Google Places Now Borrowing Yelp Reviews Without Attribution In iPhone App - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/01/google-places-borrowing-yelp-iphone-app/

<comment><AUTHOR> Google Place and Facebook Place will be the two dominant local review sites.

If you are running a local review site, what can you do to survive?

Probably more and more people just go to Google Place and even write reviews there because Google Place will be listed on the top of the Google search results. Don't think most local review sites can defend themselves from Google's search power.</comment>


Wage Cyberwar Against Hamas, Surrender Your PC  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/israel-dns-hack.html <comment><USER2> Instead of surrendering your PC to this group to control, why doesn't the app simply give the tools and control to the user to wage their own war on a list of pre-determined websites? The targets could be updated like an AV definition list and they could avoid the bad PR about trojans etc.</comment>


Show HN: Dejavu Movies, a discovery service for the iPad - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/app/id914369680

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been working on this for the past 6 months and I'd love to get some feedback from movie lovers and cinema-goers! Any feedback is welcome :)</comment>


LGBTQ college students think of suicide 4X as often - <AUTHOR> http://www.futurity.org/lgbtq-college-students-1584462/ <comment><USER2> It's good to see this given study and analysis, and the recognition that many LGBTQ people are at their most vulnerable around the college age. (Often moving away from their existing support, though I recognize 'home' isn't always a welcoming place for LGBTQ youth.)

Here's hoping it leads to action on campuses to help connect students to the resources they need -- whether that's counseling, medical care, or just a supportive community.

<comment><USER3> It's not clear that it's only a societal vulnerability. Studies in highly open societies like Norway, Iceland and Finland also indicate very high suicide rates in the LGBT with transsexual individuals being the highest at risk even for that group.

This also extended to cases of coming out early, having all the support and acceptance one can get from their immediate family and the community.

My own personal opinion is that which ever genetic expression cause the gender and sexual disassociation also could lead to higher predisposition to suicide.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So, the study does not say anything about causation. It could be that depressed people become LGBTQ more often, than non-depressed.

</comment><comment> ken-m i'm glad someone's pointing out the detrimental psychological effects college environments have on our youth. i think Theil called it, many would be better off dropping out and joining a start-up instead.</comment>


Google is finally cloned - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/greekdev/google-clone

<comment><USER2> Quick demo: [http://codex3.com.br/google-clone/](http://codex3.com.br/google- clone/)

</comment><comment><USER2> What if instead of a Google API, this used a Duckduckgo API? What if DDG forked this to their own use?

</comment><comment><USER3> απο ποιο μερος εισαι greekdev? αθήνα?

</comment><comment><USER4> demo?

<comment><USER2> [http://codex3.com.br/google-clone/](http://codex3.com.br/google-clone/)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can I find or identify all chrooted directories in Linux? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> All you do is escape the "jail" and ls -r the whole system. Chroot is a shell trick that basically creates an alias for / pointing at an arbitrary folder. Any process that is spawned in that aliased environment have the folder returned as /. (Chroot "jails" are pretty easy to break out of, by the way, and is not a security measure.)

I don't know if there is a way to force arbitrary running processes to output their root directories in such a way that would link to the aliased folder.

That question is somewhat like asking if there is a way to show which folders your shell was in for every time you've called sudo.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not trying to break out of any jail, just how to identify what directories are chrooted on a Linux system. I don't see how _ls -r_ helps me out there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Simple:

      $ for F in /proc/*/root; do readlink "$F"; done

If you need something you can cut+paste:

      $ sudo sh -c 'for F in /proc/*/root; do readlink "$F"; done' | sort -u</comment>


How To Get Rich -- Mark Cuban - <AUTHOR> http://blogmaverick.com/2011/08/04/how-to-get-rich-2/

<comment><USER2> This isn't an article on how to get rich. This is an article on how possibly you might not be poor. The rich invest. The poor and the middle-class try to get this thing called careers and earn paychecks. The rich make paychecks and move, create, or destroy careers. Do you want to be a paycheck signer or a paycheck earner? A career seeker or a career maker?

If all you can think about is saving money, then you'll never think about how to use money to lobby congress and entertain foreign officials.

If you want to save money, why not do as the rich? Hire a top-tier wealth manager, and put some of the best accounting firms on your retainer.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hm, he didn't mention having a company over pay for your startup.

</comment><comment><USER4> The one thing I have noticed over the year in reading and talking to very successful people is that the one factor they almost alway leave out is luck. The truth is, if they are really really honest, is that random chance played a huge role. They do not like to admit that to themselves because it is much more ego enriching to imagine that it was all due to how great they are, but really, if Bill Gates Mommy had not been on the board of directors of IBM... come on. Almost every example is like that. Sorry to burst anyones bubble but life is largely a game of craps...

</comment><comment><USER5> That is probably the worst advice ever. Wonder how this guy can sleep at night. Here's some good advice:<http://appsumo.com/sivers/>

<comment><USER6> The worst advice EVER came from a cab driver at the Las Vegas airport who told me his winning strategy - play blackjack and every time you lose, double your bet until you're up.

<comment><USER7> To be fair, this is a good way to make money if you don't plan on gambling often.. like once every 5 years. The probability of losing all your money with such a small number of occurrences is low.

<comment><USER8> ...except that almost every table in existence has something that messes up the system. Usually it's an upper limit on the amount you can bet (called a "table limit"), which puts an upper bound on the number of successive losses you can win back.

The wikipedia article[1] covers this relatively well under "An alternative mathematical analysis."

The short of it, though, is that everything at a casino is there to put the odds in the house's favor. They spend enormous amounts of time and money on researching this very problem, and their entire business depends on carefully walking the space between their patrons having a good time and winning a mint.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(betting_system)>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Too bad that site takes ages to load up an iPad specific theme which makes the site slower and harder to use. This is getting to be a real irritation when trying to read sites on an iPad.

I'm hoping Erica Sadun can be persuaded to extend her sites of shame to include this.</comment>


Ask HN: Facebook comments vs. Disqus vs. DIY in 2018 - <AUTHOR> Currently building a site where comments will be somewhat important. The niche is comedy similar to 9gag.com. What would you use and why? <comment><USER2> Check out Talkyard: [https://www.talkyard.io/blog- comments](https://www.talkyard.io/blog-comments). It's like Disqus but open- source, or hosted serverless (I'm developing it).

You can add custom CSS (although some HTML class names might change, right now).

</comment><comment><USER3> The main problem I have with Facebook comments is that it's harder for them to match the rest of your site, visually. Disqus comments usually seem to look more integrated to me. I'm not familiar with DIY so I can't speak to them.</comment>


The Persistence Layer with Spring 3.1 and Hibernate - <AUTHOR> http://www.baeldung.com/2011/12/02/the-persistence-layer-with-spring-3-1-and-hibernate/ How to configure the persistence layer with Spring 3.1 and Hibernate. Focuses on Transaction Management, Hibernate Session management, Spring template best practices and common pitfalls. <comment><USER2> Great! Just what I need Thanks</comment>


Transaction Tracing for Node.js with Trace Sequences, Waterfalls, Flame Graph - <AUTHOR> https://strongloop.com/strongblog/transaction-tracing-node-js-root-cause/?utm_source=StrongLoop+Newsletter&utm_campaign=4e53ae7437-June_2015_Newsletter4_6_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5cdaff72d5-4e53ae7437-275228157 <comment><USER2> The split graph showing async vs. sync time seems like it would be useful, but I'm having difficulty thinking of an actual use case..

If the function is largely async, it won't show up as a CPU spike so you won't even know to look at it, but if it shows up as a CPU spike then it's not likely to have a very large async component...

</comment><comment><USER3> Is there a quickstart?

<comment><USER4> This help ? [http://docs.strongloop.com/display/SLC/Tracing](http://docs.strongloop.com/display/SLC/Tracing)</comment></comment>


Amazon patents method for tracking Bitcoin transactions and selling data to govt - <AUTHOR> https://www.techspot.com/news/74246-amazon-granted-patent-tracking-bitcoin-transactions-selling-data.html <comment><USER2> This patent will be struck down as soon as it's challenged. Business method patents are generally no longer valid after _Alice_ , and it's shocking that the patent examiner approved this patent. Among other issues, the text of the patent itself doesn't even claim a specific process, it merely suggests general processes for tracking and correlating Bitcoin transactions.

<comment><USER3> Maybe the examiner didn't feel like fighting Amazon during the prosecution process so they decided to let some future courts handle it.</comment></comment>


EFF to Court: Public Right to Access the Law Should Not Be Blocked by Copyright - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-court-industry-groups-bogus-copyright-case-will-block-public-access-written-laws <comment><USER2> and ignorance of the law is no defense!

