Dedicated to Ian Murdock - <AUTHOR> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/doc/dedication/dedication-9.0.txt <comment><USER2> There is this movie called 'Falling Down', when I heard about what happened to Ian I immediately associated it with the patterns in that movie. Very sad and it is a real pity that we lose these wonderful people to momentary lapses of judgment or a cascade of misery starting with some innocent little thing.

There isn't a day that I get by without using software influenced by Ian and his role in all this is hard to overstate.

<comment><USER3> You mean you really don't suspect that Ian Murdock was murdered in a manner consistent with the appearance of suicide?

<comment><USER2> No, I really don't suspect that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> A small anecdote in memory of Ian. When he joined Docker it was to help us make the platform more open and community-friendly. He died before completing his project and we've done our best to continue it in the way he would have wanted. We finally launched it, over a year late, under the name Moby. That name was Ian's idea too.

We initially wanted to publicly dedicate the Moby launch to him, but decided against it, because we didn't want to give the impression that we were cynically using his name to help our launch succeed.

It makes me very happy that this release of Debian is dedicated to him. It's hard to describe the shock of losing a colleague so brutally in the middle of a mind meld, when you're so intensely focused on building something together. It still haunts me.

<comment><USER5> > We initially wanted to publicly dedicate the Moby launch to him, but decided > against it, because we didn't want to give the impression that we were > cynically using his name to help our launch succeed.

I get what you're saying, but my guess is that most people would've seen it differently, especially if you had also mentioned everything that Ian had contributed to before joining Docker. I believe Docker lost an opportunity, with this decision, to connect with people who're still around.

<comment><USER4> Yes, that possibility is often on my mind. When we made the decision, Docker was the target of loud and vitriolic criticism in parts of the open-source community. In our experience the vitriol, even if it comes from a small minority, can spoil the discourse for everyone else. We didn't want to risk dragging Ian's name into that. I have no doubt that we missed an opportunity, but it just didn't seem worth the risk.

Maybe at some point in the future, when Docker is no longer as polarizing (something we're actively working on ), we will revisit the issue.

<comment><USER6> I agree, people always find a way to misinterpret things. It is a really nice thought and speaks greatly of you

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What the heck actually happened to Ian? He's going to be my own personal "Elvis/Tupac is alive" brand of conspiracy theorising (not really, but I expect we'll never really know what actually happened).

At any rate, happy exclusive Debian user here for the past 15 years. Thank you, Ian, gone too soon. Your name lives on in half the name of my most belovèd OS.

<comment><USER8> Is it really that big of a mystery? He had some kind of untreated mental health problems, had a run-in with the police, and then committed suicide.

I mean I guess you might wonder what exactly was running through his mind at the moment, but that seems a little morbid and super personal to me. It's enough to me at a high level that he had personal mental health issues he was dealing with, never got the right help, and ultimately succumbed to his demons. Is that an Elvis/Tupac kind of mystery?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ian gave me one of my first professional breaks: designing the logo and website for Progeny Linux (a distribution with OOTB support for grid computing).

I'll always be grateful to him for that, in addition to all the Free Software I use every day that he had a hand in shepherding.

Thank you Ian, the world is a better place for having you in it, and was diminished by your passing.

</comment><comment><USER10> We should pipe some things into /dev/null in his honor.

</comment><comment><USER11> Truly bittersweet; I had the privilege of working with Ian, although not nearly long enough. His actions helped lead me to the career I have today.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have an overwhelming feeling of sadness and loss when I hear of and recall (multiple times, later) of the people who have contributed _so much_ but decided to end their lives for various reasons (like Ian Murdock and Aaron Swartz, as two examples). The world is now way better due to their existence and contributions, but at the same time I also wonder _how much more_ we could've progressed as a species if they had continued to live for a few more decades. Is it too much to ask, albeit from a selfish perspective, that people live longer lives? Is it too much to ask for treating people better and creating social and legal structures to avoid such situations?

I don' use Debian (not directly), but I'm aware of the Debian philosophy and its impact on free software. If it were up to me, I would dedicate and re- dedicate every Debian release to Ian for the next few releases, at the very least.

</comment><comment><USER12> May he rest in peace. As a user of a Debian derivative I am thankful to him.

</comment><comment><USER13> RIP Ian

<comment><USER14> This is 18 months old news (edit: didn't mean to sound insensitive; Ian didn't just pass away like the title originally seemed to indicate)

<comment><USER15> Debian releases are rare...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why didn't they call the release "Ian" then?

<comment><USER2> Every DebIan release is named after Ian.</comment></comment>


How Your Startup's Sector Affects Your Ability to Raise a Series A - <AUTHOR> http://tomtunguz.com/seed-follow-ons-by-sector/ <comment><USER2> This is asserting correlation of startup sector implies causation of Series A.</comment>


Year of the storm - <AUTHOR> http://thepiratebay.se/blog/204 <comment><USER2> It is sad, but I cannot read this blog post. The Dutch equivalent of the RIAA/MPAA, named Brein, sued two of the major Dutch ISPs for not blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Brein won the court case, and the judge required these ISPs to block The Pirate Bay starting yesterday.

Now I am met with this when visiting thepiratebay.se:

<http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/blokkade.png/>

Internet censorship is now real in The Netherlands

<comment><USER3> I'm at work at the TU Delft right now, which lets me access thepiratebay.se, but I might test this with my Internet connection at home to see whether it is blocked.

If it's censored at the DNS level, you can get around it by using an open DNS server rather than your internet server. If it is censored at an HTTP level, then you can get around it by using HTTPS. (Although I just tried this and thepiratebay.se uses thepiratebay.org's security certificate.)

But if it's censored by IP address, then the problem is much more pressing and you'll have to use a proxy. One project that I will shamelessly plug makes your traffic indistinguishable from HTTPS connections, but it gets to be a bit slow (read: use it for twitter and text websites and metadata files, but not for downloading gigabytes of stuff), it is at <https://www.torproject.org/> .

Open question for other Nederlanders: Is there any political activity focused on dismantling Brein's censorship that I can join? Is there a Dutch-centric EFF?

<comment><USER4> The closest thing to a dutch EFF is probably Bits of Freedom, <https://bof.nl>

<comment><USER5> Which does absolutely fuck all as soon as the magic word "piracy" appears. They're barely acknowledging this is happening.

Ask yourself: what has BoF done for us lately? Or ever?

<comment><USER6> _what has BoF done for us lately? Or ever?_

Educate people about the need for internet freedom / privacy, which is a good way to get broader popular support.

<comment><USER5> Educate who?

BoF barely communicates externally besides preaching to the choir. Lobbying seems to be limited to relatively powerless left-wing opposition politicians. Getting _broader_ support is exactly what they very much don't do.

And so far the result has been exactly what you would expect: we've been railroaded with measures violating privacy and limiting online freedom, with very little protest.

<comment><USER6> I don't claim to know the details, and I'm certainly not trying to defend them or something. But even if they're not as effective as they could be, every "bit" helps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Freedom is a threat to government. The promise of freedom gets governments elected. Exercising freedom makes governments resort to violence.

Censorship has always been around. How many of the books once banned by the US have you read?: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governm...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments#United_States_of_America)

How many of the wikileaks cables have you read?

99% of The Pirate Bay is people downloading entertainment. Sometimes it's entertainment not available yet in their region. Sometimes it's a show on cable that aired last night. Reducing the friction for consumers to get content is a business problem. The Pirate Bay thrives because big media fails to solve that problem.

