Google and Alibaba Continue Warring Over Acer Phone - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20120916/google-and-alibaba-continue-warring-over-acer-phone/

<comment><USER2> "Aliyun App Store Confirmed To Be Distributing Pirated Android Apps"

[http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/15/aliyun-app-store- con...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/15/aliyun-app-store-confirmed-to- be-distributing-pirated-android-apps-many-from-another-pirate-site/)

<comment><USER3> Many of our apps are listed there.

As a policy we don't submit our apps in any store other than Google Play Store for android as we believe in having one Android platform is beneficial for community (Including Amazon Store).

Take down notice? Where to send it? So Hire a lawyer in China to fight them? How long will that battle go on and are we too naive to assume we can fight Alibaba and win in China under their law?

I am glad Andy picked this fight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here is a statement of Andy Rubin on this: [https://plus.google.com/112599748506977857728/posts/hRcCi5xg...](https://plus.google.com/112599748506977857728/posts/hRcCi5xgayg)

Apparently, they even have pirated google apps. How Alibaba/Acer claim moral high ground on this is beyond me.

<comment><USER5> So take action against the pirates. Don't bully your partners away from competing platforms.

<comment><USER3> [So take action against the pirates.] You are expecting to after a Chinese Pirates in China and win?

<comment><USER5> If you have emailed Aliyun and asked them to take it off then absolutely they are doing wrong leaving it on there. I haven't seen any information about what needs to be done to submit apps or if there is any review process (which should at least have caught the obvious Google apps).

If they don't remove it fairly promptly then yes maybe Google can take some action. I would expect that with clear cases of copyright infringement that Google at least could take a case.

In the mean time update your app to detect when it is running on Aliyun and include a half screen promotion for China's leading real Android phone.

<comment><USER3> So I have to keep searching if a Chinese company is pirating my apps? (How would I even know?). They had the apps for a while and we knew about it only because google called them out.

How about you ask the guy who stole your car (After figuring out who stole it) and if they don't return it to you, then complain to police?

<comment><USER5> I don't know the Android platform but if your app logging shows massive numbers of devices that aren't matched by downloads reported by the Google store add some additional logging to try to work out why.

If the scale isn't large don't worry about it.

It is copyright infringement, you still have your car (going back to your analogy). Also it may be that Aliyun is the used car dealer that has stolen cars but don't know it, the pirates are the ones who uploaded/submitted it to them.

There have been cases on Apple and Google stores of copyright infringing apps although these get removed when reported.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> in case anyone else is confused, the issue seems to be this:

* there is a group called the open handset alliance (OHA), formed by google and others, that gives certain benefits to hardware makers. to be a member of that group you have to commit to not release incompatible versions of android.

* alibaba have created software for a smartphone that acer were going to release, called aliyun.

* everyone seems to agree that aliyun is not compatible with android (in the sense required by the OHA agreement). it can, however, run some android applications.

* the disagreement is about whether or not aliyum is a "version of android". if it is, then google can kick acer out of the OHA (which acer does not want; hence the phone would be blocked). alibaba is arguing that it is not (in particular, it does not use the dalvik vm), so acer should be free to release the phone and remain in the OHA.

</comment><comment><USER7> Google is threatening Acer to not make phone based on Aliyun OS while Haier Group who is another member of OHA have already shiped an Aliyun OS phone[1]. No question of "fragmentation" were asked back then. Hypocrisy at its best.

[1] <http://www.generalatlantic.com/en/news/article/1838>

Edit: See <http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/oha_members.html> for list of OHA members.

</comment><comment><USER8> Here's my own personal perspective.

I am very thoroughly in Apple's camp. I have owned several iPhones, an iPad, and more Macs than I can count. This is what I use personally, and what I program for.

Although I don't use Android myself, I'm glad it exists. It keeps Apple on their toes. I don't think Apple will make much of a dent in the Android ecosystem, despite the fact that Steve Jobs apparently wanted to.

But now it's turning out that Google faces some of the same issues as Apple, doesn't it? The Android ecosystem is generally more open than iOS, but now we see that it has its limits.

Personally, I think Google is doing the right thing here. If this secondary phone OS really does contain a lot of Android frameworks, as they claim, then I think Google is right to be upset about this.

Interesting to see what the fan base's general reaction is going to be to this.

<comment><USER9> Alibaba pirated google apps and put them on their appstore. That's different.

Android can be forked just fine.

<comment><USER10> The pirated app thing was brought up after the fact, and really has nothing to do with the original issue- that google is strong arming a company to prevent a competing OS from being released.

Besides, claiming that Alibabi supports piracy because there are pirated apps in their store is the same as saying Google supports malware because their stores have sold infected apps.

<comment><USER11> That's not what I got. My understanding of the situation was that Google is saying Alibaba can't claim to be Android compatible if they are not. Alibaba is saying they are claiming no such thing, but their marketplace seems to not reflect that claim.

They aren't trying to prevent a competing OS at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think Google's position is reasonable: either Alibaba make Aliyun OS pass the Android compatibility tests, or remove the Android app runtime.

<comment><USER5> Sounds like what Oracle wanted Google to do with Java/Dalvik/Android. Can you explain why you think this is different or if you thought Oracle should have got their way?

<comment><USER12> The difference is that you are free to use the Android CTS, unlike the Java TCK, which had a Field Of Use restriction that did not allow using it for mobile.

The big difference is that you can do whatever you want with Android and it's components, but don't expect any help, from the OHA if you are making something incompatible.

<comment><USER5> Does that really help? Sun offered a different platform for mobile which Android is a massive deviation from. J2ME was rubbish but does that change their rights.

Is the defence of this action that Google aren't quite as unreasonable as Oracle? Is that the standard we hold "don't be evil" to?

The legal tool being used is different but it definitely seems anti- competitive.

<comment><USER13> It means you aren't beholden at all to Google to be an "Android compatible" device, you just need to pass the freely available compatibility test.

Ask the Apache Harmony guys if that's only slightly less unreasonable than Sun/Oracle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The troubling thing I see in all this is that, if Google gets all contract hardware manufacturers to join the OHA, then there will be nobody to manufacturer your Android OSP hardware.

</comment><comment><USER15> Andy Rubin:

>So there's really no disputing that Aliyun is based on the Android platform and takes advantage of all the hard work that's gone into that platform by the OHA.

>So if you want to benefit from the Android ecosystem, then make the choice to be compatible. Its easy, free, and we'll even help you out. But if you don't want to be compatible, then don't expect help from OHA members that are all working to support and build a unified Android ecosystem.

How "open" is something if you can't fork it and be left in peace to negotiate with the OEMs to ship it? Aliyun is already missing the Google Play Store and the official Google apps.

The "don't expect help from OHA" line is especially ironic given that Acer scheduled a press conference to announce making Aliyun phones before being strong armed by Google into canceling it.

Acer really had no choice, Android has 67% of the market and iOS has the other 30%. Losing early access to code and access to the Google Play store and Google apps will basically kill their handset business because the competition like Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola etc. will have those advantages.

They would basically have to quit the handset market outside China to make Aliyun phones for the Chinese market. Forking is a fundamental tenet and in many cases the lifeblood of open source. If you don't want that, put that in the license and do not call it "open" instead of artificial after-the-fact restrictions like this. If you make something open, people are going to eventually do something with it that you may not like.

What next, forbid retailers from selling Aliyun phones or threaten to pull all Android devices from them?

The only differences I see between this and Microsoft's OEM restrictions against other OSes in the 90s is that Android is not a monopoly(though it is effectively one for Acer), and that Android is open source(again, Acer doesn't really have much leverage to go on it's own with Android code).

<comment><USER16> The problem is that Aliyun doesn't simply fork Android and run it's own App Store (as Amazon). It instead tries to rewrite bits, use some bits and create a Frankenstein type monster. Again, that's no real issue. However the real issue is that it's claiming to be Android Compatible, which means it's attempting to market itself off of Android's back. Add that with the fact they've stolen apps and apps written for Aliyun don't work on Android and we're all in a right pickle.

If anyone wants to fork Android, they're free to. But don't claim Android compatibility after messing with the APIs. Basically Aliyun would be a leach for Android platform and Google has the right to throw it's weight around in that regard.

Once again, Amazon doesn't mention Android when talking about the Kindle Fire and they've never heard a peep out of Google or Andy Rubin. If Acer are that convinced that Google is doing them wrong, they're more than free to leave the OHA and start having press conferences left, right and centre.

<comment><USER17> You know it's funny but what you wrote sounds exactly like what Google did with Java.

<comment><USER18> And Google isn't trying to sue Aliyun out of existence, nor forcibly prevent Acer from shipping Aliyun devices.

<comment><USER15> > nor forcibly prevent Acer from shipping Aliyun devices

You and me seem to have different definitions for the term 'forcibly', because that's exactly what they seem to be doing here, like Microsoft forced Hitachi not to ship dual boot systems with BeOS under the threat of pulling Windows.

