Tim Cook wants 'well-crafted' privacy regulations after latest Facebook scandal - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/24/17159610/apple-ceo-tim-cook-wants-privacy-regulation-facebook-cambridge-analytica <comment><USER2> > Cook making these statements in China might raise some eyebrows, as Apple > recently handed over control of Chinese iCloud accounts to China-based data > servers to comply with local law. The company's iPhones continue to offer > strong encryption in China, but the concern is that iCloud backups could be > more susceptible to government snooping.

Is there a viable alternative? I don't mean this rhetorically — I'm actually curious. If Apple didn't comply, they wouldn't be allowed to sell their products in China. And even if Apple pulled out of China, there are enough competitors that the gap would be filled by another company that _is_ willing to comply with the government's request. The citizens simply aren't able to (legally) obtain products that guarantee them privacy from the government.

Plus, as far as I know, Chinese citizens are aware of these sorts of requirements that the government puts on their data. So if the citizens _know_ that Apple has complied with these requests — and if any other company would also have to comply anyway — then are they really any worse off? Apple isn't going to be able to convince the Chinese government to suddenly acknowledge that true privacy is worthwhile.

Disclaimer: I am not super knowledgeable about the issue at hand. These are just my thoughts based on what little I do know. I'd be happy to learn additional info/alternative viewpoints!

<comment><USER3> That's not really a good reason to cooperate.

One thing that's also concerning about the situation is now Apple really depends on China for growth so who knows what kind of additional things they can wring out of Apple if they wanted to. If they decide they want data about Chinese expats for example is Apple willing to lose access to the market that's 30% of it's sales to protect them?

<comment><USER4> Unfortunately its the law of the land there, so yes -- it is enough to comply. There's an argument of not participating to make a statement like Google tried, but in the end China is more than happy to replace any western company with a home-grown alternative (which is going to have far deeper roots to the Chinese government). So long as Apple is not beholden to those laws elsewhere, I think it's probably a net good that they are present in that country than not.

Second, much of Apple's strength comes from its supply and manufacturing advantage which -- depends on China not just as a customer marketplace but that it's the only place with the skills to turn on a dime and produce the products at scale.

Third, look at VTI - Vanguard Total Stock market index. Apple is 2.83% of the entire damn thing. Microsoft next at 2.5% followed by Google, Amazon, and FB. Probably a big deal, particularly for Apple given they're the one actually building physical objects in China, to suddenly be the political football between two nations. It's probably hard enough, and maybe at some point better automation will bring manufacturing back to the US but it's also very likely China will be better in that regard for some time.

Things are more complicated than "just don't cooperate", as much as I philosophically would cheer on such behavior I don't think in the net it would end up good.

Additionally, even for Chinese consumers iPhones are likely the most secure by a lot (though intercepted cloud services are a big unknown now) -- so I'd rather they have access to the devices.

Maybe some of them pay attention to where Apple stands on things, and over the long run Chinese citizens might push local laws in a more liberal direction (though not an easy thing to do, obviously) but it's not going to happen if western companies don't participate at all.

Or, consider users all over the world. How good is it for everyone's privacy if iPhones now start at $1500 because they can't be built in China anymore. Probably would mean a lot less people on secure iPhones vs. less supported/out of date Android phones.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well no surprises there.

First, of course all the big co. are saying yes now even Zuckerberg now pretends he "isn't opposed to the idea", the growing outcry is getting too big to push away and if they say no they won't be invited to the table where the deal is made, so if you can't stop it at least make sure it's kept under control.

Second, Apple the company faces major competition from companies who will directly be hurt by this, while they won't be too much. I'm not talking about the cost to adhere to the regulation, but the ability to sell a product that has just been truncated. So I fully expect the CEO of Apple to push for it, because he really wouldn't be doing his job otherwise.

Third, of course, Tim Cook is probably as a human being for it too, although I'm not sure if that matters too much for when he speaks as the Apple's CEO.

I really don't think we need to talk about all the big corp and CEO who will one after another say "oh yeah I'm totally for it", "this is a good idea, we can find a solution together", ... Let's keep focused and make sure the end result is fitting. They all saw what happened here in the EU and I doubt they want to see that spread to such an extent to the US.

<comment><USER6> There is a reason why Apple is less exposed to such regulation now: they decided, a while back, not to make targeted ads and private data a core component of their business.

Part of what them allowed to make that call was obviously their strength in hardware. But I think there are some actions by Apple that go beyond the level required for a superficial PR campaign.

They popularized[0] differential privacy, allowing machine learning to learn from properly anonymised data. The concept is pretty complicated, making me doubt that a PR agency would consider it a good vehicle for improving the brand's image.

Their refusal to budge to the FBI and about half of the political establishment in the case of the San Bernadino shooter's iPhone was also rather gutsy: opposing law enforcement in their investigation of an actual islamic terrorist is at least a high-stakes gamble, if not outright stupid for marketing purposes. Even if you think the left will glorify you, you really really don't want to wade into culture wars territory and risk losing half your potential customers, at least not at Apple's scale.

There are quite a few other areas where Apple has been rather proactive in doing the right thing. They have always supported LGBTQ rights, possibly starting from their original rainbow coloured bitten apple being a reference to the injustice committed against Alan Turing[0]. They have invested in areas such as labor conditions, diversity, and environmental protection, often before the specific issues came under scrutiny from outside groups. Their recently announced initiative for fairly sourced coltan, for example, was the first I had ever heard of the element.

