That's a nice little $1-2M SaaS company you have here. Will it scale? - <AUTHOR> http://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2016/02/thats-nice-little-1-2m-saas-company-you.html <comment><USER2> Initial traction is about more than just a tidy number like $1M+ ARR. Your growth rate also needs to surpass a certain hurdle rate. At a minimum, this may be six percent a month (2x annual growth), but ideally it's more like ten to fifteen percent a month (3-5x annual growth). You also have to acquiring the majority of your customers through a zero-cost marketing channel or else it's too expensive to scale.

However, if you can get to $1M+ ARR fast enough and cheap enough, you probably have an interesting opportunity to scale.

<comment><USER2> Autocomplete correction: You also have to _acquire_...</comment></comment>


How Twilio Might Raise their 50M Series D - <AUTHOR> http://thepbxblog.com/2013/05/20/how-twilio-might-raise-their-50m-series-d-round/

<comment><USER2> Is Twilio profitable?

<comment><USER3> Probably not. There's a lot of competition (Plivo, Tropo, etc) in this space now, so they have to keep their rates low.

<comment><USER4> Can you please give me a brief reason as to why not? I have no clue as to what might be expensive for them and so forth. I know what they do and how their service works, though. As a developer, I mean.

<comment><USER3> This is complete speculation by me, so take this with a grain of salt. Their product has essentially been commoditized - there are so many companies offering telephony APIs that they _probably_ cannot charge prices that are high enough to offset the costs of paying ~100 developer salaries.

Companies with similar products:

\- Tropo

\- TelAPI

\- CallFire

\- SendFlow

\- Holio

\- Many more (see: <http://www.quora.com/Who-are-Twilios-competitors>)

If you look at the pricing of all these offerings, you will immediately notice that they all are pretty much the same. What this tells me is that there is enough competition in this space that the margins are likely very low.

Edit: fixed a typo (CalFire -> CallFire)

<comment><USER2> That's a good point. They seem to be making the same thing. Didn't really see much difference in the offerings. Though Twilio seems to have a better brand. How much have they raised over time?

<comment><AUTHOR> 33.5M so far.

Twilio has the best documentation of any Communications API vendor, but their issue when working with large operators is their inability to work inside the corporate firewall. They're on AWS with a lot of servers and it is not a part of their strategy to build a new infrastructure inside of someone else's firewall. Voxeo does build inside the firewall, but they're a lot harder to understand.

There's a lot of confusion about who does what in our industry, even Twilio is what I'd describe as an access-innovator.

In Telecom the change that's happening right now is the exposure of underlying communications services. Companies like Twilio are taking services like calls, SMS and Video connections and creating APIs to consume these services. Right now, there's no easy way to do these things programmatically.

Companies like 2600hz, where I work, take a different approach where we're actually working on the underlying infrastructure (not so much on the API). In this respect a company like Voxeo is much more competitive to Twilio.

Callfire is a call-application service and not really competitive to a Twilio or a Plivo.

So yeah, lots of stuff going on, very complicated. Most folks are working on the access layers or applications and not the underlying infrastructure.

<comment><USER2> 85.5 million in funding if this round is to be closed. Chump change to what they are working on cracking open. Like you said, the work they are doing is more on the industry than anything else. Who knows where they might pivot to once telecoms open up a bit more.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting point: what is Twilio's addressable market in your opinion?

<comment><USER2> I don't know the market that well, aside from doing some analysis on some of the telco securities (for my own use). Though they seem to be building themselves to be a next-gen telco.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's what I thought at first, but they're not. Next-gen telco has a lot more hardcore infrastructure; Twilio is building next-gen DEVELOPER infrastructure, which is a huge addressable market but < than all of Telco.

So how big is their market? Certainly >$1B but <$10B in the next 3 years. After 3 years though it could start to eclipse the greater telco ecosystem.

It's tough; I'd say there's some potential for them to build next-gen Telco, but I think they're more concerned with Next-Gen APIs than core infrastructure. My $.02.

<comment><USER2> Yes, exactly. A next gen telco will simply use the infrastructure that is already there. No need to re-invent the wheel. It is paid off and profitable. All the next-gen telco needs to do is simply open it through APIs. That would allow them to circumvent a lot of the issues with doing a completely new telco from the gound up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I don't know if I agree with that. There's a whole web of glass and conduit that has to be maintained. Someone still has to link all of those nodes together.

Twilio can consume the application business, but I'd be surprised to see them consume the core infrastructure.

<comment><USER2> That's what the infrastructure owner will do. It might be the old telcos, it might be the government, or even a new type of utility company. The infrastructure will be maintained. Though the new type of telco can operate with the old ones. They will simply buy them out.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know if you've noticed, but AT&T has a $200B market cap... Twilio isn't going to be buying them out anytime soon...

I disagree with the concept of the government taking over the Telco grid; that's not going to happen in the US.

<comment><USER2> I meant AT&T or other buying twilio. In terms ogf government, the auto bailouts set a precedent for others to follow.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple Engineer Playing iPhone Video Game During Fatal Mountain View Tesla Crash - <AUTHOR> https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/02/25/apple-engineer-playing-smartphone-video-game-right-before-fatal-tesla-crash/ <comment><USER2> > "The crash driver's employer, Apple, is a tech leader, but like most > employers, has yet to develop a distracted driving policy," Sumwalt said.

Are employers really supposed to police what their employees do when they aren't working?

<comment><USER3> This is why when in a big enterprise, you'll find a bunch of these completely unrelated sections appended to the employee handbook.

So that when shit like this happens, you can legitimately say "We ask employees to not play games while driving."

It's utterly pointless, but makes the company and the regulator feel good?

<comment><USER4> It helps with their insurance as well, especially if someone is driving on company business.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > "If you own a car with partial automation, you do not own a self-driving > car," Sumwalt said. "Don't pretend that you do. This means that when driving > in the supposed 'self-driving' mode: you can't sleep; you can't read a book; > you can't watch a movie or TV show; you can't text; and, you can't play > video games. And, that is precisely what we found in this crash – the driver > was playing a video game on his smartphone when his car veered into the > median barrier."

It is too early to put this kind of faith in tech where matter is of life and death. Not only yours but others as well.

> "Mr. Huang was using Autopilot where Tesla told its customers it was safe to > use. The Autopilot in Mr. Huang's Tesla failed to perform according to its > claimed capabilities. Instead of keeping Mr. Huang's Model X in a safe lane > of travel, Tesla's Autopilot system moved his car out of its lane and into > the gore point off the roadway. Then, rather than brake the car, the > Autopilot accelerated Mr. Huang's Model X and caused it to crash at high > speed into a fixed highway barrier."

What type of modals they are using for training ? Looks like serious data issue.

</comment><comment><USER6> You know, even my fitness game makes more of a fuss if I don't have the right grip, and there I am not barreling down a highway in a deadly machine.

Would it be so bad to have a loud buzzer in cars that refuses to turn off until you have a complete (multi-finger) grip on both ends of the steering wheel?

<comment><USER7> My Mazda CX-9 has this sort of check (to require at least one hand on the wheel) but it's incredibly annoying due to false positives. Every once in a while I am only touching the wheel lightly and it freaks out with alarms. It's just my personal experience but I think it is more dangerous to have a bunch of erroneous, distracting alarms than it is to try to police everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Tesla owners are paying to be beta testers ... imagine if a company like Toyota released and marketed such a "feature" and somebody died because it ???.

</comment><comment><USER9> How do they know this? Who has the information? How did it get to the NTSB?</comment>


An alternative SDK for Firebase 27x smaller and 13x faster - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/samuelgozi/firebase-firestore-lite/wiki/Firebase-Alternative-SDK-Benchmarks <comment><USER2> It's tricky to compare SDKs when they are not at feature parity, like you mention. It's often the edge cases that make things difficult, so if you've only done the non-edge cases, you might think you're most of the way, but actually, you still have a lot of effort ahead of you.

You say this way is more low level? Is it perhaps that you acknowledge this, and you're externalising the extra handling in case people only need the basics, thus sidestepping the issue?</comment>


Anonymous defaces davidguetta.co - <AUTHOR> http://www.davidguetta.co

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure what's meant to be there normally, and a google on the topic seems to only bring up a french house music DJ, who's website is davidguetta.com, not davidguetta.co.</comment>


3-month and 10-year US Treasury inverted today - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-22/key-part-of-u-s-curve-is-closest-to-inversion-since-07-chart <comment><AUTHOR> Under normal economic conditions, loaning money for longer-periods of time should result in higher interest payments than loaning money for a short period of time.

