressure, and extreme variances in temperature and environment?

<comment><USER5> When we get to the point where we can safely replace skulls, I'll go for it. However, right now, given the state of human surgery knowledge and abilities, I'll give it a miss. Maybe in 20 years.</comment></comment></comment>


A Teachable Moment: To the Young Person Who Complained About Her Job/Pay at Yelp - <AUTHOR> http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-teachable-moment-to-young-person-who.html <comment><USER2> This guy gets it. Hopefully this letter will penetrate to where it needs to go.

<comment><USER3> Yes, much better than just dropping a few dollars on her paypal.

I like how he takes the same energy of her observation and focuses it onto a value proposal

<comment><USER2> That is some powerful kung-fu I have only recently been clued into, and have been working hard on improving my ability to do the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> <Immigrants often get by on low-paying jobs and yet manage to buy a house and pay the mortgage off in five years.>

Um... _what?_ In the Bay Area, especially?</comment>


Hundreds of South Carolina Inmates Sent to Solitary Confinement Over Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/hundreds-south-carolina-inmates-sent-solitary-confinement-over-facebook

<comment><USER2> Can this _possibly_ be accurate? Does "disciplinary detention" really mean "solitary"? Reporting on South Carolina prison abuses in other circumstances seem to indicate that it's exactly that.

Here's a report the SC Department of Corrections produced. The numbers are right there. Can SC possibly be acknowledging that people spend _hundreds of days in solitary confinement_ for Facebook? Or, really, for virtually any offense at all?

[http://www.doc.sc.gov/pubweb/research/SystemOverview/social-...](http://www.doc.sc.gov/pubweb/research/SystemOverview/social- media-report.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Good catch. It does not seems like solitary confinement. I found this doc from Nevada:

[http://www.doc.nv.gov/sites/doc/files/pdf/ar/AR734.PDF](http://www.doc.nv.gov/sites/doc/files/pdf/ar/AR734.PDF)

<comment><USER4> Not sure I agree. A document from Washington outlines Disciplinary segregation which very much sounds like solitary. Granted disciplinary segregation and disciplinary detention might not be the same.

[http://www.washlaw.org/pdf/Guide_to_Segregation_in_Federal_P...](http://www.washlaw.org/pdf/Guide_to_Segregation_in_Federal_Prisons.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It should be absolutely illegal to revoke visitation and communication rights for longer than 2 weeks.

How does the US system expect inmates to reintegrate into society after they have spent _years_ without human contact?

<comment><USER6> The US system is about punishing people as harshly as possible, not rehabilitating them. It's all about fear. And it's allowed to happen because if you polled the population you'd find that an uncomfortably high number of people view prisoners as less than human. They're viewed as not deserving of any rights so they usually don't have many, if any, people fighting on their behalf which causes them to be swept under the rug and largely ignored.

Also keep in mind that many prisons in the US are run by for-profit corporations. They clearly don't want people to reintegrate. They want people recommitting at as high of a rate as possible.

<comment><USER7> >Also keep in mind that many prisons in the US are run by for-profit corporations. They clearly don't want people to reintegrate. They want people recommitting at as high of a rate as possible.

This is over blown. It's like 3% of prisoners are in for private prisons. We treat them shit in our government prisons too.

<comment><USER8> They don't have to be in a private prison to warrant private sector interests. I don't think we can afford to underestimate the economic impact on companies that provide food, security, building services, apparently social network investigation services, etc.. If non violent offenders were suddenly released tomorrow it would have a very negative effect on companies that have based their whole business model on catering to prisons, both public and private. Not to mention the impact on local jobs (e.g. guards, staff, administration) if we were suddenly able to close a significant number of prisons.

I really do believe that there is a political will in this country to not upset the economic status quo that having a large prison population has created, especially at the local and state level.

<comment><USER7> You are right, but I still don't think that is the major cause of all the mistreatment and high incarceration.

Voters love "tough on crime" politicians. At a local level, being weak on crime is a death sentence.

Until you convince the voters that throwing people in jail is a mistake, you'll get this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would be in favor of Facebook relaxing it's policy regarding password- sharing for inmates, who can't legally access Facebook directly. Like the article says, Facebook could be a great tool for sharing information about social injustice inside prisons.

Prison policy here sounds like a flagrant violation of the first amendment, when you think about what social media actually is. It's just a way for people to send messages to each-other. Punishing an inmate for asking his friend to post on Facebook on his behalf is equivalent to punishing an inmate for asking his friend to send a letter on his behalf.

</comment><comment><USER10> I can kinda see why the punishment is so harsh for a form of communication that COs can't intercept or witness.

I don't think Facebook should be suspending their pages - but I can understand the punishment.

<comment><USER11> The punishments do seem extreme, but the why downvotes? Not everyone in jail is a drug addict who was affected by bad circumstances. Really bad people get locked up too.

I only have this one link on hand, but surely it isn't an isolated incident. Communication is monitored for a reason.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2005/05...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100814_2.html)

<comment><USER10> Downvotes probably because HackerNews is very anti-censorship, even if it's in a field that's been censored since the beginning (they read the mail inmates send out, but making it punishable to use ways around that is somehow super bad?)

They're clearly either not thinking about the people who are putting out hits by using their contacts through SNS or they are and going the "censorship is bad period." route, which is understandable.

I wouldn't complain, but in this event it's actually hindering decent conversation. _shrug_ It is what it is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Dude ... you did something that sent you to prison so, by definition, your rights are going to be curtailed.

I do however have a problem with many of the things we send people to prison for ... let's fix that first (and those who therefore don't go to jail won't be in trouble for their social media habits).</comment>


Cyber Battles, Nuclear Outcomes? Dangerous New Pathways to Escalation - <AUTHOR> https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-11/features/cyber-battles-nuclear-outcomes-dangerous-new-pathways-escalation <comment><USER2> The major issue of our Age. And one that gets the short shrift in discussions on AI Ethics and Responsibility. Thanks for posting ;)

Related: Pope Francis @ Hiroshima

[http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont- mes...](http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont- messages/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20191124_messaggio-incontropace- hiroshima.html)</comment>


What To Do When a Megacorp Wants To Buy You? - <AUTHOR> http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/09/0237237

<comment><USER2> Pay very close attention if they propose actually paying you through an "earn out". What this means is you go work for them and if you do T task by D date, then you get paid. But a) that's no different from being an employee and getting a bonus, so if you wanted to do that why start your own company in the first place and b) doing T with new constraints A, B and C which only become apparent once you're committed may be less feasible than you originally envisaged.