Of course you are already subject to _secret_ laws that you do not have the right to discuss in open court: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilmore_v._Gonzales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilmore_v._Gonzales) and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_law)</comment>


Apple said to be talking to Foursquare for maps data - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57559698-37/apple-said-to-be-talking-to-foursquare-for-maps-data/ <comment><USER2> I'm not very familiar with Foursquare's data. It seems comprehensive in San Francisco, but that's certainly not a great example. Is it pretty comprehensive, even in smaller communities?

<comment><USER3> I enjoy using Foursquare only for personal location tracking, I don't use any of the social features, and I've found the data to be quite good. I travel quite a bit (> 100,000 miles this year, 8 countries, more than 15 states, etc.) and the 4sq data has been pretty solid everywhere, surprisingly... I've been able to check-in pretty much everywhere I went except Palestine (understandably!)

One note: Almost all the places I checked into with 4sq were major cities (London, Paris, Gothenburg, Brussels, Rome, Chicago, LA, SF, Washington DC, etc etc.)

<comment><USER4> Major cities in Poland probably don't really count as major, but both Warsaw and Posen had good data. Same with Amsterdam and Haarlem in the Netherlands, and Fribourg in Switzerland (tiny city, but, on the other hand, a university town, canton capital and all-around awesome, so not exactly some forgotten village).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In Portugal the Foursquare data is quite accurate, if not always comprehensive outside major urban areas.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the service, and while I have no clue about their financial status, I hope this is real and comes to fruition. It would be a shame to see 4sq acquired by some larger competitor instead of travelling their own path. A deal with Apple would be great for their sustainability, I'm sure.

</comment><comment><USER6> What about Trip Advisor? They seem like some sort of pariah in this space. Hardly anyone talks about them, but despite their un-hipness, we've come to rely on them as our primary source of information when traveling. We regularly find more reviews on Trip Advisor than Yelp. I don't understand why Yelp gets all the attention?

</comment><comment><USER7> Interesting - I think this is a nice move considering the rise of social media space. The data may not be perect now but over time I expect it to be good.

</comment><comment><USER8> I wish they would ignore their damn differences and get Google's map data back :-/

<comment><USER9> Why ? Apple just needs to approach the same data providers Google uses and they will be about 90% of the way there.

And they do so without having to hand over user data to Google.

<comment><USER10> You use this argument again and again. Now you'll reply that in Australia all the POI are taken from Whereis, yellowpages and Tele Atlas. And once again people have to remind you that having the same data providers is not enough: you need to correlate data and fix inconsistencies, mostly manually.

Now go here [https://maps.google.com/?ll=-27.605671,142.207031&spn=33...](https://maps.google.com/?ll=-27.605671,142.207031&spn=33.414362,67.631836&t=m&z=5) and read on the lower left: Map data ©2012 GBRMPA, Google, Whereis(R), Sensis Pty Ltd - Imagery ©2012 TerraMetrics, Map data ©2012 GBRMPA, Google, Whereis(R), Sensis Pty Ltd, Tele Atlas -

Now click on the yellow stickman and check the area that is covered by street view. So stop spreading misinformation.</comment></comment></comment>


Interactive map of music based on clustering by similarity. - <AUTHOR> http://navigator.q1000.ro/musicmap

<comment><USER2> Interesting! What is the clustering based on?

<comment><AUTHOR> By similarity. People who like this also like this. Click on a node/band and may see similarities of that band.</comment></comment>


Reilly's Right - Tickets Are Cheap - <AUTHOR> http://ticketstumbler.com/new-stuff/2009/03/08/reillys-right-tickets-are-cheap/

<comment><USER2> Bill Wyman has been reporting this story at <http://hitsville.org> (mostly in the context of the LN/TM merger); for instance, liveblogged from the senate hearing:

%< \</comment><comment></comment><comment>----

(R-ME) Sherman: If there's ten thousand seats in the area, are you selling 10,000 tickets?

(TM CEO) Azoff: Never. On average we might see 80 or 85 percent of the seats.

Sherman: Are those the good ones or the bad ones you're not getting?

Azoff: The vast majority of the best seats in the house.

%< \</comment><comment></comment><comment>----

From a later article:

[..]

Hmm .. it sems like an almost insoluble economic problem. They have inventory … it's sitting on a shelf … and it's highly perishable—worthless at a minute after showtime.

Whatever can be done?

The article crystalized a feeling that I had several times while watching the hearings on the merger: Why does Live Nation need to merge with Ticketmaster to deal with the alleged broken concert industry?

In this case, why couldn't it just, you know, sell the farther-back seats for less money?

[...]

Indeed, I recently got an email from someone who added an additional wrinkle: Paraphrased, the point was simply that LN controls too many goddamn venues.

Why are the company's bookers not putting acts in smaller rooms? _Because LN has to keep its own buildings in action, even if they're too big for the artist in question._ [em. orig.]

Are these guys squirrelly or what?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's crazy. Both companies are so intertwined that no one in the TM/LN camps knows what to do. Acting one way hurts them the other way. LN is in especially big trouble because of all the lucrative "360" deals they agreed too:

[http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081218/u2s-live-nation- dea...](http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081218/u2s-live-nation-deal-is-good- for-madonna-bad-for-investors/)

There are many parallels with the the outrageous deals that Sirius Radio signed:

[http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20090212_sirius_radio_bank...](http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20090212_sirius_radio_bankruptcy_nfl_mlb_deals_in_trouble.htm)</comment></comment>


Facebook Acquires Daytum (Ryan Case and Nicholas Felton) - <AUTHOR> http://daytum.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/moving-west/ <comment><USER2> Facebook acquires Daytum or Daytum founders hired by Facebook?

<comment><USER3> My thought too. Either way, they're gaining access to Nicholas Felton's brain -- anyone who can make their daily minutiae as interesting as he does in his annual reports is worth the cost of admission for a company like Facebook.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A lot of people are surprisingly down on acquisitions like this. I think that if a company _acquires_ a company, with the sole intention of using the talent and expertise in a different product - that is okay.

I don't really see what the big deal is - founders know what they are being acquired for, and they can reject it.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is neat. Definitely checkout [1] if you're confused as to how it might be used. There are some good examples there.

These guys seem to have a unique perspective on human-data interaction and sharing. For example, the "Global Quick Add Feature" [2] is very intuitive. It seems like this is something Facebook is very interested in as it's essential to their product. I definitely agree with some of the other comments made here - I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook wants these guys working for them at least as much as they are interested in their actual product given their perspective and understanding.

[1] <http://daytum.com/activity> [2] <http://daytum.com/about/how_to/global_quick_add>

</comment><comment><USER6> It be awesome to get Daytum stylized info graphs on all my FB data! I am really excited for this acquisition!

Anyone else have ideas on what else they could be using Daytum for?

</comment><comment><USER7> I really hope this doesn't change the Daytum service.. I've been a daily user for over four months now and it's been extremely helpful.</comment>


Can UI/UX be a part of personal finance? The answer is yes - <AUTHOR> http://zenexpense.com

<comment><USER2> Cheers :)</comment>


1980 vs 2009's advertising tools - <AUTHOR> http://dontmindrick.com/asides/1980-vs-2009%e2%80%99s-advertising-tools/ <comment><USER2> It's interesting to see just how fragmented the advertising space really is these days.

I think there is a real opportunity for the creation of unified marketing tools to bridge the disparity between all of these (advertising) services.</comment>


Web needs more love, says its creator - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46071883 <comment><USER2> The world does :(

<comment><USER3> What the World Wide Web Needs Now...Is Love, Sweet Love

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is there a simple text transcript of the full interview anywhere?</comment>


Ask HN: How to Sell a Side Project? - <AUTHOR> Hello HN! Writing from a Throwaway account.
I have an unreleased side project that I want to sell. It is in Amazon affiliates space which targets a niche audience (HN users, to be precise). I was working on it for quite some time but never got around to launching it. Since I'm working on my SAAS right now, I don't really want to spend time on it.
Tech stack is Python/Flask/SQLite with vanilla HTML/CSS on the frontend. It is not resource heavy, and will easily run on a cheapest VPS instance. You could also deploy it to Heroku but it will cost a bit more ($7 for a hobby dyno and $9 for a hobby Postgres database). The codebase is ready to be deployed straight away.
I think this project has potential to gross low-to-mid 4 figures (in USD) for its entire existence.
How do I go about selling it? I really want someone to pick up this project, launch it and make some money off of it, rather than seeing it gathering dust in obscurity...
You can contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com <comment><USER2> Your project is worthless (in USD) without users and a base for a company to make money off that user base. You're too close to the code - It's an undemonstrated idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> I get what you're saying, but my projections are based on observing similar sites in similar niches.

I also understand that potential buyers are bearing more risk than they'd have if the site were live with real revenue numbers; that's why I'm willing to sell it for cheap.

<comment><USER3> Did you have access to those other websites traffic statistics and revenue numbers?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You have explained everything about what kind of environment it requires to run in and what kind of tools you used to build it, but you have not said a single word about business purpose or ___WHAT IT DOES FOR IT USERS_ __.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hi,

getting users to invest time in a new product is not so easy. One of the fears is that someone will invest time in a product that will be abandoned. There are graveyards or abandoned softwares.

