Swedish Crime Statistics 1970-2015 - <AUTHOR> https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/013dc374#fullscreen <comment><USER2> A naive person may be fooled into thinking that, say, the actual number of rapes per capita increased substantially, especially recently. This is likely untrue. For example:

"In Sweden, the definition of rape has been successively widened over the years, leading to an ever larger number of sexual assaults being classified as rape.[3][13][14][32] For example, in 1992 a legislative change came into force which shifted the dividing line between sexual assault and rape. This legislative change resulted in about a 25% increase in the level of registered rape offences.[12]"

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

<comment><USER3> That explains a spike 1992-1993 and 2004-2005, but how do you explain that it has almost doubled since 2005? It's not really plausible that there has been a legislative change basically every year since then.

<comment><USER4> Classification and reporting of crime is really, really messy. There could be a host of factors to explain the doubling, even if _actual crime was on the decrease_. Population statistics are tricky like that, because they can't accurately account for all the classes they wish to measure.

For example, most countries have atrociously poor reporting rates for sexual crimes -- I've heard estimates that 90%+ go unreported, even in liberal Western democracies. So, with the widening of the Swedish law and a corresponding increase in outreach by the authorities, the rise you see might simply be an increase in reporting. Maybe more victims are coming forward and filing a police report. Perhaps more women feel confident that their case will be treated equitably.

Of course, such societal shifts in attitude take time. You wouldn't expect a stair-step plot because it's unreasonable to assume that the whole population would suddenly start trusting the legal system X% more. Trust is earned. And so, as outreach continues and victims notice other victims coming forward and being helped, they gain courage.

So that's one of many hypothetical explanations in which actual sexual assaults are committed less frequently, but the statistics report a rise. There is the real possibility that this could all be attributable to a sort of survivorship bias.

At any rate, I'm worried at the kneejerk "blame the immigrants" reaction by some commenters. Let's not start pointing fingers without data. There's enough xenophobic rage swirling around already.

<comment><USER5> I live in Sweden (moved there from Germany in 2006). The presence of the topic of rape in the media and public debate instantly surprised me. It has always been a topic of great concern to the Swedes, which I noted as being very different to Germany. In very simple terms, Swedes, due to the advanced state of gender equality (in comparison to most other countries, including Germany), are highly sensitive to occurences which might be associated with the act of rape. That, over time, inevitably leads to increased reports of acts of (possible) rape which would not be reported in countries in which awareness is weak, the law forgiving and in which shame and honor count so much.

Understanding Swedish rape statisics requires understanding a cultural aspect and the context that this statistic is embedded in.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's something relevant:

[https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5195/sweden- rape](https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5195/sweden-rape)

</comment><comment><USER7> These are counts--is it disingenuous to call them "statistics"? On a related note, is there a way in the UI to scale this data by population?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point regarding population-prorated numbers, however BRA calls the totals 'statistics' nevertheless: [https://www.bra.se/bra/bra-in-english/home/crime- and-statist...](https://www.bra.se/bra/bra-in-english/home/crime-and- statistics/crime-statistics.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Would some kind soul please divide by the growing size of the population? Meanwhile, this link has population-adjusted charts back to 2006: [https://www.bra.se/bra/bra-in-english/home/crime-and- statist...](https://www.bra.se/bra/bra-in-english/home/crime-and- statistics.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Same stats prorated, cases per 100K population:

[https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/013dc374/2/](https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/013dc374/2/)

Rape and sex offenses in general should be prorated by an age-filtered subset of the total male population.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> What happened in 2004 ??</comment>


Steve Jobs to deliver WWDC 2011 Keynote - <AUTHOR> http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/05/24wwdc.html

<comment><USER2> You realize this press release is for WWDC 2010 and not 2011, right?</comment>


California says Facebook dodged privacy subpoenas - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/california-says-facebook-dodged-privacy-subpoenas-87c63512-5ba8-4b13-ba2c-b3ce4231aba4.html <comment><USER2> "we have provided thousands of pages of written responses and hundreds of thousands of documents"

I see that all the time when people haven't actually provided the requested info, whether a company or a local, state, or federal agency. It's often a form of BS.

Technically every DB entry could be considered a document, but if you haven't provided emails from the CEO, you haven't provided emails from the CEO.

<comment><USER3> It's a deliberate strategy, one I saw referenced a day or so ago elsewhere.

Lawyers (or other parties engaged in litigation) will "overwhelm with kindness" in response to discovery requests by producing tremendous amounts of irrelevant material, often in cumbersome formats, in order to overwhelm opponents.

Or as I've commented in another thread earlier today: attention and time are the ultimate nonfungible resources, and distracting or delaying an apponent is a long-recognised basic tactic.

<comment><USER4> I've heard of it, too. The example I have in mind was getting an overly-broad subpoena that could be construed to include every sales receipt issued by the business over the last decade. These were delivered, unsorted and mixed in with other documents in a gigantic box, with "for attorney's eyes only" written on them, and bundled together with high-tension straps that would scatter the pages about the office when opened.

The parties settled and the documents were never touched.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I can never really understand Facebook's approach to dealing with legal pressure surrounding its privacy practices.

Increased data privacy regulation could be an existential threat to Facebook's business model—but instead of trying to make a positive impression of itself by cooperating with lawmakers (and potentially helping to shape the regulation itself in the process), it misleads and stonewalls.[0]

What's Facebook's long-term plan here? Do they think they will be able to fend off governments forever and eventually become supranational?

[0] [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-misled-parliament- on-d...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-misled-parliament-on-data- misuse-u-k-committee-says/)

<comment><USER6> Maybe the goal is to make complying with the regulation so cumbersome (but ultimately ineffective) that competitors, who aren't already large and profitable, have no way of entering the social media market? They can have their cake and eat it too... oh we'd so love to prevent "horrible thing" from happening again, but you know the government won't let us ;^)

<comment><USER7> bingo the oh lets do the MS App api strategy in new form

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Part of this is that lawmakers don't want to be too agressive. If they ostensibly solve the privacy dilemmas related to facebook, they'll have to find a new outrage to parade out in front of voters and that requires them to learn about that new outrage as well. Instead it's a better strategy to milk an existing outrage until there are diminishing returns and only then move onto or manufacturing the next outrage. It's legislative theatre for the sake of getting re-elected term after term.</comment>


Cigar-Shaped Asteroid Is Accelerating Away from the Sun - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06/visitor-from-another-solar-system-may-have-been-a-comet/?comments=1 <comment><USER2> It's not an asteroid, but the first in a new class of comets created for interstellar objects. A new prefix, I/, was added to the comet naming scheme. This object is officially I/2017 U1 or more specifically 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua).</comment>


Microsoft knows Windows is obsolete.  a sneak peek at its replacement - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-windows-must-die-for-the-third-time/ <comment><USER2> There are a lot of issues with this article - Windows S is no more a 'new' OS than an environment running AppLocker is a new OS. The $49 'upgrade' from WinS to a 'full' Windows 10 is simply removing the restriction, it's the same OS through and through

UWP doesn't explicitly require XAML as part of the stack directx and win2d provide more direct access to graphics hardware

Edge is not a Native UWP application - whatever that means - it's possible to take existing applications and package them to run as a UWP applications, even ones that use COM and Win32. The rendering engine that Edge uses is actually part of the UWP stack - any HTML+JS UWP app uses EdgeHTML as the layout engine. The JavaScript engine, chakra, is a cross platform open source c/c++ library

What MS is doing with WinS is attempting to promote a walled garden and changing windows into a closed platform.

WinS is the first consumer facing foray to this approach. Somehow announcing this in the same breath as education makes it ok.

It might be a noble effort to try to sandbox windows apps, however there are some major detractors: 1) The MS store is a mess, it combines the worst parts of the android App Store and the walled approach of the iOS App Store. But nobody seems to be committed into cleaning it up. 2) not having a compelling mobile story makes existing devs look elsewhere - even Microsoft itself. 3) eliminating compatibility for a broad swath of applications is orthogonal to the approach that Windows has had for decades.

Windows S is the freemium strategy applied to Operating Systems

<comment><USER3> >Edge is not a Native UWP application - whatever that means

My assumption is that it is compiled with .NET Native[0]. That would explain why it is only available on Windows 10, as only Windows 10 supports .NET Native.

[0] [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/dn584397%28v=vs.110...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/dn584397%28v=vs.110%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396)

<comment><USER2> It's not, it's written in C++

<comment><USER4> You mean C++ with Windows Runtime Library, which makes it a UWP application.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The article paints UWP as a modern programming environment, superior to Win32, that only 'lazy developers' would reject, when in reality it is a confusing mess of desktop and outdated mobile paradigms from 10 years ago when mobile devices had dramatically less RAM and were much less powerful then 'real computers'.

UWP is in many ways worse than Win32, it requires much more boilerplate code to get stuff done, and requires a proprietary dialect of C++ which is not quite compatible with standard C++ (good luck trying to compile most existing C/C++ code on UWP, it's even worse than the Objective-C situation on OSX/iOS).

The baffling fact that UWP manages to be even more complex and less pleasant to write code for then Win32 (which was also a pretty bad API to begin with), coupled with the suicidal closing-down of an once open platform is what really concerns me about the future of Windows. That's not how you win back the hearts and minds of developers.

<comment><USER6> UWP is about 10 years or more too late.

C++/CX is a dialect of C++ that has refcounted pointers (like COM). It is much better than the (also proprietary) extensions for COM to C++ MSVC had decades ago, and it is also much better IMO that managed C++ and C++/CLI. Of course, in a way it is still a hack. But I read that MS is also working on a way of doing managed components in modern C++ (i.e. 11/14/17). MS is doing a lot of great work in the area of modern C++ lately (surprisingly to me).