<comment><USER3> _so if you wanted to do that why start your own company in the first place_

I really don't understand this sentiment. Many entrepeneurs don't found a company because they don't want a regular job: they found a company because they have a good idea that they like to work on and there isn't a regular job that offers that. And because they think they can make a lot more money this way. Taking the money, while taking more money from MegaCorp for a job where you can work on what you like sounds like an excellent tradeoff, especially if you can convince them to let you work under your own rules.

I am very suspicious of people that found companies only because they "don't want a regular job". There are lots of different regular jobs and many in which you have lots of responsibility and set/plan your own rules/project. They come close to a startup. In my book, generalizing 'regular jobs' implies stupidity.

<comment><USER4> >>I am very suspicious of people that found companies only because they "don't want a regular job"

Hmmmm... I am thinking is the other way around. Why would people want a regular job? Think about it, why do you want to work under someone else? Do you have such a low self esteem that you don't think you can succeed on your own? Most people get regular jobs because they don't believe they are good enough to start a company. Hurray for those of us that believe that working on a regular job is almost the same as being a looser!

<comment><USER5> That's a little too echo-chamber-ish for me. I think most people have "normal" jobs because either (a) their life doesn't revolve around their work or (b) it's never occurred to them to found a company.

The first takes a couple forms. During the last two "normal jobs" my life was focused on open source work and music, respectively. I didn't want to "monetize" either of them, so the best solution was having a job that was loosely connected to them and allowed for that (working in the LinuxLab of a large corporation, and then a pro-audio company, respectively). For a lot of people it's their families.

The second I think is also pretty common. It just hadn't occurred to me to start a company until a couple years before I did. Not to mention, that because of visa requirements, it wasn't possible.

Founding a company has been a great experience, but my life revolves around that now. For those who do not find that desirable, working for others seems a fairly sane choice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For many start-ups, not being sold is synonymous with failure.

So, without knowing any real details... Try to get a good price, and congratulations.

<comment><USER7> Personally, if it was my first start up, I would sell and test the waters over at MegaCorp and if it's not how I like it I've always got the money (and possibly some extra contacts) to jump ship and start my own thing again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sell.

<comment><USER5> Based on this write-up, that seems short-sighted. It sounds like they've been given a mediocre valuation for an unfinished product that and it's worth more to them (and as they feel, the market) than they're being offered. It seems basically like a talent acquisition more than a tech acquisition, so they'd probably be stuck there contractually for a good long while, which is what they founded a company to avoid in the first place.

<comment><USER9> The author of the question says, "The money is fair enough..."

His question is one of control, not money. The OP wants to control his life and his product.

Truth is, products don't last forever. They require maintenance and support, marketing, infrastructure, pricing, and a whole lot of other things a few guys focused on development aren't thinking about right now.

A lot of cash in the pocket = a lot of time to think.

I'm not saying they should sell, I'm just saying that I don't understand why you are bringing money into it when money wasn't a factor for the author.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "The money is fair enough"

That I feel roughly translates to the "money wasn't what we expected". A lot of acquisitions really boils down to the money factor, no startup will ever reject a good offer, since that's pretty much one of most common exit strategy.

If the money was really "fair enough", then this question wouldn't have been posted in the first place. So in their case, it's a matter of weighing the offer vs what they think their startup is worth at this point. So again negotiation 101, never accept the first accept, reply with a counter offer with a price that you feel is "fair enough". If they did not take your counter offer, no harm done, you just keep bootstrapping.

</comment><comment><USER11> Do you know what percentage of startups bought by big corporations turn out failures? Probably a much higher number than those that end up successfully making tens of millions of dollars.

These guys need advice from a seasoned software entrepreneur (or two) what their particular chances might be,, not from the "peanut gallery" on SlashDot.

There's probably a 75% chance they should in the words of one commenter "take the money and run".

</comment><comment><USER12> Don´t Sell. Money is not the best reason to sell. You guys have to achieve your best, it´s far important than money. So if you feel that you wont reach your best selling, stay far from they.</comment>


Record any part of your screen into animated GIF - <AUTHOR> http://www.pixelegg.me/capture-gif <comment><USER2> Any free alternatives of this for Linux?</comment>


When will Google be back to China? - github-cat http://www.pulltech.net/article/1488468098-When-will-Google-be-back-to-China <comment><AUTHOR> I have installed vpn on both my PC and phone, even through google were back to China, I would still visit google.com, not google.cn. So fuck off.</comment>


How to botch TLS forward secrecy (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://www.imperialviolet.org/2013/06/27/botchingpfs.html <comment><USER2> I remember the 768-bit DHE in Java and the Nest problem in 2015. I wonder if that has led to the VP of security hire when Alphabet was created later that year.

</comment><comment><USER3> Later research on attacking DH: [https://weakdh.org/](https://weakdh.org/)

</comment><comment><USER3> (2013)

<comment><USER4> Thanks, added.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Bit of a disappointing read, I was hoping for more insight.</comment>


What We Pay For - <AUTHOR> http://www.whatwepayfor.com/

<comment><USER2> Great site. Just today Ezra Klein of the Washington Post did a piece on a proposal to mail a 'receipt' to tax payers for services rendered, so people stay informed about the proportion of their dollars spent annually. I think it's a good idea.

Post Article: [http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra- klein/2010/09/shouldnt...](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra- klein/2010/09/shouldnt_taxpayers_get_a_recei.html)

Tax Receipt Proposal: [https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://content.thirdway.o...](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://content.thirdway.org/publications/335/Third_Way_Idea_Brief_- _A_Taxpayer_Receipt.pdf&pli=1)

</comment><comment><USER3> I made Where My Money Goes last night, which is a more visual take on the receipt idea, if not as in depth: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1748042>

<comment><USER4> The problem there is that most people don't know exactly how much they spent on taxes each year. The posted site here is nice because you can just put a salary.

