French National Police Switch 37,000 Desktop PCs to Linux - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/gendarmerie_linux/

<comment><USER3> > transferring to GendBuntu from a proprietary system means the staff member > receives a new computer with a widescreen monitor. (0)

This is a great idea to get staff to accept the change, not "forced" upon them but how about a bigger screen and a faster computer, now your colleague has one and you have a slow old one... it's a no brainer really.

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

<comment><USER4> It's the exact opposite of the linux desktop tradition: take a seven year old dust caked laptop. Put linux on it. Get excited about how much better it is than Windows NT. Hand it over to your 17 year old niece and watch her compare it to her friend's new macbook air.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interestingly, Linux is moving to win on several fronts. Economy and debt crisis, in addition to rising Ubuntu-like UI (easy to use, LibreOffice included, etc...) increase the benefits for governments and agencies. That's one front.

On another front, Linux clearly being the top platform for software development, it can naturally then be a top OS for game development, and become a top gaming platform itself, typically with SteamOS and Android.

At Ubuntu install parties, it's been a pleasure to see older French citizens coming in with already good information, knowledge and know-how of the Linux platform, for some because of their daily job at government agencies. And they want the OS at home! What else ;)

</comment><comment><USER6> This is NOT the Police but the Gendarmerie, one of the four military bodies along with the navy, the army and the air force. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gendarmerie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gendarmerie)

They are soldiers, not civil servants. Unlike french public administrations, when the army has an execution plan, it get things done!

<comment><USER7> Didn't they just move from Defense to Interior?

<comment><USER8> For budgetary/employment yes (back in 2009), but status-wise they remain a military force.

So they're really halfway, under both defense and interior.

<comment><USER9> So they can influence and share that know how with both departments? This could be interesting. I am really surprised that they managed to do it and it will be an easier sell now with the MS/NSA collaboration thing. So maybe we could expect other big deployments of that kind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> A bit of trivia, which makes the title actually wrong: it's "Gendarmerie Nationale" (which is a military corps, handled by "Ministère de la Défense" ~ DoD), not "Police Nationale" (which is not a military corps, under "Ministère de l'Intérieur" ~ DoHS).

The USA relies (IIUC) on 2nd amendment to resist oppression, possibly from its own police forces and government, whereas in France guns are outright forbidden but there are by design those two distinct and independent entities, with an autonomous chain of command, hopefully guaranteeing one will defend the people rights should the other be subverted.

<comment><USER11> This seems very much a French ideal. I used to visit France a lot for work, and there seemed to be a lot of disrespect of authority. (Strikes, unions, etc.)

This gets me thinking about Open Source. I would think that adoption is consistent with the Power to the People ethos in France. How is their Linux adoption as a country compared with the rest of the world?

<comment><USER12> In France Unions ARE the authority.

Most of the French work for the government and unions have lots of power.

<comment><USER13> The union culture in France is much smaller than in Belgium or Germany. The french media are giving it a lot of coverage (while criticizing it at the same time) but it doesn't mean its influence is as effective as you make it sound. There are your classical Poujadas scapegoats.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> _" The migration started in 2004, when the Gendarmerie was faced with providing all its users with access to its internal network. In order to save money, the agency switched from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice. Then the agency rolled out Firefox and Thunderbird in 2006. Finally, in 2008, it switched the first batch of 5,000 users to a Linux OS based on the Ubuntu distribution."_

They started the transition to FOSS in 2004, which means planning began even earlier: That's more than a decade.

They have transitioned approximat 7000 users a year to Linux for the past five years. They still have a significant fraction of their desktops that have not transitioned.

As an enterprise, they not only have state level funding but funding at the level of a security/military organization.

In my opinion it would be a mistake to ignore the scale and pace at which the transition was made. It would also be a mistake to discount the way in which the character and culture of the institution facilitated the transition - corporations don't have enlisted and staff officer cadres.

Sure there is no longer conscription, is not as if a gendarmerie can just quit for a job elsewhere in the industry if they prefer OSX.

<comment><USER10> > As an enterprise, they not only have state level funding but funding at the > level of a security/military organization.

Which also means that they're procedural and bureaucratic in a way that can make the term "enterprisey" sound like euphemism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if Windows 8 will be accelerating this kind of thing. The metro UI is so annoying, useless and unsuitable in a corporate environment, it finally provides a climate where even people who like Windows are happier with Ubuntu than they are with Windows 8.

<comment><USER16> I know this horse has been already beaten to death... but, I just got a laptop with Win8 this week and I have to say this, my goodness I am just awestruck that this Metro interface actually made it to the public in its current form. What the hell happened? Isn't Microsoft a company that conducts very basic UI tests before shipping a big product?

I like to think of myself as a fairly technical person, and yet I could not figure out how to do simple things like close windows, change windows, shut down, etc. for a good while.

My dad, a 68 year old guy, calls himself a geek computer person, his friends affectionately/comically refer him to as a "computer genius". He was trying out the Win8 laptop the other day... and I heard him say "Hm, I'm not as good with computers as I thought I was". That just really made me very sad. I'm just going to get a Win7 laptop for him now.

<comment><USER17> To be honest, 8.1 is OK. It's not perfect but it sits in the rankings between XP and 7. It's also going to be a free upgrade.

Basically you can turn off most of the crap and use the start screen as a start menu and it's bearable. I'd take it over XP but not 7 (which it looks like I'll be using until 2020)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Good for them!

As more and more people transition away from Windows, I'm always sad to see some move to OS X. If you're going to leave one proprietary, commercial & licensed platform for another, then really what's the point?

This sort of migration at least brings some tangible benefits, with one of them being tax dollars _not_ spent paying Microsoft a tax for having a PC.

These sort of stories definitely cheer me up.

<comment><USER12> "If you're going to leave one proprietary, commercial & licensed platform for another, then really what's the point?"

The point is using a complete UNIX operating system that works with any Unix code using standards like OpenGL, but at the same time, is respected by manufacturers of hardware and supported by service providers.

Half our computers(lots of them)in our company are Linux, half of them Mac. Using Unix means we could inter operate between them very easy, not like using Windows forcing DirectX(in theory you could use OpenGL, ha!).

Using Linux means we have total freedom in what we could do. We are outside USA, not software patents here.

<comment><USER13> What exactly are you working on ?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There's an extensive discussion on the subject a few links below: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6469559](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6469559)

</comment><comment><USER19> It's so heartening to see the scales finally beginning to tilt in favour of free and open-source software after decades.

While one reason (for OSes) is of course the much improved UI, installation/upgrade and app availability, I wonder how big a role the relative decline in the importance of the OS itself plays?

I chanced by this tweet earlier today:

 _" Steve Jobs told Dropbox they were a feature. Increasingly its looking like he had it backwards, the host OS is the disposable feature"_

([https://twitter.com/tolmasky/status/384756799351451648](https://twitter.com/tolmasky/status/384756799351451648))

</comment><comment><USER20> _Slow clap_ from Linux users everywhere. I think we are so jaded that some of us prefer the masses to remain ignorant to the fact of a more powerful, more stable and free OS. Things have become familiar this way.

<comment><USER21> "more powerful, more stable" Assuming you're comparing to Windows, in what ways more powerful and more stable?

I've used various versions of Linux and Windows, and in my experience Linux is great to use, until something breaks and you want to refresh that component. When I first started using it around 2005 it was network issues (luckily things are much improved now), when I use it now I most frequently have issues with sound. On the other hand, Windows might not be as nice a development environment, but at least you can rely on the drivers (for the most part).

<comment><USER22> "refresh that component". That's the way of thinking in windows where you reinstall random stuff until system works as expected.

In Linux, you will need to go through a lot of documentation and forum until you learn enough about the component to understand how to fix the issue.

This may seems a huge effort, but it is very rewarding: your problem is solved forever, you know what caused it, you have discovered many useful features of you OS that you did not know, you have learned how to analyse similar issues.

Linux is very stable: almost everything I have learned 20 years ago remain useful.

<comment><USER21> "your problem is solved forever" That might be true in your experience, but I see things differently. There are plenty, and I mean plenty, of bugs that only crop up in specific versions of software or specific distro configurations, and due to the customisability of Linux systems tracking down solutions to those bugs can be problematic.

Skills with Linux tools help diagnose the issue, but they don't always point to an obvious solution. As I mentioned earlier, I often have issues with sound in Linux, especially when trying something beyond the stock configuration (e.g. JACK interfacing with PulseAudio and ALSA). The graphics stack in Linux is slowly improving, I don't see why the same can't be done for audio. RTFM shouldn't be a requirement for basic functionality (graphics, sound, input, networking).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Gendarmerie is not "national police"; they are different entities (and of course they hate one another).

<comment><USER13> Keep it that way. It didn't do us any good to merge both (Belgium).

<comment><USER24> This makes me curious. Can you elaborate?

<comment><USER13> Yes. In a nutshell:

\- It was really expensive ;

\- the merging destroyed what used to work well within both groups but didn't produce a better group ;

\- the old guard is still actively resisting changes in both groups ;

\- a lot of discrepancies between level of powers (local, regional and national) that both groups weren't seeing in the same way (they had a different who's who to call for help when they needed to push things around and people lost some status or credit when trying to prevent it).

The main problem that should have been addressed (better coordination between both groups) still remains as far as citizens are concerned.

There was a clash of culture since the "gendarmerie" was more like military and police more like armed civil servants. Lines are being blurred now but there are still weird intermediate unofficial rankings that are in place only for legacy and "don't move my cheese and hurt my feelings" reasons.

Salaries inequalities were too obvious and "adapted" responsibilities didn't match people's experience and training.

The overlap between the geographical regions each group were assigned to before the merging still transpires in the new system, like a ghost.

There was a huge power struggle.

I am sure these problems will totally disappear in a generation but it didn't go anywhere as smooth as the politicians said it would. And the results isn't necessarily better.