For one major benchmark, this is no longer true. The 3-month US Treasury and 10-year US Treasury is now inverted, where the 3-month Treasury yields a higher interest rate than the 10-year.

This is one of the more reliable indicators of an upcoming recession. There's a lot of studies for why the yield curve is a leading-indicator of recessions, but it gets pretty complicated to explain. (IE: I actually don't know the reason, but there's plenty of citations available online :-) )

This seems to have been a sudden shift downward of the US 10-year Treasury. Yesterday's 10-year was trading at 2.54%, but apparently dropped 10-bps today (not yet reported on Treasury.gov yet, only being reported by Bloomberg right now)

[https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart- center/i...](https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart- center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=yield)

<comment><USER2> Yes, a lot of people in finance say it's been over 10 years so a recession should happen soon. But nobody says what are going to be the triggers. Last time it was sub-prime loans and mispriced derivatives. But this time? Trade war? Government deficits? China's credit crisis? Low yields pushing savers to riskier investments? Nobody seems to know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Behind The Curve from Planet Money talks with Duke Professor Campbell Harvey about whether or not to worry about yield curve inversion in today's economy - [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/12/04/673429096/behi...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/12/04/673429096/behind- the-curve)

<comment><USER2> Correct me if I'm wrong, but he says not to worry _yet_. And adds to look at other indicators like volatility and not just 1 indicator.

See [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-23/-fatal- tr...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-23/-fatal-trifecta-is- what-jpmorgan-s-normand-eyes-for-market-risk)</comment></comment>


PHP Socket Programming, done the Right Way - <AUTHOR> http://christophh.net/2012/07/24/php-socket-programming/

<comment> iso-8859-1 Why not use a class? <http://pear.php.net/package/Net_Socket>

Or at least use namespaces. There is no reason to stick with the native PHP wrappers. It's common knowledge that PHP function names are illogical because of backward compatibility. So why not use a wrapper?

I think it's sad that even after PHP got all these features so that it resembles a proper programming languages, people aren't even using them! Makes me wonder if it was a good decision to force people to use classes in Java...

<comment><USER2> You seem to be under the assumption that classes are always categorically better than a procedural API. I think you're mistaken. Classes aren't always a good abstraction.

Classes being a good abstraction:

        $user = new User('John', 'Doe');
        $user->authenticate($token);

Classes being a bad abstraction:

        $two = Math::add(1, 1);
        // or worse:
        $math = new Math;
        $three = $math->sqrt(9);

In that latter case, you'd be much better served using a functional or procedural API, even if it's namespaced:

        (+ 1 1) ; two
        (math/sqrt 9) ; three

If you're going to argue that `stream_socket_` is doing it wrong, I'd like to hear _why_ it'd be better as a OO API.

<comment><USER3> 1.plus(1) looks quite sensible to me (every vector/matrix library I've seen has had a v.plus(v) or m.times(m) that returned a copy), though obviously sugar improves it. Sugar is irrelevant to OO vs procedural though.

OO is a good way to think about sockets because sockets are state machines. There's nothing wrong with passing around a socket called "this" to every procedure, but if you're doing that then you're just doing OO clumsily (i.e. without the benefit of being able to transparently substitute an SSL socket at a later point in time).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think this is a good place to enter the "Right tool for the job" argument. The right tool not being PHP.

Code here looks good on first look tho.

<comment><USER5> Let me preface by linking to a project of mine that is very much in the "things PHP is not great at" category - <https://github.com/shaneharter/PHP- Daemon>

Which is entirely why I have a disclaimer up top: "Note: For many reasons PHP is not an optimal language choice for creating servers or daemons. I created this library so if you must use PHP for these things, you can do it with ease and produce great results. But if you have the choice, Java, Python, Ruby, etc, are all better suited for this."

But there are enough reasons to use PHP (and enough people doing it) that good libraries like this socket library (and the Daemon library I linked above) are a really valuable contribution to the PHP community.

<comment><USER6> Can you list a few of the "many reasons" you talk about in the disclaimer?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have a question regarding socket programming in general.

Let's say I want to build some sort of notification service. This could be instant messages, presence indication, or notification of file changes ala dropbox.

Now let's say that most of my clients are behind firewalls, forcing me to tie up one of my ports for each client as I do long polling or something else to keep the connection through their NAT open.

How do you keep from running out of ports? I only have 65K ports, right? How do some of these companies that have millions of open connections do it?

<comment><USER8> A connection is uniquely identified by (IP #1, Port #1) and (IP #2, Port #2).

You can have 65535 connections (in theory) from a single client to your port 80. And another 65535 from a different client to port 80 on the same server.

If you're serving a bunch of different clients it's not a problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> How are there no comments? This is the most hilarious blog post title I've seen in ages!

<comment><USER10> Yeah, it sounds weird. But the code doesn't look as awful as i first expected. Which maybe silences a few of those comments (and this hasn't many votes).</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Good sources for reading on the latest in networking/storage - <AUTHOR>

I can easily find lots of blogs wrt to web 2.0, social networking, mobile development. I am however also looking to read the latest in the networking world, like ipv6, routing, LAN/Wan, storage, virtualization. Could you guys list some resources/blogs that you read ?<p>Much appreciated :) <comment><USER2> <http://storage-news.com/> <http://highscalability.com/> <http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/>

Those are three that handle some of your latter concerns.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Those are great!</comment></comment>


Gold as the "ultimate bubble" - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/09/30/gold-as-the-ultimate-bubble/

<comment><USER2> Is the price anywhere high enough to be a bubble? The current price doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. Am I mistaken?

<comment><USER3> If you look at the historical price of Gold, you would notice that it was relatively flat for most of 80s and 90s. The high in 90s was about $350 per oz. The gold prices began to appreciate remarkably in this decade at it is at a high of $1300 per oz. That is a very sharp increase in a relatively short period of time. That slope is the kind of the "bubble slope" you look out for,

Another point is this : gold can not be consumed. You cant eat it, use it to build industrial products. Almost Every oz of gold that was ever mined exists somewhere in the same form. In absence of any specter of shortage of gold, its sharp increase in value doesn't make any sense.

<comment><USER4> You can eat gold. Search for "edible gold leaf".

<comment><USER3> .... but you can' digest it. If gold eating was popular culturally, there would be people mining for gold in sewers.

Gold is also used in products .. and there salvage companies that specialize in processing this gold.

My point was that when the demand curve shifts , the supply curve can also shift as mining even "difficult to obtain" gold ( as in above case) becomes profitable and supply curve will also shift. And the price should stabilize -- but it hasn't yet .. because the demand keep growing .</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Drone captured by Iran may mean military GPS RSA "red key" has been compromised - <AUTHOR> http://cryptome.org/2012/01/0016.htm <comment><USER2> Iran is not some backwater and it's not north korea.

When politicians sing about "bomb Iran" these are the innocent people they are talking about killing

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v6kF8i-mbw>

[http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/01/a-view-inside- ira...](http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/01/a-view-inside-iran/100219/)

Before 1970 you would not be able to identify pictures of iran from parts of the usa

[http://www.pagef30.com/2009/04/iran-in-1970s-before- islamic-...](http://www.pagef30.com/2009/04/iran-in-1970s-before-islamic- revolution.html)

Currently Iran is just the result of what happens if conservative fundamentals got ahold of the government of a country.

Yeah the nuclear bomb makers and holocaust deniers have to be stopped, but let's show some care and understanding for innocent people under their rule first.

<comment><USER3> So it's not OK to bomb Iran but North Korea and you have no problem - are you under the impression that everyone in North Korea is evil?

<comment><USER4> I think the author's point was that Iran is a sophisticated industrial society ("not a backwater") and the people have a wide range of views ("not North Korea").

<comment><USER2> You are correct, that is exactly what I meant about the sophistication level.

Hence no surprise they could dissect a drone.

By no means was I implying it would be acceptable to bomb north korea!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The article confuses me: it seems to be conflating the RSA algorithm (which I could easily believe might be used to encrypt military GPS) with the RSA company (a division of EMC which was hacked and had its SecurID product compromised recently).

Am I missing something, or is the author just confused? Why would having "broken into EMC's RSA servers" be at all related to being "in pursuit of a cryptanalytic attack against RSA"?

<comment><USER6> I was a little confused also, I am under the impression that he is mentioning 2 points.

1) Attack on RSA to attempt to see if RSA has some attack on the RSA algorithm hidden. 2) Using an attack on SecurID to attempt to get more information from a Lockheed Martin or other breach.