But 1% of the time - maybe less, The Pirate Bay links to content that will have no other home. Where powerful people can't squash it. If we have no place outside the reach of national governments where things that make them uncomfortable have a chance to spread, then we have no freedom.

So, while The Pirate Bay is the seedy underbelly of copyright infringement on the internet, it also gives you freedom. We need to protect that.

</comment><comment><USER8> _We have, ourselves, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our Internets, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

Even though large parts of Internets and many old and famous trackers have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Ifpi and all the odious apparatus of MPAA rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Internets, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the baywords.org, we shall fight on the /. and on the digg, we shall fight in the courts; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, the Internets or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Anon Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in Cerf's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old._

Signed;

The Pirate Bay Crew - Always when needed.

<http://thepiratebay.se/blog/172>

EDIT: This is an _old_ post, not current.

<comment><USER5> Thank you for the copy-paste.

The fact that I now have to rely on others to republish this information because as of today it is being censored for me makes me very, very sad.

I'm 45 years old, I was born and raised in the "free world", and this is the first time in my life I am confronted with the painful reality of censorship.

Regardless of what one might think of the Pirate Bay, this feels so very, very wrong.

<comment><USER8> Sorry, but that was an old post, it just felt appropriate :|

<comment><USER5> Yeah, figured that out by now...

Still, it just reinforces the insanity of the whole experience: I now have to rely on others for this information. My ability to evaluate that information has been compromised.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So the Pirate Bay is now a bastion of freedom that lets users in Syria and North Korea download the latest episode of Glee? (The current most popular torrent there). I'm a little confused about what their greater noble political purpose is.

To me it sounds like a place where you can get your TV shows in a more convenient way than waiting until they appear on channels you have, or download that movie you can't be bothered to pay $10-$20 to see.

How about real civil disobedience? Have TBP require to put in your full name and picture and the reason why are you downloading the full Microsoft Office package. Put that full list on the front page on TBP, let the government see the tens thousands of people who refuse to follow the unjust copyright laws and are ready to go to prison for breaking them. Now you're making a statement.

Or alternatively, produce your own independent content. Supposedly with today's technology it's easy and cheap. Wouldn't it be an amazing blow against this evil "MAFIAA" to one year from now go to TBP home page and see how the most downloaded file is not the latest Hollywood $250 million movie, but an independently produced short? If every user who tweeted against SOPA/ACTA would now tweet about that cool CC-licensed book/game/movie they just saw?

<comment><USER10> I don't get what your point is - do they need a greater and nobler political purpose other than giving access to whatever people want?

Also, Microsoft Office is extremely expensive for people in third-world countries. Pointing people to free alternatives that aren't fully compatible and that have a different interface is not the answer. Microsoft's Office is required for most corporate documents and it is assumed when working computer knowledge is requested from employees.

You're also suggesting that TBP should violate the privacy of its users. What do you think this would accomplish? And I'm sure the government would love having that list straight from the horse's mouth.

<comment><USER11> _I don't get what your point is - do they need a greater and nobler political purpose other than giving access to whatever people want?_

They are misrepresenting themselves.

Further, if they really had free speech and helping suppressed peoples in mind, they would remove most of their infringing content and provide a platform that can't be attacked on grounds of copyright infringement.

<comment><USER12> Well Wikileaks didn't have copyright infringement claims against it and it has suffered massive blows to funding and traffic.

TPB exists because people care about it. People care about it because it provides something relevant to them.

<comment><USER11> Then why does TPB mention Syria and North Korea at all?

Why not be honest?

"We exist because people want Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 for free and we can help them"

<comment><USER13> Did you wonder why people from Syria and North Korea might actually want to visit that website?

I found the figure mentioned of 100 visitors from North Korea daily pretty amazing to be honest. I checked my own site stats and though there are visitors from 183 countries not one is from North Korea.

Pirate bay is not just movies. You can download plenty of books from it for free, university textbooks, philosophy, whatever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hmm.

"""What binds us all together is a strong belief that what we do is good."""

What is 'good' about the pirate bay? A site which is 95% dedicated to sharing copyrighted content?

The Pirate Bay exists to make money for its founders. This is why it has so many intrusive ad's constantly popping up. They aren't on any mission. They are just raking in money at other people's expense.

"""Our 3 friends and blood brothers have been sentenced to prison. This might sound worse than it is. Since no one of them no longer lives in Sweden, they won't go to jail. They are as free today as they were yesterday."""

Does this mean they are on the run? As they have been sentenced to 4-10 month's I would just serve the time and be done with it. Surely this is better than constantly watching your back and avoiding being extradited back to Sweden.

"""But what enrages us to our inner core is that the system, the empire, the governments, are still allowed to try to boss you and us around with one law crazier than the other"""

Yes.. the system.. the empire.. surprised they didn't mention the people in black suits? The pirate bay is such a target because the people who run it humiliate and insult people with very deep pockets. They aren't victims, they enjoy the attention.

<comment><USER15> _A site which is 95% dedicated to sharing copyrighted content_

[citation needed]

 _The Pirate Bay exists to make money for its founders. This is why it has so many intrusive ad's constantly popping up._

The Pirate Bay exists to make it possible for people to share content, but bandwidth and infrastructure is not free.

 _The pirate bay is such a target because the people who run it humiliate and insult people with very deep pockets._

And? Is it written anywhere that people with deep pockets should not be insulted? If anything, their position of privilege should make them less prone to knee-jerk reactions.

 _They aren't victims, they enjoy the attention._

I think you should talk to your analyst about that complex, hating extrovert people is quite the negative attitude.

<comment><USER14> """[citation needed]"""

Sure, however I doubt I am far off. The site is called The PIRATE Bay. Shall we play a game of spot the legitimate content? <http://thepiratebay.se/top/300>

"""The Pirate Bay exists to make it possible for people to share content, but bandwidth and infrastructure is not free."""

Of course it isn't however the owners are making no attempt to remove infringing content. They know their business is helping to distribute copyrighted digital content and they profit from it. Sure, they need to cover their costs but they don't run it to be a beacon of freedom. They run it for the $$$.

Take WikiLeaks, before it started publishing unredacted content they served a purpose. They broke some laws but they set information free. There was a positive reason for it's existence.

What has the Pirate Bay done of value over the last decade?

"""And? Is it written anywhere that people with deep pockets should not be insulted? If anything, their position of privilege should make them less prone to knee-jerk reactions."""

Knee Jerk reactions? Really? Content owners file DCMA take down requests and take other actions. The pirate bay respond by goading them.

<http://thepiratebay.se/legal>

There is little doubt that TPB is costing content owners real money by helping people access torrents. The amount is obviously up for debate however when you insult, goad and cause losses to Billion dollar companies you are asking to be engaged by an army of lawyers and politicians.

The Pirate Bay could just quieten down. "You do your thing, we do ours." They don't though do they. Instead they adopt the. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha you can't get us."

Well sorry but you know, if millions of dollars of copyrighted content is being accessed via your company. Large content owners will work to lobby and pressure politicians to take action.. this isn't knee-jerk. This just natural escalation.

"""I think you should talk to your analyst about that complex, hating extrovert people is quite the negative attitude."""

ROFL.. sure because that was exactly what I was saying...

<comment><USER16> You make the mistake of assuming that "pirating" is inherently and obviously "wrong".

I, and _many others_ , reject that premise.

If you disagree, so what? We're quite used to people disagreeing, and have gotten rather good at not caring.

PS:

 _"Instead they adopt the. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha you can't get us.""_

This attitude makes _zero_ sense to me. Why is it so wrong if they are extroverted?