And UWP is yet another incompatible version of XAML/WPF/Silverlight/.... I don't like the castrated nature of it, it is incredible simple things are hard or impossible (like cross process drag and drop, which is not supported even in MS Office store apps. Or any kind of IPC, or networking with localhost). But things are getting better, as MS removes the worst pain points and developers learn to circumvent the missing parts.

One thing that seems great in UWP is it's async-first approach. I learned to appreciate that paradigm with Python/Twisted and JS.

So it's not all bad. If Microsoft had UWP 10 or 15 years ago (in their "Avalon" phase) it would have been great. Now, it's just "meh".

<comment><USER7> In an alternative reality were DotNet never happened and MS evolved Win32API with COM (so basically continue the strategy of 1989-1998 until the great break with DotNet happened), yes then a new "Win64API" with modern C++ would have been great. But the Web happened, DotNet original vision failed, their pivoted vision was declared as legacy 5 days ago too, and UWP failed with no one buying their Win10phone (0.02% global market share).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> TL;DR: Microsoft has introduced a new version of Windows 10 called "Windows 10 S"[1]. The big differences are that you can only install apps from the Windows Store and you can't join an on-premise domain. This walled garden approach is designed to "enhance securrty" and kill off Win32 with the convenient side- effect of allowing Microsoft to block apps from competing vendors, so you'll use Edge and not Chrome.

[1] [https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/windows/windows-10-s](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-s)

<comment><USER9> I can't for the life of me see why I would ever want such a monstrosity on my desktop...perhaps certain help-desk and locked down corporate configurations could benefit slightly from a walled-off version of Windows, but much of this is already available using Group Policies and such, so I just don't get it.

Please don't tell me they are trying to androidize the desktop, because that could possible be the most hairbrained idea MS has ever had, esp. this late in the game.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Some of it is developer laziness. It's not like they haven't had 15 years to learn and adopt .NET and the past five years to adopt Metro/Modern/UWP."

Once I can't target Win32 anymore I'll switch to the browser. Metro/Modern/UWP isn't on my radar. I doubt I'm alone in those thoughts.

<comment><USER4> Not everyone enjoys doing web development, personally every web project I take part on feels like being in the galleys.

<comment><USER11> I've only ever done web. What's the difference in your opinion?

<comment><USER4> The web is a Frankenstein of HTML/CSS/JavaScript that is yet to match the productivity we already had in the 90's with Delphi, VB and 4GL tools.

Even now, there isn't any Web tool that allows for designing Web UIs like Microsoft Blend (XAML) or Qt Creator (QML).

The Web could have been like that if XHTML and its related standards were adopted, then we could have had something like XUL or XAML.

Instead we have the broken promise of Web Components that still aren't properly supported across all major browsers, or the "UI framework of the day" without any kind of tooling support besides code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> UWP is a locked lock, annoying, walled garden that nobody wants to write programs for,

Nobody wants to write programs for it, and the only people who run UWP programs are those who either have no choice or do so by mistake.

If we can't run WIN32 or freely write win32 programs then windows is dead.

<comment><USER4> Yeah sure, it is the year of something on desktop.

Legacy Win32 applications can be packaged as UWP ones.

<comment><USER13> Desktop Bridge?

Missed that one, as was under the impression that UWP and Win32 was strictly separated.

I do notice that this results in the Win32 program for all intents and purposes becoming a UWP app. Complete with the issues of installs only happening via the store...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The argument doesn't seem that cogent. The strategy described is what they already tried to do with the Surface RT, a failure which the article briefly mentions and moves on.

Nonetheless, there's a truth here about UWP. Applications today are all HTML websites. They should be containerized native applications, navigated spontaneously like the web, but running native code protected by the privilege declarations system familiar to phone apps. In fact, the "web of apps" is long overdue, but it's been held back by two major players: Apple, whose Appstore discouraged inter-connected-ness by encouraging a micropayment model, while also promoting platform exclusivity; and Google, who pumps billions of dollars into browsers and other web tech propping up the antiquated HTML-based web.

A new system is overdue. UWP is not that system though, it's a straight-up copycat of Apple's app store ecosystem, nothing more.

<comment><USER15> > Applications today are all HTML websites.

Perhaps I misunderstood your point, but taking it literally: this claim is just plainly untrue, and reflects a very narrow-minded view of software in general.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Windows S is still Windows, but with more restriction. I don't see how giving up control over the apps is more secure. It just means you have to trust Microsoft instead of some other org making the app. With the Windows 10 privacy issues, the last thing I want to do is give up control.

</comment><comment><USER17> Windows 10S will be a resounding success just like the Windows Phone.

</comment><comment><USER18> What happens to Steam and similar apps? (Honest question.)

<comment><USER19> They are screwed.. Which is why they have been betting so heard on Linux recently.

[https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/microsofts-latest- tac...](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/microsofts-latest-tactics-show- gabe-newell-of-valve-was-right-to-worry.6745)

<comment><USER20> They haven't really been betting on Linux at all for about two years. All major development efforts, at least consumer facing ones, have pretty much stopped. SteamOS now is as bad as it was when the Steam Machines released, which are still awful. Feral and Aspyr are pretty much the only two games in town nowadays producing consistent and good Linux ports of AAA titles. And they are just that, though - ports. Neither company has the developer manpower or budget for their ports to make good native OpenGL games. Likewise, the other major source of Linux titles is Unity, whom also haven't invested much in making a well optimized OpenGL rendering engine compared to their DX one.

The end result is that games run poorly on Linux and give a terrible experience to anyone trying it, because nobody wants to invest in native titles that are as optimized as the Windows ones... besides Valve. Pretty much every Valve game runs as good or better on Linux than on Windows, but they were the exception able to throw what is in all likelihood more money than they have made from Linux users in their first year on the platform to port these titles correctly.

Top it off with how bad the uptake on Vulkan has been relative to DX12, and the future is not bright for Linux gaming. It is way better than it ever was, and for anyone except a hardcore gamer the library is definitely vast enough to not feel any desire to use Windows over Linux for the sole reason of gaming, but its in such a shoddy state it won't win over hearts or minds any time soon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Ok, so Windows S is a Windows Chromebook.

I imagine we'll just continue to ignore that UWP and the Windows Store exist. Wake me up when full versions of Office and Visual Studio are built as UWP apps.

<comment><USER7> Me too. Wake me up when Office and Visual Studio are built as DotNet UWP apps. Their codebase is still C with classes and C++ mixed, dating back to 1989/90.

<comment><USER4> C++ is also a UWP supported language, no need to go .NET for UWP apps.

Also they did announce that the next Office version will move to the store.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Is there a list of apps that are missing from the Windows Store that cause friction for Windows S? I see it often called a chicken and egg problem. But I never see anyone suggest a list of what they think the eggs are.

(I don't think the problem is missing apps. My guess is that most UWP apps in the Windows Store use a tablet-ey, metro, modern ui, and nobody seems to like it much.)

<comment><USER23> Oh boy, where do I start!

I have a two-in-one laptop/tablet (from Lenovo's Yoga series), and while I have _really tried_ to use the Store apps so that they are comfortable in the tablet mode, I've yet to find a PDF reader that doesn't crash randomly (including Adobe Reader's Microsoft Store port) and have basically no decent epub reader (I can't find a single app in the store that will open two epub files without any weird formatting issues, let alone support things like highlighting and such). There are no clients to any Google products. Your cloud option is basically OneDrive and that's it. Heck, I've even struggled to find a text editor, so in the end, I've just used OneNote to write down some texts. Kindle reader? Nope. Decent browser? Nope.

In fact, when I think about it, the _only_ useful Store app I was able to find was the Slack client, which seems to me like UWP-bundled Electron app that simply works! Of course, not even that one comes with no issues, because font rendering in it is absolutely horrendous on a HiDPI screen.

I could go on and on about this. At the end, I'm mostly using desktop apps in the tablet mode (things like Calibre, Chrome browser etc.) and that seems to work fine. But the Store apps (with that one sole exception where I'm actually using a Store app in the desktop mode as well) are just useless.

<comment><USER22> Thanks that was helpful for educating me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> _and Microsoft knows that it is necessary for the company 's software business and for the PC industry to evolve and stay healthy._

This the boring buisness-thinking take that misses the forest for the quarterly earnings report. Operating systems are largely... done-ish. We've entered a period of refinement and iteration that can't keep pace with the expectation to have something new to sell. I dissagree with the author that pushing forward full-steam is going to keep the industry "healthy."

Windows XP SP 2 is the last OS that I wanted to upgrade to. The rest has just been a drag along as enhancements are held back to be bundled with the breaking changes that do justify a revision bump, and a fresh coat of paint is used to sell the whole thing. OS X is similar, but less egregious.

We're in a period of kicking the can down the road. The UI keeps lurching randomly in fashionable directions but makes interaction inconsistent, obtuse or lackluster. Feature sets get locked down to enable new paywalls. Gamification is everywhere turning tools into ARPU-optimizing skinner boxes.

The End of low-hanging fruit is here. How we deal with it will determine if computing retains it's magical unbounded possibility space or not.

</comment><comment><USER25> As a lazy windows dev, I have seen more things go to web applications than desktop apps. One of my current work projects would be great as a desktop app. The client/ server divide in this website has added no small amount of hours keeping track of object state between the client and server. A desktop app would have made things much simpler in that regard. I am a big fan of desktop apps and have made a career developing them in .Net, but adding more hoops to jump through is not the answer in this regard.

</comment><comment><USER26> Where does Windows Subsystem for Linux fit for the future?

<comment><USER27> Half impressive tech demo and half veiled suggestion to move to Linux.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> How well did XP starter do?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_editions#Starter_Ed...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_editions#Starter_Edition)

</comment><comment><USER28> Microsoft doesn't plan on replacing Windows with this, right? They are just going to use this on lower-cost machines by obsoleting win32 apps? If not, this seems like a really bad move.

