"Sequel" to the million dollar homepage using WebGL - <AUTHOR> https://milliondollarmetropolis.com/# <comment><USER2> If you can capture enough people's attention, you can profit from it, whether it be from an admission fee or from advertising, or even asking for donations.

The original Million Dollar Homepage from 2005 wasn't just ambitious - it was absurd. One pixel for one dollar? A website with an oddly specific title and purpose? The goal of a million dollars? The novelty of it all quickly captured the attention of people, and soon, the press. In under a year, every single one of those outrageously expensive ad slots were sold, and Alex Tew - just a student at the time - walked away a millionaire.

Hundreds of spectators decided they weren't going to miss out on an opportunity to make a bunch of money fast and easy. So-called "pixel ad" websites began popping up everywhere. They would change a few things up, in an attempt to recreate the novelty which drove the original to success. One such website called itself the _ten-thousand_ dollar homepage. Another tried to sell a single pixel for a million dollars. None were successful.

The idea of permanently selling previously worthless ad-space at a high price for a high profit had already been done. Despite their efforts, these copy-cat websites were not original enough and did not capture people's attention.

Is the idea of a bunch of 3D rendered rectangles enough to capture people's attention? I don't think so.

The "Million Dollar Metropolis" is not even close to a sequel. It's the latest in a long series of failed get-rich-quick schemes.

And as long as I've captured your attention with this comment, consider leaving a donation with the link in my bio.

<comment><USER3> Surprisingly more than 200 people upvoted this link

<comment><USER4> Many comments here just sound too enthusiastic as well.

I suspect something fishy is going on (as in, paid for upvotes and comments).

<comment><USER2> My comment was downvoted twice immediately after posting it, before others began to upvote it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Cool homage to the original, but I think not displaying the full city upon first load (and using fog to obscure out-of-view parts) diminishes the appeal to potential advertisers.

Who would want to buy a building out in the corner? Maybe the starting location should be randomized, at least.

<comment><USER6> First rule of real estate: location location location.

Although for that to make sense, each building should be tokenized with an auction-backed tradable token so people could speculate on real estate how they see fit (should it still be called real estate?)

Bonus points if you geocode the entry location based on IP.

Or we could, you know, spend our efforts not building an asinine virtual advertising pissing field.

<comment><USER7> > should it still be called real estate?

Fake estate.

<comment><USER8> Virtually Real Estate

<comment> munk-a Real E-State - there you go.

<comment><USER9> It's banners, so "reel estate"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I tried to zoom out immediately and it felt constraining that it kept reverting to a zoom level. Let me zoom to the limits! Maybe then I'll buy a skyscraper "over there."

</comment><comment><USER11> This completely misses the point of the original. That it's dead simple, trivial to navigate, easy to see big buys.

This thing just chugs my phone and feels awful to interact with.

<comment><USER12> I'm pretty sure the point of the original was to net the creator a million dollars.

<comment><USER13> He would have had to charge a lot more if he wanted to net a million dollars. He grossed less then $1.1M.

<comment><USER14> He did make a million dollars though?

<comment><USER15> "After costs, taxes and a donation to The Prince's Trust, a charity for young people, Tew expected his net income to be $650,000–$700,000."

From Wikipedia.

<comment><USER14> Yeah I missed the "net" in the original comment. My bad. He _grossed_ just over a million.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The original million dollar home page was motivated by advertisers wanting SEO benefits. It was picked up by major media, so those pixels had value in addition to the SEO benefits. This WebGL version doesn't have that value. I think it's a scam but people can make their own opinions.

<comment><USER17> Also, times have changed a lot since then. This should be the Billion Dollar Progressive Responsive Adaptive Single-Page Web App.

<comment><USER18> And it needs to be built with microservices and run on a multi-cloud Kubernetes installation with a service mesh.

<comment> munk-a And written in Elm of course.

<comment><USER19> Well, to be fair, Elms WebGL interface is surprisingly easy to use.

<comment><USER20> And it needs to use Pones!

What are Pones, you might ask! Well, they're kind of like Nodes, but more vague and general purpose, so you can use them everywhere, for everything, no matter what you're doing!

I like to think of a PONE as the ultimate middleware between COM and NT. So you can't have a COMPONENT without a PONE! But they're great with all kinds of other stuff, too, like XML Pones, and JSON Pones, and Kuber Pones, and Reactive Pones, and Elm Pones, and Corn Pones.

Pones are disruptive, yet social!

Pones are taking the Internet by storm!

Live long and use lots of Pones!

"You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is." -Mark Twain

Mark Twain: Corn-pone Opinions

[http://www.paulgraham.com/cornpone.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/cornpone.html)

>[...] Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, corn-pone stands for self-approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is conformity. Sometimes conformity has a sordid business interest -- the bread-and-butter interest -- but not in most cases, I think. I think that in the majority of cases it is unconscious and not calculated; that it is born of the human being's natural yearning to stand well with his fellows and have their inspiring approval and praise -- a yearning which is commonly so strong and so insistent that it cannot be effectually resisted, and must have its way. A political emergency brings out the corn-pone opinion in fine force in its two chief varieties -- the pocketbook variety, which has its origin in self-interest, and the bigger variety, the sentimental variety -- the one which can't bear to be outside the pale; can't bear to be in disfavor; can't endure the averted face and the cold shoulder; wants to stand well with his friends, wants to be smiled upon, wants to be welcome, wants to hear the precious words, "He's on the right track!" Uttered, perhaps by an ass, but still an ass of high degree, an ass whose approval is gold and diamonds to a smaller ass, and confers glory and honor and happiness, and membership in the herd. For these gauds many a man will dump his life-long principles into the street, and his conscience along with them. We have seen it happen. In some millions of instances. [...]

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Pretty clever little gimmick.

As a marketer, I can't imagine that there is a ton of long term value here. But it seems like that's baked in because it's a one time payment, and the prices are very reasonable.

There's also just enough customization options that I am already thinking of clever ways I could try to stand out.

This is like marketing catnip.

<comment><USER22> Yep to the catnip.

As others have mentioned, though, the big benefit of the first million-dollar homepage was the SEO value - along with the fact that for a few hundred bucks, you could have a bold ad that caught someone's eye amidst the chaos (FREE HOSTING comes to mind). The novelty of the project sold it to mass-market PR, which then sold it to the public, who then shared it with their friends.

As pretty as this project is, I think there's a lot less novelty here.

The novelty here is more WebGL, as well as the "Hey, someone's doing this again." WebGL implementation will attract the attention of a select few people; the "here we go again" will likely also capture a few clicks, but none like the first time around. The story just isn't as good for mass-media to run with.

So while my right brain starts to go through 'how can I work with this?', my left brain chimes in with 'I can get a whole lot more ROI from $2k worth of Facebook ads this time around.'

Still a cool idea and very pretty to look at, though. If you get in early (so you can stand out), it might be a good buy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is cool but you may need better discoverability.

The original million dollar webpage had the entire block of 1million pixels fit within a standard resolution browser window. Users could mouse over every pixel on it to see what each was without scrolling around on the page.

That site inspired someone to create the Million Dollar Wall, which scrolled sideways for like a mile, and was trying to sell ads on it. But it didn't work b/c scrolling is not fun or interesting.

You might have a similar challenge with this site.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure if scrolling was the reason for it not working. Maybe it's just an idea that only works once.

<comment><USER23> That's possible too. My evidence is only anecdotal, but when I tried the MDH I moused over almost every pixel to see who had bought it. It was quick and easy, no friction. But when I tried the MDW I scrolled for a few seconds, then got tired of it and lost interest. The wall went on forever, but I cbf to scroll through it all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This calls to mind the concept of The Street in Neal Stevenson's Snowcrash:

 _" That's why the damn place is so overdeveloped. Put in a sign or a building on the Street and the hundred million richest, hippest, best-connected people on earth will see it every day of their lives."_

<comment><USER26> _Put in a sign or a building on the Street and the hundred million richest, hippest, best-connected people on earth will see it every day of their lives._

This happens in real life.

AT&T, Verizon, Nokia, Garmin, and other brands put up flashy "flagship" stores on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago knowing there's no way they can ever sell enough gadgets to pay the rent. Those are nothing more than three dimensional billboards for the brand in a district where billboards are prohibited. It's not even a secret.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The creator of the original went on to build Calm.com which is got to be approaching a Billion in valuation.

<comment><USER28> You weren't kidding:

[https://angel.co/company/calm](https://angel.co/company/calm)

This product doesn't make any sense to me, but major kudos on this guy delivering success after success.

<comment><USER29> If half of what people say about the benefits of meditation are true then paying for a good curated set of guided meditations would probably be a pretty easy decision for some people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I would have it start totally zoomed out, then scale inward, Google Earth style.

The ability to "walk down the street" and use keyboard controls would make this far more interesting as well.

As it stands, it's a cool implementation, but I wouldn't expect it to catch on the same way as milliondollarhomepage did.

</comment><comment><USER31> for those that don't know.

It was a advertising gimic page. You buy pixels (1$ per) and make anything you want, they put your link to those pixels.

Don't click. (I clicked "guitars" and got a wrong OS notice, my adobe was out of date.. ).

[http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com](http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com)

<comment><USER32> What I find interesting is that there's a handful of small pixel chunks on their that amount to something like "Paid" or "Reserved", so they don't have valid URLs at all. Feel like those folks missed out on tons of eyeballs a decade back.