[0]: Edit: changed from "invented" to "popularised". Thx to grzm for correcting me below (he's right, I was wrong, and I have no idea why they are being downvoted)

[1]: Not 100% sure if truth of myth. Correct me if I'm wrong.

<comment><USER7> I don't believe Apple invented differential privacy, though they have applied it and helped popularize the term.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Comes from a guy bending over for communist regimes to protect the revenue. I have 0 respect for people who sell their core principles for money.

<comment><USER9> Good point. I'm an Apple fan in some ways, but all the 'good' stuff kind of rings hollow in light of what you pointed out.

Can anyone give me a reason to understand why Apple would do this that isn't just about the 'bottom-line'?

<comment><USER10> Apple is providing some end-to-end encrypted tools to people in China. If they pulled out completely, people would no longer have those.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So the GDPR then...</comment>


Show HN: Strio – Cloud-native deployment made easy - <AUTHOR> https://www.strio.co/ <comment><USER2> If the marketing pitch is "made easy" it might be better supported by marketing emphasizing simple steps. The existing landing page seems to focus on a large scope of functions and the "request demo" is consistent with high touch sales of a complex product.

To put it another way, the landing page is more consistent with "a complete solution" than "easy." Good luck.</comment>


Ask HN: AB5 plan for software engineer contractors - <AUTHOR> AB5 will be here in California in 2020. Exemptions for engineers are those who are licensed engineers, such as civil engineers. Does not apply to software engineers.
What are software engineer contractors going to do?
Is 1099 not going work anymore as a method?
What if I do a project not in my clients principal business? Example: what if I work on intranet software projects while the company's primary business is selling widgets?
If I setup an LLC or S Corp and pay myself as an employee, is this a valid approach to remain independent?
I'm seeing news stories about people like 1099 freelance writers, etc. being told they won't be used or have to be converted to employees.
What about all the 3rd party W2 tech staff firms that supply contractors as middle man to many companies?
Any fellow CA folks have their approach nailed down or even known a good lawyer that has this worked out for software consultants? <comment><USER2> I'm in the same boat - frantically searching for answers on this matter. In fact I'm in the process of uprooting my family in CO, to move to CA. I have always worked W2, but am starting a business doing independent contracting as a software developer and was hoping to create and grow this business in CA. I'm in also in the process of setting up an S Corp in CA, but from what I've read this doesn't change the fact that I will need to be considered an IC under AB5. I'm trying to figure out if this new law throws a wrench in all of my plans or makes it harder for me to find work. I'll reply to this post if I talk to a lawyer in the next week or two.

I'm also curious if this just applies to companies based in CA that are hiring software devs as IC's or if it also affects software developers that are working as IC's with companies outside of CA.

<comment><AUTHOR> Still trying to understand this fully myself, but this is one helpful resource:

[https://insight.ieeeusa.org/articles/california-bill- ab-5-th...](https://insight.ieeeusa.org/articles/california-bill- ab-5-threatens-consultants/)</comment></comment>


Scale Testing OpenStack Messaging: RabbitMQ V. ZeroMQ - <AUTHOR> https://javacruft.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/extreme-openstack-scale-testing-openstack-messaging/

<comment><USER2> Great post! I heard other large companies are using qpid for their message broker. Have you tried qpid?

<comment><USER3> Not yet; currently the OpenStack Charms support RabbitMQ, and we have branches in testing for ZeroMQ support.

Qpid is not on our product roadmap, but if someone who knows it well wanted to charm it up, then adding supporting into the OpenStack charms would be fairly trivial.

<comment><USER4> Do your ZeroMQ test branches fix that (pathological) design of opening a new TCP connection for each message?

An alternative to making a fully distributed ZeroMQ topology would be to use the broker based design that the RabbitMQ driver uses, and run the Malamute broker (github.com/malamute/malamute-core).

<comment><USER3> The latest oslo.messaging driver does not have connection pooling (yet) but I know that's being worked on - so hopefully the release alongside OpenStack Kilo will have this improvement.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


E/O: Suspending Entry of Aliens Presenting a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market - <AUTHOR> https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspending-entry-aliens-present-risk-u-s-labor-market-following-coronavirus-outbreak/ <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23585596](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23585596)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23605557](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23605557)

The second thread is still active, so we've moved comments hence thither.</comment>


Microsoft To Launch New Online PC Game Store November 15 - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/22/microsoft-to-launch-new-online-pc-game-store-november-15/ <comment><USER2> I hope this doesn't have anything to do with that Second Life purchase we all heard about.</comment>


Microsoft Paint Preview [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6TfhWY6WoI <comment><USER2> What will happen to 'Jim'll Paint It' once the new version arrives? [http://jimllpaintit.tumblr.com/](http://jimllpaintit.tumblr.com/)

<comment><USER3> He doesn't even seem to use the fancy new brushes from the current version.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Few more videos - [https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/784537365436100609](https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/784537365436100609) and some background [http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/7/13207612/microsoft- paint-w...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/7/13207612/microsoft-paint- windows-10-app)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the additional links. My first thought was, "is today April 1st?", but this appears to be real.

This is good work. I like this new Microsoft.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This probably will have something to do with hololens. The whole ui will translate nicely over to hololens.