<comment><USER16> Except Hitachi couldn't have still put out PCs with Microsoft on them. Acer would still be able to put out Android devices.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Educator News - <AUTHOR>

I tried submitting this on Friday, but it didn't get any interest. If there's no interest this time, I'll drop it for a while.
http://www.educatornews.net
Basically, I've been wanting an HN for the education community for a long time. Someone built a version about a year ago ("Academic Recess") and got a positive reaction, but that project quickly disappeared.
Educator News is a fully open project. I'll be happy to respond to any feedback, particularly from this community. <comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: [http://www.educatornews.net](http://www.educatornews.net)

Github repo: [https://github.com/ehmatthes/educator_news](https://github.com/ehmatthes/educator_news)

Discussion of previous attempt (not my project): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4783912](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4783912)</comment>


Just saying something is (GPL/MIT/Apache/…) doesn't make it so - <AUTHOR> http://blog.nig.gl/post/48848761220/just-saying-something-is-gpl-mit-apache-doesnt

<comment><USER2> So other people have to do a bit of work (copypasting the license into the source) to exercise the permission you've granted to them (because that's what these licenses are). That doesn't invalidate your giving of said permission.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's not the problem here. The _original release_ must include the license, otherwise the code is not following the terms of the license (in the case of MIT). And as for GPL and Apache, a link to the license must be furnished.

This isn't about subsequent redistribution (and if it were, I'd agree with your skepticism). The primary distribution must also follow the terms.

You can't cherrypick which parts of the license you wish to follow.

<comment><USER2> >That's not the problem here. The original release must include the license, otherwise the code is not following the terms of the license (in the case of MIT). And as for GPL and Apache, a link to the license must be furnished.

Why's that a problem? If you own the copyright, you have the right to distribute your code, and you have the right to grant other people permission to redistribute your code under the MIT license or any other license, whether or not you yourself are complying with the terms of said license.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> You might also want to mention the ISC license.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISC_license>

<comment><AUTHOR> Updated to reflect that.

Relevant part:

        Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this
        software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby
        granted, *provided that the above copyright notice and
        this permission notice appear in all copies.*

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does the reference to the license not count as a license, much as a pointer in C refers you to the "actual data"?

<comment><AUTHOR> A reference to a license is acceptable if and only if the license being referenced recognizes them. Some licenses (like GPL) do recognize certain types of references while others (like MIT) do not.

If you want a C analogy, saying "LICENSE: GPL" or "LICENSE: MIT" is like dealing with a void *.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Java Bullshifier - <AUTHOR> https://takipi.github.io/java-bullshifier/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, Alex from OverOps here. We've created the "Bullshifier" internally to stress test edge cases with our own monitoring tool ([http://www.overops.com](http://www.overops.com)).

Whenever an exception or a logged error / warning happens in production, it shows you the complete source code leading to it, and the full variable state across the entire call stack.

Using Java Bullshifier, we're able to generate random applications with call stacks that can go thousands of frames deep and other quirky behaviors. This helps us make sure the overhead is unnoticed, even in the most extreme cases.

Would be happy to answer any questions.

<comment><USER2> I've been wanting to build a generic version of this type of tool for quite some time.

When I'm waiting several minutes for our app server to startup, I often ponder what life would be like if we had chosen language X or another stack for our application.

I've primarily worked on JRE-based stacks for some time and once a project reaches a certain size developer happiness begins to decline due to large compilation times, app startup times, etc. Even incremental compiling or hot- reloading of classes seems unreliable at a certain app size (either due to memory or some other reason).

It would be neat if there were a tool to generate large and complex apps with various stacks to get a feeling what the developer experience would be like 1-2 years down the road once the app reaches a critical mass.

<comment><USER3> That is a good idea for testing out new stacks for that shiny new rewrite. One thing I've realized is most projects are not designed for 100+ developers working on it at +400kloc of code.

We adopted [https://buckbuild.com/](https://buckbuild.com/) at work for our android builds, and it has sped it up a lot compared to our previous gradle build process.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> At first I thought this another one of the several Java shaming projects that have been posted in the past on HN (usually in regards to the ridiculous class names of some projects ... aka Spring).

But this project actually has some serious utility particularly for byte code manipulators are just alternative compilers like AspectJ. Particularly AspectJ as I have seen it fail on things that neither the Eclipse compiler (JDT) or Open JDK fail on.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm glad to learn that entire businesses exist thanks to the fact that Java has overly verbose exception outputs which are designed to hide the information you are seeking between 200 lines of call stack prints.

<comment><USER6> As an experienced Java developer I love long Java stacktraces and I miss them in most languages. In 90% cases stacktrace allows to find a bug without any debugging, because it's just very obvious where it is.

Of course if someone doesn't care about exceptions, it's just a bad style. Exception in the production log is like red light and alarm sound, BUG-BUG- BUG. I saw projects, which throw stacktrace after stacktrace, gigabytes of stacktraces (and then archived those teralogs and noone ever watched them). But those projects have much more problems, verbose logs is the least of them.

Yes, with heavy framework usage, especially when those frameworks generate proxy classes and wrappers and god knows what, it's often 2-3 lines of useful information between 90 lines of not-so-useful library or even autogenerated code. But only developer can judge it, environment should preserve anything.

<comment><USER7> The problem has historically been that most J2EE frameworks overly rely on delegation, because of GoF.

I don't like seeing the same 5 stack frames in the same class appear three separate times in a single stack trace. Because what does that stack trace say?

It says it took Foo five function calls -on itself- to figure out it's not responsible for an operation. So Foo asks Bar to do it, and after half a dozen more function calls someone asks Foo all over again. Who takes 5 function calls to figure out it's STILL not responsible for this action. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

And how do you set a breakpoint in that call tree? Which time do you want to debug it? How many more times was it called before the exception was thrown?

<comment><USER8> Your concern is right, but how could we have solved it? I think it's a composition of the Reflection API, the Java style of not accepting optional function parameters, and the pluggable systems.

We call the first framework function, which calls the second function with the default values for the arguments that were optional. The second function looks up the application's method using Reflection. Because Reflection code is verbose and has a lot of tricky cases, we want to share code between all places where we call it, so it delegates calling the API in 4 different methods.

Then come up the ServletFilters in an HTTP application, which is an example of pluggable system. If we declare 10 filters, they all do something like check the authentication, gzip the response, check the XSRF token, transform a WebApplicationException into a 404/500 reaponse. Unfortunately they all appear as "ServletFilters" in the stacktrace, until they delegate to the final HTTPServlet itself. Another example of pluggable system is OSGi: Each method call is wrapped in 5 function calls if the method is in another classloader.

There's only one improvement I'm able to imagine: Java could define a pluggable system at the language level, so we don't have to implement them using function calls. This pluggable system stretches for all delegation needs, from OSGi to ServletFilters to apps where the list of delegates were defined by a REST api, etc. Sounds like a big JSR...

<comment><USER7> Barbara Liskov and Bertrand Meyer both have talked about separating decision making from execution. And though there work predates widespread adoption, I find this happens to work remarkably well for unit testing as well.

The thing to remember is that when Java was young, the pool of people who grasped OOAD was very small. Nearly all of us were making it up as we went along. So Design Patterns came out and everyone glommed onto that book, and then went out and wrote code so awful and convoluted that it's now a joke.

J2EE was built up in that space, on a foundation of bad assumptions and unfounded theories. I was simply amazed that the same company that brought us the Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing brought us the J2EE 1.0 spec. I was so appalled at its quality that I switched to UI development until well after the 2.0 spec was out and implemented.

It says something profound that every vendor that had any succes with those versions of the spec did it by defying the spec and supporting local dispatch. A lot of people couldn't scale their app past two machines, but load balancer eventually came around and fixed that.

Anyway, my point is you have a bunch of APIs written by newly minted experts, many of the foundational ones by people with absolutely no awareness of the physics of distributed computing, it's going to take a lot to spackle to cover those sins. Some did, others doubled down, but overall every problem was solved by another layer of indirection.

When refactoring came to the fore I hoped the industry would hastily reverse course. Spring was supposed to fix a lot of this but from my view, Spring became the thing is sought to replace. Full of cryptic levers and dials and massive indirection.

I think it was Mike Feathers who attributed this to cowardice. People afraid to make decisions put all the decisions behind a layer or two of indirection so they can "cheaply" change their minds later. But again we are back to Meyer and Liskov here.

If A then B (where A is the decision and B the action) allows you to change A without adding much if anything to B, or add to B without changing A. If this shows up in an inheritance hierarchy then you need about half as many overridden methods for the same call tree. Which means a shallower call tree, and code you can speak out loud.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> We have folks on-site doing just this, but thanks for the thought!

<comment><USER10> developers as a service is looking like a more realistic idea by the second!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Do you have a De-bullshifier for existing Java codebases?

<comment><AUTHOR> Working on it as we speak ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> If you use the right random word combinations for the class name generation, and the code actually does something, this may be near-indistinguishable from a real Java codebase.

</comment><comment><USER13> In fact, it is a kind of common practice to generate tons of code. For C language, we have Csmith[1]. It is used to find bugs in llvm and GCC.

[1] [https://embed.cs.utah.edu/csmith/](https://embed.cs.utah.edu/csmith/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Obligatory reference to [https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...](https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpriseEdition)

</comment><comment> guard-of-terra I wonder if you could use genetic algorithms on codebases like these to make them do something useful.

<comment><USER15> I wonder how much I'd have to spend on AWS if I just wrote the acceptance tests for our next project, then ran this in a loop/cluster until it wrote something that passed UAT... :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Wonder if people will use this to post bullshified apps to Github to impress potential employers

<comment><USER17> That would actually work [1] to certain extend but once you have to prove your real skills during a technical interview it will be clear that you are not a real Java developer unless, of course, you are. If you are a Java developer this tool will (probably?) have the effect that you suggest, to increase the probability of an ATS [2] to hit your online developer persona.

