Ask HN: Future course of Ipad ordering app development - <AUTHOR>

Hi Hackers, I have been working on a ipad Restaurant Ordering app for the restaurants that i have a few customers for as well and is very well received by them. I have tied it up with wireless printer support and credit card payments with the partnership with payment company as well. However in light of the competition entering this field im getting second thoughts everyday on if i will be able to take it from part time to full time ever (would need funding from someone to do that because of visa issues). Since i have seen so many competitors in the last months on this im not able to charter my growth with this except have it as a part time project. I want to take it to a bigger "national" scale.
Any suggestions on what i should do ? <comment><AUTHOR> I would really appreciate comments on this because i dont know how to distinguish my app from others and i dont want to squander away the work i have been doing all this while .

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Is there no one who can offer suggestions on this. Or did i not offer many details ?</comment>


YC Changes - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-changes <comment><USER2> One evening in early 2008, I got the opportunity to meet Michael at an Austin hotel during SXSW. I pitched him on the idea for Airbnb, and he took us under his wing. For the rest of the year, we would visit his office every Friday night for hours on end. Each session, Joe and I would demo our latest site and report on our progress. Michael taught me about fundraising, product growth, and building the basics of a startup culture. He kept reminding us to take just a few more steps. If we had known just how many steps there were, we may have been discouraged, but Michael always made progress feel within reach. The most important thing Michael did was believe in us. Had it not been for Michael, there might not be an Airbnb today.

<comment><USER3> As I understand it, the major boom for airbnb was the switch to renting out entire homes. Were you under the guidance of YC during that time?

<comment><USER4> FWIW, there's some good discussion around this in Sam Altman's interview with Jessica Livingston ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOC- cgIWaY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOC-cgIWaY)).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Michael was one of our group partners during S16, and I cannot think of a person better suited for this position than him. He consistently demonstrated the ability to cut through all of the nonsense founders tried to use to defend their actions (ourselves included) and delivered fantastic insights into our businesses to which we were blinded.

For me, the group partners were the primary value delivered by YC during the program, and I look forward to that value being continued under Michael's leadership. Congratulations!

<comment><USER6> Thanks! I really enjoyed working with you guys!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Obligatory link to How to Start a Startup Stanford class by Sam Altman: [http://startupclass.samaltman.com/](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/)

As the founder of a MOOC search engine, I am excited. Its good for my business :)

P.S. You can follow the class on Class Central [1] and we will send you an update whenever the course dates are actually announced

[1] [https://www.class-central.com/mooc/7130/startup- school?follo...](https://www.class-central.com/mooc/7130/startup- school?follow=true)

<comment><USER8> class-central is great! I follow your twitter notices to keep up with upcoming courses

<comment><USER7> Thanks! Glad to know somebody finds them useful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would personally seek Michael's advice when I was in the S15 batch because of how earnest his advice was. Even for companies outside his group you could really tell the effort he would give to provide quality guidance. One example of how much Michael cares was in the days before our demo day, I was the first to come in at 8AM and Michael literally had slept on the couch having stayed up all night providing feedback the night before. He comes out of the partners office, sits down, and has me pitch maybe 10 minutes after he probably woke up :) Congrats!

<comment><USER6> Thanks Brian - when you go all in on demo day prep so do we :)

<comment><USER10> Said just like my Dad. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What didn't work with the Fellowship, exactly? In light of the dissolution, how did the winners of the Apply HN competition ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11440627](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11440627)) work with the most recent Fellowship class?

<comment><USER12> Fellowship worked really well for the most part, but our real goal is to 10x or 100x the number of startups that we help, and Fellowship in it's current form couldn't easily do that. The MOOC is essentially Fellowship 2.0 -- we're taking what we learned from Fellowship and then opening it up to the whole world so that anyone can participate.

<comment><USER13> Do you anticipate seed funding for standout fellowship "graduates", especially those in foreign countries?

<comment><USER12> Yes, many fellowship companies have gone on to raise money or join the core YC program. Our hope is that the same will be true of the MOOC.

<comment><USER13> Fantastic!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> MOOC = Massive Open Online Course

If I had to look it up, I'm sure others are in the same boat.

<comment><USER15> I would guess that over 90% of the YC crowd know what MOOC stands for.

<comment><USER16> I had no idea but I didn't feel like looking it up so I appreciate giarc for not being lazy.

<comment><USER17> You are part of the 10% that didn't know. Welcome to Hacker News.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> You buried the lede: a YC MOOC!

I always felt that onemonth.com basically was the YC MOOC. (It is funded by YC, and you see the themes of user first, user research, growth etc running through it).

Not sure if anyone else here knows what I mean.

Will the MOOC be free?

<comment><USER19> Yes, it will be free.

<comment><USER20> Thanks Sam for making it free and available to all. I am really excited about the upcoming MOOC from YC. Can you share some more details on what kind of content will it have? What is the target audience? etc. Would love to know more about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Am I reading this correctly that the $20,000 YC fellowship is no longer available (and therefore the only want to get any form seed funding from YC is once again to move to the Bay Area)?

That said, the MOOC sounds interesting!

<comment><USER19> Correct.

However, we may offer something like 'financial aid' for future versions of the MOOC.

<comment><USER22> I'm confused by this - coming from an academic background, the words "financial aid" mean "help with subsidized tuition fees" to me, but you've said that this is going to be free. Can you elaborate on what you're thinking here?

<comment><USER23> The initial thought process around financial aid in this case is to give founders the means to be able to work on their idea, project, or company. I'd like to think of it more as a grant. The grant will afford founders in more disadvantaged positions an opportunity to focus on their startup.

We're still working out the details of program, but our aim is to encourage more people to work on their ideas, and hopefully help startups be better in the long run.

<comment><USER22> Got it. So funding for the ideas/projects/companies, not funding for the MOOC.

I don't envy you the task of deciding who will get the grants (and I say this as someone who routinely pores through hundreds of undergraduate student applications for scholarships and awards). Is there any way you can structure the MOOC to give you a cheap-but-not-trivially-gameable grade? That way you could formulate the "startup grants" as being awards for the best performers in the MOOC and cut down significantly on the administrative effort involved. Of course, you might want people to be working on their projects while they take the MOOC, in which case the timeline wouldn't work -- I don't know whether your MOOC is aimed more at preparing people for a startup or people currently doing a startup (this seems like a very important thing to decide and to be clear about).

... it occurs to me now that I've written this that you've almost certainly considered all the points I've raised already; but I figure I might as well leave them here just in case I've pointed out anything you missed. :-)

<comment><USER23> Yep! And I definitely appreciate your thoughtfulness and input. We are still fleshing out all the finer details of the program, but we will have a more detailed announcement soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Seeing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Buchheit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Buchheit) in the announcement is a fun coincidence. He founded gmail. One of the things he did with gmail is gave it a command-line user interface.

I recently found out that a lot of people I would expect to know about it, don't. If that includes you, go to the gear on the upper right of your gmail, select that, then Settings, then turn keyboard shortcuts on and save.

Typing "?" randomly in gmail will let you know what shortcuts are there. It takes time for your fingers to learn them, but scanning email with j k [ ] is so much faster than a mouse. I don't even think before using / to search. :-)

<comment><USER25> These are keyboard shortcuts not a command-line.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Does Paul (pg) have an active role in YC? Asking as a curious outsider.

<comment><USER19> He normally still advises companies, but right now he's living in England for a year.

<comment><USER26> Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> What the world needs is a solution to _funding_ orders of magnitude more startups than currently get funded.

YC is in the incredibly fortunate position of having this opportunity but instead it looks like Sam Altman is falling into the same trap Larry Page did with Google. He's turning it into a bit of a rich guy's playground...

On behalf of the world that wasn't born into a world of wealth and elite connections: Please shine your massive resources on the many thousands of deserving little startups!

<comment><USER28> YC would like to fund a lot more startups. We're working on this.

Also, being connected doesn't help people get into YC. We have no connection to most of the companies we fund.

