PhpGolf - solve problems in as few bytes as possible - <AUTHOR> http://phpgolf.org/?p=main <comment><USER2> I understand why they wouldn't allow it for competitive reasons, but being able to view others' code seems like it would be a great way to learn.

<comment><USER3> Everyone then would just submit variations of the winning solution, which would make the leaderboard useless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Code golfing may seem like just a fun nerdy "sport", but it's actually really useful practice in keeping your code terse and your unnecessary abstractions to a minimum.

I recommend everyone to try to do _really well_ in a few code golfing challenges.

<http://codegolf.com/> also accepts a couple more languages than PHP if that's not your style.

<comment><USER5> I would disagree. There's a point where code terseness and abstractionlessness come at the cost of code readability, and these competitions cause you to go way beyond this point. There's no sense in practicing how to write confusing code that is very short, other than the problem-solving aspect of it.

I think code golf is just another form of a puzzle. So, whatever benefit you get from solving a puzzle, or mind bender, or whatever, you'll get from code golf. Hopefully you'll have the sense not to golf production code.

<comment><USER4> I said " _practice_ in keeping your code terse". Actually trying to golf production code would just be insane.

Programmers commonly put in completely unnecessary abstractions "just in case", and a golfing mindset will help you avoid a lot of these.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Most of these challenges test how good you are with regex hacking, rather than general code or php.

To reach within a few points of the best score, for most challenges you need regex

<comment><USER7> I tried very hard to resist the temptation to do that on the 99 bottles problem because I suspect it's a dead-end.

It's down to 189 bytes now, I'm curious if someone will have beaten me by morning.

That was fun to do. My first attempt was absolutely horrible :)

<comment><USER8> 189?! I've been trying for ages and the best I can do is 233. Any pointers? I can't compete with that, but would be great to have an idea why I'm so far off :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Code that focuses on being short is often pretty unreadable though, using really short variable names, lots of unnecessary tricks, no comments and other uglyness.

<comment><USER10> Yes. That's why it's a game, and not a serious programming practice.

<comment><USER9> Fair enough :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> whoever this "helge" guy is, if i should ever meet him, i'll slap him.

<comment><USER7> The way to slap him is to beat him.

<comment><USER11> that's impossible. i fear i have to resort to causing bodily harm because of that.

<comment><USER7> Bad loser :)

Think of it as a challenge.

I'm just trying to figure out how he ever got to 55 on that primes challenge, at least now I know that it's possible, all I have to do is figure out why. It's a nice argument _for_ software patents actually (and this is coming from someone that is morbidly against them), if you know that something is possible but not how you should be able to figure out how it's done.

Bodily harm to someone that is simply better at you is so gradeschool :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ross Ulbricht's Lawyers Found Another Corrupt Agent in Silk Road Case - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2016/11/ross-ulbrichts-lawyers-point-another-corrupt-agent-silk-road-case/ <comment> at-fates-hands Kind of misleading headline.

Here are the important parts of the article:

 _Even if defense lawyers manage to prove the existence of a third corrupt agent, Ulbricht's appeal of his conviction in the New York trial—the 32-year- old's last chance to escape a life sentence—isn't likely to be affected._

So no changes in the outcome of the trial, or chance for a new trial.

 _The same judge also argued that nothing indicated the two agents had actually tampered with evidence against Ulbricht._

They made some money on the side, but never tampered with evidence that could be thrown out, so the verdict will stand.

of course in the last paragraph:

 _The clues of tainted evidence are hardly enough to change Ulbricht's legal fate._

It might be something, but not nearly enough to warrant a new trial.</comment>


What's your favorite language of 2019? - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLalbxiXuYrw8ACUX-mkTh4TBY2VEEkU9DslkGy2QPYplK-A/viewform <comment><USER2> What is the purpose of this quiz, and what is the incentive for completing it? I ask because it certainly is a let down when one carefully goes through the list picking their pics, and then explaining them in the comment before submitting, then getting neither an explanation as to why this is being asked, nor a running tally.

Everything that might be interesting about it has been omitted.

</comment><comment><USER3> Good question. My favorite language is the one that made me the most money in 2019 and will continue to do so in 2020.

Also the OP has the "favorite language" list in a particular order, which makes it almost obvious of what their favorite language is...

</comment><comment><USER4> It's a rather pointless/useless survey. I'm nevertheless surprised by the omission of kotlin.

</comment><comment><USER5> Dart, because Flutter.

<comment><USER6> I actually like Dart even outside of the context of flutter. The toolchain is on par with go in terms of ease of use and simplicity. The language is really high level and simple to use, it can compile to native, and it's only getting better.

What sucks is the ecosystem, hopefully that changes so it can become my goto language for more general-purpose programming.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to get to HN Front page - <AUTHOR> meta <comment><USER2> Post interesting content!

If you think something's really good and is getting ignored (there is randomness as to what gets upvoted) email the moderators (firstname.lastname@example.com) and if they agree it's good they'll put it in the second-chance queue.</comment>


Webmention is a W3C Recommendation - <AUTHOR> https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/6052 <comment><USER2> This great news, webmention has been working well to decentralize commenting.</comment>


Ask HN: Startups while working and Assignment of Invention - <AUTHOR> Like a lot of hackers out there; I have a job. And like most of you guys, I had to sign an "Assignment of Invention" clause when hired. So now I have some great ideas that I want to work on, but have anxiety about the "what-ifs".
My brain just says to go for it; because it is pointless to worry. My gut is turning over the idea of having success only to be cut down by the man.
For what it is worth, my particular clause makes it very clear that anything developed outside work and not using their equipment is excluded from the clause. However, those exclusions are excluded if they are 'related' to the business. So what comes to my mind is, .. What does 'related' mean?
Anyway. Sorry for the rant, but this is making me nuts.
(throwaway account, obviously) <comment><USER2> In California, Labor Code 2870 allows you to keep inventions conceived or reduced to practice entirely on your own time and without use of an employer's resources unless such inventions "relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice . . . to the employer's business" or to "actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer."

"Relate," in this sense, can be read pretty broadly and so there is always theoretical concern over this issue if you as an employee developed something on the side.

In practice, though, there is quite a broad scope for employees to do side projects without having them swept in by such clauses. The exception is where you use expertise that is directly related to your job duties to come up with a better way of doing things in the very area in which your employer competes. Common sense suggests why that should be an exception: if the rule were otherwise, any employee could basically claim job-related inventions as his own.

If you have already left employment, and have not yet developed anything, then you should normally have little risk of having your ideas being deemed to belong to your employer. It is normally virtually impossible for an employer, for example, to prove that you were still employed "at the time of conception or reduction to practice" of your idea, as opposed to afterward. Two important exceptions to watch out for on this point: (1) if you file a patent application shortly after leaving employment relating to your employer's field, this is like waving a red flag in your employer's face that you had conceived the invention while employed; and (2) some assignment-of-invention agreements set forth a rebuttable presumption that any invention you develop within x period of leaving employment is presumed to have been conceived while still employed, and the legal effect of this sort of clause is to treat such an invention as belonging to your employer unless you can affirmatively prove otherwise (an often impossible task).

</comment><comment><USER3> In practice the interpretation of "related" that matters is the one done by a nervous VC or acquirer doing due diligence before a deal. Their definition tends to be broad.

On the other hand, what people worry about is source code, not ideas. If you can claim all your code was written after quitting, you're usually safe. Which means in the worst case you can just rewrite any app that seems promising enough that you'd be willing to quit your job to work on it.

Another option is to ask your employer for an explicit, written waiver of any IP rights in a specific side project. But many employers will only do this if you're prepared to quit otherwise.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is why you want to disclose broadly when you're hired and update before you start doing anything.</comment>


Ask HN: what software do people use for project management? - <AUTHOR>

What are your experiences with teambox, basecamp, flow, wunderkit in a startup environment? <comment><USER2> Have a look at what we have just pushed out to beta:

[http://community.geminiplatform.com/blogs/17/introducing- gem...](http://community.geminiplatform.com/blogs/17/introducing-gemini-5)

As farseer, says most tools out there are not great. Gemini 5 is raising the game by bringing together capabilities you find in the likes of Asana, Jira, Zendesk, etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> they all stink, either use fengoffice (ver 1.7.5) or atlassian. The first is simpler but doesn't scale as your company grows. The second one is feature rich and a bit of overkill for startups but has repository/wiki integration and scales well.

</comment><comment><USER4> I am developing my own as most project management software stinks.

</comment><comment> saiko-chriskun asana ftw.

