How to Make $80k per Month on the Apple App Store (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@johnnylin/how-to-make-80-000-per-month-on-the-apple-app-store-bdb943862e88 <comment><USER2> There is no way that Apple is not aware of the revenue analytics that would indicate these apps as financial outliers and not aware that these apps are scams.

Given the frequency with which we hear of legitimate apps being removed or rejected by Apple, one can't even argue that Apple is just not paying enough attention.

I don't say this often, but someone at Apple should be fired over this. This devalues the App Store in the long run, because it will teach Apple users not to trust their only source for apps; and that will lead them away from Apple products.

<comment><USER3> It's interesting that you say "this devalues the App Store in the long run." Because since there's no way to use an alternate app store on iOS products, Apple would only be at risk if the idea that "iOS apps are scammy" starts to enter the mainstream zeitgeist and change deeply-ingrained product choice decisions. Before that happens, the story would be picked up by mainstream media, not just a Medium blog. And at that point, Apple could _hire_ the anti- scam team they should have hired in the first place, fire nobody, issue a veiled apology, and move forwards. Some will gripe, but Apple will almost certainly escape unscathed from a public-trust perspective. It's entirely rational - saddeningly so - for them to be reactive rather than proactive to these types of apps.

The correct response is to publicize these types of findings, have journalists and lawmakers demand accountability, and accelerate the transition towards voluntary self-regulation. Tech needs its muckrakers [0] just like any other industry, and we shouldn't expect companies to change without them.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> His 4th point about cancelling subscriptions is pretty solid I wish all app stores would add that prompt. Most people dont know how to cancel app subscriptions cause they are hidden magic. They likely think having the app installed ensures the app charges money.

What's scary is the prompt doesn't emphasize the amount of money to be spend enough. I think if you're going to subscribe to anything, it shouldn't be such a simple dialog, you should be forced to look through some sort of clear page that separates the micro-legal jargon and shows you the cost in big bold letters.

</comment><comment><USER5> More than likely, that app is used to either launder funds or get money out of stolen credit cards.

<comment><USER6> This seems like a horrible way to do both of those things... very easy to track, and you don't think Apple/investigators will notice if a lot of stolen cards are buying the same app?

<comment><USER7> >This seems like a horrible way to do both of those things... very easy to track, and you don't think Apple/investigators will notice if a lot of stolen cards are buying the same app?

Doesn't matter if the cash has already been funneled overseas. Good luck extraditing someone on credit card fraud from Cambodia.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > They're taking advantage of the fact that there's no filtering or approval > process for ads, and that ads look almost indistinguishable from real > results, and some ads take up the entire search result's first page.

How is not Apple legally responsible for this? Apple tricks its own users to click on ads, but it doesn't take any responsability on its content. I guess that it is, but nobody is suing them and goverments have been historically soft with IT companies.

Automation and the rule of law are mutually exclusive. Or you have inmense scalable systems without human intervention or you have systems that follow local laws and ethics. And this will not change until AI has human-level understanding and intelligence.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd be curious to learn how much of that $80k/mo was returned by Apple to consumers (and not actually paid out to the developer). It's hard to imagine such a scheme would last long on the top grossing page without intervention...

</comment><comment><USER10> I have about a dozen financial scanner services from mint to albert to moneylion that would tell me that this is happening to me.

This article reads more like a how-to scam thousands. Luckily, i don't have the skillset or ethics to pursue this model.

The entire security and anti-virus model has always survived a few points lower than this in pricing and actual impact.

I have an owner who profits hard on the BS services of a basic dns scanner service at 99 a month.

I dont think there is a fix for the fool and his money are soon parted problem.

</comment><comment><USER11> The spectrum is just insane for this company. I've had pushback and app rejections for _the most ridiculous_ things; meanwhile, I'm never more than 1-2 searches away from finding what I would call an "obvious scam". (If their search engine wasn't garbage, I'm sure I'd find more.)

The scammers make hundreds of dollars for every misclick. Meanwhile, did you know that if you don't make enough money you effectively grant Apple an interest-free loan and they can wait weeks or months to finally pay you when you reach the threshold?

Whatever Apple claims to gain by making itself gatekeeper, it's clear they fail pretty often at quality control. Meanwhile, real developers get angrier and angrier.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you automate your dinner time so you've time for a side project? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> How do you automate asking HN things before you need to automate them so you have time to automate them before you need to, leaving more time for side projects?

I only eat soylent, I have a bottle at 6am,10am,noon,2pm, and 5pm. Each bottle takes about 10 minutes to drink, which I usually do while reading HN or normal people news.

This leaves plenty of time for my side project: overthinking things</comment>


Programming Considered Harmful - <AUTHOR> http://www.flownet.com/ron/papers/pch.html

<comment><USER2> Ron Garret's "where we should be" from his Oopsla 2001 paper sounds a lot like a smalltalk environment.</comment>


Show HN: I implemented React.js in under 4kb - <AUTHOR> https://codepen.io/dosyago/pen/NzZmVK <comment><AUTHOR> Hello

I worked my way through React 12 Step Guide, and wanted to see if I could replicate the functionality of React writing a new library from the ground up but without using Babel to transpile JSX and instead using just pure ES6. Hence "Racked". It pretty much works. There's just a two ~ 200 line functions that do everything. That's it. Nothing more. Racked (including the "Mars Demo") is just 4Kb gz (not even minified, just gzip CLI).