<comment><USER7> Yes, it was widely reported that Lockheed was a target after SecurID was breached. Whether or not anything useful was extracted from Lockheed's systems, and whether or not any Lockheed data was involved in spoofing the drone, is pure speculation. It seems equally plausible that Iran had an inside man at a defense contractor. After all, history has shown how relatively inexpensive and effective double agents are to state actors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> All these complex and sophisticated attacks seem like too much work. It looks like the author either omits a step from the attack where the SecurID compromise allowed someone access to flight control systems or that RSA has a master key/method for breaking any RSA encrypted data.

I think the drone ran out of fuel. The flight control system prevented a stall by trading altitude for speed. Some emergency collision code attempted to avoid a ground impact at the last second making for a soft landing.

Something as simple as bad weather forecasting causing the drone to fly into a headwind during both inbound and outbound could easily account for the fuel drying up.

<comment><USER9> Right - no one wants to consider this null hypothesis. Not exciting enough, I suppose. Actually _spoofing_ GPS - which would involve masking the actual GPS signal and producing the precise nanosecond differentials from a simulated fleet of satellites needed to give a false location, seems highly unbelievable.

GPS jamming is possible, which may have led to a loss of nav (although I would have thought there may be some inertial guidance), but either way, the guidance-and-control system probably just leveled off for a smooth crash landing. (hence the way the iranians not-so-cleverly hid the underside of the UAV in anti-american propoganda posters)

<comment><USER10> Spoofing GPS, at least the C/A code is not such a huge challenge. You can buy the hard part off the shelf from many vendors. For example, <http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/206805>

<comment><USER11> That works to spoof GPS for your phone in a controlled location, but not for a drone that's flying unpredictable routes.

<comment><USER12> Any well funded group of HAMs should be able to iron out the implementation details.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It's pretty rash for the article to suggest that the RSA algorithm might have been broken. If the key really has been stolen, it seems far more likely that it was breached due to crap IT security than a recently-discovered bombshell weakness in the RSA algorithm.

For example, the RSA corporation's SecurID service (not to be confused with the RSA algorithm) was compromised due to a spear-phishing attack containing an Excel spreadsheet with a Flash exploit. Then Lockheed Martin was breached because they use SecurID[1]. Lockheed Martin happens to make GPS satellites[2], so they might have a copy of the key...

This is completely speculative (in particular, Lockheed Martin claims no data was stolen and I know nothing about how GPS works). But in the past, there have been way more exploits due to insecure systems than to weak crypto (especially well-established crypto like RSA).

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SecurID#March_2011_system_compr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SecurID#March_2011_system_compromise) [2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-206>

<comment><USER14> > in particular, Lockheed Martin claims no data was stolen If you had > something particularly secret stolen you're not going to air it publicly. > Agree with everything else though - even if this hypothesising is true it'll > be down to a stolen key.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> red key is from the older PPS-SM system which hasn't been used in new hardware since 2006. GPS M-Code isn't even meant to be fully operational until 2016. Which suggests he actually means SAASM.

</comment><comment><USER9> How much certainty is there that the Iranians actually _spoofed_ the GPS signal? How much evidence is there to overturn the null hypothesis (being that the GPS signal was either jammed, or the plane simply crash-landed inside Iran)

<comment><USER16> AvWeek is a more reliable source than the blogs repeating breathless "OMG IRAN SPOOFED GPS" stories. [http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckC...](http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3abca8e6e2-70ef-40a3-8c56-f83aa6fc7ade)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I find this fascinating. However, I think a sale to China would have greater impact than breaking military crypto.

More interesting is that this drone was flown illegally into sovereign airspace and no one seems to mention that. Imagine if China flew a drone over LA.

As for Iran being a target for military action, history has shown that any country that it sanctions economically is always attacked.

Might as well just prepare for it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Why would you need to have keys at all? Just rebroadcast the signal with a different delay for each satellite.

<comment><USER19> The GPS military signal is protected by virtue of being CDMA-modulated by a long, pseudorandom sequence (the output of a keyed, secret PRNG). Because of the spread-spectrum nature of CDMA, it would be impractical to record the signal without having the key in the first place. And if you did have the key, why go through the trouble of recording and replaying the signal when you could directly spoof it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> One thing I've never understood all along is how Iran managed to capture the drone intact. Was it guided into a runway landing somehow? Or else how did they not crash it?

<comment><USER21> The wings appeared to be held on by duct tape. Perhaps it didn't fall from very high.

<comment><USER21> This is being downvoted, but I am serious. In the pictures you can see the wings have been crudely reattached to the body using a white tape to cover up the supposed break. Hence it seems possible that the plane crashed, but not from an altitude that would do major damage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Why not jam the military signal and spoof the civilian one?

<comment><USER23> It uses spread spectrum transmission, which is resistant to jamming unless you know the secret key.

<comment><USER19> Nevertheless, it's still possible to jam (see LightSquared). I actually think this is how Iran did it.

<comment><USER24> According to this wired article it is possible, but still unlikely.

<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iran-drone-hack-gps/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The encrypted GPS service doesn't use RSA.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes it does, see slide 6: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/51162211/Andrew- Presentation>

<comment><USER19> The key management system (SAASM) indeed uses RSA, but not the GPS itself.

<comment><AUTHOR> We are arguing about a semantic technicality then... "GPS uses RSA" vs. "GPS key management system uses RSA".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I have some conjecture based on some prior knowledge/connections..

First the info:

Phil Zimmermann has a company working on Secure VOIP. I was contacted past 18 months ago to build the android mobile client. Project never lifted off due to some large distraction and the excuses I was given never matched up to reality.

I submit because of Phil's connections to other RSA inventors and break-ins that occurred in the past 24 months that the distraction was a major hole was found in RSA or the process to secure it. The RSA inventors are consultants/board members of the the secure VOIP firm(Phil Zimmermann's firm).

At this time its only conjecture and there are no concrete facts out in the open to fully confirm it. However, there are some analysis out there such as the authors that point to a major breach of RSA in the last 24 months that highlights new RSA holes in either the RSA itself or the process in securing RSA keys.

<comment><USER12> A "RSA hole", as far as I am aware, would be "somebody found a fast way to factor numbers". There wouldn't exactly be a fix for that except to move to another trap door function.</comment></comment>


How do I find out about language centric events in the SF Bay area? - <AUTHOR>

Hey, I'm new to the area and I want to know the single best way to find out about less general/vendor specific, and more language (or technology) specific tech events that are going on.<p>What's the best way to go about this? <comment><USER2> I'm not sure if there is a single site/app for that, but it really helps if you are keeping an eye out for these things in your twitter, facebook, google+ streams.

I don't have many people from SF Bay area on my twitter, but I still found out about a couple of tech events, while I was there this summer.

</comment><comment><USER3> Meetup has many good language and technology specific groups in the area.

</comment><comment><USER4> Seconding jazondenizac's answer, and I wrote an answer to a similar (but not exactly the same) question to this recently that I think might help somewhat. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4681717>

Obviously beware that not all facets may apply 100%.</comment>


PixelJET - Dreamweaver meets Firebug, in JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://www.thepixeljet.com/preview/

<comment><USER3> Briefly playing with it, I only had the minor-est of nitpicks, and I don't suspect other users would necessarily react the same way as I did.

When I began live-editing the CSS, the semicolons disappear as you start editing the text, then automatically re-appear after you stop editing the text. I found myself adding a semi-colon automatically, and that led to 2 semi-colons. Not harmful, but certainly weird.

It might be useful if either the edit box included the semi-colon, or a semi- colon remained visible but not editable, at the end of the edit field.

Good luck with this product!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey thanks for letting me know, yeah that's a bug. What browser were you using?

<comment><USER3> Chrome 10.0.648.133 on Linux.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have thought about the two window browser IDE before and am glad you implemented that idea, I think it could be really useful for quick HTML/CSS comps.

Two small suggestions:

* When in the two window mode, make ctrl+s do an instant refresh on the preview, and preventDefault on the event so that it doesn't open up the browser save window. I save constantly out of habit, so that gets distracting.