<comment><USER17> The attitude is antagonistic rather than extroverted. Anyway, it all boils down to a business strategy. The Pirate Bay enrages copyright holders, who then go after _all_ "piracy sites". The weaker ones die because of the increased legal scrutiny, while TPB continues to live. I'm guessing that TPB served more pages _after_ MegaUpload died than they did before. And that is money in the founders' pockets.

<comment><USER15> Copyright holders were going after "piracy sites" well before TPB -- see Napster, Grokster, Kazaa, etc etc etc. Considering the founders are now facing jail, and they've always been politically active, I'd say they are in it for more than just "money in their pockets". I know, in this day and age, this is hard to believe, but sometimes it's actually true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> TPB have made themselves a kind of bastion against the copyright rentseekers by being a visible and hard to quash target. The kind of money and effort wasted against them is impressive.

Of course, what this verdict establishes is a precedent for hashes having the same status as the original copyrighted content.

<comment><USER19> Similarly, the issue has shifted from being about copyrights to being a threat to civil liberties.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> _In this year of the storm, the winners will build windmills and the losers will raise shelters._

I like this a lot. Is it a paraphrase or a quotation of something?

EDIT: apparently its a "chinese proverb."

<comment><USER12> Does that make the copyright lobbyists Don Quixote?

<comment><USER21> As apt an analogy as ever I've seen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Screenshot for the dutch people that can't visit TPB anymore..: <http://i.imgur.com/VVBiJ.png>

<comment><USER23> For Belgian people too...

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> For those not able to access the site due to ISP-blocking try setting your DNS to 220.127.116.11 and/or 126.96.36.199 (which is Google's DNS server) as they often just block the site in the DNS.

<comment><USER25> I think that's 220.127.116.11, not 22.214.171.124?

<comment><USER24> You are right sir!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> [http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-se-domain- pr...](http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-se-domain-prevent- domain-seizure-120201/) Torrentfreak's artcile citing the above article and explaining why there's a .se in the link!

</comment><comment><USER27> Forgive me if I am a bit put off by the spectacle of a bunch of people calling themselves heroes for downloading the latest episode of "Glee".

By the way, those hits from North Korea? Those aren't exactly coming from the average man on the street.

<comment><USER16> The free exchange of information is about the big picture. Who cares if individuals use it to download Glee or call the king a pig?

And as far as I am concerned, _any_ flow of information into North Korea is a good thing. Beggers can't be choosy.

<comment><USER27> It's largely a service to help people get content they could already get, but at a lower price.

"Free exchange of information". As Frank Zappa would say, _pheeeeeuuuuuw_.

<comment><USER16> If you don't care about the free exchange of information, then so be it. In the mean time, I'll be glad that your opinion on the matter ultimately doesn't make a difference. You cannot stop sharing.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Posting Instagram Sponsored Content Is the New Summer Job - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/08/posting-instagram-sponsored-content-is-the-new-summer-job/568108/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Can't really believe I'm recommending this here. But for a peek into the world of creative kids who move to LA to launch their budding empires on social media. Check out the Paris Hilton reality show "Hollywood Love Story" on Viceland. It's dark and dystopian. Not a celebration of facile overnight fame at all. There seems to be a distinct "peak" around the 50K followers mark, where no matter how hard you try, you never get past a local maximum of saturation.

This looks like a great series by Atlantic editors and will read at length when I get a moment. But I'd say most creators and influencers are well aware of the demands required to scale a personal brand. For a vlogger to get a free Lull mattress and feature it in a five minute segment is a win-win situation. Cash equivalent is ~$1K or less. They still have to make rent.

On the other hand, upside of popular social media presence is opportunity. From getting representation at a modeling or acting agency, to art students just out of school getting that first gallery show or sale. It can be considered de rigeur.

<comment><USER3> And so Hacker News gets hooked on a Paris Hilton reality show.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Basically everyone had summer jobs. But how many kids in a class of 30 will have a profile with 20k followers? I'd guess one at best, likely less. (average)

I know a ton of teachers and am friends with a bunch of people with monetised channels like these, but it's really not like a summer job. Virtually everyone had a summer job at some point, but in a class of 30 you'd be hard pressed to find a kid with a profile of 10-20k users. Usually it's like 5-10 kids in a school of 500-1000 who've got some instagram side hustle going on.

Otherwise nice article though, things have definitely changed and as long as parents keep an eye out I think it's a pretty cool development.

On the other hand, I'd question the extent to which kids will say no to crappy brands that offer money, whereas in my experience most serious channels by young adults will often not recommend bad products they don't believe in. If you look at all the insta feeds they're all basically clones of each other anyway, kind of low-quality reviews and just all about advertising, promotions, chances to win something etc. Seems like a pure money-grab, whereas young adults tend to build more of an experience, mention products they don't profit from, offer more varied content. I'm honestly a bit surprised at the amount of followers they got, but then you can wonder how much is real.

Honestly can't blame them, when I was a kid I always had some silly side hustle too. I just wanted to buy games, candy, fireworks and a football haha, quality wasn't the nr 1 priority.

<comment><USER5> More like the new school band then I guess. Few people actually got on stage or even just into the rehearsal room, but in the late 20th century, hardly anybody made it through school not fantasizing about it in some form.

The slope to a marketable Instagram feed is far more gentle, there are no major hurdles to take except for lack of success (which never stopped school bands either)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Negotiation usually takes place entirely over Instagram direct message, and > teens rarely sign formal contracts

This is not always the case, however. There are entire marketing agencies setup for exactly this. We use Social Native [0], which allows us to pay people to post editorialized content.

Very few (if any) people follow the FCC rules [1] that tag the posts as #ad. It is a really shady market; nearly everything in social media marketing is astroturfed like this.

[0] [https://www.socialnative.com/](https://www.socialnative.com/)

[1] [https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press- releases/2013/03/ftc-s...](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press- releases/2013/03/ftc-staff-revises-online-advertising-disclosure-guidelines)

<comment><USER7> >> Negotiation usually takes place entirely over Instagram direct message, and teens rarely sign formal contracts

> This is not true. There are entire marketing agencies setup for exactly > this.

Does the fact that there are marketing agencies negate the point that it "usually" takes place like this, though?

<comment><USER6> That's entirely fair. I corrected the main comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> How sustainable is this before it starts to destroy trust and integrity in the friendships between these kids. As an adult, I would not like my friends to be promoting products to me rather than expressing their real preferences and insights. How much more toxic is this in teenage years when relationship skills are being formed?

<comment><USER9> They are not promoting to their friends. Most have different accounts for talking to friends. The accounts with 8 thousand, or 20 thousand, or 50 thousand followers are obviously not all close friends. They are people following the child's internet persona.

<comment><USER10> But what if you're a crappy social media maven and you HAVE conflated your fake friends and real friends?

What if you had no real friends at all...

<comment><USER11> Then you likely learn a tough lesson. This is called growing up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> While I'm not a big fan of marketing/ad model it is neat to see kids 13-15 be able to do something to make some money. At 13 I was buying candy like WarHeads in bulk and selling them to other kids on the bus to make a 5x return. I wasn't able to get a real job until I was 15 and even then, I had to really hustle and find a retail company that was willing to take a chance on me.

</comment><comment><USER13> I don't see anything wrong with this - we're still so new in social media (it's only a couple decades old), so its constantly evolving no different than the "wild west" Internet days.

The only concern I have is the experience they are earning. In a "traditional" summer job (car wash, manual labor, cashier, etc.), you gained experience in something I'd call "grit" \- harsh work conditions, people yelling at you, etc.