One thing hasn't changed though: they still send officers from one linguistic region to the other when dealing with protestations motivated by hot and sensible topics.

There still are two different kind of police: the local one and the federal one. The local authorities hire officers while the federal one has an endless supply of new recruits* but every officers come from the same police academies.

* gross exaggeration here.

To be honest it's not a problem of merging two groups or having only one police faction. It was badly handled and rushed by the political world at the time (they were in a hurry to fix many problems that were hot topic at that time, people were in the street and the merging was part of the answer). But I can't see how such huge changes in a society could be made without the political world being under huge pressure to do so. So I can't see how those kind of changes can't be done without being rushed.

Keep in mind it's only my advice and it was a sensible topic at some point. Some opinions are really polarized about all this.

<comment><USER24> Thanks for the detailed answer, this was insightful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I suppose the moment when there are only two questions to be answered before a non-developer's device is selected has arrived.

Q1: Does it run a mainstream, grade A browser? Q2: Is there an adequate way of generating documents I can share with users of other devices?

Answer yes to both and it is down to price, convenience and aesthetics - <USER2> (for some) the added advantage of a selection making life tougher for inter- (and infra-) national spies.

<comment><USER26> As mentioned by many people, open source gives you peer review as an advantages, and bugs (both in-good-faith and intentional) get more easily spotted.

This however doesn't prevents bug from be there, and the question is: will those guys be keeping their _custom_ systems up to date?

Also, as you point out, a lot of the work is now moved on this [gorram] cloud, and unfortunately the simple fact you're running GNU/Linux hardly prevents information from leaking. I wonder if they will also be using strong cryptography or custom online services!

EDIT: the distro is likely being a spin-off of something existing -- indeed, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu) as somebody linked -- so yes, that will be up to date.

<comment><USER27> At least they _get to_ solve the problems. You can't do that with closed OSs. Same goes for the cloud vs. your own server.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> 2013: Year of linux on the desktop!

</comment><comment><USER29> This article was already posted yesterday. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6469559](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6469559)

Just another duplicate spam post from Libertatea.

</comment><comment><USER30> we will definitely start to see more and more stories like this around the world. obviously not in the US.</comment>


Idea HN: Tag Reduction / Unification - <AUTHOR>

Since many folks here are doing web startups that involve tagging (be or blog posts, photos, etc), this might be relavant. The use for tags is to cluster groups of photos together. But across users, tags are Inconsistent, somewhat defeating this purpose.
Lets take Flickrs tag example (most popular tags)

  photowalk2009, sp4449, pitchforkmusicfestival,   worldwidephotowalk, skphoto, scottkelbyphotowalk,   scottkelbysworldwidephotowalk, scottkelby, vihar,  day199,  scottkelbyworldwidephotowalk, scottkelbyssecondannualworldwidephotowalk, kelby,  scottkelbyphotowalk2009, odori,  photowalk,  therebeastormabrewin, worldwide, riat, mefi10
 Notice that the "photowalk" appears so many different ways, where it should have been just one tag "ScottKelbyPhotowalk". This is just a example, but there are lot of instances where this happens with other tags.
Unifying the inconstant tags can be done in several ways.  Automatically using world similarity, or allowing users to suggest tags that mean the same (then a moderator can go select the ones that validate them). Another way is picking a random tag and all objects tagged with it, and then examining the most common tags within that set (most likely the top N tags common to all of them will mean the same).
Just an idea to make your next app a bit more usable. <comment><USER2> If apps allow multiple people to tag the same resource then you should be able to figure out synonyms statistically.

It's probably a mistake to show top tags at all.

Flickr allowing you tag an entire upload set is definitely a big mistake. Browsing/discovering on the tag "tokyo" to find 20 pictures of the inside of a nondescript hotel room (even though the owner was on his way to or in tokyo) is not really a great experience.

Overtagging/hypertagging is definitely a symptom that something is wrong.

Tags should mostly be describing the object itself (photo, in this case.) They are also overloaded to describe a set of things (see previous) and a group organization of people. This last is very fragile.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think a good (and easy) method would be to see if any of the tags they are trying to input can be matched at the beginning or end of any of the others, and then disallow the longer version (or suggest an alternative).

Using your example above, photowalk matches the beginning of "photowalk2009" and the end of "worldwidephotowalk", "scottkelbyphotowalk", "scottkelbysworldwidephotowalk", "scottkelbyworldwidephotowalk", and "scottkelbyssecondannualworldwidephotowalk". So none of those would be allowed (only the original "photowalk"), but "scottkelbyphotowalk2009" would be allowed, since "photowalk" doesn't match the beginning or end of the string.

Or, you could simply do what Stack Overflow does, and limit the number of tags you can enter (they have a limit of 5 per question). I think that would keep people from spamming it so much since they'll have to enter relevant tags, and not just a bunch of variations.

<comment><AUTHOR> To add to the _StackOverflow is doing is right_ , is the Tag Suggestions. (forcing early users to use already existing tags)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I designed the UI so that it pushes users to use existing tags. There are also moderation tools that allow an admin to merge one tag into another. The merge also records the lesser tag as a synonym of the greater tag so that you only have to do each merge once.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wrote about this in 2004: [http://al3x.net/2004/11/14/emergentcollaborative- catagorizat...](http://al3x.net/2004/11/14/emergentcollaborative- catagorization.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> There is a conflict between letting people use tags for whatever meaning is natural to them, and mildly enforcing a 'consensus' meaning.

I'm currently working on a system where starting a tag with a specific character implies 'consensus definition'. Each such tag has a corresponding wiki page where users can hammer out the common standards for its use/meaning.

For now, the special character is ':' -- the '#' of '#hashtags' presents problems mapping into neat URLs.

So for example, the tag 'photowalk' would mean whatever each user individually intends it to mean. There's no expectation of common meaning, even though in many cases a useful concordance may occur (as in any mixed personal/public tagging system). OTOH, ':photowalk' means exactly what the matching /wiki/:photowalk page documents it to mean. If you use it incorrectly, people and the system will nudge you to clean up your usage. (In particular, later users can essentially nullify your mistaken tag in a manner analogous to correcting a wiki edit, by applying a '-:photowalk' tag.)</comment>


The Hubble Space Telescope Is Falling - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-hubble-space-telescope-is-falling-96951f3e50e1 <comment><USER2> "The only planned apparatus capable of servicing or boosting Hubble, NASA's Space Launch System, has already seen its first planned flight slip behind schedule."

I hardly think that a rendezvous demands the capabilities of SLS (or the Senate Launch System as I choose to think of it). Really any booster that can get to a ~300mi orbit with a reasonable payload could do the job.</comment>


Debugging software with your ears - <AUTHOR> http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/Conferences/ICAD96/proc96/vickers.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> I know there is a more recent article on the subject but I was unable to find it. If you know of one, or have examples of your own use of sound in debugging, please pass them on.</comment>


The "Interview" with Y Combinator That's Not - <AUTHOR> http://blog.directededge.com/2009/11/05/the-interview-with-y-combinator-thats-not/ <comment><USER2> This is exactly how our "interview" went.

Despite being given the same advice by others that had been through the process we still foolishly wasted time preparing a short 1 minute pitch.

We might have had a better result if we'd invested more time in getting the user experience in our demo right and answering the one critical question - "Why would people want this?"

Don't make the same mistake we did. :)

<comment><USER3> Is a demo required?

<comment><USER4> I think its incredibly foolish to try to get funding for something that has no basis in reality yet. That's what a demo really is -- a toe-hold. But that toehold is usually enough to know whether a team can make it a reality, and whether they have a chance in the real world.

There's so much competition from great teams that it may well be a waste of time without showing your best.

<comment><USER3> I understand but Paul Graham really makes an emphasis on the _team_ , and that a demo is not required. I mean there has to be a way to prove that that the team can produce what they claim: past work, past startups, etc right?

<comment><USER5> I think YC is sufficiently competitive that teams without a demo (on the application) will not even get an interview. Also (I believe it has been said), the two weeks from when you're notified to the weekend of the interview should be sufficient to produce some kind of early stage demo. Your startup idea might be unfit for YC if you can't at least have something to show in two weeks of fervent work.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the advice. I was under the impression that the demo would be unimportant, and since I'm in school right now, I thought I'd go slow at it unless I am accepted.

I can whip up something in two weeks easy (even with school), but I didn't submit a demo in the application because I didn't think it would be necessary, so I focused on developing the idea instead.

<comment><AUTHOR> Trevor talked about this in the comments to my article on applying to YC:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=854088>

<comment><USER3> I guess what my situation was that I could balance school and the application, or school and the prototype. While I had an urge to work on the prototype I always felt guilty because frankly the application has a deadline, the prototype does not. Actually after the application deadline I was able to get back to the prototype.

<comment><USER6> If you get an interview, unbalance school to get the prototype ready - 'don't worry be crappy' - for the interview.

<comment><USER3> Oh definitely. In fact I did that the last time I prototyped a site and not only was I not doing it for any investors, I had finals the same week.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Heh, waiting for the post-interview phone call was a real nail-biter, we basically spent the entire evening waiting for the phone to ring. But it didn't.

It didn't even occur to us that they might call our land line back home until we got the email the next morning. Remotely checking the answering machine was fun too, hadn't used that feature in ages and the code didn't work (turns out you can't send DTMF tones when calling via Skype).

At the time we weren't sure if they give everyone a call or just the ones they accept, so we didn't take the absence of a call as a 'no', but kept wondering. In the end, we got the answer about 26 (pretty exciting) hours after we left the interview room.

So, unless you're a thrill seeker, put your cell number in the application :-)

<comment><USER8> Or just be sure to tell me at the end of the interview which number you'd like us to call that night.

<comment><USER9> From the article, _We'd given Jessica cards with our cell-phone numbers on them during the interview, but that didn't seem to have registered._

I take that to mean that they tried to make it clear how to call them, but for whatever reason signals got crossed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Slight sidenote. On an 800x480 screen, overflow:hidden is a royal pain.