Apart from the codepen above there's source for all the other demos in the React 12 Step Guide, converted to "Racked": [https://github.com/dosyago- coder-0/racked-js-react-without-b...](https://github.com/dosyago- coder-0/racked-js-react-without-babel-in-500-lines)

If enough people want it maybe I will write a Medium post about implementing "Racked"</comment>


Free eBooks from Microsoft Press - <AUTHOR>

Download free eBooks from Microsoft
1. Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 Oct. 2009 / Version 1.0 / 200 pages / 11.1 M / PDF http://bit.ly/36f5Cp
New features of Windows Server 2008 R2 in the areas of virtualization, management, the Web application platform, scalability and reliability, and interoperability with Windows 7.
2. Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine Oct. 2009 / Version 1.0 / 332 pages / 6.5 M / PDF http://bit.ly/EKKKF
Sample topics include: Deployment Platform, Planning Deployment, Testing Application Compatability, and 8 Common Issues in Windows 7 Migrations.
3. Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions Oct. 2008 / 452 pages / 14.4 M / PDF This download requires a Windows Live account http://bit.ly/18O46r
This guide will teach you about the benefits of the latest virtualization technologies and how to plan, implement, and manage virtual infrastructure solutions. The technologies covered include: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
4. 7 Development Projects for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services Version 3.0 May 2006 / 236 pages / 7.76 Mo / PDF http://bit.ly/2H5CgH
Hands-on development introduction with seven practical projects.
Bonus: Two chapters of a future release: Exchange Server 2010 Administrator's Pocket Consultant
  Chapter 1: Exchange Server Administration Overview
  Chapter 6: Mailbox Administration http://bit.ly/29CcTe <comment><USER2> thx, this is useful. at least something free from m$.</comment>


Ask HN: Three ways to make money from the web ? - <AUTHOR>

i have gone through various paid surveys , and also various blogs . But none fetch me enough money as a part timer.Any more suggestions as to how i can improve my financial gains from net? <comment><USER2> 1\. Invent the ultimate url shortner 2\. Re-design how news is delivered and monetised 3\. Write a commercial model for Twitter type services

These aren't intended to be flippant answers, these are how you'll make $$$.

If you're really, really desperate, you could try something like: www.therichjerk.com (not an affiliate link btw)

<comment><USER3> Or you could try writing a flash game and putting it on a platform like Heyzap. A simple game should take you a couple of weeks to make. You could even throw in virtual goods.

<comment><USER4> That assumes OP is a hacker...that's not the vibe I get from the question.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.google.com/search?q=allinurl%3Acareers>

</comment><comment><USER6> Too generic of a question for me to want to answer.</comment>


When I Took My Zipcar Into the Wilderness - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/zipcar-into-the-wilderness/597217/ <comment><USER3> I got banned from using Zipcar last year.

I lived in a condo building with an under ground parking lot in SF. A few times I rented a Zipcar and left it parked in the parking lot at my condo building.

About 50% of the time, the car would not unlock. In all cases, I successfully contacted Zipcar who informed me the only thing they could do is tow the car (usually 24+ hours later).

The parking lot had no cell service.

Other times I extended the car's reservation on the iPhone app, but because there was no cell service, the internal Zipcar rfid didn't get the updated reservation time; and the car locked me out after the original expiration time.

Zipcar probably realized they were losing money due to these issues, and banned me from using Zipcar forever.

Also: Never leave your Zipcar parked very long without cell service... the cellular unit will drain the car's battery very quickly when it's constantly searching for a signal...

<comment><USER4> Honestly, the ban sounds justified to me. If you know that parking in the garage will lead to a 50% probability of them having to tow the car, repeating this is just unnecessary. It would obviously be better if they could handle such scenarios but ignoring a known limitation to incur cost to others (since you have no advantage as you also can't use the car in this scenario) sounds wrong to me.

<comment><USER5> Disagreed about the ban. Since when is shitty technology (which any engineer worth their salt should've predicted - this is not rocket science) the fault of the customer? Unless they say in bold in their marketing statements "Only drive within cell coverage" the customer isn't at fault for trying to use it as a normal car (in fact it's crazy to think that parking in a place with no reception is no longer normal, at least according to ZipCar).

<comment><USER6> I do agree it is not his fault.

But the ban also prevents that particular customer from receiving bad service. Some things are not meant to be.

<comment><USER7> ZipCar should have formally requested that the customer not park cars in that lot, or what have you.

Since the customer needs to use that lot, they would probably stop using ZipCar at that point—but that's better than being banned _forever_ if their life situation changes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Friend in Seattle had this experience when trying to use a zipcar truck out of a garage while moving (i.e. Limited time window to get stuff out of one area to another). Ended up calling support, dealing with multiple hours of delays. Despite the issues which has led him to avoid Zipcar these days, he uses ReachNow (now defunct) and car2go (now called ShareNow) regularly and AFAIK ReachNow didn't have these limitations when on long out-of-range trips - <USER2> solved the problem by doing sortof a two-factor of having an RFID card (to unlock, on window) and a pin code (entered via the BMW iDrive system to start engine).