Being an Instagram model or YouTuber still deals with its share of internet trolls, but are people learning to handle when things "won't go their way"? I don't think that's the term I'm looking for, but just the overall "not enjoying the work" part of, well... work!

My concerns are because people are failure-averse, we hate negativity. A YouTuber/Instragammer can simply not read the comments, or selectively filter the comments. Are they getting the same "grit" experience as the more traditional work environments I mentioned above?

EDIT: As you'll see in my responses to comments - what about non-person "grit"? Does being an Instragram model or YouTuber develop the grit to push through the annoying/boring/tedious/stressful parts of making money? When you a digging ditches, you don't exactly get to "ignore" the negative parts of the job. When learning, you don't get to "ignore" the struggle of not understanding something. Grit or perseverance (pick which one you like better), is a necessary skill that more physical jobs teach. Being the center of some social network clique, does not.

<comment><USER14> They are getting a much grittier experience. No-one ever came to me at my summer job and told me to kill myself, or that I was too ugly to rape.

<comment><USER13> As I've said elsewhere, what about non-customer interaction activities? I grew up digging ditches for my family's business. I WILL say shoveling clay in the summer in North Carolina humidity is a much grittier experience than reading someone's comment on the internet I don't know verbally attacking me.

<comment><USER15> If it provides so much value for the kid, why stop here?

I think we should start torture camps for spoiled children - shoveling clay in North Carolina summer, shoveling snow in Alaska winter, and so on! That will teach them!!

If it is so good, parents will certainly pay good money to put their kids in the best torture camp!

<comment><USER13> Slippery slope fallacy aside since that is advocating we go back to a time before child labor laws, yes. The hard work involved is my point. This doesn't have to be physical labor, see my error handling example in learning computer science. K-12 also refers to what I'm advocating as "productive struggle", and I'm not sure being an advertisement teaches this skill.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Shouldn't all those shilling posts include disclaimer: 'Includes paid promotion'? Sometimes you can see it on YouTube videos, but I haven't seen it anywhere on Instagram so far.

Also this situation reminds me about this 'marketing' strategy some companies do, that they are hiring salesmen on some easy-to-break contracts with sole purpose them selling product (most of the time it's some financial bs or insurances) to friends and family, then when their sales drop - fire them.

<comment><USER11> FTC says they have to be hashtagged as #ad. No one cares though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Rather specific question: does anyone have experience working with a college student who organically promoted service or product on their physical campus? If so, how did you find them initially and how successful was the effort?

This is about validating/bootstraping an idea that requires a set of users in the same physical and social space, and as I have no confidence in myself or my direct friends being able to create the right seed culture for this, I'm trying to find a person within an existing community (like at a university) who can. To be clear, I'm not looking for like a one off, Tupperware party style infleuncer, but almost like a social evangelist for the product who can stick with it for a few months and who can also tell me why the product sucks

<comment><USER18> Tinder and red bull are really good at this. In Europe they're called campus ambassadors.

<comment><USER19> In America they're called brand ambassadors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Very interesting article! I wonder what the ROI on these ads are considering two things: 1) the ability to buy lots of fake followers and 2) teens having very little spending money.

<comment><USER18> You can expect to lose money on the first posts (weeding out the fakes, building a relationship, shipping product etc) but once you find someone who works well, it's easy to get a great ROI from future posts with them.

To give you a rough idea, I run a small ecommerce jewellery store as a side project and a post by a micro influencer (<1000 followers) netted us over $3000 in orders. We just gave her $89 worth of jewellery.

That's obviously an exception, but you can definitely build up a network of trusted partners who can get you 5-10x returns pretty consistently.

<comment><USER21> Do people browse Instagram as a shopping experience or are those impulse purchases?

<comment><USER22> Very impulse driven. People usually browse Instagram casually like people browse HN - for general tips, interesting videos and content, and the lifestyle of people they are interested in.

So if you can get someone people look at every day to promote one of your products, and it happens that the person is looking for new shoes / jewelry / style, you can convert those into purchases.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> It is beyond me why companies pay for this. A user with 10k followers is nothing, you can get 90% of them to be bots. Really hard to figure it out if a network is from bots or real individuals.

Also, if it is about girls, then 90% of the users are guys wanting to see some ass and boobs. What do companies get from such a target audience? They don't wear bikinis and don't care in which hotel the girls are staying...

</comment><comment><USER24> How can they just pay them like that? What about taxes and social security fees? I doubt the kids have their own company.

<comment><USER23> exactly. I don't know about US but in Euro you always have to submit an invoice, pay VAT. These companies and individuals should be prosecuted.

<comment><USER18> That's just not true. There are lots of countries in Europe *yes, and Euro zone) where you don't have to collect VAT if you sell under a certain amount of revenue per year.

I'm not saying that everyone involved in the activities you're describing are doing it 100% by the book. Far from it probably. But that isn't an excuse to just blatantly spread misinformation.

<comment><USER23> For example in UK, you don't have to pay VAT if you make under 80.000 or something like that. But, you still have to register as a company or sole trader with HMRC and say that you are involved in an economic activity.

And you still have to submit invoices. I doubt that any of these people send invoices through instagram messages...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I work in the space and the real trouble is that it's so easy to build a 'fake' profile (including on platform engagement and follower ratios etc) that sure, you might only be paying $20 per post, but only 10% of posts will deliver anything approaching value for money.

The good news is you can then build up a relationship with the 'good' influencers over time, but it's still a lot of work. And once an influencer reaches a certain level of fame, they are basically bought out by the big brands with contracts and serious money to throw around.

Another big problem is that it's still really hard (impossible) to track 'the good kind' of word of mouth advertising - where it seems organic and there's no transactional gift voucher or discount code shared with the influencer's audience.

We actually got so fed up of this that we decided to turn it on its head and are working on [a tool]([https://postperk.com](https://postperk.com)) to help brands turn their customers into Instagram influencers instead. It's pretty early days, but I'd be happy to throw out a free month or so to any HN readers who are interested in trying it out.

<comment><USER25> Is your comment 'the good kind' of word of mouth advertising - where it seems organic and there's no transactional gift voucher or discount code shared with the influencer's audience ?

> I'd be happy to throw out a free month

Oh, guess not.

<comment><USER18> > Is your comment 'the good kind' of word of mouth advertising - where it > seems organic and there's no transactional gift voucher or discount code > shared with the influencer's audience ?

Hey, it's just a free month (we don't offer that anywhere else) - we're currently going through the advisor track of YC Startup School and if we can help anyone out there (for free) in return for some feedback, we're happy to do so.

I should probably have made it clear that I meant 'the good kind' from the brand's point of view. Sorry.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> "I used to be with 'it', but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it' anymore and what's 'it' seems weird and scary. It'll happen to you!"

</comment><comment><USER27> Baudrillard was right.

</comment><comment><USER28> ...Do any of you still get reams of paper junkmail on your doorstep or a mailbox crammed so full of kruft that the real post office complains about not being able to deliver mail?... So now that its gone digital, how do we chase junk mail carriers away with a lawn sprinkler anymore?

<comment><USER29> Spam filters?

<comment><USER28> ...but i dont want to put a lock on my mail box, i want the spam carrier to get wet and destroy the rest of the junk mail so it doesnt bother me again or anyone else for the rest of the day...</comment></comment></comment>


Starting a Hardware Company with $60K - <AUTHOR> https://cobattery.com/blog/how-to-start-a-hardware-company <comment><USER2> The Da Vinci is _not_ a Makerbot knockoff. Its a printer based on open source designs of Reprap.