</comment><comment><USER29> One problem with that thesis: Metro is built on top of Win32.

<comment><USER14> Not really true. They built a new OS-level api called winrt. It includes a subset of win32. However, other parts of it are completely new and do not "call into win32" the way, say, .NET on Windows generally does.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I suppose this means no more electron or nwjs apps, either, probably to many's delight.

<comment><USER31> Electron apps can be packaged up as UWP and submitted to the Windows Store (with the restriction that you can't currently target Xbox, HoloLens, or Windows Mobile via Electron)[0]

[0] [https://www.onmsft.com/news/electron-apps-can-now- converted-...](https://www.onmsft.com/news/electron-apps-can-now-converted- windows-apps-distributed-via-windows-store)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Meh... I'd still prefer Windows 3.11.

Everything that I discovered there was such an amazing surprise. Good times.

</comment><comment><USER33> Are many of these legacy apps recource heavy? Maybe a tiny VM will do the trick.</comment>


Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews - <AUTHOR> http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20051201-82.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 <comment><USER2> I have no probelem with people leaving 1* reviews without reading the book, just like I have no problem with Amazon removing those reviews (and only those reviews). Yes they are annoying, but they are also one of the few _visible_ ways to protest. While "not buying the book" will probably be effective in the long term, an indivudial non-purchase isn't going to be noticed by anyone.

A similar situation to this frequently arises when big games are released on Steam. Amazon then gets flooded by 1* reviews from people who can't get Steam to work properly on release day or something.

I also find the opposite very annoying: when fans rate something as 5* before it's even released.

<comment><USER3> > I also find the opposite very annoying: when fans rate something as 5* > before it's even released.

I've received early copies of books with the hope that I would review it early.

But I don't often look at Amazon reviews so I don't know if this would fully account for what you're talking about.

<comment><USER2> I was thinking of reviews along the lines of "I'm sure this will be great. 5*" I'm not sure if I've seen any like that on Amazon though, now that I think about it.

<comment><USER4> Tim Ferriss' new book had some 5* reviews go up with people saying they had only read the first 15 pages, etc etc

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sadly, Apple is largely to blame for this mess. Well, if you ignore the publishers.

Ebooks started as a wholesale pricing model. The publishers would sell them to the likes of Amazon at some fixed price. Amazon would then set their own price. This is very similar to the brick-and-mortar pricing model. In some cases Amazon would sell those books at a loss in an effort to grow the Kindle platform.

Publishers didn't like this system because they saw cheap prices as devaluing their content. Publishers are also caught in a backwards mindset where they think if the physical book costs $25 then the ebook should cost $25 even though the latter has no printing or distribution costs.

What's more, even if those costs were the same, ebooks should still cost less because there is no resale market, a fact that digital content publishers seem to ignore.

But Apple's iBooks came along and not only gave the publishers what they want, they _required_ it. And that is the agency model, which allows the publishers to set the price, a move I argue is anticompetitive.

This put Amazon under pressure and the publishers got their way so the pricing is now largely out of Amazon's hands (sadly).

Review bombing is an interesting tactic, one I actually support if done for the right reasons. It was done on the PC game Spore for its ridiculous DRM (initially a limit of 2 (?) activations before EA relented).

What publishers--and in fact all digital content producers--are doing with pricing and DRM is beyond a joke. Sadly the Obama administration (the DoJ in particular) is filling with ex-RIAA lawyers so you know which way the wind is blowing there.

At the same time we have the RIAA/MPAA behind closed doors (with the government as willing accomplices) trying to equate downloading a song with terrorism (eg ACTA) in terms of enforcement priorities.

<comment><USER6> This economic analysis is interesting (seriously!). But it is also facile. Yes, ebooks are worth "less" because they can't be resold. but they may be worth more, and maybe significantly more, because they are much more convenient. Durability, resellability, and convenience are benefits. If you need the first two, you can buy paper. You are not entitled to dictate that convenience can't cost 2x (durability + resellability). That's the market's job.

And, like it or not, "bombing" review sites isn't a market action. The market works by price discovery, not application of force.

<comment><USER7> To be fair, "bombing" review sites is entirely a market action. The market works through information. The most common way that information is disseminated is through prices, but that doesn't mean it is the only way. Reviews, etc, allow one to more accurately decide how to value something.

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure whether reviews qualify as a market action; what action comes as a result of a review? It could go either way as the interpretation of the review is up to the reader of the review. It seems that ebooks sales are causing more action than the reviews. And I'll add my anecdote: my view is the negative reviewers don't understand the concept of premium cost for premium access.

<comment><USER9> _I'm not sure whether reviews qualify as a market action_

Sure they do. Markets need informed buyers to function well.

<comment><USER6> I agree completely, so, artificially pumping review sites full of reviews by people who haven't actually read the book as a protest movement doesn't seem like a market-improving action to me.

<comment><USER9> First, the reviews inform people that the books are available cheaper in other formats, which they might not have known. Second, if the reviews do cause the publisher to lower the price, that will presumably result in more sales, and there will be more consumer surplus gained than producer surplus lost. Boom, market improvement.

<comment><USER6> When supplier are coerced into changing their prices by force, that isn't the market at work.

You don't like the word "coercion" or "force" because you think stuffing review sites with non-good-faith-reviews it harmless, even though it contravenes the expectation that a reviewer represents a single entity who has actually attempted to consume the book. But the same logic was used during the Wikileaks Visa DDoS flood. You can choose to believe that DDoS attacks are legitimate, too. But you cannot with a straight face say that those attacks are the market at work.

<comment><USER9> _stuffing review sites with non-good-faith-reviews it harmless, even though it contravenes the expectation that a reviewer represents a single entity who has actually attempted to consume the book_

I don't agree the the reviews are not "in good faith". It is wrong to write a review of a $100 Monster cable pointing out that no matter how well it works, it's a ripoff when a $10 cable is functionally identical? This is the same idea: the reviewers are expressing their opinion about whether the product is worth the asking price. Their criteria for evaluation is different from yours; that doesn't make it vandalism or coercion or a DDOS.

<comment><USER6> Yes, I think it is: if you have not purchased the product, the proper venue to point out the TRUE FACT that the cable is a rip off is not in fact the product review site. Unless you buy the product and review it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What I find funny is that this would have never happened if they charged the standard $9.99 e-book price (which in itself is absolutely too much for e-books).

The $5 difference is causing quite a stir which I am sure is not worth it in the long run.

<comment><USER11> Why is $10 too much for an ebook ? - surely it depends on the value of the content inside it.

Valuing a book by it's physical properties is a practice that's gone on for far too long. Lots of technical books are full of "padding" and duplication because no-one will buy a 50 page book which concisely provides the useful information for $10-$20. It waste a huge amount of time both of the author and the readers.

<comment><USER12> I would gladly pay _more_ for a thinner, more concise book.

<comment><USER13> I have come to use the term "frighteningly thing" to describe most of the math and comp sci textbooks I decided were worth keeping. They are tiny, polished, beautiful gems rather than a ton and a half of rock studded with some promising crystals.

<comment><USER12> Any especially good ones you care to mention?

<comment><USER13> What I have in the room with me:

1\. Modern Algebra by John R. Durbin

2\. Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser

3\. Machine Learning - An Algorithmic Perspective by Stephen Marsland (not quite on the same level as the above two, but still pretty solid)

I think Tanenbaum's Operating System and Appel's Compilers books both go in this category too, they're big but not compared to their subject matter. But, I've seen enough people disappointed in both to think this is more my personal opinion at play.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is why I hate the 'star' review system. It very often leads to users trying to 'punish' the maker of the product, and creates an incorrect perception that the product itself is flawed. This might be a great book, but someone browsing through titles will only see that it has a 1-star rating and assume it sucks. I really think there'd be a lot of potential in some sort of hybrid review system that could weed out these sorts of garbage reviews.

<comment><USER15> Pricing is an important factor in a purchase decision, so shouldn't it be a valid factor in a review?

A 1-star review saying it's completely overpriced, while not perfect, is still better than reviews I see in the app store like "Amazing app, love it! 1/5" or "Pretty cool app, but it crashes on load and I can't use it, 4/5" (and those are the intelligible ones).

<comment><USER14> I made a comment below about price changes and how it hurts the usefulness of such reviews, but I also wanted to add that what you mentioned is another example of where the system fails. A 1/5 or 4/5 review that contradicts itself with a single sentence 'this rocked/sucked' isn't useful. We should be forcing people to provide a real review, or not allowing them to do so at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Perhaps they should be more honest that this is temporary, "early access" pricing. Perhaps they should say "The Fifth Witness: Electronic Early Access Edition, $15", and promise "The Fifth Witness: Electronic Mass Market Edition, $7". After all, early access is a reasonable thing to charge money for.

I also seem to recall reading elsewhere that authors get a much bigger cut of hardback sales than they do of mass market paperback sales. Perhaps this should be advertised more prominently?

<comment><USER8> I was thinking the same thing, but it should be more like "Buy now with instant delivery $more" and "Buy now, delivery in 12 months $less". Buyer buys and then ebook is automatically synced to their device at the scheduled time. It would certainly go a long way to silence their critics.

The only problem I see for publishers is they currently enjoy flexibility in their hardcover-to-paperback window. If a book is a blockbuster, I'm sure they extend the window. I suppose they could alter the delivery window on the cheap price, for customers that had not yet locked in the original delivery window and price.

As far as the author's cut, it is time for authors to negotiate different contracts. In 5 years, perhaps less, their hardback bonus is going to be meaningless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> A review's a review. _Including_ the product price as compared to perceived value.