Also wonder if there's any study on ongoing advertising impact on these links. For example, a number of links on their don't resolve anymore - are those domains worth anything more than a usual registar price?

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Plz give us you money for nothing in return.

<comment><USER34> Advertising is not nothing.

<comment><USER35> It's not, in any way, useful. Advertising is the least productive thing we do as a species, it's just lying to get people to buy something they don't need in the first place, because if they needed it, they wouldn't need advertising.

<comment><USER36> You've never owned a business and it's telling.

<comment><USER37> What kind of response to this are you hoping for?

<comment><USER36> None. Ideally someone would investigate the history of advertising and why it has become the multi-hundred billion dollar industry that it is. Ideally someone would investigate with curiosity: why do these businesses spend so much money on advertising? What benefits do they get from it? Given that it's such a significant industry, what would the economy look like in a world without advertising? They might also ask themselves with some degree of introspection, if they have ever been persuaded to purchase a product or service on account of some ad and been satisfied with said purchase.

<comment><USER37> It sounds like you aren't open at all to a perspective that challenges the efficacy of advertising, or is skeptical of the benefits of capitalism in general.

It sounds like you'd prefer these people don't make their views known in your presence.

Your comment indicated that you wanted to punish them by making the mistake of doing so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I get the drive for the advertisers, but whats the point for the audience? The original site had the novel status to gather attention, but for iterations on the idea what calls the consumer to come and see the ads? Am I missing something?

<comment><USER39> Indeed, the original site had many copycats, most of them a 1:1 copy but with a different name, like the million (British) pound site, or the million cents one, but none of them had the novelty, which was the thing that got the original page news coverage and fame...

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> best revision of MDHP is [https://satoshis.place/](https://satoshis.place/) because it replaced the payment rails with lightning for instant gratification and lets you over wright stuff for a never ending income stream, and paid responses.

</comment><comment><USER41> Still a little skeptical of the layout. but i've already found two cool sites that i wouldn't have known of before

\- [https://polypane.app/](https://polypane.app/)

\- [https://www.hackerpaper.com/](https://www.hackerpaper.com/)

</comment><comment><USER42> The performance on mobile is great. Safe to assume there's some three.js in there. r3f as well?

<comment><USER43> Performance is horrible on desktop though. Chrome renders slowly and edge doesn't render at all. It is fine for low resolutions, but scale it up to something like 1440p and it drops to ~6 frames per second. I sit on a desktop that can run modern games on high settings, I should be getting the full 144fps on this.. When I open the page I notice all 16 cores becomes fully loaded, so something on the page is cpu bound when it shouldn't have to be.

<comment><USER44> Perf is just fine here on Safari, MBP with only an i5 + Iris 655. It _does_ gob some 30-50% CPU but it's a solid 60fps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Very cool idea, love the "neo-Tokyo" vibe. My only issue would be: how do you deal with some ads being "hidden" behind others (given the isomorphic perspective)?

<comment><USER46> You can rotate and move around with touch controls, works reasonably well on my current gen iPad mini

<comment><USER47> Rotation isn't working on macOS + Chrome for me.

<comment><USER48> Right-click and drag.

<comment><USER47> Yeah I saw the instructions, it's not rotating for me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I bought a few ads, and I can see that others have too since this was posted.

If nothing else, this could add some easy exposure for my personal side project.

I think enough time has passed since "million dollar homepage" that this could get some modest attention.

It'd be neat if open source projects used a similar monetization scheme.

</comment><comment><USER49> This is so cool! There's loads of visual and technical novelty in this concept reboot for this time. It's fun to zoom around and see what sort of people are advertising here. Worked well on my phone too. Hope you enjoy some success from it, well done!

</comment><comment><USER50> this, like its predecessor, is a really interesting positive feedback loop. as more ads are purchased...

\- the creator benefits from more people buying adds by getting money

\- the advertisers benefit by the site's notoriety getting bigger and getting more visits as a result.

so i would think the rate of ad sales would look like some kind of exponential curve, so long as the price remains constant and the thing doesn't die off. does anyone know of any data on the original and how the sales worked? then again, it could just fill up all at once more or less, if it got everyone's attention. its kind of like a pyramid scheme that turns in to regular advertising if it succeeds.

</comment><comment><USER51> I like the look of it but I don't think it's very pleasant to navigate, this may change when there are more buildings 'sold'.

It's cool to see a modern take on the original idea. Makes me wonder what other future ideas could be.

</comment><comment><USER46> Neat but would be cooler if you could fly around it in an air car or something.

</comment><comment><USER52> I carefully avoid WebGL, because it's an over-the-top fingerprinting risk, even for different VMs on the same host.

So I'll never see this. And indeed, nobody who cares about privacy should ever risk it. But so it goes.

Edit: I'm not making this up. I actually tested. Multiple Debian family VMs on a given host have the same WebGL fingerprint. As do multiple Windows 7 VMs, multiple CentOS VMs, multiple MacOS VMs, etc.

But each group has a different WebGL fingerprint. And the same Debian VM has different WebGL fingerprints on different hosts. So I'm guessing that reflects the combination of physical graphics hardware and virtual graphics system.

That's a huge gotcha for people who compartmentalize in multiple VMs.

If someone cares to explain why that's not an issue, I'd love to see it.

</comment><comment><USER53> Works really well on mobile. Loads fast and navigation is easy. Good job!

</comment><comment><USER54> The lighting is actually quite beautiful as you zoom in.

</comment><comment><USER55> For some reason, this is how I imagined Decentraland

</comment><comment><USER56> If anyone is wondering, yes, ad blocking works on this format too, with a custom rule. We are ready for future marketing shenanigans!

</comment><comment><USER57> Well I just bought an ad. I don't know what the hell I'm thinking doing this. But I love the idea of the 3D city.

</comment><comment><USER58> Well I just bagged billiondollarmetropolis.com - give me a shout if you think I should quit my job tomrrow.

<comment><USER58> In all seriousness - I'm an idiot for spending $10 on it, but milliondollarmetropolis.com _not_ spending that $10...

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> The sequel already landed. It's here [https://tenthousandsu.com](https://tenthousandsu.com)

And it uses blockchain. And it actually comes with instructions and customer support that you can email.

It is a great first crypto asset, since we walk you through it. And it is just the same gimmickyness as the original.

</comment><comment><USER20> Just waiting for an ad buster plugin that puts kittens on all the buildings!

</comment><comment><USER60> Up next: 3d flappy bird

<comment><USER38> We both know that 100 of those came out as soon as the original started making money!

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> This is beautiful. I love reimaginings of good ideas or bad, from the past. I think this is a very innovative way to approach this.

</comment><comment><USER10> When I click on a building, I can't mousewheel to get out if it. Closed the tab immediately.

</comment><comment><USER62> How is this different from buying land on the moon?

</comment><comment><USER63> Beautiful!

</comment><comment><USER64> gosh, that's pretty.

</comment><comment><USER65> Cool

</comment><comment><USER66> A million dollar Dark City :) (y)</comment>


I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/i-gave-up-tv-then-qualified-for-olympic-marathon-trials-and-got-my-phd/2017/03/24/6d90aafc-ee38-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html <comment><USER2> One thing I've found useful is just to stop and think about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it every hour or so.

Much of the time the answer becomes "browsing the internet because I'm bored" and the conscious act of thinking about it allows corrective action to be taken. Even if I don't want to work, I can at least do something constructive like some chores instead of wasting time.

<comment><USER3> That's a smart habit to have. Reminds me of:

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." \- Viktor Frankl

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've been working on IPTV systems for 10+ years. As a result, I can't sit and watch TV because that's like working. Sometimes months will go by and I haven't watched a single 30 minute TV show.

Unfortunately, my time is not as fungible as I'd like. The time I used to spend watching TV is instead filled with things not much more productive. I simply don't have the physical or mental energy after 8pm to do much more than read a book, the newspaper or random web sites.

</comment><comment><USER5> One suspects that "giving up random pootling around on the Internet" would be a more modern equivalent for most people, despite TFA being from 2016.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is this a misplaced article from another century? That someone faxed in...</comment>


Climate scientists versus climate data - <AUTHOR> https://judithcurry.com/2017/02/04/climate-scientists-versus-climate-data/ <comment><USER2> Worth checking out the response article from the NYTimes. Predictably defensive on climate change but interesting to see both sides of the story.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/science/2015-climate- stud...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/science/2015-climate-study- data.html)

<comment><USER3> Dr. Curry has addressed the responses linked above from Peter Thorne and Zeke Hausfather in a follow-up posting.

[https://judithcurry.com/2017/02/06/response-to-critiques- cli...](https://judithcurry.com/2017/02/06/response-to-critiques-climate- scientists-versus-climate-data/)

<comment><USER2> Thanks</comment></comment></comment>


The World's Largest GMO Study Was Launched by Russians. Then It Disappeared - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/factor-gmo-fake-science-russia <comment><USER2> Wow, I think that it sounds like Monsanto paid for that article. I consider myself open minded about GMO, but this article seemed really biased. I suggest skipping it. It seems to have little bits of valid complaints about a bogus study, mixed with a lot of one sided coverage.

<comment><USER3> Then what happened to this study? There was a lot of hype about it, supposedly a lot of money raised, and then nothing happens. It was supposed to be this big "independent" study on GMOs, and then nothing happens. That doesn't sound fishy?

<comment><USER2> I totally agree that this one study sounds 'fishy.'