</comment><comment><USER5> As much as I can't stand 37Signals, Basecamp is a pretty good product that works very well with smaller projects. Also whilst I haven't tried it Trello looks like it would be perfect for most startups.</comment>


Paul Graham's book 'On Lisp' is free here - <AUTHOR> http://www.bookshelf.jp/texi/onlisp/onlisp.html

<comment><USER2> It's also free here[0], though maybe in less convenient a form (PDF or postscript). :)

On the other hand, if you'd prefer a physical copy, I used Lulu.com to print a book for just $22.42 including shipping. I used the PDF and instructions here[1], since it has missing diagrams and has the cover available. It turned out really well.

[0] [http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html)

[1] [http://www.lurklurk.org/onlisp/onlisp.html](http://www.lurklurk.org/onlisp/onlisp.html)</comment>


Geoff Ralston taking over as President of YC - <AUTHOR> https://blog.ycombinator.com/geoff-ralston-for-president/ <comment><USER2> When I was a 21 year old with a fledgling startup, Geoff kept a promise to me several years later that he definitely didn't need to and had barely any incentive to. He did it because he is a man of his word and I owe much of the opportunity I have in my career because of his integrity and that choice to keep it. Congrats Geoff! And THANKS!!!

<comment><USER3> What was it?

<comment><USER4> To raise his son as his own and never reveal his true parentage.

<comment><USER5> If this were Reddit, I would've awarded you Gold.

<comment><USER6> Thankfully though, it's not.

<comment><USER5> Well, a little bit of good humor never hurt nobody :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hey everyone, thanks for the comments. I'll be around to answer questions as best I can.

<comment><USER8> Congrats! I was recently frustrated with the whole being accepted into YC, and then not really, but I really appreciate YCs efforts and influence.

Staffing good advisors is hard, especially for the # of applicants, so I definitely understand. It would be really awesome to see YC be able to scale to more participates though. I wasn't looking for money, more advice about gauging viability and scaling, and doing A/B testing.

I've started a business before, one where I could pay my bills, but it was one on one with clients doing web development...it wasn't a business that could scale effectively. The idea I've been toying with for a year or two would need to scale, and mostly be automated in order to succeed, and the scaling part is what you all are good at and I have a lot of questions about.

So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them for 30 min and then get out of y'all's hair. I'm AtHeartEngineer pretty much everywhere on the internet.

Thanks, appreciate all your work and good luck to you!

<comment><USER9> >> So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them

Never expect anyone to reach out to you. You have to reach out to them over and over if you are interested.

If they see the value in what you are doing, they will reply or reach out to you, but never expect them to do so.

This applies to everyone, mentors, investors, customers.

You have to be proactive all the time.

<comment><USER10> It reads to me like "ball's in your court, I'm happy to talk but I'm done chasing".

Being proactive and contacting people over and over is fine for a while if you're "hustling" but eventually it just becomes spam, you sound desperate, and you'll be hurting rather than helping your chances.

Also, if you feel your proposition is good enough and you don't get the response you were after, then move on and focus on getting your pitch to the right people.

<comment><USER9> First cold email - No response

1-2 weeks later - Second cold email - No response

Monthly update/touch up - No response

Move on.

Some people would consider the second or third email as spam, that is fine. If they block you, that means that was a dead end anyway.

My experience is that people are busy and we forget to reply sometimes. 3 emails in a row, in a matter of days, would be spam for me too.

<comment><USER11> The second email is spam, and I'd be sure to never do business with that person at that point. I'd be closing off a door at that point.

<comment><USER12> You're going to miss out on quite a few opportunities if you consider someone's second email as spam.

<comment><USER11> It hasn't hurt me so far.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Congrats to Geoff. He, along with others, has done a great job with Startup School. I would suggest that the YC core program could learn a lot from the Startup School program.

For an example of why: my startup was initially rejected from Startup School, then accidentally accepted, and then we kicked butt and won the YC Startup School Grant out of 10,000+ startups. Then we got a YC interview and were rejected for what (I think objectively) was a pretty random reason. And I understand that the stated reason isn't necessarily the full reason.

It was still a very enjoyable and super helpful experience overall. The advice, $10k cash, and cloud credits have helped tremendously and it's still helping a lot.

I just wish I could have competed against other startups for acceptance into the core YC program, rather than have a few people attempt to judge how much of an "animal" I am in 10 minutes as they groggily try to wake themselves up with coffee. Not a knock against them at all (still a very long-term PB fan!), just the process.

Because I know I'm _much_ better at competing with hard sustained effort over the long-term than I am at seeming super impressive on first impression.

Anyway, that's my suggestion.

We will hopefully be ramen profitable soon, and may not try for YC again because it is mentally exhausting. But whatever we do, Startup School was a _huge_ boost for us and YC asked nothing in return, so thank you very, very much.

<comment><USER14> > rather than have a few people attempt to judge ... as they groggily try to > wake themselves up with coffee.

This was our experience during the YC interview as well. Since we had an end of day slot, most of the partners were yawning as we walked in :/

Agree on Startup School - amazing resource for us that we keep revisiting

<comment><USER15> This is a well documented bias: jurys don't react the same depending on the time of day and how long ago they ate. One study was about parole boards and was extensively reported on:

[https://www.wired.com/2011/04/judges-mental- fatigue/](https://www.wired.com/2011/04/judges-mental-fatigue/)

Does YC has stats about acceptance vs the time of the interview? That would be interesting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Just wanted to take a second to thank Sam for all that he has done over the past 5 years for YC. Also, I am very excited to work even more closely with Geoff as he takes on this new role.

<comment><USER7> Well said, Michael. It has been my good luck to work with Sam for years. He has an incredible combination of big ideas and the ability to get them done. Sam's power of intellect and his ability to communicate his thoughts clearly and concisely make him a great leader.

Sam has done so much for YC and I know is doing and will do amazing things with OpenAI.

I will continue to lean on him for his insight and advice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Geoff is a role model for me as an investor. He taught me you can be smart, pragmatic while also kind, patient, and thoughtful - he's the definition of growth mindset in startupland and I am over the moon that he is taking over. Really lucky to have worked with him back when I was a partner at YC. Amazing news!

</comment><comment><USER18> We were fortunate to have Geoff as one of our YC group partners in S2015 and he asked tough questions and kept us focused more so than almost any other early investor we had. Looking back, Geoff really helped us maximize our full potential - all the way from day 1 through selling our company.

Congrats, Geoff!

</comment><comment><USER19> Although I haven't spoken to Geoff in a number of years (We did YC S13), I remember him as a tough but effective advisor to us and many others. A lot of his lessons didn't sink in for a long time -- perhaps because I'm a little thickheaded -- but they were always spot on.

<comment><USER20> Seconded. Geoff always asked us the hard questions we should have been spending more time thinking about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hi Geoff! What excites you most about YC and the direction it's headed?

<comment><USER7> I love the fact that we are finding ways to work with more and more founders around the world, both in our core accelerator and with programs like Startup School. I believe the more entrepreneurship becomes a viable career option the more exciting the world gets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> A photo of that scene from the Stripe office: [https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1130540727341969408](https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1130540727341969408)

</comment><comment><USER23> I worked closely with Geoff on last year's Startup School. I can heartily endorse everything Sam wrote in the announcement – he sees the whole picture, and is a pleasure to work with! I'm very excited to see where he takes YC!

</comment><comment><USER24> Geoff was the partner I felt gave the best advice. It was well thought out, direct, and usually correct. I'm glad he's been promoted. I couldn't thinking of anybody better. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER25> Nice! Geoff will do a great job running YC; it is interesting to see how long people have stayed involved, even compared to the VC industry baseline.

</comment><comment><USER26> Congrats Geoff! During a trek for Iraq and Afghan war veterans, Geoff made the time to meet with us and provide office hours on our hairbrained ideas. A few of us made it into YC and are super appreciative of his support and feedback over the years. YC is lucky to have Geoff lead the organization.

</comment><comment><USER27> Congratulations Geoff . Quick Question - Are there any immediate goals or plans which you have in mind ?

<comment><USER7> Thanks! My immediate goal is to ensure that the Summer 2019 batch is fantastic and I'll be working closely with Michael on that. Besides that I think it'll take some time to figure things out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Geoff was very generous with his time between and after sessions of the YC StartUp Investor School to answer course attendee questions.

I think he was also on here helping manage the mea culpa from last year's StartUp School email mistake.

Both were good to see.

I wish him luck in his new role.

</comment><comment><USER29> Go, Geoff! My interaction with him was through YC Startup School, and he and Adora did a terrific job running the program and navigating uncertainty. Excited for this next phase, and what's next for Sam!

