Teaching young people in Zambia how to build electricity supplies - <AUTHOR> https://localelectricity.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN!

We've been working on this for the last two years and now we have finally launched our crowdfunding campaign: [https://startsomegood.com/localelectricity/](https://startsomegood.com/localelectricity/)

Thoughts, feedback and potential collaborations most welcome!

</comment><comment><USER2> Seems cool, but it's not clear to me exactly what this board does.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can see more details here as well: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Ictyt8p8Q](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Ictyt8p8Q)

We normally have this in our website but we replaced the link with our crowdfunding page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Best of luck with this! But fundraisers can't be Show HNs: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Imgur Alternative? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> [https://put.re](https://put.re) is worth a try.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks it's simple and easy

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Pixelfed, a decentralized alternative.

</comment><comment><USER4> Are you looking for specific features? What is wrong with imgur?

<comment><USER5> They've started requiring a telephone number to see nsfw images.

<comment><USER6> That's wild. Every 12 year old in my neighbourhood has a cell phone, so I'm not sure what kind of control mechanism this is supposed to be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Flickr? Reddit?

<comment><AUTHOR> Flickr and imgbb, i am using</comment></comment>


The Danger of Too Much Information (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://randomglenings.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-danger-of-too-much-information.html <comment><USER2> Really good read. Thanks for sharing with us</comment>


Computers vs. Brains - <AUTHOR> http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/guest-column-computers-vs-brains/ <comment><USER2> Wow, way to spectacularly miss the point!

1) No intelligent person is suggesting that a computer will directly map to a human brain. We're not trying to reproduce a brain in silicon. However, a sufficiently powerful computer might be able to model the workings of a brain - or even might not need to if we find another path to intelligence.

2) If anything, the complexity and _existence_ of the human brain is an indication that such a system _can_ be built efficiently. After all, the brain exists, therefore it should be possible to at least build something of comparable complexity and power, at some point in the future. Maybe it won't be as rapid as Moore's law predicts, but there's no reason to think that we won't eventually be able to reproduce what nature has been able to do through blind selection.

3) There's no reason why a singularity can only come via wholly artificial intelligence. Intelligence augmentation could easily achieve the same objective (and is perhaps even more likely - after all, it's happening today already, albeit on a smaller scale).

Did they even bother to read up on Singularity stuff before writing this article?

<comment><AUTHOR> Your criticisms are fair, but:

1) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Brain>

2) How long do you think we'll need? "At some point in the future" is an awfully long time scale, especially relative to how long it took natural selection to create the human brain.

3) I don't think they'd deny that augmentation is already happening. But that piecemeal progress is still a long way from _The Singularity_.

<comment><USER2> 1) is exactly what I suggested - a virtual model of the brain. I don't see any "but" there...

2) I'm no AI expert, so my opinion of this is pretty irrelevant, but I would be extremely surprised if we didn't have some form of human-level intelligence within the next 100 years, and I would not be surprised if we had it in the next 20 years.

3) Piecemeal progress that feeds back on itself is the essence of the whole Singularity hypothesis. Better brains come up with even better ways to enhance themselves, which makes them even better, etc. Technological progress can grow exponentially in ways not subject to the Malthusian limits.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why do neuroscientists get so hot & bothered over the prospect of AI? It doesn't diminish the brain's complexity to think that one day we can rival it with alternate technology. There's a whiff of duality/magic animus in this line of thinking.

</comment><comment><USER4> Be warned you may lose several IQ points reading this article if you are familiar with the concept of strong AI and the singularity. Short version -

\- Strong AI isn't possible because it will require too much power according to Moore's law.

\- Even if we could build Strong AI, why bother?

</comment><comment><USER5> "To put this in perspective, the entire archived contents of the Internet fill just three petabytes."

This is categorically false. While the "Internet Archive" currently has the capacity of 4.5 petabytes, the sheer amount of data available on the http protocol is more likely in exabytes (especially once you take into consideration high-capacity services like youtube, bittorrent, and other file sharing protocols).

</comment><comment><USER6> This points out how strong status quo bias is even for neuroscientists. Which is an indication that we may be in for a very significant collision between reality (artificial general intelligence) and mainstream humanity. I think that it is going to be quite some time (years or maybe decades) before most people accept and comprehend the changes brought on by AGI and start to modify social and other systems to adjust to this reality.

</comment><comment><USER7> Give us the million years evolution had to develop the brain, we would surely come up with something better.

</comment><comment><USER8> um, I rather doubt a computer is going to consume a gigawatt in 15 years.</comment>


Ask HN: how do you manage your time in an early stage startup? - <AUTHOR>

We launched a few months back. It seems we are getting overwhelmed with operational work, bug fixes and customer support. At the same time, to code something significant you need at least 6-7 hours of uninterrupted time which we are finding hard to get. Will be interested to know about your experience in this stage. <comment><USER2> It's not about managing your time, you need to figure out how to _scale your business_ , especially operations and customer support, that's the most difficult part about running an early stage startup.

I previously worked at an early stage daily deals business so we were very operational. One of our major costs was the amount of time it took for our sales team to set up a deal with a merchant. One of our main focuses was to build internal tools to scale this part of our business. If we could reduce the time it took to set up a deal, we could run more deals and offer a better selection products to our customers.

Figure out how to scale the operational work. Build yourself tools that will automate parts of the business. Scaling customer support? Maybe offer a discussion forum so customers can help each other? Or at least build a help section that answers the most frequent support issues.

Just remember _it's about scaling the process, not getting better at time management._

<comment><USER3> I have to respectfully disagree with the first line of this. Startups biggest competitive advantage is productivity (theoretically they will be more agile, have less bureaucracy, etc), and productivity is largely about time management!

As a first time founder myself, I can agree that the amount of tasks that get thrown your way can be horrendous. Especially if you, like me, were used to being a developer where it was often encouraged that people not fuck with you for a solid 4-5 hours so you can do your thing.

I've started by taking advantage of to-do lists. I had always used them to some degree, but now I put EVERYTHING on my lists, and am constantly evaluating the priority. Most recently I've been using Trello (Kanban).

I can't really give you advice for the priorities because that really depends on your business, who you have working with you, and a number of other factors.

Additionally, this may not be applicable for you, but I have to block off a certain time of day to code. It isn't always the same time. It fluctuates from 430AM - 1030AM, to 9PM - 3AM. It isn't regular at all. But during that time I know coding is the ONLY thing I will address.

I block off my coding time because for me, it is the least unpredictable. I cannot predict what sort of customer support, deal work, or an infinite other amount of phone calls will come up. So the easiest way to handle it, for me, is to know that I have a certain part of my day (very early or very late) dedicated to code, and the operational issues and customer support can be handled in the middle.

My hardest problem has been feeling like the items I tackled that day were the right ones. I often go to sleep feeling like I should have focused on something more, and other things less. I suppose that is normal -- there is always room for improvement.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: SaaS vs. distributed app - <AUTHOR>

Hi, I'm trying to decide between SaaS and a distributed model for a business web app I'm building. Does anybody have recommendations or experiences they can share on this topic?
With SaaS I can use whatever framework I like. However this would basically require me to become a 24/7 systems administrator, something I'm not interested in or really even qualified for. Some of that responsibility could be owned by a hosting company, but if the app goes down in the middle of the night I'll be the one contacted by angry customers.
With a distributed app hosting and support responsibilities are owned primarily by the customer's sysadmins. However this means I'll have to build using technologies they're willing to support, such as .NET, which means I won't enjoy development and ongoing maintenance of the app.
I'm also concerned about whether SMBs prefer owning an app and data or would rather outsource this responsibility in the current market.
Anybody else been down this road? Thanks. <comment><USER2> It will likely depend on the nature of the app, the targeted end user and the type of data that would be stored within the app.

Many businesses of all sizes are very comfortable with SaaS thanks to apps like Saleforce.com. Also, it sounds like you would prefer developing for the web anyway. So, that may be your answer right there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, thanks for responding.

Either way the app will be based on web technologies, it's just a matter of who does the hosting. So if customers self-host it should be technologies they're comfortable supporting, which IMO rules out Ruby or Python frameworks since most of my targeted customers would likely be using .NET or Java.</comment></comment>


Developers. Our Last, Best Hope for Ethics? - <AUTHOR> https://www.infoq.com/articles/developers-tech-ethics <comment><AUTHOR> Interesting to see more and more dicussions of programming and ethics emerging. This is a great read</comment>


Ask HN: How to get acquired? - <AUTHOR>

Are there any good resources on how to get acquired? I am in a strange situation. I believe my company should be an attractive acquisition target. How do I engineer the acquisition?<p>Cold calling or meeting someone with the intent to sell might not be the best way. A buddy of mine is an investment banker. Should I get him involved? What would you suggest? <comment><USER2> I don't know - haven't done it - but I can say that, generally when I see these questions, the first things people ask tend to be about both competitors who might be acquirers and/or huge conglomerates that might be developing/developed something similar and might wish to purchase you to save time or gain market share. What can you share with us along those lines?

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure. The industry is dominated by large competitors, two public companies and four backed by large conglomerates with deep pockets. All of them spend millions of dollars in advertising and attracting users. Its a highly competitive market and we've been able to carve a niche with very little investments.