<comment><USER29> RE: "We have no connection to most of the companies we fund."

This certainly isn't the perception on my part - the flood of posts from previous YC companies who talk about how they had help from other YC companies to polish their pitch makes it seem like current YC companies are definitively connected to previous YC companies.

<comment><USER12> The handful of blog posts you see here on HN are not representative of the whole batch. The majority of companies that we fund have zero alumni connections.

To me, this is actually one of the most important features of YC: the application process is completely open and we fund people from around the world regardless of background. Having graduated from college in Ohio in the 90s I moved here with zero connections and really wished for something like YC.

<comment><USER29> An awesome feature certainly. I appreciate the access (and the free teaching we're getting more of soon) :)

While I can't dictate what orgs do, it'd be helpful to see some "we applied with zero connections and got in on our strength alone" posts to balance it out.

<comment><USER12> I agree it would be good to have more blog posts with that message -- I worry that good founders won't apply due to the mistaken impression that alumni connections are required.

Here's one for you: [https://twitter.com/joseluisnuno/status/770711984543244288](https://twitter.com/joseluisnuno/status/770711984543244288)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> One question does YC == Y Combinator? In the TLDR, YC Core is renamed to "YC", and YC Group now consists of Y Combinator, YC Continuity, YC Research and the new YC MOOC. But I wasn't 100% clear whether the group Michael Seibel is the CEO of "YC" is the same as the component in the YC Group referred to as "Y Combinator".

It would have been a bit more clear (to me) if the group had been consistently referred to as "YC" if that's the new branding, so I'm guessing there are a lot of others like me who aren't certain as well.

<comment><USER31> It's probably just like Alphabet (YC Group) & Google (YC).

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Will the MOOC content be in any way different from How to Start a Startup by Sam A. (class taught at Stanford)

<comment><USER19> Yes, I have a lot of new ideas about how to improve if after teaching that class.

I plan to talk in more detail about it near the end of this year.

<comment><USER33> Thank you so much for taking the time to teach this class again. The original contained nuggets of knowledge and wisdom that are hard to find anywhere else.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I expect to be downvoted but my YC interview with Michael a couple summers back left a bad taste in my mouth.

I'm not really sure he asked more than "how is this a billion dollar company?" multiple times during the 10 minutes. I'm not sure why YC would pay $1k to fly us to Mountain View if that question was that important and wasn't already answered by our application.

Hope that was just a fluke though... Good luck YC!

<comment><USER12> It's very difficult to truly evaluate a business without talking to the founders. Sometimes a bad sounding business (such as air mattress rentals) will turn out to be a really great business (such as AirBnb).

That said, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We're working on better ways to pre-screen startups before interviews so we can hopefully avoid as much unnecessary travel as possible.

<comment><USER34> Thanks paul. I should elaborate: the other partners were asking other and varied questions.

The experience was really not bad except that the persistence and insistence of that question made it feel like an episode of Shark Tank.

Maybe we were just bitter realists but the only answer to that question is "get really lucky."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> PG wasnt joking when he said:

"You could parachute [Sam] into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king." \- PG 5.5 years ago[1]

[1] [http://paulgraham.com/fundraising.html](http://paulgraham.com/fundraising.html)

<comment><USER36> Let's do it.

<comment><USER37> Agreed. Depending on what he's allowed to pack I'm betting against him

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Missed naming opportunity: Y Combinator Combinator

<comment><USER39> YC, short for YC Combinator, short for Y Combinator Combinator.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I'm surprised they got to shutdown YC Fellowship; is it already shut down, or they are planning on that next year.

Without YC how one could get access to YC network and get one to one advice without moving to bayarea?

online classes are not really one to one advice.

<comment><USER28> The MOOC will include one to one advice.

Also, YC frequently does open office hours that are open to anyone over Skype.

<comment><USER41> > The MOOC will include one to one advice.

How might this work at scale?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> My understanding of a provost's role is to be as senior as possible without having to do any administrative, managerial, or executive duties -- so they can focus entirely on academic topics.

Is that basically what you're going for with the PB analogy, except s/academic/startup-mentoring/ ?

<comment><USER12> Yes, that's the goal :)

I like working with startups and advancing our program, but do not generally enjoy administrative work. This change enables me to do more of what I like and less of what I don't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> There are many great mentors in the startup world, but I've yet to meet one with a better time in to help out ratio than Michael Seibel. Excellent choice to lead YC.

It's also very inspiring to see YC Group tackling some of the world's most important problems. Excited to see what comes of this.

</comment><comment><USER44> The theme of YC Research seems to be futurology.

<comment><USER45> I would say: automation & AI:

\- automated cities & robotic workers \- HARC working on the interfaces for the "workers" \- basic income to replace minimum wage earners' incomes

Would love to work on this path!

<comment><USER46> Earnest question: do you believe that full automation and mass displacement of workers, combined with a basic income will lead to anything resembling a decent quality of life for most?

Because I want to believe it, but all contemporary evidence points to an outcome that includes an even more extreme stratification of wealth and masses of struggling, impoverished people.

<comment><USER17> This is correct. Those at the top, like myself, will continue to develop AI and automation tools while doing our best to keep workers from "becoming smart" through low wages/benefits/minimally satisfying regulations. You wouldn't want your maid revolting against you, now would you?

Call me morally corrupt if you want, but there will always be morally corrupt people in the world whether we like it or not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> So is "YC Core" what we have historically thought of as YC?

What is PG's role these days?

</comment><comment><USER48> I asked Sam in a live webcast he did some months ago whether YC would build a chatbot for the fellowship to replace mentors and he said they would try. I wonder if they actually did and it'll be included in the MOOC.

</comment><comment><USER49> I hope Paul Buchheit becoming a provost doesn't mean he won't be part of YC going forward.

A little part of me is hoping to have him on our interview panel again to show him how far we've come.

<comment><USER12> Thanks. I'm definitely still involved, and if anything should have more time to spend with the startups :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Michael has been everywhere when it comes promoting YC. Si it's great to see this formalization.

Of course, the timing of this announcement is more exciting being that Michael and Qasar will be in Nigeria in 10 days :) [1][2]

re: MOOC

Sam/Michael,

What are your thoughts on (semi)formalizing a relationship with incubators globally as the top of the funnel for recruiting startups.

It can key into them helping adopt your MOOC curriculum. That way the fundamentals of knowledge are taken care of at the lowest of levels and potential YC recruits have the basics even before applying.

I was just having it as a rough idea to discuss with Michael when he visits only to see this post pop up

[1] Lagos - [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/techcircle-presents- building-a-...](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/techcircle-presents-building-a- startup-a-chat-with-yc-incubators-co-tickets-27008639568)

[2] Abuja - [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/techcircle-presents-build-a- gre...](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/techcircle-presents-build-a-great- startup-qa-in-abuja-with-y-combinator-tickets-27078547665)

Both are oversubscribed but pop me an email (see profile) if you want to attend and have not registered I'll get you a ticket.

</comment><comment><USER51> So YC is the new Alphabet?

<comment><USER52> My guess is that just about any organization that's using it's business as a vehicle to push social changes is eventually going to start adopting such a structure. You want to keep the business profitable while at the same time making room for new efforts. If you just started opening up new departments in the already-profitable organization you risk watering down what makes it magical.

<comment><USER51> I actually think it's a great idea. So far the people who don't like it are they smaller is better crowd. The run it like a 3 person coffee shop crowd.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Any hint on a more precise date for Startup School MOOC version launch? Closer to Jan/2017 or closer to Dec/2017?

</comment><comment><USER54> So is this new "YC" an acronym for YC Core? That seems a bit like the GNU's Not Unix thing.

<comment><USER55> Pretty sure "YC" is "Y Combinator".

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> > *I'm going to be the President of YC Group, which includes Y Combinator, YC > Continuity, YC Research, and our

Presumably it also includes YC (that used to be YC Core) - was including 'Y Combinator'in the list a slip - and it should have been YC?

</comment><comment><USER57> I can't wait for the MOOC!!