</comment><comment><USER7> The freehand 3d tool looks a lot like "Teddy 3d" [0], a neat 3d drawing app that's based on some techniques presented at SIGGRAPH in 1999 [1].

This is a really interesting technique and could have a lot of fun uses.

[0] [http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm](http://www- ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm) [1] [http://www- ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/papers/siggraph99.pd...](http://www- ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/papers/siggraph99.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER8> I hope the startup time doesn't increase. Paint has been really great (and very fast) whenever you just need to cut & paste screenshots together like I did here:

[https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/75921/19019883/3a...](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/75921/19019883/3ad6cb66-88c9-11e6-9592-46a8e4fc5e6b.PNG)

</comment><comment><USER9> I haven't been using Windows significantly in some time. Is Paint.NET still around? It is what I would point a user to, if they aren't going to e.g. need/pay for Adobe or the like.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is just a great reminder that OS X doesn't come with any sort of image tool at all. Unless you consider "Preview" an image tool because it allows crop and resize. Come on Apple, throw us a bone.

</comment><comment><USER11> Of course it's tightly integrated with your Microsoft account! I wonder if you'll even be able to use it without one?

It's probably a UWP app too. Yuck! I hate what Windows is turning into.

</comment><comment><USER12> How have MS Paint, Notepad and the Command Prompt not been updated for 20 years? I can only assume they are some kind of running joke at Microsoft.

<comment><USER7> I'm pretty sure that Paint has seen some improvements in the past 20 years. At least it supports .png's and other image formats. I rarely use Windows, but when I need to upload screenshots, I use print screen and paste to Paint for saving to a file.

Don't fix it if it ain't broken, I guess. They did actually update the Windows Calculator in Win10 and completely broke it. It's only got a handful of features it used to and seems to use floating point arithmetic so you don't always get correct results. It looks pretty and consistent with Win10 apps, perhaps it's more important than actually calculating.

<comment><USER3> Trying out Raymond's suggestion[½] to test arithmetic precision (1 / 3 * 10000000000 - 3333333333 =. The result is one third exactly. Type 1/x - 3 = and you get zero back) yields the exact result with calc on Windows 10. It's definitely not standard floating-point.

[½] from here: [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040525-00/?p=...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040525-00/?p=39193)

<comment><USER7> Must have been something else but I recall a big fuss over incorrect results from calc.exe when Win10 came out.

It's still inferior to the old calculator even if it has been fixed to give correct results.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Gitea 1.7.0 is released - <AUTHOR> https://blog.gitea.io/2019/01/gitea-1.7.0-is-released/ <comment><USER2> Originally I was very sceptical because of the Gogs vs Gitea thing going on, but seeing the new features that Gitea is pushing out compared to Gogs... nowadays I am leaning towards Gitea. Great job, keep up the great work!

</comment><comment><USER3> Great work. Looking forward to more integrations like GitLab, but overall I like that it is much easier for me to program on than GitLab.

</comment><comment><USER4> awesome software, I use it to self-hosting everything these days.

</comment><comment><USER5> very easy to use, thank you gitea developers!</comment>


Lunch with the FT: Bill Gross – "We were looking for every penny we could get" - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/9ddffbc6-3e96-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece <comment><AUTHOR> This might be behind a paywall for some. If so, google the title. Useful insights.</comment>


Results From A Facebook Ad Test - <AUTHOR> http://www.centernetworks.com/entrecard-advertising-campaign

<comment><USER2> We ran some Facebook ads and had decent success with them. It ended up costing us about $22 per $150 avg sale, which is at the high end of acceptability (but not terribly different from google).

We found that:

* Ads with pictures of people have the highest CTR

* The ability to target our specific audience is great

* Response diminishes after the ad has been around awhile

We suspended our ads after the CTR dropped from exposure, but we plan to repeat every couple of months or so.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think almost everyone figured out that facebook ads suck, due to the Visa promotion. If you give people free money to try out ads, you should at least make sure that they'd see results

</comment><comment><USER4> I had similar results (zero sales) from a recent ad test run with StumbleUpon. Converting sales is hard, especially when your audience is in random browsing mode (ie: not shopping mode).

<comment><USER5> Ditto...can we see your landing page?</comment></comment>


Pure CSS 3D Polyhedrons - <AUTHOR> http://codepen.io/collection/eErLu/

<comment><AUTHOR> Incredible works using only CSS!</comment>


Ask HN:  What Would It Take To Startup A Telecom Company? - <AUTHOR>

The obvious answer is money.  But I'm interested in the not-so-obvious.  Thoughts? <comment><USER2> I've been considering an ISP co-op recently, and if the economy finally hits me, I will probably give it a start. There's a lot of core pieces that are going to cost the absolute most. Telecommunications is heavily regulated and there is lots of patents/IP to make sure not to step on. So first, you need a crack lawyer on hand so the first part gets out the gate properly. Second, you need infrastructure.

This comes in three forms.

1\. Wires in the ground, you can bury them yourself at really high cost (this is where current providers have the edge, they were given subsidies in exchange for time-limited monopolies in areas), you can lease them from current LECs/providers (I'm not sure what sort of local fiber infrastructure is leasable, but I know copper's easy to lease at reasonable costs for last mile).

2\. Backbone. You have to provide a connection to the network you're providing access to (telephony/internet). With that, you either need connection to the LATA or peering agreements for internet based traffic. Not cheap.