<comment><USER3> I'm working on it! Also, income varies by state, which this site doesn't correct for. Tonight I should have a solution :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love how out of one submission of an NPR article to HN there came about 4 different apps that all do an amazing job of making the 'tax receipt' concept a reality

<comment><USER6> Most of these different apps simply linearly scale the results, which is incorrect. Some taxes are non-linear (such as Social Security, which is only collected on the first $106,800 of income).

<comment><USER7> This an extremely important point.

What would be useful is if somebody created a mathematical model of the tax system. This model could drive these other sites, and it could also be used in all sorts of "what-if" scenarios.

I don't think this exists, and it seems like such an obviously good thing to have. I guess the problem is that there's not really a mathematical model of the tax system. Everything is subject to some interpretation, and the rules and system has become so complex that it is probably impossible to model.

(Just answered his own question)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> When I estimated my costs Social Security was roughly $5,400.00 a year yet I keep hearing that when I get to retirement age that there won't be any Social Security left.

This is a bad investment or we need to rethink the ways in which that money is being use. Because that seems like a lot of money for a program which may never benefit me.

<comment><USER9> It's a shitton of money, funding what is ultimately a pyramid scheme where I'll never reach the top of the pyramid.

<comment><USER10> It seems a lot closer to a ponzi scheme than a pyramid scheme.

I do believe if I was funding an IRA/ROTH-IRA with that money I would be much better off. However, we are not funding OURSELVES, we are funding those who came before us. And while we may not get our payout (may not be funded my those who come after us) the fact is that those being funded right now deserve what they are getting. It's pretty selfish to just say 'if it isn't helping me, why should I care?'

<comment><USER11> > the fact is that those being funded right now deserve what they are getting.

Really? Why do they deserve it?

Interesting fact: Black men collect only a fraction of what black men contribute.

And, unlike IRAs, their SS contributions don't result in something that they can leave to their heirs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'd love to see one where you choose a country of origin, currency, then see what the taxes are. I'm really curious to see if the myth that taxes outside the US are as nightmarish as Americans think.

It's a little off but that page estimates i'm taxed at about 42%.</comment>


Eurisko, The Computer With A Mind Of Its Own - <AUTHOR> http://aliciapatterson.org/APF0704/Johnson/Johnson.html <comment><USER3> [https://web.archive.org/web/20050308172043/http://www.alicia...](https://web.archive.org/web/20050308172043/http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF0704/Johnson/Johnson.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> Quoting myself (from <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1859185> ):

I've been looking for material about Eurisko. Other than this championship, there appears to be no credible documentation of any of Eurisko's reported achievements.

It might be super-duper, but the fact that he wouldn't let anyone else use it, and that those amazing feats have not been reproduced by others despite huge advances - might just mean that there's more myth to truth in the stories about Eurisko.

(and ... quoting jonoff from same thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1861890> )

Adding to the mystery, I read the newyorker article (2009) linked from wikipedia on Eurisko, and it seems Lenat forgot the winning strategy Eurisko developed, or the first article is wrong.

"Eurisko, however, had judged that defense was more important than offense, that many cheap, invulnerable ships would outlast fleets consisting of a few high-priced, sophisticated vessels. There were ninety-six ships in Eurisko's fleet, most of which were slow and clumsy because of their heavy armor" - <USER2> article

"astronomical number of small ships like P.T. boats, with powerful weapons but absolutely no defense and no mobility, Lenat said. They just sat there. Basically, if they were hit once they would sink." - 2009 article <

<comment><USER5> I don't really see the mystery (unless you're suggesting that he never did win the tournament, which seems very unlikely). It'd be surprising if he did remember the exact strategy 30 years after the fact.

The Eurisko/Traveller story has never made sense to me psychologically though. People who are hardcore enough to enter a tournament for a very math-heavy game have probably already spent ages hacking the system, twisting it into an unrecognizable shape. It should have been very unlikely for these loopholes to have first been found by a program years later.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> <http://lesswrong.com/lw/10g/lets_reimplement_eurisko/>

</comment><comment><USER7> Is Cyc/OpenCyc dead?

<http://blog.cyc.com/> \- last post Nov 2009

<http://www.cycfoundation.org/> \- last post Nov 2008

<http://cyc.com/cyc/company/press> \- last post Sept 2009

If Cycorp is dead, what is Doug Lenat up to now?

</comment><comment><USER8> FWIW, Doug Lenat founded Cyc after doing Eurisko (<http://www.cyc.com/>). His first discovery system along these lines was AM ("automated mathematician"), which was math-only, and Eurisko was an attempt to make it domain independent, so it could target things like the famous gameplay-strategies example. He eventually grew frustrated at how much domain knowledge had to be hand-coded for a new domain, though, so hoped that by building one massive database of commonsense background knowledge, future systems could more easily be retargeted to new domains: the system would be able to assume most "normal" knowledge, and only the information unique to that domain would have to be added.

And that sort of turned into its own multi-decade project...

</comment><comment><USER9> One recurring theme in these discussions is that no one has actually seen Eurisko's source code except Lenat, so it's very difficult to know how much directed guidance was required to get the results in question.

</comment><comment><USER10> Very interesting read. I can only imagine how exciting it must have been for him to utilize these concepts so effectively.

For anyone choosing not to read, it's about one man's invention of a program that is the closest thing to Artificial Intelligence that I've ever seen. See the last paragraph for the best example.

</comment><comment><USER11> I got a security pop-up going there (Exploit: HTML/IFrameRef.gen).</comment>


JPMorgan to trade shares of pre-IPO giants including SpaceX, Robinhood, Airbnb - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/11/jpmorgan-trade-private-shares-of-mega-start-ups-including-spacex-robinhood-and-airbnb.html <comment><USER2> Stock trading is complicated because those companies aren't public yet, but they aren't public (yet).

