Show HN: Folio for Mac – Simple version control app for designers based on Git - <AUTHOR> http://folioformac.com <comment><USER2> With binary files and git, am I saving all the previous versions in the tree locally (which could get huge fast), or just the diffs?

<comment><USER3> Binary diffs. But depending on the file, it might not really be of much help (I know for a fact that Adobe premiere projects for example are nearly completely different every time you save).

<comment><AUTHOR> Folio uses git internally and as such is based on binary diffs. To tackle the issue of an ever-growing repository, we're looking into integrating git-lfs which supports offloading blobs from the repository.

<comment><USER4> So is there a way to achieve collaboration? if this is based on binary diffs, can we still have merging?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does this actually sync with remotes? That part isn't clear.

<comment><USER6> In their blog post on medium[1], they mention that it is built on git. webdesignledger.com[2] claims that it supports full version control.

[1] [https://medium.com/@FolioForMac/building-a-better-time- machi...](https://medium.com/@FolioForMac/building-a-better-time- machine-5c236db948a)

[2] [http://webdesignledger.com/folio-version- control](http://webdesignledger.com/folio-version-control)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wonder the benefit of using Git over Dropbox for a designer for this purpose.

<comment><USER8> A git repo can be hosted wherever you like. Dropbox, not so much.

<comment><USER7> That's not wrong, of course, but I wonder for how many designers that portability is an important value.

<comment><USER8> Well I don't know how much _they_ care about it. But fat kids don't care that cake is bad for them either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> does this support all file types? psd? png? avi? mp4?

possible to merge changes?

<comment><AUTHOR> Currently Folio supports psd, sketch, ai as well as png, jpg, tiff, dng and gif.</comment></comment>


Apple May Have Snapped Up iCloud.com - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-may-have-snapped-up-icloud-com/ <comment><USER2> Not that an Apple cloud service is any sort of secret, but paying $4.5 million for a domain confirms something is coming. It sounds like it might be a separate service from MobileMe, which would be surprising.

<comment><USER3> Or MobileMe is being renamed to iCloud.

<comment><USER4> That will be odd since it got renamed/rebranded just recently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Link to the trademark registration: [http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4009:7n...](http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4009:7n9955.2.1)

</comment><comment><USER6> Just what we need, Apple making the term "cloud" mainstream as if it wasn't already overused.

</comment><comment><USER7> Haha = applecloud.com is available through go daddy - but they want 50K for it....</comment>


The 34 Women That Won The Nobel Prize - <AUTHOR> http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/women.html <comment><USER2> 34 women "who" won the nobel prize. Please get the grammar right. "That" implies an object. "Who" implies a person.

<comment><USER3> Pure usage mythology: see languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

From the comments there, a list of "that" usages where you would dictate "who":

 _"a woman that feareth the Lord" (Proverbs 31:30, King James Bible)_ "Then I saw the man that sat upon the cloud" (John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress) _"While I stood thus amusing the Lady that was with me" (Daniel Defoe, Roxana)_ "The man that hath no music in himself" (William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice) _"He, the most excellent Man that can be imagined" (Jane Austen, Plan of a Novel)_ "I am the girl that dragged little Oliver back to old Fagin's" ( Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist) _"The lady that was here last night" (Charles Dickens, Bleak House)_ "The Man that was Used Up" (Edgar Allan Poe) _"The man I want to meet is the man that Candida married" (George Bernard Shaw, Candida)_ "The Girl That I Marry" (Irving Berlin)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is your recommended password manager? - <AUTHOR> I'm in the market for a password manager and I'm not sure which one to choose. I know of 1Password and LastPass but are there any others I should consider? Why? <comment><USER2> You could probably expand on your minimum requirements a little.

I use and recommend Apple's Keychain (with iCloud Keychain if you want syncing), but that _only_ works if you're exclusively using reasonably recent versions of iOS/macOS (aka OS X).

An alternative that I've looked at (as a basis for a business tool) is KeePass. The original app is open source, and a number of keepass-compatible tools have popped up, giving reasonable coverage for most platforms.

Obviously, as a third-party tool, it's unlikely to have quite the same level of integration as an OS/Browser vendor's solution.

</comment><comment><USER3> Look at enpass. I've introduced it to several people who've all been impressed.

</comment><comment><USER4> Password Safe

[https://www.schneier.com/academic/passsafe/](https://www.schneier.com/academic/passsafe/)

</comment><comment><USER5> I found this thread as I was looking at those two options aswell. please let me know if you find a better one.

</comment><comment><USER6> Dashlane is a good one, however no linux support.</comment>


The "Wizzards" of Adware - <AUTHOR> http://blog.talosintel.com/2016/04/the-wizzards-of-adware.html <comment><USER2> This is fascinating, malware is being distributed in broad daylight by companies registered and operating in developed countries. Attacks from single users in, or pretending to be in, Eastern Europe or some other area with weaker unauthorized access laws seem to be getting less popular, as hackers are realizing technology and methods of unauthorized access are developing a lot faster than laws can keep up with them.

</comment><comment><USER3> The statement provided by the company in question is kinda hilarious, basically "Our software totally behaves like malware but don't you dare to say it or you'll be hearing from our team of rabid lawyers!"

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure how to take this.

On the simple review, this seems like garbageware and a nice exploit. But the name PUP gives it away; potentially unwanted programs. We can't say for sure that the user didn't want them.

Now, if the program resists removal at the behest of the user, then yes, it's malware. But I've done computer work back in the day with Bonzi Buddy, and there real users who wanted that pile-o-crap on their computer.It was very much wanted, and went out of their way to get.

<comment><USER5> But the software does lots of things the users didn't ask for, wouldn't expect, and aren't told about. That's over a line.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> >> Contrary to Talos' wrongful allegations, our business has been approved by French regulators and we have never been indicted or sued for any malware distribution!!!!

Oh dear. Four exclamation marks? Someone's about to start wearing their underpants on their head, methinks. [1]

_________

[1] [http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Multiple_exclamation_marks](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Multiple_exclamation_marks)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> [http://blog.talosintel.com/2016/04/the-wizzards-of- adware.ht...](http://blog.talosintel.com/2016/04/the-wizzards-of-adware.html)

""With a network display 11.7 million PCs installed worldwide, Tuto4pc.COM GROUP achieved a turnover of € 12 million during the year 2014.""

</comment><comment><USER7> The doublespeak is real.

</comment><comment><USER8> Url changed from [http://www.securityweek.com/cisco-finds-backdoor- installed-1...](http://www.securityweek.com/cisco-finds-backdoor- installed-12-million- pcs?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20Securityweek%20%28SecurityWeek%20RSS%20Feed%29), which points to this.

<comment><USER9> Caveat: The original article doesn't include the response by Tuto4PC.</comment></comment>


Screw the super angels, we need a super user collusion table at Bin-38 - <AUTHOR> http://scobleizer.com/2010/10/12/screw-the-super-angels-we-need-a-super-user-collusion-table-at-bin-38/

<comment><AUTHOR> Summary - Robert Scoble writes to the "super users", i.e. the users who use the most mobile apps. He says the super users should be helping to drive the market towards better applications. As opposed to the "super angels", who are driving the market towards only caring about getting funded.

I'm pretty sure HN users are a large part of the "super users" Scoble is talking about. I know I personally use a lot of applications and sign up to anything that looks even slightly interesting (but on the web only, sadly don't have a decent mobile.)</comment>


Multiple Choice Probability Puzzle - an analysis - <AUTHOR> http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/MultipleChoiceProbabilityPuzzle.html?HN <comment><USER2> If you assume the problem is correct, in other words one and only one of the four answers is correct, then you have to exclude the two identical answers (25%). You are left with 50% and 60%. You pick one of them at random, and the chance to be correct is 50%.

If you start with the assumption that the problem is wrong, then ... it's wrong.

<comment><USER3> Only if by "correct" you mean "an answer such that all others are incorrect". That's a very narrow definition.

It works in this case though.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I see that despite getting 3 upvotes in a matter of minutes, this item is now ranked down in the mid 400s. Clearly it's been flagged.

Would someone please explain why this is sufficiently inappropriate to deserve getting flagged? I just want to know so I can avoid submitting the wrong kind of items.

