Mt. Gox CEO Karpeles refuses travel to U.S. for questioning - <AUTHOR> http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/03/27/mtgox-ceo-karpeles-refuses-travel-to-u-s-for-questioning/ <comment><USER2> As a US citizen, if I lived outside the US and was summoned back for "questioning" by adverse parties, there's almost no reason I can imagine going. If that's truly all they want, then there's no reason it needs to be done in person. Depositions can be conducted remotely in many (though not all) jurisdictions.

<comment><USER3> You're right; this isn't even close to news. Essentially, the plaintiffs are complaining that Karpeles isn't volunteering to massively inconvenience himself to make the lives of the people suing him easier.

Their offer to "pay all travel expenses" was hilarious. As if $5,000 or even 10x that amount is even a rounding error to the case they're pursuing against him.

<comment><USER4> On the contrary: he's asking for bankruptcy protection from US Courts.

US Courts can use bankruptcy law to protect you from your creditors. But if he refuses to comply with the Courts, then why should get get any bankruptcy protection?

<comment><USER3> _But if he refuses to comply with the Courts_

Who said he refuses to comply with the courts? He's opposing a filing made by the plaintiffs. The court has not even ruled on the filing (which is merely a request from the Plaintiffs for the court to order).

Deposition by video conference is common. Alternatively, he's offered to meet them in Taiwan. The guy can be guilty of whatever, but to paint him negatively because he's not going out of his way to help someone who wants to destroy him doesn't make sense to me.

<comment><USER4> 1\. He borrowed money from various US Institutions.

2\. He has failed to return that money. Furthermore, he claims he cannot repay the money back and requests Bankruptcy protection

The Plaintiffs are in their right to try and get their money back. You don't just _borrow_ millions of dollars and lose it all. Actually, you're _allowed_ to do that in the US as long as you file Bankruptcy protection and listen to court requests and make an honest effort to repay as much of the money back. Its one of the reasons why the US is good for businesses, Bankruptcy law reduces the risks businesses make in regards to losing money / paying creditors.

It is okay to fail in the US... but only if you properly document your failures and make an honest effort to repay what you owe.

However, that is not what he has done. He's hiding out in Taiwan thinking there is some government conspiracy against him. On the contrary, US Laws are relatively forgiving. Hell, he may have multiple layers of legal defenses: if he properly created a Limited-liability corporation, his personal wealth will remain uneffected. Currently, he is NOT responsible for paying back the millions upon millions of dollars that he should be responsible for.

But that is only because of Bankruptcy _protection_. The US Courts and US Law _protects_ you from creditors in this situation.

The Texas Court is protecting him from creditors currently. He does _NOT_ have to pay all the money back, so long as the courts are on his side. However, the Texas Courts are complaining because this man is utterly ridiculous and ignorant on how the US Court system works. He is biting the hand that feeds him, so to speak.

In fact, it is quite unfair that the US Law treats businesses with such leniency. Student Loans evade bankruptcy protection for example. Nevertheless, if Karpeles plays his cards right, he will not have to pay back his loans. But he has to work with the Texas court for that kind of protection. It is only fair.

And remember, this isn't the "Federal Government" giving him this protection, it is the State of Texas. The _Texas Court_ is asking for him to enter Texas. I'm not from that state, but I imagine that Texas has more respect for people who actually put forth the effort to appear in person in court.

Anything less is rather disrespectful to the Judge.

<comment><USER5> > And remember, this isn't the "Federal Government" giving him this > protection, it is the State of Texas.

No, its the Federal judiciary. The particular bankruptcy court happens to be located in Texas (US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas). People often confuse federal courts _located_ in a state with state courts, but they are not at all the same thing, and have nothing to do with the state government.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the clarification.

The whole "multiple governments" thing in the US gets confusing sometimes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seeing how the U.S. arrested foreign gambling website CEOs transiting through U.S. airports - CEOs and businesses that didn't violate U.S. law, in my opinion - I can't blame Karpales.

</comment><comment><USER7> I believe Admiral Akbar might have some advice for this CEO.

Given the U.S. propensity for arresting foreign nationals for allegedly breaking U.S. laws while completely outside of U.S. territory just as soon as they finally set foot on it, I would politely decline this request as well. The offer to pay 100% of all travel expenses up front is particularly suspicious.

Given what has already occurred, I'd probably also wear nitrile gloves and a dust mask when handling the "first class plane tickets" sent by my former customers.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, somehow, I'm not seeing any reason to believe that the people suing Mt.Gox for fraud are in league with a government plot against Karpeles.

Mt.Gox sought bankruptcy protection in Japan, and then in the US (tied to the Japanese process). People with claims in the US against Mt.Gox, as is fairly _routine_ in bankruptcy cases where there are active claims, sought to have Karpeles testimony as a representative of the bankrupt firm with relevant knowledge compelled by the bankruptcy court.

> The offer to pay 100% of all travel expenses up front is particularly > suspicious.

Payment of a witnesses travel costs, lodging, plus attendance fees in US federal court is generally _mandatory_ (28 USC Sec. 1821.) Offering to pay up front as a means of removing a potential convenience barrier for a witness is, AFAIK, fairly routine, rather than "particularly suspicious".

<comment><USER7> Except there is no particular reason why Karpeles actually needs to be physically present to provide his testimony, or for the corporation's designated representative in court to be a specific individual rather than an attorney hired for that purpose.

I am not one who believes that physical custody of a witness is either necessary or sufficient to obtain truthful statements from him. I already find some of the traditional rituals of courtroom procedure to lie somewhere between useless and ridiculous, so I still stand behind my statement. I will now expand it to say that the routine practice of paying for the physical transportation and upkeep of a witness is particularly suspicious _and_ wasteful.

If you want questions answered, ask them. You should probably be prepared to be disappointed in the answers, if you get any at all. You may find that some people are more forthcoming when a grim-faced person in a robe, with armed men ready to mete out punishment at a word, is not the one demanding answers.

We have an Internet now. Information moves a lot faster and more inexpensively by itself than it does in the custody of a human courier. Thus, the stated motive--"to appear for questioning"\--appears on its face to be bogus.

<comment><USER8> _We have an Internet now. Information moves a lot faster and more inexpensively by itself than it does in the custody of a human courier. Thus, the stated motive-- "to appear for questioning"\--appears on its face to be bogus._

The purpose of a deposition isn't to elicit information as quickly as possible. That can be held by document requests responded to by email. The purpose of a deposition is to take the _sworn testimony_ of the witness and to record various aspects of their testimony ahead of a trial. Most importantly, demeanor and other side information that isn't properly conveyed by a video deposition. One of the most important concerns, especially with a defendant accused of fraud--is ensuring that the defendant is offering their own answers, and is not merely reading scripted answers from out of the camera's view.

 _You may find that some people are more forthcoming when a grim-faced person in a robe, with armed men ready to mete out punishment at a word, is not the one demanding answers._

That's cute. You actually think a deposition is where a judge asks questions while the bailiff stands menacingly over the witness? Here's a clue: _depositions are conducted by the parties themselves without the assistance of the court._ Most depositions are held at the law offices of either the plaintiff or the defendant; the only 3rd-party present is the courtroom reporter who, despite the name, is actually a non-court affiliated commercial service provider licensed to transcribe depositions. At most, the judge will participate in a deposition only if the parties call him to resolve a legal dispute. Bailiffs _do not_ participate in depositions under any circumstances.

<comment><USER7> It is equally cute to believe that someone will not lie to you just because you made him promise not to. The actual threat is that if you lie in court, and get caught, you will be thrown in a cage by men with guns.

An oath is not necessary for that. It suffices to say, "If you misrepresent the facts here, we will punish you for it in addition to whatever may be decided in this case. Do you understand?" and for the witness to say "Yes".

If a fact as stated in a deposition is discovered to actually be false, the armed men and iron bars do come into play. Don't make the mistake that just because they are not physically present and visible at the time that the threat of them is not important while someone is being deposed.

I can't tell if you are an apologist for the system, eliding over its obvious flaws, or someone genuinely clueless about theories of trust.