<comment><USER7> Not sure why you got downvoted. Thanks for the note, I appreciate it and will look into this.

<comment><USER10> No problem! Thanks for looking out for us netbook users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> First, congratulations! I'm curious how you are setting up a company in the United States if you or one of your co-founders is from Germany? I've been trying to figure out the whole startup-as-a-foreigner thing (I'm Canadian), and so far I haven't been able to find any good info.

</comment><comment><USER12> Did you guys happen to do much mingling in the waiting area just before or just after your interview?

We got to the interview super early and ended up chatting with Kate (we asked her how to get to In and Out), Skysheets Dan (saw his demo), and two other interviewing teams that were accepted. Then there were two less social teams who sat in the corner with their laptops, I guess nervously testing their demo one last time.

Maybe I'm over-fitting, but for me the nerve-calming benefits of being social in the waiting room was helpful.

<comment><USER13> They did. I remember them as the first other YC team we talked to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Anyone know if YC is doing traditional companies? i.e. advertising and real- estate.

Don't need the money but could really use the "blessing". They have some of the most enviable media contacts in the industry right now.

<comment><USER15> We'll fund anything that scales like a startup. We had a very promising startup doing real estate two cycles ago, but they fell apart due to disputes between the founders. I still think it was a great idea.

<comment><USER16> What company was this?

edit: why am I getting downvoted?

<comment><USER17> From: <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

"Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. "

<comment><USER16> Sure, I'll keep that in mind.

One point I'd like to make though is that it's less about the karma itself than it is about the reason that people don't like the question. I could understand why if I was trolling, insulting, etc.

Honestly, I don't care if my karma goes to negative infinity, unless that would automatically ban my account, or something to that effect.

<comment><USER17> My first year on YC was depressing, as comments that I put a lot of work, energy, effort and thought into would sometimes be downmodded into oblivion.

I would write an expose on Hiring practices we used to have at Netscape, detailing precisely what hiring managers though, and how - and people would downmod me like there was tomorrow.

Over time, I realized, that sometimes it's just a popularity contest. Your comments, even if well meant, may just not be in agreement with somebody elses. I just learned to deal with it - over time you get a sense for the Ebb and Flow - and can learn quite a bit about the community. Don't always consider a downmod to be negative - sometimes it's just a reflection of what other people think - not a reflection of your comments value.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Thanks for the insight into the process. That sounds a lot more useful than an actual interview, because it seems like _you_ are learning something from the meeting through the brainstorming.

</comment><comment><USER19> Wheels, this is brilliant and it mostly matches what we learnt from other startups during StartupSchool and the Y-Combinator reception last month. Thanks for putting this in a post.

</comment><comment><USER20> Interesting read and nice success story...

On DirectedEdge home, can I enter any search term, or does this need to be a well formatted Wikipedia entry url ?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you type the beginning of an article name it should autocomplete after a sec (it's a little slower than it should be...) There's also an easter-egg you can use:

<http://www.directededge.com/?Y%20Combinator>

<comment><USER21> BTW, time to put up a nice looking 404 page or fix whatever's wrong:

<http://www.directededge.com/dsfdsfds>

<comment><AUTHOR> If you were trying to hit the easter egg you have to put it in the query string, not just as a sub-url.

<comment><USER21> Yeah, I noticed that, but there's definitely an ugly page there that I thought you might want to fix.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is a great breakdown of your journey. Thanks for giving us the info.

</comment><comment><USER23> I just spent 10 minutes playing with the flash visualization on your homepage.

Good luck!

<comment><USER24> Is it flash? When I right click it lets me save the graph image as an image... what are you guys using to do this? It's really neat.

<comment><USER25> It's a <canvas> element.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Wow, I'm going to have to be a lot more thoughtful when I post on news.ycombinator from now on.

<comment><USER9> And you'll start with your next post, right? :-P

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I am sorry if this is completely obvious and I am missing something. But I just do not understand, not one little bit.

Why did you fly to America to get $5000? It is not a large amount of money. I am surprised it covered your air fares.

So why? I do not feel the need at all. You did. I would like to here why. Did they really say something in the interview that justified all that time and expense?

update: I have no idea whatsoever why this is being downvoted. There is no way I would fly to the US to collect a pathetic $5k. I'd genuinely like to know why people think it is a profitable thing to do so. Thanks.

<comment><USER28> You're being downvoted because people think the answer to your question is so obvious that you must be trolling. However, I'll assume you're being sincere.

The money is the least important aspect of getting in to YC. What matters is the advice they provide and the community/network aspects. These things are so valuable that they are a huge state change for most startups.

<comment><USER27> This is not obvious to me at all. I admit I have difficulty conceiving of advice so compelling I'd travel to America to receive it.

Fair enough I guess. People pay what they think it is worth. That's capitalism; no argument from me. I am not trolling. Carry on.

<comment><USER15> It shouldn't be that difficult to imagine. It's a very old tradition to travel long distances in search of specialized knowledge. Practically every famous medieval scholar did. But of course the tradition is way older than that. In the mid 6th century BC Pythagoras went to study in Egypt, and his biographer Porphyry said "It was from his stay among these foreigners that Pythagoras acquired the greater part of his wisdom."

<comment><USER29> Sure, but the world has changed in the several centuries since.

Today travelling across the world to receive information isn't something most people would do - or even think about. After all, the price of information has crashed even more than stocks in Lehrman Brothers.

<comment><USER15> Actually travelling great distances as part of one's education is more common, not less. I wouldn't be surprised if at least a million people a year move to distant towns to go to college or grad school every year in the US alone.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


There Is A Difference Between Evil And Just Absurdly Profitable - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/04/there-is-a-difference-between-evil-and-just-absurdly-profitable

<comment><USER3> It doesn't appear TechCrunch linked to this article at any point:

[http://consumerist.com/5349663/the-article-cash4gold- doesnt-...](http://consumerist.com/5349663/the-article-cash4gold-doesnt-want- you-to-read)

Essentially, The Consumerist makes a strong case that the ads are misleading, that Cash4Gold systematically offers much less than their ads suggest, and that their staff are trained to support this scheme.

Specifically, the staff knows the strategy, their script walks through offering the minimum amount to avoid sending the gold back to the customer, and the staff are rewarded based on the number of customers they can reject.

When former employees spoke out about this, Cash4Gold sued them under flimsy pretenses (defamation). Then, when Consumerist ran an article about it, Cash4Gold sued them too.

Read the article and see if you can find any unfounded or untruthful claims that might be suggestive of defamation.

This is unethical at best, and evil at worst.

<comment><USER4> The lawsuits are unethical, but I don't see the problem with the process. They make a legitimate offer to the person, and that person is completely within their rights to accept or reject it. Those rights are not abridged by an under-market offer, there's no obligation to accept the crappy offer.

There's nothing unethical with making a low offer. If the person is willing to sell it to you at that price, then great, what's the issue?

<comment><USER5> Exploiting asymmetric information to intentionally screw low-information consumers on the value of their property makes you an asshole in my book.

Cue the glibertarians to spew their idiocy about blah blah blah, consenting adults, blah blah blah. That's fine, and believe me, I'll be pointing and laughing when it happens to their grandparents.

And yes, I can't give you a technical definition of screw. Much like Justice Potter, I know it when I see it. And paying out 20% of value or less is screwing people.

<comment><USER6> _Exploiting asymmetric information to intentionally screw low-information consumers_

But all negotiations are based on asymmetric information, right?

This is like the cigarettes discussion. Cigarettes kill people. So just tell them so and let's move on.

These guys screw people over. So just tell people and lets move on. There are lots of ways for people to lose money.

I think there is a line where a company would be evil, but I draw that line where high-pressure sales tactics are used for large sums of money, such as time-share sales. These guys are no different than the neighborhood pawn shop.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There definitely is a difference between Absurdly Profitable and Evil, but Cash4Gold is Evil. They mislead and try to exploit their customers. When two people enter into a deal they should be trying to reach a mutually beneficial deal, they shouldn't resort to underhanded techniques.

For instance, when companies offer mail in rebates that are difficult to redeem (must jump through a lot of hoops, takes a long time, etc) they are misleading you. It's just like a mechanic overcharging you because you don't know how much it should cost.

<comment><USER8> _For instance, when companies offer mail in rebates that are difficult to redeem (must jump through a lot of hoops, takes a long time, etc) they are misleading you._

So it turns out that someone actually measured this and found out that things you might naively assume are in the customer's interest (short forms and long periods until the rebate offer expires) actually _decrease_ redemption rates.

<http://news.ufl.edu/2004/06/15/rebates/>

(Totally anecdotal evidence: Japan offered me an economic stimulus payment of $120 direct-deposited to my bank account within a week, for filling out a three-line form and stamping with my personal seal, and gave me nine months to do it in. I put it in my closet and figured I'd mail it some day when I got around to it, because my personal seal was at the office the day I got the form. Sure enough, I missed the cutoff by a week. If it had said "You have to stamp this TOMORROW or you lose $120" I'd probably have gotten it done.)

Totally not anecdotal evidence:

[http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/2009/09/14/rebatedelivery- mai...](http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/2009/09/14/rebatedelivery-mail-in- rebates-for-online-sales/)

[http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/2009/09/18/rebatedelivery- res...](http://www.alwinhoogerdijk.com/2009/09/18/rebatedelivery-results-of- ab-split-test/)

Take a look at the results of his A/B test: it shows that offering rebates for his software essentially prints money.

I'm seriously considering implementing this in my software -- offering a $5 rebate to bring the price down to $25. The only thing holding me back is the feeling that I'd be exploiting the difference between my customers's self- perception of themselves as organized and their actual organizational skills.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Not being in the US, I first came across Cash4Gold through Cockeyed.com - <USER2> was even 'offered' a few grand to help recast their reputation - <http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/goldkit/reputation.shtml>

Arrington's comparison to baseball hot dog vendors and $30 hotel wi-fi seems fair though. You kinda feel like you're being ripped off, but you do have choice, and ultimately that creates room for competition.