<comment><USER30> Second this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Congratulations, Geoff! I haven't had higher-impact educational/professional experience than having Geoff as a group partner. He's a natural. Optimistic about the future of YC.

</comment><comment><USER32> I was in last fall's Startup School which Geoff was very involved in. He seems like a great leader and you can tell the other YC partners get along well with him.

</comment><comment><USER33> Congrats. I'm pretty outside of anything YC will ever be interested in, but I've heard lots of positive things about Startup School.

<comment><USER34> People tend to underestimate what YC will be interested in. You might be surprised!

<comment><USER33> In a general sense, true.

I'm in academia though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Congrats, Geoff!

In recent years YC has taken admirable steps to fund solutions to the world's biggest problems (the climate crisis, health, nutrition, etc). Would be curious to hear how you see those efforts evolving!

</comment><comment><USER36> Hi Geoff, congratulations on the new role. Do you have any thoughts you can share on YC's presence outside of SF? Any plans to move the core operations or setup hubs in alternate geographies?

<comment><USER7> Thanks!

YC's core program will still be run out of Mountain View this summer. We'll all look hard at what that will look like in the future. No firm plans to discuss yet except, of course, YC China.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Congrats Geoff! Your advice and the empathy associated with it has been very helpful as we evolved out of YC. Glad to know the future batches will continue to be in great hands :)

</comment><comment><USER38> Congrats Geoff! You helped us a lot when we were young, first-time founders and we learned a lot from you and Tim. Thanks again for all your advice—excited about the future for YC :)

</comment><comment><USER39> We were lucky to have Geoff as a group partner and advisor. I can't imagine a better name to keep pushing YC forward. Congratz Geoff and YC!

</comment><comment><USER40> Congrats, Geoff. We didn't talk much back in YC S12 but I've heard good things from everyone else!

</comment><comment><USER41> Congratulations Geoff and the YC team.

</comment><comment><USER42> Geoff is truly great -- congrats!

</comment><comment><USER43> Congrats Geoff! Where is Sam going?

<comment><USER44> Per the post -- "Working on OpenAI has been more exciting (and more complex) than I ever imagined, and I'm excited to be able to focus on it more fully."

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Do you have plans to invest in real tech rather than toy stuffs like Peter Thiel tells?

</comment><comment><USER46> For a moment I thought why is YC endorsing a US presidential candidate. I should read less politics. Congratulations Geoff.</comment>


Spire.io: A New Platform For Serverless Apps That Work On Web & Mobile - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/spire-io-a-new-platform-for-serverless-apps-that-work-on-web-mobile/

<comment><USER2> I have no problem with these new backend as a service providers. Parse, FireBase, Spire.io, etc. The problem I have is what happens when you have all your data hosted with them and they go away. You are stuck either rebuilding the same API they had or migrating to another provider.

That said I have used Parse and it is amazing at how fast you can get up and running. I will definitely be giving Parse a good look when I spin up my next app (whether it be at a hackathon or otherwise). For now though my attitude is cautious optimism.

And what really is the end game in all this? A lot of these have similar APIs. What's to prevent you from just copying the API (hope that they are deemed uncopyrightable).

<comment><USER3> One thing I like about Parse is that they explicitly support data portability. Of course, that is only the data you're getting, so you are correct in that you would have to reimplement the API if you wanted to move away seamlessly.

That's not the end of the world, though it does influence which of these providers I choose. For example, I feel more comfortable building on Parse because I'm fairly confident that they won't disappear without some warning. I think it's a trust barrier you have to break through to become successful in this particular market.

<comment><USER4> You are correct on all points here. Stability and trust are very important in this market. Obviously, we are planning on being around for a long time, but it may take a little while for everyone to gain confidence in us. The best thing we can do is to keep iterating and prove that we are building something that's meant to last.

As far as building trust goes, we plan to automate the process of exporting your data soon, but until then we will provide it upon request at any point.

We also stick to open standards and open source software wherever possible so that your code is not dependent on any proprietary technology from us or anyone else. Our own server code is based completely on widely supported open source projects, ranging from Node to Redis.

Finally, we are open sourcing our own stack as aggressively as we can and already offer limited licenses to firms that are concerned about being dependent on our code.

In short, we're doing everything we can to ensure that you are never "locked in" to our technology or any one else's. Our goal is keep innovating so that you don't want to use another solutions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love how using the term "serverless" for a backend provider immediately confuses me about the actual product. Win?

<comment><USER6> They want you to build server-less apps, so they provide the server. It makes sense.

<comment><USER7> But the apps aren't "server-less". The server is just controlled by a different party.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. These apps are "serverless" in the same sense that outsourcing development makes your application codeless.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> From giving Spire and Freebase a quick glance, none of these services seem to be designed to work in offline mode. What I'd love to see is a different kind of architecture: a server-less app with its local database (websql or indexedDB) which syncs with a server-side database instead of making RPC style calls. ie disconnected mode of operation with syncing when online.

This is how Meteor works from what I understand, and we've had to build this ourselves on top of Backbone for Post.fm. Perhaps we're a special case, but something tells me that the infrastructure of the future is not RPC calls but data-sync. (I guess MS Exchange is one of the first large examples of this).

<comment><USER9> RPC is an anti-pattern.

I've been beating this drum for years, but it feels awfully lonely...

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2317568>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2972345>

<comment><USER10> FWIW, we use HTTP as intended, not to tunnel RPCs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _"And then, the realization: 'let's build the picks and shovels, instead of panning for gold.'"_

Something about this line really irked me. Not really the kind of thing I'd want to read as a potential customer.

<comment><USER12> It's exactly the thing I would want to read. I'm the expert in gold panning, damnit, just give me the tools I need.

<comment><USER13> You're an expert in gold panning yet you need tools?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> There is a real need for an open source clone of one of these realtime datastores. I'd lean towards Firebase since it has the best API I've seen so far.

If anybody wants an open source sprint, I'd be willing to donate to such a project...

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm working on something similar that I want to open source. The idea is to be able to build apps quickly on the front end, and only have to mess with the back when necessary.

Anyone interested in this sort of project?

</comment><comment><USER16> What is the difference between this and Firebase?

<comment><USER14> Firebase has a much nicer API. It's organized around a realtime, ordered, tree datastore. This makes it much more akin to very granular database than a message bus. Spire is just an authentication service + channels. There is no state beyond the historical list of messages in a channel. That makes it a really thin layer over Socket.IO. Firebase solves a much harder problem of state synchronization.

Firebase allows you can listen to any part of the subtree and query particular children of a node. Data is synchronized in realtime, optimistically, and the events that fire allow you to easily tie your UI or Backbone model to the datastore. It also has critical features like transactions. This is much more flexible than what Spire.IO currently provides.

<comment><USER17> I am not sure what makes you say it is a thin layer over Socket.IO... or even the comparison to Firebase. I would say Firebase solves a different problem, not really a harder one.

Firebase doesn't have an identity service, does it? Firebase doesn't seem to address the issue of security or privacy at all, which seems to me to be fairly important to a web application.

<comment><USER10> Also, you can implement data synchronization over a messaging layer but not the other way around. So I'd say our approach is actually more flexible. And we do plan to introduce APIs to make data synchronization easier.

<comment><USER14> Implementing the Firebase API is nontrivial. It's an entire datastore with fine-grained monitoring and optimistic, distributed, data synchronization. Messaging falls automatically out of their API -- all you do is push child messages. And it's better messaging protocol than pub/sub since you get windowed queries into the channel history for free.

<comment><USER10> You get 'windowed queries into the channel history for free' on spire.io as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For god's sake at LEAST put a towel over your head when recording a voice- over.

</comment><comment><USER18> Sounds like Firebase.

<comment><USER19> We get compared to other messaging services quite a bit, the big difference is that real-time messaging will not be our only service.

We are already working on other services that will cover the most common needs of developing apps (data store, cdn). The new Identity service combined with real-time messaging and our upcoming services will allow developers to very quickly develop really powerful applications. I don't think that is something businesses exclusively in the real-time messaging space (like firebase) are working towards.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> You want me to hand over my entire backend infrastruture to your company and be entirely limited by your capabilites and rewrite my app specifically for your system? Seriously? Are there people actually interested this? Who's the target audience? (I hope you don't say backend developers)

<comment><USER17> I think spire.io is more geared towards people making new applications. If you already have a working backend, keep using it. However, if you are making a new web application, you need to pick your battles; do you spend your time writing server code and setting up a server, or do you spend your time writing the actual application? It is a reinventing the wheel thing. You want to spend your time writing the parts of your app that are DIFFERENT and actually core to your application.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Next european hub Berlin? - <AUTHOR> As you know for sure, the UK chose to leave the EU on Thursday. As an immediate consequence, uncertainty is going to dominate for weeks or months until they realise their next move: sharp exit, stand-by, second referendum maybe. My question to you HNers is pretty simple: where do you think the next European hub will be, that is to say the new London, if any. I have had a quick survey within my network and the majority say it is going to be Berlin, also because there is something there already and critical mass will be easier to reach within the very heart of the EU. What do you think about? Thanks. <comment><USER2> I've been living in Berlin since 3 years ( doing freelance web-development & my own "entrepreneurship" adventures ).