Either way, some cross-disciplinary study of the development of moral behavior in primates may be useful. Imagine asking young children of varying ages whether they took the cookie from the table in the room with the hidden camera, and asking the follow-up question about whether they were lying or not.

After having done so, you may realize that most court procedures operate on the principle that people make moral choices based upon fear of retribution after getting caught. This is entirely unsuitable for people at different stages of moral development from the median, such as children, retarded adults, sociopaths, geniuses, sociologists, atheists, autistics, and philosophers. The implied courtroom intimidation tactics just don't work.

There are several reasons why. Telling the truth as you know it is not an absolute defense against being punished anyway. The only information the court may have about something may be what you tell them. The measure for credibility is not how true something is, but how believable it is. The punishment for lying may be less than the punishment for telling the truth. My cartel enforcer can punish me to a greater extent than the court's enforcers. Etcetera.

<comment><USER8> I'm a former criminal defense attorney with a background in cognitive science. I speak from experience.

Almost everything you just wrote is a fantasy view of the US judicial system, morality, and cognitive development, and psychology which doesn't actually exist in the real world.

<comment><USER7> It appears as though you are saying your argument holds more strength because of who you are (or were), and who I am not. Is that not an ad hominem, appeal to authority, and judgmental language?

It _could_ be true. Were we arguing formally, I might ask you to prove your (negative) statement instead of just nakedly asserting that everything I said is wrong.

I was referring to Kohlberg's stages of moral development, assuming that the common criminal, as encountered by the justice system, would be at a very low stage, on par with very young children. The justice system's overwhelming focus upon punishment and deterrence seems to align with that assumption.

The system itself can only accomodate people between stages one and four. If, for whatever reason, someone decides that the law is an ass, and goes to stage five or six with a personal philosophy that is fundamentally incompatible with social norms, there is really nothing the system can do to accomodate him.

A catch-and-punish-by-lawful-authority model does nothing to prevent crimes by people who have arrived at a sociopathic morality model by introspection. _IF_ Karpeles is such a person, the actions taken in civil court are completely pointless, as he would never voluntarily submit to the authority of what he would see as a system morally inferior to his own.

You can't really know how to deal with people at stage five or six without knowing the foundation principles of their morality. It could be literally anything. There is no reliable way for a cooperative society to enforce conformity on someone who has rejected society's common set of rules for another based on original thought.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wouldn't either. Law enforcement can do what they want here.

<comment><USER10> With a name like yours, I'd think you'd realize that your statement applies to pretty much every corner of the globe minus a few countries.

<comment><USER10> Downvoted for stating the truth, I lol at thee...

<comment><USER11> Downvoted for stating an irrelevant truth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not surprised that he doesn't want to step into the jurisdiction of federal marshalls. And the excuse that it would be an 'unacceptable misuse of resources' from the opposing counsel is pretty thin. People teleconference all the time and there are plenty of certified court reporters in either Japan or Taiwan who could facilitate a deposition.

</comment><comment><USER13> Remember when the U.S. was the "shining beacon"? Where someone coming into questioning couldn't be held indefinitely as a "material witness"? Or to first have all assets seized and then assigned a terrible attorney because of insolvency? When it would not be a stupid move to submit to questioning on U.S. soil?

Yesh, that's what I thought.

<comment><USER14> When was that? The slavery era? The prohibition? The seggregation? The McCarthy era? The J.E Hoover era?

<comment><USER15> I think it was the era when we were young and learning about the U.S. in school :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> [http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/27/technology/security/bitcoin-...](http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/27/technology/security/bitcoin- arrest/)

I would not go either.

</comment><comment><USER17> As a European I wouldn't go to this messed up country either, especially since he isn't citizen there.

</comment><comment><USER18> So a bunch of Americans are suing a Japanese company in US courts? Let me know how that works out.

<comment><USER19> MtGox has an entity incorporated in Delaware.

<comment><USER20> Does this "entity" have any assets?

<comment><USER21> ~$400MM in stolen BTC?

<comment><USER22> That is... not an asset.

<comment><USER23> It is property.

<comment><USER24> Since this week.

<comment><USER23> No - it was property all along. All that happened this week was that the IRS agreed publicly with this view.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Rather understandable, since I'm sure theres a good case for him going to jail in the US. I'm not sure why there's all the comments about the US being authoritarian here though -- Karpeles really screwed a lot of people over,did a bunch of shady stuff, and was grossly negligent in running his exchange. Jail time would not be unwarranted, presuming that the law allows for it.

</comment><comment><USER26> Why doesn't he just invite the US officials to visit him in order to question him? Why must he be the one burdened with travel?

</comment><comment><USER27> Wow. After 5 hours and 51 comments this story is already on page three at rank 73! Slow clap right there.

</comment><comment><USER28> So wouldn't I.

</comment><comment><USER29> peculiar he would choose Taiwan of all places, where there is no extradition treaties with the US.</comment>


NSA surveillance program extended by court, intelligence officials reveal - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-surveillance-program-extended-by-court-intelligence-officials-reveal/2013/07/19/cb03218a-f0bf-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html?tid=rssfeed

<comment><USER3> Infuriating, but did we really expect any differently? These programs are a bureaucrat's wet dream. A single congressional hearing is not going to make them go away. The continued leaking of the more incriminating documents - <USER2> inevitability at this point - is only thing that can put sufficient pressure on these people to change their course.

<comment><USER4> Can it? So far it seems that anytime the status quo is challenged, the establishment responds with yet another power grab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wish I was in the rubber stamp business. Clearly a lot of profit potential there.</comment>


Follow Hacker News from the console (Python) - <AUTHOR> http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-console/

<comment><AUTHOR> This code is now stored on GitHub: <http://github.com/pkrumins/hacker-top>

It might be newer than the downloadable version in this article.

</comment><comment><USER2> I like this a lot. My suggestion would be to write a nice distutils package, then put it into the python cheeseshop. I'd be willing to generate one for you if you want.

Looks great though, I will definitely be using this :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Doesn't work under Python 2.2.1 as there is no module "curses". This isn't a complaint because the machine is so old, but I thought I'd give you a "heads up" in case you get that report from someone else.

</comment><comment><USER4> I see in your TODO you want to open stories in a browser. My two cents'? Shell out to Lynx. (Or, of course, whatever someone has BROWSER set to.)

</comment><comment><USER5> this is awesome! this'll save me much time (cumulatively) that i would've spent going to the HN front page and seeing that I've read all the articles anyway .. great idea making it top-like.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is this significantly better than using Lynx?

<comment><USER7> Yes. You can leave it open somewhere all the time and check up on it like idling on irc. Pointless? Perhaps, but people like it anyway.</comment></comment>


Uber Bug Bounty Program – It's a Sham - n-exploit https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4bq67q/ubers_bug_bounty_program_is_a_complete_sham/ <comment><AUTHOR> Before this reaches a level rehashing the old "sell it on the blackmarket", I would like to clarify an issue here.

The policy change that occurred for Sean (the person the OP is using for his argument) was that Uber had clarified a change, without any clear notification. I blame the HackerOne Platform here, there is no way to send a notice of scope unless the program owner manually appends it at the top (in the case of yahoo [https://hackerone.com/yahoo](https://hackerone.com/yahoo))

So its scope ([https://hackerone.com/uber](https://hackerone.com/uber)) changed from in scope

"Exposed Administrative Panels and Ports (Excluding OneLogin)"

to

"Exposed Administrative Panels that don't require login credentials"

With ports moved to out of scope unless,

"Open ports without an accompanying proof-of-concept demonstrating vulnerability"

I cannot speak for the OP and the validity of his XSS bug however.

</comment><comment><USER2> Not the full story, and not a sham in this case. The bug report was in fact invalid, the OP was mistaken and later admitted so himself in the original thread on HackerOne:

[https://hackerone.com/reports/124975](https://hackerone.com/reports/124975)

Source: [https://twitter.com/jstnkndy/status/713077746507911168](https://twitter.com/jstnkndy/status/713077746507911168)

Unfortunately he did not think to update his initial Reddit post afterwards.

EDIT: ...and now the post is gone.

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems like he just reported URLs of publicly available admin pages.