</comment><comment><USER58> Does this change mean YCombinator is going to invest in primarily mature startups?

It feels like the research and mooc will boost early stage startups to eventually apply to the YC core program. Is that the goal?

</comment><comment><USER59> It's ambiguous wether the MOOC will be replacing the Fellowship the Fellowship will be continuing along with this new component.

<comment><USER59> Clarified: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12490241](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12490241)

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> YC is really unique. I expect the MOOC will include a nurturing and/or funding path beyond the courses.

</comment><comment><USER61> Small correction, Socialcam was YC W12, not S12.

</comment><comment><USER62> ok.

<comment><USER63> Every blog post should have a TLDR like this one.

TL;DR: _Michael Seibel will be the new CEO of YC Core, which we are now just going to call "YC". _Ali Rowghani is now the CEO of the YC Continuity Fund. _I'm going to be the President of YC Group, which includes Y Combinator, YC Continuity, YC Research, and our new online class. We'll add more organizational units over time._ We're going to replace the Fellowship with a much larger MOOC launching next year.

<comment><USER64> The use of TL;DR bothers me because the word "summary" is appropriate or even "key points". It's not common use among all groups of people (old timers for example who also could read a blog post) and it really doesn't serve any clear purpose that "summary" does not.

<comment><USER65> I try to use "summary" when I can as well.

I think few people know the full history of tl;dr. When it first started appearing, it wasn't used by the author, but in response to the author (like you wrote something way too long winded I'm not reading that)

<comment><USER64> Agree most probably don't know the history. TL;DR is a good example of how people can date themselves by how they communicate. They enter into something new and start to copy something that they see because they don't understand the nuance. Then the nuance disappears because of that new usage.

In reverse (with much older people) we have a few customers who pay by check and send a cover letter as well attached to the check (a formal holdover from olden times). Attaching the invoice is sufficient obviously.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Billing for SaaS – first $50k free tier for startups - <AUTHOR> https://www.chargebee.com/blog/launch-plan-first-50k-on-us/ <comment><USER2> Haven't looked into automating invoicing, but how long time would the onboarding typically take for a startup with say three SaaS plans? And can you tell us some of the companies that are using Chargebee? Thanks

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Most customers complete integration within a day, if you have the billing use cases written down. Normally 2-3 days max including all the testing. It's very much Stripe like in terms of API capabilities but more comprehensive built for all subscription edge cases, proration etc., including invoice payments.

Soylent, Freshdesk, "VinylMe,Please", Taxamo, Sharetribe, Cirrusseo are some of our customers. We now serve customers in 48 countries.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey HNers, Cofounder here. From the initial feedback that we got on HN (even specific feedback on website copy, thank you) we have come a long way building something customers love.

Has been an interesting journey with Braintree & Stripe expanding across the world, we followed them, as onboarding customers became much easier around the world (& by the fact that taxation made it more compelling as a solution in EU and rest of the world). Will be glad to answer any questions. Thanks.</comment>


How the U.S. Squandered Its Steel Superiority - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-05/steel-history-shows-how-america-lost-ground-to-europe <comment><USER2> It's astounding to me how Republicans can be so schizophrenic about the free market.

Healthcare? "Let the market decide!"

Investment in public infrastructure? Net neutrality? "Let the market decide!"

But give Republicans control of the Presidency and all the sudden we're talking about putting tariffs on steel because the U.S. steel manufacturers don't want to have to contend with market forces.

To be fair, there are plenty of Republicans resisting the President's proposal, but if tariffs (tariffs!) are being considered then, you know, maybe some other less intrusive measures shouldn't be so anathema?

<comment><USER3> healthcare and public infra are both internal markets, where as steel is global.

Global "market forces" are not natural already, as other countries manipulate them; national manipulation _is_ market practice. Comparing inner/intra and inter national trade is apples and oranges.

<comment><USER4> The old counterexample to this claim (I got this from David Friedman, but I don't know if it's original to him) is that there are two ways to make cars in the US: build them in Detroit, or grow them in Iowa. The way the second technology works is: you plant wheat seeds, harvest wheat, put the wheat in ships, and sail them into the Pacific, and they return with Toyotas. The fact that there may be Japanese involved in the second process is irrelevant from the perspective of the US economy.

If the exchange price of Toyotas in wheat is "unfairly" good because of government manipulation in Japan, so much the better for the Iowan car farmers. And if the government of Japan intends to reverse its manipulation in the future, there's no reason US markets can't take that into account in their capital allocation decisions, just like they would mines that might run out or climate that affects the wheat crop.

<comment><USER3> Is "so much the better" for car farmers, also better for America? I'm not sure I understand that point.

But in any case, how does the USG allocate capital - How does that relate to tariffs? Seems to me predicting a roughly global, nonsentient thing like climate, or internal, controllable nonsentient variable like mine depletion, is entirely different to prediction foreign, advisarial governments with similar prediction power.

<comment><USER4> If you view trade as just another production technology, it's pretty easy to see that foreign goods being cheaper is isomorphic to an improvement in technology, and therefore presumably good for overall welfare.

Foreign governments could be harder to predict than "nonsentient variables", but if you think financial markets are better at prediction than governments (which is roughly the premise of the original comment) there's still no reason to think they aren't the best available solution to this difficult problem.

Edit: maybe I missed your actual question. Viewed in this light, a tariff on steel is exactly an attempt to command that there shall be more steel made in Pittsburgh and less in Iowa or wherever. Domestic production is the only thing USG _can_ command, unless they are going to send the Marines.

<comment><USER3> But technological advances are fairly static. If you lead in some kind of technology, that tech won't suddenly cut you out, or cut you off. Plus, government does tinker with its internal economy, protections etc.

Another question is _why_ goods are cheapet; cheap labour is often associated with poorer working conditions, and fewer consumer protections, relying on the "market" to deal with legal issues (e.g unsafe products) diesnt really cut it.

Financial markets cherry pick their domains, heavily structured representations thereof - and they ate _still_ known for being irrational and prone to panics etc. The point is "the wisdom of crowds" doesn't work against strategic trade attacks.

Your answer to my question is based on your own metaphor of "steel produced in Iowa". There is no steel produced there, only a dependency on foreign steel. If an external country needs X that they would trade for steel, they still need X if they won't trade the steel; but maybe the US can use it's own steel.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Amongst everything else, the Trump Administration is living 20-30 years in the past. In other words, serving entrenched interests seeking to artificially and locally sustain the value of their capital. (It's not about "the workers"; it's about the owners.)

Aluminum. What's the number one cost input? Energy. Either we jack up the U.S. carbon pollution (and all the other pollution that goes with it, e.g. heavy metals and soot particulate and...). Or we move towards "next generation" technology, having that product and expertise to sell in addition to lessening cost inputs to domestic electrolysis and smelting.

A few years ago, Iceland -- yes, Iceland -- was moving towards being a major producer of aluminum. Why? Cheap, in its case geothermal, energy.

I agree that domestic, or certainly continental, reliable sources are important.

However, it seems that the way to those, at this point, is energy policy and also a progressive environmental policy (not destroying your environment and the rest of your economy and health that are dependent on it). And, the inevitable automation -- jobs are going away from this production activity, regardless.

Instead, we've got the corporate mafia.

30 years ago -- maybe more like 40 -- the U.S. might have been able to protect its domestic metals industry while incentivising it to modernize.

What remains has modernized and found ways to keep up. We need to help it move and expand into the future, not devolve to some era of cheap, dirty energy and corrupt politics.</comment>


The pieces of the puzzle of Covid-19's origin are coming to light - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/05/02/the-pieces-of-the-puzzle-of-covid-19s-origin-are-coming-to-light <comment><USER2> Non-registration-nag version: [http://archive.is/jvQGd](http://archive.is/jvQGd)

<comment><USER3> Ta.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Talking about it, why "local superstition" is still called "traditional medicine" with a respect that modern medicine, (based in hard tests and long years of research do not always receive), still puzzles me.

A really well written article with many solid bits to think about it, an none of the common BS. Things like, for example.