I am now working around half-time trying to sell my own side project ([https://openlowcode.com](https://openlowcode.com)), and it is quite hard.

</comment><comment><USER6> You can try [https://1kprojects.com/](https://1kprojects.com/)

</comment><comment><USER7> You might have more success if you had a way to demo the project here -- speaking for myself, I'm always intrigued by these kinds of posts but I would never follow up on something without either existing revenue or some way to judge the upside for myself.

</comment><comment><USER8> You could list it on offload.io or borderline.biz ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15200100](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15200100))

</comment><comment><USER9> You can list the site on 1kprojects.com (domain name is a bit of a misnomer as the site has plenty of projects listed for well over $1k)

</comment><comment><USER10> flippa.com

However if it's unreleased no real way of valuing it.</comment>


The San Francisco Drug Economy - <AUTHOR> http://priceonomics.com/the-san-francisco-drug-economy/ <comment><USER2> I wish I was there when this piece came it at priceonomics. Aside from some price comparisons, I didn't feel that it really got into the economics of the market, and how it might be skewed on the streets, what operating constraints exist.

It would have been interesting to see if there was support in this study for the iron law of prohibition, which states that the harder the laws, the harder the drugs.

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

Vice did a great job of showing this in the economies of illegal alcohol sales in the Canadian Territories, where people wanted to drink beer, but ended up drinking vodka instead, and they wanted to drink a little bit of it, but ended up being forced to drink a lot.

You can watch it here -- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIhUhHbTJ_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIhUhHbTJ_s)

Unintended consequences is always fascinating reporting, as it would have been here.

As to the side effects of the tech industry on drug us, all I can say is that in my volunteer work at City Team, I see it everyday. And I think it's intentional. I think it's part hazing, part group dynamics, and part social psychopath testing, that alcohol and drugs play such a large role in most all the tech companies that I consult with.

And if that concerns you, consider volunteering at a place like City Team as well. They need help every night.

</comment><comment> rm_-rf_slash At first I was surprised at the amount of speed and opiates consumed around the Bay Area. Weed and psychedelics seem reasonable given the population, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense: impressionable kids straight out of college are thrust into extremely fast-paced work lives with too little wisdom and too much cash, so it seems like a natural continuation of the college mindset, i.e., cramming with addy and winding down with weed, by keeping up with coke and numbing down with Vicodin or heroin. The concept of work-life balance approaches insanity in the valley. I'm glad that I left, and I haven't looked back.

<comment><USER3> speed (meth) and opiates (pills, dirty heroin) are a huge problem in california in general, not just the bay area.

disaffected, loserish kids in the suburbs are doing it just as much as rich bay area yuppies.

<comment><USER4> San Francisco is the only place I've ever seen custom glass funnels for sale at headshops.

SF is also the only place I've ever seen flyers advertising a Whipit delivery service (nitrous oxide).

Generally speaking SF seems to be much more loose with drug use than other cities in CA - although I will say, from what I've seen, the use of pharmaceuticals like benzos and adderal seem to be treated as lightly as alcohol these days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As soon as I saw that edited photo with a blurred out face of the crack cocaine user, I was reminded of [http://yuzhikov.com/articles/BlurredImagesRestoration1.htm](http://yuzhikov.com/articles/BlurredImagesRestoration1.htm)

<comment><USER6> Very interesting article! Thanks for sharing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you only gathered the same data on a regular basis, then you might have a startup on your hands. The name should somehow incorporate Fear and Loathing. You'd also want metrics for addiction, (in)ability to carry on everyday activities, etc. and graph that to find the sweet spot for best bang for the buck. Possible integration with Siri, Cortana, Google Now, etc. "Siri, I want to get high." "Sure, just see Terry on Market St. He's got some snow at a great price. For your current body weight, you should buy 5 grams to have a good time tonight."

</comment><comment><USER8> You can get a milligram scale for $20.49 on Amazon.

The article calls these "high-powered, expensive scales" which seems like a weird thing for a blog that's all about prices of things to get so wrong.

<comment><USER9> I once priced a variety of scales on Amazon and for weeks afterward the stream of recommended products that Amazon shows at the bottom of the page became polluted with all sorts of drug paraphernalia that Amazon sells.

My takeaway is that drug dealers/users use Amazon to buy their supplies just like anyone else. It makes sense, I mean, why wouldn't they?

<comment><USER10> I was at a punk bar in Boston, and, a little drunk, walked up to one of the scarier-looking punks and asked about his jacket. He told me how he spiked the entire thing, put in the studs, and sewed on all the patches. I asked "where did you get the spikes?" he replied "Amazon, mate!"

Everyone buys everything on Amazon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The last chart shows that the ninth most-seized drug is acetaminophen.

Tylenol?

Is this because it's being used to cut other drugs, or is it the persecution of schoolkids?

<comment><USER12> many prescription opioids also contain acetaminophen

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> >"[...]or because of the stress of these tech jobs they start doing cocaine to stay up and oxycodone to relax. Working 80-hour weeks and making crazy money extracts a terrible toll on you."

How the fuck is this acceptable? How are inhumane workloads like these legal?

<comment><USER14> The impression I get is that SF is a place to work, not a place to live. You go there, become deeply involved in tech, learn from your surroundings and level up your skills, and then move on. There are no women to distract you, immigrant-hostile natives to chase you back to campus, and campuses that provide a perfect environment for you to focus on tech.

It's certainly not an environment that everyone would like - neither is USMC bootcamp, a PhD program or an MMA gym. Why should that be illegal?

To quote Marge Simpson (regarding watching MMA): "Call me a killjoy, but I think that because this is not to my taste, no one else should be able to enjoy it."

<comment><USER15> >To quote Marge Simpson (regarding MMA): "Call me a killjoy, but I think that because this is not to my taste, no one else should be able to enjoy it."

Actions in hyper-competitive SV have a ripple effect on the rest of tech economy globally. If the only way to compete in tech is to use performance enhancing drugs, well that's exactly the sort of situation where I'd want the government to step in with regulation. I don't want to have to use drugs in order to stay competitive. It's a health issue, similar to professional sports and drug use. Performance enhancing drugs are banned for the health of the athletes, not for the "spirit of the game."

<comment><USER14> Athletics is a zero sum game - the athletes are harmed and the rest of the world is not helped. If we ban PEDs, the football will still reach the endzone.

Tech is a positive sum game. If PEDs help get us the next Uber, AirBnB or OkCupid, it's well worth the price of some less dedicated people being outcompeted. It's insane to hold the world back simply so certain less dedicated developers can maintain their current high status.

<comment><USER16> No, it's insane to sit back and let the market force people to disfigure and destroy themselves for the profits of wealthy capitalists: to destroy humanity in order to sacrifice it at the altar of capitalism

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why are people buying black market prozac? Isn't it pretty trivial to get a prescription?

<comment><USER18> Not if you don't have health insurance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I always assumed the police knows about the dealing and allows it. You pretty much can't walk by certain streets without being offered drugs.

</comment><comment><USER20> SF is such a farce. Massive destruction and decomposition of society through drugs on one side, massively insane and irrational wealth and valuations and tech talent on the other.</comment>


Handling non-traditional name in the US - <AUTHOR> I come from an Asian country where the concept of names is different from the US. Our passport only has a full name field, as our culture/legal system does not distinguish first/last name so much.
So on my passport the full name field is something like, "Smith Jon Doe", where in the context of my origin country, Smith is last name, Jon is a middle name, and Doe is a first name, but clearly there's no legal definition which is which. On my US immigration documents, I've always had "Jon Doe" as first name, and "Smith" as last name. The rationale at the time was: to put exactly what my passport says, it's better to include all the words that leave out the middle name Jon.
And I've done the same for everything else like banks, credit cards, utilities.
Over years, despite putting down my first name exactly as "Jon Doe", each institution/company has treated the first name in its own way, including "Jondoe", "Jon-doe" and "Jon D". Even the DMV got its own variation. When I call to fix it, most replies are "our system cannot handle the space", or "your name cannot have a space".
My question is:
-what version should I stick to (and change everything else to, in order to be consistent)?
-My DMV license says "Jondoe". Is that a safe bet?
-Would having different name variations come to bite me in the future? <comment><USER2> Keep in mind that everything you're describing is the result of bad programming practices from before Globalization took off.

If your name is Doe and Jon is optional change your name to Doe Smith and expect to be called that. if Jon Doe is your full name you should probably use Jon-Doe and ask if the institution you're dealing with has a suggestion/complaint box.

Jondoe is a safe bet, but it also implies that Jondoe is a single name.

Having various names MIGHT bite you, but probably won't. No one is likely to start an issue over it, but if there's another issue they're likely to use it against you.</comment>


HBO put the full first episode of Silicon Valley on Youtube for free.  - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4&feature=youtu.be

<comment><USER2> So after watching this, there are a lot of shots taken at bunch of companies and some startups (e.g. Hooli == Google, etc). I can't say if those are fair to make though.