I could argue Zipcar has a deep integration problem needed to solve the out- of-comms scenario. They try to support several car vendors in order to have different car types (toyotas, mercedes, ford vans) which limits them to having this cellular-dependent setup. Whereas Reachnow (BMW), car2go / Sharenow (mercedes / smart), and limepod (fiat, for now) have limit the car type for better integration.

In a related front, a friend moved into an apartment building with some bluetooth-based laundry vending machines. The machine requires blootooth, and the payment is done via phone which requires a cellular connection. The laundry room (like any basement area) has a spotty cell connecition, so the friend does some weird positioning exercise to find the area where he can have a cellular connection while still being connected over bluetooth to the laundry machine. Strange future.

<comment><USER9> I haven't used any of the services you mention, but an on-line rental service I have used has a simple system: they unlock the car remotely when you start your rental, and the key is in the glove compartment. You may run into issues starting your rental, but lack of connectivity won't stand you in the middle of nowhere.

Is there a particular reason these services can't just leave the keys in the car? Theft?

<comment><USER10> If the car has no signal, how is it unlocked?

<comment><USER11> They could give your phone a signed token indicating your rental times, and then let your phone directly connect to the car to hand it off.

Presumably it is easier for a human with a phone to move to a location with service than moving a locked car, usually just out of the cave you're in.

<comment><USER9> I just don't see why that complexity is necessary, when you could just give the user the key to the car.

<comment><USER11> The whole point of zip car is that you aren't reserving it a week in advance and want to wait for a key to be mailed to you.

<comment><USER9> Why can't they just leave the key in the glove compartment? That way, Zipcar only needs to unlock the car remotely when the user starts the rental, and lock the car remotely when the rental ends. In between, the user can use the key. like with every other car.

<comment><USER12> Probably to prevent accidentally taking the key. If you've ever used a zipcar, the key is affixed to the steering column. I assume they have an ignition interrupter that requires a proper unlock signal because otherwise stealing one would be matter of jimmying a lock or breaking a window.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> i had a similar experience with Turo. The car would lock and unlock with a bluetooth connection and would not start unless the bluetooth connection was made. I went on a fifteen minute hike about an hour off the main road to see a redwood grove and when I got back the app had logged itself out with no action taken on my part. We had to hitchhike for 4 hours back to a hotel so that I could log in using my Google account, then hitch hike back to the car. The car itself was unlocked the entire time because we could not lock it. I wonder if anyone else has had an experience with Turo being logged out. Could a certificate or token have expired?

<comment><USER14> I hope you've reported that to the app developer. That's a potentially fatal problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've rented Zipcars here in the UK many times and never encountered this.

The cars have a key in the glove compartment. After you initially unlock it at the beginning of your reservation you take that key with you. You put it back in at the end of the reservation. In between you use it to unlock like a regular car key/fob.

Am I missing something here?

Edit:

[https://support.zipcar.co.uk/hc/en- gb/articles/360001460928-...](https://support.zipcar.co.uk/hc/en- gb/articles/360001460928-Arriving-at-my-Zipcar-)

> The key is in the glovebox in ALL vehicles. Throughout your reservation you > should use the key to lock and unlock the doors. For a vehicle that has a > start button instead of a key, the Zipcard or app can be used throughout the > reservation to lock and unlock the doors.

OK so this situation is plausible when the car doesn't have an actual key.

<comment><USER16> Technically, according to their rules, you are supposed to leave the key in the car. I didn't think anyone actually paid attention to that rule.

<comment><USER15> You're supposed to put it back _at the end of the reservation_. Not every time you lock the car.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If this article is true, Zipcar in the US must work in a fundamentally different way from how it does here in Europe. Every Zipcar I've ever rented, once you've gained access with your card or the app the first time, you have the actual keys in your hand until the end of the rental. You don't need a mobile signal to lock and unlock the car wherever you go, the key fob does that.

Of course, in one of the scenarios the article addresses - car battery failure in the middle of a wilderness - it doesn't matter whether it's a Zipcar or not, that's a serious problem for any car.

<comment><USER18> In the US the keys that are in the car are physically tied to the car with a string. You are expected to use the card to lock and unlock during your reservation

<comment><USER19> Wow, if I came across that without some prominent warnings, I'd probably assume some kind of key setup mistake and cut the string.

<comment> squeaky-clean I use a zipcar occasionally and this is exactly what happens when I'm driving with a friend. Once they actually did manage to yank on and snap the string. They said something like "Wow, the previous driver tied the keys to the center console, what an asshole" _pull, snap_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I can imagine that a law could be made to mandate car manufacturers or dealers or rental companies to list all the possible failure scenarios that cars might not work properly, and present the drivers some warning labels or sort. It shouldn't take that much effort to list all the possible cases by hierarchically inspect smaller modules (just like checked exceptions in Java), and it doesn't have to be very precise. Like most drugs warn about possible death due to its use, there's no reason that we couldn't expect cars and other safety related industry to follow a similar standard. Just like drugs, scaring potential customers away is a part of its cost (and benefit).