That said, I think in general that GMO technology is moving forwards too fast without enough study. Same opinion on pesticides, and pesticide-GMO combos.

We need to balance feeding more people with taking care not to cause a technology caused catastrophe.</comment></comment></comment>


Samsung to jury: You can't copy iPhone features that aren't in the iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-you-cant-copy-iphone-features-if-iphones-dont-use-them/ <comment><USER2> This is particularly interesting because it seeks to characterise Apple as a patent troll (ie, owning patents and enforcing them, or features of them, without actually using the tech themselves).

Apple has had a lot of problems with patent trolls[0] and seems to be campaigning against trolling [1]. This isn't how Apple is usually characterised so the comparison really will sting their pride.

Seems like it might be true though...

[0] [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/apple-top- target-...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/apple-top-target-of- patent-trolls-faced-92-lawsuits-in-three-years/)

[1] [http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/03/apple-microsoft-and-others- gro...](http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/03/apple-microsoft-and-others-group-to- lobby-against-upcoming-patent-troll-legislation/)

<comment><USER3> Apple can be seen as a patent troll. It doesn't have to mean non practicing entity - it can simply mean patent aggressor who uses patents for anticompetitive purposes. Non practicing trolls are just a subset of all patent racketeers.

<comment><USER4> "who uses patents for anticompetitive purposes". So in other words, any party who uses patents for their intended purpose of granting a limited monopoly is a troll?

<comment><USER5> Is it a monopoly if the person with the limited monoply is not producin anyhing that uses that patent? It's just a non-opoly?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > "It's true that if you don't practice a patent, that doesn't mean you can't > collect damages for it"

When an attorney nests negatives three deep, is that brilliance or incompetence? I'm trying to decide.

<comment><USER7> Glad I wasn't the only one who picked up on that. Usually I'd go with incompetence due to Hanlon's Razor, but given this is coming from a lawyer from a huge corporation, I'd say it's deliberate.

<comment><USER8> Yes, he's attempting to confuse the jury. It's unlikely to work, but Samsung is out of options.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "He added that Apple's patents are narrow and cover specific ways of performing tasks, not the entire tasks -- such as universal search or word suggestion -- themselves. And while Apple tried to downplay the role of Google in the trial, Google is relevant, Price said."

To my big surprise I found out that Google is indeed the owner of patent entitled "Extensible search term suggestion engine" [1]. Does it mean we infringe it writing simple AJAX suggestion search?

[1] [http://www.google.com/patents/US8515984](http://www.google.com/patents/US8515984)

<comment><USER10> You'll need to look at the claims, the part at the end that defines the rights conferred by the patent. Titles just tell you the general area. The USPTO is likely still issuing patents titled "Wheel."

<comment><USER9> My bad, cited patent actually belongs to Microsoft... Couldn't find any claims you mention.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> UK end user here. Is this case really a sensible way to divide up the market share for middle to high end smart phones? I mean what would be gained by the _ordinary customer_ if Samsung lost and decided not to make phones any more as it wasn't worth the hassle?

Am I being naive?

I presume Apple does not want to compete in the low margin part of the market (which I imagine will see the largest growth as the higher end saturates).

<comment><USER12> _Am I being naive?_

Perhaps slightly! There are lots of "companies" that have their entire business model made up of copying someone else's IP (trademarks, designs, content). Back-of-a-van Asian DVDs, backstreet "Gucci" bags, etc. etc.

Clamping down on them reduces consumer choice, but that's no reason not to clamp down on them.

<comment><USER11> Oh yes of course, if only for safety reasons we have to prevent complete knock-offs (UK term) and 'passing off'. But are you really suggesting the huge Samsung slabs that some of my students have as phones are a _total_ knock off of an iPhone (that some of my other students have)?

What I'm thinking is what would be the benefit to people generally of Samsung being basically banned from selling phones in the US? Would people really buy more iPhones or would they just turn to cheaper Android based phones, or to Windows phones by Nokia/Microsoft say? I understand that the US likes its legal correctness and argument, but at the end of the day you want _some_ competition don't you?

<comment><USER13> You are asking the wrong questions. Samsung isn't being accused of "knocking off" an iphone. They are accused of copying SOME of the functionality of the iphone. Also, this isn't about consumers (directly) AS you are right, if Samsung decided to stop making phones, users would have fewer phones to choose from. It is indirectly about consumers though, as Apple may have never ventured down the path to creating the iPhone if they couldn't patent some of it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> If this holds it would set a really interesting precedent, in that you would be required to be actively implementing a patent to litigate over it.

<comment><USER15> Not at all. Samsung's argument is not that the patent can't be litigated because it's not in use (in fact they state the opposite). They're merely claiming that they couldn't have "copied the feature" from the iPhone, as apple claims, if the feature never existed in the iPhone. It's a counter to Apple's statements, not a legal precedent.

<comment><USER7> Patents are public documents. The intent of the system is that you have a monopoly on something for a set time, but after that, anybody can make it based on those documents alone.

So it doesn't matter if it's in the iPhone or not; it's still patent infringement.

<comment><USER16> Presumably Apple's argument was "Samsung saw the iPhone and its success and decided to copy" and not "Samsung is infringing on patent XYZ". The difference between those two arguments probably means a lot in a jury trial. Particularly in this case that already has a history of jurors misleading themselves based on emotional or factually incorrect arguments[1].

[1] [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2012082510525390](http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2012082510525390)

<comment><USER17> But copying the iPhone isn't illegal by itself. It's only illegal if they violated a patent in the process. So why is it necessary to even look at the iPhone? Shouldn't the question be whether Samsung's phones violated Apple's patents?

<comment><USER16> The question should be that but they were arguing for the jury, which if the last verdict is any indication will tend to have a tenuous grasp of what they are deciding on. On the last trial the jury delivered an inconsistent verdict in record time, which it then had to amend, and then the jurors started giving interviews where they basically admitted they went along with the foreman's opinion because he was a patent holder. Even though he totally misrepresented patent law and argued that the prior art wasn't valid because it was from a different type of hardware.

<comment><USER17> This is one of my big problems with the jury system. Perhaps there should be a hybrid system where a judge (or other disinterested, yet informed, third party) participates in order to ensure that the facts are not distorted.

<comment><USER16> I think that's actually what happens in the US. The judge will give particularly detailed instructions (the original trial had a 109 page manual) and the verdict is actually a structured response (which is why they were able to give an inconsistent verdict). The system tries to do this properly but then the jurors are swayed by the emotional arguments and there's not much you can do about it. In this case maybe forcing them to deliberate on individual arguments would help. From the interviews they basically backtracked from "we think they're guilty" to "how do I fill out this damn form", negating the value of the structure that was in place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I had 'slide to unlock' phone a year before iphone... what a moron would go to court about such a triviality? isn't it all because apple guys have tiny weenies and seek to compensate for it in the court so that someone would say they are cool and 'innovative'?

<comment><USER19> > apple guys have tiny weenies

When there is an article about Apple vs Samsung, the quality of HN really degrades...

Seriously, now, can't people look back. Soon after the iPhone, Samsung created a phone that looked quite close in presentation. That was a cheap move by Samsung, most likely not illegal.

Anyway, that pissed Apple, probably because they were quite close partner at the time, and they went against Samsung with everything they got, including the trivial. That's how it is done, nothing specific to this case. Of course, that's puzzling that some of the weaker claim managed to stick for so long, but then again, that has been the subject of many many articles.

That's it. If Joe Average didn't have a phone in his pocket, qualifying him as a legal expert, there would never have been the sort of media circus we are seeing and both companies would have calmed down.

This whole affair is like the poster child of a storm in teapot.

<comment><USER18> I consider patent wars a storm in a teapot... cheap moves to abuse the patent and legal system in order to inflict maximum damage to comepetition. I think anyone who had a chance to use android and ios would say they are different... again - why are they suing samsung? samsung is using android... because every phone that is not apple's is either android, wm or a feature phone. So what was samsung's fault exactly that it got sued? "we will sue you, because we can"? That was a rhetorical question...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Some will say that Apple chose to sue Samsung rather than HTC or whomever else uses Android, because Samsung are their biggest competitor. ISTM that the real question is why they didn't sue the company that created Android. The answer that comes to mind is that it would look ridiculous to sue _Google_ over a _search_ patent.

EDIT: ha!

<comment><USER21> Google might be able to weasel out of a patent suit because they don't sell Android or because phone vendors _might_ modify Android to remove the feature in question. With Samsung it's easier to identify specific infringements.</comment></comment>


Simultaneous Internet Explorer installer (v1-v8) - <AUTHOR>

(I couldn't find a decent post on this without having to subject you fine gentlemen to tons of blog spam)
"Internet Explorer Collection contains multiple IE versions, which are standalone so they can be used at the same time."
Homepage: http://finalbuilds.edskes.net/iecollection.htm
Download: http://codecpack.nl/iecollection1111.exe
I know I've been looking for something like this for ages. <comment><USER2> IE really doesn't support this. For any real testing, you want a separate virtual machine for each version of IE. This was discussed; see wayne's comment, which links to Microsoft-provided VM images:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=353129>

</comment><comment><USER3> Fine gentlemen?