Thanks.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure. I think it's a thorough analysis of this so-called "problem" that made the rounds. I especially appreciated the conclusion, that not only is it not a paradox with no answer, but a broken paradox at that.</comment></comment>


FDA's new packaging rules to dissuade smoking - <AUTHOR> http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/CigaretteProductWarningLabels/ucm231354.htm

<comment><USER2> Is this the same FDA that saids its OK to inject infants multiple times with 500x the toxic level of mercury into babies or is this a different nanny state agency?</comment>


AI algorithm used to separate human and background can recognize a single hair - <AUTHOR> http://techmadman.com/index/article/read/id/236 <comment><USER2> is their paper public?</comment>


How e-commerce platform Elliot fell back down to Earth - <AUTHOR> https://www.modernretail.co/startups/how-e-commerce-platform-elliot-fell-back-down-to-earth/ <comment><USER2> I recognize this pattern: people who are good at marketing think they can go into a space and outcompete others thanks to brilliant marketing. This works in some consumer spaces but fails whenever the key to success depends on excellent engineering. The use of outside contractors in this case is a red flag. Outside contractors are a better bet when customizing something standard, but doing original work requires a much closer feedback loop between the engineering team and the leadership.

<comment><USER3> Isn't this strategy exactly what is pushed in startup-land? Sell first, then build.

Or are you just talking about outcompeting with great marketing and an average/shitty product?

<comment><USER4> I think the point is that there is an extent to which you need to be able execute on the build part. Good engineering won't make a successful business on it's own, but poor engineering can easily sink one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What was their target market? People for whom Shopify is too expensive or hard to implement? I'm not sure that's a valuable market.

If the market is countries which are under-served by Shopify, this is a smaller list that it used to be, and I'd think that the cost to serve each smaller market is going to be low margin until you get to Shopify scale, where you've solved most of the transnational commerce issues in markets with lots of high-value customers.

Living at the end of the supply chain, I appreciate that common US-based services take ages to work their way out to the rest of the world, and there may have been an opportunity to launch, say, Shopify-for-Latin-America, it sounds like there wasn't sufficient focus on the product meeting the needs of this (e.g. by running card processing through Stripe which has a very limited presence in Latin America), and more focus on twitter beef as a marketing strategy (and having a fit-for-purpose product).

<comment><USER6> Yes exactly. It seems like the market was people who are so small they cannot afford/work out how to use shopify or woocommerce. Not sure that's a market you want to be in!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> lol. Elliot blowing up was fucking hilarious. Main take-away: high-quality 3d bovine renderings don't help to solve the "problem" of international shipping in e-commerce...

Their biggest edge that they failed to realize was the fact their pricing model was a % of each item sold, not a flat fee per month. However, it's hard to say I didn't see the fall of Elliot coming - their initial beta was an absolute cluster a mere two weeks before their slated "launch date".

Also, it's still unclear why some early founders at Parsley Health were involved with Elliot?

<comment><USER8> Btw, that was the pricing model that I launched my ecommerce platform with. I only pivoted it to the now common saas subscription after the first year (basically a move of desperation at the time)

<comment><USER9> It was genius to monetize the credit card processing fee instead of the order directly. Do you see Shopify moving off of Stripe eventually to get even lower rates? eBay did something similar by with Paypal the past few years.

<comment><USER8> No! It's one of the few great partnerships in tech.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My biggest question is for the investors here. They are supposed to be sophisticated and yet they bought into a sales pitch that was basically what - shopify and woocommerce are too complex for small (minority) businesses!? Seriously?

Where's the due diligence, who's asking questions on product market fit at these investors.

Stunning and I'd be pulling funds out of any company stupid enough to invest.

[https://www.shopify.com/cross-border](https://www.shopify.com/cross-border)

</comment><comment><USER10> "If a potential business partner gave him an answer he didn't like, he would call them, angry, or take to Twitter to blast their replies."

Never deal with a person like this.

</comment><comment><USER11> "For example, Chavez wanted the menu bar on the left-hand side of the website rather than the right. It took many months for the Elliot team to fix that."

With CSS grid styling that is a change that can be done easily. Yet they would have built a vast amount of technical debt with frameworks, PDF designs that had to be pixel perfect, responsive design hacks and a process that made it all but impossible to fix. They would have spent hours battling with the client about when this would get fixed and held many internal meetings to move it around on a whiteboard.

Having worked in e-commerce I should have heard of their platform. I haven't. Platforms that do promise drag and drop ease do frustrate me though, it is a bit like working on a car for some small child to think they just need to scale up their HotWheels toy car in order to render your efforts useless.

</comment><comment><USER6> "I'm a former athlete turned maker whose e-commerce products have sold close to $1B globally" Sergio Villaseñor

This guy is insane - he worked for companies that had $1bn in sales and now he claims it's his work that acheived that - humble much.

</comment><comment><USER12> Sergio's doing an AMA in a few days it seems, it should be interesting to see if any other new information comes to light.

<comment><USER13> He did an AMA of sorts in the Discord Server a few days after the "launch" mostly a sob story about how it "was all his fault" and how he felt bad everyone was let down. No mention of a number of the systemic or toxic issues mentioned in this article.

The Discord Server has since been deleted.

I can attest to the beta seeming like something I'd expect from a college kid and a few friends after a hackathon, definitely not something you hired a "team" to work on.

I'm curious why anyone else joined the team in late 2019 other than to attach themselves to a "cool and trendy" startup mess.

It should also be mentioned that his personal twitter has been scrubbed.

<comment><USER14> e-commerce is ridiculously hard - I say that as someone who built a company and an e-commerce platform. It looks pretty straightforward on the surface, but when you start getting into discounts, into merchandising, into shipping and volumetric calculations, into tax calculation and distribution centre section, into CRM, into despatch management, into refunds and exchanges, into internationalisation, into segmentation, into all of the myriad intricacies and business rules that _have to work every time, in every weird scenario_ , at scale, with five nines of uptime, you are deep in a world of hurt.

It's hard to do it properly. I mean, we somehow managed, but we managed to do everything else wrong.

<comment><USER15> Interesting! Can I ask what your platform is?

<comment><USER14> Sure. Was - both my business, and their platform. I left after ten years 4 years ago. Since then, it seems the platform has taken a back seat. The resource with the most info that I can find is a review over at [https://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/blubolt- re...](https://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/blubolt-reviews) . No idea if they ever did the planned admin console rewrite. It was built in flex way back when, because reasons - mostly security sandbox for sensitive data that kept it away from potentially contaminated admin browsers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> there's plenty of those people, in NY. marketers pretending to be know what they're doing</comment>


Hotz fires a powerful blast back at Sony's California jurisdictional claims - <AUTHOR> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110327185437805 <comment><AUTHOR> The bombshell here (and it is just that) lies in the forced last-minute production of the agreements between Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (referred to in the papers as "Sony Japan").

To establish personal jurisdiction over Mr. Hotz, SCEA must show that he had minimum contacts with California such that it makes it fair and reasonable to sue him in that forum _over this set of claims._ This is so-called "limited jurisdiction," and is to be distinguished from the "general jurisdiction" that enables you to sue someone in the state of his residence over any claim whatever (see my mini-primer on the technical aspects of this here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2335698>).

The key to the limited-jurisdiction analysis here is whether Mr. Hotz "purposefully directed" his activities toward California (intending that they have an effect there) _in committing the acts for which he was sued_. It is not enough to show incidental contacts with the state because such a standard would allow any person to be sued anywhere in the United States over any matter simply for having, e.g., purchased a product from remote state x, or had some similar tangential contact. Remember, the standard requires the court to find contacts in the forum related to the wrongs committed such as to make it reasonable to require the distant defendant to have to defend the suit remotely.

Because of this, the vital question concerns the nature of the claims asserted in the lawsuit and whether such claims show that Mr. Hotz intended to affect a California resident in committing the wrongs alleged.

And this is where the bombshell comes in: in a forced document production that SCEA managed to stall until just a few days before Mr. Hotz's reply brief was due, it had to produce the key contracts between SCEA and Sony Japan, which contracts conclusively demonstrate that all copyrights that are alleged to have been violated in this case are owned by Sony Japan exclusively and that SCEA has nothing to do with them other than being one of many licensees of such copyrights within the Sony family of companies.

In other words, SCEA appears to have nothing legitimate to do with the case other than serving as a proxy by which Sony Japan hopes to bootstrap its way into California jurisdiction. SCEA _is_ connected with the PlayStation Network terms of service having a California forum selection clause. The problem is that none of the claims in this case concern violations of such terms of service.

The clear implication is that SCEA is a puppet being used to manipulate the court for Sony's tactical purposes. This is reinforced by several collateral indicators. SCEA filed this suit and "flooded" the case with subpoenas that went far beyond the scope of the limited discovery allowed in this sort of case. It then went to great lengths to avoid being straightforward with the court about the copyright ownership upon which the DMCA claims were based. And it has filed a blizzard of affidavits and court papers trying to confuse the main issues in the case.