I think I recall Elon Musk saying that SpaceX isn't going to go public, possibly because it's a very long-term endeavor, and his goal is to go to Mars, not make huge profits.

So, there's clearly a problem there. Companies don't want to go public to avoid the incentives of the public market, but they also want their stocks to be traded.

One possible approach is the Long Term Stock Exchange which we've discussed a few days ago. One of their goals is to provide liquidity to early employees and other long-term shareholders without necessarily shifting the focus to the quarterly numbers. I don't know how well they'll achieve that, but I'm really curious.

What would be other solutions?

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure I buy any of these discussions, especially the "Long Term Stock Exchange".

In a company, you have a board and you have shareholders. If you don't want the mould of a public company, you create or keep it as a private company. In a private company, you can do any of these employee stock options or buybacks or long term things, much as you can do with a public company, if you wanted to. The board and the shareholders have a similar sort of dynamic in both, but I would say the board of a private company invites less scrutiny, or at least less fully public scrutiny.

So what is the difference between a public company and a private company---in the context of this discussion? The main difference is that in a private company, especially if you didn't set up your shareholders agreement in a friendly way, you can have deadlocks where shareholders can't sell their stock.

This I think is what JPMorgan is targeting, and based on my experience, it's a pretty clever segment of the market to try something, since, as the article and I mention, private companies have inherent difficulties to trade stock (especially if the shareholders are not fond of each other). The stock value of private companies can be undervalued too, and this would mean that JPMorgan would create additional cash out of thin air. Or rather, by analogy magically unlock lost Bitcoin wallets.

Some examples of private companies: Carlsberg, Lidl, Aldi, Deloitte, PWC, IKEA, Koch Industries.

What I find interesting is that this article about private companies was posted after the, ehm, funny LTSE one (seriously, the London Stock Exchange is LSE...) and it would arguably be the closest existing structure where you are not bound by public company expectation, and in theory you could build a rather charitable setup from a private company, much like the LTSE article's prose likes to promise.

<comment><USER4> Is it possible for a company to split into a parent company and child company? The child is publicly traded but the parent own 51% of child company's shares so continue to have decision making power.

What are the pros and cons of this approach?

<comment><USER5> Is there a limit to a recursive structure of 51% holding companies? If not, one entity could hold all the decision making power without basically owning equity (in the limit)

<comment><USER4> Nice. You could even have a fractal structure. I dare a billionaire to make a Mandelbrot set with a bunch of shell companies.

<comment><USER6> Something like this was a minor plot point in Accellerando (book by Charles Stross). IP being rapidly bought & sold between a network of related inter- owned companies, to avoid ever holding it long enough to be sued or something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Both Uber and Facebook traded higher on second market during the 6 months prior to IPO, and then the share price fell after the first week or two. Facebook I remember had deals closing at $45-$50 and then they priced at $38.

While diversifying might help, the greatest return with 1 year of purchase might entail selling during the IPO pop... at least that held for Uber and Facebook. If you buy into one of these notes, aren't the shares likely held as part of a 6 month lock-up? Or would JPM liquidate you as part of the IPO?

Wonder if we would see dark pools doing derivatives of these holdings (similar to how credit swap contracts were trade during the financial crisis). That would be the most likely place you could 10x or 100x an investment on a late- stage company like Airbnb, and you might even convince people like Softbank to play?

<comment><USER8> > _ses dark pools_

I thought the point of dark pools is so you don't see what's being traded inside.

<comment><USER9> Not exactly- dark pools print and report trades like exchanges, the difference is that the order book isn't displayed, i.e there's less information about live orders.

<comment><USER8> Interesting, thanks you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The sheer amount of money looking for opportunities we have in this stage of the long term cycle is really a pity for small / private investors. Not even the worst companies need capital from the public markets...

</comment><comment><USER10> > The market for trading private company stock is dominated mostly by boutique > brokerages based on the West Coast with names like EquityZen, SharesPost and > Forge.

> Berthe said he believes that New York-based JPMorgan is the first major Wall > Street bank to create a team dedicated to trading private shares. People > with knowledge of the operations of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said > that while the firms don't have dedicated teams, they have been facilitating > trades in this market for years. In particular, Morgan Stanley last year > acquired Solium, a leading manager of corporate stock plans, giving it > access to a wide swath of start-up equity.

> Unlike shares in public companies like Microsoft, trading in private company > stock is complicated and still mostly the domain of old-school voice > trading, versus electronic exchanges that close transactions in seconds. > Once a trade is negotiated, JPMorgan has to transfer legal ownership of > contracts and get clearance from the start-up, a process that can take > weeks.

<comment><USER11> SpaceX is listed on EquityZen, but no shares are available. I suspect there is very low liquidity for most of these companies, a problem JPMorgan could potentially reduce.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Doesn't really explain the mechanics - is JPM to pick pre-IPO companies it expects to have a high volume of interest, and then take a commission for selling & repurchasing (i.e. market-making) the shares OTC?

<comment><USER13> Yes the closest I could come up with a comparison would be penny stocks, as popularised in the film - The Wolf of Wall street.

<comment><USER14> You think SpaceX is a penny stock?

<comment><USER15> The point is that the mechanism is similar, not that the valuation is similar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I mean this is just like in app currency backed by a token backed by a dollar. Maybe it provides a fairer 409A.. maybe. It's basically a second derivative. Problem is you don't see the function itself.

</comment><comment><USER17> If I wanted to do this, are there certain fee-based lawyers that I can hire to read the document? What should I look for?

By the SEC definition, I am a qualified investor but this would be the first such investment I'd make and I don't want to mess up

</comment><comment><USER18> This feels weird. Almost like it's a _rule of law_ issue that's at stake when regulations and regulators get left behind.

<comment><USER19> I guess it's not obvious to me that regulations are needed here. JP Morgan and its clients are sophisticated investors, so I'm not sure they need Congress's help to protect themselves from SpaceX and Robinhood.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Won't this force them to go public? Too many shareholders?

<comment><USER21> You can get around that with a performance-linked note. The bank owns the equity and issues a note whose value is explicitly linked to the valuation of the underlying stock.