IMHO Berlin might sound cool as a startup hub, but there is a huge lack of talent. Companies are struggling to find a decent dev/design team, probably because the payment is way too low than average. It's true that Berlin is cheaper than London ( and overall Germany ), but definitely is not so cheap to attract good IT people to join your journey with those numbers.

On top of that, giving stock-options here is a bit hard ( legally ), so companies are struggling to offer some "virtual shares" of an employee pool as a compensation, which will never make you as rich as if you are one of the first employees of a unicorn.

Everything else from offices, meet ups, parties, nice food, international city is here and I think is much better than overcrowded and expensive London ( That's why I'm still here :) ).

<comment><USER3> > there is a huge lack of talent. Companies are struggling to find a decent > dev/design team, probably because the payment is way too low.

Exactly. You can't whine about the lack of talent and at the same time offer 50K-60K EUR to senior engineers...

I'd say, "cheap labour" is (was?) the main reason one might find Berlin attractive.

<comment><USER4> With a 60K salary you can live _anywhere_ in Berlin (I'm 2 minutes from my office, in the most expensive part of the city). Many people mention London in this thread and even assuming a 60% raise (not impossible but not so easy either from what I've seen) I'm not sure I could live 2 minutes from work in central London. When I interviewed with Palantir they were offering 700 GBP/month to people who live within 15 minutes of their office, and that's probably going to barely cover 1/3 of your rent.

That being said, I'm all for higher wages in Berlin and happy to see that some companies (like mine, SoundCloud, Zalando, ...) are paying quite a bit above market average to attract talent.

<comment><USER5> _With a 60K salary you can live anywhere in Berlin_

Except that people contemplating a move from elsewhere -- especially from outside the continent -- need to think about certain things beyond their immediate living expenses. Like, you know, building savings buffer for the (inevitable, for most) return home, and maintaining a salary level not astronomically far off from what they can get in other major hubs (simply to not have to flinch at that inevitable question, "How much are you currently making?").

Which is what is fundamentally broken with the idea that salaries just need to match local living expenses. 80K salaries would do a lot to bridge the gap for outside talent, and wouldn't cost all that much more -- and in any case not nearly much as the opportunity cost of missing business opportunities due to not being able to assemble performant teams.

<comment><USER4> I relocated from another continent. My company gives decent relocation/signing bonuses, so I assume our competitors do too.

Again, I'm all for higher wages in Berlin, but let's be realistic, the market rate is what it is, no company in its right mind is going to hire someone asking for +50% with no good reason.

Also, this thread is about _European_ tech hubs. Have a look at average startup salaries in London, Paris, Nordic countries, ...

<comment><USER5> _No company in its right mind is going to hire someone asking for +50% with no good reason._

They can give up on the idea of recruiting people from major hubs (SV/London/NYC) then.

Generally people who have some sense of reasonableness and proportion (that is, who don't aren't fixated on the dollar amount of their salary to the exclusion of all other factors) don't mind taking a bit of haircut to live in a greatly more affordable area (and to do interesting work).

But a 50% haircut ($120K to $60K) is really a hard pill to swallow for such folks.

<comment><USER4> > They can give up on the idea of recruiting people from major hubs > (SV/London/NYC) then.

From the SV and NYC, you're probably right. From a company's point of view, why would you even try? In Berlin you can easily hire people from all over Europe _and_ nearby countries without much immigration hassle.

As for London, I don't agree, it's very easy. London salaries aren't that great on average, not every software developer works at a hedge fund.

<comment><USER5> _In Berlin you can easily hire people from all over Europe and nearby countries without much immigration hassle._

Well a few lines up from here someone was claiming the exact opposite -- "there's a huge lack of talent." (Which would seem to imply both local talent, and talent that can be drawn from outside).

<comment><USER4> Again, look at the competition. Is it any easier for other cities?

\- London: higher salaries, much higher CoL => lower disposable income

\- Dublin: barely higher salaries, higher CoL

\- Amsterdam: similar/lower salaries, higher CoL

\- Paris: lower salaries, higher CoL

\- Stockholm, Helsinki: lower salaries, higher CoL (and crazy housing situation in Stockholm)

\- Southern/Eastern Europe, Baltics: low CoL but the salaries are bad

You want to make good money? This leaves Oslo and Copenhagen where your overall purchasing power isn't going to be that much higher. The true outliers are Luxembourg and Switzerland where the tech ecosystem sadly isn't very exciting (why do you think a Swiss would take a job in Berlin? :)

I don't think Europe will ever be able to create a tech hub similar to the SV. And without a high concentration of talent, salaries can't go that much higher. London might get somewhere closer to NYC, but right now there's a very significant gap between finance and the rest. And Brexit will certainly not help.

<comment><USER6> You're missing places like Reading, where the salaries are London-ish (as you can just take a 25 minutes train to London for work), but the housing is cheaper. I pay for a decently sized house as much as I would pay for a tiny studio in London (and probably not in Zone 1)

Still probably more expensive than Berlin though :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> London. Not Berlin.

Berlin is affordable but that's it. You won't find the best people, the best teams and a good legal framework.

The UK has a better legal system. The UK Ltd. is way superior to the German Ltd. and soon they will move away from the EU inherited laws which are too much market regulating. Especially consumer protection and labour law are just a big bummer for many and for startups in particular.

Besides, just check total fundings, exits, average fundings sizes, etc. then you see the difference. Berlin based startups got much moeny the recent years but slowly people question again the ecosystem since exits are missing. Ok the city doesn't have the startup history like a Valley or London but still. Clear successes are missing. The only huge thing was Zalando's IPO.

<comment><USER8> You are going to have to abide by those "bummer" consumer protection laws if you are going to sell goods or services to the common market which coincidentally will become harder if the UK really decides to go forth with this lunacy.

<comment><USER9> >> You are going to have to abide by those "bummer" consumer protection laws...

If you're dealing directly with consumers then yes. If it's B2B then no, you won't have to. And there are lots of startups offering services for businesses only.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Dublin ?

It's right there, many big companies already have their offices there, English is the official spoken language, it is basically a far as uk to reach from the point of view of any European citizen, and it is cheaper (I guess).

Taxation is lower BUT actually enforced: there is no such thing as City of London corporation, isle of man or crap like that.

I guess it is less "developed" than London, but becoming the next European tech hub might be a great drive for development.

<comment><USER10> The sad thing about Germany is their loathe for the English language: you basically cannot expect to fully live there without learning German. ATMs and self-dispensers (example: bus/subway ticket machines) are poorly translated to English, for example.

For example, bus/subway stops are only announced in German, not in English.

In Milan, Italy, bus and subway stops are announced in both Italian and English, public transport works very well in my opinion.

It's a pity that doing business in Italy is basically a rat race, taxation is ridiculously high (compared to the services and services level you get) and there is a crazy bureaucracy, otherwise Milan would be an awesome place for a tech hub.

<comment><USER5> _The sad thing about Germany is their loathe for the English language: you basically cannot expect to fully live there without learning German. For example, bus /subway stops are only announced in German, not in English._

Well, yeah -- it's like, a foreign country, you know.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> London is and will be the start-up hub. Barcelona is also is a good place to start a business, but London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit can change that.

<comment><USER12> > London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit can change that.

Actually, quite likely it will. One of the main arguments of the "Leave" campaign was curtailing immigration as in effectively reducing it to zero. Now, of course this isn't actually possible and Farage and others are already sheepishly back-pedaling on most of their bold claims.

If this whole Brexit affair is supposed to make any remote sense at all there will be limits on immigration, because if the UK will still allow free movement of people and goods from the EU what's the point of leaving in the first place?

Limits on immigration will mean less talented people in the city. It's as simple as that. Besides, people from the EU who're already living and working in London either will have to leave or apply for permanent resident permits. Only time will tell how hard those will be to come by but it'll be at least a major hassle.

<comment><USER13> Immigration was the main argument because that is what people wanted to hear, and got the opportunists like Boris a shot at more power. In reality it is not going to happen.

1\. When have politicians ever followed through with a promise they made?

2\. Not even the Brexit bunch are stupid enough to intentionally cripple the economy, especially as immigration was an issue for a demographic of voter the Tories actually care nothing about.