"earliest time for this [unique] transfer [from secondary host to humans, is calculated] as early October 2019"

"In one experiment Chinese, American and Italian scientists, explored the disease-like potential of a bat coronavirus by recombining its genome with that of a mouse-infecting coronavirus"

</comment><comment><USER5> Fairly well balanced presentation, even if behind paywall. IIRC, Economist lets one create an account and read 5 free articles.

One aspect that is particularly worrisome:

> Western experts say categorically that the sequence of the new virus's > genome—which Chinese scientists published early on, openly and > accurately—reveals none of the telltales genetic engineering would leave in > its wake. But it remains a fact that in Wuhan, where the outbreak was first > spotted, there is a laboratory where scientists have in the past > deliberately made coronaviruses more pathogenic.

[...]

> In 2017 WIV opened the first biosecurity-level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in > China—the sort of high-containment facility in which work is done on the > most dangerous pathogens. A large part of Dr Shi's post-SARS research there > has been aimed at understanding the potential which viruses still > circulating among bats have to spill over into the human population. In one > experiment she and Ge Xingyi, also of the WIV, in collaboration with > American and Italian scientists, explored the disease-like potential of a > bat coronavirus, SHC014-CoV, by recombining its genome with that of a mouse- > infecting coronavirus. The WIV newsletter of November 2015 reported that the > resulting virus could "replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells > and achieve in vitro titres equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV". In > early April this newsletter and all others were removed from the institute's > website.

[...]

> Many scientists think that with so many biologists actively hunting for bat > viruses, and gain-of-function work becoming more common, the world is at > increasing risk of a laboratory-derived pandemic at some point. "One of my > biggest hopes out of this pandemic is that we address this issue—it really > worries me," says Dr Pilch. Today there are around 70 BSL-4 sites in 30 > countries. More such facilities are planned.</comment>


The FBI can almost certainly crack the San Bernardino iPhone without Apple - <AUTHOR> http://blog.rongarret.info/2016/02/the-fbi-can-almost-certainly-crack-san.html <comment><USER2> This assumption is not correct. The (4-digit) passcode is entangled with the device's unique ID, which is burned into the A6 application processor (on the other side of the logic board). It's theoretically possible to extract the UID from the A6 at the silicon level, but not realistically possible.

I suggest you read the iOS Security Guide: [https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf](https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> It doesn't matter that the UID is incorporated into the key. If you have a copy of the flash then you can restore the device to its current state, at which point you can brute-force the PIN. The only way this could not work is if the A6 has some non-volatile storage on-chip and it is used to prevent this kind of replay attack, but AFAIK this is not the case.

<comment><USER3> I _think_ it does have non-volatile on-chip storage, which is used to store a randomly generated key that is encrypted with the key derived from the PIN and UID. It is that randomly generated key that is used to encrypt flash data.

I cannot find documentation to verify this. I presume the people down voting you do, but unfortunately they've chosen to down vote instead of being useful and posting a link. (The only link I've seen is for A7 and later systems)

<comment><AUTHOR> What you describe would not defeat a brute-force attack on the PIN using a duplicate flash. The only way NV-storage on the A6 chip would do that is if it stored the attempt counter there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> all of you were wrong and he was right

<comment><USER5> relevant link [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11248320](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11248320)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The author is absolutely, totally wrong.

The PIN number is entangled with the device's 256-bit "UID", which itself is on-die in the SoC/CPU and _NOT_ extractable without either being able to run code on the CPU, or decapping the SoC, reverse engineering its implementation, and extracting the UID, all from the SEM imagery.

The PIN number and the UID are fed to key derivation code for strengthening; the result of that process is used to actually perform encryption of the data on the NAND.

The weak point here is the PIN number; the FBI would be extremely hard-pressed to brute force the derived AES keys.

This is described in the "Tangling" definition on page 59 of the iOS Security Guide: [https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf](https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf)

I flagged the article, as the entire argument is predicated on a factually false premise.

<comment><USER7> For what it's worth I unflagged/vouched for the article because I think the premise and the comments refuting it are an interesting discussion.

Even if he's wrong, the reason _why_ he's wrong is informative.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I really did want to respond to this.

It's possible that I'm wrong, but not for the reasons given so far. Once you have a copy of the flash you can always get back to the current state by installing a copy of the flash in its current state. Then you can simply brute-force the PIN.

<comment><USER7> Is that true though? Other commenters are arguing that the encryption of that flash chip is a value that, while based on the PIN, is sufficiently long as to resist brute force encryption. Is it possible that you're mistaken?

<comment><USER8> He's not claiming that you can brute-force the encryption key -- he's proposing another way to brute-force the PIN itself that won't trigger exponential timeouts or auto-wipe of the device. I don't know if he's right or wrong, but let's at least make sure we're clear what his argument is first.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just posted an update, but I thought I'd reiterate it here: it doesn't matter that the UID is used in the key derivation. Once you have a copy of the flash you can always get back to the current state by installing a copy of the flash in its current state. Then you can simply brute-force the PIN.

<comment><USER6> How do you brute force the PIN if the KDF process operates over the PIN, plus a 256-bit UID that's only accessible to signed code running on the SoC?

If you modify the kernel on the NAND, signature checks in the on-die bootloader will fail, and you won't get to run.

If you modify application binaries on the NAND, signature checks in the signed kernel will fail, and you won't get to run.

<comment><AUTHOR> Turn on the device. Make 5 PIN guesses. Replace the flash chip with a copy of the original. Reboot the device. Make 5 more guesses.

<comment><USER9> That sounds time consuming. 5,040 possible pins with the 4x length pin and 151,200 possible pins with the 6x length pin.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know how long it takes a 5C to boot, but my iPod takes 30 seconds. Add another 30 seconds to swap out the RAM chip (I'm assuming a ZIF socket has been installed) and you can brute-force 150k PINs in 30k minutes which is about 3 weeks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The flash is not wiped after 10 attempts. The key is thrown away after 10 attempts, and it's stored in the secure enclave. So flashing the memory to its last state does nothing, it's not even necessary. The actual key to the files is made of Device-ID (can't be read, binds any attack to the device) + random key (can't be read, can be securely thrown away) + file-specific data (so you need a different key per user file) + the users passcode (only component not on the device). It's a very elegant system actually.

<comment><USER11> The 5c doesn't have a secure enclave. That came with 6.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This author doesn't support the technical claims they're making with technical fact.

They point at the NAND chip and just say "pull off the encryption key, then decrypt the device" but without supplying any fact as to how the key was stored in the iPhone 5S, what kind of resources reversing it would take, and if Apple has employed any kind of anti-reverse engineering means.

For all we know Apple could have thrown different elements of the decryption key all over the device, the A7, the NAND, and elsewhere. Without more technical specifics it is hard to draw the conclusion this article draws.

<comment><AUTHOR> The 5C has an A6, not an A7.

<comment><USER9> Misread it as a 5S, not 5C. So yes an A6 in the 5C.

What say you about my overarching point about the technicals of key extraction and decryption? Do you have any information on more specifics? I am not calling you wrong, I am saying you aren't showing us enough specifics to say you're right.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > They are not worried about the data on the San Bernardino iPhone, because if > they were they would have had it by now.

I wish this was the point made by more mainstream media outlets. Not for the reasons the article author posts, but rather that the SOP for Apple devices involves bringing it to a known access point and powering the phone to allow an iCloud backup to occur.

<comment><USER9> Unfortunately the iCloud backup option is no longer available to the FBI now as they changed the iCloud password.

<comment><USER12> Precisely - from where I'm sitting, the disregard for standard forensic examination procedures [0] shown by the reset of the iCloud password proves that their actual desire to obtain the data is not in proportion to their assertion that Apple gives in to their demand.