</comment><comment><USER4> or, you could've submitted the homepage instead.

i tried this package a while ago and it didn't work for my purposes. its great if all you're doing is backwards-compatibility testing designs.

more complex apps broke things for me, though, that shouldn't be breaking.</comment>


Connected Papers a visual tool for researchers to explore academic papers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/connectedpapers/announcing-connected-papers-a-visual-tool-for-researchers-to-find-and-explore-academic-papers-89146a54c7d4 <comment><USER2> Ripoff of [https://tools.wmflabs.org/scholia/work/Q68471881](https://tools.wmflabs.org/scholia/work/Q68471881)

also just use scholia and enrich wikidata.</comment>


A Mathematical Thriller and an Exhibition of What Could Go Wrong - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/science/a-mathematical-thriller-and-an-exhibition-of-what-could-go-wrong.html?ref=science

<comment><USER2> > A thriller about the British mathematician Alan Turing might sound about as > likely as a valid proof by Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Seriously? Sounds like the writer doesn't (or _didn 't_) know much about Turing.</comment>


Analysis of Asiana 214 crash - <AUTHOR> http://flyingprofessors.net/what-happened-to-asiana-airlines-flight-214-2/

<comment><USER2> Excellent analysis. Noting with amusement that the unit "nm" used in the blog is not an SI unit derivative.</comment>


Ask HN: Review my Startup - IntroSpectrum (Website Performance Monitoring) - <AUTHOR> http://www.introspectrum.com

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a project I've been working mostly alone on for quite a while. It's a hosted website performance monitoring service that uses live browser instances to test page performance and generate reports highlighting performance problems.

Any feedback, tips, etc... would be greatly appreciated!</comment>


Peter Shankman / HARO Just Sent Me a Cease-and-Desist Letter. What Now? - <AUTHOR> http://ryanwaggoner.com/2010/02/peter-shankman-and-helpareporterout-haro-just-sent-me-a-cease-and-desist-letter/

<comment><USER2> Welcome to the wooly world of business my friend. You're threatening an incumbent and he's lashing out. Peter has wrapped up his ego into HARO so expect him to take it personally.

Legally there's very little HARO can do except force you to defend a meritless case. I don't believe they have a leg to stand on. You're not violating copyright, or trademark in any form, and he doesn't have an issued patent.

The one real takeaway is never launch a business and credit the competitor on the site. It just gives them fuel to create legal hassles for you.

Next steps: Get a lawyer. Have your lawyer write a firm letter showing Shankman's lawyer that their claims are meritless and you will vigorously defend the case.

Meantime, this is a great PR coup for you. Tech blogs love a little drama, at least certain ones do. Use it for the free PR.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Though I have had to defend against bogus patent and copyright claims before.

<comment><USER3> Yea putting a competitor's name in your materials is probably a bad idea, unless you're Verizon...

I'd imagine its easier to stay under their radar if your site doesn't directly come up in google alert results for their name too.

BUT, considering that the battle is over the PR business, journalists should be eating this up! I bet a lot of startups wish they could get a high-profile cease and desist hahaha

<comment><USER4> For the record, Verizon got sued by AT&T for the commercials that made the direct comparison. They just have the money and clout that they can afford to be dragged through what both parties know is a meritless lawsuit.

<comment><USER5> I think the point is being sued worked out very well for Verizon, as it drew more attention to their claims of having a superior network to AT&T. (As you said, if they did not have the money and lawyers to dispute AT&T's claims it may have been a different story.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> First, let's be honest, you set yourself up for this by referring to Shankman and HARO. That was a mistake.

This is typical in a marketplace where people run out of innovative ideas (or never had them in the first place.) I've been around the "sender" side of this type of thing before. Honest truth, you might get outgunned by legal tactics and that sucks.

You have a more innovative, more focused product. If you're bankrolled then fight it. If not, tread lightly. Once you used his name you set this up. Either way, they will keep sending ridiculous letters.

My advice: -Call an attorney, get some advice. -Setup a backup host and confirm your DNS is separate from your hosting account. (Next up is a C&D to your host) -Send an urgent appeal to everyone on your list, even journalists. You might lose a few followers in the process but if people value your service they will fight for you (particularly nice because your service helps journalists.)

<comment><USER7> Let's be honest, this is one of the most meritless C&D's ever.

Unless Shankman's lawyers are totally incompetent, there's no way they would ever seriously pursue this, since it's obvious to anyone they have no case.

Personally, I would just drop all references to Shankman and HARO from the website and politely send back an email letting them know you did so, and politely point out that there's no legal basis for any of their other absurd requests.

<comment><USER8> Perhaps I'm cynical, but I think that whether the lawyers pursue this has less to do with competency and more to do with their client's willingness to pay for their time. The client may take it personally and be willing to pay good money to tilt at windmills.

<comment><USER9> I thought lawyers faced fairly serious penalties for knowingly pursuing obviously meritless cases.

<comment><USER10> Most of the time, a claim must be really egregious for a judge to actually penalize the lawyer for bringing it. Legal ethics rules vary from state to state, but they generally say, in effect, that a lawyer owes every client a duty of zealous advocacy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> HARO is a good business for Peter Shankman, I just googled it and first link says $800K/year around the start of 2009[1].

The point being that it's probably not so much about him not liking that you mentioned him[2], as the fact that you're stepping onto his turf, and him wanting to defend it.

[1] = [http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/news/adweek_haro_is_800k...](http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/news/adweek_haro_is_800k_business_96405.asp)

[2] = You write: "I'm pretty disappointed that Peter decided to be such a jackass about this. If he had bothered to write me an email, I would have gladly removed his name and never mentioned this to anyone."

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I know. It's just ridiculous, because he was (maybe still is?) the upstart in this space a couple years ago when he started _a mailing list_ and now he's throwing around C&D notices like he's this great innovator in the space?

<comment><USER2> There's nothing wrong with the incumbent defending his turf.

I personally think HARO needs a kick in the arse, quality and innovation wise.

Bring it on.

<comment><USER12> IMO there's something wrong with the incumbent defending his turf _this way_. If they want to out-innovate or out-compete the guy, great, but I personally find it hard to back a business who only aims to win by out-lawyering their rivals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Interesting that Hacker News folks jumped to the qualitative ideas that boil down to: 1\. Dude! You built something cool! He's after you! Cool! You might lose it! Not cool. 2\. You need a lawyer.

My immediate response to the "What Now?" was do some research on this guy. Five minutes of Google searching and Ryan is in a much better position knowing who he's dealing with...

Note that knowing about Peter's past legal stuff doesn't change the options: 1\. Give up, give in. 2\. Stand up and fight. 3\. Get a lawyer and decide to do 1 or 2.

That said, here are some links that may be of interest. Please note I have no vested interest in either party - just was curious.

Wonder if I'll get a C&D too for sharing information: 1\. The lawyer representing HARO, who's done some 9-11 related work: <http://www.andersonkill.com/attorneysprofile.asp?id=5141> 2\. WIRED coverage: <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/tag/help-a-reporter-out/> 3\. Past domain arbitration for Peter's LLC: <http://domain.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/1259290.htm> 4\. MediaBistro coverage of a conflict between Shankman's LLC and a PR agency: [http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/agencies/former_haro_pr_...](http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/agencies/former_haro_pr_agency_filing_lawsuit_against_company_131240.asp)

</comment><comment><USER14> I read the pdf of the letter: It seems to me that they're using the mention of Shankman's name to get it all started, and the strange New York law for scary padding, but the bulk of their claim is copyright.

You need to look through _everything_ and see if there's any word for word content on your site (user contributed or otherwise) that matches Shankman's site.

My guess is that they'll cede the look and feel and New York business law wackyness to create a sheen of compromise and then surprise you with some user generated content that appears on both your sites identically and claim copyright infringement.

The fog of how user generated stuff ends up on sites may confuse the court enough for them to rule against you just because Shankman's site existed first and theres "identical content". Hell, even his lawyer may not fully grok it.

If the evil runs deep, they'll plant such content themselves in the form of submissions.

Of course, talk to a lawyer, yadayada, like you haven't already! Don't underestimate them. This looks like a plan to take over your (obviously better) site. I believe that they think they can win.

</comment><comment><USER15> Sounds like you're website is good enough to be a threat. Keep it up!

</comment><comment><USER16> Well, I know you're not going to like hearing this, but I'd first remove any mention of his name. Then I'd contact an attorney immediately. HN and blog readers are not sufficient sources of legal advice when facing a lawsuit. (They're more harm than good even when you're not, and now that he's spent legal fees you're not in Kansas anymore).

<comment><AUTHOR> I did both immediately.

<comment><USER16> Glad to hear. I'd be really curious to hear what ends up happening if you're able to share. Also what your attorney told you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> How can you steal someone's ideas? If something is not copyrighted or trademarked or covered by a private contract, you didn't steal anything. (Right?)

<comment><USER12> So far as I know ideas can't be stolen. Nor can they be protected as intellectual property in the U.S., according to the USPTO:

"A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion."

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> posting this problem seems like brilliant PR. to me, you seem pretty safe from repercussion...and you might as well get some press for this. i mean, it was only a matter of time 'til this idea gets spun into a web app. also, i heard an interview with him on mixergy some weeks ago...and he seems like a prick. he was rudely typing away & distracted while andrew warner, the interviewer, was interviewing him. it was only until andrew starting asking him about potential competition that he woke up (obviously self conscious that a better web app can potentially steal his business from under him).

i think your app needs work. focus on that. once a better mouse trap comes out, i think reporters would flock to it. he claims his success is about the trust he's built with reporters. trust? he email blasts these requests with full reporter contact info twice a day to millions of people via email! (well, actually he finally started hiding reporter email with an anonymizer earlier this year).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Quick question: can I get in trouble for posting the actual letter online? I'd like to get more people's thoughts on it.