<comment><USER21> The car manufacturers probably already do a FMECA ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode,_effects,_and_cri...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode,_effects,_and_criticality_analysis)) analysis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> In my younger years I worked at a startup that had an advisor that was one of the original technical architects at Air Touch Cellular. For those that do not know they were one of the original cell phone companies in California and the west (now AT&T). He did not own a cell phone, a fact which I found strange. I asked him why and his answer was "they screwed it all up..the deployments and coverage, it's a solved issued but they screwed it up anyway. I will not own a cell until it works everywhere."

<comment><USER23> I'd love to hear more about this.

Did he mean that there is a solved and known way to get uniform national cell phone coverage without blackspots? If so, do you know more about what his solution was.

<comment><USER22> No magic here. The gist of what he said was that they did a design that had 100% coverage but the company pulled back from doing that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > _Still, cars without reception become vulnerable in a few scenarios: ... > when the vehicle battery dies. That last scenario was the one my family and > I found ourselves in_

This seems like a major detail that should have been mentioned near the headline. Even if they got into the car, they would still have been stuck because the car battery was dead.

Every new technology comes with its own unique foibles and failure scenarios. One can easily imagine the very first automobile drivers getting frustrated by how their car becomes a useless lump of metal within minutes as soon as they run out of gas. " _If I just had my trusty horse, this would never happen! "_ Fear mongering around these new failure modes makes for a fun pastime, but fundamentally pointless, unless we also consider the benefits they bring to the table.

<comment> xkcd-sucks Jumper cables and spare gas cans have been a thing for quite some time; and Li-Ion battery boosters which can start a car multiple times are small enough to carry in a pocket. Everyone driving in the wilderness should have these things in the trunk in addition to a spare tire and some water. The majority of problems which strand people are flat tires / dead batteries / overheating / no gas; which are all trivial to fix on one's own with preparedness appropriate to the environment.

Furthermore, mechanics are readily available in rural areas; and when horse transportation was common, farriers and vets were also common. These people drive out to your location and fix stuff, although you might need to walk to them without a phone. And any rural mechanic can hack a fix to the mechanical components of an internal combustion engine well enough to get it home.

So, if you accept Zipcar's terms of service ("don't remove our interlock / hack the ECU"), this is fundamentally different because it's a failure mode which only Zipcar can fix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> It's inevitable that someone will die because of this design at some point, and the various articles and online discussions about these problems and the company's arrogance and incompetence at addressing them will mean they will be found criminally negligent.

</comment><comment><USER26> > making sure that the cars work when out of reception is a "mission-critical > success factor" for the company

I guess mission failed then...

It is so easy to call something mission-critical. I am always tempted to ignore it when I hear it, because most of the time it is a red herring. Instead I use it as a launching off point for a conversation with clients about priorities for a given solution.

<comment><USER27> If the car has a big yellow sticker on the dash saying, "if you drive this vehicle to a location without cellular coverage, you may become stranded", would you rent it?

<comment><USER26> Sure would. Not for every trip, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Anthony-G A lot of comments are focussing on a Zipcar not starting due to insufficient battery power. However, that's only one aspect of the article (a personal anecdote of the writer). The other scenarios highlighted the key take-away from the piece:

> But the problem with using services dependent on a network is that you are > then dependent on the network.

This – for me – is the main problem with IoT devices, e.g., many privacy issues would go away if devices were designed to operate without needing to regularly "phone home" (excepting explicit, intentional data-mining by the manufacturer).

<comment><USER28> > many privacy issues would go away if devices were designed to operate > without needing to regularly "phone home"

This is the sole reason why I do not buy IoT devices. I would love to have a resource which lists devices that do not try to contact the manufacturer over the internet

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Both car2go and Evo here in Vancouver appear to have the right idea - when you rent a car, cell access is only needed for starting and ending the rental (which must be done within city limits). For a stopover (stopping the car without ending the rental), you just take the physical key with you.

They're also quite convenient since you can pick up and drop off the cars at almost any street or parking garage. Because Vancouver doesn't (yet?) have Uber or Lyft, they serve a really important role here.

</comment><comment><USER30> well um, the car's battery was dead. so how exactly would it open via RFID? of course if you put that piece of information first, the headline isn't so catchy. i digress.

<comment><USER31> > _A tow truck took us to a lot with reception, where the rental failed to > start... Still, cars without reception become vulnerable in a few > scenarios... when the vehicle battery dies._

> _I shudder to think about limping back to a trailhead with no more water in > my backpack, only to find a car that would not start. Or getting locked out > and marooned in Death Valley, perhaps with medicine trapped in the car._

Yep, "car died at the trailhead" is hardly a novel or Zipcar-specific problem. I've known plenty of people who camped for few days, packed up at dusk, and found themselves with a dead battery and no one around to jump it. Taking a Zipcar with essential medicine into Death Valley is a scary thought, but it's recklessness in a dangerous place rather than some esoteric flaw of Zipcar.