As a show, I thought it was alright with cringe humour around the place.

What I like though, is HBO went a made a smart decision of uploading this straight to YouTube instead of the time line being something like: Upload to HBO GO -> Have it pirated to download the video -> Uploaded to several different video streaming services. They stopped losing all those views this way..

</comment><comment><USER3> This would be great if it wasn't country restricted</comment>


Ask HN: Do you guys think these Q&A sites e.g. Quora, can survive Facebook? - <AUTHOR>

I just saw the new Facebook wall UI and the Q&A integration is very neatly done (http://oothenigerian.com/new-facebook-wall-ui)
I am wondering if Quora and the likes(general Q&A sites) can compete with Facebook.
My experience is this. I tried launching a Q&A website using Qhub for a vertical of Nigerian living in the UK. When I put up a question and shared it on Facebook, I would get ALL the comments (about 10) on the link I shared and none on the site itself. It practically rendered the site useless.
So what are your thoughts? <comment><USER2> Without knowing anything about Facebook's Q&A plans, beyond your screenshot, let me put these two thoughts out:

* First, the screenshot makes me believe these Q&A questions would be posted to your wall, rather than a dedicated Q&A environment. I could easily be wrong, but if this is the case then their Q&A would be no different from just posting a question to your own wall, since most people have their privacy settings limited to only show wall posts to friends. This limits the amount of input on any given question.

* If the above is incorrect, then I still have certain qualms about associating my personal identity (in the form of a Facebook profile) with certain content I might put online, and Q&A sites can ask questions on which I may not want my opinion to be associated with my personal identity. For instance, if I were to come from a family who enjoys hunting for sport, I may not want to come out swinging too hard against it if that content were to be easily associated with my by my family. My family may know my stance on the issue, but to make it a public on Facebook could have certain liabilities (let's say my father and I have a mutual friend who is a hunting buddy of his). I think that without a certain amount of anonymity, broad spectrum Q&A is limited by certain predispositions and security concerns.

Pre-emptive rebuttals:

* Yes, I use my own name on Hacker News, but I imagine I'm not the only Tom Stratton in the world and you can't necessarily correlate my identity here with my personal identity like you could with Facebook. Also, if I have something particularly sensitive I want to say, I can make a second account to express those opinions.

* I realize that sites like StackOverflow have a lot of users that use their real names as their username, and have a lot of personally identifiable information associated with their accounts, even listed on their profiles. To that I say that sites like StackOverflow are narrow range topics, and (at least some of) the users there are in it at least partially to show off their skills, and most information they put on that site is positive (helping answer a question) rather than incendiary. Even the incendiary topics are typically just semi-trivial religious wars about things like "vi vs. emacs."

</comment><comment><USER3> I think so far Quora has been successful because

       a)  It attracts a high calibre of domain experts
       b)  the questions are edited and curated by mods/others

This really helps with things like spelling, rephrasing and correctly categorizing the questions.

I don't see fb a direct threat to Quora. Perhaps an inevitable partnership/acquisition is down the road?

<comment><USER4> I would add to your list

c) they've done a great job with autofill on the question form, resulting in users getting answers to their questions without actually needing to post anything.

I've never posted a question because I've always found somebody else has already answered (or asked a better question).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> discussion on quora: [http://www.quora.com/Why-is-Facebook-creating-a-Q-A- product-...](http://www.quora.com/Why-is-Facebook-creating-a-Q-A-product-to- compete-against-Quora)

... the first two answers are starkly different

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link: <http://oothenigerian.com/new-facebook-wall-ui></comment>


I Improved My Legacy C++ Project with PVS-Studio - <AUTHOR> https://www.bfilipek.com/2020/09/pvs-studio-checking.html <comment><USER2> Do you use static analysis for your projects? Do you find it as a key factor that improves the code quality or it's not that strong?

I think it can be an important element of the build process, but some tunning is needed to match the project needs.</comment>


If I were Craig Newmark (CraigsList.org), I would … - james-singh http://james-singh.com/2012/12/16/if-i-were-craig-newmark-i-would/

<comment><AUTHOR> ...do nothing. It seems to be working.

<comment> james-singh Before posting this topic, I thought making CL social would make it better. Then, I watched a video documentary about CL on youtube, and I felt that being unsocial, and anonymous posts is what's propelling craigslist. So, you're probably right about doing nothing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> add some moderators, or get better ones.

Theres a bunch of junk on cl. Blatant ads, ads that tell people to go to other websites (ebay), and i especially hate the use of "keywords" that have nothing to do with the item

</comment><comment><USER3> link bait</comment>


Nikola Tesla's letterhead circa 1900 - <AUTHOR> http://www.letterheady.com/post/408940589/tesla

<comment><USER2> My grandfather, whose background was in economics, became very interested in science later in life and built a fully functional Tesla Coil [1] in his basement in his 60's (this was before wide-spread availability of information on the internet; he did research in libraries and universities and built it out of hardware store parts). I was about 7 at the time.

We would do experiments with it such as lighting up free-standing fluorescent bulbs up to 15 feet away, or affixing an ion motor attachment which would reach incredible speeds.

I am now 25, and like my grandfather, I never want to stop learning.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil>

<comment><USER3> An good friend of mine toys around with tesla coils quite a bit. Here's his tesla coil page: <http://dzl.dk/projects/tesla/tesla.html>

A few years ago he got involved in a pretty crazy project: Another friend (artist type) had heard that as long as you didn't touch the ground you could actually sit on top of a tesla coil and have huge sparks coming out of your fingers. He promptly went out and got some funding to make a 3 meter tall coil, and toured around Copenhagen sitting on top of it with lighting coming out of his outstretched hands. I'm somewhat surprised he survived, but it looked damn cool.

<comment><USER4> There's a man that went around music festivals here in new zealand for a couple of years - he'd put himself in a custom-made suit (faraday cage) and would then stand on a platform and hook himself up to a coupla thousand volts... Bloody impressive, except for the day he didn't do his suit up properly. He survived that one, but I haven't seen him perform in a while...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Quite off-topic, I'm sure, but I can't help but wonder if the central image in that letterhead inspired the look of Dr Who's Daleks. I love finding hidden references like that.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm just gonna say it. Tesla was a pimp.

<comment><USER7> And celibate.

<comment><USER8> <http://beatonna.livejournal.com/23574.html>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like Adobe now resides in part of the building. <http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/cbc/cbc_ny.html>

<comment><USER10> There is no plaque on that building but there is one in a nearby building called "Engineers club" mentioning Tesla. <http://www.teslasociety.com/bryantpark.htm>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> 8 West 40th street now [http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl](http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl)

<comment><USER11> Presumably you meant: [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=8+West+40th+ny&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.688845,62.402344&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=8+W+40th+St,+New+York,+10018&ll=40.752264,-73.981977&spn=0.02292,0.03047&t=p&z=15&layer=c&cbll=40.752305,-73.982083&panoid=5qroIZqGf8R6LhoeQ2FJWQ&cbp=12,215.63,,0,11.97)

<comment><USER10> This seems to be the view for number 8: [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=8+west+40th+street+nyc&sll=40.752717,-73.981445&sspn=0.001089,0.002642&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=8+W+40th+St,+New+York,+10018&ll=40.752491,-73.982534&spn=0.008648,0.021136&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=40.752541,-73.982643&panoid=gDhesU1pYgBGPMzL8Ege7Q&cbp=12,179.02,,0,-0.59)

<comment><USER12> Me: "That's amazing..that's where his office was."

Colleague: "What's amazing is that you're looking at it like that."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVzEfR6wL70> (worth it)</comment>


Show HN: Kgotobed: Kernel module that forces you to go to sleep - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/nikital/kgotobed <comment><USER2> Are you using this daily? Just want to know if there are any gotchas I might need to check before I start using it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I used the kernel module for a few days and didn't notice any problems on a laptop running Fedora.

The kernel module is less that 100 lines long, hopefully it's simple enough to not cause trouble...

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> May I ask, how is it possible to prevent unloading the module?

<comment><AUTHOR> The module takes an extra reference count to itself upon initialization and never decrements it, so rmmod will fail because the module will be "in use".

<comment><USER3> Nice ;)</comment></comment></comment>


Inspiration vs. Imitation - <AUTHOR> http://cushionapp.com/journal/inspiration-vs-imitation

<comment><USER3> A similar thing happened to me years ago. I had a project that surprisingly became a bit popular and there were two competitor projects that ripped on the work.

The first one ripped our entire site and simply changed all the texts slightly, and also the look of our system. But, it was oddly different code - why copy the look completely (including our graphics) if you are going to write a new system?

The second one, done by a somewhat semi-famous person at the time, copied our minimal, custom forum. I have no idea how much work that must have been to port Vanilla to look like ours. Friends asked me if I had joined their team which is how I found out.