It a mature market, from a technology standpoint.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> [http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/07/15/tips-for- getting-a...](http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/07/15/tips-for-getting- acquired-and-acquiring-others-from-eddie-pasatiempo-of-the-clarion-group/)</comment>


Ask HN: Where To Find Design Founders - <AUTHOR>

Some founders have both the developer and designer skills, while some only have the "developer" part (and all the mixes in between). I'm a 20 year old developer, and, while I can design well enough to not embarrass myself, I'm no Tim Van Damm.
I think that having someone that specializes in design is essential to a team, as the design of an application (typically) is the application to its users. So the question:
Where do you find good designers to help co-found? Would the graphics design department at my university be a good place to start?
It is becoming more apparent to me that finding someone that can create a unique design concept and bring it to life is actually quite rare. <comment><USER2> Seriously! Luckily, I am in a relationship with an excellent one. _whew_

If you are only looking for college students the search will have a pretty limited scope, won't it? Isn't there a design club on campus?

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't say that I am only limiting my search to college students, but in a college town that is probably one of the only options.

I sent an email to the graphics design department asking if they had any students that might be interested, but they were very unhelpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Man, I'm in the same boat, and I work with some great designers, I just get the impression that they'd rather be doing cool designy stuff than get involved with a boring business oriented app. :-(

</comment><comment><USER4> Is this a common problem among technical founders? As a designer, I've often had the opposite problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> Finding just any designer wouldn't be all that hard, but as a founder, you probably don't have 20K to spend on a designer, but allowing them an equity stake in the company and working side by side to develop the product would be an ideal solution.

I think the hardest part is just finding someone who is good and willing to apply themselves to a project, with the risk of a founder.</comment></comment>


Agens Graph – PostgreSQL Based Graph Database - <AUTHOR> http://www.agensgraph.com/ <comment><USER2> Heh Heh Heh

Back in the early days PostgreSQL was a NoSQL database called Postgres, using a query language called POSTQUEL.

Then SQL was added, becoming PostgreSQL.

With Agens Graph adding an optional non-SQL query language back to it, it seems like it's gone a full circle. Hopefully on an upward slope though. :)

If anyone's interested in the pre-SQL Postgres, there's some info here: [https://www.postgresql.org/about/history/](https://www.postgresql.org/about/history/)

<comment><USER3> NoSQL refers to non-relational DBMSes, not a literal lack of SQL... QUEL is, if anything, closer to relational algebra than SQL is.

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

QUEL is a better language (more consistent), and SQL won not on technical grounds, but because Larry Ellison is a better salesman than Michael Stonebraker.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I wondered if anyone was going to be pedantic about that. ;)

<comment><USER4> "Pedantic"?

Your post is wholly based on time travel (~"nosql predates sql") and introduces a completely alternative evolution of database design in which quel never happened and we go "full circle" to the nosql-that-was-prior-to-sql.

<comment><USER5> I don't think the parent claimed that NoSQL existed at the time; just that Postgres was a NoSQL database _as we understand the term today_. Like describing a wandering swordsman in ancient China as a "knight-errant", even if knights themselves as legally-warranted weapon-carriers didn't yet exist.

Which is not to say that the poster wasn't wrong about their claim, but it's not _invalid_ to make said claim in casual English in the particular way you're implying.

Though, also, in the more general case, "NoSQL" databases did certainly exist at the time Postgres was conceived (Postgres just wasn't one of them.) Navigational databases like IBM IMS were what we'd call "a NoSQL database" if they were conceived today.

<comment><USER6> I don't think Postgres was "NoSQL database as we understand the term today". The basis of NoSQL is not the lack of SQL but the non-relational data model. Postgres (mostly) sticks to the relational data model, although it performs surprisingly well when used as a NoSQL data store.

<comment><USER2> Well, I definitely meant it as "the lack of SQL" when I wrote above. Didn't realise people would actually give a crap to the point they have though. ;)

<comment><USER7> Then it is a case of what you meant and what you said being different things. So, yeah, people give a crap when something is confusing or incorrect. I mean, we write code, right? Being correct matters. NoSQL means it is something other than a relational database.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Can someone speak to how Agens compares to Neo4j? Since from a quick glance they seem to be using some of Neo's features.

I'd be interested in seeing performance comparisons as it seems Agens is implemented in C.

</comment><comment><USER9> Here's slides from a recent talk on it: [https://www.percona.com/live/17/sites/default/files/slides/A...](https://www.percona.com/live/17/sites/default/files/slides/AgensGraph.PerconaLive.2017.pptx_.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER10> I've been following this for a few months.

It looks neat but too new to entrust to any major project in my opinion. Also seems too new to put together and meaningful performance comparison since it still seems they're finding frequent improvements.

I really wished this could have been distributed as an extension rather than a totally separate Postgres package. It is much easier to play with extensions... I read somewhere they can't do it since they have to modify non- extensible bits of code:(

<comment><USER6> Everything is "too new" at some point, and matures over time.

But I don't know why a performance comparison would not be meaningful at this point? I mean, it may get obsolete soon, but it's the only way to guide optimizations efforts - you do a test, decide what makes most sense to improve (cost/benefit) and then you fix it. Then you do the test again.

I'm sure Bitnine developers do such benchmarks as part of development, but perhaps they decided not to publish that at this point. That's perfectly understandable - development benchmarks are one thing, but publishing the results requires much more care. Particularly when it's a comparison with other products.

But hey, there's nothing simpler than doing a quick benchmark on your own - after all, the best benchmark is one modeling your particular use case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is awesome. So many of the problems in legacy projects that I've had to deal with have been from trying to shoehorn a graph business process into a tree database.

<comment><USER12> A "graph business process" is borderline content free. All business processes can be expressed by graphs. What is a graph? A dynamic data structure. That is it.

So what is a "tree database"? A graph database with a bias for a specific ordering of its nodes. Does that make a tree database a query result (path traversal) in a graph database? The confusion of it all.

So imho one uses a "graph database" when (a) the domain is open ended, and (b) information is sketchy (precisely: incomplete), and as an important case in an open ended domain (c) we need to express a set of relationship types and ordering.

Semantic systems, for example, fit that description and can be reasonably considered as /fundamentally/ graph based. Some CRUD backend and OLAP on that domain likely does not.

To conclude, the naive impulse to reach for a graph db is likely induced by a recognition for needing something more expressive than a k/v, or doc store with secondary indexes, but fearing the dreaded RDBMS. Thus one "shoehorns" a static, completely captured, and fully described, domain unto a graph database cause E-R ain't sexy and SQL is a mystery. (Heads up: graph path expressions can get hairy too.)

<comment><USER13> I'm a fan of RDBMS (E-R) and SQL - it's cute and all for things like purchase orders and shopping carts and orders and receipts and the like. But for things like clinical informatics (even the non-semantic kind), graph traversal is easier than the unholy join from hell. For example.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wondering if anyone has experience with it... there's a lot of competition in graph database market, curious to see if this is worth investing time in.

<comment><USER14> There isn't a lot of competition in the "free/libre database" market though. The only serious players are Jena/Fuseki (an RDF store) and Janus (a graph store).

<comment><USER15> There's also [https://github.com/postgraphql/postgraphql](https://github.com/postgraphql/postgraphql)

<comment> purple-dragon PostgraphQL generates a GraphQL API from a PostgreSQL database. It won't change how your data is modeled or queried at the database level, i.e., it is NOT a graph database project like Agens, Neo4j, Cayley, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Postgres having recursive CTE's made graph querying with SQL actually pretty tenable. I designed a graph like schema for a company I worked at awhile ago now with postgres and recursive CTE's in mind. Worked relatively well though some queries were quite large.

</comment><comment><USER17> Interesting .. is the team considering Gremlin support as well .. It is sort Of a standard with Graph DBs</comment>


Show HN: Facerank — A/B test your Tinder pics. What do you think? - <AUTHOR> https://facerank.app <comment><USER2> My feeling is that you need to let users choose the demographic rating their photos.

This clearly has a bit of a cold start issue though.

I'd really love for a service using ELO/relative ranking to exist and exactly for this purpose.

I've used [https://www.photofeeler.com](https://www.photofeeler.com) in the past - I think you're looking to give users a similar service. I have greater faith in your ELO method though.

Perhaps to give you some motivation, I've paid over $50 for that service to get a feel for different profile pictures. I'll continue to use it too as I consider new photos.

They have a slightly clickbaity blog, but it has some interesting posts like this one: [https://blog.photofeeler.com/psychology-study-science- best-p...](https://blog.photofeeler.com/psychology-study-science-best-profile- picture-unbiased-strangers/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing! I've seen Photofeeler.com around.

Have not added ELO based rankings, but might be fun to implement this in future.

What and how do you think I should change for in Facerank?

<comment><USER2> I think being able to say, "only allow women/men aged x to y to rate my photo" would be the main one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There always was a market for such a service

"Hot or Not was preceded by the rating sites, like RateMyFace, which was registered a year earlier in the summer of 1999, and AmIHot.com, which was registered in January 2000 by MIT freshman Daniel Roy." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_or_Not](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_or_Not)

"Hot or Not was sold for a rumored $20 million on February 8, 2008 to Avid Life Media"

<comment><AUTHOR> True true! There is a bit of a difference tho.

"Hot or Not" was used to compare two different people.

My inspiration for Facerank was to help me optimise my Tinder profile, lift by ELO score and get more matches (maybe a wife, lol). So here, people supposed to upload their own pics :)

<comment><USER4> I don't recall HotOrNot using people comparison, but a 1-10 hotness scale.

FaceMash compared people (at least according to the movie)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN

I'm building this app to A/B test your (and mine) 1st profile pic on Tinder.