<comment><USER19> Not really.

Frivolous harrassment is always an option of course, sure. The advice I give at the Founder Institute is to try not to needlessly annoy or upset the people who are likely to sue you.

So while posting the letter would be fun, it would also make it more likely that you get hit with legal fees. Your call.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Does anyone have any advice on whether he should delete the blog post to avoid any additional potential liability? I'm thinking about how Conan couldn't talk about his contractual discussions with NBC and imagine something similar applies in the case of legal action - but IANAL so I don't know.

Good luck with this, Ryan. This really sucks. FWIW, I thought your version was a great approach when I read about it first and significantly distinct from HARO.

</comment><comment><USER21> If you are going to refer to your competitors in public you may want to have a short (15 min) consultation with an IP lawyer.

There are issues that arise if you use other people's trademarks. But these can be avoided if you use the proper disclaimers. So yeah speak to a lawyer. Although, at this point it would probably be longer than a 15 minute consultation.

</comment><comment><USER22> The ironic thing about all this is that your application probably drove more business to HARO than the other way around.

Personally, I'd never heard of HARO until you mentioned it. Since your site was pretty much empty and I wanted to network with reporters, I went over and signed up for HARO. In the end, they gained a user and you did not.

</comment><comment><USER23> Using a direct competitors name without permission in a commercial application, where it could be construed as an implied endorsement, is not a good idea.

<comment><USER24> An "about us" page is meant to be more informational than commercial, but I understand your point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Ideas by themself are worthless. It's execution that matters. It's the same story that every one of us running a business faces every time a new competitor shows up.

All this guy can do is hope that you don't execute as well as him.

</comment><comment><USER25> Once again a good example of "speak to an attorney before posting to Hacker News"...

Regardless of what your opinions are here, you need to speak to an attorney who can properly advise you before soapboxing.

<comment><AUTHOR> What makes you think I haven't?

<comment><USER2> The comment that asked "Quick question: can I get in trouble for posting this letter online..." ;)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1154198>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Why don't you give Peter a call? I've met him before. He seemed like a nice guy. See if you can resolve this thing without lawyers.

Btw, the name of his company makes this whole thing sound like a joke.

<comment><AUTHOR> Seems a bit late for that, as he's already got his lawyers involved. There's nothing to resolve, other than me just shutting the site down. If he had a problem with me mentioning his name, he could have just emailed me and I would have immediately removed it with no questions and never mentioned it to anyone. The fact that he decided to skip that and just have his attorney try and bully me into shutting down and giving him the domain tells me that he's not interested in working anything out, just fighting competition in the most cowardly way possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I would like to just add that your site (PRManna) does kinda have the same look and feel of Shankman's site (HARO). I don't believe this is a coincidence. And its not like this look and feel is common.

<comment><AUTHOR> Screenshots of PRManna running locally on my dev box on March 5th, 2009 (note the TipJoy widget):

[http://img.skitch.com/20100227-bfr884xr63ffm3ducic3t2qq7r.jp...](http://img.skitch.com/20100227-bfr884xr63ffm3ducic3t2qq7r.jpg)

I have no idea when it changed (and I can't find a screenshot of how it was before), but I submitted a request to HARO about six weeks ago and it looked nothing like it does today, so at some point in the last couple months they launched the current redesign.

EDIT: Until very recently, HARO looked like this (url says December 2009):

[http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/img/2009/12/1214haro.j...](http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/img/2009/12/1214haro.jpg)

Maybe I should sue them...perhaps they somehow saw my screenshots and decided to copy them! :)

<comment><USER28> When did PRManna launch? If it was before the redesign of HARO I think you've got him. Send a polite letter back saying:

your happy to (and have) remove references to HARO from PRManna

that a simple email indicating this was a problem would have been sufficient. Express concern over the need for lawyers

that you believe the HARO redesign came _after_ PRManna design was created

indicate you feel the matter is now concluded happily for you

but that if they wish to continue to pursue "frivolous" claims you believe you have the evidence required to obtain full damages from HARO due to the design copyright infringement

that you will be happy to countersue

IANAL but that is what I would do. Throw the ball politely back into their court - in the meantime, as a "just in case", speak to a lawyer a build a case. If they reply back aggressively file the suit straight away. It will probably scare him off. (as I said IANAL and I dont know much about this guy; so it might not work).

I've employed a roughly similar tactic before against someone with a frivolous claim who thought he could win by flexing muscles. When I filed against him there was about a week of disbelieving silence when he realised I knew where I stood legally. At which point it all stood down (I accepted an contract between us in which he accepted I wasnt infringing on him as he had asserted previously).

That's the last piece of advice: probably dont pursue the suit. Because if you give him time to get his head straight then he has more cash to buy sneaky lawyers and build a case. Accept any reasonable offer (preferably a contract like I described because then he cant lick wounds for a month or so then come back and hit you with big guns)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> How much traction do you have? You may want to consider shutting down the current site and opening a new one without mentioning his name or company. That's what the core of the issue seems to be.

</comment><comment><USER30> A good IP lawyer might help: I use <http://www.aplegal.com>, Stevan Lieberman there knows what he's doing.

</comment><comment><USER31> I'd probably just toss the letter. If they persist, contact a lawyer. California is one of the few states with a solid anti-SLAPP law, incidentally.</comment>


UK Man Found Not GUILTY of Sex Offense Must Give Cops 24h Notice Before Sex - <AUTHOR> http://www.freerangekids.com/man-found-not-guilty-of-sex-offense-must-give-cops-24-hour-notice-before-he-has-sex/ <comment><AUTHOR> Also can't touch computers and fridges etc. with internet connection.</comment>


Show HN: The Fuck Covid Club – Helping Those Laid Off Find Work - <AUTHOR> https://fuckcovid.club/ <comment><USER2> Site doesn't load anything when you click "I'm here to help". Also that sounds like you're asking for donations, not that you want to view a list of candidates.</comment>


Don't install npm packages globally - <AUTHOR> http://chowes.ghost.io/dont-install-npm-packages-globally/ <comment><USER2> This article needs significantly more content to be useful to a user genuinely curious about the topic. Answers to the following questions would improve its usefulness:

Why would someone normally install globally? What are the advantages to installing globally? How can these advantages be reproduced, without global installation? Are there disadvantages to using scripts? [... etc ...]

Creating content for the sake of creating content is as useful as saying "don't do it" in regards to global npm installs.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm just starting to blog - thanks for the tips!</comment></comment>


Julian Assange was a committer to Postgres - <AUTHOR> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2010-08/msg01841.php <comment><USER2> Listed at <http://www.postgresql.org/community/contributors/> under "Past Contributors"

There is a whole section about his hacking achievements at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Computer_program...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Computer_programming_and_university_studies)

        In 1993, Assange was involved in starting one of the
        first public internet service providers in Australia,
        Suburbia Public Access Network.[8][24] Starting in 1994,
        Assange lived in Melbourne as a programmer and a
        developer of free software.[22] In 1995, Assange wrote
        Strobe, the first free and open source port scanner.[25]
        [26] He contributed several patches to the PostgreSQL
        project in 1996.[27] He helped to write the book
        Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on
        the Electronic Frontier (1997), which credits him as a
        researcher and reports his history with International
        Subversives.[28] Starting around 1997, he co-invented the
        Rubberhose deniable encryption system, a cryptographic
        concept made into a software package for Linux designed
        to provide plausible deniability against rubber-hose
        cryptanalysis;[29] he originally intended the system to
        be used "as a tool for human rights workers who needed to
        protect sensitive data in the field."[30] Other free
        software that he has authored or co-authored includes the
        Usenet caching software NNTPCache[31] and Surfraw, a
        command-line interface for web-based search engines. In
        1999, Assange registered the domain leaks.org; "But", he
        says, "then I didn't do anything with it."[32]

also used to admin the AES Mailing List (1998)

<http://cryptome.quintessenz.org/mirror/jya/aes-mail.htm>

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe there should be a running list of where Assange has contributed to because all of these posts are superfluous and don't really have much substance.

</comment><comment><USER4> NetBSD too, FWIW:

[http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/repositories/git/autho...](http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/repositories/git/authormap)</comment>


When the Stupid Stars Align - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@yanismydj/when-the-stupid-stars-align-8d2924b808f3#.25aa9hd1v <comment><USER2> speaking of stupid... why can't they just choose another bank, or another credit card?</comment>


Structured Thinking vs. Going With The Flow - <AUTHOR> http://adamsmith.cc/structured-thinking-versus-go-with-the-flow <comment><USER2> For a number of years I worked in a field that didn't _require_ highly structured thinking, but if you could do it you could quickly rise to the top.

One of the difficulties in structured thinking in a team environment is the burden of selling the benefits of your model to others. For every hour you might spend reasoning about a problem, you had to spend 2-3 hours selling that reasoning to other people: on your team, in the larger organization, and outside of that organization.

More often then not people were receptive to the concept of it, but when the models got too complex they would dismiss it and fall back to simpler, less useful models, or just "go with the flow" and wing it.

It's a shame really, because I often found myself either working alone on a hard problem or with one or two interested acolytes when more manpower would have definitely been useful.

<comment><USER3> Could you tell us about what field this was? :-)

<comment><USER2> It was a competitive analysis field.

<comment><USER4> I'm really curious about your answer, but I literally don't know what that means, and Google is not helping.