It's a shame, because there are real issues here. Lacking a physical carkey is a real drawback that means you can't wait in your dead car or open the hood to jump it. Having your car die in the woods because you exceeded your reservation time is bad for the user, the next user, _and_ the company. But the article spins those narrow issues as life-or-death flaws, conflates "dead car" with "Zipcar broke", and puts "Zipcars normally work without service" down in paragraph _seven_ after implying in paragraph two that this is a consistent problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I recently went into a parking garage in Amsterdam, where they have a partnership with a parking app; you press a button in the app to open the garage doors.

The reception underground is nil, so it took me quite a while fiddling with phone position, with my arm through the entrance gate, to be able to get out...

</comment><comment><USER33> Zipcar also has a dumb system in-place where you need to use the card first to start the reservation following which you're allowed to use the app to lock/unlock the car. The whole point of using the app is so that I don't have to carry a physical card with me.

<comment><USER34> Based on my experience, this is not true, I could always open the car via the application.

<comment><USER33> The first time you unlock the car, it always has to be using a physical card. I learnt this the hard way.

[https://www.quora.com/Can-I-use-a-Zipcar-without-my- Zipcard](https://www.quora.com/Can-I-use-a-Zipcar-without-my-Zipcard)

<comment><USER35> This has actually been relaxed of late, though I agree it used to be a requirement earlier in Zipcar history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> All car sharing platforms* I have used in Amsterdam/The Netherlands/Europe have a key in the glove compartment that you can take out when you park the car. Why doesn't Zipcar do the same?

* i.e. Car2Go, ConnectCar, MyWheels, Fetch, SnappCar

<comment><USER27> Doesn't the key go missing often?

I'm reminded of European hotels that want you to leave the room key at the front desk.

<comment><USER37> They plug in to a socket in the glove compartment, and I don't think the rental is counted as completed until they are returned there. I'd naively assumed this was standard across the globe, but clearly there must be other factors to warrant not allowing you to remove the key.

On the other hand, the fuel payment card does missing - but at least Zipcar in the UK are efficient at refunding your own payment when provided with a receipt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> In basis of this case, vehicle battery was actual problem, as well as the Tesla outage there was a backup.

That people choose not to have it available isn't completely the manufacturer or providers fault is it?

</comment><comment><USER39> I've used LimePod in Seattle, you can't lock your car without cell service, which guarantees you'll only be able to unlock your car if you had service prior. The key is permanently attached to the ignition, so you could leave your car unlocked and start it later if you were in the wilderness. I wouldn't recommend taking any of these free-floating cars outside of the city because of problems like this, though.

</comment><comment><USER40> Whenever I used Zipcar, I only used the car at pickup, and then always take the key out for any stops during my rental. Would that have prevented this?

</comment><comment><USER41> Allowing people into the wilderness with a car that by design has these issues is very close to negligent homicide.

<comment><USER42> What exactly do you propose? A zipcar that doesn't allow allow you to drive outside of the city?

<comment><USER27> Sure. Shut down the engine when it loses cell signal, with some warning so you could turn around. It'd be inconvenient, but not more than the alternative.

<comment><USER42> Shut down the engine when someone is still driving? That's not just inconvenient, that's suicidal. What if you're not able to get back to a place with cell coverage in time? Is the car just going to stop in the middle of the highway or the middle of a tunnel?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> The title is misleading

</comment><comment><USER44> _> Still, cars without reception become vulnerable in a few scenarios: when members lose or do not have their physical Zipcard with them, when they exceed their reservation time or want to extend their Zipcar reservation, or when the vehicle battery dies. That last scenario was the one my family and I found ourselves in, though we did not know it at the time._

Can someone change the title to reflect that cell phone reception had nothing to do with the inability to open the car in this case?

<comment><USER45> How then do you explain this part: "A similar thing happened to Tom Coates, another Californian and, as luck would have it, an expert in the internet of things. He used a Zipcar to get to the Getty Villa, part of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. His mistake was to park in a garage, where his bars went to zero and he found himself stranded as the sun went down and the museum closed and the on-staff security guards started to circle in annoyance." ??

<comment><USER44> _> How then do you explain this part_

All we know from that anecdote is that the car left him stranded in the garage and that he had no cell phone reception. Nothing of what is presented suggest that there is a directly causal relationship between those two circumstances. In fact, to the extent that it's described it's consistent with the situation referred to in the title of this post.

To make an uninformed guess, maybe the car battery drains quicker when cell reception is poor, but that's conjecture based on little information.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> TL;DR: the car battery was dead

<comment><USER47> That's actually a problem with all modern cars: If the battery dies, the key fob won't open the door. In fact, if the battery dies in the car or the fob, you can't open the door.

But, there is a mechanical backup with an ordinary car. In my 2012 Volvo, I can open the driver's door with the mechanical key. If the fob is ded, I can physically insert it and start the car. If the car is also dead, I have to sort that out to drive it, obviously.