If that was in the scope and considered as a bug by Uber, he should be paid. But the scope change in general doesn't seem that shady, since they probably wanted to get it out of the scope as soon as possible if it's not really a bug.

</comment><comment><USER4> If it's true, it seems that they treat the security community about as well as they treat their drivers. Or the law in many places.

<comment><USER5> They don't treat their software engineering department well either

<comment><USER6> Is that first hand?

<comment><USER5> Ask people who work at Uber about "surge seating" or what time dinner is served!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> (Wrote about this on reddit but I think it is pending approval, reposting here)

Hi - I work on the security team at Uber. I am this guy: techcrunch.com/2016/03/22/uber-launches-bug-bounty-program-that-pays-hackers- to-find-security-issues/

Yesterday we changed the language on our bug bounty page and I wanted to apologize for the confusion this caused. Since we launched our public bug bounty program on Tuesday, we have been reacting to the types of issues sent in and learning how to better define what we are looking for. This change was part of that, and not an effort to prevent anyone from earning bounties. The reason we clarified is so security researchers, whose time is valuable, wouldn't spend time on lower-risk issues like microsites that are unlikely to get a reward.

To Sean's points about microsites, a microsite is usually a blog type site that rarely contains Uber user data and lives outside the Uber network. As such, even in cases where microsites are vulnerable, they pose a mild security risk to Uber which is why we clarified in our policy page to say that we do not reward them "except in extraordinary circumstances". Sean also mentions that they are lower in severity: [https://twitter.com/seanmeals/status/712975867236974592](https://twitter.com/seanmeals/status/712975867236974592). Although the intent around microsites didn't change, the language did. I apologize for this and we could have done better.

To the specific issue raised in your post, we have made it public: [https://hackerone.com/reports/124975](https://hackerone.com/reports/124975). As you mention, the payload does not fire so this is not a security concern.

A successful bug bounty rests on researchers trusting us to run it well, which we take very seriously. All the members of team running this program are part of the security community and many of us (mjb(1), jordan(2), rob(3)) actively submit to other bug bounty programs or perform security research as a hobby. We have awarded nearly a hundred issues via our pilot bug bounty program so far and we are excited to payout more in the future.

Our aim is to build a program by researchers, for researchers. I want to personally thank you for taking the time to submit your issue -- and any future issues. You can always see the scope and rules of our bug bounty program at [https://hackerone.com/uber](https://hackerone.com/uber) and you can feel free to mention my name in any reports to HackerOne to get my attention about an issue.

1\. [https://www.blackhat.com/us-15/briefings.html#bypass- surgery...](https://www.blackhat.com/us-15/briefings.html#bypass-surgery- abusing-content-delivery-networks-with-server-side-request-forgery-ssrf-flash- and-dns) 2\. [http://blog.saynotolinux.com/](http://blog.saynotolinux.com/) 3.[https://www.google.com/about/appsecurity/hall-of- fame/archiv...](https://www.google.com/about/appsecurity/hall-of- fame/archive/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Didn't Uber just hire Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller (famous for the Jeep hack) a few months ago? Based on that I would have expected them to be at least half-serious about security. Or was that just for PR?

</comment><comment><USER9> > They ultimately closed my bug and reopened it STATING it was a new valid > bug, then closed it again.

So what was the reason they closed it again? Seems like that's the most important part here and it's left out.

<comment><USER10> The fact that the most important part (reason for closing it) is left out makes it seem like it's just a bad bug report. The final linked comment seems to be Uber asking for steps to reproduce and then there's no follow up. If the bounty program is really a sham and they're closing out valid bugs, it seems like it should be simple to show a smoking gun here.</comment></comment>


Woz: This is not my America - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57589534-71/woz-this-is-not-my-america/ <comment><USER2> This is hilarious:

>What do ordinary Americans think?

>But, more importantly, what does Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak think?

</comment><comment><USER3> Previous discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5884362](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5884362)

</comment><comment><USER4> Of course not. But it's the only America on offer.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think Woz is right when he suggest the American constitution died with the Patriot Act.

American's transition from a free state into a police state.

<comment><USER6> It was on life support for a long time before that, though, and plenty of stuff was done outside the law from 2001+ which became legalized under FAA/etc.; if it died with the Patriot Act, I guess those count as raping the corpse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Why don't libertarian views have much influence in either party?

<comment><USER8> Libertarian views have never had influence ever. You get it in rhetoric but rarely in practice. Rare cases of real libertarian action...

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

...are met with violent government force. This won't change, ever.

<comment><USER7> First point: Wasn't the American Revolution largely about the overreaches of the British government? What about the sentiments of isolationism in the US with respect to WWI and WWII? (Apologies to non-US readers; all my examples are from US history because I'm most familiar with it.)

Second point: Even if your comment's true, you didn't answer the question -- is there a _reason_ that "libertarian views have never had influence ever," or is it just a coincidence?</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Oh, My Coins – Database of Wasted Crypto Assets - <AUTHOR> http://www.ohmycoins.xyz <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, I'm the creator of this site. I created it as a funny side project during the weekend. Feel free to ask me anything.

<comment><USER2> Those are some crazy stories - makes me feel a little bit better that I didn't invest in coins back then.

I followed the advice of an investment banker who said to me that this is a bubble in 2012. Maybe it is, but the returns speak for themselves even if you liquidate it now. Pity!

But some guy put his laptop on fire with all his bitcoin on it because he was on LSD - hilarious. Thanks for making this!

<comment><AUTHOR> As someone said to me - "Frankly, this is a very depressing topic for the website."

Glad you like it!</comment></comment></comment>


Private Search based in Europe - <AUTHOR> https://jumbler.co/

<comment><USER2> What value is "based in Europe" supposed to have? The continent where the site is located hardly matters, especially with these ridiculous load times (Testing from NL)

Regarding the promise of "no tracking by cookies", what is the "BX" cookie planted by yahooapis.com used for?

A quick guess based on the URL tells a story that's the opposite of "no tracking by cookies"

[http://yboss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/ads?appid=7RmBar52&ads.To...](http://yboss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/ads?appid=7RmBar52&ads.Token=poKrb37uPwj7spICV4qLfPASzgg5iYI_.pgQS6cX5xdgRZSOYpcIX4BJEGXygk00aGB9ZNWvKcLFUdczWus2NA.DR3kyb.9owxSKuguf03ni1tS8eyTkVVI0l718R3n9fg00_e2qT4cYAgvd.GLwLwX5_FeVANsX0qXFqw8gIctPdOYBeN_crDU_Z3oYVXu2J_JEMJ2rNc9wWCv0caqpMC0NAmF2rVoMqQyyPdT34w--~A&callback=render_ads&ur=http%3A%2F%2Fjumbler.co%2F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjumbler.co&serveURL=http%3A%2F%2Fjumbler.co&ads.random=Dk3jNWVPhqIs&)</comment>


On Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://hawkins.io/2015/03/on-ruby/

<comment><USER2> Thanks! The effort you put in highlighting and describing all these coding pattern problems and/or language design issues is really strong and this is interesting, given you also stated how much you are loosing interest for this ecosystem and trying to sail away for new ones. Honestly, what I see when I read these kind of articles is more of a cry of sadness for having to leave something which we would never want to leave, than a joy hymn to a better, newly discovered replacement path.

I wish, and I am sure you wished too, that the Ruby community could address all these issue in a reasonable time in order to not leave.. or at least not completely. But no matter how much strong this feeling is, it simply happens at some point that enough is enough, and you get sick of having to go through something in a way which even though it's great at the start it becomes more complicated than what it should actually be.

In my opinion though it's not a _fault_ in Ruby, but it's simply all about Ruby's age and what we do expect from it. If its metaprogramming qualities and syntax and great object model were able to trigger the creation of something like Rails 10 years ago and not now for example, then it had to come with both pros and cons, to which you can always subtract 10 years of messy PHP and add up the inspiring of those whole new languages and frameworks you are considering to switch to NOW.

Honestly I am happy Ruby/Rails happened in time to be synergistic with my developer life, and I too fight with frustrations the Ruby ecosystem gives, but I can't feel like accusing it because it was like a very experimental thing, a prototype, that had great power but that nobody really consistently and concretely (big $) helped developing fully. Nonetheless it can already - only by standing on its feet - empower your start up at a fraction of the complexity (=cost) of other solutions. And, yes, its design will synthesize your ideas beautifully, which helps think faster.