Additionally, had they brought the device to a known access point and plugged it in to a charger, they could have availed themselves of another handy thing: Access to a computer synchronized with iCloud would've yielded an iCloud- specific token that could be used to download and extract the backup (without Apple's involvement), bypassing even TFA. [1]

[0]: [http://www.nij.gov/publications/Pages/publication- detail.asp...](http://www.nij.gov/publications/Pages/publication- detail.aspx?ncjnumber=199408)

[1]: [https://www.elcomsoft.com/eppb.html](https://www.elcomsoft.com/eppb.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This attack vector also assumes that 100% of the phone state is in the NAND chip -- is that known to be true? The phone has a lot of modules.

The article is interesting, but it presents a hypotheses with far more confidence than it deserves. People finding the article, and not this discussion, will be misled.</comment>


The Vodafone repair process caught on video - <AUTHOR> http://blog.vodafone.co.uk/2013/05/28/fixing-your-phone-the-vodafone-repair-process-caught-on-video-2/

<comment><USER2> > like welding bits on the motherboard

That really caught my eye, did they mean soldering and used welding or is there actually stuff _welded_ to the board of phones?

<comment><USER3> Since Vodaphone is US-based (just a guess from the domain) is this an accepted use of the word welding? Could be one of those colloquialisms like taking a "lift" vs an "elevator".

<comment><USER4> As a UK resident, they just got the word wrong.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm currently stuck with a Lumia 800 with a penchant for crashing thanks to Vodafone's "repair" service.

I explained in a written letter how the phone would crash at frequent intervals (especially when playing or recording video). Being a developer I even wrote the letter as I would write a bug report with steps on how to replicate the problem and what not.

They returned the phone to me with a standard letter saying how they fixed the phone by upgraded the OS to the latest version.

The OS was of course already updated to the latest version before I even sent it to them. They even tried ringing me on the broken phone I had sent them so I could explain what my problem was. I'm not sure how they thought I would answer it exactly...

I tried again and received the same response. Needless to say, my phone is still broken.

<comment><USER6> _I'm not sure how they thought I would answer it exactly_

Because number are tied to SIM-cards not phones. I've never sent my SIM card off to be repaired. Just pop your SIM card into a new phone before sending your broken one off and you'll have not trouble answering when they (or anybody else) calls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There's a bit of uninspired marketing-drone-boilerplate in the blogpost, but the video is actually quite good. I suspect it's a great way to connect with the technically interested who, especially in the case of mobile providers, are probably key drivers for advocacy.

</comment><comment><USER8> The video is pretty impressive, but after seeing all that I wonder whether it is really worth it to fix a Nokia feature phone rather than just replacing it. I suppose it must be, but I wonder by how much?

</comment><comment><USER9> "There are different levels of accreditation as well, starting at relatively simple changes such as back covers or keypads, through to more advanced stuff like _welding_ bits on the motherboard."

Now that would be something to see.</comment>


Why Is Hacker News Paying for Google Ads –? - <AUTHOR> https://imgur.com/a/dUp0E4j <comment><USER2> We don't. I have no idea how that came up there.

</comment><comment><USER3> You're likely to get a better, faster, and authoritative response by contacting the mods directly using the contact link in the footer.

From the guidelines:

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Instead, please send it > to firstname.lastname@example.com.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

If you're looking to have a discussion about it, after getting a response, write up a blog post and submit it as a normal submission.

<comment><AUTHOR> wasn't, its to highlight a harder debate on why its Google ads are broken and forces brands to pay for their own keyworss

<comment><USER3> Then again, write that blog post and submit it to encourage that discussion. What you've written above does not guide conversation constructively in that direction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Lex-2008 _maybe_ , just _maybe_ \- to prevent others from taking that place. Telling it from my own experience: once I wanted to download some software, typed its name into Google (expecting to see official website as the first result), and saw advertisement for its competitor right at the top. _Maybe_ paying for ads ensures that in this case _your_ link would be on top when googling for _your_ brand name?

</comment><comment><USER4> It looks like it is to draw attention to ycombinator.com, since that is the first word in the ad title.

The real question is, why are you browsing without a filter?

</comment><comment><USER5> Waste of money to run ads on your brand name. You rank for it already.

<comment><USER6> From Basecamp

[https://www.seroundtable.com/basecamp-google- ad-28161.html](https://www.seroundtable.com/basecamp-google-ad-28161.html)</comment></comment>


And so I'm giving up the Mozilla project -  Jamie Zawinski (1999) - Andrew-Dufresne http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/nomo.html <comment><AUTHOR> Lots of things on the Internet can move quickly but browsers are not Internet software the way that Google or Facebook are. Browsers are still desktop software and things don't move as quickly there thanks to slow PC upgrade cycles and the absolute dominance that software like Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer had a decade ago. Turning that massive ship took longer than many imagined but it is happening.

Jamie gave the open source Mozilla project about a year and a half, including the months of pre-source release preparation (and I think that's being generous.) Brendan Eich and Mitchell Baker didn't give up so easily and thirteen-plus years later they're still giving all they've got to make sure that Mozilla continues to be successful in promoting choice, opportunity, and participation on the Web.

Some things are worth fighting for and I believe that the Web is one of those things. I'm proud to work with some of the founding members of mozilla.org and think it's a phenomenal thing that such talented people are willing to commit their professional lives to the Mozilla mission when there were and still are far sexier opportunities available to all of them.

<comment><USER2> When Firefox 1.0 came out, it was one of the lightest browsers available on the market. What happened until version 4.0? Even the latest Firefox beta is one of the slowest browser available. I'm not talking about the JavaScript engine, I'm talking about the user experience of your product.

<comment><USER3> I'd say that in the 10 or so years since firefox 1.0, the average computing power and requirements of the firefox user have shifted enough that the goalposts have moved.

Firefox 1.0's USP at a time when browsers were bloated was its lack of bloat. IMO thats less of an issue now.

<comment><USER4> I'm sorry but this mentality is everything that is wrong with software development. How is bloat not an issue now? We expect that hardware is getting better and better, but it is ok for software to become worse and worse just because it can sort of get away with it?

In this case Firefox has even managed to outperform Moore's law. It managed to become slower in a faster rate than computers get faster.

<comment><USER3> "Worse" in this case is subjective. Perhaps firefox today is objectively not as good for me (as a developer) as it was at 1.0.

My argument is that I'm not necessarily the main target demographic any more, Firefox 3.6 is fast enough and has the features that Joe average wants.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I interviewed at Netscape shortly after they announced they would release the browser as open source (June '98, ended up going to Inktomi). I remember being very excited about this, and downloading the source when it first became available. I found out that my (decent) desktop machine was not powerful enough to compile it. When I found a machine that could compile it, it took about 8 hours.

No surprise that it remained a Netscape project for so long.

<comment><USER6> "When I found a machine that could compile it, it took about 8 hours."

Thank you. It never occurred to me that you need a lot more processing power to compile code than you do to run the software you're creating. You just saved me a lot of heartache in a few months once it's time to start compiling. I love HN.

/srsly

<comment><USER7> This isn't always the case. It is highly dependent on the language, the compiler used, the size of the code-base and many other factors.

Most of the small to medium sized project I have worked on compile in what seems like an instant.

However, I work on a medium-to-large code-base at work and it takes around 8 minutes to compile on our build server and around 12-15 minutes on my dev machine. Even these speeds seem tremendously slow to me. I can't imagine being a developer on a huge C++ project and having to wait tremendously long build times. When your compile times aren't near instant it really changes how you program. That feed back loop of code-compile-run-repeat becomes more like code-double check code-code some more-compile-surf the web-run-repeat.

<comment><USER8> Ideally, you should not be in this situation where you have to compile large amounts of code to go through the code-test-debug cycle.

Even in a large project, there should be subysystems that a developer owns and works on that can be partitioned or isolated from the rest, and execute within a test harness on a dev machine -- a harness that feeds the subsystem inputs and records outputs.

Successful projects either begin with or evolve to a state where they have the architecture, the toolset, the process and the culture to allow devs to enjoy a fast code/debug cycle.

<comment> Andrew-Dufresne Besides subsystems, tools like make and nmake utility can also reduce the compile time.