I never publicly said anything which chewed me up for a really long time. Both of those projects failed long ago. A copycat likely also won't know how to do other things for themselves and you can bet that they won't know how to execute their project when things get serious.

Cushionapp, you're doing it right. Make your app as innovative and unique as you can and just keep doing your thing. Never bother looking at their site/app again...

<comment><USER4> I've also had the same experience on my second product. Someone made an off- brand copy of about 18 months of work (testing marking, making prototypes, etc) right down to cloning my client libraries and removing all attribution. It was gut wrenching at first.

I couldn't agree more with your last point. Keep doing what you're doing - <USER2> more specifically, focus on solving the problem _you_ have identified and studied. Chances are that you understand the needs of your market better than the copycats. In my case, the ability to meet the needs users trumped my copycats ability to copy my progress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't know you, but damn do I admire the way you responded.

Total class act, told your perspective with passion, and took the total right positioning for a new platform looking to side with freelancers (people so often taken advantage of in the startup eco-system).

Well done, and best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'll agree with the others here - you've shown an exceptional attitude in dealing with this situation. I'm rooting for your app to do really well.

As an aside, this is first time I visited the blog and I have to say that the way you've been open about the product development & expenses[0] is truly amazing. Just by skimming over the list, I found a couple of great tools that I could use for my projects. When (if?) I ever build a SAAS app, your blog is where I'm coming straight back to.

> but this community is built on sharing what we know.

Thank you for living up to this. You, my friend, are doing a great service to the community. Wishing you all the best.

[0] - [http://cushionapp.com/expenses/](http://cushionapp.com/expenses/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Superb strategy with the post - I've to applaud for that. Personally, after that email exchange, I would have made a personal visit with a baseball bat, seriously. I hope somebody posts the competitor's name so we can all publicly shame them in social media which will show up in the search engine rankings so anybody considering them will be directed to Cushion instead of rewarding those asshats.

<comment><USER8> You clearly confused HN with /b/.

If he wants to act on it, he should send them a letter written by a lawyer.

<comment><USER7> Oh yes, very good strategy for a startup fighting against another startup. I'm sure a letter written by a lawyer will be effective at least in draining Cushion's bank account. Unfortunately in cases like these Cushion doesn't have legally much to go on because it's not super unique design. Only reasonable course of action is to raise awareness and he chose to do that. He also chose to do that without naming the competitor which is of course very classy and smart from Cushion's point of view but does very little for Cushion as a whole. This is a great opportunity to play the competitor out of the market by turning their lust for shortcuts against themselves. Proper way to "return the favor" to the competitor is to get other people telling others about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It sucks, but if _all_ that it does take is for someone to copy some visual aesthetic to have parity then there's an issue with the business. It's a good opportunity to think about the value outside of the parts that are easily copied.

As a side note, I'm sure they have copied parts of your app, but the date picker probably isn't a good example. I saw it and thought it looked like _my_ app, as I'm using a modified bootstrap date picker.

</comment><comment><USER10> If it helps, try to consider the incident as it struck me: you did top-notch work, really polished it up to offer your customers a quality of experience pretty much unparalleled in your market, and witnessed the disheartening collateral damage of having inspired the wholly uninspiring.

The off-brand stuff just never tastes quite right. If they were genuinely so immature about the confrontation, they're not going far. Keep on keepin' on.

</comment><comment><USER11> It is classy of you to have not revealed the name of the offender. You show lot of dignity and I am sure it will pay off.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'd like to know what this other app's name is, so I can absolutely never even consider using it.

<comment><USER13> It's the one that looks like Cushion. ;)

If the story's true the best retribution would be to not give the competitor any visits.

<comment><USER14> I'm really damn curious myself but you're absolutely right on this one. At least we know what the competitors site looks like :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> A great response, and wholly appropriate. If success rides on having an interface that no one has ripped off then your startup is going to be _very_ fragile and quite likely to fail, because like it or not, as soon as you get any noticeable traction people _will_ copy what you're doing. That doesn't make copying OK but it's a reality that startup founders face. Startups work when the founders and employees build innovative solutions to problems, and react to customer feedback to make the solution better and better. Anyone copying you is only ever going to be in second place in that regard, so you have an inherent advantage over them. Make the most of it.

</comment><comment><USER16> Without seeing a lot more context, I think it's believable that this is indeed just the result of using Bootstrap.

Originality is vanishingly rare (if it exists at all, which I sometimes doubt), and it's certainly possible for multiple parties to independently end up with very similar designs, especially if those parties are all using common underlying tools.

<comment><USER17> "I visited the Twitter page to reach the people behind it when my heart sunk even deeper—I recognized them.

They were Cushion beta users.

Aside from feeling sick, I felt betrayed. Not only because they were Cushion users, but because I remembered answering numerous questions they had about how I built parts of the app. I was naive to assume they were just curious developers, but this community is built on sharing what we know."

In this context I'd say it's not coincidental.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> People will copy a good product almost anytime. It's "easy to do", but the thing is that they can't copy the drive to innovate the market, which is way any good product was built in the first place. If he keeps innovating like he already did with Cushion, the copy will just sit there without value, and that's the price for being an imitator.

He (the owner of Cushion) also handled everything perfectly. It would be easy to just be shouting about the cloning, this is a really great answer that should let us learn a bit. With hatred he would have gotten on the bad side of the game. With a post like this, he stayed on the good side and also earned a bit of traffic ;)

Awesome.

</comment><comment><USER19> I did have a friend wanting to jump into programming and came asking for advice. Later came back with a website copied and edited from another friend's website, proud.

Some people just don't understand how much time and love is poured into the design and code. Being inspired by something/someone doesn't mean you can just imitate.

Don't give up! Really admire how you kept things calm and clean.

<comment><USER20> Copying and modifying _is_ a sensible way to learn. Doesn't mean you should ever pass it off as your own, but there's value in understanding how something else works by poking at it. Then throw it away and write your own, or find an appropriate Open Source project to work from.

<comment><USER19> I do agree that it is a sensible way to learn, just that they shouldn't take credit for it. I totally don't mind poking into stuff, it just means the original work is awesome and there're stuff to learn from it. However, there's always been the problem of taking credit away from the original creators, acting like its all yours to begin with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I just signed up because of the tone of your response and because this looks like something we've been in need of for a long time. Looking forward to getting access to the beta!

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm sorry; I don't see it. I've seen hundreds of date pickers and color pickers and alerts, and they look very similar. The visual design language of the web co-evolves across millions of sites. There are only just so many ways these things can be done. I prefer to have a web filled with familiar, usable components, rather than every designer trying to make the same control somehow novel.

Unless these folks wholesale copied your html and CSS source code, I don't think you need be getting upset about it. The "look and feel" cases between Apple and Microsoft settled this issue in the 90's - it's not protectable.

<comment><USER23> "Look and feel" aside, the site copy (i.e. text content) is way too similar to be a coincidence.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Ur app looks interesting. I just signed up :).

Also, I like the breakdown of your expenses. It's good for other people to learn from too.

</comment><comment><USER25> > Twitter Bootstrap scaled down would look the same

If I had a dollar...

</comment><comment><USER26> who is the competitor?</comment>


Do you live in a bubble? A quiz - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2/ <comment><USER2> Only upper-middle class people live in bubbles? Charles Murray exhibits a bit of confirmation bias here.</comment>


Code club Senegal, where women are leading the way - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/code-club-senegal-where-women-lead-the-way <comment><USER2> Women in countries like Senegal are less free to choose want to do and so this is not surprising. As societies become more prosperous and free, women (generally speaking) are less likely to be interested in careers in IT. Of course, women who do want to work in IT should be encouraged and accepted.

<comment><USER3> _Women in countries like Senegal are less free to choose want to do and so this is not surprising._

Not anymore. As a woman in Senegal you can choose whatever path. They are encouraged to excel in school and in their careers just as much as men. From my observation, without data, it would seem the younger generation of women is definitely more successful than the one of men.

<comment><USER2> Women are doing well across the globe (okay, outside of the middle-east). More are going to school and getting higher paying jobs.

Women in Senegal are certainly not free in the same way American women are. When I say, American women are more mean I mean they have more opportunities to try different things and want more from work than just money and when that happens they IT becomes less appealing.