Of course, nothing is completely predictable in a court matter where a court must decide an issue based on a nebulous legal standard such as whether something is "fair" or "reasonable" under the minimum-contacts jurisdictional analysis. But these revelations, to me, look pretty damning. Essentially, Mr. Hotz's attorneys have provided near-conclusive rebuttals to all of SCEA's jurisdictional claims and left SCEA looking disingenuous. Judges usually do not react well when they come to believe that a party is trying to play them, and this rebuttal does a superb job of showing that that is precisely what SCEA appears to be doing.

I would sum this up by saying: if this is all that SCEA has got, it is in trouble on the jurisdictional question (as a fallback, Mr. Hotz's lawyers have also asked that the court be transferred to New Jersey under an "inconvenient forum" analysis, which also looks pretty strong for him). It will be interesting to see how this plays out. (The factual details are a bit more complicated than I have summarized them here but this, I think, captures the essence of what is going on - see the wonderful reporting and links of Groklaw to drill down further).

<comment><USER2> I honestly don't know why the judge has entertained this for so long. They've tried to bury him in discovery from the outset and they have far more resources than he does as a private citizen. They've not been able to show any California links beyond what a normal person might have from merely using the internet.

Frankly, letting them fight over discovery is only magnifying the harm. This is a legal DoS attack of sorts, you don't solve those by adding more complex rules, you solve DoS attacks by nullrouteing the crap.

In other words, I wonder what would happen if a judge was brave enough to say right from the outset that they're not even going to listen to all these motions, they're just going to transfer the case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I really try hard not to buy Sony anymore. Not fanatical about it, but why support a company that does this, along with installing rootkits and other behaviour of course.

<comment><USER4> I sympathize. However, it is very hard to completely avoid their products if you love music or movies.

<comment><USER5> Well if you love music or movies, you can easily avoid PAYING for their products.

<comment><USER6> Even if you don't support piracy, you can easily avoid paying _Sony_ by just buying used.

<comment><USER7> Buying used doesn't support anybody else involved in the production. If you're worried about the ethics of piracy, I do not understand how buying used changes things.

<comment><USER8> The existence of a resale market likely increases the initial purchases of the item.

How? Hypothetically, say the utility you'd get out a specific album is $8. The price is $10, so, naturally you won't buy it. However, you normally tire of music in, say, a year. You realize you can sell it them for $4. So instead you go ahead and buy it ("it really only costs me $6, 'cause I can sell it when I'm done with it").

<comment><USER7> True, but if you want to take that look, buying used doesn't effectively keep your money out of Sony's hands either. You're just laundering it to keep your own conscience clean. Of course, not paying for it at all doesn't help anyone involved.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What an amazing overview of the legal proceedings. Clearly a lot of effort went into this, huge thanks!

<comment><USER10> Groklaw is consistently amazing like that. PJ manages to make complex cases intelligible without dumbing things down so much that you feel like it's just an editorial. Of course there is editorializing, but it's mostly to point out how crazy some of the stuff is that's happening. It feels like getting the opinion of an expert instead of punditry with an agenda.

Oh, and PJ's earlier coverage of this case: <http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110322114658410>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> "The implication is that SCEA might be fighting dirty, providing misleading information to the court."

That's kind of naive, this is how the law works - you make your case by putting the most beneficial spin on everything from your clients perspective ("he agreed to this when he did X").

The defendant then makes their case by putting the most beneficial spin on everything from their clients perspective ("X only extends to cover Y and therefore is not relevant").

The judge or jury then rule on who is right. That's not fighting dirty, it's the practice of law.

This is an analysis of the defence motions which are always going to be worded to make everything Sony has done sound deeply wrong and evil.

The Julian Assange defence was very similar - if you read through it you'd wonder how the case had ever been bought and yet the judge found against them on pretty much every point. They weren't fighting dirty, they were giving their interpretation of things and this is the same.

Not saying this isn't good, or interesting, just that it has a very specific and obvious bias and that irks me a little.

<comment><USER12> I agree with you. That said, where does it cross the line from beneficial spin to providing misleading information? Can, for instance, a landlord claim to a court that a tenant agreed not to throw loud parties in the rental contract (even if there was no such provision) and leave it up to the the tenant's defense to correct that no, the rental contract says nothing about parties? To me this would be misleading information, but I am highly ignorant of how courts work.

<comment><USER13> It can, actually, get much worse. While cross examining the other side, the opposition attorney can, and often does, state an assumption in the middle of a question that misstates a fact. If you don't object, then that statement becomes fact. In other words, every statement made must be considered. Is this something I am willing to allow?

It seems that we want to think of a world that is logical and populated with verifiable facts. However, the world of the lawyer is fundamentally illogical (as are most humans most of the time) and facts only exist when either agreed to by the parties or determined by judge or jury. As a result events that you or I would consider to be unquestionably true may end up being not facts. I have seen this in supreme court opinions, appeals, and bench (judge-not jury) cases.

Sony knows this well. They have tons of money to throw at lawyers. Generally speaking, the more money spent, the more likely you will win.

The word "justice" is never used in law school.

<comment><USER14> _It seems that we want to think of a world that is logical and populated with verifiable facts. However, the world of the lawyer is fundamentally illogical (as are most humans most of the time) and facts only exist when either agreed to by the parties or determined by judge or jury._

This observation that "legal logic" is not quite the same as traditional rational-thought logic has led to an interesting "legal reasoning" subfield of AI over the past decade or so (with some precursors dating back further) that tries to formalize exactly what logic it _is_ following, and how it differs from traditional rationality. That area develops alternative logics, reasoning procedures, etc., in order to do things like simulate case outcomes, suggest possible arguments to make, evaluate alternative strategies, etc. Until relatively recently many people did think that the right way to make a legal reasoning system was to treat the law as logical rules, and the legal reasoning problem as a problem of rational inference over rules+evidence... which turns out not to be that accurate an account of how law actually operates.

<comment><USER15> I have long been interested in the possibility of a legal AI, although only as a mental exercise (with lawyer parents and siblings, hard not to :) ).

I didn't know there were advancements in the AI field pertaining to that, I'll try to look them up, but would be very grateful if someone could point them out :)

<comment><USER14> I'm not really an expert in the area; have just run across some sessions on it at the general yearly AI conferences I attend (AAAI, ECAI, and/or IJCAI). The keywords "legal reasoning" and "legal argumentation system" will get you quite a lot of stuff though. The latter bleeds into general "argumentation systems", since one way of modeling legal reasoning (though not the only one) is that it's a specific sub-species of debate or argumentation, rather than a specific sub-species of logical inference. (Of course, you might ask: isn't debate ideally logical as well? Empirically, it seems, the answer is: not entirely.)

<comment><USER15> Thanks! Both the explanation and the keywords will direct my search handily :)

There's also a section on the Wikipedia article on Argumentation theory:

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

"Computational argumentation systems have found particular application in domains where formal logic and classical decision theory are unable to capture the richness of reasoning, domains such as law and medicine"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> What exactly was the rationale for changing the title of this article from the one on Groklaw?

</comment><comment><USER17> @Sony, just drop the case. I hate to rant, but this is _bad press_. I am a developer and an early adopter; your attempts to make an example out of Hotz has further soured an opinion still bathed in the lukewarm wake of your infamous rootkit. If and when I have time to play games, I will do so on an XBox.

</comment><comment><USER18> Despite my distaste for Sony, I worry that the tone and claims of bad faith in Hotz's filing will distract from the overall strength of his argument.

From Kozinski's "How You Too Can Lose Your Appeal:"

Let's face it, a good argument is hard to hold down. So what you want to do is salt your brief with plenty of distractions that will divert attention from the main issue. One really good way of doing this is to pick a fight with opposing counsel. Go ahead, call him a slime. Accuse him of lying through his teeth. The key thing is to let the court know that what's going on here is not really a dispute between the clients. What is really going on here is a fight between the forces of truth, justice, purity and goodness--namely you--and Beelzebub, your opponent.

<http://notabug.com/kozinski/loseappeal>

</comment><comment><USER19> Sounds like some spinning of his own in explaining why he did not fully comply with a judge's order that he take the code offline:

 _"The Code was also posted on Pastie. org and Github.com. Originally, it did not occur to me that these locations counted as within my custody or control."_

</comment><comment><USER13> It would help to read this Wikipedia article to better understand this post. The post is based on court filings addressing personal jurisdiction in an internet case. It seems California has weighed in on the subject and knowing what they are looking for helps to understand the nature of the arguments. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_jurisdiction_in_Intern...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_jurisdiction_in_Internet_cases_in_the_United_States)

</comment><comment><USER20> Who/what exactly is blickmaniac? Trying to Google for any info on that has been futile and only leading me to news articles about Hotz vs Sony wanting to find the identity of them.

<comment><USER21> One of the many assertions made by SCEA is that Hotz agreed to SCEA's terms of service, and (I believe) that he did so in California.