I tried relying on Tinder's "Smart Photos" feature before, but it does not give any insight into which picture is actually better, and there is no control over the sequence of pictures in my profile. So I thought it would be cool to have a super simple web app where people can actually vote for you.

The way it works is:

      1. You upload your 2 pictures
      2. Community votes
      3. You get the results which picture is better (and some feedback too)

As you know, 1st pic is like ~70% of your success and impact on your ELO score. The higher your score, the higher up your position in the queue is and the hotter profiles you'll be shown too.

I've been working on it for the past 3-4 weeks and would really like some feedback on it:

      - What can be improved?
      - Trying to come up with a funny tagline e.g. "Facerank yourself & your friends" but think this can be improved LOL.

Hope you guys can roast this idea as much as you can.

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER5> What's in it for the people doing the rating?

Follow up question : Given the target audience (dudes mostly), why should they help you rather than purposely misguide you into choosing the worst ones in order to undercut competition? A bit twisted I know but hey, if I thought of it, I'm probably not the only one ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> What's the motivation? Give it a try… it's fun to vote.

I've posted this on Product Hunt and Reddit this week, and so far people did 33426 votes on pictures. Pretty crazy!

Interestingly, a few comments (yours and on Reddit) assume how "bad" people can be. Surprisingly, so far, overall voting behaviour been very positive. People have not been abusing votes, comments nor images in the past few days.

So far 170 users uploaded 218 photo pairs - and all of them are genuinely good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> My opinion of someone's picture is valid, I suspect, only if they specifically want to date me or someone who thinks like me. Does that matter? If is does, is there a way to accommodate that?

<comment><USER7> Doesn't the other way around matter more? You want to attract people who you want to date, not necessarily people who want to date you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Okcupid used to have a feature called my best face that did this, looks like they removed it though.

</comment><comment><USER9> How about generating better ones using deep fake tech?

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually, gave this a second thought…

Might be cool, if done right:

       - upload a few profile pics
       - GAN generates an optimized pretty profile pic for you,
         that you can used on Tinder and other social media

I'm pretty sure people would be willing to pay a couple of bucks for that.

How hard would that be to train a model like that?

<comment><USER9> Yeah, I bet they would given they are willing to pay for super likes. I could definitely see using it for all sorts of reasons, like automated image brushing.

I do need a new LinkedIn head shot...

You could also get into generating stock photos for websites and other media like marketing</comment></comment></comment>


Startups Founded by French Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> http://www.rudebaguette.com/2014/01/20/10-startups-didnt-know-founded-french-entrepreneurs/ <comment><USER2> Earlier a HN front page post about a startup entrepreneur who's a woman, and now a post about entrepreneur who are French. Can't wait for the posts about entrepreneurs who are blonde, or muslims, or wearing green shirts.

Bottom line: I don't get why "I am xxxxx and I'm an entrepreneur" is relevant at all.

<comment><USER3> I think, for this particular exemple, this is due to the recent rise in French bashing in a lot of British and American medias.

That included some nuggets such as "The best thinkers in France have left the country. What is now left is mediocrity."

So I guess, we, French, have decided to fight back all of this and prove them wrong.

Granted, this article is about expatriates, so one could think it is proving the quote right, but I still think this goes in the general direction of fighting back the partiality of all those articles.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great response, Gmo!

Indeed, while it doesn't entirely combat the 'bashing' \- some of the bashing is due, so we can't expect to entirely reject all criticism - it does put a stick in the bicycle wheel of the "France doesn't have a word for entrepreneur" banter.

<comment><USER4> Origin of Entrepreneur : French, from Old French, from entreprendre; to undertake.

I guess the irony is lost on them.

<comment><USER5> Just a question: Doesn't "entrepreneur" totally sound French? I'm French so it's obvious to me, but I'm surprised you fetched a dictionnary to back you up. Do English speakers need to be scholar to guess it's a French word?

<comment><USER4> French as well, so I'm only backing my point with the dictionary definition ;)

Given how weirdly they tend to pronounce french word and sometimes transform them -see rouge (but it's only fair since we do the same sometimes) I guess it doesn't hurt to reiterate it.

<comment><USER6> The "the French don't have a word for entrepreneur" is supposedly a quote from George Bush [1], and he's ridiculed for it _because_ we all know "entrepreneur" is French.

[1] [http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.asp](http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.asp)

<comment><USER4> That would explain a lot indeed.

And don't take any offence with what's been said above, it's funny to see a word / idiom / expression being taken over by the english language, as much as the opposite; ie : The Hangover being translated Very Bad Trip.

<comment><USER7> Does the phrase you're translating as "Very Bad Trip" have the same druggie double meaning in French?

<comment><USER4> Kinda but it's mostly bad drug experience, whereas The Hangover encompass any substance (especially alcohol).

It's an unimaginative 'translation', making it sound more fancy than the literal french equivalent ("La cuite").

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Lots of respect to jbk - though it's kind of weird that the author listed jbk's "VLC" (non startup) in the subtitle.

And ... how can this list not mention Fabrice Bellard, without whom neither QEMU (essential to KVM and VirtualBox), nor FFMPEG (very significantly behind the scenes in VLC, Handbrake, YouTube, Chrome and just about any other media related software) would have been. If you have used the internet for 60 minutes today, it is quite likely you've used a Bellard derived product.

<comment><USER9> Bellard: Prolific hacker? Yes. Entrepreneur? Not so much...

(As an aside: a former French entreprenuer that immediately comes to mind is Jean-Louis Gassée who founded Be Inc.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> My old boss and a partner, both French (one living in the US, the other in Germany), founded [http://snapengage.com/](http://snapengage.com/). They're doing quite well competing with OLark, Zopim, etc.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is a peculiar article - maybe it should be written in French to show French people that they can do it?

'Cause there's a ton of great companies with French founders: Dassault, Parrot, Genostar, Mandriva, Digimind, and more...

</comment><comment><USER12> CritSend was started in France.

This article strikes on one of my pet peeves, though. Calling non-startups startups. Ebay hasn't been in a startup in over 10 years. They are simply a 'company' now.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally true (author here); however, when they started, they were a startup. And when they were a startup, they were founded by someone French.

Most of the list are current startups; VLC is also only somewhat a startup (VideoLab is more of a startup; VLC being the project).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's also various languages and technology many people use and may or may not realise are developed by French developers - OCaml, Coq, Haxe (my personal fave), Pharo...

</comment><comment><USER14> Well personally, I'd love to move to Paris to do a tech startup with a French cofounder. Partly because it would give me a non-SVP insight into building products for a non-American user base (I'm a 4th generation SV native). And partly to prove the rumors that you can't build startup teams in Paris are false.

<comment><USER15> Interested in getting in touch, although I may not be able to give you exactly what you're looking for. I grew up in Paris and am currently looking to start a company in SV, so I'm curious about what prompts you to do the opposite journey.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> To add to the anecdotal evidence, the winners of the Coursera/Stanford startup challenge were French: [http://www.goopil.co/](http://www.goopil.co/).

</comment><comment><USER17> So that's ebay and 9 projects I never heard of :)

<comment><USER18> You've really never heard of VLC (admittedly hardly a startup, but certainly a project) or Feedly?

<comment><USER19> Or Docker...?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> What about Renaud Visage, co-founder of Eventbrite?

</comment><comment><USER21> I would add _qobuz_ [1], for innovating in hifi, lossless streaming and _dailymotion_ , the only video hosting platform (other than vimeo) that survided against the youtube[2] behemoth I'm aware of. Also netvibes still exists.

[1] [http://www.qobuz.com/](http://www.qobuz.com/)

[2] [http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=dailymotion](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=dailymotion)

</comment><comment><USER22> Any french speaker who can tell me what is meaning of Khodabakchian or omidyar in french?

<comment> plus- It means nothing in french

<comment><USER22> yes, because none of them are french!! they are iranian :D, if you want I can tell you the meaning of both ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> 2 of your french Entrepreneurs are actually iranian! Pierre Omidyar , Edwin Khodabakchian

</comment><comment><USER23> Don't forget Dashlane.

</comment><comment><USER24> No that not truth. I didn't know 9 of them, and I know eBay</comment>


Show HN: audiff – Create and share audio comparisons online - <AUTHOR> https://audiff.com <comment><USER2> It just allows to switch between versions and try to hear the difference? I can't hear the difference in the example.

I expected something like UNIX diff, just for audio files. How about actually subtracting one signal from another and displaying where the difference is? Even better if it can detect cuts, difference in speed and so on.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, that would be a very different application :) audiff is geared mainly towards audio professionals, who want to make more informed decisions about processing choices.</comment></comment>


At Age 25 Mark Cuban Learned Lessons About Leadership That Changed His Life - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/03/28/at-age-25-mark-cuban-learned-lessons-about-leadership-that-changed-his-life/

<comment><USER2> I think Mark Cuban is a great inspiration. He is very humble, knows his roots, isn't trying to impress anybody, and is a "normal" guy. He doesn't have the flashy this or that qualifications, but what he does have is the most important; drive, commitment, and the ability to get shit done. That's an entrepreneur.

I also love the part at the bottom of paragraph 13:

"The place was run by this kid who was younger than I was. We sat down and talked for a few hours. I was really impressed by him. I remember telling him, "Dude, I think we're both going places." That "dude" was Michael Dell."