Perhaps you give some examples of fields that are competitive analysis fields? Or define "competitive analysis"?

<comment><USER2> Anything where you analyze a field of competitors. For example, competitive supply chain analysis where you study a competitor's supply chain to try and figure out various things about them. Can they lower their prices? Do they have alternative suppliers for xyz component? What happens if that component goes off the market and how does it impact their bom? How is that component shipped? What's the expectations of them keeping up with the state of the art for this product? etc. You can also do a human version and look at _who_ in organizations are doing this and if you have enough information about their social network can sometimes predict behaviors of an organization like what suppliers they're likely to go with.

There's lots of data providers for this kind of thing, and anything from press releases to shipping manifests can be used.

There's a bunch of versions of this field and they can be interesting. But they're usually not known outside of the firms that really engage in them. If you're smart about it you can build very structured frameworks and plug in the information and get some insight out of it. Or you can just read lots of press releases and go with your gut like a glorified hedge fund manager.

On the tech side you find lots of opportunity to model things and use NLP tools, mapping tools, that sort of thing.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for your explanation, that's fascinating.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In my experience most people are bad at both, it's just that they think they are one or the other.

Also I would suggest another approach at becoming better: Instead of mastering both styles (which is impossible for most people) it might be better to focus on one style and look for ways to drag the problems that are better solved with the other style back to solutions you already can apply. Stupid example I created just now: Instead of trying to go more with the flow when meeting friends a planner could spent more time before meeting friends to plan and prepare different options. The solution is still not as optimal as for a go- flow-guy, but it is possible to get around it without your friends realizing. On the other hand a go-flow-guy that is writing a master thesis might be better to plan for a very small topic and go for more iterations with the professor to get to a decent paper in the end. In both example I probably fail to show that the guy is actually applying his own style to a problem that is not meant for this style, just that he is more creative and willing to put in more energy to get to the same end result then the person with the other talent.

If you look closely at medium level chess players and kungfu arts then you see that they are also doing something like this. They learn a small set of skills that all focus on very few basic concepts and try to solve other problems by moving the situation back to their comfort zone or putting in more effort.

</comment><comment><USER6> having been adam's co-founder (xobni) and having lived with him for many years - this article describes one of the things I most like & respect about adam. He is incredibly structured in his thinking about everything in life. I brought much more of the go with the flow skills, but highly respect & learned much from his structured approach. His Wiki of Structures for various fields of thinking is linked at the bottom and a must browse [http://wikilogic.org/index.php/Home_Page](http://wikilogic.org/index.php/Home_Page)

</comment><comment><USER7> I think the Six Hats Method of meeting organization could be applied to thinking which allows for some free form and some structured thinking.

I highly recommend it. It's an old book, but a good one.

</comment><comment><USER8> > _Very few people are really skilled at both. But as I mentioned in the > introduction, you can be one of them if you practice with new experiences, > and reflect on when you over- vs under-think through decisions._

So he suggests you should use structured thinking to be good at "going with the flow". With that implying that someone that is good at going with the flow to start won't be able to be good on both.

I don't think this is true, but only his own mental model playing games with his writings. But otherwise, very interesting thoughts.

<comment><USER9> I can't help but be a structured thinker and I have to exert effort to go with the flow. To be honest I probably rarely, if ever, actually go with the flow. If you're strategically thinking that you are going to "go with the flow" then you are actually still using structured thinking. A bit of a catch 22 there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Adam has put into words the ideas that have been floating around in my head for awhile, and does so in a very interesting way. Cataloging mental models. Cool. Very loosely reminds me of Jung's personality archetypes.

</comment><comment><USER11> "Machine learning: Explore vs exploit" -from his wiki

Great way to view "data science". Augemented intelligence will usually beat artificial intelligence.

</comment><comment><USER12> the fundamental blocking issue might be that we all think that 'flow' is not in our capability, & that it is possible only for a blessed few. I've penned my thoughts on it in a post I wrote sometime here [http://priyankasriraghavan.blogspot.in/2013/07/flow-let- it-b...](http://priyankasriraghavan.blogspot.in/2013/07/flow-let-it-be.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> I personally find the following lovely:

«Meeting people: use go-with-the-flow when possible, i.e. _unless you really do need to_ judge/ _understand them_.»

</comment><comment><USER14> I was just talking with my roommate about this last night. I think the most important realization is that it is impossible to only use Structured Thinking to make your decisions and that I was wrong to think I ever was. The way I see it, structured thinking allows you to outline all of the pros and cons of the various options in front of you (which then drives creatively coming up with other possible solutions) but that those pros and cons are often not directly relatable, so your decision as to which pros and which cons you will ultimately fulfill is impossible to make perfectly "logically" and instead is made somewhat intuitively. This is "going with your gut" and is a required part of every decision we make.

Somewhat more concretely: Let's say I'm trying to solve a specific problem for my product. I want to add a new, already designed, feature to my app. There are many many different ways this feature can be implemented. Thinking in a structured way helps us enumerate the various different properties of these options. It requires logical/structured thinking to work through "if I implement API expansion only for has_one associations I can do this in the framework of the rails serializers I am already using" and "if I choose to accommodate has_many associations as well I will need to rewrite the code that now uses serializers. If I rewrite that code, I know that it will require more testing and will probably introduce bugs" So here (obviously incompletely) logic has helped me think about all the consequences of the various different options, but there is no way to mathematically relate "increased code complexity" vs. "solves the problem more completely" vs. "principle of least surprise" vs. "principle of immediate feedback" vs. "performance" vs. "code readability" vs. etc. The phrase is, "apples and oranges"

So now that I can make many logical arguments in favor and against a number of different paths forward, a decision must still be made. And it's hard for me to see how that decision is "logical" in any meaningful way. We obviously have heuristics for saying that "in general, something that impacts the user negatively is more important than the code being ugly" but these hierarchies are always fuzzy and they shift depending on the situation. Ultimately, when you choose which path to take, you are choosing which pros and which cons you believe to be actually most important in this moment.

So, logic is an important muscle to work because being better at it gives you access to more complete information about what all the possible consequences of all the possible actions are. But then, going with the flow is also important to practice, and getting better at it I think really comes with practice, because the more decisions you make and observe the outcomes of, the better you will get at having a sense of what the true balance of these apples and oranges should be.

Sort of an aside, but i've noticed recently that in many of the discussions I've had at work designing features the arguments rarely become heated because of the following:

Person Alpha: "Well A implies B implies C, C is bad so we should not do A"

Person One: "Actually A does not imply B, therefore your thinking is wrong"

When someone is wrong in a very discrete logical way, it's easy for the discussion to adapt and move forward. However, the more common way for things to get intense:

Person Alpha: "Well A implies B implies C, C is good so we should do A"

Person One: "Well X implies Y implies Z, Z is good so we should do X"

Person Alpha: "Well, C is a more important gain than Z, so we should do A"

Person One: "No, Z is more important than C!"

</comment><comment><USER15> How do I know which type of "thinking" I have?

<comment><USER16> Just check your keyboard.

structured - If you see dirty points showing your hands resting while thinking.

go with the flow - No dirty points. You usually go to grab a tea or coffee whenever you want to think more deeply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Really bad analyse done by a person who haven't even bothered to find about basic psychological typing systems like MBTI or The big five.

Personally it seems that he describes TI (Introverted thinking) and then label "flow" as TE (Extraverted thinking) or SE (Sensing Extraverted).

Point being, their exist more then two ways to reason about making decision and living life. To me the author comes about as extremely self-centred and self-importante since he hasn't even bothered to look at the field of his topic.

He totally forgets to take account of feelers, people who make decisions based on how they will feel or how other people will feel after a decision.

<comment> B-Con For MBTI, it seemed like more of tenuous a J/P mapping. Structured being J, "go with the flow" being P. The structured, high-level/multi-level thinking is more of an extroverted judging function (aka, J-like), whereas the more step- by-step, adventurous thinking is more introverted judging (aka, more P-like).

However, I do stress that it is a tenuous connection. Neither list is a good list of J or P, most notably P.

As a side note, I do find it interesting that many attempts to describe personality or thought process often resemble MBTI in some way.

(I'm a huge MBTI fan.)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best way to get rid of net-negative employees - <AUTHOR> What's the best way to get rid of an employee that doesn't make the cut? Fire them? Lay them off? Suggest they leave?<p>Please share your experiences and suggestions. <comment><USER2> It's rare that a statement as stark and simplistic as "doesn't make the cut" applies. Usually there are deeper issues to consider.

Start by inviting them to comment on the job environment and responsibilities they've been given. If they demonstrate lack of understanding of the latter, or provide comments that differ remarkably from other reports' and your own personal knowledge of the former, then you're either wearing rose colored glasses about the quality of the environment and/or the employee is laboring without sufficient guidance (i.e. management is poor), or else they're just not "getting it".

In the former case, determine if this deficiency can be remedied in a timely manner. If it can't, deeper problems exist in the organization: seriously consider that _other_ employees might need the "termination treatment." In the latter case, dive deeper to find out why their performance is not up to your standards: if it can be rectified allow appropriate time to do so, otherwise terminate their employment.

The correct way to do that is in person, in a private setting (e.g. manager's office or meeting room), with a severance package ready and appropriate consideration for the professional future of the employee: that they aren't a fit at your organization should not be something that diminishes their ability to make a living elsewhere, where it may be a better fit.

</comment><comment><USER3> Human relationships - pardon me - suck. They're never easy. Try as you might there are always mismatches, there are always misunderstanding.