The user they identified as doing these actions was called "blickmaniac" (or maybe blickmanic according to some blogs). Hotz has denied being blickmaniac, and a number of people have come forward and claimed that he/she is blickmaniac, including, apparently, Hotz' neighbour.

Fundamentally, many of the maneuvers SCEA is going through right now are intended to demonstrate that Hotz had a contract with a California company, so that they can sue him in California.

Hotz's side is that he bought something made by Sony of Japan, and hacked at it while living in (New Jersey?), never connected to SCEA's network, never read any TOS, posted source code from New Jersey, etc.

What's at stake is partly the judge (the current judge ruled DVD copying is illegal if I recall correctly), inconvenience / expense for Hotz, and also from his perspective, hopefully showing SCEA up to be lying bastards, hurting their future case when jurisdiction is finally settled.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> maybe we should start a Spartacus-like "I am blickmaniac" movement

<comment><USER23> Lying to a judge is not typically a good strategy. SCEA likely has more details about who blickmaniac is; they just haven't disclosed them yet.

<comment><USER24> You are presumably operating under the assumption that geohot really _is_ blickmaniac^. If he's not, any possible further details SCEA has either would not be in their best interest to share, or would fall apart upon further examination. Furthermore, as none of us, I assume, are currently under oath, or even in the court room, there is realistically little harm in publicly claiming to be blickmaniac.

^And he's not, because I am blickmaniac, and I'm not geohot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Does any of this count as barratry? Even if the underlying case is valid, it seems as if SCEA's attempt to bring it in California is frivolous.

</comment><comment><USER26> Is there any reason SCEA wants to file in CA other than making it inconvenient for Hotz?

<comment><USER27> Does Japan have a DMCA-style law?

Even if it does, I'd guess that SCEA has a better (bigger?) team of lawyers than SCEJ when it comes to this sort of case.

<comment><USER28> If the case was brought up in Japan, then wouldn't Hotz just need to avoid ever stepping on Japanese soil in order to stay out of trouble (regardless of the outcome of the case).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Love this... Better than a soap opera. (I don't own a PS3, so don't feel any attachment to either side.)

<comment><USER30> You don't need to have a PS3 to have a stake in this mess. Sony is fighting for the right to remove features from a product as part of "security updates", to prevent jailbreaking from becoming legal for devices other than smartphones, and for several other precedents that would be very bad for the internet privacy and open source software.

Basically, if you're on HN, it's a safe assumption that you would be at least indirectly harmed if Sony got everything they're asking for from this case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> All of this has very little to do with the actual suit. This is all over the question of jurisdiction.

<comment><USER32> An interesting turn of events. However a ruling on this will indicate that if sony wants to sue anyone for hardware hacking, they will have to do it in the jurisdiction of where the person lives, not where sony choses.

<comment><USER31> Well, not so much. This isn't a higher court, so it's not setting any precedent wider than this court itself. Of course, other courts _might_ choose to take these findings as guidance, but there's no requirement for them to do so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous SCEA is.

<comment><USER34> I know. If I was a SCEA Exec, I would be asking my lawyers "WTF do I pay guys for? So you can get pantsed by some kid?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> What does the declaration of "unawareness" that Hotz filed mean (near the end)?

Is that some sort of narrow legal definition, or is he actually declaring that he's really never heard of SCEA and didn't know they were located in California?

That seems highly unbelievable and a bit ridiculous.

<comment><USER36> Really? Do you know the names and business locations of all the subsidiaries of whatever popular brand is out there? Do you know all of the subsidiaries under the "Universal" umbrella? What are the addresses of all of them? What are their responsibilities?

<comment><USER35> Fair enough, I could believe that he did not know the address of SCEA. Of its existence? Someone who's as deeply involved with consumer tech devices and software as he is, it seems pretty unlikely that he would not have encountered them.

For example, searching for "sony playstation" and visiting the first link takes you to <http://us.playstation.com/> which is an SCEA website as listed at the bottom of the page.

That's why I was asking. If it means something more like "I've never dealt with them personally or contractually", well then sure. But "never had knowledge of their existence" seems a stretch. Anyway, of course IANAL, etc.

<comment><USER37> In all seriousness: Do you read the footers of every page you visit?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Mutexes and Semaphores Demystified - <AUTHOR> http://www.netrino.com/node/202

<comment><USER2> > _I hope this article helps you understand, use, and explain mutexes and > semaphores as distinct tools._

Uh... it didn't. In fact, the very example they give of using a bathroom very much allows for both semaphores and mutexes.

      initial state:  mutex: released; semaphore: 1 (signalled);
      use bathroom:   mutex.lock;      semaphore.decrement;
      leave bathroom: mutex.release;   semaphore.increment;

In this way, a semaphore can be viewed as "consuming" the "key", and creating a new one when finished, while a mutex is descriptively grabbing and returning.

They go on to state that a 2-counting semaphore cannot accurately control 2 bathrooms - true, it takes two binary semaphores or two mutexes, or other data. But at this point we're still at the two being identical; all that's been shown is that the claim that a single n-semaphore _cannot_ be used in this manner. And neither can a single mutex. So the claim is they're not identical, but the example shows them behaving identically (the pseudo-code doesn't align with the example, and is meaningless anyway, as you can (and frequently do) .wait on a semaphore until it is signalled, just like a mutex release).

A significantly better example would be to show a single n-semaphore in a producer/consumer setup vs mutexes, where as many as n units can wait for consumption. With an n-semaphore, you just increment when you .push, and decrement when you .pop; you'll _never_ pop from an empty stack, and will wait until a .push + .increment before continuing, and will _never_ over-fill your stack. Simple, safe, and efficient in both code and computing power. Optimal, even - all producers produce until all are unable, and all consumers consume until all are unable.

With mutexes, this is not as easily possible; you'll have to test multiple mutexes, probably associated with an array location, to find one to safely push into / pull from. This means multiple checks to push / pull, and complex (if possible, haven't attempted to actually do it) mutex setups to allow consumers to both act immediately on new data and to not get in each other's way, in a similar manner to an n-semaphore.

edit: a quick example of the mutex's problem in this example:

assume n producers and n consumers, with mutex setup which prevents a producer from overloading an entry, or a consumer from over-emptying (takes 2 mutexes). If producer 1 makes two quickly, the second unit will languish until consumer 1 finishes the first unit and can claim it - no other consumer can work on that slot without many more mutexes controlling access to others' slots, if it's even possible to construct something which does this without spin-waits (continually checking all mutexes), which are very wasteful. I'd imagine it is, but I don't care to work out how to do it, as semaphores make it easy.

<comment><USER3> Is it fair to say a mutex is just a special case of a semaphore that only counts to 1?

<comment><USER4> A mutex is more than that. That's the entire point of the article. A mutex implementation needs to deal with issues like priority inversion, where higher-priority threads continually interrupt a lower-priority thread holding a naively-implemented mutex, starving any other thread (even a high-priority thread) that needs the resource it protects.

<comment><USER3> Starvation is equally an issue with semaphores.. how does that make a mutex different?

<comment><USER4> First of all, it's not clear to me that priority inversion is an issue with semaphores as normally used. If a high-priority consumer thread is waiting on a low-priority producer thread, there may just be no data ready to be consumed. There's no reason to raise the priority of the producer thread if, for example, it's just waiting for some external input.

Second, how would you solve priority inversion for general semaphores? With mutexes, you know what thread is holding the mutex, and can bump its priority correspondingly. With semaphores, there's no guarantee that the same thread that incremented the semaphore will decrement it later.

<comment><USER2> "As normally used" is part of the problem. How something is normally used has nothing to do with what it _is_.

General semaphores? I'll easily grant that would be difficult. Not impossible, but likely wasteful and a PITA.

Binary semaphores, which is where the debate lies? Store a whoDecremented thread pointer, cleared on increment. Which is functionally identical to Dekker's algorithm[1] and Eisenberg and McGuire's algorithm[2], except they require storage for _all possible waiting threads_ , instead of the _single_ storage of a semaphore.

edit: links: [1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekker%27s_algorithm> [2]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenberg_McGuire_algorithm>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There is a relevant question and answer set for this topic on Stack overflow at [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/187761/recursive-lock- mut...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/187761/recursive-lock-mutex-vs-non- recursive-lock-mutex/189778#189778)</comment>


Show HN: My first iPhone app, StarLive, for keeping up with StarCraft events. - <AUTHOR> http://itunes.apple.com/app/starlive/id456029193?mt=8

<comment><AUTHOR> Promo codes:

4A77MEMAM6AM

EY9A3PMF7M3L

XNPWP46E4NK4

3HFJAXKH7LTY

XN9XX9MR9YEL

THW9667RMLLJ

N36P947J9J7F

TRNAPARHWE74

NYXHNF3KF7WT

EW6K4WLPHAJ4

I started working on this after attending a 3-day iOS SDK workshop. Basically I wanted to make something small, niche, but that I myself could really get some use out of, as well as something aimed at a community I feel very much a part of. It's been a bit daunting being my first public software release (3rd year CS student), but a great learning experience.