It's funny because I read about them meeting before. It just kind of shows you to remember and keep in touch with people you meet along your journey. You never know who may be able to help you, but you don't go into with the attitude of "how can this person help me"? You go into with the attitude of this guy is doing his own thing and snapping necks and cashing checks along the way. I should grab a beer with him some time. That is how business relationships are made, that is how you network. Not through forced, sleazy, cocktail meet-ups.

Great read.

</comment><comment><USER3> He's a great read and self-promoter, and I mean that in the best sense of the world. That said, I would find an unauthorized biography interesting.</comment>


HP designjet 3D printer (German site) check the video - <AUTHOR> http://h10088.www1.hp.com/cda/gap/display/main/index.jsp?zn=gap&cp=20000-13698-16013-15259-27018^304024_4041_5__&jumpid=ex_r11400_de/de/ga/ipg/hpipgemeawukawgagsbdesignjet3d/ps/g_generic&k_clickid=EMEA|18|4235|5af619a2-b4fc-8528-0a6c-000009a6b26a

<comment><USER2> This is a rebranded Dimension/Stratasys product. The crescent wrench is the standard built-in test part for the Dimension line.

<http://www.uprint3dprinting.com/>

Also, who did the marketing video for this? Need to add them to my rolodex

</comment><comment><USER3> For the German-challenged:

[http://h10088.www1.hp.com/cda/gap/display/main/index.jsp?zn=...](http://h10088.www1.hp.com/cda/gap/display/main/index.jsp?zn=gap&cp=20000-13698-16013-15259-27018^304024_4041_0__&jumpid=ex_R10931_go/3DPrinter)

</comment><comment><USER4> The video shows a functional crescent wrench. This is clearly HP's answer to Z Corp's popular video.

The video mentions a price of €12,500 ($16,500?), and it looks like 2 units - 1 to print items and 1 to clean off excess material added in the first step. The first is the size of a college fridge, the other is as big as a laser printer.

(Just guessing, sorry I can't read German)

<comment><USER5> I think the second step is to wash away filler material so that the you can make things with moving parts.

<comment><USER6> It looks like an ultrasound cleaner. The operator didn't add any water though.... but we don't get to see the back side of the machine. Oh well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I know 3D printing will change the world, except prototyping does anyone see any other use case?

<comment><USER8> Repair. Plastic bit broken on your car / appliance / device? Grab a model from the web and print a new one.

<comment><USER9> Exactly! The material need's to get better, but soon instead of having storages of spare parts we cab just keep a digital record, and print up whatever part you'd need. Soon we could have a small store that sells any car part ever made.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you hack body language? - <AUTHOR>

I have a unconfident walk. I have a good posture, etc but every moment that I walk I am uber self-conscious trying to control each and every movement of my body, and yet it doesn't just feel right.
I have tried to look at movies and imitate actors, and just read this story on HN which made me realize that I could use some more guidance in this sphere.
31. Act like you know what you're doing You can pretty much conquer the world with a confident walk, a well-thought-out outfit and confident demeanor. We teach people how to treat us and when you show people that you're a force to be reckoned with, they'll believe you.
Thanks. <comment><USER2> This isn't the kind of thing that can easily be communicated in text :-) you might find it worthwhile to join an improv group, where you can explore lots of different characters and get quick feedback on how well you embody them, but if something's not working then you can just drop it quickly and try a different character.

Self-consciousness is often the product of nerves. To help allay it, work at observing the people you meet - not to gauge their reaction to you, but to just understand them better. Give as much attention to the person who sells you coffee or whatever as to the person you want to invite on a date or sign a deal with.

Oh, and don't overlook the advice about the clothes. If you are wearing something that you know looks nice, then you'll get used to feeling comfortable when you dress.

</comment><comment><USER3> The only really good way to walk confidently is to feel confidence. In order to feel confident you have to be less self-conscious. The best way to do this is to focus your attention outside of yourself on your surroundings, other people, etc.

Where you look or focus conveys immense confidence. You can practice looking at people directly in the eyes as you walk up to them.

Confidence is relaxed and not self-conscious or tight. So if you must focus on yourself, I'd begin by focusing on breathing deeply and easily while walking. Try walking and moving your arms slower. Confident people seem to never hurry.

Confident walking is really tough thing to isolate outside of confidence in general.

</comment><comment><USER4> To improve your own body language, it's important to understand the body- language of others. Be 'tuned-in' so to speak.

For less than $10 you can get one of the (2) old-tyme books on the subject:

1\. "How to Read a Person like a Book" : [http://www.amazon.com/Read-Person- Like-Book-ebook/dp/product...](http://www.amazon.com/Read-Person-Like-Book- ebook/dp/product-description/B00408AIU0)

2\. "I Can Read you like a Book" : <http://www.amazon.com/Can-Read-You-Like- Book/dp/1564149412>

</comment><comment><USER5> I am female so not sure how well this would work for a man. FWIW:

I took gymnastics in my youth. I later read an article that described how runway models walk. Gymnasts and models both do the same thing:

Put one foot directly in front of the other (like walking on a balance beam) and when the left shoulder goes forward, the right hip should too and vice versa (right shoulder with left hip). This helps keep you stay balanced and it looks elegant.

There is a little more to it than that. That's the bits of I sometimes consciously think about if I want to really walk elegantly and confidently. I have reasonably good posture and balance and all that (edit: So I don't have to try too hard most of the time). Alternately, you could take martial arts for a while. Like gymnasts, martial artists have to keep their balance and learn to take a fall. These are actually related skills.

Best of luck.</comment>


The great nutrient collapse - <AUTHOR> https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511 <comment><USER2> This _is_ a good article: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15253127](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15253127)

<comment><USER3> Well, I missed this, and now that it's marked dupe, I'm sure even more people will miss it.

<comment><USER4> There will undoubtedly be more opportunities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a fascinating article in terms of the effect of CO2 on plants... but I have a tremendously hard time believing it's affected diets in the first world.

The level of carbs and nutrients in your diet would seem to determined by your dietary choices by an overwhelmingly larger degree. Are you eating french fries or kale?

Does it really matter if my zucchini is slightly less nutritious when I could just eat broccoli rabe instead? Or that my green beans have a trace of carbs when I'm eating a potato on the side? In supermarkets today we've never had greater choice or variety, especially in winter, at least if you're willing to pay for it -- but even in terms of paying for it, food today is the cheapest it's ever been.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd be interested in knowing how much the decrease in food nutrients can be offset by taking supplements.

</comment><comment><USER7> Per the article, increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere are causing plants to produce more sugars in favor of the (micro)nutrients they'd otherwise have, causing a relative drop in those nutrients. Okay. That makes sense. However, plants being living organisms, they can be rather complex things, and the change in CO2 concentration is not the only changed input to our food supply. There's has been selective breeding and other bio-engineering to select for traits like hardiness to pests, crop yield, appearance, etcetera. There's been changes to how crops are fertilized and harvested. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that any one of these could have interacted with the CO2 concentrations or any other factor to play with nutrient levels, or could be completely overshadowing CO2's effects.

I think this research is a good first step. What I think would be good to study next is to try to find how the CO2 levels can interact with other factors like the ones I listed above, as well as other ones agriculture researchers likely know about that I don't. Perhaps nothing will come of it. Perhaps something cool would come of it. Wouldn't it be awesome if researchers discovered a way to bioengineer food plants, such that by pulling extra CO2 out of the atmosphere, they grow in an extra-nutritious manner?

<comment><USER8> The article mentions goldenrod, a wildflower that humans don't cultivate. The effects are also apparent in them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> To the all people who are dismissing the important of the issues being presented in this article, I'd like to invite you to reconsider. I'm reading two main critiques here:

First, that breeding is more important than CO2. That's easy to address as it was discussed in the article. Researchers compared a weed that has had no human cultivation and also compared the genetics of samples from the 1850s, only to find that their protein concentration has declined by 33% since the industrial revolution. Additionally, the main scientist in the article published a meta study that had enough data to account for noise and it isolated CO2 as having an impact on our nutritional density.

Second, another prominent critique I'm reading here is that the conclusions are not important because other factors have so much more importance. I think this criticism is misguided and it's treating the problem as if this were big O or something. Like, "sure, this may be happening but then people could just eat spinach instead of broccoli, problem solved." There's so much that's wrong with this I don't even know where to start, actually.

</comment><comment><USER10> TL;DR; increased amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reduces amount of nutrients in most plants.

"... calcium, potassium, zinc and iron ... drop by 8 percent ..."

</comment><comment><USER11> This article seems like much Ado about nothing. My guess is that human selective breeding of plants has far more impact than the effect the article discusses.

<comment><USER3> How would selective breeding affect the relative concentration / dilution of nutrients due to increased CO2?

It seems to be that the CO2 issue directly affects the inputs, making one input far more abundant than it used to be. To the degree that plants were constrained by CO2 as input, it logically leads to dilution of nutrients - unless you specifically bred plants that grew slower and produced lower yields, which seems unlikely.

(The actual mechanism, around plant's self-regulating water management affecting how much it retains vs needs to take in via the ground, is unlikely to be bred for one way or another.)</comment></comment>


Workplace by Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://www.facebook.com/workplace <comment><USER2> My biggest concern about this is that, despite their assurances on the website for this specific product, Facebook is well known for collecting information about you in any way possible and then selling that information. Just for example, Facebook on Android will collect all the names and contact info from your contacts list and then create a shadow profile for your friends that _don 't have an account on Facebook_. That's just one example, and there are others. The only way I might consider using this product is if it were FOSS and I could host the product on my own equipment.</comment>


Harvard Does Not Discriminate Against Asian-Americans in Admissions, Judge Rules - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/harvard-admissions-lawsuit.html <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21129654](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21129654), except the ones that are about this specific article and headline.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow - I thought evidence was super clear that Harvard DID discriminate. If what Harvard was doing was not discrimination than a whole world opens up for this type of "non-discrimination" against minorities, Asians and others.