Actually I think it's this exact struggle that keeps still alive and going the Ruby community. It's like as if we found the holy grail in a remote deep cavern, and were totally wicked by it, but then we discovered that we could only use it in that cavern. And even more frustratingly so, for some reasons this cavern was so far never dug up open by some multi-billionaire _ruby miner_.. hell it's so absurd that one can easily get hypnotized down there, staring at the beauty of the Ruby, while telling themselves that someone with bigger excavators shall notice it soon too.</comment>


Three years undercover with the identity thieves - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoworld.com/news/feeds/09/01/20/Three-years-undercover-with-the-identity-thieves.html?source=gs

<comment><USER2> Interesting article. About ten years ago I stumbled into some IRC channels where people were trading credit card numbers, sharing information about how they operate, etc. For curiosity's sake, I hung around and chatted there for a couple of months. It was fascinating, but I was very surprised at how freely thieves were speaking / showing themselves online. It looks like little has changed.

<comment><USER3> There was some notice usually on such channels that was attempting to forbid the usage of the channel by law enforcement agents. I don't remember the wording but the strange thing was that people believed that such a notice would just work and they could freely discuss everything.

<comment><USER4> It could (theoretically) make any data gathered during that log session illegal in a court of law, depending on how it's worded.

While EULAs are on shaky legal ground, they do at least give you some form of protection that a good lawyer can use to invalidate a case on technical grounds.

<comment><USER5> Give me three cases where this defense was used successfully, 'cause I call shenanigans.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "ATM and point-of-sale skimming devices that could be hooked up to legitimate machines to steal information"

This week a friend twittered that her credit card information was stolen from a RedBox DVD dispenser. Her bank informed her about it, but they didn't say how it was accomplished. Now I know how.

</comment><comment><USER7> another angle of this same story was submitted here a couple of weeks ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=421521></comment>


Churchill and His Money, or Lack of It - <AUTHOR> http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2015/12/30/other-peoples-yachts-churchill-and-his-money-or-lack-of-it/ <comment><USER2> What an incredible story. I must admit I had no idea that Churchill's status as a popular writer was one of his keys to power.

<comment><USER3> The relationship between the writing of doctrines, books, etc and people rising to power is a pretty interesting one.

See also: Obama's Dreams From My Father, The Audacity of Hope. Trump's Crippled America. Hitler's Mein Kampf (the copyright on that is expiring very soon). Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book".

In Ender's Game (fiction, but compelling), Ender's siblings go on to become incredibly influential because of their writings. And it's also why things like propaganda is so powerful, why we have phrases like "the pen is mightier than the sword", books like Farenheit 451, and even, if you think about it, the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc.

Books are powerful things, and people who seek power are typically associated with them one way or another.

<comment><USER4> There's a lot of people who become filthy rich, and get to publish a book.

Kim Kardashian could string a few sentences together, and it would be a best seller.

I am throughly shocked at what people read. I just don't get it.

(One day I will read Obama's first book. Why--because I believe he will go down in history as one of our better presidents.)

<comment><USER5> But it, IMHO, is unlikely Kim Kardashian would be awarded the Nobel prize for literature ([http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/...](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1953/))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's a funny scene in some extra-long Churchill documentary, in the episode that covers Churchill out of power after WWI. Scenes of Churchhill building brick walls, chopping down trees, and pontificating about minor stuff. ("Winston Churchill, the Boring Years.", basically.) Churchill is talking to Bernard Baruch, the financier, who, going into 1929, says the stock market is overpriced and there is going to be trouble. Churchill is portrayed as very Churchillian about investing - "We must be bold, and press on with resolve", rather than getting out of the market. That doesn't work out well for him.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wealth and social standing do allow you to bend the rules quite a bit.

What are the best ways to get and leverage so much credit intelligently, without having such initial wealth and status?

Are there institutions that offer credit based on some measure of g/educational attainment/"future earnings potential"?

<comment><USER3> The short answer is to make stuff people really, really want. You get wealth by creating it, and you get status from creating wealth. It could be software, but it could be anything, really.

If you build a startup that has users who love you, you can raise money from investors, get press attention, etc. Caveat being that it's a really, really hard thing to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> cache [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xG5T5D7...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xG5T5D7W_jIJ:www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2015/12/30/other- peoples-yachts-churchill-and-his-money-or-lack-of-it/&hl=en&strip=1&vwsrc=0)</comment>


Why Warren Buffett is wrong - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/16/miron.buffett.wrong/

<comment><USER2> This sounds like the old argument that since Buffet's fix won't generate 100% of the money needed to get us out of debt, let's not do it at all. That is not the right attitude to take on this issue.</comment>


Ask HN: Why did you quit your last job? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Money, and the BS "oh we can't pay you more than this"... until I resigned and suddenly it _was_ possible to pay me more. Too late then. Much, much too late.

When someone says "oooh, I can't find qualified people" I don't believe them. If you offer people 2x what they currently make to do a job that isn't bad then you'll get them. If you don't want to offer that then you are offering to underpay them, and that's why they won't come.

You don't have to hire underskilled people and train them[1]. You can just pay. Conversely, if you don't pay them, they'll leave. (well, some will stay to be exploited, sure)

</rant>

[1] E.g. I disagree with [https://twitter.com/lizthegrey/status/1021960484738629632](https://twitter.com/lizthegrey/status/1021960484738629632) and [https://caylent.com/sre-vs- devops/?utm_source=social&utm_med...](https://caylent.com/sre-vs- devops/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=edgar&utm_campaign=sre%20vs%20devops%20blog)

</comment><comment><USER3> Two reasons: 1) Better pay, tired of where I was living, wanted to move to more urban environment 2) Wanted to move closer to girlfriend of over 1.5 years

Then the girlfriend dumped me as I was moving. :-(

At least the job seems to be OK; I can't complain much about things like being overworked, the company doing poorly, bad morale, or anything like that. And luckily, the dating opportunities in my new location are far better than where I was, but it sucks moving to a new place with no friends and suddenly losing someone so close one by text message, without even the courtesy of a face-to- face meeting to talk about it. Between all the weight loss, lack of sleep, and inability to concentrate it's amazing I'm still employed.

<comment><USER4> [deleted, this was a total overshare]

<comment><USER3> Thank you for sharing. It does help to know we aren't alone.

The bad part is, I would have been sorta-OK with breaking up if we could have talked about it, and maintained some contact. We were having problems before this point, so it wasn't a total surprise. But she suddenly turned ice-cold. I've never had a relationship end so badly. I'm still friends with my ex-wife, for instance, and am Facebook friends and sometimes exchange some messages with the girlfriend I had before that, but this gf had a "personal policy" of basically deleting me from her life if we broke up, and she did exactly that. And the thing that really pushed her over the edge was when I complained that she wasn't helping with my move (which she wasn't).

Edit: deleted the rest in response to parent's deletion; I don't want to violate his privacy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Management, it's almost always management. It's quite horrifying to watch the rest of that companies software department either leave or be driven out by the single problematic person.

</comment><comment><USER6> Because they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't call me on my wedding day, which is on Saturday. Hence I've spent the last two months with my wife to be sorting out house out and making it awesome for the wedding reception!

<comment><USER7> Good on you! Wouldn't guarantee they wouldn't call you on your wedding day? What a bunch of clowns. & More positively forward looking: congratulations

<comment><USER6> Thank you! It was an awesome day. We're still cleaning up the house 2 days later...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> My boss has been gradually overdosing his LSD and MDMA, becoming more and more frantic and chaotic. Once he called me on Saturday night, apparently under influence, and demanded a new feature to be done by tomorrow morning. I said no, adviced him to get some sleep and hang up on him. He sent me a message saying that "he knows people who can make my life very hard". I took a screenshot and emailed the message to the whole company (200+), along with my resignation letter. That day I decided I should stop working for other people. The company bankrupted shortly after, auditors discovered massive tax fraud and a bunch of unpaid credits from European banks my boss was hiding from.