It seems the sellers want to have their cake and eat it, too. You sell an e-Book for more than the hardcover -- be prepared for people to lower the value they assign to the _product_ that you are _selling_ at _your price_.

Otherwise, just relabel your review section to "Whore for us".

(A bit strong, admittedly, but this is starting to stink of hypocrisy. Pooor Amazon! /sarcasm)

EDIT:

At the same time, people should learn that the physical costs of a physical book are actually a fairly small component of it's overall cost. IIRC, often a dollar or two (US). Amazon et al. discounts on physical books often represent in good part the lack of retail overhead.

If you want bookstores, _you_ need to patronize them. And decide that you find enough value to pay the additional expense that keeps them in business.

When a staff member helps you, directly or by stocking/shelving an item you otherwise would not have found, realize this and make a decision to "pay the freight".

</comment><comment><USER18> Shameless plug: I built a site to let people borrow and lend Kindle (and soon Nook) books. You can make wishlists of books you want to try out, and hopefully some kind person who owns that book will loan it to you.

<http://booklends.com>

Ebook pricing is unfortunate, and a lot of that has more to do with the publishers than with the authors or with Amazon/B&N.

The Fifth Witness, mentioned in the CNET article, currently has an average rating of 1.7 out of 5:

<http://booklends.com/books/4d959054461b264b37025bd3>

It is not lendable, unfortunately. Again, blame Little, Brown, & Co for that. I think it would be in their best interests to allow their books to be lent to others. While I have no data (yet) to back this up, I believe that people who borrow a book that they enjoy are likely to buy more books from the same author.

<comment><USER11> Didn't Amazon shut down Lendle for offering such a service?

<comment><USER18> It was shut down for a few days, but it's back up again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "And that means more bookstores will be closing."

At the worst case they'll just have to change. Maybe they'll become cafes where you can borrow a kindle at the counter for browsing the selection.

Or they'll become like lists on Facebook.

</comment><comment><USER20> I think really what consumers are angry about is that the kindle/nook used to advertise the fact that ebooks were cheaper than buying the physical book and initially they were. Wouldn't you be a little angry now if you had invested a lot of money into the kindle/nook and justified it by the cheaper price in books? You can't blame them for ranting a little.

</comment><comment><USER21> I recently emailed Amazon customer service and complained about this very thing. A couple of days ago I bought dead tree versions of books that were 20% more for the kindle. I will not buy a kindle version of a book that is more than the dead tree version. Period.

</comment><comment><USER22> Don't kill the messenger?</comment>


Ask HN: Founding a startup in New York City? - <AUTHOR> Myself and my cofounders are currently based in Dublin, Ireland, and we're in early stages at the moment.
Our potential early investors and supporters are mostly based in New York City, and we're being asked if we would relocate there in order to continue on.
Now, this sounds utterly amazing to me, and myself and the team would love to head out there and give it a go, but I've got a few questions for my fellow hackers.
What's it like running a startup in NY? I've seen a few scattered posts that it's more cut-throat than SF, and that there isn't as much help and camaraderie available between startups. Is this true?
What kind of prices would we be looking at to get a small but decent office to start off in? The same goes for apartments. What websites are the best to find good rented property? In Ireland we have daft.ie, but there are a bunch of other shitty ones here and it's not obvious which is the best, so I assume the same is probably true in every other city.
Has anyone had any experience founding a startup as an immigrant? We'll be offered support in getting visas and such, but I'd like to hear any anecdotes about the process.
The interbutt is a big place, and there are lots of articles. It would be amazing if anyone who's seen any good posts about this could send a link along.
Cheers folks. <comment><USER3> There are many resources for you, especially as the community continues to grow. I haven't experienced much of the cut-throat attitude at all. In fact I have gotten a tremendous amount fo support and advice from many in the community here over the past year.

I'd suggest starting off in a co-working space since you can share resources and get help, instead of siloing yourself in a separate office.

Some resources to check out include:

Working Spaces

General Assembly - <http://generalassemb.ly>

New Work City - <http://nwc.co>

We Work Labs - <http://weworklabs.com>

DogPatch Labs - <http://dogpatchlabs.com>

LooseCubes (search for a place) - <http://loosecubes.com>

Email Events Lists

Startup Digest - <http://startupdigest.com>

This Week In NYC Innovation - <http://bit.ly/nycinnovation>

Other

Ohours - <http://ohours.org>

Meetup - <http://meetup.com>

NyHacker - <http://nyhacker.org>

Startup Weekend - <http://startupweekend.org>

Lean Startup Machine - <http://theleanstartupmachine.com>

</comment><comment><USER4> I founded BankSimple in NY. I'm an Australian immigrant, and my co-founder is Indian. We pay less than $2k/mo for rent for an awesome office in Brooklyn, we had 10 people in the office over summer. Most of my team lives in Brooklyn, where things are much more affordable, but you are still likely to be paying over $1600/mo for a small apartment.

I've never lived in SF, but as I understand it, it is not much cheaper.

There is a great community of tech startups, but they tend to be around the Union Square area in Manhattan. I spend a bunch of time meeting up with folks around Union Square, but its only a 15min train ride in from Dumbo in Brooklyn. Meetup is based here and there are a ton of tech and startup meetups. You wont find yourself lacking for social support as you build up your business.

I love NY. There is a fantastic culture of getting shit done. The city is cut throat, but that is inspiring. Everyone is on a mission. And its not all about technology. You meet inspired folks from all walks of life. Talented designers, musicians, financiers, advertisers, chefs and architects.

I'm going to miss NY. My company is heading to Portland, but I hope to bring the best of NY to Portland.

</comment><comment><USER5> On the contrary to what you ve heard, there is a huge startup network in NYC. You ll have the support you seek when you need it. Everything else is just expensive.

Most of the questions you asked have been answered already. So I ll give you some pointers about the housing question.

1\. Craigslist. - <http://newyork.craigslist.org/> 2\. Padmapper - <http://www.padmapper.com> \- maps all the apartments on craigslist. 3\. <http://www.nybits.com> \- for apartment listings from building managers.

The average "decent" studio apartment in Manhattan will cost you anything from $1000 - $3000. It might be a little lesser if you get a bigger place and share. Living costs are very high, but the fact that you could go shopping for groceries across the street at 3am makes up for it.

<comment><USER6> Here's a starting point : <$2000 downtown Manhattan. You'll get much more if you're willing to extend to Brooklyn/Queens, or spend a little more (or go for a share).

[http://streeteasy.com/nyc/rentals/downtown- manhattan/rental_...](http://streeteasy.com/nyc/rentals/downtown- manhattan/rental_type:frbo,brokernofee%7Cprice:-2000)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There's lots of good advice in this thread already but I would add a pitch to take a look at Brooklyn. While not cheap, it's generally way less expensive than manhattan and there's an awesome mixed community of people from all kinds of different backgrounds.

As far as office space, there are are couple of co-working spaces mentioned already, but there's also a great place called GreenDesk [1]. GreenDesk lets you rent anything from a single desk to an office for 6-7 people, it's relatively inexpensive, it's month to month so you're not locked into a lease, and it's in a pretty nice neighborhood with good subway connections.

Finally as far as culture, I'd say the NY tech scene is a more fractured than SF (there's a lot of finance folks here who usually don't interact much with the startup world) but within the startup space it's very active and friendly. One of the best things you can do to get involved and to get to know people is go to various meetup groups [2]. There are groups for virtually every neighborhood, specialization, and technology.

Good luck with the move and hopefully see you around NYC soon!

[1] <http://greendesk.com/index.html> [2] [http://www.meetup.com/find/?userFreeform=10001&radius=5&...](http://www.meetup.com/find/?userFreeform=10001&radius=5&radiusSet=true&show=results&sort=default&keywords=tech&mcName=New+York%2C+New+York%2C+USA&userFreeform=10001&mcId=z10001&lat=&lon=&gcResults=&op=search&sort=default&events=&show=results)

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm not sure of the prices in Dublin, but this I found that the cost of living in NYC is a bit over exagerated compared to other places in the NYC metro area.

I live about 2.5 hours from NYC and I pay $1400 a month for rent. I also pay $120 for car insurance, $20-50 a month on average for car maitenance, and around $300 a month on gas. Excluding car payments (I have a relatively old car that I have paid off). So my total cost of renting + a car is around $1850. I absolutely can get an apartment in Manhattan for that price that I would like, I've been in several. Obviously in Manhattan, I wouldn't own a car so thats why the comparison holds.

(I assume that utilities, TV, internet are basically constant no matter where you live).

Food is the big X factor. I can't quite figure out what the cost difference is. When I worked in Manhattan I ate out for lunch and it was generally around $10, sometimes more and sometimes less. My lunch now is around $7. Should I extrapolate that across my food budget? That makes me think it is going to be an extra $200 a month. I really don't know.

I think the cost of living gets so skewed because people try and compare price for a square foot. Right now I live in a 3 bedroom condo with a garage, a dining room, a laundry room, 2.5 baths, etc. I pay $1400 for that. But if I moved into NYC I'd have a 1 bedroom or a 2 bedroom and a roommate. Obviously if I wanted the same interior space I'd pay an enormous amount. But I don't need all that room. I don't even use it all now. So you have to compare lifestyle not the physical dimensions. In my current house, my family room is enormous and has a fireplace (that I never use). Do I need to be 15 feet from my TV? Of course not. It probably would look better if it I was closer. If you put me in the typical NYC family room, my couch will be 3' from the TV. I've lost a lot of space, but functionally the room is exactly the same. I still get the same enjoyment out of the place and the same utility.

A lot of people walk into a tiny NYC apartment and say, this is so SMALL! How do you even live here! But frankly, it just doesn't matter.