</comment><comment><USER2> Thanks for the promo codes!

The Schedule page is nice but the Event Details page needs work. Would be cool to know if an event is being broadcasted on Twitch.tv or some other website (you kind of have it in the description box, but its really hidden). Also not sure why the description is inside of a box.</comment>


Samsung Galaxy S4 – hardware from Samsung with Google's latest software - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/111395306401981598462/posts/KLkxZvPhdWw <comment><USER2> "Google's take on Android"?

Don't they mean just "Android"? Because the shit that comes on a regular S4 is "Samsung's take on Android", no matter how Samsung would prefer to define things.

<comment><USER3> No, they mean Google's take. AOSP is Android, the Nexus experience that is shipping on the N4, the new S4, etc is "Google's take".

<comment><USER4> What's the difference between AOSP and the Nexus experience?

<comment><USER5> google apps come by default, which you'd normally call "bloatware"

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure it's fair to call the base Google apps like Gmail and Maps "bloatware".

<comment><USER5> Well, some of them are not actually bloat for most people (because some of them like Gmail are actually useful). But nobody I know uses G+ or the Movies app (this one requires you to pay, which is a lot like the typical Norton "bloat").

For Nexus devices, it's not as bad as the crapware that comes with a typical phone. You can still remove/disable apps. I had an old Samsung Galaxy phone where you couldn't even remove some of the garbage that came with the phone (some app about the Inception movie, Facebook, etc.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> They really need to make it a "Google program" of some sort, where _any_ manufacturer can do this with their smartphone models (while respecting Google's strict guidelines of course). They'd basically be Chromebooks for Android.

<comment><USER8> This. I'm surprised that it's taken Google this long to get around to it.

I just hope the network operators actually bother to sell these devices... For reasons I fail to comprehend, EE, the largest network in the UK, still refuses to sell the flagship Nexus 4, or indeed any phone that ships with a non- mutilated version of (stock) Android.

Edit: I suppose it's because the device is such good value on the Play Store that EE wouldn't be able to make a worthwhile margin on their contracts while appearing vaguely competitive.

<comment><USER6> _For reasons I fail to comprehend, EE, the largest network in the UK, still refuses to sell the flagship Nexus 4_

Because there is next to no market for it. People who are not developers are not aware of 'stock', and don't care. People who are developers will just buy from the Play Store.

<comment><USER8> Fair, although this is not simply some geeky dev device. Apart from the poor camera, it is a remarkable phone for the money (in some contrast with this S4!) and I suspect that it is primarily Google's lack of marketing that has prevented it from going mainstream. LG has struggled to keep up with demand for these phones as it is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Hilarious moment in the session when he announces the GS4.

"Here's the Samsung Galaxy S4, its a great phone, and you can get it for $650 on the Play store!"

...crickets.

<comment><USER10> haha yea I noticed that too. Must have been very awkward for him.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is amazing news. The S4 has amazing hardware but the Samsung stock software is absolutely terrible in almost every aspect.

</comment><comment><USER12> I have an S4. Does anybody know if I'll be able to remove Samsung's software and go completely google? I'd be happy to ditch touchwiz and the junk Samsung put on the phone to get the full Google/Android experience.

<comment><USER13> you could flash a new rom. it's rather easy.

<comment><USER12> I don't just want any old rom. I want the one Google is using for its version of the S4. Is this likely to be available? (Apologies if this is basic stuff for the Android experts--I'm still figuring things out.)

<comment><USER14> It's possible. At first you'll have to make your device's bootloader unlocked, this is the hardest step of all since the method to do this is different to each variant of device and usually require root access. The second step is installing a recovery ROM which will allow you to install custom ROM. Finally, you find the custom ROM that suits your need and install it. Cyanogen Mod and AOSP provide almost if not the same as pure Google experience. Please note that S4 is very new so custom ROM may not be perfectly stable yet. You should find more information at forum xda-developers where developers are actively work on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Isn't this just a way to reassure customers, that there are no problems between Google and Samsung?

Also, I am huge fan of Nexus softkeys, which move as I rotate screen and are not physical. And how about softkeys other than home? Back is on the wrong side (well, wrong is opposite of what i've used to), and second is context sensitive menu.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm still worried. The Nexus way had invented 'no-physical-button' experience for 2 generations. Now, with Galaxy Nexus S4, will we have the physical button back again ? Will this cause fragmentation in android ecosystem ?

</comment><comment><USER16> does this mean stock android will eventually get to use the smart gesture and motion features of S4 ? I would hope Samsung has contributed their code and future iterations of similar hardware will be supported in android ! for once let there be a good marriage between competition and a common open mobile operating system (aka Android) amongst manufacturers

</comment><comment><USER17> It's interesting how with each nexus, samaungs brand gets stronger.

Google Nexus S, Google Galaxy Nexus, now Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android

</comment><comment><USER18> Damnit. Makes me regret buying a Nexus 4 two months ago.

</comment><comment><USER19> great news!

</comment><comment><USER20> Does Google make any money by selling this or is it just Samsung? Does this mean no new Nexus phone for Google I/O?

And Motorola continues to bleed a ton of money.

<comment><USER21> Not only Motorola, but probably also HTC, LG, ASUS and whoever else is/was trying to sell Android phones. I honestly don't get it - do they want to actively kill off internal competition among Android manufacturers?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Too expensive. For $649, get an iPhone.

<comment><USER16> sure if the following features are not important to you, 1080p display, removable battery, expandable memory slot, NFC, new touchscreen tech allowing you to use the screen with gloves, optional wireless charging and arguably the most popular mobile operating system

edit: removed ' future updates ' as a differentiating feature since iPhone has the same guarantee

<comment><USER23>
      | guaranteed updates for the near future

Don't iPhone users get iOS updates? How is 'OS updates' a differentiating feature?

<comment><USER16> You are correct, I think I got a little carried away :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Super-Hyped Start Ups - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1-Pwvm6ko nice little interview with Gary Vaynerchuck and TechStars NYC <comment><USER2> I find that unwatchable. I've never watched any of Vaynerchuck's non-wine related videos, and didn't realize he was trying to spin himself as a start-up expert.

Who is he marketing this to, and why?

If you're a part of the technology scene, you know what an incubator is, you're familiar with the space, probably know about TechStars, though maybe not.

If you're not in the technology space, why should you care? The mainstream media is already covering YC, Bloomberg apparently did a piece on TechStars.

I just don't get it.</comment>


Swift Dev Weekly – the best weekly Swift development links - <AUTHOR> http://swiftdev.tips

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm running Germany's largest native mobile development studio and am excited about Swift. With this initiative, we try to become a great source for quality links to Swift tutorials, discussions, open source projects and other content related to Swift development. Would love if you help spreading the word. Also on ADN (swiftdev) and Twitter (swiftdev_tips).</comment>


Tiny Clouds Taking on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud - <AUTHOR> https://www.infoworld.com/article/3435096/tiny-clouds-taking-on-aws-microsoft-azure-and-google-cloud.html <comment><USER2> Sign up wall.</comment>


Ask HN: Best place to incorporate a startup? - <AUTHOR> There's a currently trending article of why one shouldn't incorporate in US.
I'm willing to find out other entrepreneurs' experience in online incorporation: where is the easiest/fastest to end the process with such a bank account that can be used for online payments (you can associate a sort of a merchant account with it) and can withdraw the money fairly easily (card, wire, etc.)?
I'm not interested in options allowing pharmacy, gambling or adult businesses, but a rather "normal" one. <comment><USER2> Wow - was just about to ask the same.

I'm based out of India and hate the Taxation system here (it's worse than what you read for the US) - software attracts Service Tax and VAT (Sales Tax) both - you pay reverse service tax for services you take from abroad and you even pay TDS (Withholding Tax) from your pocket for entities not incorporated in India. I could just go on and go on here.... it's just stupid.

I'm planning to incorporate my startup soon and want to do it in a country where I can: 1) Use a PG like Stripe. 2) No Service/Sales Tax just flat out corporate tax on profits. 3) Easy, Simple and Affordable Registration and maintenance process.

<comment><USER3> > _You pay reverse service tax for services you take from abroad and you even > pay TDS (Withholding Tax) from your pocket for entities not incorporated in > India_

This is the most bizzare tax compliance issue I faced in India.