<comment><USER22> I feel like that's a distinction created just to let bankers skirt rules. Like what Carl Icahn and Soros did which by any sane rule book would be insanely illegal.

<comment> globular-toast You are now qualified to be a banker.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> My other question is will this make pre-IPO sales fairer?

If historically sales have been over the phone there is the chance people are getting deals based on relationships or priority access.

You could make the case that this will make the process more transparent.

</comment><comment><USER24> Perfect for the investor who doesn't fret about pesky things like financial filings.

</comment><comment><USER25> I wonder if this is a strategy to make them go public if they want or not.

</comment><comment><USER23> I wonder if this will make it easier to build up larger pre-IPO positions.

<comment><USER26> That's a good question, if it's a pre-IPO, how did they get shares? Are you just buying/selling paper versions of the stock and they'll buy your shares an IPO goes live?

<comment><USER27> Probably JPMorgan actually owns shares in a fund. You buy notes that have the appropriate fractional value of the fund. Presumably they will exchange notes for shares post IPO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Isn't there a rule that more than a certain number of share holders -> Must go public

This:

alex_young 14 minutes ago [–]

Won't this force them to go public? Too many shareholders? reply

 __ __ __ __ __ __ __

How can they skirt around these rules?

<comment><USER29> Not exactly. Once a company have >500 shareholders they have to do some periodic SEC filings similar to publicly traded companies, but their share are not publicly traded, so they are not "public" companies.

<comment><USER30> Its 2,000 now

And of course people typically then list their shares since they have all the same headaches of reporting, but also get the benefits of liquidity when listed

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> How this is not a set of ICO-like schemes, flavored with that particular 2017 style, is kinda beyond me.

</comment><comment><USER32> it just sounds like a competitor to sharespost or forge or any other secondary exchange? what's different

</comment><comment><USER33> What does it mean trading private shares? Isn't it the property of public companies?

<comment><USER34> Employees of companies that are not public but who are given stock options have no way to easily liquidate those options. This allows those employees to get some money NOW instead of hoping someday the company goes public or is bought out (which in most cases will never happen). For the buyer this allows them to get in even earlier. This is complicated of course by the fact they are not public companies and requires a lot of extra paperwork.

<comment><USER33> I see. But anyone can buy them in practice?

<comment><USER35> They're generally sold to "institutional investors" (i.e. VC, or other companies that buy chunks of millions of dollars, with agreements limiting who they can sell to, and under what conditions)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> SpaceX is the one to get. It's the next Tesla once starlink is fully operational.

<comment><USER37> They've already announced an intention to spinoff that business line.

<comment><USER38> Was there a particular reason?

<comment><USER2> Being an ISP and being a launch company are very different business models, different regulations apply, different operational expertise is required and so on.

If you're focused on getting to humans to Mars, running an ISP is a distraction, even if it comes with good cash flow. If you're running an ISP, getting to Mars is a distraction. It's better to separate thees two aspects into separate companies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> You can already invest in pre-IPO companies, at least indirectly. Some holdings offer exposure to them, but you won't get to be very picky.

<comment><USER40> Can you point out a few?

<comment><USER41> eQuityzen is one

They offer the holder of any pre ipo shares a chance to monetize early, though I have no idea how they smooth out all the various terms and conditions involved

<comment><USER42> Is this legit? What are the risks here?

I'm off to buy some SpaceX if this is a legitimate way of doing so.

<comment><USER43> It's subject to share availability and purchase minimums, in addition to the accreditation requirement.

The availability of SpaceX stock is not great afaict, the demand is incredibly high. It's to the point where some of the platforms are charging carry in addition to their normal upfront fee, for a fund that invests in just SpaceX, because they can.

But yeah, EquityZen is a solid platform, and their minimums tend to be a lot more reasonable than some of the others ($10-20k vs 100k+)

<comment><USER44> Can you please tell me which platforms have SpaceX available? I'm already on EquityZen and it definitely does not. Thanks.

<comment><USER43> You might try contacting a broker at SharesPost. But yeah, their last round was extremely oversubscribed.

<comment><USER44> Thanks! I will look into that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why digital cameras will die - <AUTHOR> https://filipmolcan.com/blog/2013/7/22/why-digital-cameras-will-die-out-soon

<comment><USER2> Sensors will fill the earth and eventually every part of the galaxy that we colonize. Some of those will sense photons :) Saying that the digital camera will die is very silly.

The big cameras that we now know (but the tiniest majority of people actually own) such as SLR's will die of course.

Mainly, the Big Camera companies will die because they have all been making a concerted effort over the last 15 years to innovate as little as possible. Wifi and GPS is still a premium feature? Really Canon and Nikon? I'll see you in hell!

Also, FTA: "HDR [is] in every reflex camera" what???!!! It is not in _any_ cameras as far as I know. Not really.

</comment><comment><USER3> Bad Cert? You attempted to reach filipmolcan.com, but instead you actually reached a server identifying itself as *.sqsp.com.</comment>


Four Offbeat Open Source Browsers - <AUTHOR> http://ostatic.com/170876-blog/four-offbeat-open-source-browsers <comment><USER2> I really want lynx for my iPhone! Sometimes what I want is accessible that way, the connection is poor, and the page would load much faster that way!</comment>


3 Misconceptions That Need to Die - <AUTHOR> http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/10/25/3-misconceptions-that-need-to-die.aspx <comment><USER2> From the article: _Fact: Just 9.2% of oil consumed in the U.S. comes from the Middle East._

That number is small comfort. Petroleum is fungible. Thanks to the arbitrage guys, a barrel of oil sells for one price worldwide. That means that a severe shortage in one oil-exporting country can have large effects on the price of oil everywhere else.

I don't have enough expertise to argue with the other claims, but if the author misses an important point like the fungibility of commodities, then I will be agnostic about the rest of the article.

<comment><USER3> > That number is small comfort. Petroleum is fungible.

Oil is fungible because of US govt policy.