How in the world are other much more nebulous and tenuous cases being won and this one is not?

Crazy world.

<comment><USER4> The judge said they did it for "the right reasons" not that they didn't do it....

<comment><USER3> This is a direct quote from the headline:

"Harvard Admissions Process Does Not Discriminate Against Asian-Americans, Judge Rules"

I'm not sure what "the right reasons" are - my understanding was discrimination was prohibited based on race and ethnicity.

<comment><USER4> If you read the rest of the article it says while they did aggressively discriminate the judge ruled that as ok since they did it to create a more diverse campus.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love how the title and the first sentence of the article are completely at odds. The judge said that it was ok that Harvard discriminated not that they didn't do it.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, the WSJ article's headline seems more accurate

"Judge Determines Harvard's Race-Conscious Admissions Policy Is Constitutional (wsj.com)"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21129654](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21129654)

<comment><USER6> Also was the bus seating 50 years ago, as judges confirmed at that time :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > A federal judge on Tuesday rejected claims that Harvard had discriminated > against Asian-Americans in admissions, saying that the university had a > right to choose a diverse class.

There's a big difference between "does not" and "is allowed to".

EDIT: I was a bit curious so I took a look at the author of this article and her NYT bio says she graduated from Harvard: [https://www.nytimes.com/by/anemona- hartocollis](https://www.nytimes.com/by/anemona-hartocollis). Now it's generally editors, not the writers, that come up with the final title. But still that's one hell of a conflict of interest.

</comment><comment><USER8> "In her decision, Judge Burroughs gave an eloquent defense of the benefits of diversity, and said that while the time might come when it would be possible to look beyond race in college admissions, that time was not yet here."

This article seems pretty biased. Also it seems like the ruling will be appealed.

<comment><USER9> Value-judgement words like "eloquent" do not belong in a straight news article. Journalists used to know that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Judge Burroughs was appointed by Barack Obama. She finished Middlebury College. It is known to be very left: [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/middleb...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/middlebury- free-speech-violence/518667/). So let's not pretend this is about law or constitution. It's just politics and nothing more.

<comment><USER11> your assumptions show more evidence of bias than there is of this judge being biased

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Judge sided with the case against meritocracy.

</comment><comment><USER13> Unfortunately this is bigger than Harvard and the Asian American students are 'collateral damage'. Fundamentally, the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow permeates every facet of American life, education especially. You can't fix hundreds of years worth of discrimination without tipping the scales in a way that seems discriminatory to others, seems like the Judge in this case understands that.

<comment><USER6> You cannot fix history, no matter what you do, so there is nothing to understand. One cannot fix history by punishing people living in our times, it is not their crime to punish.

<comment><USER14> It's not a punishment to not get into Harvard. Most people don't get into Harvard.

<comment><USER6> That is a fine example of a straw man.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Who change this to a dishonest headline?</comment>


Interviewing candidates that don't know the answer - <AUTHOR> http://benjamindparrish.com/i-thought-it-was-a-simple-interview-question/ <comment><USER2> I don't know if something like this exists, but I think this should be named as some kind of "oral exam bias". Probably some of his candidates didn't know it better. But personally I think it's how you ask the questions. If you setup the stage, you are psychologically priming them with some concepts before, if you ask them now a simple question their answer is the first thing that comes to their mind. Like with this game: What's the color of the white house? White! What's the color of ...? White! What do cows drink? Milk! Hahaha. So many of the OP's candidates could have performed better in a realistic environment than with his "simple" questions, a computer doesn't ask you, even in 10 years experience. The experience only changes your intuition about the problems you could potentially run into if you want to approach the given problem. But storing numbers, is not a problem, it's a simple question. That's why you get simple answers. Give them work to do for a weekend, and pay them.

<comment><USER3> To me, it is purely a communication issue. If the candidate is giving the wrong sort of answer, either they don't know or they don't understand the question fully. If the candidate does not know, then it is an opportunity for the candidate to learn. If the candidate did not understand the question, it is an opportunity for the interviewer to learn...or to explain what they are looking for.

How the interviewer handles this situation probably says something about the company culture. If the candidate does not know the answer, there is an opportunity for the interviewer to channel Julia Evans talking about strace. If the candidate does not understand the gist of the question, then there is a need for the interviewer to provide clearer direction.

The article provides a list of causes for candidates' inability to satisfactorily answer the question. All of them are more complex than investigating the immediate context of the interview and none of them require self-reflection by the interviewer

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So when someone says:

"Iterate through the list and check to see if it already exists."

What happens if you reply:

"You have a million items. You write the quick solution and find it goes very slowly. What would you do to speed it up?"

I suspect the rate of people who can give a decent optimization answer goes up massively if you make it clear that you're looking for something like the optimal answer, not the conceptually simple one. It doesn't matter if I use linear search if my N is some trivial number like 17, which is what I suspect most candidates have in mind.

(Of course, there's a certain perspective from which anybody who needs this kind of coaxing is a no-hire anyway.)

<comment><USER2> Yes, I agree. If the problem is not setup correctly, why should it be a no- hire?</comment></comment>


How not to handle support as a hosting company - <AUTHOR> http://chillyorange.com/hosting-horror-stories-stay-clear-vps9/

<comment><USER2> At the end of day one, possibly day two, of the site being down and losing money, I would have already transferred services and moved on.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, in hindsight I should have done just that. However at that point I was still hopeful and positive that VPS9 support would step up (since they've been helpful in the past with smaller issues).</comment></comment>


Could be the end of real estate buyers agents - <AUTHOR> https://notorious-rob.com/2019/03/gotterdammerung-a-very-serious-legal-threat/ <comment><USER2> Buyers agents get paid more if the home sells for more. They should be incented to drive the price down for the buyers, not up.

Even so, it's really better for any agent to accept the first reasonable offer, close it out and as quickly as possible move on to the next house. They are not incented to drag the sale on to get a better deal for the party they represent.

<comment><USER3> The real incentive is the latter one you mentioned. Buyers aren't going to care about driving the price up to get a bigger commission. The potential hit to their reputation probably wouldn't be worth it.

But they definitely are incentivized to get a sale done asap.

This is the same reason your selling agent isn't really incentivized to get you the highest price possible. The small increase in fees isn't worth forgoing the money that could be in your pocket now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Restricting home sales listings to realtors is anti-competitive behavior. They have gotten away with it because they are politically powerful.

However, fashions change and it does seem that high home prices have become a real issue today.

<comment><USER3> Listing a hike isn't restricted though. You can still list online at places like Zillow and Craigslist. Signage as well. You are just restricted from their private MLS.

Of course even then, there are online brokers that will list you in the MLS for a flat fee. I think I paid $250 to put my house on the MLS when I sold without an agent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just as egregious, many contracts require the agent to be the member of a realtor organization to get the commission, and if not, both commissions are required to go to the seller agent.

So if you utilize nobody, or a skilled acquaintance, you can find that the seller is legally prohibited from paying the commission (that I agree is just as insidious).

<comment><USER6> That seems like something you may have a decent chance or redlining, particularly if it is a competitive offer, no?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yeah it always seemed odd to me that we have to pay the "buyers" commission when we are selling "our" home... crazy

</comment><comment><USER8> Don't these cases come up all the time and nothing ever comes from it?

Also, it's hard to see sellers as getting ripped off when the buyers agent fee is factored into the price. If there was no fee included you would expect to see a drop in price, and this is what happens when a buyer purchases a home without an agent.

<comment><USER9> Most contracts state that if there's no buyer's agent, then the seller's agent gets all the commission. So, no discount.

<comment><USER3> But is that a requirement? Or can I negotiate that with my agent before I sign on?

<comment><USER9> In some states, a buyer must be represented by a Realtor. If the buyer has no representation, then generally what happens is that the seller's Realtor nominally represents the buyer as well (dual agency). If you were to try to negotiate to not pay the commission, then your Realtor would probably refuse to represent the buyer, and they might not be able to close.

<comment><USER10> The requirement is almost certainly for a real estate agent licensed by the state, not a Realtor®, which is a registered trademark of a particular trade association for it's members.

<comment><USER9> Yes, you are absolutely right, and I'm aware of the trademarking of the Realtor name - that's an interesting story in its own right, and a very interesting approach to regulatory capture. I was just looking for statistics to find out how many people are licensed real estate professionals but not Realtors, but I couldn't find the number -- I'm betting not many. Since we are picking nits -- many states have a different licenses -- agents vs. brokers -- but both can be Realtors. Here's a good link for people who aren't in the know: [https://www.frameworkhomeownership.org/blog/broker-vs- agent?...](https://www.frameworkhomeownership.org/blog/broker-vs- agent?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjpjkBRDRARIsAKv-0O2Lktssz673mf-15maXupZ11vSLyRybkvYqgyEyD0rbuMH7VzGrv0IaAqVQEALw_wcB)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Cant you just use one of those services that'll sell your home for a flat fee? then you don't need to pay the buyers agent, right?

<comment><USER9> In those services, you often end up paying most of the money you pay to the buyer's agent. Otherwise, the house won't get listed in MLS, and nobody will see it.