 _Make figures out automatically which files it needs to update, based on which source files have changed. It also automatically determines the proper order for updating files, in case one non-source file depends on another non- source file. As a result, if you change a few source files and then run Make, it does not need to recompile all of your program. It updates only those non- source files that depend directly or indirectly on the source files that you changed._

<comment><USER9> Yes, but large projects often need to use recursive makefiles, which are notoriously flaky at detecting what has changed (if anything).

<comment><USER10> No project _needs_ to use recursive make.

"Recursive make considered harmful": <http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/books/rmch/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Excellent documentary on YouTube covering the year long open-sourcing of Mozilla, right up to the point of jwz leaving Netscape.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u404SLJj7ig>

(via codinghorror: [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/01/lived-fast-died- you...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/01/lived-fast-died-young-left-a- tired-corpse.html) )

<comment> Andrew-Dufresne Code Rush can downloaded from <http://clickmovement.org/content/code-rush- download>

Other links for unused footage and annotated version: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Rush#External_links>

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> 5 short years later, mozilla.org shipped a product that was finally ready for prime time.

<comment><AUTHOR> And today that product is used by more than 400 million people around the world -- far more users than Netscape ever had.

<comment><USER13> Specifically, it was Phoenix (aka Firebird, aka Firefox) that made that happen: a version of Mozilla that threw out everything but the browser, including the mail client that jwz considered essential. It made it smaller to download and faster to run, but most importantly it made it faster to _write_ : they could ship improvements to Firefox way faster than they could to Mozilla, simply because there was so much less of it.

<comment><USER14> Yup. A classic example of minimum viable product (although for phoenix far more than minimum). Phoenix was a breath of fresh air back then. Mozilla was as bloated and cumbersome as Netscape ever was, but Phoenix was fast, streamlined, and a joy to use.

The turning point was when the RSA patent expired and Phoenix could fully support SSL out of the box without any wonky add-ons. At that point there was no longer a good reason not to use Phoenix/Fire{bird,fox} and it started gaining huge amounts of momentum.

<comment><USER15> The RSA patent expired back in _2000_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "you can divide our industry into two kinds of people: those who want to go work for a company to make it successful, and those who want to go work for a successful company"

Awesome insight. Absolutely breathtaking. Explains so much of what happens at larger companies.

</comment><comment><USER17> That was a good post and I had forgotten about it over the years.

It prompted me to write up some of my own thoughts on the current day Mozilla Community: <http://daniele.livejournal.com/80677.html></comment>


Rethinking "Out of Africa" (Origins of humanity) - <AUTHOR> http://www.edge.org/conversation/rethinking-out-of-africa

<comment><USER2> Truly fascinating read.

One might conclude, though the evidence put forth here indicates otherwise, most of this intermixing probably occurred within Africa before spreading outward.

I suggest this because traces of earlier, middle, and later stage evolutionary branches are all found in African fossils of modern humans (apparently through various stages of history). So though the evidence of mixing with Denisovans exists in Asia, with the Neanderthals in Europe, and with Homo floresiensis in the islands, in modern human fossil records (which seem to originate from Africa) apparently traces of each still exist.

Thus, one might conclude that either recent mixing has reintroduced these genes back into our most common ancestors, or that the distant mixing occurred in a period that we no longer have evidence of (but might in the future).</comment>


Is Bitcoin a good idea? - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Bitcoin/Is-the-cryptocurrency-Bitcoin-a-good-idea

<comment><USER2> The comments are again, just like the last n articles wrong.

> ...."algorithm" which through some convoluted mechanism allows Bitcoins to > be "mined". Essentially it randomly allocates Bitcoin to early adopters...

No it doesn't, transactions use a proof-of-work to verify the transaction, this is what makes it secure and why 'miners' are given bitcoins. Think of it as payment for a service.

The other points I can't really comment on, except to look on bitcoincharts.com in 30 days there has been over 4 billion USD exchanged... money talks right.

<comment><USER3> 4 million.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Big thread on reddit: [http://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/hdqi8/bitcoin_is_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/hdqi8/bitcoin_is_a_ludicrously_bad_idea_it_is_a_scam_a/)</comment>


Ask HN: Who is looking for help on their side project? (May 2018) - <AUTHOR> Share your information if you are looking for help on your side project. Please use this format:
  Location:
  Remote:
  Technologies:
  Résumé/CV:
  Email: Readers: please only email these addresses to discuss work opportunities. <comment><USER2> I am starting market research on Zillow/Redfin Estimate Accuracy tracker. It is an interesting topic to help people understand how their zillow estimate varies over time and with similar sales nearby. I assume the product would be useful to agents and home owners. Since, zillow is getting into flipping houses, this number will be even more interesting. If you are interested, we can team up. Email in profile.

<comment><USER3> I have a few open source projects related to real estate - I'll drop you an email.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My project: [PropertyWebBuilder]([https://github.com/etewiah/property_web_builder](https://github.com/etewiah/property_web_builder))

Location: Remote

Tech: Ruby on Rails, JS (vue.js)

Email: ed at propertywebbuilder.com

It's basically an open source real estate website builder and I need with adding new features, languages and themes. Also open to collaboration on monetizing and marketing (will launch a whitelabel service based off it soon)

<comment><USER4> I've had ideas in the real estate area of apps. Do you plan on getting access to MLS data (I assume you are in US). That has always been the barrier to just trying out some things. It seems there is a paywall of sorts to get access to the systems that hold the actual listing data.

<comment><USER3> I'm based in Spain but I have worked with some US clients. Yes MLS access is a pain. I have some open source code for accessing MLS data in this project (which PWB uses):

[https://github.com/RealEstateWebTools/property_web_scraper](https://github.com/RealEstateWebTools/property_web_scraper)

In many cases though it was easier to just scrape the data I needed directly from real estate websites

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If anyone has any ideas for side projects they are not working on, feel free to share them with me. I'm looking for something to work on.

</comment><comment><USER6> My side project: Productivity Tool Location: Remote Technologies: React, Python Email: See in profile

I own a very simple web app that I would love to have help taking to the next level. Site currently gets a significant number of visitors and has been growing YoY. Would like to take it to a full SaaS model have plans to develop it into something more than a side project.

</comment><comment><USER7> My project: Online budgeting software.

Written in the wonderful language Elm. Will make this open source on GitHub. Large and small contributions welcome. The basics are there: Login, add accounts, add transactions etc.

Data hosted in Parse. SPA javascript app compiled from Elm.

        Location: Remote
        Tech: Elm, Parse SDK
        Resume: n/a
        Email: firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER8> I tried elmbudget.com but the registration was broken, so I couldn't check out the website.

<comment><USER7> Sorry about that. Will look into when I got time. In the mean time I have posted the source code above.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Side project: machine learning model to recognize elements from web page screenshots (forms, buttons, hero banner, etc...)

Location: remote (raleigh-durham area of NC a plus)

Technologies: JavaScript, python, tensorflow

Email: firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER10> iNeoSyte - Construction Site, Field reports app

[https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ineosyte-construction- report...](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ineosyte-construction- reports/id1072145917?mt=8)

Location: Remote (we are based in London and Warsaw)

Looking for distributors who are handy with technology, and would help to integrate this software to construction companies.

Pay: commission

Email: wojtek at ineosyte dot com

</comment><comment><USER11> I am looking for a fulfilling side project -- my email is in my profile & I'm located in San Jose, CA.

<comment><USER3> Your email is not visible on your profile

<comment><USER12> Very perceptive. You're hired!</comment></comment></comment>


Regulating Technology - <AUTHOR> https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2020/7/23/regulating-technology <comment><USER3> The challenges for regulation are two-fold, in my opinion:

1\. It just doesn't work. Legal and regulatory solutions are too slow and poorly designed to be effective, see for example the EU browser consent decree applied to Internet Explorer. IE didn't fail because Microsoft was forced to offer a choice of browser; it stumbled because of other nimbler competitors (particularly Chrome) that were able to innovate despite Microsoft's historical success. Similarly, Windows' monopoly of the 2000s was nothing like as entrenched as a business like oil: the dominant player is always at risk from technological shifts (e.g. browser-based apps) that render old advantages (Win32) less profound.