The US govt could decide that oil doesn't leave the Western Hemisphere. A lot of folks would be upset by such a policy but they lack the means to change it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thanks for that. It was a real eye-opener. I knew that China's debt stake was less than everybody complains about, but I didn't know the exact numbers. Sometimes we need a little dose of perspective.</comment>


Overcast 3: Design walkthrough - <AUTHOR> https://marco.org/2017/02/20/overcast3 <comment><USER2> Personally, I don't like this new update. Marco definitely made some things easier to understand to the average user, but I just enjoyed the previous design much more. It was a power user podcast app. It also had a clearer hierarchy, instead of the sliding up episode view, which is probably my biggest gripe.

Other than that, good work and good luck to him.</comment>


Tracing fake news: characterizing social media messages by how they propagate - <AUTHOR> https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/02/19/tracing-fake-news-footprints-characterizing-social-media-messages-by-how-they-propagate/ <comment><USER2> This research is truly interesting. As interesting as -> [https://blog.acolyer.org/2017/02/16/beyond-the-words- predict...](https://blog.acolyer.org/2017/02/16/beyond-the-words-predicting- user-personality-from-heterogeneous-information/)</comment>


A future without remote controls - <AUTHOR> http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Ottawa+firm+sees+future+without+remote+controls/2487921/story.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3a+canwest%2fF291+%28Ottawa+Citizen+-+Ottawa+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

<comment><USER2> I've wondered, ever since I was a kid and remote controls first became prevalent, why TVs and such aren't voice controlled. Of course, I'm not a channel surfer; with a voice system, my wife would talk herself hoarse and still not be able to change channels nearly fast enough.

Side rant: I hate how most devices now have few/no controls on the unit and require the remote to use them fully. Generally, I'll get up and walk over to them before I'll look for a misplaced remote.

<comment><USER3> Viewer: Channel thirty.

TV: 'Channel dirty' is not a recognized command.

Viewer: Not dirty, _thirty_!

TV: 'Not dirty, dirty' is not a recognized command.

Viewer: Where's that damned remote?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can't imagine a system like this for a TV that doesn't read false positives during normal living room activity.

<comment><USER5> One way that we get around false triggers is by using some sort of "push-to- gesture" system. This would tell the recognition component that it is time to pay attention. I could imagine using some simpler heuristic that determines if the user is squared off at or at least facing the TV before accepting any gestures.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's what I was thinking. For example if it recognized that you were holding up two fingers in a "V" for victory it would show a little on-screen message (e.g. "Ready for input"). I'd love to be able to give a middle finger salute to my TV and have it understand that I NEVER want to see this program again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I for one think gestures are overrated, and that includes OS X and iPhone. I can remember pinch to zoom and swipe to scroll - that's it. There is no way to even guess what else might be available. Certainly I don't want to memorize a couple of gestures just to be able to operate my TV.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you decide whether a link is upvote worthy or not? - <AUTHOR> People keep blaming Hacker News community for being rude/strict. I find the HN homepage very informative but sometimes /new has useful links ( with 3-4 upvotes ) that never make it to the homepage.<p>How do you decide which link to upvote? <comment><USER2> I only upvote those links that make a contribution to my knowledge, understanding, awareness of a new trend or technology.

Links to paywalled sites don't get upvoted. Nor do any pages that my ad- blocker blocks. I rarely upvote wannapreneur or motivational links.

Although I do check /new, I have noticed that the volume of new material is such that unless you look at the first 90 or so entries a couple of times a day, you miss good stuff. But that is exactly the sort of addictive behaviour that I am trying to kick.</comment>


The 19-year-old jailed for the crime of sarcasm - <AUTHOR> http://www.nationalreview.com/article/352432/free-justin-carter-now-charles-c-w-cooke <comment><USER2> I know articles like this bring out the trolls, but I can't get over the sheer number of commenters (on the target site) happy to see Justin being 'taught a lesson', or claiming that his speech was truly criminal.

What hits me the hardest about this story is that, what if an HN post of mine strikes the wrong nerve and next thing they're coming for me? Maybe next they'll be coming for you. Or 15 years from now my kid makes a dumb post and they come for him.

The Supreme Court was pretty clear this kind of speech is protected, and yet here we are with Justin behind bars. By the way, how the hell does bail get set at $500,000 for a single Facebook comment, no matter how insensitive or inciteful?

You might be interested in contacting the DA who filed the charges, Jennifer Tharp, [http://tharpda.com/](http://tharpda.com/). Apparently she made her first comment on the case yesterday, although I can't find a direct link to her written statement: "Comal County District Attorney Jennifer Tharp says in a statement that Justin Carter could get 'community supervision or probation' if that is determined to be in the 'best interest of the defendant and society."

What Justin should get is sent home with an apology, and perhaps a nice settlement check down the road. I hope while Jennifer is out enjoying her 4th of July, celebrating our independence day, she can spare a moment to think about how she's managed to trample the constitutional freedoms that so many Americans have given their lives to defend.

I better be careful not to wish any ill will upon her for her role in this travesty of justice, since, you know, I wouldn't want to be accused of making 'terroristic threats'. So let's just say I hope it's raining in Comal County today.

<comment><USER3> I would wish her a swift expulsion from office for gross incompetence, except that this type of brainless bureaucrat really does represent the people who elect them.

We live in a post-literate, lawsuit driven society where such officials are simply following the path of least resistance.

I hope the parents have some really good lawyers. This thing may have to go up the chain to their Senator and perhaps a federal court of appeals, before this kid is exonerated.

As for that woman who turned him in to the police and effectively ruined his life, I'd say she deserves a nice, fat civil suit.

<comment><USER2> He had a public defender, but recently got Donald Flanary to take the case pro bono. I don't know anything about Flanary, but reports indicate this is a positive development, and it seems he was able to get some traction.

I think fundamentally the woman did nothing wrong, if it was truly a case of an unrelated person showing concern. If it turns out she had some more nefarious reason to throw Justin to the wolves (there's no evidence of this) then have at her.

A more tech literate police force would have pointed and laughed, but that's a pipe dream. Where I feel the system truly failed is in getting past the DA, past the grand jury, and past the judge with the $500,000 bail.