If you incorporate in US, you still have to pay taxes in India. This can make things easier in India, but it can create additional compliance and tax burden in US.

If you are looking forward to raise Venture Capital, then Delaware C-Corp is the preferred route. If you want to remain a self-funded company, then LLC can be a better option.

If you want to carry forward your revenue in India, then you can contract your Indian entity and transfer funds for services. Any funds you transfer to Indian company will be subject to Services tax or VAT and Income tax.

You can use services like LegalZoom to incorporate in US online.

<comment><USER4> Delaware corporations are not required for venture financing, as more than a few major venture people have said publically and on their blogs.

Just use your own state's corporation laws (if you're in the U.S.), until you're a many-multi-million dollar size entity, and avoid the headaches of being a foreign corporation within your own state (meaning out-of-state, but within the U.S.). You've got bigger fish to fry, if you're starting out.

<comment><USER3> ankitoberoi is from India. Since he is not a US resident, he may not have a state preference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Fastest: Incorporate in Delaware, cost $157+$20 overnight Fedex for a C-Corp, 24 hour turnaround, registered agent Incorp which is free for the first year and $99 after, done by fax. 10M shares at .00001 par value. $350~ a year franchise tax. Some banks may require a Certified Copy but my bank did not, which is an additional $50. Merchant accounts are pretty easy, just need to apply for one either at the bank or use a service like Stripe mentioned in other posts. All merchant rates are negotiable on the most part. I can start a new business within 72 Hours with merchant account and bank account, incorporated, full startup documents.

Foreign Corporations depend on if you have employees physically located in that state, certain states may differ. Most startups don't follow this rule, it's the wild west in the beginning.

Just make sure you keep good records and you get a decent accountant to make sure you don't get surprised come tax season. If your looking at the lowest tax rates on corporations, I believe Singapore and Hong Kong are great STABLE options, however they come with their own issues when it comes to accepting payments and also are much more costly to set up.

Get your corporation in order, get a merchant account and start making money. These questions are best left for accountants and even at that, not everyone will give you the same advice. Once you have revenue and you have an idea of what your working with, you can see if it's worth incorporating in another state/country.

PS: If your a startup with founders, check out Clerky.com. Very nice guys and will get your corporation done properly. Worry-free. I didn't use them because I was looking at maximum cost savings by doing it myself, but will invest in them later if we need to redo the paperwork or just flat out start a new company.

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly the reply I was looking for. Thanks a lot!

Can you share which bank would be best to use in case of a Delaware C-Corp?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The best place to incorporate is wherever creates the least impedance with potential investors. If the pool of potential investors has not been identified, then incorporation as a C-corporation may create an unproductive tax burden.

If the purpose is solely to limit liability, then other limited liability forms of organization might make more financial sense and organizing locally might make sense.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think that should be the incorporation motive, unless you already have a prospect of having investors. When you're starting a business/service, all you want is to be able to have income and to have such a legal protection that incorporation offers. Once you get to the point that you're profitable and that investors might come, I don't think it's a problem to re-incorporate...

I'm all for local incorporation, but only when it's possible/feasable. In my own case, local incorporation would render me unable to process online payments unless I have a yearly profit of at least 50K EUR, which I cannot have at all unless I'm able to process online payments :)

<comment><USER6> Smoothing out transactions sounds like a good reason to look at incorporating elsewhere particularly if the overhead of international payment processing can be kept to a manageable level.

In the US, there are multiple forms of limited liability businesses some of which are not corporations and several forms of incorporation. That was the context of my response not the suggestion that limiting liability should be avoided.

Good luck.</comment></comment></comment>


Joining an early stage startup just for the experience? - <AUTHOR>

Hacker news community, I am a longtime reader but first-time poster.  I have been interested in startups since college, and I've had the opportunity to work for two Internet companies since graduating.
My predicament is this: a few months ago I decided it was time to leave my previous job, as it was becoming a bit too "corporate" for me.  About this same time, a friend of mine from work had an idea for starting a company and I decided to join him.  I felt that his idea was solid, and I felt that it would be good experience for me even if it did not work out.  For a couple months I helped him develop the idea, helped formulate a marketing plan, helped out on the sales side, etc.  My primary motivation has not been financial but rather has been more about the experience of being in a very early-stage start-up and my passion for the underlying idea.
Fast-forward to last week.  I disagreed my partner on a key issue, and was told that as a result he wanted me to take a more minor role within the company.
He is now requesting that I sign a contractor agreement that will provide minimal pay and no equity.  My question to you is: if I am not primarily motivated by money, am I an idiot for accepting this agreement? <comment><USER2> If you already have equity, talk to a lawyer and leave. If you don't have equity, just leave.

</comment><comment><USER3> > _helped out on the sales side_ ... _more minor role_

These comments make me think that the company already has revenues of some kind and also that you're not the only two people working there. Is that the case?

<comment><AUTHOR> We have a sales guy who is solely focused on biz dev. He is paid on a straight commission.

After our disagreement last week, my partner decided to hire someone else to help out with marketing, which was previously exclusively my domain. I do think we need help, but the way this hire happened was far from ideal.

<comment><USER3> I'd take a step back at this point and think about what it was you wanted when you first joined.

Signing something at this point would clearly put your relationship on a legal footing as a contractor, when I get the impression that you feel more like a partner. IANAL.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yes.

If this is his conflict resolution system, I can't imagine that this is going to work out very well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, the experience last week raised a few red flags for me. I thought I knew him and his working style, but I guess I was wrong.

Thanks for the feedback.

<comment><USER5> I am sure we are hearing only one side of this story, however it seems to me that this is the beginning of the end. I say this because the trust, which is everything for partners, seems to be gone, and you have been proven replacable (and thus only marginally valuable). I'd suggest save the friendship (whatever is left of it), and move on as quickly and painlessly as possible. See if you can keep some equity in exchange for your initial work, but not play an active role anymore (you will not be happy with him or with the company after your demotion, you will see it as something you helped build and got kicked out of). You can turn this around by getting some equity, thus being a silent and inactive stakeholder, and exiting quietly (you got more than you ever wanted - experience plus money, and he got rid of you without giving away too much).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> he wants to fire you, but not come out and say it directly. were you offered/receiving pay/equity prior to the disagreement?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that's what I thought too. I asked him straight out if he wanted me out (I tried to quit), but he said he wanted me around and that I could still gain experience from being part of the team.

I was not receiving pay prior to the disagreement, but was promised equity. The percentage was never discussed as that truly was not why I wanted to be in this. We have been friends for a few years and I don't think he wants this to affect our friendship.</comment></comment>


The perfect HTPC card? Low profile single slot Radeon HD6670 - <AUTHOR> http://tech.icrontic.com/article/sapphire-radeon-hd-6670-gpu-low-power-low-profile-single-slot/

<comment><USER2> I haven't been following graphics cards but it is interesting that vga port is kinda being phased out but is included in the purchase. You can install VGA through a ribbon cable if you are so inclined.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, especially important for legacy monitors</comment></comment>


How to Undo Gender Stereotypes in Math - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-undo-gender-stereotypes-in-math-with-math/ <comment><USER2> >I worked hard to be successful, but that "success" was one that was defined by society. It was about grades, prestigious universities, tenure. I tried to be successful according to existing structures and a blueprint handed down to me by previous generations of academics.

>I was, in a sense, successful: I looked successful. I was, in another sense, not successful: I didn't feel successful. I realized that the values marking my apparent "success" as defined by others were not really my values. So I shifted to finding a way to achieve the things I wanted to achieve according to my values of helping others and contributing to society, rather than according to externally imposed markers of excellence.

What does this have to do with being a woman in particular? This sounds like burnout to me.

</comment><comment><USER3> >However, for a long time I wasn't interested in these questions. [...] When I finally did start thinking about being a woman, the aspect that struck me was: Why had I not felt any need to think about it before? And how can we get to a place where nobody else needs to think about it either?