<comment><USER3> You can list on Zillow or Craigslist, maybe redfin, etc. I paid a $250 flat fee to list my fsbo on the MLS. I advertised that I would work with buying agents because I heard that agents will tend to not tell their clients about your house since they may not get a commission.

I ended up selling to a buyer without an agent who saw the sign. But my understanding was that if a buyer approached me I could have told them no commission and they could have proceeded as they wish.

<comment><USER9> That's definitely true. The question to ask (and I mean quantitatively, not rhetorically -- economists can gather data on this) is whether paying a Realtor 6% nets you more profit on the sale, e.g. whether a house listed on MLS and marketed well sells for 6% more (or sells significantly faster, such that the cost of capital nets you some gain). I expect that it depends heavily on the local market dynamics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Would be really good for RedFin if this succeeds.</comment>


Internet Archive responds to publishers' lawsuit - <AUTHOR> https://blog.archive.org/2020/07/29/internet-archive-responds-to-publishers-lawsuit/ <comment><USER2> I am an author, and several of my books were published by one of the publishers who is a party to the suit.

Unlike these publishers, however, I support Controlled Digital Lending. I think it's closely analogous to print lending in every way that matters. It strikes the right balance between respecting the first-sale doctrine and respecting authors' copyrights. It allows lending of creative works to proceed into the 21st century under essentially the same terms that it existed prior to the digital age.

To the extent that the publishers are arguing against the legality of CDL, I disagree with them. I hope the courts recognize it is already legal, or even better, I hope Congress explicitly declares it legal.

Yet I think it's worth emphasizing that the Internet Archive engaged in uncontrolled digital lending through their national emergency program. By being willing to lend out more copies than they owned, they were clearly engaging in copyright infringement, and I found their justification for it wholly unconvincing.

So, while I support IA insofar as it engages in Controlled Digital Lending, I oppose IA's shift toward Uncontrolled Digital Lending, and their willingness to do so, under flimsy justification, makes me concerned that they cannot be trusted to handle even CDL responsibly.

<comment><USER3> While IA has temporarily lifted the restriction on number of copies (but not others like lending time), the complaint also goes against CDL in general, making it very dangerous. See for e.g. paragraph 8 and 10.

"IA's self-serving assertion and promotion of "Controlled Digital Lending" as both an actual legal doctrine and a justification for its infringement affronts the most basic realities of the law and the markets it propels. As a matter of markets, IA's one-to-one conflation of print and ebooks is fundamentally flawed. Digital books are inherently different from physical books. They can fly around the world in a second; they do not degrade over time as physical books do; and they require devices to read them."

[https://publishers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Filed- Comp...](https://publishers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Filed- Complaint.pdf)

<comment><USER4> _they do not degrade over time as physical books do_

It's worth pointing out that libraries will rebind a physical book if it starts falling apart. It's weird to argue that publishers' rights should last the full term of copyright, but readers' rights only last until a book wears out.

<comment><USER5> Why is that weird? Copyright law for centuries has provided that the copyright owner's rights last the full term of the copyright. (The copyright owner may be the publisher _or the author._ )

A reader's right to a physical copy only lasts as long as the physical copy. If they want to extend the term of that right, they should take better care of their physical copy.

<comment><USER4> Modern copyright law in most places allows the creation of a backup copy of digital media to prevent loss due to wear.

<comment><USER5> That is actually not true in the US. The exceptions for making backup copies are limited to software (17 U.S.C. § 117(a)), and to libraries (17 U.S.C. § 108).

<comment><USER6> The market of effect of copies for personal use is insignificant and my understanding is that they are generally exempt as fair use.

<comment><USER5> In the US at least, fair use does not include a right to make personal backup copy. If you wish to extend your use of the item containing some IP, your options are basically to just take better care of the physical item.

However, it's simply not worth it for a copyright owner to go after someone making a backup copy for personal use since the statutory damages are only $750 (per act of infringement), and don't include legal fees. (Contrast to the infamous Napster/Limewire cases: each peer connection in P2P sharing constitutes a separate act of infringement if you share to them, which is what made it potentially lucrative for some law firms to attempt to shakedown users of those programs.)

This is an intended effect of setting the statutory amount at $750: it's too low to make it economical for copyright owners to go after isolated cases without market effect, but at the same time quickly makes it very expensive for infringers to commit multiple acts of infringement.

<comment><USER6> I'm not saying Congress has passed a law explicitly making personal copies legal, but it does appear courts (in the US) do consider market effect when determining fair use.

This isn't exactly the same as personal use but it's pretty relevant: [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/appeals-court- ru...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/appeals-court-rules-that- google-book-scanning-is-fair-use/)

> "While Google makes an unauthorized digital copy of the entire book, it does > not reveal that digital copy to the public," the opinion states.

Also, Pamela Samuelson, a professor at University of California at Berkeley has stated: "Personal-use copying should be deemed to be fair, unless there is a demonstrable showing of harm to the market for the copyright at work"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Does anyone have a _legal_ theory under which IA can potentially defend itself here? I am no legal expert, but I just can't fathom an avenue where they win this case. The merits of copyright law can be debated, but given that the law exists, what legal framework can IA use to fight this, or is their losing the case a forgone conclusion?

<comment><USER8> I haven't heard of anyone suggesting any legal strategy by which they can win.

I've really been scratching my head trying to figure out what their overall strategy with this has been.

<comment><USER9> > I've really been scratching my head trying to figure out what their overall > strategy with this has been.

They're doing what's right, with - it appears - insufficient concern for pragmatism.

<comment><USER10> > They're doing what's right

Stealing from artists and authors is right? Just because a company you admire does something wrong doesn't mean you need to resort to a fanboyish defense.

More than 90% of libraries already have digital lending programs that they established legally following all the rules.

IA completely disregarded these processes not to mention publishers and authors rights - they just opted to distribut pirated copies of works.

<comment><USER11> Thoughts cannot be stolen, nor can words on a page, nor can bits and bytes. For something to be stolen, the _single instance_ of that object must be _transferred_ from one entity to another. In this scenario, the existing book was _copied_ from one entity to another. You may _believe_ the Internet Archive was committing an act of theft, but your notions of what theft is are based on an obsolete idea of what property can be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The problem is that the Internet Archive demonstrated that controlled digital lending can allow a library to become indistinguishable from Pirate Bay overnight.

They blew up an uneasy peace and cannot exactly be trusted to adhere to the practice without changing it as they decide.

<comment><USER13> The problem is information wants to be read and be free. Copyright is a wall around information that has already been thought of and recorded.

Pirate Bay is exactly like a local libruary which is like a book store. The only difference is physical books vs digital, if you have to give it back and when and the cost.

Book stores will let you violate the publishers copyright as long as you don't leave the store. Want to read that entire book, sit on a chair and read.

A libruary will let you read at the place or at home but you have to bring it back in a week.

Piratebay lets you read it forever but it's a digital copy.

All scenerios you can read without paying.

<comment><USER14> _The problem is information wants to be read and be free._

It doesn't necessarily want to be written, though. That's the part people who make this argument always seem to forget.

Whether it's through our existing copyright-supported frameworks or some other mechanism, there needs to be enough in it for authors (and editors and cover illustrators and printers and online distribution services and...) to be worth producing the work in the first place.

<comment><USER15> There was a time before copyright existed, and we got pretty nice books from it. And now that I'm thinking on it, considering how the internet of today looks, with people creating content to earn money versus the internet of 20 years ago, with people creating content for the love of it, I think I would like a future where books are written for passion instead of for money. Less books, more quality.

<comment><USER5> Yes, and all of those works that you're thinking of were written either by individuals from wealthy families (today we would call them trust fund babies), royalty, clergyman, or artists funded by patrons from one of the first 3 groups.

I disagree about the "less books, more quality" argument. Today, we have more books, more quality. Sure, there are lots of bad books today, but the volume of high-quality works today so far exceeds the volume of _any_ books (good or bad) produced during the patronage era that it's like comparing a nuclear bomb to a match.

<comment><USER9> > individuals from wealthy families (today we would call them trust fund > babies), royalty, clergyman,

None of whom got their money from exorting readers of their books.

What you have there is a argument for basic income, not a argument for copyright.

<comment><USER5> Crucially, other than the artists receiving patronage, none of them were paid for writing their books at all.

History is filled with many authors who died young and penniless because they could not survive on their writing during their lifetimes. And that's exactly the system you're arguing for.

<comment><USER9> History is filled with many people, authors and otherwise, who died young and penniless because they could not survive on the fraction of the value of their work that was economically capturable by them personally.

> And [authors dying young and penniless]'s exactly the system you're arguing > for.

Bullshit. Your system is the one that produces that (see also fanfiction authors, who I'm sure aren't true Scotsmen to you). As I said:

> > What you have there is a argument for basic income, not a argument for > copyright.

<comment><USER5> _Bullshit. Your system is the one that produces that (see also fanfiction authors, who I 'm sure aren't true Scotsmen to you). As I said:_

My system is the system that has enabled hundreds of thousands of artists and other creators to survive _on their own_ without needing publishers or other entities to sell their work for them and pay them a pittance.

Basic income is a separate discussion. It would mean that artists wouldn't die, but it would also mean that corporations would get to exploit artists worse than they ever have before.

You really need to think of the _consequences_ of your suggestions before you suggest altering other people's livelihoods for your own momentary convenience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If IA survives this lawsuit, donors who support _web archive_ preservation may prefer not to have the largest web archive being placed at legal risk by experimental _library_ policy.