What the UK could do is put more restrictions on migrants without a job and what in work benefits they can access.

Reforms to benefits for migrants were a part of the deal Cameron got from the EU earlier this year -- which is now void -- so Brexit really changes nothing there. Maybe the UK could be stricter with migrants out of work and still get the trade deals.

<comment><USER14> The British as non-EU can't get a better deal than the Swiss as a non EU Schengen area member.. I think the British will either lose more control of immigration from this vote or be pretty crippled by poor EU trade agreements leading to the US learning to deal direct with the mainland.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> IMHO It's too soon to tell. If several other states do the same the EU will become a disjointed mess. Some polls say as many as 43% of Germans feel more power should come home. If other member states show intention to leave it could ignite a surge of support for Germany to do the same. Then Berlin would just be another really nice place to visit but, isolated in German laws and the same chaos the UK is about to experience.

The real challenge is we live in very fragile times and the EU is like a big Jenga game, as parts start to slip away the entire thing could easily topple and drive Europe back into a chaotic state not seen in many people's lifetimes.

<comment><USER16> Actually, it is the other way round: 69% of Germans wanted Britain to stay. Since the beginning of the year support for the EU rose and now for the first time a majority of Germans (45%) think that the EU has more advantages than disadvantages (38% think both advantages and disadvantages, 14% more disadvantages) [0].

Also: If you look at the numbers also from the Brexit votum, you will see that young people are very much pro EU.

[0]: [http://www.heute.de/mehrheit-eu-wird-wegen-brexit-nicht- zerb...](http://www.heute.de/mehrheit-eu-wird-wegen-brexit-nicht-zerbrechen- fussball-em-hoffnung-auf-titelgewinn-gestiegen-44100560.html) (German)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> European hub? Hub of what? There's no Silicon Valley in the EU, so both talent and industry is decentralized. Brexit won't change this.

London will remain an important node, but without additional incentives (ie. subsidies) no single place will take over the roles that it fulfills now inside the EU's talent market.

</comment><comment><USER18> Lisbon will be the place;),nice people, lots of talented people,english is common language,food .

[http://rethink.beta-i.pt/2016/05/04/report-lisbon-startup- sc...](http://rethink.beta-i.pt/2016/05/04/report-lisbon-startup-scene/)

<comment><USER19> From the Airbnb thread

[http://www.buala.org/pt/cidade/quem-vai-poder-morar-em- lisbo...](http://www.buala.org/pt/cidade/quem-vai-poder-morar-em-lisboa)

<comment><USER20> Yes, unfortunetly I think it's very likely that costs will grow faster than the startup scene in Lisbon. Loosing much of it's attraction.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Will you pay 1$/month for? - <AUTHOR> For what kind of thing you are ready to pay 1$/month?
I am from developing country and 200-300$/month addition will make good sense.
I do lots of freelancing and making decent money, but I want to create passive income generator.
Please share your idea and if possible please estimate possible number of users who might use it. <comment><USER2> Just some random advice from the internet:

Pricing at $1.00/month means that new customers + retained customers - non- collections = 200, $10.00/month means 20, $100.00/month means 2, and $2400/year means just one.

It's harder to acquire 200 customers than 20. It's harder to retain them. It's more work to process their payments and more costly due to per transaction fees. The channels that are used to reach such customers have to be lower cost and generally that equates with noisy -- think of app discovery for $1.00 apps in the appstores -- and $1.00 services are always directly competing with free.

I was going to say "web hosting/email", but then I realized that I wouldn't really trust a $1.00/month web hosting or email provider because at that price it doesn't suggest a sustainable business, and if it goes under after eighteen months, the pain isn't going to be worth the cost savings.

Pricing is signaling.

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for advise, agree with you about cost and sustainability of business.

If possibly could you tell then for what kind of service will you pay 10$/month?

<comment><USER2> I pay about that for hosting + email. But it goes to a big company and I've been using them since 2007 and the company is bigger now than it was then. To emphasize my point, there aren't many small companies that I would trust to bill my credit card on a recurring basis.

What will you do for me for $1/month?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> An app where I can register peoples' birthdays.

For example: Anne, 27 Sep 2005.

Then, it emails me a month before with relevant gift suggestions from e-commerce retailers for female age 10.

For Christmas, I get a long list of everyone.

You could probably make the $1 off the affiliation links. However, I would like it to be multiple e-commerce sites, not just Amazon.

<comment><USER4> Seriously? I just added the people important enough to congratulate outside of facebook to google calendar with a yearly returning reminder (oh, and birth year, not unimportant)

<comment> J-dawg Just before quitting Facebook, I made a point of adding friends' birthdays to my iOS contacts, which are shown in the calendar on my iPhone. However there is no option to be automatically reminded of all birthdays, so I still sometimes miss them. I feel like this should be available as a standard feature of iOS. I'd pay for an app that would simply read all the birthdays from my contacts and create a calendar reminder for each one. Not a monthly subscription, but definitely worth paying a few pounds for.

<comment><USER5> Not sure about iOS, but on Mac OS X calendar: Preferences > General > Show Birthdays Calendar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'd pay $1 p/m for a regularly updated list of viable passive-income startup ideas, their potential market size, ideally all in the $1 recurring subscription range.

</comment><comment><USER7> $1/month for a twice-a-month email that lists 2-3 shows/movies worth watching on Netflix/Amazon Instant. Could be new release/added or older 'gems'.

Bonus pts if it could sync up with my accounts to not recommend things I've already seen, but not required. More bonus pts if it could use my ratings for smarter recommendations.

Seems ideal to test out without writing any software -- just research and collect a list of 5-6 items and type up an email in MailChimp :)

</comment><comment><USER8> Sometimes my sink get clogged up, and I have to spend a couple minutes unclogging it. I'd pay $1/month to somehow ensure that it never gets clogged again. Probably tens of millions of people would also use a solution to this.

</comment><comment><USER9> A dead man's switch service to send out pre-composed emails to given addresses when no action has been taken in a given amount of time.

I might pay for that to send out an email revoking my PGP key in the event of my death.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'd pay a dollar per month if you could track all my clients' social media in one place.

I help people on Twitter and instagram and YouTube.

Might be cool for following anyone you're a fan of on multiple platforms.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'd pay for something that would help me manage my time. The app needs to find the sweet-spot between "inefficient" and "annoying"

</comment><comment><USER12> I would pay $1 a month for quick feedback on my website. Give me a quick 10 minute look and try things out and tell me what works, what is confusing etc. Sort of like customer feedback. I am sure you would have a large number of users as usability testing is expensive. There is not really a price point in the $1 range as far a I could tell.

<comment><USER13> You can do 3 free tests with peek - [http://peek.usertesting.com/](http://peek.usertesting.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I would pay $1 for a service that matches my skill level to various open source project issues on github and gives me an intro to make a PR for them. This service once stable and dependable could be sold to Comp Science depts of universities as real-world programming projects for their students.

</comment><comment><USER15> Haha, looking for something like this myself, but at least $20/month. I want to challenge myself in 3 months and get it to $1k...don't know if possible.

I would pay $1/month if you give me each month 10 ideas that I could build in a weekend with the potential of making $1k/month.

</comment><comment><USER16> To low, users won't think it's sustainable. To high, they won't pay for it.

</comment><comment><USER17> Mailbox.

</comment><comment><USER18> Music, mail, tv/movies, ties

</comment><comment><USER19> 1$ per email lead generated for sales or marketing? We do that service!</comment>


The Widow, the Bank, and the $8B Verdict - <AUTHOR> https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2018/january/jo-hopper-jpmorgan-chase-lawsuit/ <comment><USER2> > Once the children discovered the estate's money was being used to pay the > bank's lawyers in the legal fight, they asked for the bank to stop using the > account. JPMorgan did not comply. Eventually, the account was drained of all > but $100, just enough to keep the account open. Then JPMorgan made its own > novel legal move. The estate, as administered by the bank, took out a loan, > from JPMorgan, for more than $900,000. The bank, in other words, loaned > itself money, indebting the estate in the process.

Wow, just wow. Usually when I read articles about an investment bank doing something dodgy, I can play devil's advocate and talk it through from their point of view. But this time I am struggling to do that. So many things were done that were not just morally wrong, but legally too. I struggle to believe there was no one at JP who didn't point this out.

<comment><USER3> I would guess the thinking of the bank was that they were paying legal fees due to infighting of the family members. Something that, if true, would make sense to pay out of the estate funds. But, assuming it is proven that a lot of the problems were due to incompetence on the part of chase, that is a different story and seems like theft.