Glaring unacknowledged question: What did the people who came before her do to lay a groundwork where those questions didn't have to be at the front of her mind? And what changed?</comment>


Twitch.tv doing it right - <AUTHOR> https://gfycat.com/TiredViciousHoneybee <comment><USER2> how the f __k they done that? I 'll research dat function & reverse engineering it this night!</comment>


Connection tracking critical for high performance network policy for Kubernetes - <AUTHOR> http://blog.kubernetes.io/2016/09/high-performance-network-policies-kubernetes.html <comment><AUTHOR> We ran some performance benchmarks applying network policy to Kubernetes pods. Found that latency was (nearly) independent of the number of iptable rules applied. This is because once the session is set up, connection tracking lets subsequent packets be forwarded right away.</comment>


Curb failed payment issues with reliable Dunning email delivery - <AUTHOR> https://postmarkapp.com/blog/how-to-curb-failed-payment-issues-with-reliable-email-delivery <comment><AUTHOR> These are all great suggestions - choosing a reliable provider, implementing DMARC properly, and doing bounce handling are all annoying, difficult, yet necessary pains you need to go through to setup a reliable email program. Shameless plug: that's why I recently launched a Show HN: Flute Mail, in public beta, a provider-agnostic email API provider, so you can switch providers with a click, and setup automatic failover for bounced emails over multiple reliable providers.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17243034](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17243034)</comment>


Microsoft Emphasizes HTML5 Over Silverlight - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20053285-75.html

<comment><USER2> Everyone I've spoken to who went to Mix11 came out of it feeling better about Silverlight not worse. What I've heard is the message at Mix11 was that Silverlight was being presented as Microsoft's preferred native environment going forward while HTML5 was the preferred web development model.

(Note there were no sessions devoted entirely to Microsoft's current desktop solution WPF)

To that point they reiterated their support for the Mac meaning Silverlight is an environment that can be used for out of browser apps that run on both Mac and PC (much like Adobe AIR).

</comment><comment><USER3> That article was written after the first day of Mix. Silverlight 5 features weren't to be announced until the Day 2 keynote, which was almost all about Silverlight (on the phone and the web).

Microsoft's position on HTML5 and Silverlight seem extremely clear to me. If you're doing cross-platform their focus is now HTML5. You won't see much of an investment on Silverlight for the Mac, for example. But if you're developing exclusively for Windows, then Silverlight is your best bet.

Regarding WPF at Mix -- Mix is a web conference and WPF is NOT a web technology. Expect WPF sessions at PDC (a couple to a few at most), although I do think that WPF and Silverlight are merging (with Silverlight basically just catching up to WPF, with WPF being left to handle niche Win32 interop scenarios).

<comment><USER4> >ou won't see much of an investment on Silverlight for the Mac, for example.

Can you resolve this with the following excerpt of Tom's comment?

"To that point they reiterated their support for the Mac meaning Silverlight is an environment that can be used for out of browser apps that run on both Mac and PC (much like Adobe AIR)."

<comment><USER3> I'd be surprised if they did. Doesn't seem like it fits their Silverlight strategy. With that said, I wasn't at Mix and Tom was.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think the fact that they demoed IE10 running well on a 1.0ghz ARM, coupled with last year's emphasis on Windows 8 running on an ARM device, speaks volumes about the future.

Windows has had HTML/CSS/JavaScript "native" apps since Vista. If IE10 + Win8 results in "native HTML5" being performant even on mobile devices, it seems likely that HTML5 is soon to be the new Silverlight in terms of simple out-of- browser apps.

<comment><USER6> They've had HTML/CSS/JavaScript "native" apps since IE5: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application> (not that it was ever a good idea to use this feature)</comment></comment>


CouchDB is now officially Apache CouchDB - <AUTHOR> http://damienkatz.net/2008/11/couchdb_is_now_officially_apac.html <comment><USER2> From the article:

"As a special limited-time promotion,you can get free sugar and cream packets with your coffee at participating 7-11's when you say 'I hope I don't spill this on the CouchDB.' The promotion is not supposed to start until tomorrow, but I just tried it and it works already."

+1 about the promotion - totally works ;)

</comment><comment>==

I've been playing with CouchDB for a few weeks now. It took awhile for me to rescript my brain from years of relational databases, but now it's hard to look back. The sheer flexibility and the siren-call of map-reduce is hard to resist.

There were a few things that helped me get my head around using CouchDB:

First was the CouchDB screencast from PeepCode: <http://peepcode.com/products/couchdb-with-rails>

Second was an article that helped me understand how to 'join' different types of documents: <http://www.cmlenz.net/archives/2007/10/couchdb-joins>

Third was this discussion that explains how/when to divide a document into sub-document-types: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/147837/couchdb- modeling-f...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/147837/couchdb-modeling-for- multi-user)

It's been fabulous to play with and I'm building a merb app with it at the moment - very fun. I'm looking forward to it maturing into having camps, books, conferences etc... (here's the first book announcement: <http://books.couchdb.org/relax/> )

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm finding CouchDB to be a natural fit with Sinatra. On Ubuntu 8.10, the database was easy to install and CouchRest has made it very easy to operate from Ruby. I was enjoying Google App Engine, but find this much easier to work with. I'd like to try it with Python next.

<comment><USER4> _"... On Ubuntu 8.10, the database was easy to install and CouchRest has made it very easy to operate from Ruby. I was enjoying Google App Engine, but find this much easier to work with. ..."_

Which begs the question, "are there any hosts that support CouchDb?" App engine might not be ideal but it works and is there. Do you think there might be a demand for a CouchHub?

<comment><USER3> Being a big fan of Heroku and CouchDB, I would find the intersection between the two quite attractive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> i remember seeing damien on news.yc back when i first joined (that's how i initially heard about the couch project). congrats!

</comment><comment><USER6> Congratulations to the developers. I suppose this might soon become the most visible Erlang application out there.

</comment><comment><USER7> this is great news for Apache. It's good for them to have projects that aren't just purely Java based.

<comment><USER8> Absolutely.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> has anyone found stress testing proof of where couchdb is at? production sites?

<comment><USER10> I've been thinking about setting up a raw test run from EC2 hitting a couchdb instance several hundred times a second, just to see what happens. It won't be the best data for real-world performance, but I think it would still be valuable as a raw performance baseline.

<comment><USER11> I assume you mean EC2?

<comment><USER10> I do now =)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> You know you're tired when this goes right over your head.

"As a special limited-time promotion,you can get free sugar and cream packets with your coffee..."</comment>


Antarctic Weddell expedition targets Shackleton's lost ship - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47000896 <comment><USER2> The ship being used for the expedition, the SA Agulhas II, is an Antarctic research ship owned and operated by the South African government.

Its regular duties are to resupply and support the South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE IV) base in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, as well as the country's sub-antarctic research stations at Marion and Prince Edward Islands.

While searching for the _Endurance_ is the headline-grabbing (and undoubtedly interesting) part of this expedition, its real purpose is to study the Larsen C ice shelf and the conditions that led to the creation of the massive 5,800 Iceberg A-68 in 2017. Understanding how and why that happened will improve climate models of the Antarctic region and provide better predictions about the impact of climate change.

It's a really difficult expedition though, with only a slim chance of success because of the area's conditions.

</comment><comment><USER3> So cool!

Shackleton's Endurance story is amazing, and don't miss out on the Ross Sea Party's part. The goal of the overall expedition was to cross the continent; Shackleton's party would make a series of depots to Pole, while the Ross Sea party was laying them from the other side so Shackleton could traverse the continent. Shackleton famously lost Endurance though, so never came over land. Meanwhile, the Ross Sea party lost their ship too, and still managed to lay a series of depots.

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

<comment><USER4> There was a good TV film of the story a while back: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272839/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272839/)

<comment><USER5> It's also the inspiration for this song:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js7qiqKphbI&t=774s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js7qiqKphbI&t=774s)

<comment><USER6> Is it? That sounds more like [http://farhorizons.hull.ac.uk/baffin-bay-the- isabella-sir-jo...](http://farhorizons.hull.ac.uk/baffin-bay-the-isabella-sir- john-ross-and-the-search-for-the-northwest-passage/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Would you rather live under a boat on Elephant Island for an Antarctic winter or take part in the battle of the Somme? they happened at the same time.

<comment><USER8> Well no one died on Elephant Island so I guess that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you have not read "Endurance" I can only say you've missed out on the greatest adventure story ever told. Don't read about it first, just read it. There are potential spoilers if you're not familiar with it.

Now if I could only remember which version of the book I read...

<comment><USER6> After you've read one of the more conventional accounts, you might also enjoy _Mrs Chippy 's Last Expedition_, a delightful re-telling drawn from the diaries kept by the ship's carpenter's cat...

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128731.Mrs_Chippy_s_Last...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128731.Mrs_Chippy_s_Last_Expedition)</comment></comment>


Simple App Ideas That Made Multi-Millions - <AUTHOR> http://www.itaxsmart.com/the-top-7-simple-app-ideas-that-made-millions-for-their-owners/

<comment><USER2> Kinda hard to take any article seriously that doesn't spell words in its first sentence correctly. [https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130619080202A...](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130619080202AAJahGA)</comment>


Ask HN: Any way to test Google ARCore without a supported device? - <AUTHOR> I'm wondering if there's any way to test Google ARCore without a supported device (Pixel or Galaxy S8).<p>I have a Moto G5 Plus, perhaps there's some simulator that can pretend it's another phone..? <comment><USER2> Yes, someone has stripped the device check and ported it to unsupported devices [https://github.com/tomthecarrot/arcore-for- all](https://github.com/tomthecarrot/arcore-for-all)

<comment><USER3> I have a G5 Plus as well and unfortunately the Tango Core service crashes when the app opens.