"We pay 65% of its value" may sound an unlikely marketing strategy to some of us, but it sounds like their target market is similar to the one targeted in Vegas' "Our Slots return 97%" campaign.

<comment><USER10> For the last several years, Rob Cockerham has made all of his posts structured around exposes of scams that happen to be high-value Adsense: Cash4Gold, Kirby vacuums, MLM, Viagra, etc. His "Levitra couch" hoax was particularly inspired.

<comment><USER9> That's a good observation, and they all seem to have happened after he discovered he was a top Google rank for 'silly string'. Not just (even?) a pretty face.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> My take on this: yes, it is targeted at poor consumers. They're almost certainly going to receive objectively worse terms than people who are smarter, savvier, and (not unrelated to those two) richer. This happens in many, many things poor people buy.

There are a lot of folks whose actions are responsible for this state of affairs. Its interesting that while responsibility is diffuse, blame gets concentrated pretty acutely on particular participants in the value chain.

For example, I can't remember the last time someone blamed jewelry vendors for the plight of poor people. Poor people spend more as a percentage of income on jewelry than any other socio-economic group. Poor people have more of their assets tied up in jewelry than any other socio-economic group.

Its interesting to me -- and I mean that, interesting, not the passive- aggressive way of saying "y'all are stupid" -- that we go after Cash4Gold for offering $12.50 for $75 worth of gold when we don't go after Kay Jewelers for selling the $300 brooch the gold is in. Cash4Gold is seen as cheating the poor customer out of $62.50, but Kay Jewelers is just an honest businessman who made $225 off of selling the bauble in the first place.

More broadly: a portion of the attraction to jewelry for poor customers is that it is a value store and access to short-term credit for people who are unbanked. (If you own a $300 bauble from Kay's then you have a $100 line of credit at your local pawn shop which charges you APRs of $STAGGERING_PERCENT.) Jewelry is a TERRIBLE alternative to banking services.

Incidentally: jewelry is a consumption item. Don't buy it with the intention of it having resale value. Don't buy it if you can't afford it.

<comment><USER11> Or, even simpler, don't buy it. Real people are more than beautiful enough by themselves and don't need to be plastered with gold. Especially not if the only thing that gold does is show that you now no longer have money. Better spend it on something useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wait... high-priced wifi at a hotel _isn't_ evil?

As far as I can tell, Cash4Gold is taking advantage of people too lazy to make an effort to find someone willing to pay market value for their gold. Phrased another way, their low payments are a convenience fee, just like valet parking or fuff-service gas stations[0]. I see nothing wrong here.

[0] Well, outside of Oregon and New Jersey, at least.

</comment><comment><USER13> in my mind, it is unethical. it relies on its users being apathetic or not particularly smart. the payments sent out are intentionally low/minimal. and for those that are smarter and motivated, it makes the process by which you appeal your low payment difficult and convoluted.

<comment><AUTHOR> i agree with your second point (that a difficult & convoluted process is unethical) but lots of businesses rely on users being apathetic or not particularly smart (real estate agents, godaddy.com, etc etc)

<comment><USER14> Except for real estate (which isn't all that bad) a lot of services like these still make it possible for a consumer to opt out with relative ease once they find out they're being cheated. With Cash4Gold, once they've melted your gold there is no going back.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> i think it's an interesting ethical debate.

regardless of the moral judgment (I personally think its a fine business), it's an interesting data point that neither highland capital partners nor general catalyst have confirmed the financing, despite its size and high profile.

</comment><comment><USER15> who cares if its evil or profitable, why the hell is techcrunch covering them in the first place? they aren't a web startup.

<comment><USER16> Presumably because it's controversial.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If people don't like the price they're getting for their gold, go somewhere else... there's nobody that forces people to do business with them</comment>


My New Old Apple IIe Computer - <AUTHOR> https://www.charlieharrington.com/my-new-old-apple-iie-computer <comment><USER2> The easiest and fastest way to get software onto your new beloved:

Search the internet for the FTP Apple Asimov server (there are http mirrors if you don't want you use ftp). This is an archive of many thousands of Apple diskette images and software.

Download stuff from the archive onto an SD card. Then purchase an SD to Apple disk emulator card (plugs into one of those 7 slots and emulates an Apple disk drive). You can load software from the sd card onto the Apple just as if each file from Asimov were a real 5.25" diskette.

Also pick up one of these:

[https://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=WiModem232OLED](https://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=WiModem232OLED)

You can connect your Apple to WiFi and then essentially telnet to one off the many BBS servers that are still running. Actually you can telnet to anything on the Internet at that point. You just need to load terminal emulation software, like Ascii Express (often abbreviated as AE or AE Express), onto the Apple first.

<comment><USER3> I also suggest the CFFA hard-disk emulator. I always wanted a hard disk for my Apple II.

<comment><USER4> I have one of the old ones, its good, but the new ones look even better because you can copy images from the internet directly to it.

OTOH, I also have the [https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy- emu/](https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/) for that.

The CFFA is better as a HD, while the floppy emu is good for just plugging into random disk ports (IIGS/IIC/laser 128).

<comment><USER2> There are other options besides the CFFA. There's a South Korean guy named Ian Kim who makes the awesome SD Disk ][ emulator. Sell it on ebay. It has the best firmware I've used on these types of devices. It has an LCD screen and onboard controls and menus with which you can scroll through all images & select the one you want to load.

<comment><USER5> The FloopyEMU also has an LCD with menus and onboard controls to select images, change modes, etc.

<comment><USER2> They are out of stock. Do you know how often he produces them?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great piece.

Haven't seen Beagle Bros mentioned. Their awesome catalogs:

[https://stevenf.com/beagle/contents.html](https://stevenf.com/beagle/contents.html)

Also haven't seen mentioned Pinball Construction Set- an absolutely amazing piece of engineering, by Bill Budge:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Construction_Set](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Construction_Set)

Last I checked, Budge was still working- for Google- on the V8 runtime. Think he is on twitter.

And while there are a lot of 6502 assembly resources around online, fondly remembered books on 6502 assembly and graphics programming (still have em):

[https://www.amazon.com/High-resolution-Graphics-Animation- As...](https://www.amazon.com/High-resolution-Graphics-Animation-Assembly- Language/dp/0810467585)

[https://books.google.com/books/about/Hi_res_Graphics_for_the...](https://books.google.com/books/about/Hi_res_Graphics_for_the_Apple_II_IIe_IIc.html?id=AnSeAAAACAAJ)

Super cool memories from my childhood.

<comment><USER7> Came here to mention Beagle Bros. In particular, for this:

> _Other than AppleSoft BASIC (which was written by Microsoft! For Apple!!), > which is burned into a ROM chip on the Apple II, there 's also some sort of > built-in assembler that you can access by typing this into the BASIC > prompt:_

        CALL-151

> _I believe this is where I 'll be able to do some of the more Commodore > 64-like peeking and poking directly at memory. I have a feeling there's a > lot of exploring (and fun) to be done here. I need to read up more on this._

Try the "Beagle Bros Peeks and Pokes Supplement":

[https://apple2online.com/web_documents/Beagle%20Bros%20Peeks...](https://apple2online.com/web_documents/Beagle%20Bros%20Peeks%20&%20Pokes%20Supplement.pdf)

There were collections of cheat sheets, you want the Peeks and Pokes one:

[https://blog.codinghorror.com/i-heart- cheatsheets/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/i-heart-cheatsheets/)

Also multiple delightful "catalogs" and tips books:

[https://apple2online.com/web_documents/Beagle%20Bros%20Catal...](https://apple2online.com/web_documents/Beagle%20Bros%20Catalog%20&%20Tip%20Book%202%20KB.pdf)

Unfortunately, I can never find the big compendium they produced, vaguely recalled as a brown legal sized paperback with their logo on the front and chock full of everything.

This is available and good tho:

Assembly Lines

 _"... designed for students of all ages: the nostalgic programmer enjoying the retro revolution, the newcomer interested in learning low-level assembly coding, or the embedded systems developer using the latest 65C02 chips..._

[https://smile.amazon.com/Assembly-Lines-Complete-Roger- Wagne...](https://smile.amazon.com/Assembly-Lines-Complete-Roger- Wagner/dp/1312089407/)

\- - -

EDIT: I FOUND THE BIG TIP BOOK!!!!

[https://archive.org/details/Beagle_Bros- The_Big_Tip_Book_OCR...](https://archive.org/details/Beagle_Bros- The_Big_Tip_Book_OCR/mode/2up)

It's 250 pages, and previously couldn't find it because Beagle Bros wasn't in the name. Brown w/ the logo tho, heh.

<comment><USER8> Beagle Bros was one of my favorite things when I was a teenager. I had the peeks and pokes poster ([http://beagle.applearchives.com/the_posters/poster_2.html](http://beagle.applearchives.com/the_posters/poster_2.html)) among others up on my wall and used GPLE (an editor) which was really nice. What I alwayss liked was their "Style" (old barbershop) and jokes.

Now I have an Apple IIe right next to my work computer (Floppy Emu). I connected it to a linux terminal and was able to do text Google searches and the SERP still renders fine at 80x24.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I once was walking in my neighborhood in Brooklyn when a couple doors down from my apartment I saw some beige boxes in the trash in front of a brownstone. Just laying there in the trash was a Macintosh SE, a Macintosh Plus, and a Macintosh (512k). No keyboards, but I still couldn't believe it. I totally forgot about what I was going to do and immediately grabbed them and brought them up to my apartment. They all booted fine. I ended up giving the Plus and SE away to friends, but I still have the 512k in my office and play around with it from time to time. What a great machine!