I will actually try this because as people have mentioned before hiring is broken and this is either a way to exploit and/or bypass some of the inconveniences like coding challenges and the like used to filter non- programmers.

[1] [https://github.com/avinassh/rockstar#testimonials](https://github.com/avinassh/rockstar#testimonials)

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> What does the generated code actually _do_ when run, besides heavily exercising the JVM? Does it eventually print "Hello world" or something?

</comment><comment><USER19> It was about time somebody creates something like this. I do have a complain, classes are named random. If you used a tool that generates human like names, it would still be random but looked much better.

I will see to create a similar rails tool. I intend to test just stress of people who will look at the code and try to understand what it does.

<comment><USER20> for some reason when I first saw the OP I wondered if it was [http://projects.haykranen.nl/java/](http://projects.haykranen.nl/java/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Heh, this might actually be useful for v2.0 :)

<comment><USER20> D:

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Nice, but this should be refactored to generate microservices.

</comment><comment><USER22> Does this remind me legendary paper generator SCIgen... Good to know as a CS teacher ;-)

</comment><comment><USER23> Neat idea! As a mostly-Java coder (by choice), I love both the approach to testing your own tool as well as the slight side blow into the Java community regarding long stack traces full of framework-contributed delegation classes and virtual proxies.

But...not more than 20k classes? That doesn't really count as "massive Java application" these days, more like an average-sized enterprise app when including all its dependencies. You would at least triple that to reach "massive" scale ;-)

</comment><comment><USER24> Kind of off topic, but this reminds me of my internship this summer. What sucks about Spring is the horrible error messages. If there is something wrong in the XML configuration, or dependency configuration, it doesn't actually tell you that. Instead, it shows a deep stack trace with some strange exception that doesn't relate to the problem at all.

<comment><USER25> Then stop using spring. Don't get sucked into the vortex of using overhyped tools that require consultant engagements to fix production bugs.

<comment><USER26> You could also not use xml. Because spring supports java configuration and the stacktraces are easy to see.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Actually this could be a good platform for generating licensing algorithms that would be included in commercial software. This level of obfuscation would really be hard to crack by reverse engineers that produce cracks/keygens.

</comment><comment><USER28> Features: Generates TONS OF CODE!!

I love it.</comment>


More real than Battlefield: soldier's headcam during firefight in Afghanistan - <AUTHOR> http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/experience-a-firefight-in-afghanistan-through-a-soldiers-headcam-20120317/ <comment><USER2> I'm definitely naive about this stuff, but there are a few things that surprised me while watching this video. I'm amazed by how much ammo they waste just shooting blindly. Guys are just sticking their guns over the wall and pulling the trigger, not even seeing what they are shooting at. Its no surprise that the guy is worried that he only has 300 left toward the end of the video.

I'm also surprised that they don't have a periscope to safely see over the wall.

I guess stuff like this, [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/FutureTech/story?id=97778&#...</a> is really just far out research.

</comment><comment><USER3> I feel that they should not be allowed to publish this. They shouldn't even be filming this sort of stuff unless it is used internally to optimize tactics. And apparently it's a channel on youtube ... great :/</comment>


The surprising links between anger and time perception - <AUTHOR> http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2009/08/surprising-links-between-anger-and-time.html <comment><USER2> _You can test this on yourself by considering which day of the week a meeting has changed to, if it was originally planned for Wednesday but has been moved forward two days._

I had to read this sentence ten times before I realized how it can be interpreted any different from the meeting is on Friday.

I realized I was assuming _forward_ meant to the right on a calendar, but that means my default way of interpreting relative times is inaccurate. If they had said "back" instead of "forward," I would have also thought Friday. Clearly, if antonyms indicate the same thing to me, then I'm the one who's wrong, but it's still surprising to me.

The only phrase that would make me think Monday is, I think, "push the meeting up." But, while I would think Friday if it was "push the meeting back," the phrase "push the meeting down" sounds nonsensical to me.

This is why natural language processing is hard.

<comment><USER3> I've been facinated with people's spacial associations with time since I first realized they can vary from person to person. I like to ask people how they visualize the arrangement of months in a year, because there doesn't appear to be any single standard way to do so.

When I was in kindergarten, the teacher would lead the class to name off the months by pointing to a year calendar arranged on the wall in a horseshoe shape, starting with January in the bottom left, arcing through the summer months at the top and returing to December in the bottom right. Having been exposed to this particular arrangement so often at such an impressionable age, December and January are in my mind forever separated by gap, and it never fails to generate the feeling that those two months are more distant than any other adjacent months, and I'm sure it has an effect on my planning during that time.

It makes me wonder how it might feel to have learned the months arranged in a circle, on a line, or in a grid. Or to have learned European-style Monday- Sunday weeks, lunar months, or something exotic like months of 7 or 8 4-day weeks, or 10 144-minute hours per day. And of course the hacker in me wants to figure out what the optimal arrangement.

<comment><USER2> I've had similar realizations. I tend to visualize weeks and months linearly, but with no gaps. December and January are adjacent to each other in my mind, as are Sunday and Monday. (I also don't _really_ consider the week to start on Sunday. If I designed a calendar for myself, weeks would be arranged in rows where Monday is the left-most cell, and Sunday is the right-most cell.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I really didn't know that there were two kinds of people one who thought they were moving thru time and the one who thought the time was just passing by. I cannot decide in which category I belong to.

<comment><USER5> It's almost certainly situational. Now, the question is which one applies to you more often.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I suspect their test group did not contain any members of the Aymara tribe, who metaphorically map time so that the past (which is known) is in front of them, and the future (which is unseeable) is behind them. See:

<http://www.physorg.com/news69338070.html>

[http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?story...](http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=5639624)</comment>


Data science test – Beta testing - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/134V_1hWg_L-uvNiacFOvy_lCtJqDv26_rLLpOq7h9iQ/viewform?edit_requested=true <comment><AUTHOR> Aspiring Minds is ready to roll out the first version of its simulated Data Science test. The test will help data science enthusiasts to evaluate themselves and companies to easily identify good data scientists.

We are looking for enthusiastic beta-testers, experienced in data science (>2 years), from the industry as well as academia (Ph.D./Master students preferred), who are well versed in machine learning programming in Python and/or R languages. This will greatly help us build a good product which is very useful for the community.

For this, you will take a 60-minute test and then share your feedback in a 10-minute form on question quality, comprehensiveness and platform.

If you are a data science enthusiast, you'll definitely have fun experiencing the test. We are sure you will also have some learning about data science.

We have exciting rewards up for grabs for our beta testers, as a token of appreciation.

Wanna be a part of this enriching experience?

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Additional information and guidelines: The questions in this test module are designed to assess the data science acumen of the candidate. The results of these assessments will then be used as job credentials by a large pool of big corporates! Your work would involve solving 4-5 data science questions comprising MCQs and programming problems, within a span of 10 days. During this period, we'd like you to be committed to the assignment and provide an extensive feedback about the various aspects of the test module. The questions from the feedback form will also be made visible to you before you start the test so that you have in your mind, the kind of feedback you need to provide before you start testing. You can then write your responses to the questions after you finish the test.</comment>


Ask HN: What happens to failed founders? - <AUTHOR> What happens, longer-term, to the founders that fail? There's many forms of failure, according to PG [1] it's simply a matter of "keep going, don't get demoralized", but from my limited perspective (I've never started a startup) it's more complicated than that, you can also literally run out of money (either personally, or as a company not getting more investment), or you can rationally decide to stop because the value proposition just isn't there in the market (noone needs it, or they need it but aren't willing to pay enough for it to sustain it). So, my conclusion is that startups sometimes fail for "good" reasons.
What happens to founders afterwards? Do they start another startup? Do they continue in a "job" (career)? Do they start from scratch or move immediately into a management position? Are investors willing to invest into failed founders? Are companies willing to hire them? Do they value experience (similarly to an MBA, or similarly to an employee, or not at all)? Maybe they get hired by VCs to either mentor other startups, or help decide if they're worth investing in?
The opportunity cost of starting a startup instead of continuing in your career can be significant (5+ years "lost"). I imagine Y Combinator and other accelerators/VCs have some relevant experience with their alumni to answer this question. Is there any data available, an article or similar?
[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html <comment><USER2> Hi, "failed" founder here. I didn't make a million dollars but basically got acquired for about 3 years of not taking a salary.

One thing many people forget about startups is that you're building assets, not revenue. The company, the code, the whole customer acquisition process, customer loyalty... all that is worth something to someone and can be sold at a price. We were acquired by a startup that just wanted to grow faster. It was another sales channel for them and far cheaper/faster than putting marketing dollars.

So there's rarely ever truly a failure. Just waiting for the right buyer if you've built something decent. This is usually what they mean by "don't die". I found that it's easier to sell a company than get investors, though.

After that,

1\. A VC who didn't invest gave me several fun jobs teaching programming (his core background was education). I've been doing it on and off for 3 years now, training for programming certifications, and it's been a good portion of my income and connections.

2\. Joined a couple of startups as a CTO, all fellow founders who I met in accelerators. They didn't go well and maybe I was not competent enough for them. Maybe they just had limited resources.

3\. Joined a Big Corp. Friends thought it was not part of my personality to do so. But really, it was trying something I hadn't done, and proving to a relative that I could. It seemed like a step down, so I stopped after half a year.