<comment><AUTHOR> ...what are the steps you followed to even try running it?

I was able to install the modified ARCore APK, but I wasn't able to install the browser.

<comment><USER4> in that same repo is the helloar apk

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Emulated devices won't work I'm afraid. I've just checked, and the SDK checks against a list of device fingerprints: i.e. return Build.fingerprint.contains(sailfish || marlin || walleye...)

However, this check is made from the HelloArActivity and could be bypassed. It may still fail, but I'd be happy to build an APK with the supported devices check commented out if you'd like.

As a side note, I've been playing with the sample SDK, but it's a slow process due to the lack of documentation. Does anyone know of any communities for sharing info on ArCore?

Thanks in advance

<comment><AUTHOR> > the SDK checks against a list of device fingerprints: i.e. return > Build.fingerprint.contains(sailfish || marlin || walleye...)

Yes, that's what I thought, I guess they just do it to ease debugging since my phone is just or almost as capable as the Galaxy S8. So, `HelloArActivity` could be patched so that everything worked on other devices?

> It may still fail, but I'd be happy to build an APK with the supported > devices check commented out if you'd like.

Is that the only file? So one can just download the SDK and comment that out?

> As a side note, I've been playing with the sample SDK, but it's a slow > process due to the lack of documentation. Does anyone know of any > communities for sharing info on ArCore?

Well, there's this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Arcore/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Arcore/), but it's new and I doubt is that active. Perhaps you could fork Google's project on GitHub and edit the—almost non-existing—instructions in the README?

<comment><USER5> I'm afraid that it's a bit more complex than I first thought. Someone else has already done this though, take a look: [https://github.com/tomthecarrot/arcore-for- all](https://github.com/tomthecarrot/arcore-for-all)

<comment><AUTHOR> Very nice.

I'll give this a try.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This likely won't work too well because the Pixel and S8 are the only ones they have camera and imu calibration for. If you do hack it to get it working, you should at expect degraded performance or complete failure.

<comment><AUTHOR> But Google is saying that it's optimized for a wide variety of devices...

<comment><USER6> Yeah, but not in the first release.</comment></comment></comment>


Hacker charged in CRA Heartbleed breach - <AUTHOR> http://globalnews.ca/news/1274997/hacker-charged-in-cra-heartbleed-breach/

<comment><USER2> Quite ridiculous how you can get in court for sending bytes to a server.</comment>


Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World's Most Ingenious Thief (April 2010) - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blanchard/all/1 <comment><USER2> I have a hard time believing this. Do you know how loud it is crawling through an AC vent? How loud a parachute landing on a roof is? How likely the fake from the store weighs the same as the real? Maybe he did steal what he claims to have stolen, but I'm finding it difficult to believe he did it the way he did.

<comment><USER3> According to police and the courts, he absolutely stole what the article says he did. The souvenir shop replica story has also been repeated by police and has never been disputed by the jewel's owners as far as I can tell. (I remember the police statements from the time of his initial arrest - I don't have time to hunt for them now but if you really want to you would probably have some luck at cbc.ca.)

<comment><USER2> Thanks, I'll try to hunt those down. The police statements would be far more convincing for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wish the writer had had even a modicum of scepticism while penning this guy's story...

EDIT: Oh wait, I already said that when this article was posted 9 months ago.

<comment><USER3> What is there to be skeptic about? Do you mean that you think the author is glorifying Blanchard's escapades (which _are_ pretty impressive by most standards) or that some aspect of the story isn't true? I share a hometown with the guy - his story fascinates me.

<comment><USER4> The most fantastical aspects of the story seem to be coming from (the imagination of) the interviewed thief/con man, without further corroboration. The author seems quite pleased to have a movie scenario thrown in his lap, and doesn't place any question marks. Most other articles on the net relating to this person seem to take this article as their source.

It's been a long time since I read this story, but there is a lot in there which has the feeling of being a tall tale. Like parachuting onto a roof in the dead of night, when he may just as well have bought a ticket and hidden behind a curtain somewhere in those 1000 rooms.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I was also quite skeptical of that part - he was somehow able to track down a parachute, a perfect replica of the jewels, and an outlaw pilot all in the space of 24 hours? All this when he was on vacation in a foreign country with his girlfriend and her family?

<comment><USER6> Parachutes are pretty easy to come by if you know any skydivers.

The replica didn't need to be perfect, just look similar. They don't take jewels out of their box every day to take a close look at hem unless they need to. He got that from the gift store.

You could find a pilot willing to drop you at night at the same place you find a parachute. Skydivers & and their friends are weird thrillseekers. They would do a night drop for someone because they thought it was cool. Blanchart didn't have to tell them the truth as to why he wanted dropping.

As for the vacation... that seemed to come first, and the robbery on a whim. He didn't go there planning to steal the star.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Please note that while high in retail value, diamonds are a marketing creation. A large diamond really can't be sold due to its notoriety, while a mid-sized or smaller would net pennies on the dollar (compared to purchase prices).

Considering artificial diamonds can already be made of a better quality and cheaper, diamonds are going to be reserved as a high-fashion rather than a consumer item. In other words, your grandma's wedding-ring diamond may be worth actual pennies if you ever want to sell it.

<comment><USER8> I wouldn't say pennies on the dollar - I've never seen a used diamond on Craigslist for even $50 - but the sentiment is of course true.

<comment><USER9> Eighty-five pennies on the dollar is still pennies on the dollar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1215138>

</comment><comment><USER11> I was hoping this post was about the Barnes Collection documentary movie with the same title <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326733/>

</comment><comment><USER12> Every wo/man should master something. You must be the best (or least one of the best) at something. These types of thieves are great at what they do.

I have seen several episodes of "Master Mind" where detectives/judges would describe professional thieves with admiration.

</comment><comment><USER13> As reported by the CBC in 2007 [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/11/07/blanchard...](http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/11/07/blanchard- charges.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> If you liked this, you may also enjoy the professional exploits of "The Silver Thief"

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020547>

</comment><comment><USER15> he clearly had a hacker's mindset, in the original sense of the word.</comment>


Report: Android losing developers to iOS - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218462/Report_Android_losing_developers_to_iOS

<comment><USER2> An interesting segue from this article <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2768376>

</comment><comment><USER3> Hmm. So more potential customers and fewer competitors? I like it.</comment>


The YouTube Martyr - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1195060/The-YouTube-Martyr-How-beautiful-music-student-symbol-help-topple-Irans-fanatical-rulers.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Is Joseph Stalin's brutal calculus finally ended by the cell phone and twitter? Have "statistics" now become a million little tragedies?</comment>


Ask HN: Niche high skill trades? - <AUTHOR> Recently, a commenter on HN pointed out that high end watch making/servicing is under increasing pressure to find and train novice watchmakers due to the retirement of Baby Boomers.
This turns out to be true and training to become a watchmaker appears to be fully subsidized by industry.
I find these kinds of niche, high skill jobs fascinating and would love to hear about others that are seeing a similar generational turn over.
There must be other niche opportunities to be exploited in this significant demographic shift. <comment><USER2> The best surgeon's knives and scalpel's are still made with humans manually doing a bit of the precision manufacturing. This is almost all older people, and companies are delighted to get young blood in.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's exactly what I'm talking about. I would completely assume this is an automated task.

Edit: are there specific companies that live at the top of that niche?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I don't know if this is still true, but I have heard for years that certain key jobs in the fashion industry are held by a shrinking number of mostly elderly immigrants with significant sewing and draping skills. Draping apparently being the art of mocking up an initial design with just cloth on a figure.

/handwavy vague memory and understanding (someone more knowledgeable than me please chime in)

</comment><comment><USER4> Cobbling - aka custom shoemaking and shoe repair. Shoe repair still exists, though almost every shop I've visited is staffed entirely with people over 50. Shoemaking is almost a lost skill, though there are 2-3 places in NYC that still do it (mostly custom high end work for rich people or sometimes stuff for people with foot problems, paid for by medical insurers).

Stone carving. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine had so much trouble finding carvers when they got funding to resume construction 15-20 years ago that they instituted an apprenticeship program for underprivileged youth in the neighborhood. I don't know how successful that was, but the program's presumably been ended, since their funding ran dry again.

</comment><comment><USER5> There's a knife sharpening business here that seems to print money they have so many restaurant/salon contracts.

<comment><AUTHOR> Where's here?</comment></comment>