<comment><USER10> Some of the software for early Macs is astonishing by modern standards. Clarisworks is an office suite that provides a word processor, spreadsheet, database, paint, illustration, and program that should run on an 8 MHz 68000 based Macintosh Plus. A full installation was about 4 MB, but it could be trimmed down to 600 kB and retain its core functionality.

That office suite was based upon Appleworks for the Apple II. While the latter was much more limited (e.g. no graphics), it had to deal with much tighter constraints.

The accomplishments of those early programmers was astounding, particularly when you consider that many of those early programs had many of the features that we take for granted today. For example, both Appleworks and Clarisworks allowed you to share data between modules. I almost lust for the days when we could do so much with so little. Granted, that's not going to happen when a modern display requires pushing and storing three to four orders of magnitudes more bits to represent a square inch of graphics.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> You mentioned that your "4" and "R" keys are missing. I have Apple IIe keycaps I don't need, so let me know and I can send them to you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Amazing! Just followed you on Twitter, and I'll DM you there :) Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The Super Serial Card is a nice and you don't need any software to use it. Typing "PR#2" followed by "IN#2" (replace the "2" with the slot number the card is installed in) will give you access to a very simple serial communications terminal. Granted, it does take some configuration for both computers to understand each other.

You can also search for scans of books and magazines online. People have been working on preserving these materials since the mid-1990's, so there are many excellent resources.

</comment><comment><USER12> IIE (//e)? Manuals are available on archive.org. you can browse with their page by page thing, but if you scroll down they're available a pdfs.

and the owners manual, very pracitcal nuts and bolts, but informative (150 pgs).

[https://archive.org/details/apple-iie-owner- manual/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/apple-iie-owner-manual/mode/2up)

The reference manual is low level but helps in understanding the machine.

[https://archive.org/details/Apple_IIe_Reference_Manual_HiRes...](https://archive.org/details/Apple_IIe_Reference_Manual_HiRes/mode/2up)

</comment><comment><USER13> In 1983 I bought an Apple ][e with a monitor, dual floppy drives (but not the fancy duodisk verson), and an 80 column card. A friend and his father had bought several as a speculative investment, and when his parents left town he needed cash for a party. I took advantage of this situation and got a smoking deal.

A very short time later I bought a Hayes Smartmodem 1200 from someone wanting to avoid advertising in the local paper. Again, a smoking deal. At one point I dialed 60 BBSes a week.

A very short time later I bought a Z80 card so that I could also run CP/M.

It was glorious. I regret selling it.

I learned to type so that I could be more productive on that machine. That, and my handwriting was already atrocious. I programmed Apple Basic, Apple Pascal, 6502 assembly, and C on that machine. I used Apple Writer to transcribe and print a literary magazine for my school. I typeset calculus notes on the machine. I plotted star charts.

So much fun, and, yes, such a wonderfully expandable machine.

</comment><comment><USER14> > Some wizards at work told me that I probably cannot just plug this into a > modern phone line and expect it to work, though.

Is this true? I can't think of any immediate reason it would fail, but finding something to actually dial into seems like a harder problem.

<comment><USER15> Pulse Vs tone?

Is that a thing or did my brain just make it up? :/

<comment><USER4> Probably doesn't matter (although that is a genuine Hayes so it probably supports both) because a lot of those old modems were capable of "operator dial". AKA you dial the phone manually then you tell the modem to start negiotiation. AKA ATDT is a tone dial, while ATDP is a pulse dial, or just plain ATD to start negotiation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have an Apple ][+ that stopped working a few years ago, and I don't have the time to fix it up. I don't want to throw it out, as it seems a piece of history (and it's the computer I grew up using so there's some nostalgia...). I have all the original manuals and some floppies with it. Anyone know of good places to find it a home? Any groups of vintage Apple users to post it to, or something like that?

<comment><USER2> I would gladly take it and make use of it with my son. I can pay you shipping and even an extra fee for the trouble. gushickens1234 at gmail dot com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Regarding the games you can type out in BASIC, there's a book called "BASIC Computer Games" I got at the library once, and there's an online page that has a decent collection of them:

[http://www.moorecad.com/classicbasic/index.html](http://www.moorecad.com/classicbasic/index.html)

They are in MS Basic, but it might be a fun exercise to try to port them.

I recently rescued a IBM PS/1 and a Macintosh Plus from my grandpa's basement, got a similar response from family/friends... "Well what do you DO with it?". I think my wife thought I was crazy when I was trying to explain how powerful and primal a BASIC prompt is.

EDIT: there's a link on the above link that has the original book contents: [https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/)

<comment><USER12> The applesoft basic manual is on archive.org

This one is a pretty good primer:

[https://archive.org/details/ATouchOfApplesoftBASIC/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/ATouchOfApplesoftBASIC/mode/2up)

there are others (archive.org is a good resource for these things.)

[https://archive.org/details/applesoft- tutorial/page/n37/mode...](https://archive.org/details/applesoft- tutorial/page/n37/mode/2up)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> And for productivity, there's always AppleWorks[1]. Well, I suppose one doesn't get a 37-year old computer for productivity, but just in case...

[1] [https://apple2history.org/history/ah19/](https://apple2history.org/history/ah19/)

</comment><comment><USER19> I totally agree with you about the awesomeness of the software manuals from the time. The whole aesthetic is so much warmer then it is now.

<comment><USER2> Because there were no websites, blogs, podcasts, or other sources of information about these devices, the manuals had to be thorough.

You should see how amazing the manual for my Amdek monitor is, or the Grappler + graphics card for the Apple // (allows you to print graphics from your Apple // to a dot matrix printer):

[https://apple2online.com/web_documents/Orange%20Micro%20Grap...](https://apple2online.com/web_documents/Orange%20Micro%20Grappler%20+%20Operators%20Manual.pdf)

If you were lucky, other authors may have published books of various quality and you MIGHT be able to but a copy at your book store if you even knew to ask about it.

Or you might connect to knowledgeable people through a bbs or user group to learn some tricks. Magazines helped... a little.

But there simply was a dearth of information as compared to the resources of today.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure dearth is the right word here. Sure the total volume of information was less, but the quality was massively higher. Sure, you might get incorrect information from BBS's or friends, but the manuals were detailed, technically accurate, and usually complete. AKA, you didn't get through reading one and go "but what about..." only to discover a dark hole. There was a bit of that, but usually 3rd parties stepped up and wrote books to fill in obvious gaps. The whole "Beneath Apple DOS/PRODOS" series is an example of that.

One only needs to spend about 10 mins on stack overflow to see that much of it is the blind leading the blind, where most of the answers are incomplete, biased, outdated, wrong, etc.

<comment><USER20> It was a different place and time, for sure. Many of these products were made by random small companies around the US. They sold through other small computer shops.

I often envy my friends 10 years younger than me, but at the same time, I am glad I got to experience the small B&M computer shops. I even went to an oldschool computer show at the fairgrounds once... and got ripped off on a tape drive that didn't work with my 286 lol.

Also the joy of buying random obsolete junk at mac frugals/big lots/99 cent stores when they'd get surplus. I got quite a few games that way!

The closest equivalent I can think of is my Asus motherboard. It came in a fancy box with a lot of stickers, and most importantly, a big manual of all of its features. Sure it doesn't give me an in-depth diagram, but it's better than nothing.

I was most disappointed by my newest video card. It came with.. absolutely nothing. I think it may have come with a folded piece of paper about how to install it?! The damn thing cost $500! The cheaper MSI ones come with a friggin comic book with a cute dragon in it!

Edit: The MSI comic book: [https://www.geeks3d.com/public/jegx/2018q4/msi/msi- graphics-...](https://www.geeks3d.com/public/jegx/2018q4/msi/msi-graphics- card-install-book-with-lucky-dragon-img02.jpg)

<comment><USER4> Nice, the MSI instructions aren't even right if your assembling a PC that doesn't have a motherboard/existing graphics card. /sigh

Yah, I don't get it for many things. Windows, should come with a basic users manual on paper. It should include the global keyboard shortcuts in the back too, but it doesn't. I'm not sure anyone at MS could even write them all down at this point.

Besides that, what kills me are all the completely insane things like the xbox (which has a terrible UI) games that come on bluray, but then require internet access before you can start playing so that they can discover they need to download a 10G patch. Its like they said "hey we are going to release this game to retail channels, but we know it doesn't work so the first thing its going to do is call home to download itself" or something equally stupid.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It's not an Apple IIe without MECC software! Including that most famous of MECC titles, _The Oregon Trail_ , which is about as synonymous with the Apple IIe in xennials' minds as _Super Mario Bros._ is with the NES.

I also recommend Terrapin Logo for more programming fun.

<comment><AUTHOR> Definitely need to get a copy of The Oregon Trail. And, yes, I've been reading up on LOGO! I just read a great book called Mindstorms written by Seymour Papert (inventor of LOGO and the Turtle robot) about his educational theories behind LOGO and using computers to help children learn how to learn. I highly recommend checking it out - here are my book notes: [https://www.charlieharrington.com/mindstorms](https://www.charlieharrington.com/mindstorms)

<comment><USER22> Used to work at Logo Computer Systems in Montreal, Papert was chairman, he visited from MIT from time to time. Spent the first few years of my career remotely diagnosing problems with Logo on //e, PC, Atari, C64 (arggh), Japanese machines (MSX), and Mac (hardly any Mac copies were sold, but we tried), and even DEC pc (I don't think that they sold any copies of that one). The big hits were the //e, C64 and PC versions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Awesome find. I grew up on the Apple IIe at school. I'm trying to do something like the author's rediscovery with a cheaply-found "luggable" 386 over here: [https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/04/26/project-386-part-1/](https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/04/26/project-386-part-1/) So far, it's proving much more difficult.

</comment><comment><USER24> You mention that you don't have any games for your Apple II. If you go the used game route and want to get the full experience be sure to check out Wizardry and Zork!