I would imagine that if you're feeling uncomfortable, so is the other person. It's rare it's a complete surprise, eh. As leadership (or at least management) it's time to apply The Golden Rule. It's that what you want?

Finally, if this pattern repeats too many times too often then it's time to revist your hiring practices. A pattern means the problem is internal, and not the new hire.

</comment><comment><USER4> Severance cures all. Six months. Cheaper than waiting another 5 months and giving 1 month.

</comment><comment><USER5> check out ask a manager. try the posts tagged with "firing" or "being the boss". e.g. [http://www.askamanager.org/2017/11/my-employee-cant- accept-t...](http://www.askamanager.org/2017/11/my-employee-cant-accept-that- his-performance-is-bad.html)</comment>


How Chainlink is the missing piece to the GOD protocol - <AUTHOR> https://blog.goodaudience.com/chainlink-the-missing-piece-to-the-god-protocol-fd455dde92ab <comment><AUTHOR> Really excited about this project. Nothing else solves the centralized Oracle problem quite like ChainLink has. I think this will be the project that gives crypto a lot more mainstream adoption. Most exciting thing to come out of crypto since Dai (in my opinion, more exciting).</comment>


Every blade of glass is a different shade of green - <AUTHOR>

Hi, this is my second post on Hacker News, and I read it every week or so. My name is Emrah, and I'm a seasoned entrepreneur with complementary skills to a hacker (capturing user stories, figuring out human needs, UX, architecture, agile methods, merciless testing to break your code over and over again) and have access to lotsa money.
I would like to co-found with 1-2 exceptional humans who can code, and dis-intermediate a large industry that will see tremendous demand thanks to baby boomers (thank you Drucker for making us rich, again).
I am an ex-introvert geek (I hacked my mind successfully to see the other side). So are many of my friends. But they are not here. I moved to San Francisco after riding 7 months around the country on a GS1200 (swam with sharks and got stranded on an island:).
I don't know many people here in the industry (just one Stanford CS professor, who is a close friend). I'm looking for intelligent, imaginative, and brave engineers who have an appreciation for irony and distaste for blind status quo. I deeply respect Graham, DeMarco, Brooks, Weinberg and Spolsky. I applied what they wrote over and over to win with position+tempo+material (I think chess strategy dominates all business strategy).
So here's my question to the Hacker community,
I am looking for some of you: intelligent, passionate, gets things done, and excited about  making something people will like. Now, HOW would you meet and gently seduce YOU to build something great, if you were to ride into an American city where you don't know anybody?
Nice to meet you virtually:)
Make something people will like.
All else follows.
Emrah
PS: To switch from introvert to extrovert, especially to attract a mate, I found the first step is to let go of guilt/shame/regret etc. They all are exotic forms of self-torture. Smart people like exotic mental expressions to amuse themselves;) <comment><USER2> For the record, it sounds like you haven't made the transition from introvert to extravert. You've made the transition from shy to not shy. :-)

That said, my advice is to hit up various meet up groups or go somewhere like noisebridge. Find someone who's interested in what you're working on, and then... Just ask. It's really not totally different from asking someone to go out with you if you think about it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, and no luck at meetups. Nobody so far seemed smart or passionate enough to build something great. Perhaps I'm missing the good ones.

<comment><USER2> If you're an extravert (which I don't doubt), then you may have a problem with judging people based on what you see on the outside and not digging any deeper. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that. It's just that sometimes you have to appreciate depth as well as breadth, especially when you're dealing with a field that tends to attract introverts like programming does. This may or may not be you though. I haven't met you to figure it out though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmmm, interesting. You clearly explored deeply into this. To clarify, nothing wrong with any of this, they are simple different states of being. I feel a slight advantage in being able to switch, be able to go in and out of both states. Perhaps I'm none anymore. I'm not sure if all extroverts judge people based on what they see on the surface. I feel the defining attribute of extrovert is much smaller fear (or even ignorance) of uncertainty. I feel introverts hate being wrong so much more it becomes painful, so they display a stronger fear (and recognition) of uncertainty in all domains in life.

<comment><USER2> Yes, I have spent too much time studying psychology. And it depends on the person. You sound right-brained in that you can handle and even embrace uncertainty when extraverted, but become rigid when introverted. A person who is left-brained would be the exact opposite (rigid when extraverted, but flexible when introverted).

<comment><AUTHOR> That sounds like a useful distinction. What is the defining attribute of the introvert to you? and what is an example of flexible when introverted in that context?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hacker Dojo, down in Mountain View, is a nifty hackerspace down started by a few friends of mine. There are always clever people congregating there.

<comment><AUTHOR> hacker dojo, check! When is the best time to show up as a stranger? Thank you Mark Christian, you are an honorable person of good taste:)</comment></comment>


The fantasy of a vast upper middle class - <AUTHOR> http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/08/03/myth_upper_middle_class/index.html <comment><AUTHOR> _"Millions of Americans who by objective standards belong to the working class or lower middle class have persuaded themselves that they are part of the professional-investor elite, because they have worthless degrees from diploma mills, negligible amounts invested in stocks, and suburban trophy houses they cannot afford."_</comment>


DigitalMars C/C++ Compiler - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/DigitalMars/Compiler/tree/master/dm/src/dmc <comment><USER2> Note that the compiler is fully open source using the Boost license.

If you want to build it, you'll need to download the C++ binary from digitalmars.com, and the D compiler from dlang.org.

<comment><USER3> This is absolutely awesome. Until now, the DM C/C++ compiler was closed-source freeware, with contracting/consulting available ([https://digitalmars.com/consulting.html](https://digitalmars.com/consulting.html)). This makes things 10x as amazing :)

Also related is that D is now completely under the Boost license as well.

Historically D was "partially open, partially closed"; the D frontend (syntax parser and some other pipeline stages) was open, but the backend/code- generator was built on top of the Zortech C++ compiler for DOS/Windows/OS/2\. (I only have a hazy notion of the Datalight>Zorland>Zortech>Symantec transition; I'll bet the story would make for an awesome history book, if that doesn't already exist. _Hint_ )

There was (highly appropriate) major fanfare when Symantec, who bought Zortech in Aug 1991, allowed the compiler backend technology to be open-sourced in April 2017, 1 year and 1 month ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14060846](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14060846)

And that, fairly clearly, is what made this source release possible. Also [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17131274](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17131274) :)

References (most insightful first):

\- [http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Zortech_C%2B%2B](http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Zortech_C%2B%2B)

\- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Mars)

\- [http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/10940/Zortech%20C/](http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/10940/Zortech%20C/)

\- [http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Symantec_C%2B%2B](http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Symantec_C%2B%2B)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Apparently, the compiler is progressively rewritten in d. For those interested, there is a tag for the last pure c version: [https://github.com/DigitalMars/Compiler/tree/Last-C- Version](https://github.com/DigitalMars/Compiler/tree/Last-C-Version)

Would probably be interesting to convert it in C++17 :-)

Meta-comment: I delete my previous comment by error and want to put it again, and didn't manage to do it again. Is there some anti-duplication code that prevent to write 2 times the same comment on HN?

<comment><USER2> > Apparently, the compiler is progressively rewritten in d.

Can confirm, that's what I'm doing. Most of the code is written in an old- fashioned style, but rather than redo that, it's more productive to convert to D, and then into a modern style.

The D conversion as it stands is by rote translation, thereby retaining the technical debt. I don't plan on improving the structure until it is all in D.

<comment><USER5> If I may ask, why did you opt to port the code in that order (translate -> re- architect)? I suspect you have experience in this, and I was curious what experience taught you.

Edit: Answered below in "May it have been better to start from scratch?"

<comment><USER6> Not Walter Bright, but I'm pretty sure it minimizes the chances for new bugs. You do a dumb conversion that tries to minimize the actual code changes, check that works ok, then start making larger changes.

[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/23/rub-a-dub- dub/](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/23/rub-a-dub-dub/)

> 1\. No New Features, not even small ones, would be added.

> 2\. At any time, with any check in, the code would still work perfectly.

> 3\. All I would do is logical transformations — the kinds of things that are > almost mechanical and which you can convince yourself immediately will not > change the behavior of the code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Automated Teller ATM Machine

If you are also confused by the title, DMC = DigitalMars Compiler. It is a C/C++ compiler which seems to be almost completely written by one person

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

<comment><USER8> He is also the only person who has ever written an entire C++ compiler on their own, in addition to the first direct-from-C++ compiler. Cfront was a transpiler.

<comment><USER9> I suspect that both Tom Pennello and Chris Lattner would also qualify by your criteria.

<comment><USER8> Chris Lattner as the primary builder of LLVM deserves enormous credit for that work. Did he really write the entire C++ compiler himself?

I haven't been able to find much on Tom Pennello besides some parsing papers from the 70s... I'm interested, but don't know how to find more about his work.

<comment><USER9> One name to look for is MetaWare.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Walter here. AMA.

<comment><USER10> How does it feel having your "life's work"[1] becoming big enough to be noticed, but ignored by the mainstream?

You created the first "better C" out there to get any traction, it had a perfect name (B -> C -> D), but due to factors that were partially [2] outside your control [3], D's niche got eaten by Go and Rust.