4\. I regularly get and turn down CTO offers, sometimes two a month. Many were more established and well funded, but I'm not willing to commit to them.

5\. I went back to freelancing. I make about 5x more than I did before my startup. I specialize in MVPs, so my startup experience is essential to current income.

But notably, I didn't have a lot of options when starting a startup. Had I gone the non-startup route, I'd be working for a company in some large team, making $1000/month in a developing country.

</comment><comment><USER3> > "keep going, don't get demoralized"

You can keep going and never make it. Statistically speaking you're more likely to not make it. This isn't much more than the typical hustler propaganda we see all the time in tech. "If you didn't make it you didn't try hard enough"

> What happens to founders afterwards?

Founders are people, people chose different paths. Depends if you managed to save a big chunk of money, have the will to start again, have kids, location, visas, etc ... I don't think there is a stereotypical path.

> The opportunity cost of starting a startup instead of continuing in your > career can be significant (5+ years "lost").

If you create a company that survives for 5 years you have to fuck up really bad to lose everything. Unless you go for one of these business models relying purely on investors cash, in which case you're doomed from the get go 99% of the time.

<comment><USER2> Startups are usually a gamble at good odds. "Keep going" means you're just rolling the dice at those odds again. But those who learn something improve their odds for next time. People rarely do an "all or nothing" bet, so they can often try again. And often investors prefer someone who has tried and failed rather than someone whose trying the first time.

<comment><USER3> > Startups are usually a gamble at good odds

Good odds for who ? The investors putting money in 100s of startups and making 10.000% ROI once in a while ? Sure

What about the founders / early employees who fail 90% of the time after putting in countless hours of overtime ?

When the dice you play with is a 1d20000 and you need <= 2 to succeed you have to be real tough, have a strong support network and know what you're getting into. I guess it's part of the game but we should stop romanticising the startup life, it's far from being a matter of "keep trying".

[https://s3.amazonaws.com/startupcompass- public/StartupGenome...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/startupcompass- public/StartupGenomeReport2_Why_Startups_Fail_v2.pdf)

<comment><USER2> It's also not a fail/succeed binary. Failures bring in experience and skills.

Also, you have to compare with the alternative. Someone who applies to Google also has a high chance of failure - it's still a 3 month investment in studying for interviews, with about a 5% chance of getting in.

Someone can apply to work with a moderate sized company at much higher odds and lower pay, but there's a good chance the project may fail and they get fired.

In this case you still get paid even if you get fired. With startups, failure means you lose money and time, but the process rapidly levels up your value as an individual. You build more elite connections, develop a lot of soft skills. Spending 100 hours a week programming something has a side effect of improving your programming skill much faster than someone who put in 40 hours.

If you studied months for an interview at Google and failed, your best next move would be to apply at the next company at a slightly higher rate of success. You can also choose to settle for something easy, with no interview process, but then you lose your investment. This is the same logic as "keep trying" at a startup. When you fail with one idea, you get feedback for what other ideas would work better.

I personally chose the startup path because the alternate path is spending 13 years trying to get a $25,000 job. Someone getting offers for $200,000 jobs would have a very different decision matrix.

<comment><USER4> Smart people who put in months of studying don't have a 5% chance of making it into a large company after those few months.

Google might have a 5% hire rate but it's not 5% of qualified and heavily prepared people. And you can just multiply your chances by applying to more companies.

With skill and determination you will make it.

With skill and determination, starting a startup you're just buying a ticket to potentially making it.

As you said, it only makes sense if your alternative doesn't offer you enough money to live comfortably and save as well, or you are, well, atypically non- risk-averse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think we need to stop using the word fail for things like this---expressions like "fail fast" and "learning from failure" and "embrace failure" often give people the wrong impression. Instead I prefer to re-calibrate success. If you are doing a startup, or anything else (borrowing Ries' definition here) under extreme uncertainty, your goal can't possibly be to succeed. This could very well be an impossible goal, and you could fail for reasons entirely outside your control and outside your visibility.

Instead, you should identify the unknowns where possible (your hypotheses) and set your goal as de-risking these unknowns. For example, your startup idea might be "Uber Eats for umbrellas" where you deliver umbrellas to people at the push of a button. Can you build a successful company around this? Who knows. I certainly wouldn't measure myself on my ability to build a successful company on this. But I might measure myself on my ability to determine whether there is a market for it. I might be successful in determining there isn't a market for it and then decide not to continue any further, and I wouldn't call myself a failure for it. And even if there is a market, then there's a question of whether the economics make sense. Again, your goal now is to determine the answer to this question regardless of the yes/no outcome.

</comment><comment><USER6> Failure is a part of the game. If you get demoralized this game is not for you. Simple as that. It's OK to feel bad for a while, however.

Typically failed founders found something new. Targeted, simple, niche. Learn from your failure.

<comment><USER7> Getting demoralized is typical; real founders are the ones who get back up and come looking for more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> As I announced the failure and closure of my previous startup, I was invited to be CEO of three other startups looking for direction.

I had a COO offer available too as well as a couple of less appealing job offers.

I watched some job boards just out of interest and saw a number of roles either as CMO, product manager or director that I would have been a good fit for.

As it stands, I ended up co-founding a new company with an old partner.

No one seemed to think that failure under my belt was a black mark.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think it really depends on what stage you "fail" and what causes the failure. In my own experience, I was really young and tried something for about 6 months. It didn't pan out because those who I was working with weren't committed to it. We just went our separate ways after and I ended up working as as a senior dev at a bunch of places. I'd love to see data about this, as we always end up seeing only the survivors and their success stories.

</comment><comment><USER10> I've been messing around with an idea of starting something like failedfounders.com. Basically an online repo of stories, learnings and the like. It's too taboo to talk about and I wish that'd change. 99.99% (made up, don't quote me) of people don't hit it big on the first thing they do. Or second. Some people just start earlier. Aka build programs and sell them in HS vs at 28. If you find forward thinking execs they usually will love talking to you and consider hiring you. I've found most everyone in TA/Recruiting to be unable to process how you could have skills across multiple disciplines and this doesn't score well on their interview sheet. Relationships end up helping a ton here.

<comment><USER2> I think there's a good demand for this. You should do it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > The opportunity cost of starting a startup instead of continuing in your > career can be significant (5+ years "lost")

Every year of your career, and life, is "lost" ... you can't save those years and you can't get them back.</comment>


Should I post a newsletter on a week-end? - <AUTHOR> http://faiscifaisca.tumblr.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> 77% of the people say no but I have read articles saying the opposite. I wonder What's your experience on this.

</comment><comment><USER2> What's your newsletter about?

</comment><comment><USER3> Tuesday is the best everyone knows that

<comment><AUTHOR> Early in the morning, pre lunch, post lunch, end of the afternoon?</comment></comment>


Facebook fined €110M for providing misleading information on WhatsApp takeover - <AUTHOR> http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1369_en.htm <comment><USER2> Given that FB paid $19 Bln for WhatsApp, €110m seems to be a cost of doing business for Facebook. That may be calculated play.

USA got very liberal antitrust policy, allowing massive M&A. Good for shareholders, bad for everybody else.

E.g. the biggest four airlines in USA got over 80% market share. In Europe they just have 48%. That's why United can re-accommodate passenger and get away with it:

[http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721201-americans- are...](http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721201-americans-are-treated- abysmally-their-airlines-they-should-look-europe-lessons-lack)

<comment><USER3> What's the Lufthansa market share in Germany? What's the Air France market share in France?

<comment><USER4> Here's a good chart illustrating domestic market share in European countries:

[http://www.anna.aero/2011/02/02/aegean-olympic-merger- denied...](http://www.anna.aero/2011/02/02/aegean-olympic-merger-denied-due- to-domestic-dominance/)

A part from Air France almost every country's dominating carrier has around 60% or less. And this is for domestic travel only, which is not very extensive due to the smaller size of European countries and the vast reach of high-speed rail.

If you look at international travel the main carriers have massive amount of competition from low-cost carriers as well as airlines from other European countries:

[http://www.anna.aero/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/air- france-3...](http://www.anna.aero/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/air-france-3-cht- airline-int-share.png)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The EC asked FB if it was possible to link accounts from Whatsapp to FB in 2014. They said no, knowing full well that the answer was yes.

The EC did the merger evaluation with the assumption that they could.

In 2016 FB announced they were linking accounts in a ToS update.

It is not that they could or could not do it, but that they knew they could, but chose to hide that fact.

<comment><USER6> I've lost track of how many times Facebook has done this, including all those times it was resetting people's privacy settings to being _more public_.

<comment><USER7> I keep wondering how Mark justifies this to himself.

<comment><USER8> Probably along the lines of "I'm Mark, why do I have to justify myself?"

<comment><USER9> I'm not sure justification has ever really been a problem for him. I assume this is a real quote from the early years:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb fucks

<comment><USER10> It's probably real, but we also don't know the full context. It could be a banter-y way of him introducing Facebook to a friend who hadn't heard of it, or something, and he could've just been kidding about actually giving information. Who knows for sure?

But knowing everything we know about Facebook now, it's probably more than likely true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> >> According to the Merger Regulation, the Commission can impose fines of up to 1% of the aggregated turnover of companies, which intentionally or negligently provide incorrect or misleading information to the Commission.