<comment><USER9> Did you think about going to the police as well regarding his threatening message?

<comment><USER8> He is a son of a well-connected former KGB colonel, so no good would come out of this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I got tired of executive doublespeak. The company made lots of promises during recruitment that never materialized. It has made me super aware of the importance of culture. I haven't found any full-time positions that fit me yet. In the meantime, I am taking a break from corporate life and freelancing.

</comment><comment><USER11> They were starting to adopt a cutthroat culture where managers boast about firing people. I remember the point where I knew I was going to quit was when the VP called all the tech leads in a room and essentially told us, "Good riddance to these other folks, but good news! You are the ones we wanted to keep..."

<comment><USER12> My CEO was proud of his rapid firing skills, and the only people he kept around were the people who built his tech-debt ridden system in the first place, or put in 60h+ a week. For such a young company, the Github contributions were full of ex-people with a few hundred lines of code. Like, if you have to fire so many people you hire, then fire the people who are hiring everyone, or treat your employees better so they actually feel like doing good work for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Last time I quit because my girlfriend broke up with me and I was in need of change. So, I went back to school and got a PhD - broke record time getting it because I worked like crazy. Because of school stress, I was working out really intensely and got into best shape of my life. Now life is good, I got fat again...

<comment><USER14> > Now life is good, I got fat again...

Jesus I can relate. I'm back on the diet/gym train again but it was so much easier when I was running away from life stress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I applied for a Rails Engineer job. Day 1, my team lead insisted on Grails. After 6 months, team leads stopped Product Development, and the next few months consisted of me being inside datacenters installing Hadoop clusters on baremetal. Funny thing is; I did that to myself, since I never complained and just took it in.

Almost 2 years in, never touched rails code, lots of ansible playbooks, dockerfiles, random ruby scripts, several company trips to Japan/US; it seems that I became the de-facto Big Data engineer on the company. Many would think it was something I liked. But I didn't. Executives, managers and engineers in the company relied on me to solve what was "sold" to current enterprise customers about "Big Data" and "Machine Learning". The pressure sets in. I couldn't in my nature pose myself as an "expert data scientist" and "big data guy" when I have 0 experience with ML, Python, Spark and Statistics.

I resigned. I thought the reason why I felt stressed because I was alone in this Big Data thing. Boy, I was so wrong. They counter-offered and gave me a high position + a 5-person team, 3 statisticians and 2 system administrators. I never should have took that counter-offer. This time, the pressure is higher since I'm officially responsible for the entire Product line. I needed to catch up to a hyped-up ecosystem of frustrated customers whose only chant was 'your company told me my Hadoop platform could do "Big Data + Machine Learning + AI" where is it?'.

After 4 months of trying; getting me and everyone on the team into Datacamp + Python training seminars, while writing an MVP for a ML-product I thought of, while building product roadmaps, being on meetings, handling internal politics and current customer support. I resigned.

I guess the real reason was; I didn't want this in the first place. Even if I tried to embrace the work, the climb was too steep with amount of runway I had. Customers are expecting ML-based products, now. I couldn't live up to the standards of a Big Data Lead when I have 0 experience on anything Big Data, no mentors teaching me about the proper way to write ML products, let alone run a team.

</comment><comment><USER16> I've just left my job, last week

I left because the place was going downhill and morale was rock bottom. Weak management and funding shortfalls meant that non core departments were being starved of money. Staff were leaving or being made redundant and I was going to be the only one left in my department with little to do. I took the chance to apply elsewhere where they hopefully value the work I do and got in. I am taking a 20% pay cut to do so and I hope it works out. I might have been ok for another year but management turnover meant we have had 3 'staff reorganisations' in 4 years all of which seemed to be cost cutting measures and I can't see that it was going to go on much longer anyway. The latest set of management have come in and shown only slash and burn style; I think they could be aiming to cut back to core and then build from there. Perhaps it will work for them, but I was not optimistic about it.

<comment><USER13> Honestly, I think you should have stayed and keep working hard. With fewer competition and obvious competency, it was more like an opportunity than an unfortunate situation...

<comment><USER17> Sometimes when the ship is sinking, you need to jump off

<comment><USER13> You should read Kazuo Inamori, he was not even being paid on time and still worked hard... really inspiring dude.

<comment><USER18> Sounds like an idiot to me. How can someone that dumb be inspiring?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> They closed my offices and moved them from downtown to the far side of the suburbs.

I live near downtown, and specifically chose my job and house to be a nice bike commute. My nice 30 minutes by bike turned into 2 hours by bus and train. So I quit.

</comment><comment><USER20> Bored. The people I really liked working with weren't there anymore. Development environment was getting more overbearing (emphasizing process just for the sake of it while ignoring its flaws). Finally just got sick of getting up every day and coming to work.

<comment><USER21> So what did you do, just quit and hang out? Or did you have a backup plan and backup savings?

<comment><USER20> Got a better job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Management made demands that exceeded resources available and kept blocking my vacation to try to meet deadlines. I literally left with 100% of my vacation accumulated.

</comment><comment><USER23> My team lead was the least competent person on the team. This was constantly frustrating. When it finally bugged me enough to look around, much better pay was available. So that pretty much did it.

<comment><USER24> I am a team lead and my team members are at least my level of competency (which means they're usually better than me). I listen carefully, trust the team and shield them from problems from above.

<comment><USER23> It sounds like you're a good team lead.

My current manager, one of the best I've ever had, is much the same. Technically not superb. But at least pretty good. Also a great listener, and really keyed in to what the team is up to, struggling with, contributing, etc.

The TL I had the issue with very much behaved like an IC, almost never met with me, seemed to be dialing it in most of the time, and just generally was very hard to explain things to. An absent parent, more than a bad parent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Tomorrow will be the end of the requisite one month notice period for me in a job in the humanitarian world. I have no job lined up, as yet.

I just couldn't take it anymore. I can't count the number of times I walked into 2 of my female colleagues sobbing alone in the office. The office is small so it is common to occasionally be the only one in the office. Management knows about the cause of this toxic culture but I just can't stand it anymore. My mental health is more important than whatever they have been paying me.

Now, while I have been teaching myself programming for sometime, I believe I can find my way in a Ruby code base. I also know some Elixir and Python. I am based in East Africa just in case someone here would be kind enough to adopt a 40 year old degree-less man. Just for the experience, I wouldn't mind accepting a non-paying software role. Well, thankfully, I can afford to pay the bills for a few more months.

</comment><comment><USER26> I thought our product was being used in unethical ways, so I jumped ship to a more neutral industry.

</comment><comment><USER27> I quit all my previous jobs (maybe one exception) because of a very bad Manager. These managers are extremely hurtful for companies and I believe upper management does not get the same side of the story. Surprisingly, I always get along with senior managers over direct managers. If people want to improve the tech industry in general from an employer perspective, I'd start by cleaning that 1st layer of management pretty hard.

</comment><comment><USER28> I ran out of money trying to build my startup for just under 3 years. It was sad but a better decision overall. Went back to an old VPs company which was recently acquired as a senior web engineer. 10 months later I took over the web engineering team as our first engineering manager.

</comment><comment><USER29> Agile (scrum), i.e. micromanagement hell + low salaries and no increase policy.

</comment><comment><USER30> Most people have a collection of reasons that build up to a tipping point of why they leave. I have left 5 jobs, and had 2 jobs leave me (laid off).

First in Highschool I had 2 jobs in the summer working about 60 hours a week, parents made me drop one. I kept the one where management was nice. Other one just seemed angry all the time.

Second was the other HS job when I started college. But the new management had become a jerk and so I left a month early.

Third was from burn out. Too many long hours that were not appreciated. I wanted to take 2 months off to get my head straight but they thought I would not quite. I did.

<insert layoff #1 - 20% pay cut - glad to have a job>

Forth was at a place that treated me well, but was a bit of a drive, and the pay was slowly going up, but insurance was going up quickly. The kicker was it looked like my future was ADA. So when an offer came, and it came with more money, much shorter drive and Ruby On Rails ... I jumped.