I like to MTB and I used to climb, so I carry a backup battery that can start the engine if need be. But I appreciate that with a ZipCar, the whole point is that you don't need to go somewhere and pick up a mechanical key. So it's really the same risk profile as if I were to drive around with the key fob, but leave the mechanical key at home.

The other worrisome thing is if a car is designed that it needs the Internet to start. If you drive it somewhere remote, you have a problem. Or if there is a service outage, you have a problem.

If I buy another car, it will probably brag thatI can use my phone as my key. I will still want to carry the mechanical key, but my phone will then become a single point of failure. With my fob, and my 2012 car, I can start the car even if the fob battery dies. But if my phone dies, I will be SOL.

Luckily, said backup battery that I carry in my car has a USB port to recharge my phone. But even then, what if the network is down? Am I to trust Bluetooth to do its thing?

These failure modes require some thinking through before going anywhere remote. I'd want to work all this out before taking another driving holiday with my family.

<comment><USER48> If the battery is flat on the car then you are still pretty much out of luck even if you can get in. The only advantage to being able to open it is to use it as shelter in a emergency situation

<comment><USER49> That depends on the vehicle. If it's an ICE with a manual transmission, and you can get it moving fast enough, you can pop the clutch to start it. Back in the day, with a ~dead battery, I'd park on a hill. Even without a hill, 2-3 people can generally just push.

<comment><USER50> And what percentage are manual transmission vehicles these days? Probably less than 1

<comment><USER51> 90% of southern Europe?

<comment><USER52> Why just southern Europe? Here in West Europe there is still a vast majority of manual transmission.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Recording industry revenues back to pre-internet, musicians are poorer than ever - <AUTHOR> https://boingboing.net/2018/04/24/which-side-are-you-on-3.html <comment><USER2> As far as I can tell, the title is a flat out lie.

> Global recorded music revenues reached $17.4 billion in 2017, putting it > just a hair below 2008's $17.7 billion in revenues.

So revenue, not adjusted for inflation, is nearly back to 2008 levels, hardly "pre-internet". The actual revenue peak in 1999 was $25.2 billion, which is $37.1 billion, inflation adjusted to 2017. So industry revenue is at less than HALF of pre-Napster levels.

</comment><comment><USER3> When you pay-per-play, you're bound to make the majority go for broke.

At least they had CD sales they could count on.

</comment><comment><USER4> Don't ignore the fact that internet opened up the arena for many more musicians.</comment>


Map: The Changing Front Lines Every Day of World War II - <AUTHOR> http://thesoundingline.com/map-of-the-day-every-day-of-world-war-ii/ <comment><USER2> Blogspam wrapper for

[https://youtu.be/WOVEy1tC7nk](https://youtu.be/WOVEy1tC7nk)</comment>


An industry has developed around the online resale of clothes - <AUTHOR> https://www.1843magazine.com/style/mobile-magnates <comment><USER2> My wife has a website[0] selling vintage items to Japan that she finds in flea markets, eBay, classifieds, charity shops etc. Mostly fabrics and kitchen stuff rather than fashion items though. Pretty good profit margins on each item, but it's very labor-intensive. Every item is unique, so it takes time to takes photos, upload, write a description ... Once it's sold, most of this effort is gone and you need to move on to the next item.

In that sense, I imagine teenagers might have time and energy for this kind of sales process. The big money is made by those online portals and apps, rather than the sellers.

[0] [https://www.frau-vintage.com](https://www.frau-vintage.com)

<comment><USER3> One of the most surreal moments of my life involved traveling to Japan in the early 2000's and encountering a t-shirt from my high school at a clothing resale shop.

<comment><USER4> On a trip to South Korea more than 10 years ago, I was in a "hip" clothing store with my wife's cousins. We found a shelf of hats that said "Mount Cabot Lodge" \+ my home town & state.

My home town has ~15000 people, is not really famous for anything and there's no "Mount Cabot Lodge". Mt Cabot is actually ~200mi away. I figure someone threw a dart at a map of the US and used that to pick the town. I regret not buying it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It is a huge business. My mom has sold thousands of dollars worth of clothes online after she lost weight (just don't ask my dad how much she originally paid for all of it).

</comment><comment><USER6> This was tried in the first dot-com boom. It was called Tradeweave. They were trying to make a market in excess clothing sold off by retailers. That didn't work out.

This is more like eBay - an army of poor schlubs doing all the work while the advertising site takes a cut.

</comment><comment><USER7> Yes, all those things are interesting to read and spot on. What I need is 1. the person to set up the fast fabulous web site, 2. the person to take the photos, 3. the person to write up the blurbs (could combine 2 and 3) and 4 the person to keep track, package and post out the items. It is all very well to talk about mom and pop stores, but part of the problem is not necessarily lack of understanding etc. but lack of time and energy and money to pay for it. Very hard to combine bricks and mortar and internet in this business without employing people with enthusiasm and expertise. If you are covering outgoings in small business today you are doing well. Making money is the next level!

</comment><comment><USER8> [https://www.trendsales.dk/?ref=www.trendsales.com](https://www.trendsales.dk/?ref=www.trendsales.com) an original Danish fashion blog turned into a marketplace for used fashion clothes got bought some years back still doing really well and expanding.