<comment><USER3> I am from Senegal. I just got back to the states from a trip there. They are equally free. There are certainly differences in opportunities and social pressure, but essentially they are the same. I know women in all sort of jobs in Senegal, and quite to the contrary money is not a huge motivation for the educated ones because men are expected to take care of their families/bills.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't get why there are special programs for women. Here in Québec we see more and more women becoming doctors, teachers, nurses etc... Why aren't thre programs to help men adopt professions that are outnumbered by women ? I think today anyone can learn anything I they want to, it's all out there... just my 2 cents

<comment><USER5> It's easier to get funding for these programs because they will be sponsored by tech companies that stand to benefit from the outcome of the programs.</comment></comment>


Yandex IPO raises $1.3 bn - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110523-713165.html

<comment><USER2> Non subscription alternative links:

[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3558809c-8557-11e0-ae32-00144feabd...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3558809c-8557-11e0-ae32-00144feabdc0.html)

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-yandex- idUSTRE7...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-yandex- idUSTRE74M3BS20110524?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews)

[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/in-a-sign- yan...](http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/in-a-sign-yandex- raises-ipo-price/437326.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> $8 billion valuation. That doesn't seem crazily high to me, given how prominent Yandex is on the russian internet, how long it has been around, and how much solid technology it seems to have.

</comment><comment><USER4> I read somewhere that $900mm of the offered shares were from insiders, thus Yandex is only raising ~$400mm.</comment>


Tell YC: Reminder, today is Spouse 2.0 day - <AUTHOR>

They have earned it. The terrific unsung entrepreneurs in the house. Spouse, parents, siblings whoever has helped you pull it through.. Lets celebrate the day for them, with them. :)<p>http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/note-to-start-up-founders-take-your-spouse-on-a-date/ <comment><USER2> I need a day and a New York Times blog post for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> No not really. but some are so involved that this is a good reminder kind of.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Useless, sexist, infantile pandering that's using the 2.0 label and 'startups' to generate buzz for a dying elephant (the NYT).</comment>


Twitter Great Applications - <AUTHOR> http://www.twitterga.com/ This is my little startup attempt. By now is only a webpage with the Twitter authentication enabled to recover the user data. The post of tweets is disabled by now. This is a work in progress at a very early stage. Stay tunned! <comment><AUTHOR> Disclaimer: This is my little startup attempt. By now is only a webpage with the Twitter authentication enabled to recover the user data. The post of tweets is disabled by now. This is a work in progress at a very early stage. Stay tunned!</comment>


Women go into science careers more often in countries without gender equality - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/globally-women-tend-to-avoid-science-careers-even-when-theyre-good-at-it/ <comment> shaki-dora There's some pretty damning evidence mentioned in the article that's unrelated to the headline:

> As a result, even in situations where girls outperformed boys in science, > they typically outperformed them in reading by an even larger margin.

and:

> [..] boys' self-sufficiency ratings were higher than their test performance > in about half of the countries; for girls, this was only true in seven > percent of the countries, which suggests that boys' confidence isn't > entirely justified

These findings would suggest that it's in the interest of science to encourage girls to take up careers in the field. There's an enormous amount of talent that's currently wasted, with resources going to less-qualified yet over- confident boys.

<comment><USER2> What kind of reasoning is this? Academic tests are outdated in many ways ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uINT8kdFQUM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uINT8kdFQUM)) and so are the tests. Lets approach this from a gender neutral stand point, just cause a person outperforms someone in an exam or test is not indicative that person will outperform the same person in a real world job? Lets work on a system that promises benefits to user regardless of gender, hears out the opinions regardless of gender... that more of productive convo, than just coming out saying things like "There's an enormous amount of talent that's currently wasted, with resources going to less-qualified yet over-confident boys"</comment></comment>


Unique Dayton Hackerspace to Close This Month - <AUTHOR> https://www.dayton.com/places/bar--nightclub/end-the-great-experiment-downtown-bar-closing/Wnv2X3BbnDzcSGDxXZ2xjL/ <comment><AUTHOR> Proto Build Bar, the unique hackerspace/bar announced that it will be closing on December 21. It was a great resource for the Dayton area and we will be sad to see it go. Proto not only offered the typical hackerspace services and classes, but also had a full service bar, a self-service and assisted 3D printing capability, and the world's largest claw machine.</comment>


Is There Really A Water Crisis?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/16/is-there-really-a-wa.html#more <comment><USER2> Without addressing aquifer depletion, which is a real problem in places like Australia(1), his assertion that distribution is the true difficulty doesn't really hold water.

(1) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Artesian_Basin#Water_sour...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Artesian_Basin#Water_source)

<comment><USER3> Yea, verily. A quick google turns up:

Mexico City is sinking due to aquifer depletion: [http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/Official:_Metro...](http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/Official:_Metro_sinking_due_to_aquifer_development)

Shanghai is sinking due to aquifer depletion: [http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/Official:_Metro...](http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/Official:_Metro_sinking_due_to_aquifer_development)

Iran is sinking: [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080922-iran-...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080922-iran- groundwater.html)

Gee, I was just looking for references to Los Angeles and the American Midwest sinking due to aquifer depletion. And, finally, here is one that mentions the Ogallala Aquifer of the American Midwest: <http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/WORMKA/></comment></comment>


The Very Last Thing I'll Write About Twitter   - <AUTHOR> http://al3x.net/2010/09/15/last-thing-about-twitter.html

<comment><USER2> Well worth reading the whole thing. It's not too long, and he's already Readability'd it for us, if you will.

But if you don't have time:

• #NewTwitter will make Twitter more mainstream, and will provide advertisement opportunities.

• #NewTwitter is a shift away from being a platform towards being a destination (or "place of consumption," if you will), and as such further complicates relationships with third-party developers.

• Twitter should become decentralized, but it's clearly in Twitter's best interested not to.

• Alex circulated a document internally advocating decentralization, and executives disagreed (understandably).

<comment><USER3> and here's a readable article about newtwitter for anyone else who doesn't have the patience to watch the video: <http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/14/new- twitter-tips/>

<comment><USER4> I watched the video and was still in the dark.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ultimately Twitter is a business that needs to generate ROI for its investors.

The open API gave them plenty of ideas for functionality and "holes" in their system, and Twitter has made it clear that they need to fill those holes.

The multiple points of entry also showed them that they needed a seamless user experience, which is why they launched their own native Blackberry app and acquired Tweetie, launched an iPad app and now relaunched their web interface.

Many of the twitter.com upgrades were built by someone else on some other site first, but it is in Twitter's own interest to use those ideas to get more traffic to twitter.com and ultimately use the traffic to generate revenue.

It is sad to think that Twitter fostered its ecosystem only to strong arm it and chop it down when it was ready to figure out its monetization strategy. But those are the perils of building a business off of someone else's platform.

As a Twitter application developer myself I knew this was a risk, but I have become painfully aware of it over the past few months. I think their current trajectory will eventually kill off a good part of the ecosystem that helped them get to this point.

</comment><comment><USER6> His comments on the difference between Twitter and Facebook are particularly interesting:

"Previously, developers took data out of Twitter and into the context of their own applications and services. The new design flips this on its head, bringing rich embedded content into the site from a host of brand-name web properties. (It's worth noting that Facebook has done much the opposite: they started out with a very centralized build-it-within-our-walls model, then gradually grew their tendrils out into the web with Facebook Connect.)"

I'm curious how this relates to his later observation that "walled gardens" are doomed to fail. In both instances, the walls are being chipped away, but in the former, the content is being brought in, while in the latter, content is being let out.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is a nice piece, and makes some very good points.

Completely unrelated: I enjoy reading Alex's writing in the same way I enjoy reading John Gruber and Paul Graham. He's eloquent, thoughtful, and passionate.

</comment><comment><USER8> Disclaimer: I never "got" really Twitter. The service still strikes me as mostly useless.

Now this could just be me but he says:

"Twitter needs to decentralize [...] my belief that all communications media will inevitably be decentralized, and that all businesses who build walled gardens will eventually see them torn down."

So I heard we had this decentralized way of sharing which they call "the web" which is completely decentralized and without walled gardens. And we had these technologies called RSS and ATOM for receiving updates on those.

So...he's effectively suggesting we go back to the web and RSS but with everyone writing shorter messages?

<comment><USER9> I'd been thinking the exact same thing on the drive home today, expanding on an earlier thought I had that twitter is RSS done right. <http://twitter.com/catch404/status/24605947455>

I think they did this by providing a consistent format (both data format and by enforcing limits), a central view and a usable api. RSS/ATOM just didn't get this right. Twitter forces people to get their message across in a small amount of characters. RSS/ATOM again is inconsistent in mainly due to it trying to be a portable medium (reading full stories in a reader). I guess the twitter model is more natural?

Perhaps there is a place for adopting a twitter based format for future rss feeds and making viewers around this.

I personally like the idea of sites having a dedicated twitter account to post updates to, I don't use rss feeds but like getting information via twitter.

<comment><USER8> I don't think Twitter can ever really replace RSS/ATOM.

I have a handful of sites I follow (as in really read every update) and Opera having integrated RSS I get a nice reminder popup whenever there's an update. For me Twitter wouldn't work for this as the amount of incoming messages on Twitter is usually to large and it would be distracting.

To be honest I don't really see any problems in the RSS system. I don't really see why enforcing a data format or enforcing limits makes it more usable? I kinda like getting comics delivered straight to my browser's RSS feeds and being able to read blog posts directly in there as well.