2\. The marketplace is global. Heavy regulation of US or EU companies is a competitive disadvantage when Chinese companies operate in a very different dynamic. The US could hypothetically force the dismantling of Facebook into its constituent products or the EU could add stricter rules on how it could monetize its services, but that just plays to the advantages of Tiktok and other companies that they have even less control over. It's unclear that this is in the interests of America or Europe.

[Disclosure: I work for Google, but it's Sunday and I don't speak for them; I'm just another muggle posting on the internet.]

<comment><USER4> > 1\. It just doesn't work.

* Unleaded gasoline

* Earthquake-proof building codes

* Air pollution ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_of_1963#Effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_of_1963#Effects))

These are just a few that I quickly came up with off the top of my head. Obviously, not all regulation works. But it is so incredibly false to say there doesn't exist effective regulation that has made our lives much better.

<comment><USER5> From the top of another head: Banning DDT, Removing Freon from AC systems, mandatory seat-belts and airbags in cars, Residential ground fault detection outlets, Electricity system codes, Gas line codes, Building safety codes ...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> >>> Today it might have 100x that. So, how many compliance people will Google have in five years?

Compliance goes hand in glove with regulatory reporting. Reporting to regulators _should_ be a marginal cost thing - if the data internally is same, well managed and fully auditable in an automated fashion.

Doing this in finance is something the new challenger banks (ie monzo built about five years ago by ten coders and now has a million UK accounts) - <USER2> is something they can have one compliance person because all their systems are new and written with compliance in mind.

Doing this for most major banks is next to impossible. It would rewriting everything (#)

(#) Actuallly i would say this is a good strategic plan for most major banks. Might not be able to persuade the board but still.

<comment><USER7> These challenger banks are also currently operating in relative niches. Yes Monzo has a million bank accounts, but in terms of their product offering, it isn't close to the breadth of your traditional "High Street" bank. As their product offering expands, their compliance requirements will become a lot more complex, and will lead to more compliance personnel being hired. They have also yet to experience a massive overhaul to the compliance requirements of their existing systems. I'm sure they are better placed to handle it than a traditional bank but it won't be easy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've seen this piece a few times, and it's broadly good, but I think it glosses over the fact that just because politicians want regulation or try to pass regulation does not mean it actually happens.

As a good example, we're now at the 10th anniversary of the original Digital Economy Act in the UK, the legislation that was going to disconnect persistent pirates from the internet and send out warning letters. This legislation passed. There was much writing at the time about how this was the end of the open internet, and from politicians about how this was the end of the wild west internet.

And yet, ten years later, not a single action has ever been undertaken under those provisions. No letters were sent. No disconnections ever happened. And that's because politicians ignored the complexity, declared something must be done and passed law that didn't actually parse into any real world actions. Primarily it was just completely barmy costs wise for rights owners to send letters, so they didn't and the regulator just quietly forgot about it after several consultations.

Much of this regulation feels very similar. Laws may be passed, but the vast majority of them will never result in any changes because frankly the quality of lawmaking in most jurisdictions is extremely poor. One or two bits certainly will, but most of it will fail badly.

Evans sets out the UK's Online Harms act as an example, but the Online Harms regulation is doomed for one simple reason - everyone and their dog in politics and lobbying keeps trying to project their problems on to it as something that will be solved. It's suddenly got to do a million things, while not having any resource to do so. It will inevitably collapse under it's own weight because nobody involved is brave enough to say it's scope is already too big to work.

</comment><comment><USER9> Right now there are three huge risks in regulating tech:

1\. Slowing innovation 2\. Creating monopolies 3\. Crippling entire segments of the tech industry

The last chart is the most important: the cost of compliance affects small businesses, including startups much more than large companies.

</comment><comment><USER6> Can I veer horribly into my favourite tangent - I love the presentation style, the look-and-feel. It's a blog version of what he did at A18Z - a sort of sophisticated corporate but with the look of something that could be knocked up from Markdown.

I could steal the CSS, but that's is only 20% of the battle - getting graphs that match the snazz, getting everything just right, but with this off handed vibe.

As I get older this stuff matters.

<comment><USER10> Interesting but I found the opposite. Font a bit small, grey on grey hard to read and no links whatsoever! (Why not if you are writing for the web?) No strong personality comes across - and I like most of what Ben does. I find it actually visually less engaging than a lot of corporate blogs.

<comment> amw-zero Are you reading on desktop or mobile? I'm asking because I'm setting up a blog myself, and the font I'm using looks a bit small. I'm curious what you think a good font size is in general.

<comment><USER11> [https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/16-pixels-body- copy...](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/16-pixels-body-copy- anything-less-costly-mistake/)

"16px" is a very good font size. I.e. don't do anything, just let the browser use its default.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't understand the Tech Regulation chart [0]. What does the y-axis represent?

[0] [https://images.squarespace- cdn.com/content/v1/50363cf324ac8e...](https://images.squarespace- cdn.com/content/v1/50363cf324ac8e905e7df861/1595522011184-I19EHYNRIQ555ZPMZH5V/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kNvT88LknE-K9M4pGNO0Iqd7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UbeDbaZv1s3QfpIA4TYnL5Qao8BosUKjCVjCf8TKewJIH3bqxw7fF48mhrq5Ulr0Hg/2020+Shoulders+of+Giants+1.1.088.png?format=2500w)

<comment><USER13> _RegData: A numerical database on industry‐specific regulations for all United States industries and federal regulations_ [1]

[1] [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rego.12107](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rego.12107)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > why your fellow-citizens didn't vote the right way.

I'm a little concerned by the implication that regulating tech should focus on making sure that people vote "the right way".

<comment><USER15> Whoa, I don't see this in OP post. Perhaps a political motivation was edited out to make their argument appear technically grounded when it has ideological underpinnings?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Have there been many regulatory success stories? I can't think of many

<comment><USER17> Clean air, clean water, seatbelts, no wild economic swings from 1932 until 1986, meat packing plant sanitation, coal mine safety, nuclear power safety, OSHA, the National Park system, air traffic control, port authority - I could go on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't think it can be regulated. I believe it will develop into a black market (dark web). Most regulations in the American industry are usually for just profit or are crippling. Its hard to imagine internet regulation going well.</comment>


Show HN: Beluga 0.1 – Docker Deployment Tool - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cortexmedia/Beluga <comment><AUTHOR> CEO @ Cortex here, makers of Beluga, let us know if you have any comments or questions! Fresh account here but I've been lurking HN for quite a while!</comment>


Ask HN: What are the pros and cons of releasing your app with a beta phase? - <AUTHOR>

Hey guys,
I've been Googling for articles that talk about rolling out with a beta phase and I haven't found many. What apps should you release with a beta phase first, or should you release all apps with one? In what cases would you not want to have a beta phase? Doesn't a beta phase hurt the chances of an app going viral?
I thought these questions would be perfect for the HN community.
Happy holidays! <comment><USER2> Beta phase for an existing app (new version) or completely new app? I'm not sure it matters much if you slap a 'beta' label on a new app. When you first kick an app off, you're going to be closely monitoring crash reports, bug reports, reviews, feedback, etc regardless of if you call it 'beat' or not.

A 'beta' label is not going to stop or cause your app to go viral. If your app does take off but crashes and is full of bugs, 'beta' is not going to stop negative reviews.

If you are concerned about bugs or need more testing, try out Fiverr or any of the mobile testing startups.

</comment><comment> Lorenz-Kraft Hi, i never thought much about it, because in my view the beta phase is just there to get many feedbacks on the product itself. This might be usability, bugs or even more fundamental feedbacks.

But like you mentioned, it also might be a good chance for promotion ... if you want to promote an unfinished product ... depends on the basic "revolutionary" idea you are trying to spread.

<comment><AUTHOR> Huh, I thought you could use a beta phase to promote the app for the opposite reason—by having a beta phase you can have a huge release to the public, as opposed to marketing the app must be a revolutionary idea because it's in its beta phase.