3\. Infrastructure. To provide reasonable service, you'll need the initial capacity for 3-4 times your customer base. Eventually, you'll be able to get to a point where you're over-subscribed but usage patterns keeps quality good for the consumers.

From my research so far, only $150 million is needed to open doors for business, with $20 million in operating costs per year. You then have ~$4 per customer per month cost with 5% population penetration. The cost per consumer drops pretty rapidly as you gain traction because you make better use of the cables.

The real problem is marketing. Costs are going to be outlandish. And why would a business or consumer choose a new company with a low number of customers? There's a couple of approaches, such as excellent customer service, a carpet bomb/napalm style marketing campaign where everyone and there brother knows you provide the service, and cheaper than the competitors. Then you have the issue of other companies have multiple services they provide, meaning you have to get past the bundle service issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> Telecom Company is too vague a term. For example, I work for a company which sells value added SMS services to mobile operators (eg, our anti spam/fraud product is popular right now). This is a telecom company, as are our customers. What you didn't specify is do you want to start a carrier/operator/ISP or a service company or a hardware manufacturer or...

What it takes really depends on what it is you want to do. In general, though, I think it takes skill/expertise most of all (not that you need it to begin with, but you will need to learn and its tough to pick up because theres so many densely packed RFCs, standards and regulations. For what I do, I'd say I sifted through 10K pages of GSM specs and RFCs..), money is no more important than any other startup, though obviously if you do something that requires resources (hardware?) then you need to be able to pay for this. Selling to operators also seems to be the same as selling expensive enterprise software: looong lead times, development and work to be done before the deal is closed, money after everythings installed and working etc (so you need to have enough funds on hand to be able to get this far). Finally, its tough to break into the telco industry because most companies dont like to take risks and a startup with an unproven product poses risk over the old big well established company.

</comment><comment><USER4> A time machine. The time to start a telecom company for data was 20 years ago. The telecom industry is the most insular, regulated, and has the highest barriers to entry of any tech industry I can think of. The established players are masters at playing the regulatory game in Washington, and have made it nearly impossible to play on a level field with them.

</comment><comment><USER5> A reason. What's the need that isn't being met?

I think the existing industry has a lot of the basics covered - wired and wireless communication in many locations. Improvements in coverage and performance seem mostly incremental and not disruptive enough to make for a successful startup. Maybe the bulk of telecom opportunities are building on top of that infrastructure - but isn't that exactly what the internet boom has been?

<comment><USER2> There is a reason. I'd like a reasonably priced 10Mbit synchronous internet connection at my residence. Heck, 5Mbit synchronous would work fine as well. You can't get it for under $700 a month. I couldn't even find a deal that had cheap monthly rate but metered access (ie, pay by the gigabyte, etc.).

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately I doubt you'd have enough customers to make up for the costs. I mean, I'm sure there are areas where you'll do exceptionally well, but it won't work everywhere.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A Telecom startup is a contradiction. A Telecom company, is large practically by definition.

If you wanted to somehow disrupt their business model with VoIP or something, that's one thing, but I don't know if it's productive to think about directly competing with huge multinationals without using a fundamentally improved or more efficient approach.

</comment><comment><USER7> One way to try to enter the market could be leasing lines as an MVNO, however history has shown that this approach is extremely difficult (read: amp'd mobile, disney mobile usa, espn mobile).

</comment><comment><USER8> Skype?</comment>


The Expletive project: trolling while ending digital piracy. Yes, really. - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpletiveProject/

<comment><USER2> Try having content before making announcements - you only get one shot at making a first impression.</comment>


Medium is bullying the curators it courted - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1105311939066884096 <comment><USER2> I totally disagree with this framing. So here's the sequence of events:

1) I publish an article on Medium

2) Hacker Noon requests that my article be included in their 'publication' on Medium. There is an understanding via Medium about what this means (ie. that I own my article and can post it to other publications as well.) I accept Hacker Noon's request. I benefit because Hacker Noon puts my article in front of more eyeballs.

3) Hacker Noon decides they want to leave Medium. They send an email to contributors asking them to sign a new terms of service.

4) Medium emails the contributors and says: Let us clear up some confusion; Hacker Noon has no rights to your content unless you grant it to them.

Why is Medium the bad guy here?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think I agree with you on the facts, though the optics look bad and it seems to have taken on a life of it's own on Twitter.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Payment Gateway for Web Application (2checkout or Alertpay) - <AUTHOR>

Guys,
I'm in the final stages of building out a web application I've been working on. Now it's just down to implementing the payment system.
Being based in Trinidad and Tobago (in the Caribbean) and from the research I've done, 2checkout.com and Alertpay.com seems like to only 2 viable options.
I know some of you have used both of these systems in your apps. Can anyone give me any feedback as to which one I should go with? Any good/bad experiences I should know about?
For those of you who made purchases with either of these, what was your experiences with the checkout process?
If you know of another alternative I can use feel free to let me know. Google Checkout, Paypal etc are out of the question since they don't allow withdrawals to Trinidad.
Thanks. <comment><USER2> I used to work in the building next to the 2checkout guys and I've attended a couple of Perl user groups at their offices. I also know a few people whom work there and they are all good guys.