Makerbot should never get credit for it after they chose to leave the community. Markerbot is actually a Reprap ripoff!

That said, I will be waiting for the next set of articles. This is good! :)

<comment><USER3> Ha you are clearly more knowledgeable about 3D printers than I am :).

Reprap for anyone reading this is totally awesome. I didn't include it in my post but Reprap is an open source 3D-printer that can make itself...

It's basically the hardware version of the singularity: [http://reprap.org/](http://reprap.org/)

<comment><USER4> Well, it can kinda "make itself".

Electronics and strong materials (steel mostly) are not included, and it takes quite a bit of assembly.

But yes, it awesome.

<comment><USER5> Lathes had been making themselves for ages before 3D printers.

<comment><USER3> That's a good point! I guess the iteration cycle has gotten an order of magnitude quicker and cheaper with 3D printers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The problem with relying on "security through obscurity" for developing your initial CAD models is that you won't be able to patent these designs. You're making a public disclosure about your concept before you file, so if you intend to protect your hardware concepts through patent protection you'd be better off using something like Autodesk Inventor Fusion 360 (which is free for hobbyists, students, and even startups making less than $100k/year, if I remember correctly). I think OnShape made a big mistake by removing the ability to keep any of your designs private without paying.

That being said, if you're working in the open source hardware space or just don't plan on patenting your work, OnShape could be a good option.

<comment><USER7> Disclosing before filing would indeed, I believe, preclude obtaining a patent in most of the world. In the US, though, there is a one year grace period after the inventor publicly discloses the invention during which that disclosure does not automatically make the invention ineligible for a patent.

Of course it would still be better to keep it private until you file, so as to not lose the possibility of patents outside the US, and so as to not subject yourself to the risk that it might take more than a year to get to the point that you are ready to file.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> As a hardware developer, I'm surprised you actually bought a 3d printer. I found that Shapeways and Materialise work really well, and the quality of their SLS prints is basically impossible to match using a desktop FDM printer. Plus, there is no fuss: upload a model, click "order" and get your print in a couple of days.

I'm really interested in the next chapters, especially about dealing with manufacturers, working on injection molding design, choosing your materials, etc.

Also, thanks for writing this! There is too little information on building hardware out there. Nothing like the software world, and each beginning hardware developer has to start on his/her own.

<comment><USER3> Hey jwr!

We found that buying a 3D printer was _essential_. They only cost a few hundred dollars and instead of getting a piece for $50 in a couple days, we can print something for a couple dollars in a few hours.

For testing the final design, we still use 3D print services to get really nice prints. But for the initial iteration it's nice to do it as quickly and as cheaply as possible.

Sidenote: We also rigged up a system so that we can run the 3D printer over night and print multiple parts. We will probably write a post on that.

<comment><USER8> Interesting — I found that given the amount of stuff that I actually needed printed, I am still below the cost of a decent-quality 3D printer. Also, I would not be able to print what I needed with a desktop FDM anyway, and I figured I will save time by not having to fiddle with 3D printers myself (usually the cheaper the printer, the more fiddling is required).

So, that's interesting that you found otherwise! Please definitely write more about that.

<comment><USER9> Another perspective here. At work we use a mixture of desktop (Form 1) and SLA printing (outsourcced). They have pros and cons. The resin printer is probably better resolution, but the SLA printers can do things like support-free printing which is really really useful for clean designs.

One problem with using printing companies is that they charge by volume, whereas most makers are concerned with the amount of filament they use up. This is cool if you can pack your volume with lots of designs, but it means that even a slight height increment on a big model adds a lot of the price. Then you have order minimums: 3DPrintUK, for instance, has a starting order of £40 which adds up fast.

Time isn't immediately obvious. We can rush an order online to around 3-4 days regardless of size. For small parts it's a no-brainer doing it in the lab, but for big prints there are print reliability issues, it still takes ages at high resolution and requires a ton of cleanup. And yes, fiddling is a pain, I don't mind doing it, but it can take hours to get repeatable prints.

<comment><USER9> Edit: meant to say we outsource SLS (selective laser sintering) rather than SLA (stereolithography - i.e. the Form) :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I was surprised your step 1 wasn't "build a working (but ugly) prototype out of pre-existing breakout boards and components."

I might have a pencil sketch or two, but I wouldn't be doing anything in CAD until I knew my idea was feasible and had some grasp of exactly how it might fit into a finished design.

What stages did you go through for the conceptualisation and prototyping of the idea? As someone in the hardware business, I know the circuitry involved is common and simple enough that you probably had little difficulty. But I'd still love to hear how you discovered what you needed where to source it.

Good effort anyway, we need more guides like this on the web!

<comment><USER3> Yea, that's actually a great point!

I glossed over that pre-CAD prototyping in the post since we built those first "duct-tape prototypes" a long, long time ago. So we don't have pictures readily accessible and it was harder to remember the exact process.

To start with, I think we modified another battery case and basically stuck batteries on the back to try out swapping.

I'll think about how to incorporate that step into the post and see if I can dig up some old photos.

<comment><USER10> Would love to see that, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> You need to put this through UL, FCC, CE and TUV testing before selling it. Depending on where you intend to sell it you might need to pay for acceptance of the above certificates. For example, Brazil has it's own certifications but they will accept CE for a fee, etc.

Have you gone through compliance testing?

<comment><USER12> You don't need to do FCC testing if you don't have an oscillator.

<comment><USER11> This device should have a switching regulator in order to manage the variable voltage coming out of the battery to then power the phone, which means FCC testing is required.

Generally speaking testing labs will run a series of common tests that satisfy the various regulatory agencies. In other words, you don't have to run four separate sets of tests to obtain UL, FCC, CE and TUV. I've done this dozens of times over the years.

<comment><USER7> It should be noted that if they don't themselves design any of the modules that would require certification, but instead just use already certified third party modules, that greatly reduces the amount of testing their product needs.

I've read that can get the cost of FCC certification down $1-2k and the certification time us under 5 days.

If you design your own module, then it is $7-20k, and will take 4-6 weeks. (Once you've certified that, though, then if you reuse that same module in other products it is like using a third party certified module, so $1-2k for each subsequent product).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Thanks for writing this up, and I look forward to more!

My first company did hardware, and it was kind of an awful experience, and I swore to never do another hardware company. I got burned out from sourcing things, dealing with revisions, and working with manufacturers through the language barrier. But, things look so much nicer ~12 years later, and there are several products I wish existed that I think would have a solid niche market. But, it's still pretty intimidating.

Also, I love the connector. The case is a bit weird, though, with seemingly exposed battery? But, I'm not the target market, anyway (I have an Android device).

<comment><USER3> Thanks!

Yea, as I said in the post, I think it's drastically easier to start a hardware company now vs 10 years ago. And it's still pretty hard, ha! So I can just imagine what you went through.

Yep, the battery is "exposed" in that we don't have a cover over the battery. But each battery does have protection.

And you aren't the target market, yet! Making cases for just iPhone made things easier, but we are hoping to expand to the most popular Android phones.

<comment><USER14> You really need to add an email signup for people interested in CoBattery for Android. At least by the time you write the next part of your blog post.

<comment><USER3> That's a great idea!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Hmm, the post shows that the case was designed in OnShape but the screenshot shows that's its an imported STEP file from Solidworks(?). Admittedly though, I haven't used OnShape since they removed the private project options so I might be wrong.