<insert layoff #2>

Fifth was a softer exit. I was working for a contracting firm. Well they were a subcontractor and tended to try and squeeze people. But I nedded to feed the family. When the contract was renewed, they did a 15% pay cut on people. Tough times don't you know. Well the company I was doing the work for offered me a decent job, slightly less money but much better benefits.

</comment><comment> dee-see I quit for quality of life improvement (shorter commute, remote possibilities, fewer work hours).

Also to work on something that has more impact on people instead of only profiting big corps.

</comment><comment><USER31> I was way overworked on a way overrun project and since I was one of the most senior ICs, being pushed into leadership due to literal lack of actual managers for a while due to turnover and family leave.

That wasn't great, but it was managable because everyone understood our circumstances. When I went on my own family leave as my daughter was born, and came back to new management, I shouldered a lot of blame for the project because I was the last one left (it was a series of bad technical decisions from before my time) and still overworked despite having a newborn at home.

After finally going live, even when I warned them it would be a bad idea, I was in charge of the horrible production website. I gritted my teeth and left when my daughter was 9 months old, with no job in sight because I just needed a break.

Best decision I ever made. They fired my problematic boss 3 days before I left (he was one of the new managers, not good at managing or doing his technical work) and it took months to get the production site working. No idea if the next phase went through or not.

I had a nice five month sabbatical with my family and educational projects while I interviewed. It ended up with four job offers, and I'm thrilled with the ones I chose.

<comment> move-on-by I was in a very similar situation. Overworked, but got a bit of a break due to family leave. When I came back, I was met with a lot of aggression and blame that I had never experienced at that job before. I was still overworking but not at the same level pre-baby - my wife needed me and my priorities had changed. It soon became clear that I was being managed out of my position and I found another job. Several trusted peers agreed that I was being managed out, but didn't offer any insights into why.

I 100% believe they didn't want me there any more once I had a child. The new job is very family friendly (not overworking), pays more, and so far is very low stress. I'm sure the stress level will go up as I become more integrated in the company, but I couldn't be happier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Internal politics.

I hate them, refuse to play along, and the moment I can no longer keep the drama at least a meter away from me I start talking to recruiters.

</comment><comment><USER33> Was not given any meaningful work and felt I was not growing as a developer.

Been at my current job for 1.5 years, and feel the same way. I'm looking around, but after being a "Software Engineer" for 4 years, employers look for a particular set of skills and experience I simply have not gained during my track record. Feels like a catch-22.

<comment><USER21> Same here man. What do you think the way out is?

I'm thinking that you study the big picture stuff by reading HackerNews, and get good at the "interview questions." Then you build something on the side with a full modern stack and devops practice. That part is tough.

Then I think you (we'd) have the confidence and the experiences to fall back on during an interview.

What kind of stuff have you done so far?

<comment><USER33> The way out is as you've said. To fill the gaps, possibly attempt contributing to an open-source project you feel passionate about, just to demonstrate you can collaborate in a team and collectively solve problems.

I've done front-end & back-end on web applications, without ever specializing in either. These days, I mostly write single-page applications with a vdom JS library.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> In a move that was later admitted to be a mistake, I was moved into an IC role from one where I managed several high performing teams. This came after a successful acquisition.

I was bored, not challenged, and completely disheartened to watch morale slowly evaporate. Teams were fractured and everyone went from moving fast with a common purpose to "meh" in a matter of months. New management was assigned, though they were 3000 miles away and showed a tremendous lack of experience in anything other than being a medium-sized cog in the big company machine. For example, the solution to being late on a release with no requires was to both rewrite it in a new language and build it for a completely different infrastructure, and with a 5 month deadline. Months later, people are still arguing about requirements.

</comment><comment><USER35> Had six changes of management in 14 months time, and something like an 80% attrition rate during that time.

</comment><comment> blubb-fish Just had my last day today as the CTO.

I quit b/c we got bought by a corporation about a year ago. The purpose of this purchase was to integrate our technology and our customers into the stack of that corporation. So basically we got dumped with requirements to add features only relevant to that corporation. That totally overwhelmed the capacity of the IT team which already was working at a limit. Some days it all felt like a big house of cards just waiting to collapse due to a little inattention on our side. I mean if an IT department is forced to push the envelope all your best practices are being thrown over board. That just took a toll on me. So to protect my health I decided to leave this company I very much enjoyed working for and help building up for three years.

</comment><comment><USER36> I was assigned a new manager, and they curbed a lot of the unofficial perks I'd been enjoying, like being able to work from home some days.

When it came time to turn in self-evaluations, I turned in a quitting notice. I couldn't bring myself to work through that self-evaluation.

</comment><comment><USER37> I thought I wanted to work less, with less stress and fewer hours. After 3 years I found that that is not good for my self wort, health & happiness. Soon I will change back to a more demanding job and compensate my family with more money and less me.

</comment><comment><USER38> I was working for a medical instruments company. We were FDA regulated, of course, and had fallen afoul of them in an audit. We were having to remediate our system, and to increase the rigor of our procedures. The result was that my job became 90% paperwork. For a software engineer, that's a horrible existence. I put up with it for three years, and finally left.

Note well: I'm not saying the FDA was wrong. The steps they took were probably needed. I just didn't like working in the resulting environment.

</comment><comment><USER39> My boss was a screamer/yeller/banger. (There's only one person in the world who's allowed to use that tone of voice on me, and I am married to that person.)

</comment><comment><USER40> Too much travel. I was at ~300 days per year and it was too much.

The conditions were excellent (international first class, best hotels, fantastic restaurants, not much limits) and so was the pay.

But one day I realized that my baby was growing up without me and I quit on the spot (literally : I was in my way home from the office, turned around and resigned (very amicably)).

I moved to a job she I do not travel more at all.

</comment><comment><USER41> It was a badly transitioned acquisition - I could write up a dozen problems, each of which may have been enough to quit. But the straw that broke it all was when, after giving us all zero bonuses and telling us that nobody gets a raise either, the former owner hit us with: "I got my F-U money, but you guys just need to put up with anything they throw at you."

</comment><comment><USER42> Complacent attitude, poor communication, chaotic process.

To a much lesser extent, no matter how many times I asked for a new chair I got the same response - "I can ask. But there's nothing I can do about that". I would not have decided to find another job if they made this minimal gesture.

Really the chair thing! I sat in a 15yo hand-me-down desk chair that the leather was peeling off of. I brought in my $100 back support chair from home cause I started having back pain. They were like "huh, ok". I didn't ask for a $3000 herman miller with all the bells and whistles. I asked for some decent back support while spending 8hrs in a chair. If I were my boss I would have bought an amazon gift card for a few hundred bucks and said "pick whatever you like". I would have been forever indented to that guy and probably wouldn't have asked for anything else.

I still don't understand why people don't pick the low hanging fruit when they can.

</comment><comment><USER43> I landed a remote job, and I've been traveling ever since

</comment><comment><USER44> I got an offer to do the same work for more money elsewhere. But if I'm being honest, the environment at my last job was pretty hectic and I went out looking for a new job in the first place. I describe my last job to people as being like working on a pirate ship.

</comment><comment><USER45> They closed our small, remote office of 20 people. Work going overseas to the (now) main development office in eastern Europe, where salaries are 1/3 of ours (not even SV wages).

Ended up getting paid more at a new company, so it worked out.

</comment><comment><USER46> The first time it was because I wanted to take six or seven months off and then come back afterwards but not lose my health insurance during the time away. They said that they couldn't do it, so I left anyway but then didn't go back after.

The second time it was because my partner needed to be outside of the country for an extended period and I wanted to stay with her. That time I asked if I could work remotely. They said yes as a contract manager but not as an engineer, so I left because my personal life is always more important to me than someone's business.

Both exits were on good terms.

</comment><comment><USER47> Bad experience at a nonprofit. For all the "you're doing amazing work!" talk and praise that was heaped on us, there was a lot of fluff and cruft behind the scenes. Almost everything was geared towards marketing how we were changing the sector, when almost none of the projects mattered or would ever be used. And the maniacal focus on getting more money donated when summer time came around.

Joined because I believed in the mission and thought writing code could really help in the initial vision. Then learned the dirty secret that most of it was marketing how great we were.