* For the 'inspect element' control: Don't use borders on the active element, because it causes the layout to jump around and if you already have a border applied to an element, it wipes it out. The easiest way to fix this would be to use 'outline' instead - and if you apply it with a class instead of inline styles, it will not wipe out existing outlines after leaving (as it does with borders now). If you really want to make it work to not replace existing outlines, see the 'Firebug.Inspector.BoxModelHighlighter' in [http://code.google.com/p/fbug/source/browse/branches/firebug...](http://code.google.com/p/fbug/source/browse/branches/firebug1.8/content/firebug/html/inspector.js) for an implementation that uses completely different elements instead of changing the style of the active element.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome tips, thank you. I never considered the control + s thing but it's a good point.. control + s is used in the main window but it's not picked up in the code editor.

Also I did write some code to restore the previous border style at one point but I must have regressed it. Using outline + a class is miles better though, will put that on the list - cheers.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Dear HN:

Please try out editing code in a separate window. It's really cool! We hotswap your code changes live into the document - no more swapping windows, recoding, then saving / refreshing. See the "code" tab on the demo for more info.

Code changes also sync up with the debugging tool. Why not check this out too - if you add a css style, it will appear in code. And if you alter a css style in code, it will update the debugging tool.

</comment><comment><USER5> One word on your landing page: I initially clicked on through to the demo, tried some things, ended up a little underwhelmed and then only came back because of all the positive comments here on HN.

A few highlights on what PixelJET can do (such as editing code in a separate window and see the changes live) would have made me stick around in the first place.

Your product is awesome, but your presentation could use some work :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well thanks for going back to it! It does say exactly what you said in the third paragraph of the preview page, though. (code editing and live changes). It was supposed to be the 'hook point'. My copy writing isn't really that great, it seems :)

I was trying to make it short enough so people wouldn't be bored, but detailed enough that they would want to see the features in action.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Very impressive. The source window should be launched by default, as that's the killer feature.

I think we all know that inspector/firebug + code environment is the way to go. We all want that. Copy&pasting sucks.

Now, since we can compile everything down to javascript this days, maybe the source window could run Vim. One can dream.

A real WYSIWYG would be the second step: Insert element -> content. Drag and drop positioning and nesting. Edit CSS properties.

</comment><comment><USER7> Each word on that landing page is inside a separate canvas tag? Why?

Anyway: Autoscrolling vertically doesn't work in the sourceview, FF4, Fedora 15.

The features are confusing. It says I can move the design around by clicking 'pixel-perfect', but it doesn't actually move, and it only ever moves the whole thing, not for example just the box.

It would be neat if the stuff I select visually on the webpage gets optionally selected inside the codewindow aswell.

Of course, you really really need a search feature for the html window, auto expanding whatever nodes are found.

Also, color wheels for all the CSS properties would be nice. Also, suggestions, you could make a dropdown box next to each css property that lets a user quickly switch between all possible variations. Like

top: 200px; [x] <\- clicking here opens a popup with 'bottom', 'left' etc. On mouse hover, you see the realtime change.

You really need a few IDE features like search+replace and vertical selections for your code windows.

You need a javascript debugger.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

Thanks for the feedback

Can you elaborate on the design overlay not moving around? The whole thing should basically be able to be moved around while the page stays static. If it's doing that, then it's working correctly. It's a little unpolished to use in the demo, but basically the workflow is that you select the box, then move the overlay so you can see the error, then line up the box with left / top.

The landing page uses Cufon for font replacement which in turn uses the canvas. I like the way it renders the font but maybe it's impractical..

Also the page has overflow:hidden on the body. The editor behaves weirdly sometimes with scrolling so it's disabled for now but will support scrolling in the release.

All the other features are great suggestions, i'll make sure they are all in the release too - re: the Javascript debugger.. I wondered about this one. Most browsers have them already so I wasn't sure. I'm still on the fence

<comment><USER7> I probably misunderstood the 'pixelperfect' feature. I thought I could move css elements around in a visual drag&drop style to position them at absolute values. I think what you built, is an overlay of a static image to check for errors.

The font with Cufon looked pretty blurry to me, for some subconscious reason I also like to select text while reading. It's less passive, and when I can't do that, I get annoyed. But I see, you already changed it :) Another thing: I mostly just scan until I find the "demo" button, unfortunately yours was hard to find because it has almost the exact look like the surrounding text. I know you want us to read the rest too, but that's just not an investment people are going to make unless they already like/see your idea.

In the same spirit, I would make some kind of screenshot walkthrough of your killer features. Your live-editing feature is pretty cool, but in the end it's a tiny button people have to click, and then they have to edit something on the same page, and then they have to pay attention so they see that the thing actually changed. I myself first thought it was broken, instead I simply wasn't in the correct tab, so I didn't see what changed! I imagine a common mistake which can be easily fixed by doing a single page layout of your page.

I think you have a good idea, but it's a lot more work than one would imagine. You say it yourself: You are competing with Dreamweaver, so you'll need some kind of code intellisense too. <http://cloud9ide.com/> could probably implement something like a liveview pretty easily, so that's where you are competing aswell. I wish you the best of luck :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Cufon, really?

Your twitter profile is obnoxiously hard to find. Why don't you just link to it from your site? Same for Facebook. Or at least include the actual Twitter profile name (thepixeljet, not pixeljet), and use real text (instead of cufon) so that a visitor can copy/paste it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

It is linked.. but not underlined so it's not obvious. I might just ditch Cufon though..

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Impressive product!

Only suggestion I have is that in the edit window I press CTRL+S instinctively to save my work, this brings up Firefox's page save window and takes a while to load, if you can bypass this it would be awesome.

</comment><comment><USER10> Anyone else notice that their logo is extremely similiar to Delicious' logo.

PixelJET - <http://public5010.thepixeljet.com/demo/buttons.png>

Delicious - <http://l.yimg.com/hr/15213726/img/delicious.48px.gif>

Looks like a cool service though. I'm not trying to knock the idea at all, I just couldn't help but notice the similarities.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah we noticed that about half way through. Logo is being changed for the release :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> That demo is AWESOME!

The ability to have the source code on a second monitor and have updates happen in realtime is amazing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey thanks :) That part took a lot of hard work. I thought it was time that a web ide could match exactly what we're used to on the desktop

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Live code changes... so what? Two screen editing... again, so what? I can replicate this behavior by having an editor on one screen and a browser in the other, make changes, hit F5. Not to mention the huge amount of features you lose by using a toy editor. Have you all been drinking too much coffee?

<comment><AUTHOR> People doing HTML/CSS development all day get very tired of doing that, though. There is also no synchronization with your debugging tool. We make all of that painless. Plus, the code editor isn't a toy. It's called Ace - <USER2> by Mozilla and team of others that aims to be on par or better with desktop tools. <http://ace.ajax.org/>. The demo is just a bit basic on the features it uses is all. MVP. Thanks for the thoughts though

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Could we see a screencast?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't have one handy but I can whip one up a bit later - anyone know of some good free software? Needs to capture 2 monitors.

<comment><USER14> For windows boxes, I like CamStudio [1]. The latest version lists dual monitor support but I don't know how well that particular bit works (the forums list a couple of issues).

[1] <http://camstudio.org>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll check it out

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> one thing that bugged me, (i use firebug Alot) is that when i used the inspect tool to select an element on the page, it didn't navigate to that part in the DOM view in the bottom panel, and I couldn't edit html int he bottom panel i had to navigate away before editing html

but its looking good so far, good luck

</comment><comment><USER16> Looks like a great tool. Pixel Perfect will come in very handy.

Some thoughts: \- In FF 3.6 the inspector doesn't work at all - maybe you need an "About" tab with supported browsers etc.

\- <http://www.thepixeljet.com/preview/> needs a twitter link. I was about to follow @pixeljet instead of @thepixeljet</comment>


Ask HN: What questions do you ask yourself often/repeatedly? - <AUTHOR>

Some of mine, wherever I am, include: - Why is this like THIS? And how could I make this beter? - STOP - Why are you doing this? (This is usually when I'm doing something I shouldn't be, like incessantly checking HN.) - Will I regret not doing this? (Whenever a big decision needs to be made.)<p>And you? <comment><USER2> What am I not seeing? What am I taking for granted?

</comment><comment><USER3> How did I manage to be such an idiot last year?, and how can I not be such an idiot this year?

</comment><comment><USER4> Every morning - "what's the most important thing I'd like to do today?" Sounds obvious, but most people don't do it. Life's gotten much more meaningful since I started implementing this, and I've gotten much more effective.

</comment><comment><USER5> Mostly the same, including - what should I do with my life? And, much less philosophical - who owns this? (there are so many businesses, so many buildings, infrastructure, etc., who owns it all? Where does it come from? How can I start building and creating?