<comment><AUTHOR> Will do! Someone also just turned me onto this site: [https://asciiexpress.net/diskserver/](https://asciiexpress.net/diskserver/) where you can connect your laptop or phone's headphone jack with a 3.5mm audio cable to the Apple II cassette-in port, and just play the audio files to transfer over games and other software. This is the magic I was hoping for.

<comment><USER25> I would recommend Lode Runner as well!

<comment><USER26> I had hundreds of (mostly pirated) games for my II and Lode Runner was my favorite. Also, Karateka, Pinball Construction Set, and Zaxxon. May as well add Choplifter, the original Ultima, Wizardry, and Castle Wolfenstein.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Hey this is a former coworker of yours from GU back in the day. Nice post! Hope you're doing well and congrats on the IIe. I grew up coding on one of these as well. :)

<comment><USER3> My first paid job was writing educational software for Apple II's. Those were pretty awesome machines for the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> That was my exact kit growing up. My mom was a freelance translator for a time before working for data general, and she bought this for working. Like our school machines but more memory and less color..

When she wasn't working my brothers and I could use it write papers / software and play games.

A joystick would be a helpful addition. Apple joysticks are really analog (basically two game paddles together) which make them interesting.

I still remember (I think) how to get the screen to cycle colors.

10 hgr

20 For I = 1 to 7

30 hcolor = i

40 hplot 0,0

50 call 62454

60 next I

The Apple II time warp podcasts is not often updated and kinda fun too

[https://appletimewarp.libsyn.com/apple-time-warp-podcast- epi...](https://appletimewarp.libsyn.com/apple-time-warp-podcast- episode-2-editedm4a)

<comment><USER8> yes, this works. it fills in using the weird apple row addressing and everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you've got time and want to save a little money, there are several guides on how to turn an esp32 or esp8266 (either < $10) into an rs232 to wifi bridge.

[http://www.retroadventures.net/apple-iic-and-the-d-i- wimodem...](http://www.retroadventures.net/apple-iic-and-the-d-i-wimodem232/)

[https://github.com/bozimmerman/Zimodem](https://github.com/bozimmerman/Zimodem)

<comment><USER29> Even simpler (though not necessarily a great interface, but it's sort of a Hayes AT command set) is the TCP232-T2, which can be had for about $10 off of eBay. I wrote up my experiences with it on my VIC-20[0]

[0] [http://obsolete.site/?p=39](http://obsolete.site/?p=39)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Amazingly, this is exactly how I acquired my SE/30, sitting on the side of the road in a pile of other junk. Had the keyboard and trapezoid mouse! I was still at university at the time and took great joy in writing an essay about wiretapping on it, then spending nearly a week trying to get the floppy drive working to get said essay off the machine...

</comment><comment><USER31> So.. back in the day, I used to do random PEEKs, POKEs, and CALLs, and there was one particular call that I stumbled upon that could quickly render a disc unbootable. Two questions:

1\. Can you give it a try? It's CALL -20480

2\. Anyone know what in the hell that one actually does?

It takes about a millisecond to render the disc useless.

<comment><USER32> So -20480 works out to be 0xAFFF.

My trusty copy of "What's Where in the Apple", which includes a catalog of where everything is in memory, says that the routine to write the VTOC from its in-memory buffer to disk starts at $AFF8.

The VTOC is the volume table of contents ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AApple_DOS#Volume_Table_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AApple_DOS#Volume_Table_of_Contents_\(VTOC\))), so calling into the middle of that presumably ends up overwriting the VTOC with junk, which would indeed make the disk useless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Lovely. I love this kind of computer archeology posts.

I'm still sad my dad sold my C64, back in the day, in order to buy me a PC XT clone. I want to travel back in time and tell my dad to keep the C64, that future me would love it. Emulators just aren't the same :/

</comment><comment><USER34> I still dabble with electronics, read paper books, drive a car (even have flown small airplanes) etc., but after having spent countless hours playing first-person computer games, using simulators, and reading text on the computer screen my perspective has gradually shifted and I now can't help seeing many artifacts (and not only) as poor incarnation of their ideal selves that live in a virtual world.

</comment><comment><USER35> It's crazy the value of vintage computers. My dad gave me an IBM XT 286 he got for nothing in the late 90's. It was for me to take apart and destroy so I could learn a bit about computers, which I did.

Now just the keyboard is worth hundreds of dollars. I was frustrated to see LGR do a repair video of the exact model I had, and the same model can go for thousands of dollars.

</comment><comment><USER36> You might want to check this out - [https://www.kansasfest.org/](https://www.kansasfest.org/)

</comment><comment><USER37> Thanks for the writeup. This is a great trip down memory lane for me. The very first computer I put my paws on was one of these in kindergarten and ended up learning BASIC on it through 10th grade. I loved these machines so much and they hold a dear spot in my heart--it's what got me into the career I'm in today.

</comment><comment><USER38> Ha ha that SIN function on the screen reminded me of how slow operations like SIN and COS were on the old BBC Computers. You had to think before you did stuff like that. I remember figuring out that using pythag x^2+y^2 =1 therefore y=sqrt(1-x^2) was a much faster way to draw a circle than SIN/COS.

</comment><comment><USER39> Two game recommendations

Odyssey (text based adventure game), and Archon (kind of like chess).

<comment><USER16> Archon was fun. Also recommend Elite (and google the history- it was quite a programming feat at the time).

<comment><USER33> Elite was impressive. The whole "universe as a random seed number" thing. Some years later I was impressed by Frontier, the sequel, where you had seamless takeoff from planets into space, no transitions or loading screens... this was _very_ impressive back then, in a way gamers today possibly cannot understand.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I'd strongly advise against retrobrighting. It usually vastly speeds up the deterioration of the plastic such that it could start turning to powder in just a few months, from my understanding.

</comment><comment><USER41> And the keyboard works! My MB Pro's keyboard? Not so much.

<comment><USER42> Send it in. The butterfly ones can be fixed under warranty. It's not going to be perfect but will solve the sticking key issue. I just use a Magic keyboard with an external screen 90% of the time though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> So cool and very well written! Makes me want to buy a vintage computer and try it out. Maybe I'll try to get the BBC micro :O

</comment><comment><USER44> To me, the most surprising thing about this story is that Steve Jobs allowed a device to be made with lots of expansion slots!

</comment><comment><USER45> $95 for a new power supply?

Should have shelled out for a soldering iron or station, pliers, new caps, which might have ended up cheaper in the long run (or not)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I acknowledged my shame with this decision in the post. I did buy this $15 radio kit to "practice" soldering: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YHZE0G](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YHZE0G), but I've already somehow oxidized my solder iron's tip to the point that it won't heat the solder anymore. I would love a dummy's guide to soldering (YouTube or books) recommendation if you have one! (Although, I'm sure practice, practice, practice is going to be the top suggestion).

<comment><USER45> Besides the soldering iron, what you'll want is those desoldering tools (just an example, but yes, both of them): [https://www.amazon.com/Desoldering- Solder-Sucker-Length-Remo...](https://www.amazon.com/Desoldering-Solder- Sucker-Length-Remover/dp/B07BB8DGMP/)

(Also a cleaning sponge, and new solder but the above is very helpful for a good maintenance experience)</comment></comment></comment>


My response to YC RFS 3 - <AUTHOR> http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/listening-twitter/ <comment><USER2> The author hits the drawbacks pretty well. Politicians only care about broad opinion polls because those tell them how to market themselves to actually win elections. Letters and emails, and tweets!, written to representatives suffer from too much selection bias for them to care.

However, this will be a great placebo for the masses of people that like to feel involved. So it could draw a lot of traffic anyway, which could mean money. I can see his site being something that Wolf Blitzer checks constantly the day before the election. Like CNN's moving maps, this can become part of the grand spectacle of Democracy that we have all grown to know and love.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting... the application of twitter and gMaps mashups to politics is something I'm keeping a close eye on for my future races. I especially liked this map that the Corzine people rolled out in NJ: [http://www.joncorzine09.com/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStat...](http://www.joncorzine09.com/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpMap&s=corzine)

The follow-up thought that a friend of a friend who started to run for a delegate seat in MD was to design a system where someone could put in a small ~30 sec video clip of why you were supporting a candidate. You could use these map-clip mashups to generate neighborhood meetings, organize precinct meetings, and probably lots more.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you're in the U.S., checkout 2gov.org - tweet @2gov with your view on current issues and they'll automatically notify all of your elected representatives.

They also provide some pretty cool rollup stats on what folks are tweeting to them.

</comment><comment><USER5> Really this is something of a response to #1 and #3. Imagine that instead of congress listening, journalists/bloggers/etc used it as a way of doing their own impromptu polls of sentiment on issues by district.

<comment><USER6> These are separate use cases for the same technology (and same product).

Governmental listening. Media analysis. PR and spin doctor campaign monitoring. Local election candidate passive polling. Local agency (e.g. Scottish NHS) polling. The list is pretty endless.

The problem is that so, so many of these people just don't have big budgets. Good sentiment analysis is hard. Tracking and quantifying opinion across platforms (not just Twitter), in real-time, to an appropriate degree of accuracy doesn't come _that_ cheap - even with web-twenty cloud-malarkey stuff.

We've found other (potential!) sources of funding beyond the government and agencies themselves, 'cos they just don't have flash cash, and with their spending under scrutiny in the UK... yeah, we basically had to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> _Taking it further, you could build a vocabulary of issues[...] extract them from Twitter, along with their geo-locations, and do a sentiment-analysis on them [...]_

OK, so hi. That's my startup. :)

</comment><comment><USER7> You're making the assumption that Congress actually values listening :-)

I think government transparency is great as an ideal, but what seem to be happening so far is that there's a lot of lip service being paid to show that things are changing, and I realize that it is early days, but Congress "listens" to "polilng" because that is the only way they can stay in power, all other forms of listening have much lower value to them.