<comment><USER4> Hate to downvote an otherwise very informative post, but tech literacy is not an issue here. If this was a hundred years before facebook existed and someone joked "Oh yes I'm insane, I am going to stab a hundred babies...ha ha ha" it would be the exact same issue.

<comment><USER2> You're right, 'tech literacy' isn't really the right words, more like 'cultural literacy' where the correct "frame of reference" in this case is MMORPG banter. Or what the courts might refer to as 'community standards'.

It's been a while since my one and only anthropology course, but the basic idea is actions and language can only be understood through a common perceptual framework between the speaker and the listener. Actions which are otherwise benign, or even loving, can seem violent or insane when the observer lacks the proper 'frame'.

One great example of this, if you're a fan of Orson Scott Card, is the humans struggling to understand the Pequeninos in Xenocide, the 3rd book in the Ender's Game series.

This is why, when I hear the statement was made in the context of a MMORPG, it immediately alters my opinion on whether Justin had mens rea (criminal intent) when he wrote the post. A hundred years ago, if communities didn't exist where this type of dialog was typical, the same words actually take on a different meaning -- one that might actually indicate a need for intervention!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So, i'd like to get the _full_ details of this seemingly outrageous situation. After somewhat extensively searching, I've never found what he actually said; only paraphrasing, etc.

That's the difference between an obvious joke and... something different. Not that it justifies the situation entirely (or maybe at all), but would perhaps explain the reaction. Consider a similar poster who did an AMA on reddit here: [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hl4gi/ive_been_raided...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hl4gi/ive_been_raided_by_the_fbi_ama/)

After reading the actual transcript ([http://pastebin.com/Ldtj6mhx](http://pastebin.com/Ldtj6mhx)), many Redditor's sided with the police.

So - not to take the side of the incarceration, but I certainly find it odd that I can't find the actual FB threat / comments (yet?).

<comment><USER6> I believe the exact details are all here; he typed (in the fairly popular MMO `League of Legends`):

 _Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts._

 _lol_

 _jk_

<comment><USER7> In response to someone calling him "insane." In that context it's pretty clear this was a sarcastic response.

<comment><USER8> Anyone who has ever played video games even pseudo seriously knows that comment is just scraping the bottom of the barrel. So much worse shit is said daily in games like WoW/CS/League/anything competitive. It's mind boggling that someone took his comment this seriously.

I hope he sues whoever he has to sue and lives out the rest of his life in absolute comfort.

I'd be paranoid forever online because of this. Spending this much time in jail at such a young age for such a mundane comment is... I don't even know.

<comment><USER9> It has never occurred to you that what's really wrong here is that such comments are ever, under any circumstances mundane, normal and to be expected?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is ridiculous, outrageous, insane.

Terrorism is less likely to happen to you than a great many extremely unlikely events, I can't find a citation right now but I suspect it's less than being struck by lightning, yet the risk justifies... this?

The odds of being struck down by a careless driver must be vastly higher, yet I don't see people who text as they drive being sent to jail for >= 10 years, or those with driving licenses who are suspected of being higher risk (older people, those on higher insurance risk bands, etc.) being monitored illegally (or 'legally' based on dubious laws) and/or shipped off to a coaling station [0] where their legal rights are effectively suspended and they are tortured [1] to get information about their alleged membership of a boy-racer organisation.

Oh, and if this law was in effect in my country (UK), I'd be serving several years in jail. The irrationality of this kind of bullshit hasn't prevented people from trying to ruin people's lives over it, however [2].

What I'd like to see is the humourless 'people' who report this kind of obvious bullshit prosecuted for wasting police time and perhaps even harassment (I can't think of anything more harassing than trying to send somebody to jail + near enough ruin their life over something that is obviously not serious), the prosecutors who actually take it seriously losing their jobs and the politicians who implement these laws being publicly grilled on them.

[0]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_bay#US_Control_of_Gu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_bay#US_Control_of_Guantanamo_Bay)

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp#T...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp#Torture)

[2]: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk- england-19009344](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19009344)

<comment><USER11> Toddlers killed more Americans this year than Terrorists did. Time for a war on toddlers.

[http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/toddlers- killed-...](http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/toddlers-killed-more- americans-terrorists-did-year)

<comment><USER12> Well the obvious argument for that is that the terrorists didn't kill people because all these powers allowed us to stop them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> On the off chance that anyone here is new to the story: He's been given concussions, black eyes, stripped and held in solitary confinement.

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/03/198129...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/03/198129617/teen- jailed-for-facebook-comment-reportedly-beat-up-behind-bars)

</comment><comment><USER14> This deserves to be on the home page for a number of reasons, including the quality of the writing:

> Nevertheless, a woman in Canada, who inexactly described

> herself as a "concerned citizen," ...

>

> The heirs to the constitutional settlement of the late

> eighteenth century are as entitled to its bounties as

> were its architects — idiot boys included.

<comment><USER15> I know Charlie from back in the UK - I don't always agree with his writings and ideas, but I can't deny he's one of the finest journalistic authors I've had the pleasure of reading online.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This article raises a multitude of issues.

Issue number one: The problematic ways that the prison system deals with assault and mental illness among inmates.

Issue number two: Whether the potential sentence for a crime purely involving speech, rather than actions, should be so severe as eight years in prison.

Issue number three: Whether the speech in question was Constitutionally protected satire, or a criminal threat.

Issue number four: Whether the defendant should have gotten some slack from the justice system -- i.e. why the police/prosecutors/court involved haven't determined by now that lesser charges/penalties are appropriate.

I'm sure there are more.

I cross-posted this comment from another HN submission on the same case with only a few upvotes, [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5987867](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5987867)

</comment><comment><USER17> I think the fundamental problem here is that the government doesn't really care if a 19-year-old needlessly goes to jail. Imagine things from their point of view. If an innocent 19yo goes to jail, it costs them virtually nothing. If they let him go, and he ends up actually shooting up a school, they have a lot more to lose.

It's the same reason they're ok with torturing suspected terrorists. Better to err on the conservative side for the entire country than to respect an individual's rights and risk the next 9/11.