In short I'm biased - but I will tell you that over at 2checkout their customer support is very nice, and they are all very helpful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback</comment></comment>


How your computer keyboard is five times dirtier than your toilet seat - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=563110&in_page_id=1766

<comment><USER2> It's a cute headline, but the toilet seat is a weird, but common, target for cleanliness comparisons. The Daily Mail have done this before by stating the average kitchen worktop is no cleaner than a toilet seat:

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.htm...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=454841&in_page_id=1770)

The fact is, toilet seats are cleaned regularly (at least every few weeks even in the most shoddy of households, I'd hope - but usually at least once a week) whereas keyboards are not. Most people's buttocks don't harbor germs either. It's not as if people defecate on the seat or rub their anus directly on it, whereas sweaty, dirty fingers can infect a keyboard in no time.

The toilet seat, therefore, is a weird comparison. At least compare the keyboard to a bath sponge, a washing up cloth, or something similar that's almost certainly going to harbor germs.

</comment><comment><USER3> The reason why keyboards are dirty is because they are difficult and time consuming to clean properly. All of those little cracks are hard to reach. And the special ones that are (like the silicone keyboards) are a pain to use.</comment>


How to Hedge a Coronavirus - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-hedge-a-coronavirus-11583321400 <comment><USER2> Anyone access to article without paywall?</comment>


Apple's App Store Director Sells His Own Fart Apps - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/apple-fart-apps/

<comment><USER2> When I was at WWDC, there was an Apple engineer named Eliza Block. She and her partner gave a really good (best of WWDC) presentation on Designing Scroll View UIs. Her name seemed familiar so I googled it and it turns out she was the author of a very successful iPhone app. Apparently, she probably got recruited or asked to become an iPhone Applications Engineer at Apple. A testament to her software development ability (the googled articles said she was a graduate Philosophy student).

<comment><USER3> Eliza was actually the first App Store success story, inspiring many to follow:

[http://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/01/iphone-app-store- numbers...](http://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/01/iphone-app-store-numbers- reveal-large-revenue-opportunities/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I really could have gone the whole day without seeing a cartoon panda's anus.

<comment><USER5> Thankfully Apple's curated walled garden approach to ensuring quality (keeping out Flash, Python, Java, Ruby, anything "obscene", competitive functionality, etc.) still managed to allow cartoon panda anus farting!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> As an aside: I thought this quote from an Apple spokesperson was interesting, given Microsoft's plan to encourage employees to develop Windows Phone apps "in their spare time" [1]:

 _"Apple's policy allows for employees to have apps on the App Store if they're developed and published prior to their start at Apple."_

[1] [http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/23/microsoft-wants- employees...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/23/microsoft-wants-employees-to- code-windows-phone-7-apps-in-their/)

</comment><comment><USER7> And now they drag him through the mud: [http://valleywag.gawker.com/5615971/apples-freedom-from- porn...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/5615971/apples-freedom-from-porn- enforcer-drawn-to-porn-stars-and-escorts-on-twitter)

the danger of using auto-follow services on twitter.

<comment><USER8> Except they pretty much disproved the auto-follow stuff ...

<comment><USER9> Uh, right. I'm sure he intentionally followed an escort service in Hyderabad. (Or, more likely, a spammy website that claims to be a Hyderabad escort service.) And one in New Delhi.

I might believe it if the escorts were from San Francisco, LA, Vegas. But India? It seems unlikely that he's a frequent visitor to India in a context where he'd want to link escort services in two cities there.

Please. Web savvy fail. Most likely somebody with a 'circle jerk' ring of bogus escort sites spammed twitter accounts and hit this guy's, and he didn't pay attention to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm really struggling to be offended that this guy is making money on a side business selling things that people buy, even if I wouldn't personally buy them and think they are kind of puerile.

<comment><USER11> How about the fact that the same guy institutes policies that ban huge swaths of apps (including anything not written in Objective-C)?

<comment><USER10> Unless there's some kind of assertion here that Python-based fart apps would eat his lunch if only he would allow them, I'm not seeing the problem.

<comment><USER11> I don't know if you're pretending or if you really missed the point, but it isn't that Python would kill his apps. It's that his apps get special protection.

Fart apps are essentially the poster child for "crapware" in the App Store. Anytime someone wants to criticize the App Store, they will probably point to apps like the ones he's making. But while Apple constantly expands its list of unacceptable things (the programming language ban is merely the most ridiculous, not the only the thing on the list), fart apps remain the one genre that seems untouchable. It's a messed up state of affairs.

<comment><USER10> It's a pretty far leap (down right silly, really) from "man sells some silly apps prior to getting job curating App Store at Apple" to "fart apps would be banned if only he weren't giving them special protection!"

There is literally no evidence to support the latter interpretation.

<comment><USER11> No, but it's an example of horribly screwed up priorities either way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> BTW, in case you don't make it the last page - it looks like most of these apps were already in the Apple review process before he got hired.

<comment><USER13> I don't know who that makes look worse, apple for hiring a fart developer or the fart developer for you know making ifart apps.

<comment><USER14> I'm not really sure why developers of fart apps are automatically off limits or embarrassing.

<comment><USER15> Really? Is this the best Apple could do?

<comment><USER16> If Apple blocked fart apps of third-party developers for the sake of... I don't know what, quality or decency, then people would complain Apple are being censors.

Regarding Shoemaker, maybe Apple hired him to direct the App Store because he can run a massive online marketplace, and not because he's a talented or creative app developer.