Anyone read this and imagined the Facebook lawyers saw this clause, and said to Mark "Yes, the ROI on providing misleading information is _completely in Facebook 's favor_"

<comment><USER12> Makes me wonder if this sort of thing isn't a more civilised version of the bribe. "Tell us what we need to hear to drive this through and we'll fine you later." The beauty of the system being that no-one ever needs to explicitly offer or ask for money.

<comment><USER13> the more civilized version of the bribe then also goes to the government as a whole instead of into the pockets of officials

<comment><USER14> The more civilized version of the bribe also gets officials a nice job with the bribe payer.

<comment><USER13> not sure how much the revolving door revolves in the EU.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> torrent-of-ions "Today's decision sends a clear signal to companies that they must comply with all aspects of EU merger rules..."

More like:

"Today's decisions sends a clear signal that it costs €110M to escape EU merger rules."

</comment><comment><USER15> You should see it like this: 110 million euros to buy the permission to acquire all the data of all european WhatsApp users.

Is this just the fine for lying? Or is this also the fine for combining personal information about european citizens?

If only the fine for lying, then what the EU should do next is investigate the privacy concern. And possibly another fine could be the result of that.

<comment><USER16> Yes, I was shocked that earlier conclusion was left standing. That's like being caught robbing a bank, but let to keep the stolen bags of money and just ordered to pay a parking ticket for a getaway car waiting outside on a sidewalk. That's a very bad precedence and message to future deals, that it's OK to ignore EU laws if you are ready to pay small (comparatively) amount of money for it.

<comment><USER17> the merger was approved accounting for user matching ("'even if' assessment that assumed user matching as a possibility").

Knowing this in advance would have not changed the approval from the commission, your comparison is wrong, and it would set a bad precedent only for people who didn't actually read the case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It is obvious that it would be possible to match accounts in a great many cases, and if the commission wanted to know more precisely how good the matchings could be, it seems like it would make more sense for them to ask Facebook and WhatsApp for social graph data and hire their own scientists to investigate that than to trust Facebook's answers on such a subjective point. But really it seems like they must have basically just been OK with Facebook monopolizing messaging because it was obviously pretty terrible for competition to allow this merger even assuming they thought the users of Facebook and WhatsApp wouldn't be able to be merged very well. However, I would be really curious to hear from someone who knows something about their actual thinking and motivations (and I guess what the law says since they may be quite constrained by that).

</comment><comment> mike-cardwell Why a fine? Why aren't they being banned from operating WhatsApp in the EU? And being forced to delete any data connecting the accounts to Facebook accounts if they want to continue operating Facebook within the EU?

<comment><USER19> Because they can only fine the company, according to the regulation [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:320...](http://eur- lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32004R0139)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> In other words, less than 0.7% of the amount Facebook paid for WhatsApp.

<comment><USER21> It's a bit more, since most of the $19B ($15b afaik) was FB stock.

So $110M might be more like 3.5% instead of 3.5% or 10% of their yearly profit. Still not that much, but also not nothing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Well of course they were aware. And the Commission should have been aware. Here's a quote that stuck out to me:

 _"Consumer communications services: the Commission found that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp were not close competitors and that consumers would continue to have a wide choice of alternative consumer communications apps post-merger"_

The first part doesn't sound right. If WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger aren't close competitors, I need to figure out what a competitor is. Hmmm.. [http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/competitor.html](http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/competitor.html)

I suppose it's because they are not rivals? They were pre acquisition. Because they definitely operate in a similar industry with a similar product/service. It's true that consumers can choose to use alternatives.

<comment><USER23> They are concerned about actual monopolies.

There are hundreds of messenger apps out there that roughly work the same way. If facebook suddenly charged $100/day for whatsapp, people would just use something different. Like Kik or whatever. Its true that those competitors dont really have market share. But thats not the point. They exist and are readily accessible. If facebook wants to shoot itself in the foot in trying to force its customers to use their competitors, thats just healthy competition.

Therefore, there's no real threat of a monopoly here. Facebook bought a network effect, not a monopoly.

Compare that to something like mobile carriers. If At&t buys verizon and spring or whatever they're called, there ARE no other options.

Antitrust laws are mostly about keeping market mechanics in tact. Facebook and Google cant really force anyone to use their products. If their products are too expensive, there are lots of competitors. That's why they want to get rid of net neutrality. Making it expensive to run competing services strengthens their position.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Bit off-topic, but the end of the article lists the three reasons the original deal was cleared. They seem naive to the point of absurdity: Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp were "distant competitors"? They are number one and two messaging apps in my circle of friends and acquaintances.

</comment><comment><USER25> _Facebook fined €110M for providing misleading information on WhatsApp takeover_

Should be fine plus undoing what they did. or spin Whatsapp...go back to square one.

</comment><comment><USER26> Gee, it was stupidly obvious that Facebook could automate crossing information:

* It constantly prompts people for their phone numbers (and most people provide it). * For new accounts, is REQUIRES a phone number.

Whatsapp accounts are based on phone numbers.

Isn't it quite obvious how easy it is to cross accounts? Do I REALLY need to spell this out further?

<comment><USER27> you can have dual SIM phone

<comment><USER26> Facebook affirmed they could not cross information between their users and whatsapp users. Dual SIMs are irrelevant to this, a very very small minority of the users will be providing using this feature to have separate numbers of facebook and whatsapp.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I don't get it. How could anyone be deceived? How could anyone _imagine_ that anyone could be deceived? How could anyone assume - how could it technically be the case - that data from one system should not be mergeable with data from another?

<comment><USER29> The deception does not have to be believed to be a deception. Facebook explicitly lied to the EC:

"When Facebook notified the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, it informed the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp users' accounts."

"The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook's statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users' identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility."

<comment><USER27> why did they approve it after finding they are already lying?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Fines like this are mostly pointless, a cost of doing business.

If governments want to stop being defrauded by corporations, they need to respond with criminal penalties like imprisonment, the same as they would to a regular citizen.

<comment><USER31> We throw people in jail far too often as it is, and you want to add to the prison population for something that didn't harm anyone? I honestly don't follow. If this were executives covering up the harmful effects of their product on humans, I'd agree.

The Government makes the vast majority of their money off corporate profits, so they have a vested interest in seeing them succeed.

<comment><USER30> I do agree that we throw people in jail too often, but if we're going to let corporations straight up lie for a low price, what we're charging is a usage fee, not a penalty.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> What would happen if they told the truth?

Why investigating after the fact, not during the M&A?

<comment><USER23> Because the european commission likely has no executive antitrust agency that would be capable of overseeing this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> 110 million is nothing for Facebook in comparison with the treasure trove of data and user identities they have conveniently "acquired" from all the countries which are using Whatsapp.

</comment><comment><USER34> I Guess it's time for people to switch to a better IM platform. I'm tired of having to use WhatsApp because everyone else does.

</comment><comment><USER35> Who's profiting from these 110M? :3

</comment><comment><USER36> I'm in favor of the ruling but I don't understand why the European commission has any authority over two american companies merging?

<comment><USER37> Because they are doing business in said counties.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Please, start regulating and taxing these multinational advertising companies much more aggressively.

Once advertising companies like Facebook or Google reach a certain size, they should be required to pay taxes where the ads are shown to users.

Make a set of basic EU user terms and privacy policy for advertising companies masked as social networks, search engines, email providers etc, some of it mandatory, some of it that they can opt out off. But advertising companies above a certain size shouldn't be allowed to set their own (American) terms.

And please, split up these behemoths. It's not good for anyone that one search engine and one social network rules it all. They have EU-wide market shares above 90 percent. We would never allow that in industries as automobiles or television. We would never allow it for newspapers or tv stations. Somehow, we allow it for social networks and search engines.

<comment><USER39> This is an excellent idea. Advertising ought to be taxed like Tobacco. Advertising is responsible for the increased monopolization of the economy, inequality, urbanization, over-consumption, greed, depression and many other issues... Advertising is a cancer on society. It doesn't offer any value to the consumer (at least Tobacco offers some temporary pleasure), it must be taxed harshly.

<comment><USER40> As much as I hate ads, it's just not true that they don't offer any value. They often can and do inform consumers and businesses of products that will be of value to them. They often though advertise things that are also of the opposite (negative value) and play on human weaknesses.

<comment><USER41> > it's just not true that they don't offer any value

On the plus side:

\+ Inform users about products (which is a small convenience).

On the negative side:

\- They provide unsollicited information, which distracts and irritates users.

\- Users can also search products by themselves (no hand-holding needed).

\- They use screen real estate.

\- They use bandwidth.

\- They use energy.

\- They make websites slower.

\- They introduce security problems.

\- They track users, collect their data.

\- They put users in an information bubble.

\- Market failure: not the "best" product wins, but the one with the biggest advertisement budget behind it.

\- They make people feel inconfident (see photoshopped fashion ads)

So, any value offered by ads is easily canceled by the negative points listed above.

<comment><USER42> You forgot the largest plus: Ads pay for many useful and enjoyable services that are free for the consumer (or cheaper). Things like broadcast television, local news, most of the internet, games, concerts....

I don't disagree that there are many cons, but it's disingenuous not to include the services they power as one of the pluses.

Full disclosure: My career involves ads.

<comment><USER41> Agreed, I should have included that.

But I can add another minus: ads as a monetization scheme are unnecessarily restrictive, since the only way for an organization to increase their prices is to jump from an ad-based scheme to a paid scheme, and this jump is too big in many cases. Instead, if we paid for everything with money (not with data), then pricing would be more clear and there would not be any threshold in changing prices.