I'm bringing this up as a problem, not as a justification. I'd be interested if anyone knows how to fix this.

<comment><USER18> They could use their illegal NSA spying programs and bring out some proofs that he was not kidding?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> All parents in the USA should be fearful that their child will be torn away when they too say something so childish.

</comment><comment><USER20> "He's been incarcerated since March without trial."

That's the problem. A jury of his peers would throw this out no questions asked.

<comment><USER21> I wouldn't count on it. It was some uptight woman who saw the comment and told the police in the first place, and you can bet its the fear of uptight parents that's causing the prosecution. Can you imagine how the shit would hit the fan if the kid had said something like that, the police had been notified, and the police had done nothing, and the kid had shot up some school?

<comment><USER3> But that's exactly the problem -- some fearful little officials saying, "But what if he meant it?"

An intelligent chief of police and prosecutor should have looked at the kid's background, maybe dropped by his house, and said, OK there's no "there" there. Unless there's a history of violence, or record of mental illness, or sociopathic behavior officially noted, etc. Which as far as I know, there isn't in this case. Just pure blind, stupid bureaucratic grinding an individual with their jackboots, simply because they have the power.

<comment><USER21> I don't know if you remember high school, or more specifically other peoples' parents, but it doesn't ring true to me to blame the bureaucracy with their "jackboots."

Parents are fucking nuts, suburban parents doubly so. This is some town outside of San Antonio--you think these police officials are acting out of step with what most of the local parents want?

<comment><USER3> See my earlier comment :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It reminds me of Michael Diana, convicted for drawing comics.

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

</comment><comment><USER23> It's only illegal for him to say such a thing if he also has a few machine guns and other preparations ready to go. Such statements, even with the appended "jk lol," deserve question. But I don't see how authorities managed to do anything more than question or search him.

<comment><USER24> Seems to me more like he needed a councilor and a talking to from his parents, but maybe the police did find the means to follow through with these statements in his home. This is all outrage-inducing non-information.

<comment><USER2> The police did not find means to follow through with the statements. They did, however, confiscate his computer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> "Normally this wouldn't be the kind of story we run, but given the misconception that Carter's comments were made within a game and that League of Legends had anything to do with this, we felt compelled to dispel the inaccurate information. According to lieutenant Wells, the comments were left on the Facebook page of someone unknown to Carter"

[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/07/01/was-a-...](http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/07/01/was- a-league-of-legends-player-arrested-for-trolling-not-exactly.aspx#.UdH- NhHVMWY.twitter)

</comment><comment><USER26> If I were a cop, they'd only have to send me to 2, maybe 3 cases like this before I'd lose complete faith and resign.

<comment><USER27> That's why people like you aren't cops.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> What would happen if a bunch of people were to tweet Justin's facebook message verbatim? [1] Since it would seem impractical to put everyone in jail, how does the legal system typically deal with such a situation?

\---

[1] This article seems to quote the intact message that got Justin in this trouble: [http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/03/198129...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/03/198129617/teen- jailed-for-facebook-comment-reportedly-beat-up-behind-bars)

</comment><comment><USER29> This idea of preventing crime is like pre-emptive strike doctrine.

</comment><comment><USER30> Schneier always writes about overreactions that happen after every major tragedy or high profile criminal act [http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/this_weeks_ove...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/this_weeks_over.html)

If this kid was trolling Runescape now nobody would care

</comment><comment><USER31> "in free countries such as the United State" \- that's a joke Americans forgot what freedom looks like.

<comment><USER32> Freedom® (tm) - Now licensable at a low yearly cost. Subject to restrictions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> _must_ we focus on the genders of every party involved in these types of discussions?

<comment><USER34> And more broadly, _must_ we refer to sex as 'gender'?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> If this goes to show anything that it is that the administration is full of incompetent and insecure people who will thrash hardest to someone who cant hit them back.

</comment><comment><USER36> Twitter, Facebook and similar services have provided people with easy ways to voice their thoughts at whim. We are now confronted with what everyone should already have known: that people have a lot of irrelevant, illogical, uninteresting, confusing and reprehensible thoughts. I sure do.

Every teen has at one occasion thought: I feel like killing [everyone in school, my team, my so-called friends, my brother, the neighbour dog, ...]. Writing such a thought down gives it extra power. A screen doesn't confront you with _people_ , which would make your brain stop and think, so it is easy to misjudge whether you can and should press 'send'.

Monitoring that speech and acting on it, directly by the government or indirectly via 'concerned citizens': that way lies police state insanity. It means the system, and many of the people in it, is in denial of the complex, inconsistent nature of humans. They want clear rules, easy judgments, binary divisions between right and wrong. They lose sight of what 'being human' means: a huge variety of things, not all of them pretty, but all of them _human_.

</comment><comment><USER37> I'm going to be downvoted into oblivion for this comment, then my account will be hellbanned by the mods, but whatever: this guy's posting was jarringly violent and disturbing.

I believe most people would never fathom ideas so evil, and yet this guy broadcasted it in the most public space in the known universe - FACEBOOK.

The guy needs correction, _badly_.

<comment><USER2> Jarringly violent and disturbing -- sort of like a certain (or any?) Quentin Tarantino movie that grossed over $100m world wide?

Most people would never fathom ideas so evil? Obviously false and useless hyperbole. Which is why you would deserve the downvotes.

What you fail to grasp is the entire concept of protecting speech, why it's so essential to a functioning democracy, and why your personal opinion of a paragraph of text being 'violent' or 'disturbing' is completely irrelevant.

We're talking about locking up a young man behind bars. Taking away his liberty, possibly taking away his ability to earn a living. It's not a stretch to say that his life is on the line, because of how a paragraph of text made you _feel_.

All this is further compounded by the highly political decision about what type of speech may be 'too violent' or 'too disturbing' to be legal. I can't fathom how an informed American can honestly argue that we should criminalize the act of typing a few words on your keyboard, and posting them on Facebook, when those words don't constitute an intentional and imminent threat to a specifically identified individual. (see, for example, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio))</comment></comment>