<comment><USER25> Also leaving another "we are doing amazing work!" job because they can't make the office be an amazing place for the staff. A non-profit in the humanitarian space. Ironical.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Because it reduced me to little more than an annoying telemarketer, and even though I had a hunch that this would be the sad truth of the role before I started, I had to see for myself.

I decided to try it because money. Because even though my previous job was perfectly fine, I remain emotionally detached from all employers and coworkers, reducing the situation to a paycheck. One paycheck versus another, so I quit two jobs.

One perfectly reasonable job, in exchange for what I suspected might be a demotion to a telemarketer, and when proven right, I quit the second job, despite the better pay.

Wow. Gee. Oh well.

</comment><comment><USER49> I quit it slowly to work on my current startup. Went down to two days a week then fully quit last year. They're awesome and I've still got a desk in their office!

</comment><comment><USER50> The company didn't want to invest in my department but kept setting higher expectations. It caused the team to be overworked and understaffed. You couldn't focus on a project because you were always needed somewhere else. The people in my department were great but their hands were tied. The pay wasn't great and there were some other less important issues, too. I've seen a number of people leave since me, but turnover was always moderate.

</comment><comment><USER51> Currently on my fourth weekday of freedom from the daily grind! I just wanted some quality time to pursue my own projects and goals, and I have more than enough runway to spend a few months figuring out what's next. I actually think I'd like to get into working part-time/consulting to pay the bills and spending the rest of my time bootstrapping other projects. Would love to hear if anyone has any experience or thoughts about doing this!

</comment><comment><USER52> My last job was a freelancer, which was fantastic. But then I met three ambitious guys and we built a company with now over 100 employees in just two years.

</comment><comment><USER53> The last job I had was seasonal, and the season ended. I doubt this is what you were looking for, though. It's OK, as it was an accomplishment in itself - the first job in a country after learning enough language to work somewhere.

The one before that, though, I quit because I was getting married and was moving overseas. I gave a few months notice and trained my replacement. Best life change I've made.

</comment><comment><USER54> More money, better title, double the vacation, cheaper health care, and better retirement contributions were available elsewhere.

</comment><comment><USER55> Management. At the C-level were people who got lucky once and were largely inexperienced, unwilling to take input from subordinates, and convinced they knew better than their customers. They were wrong. Within a year of my departure they were out of customers and employees, and ended up sold off for pennies.

Edit: spelling

</comment><comment><USER56> Got an offer to become a cofounder in a new consulting company (not a startup). It worked out pretty well :)

</comment><comment><USER57> I was a contractor/consultant and our client decided to buy out my contract and hire me full time.

</comment><comment><USER58> The product wasn't a money maker for a mega corp. They couldn't justify investing to make the product better and pay well. It was a fun team, but it got really boring since we could only ship once every six months with the OS. I like shipping daily!

</comment><comment><USER59> tl;dr: Management didn't want remote employees. I didn't want to keep paying for the privilege of living in the Bay Area.

I'm an app developer and I realized that I really want to work remotely.

Being in an office all day was extremely demoralizing for me. I would frequently "work from home" to be able to spend a full day focused and productive. That wasn't a great cycle though, because I'd have crunch days at home a couple times a week to get my work done, then hang out in the office and do very little for the rest of the week to get my paycheck. Management was mostly fine with this, but it was taxing on me because it felt like a stupid way to live.

I talked to my managers and let them know that I wanted to work entirely remotely. They weren't supportive of that, but I still don't understand why, other than a general not believing in remote work. I found a remote gig the following week and things have been great ever since.

Once I saw the remote job was working out, I moved across the country to a much cheaper area (well, what isn't, compared to SF). Now I don't pay state income tax, I pay 1/3rd the cost of living for 3x the space, and I'm happy to do my work for longer each day because I don't have a commute. I'm producing better quality software, with less effort, and I'm happier.

If this job eventually ends, I don't think it'll be difficult to find a new thing to do. But with greatly reduced expenses and no fear of needing a paycheck for SF rent, I'm also free to take risks like starting a company or doing consulting for multiple clients.

</comment><comment><USER60> Lost interest in the type of work I was doing and left in order to build out something new with a much smaller team on a product that I believe in.

</comment><comment><USER61> I was doing a full-time PhD and working. One day my advisor asked, `Are you working for me or Lockheed?'

I chose the PhD.

<comment><USER12> Just curious -- what was your PhD in? I know some experimental researchers who get 4 hours of sleep _only_ doing their PhDs, I can't even imagine being able to do both at once.

<comment><USER61> Computer science. I worked for Lockheed for fifteen years---long enough to see some programming projects succeed and others fail. I wondered why the difference. I had access to all the project records, and Lockheed was cool with it, so I took copies of all the data and found an advisor willing to let me work on it.

The problem was deep and it ended up taking a lot longer than I expected to solve it, but that's the way of research. I did eventually discover some new things in the data, and got the PhD, and my thesis formed the basis of my new company.

You're right; I didn't get enough sleep. I got into the habit of working 13 to 15 hours a day. But I wasn't making progress on my thesis fast enough for the university's requirements, so I had to choose. I was still working 13--15 hours a day, seven days a week, but exclusively on my thesis. I finished in eight years. Without Lockheed, I would have been done in four.

Ironically, my day job for Lockheed was being the PI (Principal Investigator) for an Air Force research project that was essentially a whole other PhD thesis. [We took the Google Web 1T 5-Gram Corpus and inverted it; essentially we were doing adversarial ML (generators and discriminators) before that term had been invented.] _That 's_ why it took me eight years---because I was doing the work of two different full-time PhDs at the same time.

(Only one got me a neat robe to wear at the end, though.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> I quit to start this company :)

</comment><comment><USER63> Not hard enough. You can't become better if you aren't challenged.

</comment><comment><USER64> I wasn't being challenged enough.

</comment><comment><USER65> A really bad project manager

</comment><comment><USER66> Low pay

</comment><comment><USER67> Coming from someone who just quit his job (2 days ago): I was tired of false promises by my new employer. I already worked for several years at my current job, ready to quit when a new investor and CEO came in. Based on the promises I stayed. There would be heavy investments made in our Dev team, but in the end my team only shrunk because of the lack of improvements to IT and the missing feeling for IT by the CEO (of an only online selling company). Due to the shrinkage our team was also only doing maintenance instead of creating real new products.

In the last couple of months the company was also bought by a bigger international player. Good for the company, but bad for the IT as this bigger player already has loads of dev teams in several other countries.

This was the final push I needed to quit. Fed up with the false promises and the bad outlook for my team I finally found a much better job. A decision I should have taken earlier.</comment>


4M IP addresses (22.214.171.124/10) bought by Amazon - <AUTHOR> https://www.ampr.org/amprnet/ <comment><USER2> HN discussion (206 points with 94 comments) from yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20477670](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20477670)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for pointing out - I completely missed it. I wish there were a feature to tell you it's dupe (it happens sometimes when I post, but not all the time).

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> So this may be a stupid question but I'm genuine curious, I checked out the thread about this yesterday and why are HAM radio people complaining about this? What do radio spectrums have to do with IPv4 addresses?

<comment><USER4> It's possible to run IP networks over HAM radio, and there's an allocated IP block for such a purpose.

Though I'm not sure how practical it is; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMPRNet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMPRNet) suggests the speeds are much slower than a dial-up connection would be.

<comment><USER5> Also from what I've heard (mostly over HN) encryption is illegal over these networks. So you can't do your banking or something using HAM IP.

<comment><USER6> Commercial activity is usually banned as well. Interpretation of this varies by jurisdiction but is often thought to include advertisements in web pages.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A Traveler's Guide to Taking a Smartphone Abroad - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/technology/personaltech/a-travelers-guide-to-taking-a-smartphone-abroad.html <comment><AUTHOR> No one should pay $120 for 800MB of international roaming. It's absurd! AT&T should look up once in while they're too busy tabulating their profits to pay attention to their customers flocking to tmobile.</comment>


Covid-19 Projection Models (US and State) - <AUTHOR> https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections <comment><AUTHOR> Link to the data: [https://ihmecovid19storage.blob.core.windows.net/latest/ihme...](https://ihmecovid19storage.blob.core.windows.net/latest/ihme- covid19.zip)</comment>


How DNA Site 23andMe Outed Parents Who Gave Up Their First Baby - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/05/16/dna-site-23andme-outed-parents-who-gave-their-first-baby-up-for-adoption/

<comment><USER2> Accusatory linkbait title. Makes it sound like it was publicly shown. The "outing" was a user of 23andMe confronting her mother. Also making this case less random was that the man who was adopted joined specifically to try and find out about his origins.