Now Twitter would make for an exceptional social RSS where I could find one-of articles related to my interests. Which I guess seems kinda similar to FriendFeed (which I've never used since no one I find interesting is on there) or Hacker News (but without the discussion and a slightly different topic selection).

The main problem I have is that people keep insisting on posting completely uninteresting tweets (such as what they're doing) or using it as a conversation tool. This kind of noise tends to drown its use as a social RSS feed for me.

<comment><USER9> The method I described would only have the same amount of traffic as an RSS feed as it would just be updating headlines.

I guess it just depends on use. I never got into using an rss reader but follow a bunch of projects/people/companies on twitter and can quickly browse their updates, and follow a shortened link. I like the portability of twitter over different platforms too.

Just suits how I work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Is it just me but isn't it a bit too early to say Twitter is trying to wall itself in? Are they taking down the APIs?

From what I can see here they just want Twitter.com to be a viable (and profitable) business. Why wouldn't anyone want that? In fact, I think it's about time Twitter finally stepped up to define just what kind of a service Twitter really is about. If anything it would be a nice stepping stone to introduce to people who don't yet get it's structure to try it out.

Yes, there are third-party developers who have created their own platforms and in a sense helped define the medium. There are many such choices, but really many of the functions they provide overlap. Do we really need that many different Twitter clients with minute differences? If Twitter were to provide the basic functions itself, then I'd say that this is a good time for third- party developers to think up new ways to diversify themselves. Wasn't there just not so long ago someone posted a HTML5 tower defense game up here that has a Twitter scoreboard? Why not expand on that?

</comment><comment><USER11> It's an interesting question, one that Twitter is at the center of now but one that's not limited to Twitter: Where do we draw the line between a technology company and the culture its technology has spawned?

</comment><comment><USER12> Nail on head for me:

". . . Twitter Platform primarily serves Twitter's interests, in stark contrast to the era of API growth . . ."

and his rueful close in "I believe that Twitter as a medium is and should be distinct from Twitter as a business."

Twitter got to where they are based on open standards, dev empowerment, etc.

Thanks to their money in the bank and lack of need for a biz model they had ample time to own it, be the standard, become the medium - what is a Twitter exactly if not a Twitter?

Going to be very interesting to see where this next step takes them.

</comment><comment><USER13> Twitter.com is not a protocol, it is a service. I think it is also important to note that it isn't a public utility either. right now it is dangerous to place all your eggs in a single basket. When you only have one service provider you lose control of things such as dependability, namespace, access, etc. These are things that most may be willing to let someone else provide for them, but some may want to control these and other aspects of microblogging. A federated design with multiple independent service providers would go a long way to help fix these shortcomings.

</comment><comment><USER14> or, in other words: they'll keep on copying stuff other companies, like Tweetmeme, have done with their data so far.

</comment><comment><USER15> Can Twitter or Facebook become a Medium? In response to Alex Payne: [http://benatlas.com/2010/09/can-twitter-or-facebook- become-a...](http://benatlas.com/2010/09/can-twitter-or-facebook-become-a- medium/)

</comment><comment><USER16> pretty classy post by a pretty key ex-employee. i wish all were like this.

</comment><comment><USER17> very nice

</comment><comment><USER18> Maybe this #newtwitter is just not going down several times a day. That'd sure be revolutionary.

</comment><comment><USER13> >Twitter needs to decentralize or it will die.

told ya so</comment>


Air Apparent to the Wheel - <AUTHOR> https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/air-apparent-to-the-wheel/ <comment><USER2> Factual quibble: Heron was a Greek living in Alexandria which, even though it was In Egypt, had long fallen to the Hellenistic culture. Egypt was also part of Rome by then.</comment>


Electronics Stores Fight for Survival - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772804577621581739401906.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Dcomments <comment><USER2> A quote: "RadioShack, whose stock is down 75% this year, is playing down cables and connectors and refashioning itself as a convenience store for smartphone buyers."

So sad. I can remember when Radio Shack was ... I don't know how else to say this ... a literal radio shack. I was a pre-teenage ham radio operator, and Radio Shack had pretty much everything I needed to build the radio equipment I needed for my ham station.

This was back when people built their own electronic equipment. Yes, I know that's hard to believe in the context of modern times, but when people wanted a radio transmitter or receiver, they would build one.

My first designs were based on vacuum tubes because ... again, I don't know how else to say this ... transistors were just a laboratory curiosity. Later, when Radio Shack started carrying transistors instead of tubes, I began designing transistor circuits.

An early Radio Shack store was a small warehouse of electronic parts, and almost no finished products. Now it's struggling to compete with all the other me-too finished-goods outlets. Even though the name "Radio Shack" sounds like a clever marketing slogan for modern times, originally it was a simple statement of fact -- they were a radio shack. And the employees actually knew something about electronics.

Later I designed electronics for the NASA Space Shuttle, so Radio Shack was part of my unorthodox education. I'll be sorry to seem them go.

</comment><comment><USER3> The only way I can really see a big-box chain like Best Buy surviving alongside Amazon and the other online retailers is if they were to focus heavily on training their employees to be knowledgeable on all the products they are selling, similar to Apple's "Geniuses". I think the original problem stores like Best Buy were created to solve no longer exists - namely, a _physical_ one-stop shop for all your electronic needs. Amazon is clearly better for this.

Where I see opportunity for Best Buy to differentiate is in customer experience. When the typical consumer decides they want to buy a new laptop, and don't want a mac, they basically have a couple of options. They can either research laptops on their own (through Amazon, Engadget, et al) or they can just drive to a Best Buy store and buy whatever the employee tells them. The thing is, the Best Buy option really isn't much better currently because their average employee isn't very knowledgeable on the laptops they carry.

For this to work, Best Buy would have to both pay employees more and spend more time/money training them. Not to mention the costs associated with re- branding the company as a whole. However, IMHO I think something this drastic needs to be done for them to survive.

<comment><USER4> One potential problem with that approach - a lot of people would utilize more knowledgeable salespeople like they currently utilize brick and mortar stores: Do the research there, then buy online to save money. This is fine for Apple, since most of the products they are educating people on are their own.

<comment><USER5> Yes, this is a common reflex (guilty of this myself). It's hard to build a loyal customer crowd. Maybe with copious rebates for regulars.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've found that electronics stores which employ really smart people have no problem finding business (e.g., Fry's, MicroCenter). A lot of people need computer guidance from smart store employees. Even as a tech savvy developer, I am confused by hardware a lot. Like, what hard drive will fit in my Mac Mini?

<comment><USER7> Your example problem is solved cheaper, faster, and more reliably by searching online.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=what+hard+drive+will+fit+in+...](https://www.google.com/search?q=what+hard+drive+will+fit+in+my+Mac+Mini&sugexp=chrome,mod=13&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Retail is not going away. It is evolving.

Big box stores killed the mom & pops. Online retailers killed the big box stores: Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Blockbuster, Tower Records.

WalMart is right to be concerned.

Consumers benefit from online shopping: \- Skip the ride to the store and back \- Seemingly limitless selection in a few searches \- Confidence in pricing by comparing

Brick & mortars need to do their homework and understand the psychology of shopping in an Internet world.

There will always be those who: \- Want it right now \- Enjoy the social interaction of shopping with friends \- Want to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about \- Want to be 'seen'

They need to wind down and market to that segment of the population. That is where they are headed anyway.

<comment><USER9> >Big box stores killed the mom & pops.

I think the internet will kill big box stores and bring back mom & pops. There's no point in going to Best Buy/Walmart/etc. to buy something I can get on Amazon for a fraction of the price, but I will browse local stores for unique and interesting goods that are harder to find online if you're not looking for them.

It will bring back browsing as a legitimate activity, something which big box stores completely killed imo.

<comment><USER10> Physical stores may be able to offer expertise as well as seeing and trying out things in person. I imagine they might not even stock multiple copies of a single product to save space, and you just order the product to be delivered.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Given current trends and the aggressiveness of online retailers, its clear to me that increasing value percentages of the goods that we buy will be delivered to our door and not from physical stores.

So infrequently purchased items will be relatively harder to find at physical stores, and need-it-now items will be priced at a high markup in order to pay the rent and labor costs born by physical stores.

Another trend affecting all retail is the recycling of used goods via craigslist, eBay, and so forth. When such an item is purchased used, then its very possible that a retail purchase was lost.

Many people do not need to go to a physical store to learn about desirable goods, rather they observe what their friends have, maybe try it out, then buy online - with no physical store comparison or impulse shopping.

</comment><comment><USER12> I would pay for quality counselling in store. What I get instead is highly pressured, commission driven employees who have low level knowledge of their products.

I must admit that I could buy it for cheaper online anyway, but there is currently a negative incentive to go to those shops

</comment><comment><USER13> I think its otherwise now. I will mention just one example and same thing will apply to many. I always preferred to buy from amazon(picking just one name) because of no tax and so always better than those stores.But now Amazon is charging sales tax in many states and plan is to charge in more and more states.That will be followed by other online stores and then it will always be more convenient to go to local store(because price is same) feel the item and return it hassle free if you don't like it!