</comment><comment><USER6> "What would be a better option that requires less work?" (when creating)

"What would be a better option that's less complicated?" (what I ask myself when I'm looking to buy something. PC gaming purchases are an exception.)

</comment><comment><USER7> I periodically start from scratch asking "what do I want?" and building up to how to achieve that best. Usually it points me to keep on truckin' but sometimes not so much, and I need a change.

</comment><comment><USER8> Which ass am I going to kick today, and how hard am I going to kick it?

</comment><comment><USER9> All good questions.

I tell myself to do something while I'm deciding what to do.

And ask myself: "is there someway to get an instant 1st solution?"

</comment><comment><USER10> "Am I on track?"

</comment><comment><USER11> I ask myself some of the same questions. Why is this like this, and How can I make this better?

</comment><comment><USER12> From pg, "What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?"

<comment><USER13> Good question. Now I just have to figure out what the best thing is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is there a better system?

</comment><comment><USER15> Am I over-engineering this? And the classic WTF?!

</comment><comment><USER16> What am I doing to improve? That's my main one.

</comment><comment><USER17> How am I not myself?

</comment><comment><USER18> why?</comment>


Twitter hype punctured by study - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8089508.stm <comment><USER2> Dupe of <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=648725></comment>


App Engine HTTP GET 3x slower than in 2009 - <AUTHOR> http://imgur.com/a/2w6kv

<comment><USER2> I just don't know what Google is thinking- If App Engine is supposed to be a tool to make developers bitter at Google, it is a success.

</comment><comment><USER3> Disappointing. I may have to stop using it for my freebie projects if this continues.</comment>


Theoretical Machine Learning Lecture Series: Deep Learning and Cognition - <AUTHOR> https://www.ias.edu/ideas/2017/manning-deep-learning <comment><USER2> Here's a free transcript, in case anyone's interested (around 80% accurate).

[https://scribie.com/account/eeIvFBUv?fid=ff499dd6f79e41b682c...](https://scribie.com/account/eeIvFBUv?fid=ff499dd6f79e41b682cfdd955750253a57b94722)

</comment><comment><USER3> For those who like Prof Manning's style and want to get more in depth, here are the lecture videos for the NLP course he teaches at Stanford: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQQ- W_63UgQ&list=PL3FW7Lu3i5...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQQ- W_63UgQ&list=PL3FW7Lu3i5Jsnh1rnUwq_TcylNr7EkRe6)</comment>


Secure your bare metal servers in 1 minute with this script in Java - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/seinecle/8a2fb506ef8ed8c4638a5834144f837c <comment><USER5> Thanks for sharing, why would you do that in Java? Especially since you apparently rely on expect anyway.

Why not one of

      - <USER2>
      - <USER3>
      - <USER4>

so it's easy to extend.

<comment><AUTHOR> I code in Java, that's my language of choice. The script is launched from my local machine which is Windows. The script remains extensible, that's up to any user with a motive to do it.</comment></comment>


Couple 'fined' £100 for leaving a bad review - <AUTHOR> http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30100973 <comment><USER3> I think this is an example of contracts being broken, often online but elsewhere too. You can't rent a hotel room without a credit card which helps hotels avoid you running off without paying for minibar peanuts or rock star damage to a room. OTOH, the fact that you can't update your iphone, rent a hotel room or do a lot of other things without agreeing to a "contract" or policy so long that it's impractical to read it, is a clear sign this institution is broken.

We need new laws. Not the vague hodgepodge we have now. Policies designed to not be read need to be considered completely invalid. This credit card charge should be treated like any merchant taking a card and then charging £100 more than expected. Fraud, theft, some mild form of racketeering, whatever that falls under.

I think the most common abuse of this sort is "out of contract" telecom charges where using 2X the contract number of minutes or data could result in over 10X (often over 100x) the cost of the original contract.

I'm not sure how exactly the laws need to work, but there is obvious stretching of the systems well past the point of ridiculous. An iphone privacy policy or a hotel "sign this" agreement is not free actors contracting freely.

Also, the sooner "pull" payments become a rare exception, the better. If hotels need some sort of escrow, then it should be an escrow.

<comment><USER4> On the note of bullshit contracts...

We are about to shell out ~£15k to a recruiter who sent us the CV of someone (completely cold, without the person's consent, or us having any relationship with them) we hired via another recruiter, but a year down the line are pressing a claim, as in their contract, receiving an email from them is deemed acceptance.

This is apparently perfectly legal in the UK, and I'm considering starting a business which simply sends spam, with T's and C's in each email which state that by receiving the email you have agreed to become a paying customer, and to pay any fees we demand for "the service", which is receiving the email, which allows you to know that your email is working. The intent of course not being to be another scammer, but to get the law changed.

<comment><USER5> Really? A judge is actually ordering you to cough up? Can you share any more details?

<comment><USER4> No, we're fighting via our lawyer, but if it does end up in court, we will likely lose as contract law is pretty strong in the UK - and apparently this is a significant part of this recruiter's business model, so they're well practised at it and have test cases in which they've been victorious.

<comment><USER6> sender domain please ? I need to update my block list on my mailservers to protect my customers (and myself).

There must be public links/references if this is their business model - <USER2> to share those ?

Also, what test cases ? Those are public record in the UK - they are no liablity issues in pointing to matters of public record/factual court records.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The trip advisor page. [http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186332-d554701-Re...](http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186332-d554701-Reviews- Broadway_Hotel-Blackpool_Lancashire_England.html)

There were 147 bad reviews before the story broke and these bad reviews are the majority.

I'm curious about the dupe detector not spotting duplicates.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629113](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629113)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629117](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629117)

Edit: this link is to the mobile site; one links to .com and the third links to .co.uk

<comment><USER8> Clearly the experience has belatedly led to their discovery of trip advisor.

Blackpool is a classic example of a seaside resort that's been badly hit by cheap package holidays to the sun.

As such you can expect it to be full of hotels hanging on by their fingernails.

Also it's known to have lots of social welfare bed and breakfast establishments.

You'd need to be living under a rock in England not to know that.

If you're just going from A to B and want a stopover you're better off going with one of the chains. I actually like premier Inns.

One of the travelodges I stayed in though was as depressing a dump as I've experienced.

<comment><USER9> > Blackpool is a classic example of a seaside resort that's been badly hit by > cheap package holidays to the sun.

Partly. Other resorts have managed to reinvent themselves, but the perception I have is that our local tourism trade took things for granted, didn't innovate and assumed there'd still be millions of overnight visitors to cash in on.

It's a very parochial place and despite all our problems and examples like this popping up periodically, as a town we still seem to maintain a collective belief that it's a great place to live/visit and "everywhere has its problems", with Blackpool just being hard done to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> How did the proprietors ever think this was going to end well? The "victims" have been given airtime on the national breakfast TV show. Even if it is legal it wont take long for internet justice to ensue.

edit: actually, no need for internet justice, already there are 147 x 1 star reviews - the most recent stating "don't go there" and "lacking basic cleanliness"

<comment><USER11> Please, won't you tell your friends and loved ones about the Streisand Effect, before it's too late?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This happened with a New York hotel. They were trying to charge $500 for bad reviews [http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/travel/bad-hotel-review- fi...](http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/travel/bad-hotel-review-fine- backlash/)

Thank you internet (Yelp, Tripadvisor) for putting them to shame!

<comment><USER13> It actually seems to me that they may have copied the idea from that other hotel, the wording is very similar:

From the CNN article:

"Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our Inn, your friends and families may not,"

Guardian article: [http://www.theguardian.com/uk- news/2014/nov/19/tripadvisor-c...](http://www.theguardian.com/uk- news/2014/nov/19/tripadvisor-couple-bad-hotel-review-charged-blackpool- broadway)

"Despite the fact that repeat customers and couples love our hotel, your friends and family may not."

<comment><USER14> I'm glad someone found this; I was really confused because I recognised the phrasing, and thought "I've read this story... but it was about wedding guests...?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> >John Greenbank, north trading standards area manager, said it was a "novel" way to prevent bad reviews.

Or a novel way to get a bad review splashed all over national media. Did the hotel really think this was going to end well?

</comment><comment><USER16> This practice is not new, at least not in the US, although it is probably illegal. Ken White at Popehat has written about a number of such cases, for example [http://www.popehat.com/2014/11/11/roca-labs-lacking-a- hornet...](http://www.popehat.com/2014/11/11/roca-labs-lacking-a-hornet-nest- into-which-it-could-stick-its-dick-has-sued-marc-randazza/)

</comment><comment><USER17> Can a moderator edit the article? The "reveiw" typo is really tickling my OCD when browsing the front page.