Finally, why not mention turning off the family finder feature as the first option, in the text below? Seems to be optimizing for sensationalism.

 _If you're afraid to find hidden relatives in your closet, you might want to stay away from DNA sites, or use 23andMe and simply turn off its "family finder" feature — which is basically like Facebook's friend finder, but using genetic code instead of email addresses._

<comment><USER3> Yeah, this is distorting. What happened was that two _adults_ got _their own_ genomes sequenced and discovered they were siblings and that their parents had hidden this fact. There was no privacy violated at all here, both of them had every right to this information.

<comment><USER4> There's traditionally been a view that parents who give babies up for adoption have a right to privacy, and not even the children, upon reaching adulthood, can retrieve that information. The main purpose of that policy is to encourage adoption over other alternatives, such as in earlier eras infanticide, and in more modern eras elective abortion. Now, technology makes it so that the children themselves can retrieve the information even if the state considers it private and won't divulge it. I tend to agree that this isn't doing anything wrong, but it unsettles the previous privacy status-quo and the policy that was based on it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm a member of 23andMe. I have my mom's face and my dad's bad sense of humor, so there were no surprises when it was confirmed that they are my biological parents. :)

However! In order to see close relatives (anything closer than 4th cousins) you actually have to click a checkbox and confirm that you want to see who you're closely related to. And the other person has to also. 23andMe WARNS you that you might be surprised at the results.

So yeah. 23andMe is awesome, title is linkbait. You should disregard the silly article and become a customer of 23andMe, it's important to know your own genetics. It only costs 200 bucks-- compare that cost to future medical costs that you don't prepare for!

<comment><USER6> I'm also very happy with 23andMe. It's really quite cheap, it has some cool ancestry visualizations, and it told me about some health risks I should pay attention to.

I think the privacy questions are overblown. I don't particularly feel like I "own" my DNA, anyway - I leave bits of it around everywhere I go, I share the majority of it with all the members of my species and the entirety of it with my family members. It seems like a fundamentally open-source aspect of nature.

<comment><USER7> It's still a very different scenario to specifically acquire a single targeted person's DNA which they left lying around, than to collect a massive database of millions of people's DNA that you can use to make all sorts of queries for whatever purpose you wish.

E.g. insurance companies wouldn't go through the trouble of following around their customers to catch their DNA, but they certainly would like to have that database which can predict their future illnesses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Despite comparing people explicitly submitting their own DNA in order to search for traits or relations with law enforcement DNA matching, the article misses a pretty fundamental issue:

What access does law enforcement (or "The Government" agencies in general) to the 23&me and other commercial DNA databases? A quick skim of their ToS suggests the general "and everything necessary to comply with laws/court orders" clause, which sounds to me like you could drive a truck through it.

I think privacy issues such as that could be a pretty big stumbling block to mass adoption once price comes down (and utility via detectable traits goes up).

Can anyone shed more light on exactly what their T&C permit?

Edit: and, if it differs, what you think it _should_ permit? I seem to recall from other situations that entirely speculative 'fishing expeditions' on databases are frowned upon, but the sheer benefit to LE faced with an unknown sample is massive, and bounded only by user adoption and their access.

<comment><USER9> This is why I don't think the DNA revolution will truly happen until we're all carrying it around on our smart phones. There's a gold mine waiting for somebody who figures out how to do decentralized exchange and comparison of genetic information in a secure, peer to peer / aggregated fashion without requiring huge centralized databases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> _"the government's compelling interests to identify arrestees, solve past crimes, and exonerate innocent suspects] far outweigh arrestees' privacy concerns."_

And therein lies a fundamental problem with the court system. At the end of the day, our hopes for "checks and balances" aside, the courts are part of the State, and they are going to - on average - protect the interests of the State over those of the individual.

<comment> jack-r-abbit You lose a lot of your rights once you become a convicted criminal (particularly a felon). It is no surprise that this would be one of them. Sometimes I think they should put more effort into publicizing all the stuff you have to give up if convicted of a crime. It might actual serve as a deterrent. Clearly the threat of being put in jail is not working as a deterrent.

<comment><USER11> If going to jail where you can get raped, beaten and killed does not work as a deterrent why would something less severe work as a deterrent?

Sometimes I think trying to solve the root cause of crime would be more effective than increasing the punishments.

<comment> jack-r-abbit Good point. Although not everyone ends up in the rapin', beatin' and killin' jails.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> jack-r-abbit We should just start looking at DNA collection as piracy (since you aren't really _losing_ your DNA... the law men are just sharing a copy of it). And don't we all love piracy around here? :)

</comment><comment><USER12> 23andMe has some very close connections to Google.

An affinity for collecting personal information on others runs in the family. ;)</comment>


Open source's ardent admirers take but don't give - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/13/open_source_numbers/

<comment><USER2> I call it: "Open Source Populism".

That's something that we have seen in Argentina: lot of open source organizations, government embracing open source but many many many few contributing (and usually the main contributors are not part of these organizations).</comment>


Ask HN: Who can help laid-off workers? Please list resources and services. - <AUTHOR> The goal is to offer free services & goods, but perhaps this could also be generalized to a monthly thread like the hiring ones.
There doesn't seem to be a standard format for helping those in need, so here are some proposed guidelines to shape the list: only post services & resources that are typically not free but are now 100% free with no strings attached.
Qualified: Download widget that normally costs $99.99 for free.
Disqualified: Enroll in trial program that costs $99.99/mo after 30 days. Download widget for free.
Open question: What other criteria should be used to disqualify services & resources and ensure only helpful ones are listed. <comment><USER2> Free courses

[https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2020/free-april- month](https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2020/free-april-month)

[https://learn.oracle.com/ols/learning-path/become-oci- archit...](https://learn.oracle.com/ols/learning-path/become-oci-architect- professional/35644/35802)</comment>


Weather the Star Wars way... - <AUTHOR> http://www.tomscott.com/weather/starwars/

<comment><USER2> Just in case you haven't yet, put in a city/country name that doesn't exist.

<comment><USER3> Clever :)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm sure this will be the victim of takedown request shortly, so enjoy it while you can!

<comment><USER4> Nah, Lucasfilm is usually pretty cool about nonprofit fan stuff.

<comment><USER5> Unless there's been a fairly recent change, no, they're not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> XBMC (xbmc.org) now has plugins for weather. If you could make this a plugin for that I would love it to death and I think it would be downloaded a lot.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is anyone else disappointed that it doesn't give the weather on Corascent?

</comment><comment><USER8> 3°C is not like Hoth.</comment>


Ask YC/HN/PG: Startup School  - <AUTHOR>

Are we notified if we aren't accepted to Startup School? <comment><USER2> Yes, we'll email everyone.

<comment><USER3> Just got one! <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=870796>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Let me put it this way. You will definitely get a mail if you get accepted. If you get no mail, you probably didn't get accepted. Also, the moment one of us get's an acceptance mail, you will probably see a post here.

<comment><USER5> That's not really how email works.

<comment><USER6> You shouldn't have been downvoted; email is almost the least reliable communication method we have.

The only method I can think of, off the top of my head, that's less reliable than email is carrier pigeon.

<comment><USER3> While in the original design, SMTP email is like writing on a postcard in light pencil and throwing it into the wind, in present reality the infrastructure has solidified quite nicely.

What's now novel about it is that it's _selectively reliable_ \-- people can just not send or reply as expected, and generally get away with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's still only early evening in California.

<comment><USER8> I believe the e-mails went out late the last two years. Wait until tomorrow morning to open your inbox and find out whether or not you are accepted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Thanks guys! Really looking forward to the event!</comment>