</comment><comment><USER9> Reminds me of StockX - so-called "Stock Market of Things" that was launched a few years ago. StockX, however, deals only in unworn/unused sneakers and streetwear.

</comment><comment><USER10> The secret is buying from goodwill and reselling online. It's a great side hustle and easy.

<comment><USER11> My sister does this. She makes a few thousand a month selling stuff on ebay that she picks out of the bins at Goodwill in Portland.

I went up there for Christmas to help automate her workflow. She was doing it on Gen 1 Surface which was less than ideal. So I gave her my old computer. She actually likes digging through the bins looking for gems. It is just listing them on eBay that is pain since she has to wash the stuff and then take pictures and write up a description and list things.

She has a good eye. I went to the bins with with her and she would pull out a pair of yoga pants and say should could get 60 bucks for them. And she did.

So there is a bit of skill involved. But she consistently makes a nice chunk of change and I would say about 95% of what she lists get sold.</comment></comment>


One Year at My Standing Desk - <AUTHOR> http://smarterware.org/9229/one-year-at-my-standing-desk <comment><USER2> I don't get it. Why buy a table on which you ONLY can stand at, when you can get one you can both stand and sit at? They're rather cheap as well: <http://www.business.ikea.com/sv-se/products/s29806903/></comment>


How to name your startup: A 9 month first-hand journey through rebranding - <AUTHOR> http://www.learndot.com/findings/how-to-name-your-startup/

<comment><USER2> According to the article, one of the reasons they changed the company name is because it was hard for people to understand the old name when spoken verbally.

Their new name seems to have the same problem.

For example:

Learndot: "Email me at paul-at-learn-dot-dot-com"

Customer: "learn dot com?"

Learndor "No, learn dot dot com"

Customer "???"

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey pud, OP here.

The thing is, we never say the domain. We say the name of the company. I totally agree that "Learn dot dot com" is confusing. But "Learn dot" isn't. Vast majority of people use Google to find things on the web (that was the theory). Last couple weeks of trying it out has backed that up.

<comment><USER2> In that case:

Learndot: "Our company is called learndot."

Customer: "Learn dot what?"

Learndot: "Learn dot nothing - that's the name of the company."

Customer: "Learn dot nothing?"

Learndot: "Well, dot com."

Customer: "Learn dot com? Why didn't you say that?"

Learndot: "No, it's learn dot dot com."

Customer: "Dot dot?"

Learndot: "No, the first dot is spelled dee-oh-tee."

Customer: "???"

I hope I'm not coming across as snarky. Naming isn't easy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fair enough - usually I just say "Learndot, dee oh tee" and it's no problem. Though I agree it's not perfect. The other factors balanced it out (spellability, MVP-ness and so forth).

You're right, naming is hard.

<comment><USER3> Pud is right. You would have been better off going to a naming company/consultant that does this as its trade, and also does the foreign language checks, trademark searches, and so forth. Most large companies outsource that sort of stuff because branding isn't their core competency. Sorry to be so blunt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> First off: great post!

I've told clients similar things before. You need to be able to tell someone your website name and be able to have them find it very easily. Unless you're one of the only ones in your space and people will find your site searching for key terms, it's very important that your site is easy to find, pronounce and spell.

With all that said, I'm curious as to why you went with a logo that, to me, is hard to read? Before I even got to the body of your post, I was looking at the background on the header image and struggled with:

Leai ndot...

Why did I have problems with this? The dot is often used as a syllable spacer when you are looking at pronunciation guides. For example: mis·take.

I don't know if you considered this but I thought I'd mention it because I can't be the only one. It seemed appropriate to mention since having a logo that is easy to read and understand should go along with having a name that is easy to pronounce and understand.

<comment><AUTHOR> [meta: HN is a great critic, the two biggest issues we had before pulling the trigger was this one and what pud pointed out :)]

This was a tough call. We thought it was a clever design that tied together the name mark and the logo. In the post I mentioned I printed it out and got people on the street to read it – that was specifically because some people found the 'r' hard to read!

If it turns out to be an issue for a lot of people, we'll revisit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm interested in this particular thing:

 _Twitter handle was registered, but had never tweeted and looked abandoned. I contacted a friend who works at Twitter and after a bit of investigation was able to get @learndot as well_

Is this something that's easy to do? Can it be done if you don't know anyone inside Twitter? I had to settle for something like @myappnameapp instead of @myappname because the username was already taken but had never been used. I'd be interested to learn what are the Twitter policies regarding this.

<comment><USER6> The way to do this (I've heard) if you do not know anyone at Twitter is to buy a lot of ads then ask your sales rep to see if they can help.

<comment><USER7> That's certainly one way to get to know somebody who works at Twitter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think the most important – and only thing – you should worry about naming stuff is simply not having a terrible name. Honestly, learndot is very poor for the reasons pud articulated.

* Have the .com

* Be able to pronounce it and the url without confusion.

Got those two things? Great, now get back to shipping your product. Seriously, names are irrelevant and unless you have mega cash you're not going to get a 10x name (eg: path.com) so just make sure you're not terrible.