Not that it isn't an interesting idea.

</comment><comment><USER8> BTW, how do you ever get to that rfs3.html page?

<comment><USER9> Here's the main page: <http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html>

<comment><USER10> Is that actually linked from anywhere on ycombinator? It isn't exactly obvious.</comment></comment></comment>


Jury: Samsung Owes Apple Another $290 Million - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20131121/jury-samsung-owes-apple-another-290-million/ <comment><USER2> I seriously can't believe how much money Apple has been able to troll out of those rounded corners and that end-of-list overscroll effect.

And now, to top it off, iOS 7 is built on the holo-principles of Android. It's almost like Apple is doing it merely to taunt its foreign competitors, saying very, very clearly: "Sorry guys. I'm untouchable".

Utterly disgusting.

At least their attempts to outright _ban_ products have been less successful as of late. There's some hope for a civilized world.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, it's not like they went screen by screen through the iPhone and said 'hey, we need to do what they're doing...'

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/102317767/Samsung-Relative- Evaluat...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/102317767/Samsung-Relative-Evaluation- Report-on-S1-iPhone)

<comment><USER4> This is the stuff that gets missed in these debates. It's not like Apple's attorneys got up in front of the jury, drew a rectangle with rounded corners, wrote PATENTED across it, then sat down.

Rather, stuff like what you linked to is what causes juries to award $1 billion. E-mails along the lines of "let's make this look more like the iPhone." Presentations along the lines of "why isn't this more like the iPhone?" Surveys along the lines of "75% of people thought this looked like an iPhone." Market data on customer confusion, etc.

This particular presentation is pure gold. Slide after slide that basically convinces the jury that Samsung didn't "play fair" and copied someone else's work instead of doing their own.

<comment><USER5> You know what else gets tossed out of these debates by Apple patent defenders? The fact that Samsung is continuing to have success in invaliding the patents they are being sued for:

[http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/11/20/samsung-looks- to-h...](http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/11/20/samsung-looks-to-halt- damages-retrial-after-uspto-action-invalidates-key-apple-patent)

<comment><USER6> The patent wasn't invalidated.

>The Patent Office has been re-examining the claims of the '915 patent, and Apple recently responded to the agency's questions. However, in the document filed by the Patent Office on Wednesday, the group said that it "respectfully disagrees" with Apple's claims about the technology and that Apple's arguments "are not persuasive."

>The Patent Office comments don't invalidate the '915 patent but mean that Apple will have to provide more information and argue for the validity of the patent.

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57613191-37/samsung- asks-j...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57613191-37/samsung-asks-judge- to-halt-apple-damages-retrial/)

Other patents have been reaffirmed on reexamination.

[http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/10/us-patent-office- confirme...](http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/10/us-patent-office-confirmed- all-20.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can't tell if this was an out of line assessment of the jury selection, or an actual description of what happened during deliberation...

 _The six-woman, two-man jury deliberated for part of three days before returning its verdict. During that time, the jury requested additional paper and pens and better lunch, as well as a copy of the sketches of them done by a courtroom artist._

As for the lawyers in the class; if a jury starts showing signs that they're overall uninterested in the trial (i.e.: asking for their courtroom portraits), what can litigators do to combat this? Is the only course to appeal for the case to be dismissed? Does it get retried if the jury is found to be negligent?

</comment><comment><USER8> I feel sorry for Samsung. I don't know how anyone can buy an Apple product without feeling ashamed anymore.

Yes, Samsung made products that looked kind of similar to Apple ones. Big whoop. Competition over litigation, I say.

<comment><USER9> I feel sorry for Samsung's competitors. And that includes all the other industries Samsung executes the same "innovation by duplication" approach.

Not everyone Samsung copies is a huge multinational:

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24023430](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24023430)

<comment><USER10> @dba7dba You are hellbanned. This means that most users cannot read your comments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I miss Groklaw. The site owner used to recruit volunteers from the readers to go to the courtroom and write up accounts of the proceedings every day. It was more up to date and informative than the supposedly professional media outlets.

<comment><USER12> Hells yeah - me too. Groklaw was IMO one of the biggest losses from the whole NSA spying saga.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Completely off topic, but it's days like these that I truly miss Groklaw...

<comment><USER14> It was never as good with the patent issues especially when Google were involved it never felt balanced (with SCO there really wasn't any need for balance or bias as SCO were so far out there you could report it straight and still have clear bad guys).

<comment><USER11> It was fine for Oracle v. Google as reporting that one straight provided an obvious bad guy, too.

And Samsung v. Apple I also provides many obvious bad guys if you follow the case and understand the industry and read the patents. Apple's claims are garbage but Samsung had so much contempt for the process that they let their lawyers utterly fail to make the case. The judge lost control of the case and ended up with vague and useless jury instructions and a self-contradictory verdict (parts had to be retried recently). The jury foreman admitted to bias and misconduct in public interviews. The PTO keeps gyrating back and forth in 'final' decisions about the validity and meaning of claims to patents at issue. I never saw coverage anywhere else but Groklaw about most of the pathetic failures in the case.

Let's hope the Apple ][ and Apple /// cases are handled better.

The Motorola v. Microsoft case, on the other hand, revealed bizarre bias on the part of Groklaw. Even when Microsoft was obviously right, Groklaw manufactured sympathy for Googlerola on every issue.

But that's not really the question. The essential thing about Groklaw was that they would recruit volunteer reporters to go to court and make extensive and informative reports about what really happened they very same day. Nobody else's reporting ever came close.

<comment><USER14> I'm not even sure about that one. Oracle are a bad guy (always) but I'm not sure Google weren't one too in that particular case. If you replay the situation in your head imagining MS in the Google role and Sun in the Oracle role would you have felt the same way?

I think the conclusion that API's are not copyrightable is pretty much preposterous from my understanding of copyright law. A decision that there was a 'fair use' right to copy API's for compatibility purposes would have been an interesting and probably valuable development although I'm not sure Dalvik would have applied here.

Groklaw's example API to explain what API's (adding numbers I think) was also applied when considering whether there was creativity in expression and correctly the conclusion was that there isn't in the case of adding but then Groklaw inappropriately extrapolated this view to all API's.

The court reporting could be useful though you are right. Florian Mueller ([http://www.fosspatents.com/](http://www.fosspatents.com/)) attends some of the German ones and I find his reporting on the patent cases very good. Groklaw seemed to have taken the view that you couldn't believe a word he said but I never quite understood why (although it might have been the Oracle v. Google case as he didn't see it the Groklaw way and had at some point consulted for Oracle).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> So a ~$930mm final judgement. Now for another 5years of appeals

<comment><USER6> I think the original amount was cut to $600 million so the total would be $890 million. I don't think Apple is too concerned about the size of the judgement either way.

EDIT: I stand corrected!

<comment><USER15> The first judgement was cut to $639mm [1]

Q: How much money is this retrial about? A: It's about a replacement amount for a $410 million portion of the August 2012 $1.049 billion verdict. The replacement amount could be more or less than the original one. Apple will be awarded (subject to an appeal) $639 million plus the replacement amount.

__

1: [http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/11/the-truth-is-neither- cour...](http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/11/the-truth-is-neither-court-nor- parties.html)

<comment><USER11> FOSSpatents is not a legitimate source of news on patent cases. The writer was revealed to be a paid shill available to the highest bidder during the Google v. Oracle trial when the judge forced Oracle to admit supporting his site as a false front.

<comment><USER15> FOSS is a a good if not great source for mobile patent litigation. Yes, he accepted money from Oracle because he's a goddamn consultant and does the blog to promote both his work and general knowledge. Florian's opinions have turned out to be correct most of the times; he has his finger firmly on the pulse of mobile patent litigation and covers it better than any other person.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's unbelievable how much money Apple is extorting from other companies for a simple UI technique. Disgusting.

<comment><USER17> But let's be honest, the value of bouncy scroll - as in the cost for an independent invention to come up with something equally good would have been hundreds of millions, so at least it's reasonable, even if it's unethical.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Wow, this is one of the worst threads I've seen on HN. Pretty much just /r/technology.

</comment><comment><USER19> If apple doesn't acknowledge loses from foreign courts, why should Samsung?

<comment><USER9> Are you saying that Apple isn't complying with international court orders ?

Care to provide some evidence of this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Apple can get fucked until they come out with a bigger sized screen. Then I hope Samsung pillages them with lawsuits.

</comment><comment><USER21> Apple go awayyyyy</comment>


Anti-Hacking Law Criminalizes Most Computer Users, Former Prosecutor Says - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/anti-hacking-law-too-broad/

<comment><USER2> The article says: "In the Justice Department's view, the CFAA criminalizes conduct as innocuous as using a fake name on Facebook..."

Facebook's Terms say: "You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook..."

But Facebook's registration is VERY unclear. They ask for an entry for "First Name" (not specifying whose), an entry for "Last Name" (again, not specifying whose), an entry for "Your Email" (specifying an article "Your", so presumably if they wanted my first name or last name, they would have specified "YOUR name") and an entry for "I am [Select Sex:]" (presumably asking me to predict the web developer's gender (?). If they wanted the registrant's gender, they should have said "YOU ARE [Select Sex:]", or at least make sure that the email question and the gender question were consistent. The Terms refer to the user as "You" and not "I".

Given that they have first person, second person, and no person specified on their registration page, any lawyer worth his $250/hour should be able to argue your way out of criminal charges (or even breach of contract) in using a fake name on Facebook.

A reasonable argument would be that the first time I went to Facebook, I wanted to search for a friend, so I put in HIS first name and last name, created an account, and now I am stuck with it.

Unfortunately, Facebook's very own terms restrict me from correcting this error (due to their lack of clarity and inconsistencies on the home page), as the terms say "You will not create more than one personal profile."