<comment><USER42> I'm not sure I fully understand, this would be pay walls on everything wouldn't it? If so, I agree it greatly increases pricing clarity but I'm not convinced it's an improvement necessarily.

I'd also mention that many freemium businesses actually introduce paid models to control costs rather than improve profitability - particularly true for streaming media companies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> > I used to be as against ads as you are, and then I tried to start a business

> Overall, I'm in mild agreement that society would be better if it weren't > ad-driven, but that's a utopian ideal

Sounds like the typical conservative spiel. "I used to be idealist like you once, but then I realized how the world really works and sold out".

There's a short mini-doc freely available out there, made by an heir of the Johnson & Johnson family, about the 1%. He was inspired to do this partly because his father had, in his day, gone out of his way and caused trouble by participating in some controversial (at the time) anti-apartheid demonstrations. However, he was now berating his son for his "idealism" in discussing the issue of inequality, coming off as insanely hypocritical in the process.

It's a really poor way of arguing a point, imo.

<comment><USER44> > Sounds like the typical conservative spiel.

That's hilarious; most people who know me consider me a socialist.

> There's a short mini-doc

I've seen it, and it's fantastic. It's not about advertising.

> It's a really poor way of arguing a point, imo.

That's hilarious coming on the heels of an ad-hominem. Do you have any counter argument? Poor as it is, it's true, I'm sharing my feelings as someone with experience on both sides. The person I replied to, and you, and me, we all have the power within us to make ads irrelevant to our lives. And yet we don't. Why? The person I replied to seems to suggest he has an inalienable right to consume free content. Is that true? Does he deserve high quality free content, ad-free? Is it really the advertisers' fault that ads exist? Do you believe that taxing advertisers is the solution to reducing the scourge of ads?

Anyway, I've upvoted you for making me laugh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Facebook is known by lies and privacy violations, is this even news worthy ?

</comment><comment><USER46> I'm not sure I agree with this ruling. The question as stated is whether fb would be "unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp users' accounts" and it seems to me that matching based on entered phone numbers isn't really automatic - since it's only possible for those that enter their number, and is a manually commenced process.

<comment><USER47> Facebook aren't matching phone numbers, they're overlaying social graphs.

They know who you are based on who else's phone book/friends list you show up in.

WhatsApp uploads the whole phone book - it doesn't matter if the numbers correspond to WhatsApp users or not.</comment></comment>


Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Oprah All Use the 5-Hour Rule - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/empact/bill-gates-warren-buffett-and-oprah-all-use-the-5-hour-rule.html <comment><USER2> Warning: Forces you to login to read.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've read without being logged.</comment></comment>


An Indian Entrepreneur visits New York: "I was born in the wrong country" - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/in/2011/05/13/an-indian-entrepreneur-visits-new-york-i-was-born-in-the-wrong-country/?awesm=tnw.to_18Gbt&utm_content=api&utm_medium=tnw.to-other&utm_source=direct-tnw.to

<comment><USER2> I see a lot of entrepreneurs in India whining about lack of funding. Fact is, you won't have much trouble raising capital if you have a great product and business model.

Indian VCs and Angels are not investing in cool weekend apps, but they are keen to fund fast growing startups. Even better,you won't even require funding in India if you have a business model.

Bootstrapping is easier in India, you don't need $110,000 to hire a team of 5. Salary of developers in India usually less than $500 per month, you can hire rockstart developers for $1000 to $1500. So, running a team of 5 would cost around $4,000 per month. Comparatively, the same team size would set you back at least $40,000 per month in New York or Silicon Valley.

I know a lot of bootstrapped startups in India, with profits of over a million dollars. They are literally being chased by VCs, but they don't need investment. The problem with investment scenario in India is, the valuations are much lower compared to Valley.

India does not lacks investors, it lacks an ecosystem. The most challenging part is building a rockstar team.

Wingify / VWO does not have any presence in US. They are based out of New Delhi. At a recent HN Delhi Meetup, paraschopra said that being in India is the biggest advantage they have over competitors.

<comment><USER3> >> Salary of developers in India usually less than $500 per month

For $500, you won't get decent enough developers.

>> you can hire rockstart developers for $1000 to $1500.

Most of the 'rockstar' developers wouldn't want to risk it in a startup (which could fold out anyday) when they already are making > $1500 a month in that BigCo Inc. Unless equity is put on table for grabs, it's a pretty sad deal actually.

>> India does not lacks investors, it lacks an ecosystem.

Well, aren't investors a major part of the ecosystem? This would be more like the classic railroad paradox. IMHO, only after India sees good number of credible startups with popular products will VCs ever bother to look at India.

<comment><USER4> For $500, you won't get decent enough developers. >> Let's say it is $1000 for decent developers, would you not agree that it's way less than the ones in NY or SV?

Most of the 'rockstar' developers wouldn't want to risk it in a startup (which could fold out anyday) when they already are making > $1500 a month in that BigCo Inc. Unless equity is put on table for grabs, it's a pretty sad deal actually. >> Sorry to add this, but same is the situation in the valley as well. It's but natural!

Well, aren't investors a major part of the ecosystem? This would be more like the classic railroad paradox. IMHO, only after India sees good number of credible startups with popular products will VCs ever bother to look at India. Of course VCs are a good part of the ecosystem but given that India opened a tad too late, VCs might take time to pitch in as much as their western counterparts. Should we not create an ecosystem in the meantime and make as many startups work as possible, with no, low and limited VC funding?

<comment><USER5> $1,500 there feels like $150,000 here. It's like people from Japan who come here and say "US is so cheap, a high end meal is just $50 or max $100, I can eat facy 5 times a week!" I tell them that would change once you start earning in US dollars, thats when the equation will adjust itself and you will realize output is a function of input.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I guess we have to make the most of the resources that are available to us; ecosystem or no ecosystem. We are ages behind what the valley or some other places may offer and to expect it to happen by itself is naive at best. We are part of the ecosystem and we have to build it to a level where it counts.

<comment><USER7> Couldn't upvote you more. If people cared about ecosystem so much during industrial revolution then UK would be the only industrialised country in the world today.

This whole web startup thing is still so new. As Gary Vaynerchuk said _"The internet is still 15 years old. The fucking thing hasn't even had sex yet."_ Who knows what will be the Mecca of internet startups some 10-15 years down the road.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> TL;DR

I was born in the wrong country because my country doesn't have:

a. VCs / angels

b. Right kind of people (whatever that meant)

<comment><USER8> And then there is the New Yorker Who is moving to the Valley Claiming:

1\. Cant raise capital 2\. Cant find talent

[http://www.businessinsider.com/face-it-nyc-is-not-the- best-p...](http://www.businessinsider.com/face-it-nyc-is-not-the-best-place- for-a-startup-2010-2)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was in the audience at that NYTM demo Aditya mentions as a highlight. He was funny and memorable, drawing laughs and applause out of the audience; a great presenter. I had fun watching.

But NYTM is emphatically about having fun with technology, not showing off great startup ideas. Business questions literally get booed, so they aren't asked. I'm glad Aditya attended other events, met other people, and came away with an understanding of the sense of the "noise". There IS real momentum around the NY tech startup scene... and plenty of "just talk" to go along with it.

</comment><comment><USER10> Being in Northern CA, or possibly NY, may help, but hopefully it's not something any company would use as an excuse for not being successful. As an example, here's a story working its way up on techmeme, about an entrepreneur in China making iPhone apps:

[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/201...](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015040094_appleapps13.html)

A good idea and great execution will work anywhere in the world. I wish Radbox well, hope they can pull it off in India.

</comment><comment><USER11> Why Bother with what people in NY are doing. You think Chineese startups are craving to be NY or they do their own thing in a market they know best. I can bet if you moved to NY you'll regret your decision.

You should be thankful that India is not like the US where everyone and their grandmother wants to want to make ''apps''.Atleast in India you have breathing space to perfect your craft and product without much competition.

<comment><USER12> It's the competition that helps you up your game. It is much easier building something amazing if you can hang out with other people also building amazing things- breathing space is not necessarily a good thing when you're a startup.

The anecdotal things you learn over coffee or lunch can turn out to be invaluable down the road.

<comment><USER11> How will competition comeabout if no one sets the trends in india and inspire more people to keep it homegrown instead of seeking the ''American Dream'' If you cant make it where there is no competition youll neva make it where there is.

<comment><USER12> I'm not sure this is such a problem for tech startups. The history of internet startups has shown that, so far, the same general ideas work in many different markets and adapt for each.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For context, you can check out his demo of Radbox at New York Tech Meetup in March: [http://www.livestream.com/nytechmeetup/video?clipId=pla_4957...](http://www.livestream.com/nytechmeetup/video?clipId=pla_4957b45e-6ee4-420d-8cc7-876b64a5a28b)

Aditya seems like really amicable guy and I wish him the best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER14> "If I had Rs. 50 Lakh today, I would've spent it on a team – hire great developers, designers and even a community manager – be a team of 4-5″

It's always team that matters not the place, be it NYC or India.

<comment><AUTHOR> Location does matter, every startup needs the proper shoutout and exposure to make it successful. Having like minded people around who guide you throughout helps alot.

<comment><USER14> Yes,

 _Having like minded people around who guide you throughout helps a lot._

That's what a team is.