<comment><USER14> (A little semantic aside: Apple cannot censor. Governments can, companies cannot. If we broaden the definition of censorship to include companies Apple already censors. Their system is a picture perfect example of censorship, you could use it as an example to explain censorship to school kids – but so are newspapers. This all doesn't really matter because the word censorship doesn't have some sort of magic properties. Something can be just as despicable as some activities described by the word censorship even if the usual definition of censorship doesn't include it. Something can also be a perfectly reasonable activity even if the usual definition of censorship does include it.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> As an iPhone developer, I don't want to compete with a developer that also happens to oversee the entire App Store approval process.

<comment><USER11> You already do. It's called Apple. If they want, they can just ban your app and make their own version. You just have to trust that they won't.

<comment><USER17> Apple gets 30% of all revenue developers generate, so they aren't really competition.

Name one app that has existed on the App Store that Apple banned because they released their own version of it, and charged for it.

I trust that they want me to succeed to they get 30% of a much larger number.

<comment><USER15> The banned an app called facetime, just for the name.

They banned rss viewers for a while.

They have not allowed in alternate browsers.

What difference does it make if they charge for it or not?

<comment><USER18> Erm, there's tons of alternate browsers. There just can't be one with it's own JavaScript parser baked in because of the ban on interpreters, and even then they said you can ask to include one in the latest round of SDK revisions.

<comment><USER15> Is there an alternative browser that does not use WebView, which handles all the html for you?? Apart from Opera of course, which is more an image viewer.

I don't think there is. There is a lot of stuff you can do with UIWebView, which is what all those other apps are doing, like blocking ads, adding tabs, storing stuff offline.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Does a Panda's anus warrant a "Mature 17+" label? Or is that only for animated boobs?

<comment><USER20> I would hesitate to call it "mature".

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> "Still, it comes off as hypocritical that a director of the App Store sells apps that some might call inappropriate, said Ben Kahle, developer of Me So Holy, a satiric religious app that Apple rejected in mid-2009 for containing "objectionable material." Kahle said after he re-submitted the app to the store, an Apple employee called him and said Me So Holy would "never" be approved."

Obvious stuff. Never underestimate the power of well-established special interest groups. There's no powerful interest group against farts so of course it's not considered "objectionable", unlike religion.

</comment><comment><USER5> This story has strangely made me think of the "eat your own dogfood" principle.

</comment><comment><USER22> The title made my day.</comment>


Ask HN: Please review my crazy idea. - <AUTHOR>

So I took one of jacquesm's ideas from his list: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1790564
... as I told him I would do: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1791494
... and build a gadget around the (5) AdProfs idea: http://fcgadgets.blogspot.com/2010/10/ad-spaces-gadget.html
... and honestly, I have no idea what I am getting myself into.
I would love it if some friendly HN folks would chime in and tell me what they would do if they were in my stead. And, if they are knowledgeable about such things, let me know what kinds of pitfalls to avoid here.
Thanks!! <comment><USER2> Clickables:

\+ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1790564>

\+ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1791494>

\+ <http://fcgadgets.blogspot.com/2010/10/ad-spaces-gadget.html></comment>


Ask HN: What new AWS services do you want? - <AUTHOR> Amazon keeps launching new services--they have over 40 now. What additional ones would you like to see? <comment><USER2> * Proxy as a service * Improve DynamoDB to support transparent data encryption and access log on data access * Ditto for Elasticcache * Scheduler as service * Developer portal as service</comment>


The true size of - <AUTHOR> https://s3.amazonaws.com/thetruesize.com/mockup.html

<comment><USER2> Weird URL, but interesting site. Is this the official/canonical URL?

For an easy visual effect, drag your favorite country near the south/north pole.

I think that in this map the size of the country changes, but the shape is fixed. The shape of the country should get deformed while moving it.</comment>


Ask HN: OS X folks – do you use Finder? - <AUTHOR> I've been on OSX since Lion, before that I spent my time on Windows.  Finder is pretty awful compared to Windows Explorer.  Are there any alternatives people use?<p>PS. Please don't say Terminal. I use the CL for development but for browsing & interacting with photos and documents of any substantial quantity I enjoy a UI. <comment><USER2> I'm not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but I didn't learn about Cmd+Down (open file/folder) and Cmd+Up (go to parent dir) in Finder until recently. This has completely changed my productivity in Finder since I can now navigate quickly without the mouse. I used to hate Finder a lot more before I knew this.

<comment><USER3> I've always used Cmd+O for open. Interesting that Down would open.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The _major_ (and really only) criticism of Finder is a lack of an "address" bar. I would really like a bar where I can change directories quickly instead of doing ALL navigation using mouse clicks. Yes, I know you can invoke a Command-Shift-G to do this in a secondary menu, but Explorer has this built in. Having an address bar with tab completion and unix file-system shortcut support (i.e. "~", ".", "..") would be great!

<comment><USER5> This may help. One little-known feature: if you drag a folder to a File Open/Save dialog, it'll navigate to that folder! (This is unlike Windows, where it would move that folder.)

If you have the folder already open in another Finder window, you can drag its icon next to the title in the titlebar (top of window.)

You can also drag a folder (or that icon) to Terminal to grab the path.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I love the Miller columns, the preview column and QuickLook. I hate the lack of an address bar and to be able to jump to a terminal directly. For the second issue I use a shortcut that cds the path of the front-most Finder window using AppleScript. You can have QuickLook in the terminal too by the way:

        # Quicklook given file
        ql () {
        	qlmanage -p $* 2>/dev/null
        }

And one tweak I often use is that I have mapped Ctrl-Shift-t to the "Tags..." menu entry which can be done in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > \+ > Application=Finder, Menu Title=Tags...