<comment><USER9> _A lot of people walk into a tiny NYC apartment and say, this is so SMALL! How do you even live here! But frankly, it just doesn't matter._

Right now I live in 634 square feet in the Bay Area -- not a tiny apartment by any means, but the smallest place I've lived for a long time. It has a view, which makes it feel more spacious, but I still find that the small size makes it slightly depressing after a while. I miss the idea of going for a walk around my house, or of going to sit in a completely different part of the house.

That's not to say that it's terrible, just that size _does_ matter. My next place definitely needs to be bigger.

<comment><USER6> Maybe one thing is the sense of property in NYC. Outside the city, I completely understand the idea of walking around 'your property'. In NYC, outside the door, is 'your city'. Manhattan is built for walking, no 'true native' owns a car here.

<comment><USER9> Walking around the streets isn't quite the same thing as walking around your own place, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Everyone mentions the prices in NYC and Brooklyn, but living in the often forgotten borough Staten Island I pay $800 for a 1 bedroom apartment right at the water, with a Manhattan bound bus minutes away. I have the luxury of privacy since I don't need a roommate, and things are a lot more quiet and peaceful here and for me personally, I enjoy coming home to that after spending 12 hours coding away in the city - I have unwinding time on the bus and then just relax without all the city noise.

I found this apartment via craigslist.org - I think that will be the easiest route to go without dealing with an overpriced realtor.

<comment><USER11> That might be because the Brookfield Landfill on Staten Island was an illegal toxic dumping ground for 20 years and is still being cleaned up. [http://earthjustice.org/our_work/cases/2008/brookfield- landf...](http://earthjustice.org/our_work/cases/2008/brookfield-landfill- cleaning-up-a-toxic-dump)

<comment><USER10> Since this is being brought up, and since even most New Yorkers don't know this (and therefore Staten Island is the brunt of many jokes) -

The Fresh Kills Landfill, which consists of 2,900 acres and includes the Richmond Avenue Truckfill, the Brookfield Landfill, the Isle of Meadows and parts of the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge. This was a city planned land reclamation and waste management engineering project which would convert swamp and creek ground to habitable ground in the future. The landfill itself had daily covering over all new garbage dumped, and when it was closed, a 2 foot final cover was put on top of it.

The Fresh Kills Landfill project lasted 55 years in total from the start to the final dump; however that did not include all portions of the Landfill project. The Brookfield Landfill specifically (since that is what I am commenting on) was open from 1966 to 1980, and in it's 14 years of operation, there was unfortunately a scandal where there was illegal dumping of toxic waste at these grounds - at one point a sanitation supervisor was convicted for taking bribes for looking the other way. The Brookfield Landfill covers 132 acres of the 2,900 acres that was the Fresh Kills Landfill.

Since closing they have monitored all the landfill from this project for safety, and environmental impact and are currently transforming the grounds to the largest park in the 5 boroughs - even bigger than central park. In the 9 years I have lived on Staten Island, I have had no complaints about smells, etc. The landfill itself (as far as the portion bordered by Richmond Ave, Arthur Kill and LaTourette) is grassy and there is plenty of wildlife living there. Ecologically speaking, it is thriving.

It is unfortunate that there was illegal dumping - but the ground was not an illegal toxic dumping ground for 20 years. I am more concerned about illegal dumping of toxic waste in water ways.

As for it still being cleaned up; as I mentioned, the Fresh Kills Landfill is currently in a 30 year project to convert it in to the largest park in the 5 boroughs - and remediation of the Brookfield Landfill started last year, it was the last of the landfill grounds in the project to commence remediation. The ground is safe, and the only reason the residents that lived next to the Brookfield Landfill property line were sueing was to force remediation of the property so that it wouldn't just be overgrown land, and could also be turned in to a recreational area for the community.

Please don't just spew out things about the Landfill unless you actually know the background and what is being done. I didn't grow up on Staten Island, and I don't care about the jokes, so I have really no care in the world what people say - I just want informed discussions taking place.

Some sources of information for numbers and stuff I wanted to confirm while responding:

[http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2010/staten-island- reside...](http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2010/staten-island-residents- rejoice-over-clean-up-beginning-at-brookfield-landfill)

<http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/fkl/about_fkl.pdf>

[http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/city_to_discuss...](http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/city_to_discuss_future_of_toxi.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Right now we have a two-person office at WeWork on 34th. $1,000 per month, month-to-month lease, decent facilities (conference rooms, phones, printers, etc.) About what you'd pay renting desks at another company, less than you'd pay for shared space at an incubator. I'd start with a short-term office rental like we've got, or possibly a sublet. Commercial leases in Manhattan are a pain in the ass.

Manhattan is expensive; the further you go from Manhattan, the lower the rent. I live in Hoboken, right across the river in New Jersey. New Jersey carries a moderate stigma (snotty Manhattanites won't travel there) so you end up getting more for your rent. I wouldn't overlook it if you're trying to save money, as long as you're walking distance to a PATH station. (The PATH train runs 24 hours, just like the NYC subway, except it's slightly cheaper and cleaner.) I used to live on 138th St. in Manhattan, and now I have the same amount of space in a nicer neighborhood for less money - and my commute to the relevant parts of Manhattan is both shorter and more pleasant.

The tech community's there if you want it, but it's not omnipresent like it is in San Francisco. If you put in an effort to meet people you'll be fine. I wouldn't describe it as 'more cut-throat' at all. People are both nice and social.

Recruiting is brutal. Then again, I hear recruiting in San Francisco is also brutal.

Health insurance is a pain. If you've got real funding, a professional employer organization (PEO) like Ambrose is the way to go - they take care of payroll and health insurance. If not, talk to a broker and get something with a high-deductible - you're getting it in case of catastrophe, not for every sniffle. Don't go without.

I'm an immigrant, but I had my permanent residency sorted long before I started starting companies, so I can't help much there. I can tell you that as a Canadian, I found U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services inefficient and irritating to deal with, but not malevolent. They'd probably have a similar attitude towards you - Ireland's a first-world country. Just be completely honest and make sure your paperwork is perfect.

If you do relocate, send me an email, and we'll get lunch.

<comment><USER13> As someone who also lives in Hoboken, I second the suggestion of living here. It's beautiful, safe, and fun. A good amount of the population is young and everything is within walking distance. And you're just a 10 minute PATH ride to the city. Its definitely something to look into.

<comment><USER14> Second the suggestion. Hoboken's got fantastic access into the city, they have their own tech meetup too (NJ Tech) and there's a new shared workspace that's opened up there too: <http://www.missionfifty.com/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Office space with walls is limited but there's lots of coworking space - <USER2> out loosecubes.com to search it. Private reserved desks are ~$500/mo.

Apartments: nybits.com / streeteasy.com / nakedapartments.com. Look for no fee apartments. Brokers here take 15% of your annual rent as a commission and renters generally have to pay that. They'll also want to make sure you make 40x your rent. For example, $2500/mo apartment (~650sq ft in Manhattan) == prove you make $100k/yr with 2 years of tax returns, financial statements. If they could take a blood sample I think they probably would.

For camaraderie, go to events at GeneralAssemb.ly, check out meetups, check out Hackers & Founders.

<comment><USER16> Just to add onto this, you could also set up shop in the outer boroughs. There are quite a few good startups and design shops out in Brooklyn that are doing good work. Additionally, rent is generally cheaper and apartments are somewhat more accessible in Brooklyn and Queens than it is in Manhattan. I'd take a look in Greenpoint or other places along the west coast of Brooklyn. There's also a pretty strong Irish expat community in Woodside and Sunnyside in Queens along the 7 line, if that matters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I came back to the US after living in Paris, France and have had nothing but amazing support from the NY tech community.

I work out of General Assembly, and have found the network to be really supportive. In general, I think the community is smaller than in SF (from what I'm told) but seems actually pretty tight knit. People are willing to help you get to where you need to go, to be sure.

The fact that things like Kickstarter and Skillshare were founded in NY attest at least some to the idea of community based collaboration and support.

Definitely couldn't have asked for a better start for our project Good Karma than in NY.

Offices in Manhattan are expensive - i'd look at shared workspaces that others have mentioned. Actually, everything in Manhattan is expensive. Brooklyn is a lot more affordable, though increasingly hot spots like Williamsburg, Greenpoint etc., are becoming just as expensive.

You should DEFINITELY check out the Startup Visa project that's being backed by big names like Brad Feld, Dave Mcclure etc. if you're looking at visa issues.

NY is fun. There's no other place in the world where people are passionately putting everything on the line to realize their dreams, failing, and trying to do it all over again the next day. It's energy incarnate.

</comment><comment><USER18> If you're speaking with investors, and are good about networking with funded startups chances are you can get office space for free for several months.

Regarding rent, you'll be paying a lot, and finding an apartment in NYC is a grueling process. But, there's a reason rent is high -- people love NYC!

<comment><USER19> Finding an apartment in New York is not that difficult a process. It's just expensive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> > We'll be offered support in getting visas and such, but I'd like to hear any > anecdotes about the process.

Does "support" mean "Hi, I'm the lawyer who will make this all work, like I've done dozens of time this year, so most of your contact will be with my assistant, and my fees and the expenses are already taken care of." If not, you've got a lot of work to do.

WRT moving to NY (or anywhere for that matter).

(1) Why and by how much will moving improve your chances of success?

(2) How much will it cost in time and money to move?

Is (2) less than (1)?

Seriously - the absolute best case is that you spend a week moving. The more reasonable best case is that you spend a month (preparing to move and dealing with the move after you're there will also take time). The likely case is that you'll lose 2-3 months and you could lose more.