Understandably, OnShape and Fusion360 (the HSMWorks/CAM integration in it is awesome.) is great for startups and hobbyist. But if you're trying to design some large assemblies or things with complex organic shapes, Solidworks is significantly superior in every way (I'm extremely bias since Solidworks is my favorite CAD software). I know the price is a lot for a startup but I highly recommend any company trying to get into the hardware side of things, to stick with the "foundational" CAD software because in the current CAD software landscape, the investment into these software would pay off in less than a year.

<comment><USER3> Wow, you paid attention to the details! Yea, the screenshot was just for the purpose of the post.

We did some of the original design in OnShape and some of it in SolidWorks. I didn't want to recommend SolidWorks for cheap work because at the time we only got it free because we were students.

We've found that it isn't that hard to start off a design in OnShape and then move it into SolidWorks as things get more complicated. It isn't ideal, but it's definitely cheaper.

<comment><USER16> Financially cheaper yes. I've tried Onshape for 6 months and I didn't find it as immediate or as fast as Solidworks. Particularly when modelling multi- component assemblies.

Onshape monthly price for a pro licence is about 1/3 the price of Solidworks monthly (on finance), for me Solidworks is a clear winner here even though it costs more.

But, Onshape is a revolution in the free CAD space. Perfect for simple products like this ;)

Edit: added last sentence

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey everyone, I wrote this post :). I'm happy to see that it's getting some traffic here.

Let me know if y'all have any questions. I would love to see this post help other people start hacking on hardware, so I'll answer anything I can.

</comment><comment><USER17> Is that a certified lightning connector? I'd be curious about that process or, if it isn't, the decision to forgo it and whether or not you did any user testing around it.

<comment><USER3> It's not!

We have some info on the connector here: [https://cobattery.com/connector](https://cobattery.com/connector)

Apple doesn't actually let you buy a chip that will allow for the right angle connector that we have. So we decided to design our own. It was a pretty time intensive process and we had to search for a while for a good factory. But we are happy with the way it turned out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Well the idea is obviously OK but it looks really bad in my opinion. Who buys an iPhone and uses this gigantic, bad looking case for day-to-day usage?

How many of those have you sold already?

<comment><USER3> Ha, well I'll take the first part as a compliment!

We are actually proud that our case is slimmer than most other battery cases on the market. We didn't want our case to be bulky so we designed our own custom lightning connector that snugly fits the phone: [https://cobattery.com/connector](https://cobattery.com/connector)

What don't you like about the case's look?

<comment><USER19> Everything. The case looks like a giraffe's tongue, and giraffes suck.

Just kidding. The case looks fine. I'd briefly wonder whether dropping it on the metal connector at the bottom would damage it, and I'd prefer the battery color match the case, but those are just nitpicks.

<comment><USER3> What!? Giraffes are awesome...

We have found the metal connector to be pretty resistant. But we have one year full warranty, so if anything breaks for any reason we will send you a replacement immediately. :)

<comment><USER20> Can you write more about how you provide a warranty? Is it simply guessing x% of the products will fail within the warranty period and set aside some money to cover those failures. Or is it more complicated?

<comment><USER3> Hmmm, it's actually much more simple than that. We want to provide a good product that makes people's lives better. The warranty is a forcing function.

In my opinion, if we can't make money while ensuring people's CoBattery cases works, we shouldn't be in business.

<comment><USER19> Hey, I just wanted to say it's cool to see ideology in business. It's relatively rare. Best of luck to you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Cheers and best luck to you!

Once I upgrade to the 7, I will be buying one of your cases. You've solved all the issues I hated about previous battery cases, which actually had me go back just a "normal" slim leather case.

I.e. no lip, and that I don't have to tether my phone back to the wall when I'm charging it.

Additionally, I believe this will solve the issues I've had with lighting connector wear.

I'm very excited to read about your alibaba connections and sourcing however.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the kind words yial!

We've found that a big reason people upgrade is due to a failing battery. So if that's why you are upgrading, I would just save $$ and get CoBattery now ;).

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Your product looks interesting. I like that you can swap out batteries without removing the case. Also that you aren't blocking the headphone port. (You should list that as a feature ). One thing that I feel that is missing from your site is how many maH the battery is. I wouldn't know this is a good deal unless you listed this.

<comment><USER3> Yep, that's something that accidentally got removed on the most recent re- design...

The batteries are each 3,000 mAh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Good effort, but the "battery" part seems like it is still in need of some attention. Developing a good relationship with a reliable cell manufacturer, and staying on top of quality control issues, is going to consume your life.

Also, get UL certified, or you're wasting your time.

<comment><USER3> Thanks jpm_sd!

So for the battery, we are actually using a modified version of an older Samsung battery (not the Note 7 haha).

That's something that we didn't want to reinvent. So we are working with a factory who has made these batteries in the past.

I didn't include more about the battery in this post. Is that something you'd enjoy reading more about?

<comment><USER24> I would!

<comment><USER3> Sweet! I have some blog posts planned about how we are designing a new charger and our 3D print iteration set up. So I'll think if we have anything else on the battery.

I also wrote up a basic, but goofy, post on "What is a battery": [https://cobattery.com/blog/what-is-a- battery](https://cobattery.com/blog/what-is-a-battery)

If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me at firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Thanks for writing this, the post is super helpful! I didn't see anything about the circuit design/iteration process. Would be great to hear what software was used to design the circuit (if any) and how that eventually translates to mass production.

<comment><USER3> The circuit is actually really simple in our case. It is just a voltage converter and then an adapter for the lightning connector.

Getting the custom lightning connector and chip was more of an ordeal though! I'll see what I can dredge up on that process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is great. It's been a long term goal if mine to do a successful kick- starter robot. This give me confidence that a hardware noob has some chance of making this work.

<comment><USER3> Awesome! If you end up making something, send it over :). I'd love to check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> No love for FreeCad? It's certainly comparable to other desktop software for simple designs. The constraint solver is actually better than several I've used.

<comment><USER3> I haven't tried it, but it definitely looks cool!

<comment><USER27> I played with an older version of it a few years back - it has a bit of a learning curve, but well worth the effort.

If you are into coding - there is an interesting tool out there for creating 3D CAD files using a software-based paradigm (that is, you "code" your object):

[http://www.openscad.org/](http://www.openscad.org/)

If you prefer something browser based:

[https://openjscad.org/](https://openjscad.org/)

Also:

[http://www.implicitcad.org/](http://www.implicitcad.org/)

Finally - if you want something closer to freecad (mouse/gui) but browser based:

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

There are a few other solutions out there as well that are open source (and note - not all of the above can really be considered "CAD" in the strictest sense of the work - freecad is really the only one, honestly) - but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is the battery held in by friction and the connector? If so does it ever fall out?

How do you deal with the lightning port being used the headphone jack?

<comment><USER3> > Is the battery held in by friction and the connector? If so does it ever > fall out?

Yea, it's just friction and the pogo pins at the bottom! It took us a long time to get that fit quite right but now it never falls out. I'll give you a refund and let you keep CoBattery if you buy it and can shake out the battery :)

> How do you deal with the lightning port being used the headphone jack?

I actually have the iPhone 7 and I've totally switched to Bluetooth earbuds. And you can actually pull out the connector if you do want to plug in, but it's definitely a better experience to just move to Bluetooth.

We are working on a version of CoBattery that will have an old-style audio jack. But it's tough to source the audio-lightning components!

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> We actually started smallworks.com (LEGO compatible iPhone cases) for less, but went through a similar process.