You can have something like cd .. in Finder using Cmd-up and cd - is Cmd-[. When you Cmd-click the icon in the window title bar you can see the whole path, which I use a lot too. Finally, I use Cmd-2 and Cmd-3 to switch between column and list view.

<comment><USER7> > I hate the lack of an address bar

I can get by with these:

• Cmd+Shift+G ("Go to Folder")

• "View > Show Path Bar"

<comment><USER8> It would be nice if "/" and "~" opened "Go to Folder", like it does in file dialogs.

<comment><USER7> I'm not saying Apple made the right choice, but it is legal to include "/" and "~" in OS X filenames. This means that pressing "/" or "~" is already reserved for jumping to a file in Finder, just as pressing "a" would take you to the first file beginning with the letter "a"

<comment><USER9> Correction: '~' is legal. '/' is actually ':'.

<comment><USER7> You are correct in a sense, but not in the context of the Finder. In the Finder, you see '/' instead of ":" and therefore "/" is a character that needs to be reserved for selecting files. But in the context of using the command- line, or (some?/most?) programming libraries, you would be correct.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Finder can be tamed if you master its keyboard shortcuts. For example, in a folder of photos, press Cmd+Y to view a single photo. Then use arrow keys to browse photos, Windows-style. Indispensable.

Or, Cmd+Backspace to delete a file.

<comment><USER10> Or just press Space to view the photo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I use Finder constantly. That said, I use an extension called _Default Folder_ (which I've been using since long before Mac OS X) which not only works around many of its shortcomings, but is almost impossible to live without. E.g. if you have a Finder window open in the background, when you are in an file dialog you can focus it on that window by clicking on it in the background, it remembers where you were in a given folder (and which folder you were in for each application), and so forth. It also gives you access to most of Finder's functionality from inside file dialogs (which is something I do miss from Windows).

I don't find Finder "awful" compared to Windows Explorer — quite the reverse in general. But if you're not used to the Mac's keyboard navigation standards (which have remained largely consistent since 1986 or so (i.e. HFS)) you may not realize it. First -- list view is the best view. Second -- the same keystrokes work in list view and in file dialogs.

</comment><comment><USER12> I have a pet peeve. I have setup OSX to show the hidden and dotfiles. So, everywhere I go using finder (say mounted drives), I get that .DS_Store file. Is there a way to avoid seeing that in the list?

<comment><USER13> I'm not aware of a way to prevent just seeing them with hidden file visibility turned on. However, there's several options to disable per-folder .DS_Store file creation: [http://www.chrisnovoa.com/os-x-lion-ds_store- disabling/](http://www.chrisnovoa.com/os-x-lion-ds_store-disabling/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Xtrafinder has been my saving grace, and it's free ([https://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/](https://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/))

\- Cut & paste

\- Hide dotfiles on Desktop

\- Automatically adjust column widths

\- Backspace to go to back

\- Add "go up" to toolbar

\- Add functionality to menus (e.g. new terminal here, new file (with templates), copy path, show hidden items, refresh, launch as root)

\- Dual window

\- Visual tweaks

\- A few other niceties

</comment><comment><USER15> I use Finder and I don't understand what people don't like about it.

SMB is slow for me on Mountain Lion, so Windows file shares are annoying. But that's not Finder's fault.

</comment><comment><USER16> Yes, I use Finder, since Puma. I also put in considerable hours using Windows Explorer. I personally find neither significantly better or worse than the other.

<comment><USER17> Likewise, except I started using finder with Snow Leopard. I use it on 3 macs at home all the time, and at work I use Explorer all day. I also find neither better or worse, they are just different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Here's a nice tool to add more value to the Finder:

[https://github.com/jbtule/cdto/releases](https://github.com/jbtule/cdto/releases)

Add the app to the Finder toolbar then whenever you're in a folder and you want to open a terminal/iterm window in that folder just click the icon.

Also, when you're in a terminal window and you want to open a Finder window in that directory just run the command:

$ open .

Tip: In Mavericks you have to hold command+option to drag an app into the toolbar. I forget the key combo for dragging it to the toolbar in Yosemite, I want to say either just command or no key combo is required.

</comment><comment><USER19> I use TotalFinder. $20, worth every penny. Solved every problem I had with Finder.

<comment><USER20> What TotalFinder offers is probably worth the 20 bucks, but I find my Finder dissatisfaction itch is scratched by Xtrafinder for free.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Combo of Quicksilver + Finder + knowing the keyboard shortcuts works ok for me. Quicksilver partially covers for the lack of address-bar – CMD+Space and type the name of the folder you want to go to. I suppose Spotlight can serve the same purpose, but the killer app for me is moving files. I find the column-browse mode vastly superior to the others. Quicklook helps a lot. Ditto tabs.

For a sort of online alternative to the finder, check out: [http://are.na/](http://are.na/).

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm curious, what is so bad about Finder?

</comment><comment><USER23> Ugh, well, Terminal. iTerm 2, rather.

I barely have need of Finder on a day-to-day basis. When I do use it, it's sufficient for what I need. No major complaints.

I'm a long time Mac user (since 1984) and the paradigms and shortcuts are ingrained. The current Finder uses a lot of them, so for me predictability around selection and navigation via keyboard is there and I've never really found it lacking. Look in Help for "shortcuts," and google for the same. There are a lot of them, and many are supported throughout the OS and most apps.