For this reason, the web archive should be legally firewalled from any library operations, i.e. Archive.org can be separated into two organizations with separate fundraising.

</comment><comment><USER17> I found their library to be very handy when my step-son forgot a book he needed for a high-school English class at his Dads. We tried to navigate Amazon to buy it but his account wasn't able to make purchase and then I found it available on here and we could check out a copy of it and he got his school work done. This was before they removed check out restrictions for the pandemic. There are lots of students who don't have credit cards or whose parents can't afford to buy ebooks or risk connecting their cards to their kids accounts where it could result in unplanned purchases. I honestly don't think authors will lose much money from people checking out books. Those who can and do pay for ebooks are unlikely to quit purchasing them but there are a lot of people without kindles & credit cards where something like this might be their only way to access the book.

<comment><USER18> Amazon has a thing called Amazon Household. Your solution would have been to create a 'teen' login for them and buy the books they wanted on your adult account, which they would then have access to via Kindle.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GXULX24SE2RD7EXS)

> Adults can share digital content (eBooks, apps, and games) with children.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> > This is how Internet Archive's lending library works, and has for more than > nine years.

Wow. And why do you think noone sued for nine years?? Maybe because as long as the IA behaved like that it was legal but they changed how they work because of COVID and became a pirate site overnight. They basically said "we do not know how many physical copies are languishing in closed libraries so we will just pretend there are infinite copies". That is of course nonsense.

</comment><comment><USER20> This response confuses me a little bit. Although in their response the Internet Archive refers to the lawsuit attempting to stop controlled digital lending, I believe the lawsuit instead is looking at uncontrolled digital lending (the Emergency Library from IA) [1].

If there hasn't been scope creep on this lawsuit I feel this is a disengenous representation of the publishers argument. The publisher's argument was specifically that the form of IA's CDL (basically uncontrolled digital lending) is against copyright, an argument I personally agree with (in the legal sense).

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23379775](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23379775)

<comment><USER5> Generally when a party deliberately misrepresents an opponent's position like this, it's because their own position is legally fucked and they're trying to move the goalposts so that they have a chance. Alternatively, they've already assessed their chances at zero and are trying to lay the groundwork for an appeal.

Reading through their response (the actual filing, not their press release about it), it appears that the IA has admitted to a number of claims [1] that would constitute copyright infringement, so it appears they're hoping either for a miracle or to take this to a higher court and try to get some sort of ruling that would dramatically alter copyright law in their favor. Neither is very likely to happen.

[1] For example, they admit that their own founder and executive director stated that the IA didn't seek consent (i.e., a license) from IP owners prior to launching the uncontrolled lending program that is the National Emergency Library. With that admission alone, the judge could grant summary judgment for the publishers on at least a few claims prior to reaching the discovery stage.

<comment><USER21> > the IA has admitted to a number of claims [1] that would constitute > copyright infringement, so it appears they're hoping either for a miracle or > to take this to a higher court and try to get some sort of ruling that would > dramatically alter copyright law in their favor. Neither is very likely to > happen

When they made the announcement I was very curious as to how they thought it would be legal or how they thought they would get away with it if it was not.

I'm quite surprised that they simply didn't have any realistic plan for this outcome.

It's a shame, because I think their core cause is a good one, and now they're likely facing a mortal blow for something transiently related.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> While I understand why authors may not like the IA's emergency program, I find the language to describe it confusing. A number of comments here use the term "uncontrolled digital lending", and it took me a bit of reading to discover that the files still had DRM and would "expire" after a set time. The phrase paints a picture of the IA sending unprotected PDFs to anyone and everyone. I think it is confusing at best.

Authors, I don't think the confusion does you any favors. I was more sympathetic to your concerns before I read your comments.

<comment><USER10> They distributed an unlimited number of copies - not backed by anything physical. That being the case, there is effectively no time limit on how long you can borrow something (you can just re-check it out).

That is just straight up piracy. They lent copies they did not own.

They tried to justify it by saying libraries were closed but they ignored the fact that more than 90% of libraries already have digital lending programs that went through the due processes and are legal.

<comment><USER23> > They distributed an unlimited number of copies - not backed by anything > physical.

So like money?

<comment><USER10> The supply of money is definitely not unlimited... if it is I'd like a few million dollars please.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > These publishers call for the destruction of the 1.5 million digital books > that Internet Archive makes available to our patrons. This form of digital > book burning is unprecedented and unfairly disadvantages people with print > disabilities.

Book burning? It is not a politically motivated campaign to destroy books, or a witch hunt to root out deviant social or religious teachings. It's a dispute over copyright law. I believe that Ray Bradbury, were he alive today, would have likely come out against this characterization. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), which Bradbury was long associated with, has been critical of the IA's actions from the beginning ([https://www.sfwa.org/2020/04/08/infringement-alert- national-...](https://www.sfwa.org/2020/04/08/infringement-alert-national- emergency-library/)).

In addition, I thought the justification for expanding controlled digital lending was around COVID-19, not rights for people who have low vision. Was this issue a central part of the the IA's reasoning before the lawsuit?

<comment><USER25> > It is not a politically motivated campaign to destroy books

You don't consider a legal dispute over copyright to be political?

<comment><USER26> It's political but it's not capital-P political.

Politics is a sufficiently broad idea that virtually all the machinery of society would qualify, but what's being spoken about here is the kind of politics that has to do with propaganda and information control. And indeed, this is not that.

There are many different usages of the word. The one in legal theory that, for example, is used by courts to exclude cases of a "political" nature is of course different from the one used in academia or else all cases would be forbidden!

<comment><USER25> I think copyright is about information control.

I'm not trying to be pedantic, I just don't think there's much difference between "Politics" and politics, and filing a lawsuit is a clearly political act. Politicians write laws so that they can be used in court. Even more straightforward-seeming court cases, like murder trials, are political in that the government can't apply every law to every person all the time, so it has to make political decisions about what laws and what people to focus on.

In this case, a large organization is asking the court to interpret a law that effects a huge portion of American society and determines when and how information can be spread. In the US, the court's interpretation of a law is as important if not more important than the legislative process that created the law.

<comment><USER26> I really can't see a resemblance here with the kind of nefarious machinations with an agenda that are being referenced.

Copyright doesn't really control or distort the flow of media or ideas in a way that favors any particular politics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> " _The publishers' lawsuit does not stop at seeking to end the practice of Controlled Digital Lending. These publishers call for the destruction of the 1.5 million digital books that Internet Archive makes available to our patrons._ "

If nothing else, that should prevent anyone from supporting the publishers.

</comment><comment><USER28> What IA did was counterproductive to the concept of CDL. I think most people agree on that. But what I find disheartening if that the majority voice is that what needs protecting more is not people's access to the information but publisher's ability to profit off of it. On the one hand this is a very HN response so I shouldn't be surprised. On the other I simply find it sad.

<comment><USER29> Would it be nice if we did away with book scarcity and paid all authors exclusively through Patreon? Sure, that'd be great, but we can't force authors into that scheme against their will.

Peoples' access to that information was and is not in danger. If you can't afford a book you can take the tiny legal risk of pirating it yourself. Lending books is cute and handy but the important part of the IA is, well, the archive of the internet. People are upset because they put the archive in existential danger by pulling an incredibly stupid bit of legal activism. It's like protesting the illegality of raw milk by feeding it to your immunocompromised child.

<comment><USER30> > Sure, that'd be great, but we can't force authors into that scheme against > their will.

We certainly can't force authors to continue publishing, but we wouldn't be forcing them into anything by revoking some or all of the _privilege_ referred to as copyright. That would simply be a long-overdue recognition that we no longer consider this experiment in social engineering to be in the best interest of society.

<comment><USER31> Getting rid of copyright for content may lead to extensive DRM for books; I'm not sure whether you're in favor or against, but HN seems to hate DRM.

<comment><USER30> I certainly don't care for DRM, but I recognize publishers' right to use it—so long as it isn't backed up by force of law. We can't force anyone to make content available in any particular format, after all. However, most of the effectiveness of DRM (such as it is, which isn't much) comes from the fact that you can't legally talk about how to circumvent it or distribute tools for doing so. Obviously _that_ needs to go; it's an even more blatant violation of freedom of speech than copyright itself.

From a purely technical perspective DRM on books is particularly futile. If the page is visible to a human reader then it can be imaged (perhaps with an external camera) and OCR'd at least as easily as scanning a physical book. DRM for audio files is in a similar position—not quite lossless, but very close. With video there is a bit of quality loss from the capture and re-encoding process, but nothing too serious. It's a bit more effective with interactive content such as games but still far from unassailable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Have they been sued over digital lending in general or because they lent out more digital copies then they owned physically?

Either way, I think that there is no legal "digital lending". What makes people buy things is that they can not get them for free easily. Copyright is there to benefit the author. It puts a certain burdon on the consumer: They have to buy a copy. Or - if they want to breach the law - they have to find someone who illegally makes a copy for them.

"Digital lending" would allow the 3rd party to legally make a copy to the consumer. Because bits are not lended. They are copied. That is not how copyright sets the balance between author and consumer.

I would be surprised if the IA wins this.

<comment><USER2> Hi, I'm an author, so I have a vested interest in copyright being respected.

Are you familiar with the first-sale doctrine?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First- sale_doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine)

It basically says that once a person buys a creative work, they can do whatever they want with it, including selling it or lending it.

Controlled Digital Lending is a system that basically says, "Let's make the first-sale doctrine for digital books work the same as it does for physical books."