So to me, the use of the funds for legal fees is not in and of itself an issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is why it is so important to have a will and other documents (such as advanced directives) in order, and to make family members aware of all the arrangements.

There are all kinds of sharks in the financial and legal industry that prey on unprepared people.

I and people I know have been screwed by these types, and it always comes down to not having a will. If you don't have a will, you're subjecting those you care for to dealing with these sharks. Don't do that to them.

<comment><USER5> You might have missed the part where the widow and the children couldn't agree on who gets what at any point in the last 10 years. They sued each other and sued the bank instead of splitting the estate.

As always, the sharks are in the family. Your descendant would rather have the whole fortune dilapidated than miss a dollar of it.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, my (effective) mother in law had this issue with her father and his (second) wife.

He died without a legal will (what he did write was hand written, holes so large you could drive a truck through, and un-witnessed). Though the estate was modest (maybe $400K in home, vehicles, stocks) and could easily have been divided pretty equitably with the second wife (who was pretty recently married to him), the two of them's inability to get along, and always think that the other was plotting against them...

lead to long drown out probate court challenges, and in the end they walked away with less than $100K between them, burning the rest in the process.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The odd thing about this case is how there wasn't anything unusual about the estate.

Heirs disagree all the time. That's the point of hiring an independent administrator.

How could the bank have screwed this up so badly?

<comment><USER8> They started with a small screw-up. (Favoring the widow in order to close an investment account). Then let on with a slightly larger screw-up (Favoring the children in order to get back at the widow for closing that account). Then made the huge screw-up of trying to break the law and force the widow to sell the house. Then they made the gigantic mistake of using up the estate to fight both sides in court. Then they made the mind-blowingly huge mistake of indebting the estate to themselves to keep that fight going.

It's just one long series of someone screwing up badly and thinking "wait!? I can fix this, I've got a crazy idea that just might work", then proceeding to fuck up even more. Though with the lengthy timescale it would not at all surprise me if someone got promoted several times for the (prior to the verdict) "great" handling of the afairs. Whoever went to the boss saying "yea, we drained the entire estate into legal fees for our-selves, and now we're even indebting it while keeping both sides fighting" would have at the time been seen by them as a candidate for employee of the year.

The 8 billion is outrageous and far too much, but I would love to live in a world where they actually had to pay that amount. Maybe not all to the victims, but most of it to some charities and non-profit organisations fighting for citizens rights against banks. It would seriously send a signal that all this kind of just horrible behavior on the part of the banks isn't profitable in the long run, and could potentially blow your entire organisation out of the water. Making things like moral codes and proper training actually matter to them. As it is, they'll likely just pay a couple of million and scrug it off as an ok attempt at stealing from their clients. The 99 other cases where it actually worked will foot the bill for this time when it failed.

<comment><USER9> > screwing up badly and thinking "wait!? I can fix this, I've got a crazy idea > that just might work"

Reminds me of that scene at the end of American Made, where Monty Schafer drops by a colleague's office and says (paraphrased) _" Here's an idea, let's sell arms to Iran"_.

In other words: _we 're gonna need a bigger shovel._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wonder if it would be possible to have a clause in your will stating that if any family member sues any other family member, the whole lot goes to charity. Bonus points if you can get a legal professional to utter the words "and you can all eat shit".

</comment><comment><USER11> First world problems, 6700 putters and 900 bottles of fine wine.

That said, the bank behaved in a terrible way, but the most important takeaway is that if you have any wealth at all make sure you leave a properly signed and witnessed will.

<comment><USER12> I disagree, it's not "first world problems." Largely the saving grace of the family was that they are extremely wealthy. They had the money to hire attorneys to stand up to the bank. In most instances, the bank would have been able to do what they want, because 99% of the people lack the funds for an actual legal fight.

What makes the article new worthy is that the bank lost when it overstepped its bounds, and that this was only possible for someone with an estate of several million dollars. It shows how biased the American legal system is against people without money. How did I come to this conclusion? It's simple, JPMC clearly knows what they are doing when it comes to probate and the legal system. This wasn't some novel plan they had to make money on estate. They knew exactly what they were doing and what moves they could play. It was a shock to them that they lost, and they lost because the plaintiffs had a legal team that could understand and combat it. Most attorneys couldn't handle a case like this, and those that do aren't cheap.

<comment><USER13> JPMorgan was only involved because they were paid $230k to step up as administrator of the estate, so this malevolent third-party fiduciary situation could have only happened to a family with enough assets for that steep administrative fee to make any sense.

I've no idea what probate/intestate law in Texas looks like, but one party (probably the wife) should have had priority to be the executrix. The children could have fought her appointment, insisted on court supervision of her actions, sued the estate to contest disbursals, etc. The wife could have similarly spent money to defend herself, pay herself an outrageous salary, etc. But she would have been much less brazen and the end result would have just been the all-too-common story about one member of a family screwing over the others.

<comment><USER5> The story said the wife sued the children and the children sued back the wife. The members of the family have been at war since the beginning.

<comment><USER13> > _The [issue] insisted on hiring JPMorgan as an independent administrator in > part because they wanted someone impartial to handle any disputes that might > arise... Jo says. "They wanted assurances. So I agreed."_

I don't see any mention of lawsuits resulting in the involvement of JPMorgan, only those filed afterwards. The story [0] makes it sound like Jo acquiesced to hiring an "independent" administrator, which seems to be a case of no good deed going unpunished.

So I stand by the idea that complications from (seemingly voluntarily) hiring a third party executor for $230k puts the situation squarely within "first world problems", meaning caused by out of touch affluence. A family with lesser means would have had to work it out for themselves, under the pointed threat of the entire estate being immediately consumed by legal expenses.

[0] Granted, the whole article is in terms of her side of the story.

<comment><USER5> >>> Lawsuits ensued. Jo sued the bank. The bank sued Jo. Jo sued her stepchildren. The stepchildren sued Jo. The stepchildren sued the bank. And so on.

Neither Jo nor the children wanted to negotiate. They forced each other to have a third party and they fought until there was nothing left to inherit.

A family with lesser means would ruin themselves with a cheaper executor. It's really common.

<comment><USER13> That sentence is obviously talking about after JPMorgan was already on board. Do you have another article that states Jo was forced into nominating JPMorgan to act as the administrator, or which one of us is having the reading comprehension fail?

<comment><USER5> >>> The children, as Jo calls them, even though they were both adults when she married Max, insisted on hiring JPMorgan as an independent administrator in part because they wanted someone impartial to handle any disputes that might arise. "That's what the children wanted," Jo says. "They wanted assurances. So I agreed."

<comment><USER13> That is the exact passage I had quoted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> And to believe this all started over a misunderstanding over airline miles.

<comment><USER15> Nah, built over years most likely. Like getting divorced because "he throws his socks on the floor." That's the match that lights the fire of hay gathered over decades

<comment><USER14> Yeah there's obviously some tension from the kids and the stepmom. But if you read the article everything was starting ok enough until the kids thought she was using his miles which they were entitled too (as an aside, what a stupid thing to throw a fit over)

<comment> compiler-guy The airlines miles were just an example. There was much more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Still, the verdict did generate some bad publicity for the bank.

And there goes the Streisand effect. $8B isn't something the bank will take slightly, but the more this case is discussed, more people will hear about it and (probably) avoid hiring this bank in the future.

I don't think this kind of service is a significant insource for the bank, but also think it should be much, much cheaper had the bank taken some care with this case.

<comment><USER17> That's not what the Streisand Effect is.

The Streisand Effect is when an attempt to censor information from becoming public backfires and instead spreads the information more widely due to public attention.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Investor didn't pay up. How to cancel SAFE? - <AUTHOR> We're part of a startup accelerator in NYC that is having cashflow problems. Payment was due over several tranches via SAFEs.
Second tranche never happened. It's been more than a month now with nothing but excuses.
Is there a standard way to revoke a SAFE that is signed but never paid? <comment><USER2> IANAL, but a SAFE is just a contract, isn't it? And if a party to a contract doesn't fulfill their side, then the contract isn't enforceable.

Odds are there is nothing that needs revoking. That being said, I have no idea what your contract says, so it is always wise to ask a lawyer, not us folk on the internet who aren't.

<comment><USER3> My reading may be off but it sounds like the investor may have made the first payment of many. If so, might not be so cut and dry.

<comment><USER2> True, but if the investor stopped fulfilling their side of contract, they cannot enforce anything beyond what was spelled out for the first payment. And a SAFE is, to my understanding, rights given to the investor for future funding rounds. So if there was no additional consideration needed to get that first payment... it really might be that cut and dry.

But again, it depends on what the contract actually says, so... they should still ask a lawyer.