<comment><USER18> Ouch, I don't know how we missed that. Fixed now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I dont understand how this is even legal in Europe.No matter what the contract says.How can this be a legal clause? I dont get it.

<comment><USER20> I'm not a lawyer and I'm going to appear to play the devil's advocate here, but bear with me and let's say it's not illegal for an agreement to contain such a clause. If it breaks no laws, then why is it illegal? Assuming you have signed an agreement for this knowingly (or at least they presented this agreement to you and it's fair to presume that you've read it before signing it). So what you would have to do is refuse to sign that. Maybe you'll have to find another hotel but you can leave a negative review pointing out this outrageous demand from this hotel. They can't charge anybody a hundred pounds and they get really bad reviews for it.

So basically I don't know what got into their heads when they thought this is a good idea, either. At the same time, though, I wouldn't be surprised if this is not an illegal clause per se. If they charge a hundred pounds for structural damage to their hotel, or theft of towels or so, it would make more sense, and if they consider a bad review to be damaging, it isn't even that far fetched. I think they should know better than to do something stupid like this at the end of the day, however.

<comment><USER21> Dunno about the UK, but in Germany "surprising" clauses in everyday contracts such as this with consumers are generally illegal. End of story. If this got as far as a court, case would be over in seconds. Read opening statements, have laugh, verdict, good day.

Also don't know which way the EU swings on this, my guess would be towards the German position.

<comment><USER22> Yup. The alternative is - expect all the clients to read small print on everyday contracts and interpret it correctly. That would be dumb and would slow economy considerably. Imagine hotel making the contract 200 pages long.

Staying for a night at hotel shouldn't require you to hire a lawyer.

<comment><USER23> What if you declare it up front, in big print. Really. I wonder how many people would still stay. Just put it right above the dotted line on the front page.

By signing this receipt and accepting the key to your room you agree you not place a negative review of this facility on any public accessible site.

<comment><USER24> The fact that most people would only look at the bottom line (i.e. price) doesn't mean that this wouldn't be a gross infringement of freedom of speech, and unfair trading to boot. Trading involves the possibility of goods not being up to par, and hence the customer complaining to a third party. As long as complaints are not libellous, there is no reason why they could be forcefully restricted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> On the whole, freedom of contract (a characteristic feature of Anglo-American law since that body of law was located only in England) is a feature rather than a bug. Most of what we do each day in Britain, in the United States, and these days around much of the developed world is regulated by private agreements--that is, contracts--rather than by legislation or administrative regulations. That's a good thing. Parties to contracts can dicker until they reach a mutually agreeable deal, or each party can avoid making the deal at all by doing business with someone else.

Contracts have effect in influencing human behavior partly because once in a while a court will enforce a contract against a party trying to weasel out of the contract. But when courts get involved, general constitutional, statutory, and administrative law is brought to bear on the terms of the contract. A court may be very reluctant to enforce a term of a contract that doesn't allow a customer to complain about a company's service. That could be regarded as "against public policy," and public policy can be a judicial ground for NOT enforcing a contract. Moreover, a contract binds its parties, but doesn't bind outsiders who didn't enter into a contract, so a news organization like the BBC can report, "Slimy company attempts to sue its customer for letting consumers know that the company gives bad service," and the contract will not stop that. Parties to form contracts often ask the moon, but the party that drafted the contract language will usually have the terms construed in favor of the OTHER party if the contract is litigated. So I don't worry about this. I look over form contracts as I sign them (as, for example, when I buy an airline ticket or check into a hotel or rent a car) but I also stay aware of actual business practice as experienced by consumers as I buy products and services as a consumer. My most powerful recourse, always, is not to give a slimy company any repeat business, and to tell all my friends through every channel I have that I did (or did not) like a particular company's product or service. Anyone can do the same.

AFTER EDIT: By the way, this is an international news story that I heard on the radio while I was just on a morning drive here in Minnesota, and the latest update is that the hotel has agreed to refund the "fine." I'm trying to find a news story on the Web that verifies that.

[http://www.itv.com/news/border/story/2014-11-19/hotel- fines-...](http://www.itv.com/news/border/story/2014-11-19/hotel-fines-guests- to-be-refunded-for-bad-review/)

<comment><USER26> [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30111525](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk- england-30111525) verifies it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> =\ charging for a bad review is not going to increase your good reviews. It's like companies don't think before they pull this type of shit.

<comment><USER9> Many of these small hotel and B&B owners run their businesses as a hobby or retirement plan, which often doesn't quite pan out as the passive income scheme they were anticipating. They don't cope with the responsibilities that entail and can't compete with professional hoteliers who understand visitors slightly better, so they end up chasing the bottom end of the market (it's not unusual to see rooms offered for £10/pppn. The lowest I've seen is £7/pppn).

<comment><USER28> Basil Fawlty was based on a real hotelier.

<comment><USER29> Not only was Basil Fawlty based on a real hotelier, but the hotel is now advertising itself as 'The inspiration for Fawlty Towers.'

I discovered this last week when I drove past it.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleneagles_Hotel,_Torquay](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleneagles_Hotel,_Torquay)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I concur that something needs to be done about these consumer Terms-of-Service type contracts.

There's a contract system in place, and it may work fine for people who have the incentive and the resources to look over them (mergers and acquisition deals, house purchases), but a lot of the time the document is very long and written in legalese.

How many people are really going to hire a lawyer to read their Apple Store or World of Warcraft terms? Writing a hugely lengthy contract is simply a way to discourage you from reading it, and then pretending that you've agreed to whatever the terms are. I guess there's some help from the legal system - ridiculous clauses are thrown out - but that doesn't address the fact that you are discouraged from reading about relevant information.

I think someone must have written a post about how long it would take to just read the everyday ToS type docs that we're presented with. And South Park did an excellent episode about this (The Human CentiPad).

</comment><comment><USER31> I imagine they could dispute the charge with their credit card provider and put the onus on them to sort it out.

Being in a contract doesn't make something legally binding - what if they put "if you leave a bad review we reserve the right to shoot you?"

</comment><comment><USER32> As an FYI, the fine was scrapped ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk- england-30111525](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30111525)) following an intervention by Trading Standards.

</comment><comment><USER33> I think this is the place I stayed when I went to see Bob Dylan play in Blackpool 2013. It wasn't too bad, Blackpool is a sh*tehole anyway what do you expect. Dylan was great though, best night of my life.

<comment><USER34> It's sad that they did not get that mega Casino - I stayed there a coupel of years ago and 15+ years ago Blockpools decline is shocking.

No wonder the political parities no longer hold their conferences (conventions) at the winter gardens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> How the hotel even knew who left bad review on some site? What stops someone from leaving bad reviews using fake names?

</comment><comment><USER36> The BBC is reporting that the hotel has now reversed its policy. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30111525](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk- england-30111525)

</comment><comment><USER37> > The couple have sought a refund via their credit card company.

I'm curious how that will play out. It's surprising how well the credit card system seems to work, when it relies so heavily on trust.

</comment><comment><USER38> This just confirms what a terrible, anti-customer attitude they have.

</comment><comment><USER39> Some companies go out of their way to beg for negative publicity.

</comment><comment><USER40> Don't think HN is the place for this.

<comment><USER41> For the last time, it's a community bookmark site!

Whatever the HN community votes up, HN is "the place for it".

<comment><USER42> You are thinking of reddit. HN has submission guidelines.

<comment><USER41> Which amount to "whatever piques one's intellectual curiocity" and "whatever good hackers like". Apparently this piqued HN users intellectual curiosity and they like it.

Besides an intelligent person can have an intelligent discussion about any topic, even Kim Kardassian. And the post is in final analysis about policy, freedom of speech, adapting to the digital age, etc.

<comment><USER18> While I wish your argument were correct, it's not. The flaw is in the inference _voted for → was intellectually interested_.

A model that appears to fit the data [1] is that multiple kinds of interest drive voting, and intellectual interest is not the most powerful one. This is the weakness of the story-voting mechanism. It is why, on a site that values intellectual interest, the vote signal must pass through other filters, like flagging and moderation.

1\. Maybe we can test this someday.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> just absurd... the government should take action on this and the consumer rights. Just close down the hotel and get the managers to the court for scam.

</comment><comment><USER44> By reading this comment, you agree to pay me £100 if you downvote it. :P (worth a try)

</comment><comment><USER42> Why is this on hackernews?