</comment><comment><USER21> New York is one of the most expensive place to live and work. This is not just the cost of housing, but also food, travel, and hiring. NYC is more cut-throat than SF - you know the old song "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." This is a problem with so many people working so hard that it is almost an uncaring attitude for your fellow man. However, NYC is where the money is and a good surrogate to Silicon Valley. New York is a very active city, and has the best mix of culture, food, and experience that you will find anywhere in the world. There is good infrastructure to live outside the city (but you will pay in time for commuting). If you do decide on NYC, I will gladly help - look me up on my profile

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm Irish-American doing a (pre-funded) startup in Brooklyn. Living in Manhattan would be an extravagant expense for someone doing a startup. If you want to be around other Irish people, there's a great community in Sunnyside, Queens.

On Monday there's a YC meet up here in NYC where PG is going to deliver comments on NYC as a startup community. I'm looking forward to what he has to say, he criticized New York in the past as a startup hub, but since YC is having a 500 person meet up here I'd expect his feelings have changed.

</comment><comment><USER23> It's true that apartments are expensive in NY, but they're also similarly expensive in San Francisco, and parts of Silicon Valley (Palo Alto).

There's a lot of affordable co-working spaces in NYC if you want some sort office to start, but the most ideal space might be your apartment anyway.

You can also choose to live a little further out of the way if you're trying to save money - like in Queens, Brooklyn, or Jersey City. Depending on proximity to the subway etc, it can be just a 15 minute commute to Manhattan from any of these areas.

<comment><USER24> +1. I'd look into a coworking space. There are plenty of other web startups looking for space too.

Email me if you want any help finding a spot. kevin [at] ignighter [dawt] com

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I just came back from a visit to Dogpatch Labs[1], where several start ups are sharing office space. It was quite a cool space, I have to say. I'm not sure if there are others like this in NYC (I imagine this isn't the only one) but check it out.

[1] <http://dogpatchlabs.com/about/>

</comment><comment><USER26> <http://nyhacker.org/> ... there's plenty of camaraderie in the city. You can easily meet up with a different organized group almost every night and not run out. And a +1 for <http://nwc.co> as well

</comment><comment><USER27> For workspace and a chance to network, check out some of the co-working spaces available in NYC:

<http://nwc.co/> <http://hiveat55.com/>

You'll be able to find local people to talk to at the NY tech meetup:

<http://nytm.org/>

For finding real estate, rentals, rooms/sublets, Craigslist is still probably the best bet (unless you're up for Airbnb):

<http://newyork.craigslist.org/>

It is generally cheaper to find a place to live right outside the city in Brooklyn/Queens that is close to the subways and/or bridges (if you want to bike).

Hope that is somewhat helpful, others can comment more on startups / immigrant issues.

</comment><comment><USER28> I can't compare to SV, but I wouldn't say there's a lack of camaraderie among NYC startups.

Apartments - check out <http://padmapper.com> for data. Chances are you'll be spending between $800 (in places like Astoria) up to $2400 (in nicer buildings in central Manhattan) per person, depending on your living arrangements.

Office: I think desks are usually around $1000/month, though you might find some cheaper. How many are you? I can check in with my CEO and see if we have any vacancies (we have a whole floor, most of which we sublet, at 36th and 6th). I do agree with the advice to get into a General Assembly/DogPatch/etc. if you can, though.

</comment><comment><USER29> I just did the Leaving Cert in Dublin in June and I'm currently interning at Hunch. You'll hear a lot of people going on about just how expensive New York is, but, honestly compared to Dublin, it's cheaper or the same price for pretty much everything. New York is exceptionally expensive in comparison to the rest of the US, but, in comparison to Dublin, it really isn't at all.

As for camaraderie, the tech scene here feels very friendly and there're plenty of people helping each other out (I don't really have anything to compare it to though). Get in touch if you have any questions.

</comment><comment><USER30> I've heard NYC startups are more interested in making money/generating revenue while SV startups are more disruptive.

I imagine the public transport will be better in any case....good luck

Another tip - combine your office and apartment unless you need a brick and mortar place for sales. Just because you have funding doesn't mean you need to spend it.

</comment><comment><USER31> +1 to the previous posts. Only additional link I'd add is for the NextNY list - <http://groups.google.com/group/nextnydigital> .

</comment><comment><USER32> You should try getting in touch with @meetforeal and @amonter5. They both came over from Ireland with a similar story and now work with us in WeWork Labs.

</comment><comment><USER33> On the flipside, what's it like to move to NYC to be one of the first employees for a startup? Anyone have any experience doing that?

<comment><USER12> I did this in 2005 and I've been in the area since. When I moved, I rushed my apartment search and got something suboptimal - fine space, just a poor location.

A lot of places are shown by brokers who want a month or so worth of rent from the tenant - this is a ripoff, but it's common. If you can afford this or if you can get your startup to cover this, you've got more options than if you're just looking at no-fee listings.

Assuming you're a reasonably-competent developer, you don't have to worry about being out of work should it not work out at your startup - lots of companies are recruiting aggressively. So that, at least, you don't have to immediately worry about. (Future economic conditions may vary.)

Just make sure you're paid enough to live how you want to live in NYC, and that NYC itself is for you, and you'll be fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I lived in New York City, Sunnyvale (Silicon Valley) and San Francisco.

In California, you spend +- $800/month on car stuff... and your small apart. will eat another $1000/month...

In New York, no car is needed and you can found a shared space for a very good price...the keyword in NYC is "shared". shared apt. , shared workspace...shared girlfriend.

The most important is the people of New York City (including Brooklyn). They are amazing! It will take you a good two years to be accepted as a "local", but when you are "in", they will become your extended family... this is priceless... you won't get this in California.

I always compared New York City as a nasty girlfriend, you want to leave her because she is nasty to you, but you stick with her because the sex is so good.

</comment><comment><USER19> I would say: do it. Then again, I'm already in New York.

Manhattan is more expensive than Silicon Valley but the "greater metropolitan area" is not as bad as the Bay Area. In California, even far-out suburbs are expensive. In comparison, you can live 45 minutes from New York pretty cheaply.</comment>


Photos of the Otford Solar System Model - <AUTHOR> https://unop.uk/travel/photos-of-the-otford-solar-system-model/ <comment><USER2> I walked past "Neptune" just last Sunday doing this wonderful walk: [http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_23/index.shtml](http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_23/index.shtml)

It's beautiful countryside there - I highly recommend it. There's also a circular walk in that area which can be more convenient if you're driving: [http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_43/](http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_43/)

Both walks take you past parts of the Otford solar system.

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks fun. Last week I cycled from Pluto to the Sun on the Somerset Space Walk. The scale is something like a million kilometres per pedal revolution. And it took seemingly ages to get from Pluto to Neptune...

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

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm actually the person who added these planets to OpenStreetMap, so it's somewhat funny and incongruous to see them appearing on Hacker News.

Incidentally, your walk of about 3 miles sends you within a couple of hundred meters of the partial ruins/remains of a medieval palace (16th century), a Norman church (11th-14th century), the site of the Anglo-Saxon Battle of Otford (776), and the archaeological sites of two Roman villas (1st-3rd century). If you widen out by another 500m, there's another Roman villa, and an iron age fort up on the hills.

It's very unusual in Roman Britain to have three villas so close together, and there is speculation that one of the sites may be a temple complex. Lead weights were found which could be unrolled to reveal curses - 'I HATE CLAUDIUS, MAY HE BREAK HIS LEG' sort of thing. They were apparently thrown in for the attention of the local river goddess.

The third villa site has just been discovered, and excavations by the local society are actually underway this weekend.

There are a number of other villas dotted northwards along the valley, and one open to the public with a series of famous mosaics, and the earliest evidence of Christianity in Roman Britain, at Lullingstone.

Otford during the Roman period would have been a significant centre of power, it is at the southern point of the river Darenth, which flows north into the Thames, through very productive agricultural land. To the south is the Weald, which would then have been a massive forest stretching almost down to the south coast and the English Channel. More than one Roman army entered that forest and never emerged. So for the Romans Otford and the Darenth Valley would have been both a breadbasket and the edge of civilization.

It would also have then important as a crossing point for the river, and the point where the river cuts through the North Downs, a set of chalk hills which run Eastwards and then South East, to Dover. Those are the same hills that are cut by the Channel to make up the White Cliffs.

Now, it's a rural or intermittently suburban area, strong banker/commuter territory for the City of London (it's mostly countryside and small villages, but Canary Wharf is only 20 miles away, so house prices are off the scale).

Anyway, my vague point is (beyond being mildly interesting), if you're in London on holiday, or in fact if you live in London, I recommend hiring a car and wandering off into the Green Belt and going to somewhere like this (although it could be pretty much any direction, go 15-20 miles outside the M25 orbital motorway from London and you'll hit the countryside). You'll get a much better idea of England (which is surely above all about cricket on the green, pubs, cream tea and village churches!) than by getting entirely sucked into the tourist maw in London.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Good work!

They weren't on OSM the first time I came across it on an OS map. So I guess it's a fairly recent addition. It was exciting to discover what the "monument" was.

The North Downs Way (Pilgrims Way) and Darent Valley Path both run through Otford. [https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/maps/explorer-map- seve...](https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/maps/explorer-map-sevenoaks- tonbridge.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> There is something like this in Bonn, Germany, along the Rhine, starting close to the Post Tower. It's called Planetenlehrpfad but I currently can't find an English resource on it.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is great; I wonder if it would be possible to set a model up in New York. Maybe just inside Manhattan? Would be a fun geocaching exercise.

</comment><comment><USER7> Really great representation of the enormity of the our solar system (and the universe)

<comment><USER8> Yeah, no doubt.

I was blown away after seeing a scale model solar system on the U Colorado Boulder campus.