<comment><USER30> We would all appreciate if you had anything to share about the following:

> 3\. Find manufacturers using Alibaba (coming soon)

> 4\. Picking the right partner factory (coming soon)

> 5\. Scale up production at a Chinese factory (coming soon)

How much time did you spend in China to get through steps 4 and 5 ? Thanks in advance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'd love to hear about how you developed the connector.

<comment><USER3> Ooo, yea the connector, that was tough! We have a proprietary design there so we can't share _everything_ but I will include some info on the connector in the next posts of this blog series :).</comment></comment>


President Trump Proposes Violent Game Regulations - <AUTHOR> https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/news/president-trump-proposes-violent-game-regulations-w517037 <comment><USER2> Again?

Seriously, why do games keep becoming a scapegoat for stuff like this?

Not only is there zero evidence that video games cause violence at all (indeed, the data would point to it being negative, given the decrease in violent crime at the same time as the increase in video game violence), but there are literally hundreds of factors and media forms that are far more connected to violence. Why do these people still not focus on the real issues relating to guns and mental health issues and law enforcement failures and inequality and political/religious extremism? Why don't they seem to target music/TV shows/films/books/sports with as much as disdain, given hardcore fans of those have actually hurt or killed people in the past? And why does it seem that (somewhat sadly) both political sides in certain countries seem to show disdain towards the artform?

What more do these people need to move on and blame something else? Or actually address the real issues here?

<comment><USER3> > Why don't they seem to target music/TV shows/films

The article touches on this too. So yes, they do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I would agree if people playing those same videogames in other countries did go on killing sprees at the same rate as in the US.

<comment><USER4> Republican policy strikes me as devoid of data. During the election I really tried to understand their policy positions. But failed to find reasoned or rational arguments for their positions.

<comment><USER5> Uh huh. And what is your data?

(1) IDK what the parent precisely meant by "killing sprees", but there are statistics for acts of terrorism. And the US is hardly exceeds the norm. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incident...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incidents_by_country)

For example, even sticking to first world Western nations, in 2015 the UK had 3x the terrorism incidents and France had 4x the terrorism deaths as the US. (Note the US has over twice the population of these other two counties combined).

(2) FWIW the American Psychology Association says "The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and heightened aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect and reduced prosocial behavior, empathy and sensitivity to aggression."

Abscribing this idea to lazy Republicans is wrong.

<comment><USER6> "Killing sprees" refers to mass shooting incidents such as at Stoneman Douglas High School.

These aren't counted in those statistics, which makes them highly misleading - they _just_ refer to "terrorism", which is political and exactly the sort of thing to be completely unrelated to video games. The majority of those deaths in France in 2015 were from the Bataclan incident carried out by ISIL.

<comment><USER5> Mass shootings is pretty arbitrary. It doesn't really matter if you die by bullet, car, or bomb.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It didn't really sound like he proposed changes to the ESRB system or anything, but what he said is true. At least in my years, i've felt like games have become more violent, along with media/film/tv.

but i'm still not convinced it has any role in school shootings.

it seems like he's looking at different things instead of trying to focus on one thing. which before would have been "ban guns."

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder what the pro-Trump gamer groups are going to make of this.

<comment><USER2> As someone who's talked to people on the far right in the video game community, the general response is that while they agree with Trump on some things, they heavily disagree in regards to his attitudes about video games, and dislike right wing 'moral guardians' trying to control them.

Their attitude to what causes shootings and other violent crimes is basically the same as the left with one exception; they feel guns generally don't cause the issue whereas mental health issues, politics and poor law enforcement procedures do.

Source: Various people on sites like Gab.</comment></comment>


Show HN All US doctors ordered by their opioid prescription count - <AUTHOR> https://www.opendoctor.io/opioid/highest/?no_image=1 <comment><USER2> DUPE: Previous post with a different title posted 12 minutes before this one => [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14745961](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14745961)

</comment><comment><USER3> Doctors who specialise in pain management or painful surgery regularly prescribe a large number of pain killers, news at 11!

<comment><USER4> At least they included what kind of doctor they are in the results!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nit: number formatting - is there such a thing as a fractional prescription, why is there a "NNN.0" highlighted everywhere, and are you also able to add in the commas which will make it clearer the magnitude when scanning?

</comment><comment><USER6> Over what timeframe?

And this is Medicare part D data, correct? So it's only a subset of prescriptions made, and not by all doctors.

</comment><comment><USER7>
        We're sorry, too many people are accessing this website at the same time. We're working on this problem. Please try again later.

<comment><USER8> Google cached version dated today: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.opendoctor.io%2Fopioid%2Fhighest%2F%3Fno_image%3D1&oq=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.opendoctor.io%2Fopioid%2Fhighest%2F%3Fno_image%3D1&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.3770j0j4&client=ms- android-hms-tmobile-us&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Oh good, let's continue to vilify the people who are actually trying to live with crippling, chronic pain.

</comment><comment><USER10> Does anyone know where this website get its data from? Are there public data sets that they are pulling from?</comment>


Website Glitch Let Me Overstock My Coinbase - <AUTHOR> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/01/website-glitch-let-me-overstock-my-coinbase/ <comment><USER2> Many U.S. retail establishments near* the Canadian border treat Canadian quarters as equivalent to U.S. quarters—accepting them at a 25¢ value, including them as change if they got into the till.

The US:CAD rate is only 4:5, not the 1:6 BTH:BCH ratio at the time of the article. Perhaps more importantly, one can only use Canadian coins this way in person, and therefore probably at very low volume. None the less, it's interesting to see the parallel.

* And not that near, either. I've seen this in Massachusetts. I never saw this growing up in North Carolina, or when I moved to California, though.

<comment><USER3> I'd like to think of how this arbitrage might go down.

You try to buy an iPad in the US using 2000 Canadian quarters, thinking you will return it later to get 500 USD. Instead, they just tell you to 'fuck off' when you try to make the initial purchase.

<comment><USER4> I think if you try to buy anything with that many quarters they'd push you away.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One thing that'll help prevent this sort of confusion is the upcoming change in Bitcoin Cash address formats ([https://gist.github.com/DesWurstes/bba4222c8b6253b940096fced...](https://gist.github.com/DesWurstes/bba4222c8b6253b940096fcede97e17a)). Assuming clients check that the BTC addresses are valid, they'll reject the new BECH32 BCH format.

</comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone with knowledge of e-retail industry and BTC acceptance know how do business deal with the wild fluctuations in the BTC price?

<comment><USER7> Someone should open a company which provides tokens in exchange for depositing BTC with them. People can trade these tokens which are notional representations of the BTC holdings in an instantaneous manner. Then when someone actually wants the BTC, they redeem the tokens with the company and the BTC is transferred to their wallet... alternatively the company itself could act as an exchange and always send currency instead of tokens to the person receiving a payment.

Since all the small transactions are happening via these tokens, the cost of Bitcoin transactions would be a much smaller issue..

<comment><USER8> what would be the point of this? why not just use mainstream payment methods and then when someone actually wants BTC, purchase it from an exchange for fiat? The whole point of cryptocurrency is that its decentralized, creating a derivative on top of it (for payments??) issued by a centralized company subject to counterparty risk kinda ruins the purported advantages of Bitcoin don't you think?

<comment><USER7> As long as this system is run online,it would be free of regulations,so the govt would not be able to impose it's will on your assets...

<comment><USER8> Until this only-online "exchange" is "hacked" and suddenly you can't claim any BTC with their tokens anymore. Did you read the "counter-party risk" part of my comment?

<comment><USER7> My bad, missed that.

Yes, that risk is increased quite a bit, but I thought the main selling point of Bitcoin is that govt can't control your spending, which would stay

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would be really interested to know how much a black-hat hacker could have stolen.