<comment><USER3> This is why HN - as awesome as it otherwise is - is awful for legal advice.

 _A reasonable argument would be that the first time I went to Facebook, I wanted to search for a friend, so I put in HIS first name and last name, created an account, and now I am stuck with it._

But unless you are a complete moron you would have known you were registering a new account and not doing a search. So now you've just lied under oath in Federal Court.

A good prosecutor would reason for the jury that given that you "work in computers" you would have known the difference between registration and site search - and so now you're also being charged with 18 USC §1621 [Federal Perjury] for making a false declaration and you're looking at up to an extra 5 years in prison tacked on to whatever the judge is going to hand you at the end of this. To make matters worse the prosecutor is appealing for all of the evidence you gave for your defense to be ignored given that you've demonstrated you are a bad witness.

Well done.

<comment><USER2> I agree that HN shouldn't be used for legal advice.

I was actually involved in a case where the registration page, terms and usage policy were confusing and inconsistent in a similar fashion (not exactly, but close), and as I recall, the judge agreed with that part of the complaint.

I am not a lawyer, but I believe the legal basis for that portion of the decision was that the terms are being defined by the corporation (presumably with reasonable resources to make sure they do it right), and being presented to the user (presumably with significantly less resources) with little option for discussion - you either agree or go away. And therefore the judge felt that it was incumbent on the the website to get it right, since they had designed the registration and defined the terms. The benefit of the doubt was given to the user.

I would never advocate lying under oath (as you suggested). Presenting an argument is different than lying under oath.

Your experience may be different, but that was my _firsthand_ experience.

<comment><USER4> Yeah - depending on the specifics of your case, as a defendant you may be able to do a "defense in depth" where you argue multiple, possibly-contradictory explanations why you might not be guilty, without actually committing to one of them as actually true.

Presumption of innocence is awesome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just some interesting background. Orin Kerr is not only a former prosecutor. He is now a law professor at George Washington school of law, has blogged for a long time about the issues of the CFAA and other legal issues at the Volokh Conspiracy (<http://www.volokh.com>). His thoughts are always worth reading.

He donated a lot of pro bono time to Lori Drew's legal defence because he felt that if violating a web site's terms of service could count as a CFAA violation that this raised fundamental due process problems, and he's also gotten a fair bit of respect as an expert in the area of computer crime law with his law review articles and even blog posts being cited by courts in these areas.

</comment><comment><USER6> > The government argued that violating MySpace's terms of service was the > legal equivalent of computer hacking.

> a judge subsequently threw out the verdict on grounds that the CFAA was > constitutionally vague and that upholding the verdict would set a precedent > for anyone who breaches similar contracts to be criminally prosecuted.

What happens when a judge with less sense sets a terrible precedent?

<comment><USER7> You appeal.

<comment><USER8> That only works when 1) you have enough money for a lengthy appeals process, 2) the appellate court agrees to hear your case, and 3a) the appellate court contains judges with more sense or 3b) you can repeat starting from 1.

3b stops working when you hit the Supreme Court, which frequently fails both 2 and 3a.

<comment><USER7> I eagerly await the justice system that obsoletes appeals by always being perfect the first time....

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Headline is misleading, or at least I got the wrong impression. I thought it was talking about a new law, but it's talking about the existing law. At the end it even mentions an amendment that specifically excludes TOS violations.

Headline makes it sound like bad news, but I'd say the article is actually good news.

</comment><comment><USER9> It'd be nicer if he had realized the fallacies of the prevailing 'legal' environment _before_ he signed up to be a prosecutor (specifically, widespread laws make everyone guilty of something, so enforcement is really more about your place in society). Instead he was a cog in the system long enough to unjustly ruin some people's lives, then suddenly gets some critical thinking skills. Is it really that hard to think through your actions beforehand?

<comment><USER10> Are all prosecutions unjust? Do you know his record? How do you know he ruined people's lives?

If someone is ignorant of the flaws in the system before he joins it, but dedicates himself to righting them once he discovers them, should that then expose him to this sort of scorn?

<comment><USER9> Prosecutions are conducted under the guise of due process, but are anything but. Certainly many who are prosecuted are guilty, but chances are there was at least one innocent person under the steamroller that this guy was helping drive.

For one, he gets the scorn because all the people who groomed him into thinking he was "building a better world" aren't in the spotlight. If he's truly repetant, he can reflect upon how they misled him and adjust his personal opinion accordingly.

But really, he's pointing out one law lacking due process like it's the exception. It's not. The whole system has cargo-culted the idea of justice, going through the motions so outsiders think there's intelligence and justice behind it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Reminds me of "the right to read" by Richard Stallman, it is a preview of a world where the right to read is regulated, throttled and taxed.

<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html>

</comment><comment><USER12> well.. just like any other law.

everyone is guilty all the time. or have you never ever checked an sms while in a red light?

"to my friends everything. to my enemies, the law!"

</comment><comment><USER13> My favorite part of the article by far is the uncaptioned action shot of the man drinking apple juice.</comment>


Safari 5 Extension: Ostrich - A Twitter Client - <AUTHOR> http://ostrichapp.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN, I'd love it if you could give me feedback on my first little app. I did this on my own as a pet project. At some point it reached an acceptable state of stability and usability, therefore I launched it. It's a MVP for sure.

</comment><comment><USER2> It's a pretty cool extension! Altho the way you handle new tweets (or replies for that matter) is too slow in loading. Is there no other way than to load in a remote webpage on ostrichapp.com to get the new message window?

<comment><AUTHOR> At first, I was loading the new tweet form inline. But since the client's code need to be injected in every webpage, because that's all I can do with the Safari Extension API, then I couldn't put the form inline.

Here's why: I figured any malicious site owner could add some javascript code to submit the form with any text they want. Therefore any website could tweet something in your name. This is really bad, so I took this approach instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "Tweet This Page". Smart.

<comment><USER4> Absolutely agree. Much easier to tweet a page WITHIN Safari rather than copy the URL, move over to a Twitter app, then post it. Great feature, for sure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sweet...nice use of the extensions for a useful Safari add-on.

</comment><comment><USER6> this is awesome. google chrome version please. :)

(if that isn't possible - how come?)

<comment><USER7> I've been working on one in my spare time, I'm working on a big update for this week. Is this what you're looking for? [https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/aflgiainmfefihhn...](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/aflgiainmfefihhnpnpponlhbmbolada)

<comment><USER6> yep! brilliant. do a "review my startup" when you launch the big update.

<comment><USER7> yeah, in the new update I'm making sure that you can still tweet away if you have an unstable connection (as is the case with laptop users)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Can I get a plug-in for IE6?</comment>


Ask HN: Github SSH Key Vulnerability Email Real or Hoax? - <AUTHOR>

I just received an email from email@example.com (see below). Is this real or a hoax?
<comment>
A security vulnerability was recently discovered that made it possible for an attacker to add new SSH keys to arbitrary GitHub user accounts. This would have provided an attacker with clone/pull access to repositories with read permissions, and clone/pull/push access to repositories with write permissions. As of 5:53 PM UTC on Sunday, March 4th the vulnerability no longer exists.
While no known malicious activity has been reported, we are taking additional precautions by forcing an audit of all existing SSH keys.
# Required Action
Since you have one or more SSH keys associated with your GitHub account you must visit https://github.com/settings/ssh/audit to approve each valid SSH key.
Until you have approved your SSH keys, you will be unable to clone/pull/push your repositories over SSH.
# Status
We take security seriously and recognize this never should have happened. In addition to a full code audit, we have taken the following measures to enhance the security of your account:
- We are forcing an audit of all existing SSH keys - Adding a new SSH key will now prompt for your password - We will now email you any time a new SSH key is added to your account - You now have access to a log of account changes in your Account Settings page
Sincerely, The GitHub Team
--- https://github.com email@example.com </comment><comment><USER2> <https://github.com/settings/ssh/audit> link to site

submitted hn link <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676471>

</comment><comment><USER3> If you don't remember how to generate the fingerprint for your key:

        ssh-keygen -lf .ssh/id_dsa

or

        ssh-keygen -lf .ssh/id_rsa

</comment><comment><USER4> It's real, they show each of your keys and ask to approve each one.

</comment><comment><USER5> I too got a mail, think it is genuine

</comment><comment><USER6> If pull from a Githb repo, it prompts you to audit your keys as well.</comment>


Deep Learning, AI and NASDAQ? - <AUTHOR> I'll clean up, but as it's more philosophy than an academic exercise and use of technical vocabulary, it's not straight forward.
Even so, here is some text: Given progress and results in deep learning systems pushed forward with ontology from human produced semantic structures on top of attention and memory guided by an invisible hand out of blue sky thinking. In many ways this is the equivalent of lensing structure and attention in human knowledge by blacking out half of a semantically coherent process.
The amount of resources used to create the equivalent of a epistemological forward process taking advantage of natural inter-processing within understanding of semantics and logic.
Gives concern about the feasibility of the next evolution namely feed forward ontology and epistemology in the other direction. Needing a feed forward identity process able to creatively deal with the intra-processes in-between these functions: memory and logic, attention and semantics; and a process able to navigate with ensuing identity processees. A information super highway much like the corpus callosum -- the front pole -- back to sensory motor as seen in human cognition and brain structure with analogous cognitive functions.
In Norse philosophy, what it seems like -- too much faith is put into half a horse -- loki without idun. Thus, an intelligence that is a headless horse guided by a democracy and cannot be trusted, it's just annoying feed-forward logic with little to no command control over attention and memory.
Overly optimistic enthusiasm coupled with polarising fear may have set in motion a need for an AI winter. Can forget building anything that can solve problems for life on earth. Perhaps more efforts adding an Idun to help with neutral and intelligent information processing is a more correct way. <comment><USER2> > I'll clean up

Yes, it would help to think about the average reader when discussing complex ideas on ... actually I haven't even understood what the point of the text was.</comment>