<comment><USER45> Trip Advisor is a tech startup. The situation couldn't have occurred without a service like them. The ways businesses try to deal with the ramifications of online reviewing is probably interesting to anyone thinking about innovating in that space.

<comment><USER42> _> > Trip Advisor is a tech startup_

So a nearly 15 year old company with a billion dollar revenue still qualifies as a startup?

 _> > The situation couldn't have occurred without a service like them_

Freedom of speech infractions have occurred for way longer than online services have existed.

So if someone tweets something stupid/political it should be posted on hackernews as well, simply because tweeting wasn't possible prior to twitter? Or what if someone reacts badly to something on tumblr, is that relevant for hn'ers as well in case they are trying to innovate in the micro-blogging space?

<comment><USER46> Unless i'm understanding you wrong... Trip Advisor has democratised hotels and yeh people had freedom of speech but not widely accessible freedom of speech. Without Trip Advisor it would be much harder to find someone's opinion on a specific hotel.

Maybe consumers should be democratised too? Shall we assess the quality of a consumer? Do they piss up the hotel walls or do they tidy up before they leave?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Wtf is hyperledger - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/wtf-is-hyperledger-e433818b16aa <comment><USER2> I faintly remember some time when hackernoon wasn't 95% crypto</comment>


New Twitter Post Points to Ubuntu Web as a Chrome OS Competitor - <AUTHOR> https://rappingpenguin.com/new-twitter-post-points-to-ubuntu-web-as-a-chrome-os-competitor/ <comment><AUTHOR> More info here: [https://twitter.com/ubunweb/status/1287342376650907649](https://twitter.com/ubunweb/status/1287342376650907649)

I don't know if a web-based OS will have any relevant impact on the linux ecosystem but it's kind of interesting.</comment>


The truth behind Israeli and Palestinian talking points - <AUTHOR> http://www.salon.com/2014/07/28/debunking_the_myths_about_gaza_the_truth_behind_israeli_and_palestinian_talking_points/?upw <comment><USER2> This article has tons of misleading "so-called facts". There were no airstrikes the day before the kidnappings. HAMAS does use the palestinian population as human shields, as proven over and over again and even UNRA, the UN organization in Gaza said they found Missiles and launchers inside their schools and hospitals, ready to fire.</comment>


Saved.io is the Simplest Bookmarking Tool Ever - <AUTHOR> http://web.appstorm.net/reviews/data-management/saved-io-is-the-simplest-bookmarking-tool-ever/

<comment><USER2> I don't always bookmark a site I visit...

But when I do, I use a command line to do it.</comment>


15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRA0W1kECg <comment><USER2> So many submissions, no discussion at all:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7292482](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7292482)

        Visualization and "audibilization" of
        15 Sorting Algorithms
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448629](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448629)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7731584](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7731584)

        Sorting algorithms visually explained
        (sorting.at)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7754485](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7754485)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes -
        visualized, with sound
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7757306](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7757306)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8111128](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8111128)

        Music and visualization of 15 sorting algorithms
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8206081](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8206081)

        Visualization of Sorting Algorithms
        (digg.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8805803](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8805803)

        Visualization with sound of Sorting Algorithms
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9316708](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9316708)

        A simple guide to sorting algorithms
        (nathanepstein.github.io)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9385926](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9385926)

        The sound of 15 sorting algorithms
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9901503](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9901503)

        Sorting Algorithms
        (sorting-algorithms.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10309324](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10309324)

        Visualization and "audibilization" of
        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10327532](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10327532)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10330913](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10330913)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Min
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10356347](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10356347)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 mins [video]
        (youtube.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10447240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10447240)

        15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes
        (youtube.com)</comment>


The Ramanujan Summation: 1 and 2 and 3 and ⋯ + ∞ = -1/12 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/the-ramanujan-summation-1-2-3-1-12-a8cc23dea793 <comment><USER2> The value is the analytic continuation of Riemann's Zeta function at the argument -1.

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

There are several methods to define finite sums for divergent series. See the wikipedia article for a comprehensive list:

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

</comment><comment><USER3> Can't sum a divergent series

<comment><USER4> It's more complicated. The lie is using the same symbol for the usual summation and the extended version of the summations.

We all agree about the value of a finite summation.

We all agree about the value of a sum when the summation is absolutely convergent.

We all (almost) agree when the summation converges, but the convergence is not absolute.

This is the standard definition that is used in a calculus course, but be aware that when the convergence is not absolute there are some minor problems here and there. It's much better if you have absolute convergence.

After that, the idea is that you can extend the definition of summation. The more easy way is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesàro_summation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesàro_summation) but the other comment posted a link to a more generic article [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_series)

Cesàro summation is fine, you don't get too many surprises using it. But when you extend too much the definition of summation you get more weird results, and you loose some properties of the standards summation, for example a+b+c+d+e+... = a + (b+c+d+e+...).

In particular, to get a finite result for 1+2+3+4+... you have to use extend the definition of summation a lot, perhaps too much, and there are many ways to do the extension, and not all of them give the same result.

If you have half an hour to spare, I highly recommend to watch " _Ramanujan: Making sense of 1+2+3+... = -1 /12 and Co._" by Mathologer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcKRGpMiVTw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcKRGpMiVTw)</comment></comment>


Show HN: I made a Covid-19 Timeline - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/KerryJones/covid19-timeline <comment><AUTHOR> Author here -- there are some inherent biases due to living in SF Bay Area and California, and also some more news in areas that I'm involved with. I welcome constructive criticism or PRs</comment>


ROA3 | Ruby on Ales 2013 Announced. CFP open now. - <AUTHOR> http://ruby.onales.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> The CFP is open, please consider submitting your talk to us. Especially if you enjoy a comfortable atmosphere, beer and a pulpit to spread your knowledge from.

We're always trying to run a good show. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us at email@example.com with any ideas or questions you have.

</comment><comment><USER2> I've heard nothing but good things about this conference, can't wait to attend in 2013!</comment>


Baristas beware: A robot that makes gourmet cups of coffee has arrived - <AUTHOR> https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Baristas-beware-A-robot-that-makes-gourmet-cups-13708775.php <comment><USER2> Has anybody ever used the word gourmet to describe something that was actually good? To my ear, it's about the same as _deluxe_.

</comment><comment><USER3> Quite interesting, this one looks stationary. I wonder if it will evolve into mobile. I'm curious if anyone will make "gourmet" coffee robots self-move based on public traffic?</comment>


Ask HN: Is it immoral to off-shore my startup to a low-tax country? - <AUTHOR> I have a small, bootstrap startup registered in South America and considering moving off-shore (reasons below).
Since I'm moving off-shore, I'm asking: should I go for the lowest tax possible jurisdiction? (I consulted a Lawyer to stay within legal boundaries)
I'd still continue to live in my country and pay taxes on personal income.
Since I benefit from living here, would it be immoral to off-shore my business to a low-tax jurisdiction? Or off-shore at all?
--- Reasons to move away from my country ---
Stripe doesn't work here. Paypal does but provides worse service and charges +12% to bill international customers.
Local regulations don't let me keep revenue in foreign currency. I have to exchange back and forth to pay suppliers in USD and lose +5% to spreads.
Local government charges +30% withholding taxes on international supplier payments.
Registering a foreign branch of my local company is prohibitively expensive in terms of local red tape compliance.
The country doesn't really help me be an entrepreneur. Everything is more expensive, riskier, bureaucratic, and/or slow. From a family and personal standpoint, I like to live here, though. <comment><USER2> If your business is currently generating revenue and profitable, your best bet is to move to a low-hassle, low-tax jurisdiction. The United States isn't a particularly low-hassle, low-tax environment, and the rules of the game are increasingly uncertain (especially in terms of future tax increases needed to pay for today's crises), but you'll have to deal with it if you are considering foreign investment into your company. Otherwise, look around and do your homework.

To overcome the moral dilemma, you should take the amount you'll save in taxes in a lower-tax environment and reinvest it into your country. The irony is, since that money is now considered a foreign direct investment into the country's economy, you'll be celebrated as a hero. It makes no sense, but that's pretty much how it works all over the world.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's true, the US unfortunately isn't one of the best places for entrepreneurs since a long time ago...

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I have looked at the Stripe Atlas service and although as a US resident I was considering an LLC I think that a C Corp makes the most sense. What components of what you do as an employee require hardware or services? If you are currently paying for ANY of that out of pocket you should consider that a Corporation declares those as expenses and they are all deductible. As for the morality, it seems you have an interest in improving things in the country where you live. Building an enterprise that could reinvest is a net positive. Your first resource, is of course yourself. By improving your situation, you are empowered to help others.