The tiny size of the planets relative to the distance of the orbits is mind- blowing, especially the outer planets. It's almost amazing we're able to see the planets so well with the naked eye from Earth through just their own passive reflection of sunlight.</comment></comment>


Helicopter view of your driving directions on Google Maps - <AUTHOR> http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/09/helicopter-view-of-your-driving.html <comment><USER2> Doesn't work for me... I'm guessing it requires webgl, which chrome won't do on my video-card.

<comment><USER3> Doesn't work for me either, and I'm definitely webgl-capable. Maybe it's just a limited rollout?

<comment><USER4> Looks like it requires the Google Earth plugin:

[http://www.google.com/intl/en/earth/explore/products/plugin....](http://www.google.com/intl/en/earth/explore/products/plugin.html)

"The plug-in is also used on Earth view in Google Maps."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This page breaks the back button.

</comment><comment><USER6> Any idea how/why this page breaks ⌘-N? Any idea how to turn it off?</comment>


Ask HN: How do you annotate your data? - <AUTHOR> Hey HN,
I'm curious how folks annotate their data to be used in ML pipelines (NLP/Vision) and what their experiences have been. Production/applied examples with teams of annotators would be great.
From folks I've spoken with these seem to be the most common ways:
* Custom Solution * Prodigy * Dataturks * Lighttag
I'm curious if there are more latent examples leveraging your users such as Google's image captcha. <comment><USER2> I built 2 annotation tools for the company I work for.

one is web based,

the other is a c++ app that can directly annotate videos.

the web based one is abandoned, because I found it is difficult to do frame level navigation.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is there a reason you chose to build your own instead of using an off the shelf solution?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What should I write my thesis on? - <AUTHOR>

For my senior year of undergraduate studies in economics I'm required to write a thesis. Part of the qualifying exam (taken junior year to see if I qualify to write said thesis) is the submission of three potential thesis topics.<p>I'm interested in doing some analysis concerning software and its role in markets. For example, analyzing labor markets for open source software. I'm still looking for compelling ideas, but also for compelling data. Is there anything you've wanted analyzed concerning software's role in the larger economy? I'd like to analyze it. <comment><USER2> A study on the business model of free software + $ for services/training/certification. How effective is it... where are those that didn't make it?

</comment><comment><USER3> Have you not answered you question??!!</comment>


I'm Half White and Half Asian Can I Be in the Media? - <AUTHOR>

From what I can see there are no lead male actors who look like me even though every company I go to is filled with asian and indian men. I have a lot of expendable income. I promise if someone puts a lead MALE actor in a movie who looks like me I will pay for the movie and I will buy all the things in the movie. It would make me feel like I relate to the main character more. I guess it feels bad designing all your software and running your businesses and being born here and never having any representation in the media. I'm about to have my own company and still I don't feel like part of my own country even though my ancestors both came here from the mayflower and hawaii. I haven't watched the television show silicon valley because it's just a bunch of white guys. What is the f<i></i>ing problem? Sell me something. Pander to me! I have $$$ take it! <comment><USER2> I can't tell if this is a joke, but I'm going to humor you.

I think your money would be better spent on, say, therapy to help you deal with your issues of belonging. One movie starring an Asian-looking man is not going to fix your identity issues, nor is any external event.

Asians are less than 5% of the country, so there aren't as many accusations of racism when movies are missing them as when movies are missing African Americans. Also, the "Asian American" statistic includes people from the Indian subcontinent. So if you feel like you're in a country that has very few people who look like you, you're right! If you were white in China, you'd feel the same way.

Regarding Asian actors: John Cho has had a fairly successful career, and it's only on the upswing. The Netflix show Marco Polo is absolutely full of Asians. Lucy Liu is the star of a TV show and many movies.

I find it ironic that you're crying about discrimination, but you mention several times that you want to see a male playing a lead role. Everyone wants the world to be in their image, but it never will be. Do what you can to change it, and if you can't, don't make yourself miserable.

Edit: Main characters in Silicon Valley, The Big Bang Theory, Heroes, The Last Air Bender, and probably lots of other films are Indian. Ben Kingsley is super-famous and half Indian.

<comment><USER3> _" The Netflix show Marco Polo is absolutely full of Asians."_

And pretty fun, actually.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Keanu Reeves.

Hum, I guess you can be hapa but still need an American last name!

<comment><USER5> Parents: Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., Patricia Taylor, Nationality: American, British, Canadian

<comment><USER2> "His mother is English while his father, who is a Hawaiian-born American, has Native Hawaiian, Chinese, and Portuguese ancestry."

Here's a pic of his dad: [http://img.spokeo.com/public/900-600/keanu_reeves_2001_01_26...](http://img.spokeo.com/public/900-600/keanu_reeves_2001_01_26.jpg)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What food is quick to make and tasty to eat? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> You can cook fish and rice in the microwave.

I'll speak to the ease rather than the speed of preparations.

In that regard I like Crock Pot and Instant Pot. Both of them can cook just about anything, including cakes. The best thing about them is you can just dump everything in them and forget until ready. I believe Instant Pot is a bit more versatile and stuff like rice and hard boiled eggs come out perfect every time. Youtube has neverending parade of recipes and demos (of any level of complexity) for both Crock/Instant Pot. To save more time one can also invest in food processor (chops up your veggies and whatever in no time) and countertop dishwasher.

</comment><comment><USER3> My wife has brought fish into my go-to selection. She bakes or pan-sears salmon or tuna. Probably the highest combo for speed and tasty. Not optimized for cost obviously.

salt+pepper+olive oil+lemon juice, fish on parchment paper in a cast iron pan, bake for 10-15 minutes or until flaky, depending on fish mass

active time - 1 minute?

</comment><comment><USER4> [https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/1884/main- dish/sandwiches...](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/1884/main- dish/sandwiches/grilled-cheese/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Smoothies and sandwiches :)</comment>


Letter to Mark Zuckerberg - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/letter-to-mark-zuckerberg-8e6283bde8 <comment><USER2> I like idea of revenue sharing but FB is not going to do so.</comment>


Show HN: Pandashells – Bringing the Python data stack to the shell prompt - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/robdmc/pandashells <comment><AUTHOR> Pandashells is a set of cli tools that opens up the power of the python data stack to the bash prompt. Brings dataframe manipulation, visualization and statistical modeling to the unix pipeline workflow.

<comment><USER2> Since you created this tool, you can put "Show HN:" at the beginning of your submission's title. That will make it show up on [https://news.ycombinator.com/show](https://news.ycombinator.com/show)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm a total HN noob. Don't see an option for editing the post. Am I just blind?

<comment><USER3> No...after the first X minutes, the option to change the title is lost. Maybe a mod will change it though.

<comment><USER4> ...and you can always send an email to the mods to ask them to do this - email@example.com

They tend to reply quickly and are very helpful, in my experience!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > There is no requirements file with pandashells because some of the tools > only require the standard library, and there's no sense installing > unnecessary packages if you only want to use that subset of tools.

This is a _terrible_ idea. One of the main features of package managers is dependency management. If you want to be as minimalistic as possible, separate the tools into further packages (some of which have their requirements laid out properly, and some of which only require the standard library).

<comment><USER6> Try the extra capabilities parameters in setup.py, so the user can selectively install what they'd like:

        extras_require = {
             'param_name': ['pkg1', 'pkg2'],
         },

They then can be used like so:

        pip install package[param_name]

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks mixmastamyk. That's a good suggestion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This looks amazing! The amount of time I spend writing short python scripts to manipulate data in simple ways is way too big, and this looks like it might fit my needs precisely. Thank you for creating this.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is great! Do you want to make a Conda package for this or shall I?

<comment><AUTHOR> I would love help making a conda package. I've never done that before. I didn't spend a lot of time looking, but I didn't find conda packages for some of the dependencies (e.g. gatspy). If you now how to work around that, I'd welcome the help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Thank you very much for your work. One question: I've never used PowerShell cause I'm UNIX user but isn't PowerShell capable of doing something similar (piping the objects)?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure. I've never used PowerShell either.</comment></comment>


FoundationDB 1.0 - <AUTHOR> https://foundationdb.com/documentation/release-notes.html

<comment><USER2> Here are some helpful related links:

Download page (no signup required!), Community License allows for up to 6 server processes in production and unlimited in non-production: [https://foundationdb.com/get](https://foundationdb.com/get)

Pricing page: [https://foundationdb.com/pricing](https://foundationdb.com/pricing)

The blog post about it: [http://blog.foundationdb.com/post/58795506022/version-1-0-an...](http://blog.foundationdb.com/post/58795506022/version-1-0-and- pricing-announced)

An article:

<comment><USER3> Btw, any plans for hiring C++ devs? (remotely)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone tried running foundation db in production?

<comment><USER2> Yes, and we have paying customers. We're working on some in-depth case studies, but until then, here are some quotes you may be interested in:

[https://foundationdb.com/testimonials](https://foundationdb.com/testimonials)

<comment><USER4> What do you feel like the primary advantage is?

<comment><USER2> The primary feature that distinguishes FoundationDB from other NoSQL databases is that all operations in the database are perforomed through high performance, cross-node ACID transactions.

This allows FoundationDB's core ordered key-value data model to be used to expose many different data models (graph, document, even SQL) through stateless "layers". Users can then interact with their data through whichever data model makes sense for the application, but with a common, highly performant and reliable underlying storage technology. Another benefit of having just one storage technology, with ACID transactions, is that updates can be made with perfect consistency to multiple data models (i.e. update a document and a graph) with one operation.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Accessing a deceased person's mail - <AUTHOR> http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14300

<comment><USER2> Thank You.</comment>


The Complete Moral Bankruptcy of Manipulating Psychology Turn Users to Addicts - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/the-complete-moral-bankruptcy-of-manipulating-human-psychology-to-turn-users-into-addicts-d09b98281ef <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15717649](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15717649)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sorry about the title butchery, it was 9 characters too long.</comment>


The law depends on compute power - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jeremyjkun/the-law-depends-on-compute-power-29095fd58354 <comment><USER3> This is the perfect example of what happens when a programmer (or in this case a mathematician) thinks that the law operates like a computer.