So, a library purchases a digital copy of a work. Then it lends out that copy, and until that copy is returned, it does not lend out any other copies of the work (even though it is technically possible to do so).

Note that while the library patron gets to borrow and read the work for free, the library has already paid for the work, so it is not as if this erodes copyright any more than it does for print books.

<comment><USER7> > So, a library purchases a digital copy of a work. Then it lends out that > copy, and until that copy is returned, it does not lend out any other copies > of the work (even though it is technically possible to do so).

The issue is that IA decided to forgo the rule that they won't lend out copies of the book until it gets returned and instead decided to lend out as many copies as they wanted at a time.

<comment><USER2> Yes, I agree with you, and I think IA's uncontrolled digital lending was a gross violation of copyright.

I was just explaining the Controlled Digital Lending system because the person to whom I was responding was saying that all forms of digital lending were problematic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I get a bit of a Zhou Enlai "it is to early to say" vibe on this (btw he was actually responding to a different question probably and not the 'what do you think about the french revolution' question but anyway)

The sense of it for me is that the fight is really important and I'm glad they are having the fight, sad-but-glad. But, I suspect they are going to be celebrated for a victory MANY YEARS YET TO COME and in the meantime take heinous pain on this one, and functionally lose the battle and the war maybe.

Sometimes, the ones who lose the war have history on their side. Germany won in 1871. The reparations they screwed out of france cause massive economic pain when they ran through the economy, and at root laid the seeds of WWI. Did Germany really "win" ?

Publishers have the shitty IPR laws on their side. They will probably win. But in destroying the Internet Archive, (god forbid) they will cause us, consumers to visit the "you don't really miss what you've got 'till its gone" and question the whole deal over Kindle IPR, the book to rent, the disappearing books, the books never uplifted, the geo-locked books...

</comment><comment><USER34> Many years ago,when I was a teenager with no money to buy all the nice magazines I wanted, I came with an idea. I thought how nice it'd be to buy up all the issues of all the magazines, upload online and then charge a small few to read them. Then I started thinking of the logistics of such thing, including how would the publishers react.I came to a conclusion that any attempt of this sort would be crushed by the publishers...

<comment> 52-6F-62 I mean, if you were just stealing content from actively-running magazines then yeah.

But if you pitched the idea to publishers with a cut-in then it may have sold.

Archival efforts are a _huge_ lift—especially from print to digital. But current issues have operated that way on several platforms over time.

Ultimately Apple bought up the last major effort in that space (Next Issue/Texture) and merged/turned it into Apple News+.

There are others, like Pressreader, though: [https://www.pressreader.com](https://www.pressreader.com) (edit: changed to plain url)

One of the magazines I work for took it upon themselves to render an archive of their print and digital issues dating back to the early 1900s. I think they plan to charge a fee at some point to access them, but they are currently available for free:

[https://archive.macleans.ca/issues](https://archive.macleans.ca/issues) ("Browse All Issues" to see the range of decades available)

It was a very large undertaking—so based on the knowledge of that experience [in which I was not involved], there is probably a business in building a collective, or at least brand-specific, archive for magazines. I'm sure some businesses exist in that space already—but something more user-friendly and centralized access would probably have its base.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> While digital lending is a great idea and has many justifications, the legal risks are clear.

What is most troublesome is that no one at IA took appropriate action and implemented a corporate separation so that the digital lending enterprise was legally & financially firewalled from The Internet Archive's core mission. (That is exactly what the corporate structures are for.)

Thus, the entire IA mission is now at risk due to this high-risk activity without protection.

I hope they can get it sorted

If they don't, who will back up the Internet Archive?

</comment><comment><USER36> If books were invented today how would publishing work?

</comment><comment><USER37> Okay, so what? It will just land on a TOR node connected to IPFS.

<comment><USER38> What fraction people in the world have ANY IDEA what that sentence means? And how does that square with the Internet Archive's mission?

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> We all know how powerful capitalism is, but our culture still doesn't grasp its bounds. I think this is most true with knowledge systems: journalism, library-lending, education.

I'm not sure what the best system structure is for these areas, but I'm confident that in these cases, profit-seeking feedback mechanisms don't align with society's goals.

The goals (in my opinion) should be heightened knowledge integrity, increased accessibility, resilient persistence, and ease of applicability. So – with these goals in mind, what is the right system structure for library lending in the digital age? For journalism? For education?

I'm sincerely unsure and super curious.

<comment><USER40> Capitalism is not the issue here. Copyright Regulations are market shifting regulations that means normal market feedbacks do not exist given we as a society through our laws grant a monopoly to the creator in ways not seen in other markets

This artificial scarcity is what causes the appearance that "capitalism fails" for knowledge systems when in reality it government regulations that are the source of the failure.

The continued extension of copyright over the years has increased this failure and created a huge whole in public domain.

Copyright law is now an enemy of knowledge expatiation which is contrary to its stated goal

<comment><USER41> How do you propose to adjust capitalism's core reliance on scarcity and supply and demand (supply of a digital good is infinite!)

I have never seen any serious proposals, hence we're trying to uphold capitalistic structures by enforcing artificial scarcity, to build a marketplace where capitalism's assumptions hold. I don't think you can tear down copyright and artificial scarcity without tearing down capitalism.

<comment><USER40> I dont think you can eliminate the artificial scarcity, but I do support returning to the Orginal Copyright terms of the US

14 Years to the content creator, and 1 extension that has to be applied for by the creator personally (not a business, not an estate)

For Corporations the copyright term is 14 years, for an individual creator it would be at most 28 years.

none of this 100 years+ copyright monopoly we see today under current law</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: PasteQL – Easily turn raw data files into charts and reports - <AUTHOR> https://www.pasteql.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I came up with the idea while through some of the frustrations that I ran into during my day job. A common use-case that I go through on almost a daily basis is:

1) Collect a bunch of excel and csv files from different sources / people

2) Merge those files into a single excel file so that I can join the data to make something useful

3) Create pivot tables and graphs using that data

4) Copy paste those figures into a word doc

5) Email it out to a bunch of people

Sometimes, if Step #2 is really complicated, I end up writing a quick python script to upload all of those into a temporary MySQL database, do the query, and then export as a csv file, GOTO #3.

This also becomes more annoying when I have to make some changes to the data, which now requires me to repeat the whole process again. PasteQL is the first stab at making this a little bit more sane.

PasteQL is a side project that I just finished, please let me know what you think. Also: this is the first side project that I've ever launched, so I'm a little lost as to how to solicit feedback and actually market it, so if you have any tips/advice, I'd love to hear!

<comment><USER2> I'll definitely be using this as well, and I know a small group of people that might do the same. Nice of you to share it, thank you!</comment></comment>


Download All Fonts on DaFont.com - <AUTHOR> http://yellowrubberball.com/2011/07/dafont/ I wrote a script to download all the fonts on DaFont.com. I plan to also write an applescript to install all the fonts automatically, soon. Hope this helps someone! (: <comment><USER2> Awesome stuff. I linked to a Python version of the same thing on the blog. Somehow, I don't think the DaFont.com admins would be very happy with this stuff floating around xD

<comment><AUTHOR> Very cool - ah, didn't realize my script only scraped the first page, thanks for the catch!

<comment><AUTHOR> Okay, I've updated my script to catch all of them: <http://yellowrubberball.com/2011/07/dafont/>.

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha, there's so many of them that neither Transmit nor Finder display them all! ls displays them all after it thinks a bit (:</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A reminder that uploading config files to public websites is dumb - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/ubers-epic-db-blunder-is-hardly-an-exception-github-is-awash-in-passwords/

<comment><AUTHOR> Note that this is not just a matter of "don't upload your production credentials to GitHub." Don't upload your personal or test ones either, because there's a good chance that they're correlated, or that you'll make a mistake. And there's a good chance some of this information will sneak into your config files. Just don't do it.</comment>


Ask HN: possible to get job in Melbourne, AU? - <AUTHOR>

I am looking to relocate, at least temporarily, to Australia be closer to my sister and her family outside of Melbourne. Are there job boards, or startup related forums I could check out to get a feel for what sort of work is available? <comment><USER2> It's a little more Sydney-centric but <http://siliconbeachaustralia.org> is a start-up social group.

<http://supercoders.com.au> is a Melbourne developer-focused job site.

<http://whirlpool.net.au/jobs/> is a decent IT-only job site.

For general career sites, have a look at <http://seek.com.au>, <http://careerone.com.au> and <http://mycareer.com.au></comment>


Incarcerated for Writing Science Fiction - <AUTHOR> http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/30/1326004/-Incarcerated-For-Writing-Science-Fiction#

<comment><USER2> This article is second-degree blogspam - it quotes this article:

[http://reason.com/blog/2014/08/29/teachers-fiction-novel- pro...](http://reason.com/blog/2014/08/29/teachers-fiction-novel-produces- most-ins)

...which is pretty much based on this article from a local news source:

[http://www.wboc.com/story/26367051/cambridge-maces-lane- midd...](http://www.wboc.com/story/26367051/cambridge-maces-lane-middle- school-teacher-on-administrative-leave)

Also, while this teacher's rights were apparently grossly violated by the police, he wasn't "incarcerated" (put in prison). A follow-up article at reason.com says that "none of the local reporting on this story suggests that he is actually under arrest".[1]

I hope he gets a good lawyer and sues for damages.

[1] [http://reason.com/blog/2014/08/29/update-officials-still- sil...](http://reason.com/blog/2014/08/29/update-officials-still-silent-about- mand)</comment>