<comment><AUTHOR> Haven't thought from that perspective. Indeed, I would no doubt invest the money much better than the local government, which is pretty much incompetent in almost all areas of social improvement... Thanks for commenting!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You might want to think instead about your country (as in, tax, red tape, government) about your neighbourhood and people you live with and your family. Do you want to improve the life of the people around you and how could you do that? For some, off-shoring improves the lives of their immediate family, for others, it might detract to the community.

I guess it depends on how much your startup interacts (hires, sells to etc) where you are.

</comment><comment><USER5> You need to do what is right for you and the economic security of your family. Small businesses are notoriously difficult to sustain.

That said, if you consider a huge multi-national company I think many would say that this type of behavior would be unsavory if not unethical.

</comment><comment><USER6> Check if Paddle or Gumroad is available in your country. They work as Merchant of Record, so THEY ARE selling your product for you and you get only one invoice (minus the commission) for every month.

</comment><comment><USER7> It's no more immoral to avoid taxes (legally) than it is to make money. I wish you much success!

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess that's a valid point. Locally, there's a belief that paying taxes is equivalent to contributing to society. But the corruption level and inefficiencies are so high in all levels of the local government that I find it hard to believe this...</comment></comment>


Is It Time To Break Up Google? - <AUTHOR> http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/is-it-time-to-break-up-google/ <comment><USER2> Unfortunately this article uses a terrible example to "expose" Google's practices. The site <http://www.sourcetool.com/> is trash. The whole point is to force you to click through as many pages before getting a decent list of results, and of course every page has a nice block of ads.

For instance, I picked a category at random. Eventually I got to a page to choose between two sub-categories. One was "Brominated retardants"...so I clicked it. The next page just had a single sub-category "brominated retardant". There are plenty of examples like that including one where clicking a sub-category just took you to the same page over and over. The whole site seems to purposefully bury information in as many pages as possible to force you to view as many ads as possible.

I'm not saying that people should give Google a free pass, but honestly, I'm glad to see they are giving that site a hard time.

<comment><USER3> Your analysis is flawed, ST doesn't make money when you 'view' ads, but rather when you click them. The many layers of pages are probably meant to inflate the sites overall size/page count. If ST was interested in making the most money from ads they wouldn't force the user to keep clicking but would instead trick them into click ads that looked like 'categories'. I've seen much worse out there, example; business.com which is a Google partner, check out how many 'sponsored ads' appear above the 'real' results, it's waaaay worse than what ST does.

But agreed, ST is not a perfect example of Google's bad behavior.

<comment><USER2> _check out how many 'sponsored ads' appear above the 'real' results, it's waaaay worse than what ST does._

Actually, ST does the same thing. Once you finally click through a dozen sub- categories, there is a nice block of ad-words right above the results positioned in the same place the sub-category lists were.

And I wasn't really making the argument that such a site design is effective. I was just pointing out that from the way the site is designed, it seems they are going for as many ad-views as possible by making as many redundant sub- category pages as possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The examples in the comments and the example in the article have something in common: they almost completely depend on Google's AdWords to drive traffic.

What I derive from that is their service isn't good enough to get traffic on its own merits. And if that's the case, then perhaps they deserve a low landing score. (The metric used to determine how much they are charged for ad placement.)

<comment><USER2> Yeah, and given the huge share of the market that Google has with ads, I'm not surprised to see complaints. I mean, the way the internet reacts to "slights" in the type of manner that Google is accused is usually met with vitriol orders of magnitudes greater than necessary. The fact that stories about this seem rather subdued is interesting.

They just have so many customers that it's pretty much a given that there are a decent group of people pissed off about how things are handled.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ideally, it's time for some competitors. If Google had, say, 10% of the search ad market, their power would (mostly) be in check. However, at 70% Google has market power that should run afoul of anti-trust regulations. I don't like the idea of the government breaking up companies, but I also don't like companies creating barriers to entry and winner-take-all markets.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is it time to break up the New York Times?</comment>


Homejoy (YC S10) Opens An Office In New York City - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/23/homejoy-new-york-city/

<comment><USER2> I recently visited Homejoy's SF office and it was the social equivalent of drinking a double espresso. I've visited a lot of startup offices but I've seen few to match this one for concentrated energy.

<comment><USER3> What about it in particular made you feel that way?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Their sales and customer service operations are incredibly impressive in terms of metrics/ organization. I would not want to be in the path of this company.

<comment><USER4> their _

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> No openings in NYC listed on their site</comment>


Major update, new design, millions of more tracks, a mobile app and an easteregg - <AUTHOR> http://ofthemu.se/#!/where-is-the-easteregg

<comment><USER2> A redirect to a facebook app install page? Yeah, no.</comment>


Esperanto could save 25 billion euros a year - <AUTHOR> http://dotsub.com/view/54b18453-7176-44ef-b686-952b239975f9

<comment><USER2> The definitive online analysis of Esperanto is Learn Not To Speak Esperanto by Justin Rye,

<http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/ranto/>

which is based on facts about how the language actually works. I recall that soon after the change.org website originated, a group of Esperantists proposed that Esperanto be made a mandatory second language in school instruction. It became painfully apparent as that discussion unfolded that such a government mandate was supported mostly so that the expensive hobby of Esperanto involvement could become paying work for Esperanto hobbyists. If a language is genuinely useful for human communication, it is possible to find paying work teaching the language without any government mandate in the free-enterprise system (as I have both as a teacher of Chinese in the United States and as a teacher of English as a second language in Taiwan and in the United States). There is NO WAY that there is any coherent economic analysis behind an estimate that Esperanto saves any money for any purpose. There is not even good neutral research (as contrasted with flawed studies

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

published in Esperantist publications) on how rapidly second-language speakers acquire reasonable levels of Esperanto proficiency.

AFTER EDIT: As a metacomment on this discussion, I see the karma of this comment bouncing up and down wildly. That's okay. I've never objected to downvoting for disagreement, for reasons stated in a comment by pg back before I was a participant on Hacker News.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171>

But I suggest that if you disagree with my opinion that Esperanto (a language I have studied, among more than a dozen other languages) is not really very useful as a world international auxiliary language, then you may as well make use of the opportunity here to reply with thoughtful, verifiable reasons why Esperanto is really better than the other candidates for international communication, which happens every minute of every day in a variety of languages already. An important fact to note is that the number of NEW high- proficiency speakers of English (or Chinese) each year is greater than the TOTAL number of Esperanto speakers that there has ever been in any period of history, and that Esperanto is actually declining in use as a percentage of all world language use for all purposes.

</comment><comment><USER3> English would save more - as it would require a much smaller education budget and most of the infrastructure is in place already.

<comment><USER4> For the sake of the argument, I'll assume that it's actually possible (and desirable) to unify languages in Europe.

A lot of the infrastructure could be used for any kind of language at all, as long as you've got text books. If Esperanto really would be an order of magnitude easier to learn, than that alone would make it much cheaper. You might have some initial expenses, but you'll make up for them soon enough.

It also has the additional advantage of not being tied to a particular country. You won't get a whole country's support for free, but you won't hear people cry about cultural imperialism.

But yeah, this isn't exactly new. A lot of these arguments were in existence when Esperanto was invented over a hundred years ago. Not much came from it.

<comment><USER3> The key point surely is that English is a living language that is adapting constantly to reflect a world culture as it develops.

Plus there is a great body of existing English speakers in Europe matched by qualified teachers in most secondary schools.

There might be cultural objections in parts of Europe to adopting the language of another country but in reality - English is already the dominant business language.

Having said all of that it would be sad if other European languages were not maintained - you can say things in (for example) French that you just can't say in English - well not without a lot more words and it still would not be quite right. French is the second language of our family but I am sure this is true for all other languages.

<comment><USER4> And a while back, French was the language of international diplomacy, Latin the language of science and mathematics, Italian for music.

An argument could be made for all of them. Probably even for German, as it has a lot of native speakers in Europe.

I don't think anything will remove English from its throne as the _de facto_ "lingua franca", but I think the chance of making it a true, unified _de jure_ version is about as unlikely as seeing Esperanto seated there.

And I don't quite get the "key point". We're not talking about Latin here, updating Esperanto shouldn't pose a problem. Although it's more likely to be in the French style, with a central committee.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Reposted, because I first mistakenly posted the url in the "Text" textbox. The old post with already one comment is here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3339859></comment>