It doesn't.

The law is interpreted by humans, based on case law, and attempts to understand the intentions of the law as written.

Many programmers don't like this, but that is how the law operates.

(If the author would like to go down another rabbit hole, perhaps he should consider if encrypted information is actually published at all. After all, well designed encryption renders information quite close to random noise in the absence of a key. Perhaps making encrypted information available isn't actually publishing - maybe it is the act of posting how to decrypt it that is the act of publishing.

Note that here, the law would answer "it depends", and that is fine.)

<comment><USER4> > The law is interpreted by humans, based on case law, and attempts to > understand the intentions of the law as written.

So what you are saying is that "loopholes" in the law actually don't exist, because those loopholes run counter to the intentions of the law? Interesting!

<comment><USER5> Generally speaking, "look! I found a clever loophole in the law!" \- as performed by any layman who doesn't actually understand the legal system - leads to getting smacked by a judge for being an annoyance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It is not illegal to publish a social security number. Watch this:

268-91-7112

That is a social security number, but I guarantee you I will not be prosecuted for publishing it. What is illegal is publishing the _binding_ between a particular social security number and a particular person.

Geeks get way too hung up on this idea that publishing these things should be OK because "they're just numbers." No, they are not "just numbers". They are numbers with some associated semantics. This number is Bill's SSN, that number is Sony's secret key. It's the semantics that matter, not the number.

<comment><USER7> Didn't Sony try to claim a patent on the specific number, rather than some kind of security argument?

<comment><USER6> No. To patent something you have to disclose it, so patenting a secret key would totally defeat the purpose.

<comment><USER7> Well, I remember that being part of the contention. Sony said, "we've patented it". Everyone else said, "how can you have patented it, when you won't tell anyone what it is!?". Or something along those lines.

<comment><USER6> If you can find the patent number that would make it easier to formulate a cogent response.

<comment><USER7> Some googling suggests it was not a patent they claimed, but that it was an "illegal number". Very possible I confused the two.

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

I think at the time what I found ridiculous was that you were prohibited from "having" the number, but of course nobody could say what number it was you weren't allowed to have... seemed like something that belonged in Dr. Strangelove.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Calling an SSN "a number" is reductionist even for a programmer. Does open() return an integer or does it return a file descriptor? Is it okay to do arithmetic on it and expect sensible results because it's just s number? In fact, programmers go out of their way to add a rich set of semantics and behaviors to things that are, under the hood, just numbers.

</comment><comment> Al-Khwarizmi _" now that it's public, you have to wonder whether this will bite me in the ass when I'm 60 (...) and my identity gets stolen"_

Could someone from the US care to explain why publication of these numbers is such a big deal, and why it can lead to identity theft (an idea that I see often on the internet)?

In Spain we have a unique ID number and it is pretty common to see them published all over the place. The government and administrations routinely publish lists of people with their name and ID number, for example if you have applied for a public sector job, a government grant, etc. your ID number will be published in a list that everyone can see and even find on Google. We don't see it as a problem because knowing someone's ID number doesn't mean you can steal their identity - to do that they would need to forge the actual ID card, for in-person procedures, or steal passwords or keys, for online stuff. Knowing the number alone doesn't give you access to anything. In fact, it is publicly known that the current king has the ID number 15 and the former king 10 (number 1 corresponded to dictator Franco who created the system), but it's not that easy to go around impersonating the king :)

What can you do if you know a person's social security number in the US?

<comment><USER9> Credit theft. People can acquire a credit card by mail or online.

That's interesting... in Spain does getting credit require an in-person appointment? Because maybe that's a simple answer to 2/3 of the identity theft in the U.S.

<comment><USER10> In Brazil, I can get some credit lines (usually small) by just spending more than I have on the bank, for others (a bit bigger) I'll need to enter my pin number either on a phone or an ATM, and for big credit lines, I'll have to go to the bank.

<comment><USER11> That's credit from a business you have an account with. In the US, I can often get credit from a business I have had no prior contact with with just my name and SSN. Recently, there may be multiple choice identity verification questions (pick where you used to live, what other credit accounts you have, how much their payments are, etc).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The trouble with this logic - to which I am not entirely unsympathetic - <USER2> that under it, a computer program binary would also constitute an "illegal number". "You've copied Microsoft Office!" "Nonono, that's just a very large number in binary."

The actual answer is: the law is _all about_ intent.

</comment><comment><USER13> I desperately want to read a lawyer's answer to the questions raised by the author. My bet is that most of the gray areas exist simply because no cases involving them have been litigated. If such cases ever go to trial, courts will probably rule in a rather common-sensical way, such as by creating a bright-line rule[1].

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright- line_rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright-line_rule)

<comment><USER14> Lawyer answer (in general terms and without citations):

All intellectual property rights are limitations on free speech. Courts rule against the publication of exact copies, or identical copies in different media, every day. IP law requires courts to prevent copying else it be meaningless. The flag is not an expression of a new idea, it is a facsimile of a protected number, protected data little different than a copyrighted movie or patented design. Its publication could only be legal as some sort of "fair use", but exact copies that directly impact the financial viability of protected material rarely fall within fair use.

They would rule against the flag. If persons want to express themselves using this material, they need to add some form of comment so as to avail themselves of fair use protection. Add a stripe to the flag and get back to us.

<comment><USER15> What about the computational power question? At what point does it become illegal to publish an encrypted SSN/illegal number if you know it takes 1 day to break the encryption using current computational power? What about 10 days? a year? ten years? a hundred years? a thousand years? And what if computational power changes, and a thousand years turns into 1 day? Does the action become illegal retroactively?

<comment><USER16> Those are meaningless questions. It's trivial to think of 100's of hypos and go 'is this legal? Is that legal?' 1000's of first years do that every year because they think that's what being a lawyer is about, not to mention the amateurs. A judge however considers one specific case, with arguments as to what is the objective reality as presented by the parties. 'What ifs' don't matter. Law is not a closed rule-based system. 'Loopholes' (I loathe thay word) are not like buffer overflows.

(have law degree, not practising lawyer)

<comment><USER15> Wait, but aren't so many of the important US supreme court rulings so contested because they have to consider the ramifications, e.g., of whether a ruling will take power away from the state and give it to the federal government? How is that not a "what if" scenario? Isn't the Baston rule just a big loophole?

<comment><USER17> Appellate courts get to make such considerations, but not the lower court. The lower court judge can say "I believe the facts say X and therefore law Y should apply" but the appellate courts can say that the interpretation or Y or even law Y itself is incorrect and tell the lower court judge to reconsider the outcome of using law Y in that manner given facts X.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> At some level, laws inherently have to be up for interpretation, and operate on some level of abstraction above the intimate details - because virtually everything in life is a spectrum, including the applicability of a given law. In the "fringe zone" in which it's not clear whether a law applies or not, judges have to resort to individual judgement on a case-by-case basis.

This is not something that's new or unique to technology, although technology does a fantastic job of illustrating the difference between a legal problem and a technological problem - as well as the different mindsets you have to approach both with.

</comment><comment><USER19> Social security numbers are in the uncanny valley between something private enough to be plausibly used as a shared secret and public enough to be exploited widely. There is really only one effective solution to this: Make all SSNs public and therefore useless as a secret key. All the services that are currently (ab)using this number will find alternatives.

<comment><USER20> > Make all SSNs public and therefore useless as a secret key.

An exhaustive list of all US SSNs will be mishandled, intercepted and posted online. It is only a matter of when, rather than if.

(For precedents of whole-country database dumps, see the Turkish, Philippines and Qatar cases.)

<comment><USER21> How do you make the leap from "something has happened in three countries" to "it will inevitably happen everywhere" ?

<comment><USER22> (chance greater then 0) * (a lot of time)

<comment><USER23> Right. Reminds me of how to destroy the earth. Just wait until its atoms decay.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> >The case was eventually settled out of court, but the question remains whether it's illegal to publish a specific number on the internet. The law currently seems to agree with Sony, that free speech doesn't cover Hotz's case. > One counterargument is that if a specific number is illegal to publish, then so is anything derived from that number. An excellent example of this is the Free Speech Flag

There's obviously a huge difference between publishing a number and publishing a number with a message next to it saying "this number is the password for X". Clearly the intent of the law is to stop the latter.

</comment><comment><USER25> The main problem is that parts of our society still treats social security numbers as off they were passwords. However, they are short, uniquely assigned, and not changeable - which means they are user names (identifiers.) (Same thing with finger prints, BTW.)

Meanwhile, designing systems that can uniquely identify consumers/customers/employees/suppliers/students with a generally unique ID world lead to a reduction in error rates and increased efficiency.

Security must be solved with told designed for it (state issued signing key/device?)

</comment><comment><USER26> The term embedding is hardly confusing. It would be impossible to prove the embedding, unless processing power raises, though.</comment>


How Good Names Can Help Products Succeed - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/start-up-vision/5e98414cbcc4

<comment><USER2> You can't possibly attribute the success of docker or Hemingway to their name alone. You can just as easily take any successful company and create a narrative about their name and how it somehow made them successful.

<comment><AUTHOR> I could be wrong but it is my understanding that:

\- Dotcloud was around for 3 years and it did not become popular until the name change to docker. I personally couldnt make myself try a product with dotCloud name. So, it could be only me.

\- Read Hemingway App coverage (I have never seen a release from a small company covered by so much media) they are all talking about Hemingway. It is an incredible name.</comment></comment>