Keep in mind that contracts, in general, aren't enforceable on their own to begin with. They are documentation of agreements that could be used to help decide conflicts in civil court, to get a court order that is enforceable. And they therefore often end up being leverage so conflicts don't go that far. So the only way OP has to fret over this is if they expect the investor may some day sue them for the investment rights, even after they stopped giving them investments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The standard way would be to contact a contract lawyer or legal help in general. There are lawyers on HN, but your accelerator should also have contacts.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not sure what you're expecting to accomplish now?

When you have a priced round, either their SAFE is valid and they convert, or it's not and they don't, and they sue you if they don't agree with your interpretation of the contract...

But until that day, what're you hoping to accomplish now?</comment>


F8 2017 App Open Source - <AUTHOR> http://makeitopen.com/blog/2017/12/04/blog-post-f82017-open-source.html <comment><USER2> Direct link to the repo: [https://github.com/fbsamples/f8app/](https://github.com/fbsamples/f8app/)</comment>


Innovation Really Matters – Lessons Learned from Detroit - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2013/02/22/innovation-really-matters-lessons-learned-from-detroit/

<comment><USER2> Chicago used to sit between two important places: The mide-west and the great lakes shipping channels (to NY and the Atlantic). The advent of the Interstate freeway system in the 1950's strategically weakend chicago's leverage over the economic resources of the Midwest. They were no longer a funnel point / choke point. Ironically, this is what provided leverage to Detroit (building the moto-cars, to take advantage...etc). Its amazing that in 20 years, the '50's heyday (57 chevy, etc) to the '70s (AMC pacer) _any_ industry could so lose the plot (er, quality). There is <innovation>, and then there is just not giving a fuck.</comment>


How Amazon Controls Ecommerce (Slides) - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/11/how-amazon-controls-ecommerce-slides/

<comment><USER2> 72 slides? I gave up after slide 40 something I think. Too long, doesn't have anything interesting really</comment>


VR on the Web with Mozilla's A-Frame - <AUTHOR> https://aframe.io/#cool <comment><USER2> I don't really understand how you'd build with this with any level of ease. Seems like there's still a big gap in the developer toolset. Interesting to see where it goes however..

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As someone looking to break into VR from a background in web development, I found this to be really inspirational. Bridging the gap is a big win</comment>


The Pac-Man Dossier – Meet the Ghosts (2009) - <AUTHOR> http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html#Chapter_4

<comment><USER2> [http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669924/steve-jobs-almost- named-...](http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669924/steve-jobs-almost-named-the- imac-the-macman-until-this-guy-stopped-him)

[http://tkc8800.com/Images/Mac_128k/disks/Img/MacMan.png](http://tkc8800.com/Images/Mac_128k/disks/Img/MacMan.png)

<comment><USER3> Why does that fastcodesign site request JS access to my geolocation?!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I remember using this site for developing a game for the little printer :).

[https://github.com/stestagg/printman/blob/master/printman/ga...](https://github.com/stestagg/printman/blob/master/printman/game.py)

</comment><comment><USER5> I would like to point out that this link takes you to what is only the last _quarter_ of this massive site dedicated to Pac-Man. Wow.</comment>


Magical Warfare Technologies and the Persistence of False Beliefs [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://raulsanchezdelasierra.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/nunn_sanchez-de-la-sierra_aerpp_2017.pdf <comment><USER2> Similar phenomenon was found with native tribes hunting caribou in some islands (Newfoundland I think).

Caribou herds are divided between different valleys with little movement between them. Before hunting starts, nomadic hunters asked spirits to select the valley where they travel to hunt as a group. They did it using method that is essentially throwing a dice.

If the hunters had choosen the nearest and easiest valley every time, they would have hunted caribous into extinction valley by valley. By randomly alternating the hunting pattern and moving longer distances they allowed caribou populations to recover.

<comment><USER3> Fascinating.

One of the interesting open questions in human history is the prevalence of extirpation due to human hunting pressure. I think the theories range from a "blitzkrieg" of human impact as sapiens hit the cultural milestones of the paleolithic revolution to gradually mounting impact starting in pre-sapien times or even having started relatively recently (with prehistorical extirpations attributed to other factors).

I bet type of dynamics you're talking about go back a long time. Humans are very culturally driven. What & how people hunt or eat is all very culturally driven. Hunting cultures still exist today. There are still living traditions of hunter gatherer cultures. There are people who fish. There are brits on horses. All of them have cultural norms that seem counterintuitively random. For example, fish considered edible by fisherman are almost always a much smaller subset than blind palatability test would estimate. When I visited the states (florida) I caught some "mudfish" which I looked up online, then ate (tastes good). The locals told me "we don't eat them, but some black people do." This is not unusual. The English eat different fish than the French. It's true of gamebirds and it's true in traditional cultures too.

...Anyway, hunting practices can have big effects on local ecology. It seems likely that cultures with beneficial rites, spread or spread those rites.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is deeply fascinating.

      We provide theory and case-study evidence showing how incorrect
      beliefs persist.

      Although harmful at the individual-level, we show that they
      generate Pareto efficient outcomes that have group-level benefits.

Pretty much my view on religious practices in the West.

Many beliefs are almost certainly untrue, yet there are big benefits for group members.

Those of us on the outside with our evidence and falsifiable hypotheses are left with envy.

<comment><USER5> If you enjoy this sort of thing, you might try Marvin Harris' book _Cannibals and Kings_. It's pretty old now - I read it in 1990 - but it's full of thought-provoking illustrations of how apparently bizarre superstitions and practices can actually be adaptive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder how much of this is related to the whole "beards make better soldiers" thing. Something like combat effectiveness strikes me as extremely difficult to understand and incredibly dependent on people's particular psychology, as well as group Dynamics, so much so that "magic" (a.k.a. placebo effect) is as good an explanation as we are going to get for a while.

[http://www.tactical-life.com/firearms/study-shows-combat- eff...](http://www.tactical-life.com/firearms/study-shows-combat- effectiveness-and-beards-are-related/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Magic is for real - if you don't believe it, we need to meet :)

</comment><comment><USER8> This paper leaves me feeling uncomfortable. There are so many problems with it on so many levels and, yet, I think it is fascinating in the sense that it is applying a well known concept to a novel context.

Personally, I have a hard time seeing how this "bulletproofing" technique could possibly be true. However, I find it incredibly disrespectful and lacking in basic scientific integrity to go into a paper with the assumption that it is a false belief and then making no attempt to justify why it is a false belief other than "duh...because they are superstitious barbarians". Whether the belief is false or not seems to be totally irrelevant in trying to show that the authors' conclusions are valid. Clearly, the members of the village believed that it was true. Because of their belief in the effectiveness of the "treatment" the results were x, y, and z.

As an aside, it seems weird to start with the premise that the belief is inherently false when the village was able to protect and free itself. You could very well make a claim that the "treatment" was effective from a scientific perspective; it would require replication in order to be validated. Why should I automatically assume it is invalid? That strikes me as the opposite of scientific enquiry.

The cultural hubris contained in this paper overshadows the conclusion. This sounds more like a piece of literature from an "enlightened" European priest visiting a wayward tribe of "barbarians" during the 19th century colonization of Africa than a modern, scientifically-rigorous scholarly article.

<comment><USER9> In the spirit of cultural relativism, here's a parallel anecdote about (incorrect?) superstition from our own treasure box:

 __*

A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on.

Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: "You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong."

Knight turned the machine off and on.

The machine worked.

<comment><USER10> I used to be a computer technician. Sometimes I arrived at a customer's office and the perplexed person couldn't explain why his computer suddenly started working. I developed a theory I called the "Tech Threat Syndrome", which posed that computers occasionally hid their problem whenever a technician appeared, so as to embarrass their user.

<comment><USER11> My theory around this is rather mundane: People behave more in the way they were taught when an authority is around. That makes a lot of computer problems go away when a techie shows up because people avoid taking shortcuts when they're being watched.

In my view this is sufficient to explain the phenomenon.

<comment><USER12> It may also simply be that they're slowing down and actually waiting to respond to problems instead of trying to get things to work as fast or easily as possible.

Traffic manages to flow quite smoothly at the speed limit when a police officer is just standing around somewhere... (but there's usually a major bottleneck right upstream of that observation point as everyone panics and straightens up their focus).

Similarly, it is amazing how disruptive something worthy of gawking at can be. A curve in the road, a car safely on the shoulder, flashing lights that scream "PAY ATTENTION TO ME": all of those things seem to result in gawker-block.

Self driving cars really can't save us quickly enough.