<comment><USER15> I think he's meaning more than just a team. If the community around you is like-minded and supportive, it's even better than just having a team... And it gives you somewhere to hire or expand that team from.

<comment><USER16> Another approach would be to understand the ecosystem you are in and work to improve it. The US has many things that cater to entrepreneurship, but that should not preclude people from attempting their desires within their community.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Indian Entrepreneur claims NY is better. New Yorkers are moving to the Valley cause things are better. Signs of an entrepreneur who cant spot an opportunity around and execute.

Zoho sits out of a city in India named Chennai (Not bangalore) and takes on Google. They make it happen as well. Some folks will always crib, even if life was handed to them on a platter.

</comment><comment><USER8> The Other side of the Story

Floods of Indian Origin Entrepreneurs moving out of the US. Perhaps its all well balanced, someone ask the Startup Visa guys to chillax! :)

[http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-10-tech-talents- le...](http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-10-tech-talents-leave- silicon-valley_n.htm)</comment>


Made in America: Trend against outsourcing brings jobs back from China - <AUTHOR> http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/14/10156162-made-in-america-trend-against-outsourcing-brings-jobs-back-from-china

<comment><USER2> _"The average Chinese worker is about a quarter as productive as the average U.S. worker."_

This statement could use a bit of elaboration.</comment>


Catching a Real Ball in Virtual Reality - <AUTHOR> http://exactlyscience.com/archives/11457.html <comment><USER2> Blogspam of

[https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-03/dr- uvr032017...](https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-03/dr- uvr032017.php)

(official release linked from Disney site)

Project page, with video and full PDF:

[https://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/catching-a- real-b...](https://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/catching-a-real-ball-in- virtual-reality/)</comment>


Keep your github issues under control - <AUTHOR> http://codehum.com/stuff/haunt/

<comment><USER2> Nice logo.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> <http://i.imgur.com/POqNb.png></comment>


Ask HN: Is it a good idea to do an internship after a year working full time? - <AUTHOR> I am finding it extremely hard to land a job abroad (read US/Canada) with my current experience. I think I may have a better chance trying for an internship abroad instead. Is it a good idea to do an internship? I have been working full time for an year now. Will it have a negative impact on my resume? I am not having any issue finding a job in my country though. I often get a mail from companies now and then. But I am finding it extremely difficult to land a job abroad. <comment><USER2> This really depends on what domain you are focusing on entering.</comment>


Ruby statement modifiers behave differently than conditional statements - <AUTHOR> http://ryanangilly.com/post/304559058/ruby-statement-modifers-behave-differently-than

<comment><USER2> I contend that if you are using defined? you are doing something wrong. local variables should be _local_. If you don't know what exists in the current scope, you are dealing with confusing code. Rails erb evaluation for partials makes this mistake, and creates a poor reimplementation of function calls where the function header is defined by the caller with the :locals =>{} hash.

<comment><USER3> Or at the very least you are likely to get terribly confused. The posters confusion has absolutely nothing to do with conditionals and modifiers and is entirely about Ruby variable definition and scoping semantics. In fact if you broke one of his examples by reversing the conditional, the variable, the assignment of which is never evaluated is still defined.

      >> a = 1
      => 1
      >> unless defined? a
      >>   b = 5
      >> end
      => nil
      >> defined? b
      => "local-variable"
      >> b
      => nil

<comment><USER2> Right, variable definition happens as early as when the code is parsed, even if it is never used.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The following is wrong. Only read the rest of this reply if you want to see how dumb I am.

 _This is not a bug.

"a = 5 unless defined? a" is not meant to be equivalent to this:

      unless defined? a
         a = 5
      end

It is supposed to be (and is) equivalent to this:

      a = unless defined? a
            5
          end*

<comment><USER2> this is wrong!

      >> a = 1
      => 1
      >> b = 2
      => 2
      >> a = 3 unless b==2
      => nil
      >> a
      => 1
      >> a = unless b==2
      >> 2
      >> end
      => nil
      >> a
      => nil

The difference is in the variable definition semantics, _not_ in the assignment semantics. Please do not spread this misinformation.

<comment><USER4> My bad. Thanks for clarifying that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5>
      >> if false
      >>   a = 1
      >> end

      >> defined? a
      => "local-variable"

      >> a
      => nil

<comment><USER6> That explains it! It does break the principle of least surprise though...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yes, they are different. For example:

        def ex1
          a = 5

          if a
            puts "a: #{a}"
          end
        end

        def ex2
          if a = 5
            puts "a: #{a}"
          end
        end

        def ex3
          puts "a: #{a}"  if a = 5
        end

If we start with the code in ex1 and decide to shorten it, ex2 is okay (although some people don't care for assignment in a conditional because it could be confused for a typo). But, ex3 will raise an exception that 'a' has not been defined.

I've just internalized using the longer form when using assignment in a conditional.

<comment><USER8> I think the article is wrong. His rewrite on line 06. should use if instead of unless.

      $ irb
      >> b
      NameError: undefined local variable or method `b' for main:Object
      	from (irb):1
      >> if defined? b
      >>   b = 5
      >> end
      => nil
      >> b
      => nil
      >> defined? b
      => "local-variable"

<comment><AUTHOR> No, it's using unless like I intended. But your example also demonstrates the weird behavior. As a few people have pointed out here and over in the post comments, the issue at hand isn't so much about statement modifiers as it is about how Ruby 'defines' local variables.

Take this for example:

      ra:~$ irb
      a = irb(main):001:0> a = b
      NameError: undefined local variable or method `b' for main:Object
      	from (irb):1
      irb(main):002:0> defined? a
      => "local-variable"
      irb(main):003:0>

It just so happens that using statement modifiers in the way I tried using them brings this behavior to light.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think the main part was already covered, but there is one important detail left uncorrected:

They are _expression_ modifiers and conditional _expressions_. Everything in Ruby is an expression, not a statement.</comment>


Fuck. I have ADD. Any good therapy out there? - <AUTHOR>

Just read this: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2014/11/02/why-add-might-actually-benefit-startup-entrepreneurs/<p>and figured out that's how I'm wired. How to help my self? <comment><USER2> That's such a generic list of "symptoms" I'm sure the majority of the population could have "ADD" by that logic.

It is like the medical equivalent of tarot card reading: Do you ever feel tired? Are you ever depressed? Does your arm itch occasionally? Definitely cancer!

</comment><comment><USER3> ADD isn't an illness or bad. it just means you thin kabout alot all the time. If you know this you can use it.

I make music to calm myself a bit and express things i can't put to words. Other than that itry to challenge my other (logical) side of the brain with programming. With this i try to balance myself and keep my mind occupied with positives :). don't help yourself. use yourself :) add can be a gift!

<comment><USER4> That is most _certainly_ not what ADD is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Step 1: Don't obsess about how to help yourself.

Step 2: Don't self-diagnose; observe over time, and seek a professional.

</comment><comment><USER5> 1\. See a doctor who knows the fuck about ADD (probably not your family doctor). Get properly diagnosed. ADD is similar to dozens of other things.

2\. If you have it to any significant degree, then you need to understand you are working with a Swiss cheese brain [1], that your brain may be closer to that of someone with brain damage or substance abuse. Therefore until you change the brain chemistry (with medication), you may not see significant changes.

I thought I could manage it with exercise and diet and life strategies, but over 10 years I have learned that is not the case for me. Seeing the brain scans really made this a reality, that I'm not working with a full deck unmedicated. I would not have a great job or a great wife and a great kid if I were not medicated.

[1] [http://www.amenclinics.com/the-science/spect- gallery/attenti...](http://www.amenclinics.com/the-science/spect- gallery/attention-deficit-disorder-addadhd/)

<comment><USER6> That seems like a pretty extreme way of putting ADD. If you think this is really an issue for you, see a qualified doctor.

In terms of management, I like halfcat, find that things like exercise have no affect. Instead, when I have a task to complete, I make a list and then focus on completing those tasks on my list.

On the other hand, I think that having ADD brings an advantage to being a founder because my mind likes to manage lots of things at the same time. So, I can keep track of multiple issues at the same time and it's enjoyable and stimulating for me to actively resolve all of those issues simultaneously.</comment></comment>


Linus and RMS lead the popular vote for Next Microsoft CEO - <AUTHOR> http://nextmicrosoftceo.com/#candidates <comment><USER2> I have always wondered what would happen if Bill Gates would turn around one day and say 'fuck it, I'm going to open source the whole kit and kaboodle.'

What would it be like? Would people brave trying to fix all the problems in the windows kernel? I wonder what XP source code looks like. How many people would try to fork MS Office? Bt most interesting would be what would happen to the business landscape if all MS products were free. Would Apple die or become larger? Would malware go through the roof, or be extinguished? What would large corporate license holders do with the savings? (would there even be that many savings in comparison to TCO?)

<comment><USER3> > Bt most interesting would be what would happen to the business landscape if > all MS products were free.

I'm under the impression it's already part of their strategy, and it's probably a cause why most people still use windows. They know they can easily download softwares on torrent websites, and MS is pretty much tolerant about it (as far as it's about individuals, not businesses).

<comment><USER4> You are mistaking Adobe for MS. MS is going down hard on pirates reselling their stuff to individuals or making it available online.

Also you seem to imply MS let every software be torrented intentionnaly. But MS doesn't publish every software in the world and they aren't responsible, nor should they fight, for other software makers's piracy problems.