</comment><comment><USER24> I use path finder, i find it way more powerful and useful than finder. [http://www.cocoatech.com/pathfinder/](http://www.cocoatech.com/pathfinder/)

</comment><comment><USER25> I mostly use spotlight for navigation via keyboard commands. Cmd + space bar gets spotlight and then type what you're looking for. It's not perfect but it's on every mac and it really minimized the need for a mouse.

The only other mod is to show the full path in the finder window title:

      defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
      # then restart finder
      osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to quit'

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm also in the "what's wrong with Finder?" crowd. I find Explorer to be cluttered and harder to use, especially when it comes to drag and drop support.

I did turn on a couple neat dock modes with Mountain Tweaks[1] and installed some quick look plugins for security certs and archive files but that's about it.

[1] [http://tweaksapp.com](http://tweaksapp.com)

<comment><USER27> The biggest problem I have is there is nothing showing your path so no quick way to navigate up a few levels. I've been using OSX for about 5 years now and I still have no idea how to get to the parent dir. There is an option in the GUI to go "back" if you navigated to the folder but if you got there from a shortcut/link how do you get to the parent?

I found in this thread you can use CMD up to go to the parent. Why isn't there anything in the UI? edit: I guess it's File -> Go -> Enclosing folder. Seems like too many steps compared to Windows Explorer which is 1 click.

<comment><USER8> Per other comments in this thread: Cmd-Up will go to parent. (This also is indicated in the menu item that you just pointed out.)

If you don't like using the keyboard:

* Right click on the title bar, choose "Customize Toolbar..." and drag the "Path" option to your toolbar. You'll then have a dropdown button to navigate to the parent and any ancestor of the current folder.

* Alternately, you can choose "Show Path Bar" in the View menu, and it will display your path at the bottom of the window. (You have to double click on an entry to go to it.)

<comment><USER28> * Or right click the little folder icon in the window's title bar. (You can also drag that little icon - for example to a terminal window.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I use Finder and Alfred about equally. If you don't have Alfred, get it ([http://alfredapp.com](http://alfredapp.com)). Just type ~ or / to switch the file mode. It's really useful for just finding a file quickly, when you only need something fast and transient (it closes when you press enter).

</comment><comment><USER29> I like using the keyboard so I forked an awesome console column based file browser and gave it fancy OSX features:

[https://github.com/trishume/macranger](https://github.com/trishume/macranger)

It's not quite ready for other people yet, it requires around 4 different components to work nicely, only 2 of which are public.

</comment><comment><USER30> > _Please don 't say Terminal._

Okay, I'll say the second best option: Dired.

[http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Dir...](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Dired.html)

</comment><comment><USER31> I really miss the Start Menu on the Mac. To get close to what I want, I have dragged the Applications folder to the dock next to the Downloads folder, and I've set it to display as a Folder (vs. a Stack) and as a List (vs. Automatic).

<comment><USER20> Sure, I totally understand your desire to do things the way you're used to, but launching apps (imho) has never been easier for me by invoking Spotlight, typing the first letter or 2 of the appname and when the app you want is highlighted, hit return. Spotlight knows where all your apps are so you don't have to.

<comment><USER31> Oh, I know about Spotlight. I've been using that for a long time, too. (And of course, that's a feature of Explorer and other shells, too.) This may sound strange, but sometimes I find it easier to navigate through the menu. Even stranger is that I love the Windows 8 Start Screen but detest Mission Control. I hate to admit it, but it isn't rational.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'm roughly 50/50 using Finder or Terminal.

You haven't said what about Finder you don't like, so I've got no suggestions for you. For me, it does the job just fine. (Is it possible that you're just more accustomed to Windows?)

</comment><comment><USER33> Yes, I've never had any issues with it. I pretty much only use it when I'm going to my PDF's directory.

(I know you said not to, but for pretty much every file operation, I use the terminal.)

</comment><comment><USER34> I only moved to Mac this year. The one thing that annoys me about finder is the inability to back-swipe. File browser, web browser - they should work the same way, no?

</comment><comment><USER35> I have been using Mac for many years, finder is indeed awful.

I also don't understand why apple doesn't allow "file cut", only "file copy".

<comment><USER36> Command-Option-V after you copy should do what you want (move instead of copy).

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Somewhat related to this topic why is there not way (at least intuitively through cmd-x cmd-v) to _cut-and-copy_ a file? I find it mind boggling.

<comment><USER38> Cmd+Alt+V is the "move" instead of "copy", holding Alt would also modify the Paste option in the right-click menu.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Cocoatech's Path Finder - I love it.

</comment><comment><USER40> Oh thanks god, I thought I was the only one who hates finder after comparing with windows explorer.

</comment><comment><USER41> I too use PathFinder. It's definitely the best Finder replacement one out there.

</comment><comment><USER42> Everyday. I'm heavily using photos in my line of work so it's necessary.

</comment><comment><USER43> I use totalfinder on OSX to make up for a lot of finder's defeciencies.

<comment><USER44> Same, I find both totalfinder and totalspaces really improve my workflow, though I still go back to terminal for a lot of0 tasks like searching for particular files...The sheer speed of commands like ack just cant be matched if trying to do similar things in finder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Only for interacting with photos. Normally, I just use terminal :).</comment>