<comment><USER14> In the United States that isn't technically true. Most states require people to pay a "use tax" [1] on the stuff they buy from Amazon.

       [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax

<comment><USER15> The structure of the use tax in my state sort of encourages online purchasing. For purchases less than $1,000, there is an option to pay an income based lump sum (rather than itemizing the purchases and paying a calculated tax). Someone who doesn't care to keep track of the individual purchases saves a bit of tax by making sure they make sufficient purchases (for an AGI of $100,000, the savings kick in at ~$100 a month).</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Founder claims I never purchased options, but I deposited checks - <AUTHOR> My previous company (Bay Area startup) was acquired by a Fortune 500. I reached out the founders, congratulating them and asking about my options. The Fortune 500 lawyer team responds saying "[they] do not have a record of any shares held by [me]". I reply back with a copy of a check I made out to Bay Area startup with a Memo explaining that this money is to purchase the options. The check was cashed and endorsed with the Founder's signature on the back.
Other than this check and the 83b election document, I don't have any other documentation about how many options I own.
PLEASE HELP. I don't know how to proceed. Do I begin Arbitration or find an attorney?
I am totally put off right now, feeling betrayed by the founders.
Edit: Thanks everyone for the warm thoughts and advice--I'm looking for a lawyer now. Really glad I posted. <comment><USER2> Find an attorney. Don't give us any updates. Consider deleting this. This posting could be considered legally discoverable. Not hard to figure out who you are from your submission history. Best of luck.

<comment><USER3> Why would it matter if this was discovered?

<comment><USER4> Attorney here. Specialize in e-discovery.

Because he said something at all. Though, HN is probably not akw hanging fruit for anything. Unless your founder is here and knows you are. Or if you re-use that username then when they look for your social media they will find it.

<comment><USER5> Okay, suppose they discover this post. So what? How does that prejudice his case in any way?

<comment><USER6> They'll attempt to find a mis-statement, a slip up of any kind that doesn't jive with any part of the rest of the picture / claim in question. They may look at the post for anything negative directed at a given person or the company, or slander generally (eg second line from end). Even if it's a stretch. From there it's a short hop to tossing around a few legal threats to end or substantially complicate the entire thing for most people on the other side.

<comment><USER5> Can you point me to a few reported cases where this happened?

Lawyers have thier own urban legends, just like every other profession.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Lawyer. Also find out what bank is handling the transaction (often US Trust if they used [https://www.srsacquiom.com/](https://www.srsacquiom.com/) which is very popular). There is often a 15% escrow hold back on the transaction value for 12-24 months to account for just this sort of thing, so it is very possible to resolve.

</comment><comment><USER8> By the way, don't necessarily attribute bad intentions to the founders. Many startups do a terrible job keeping track of who executed what, and it's not uncommon to find cap tables that have significant errors and omissions.

Note that even if your shares are worthless - you can take the tax writeoff, but you do need to get documentation from the company that the common stock had no value so you have something to show the IRS if you're audited.

<comment><USER9> > Many startups do a terrible job keeping track of who executed what

It's not just the startups. The companies that handle the finance side for companies that experience liquidity events are fully capable of screwing up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Talk to HN user grellas. Ask what they'd charge to do a consult and engage the acquirer's counsel.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas)

<comment><USER7> It's not really the acquirers problem as I understand it, it is the acquired company's problem to distribute proceeds, and usually they have an agent to do it like SRS because it is so messy.

<comment><USER11> It's the acquirers problem. They will deal with it.

Just send a letter to their legal counsel. They will pay you your money owed out of the escrow'd funds.

Do it quick before the escrow is released.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> this shit happens - don't work with founders who show even the slightest sign that they are there to fuck you, because that means they are. not a lawyer/doctor/veterinarian etc - but if you have the discretionary cash get a consultation with an attorney, even if (and it may end up that) the value of your options does not exceed the cost of that initial look

</comment><comment><USER13> You need a lawyer to take action. And that lawyer would need to get the terms of the sale (generally as part of discovery).

But before you do any of that, you need to do a bit of math, this is because your shares were likely 'common' shares rather than 'preferred' shares, so they will have different rules by which they were treated in the event of a sale.

When a company is acquired, everyone has their hand out. So typically those hands are paid in order of preference until the money runs out.

A general rule is banks (debt), investors (preferred), and then common (everyone else), in that order. How that works out in practice is that unless the company is acquired for more than two times the amount of money that was raised, it is unlikely that common stock will be worth anything at all.

So step one is trying to figure out how much the company was purchased for. If that purchase price was 'material' (which is to say that the buying company was investing serious cash and it could swing the buying company's value by enough) then the company has to announce the amount and terms of the sale. If it was a non-material impact on the company then the terms of the deal can be kept reasonably private. (sometimes if you know someone who knows someone you can get a board member to disclose it to you, off the record of course).

So this is what typically happens, the money from the purchase first pays off any debt. And sometimes (at least in the Bay Area it was not uncommon) there is a vendor who exchanges capital equipment (chairs, office furniture, computers, etc) for a debt obligation. It is structured so that it turns into either stock or a debt on acquisition depending on which gets the company the most money back. If you're startup kept asset tags on everything they probably did this sort of deal. So the debt gets paid off.

Now, with what is left, the preferred shares have something called a 'liquidation preference' and a 'seniority' order. Each round of funding re- writes the rules so you have to have a copy of the last round of funding terms to understand what is what. In good days the liquidation preference is 1 for 1, so for each dollar invested the investor gets back one dollar. Sometimes when things were going badly at the end and the company is scrambling they will do something called a 'cram down' round where the people who provide funding for the round have an outrageous liquidation preference like 3 or 4 to one. And everyone else comes behind them. In any event all of those pre-spoken for dollars comes out of the purchase price first.

And now, if there are any dollars left, the 'conversion' happens. There are two common things that can happen here, one all shares including preferred and common can convert to a single share type, and then the remaining money is divided up by the ratio of the total each share block holds. (this is when preferred shares are 'participating' which means they convert to common after their liquidation preference is met) Sometimes preferred shares will not be included in the final round (non-participating).

In my experience, and for those deals where I knew all of the numbers, unless the acquisition price was at least twice the amount of money raised, it rarely trickled down any value to common shares. This is the basis for my advice for new hires to treat any equity grant in a non-public company as $0 regardless of what the CEO tells you.

This reality, that you have to be acquired for 2x of what you raise to have any hope of generating wealth for the employees, helps experienced founders push back on taking too much venture money.

Good luck on your quest, if you have some amount that would satisfy you then you might get away with just writing the general counsel (that is their head lawyer and their contact information should be on the 'legal' part of the company's web site) with the amount of money you want, your evidence that you own shares, and an offer to sign a release for any and all future claims. If it is reasonable they might just pay it out of a fund they reserve for such things (and by reasonable I mean < $100K).

</comment><comment><USER14> IANANAL (I am not ANAL), nor am I a lawyer, but it seems to me the cashed check and the 83b form (especially if filed with the IRS) both pretty-well corroborate the fact that money was exchanged, and it was for stock options.

</comment><comment><USER15> If you get in the situation where you think you might need a lawyer/attorney, talk to one, they are generally approachable sorts, if you don't trust one, talk to a few, as others have pointed out, this is the first and only step to take if you are considering action.

</comment><comment><USER16> Lawyer. Call one you must.

</comment><comment><USER17> Do you have proof they cashed them?

If so, talk to a lawyer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes I have bank statements that show the check was cashed.

> talk to a lawyer

The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed. I don't know if my options are worth more than lawyer fees. What kind of lawyer do I need to look for?

<comment><USER18> If it is a public company, their SEC filing should reveal how much they paid for the acquisition.

<comment><USER7> The transaction won't be disclosed if it is immaterial (small enough). Ask a friend from the company or maybe an investor depending on who you have a relationship with. You just want to know the per share valuation of common stock.

Frankly I'm surprised the founder isn't being more candid with you. Messing about and prolonging this stuff helps no one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> You don't have a share purchase agreement that was signed by both you and the founders?

<comment><USER20> And a copy of the option grant itself? Also signed by the founders. Plus, if it was a taxable event, there should be a line item on your W2 with the taxable amount. Otherwise a form 3821 so you can prove to the IRS you don't owe taxes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> adam bier in SF is my lawyer, he's very good and has dealt with something similar for me.</comment>


Oracle, Walmart, and other US investors to take a majority stake in TikTok - <AUTHOR> https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-oracle-bytedance-deal-investors-us-majority-stake-treasury-trump-2020-9 <comment><USER2> IDK why everyone is trying to obtain tiktok. it;s going to cost them so much and is going to die out within the next 3 years (just like vine)</comment>