It's certainly not part of their strategy. More like a pirate post-fact rationalisation line of thinking.

<comment><USER5> > You are mistaking Adobe for MS. It's certainly not part of their strategy.

Nope, they are following the same brilliant strategy as Adobe.

"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though," Gates told an audience at the University of Washington. "And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." [1]

[1] [http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr/09/business/fi- micropir...](http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr/09/business/fi-micropiracy9)

<comment><USER4> Damn, you are right. I remember reading that quote years ago. To be fair he specifically deals with Chinese and asian markets though. Not sure this applies to the US and european markets.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I fell down laughing. Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman top the list? So much for popular votes.

<comment><USER7> They are a kind of joke candidates, they are not in the profit-making-business however.

Gabe (number 3) on the other-hand seems to be exactly the right kind of leader, he knows Microsoft and has successfully built a business from scratch -- even competing against MSFT. Clearly he is a little too outspoken, who could make Ballmer look like a quiet personality.

Microsoft should probably just aquire Steam, and trial Gabe as CEO.

<comment><USER8> Gabe's stated several times he's not remotely interested in selling to Microsoft.

<comment><USER7> Value is Microsoft's best option, MSFT can set the right price.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Clear the asp.net session cookies (ASP.NET_SessionId) and vote as many times you wish !!!

</comment><comment><USER10> RMS can really save Microsoft, encouraging freedom for MS users. That will be the best thing MS could ever have done.

</comment><comment><USER11> The Internet Strikes Again

At first, I laughed, but the more I think about it that may not be as crazy and hilarious as it looks like at the first sight. No matter what you think about Linus and RMS, they both have leadership qualities.

<comment><USER12> You think they have what it takes to run a "multi-billion dollar profit a quarter" company as diverse as Microsoft?

Right.

<comment><USER11> Right.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> That's pure nonsense.

</comment><comment><USER14> Whoever runs the site blows away troll votes every once in a while so hopefully Scott Hanselman comes back on top.

</comment><comment><USER15> In all seriousness, Linus _might_ be OK. But RMS is too purist and never practical.

<comment><USER16> Yet more charismatic than their current ceo ...

<comment><USER10> No way, Steve Ballmer is the epitome of charisma. :-P

Have you not seen the best of Ballmer? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8M6S8EKbnU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8M6S8EKbnU)

<comment><USER17> For lack of a translation: "Rampensau" is the german word for that behaviour and does neither imply nor deny charisma.

He is just energetic on stage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> They should seriously consider someone like pg. Someone with ideas.

</comment><comment><USER19> Voted for RMS only because VS is the worlds worst editor.

<comment><USER20> Presume you are referring to Visual Studio. It has a vi emulation plugin if that's what you are into.

Given that one of RMS's baby is Emacs, i find it strange you choose to vote for the fire while hating the frying pan.

<comment><USER21> Given the fact that he was going to vote for RMS due to Visual Studio's poor editing qualities, one would assume that this user prefers editing with emacs, no?</comment></comment></comment>


NSA tracks Google ads to find Tor users - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57606178-83/nsa-tracks-google-ads-to-find-tor-users/ <comment><USER2> The image of the Tor Browser is somewhat misleading, given that it would not allow this tracking via third party advertising cookies, at least with its default configuration.</comment>


Google Owns 13% of Me (from RescueTime, YC08 company) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.rescuetime.com/2008/02/06/google-owns-13-of-me/

<comment><USER2> Google's definitely doing something right. Not only does it own a lot of people, but people are often quite happy about that fact.

It says something about Google's image in the marketplace when my mother refers to Larry Page and Sergey Brin as "those nice Google boys." Similarly, whenever she figures out something she wants her computer to do, the first thing she does is to find out if Google makes software that will do it for her.

So, in short, Google owns us, and most of us are thrilled by that fact.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I wonder how Microsoft + Yahoo compares. Since I'm on mac and don't use Yahoo - it really doesn't register for me.

</comment><comment><USER3> Apparently YC news owns me more than google. _sigh_

Sorry, Google.

</comment><comment><USER4> Your title really caught me. Google does own part of us.

</comment><comment><USER5> G-p0wnzor3D</comment>


'It's Over. It's over for Apple.' - <AUTHOR> https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/its_over_for_apple <comment><USER2> This "jackassery" watch (using his terminology) is one Gruber's sillier and less constructive habits.</comment>


The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, GL, in a warming climate (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL069688/full <comment><USER2> Restored film about Camp Century, "The U.S. Army's Top Secret Arctic City Under the Ice!":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ujx_pND9wg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ujx_pND9wg)</comment>


The Case for Bad Coffee - <AUTHOR> http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee.html <comment><USER2> Touching piece, but there's no inherent reason why you can't have social bonding experiences over good coffee as opposed to shitty coffee. I've had my fair share of long/deep chats at "hipster third-wave coffee shops." The author is feeling a nice pang of nostalgia, and that's totally OK, but it doesn't constitute a "case" for bad coffee.

Sometimes, convenience (how late is the store open?) and ambiance (is it a nice place to sit and chat/read?) (and price) matter more than the quality of the coffee. But if you can have convenience and ambiance, why not also have a high quality drink?</comment>


Ask HN: What do you ask a founder to work with to verify they're competent? - <AUTHOR> I'm in a position of potentially going to be first engineer and am really not sure what to ask and gauge whether going from a cushy job to a risky startup is worth it? They have customers, but not many, as well as a very high conversion rate.<p>They also have some a small amount of pre seed. <comment><USER2> I dont have to ask anything, the interview process normally speaks for itself. If they have the emotional intelligence to have a mature discussion about their company, product, and after questions to you, they sell themselves as a potential employer, it's a good sign. If it's mostly inane gotcha questions followed by an email to do 3 hours of leetcode monkey tricks, I've seen all I need to see about the how they view the quality of leadership.

</comment><comment><USER3> What do you mean by competent, and what are you looking to get out of the job?

Once you define those, you should be better positioned to determine if the company and the founder are a good fit for you.

<comment><AUTHOR> by competent i mean, enough to fundraise and build a team. i think the thing im most looking to get out of it is experience building a team from scratch around me while also creating a tech culture, but none of that can happen without the founder first raising money.

<comment><USER3> The easiest way to tell if a founder will be able to raise money is to see if he's done it before successfully. If he hasn't, I wouldn't count on it happening in the near term.

I'd be very wary of joining a startup that needs to raise money (i.e. can't bootstrap itself to profitability/exit for some reason) before it has raised money without a substantial equity position and a clear leadership position.

It sounds to me like this company is early enough that it's going to be very hard to evaluate the likelihood of success, so you want to make sure you're prepared for the personal financial risk that entails and that you're compensated for it in some form.

It also sounds to me like you're putting a lot of faith in the CEO to make the company a success and bring you along for the ride, while in reality a lot of responsibility will lie on your shoulders as a very early employee.

Having a conversation with the CEO about these issues should help you decide whether this startup is a good fit for you, but I still think you need to determine if the position is a good fit for you personally.</comment></comment></comment>


Telegram 0-day vulnerability that can be used to disclose user's phone numbers - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/edwincheese/status/1164826783746629633 <comment><USER2> Sounds like it doesn't directly give you a user <=> phone number mapping, but allows to confirm whether the user with phone number X is in a public channel, which is bad enough.

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20776327](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20776327)

lol "0-day vulnerability". I've known this since forever, everybody does. If you have someone on your contact list you see them with the name you've stored them as on your contact list in groups too.

Telegram is not e2e encrypted by default and group chats can simply not be encrypted. Whoever uses Telegram expecting security is a dunce.

<comment><AUTHOR> Honestly, your comment is not very constructive. Did you create this account only to critize and lessen this security issue?

<comment><USER3> It's as constructive as yours.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm serious. Your url about the previous HN post was relevant but the rest of your message sounds really defiant. Just an honest feedback about what I feel.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


My Damn Thesis - <AUTHOR> http://mydamnthesis.tumblr.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello everyone,

I'm preparing my thesis and I felt I needed some kind of pressure and to track my progress. An Ariadne's thread of a sort.

It's about multiphase flow pattern recognition based on a time-series (of void fraction). I think it's interesting as the signal is non stationary (changing spectral characteristics), and I'll be working on time-frequency representations (Adaptive Optimal Kernel, S-Transforms, etc).

It's also interesting in the sense that I am a neophyte in the subject (worked more on microcontrollers and op amps), so I think it will benefit future students who will ask the same questions as myself, and the fact that you find very little information on a lot of things you have to learn. i.e: Most likely to find these things on Elsevier and Pergamon than Wikipedia.

If this is your field, or you're interested about its applications on another field (for example, I may be working on Bayesian Networks, Support Vector Machines, Statistical Inference, Hidden Markov Models, Gaussian Mixture Models, Kolmogorov Entropy, etc..) some apply these on spam or fraud detection.

I'll be working with MATLAB mainly, but I'm open to stuff in other languages.

I'll be updating it as I go.</comment>


Uber and Lyft are forcing Southern California parking companies to adapt or die - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-proper-parking-20180707-story.html <comment><USER2> This is old news, no?</comment>


Guy Makes $55,000 / Year Selling Candy On The Subway - <AUTHOR> http://www.brandinfection.com/2011/12/11/guy-makes-55000-year-selling-candy-on-the-subway/

<comment><USER2> Nice story... but it doesn't scale :)</comment>