[1]. The D programming language. [2]. I've seen people blaming the D to D2.0 transition, but D was a niche language before too. I've also seen people blame D for not having an Open Source compiler for years, but neither did Java, and it took off anyways. [3]. Such as Sun's marketing, or the general push to scripting languages between 1995-2010 (such as perl, tcl, PHP, Ruby, Python and Node)

<comment><USER2> When I started, I was well aware of:

"Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8joT0oFuGoI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8joT0oFuGoI)

For a language without a megacorp pushing it, D is spectacularly successful. Consider:

1\. It's developed by volunteers who work on it for the joy of it without remuneration.

2\. People who spend the effort to get past the learning curve find it very pleasing and productive.

3\. Other major languages have been continuously copying D's features :-)

4\. Corporations that have adopted it for mission critical use have told me that D is their "secret weapon" that allows them to out-maneuver and out- innovate their competitors.

It's like the music business - you don't have to be the Beatles to have a very good career.

<comment><USER11> Walter, I have been using your products way back since before Zortech, at the time it was the only C++ system that I could get to work with the Phar Lap DOS extender to create big binaries.

Thank you for all your hard work, your products formed the center on my early career, and most of what i know i learned using your tools.

Note I particularly loved "Zed" the text editor that came with the early toolchain.

Regards Tim Hawkins, a grateful hacker.

<comment><USER2> Welcs!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hasn't had a release since 2013, but the Github code is still getting updates as recently as the last few weeks. It appears to be written in a mix of itself and D. Wasn't clear to me how you would go about bootstrapping it.

<comment><USER2> Download DMC and DMD, and you should be good to go.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I was scratching my head how I never heard of DMC++ until I realized that this is related to Zortech C++ compiler I've used (and loved) while ago.

</comment><comment><USER14> I have been asking for them to fix the license on Open Watcom for a while now. A C compiler that has full support for x86 segmentation would be very useful for some projects.

<comment><USER2> You've got that with DMC today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Why should I favor this compiler instead of gcc or clang?

<comment><USER3> It was the first 3rd party compiler for Windows (1.0)

It's apparently really nice to use (I'm on Linux :( )

It was written by one person

It targets DOS, Windows and OS/2 (mostly Win32)

<comment><USER2> For a while it was the only C++ compiler for Windows. (I had figured out how to do all the various weird stack frame variations Windows required.) We sold a lot of those :-)

<comment><USER3> Interesting to know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> What's the use case for this compared to gcc or clang?

</comment><comment><USER17> What C and C++ standard versions does this support?

<comment><USER18> There doesn't appear to have been an official release of the compiler since 8.57, announced on August 8, 2013.

[https://forum.dlang.org/group/c++.announce](https://forum.dlang.org/group/c++.announce)

I can't find anything about what changed between 8.52 and 8.57. But in 8.52, there wasn't even support for C++03, which the DMC site self-reports:

[https://digitalmars.com/ctg/CPP0x-Language- Implementation.ht...](https://digitalmars.com/ctg/CPP0x-Language- Implementation.html)

cppreference maintains a compiler support grid for features in the C++11 and later standards, which includes DMC 8.52 and mentions a small number of supported features.

[http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support)

Here's a post on the DMC forum from 2015 which seems to agree that C++11 support is generally not there.

[https://email@example.com...](https://firstname.lastname@example.com)</comment></comment>


IPhone Sudoku Grab - <AUTHOR> http://sudokugrab.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-does-it-all-work.html

<comment><USER2> Excellent article. Being a self-taught CSS/HTML/Jquery front-end developer (and SEM Acct. Manager by Day) the nuts and bolts of image recognition were black magic to me. This was a fantastic read.

</comment><comment><USER3> When you think about it, this is actually totally useless. It is much easier to just generate a puzzle on the fly and not require the user to have a paper copy of it.

But I bought it anyway, because the point isn't to solve Sudoku puzzles, it's to show off how nifty this program is. Which is easily worth a buck.

<comment><USER4> An app like this could solve the puzzle in your newspaper faster than you could transcribe it. I would love to see more OCR apps which are even more useful. Where's the app to scan a barcode or ISBN of a book and have it populate with the information from Amazon and a link to download the e-book?

<comment><USER5> Agreed, in theory, but Amazon changed the TOS of their API to limit/disallow third-party access to its data from mobile devices:

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/amazon-killing- mobile-a...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/amazon-killing-mobile-apps- that-use-its-data/)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What's one bit of advice you'd give to your younger self? - <AUTHOR> Thinking more along the lines of personal & professional development. <comment><USER2> Start saving. There may come a time when you want to work on your own projects. And it would be awesome to be financially independent.

</comment><comment><USER3> There are so many of these threads...you may not get any response...so here's a good one

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=372573](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=372573)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Start looking into quantitative stock trading systems, invest the time to find a winning strategy + sound risk management and the compound interest will make you a very rich person (reach person = someone who makes more money that he needs to spend without working more than few hours a week if any), I really wish I started 20 years earlier...

<comment><USER5> Any advice on where to look? I majored in finance because I thought this is what I would learn. Instead they told me to trust in DDM. Waste of money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Few worthwhile efforts are successful on the first attempt. Failure is just another useful metric giving guidance for the next effort. Guilt has nothing to do with failure.

</comment><comment><USER5> Don't get the finance degree. Everything they teach you will be theory that is literally from the 1950s and has been empirically proven incorrect. Almost all the jobs open to you will require you to be fundamentally dishonest.

Go for a math or CS degree.

</comment><comment><USER7> Guard your health!

It is the foundation of happiness.

For the young (post-)entrepreneur HN tends to idolize, it is also the basis of your productivity.

</comment><comment><USER8> Always finish your projects and leave them in some workable state so you have more projects to show or just look back on.

</comment><comment><USER9> Don't ever borrow money.

</comment><comment><USER10> I am not as smart or as cool as I think I am...or rather, other people are smarter and cooler than I think they are. The women are better looking than I think and it's better to be nicer and kinder.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'd remind myself to set a quantitative and measurable goal every once in a while.

</comment><comment><USER12> Practice and learn critical thinking using first principles.

<comment><USER13> any books suggestions?

<comment><USER12> try "think fast and slow"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Don't count on the world being as advertised.

</comment><comment><USER15> Workout daily.

</comment><comment><USER16> Be more thoughtful to my wife.

</comment><comment><USER17> Get started now.

</comment><comment><USER18> You are not too old.

</comment><comment><USER19> Buy Bitcoin!haha</comment>


Who Is Publishing NSA and CIA Secrets, and Why? - <AUTHOR> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/05/who_is_publishi.html <comment><USER2> Since we're in the realm of idle speculation here, allow me to posit that the U.S. intelligence services are doing this to each other in some sort of shadowy high-stakes power game. Russia, the perpetual Enemy, is happy to sit in the wings and take credit.

<comment><USER3> Or the hacking is both internal and external. Everybody is hacking everybody seems plausible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Discussion of article when posted on another site, [https://www.lawfareblog.com/who-publishing-nsa-and-cia- secre...](https://www.lawfareblog.com/who-publishing-nsa-and-cia-secrets-and- why)</comment>


Netflix Doing a Choose Your Own Adventure TV Show for Adults - <AUTHOR> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-12-05-netflix-choose-your-own-adventure-tv-show-for-adults <comment><USER2> This seems like a reaction to HBO's Mosaic app? The app/show hasn't released yet, but I would imagine Netflix wants a foot in the door if its a success. [https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/hbo- mosaic/](https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/hbo-mosaic/)</comment>


Ask HN: How strong is communist China's influence on Silicon Valley's values? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/eric-schmidt-ex-google- ceo-p...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/eric-schmidt-ex-google-ceo-predicts- internet-split-china.html)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Pretty strong it seems [https://theintercept.com/2018/09/21/google-suppresses- memo-r...](https://theintercept.com/2018/09/21/google-suppresses-memo- revealing-plans-to-closely-track-search-users-in-china/)</comment>


Gitlab proclaim diversity, but seems to have a real issue keeping women on staff - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/03/gitlab_proclaims_diversity/ <comment><USER2> Yeah, this sounds about right. We're discussing it a lot internally and it doesn't look like much will happen. They are working to discredit the register, saying it is inaccurate. Although they won't explain what exactly is inaccurate about it. Jamie even commented on here that they aren't being honest even about why she was fired ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22231548](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22231548)).

At this point the legitimacy of my account has even been called into question internally. It certainly seems like they are interested in discrediting everyone they possibly can. We wouldn't want anyone to actually be moved to action or anything.

<comment><USER3> > At this point the legitimacy of my account has even been called into > question > internally. It certainly seems like they are interested in > discrediting > everyone they possibly can. We wouldn't want anyone to > actually be moved to > action or anything.

I am the one who questioned the account, so I think I can comment on the matter. Specifically I said the following in Slack (in reply to some discussion about the things going on on Hacker News):

        > The "culture of fear" thing was something mentioned a few months back on
        > HN as well, though it remains to be seen if the account in question is
        > genuine

I'm not sure how you can interpret that as "they are interested in discrediting everyone they possibly can". In fact, I think it's disrespectful to throw somebody who simply questioned an account's legitimacy on the same pile as those who "are interested in discrediting everyone they possibly can".

<comment><USER2> That's fair. You definitely are NOT part of the problem at all and I should have been more clear and separated the two frustrations. I apologize for letting my emotions mislead and lumping you in as part of the problem.

<comment><USER3> Thanks. I realise all of this can be very difficult. If it's of any use, feel free to chat me up on Slack about this. I'm not sure to what extend I can help, or if you'd even be comfortable with it (since Slack has no anonymous communication mode), but just know the offer is there :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>