<comment><USER13> Your police car example is pretty ignorant of the negative upstream affects of the police car. You may as well say traffic is no longer in a traffic jamb once you're past the point of the jamb.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Are Your Donations to EFF Triggering Bank Fraud Protection Measures? - <AUTHOR>

HSBC (UK) has erroneously blocked my monthly donations to the EFF on the basis of "fraud protection" for 2 consecutive months now and I'm wondering whether this is a more widespread issue.<p>Also, is there any good reason why the EFF would be triggering this type of transaction block with banks? <comment><USER2> Donations to charity in general often cause credit cards to be blocked -- my wife and I do this thing[1] where we give large amounts to multiple charities on the same day each year, and last year it took a couple days to get all the charges to be successful and cards unblocked.

I think the idea is that credit card thieves use charitable donations to figure out whether they have a valid card, so they're considered especially suspicious[2].

[1]: [http://blog.printf.net/articles/2012/11/27/celebrating- seven...](http://blog.printf.net/articles/2012/11/27/celebrating-seven-years- with-seven-percent/)

[2]: [http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/070607-credit-card- thi...](http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/070607-credit-card-thieves.html)

<comment><USER3> This is true. I've had donations to Heifer delayed by credit cards before. I've heard is is pretty common.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In case you didn't know, the EFF takes bitcoin donations now.

<comment><USER5> and depending on your route in bitcoin may cause just as much scrutiny on your financial endpoints.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> i haven't had problems, but do it annually (i can't remember how, but i would guess it's credit card). i am in chile.</comment>


Eben Norton Horsford, baking-powder revolutionary and passionate medievalist - <AUTHOR> http://www.quidplura.com/?p=10474 <comment><USER2> There are a few old books available on Google books about baking-powder and leavening agents. I found it facinating to learn that this is relatively new technology. [0]

Also, that there were (early 20th century) huge industry wars and cartels over baking powder [1], a strange story. (I couldn't read all 2000+ pages of this though)

Another interesting side effect of researching this topic is running into bread made with combining an unleavened dough with carbonic acid inside a vacuum to "insta-rise" the bread. (can't find the reference now, buried in one of those really old books) The claims were it was "healthier".

Last semi-related topic, cereal Grapenuts from Post, was originally sold as a health food, not a breakfast cereal. [2] (worked with a guy that spent years at Post) It's made from huge loaves of bread turned into those little dried crumbs.

Cream of tartar is a dry acid scraped from the barrels from wine making.[3] Makes you wonder who tried this stuff first.

[0] Leavening Agents (1914)

[https://books.google.com/books?id=1jQNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=fron...](https://books.google.com/books?id=1jQNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover)

[1] The Baking Powder Controversy (1907, over 2000 pages long...)

[https://books.google.com/books?id=fIbZAAAAMAAJ&printsec=fron...](https://books.google.com/books?id=fIbZAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape- Nuts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape-Nuts)

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

<comment><USER3> Sometimes you just have to appreciate that we live in a world where someone can make a 2000-page book on baking powder wars in the 1900s.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thanks, that was a fascinating read.</comment>


Working with Creately—happy diagramming - <AUTHOR> http://www.profhacker.com/2009/11/19/working-with-createlyhappy-diagramming/ <comment><USER2> Bummer that Creately needs all the personal info before letting me try it.

<comment><USER3> All the information Creately asks for is the minimum to operate your account. Creately asks for your email address to create a login, a password so you can be authenticated. Then asks for your name (first and last) so you can be addressed correctly - just being polite. Then you have to agree to the terms of service.

All pretty regular stuff really. I know though that there is a try before you register feature coming! Keep your eyes peeled.</comment></comment>


The Man Who Would Tame Cancer - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/32/space/the-man-who-would-tame-cancer <comment><USER2> I do development work for one of his companies. Great products for hospitals. Lots of data in realtime! That goes hand in hand with his philosphies presented here. He definitely thinks outside the box. Some monitors only collect some info. His monitors collect everything. All data is processed in near realtime to provide custom treatments to patients, not just cancer patients. Every treatment can be specialized to deal with each person's symptoms and conditions. Truly forward thinking stuff.

</comment><comment><USER3> The best approach to cancer therapy is to focus on the commonalities shared by all cancer. At the moment that means lengthening of telomeres. Every cancer does it. If you can suppress telomerase and ALT (alternative lengthening of telomeres), or if you can reliably identify the biochemistry of cells abusing telomerase and ALT, then you can kill any cancer.

E.g. a universal cancer vaccine based on this approach: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471666/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471666/)

E.g. disable part of the mechanism by which telomerase lengthens telomeres: [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/cndi- csa05111...](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/cndi- csa051115.php)

People such as the SENS folk have been advocating this approach for more than a decade, but the research community is slow in adopting it. The vast majority of cancer research continues to be a matter of doing very expensive things that only work for one tiny subtype of cancer. If we're doing expensive things, then they should be efficient expensive things.

<comment><USER4> >"The best approach to cancer therapy is to focus on the commonalities shared by all cancer. At the moment that means lengthening of telomeres."

Do you have a source for this? Has someone actually measured telomere elongation in a bunch of different tumor biopsies and reported detection in >90%?

<comment><USER5> I think that's backward. Its _shortened_ teleomeres that are linked to cell malfunction? Elongation is the supposed cure. Or is there a syndrome where cancerous cells keep lengthening theirs?

Ah I see the article mentions this. But years ago it was understood that cancerous cells originally happened because of damage from short teleomeres? That end-of-life cells would divide badly and malfunction, sometimes by reproducing endlessly.

So its a matter of timing? Young people want to keep their teleomeres long; but if you _get_ cancerous cells then you want to clip them all. Sadly, that means end-of-life for the rest of your body. But no more cancer.

<comment><USER6> The simple notion is that you want long telomeres to resist aging. Cancer cells "want" long telomeres to maintain their "cellular immortality", their ability to divide indefinitely. From Wikipedia:

"Telomeres are critical for maintaining genomic integrity and studies show that telomere dysfunction or shortening is commonly acquired during the process of tumor development. Short telomeres can lead to genomic instability, chromosome loss and the formation of non-reciprocal translocations; and telomeres in tumor cells and their precursor lesions are significantly shorter than surrounding normal tissue."[0]

"Cancer cells require a mechanism to maintain their telomeric DNA in order to continue dividing indefinitely (immortalization). A mechanism for telomere elongation or maintenance is one of the key steps in cellular immortalization and can be used as a diagnostic marker in the clinic. Telomerase, the enzyme complex responsible for elongating telomeres through the addition of telomere repeats to the ends of chromosomes, is activated in approximately 80% of tumors."[0]

It's not as simple as long vs short.

0\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomere#Cancer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomere#Cancer)

<comment><USER4> Interesting. Wikipedia makes that 80% claim, citing:

Aschacher; Wolf; Enzmann; Kienzl (2015). "ALINE-1 induces hTERT and ensures telomere maintenance in tumour cell lines". Oncogene. doi:10.1038/onc.2015.65.

Aschacher et al write: "In about 80% of tumour cells, telomere maintenance is controlled by telomerase (TA), a reverse transcriptase, which adds DNA repeats onto chromosomal ends."12, 22, 23, 24, 25

I checked all five references and none had anything about this 80% of tumors number. It appears to be made up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> >something called transcription, which involves 200,000 rRNA (ribosomal DNA) molecules. Then this rDNA is involved in making 10 million proteins through 10,000 different pathways.

I'm curious how this elementary error crept in here (he means mRNA, not rRNA, and rDNA is not a thing). Poor editing? A gap in the education of the good doctor?

</comment><comment><USER8> Quote: "... an ambitious program aiming to replace a long history of blunt trial-and-error treatment with what amounts to a training regiment [sic] for the body's own immune system."

Please -- it's _regimen_ , not _regiment_. One is a course of medical treatment, the other is a military unit.

I'm beginning to see this coinage more often, alongside the ever-popular _reign_ where the writer means _rein_ , as in _reign_ (what a monarch does to a kingdom) instead of _rein_ (what a cowboy does to a horse).

What happened to editing? While we're on the subject, what happened to literacy? I expect to walk into a bookstore and see a poster: "Buy 'The Tragedy of Illiteracy', now available as an audiobook."</comment>


Vuefire-quickstart: rapid web app development with Vue.js and Firebase - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sejr/vuefire-quickstart <comment><AUTHOR> Dev here. This was just a very simple project to help me get started with Vue.js, and it seems to have helped a few others make their first foray into Vue and/or Firebase as well. Please feel more than welcome to submit PR's or open issues; I am hardly following any best practices in this repo, and I'd value the insight from more experienced Vue developers. Thanks!</comment>