I found this on the Overstock Wikipedia page [1]:

> In the first 22 hours, they received over 800 orders worth US $126,000 in > bitcoin. This represents a 4.33% increase in sales from their normal income > of $3 million per day. ... In mid-2014 Overstock.com announced that bitcoin > sales were averaging $300,000 per month and that the company expected > bitcoin sales to add 4 cents to the company's 2014 earnings per share.

I can't find any recent information, but it might have slowed down since Bitcoin transactions are so expensive now. Overstock is also holding 50% of their Bitcoin revenue as an investment, but I presume that's in cold storage. If they were doing $10,000 USD per day in 2014, then I would guess they might be doing around $100,000 in 2018.

So the refunds are probably coming out of some addresses that hold around $100,000 to $500,000 USD. Their Coinbase integration might have a daily buy limit of around $1M, or maybe even no limit. So a hacker could have stolen 6 or 7 figures, but probably no more than that.

You could write a script to automate all of the orders and refunds. You could use Tor, or you could use Bitcoin to rent VMs and IP addresses, then connect to your VMs via Tor. I don't know if Overstock has CAPTCHAs, but that's not a big deal if you're making 4-5 figures per CAPTCHA. And finally, you just trade the stolen Bitcoin for Monero, then back to Bitcoin. The only thing you have to worry about is a guilty conscience.

It's unclear if you could only use pre-fork transactions, or if you could spend the Bitcoin Cash from new blocks. If it's the latter, then you could just buy Bitcoin Cash using your refunded Bitcoin, and create/cancel orders in an infinite loop until you emptied their account.

I find it very interesting that Bancsec specializes in bank security. It's probably a bit harder for JB Snyder to get away with something like this than your average software engineer, since the FBI and IRS are probably keeping an eye on him. He's also the founder of a very successful security company, so 6 or 7 figures probably isn't worth the risk. (And of course, he's probably a model citizen and a saint.)

Anyway, it's not every day that you come across a virtual duffel bag with 6 or 7 figures of anonymous cash. I hope Coinbase or Overstock paid a bug bounty.

<comment><USER10> The answer you're looking for is "Yeah, as much as people like to cry moral decay, honor is still a thing."

You're right, there was no advantage to reporting the vuln. Most people would have jumped on that vuln like <edgy metaphor>.

But "fuck you, got mine" mentality won't get us to Mars. And as stupid as it sounds, having a story to tell is at least partly as satisfying as doing the actual heist. Zero risk, and you get to brag how smart you were. People are also much more likely to trust you in the future (as opposed to you being an unknown quantity).

Heists like that also punish the ecosystem. If Overstock lost $1m, it would forever show that moving to crypto is fundamentally a terrible idea. It would destabilize the basis of wealth you sought to acquire.

But... Yeah, passing up a $1m payday would not be easy.

<comment><USER9> This would be pretty mild hack compared to all the other cryptocurrency hacks that have happened so far. There's the $30M Parity hack, $94M stolen from Bitfinex, $473M from Mt Gox, $5.1M from Bitstamp, $50M from DAO, $7M from CoinDash, $8M from Veritaseum, and $500k from Enigma. I'm probably missing a few big ones, and countless small ones. But a $1M Overstock hack would barely make the news, and would probably be covered by insurance.

It's fun to think about all the people behind these hacks. JB Snyder could have been one of them, and we'd never know. A lot of them are probably just regular software engineers and security experts who stumbled onto these vulnerabilities.

I think it's true that the "fuck you, got mine" mentality won't get us to Mars, but that's the motivation behind cryptocurrencies. We can't trust billions of strangers, but we can trust math and physics.

Except, we already have systems that allow us to trust billions of strangers (governments and laws). Governments and banks could have reversed all of these transactions. The FBI might have tracked down the hackers, and a judge might have sent them to prison. I'm starting to think that we don't really need cryptocurrencies, and the current system is actually pretty good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm wondering who lost in this scenario, Overstock or Coinbase? The author offered to send it back to Overstock, and Coinbase presumably has a few other merchants, so presumably Overstock.

</comment><comment><USER12> it reminds me a bit of this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIMF8bp5-qg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIMF8bp5-qg)

</comment><comment><USER13> This isn't Overstocks first rodeo.

Back when Microsoft was literally paying people to use Bing, bing had a promotion such that certain items were eligible for a 20% discount, which was paid via a rebate check from Microsoft.

One day, I ordered some item then canceled it, and a couple months later I got an email informing me I had been credited for the purchase via MS, and my rebate account had, $10 or something. It took me about... 30 seconds to realize the implications of this.

I ordered as many plasma TVs as I could, one at a time, and then canceled them. I got about $900 of rebate checks before someone got suspicious. They canceled my account because I was buying too many TVs. They never did figure out what was going on.

Was it ethical and moral? No. But I hate MS and they've stolen thousands from me over the years. It felt great to get one over on them.

Edit: I've hated MS since I saved all summer to buy MS-DOS 5 and it was complete crap.

<comment><USER14> > But I hate MS and they've stolen thousands from me over the years.

I thought it was a cool story and a neat hack. I passed no ethical judgement. Until you went off the deep end with that fantasy-land justification.

MS didn't steal from you. You exchanged money for a product that, even if it was "complete crap", was the product that you desired more than others available in the market at the time of purchase.

It's not difficult to come up with a justification that passes a sniff test of conforming with reality: "I felt no ethical hesitation about this. MS shipped poor code for years. Most of the time the failures of that code most impacted their customers, I just found a case where it impacted them."

<comment><USER13> I was very plain about spoken about being a complete bastard and motivated by hate. I don't know how I could be any clearer about not being a good person in this instance.

Fortunately, I don't give a damn what strangers on the internet think about me :)

My only regret is not stealing more money from them.

<comment><USER15> I very much agree with your ethical justification.

I used to struggle with this too, but then I realized just how much corporations steal from America.

It wasn't always like this of course, both consumers/citizens and companies can go back to treating the other not-like-shit, but companies can go first.

This all hit me one day when I realized that, even if I dedicated my life to crime and greed, I would never be able to steal/defraud as much as many companies have in several business hours.

That being said I want to make it clear I pay my taxes in full and take only the standard deduction.

<comment><USER13> Exactly. Thank you.

I don't have morals. I simply reflect them. You treat me ethically, I will treat you ethically.

MS stole from me, I steal from them. There's no moral high ground here. Just reality.

<comment><USER16> Denying the concept of morality is merely a transparent excuse for not feeling bad about behavior you know to be immoral.

You were doing better in your previous comment when you admitted you were being a bad person and simply didn't care.

<comment><USER13> Acting morally in all cases is denial of the true nature of the universe.

I destroy what is bad, and nurture what is good.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> They should not have used the similar name in the first place during the fork and the aggressive marketing on CNBC about bcash as the original Bitcoin added more confusion to the people and as I see the systems too.

Though Anecdotal, none I know even talking about Bitcoin Cash. Can we not rename it already? It would be better for investors and also Bitcoin Cash team.

<comment><USER18> Bitcoin in the name is the only thing that holds the value. Other currencies have noticed and are quickly naming themselves after Bitcoin, like ZClassic renaming to Bitcoin Private.

<comment><USER10> Sounds like it's time for decentralized trademark enforcement.

<comment><USER19> As a blockchain!

<comment><USER20> Let's draft a whitepaper and szart the ICO tomorrow! We could collect pre launch eth already here.

<comment><USER21> HackerNewsCoin</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>