Which makes me want to ask: does a beta phase mean it's only open for use to those who've requested and have been given access? Or can you have an app in the beta phase and also have it open for everyone to use?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> People don't care what a beta is, they care if it works or now. Be careful if you list your app in a place where people can review it. People view things for what the are, not for what the can be.</comment>


A level of detail method for blocky voxels - <AUTHOR> https://0fps.net/2018/03/03/a-level-of-detail-method-for-blocky-voxels/ <comment><USER2> This has a lot in common with Progressive Buffers, and works with arbitrary geometry not just voxels: [http://www.cs.ust.hk/~psander/docs/progbuffer.pdf](http://www.cs.ust.hk/~psander/docs/progbuffer.pdf)

If vertex clustering is used as the simplification algorithm, there's no need for the geomorphing buffer and seamless LOD morphs can be done entirely in- shader.

Video showing LOD-morphing here: [https://youtu.be/akOk2wAb0yo](https://youtu.be/akOk2wAb0yo)

A number of commercial game engines use similar techniques.

The advantage of using geomorph buffers is that higher quality simplification algorithms can be used for greater quality and efficiency. A pure vertex clustering approach is simpler and allows for smaller data, which may be better for streaming i/o.

</comment><comment><USER3> kinda hard to evaluate it without a flyover</comment>


A Non-Sucky Twitter Business Model - <AUTHOR> http://3dna.us/a_non_sucky_twitter_business_model

<comment><USER3> That seems awfully counterproductive, and it would take about 30 minutes for someone to start republishing paid users' content.

Here are some ideas that I think would work way better:

\- In-stream advertising (ala Twitteriffic)

\- Charge a couple of bucks for mobile apps (or mobile app API access)

\- Charge for premium, business-oriented features (multi-user accounts, autofollow, analytics, ability to receive DMs without following someone, custom CSS on profile page)

\- Charge to vote on American Idol via Twitter

<comment><USER4> "it would take about 30 minutes for someone to start republishing paid users' content."

That'd be something that Twitter should be able to keep on top of, at least for naive automated retweets...

The more I think about it, the more I think it might work. Especially if they can get micropayments worked out.

<comment><USER3> Well, if anyone had any doubts:

<https://twitter.com/#!/freenyt>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's a good idea, but only if the account is posting information that's worth the fee. Like the author says: MP3 downloads, exclusives, behind-the-scenes stuff will be great for bands, but I think for non-celebrity accounts it might be tougher to come up with valuable information. For retailers, coupons are obviously the way to go, but I'm having trouble coming up with lots of other good content examples.

</comment><comment><USER6> You'd have to be prepared for Twitter to become the Apple App Store - <USER2> would be 2 of everything. "FooAccount" and "FooAccount (FREE)", for example. The free ones would just advertise content visible from their paid one.

</comment><comment><USER7> What about something like viglinks? Turn every bare outbound link from twitter.com into an affiliated link, turn every link from t.co into an affiliated link, etc.

Yes, people will be able to avoid this by using shorteners other than t.co, or by using a third party client, but if what twitter is saying is correct (the majority of users use the official client or use twitter.com), then this shouldn't be a problem at all.

Are they already doing this? It seems incredibly obvious, it's totally transparent to the users (I don't imagine that any of the users would be against this), everybody wins.

</comment><comment><USER8> How about charging for longer tweets, or let you make your tweets have a larger font for a fee.

</comment><comment><USER9> I really think this is a great idea - and would work well along with the following:

I recently went through several rounds of interviewing at twitter (didnt get it) - but had I got it, I was planning on submitting the following as a model suggestion:

Twitter has proven itself as a very valuable communications/pr channel for a vast number of celebrities, news sources and brands.

Twitter should provide a more broad content platform to the critical mass of influential people, sources and brands by allowing for larger content to be hosted on Twitter.com itself.

Effectively visualized as a slide-to-the-right "extended content" panel that would allow celebrities, as an example, to have exclusive content and articles hosted that are directly accessible from twitter, and the twitter client etc...

You would continue to have your regular succinct content flow - but you can drive traffic to deeper-dives on your expanded panel (It effectively allows for full-length content to be hosted in-line.

This can be monetized by twitter in a rev sharing manner such as you suggest.

If you searched for something, you could be driven to the extended content pages and then be shown the contextual stream of tweets that apply to that content as well.

Twitter has two options; find a way to properly monetize the message format they have, or modify their offering. There could be a good hybrid as well in this approach.</comment>


Bitcoins up 78% since January 1 - <AUTHOR> http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg5zigHourlyzczsg2013-01-01zeg2013-02-11ztgSza1gSMAzm1g300zm2g25

<comment><AUTHOR> The current price is about $23.90. The previous high in June 2011 was $31.90. No doubt the current rate of increase will lead to a correction.

What is different now from June 2011, is the growing strength of the still- small bitcoin economy, and the maturing security of bitcoin wallets and exchanges, e.g. the YCombinator funded Coinbase.

<comment><USER2> I don't understand how to read your comment:

Option A) Be careful, it's just another bubble!

Option B) This time is different!

<comment><AUTHOR> I meant it both ways. The price is rising too fast - suggesting a bubble. But the underlying bitcoin economy is also much stronger than 18 months ago, so the inevitable correction may not be as deep as last time.</comment></comment></comment>


Citizens don't have absolute right over their bodies: Govt of India - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailyo.in/variety/aadhaar-pan-uid-mukul-rohatgi-biometrics-shyam-divan/story/1/16974.html <comment><USER2> Between this biometric ID system (Aaadhaar) and demonetization, India is a great example of how quickly utopian tech ideas that appeal to corporations become tools of government authoritarianism.

I wrote about this here: [https://hackernoon.com/i-boycott- paytm-5df93d189356](https://hackernoon.com/i-boycott-paytm-5df93d189356)

And I like this article about the general issue: [http://www.medianama.com/2016/12/223-year-end- rant-2016-tech...](http://www.medianama.com/2016/12/223-year-end- rant-2016-technology-has-never-been-this-political-in-india/)

Interesting fact I came across: the UK government destroyed their biometric ID database a few years ago [https://www.gov.uk/government/news/id-card-database- destroye...](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/id-card-database-destroyed)

</comment><comment><USER3> Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14257141](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14257141)

</comment><comment><USER4> It's the same in the US

<comment><USER5> And in any European country that utilizes fingerprinting, etc...

Did you have a point in specifically calling out the US?

<comment><USER6> Well, at least in the US, it goes beyond fingerprinting and into what kinds of procedures you can have done to you (such as experimental drug treatments).</comment></comment></comment>


EU approves Microsoft acquisition of GitHub - <AUTHOR> https://www.nasdaq.com/article/eu-commission-approves-microsofts-acquisition-of-github-20181019-00515 <comment><AUTHOR> EU approves Microsoft's acquisition of Github unconditionally. To my knowledge, FTC of US and China and other smaller approvals are yet to go.

Meta: HN needs to allow both link and text so that there can be a snippet or summary of link</comment>


Show HN: Every Product OneLiner at Once - <AUTHOR> https://everyoneliner.com?ref=hackernews <comment><AUTHOR> OneLiner product descriptions from every product who made it to the first page of the ProductHunt the day it launched. It gives you the opportunity to discover a product you might miss that day.

Ps. zero to end built within 24hr.</comment>


Spectre explanation in CSAPP? - <AUTHOR> https://imgur.com/gallery/ixge26y <comment><AUTHOR> Was reading on "Exception handling" in Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective 2nd edition chapter 4.5.9 and found it interesting that they explained "subtleties" related to Spectre vulnerability. Was this known before Spectre being disclosed?</comment>


Tim Cook's Apple Computer: Helping me track my cervical mucus quality - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2015/12/04/tim-cooks-apple-computer-helping-me-track-my-cervical-mucus-quality/ <comment><USER2> Well. No-one could accuse that title of being click-bait!</comment>