Here is a better name for learndot: learnduck.com you're welcome.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hey, let me also jump on the bandwagon of armchair-quarterbacking your decision! -Insert quip about how easy it is to do this stuff here...- Boom! I showed you!

Seriously, I'm not sure why everyone in this thread is so convinced that their name or name-choosing process is somehow genius or better than that of the OP. Obviously the OP knows that choosing a name is tough and you're never going to get the perfect name. It's all about compromising in the right places to get a name, a domain, a social presence, and so forth.

Personally, I found the story educational and a close parallel to my own difficulties with choosing names. I'm especially grateful for the discussion of buying the domain name. I'd like to hear the actual dollar value, but I can understand why that wasn't mentioned. At least it's clear that the price moved by $1000's which gives some frame of reference instead of us just guessing whether it was $100 or $100,000.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Micah. The final price was greater than 1k and less than 5k.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Shameless plug of my own take on this: <http://messymatters.com/nominology>

Sam Stokes (Rapportive co-founder) called it his "favourite post on naming things". :)

Ooh, and Sam's _coworker_ called it "absolutely brilliant". I might be reaching now.

<comment><USER11> How would you rate Learndot based on that scale?

<comment><USER10> Great question! Let's see...

EVOC: green, especially with the cute tagline, "learning, period"

BREV: green or yellow; slightly shorter than wikipedia

GREP: green; perfectly greppable

GOOG: green; perfectly googlable

PRON: green; perfectly pronounceable

SPEL: yellow or red, given the confusion with "learn dot dot com"

VERB: yellow; the verbification isn't obvious but probably verbable

So all in all I think it's a good name!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> _It should say (or at least suggest) what you do, who you are, and what makes you different; your position in a word or two._

I spoke to a branding/marketing guy the other day that had a very interesting philosophy behind product and company names. His idea was that your name should make _no_ sense until you explain it to someone.

If you name your company "Stan's Golf Lessons" then you fit into the crowd. You don't stand out. Your customer know's exactly what you do based on your name and they don't dig for more information. They also don't remember you in specific when they want golf lessons. Instead, name your company "Perfect Lies". This gets peoples attention. They have no clue what you do, but it piques their interest. They ask what it means. You tell them you give golf lessons, and suddenly the name Perfect Lies makes more sense (for non-golfers, 'lie' means where your ball sits on the course). They remember you.

</comment><comment><USER13> I really like the story behind the domain acquisition. It sounded like it was going to be unfun before you got to it, but I'm really glad it went over well and it sounds like both parties were happy.

Sometimes it's the hardest part of the rebranding.

</comment><comment><USER14> I learned quite an interesting "hack" to aid in naming a company. Talk to children, under 10, and see what names they come up with and their reaction. You will be quite surprised!

edit: a little proof; yumbud.com

</comment><comment><USER15> Tangentally related, мотыга is Russian for Hoe. As unglamorous and boring word as it gets.

[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoe_(tool)>

</comment><comment><USER16> Nice reading. The catch-22 mentioned in the article ringed a bell to me. I'm prone to analysis paralysis whenever I need to choose a name, especially if I start thinking about these kind of things. Seriously, it's been about four months since I decided to choose a new nickname on github, and so far I didn't find anything that satisfies me.

This tendency leads me to take the opposite strategy: take a word that has no special meaning (checking first that it has no bad connotations, of course), that sounds rather good and it's easy to spell. I also often wonder if taking a name that has a deep relation with your current targets won't hurt you whenever you need to pivot.

I also liked the discussion that developed on another thread about a month ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4684599>

</comment><comment><USER17> I think that spending 9 months on a naming problem and coming up with a name that is still not very good at all is indicative of the real problem which is that you guys need to look for outside help on this one from someone who has the expertise to actually execute well in this area.

If you had done this originally, this blog post would never have been written, but you would have had a superior name to learndotdotcom 8+ months ago.

I know it may look bad to change your name again, but thinking long term, this confusion around this name is going to impact your organisation in ways that you can't even measure so if it is at all an option at this case I would strongly recommend pursuing an alternate path.

Sometimes its cheaper to do things the expensive way.

</comment><comment><USER18> So, you spent 9 months on changing a name (which IMHO is just as peculiar as matygo, as the comments in this thread have shown), rather than working on your product itself?

Nice blog mate, but seriously think you're losing track of time here. Facebook (thefacebook), Twitter (twttr), Google (a typo of Googol) are all products that didn't take naming too seriously when they started. Don't you think spending 9 months on a rebranding campaign for a startup that was set up just 3 years ago is a little rash?

Personally, loved the earlier Matygo logo.... the 2 word bubbles intersecting told me everything I needed to know about the company. And the business card was sharp too.

Hope this all works out for you guys! :)

</comment><comment><USER19> _Instead, put your subconscious to work on it. Think about it in the shower. Bounce names around off hand. Be patient._

I'm a big fan of this technique in many aspects of my work. Whether it be a programming problem or needing to work through a creative idea, if I'm not 100% confident in a solution I step away from the problem for a day or two and usually have a lot more insight when I come back to it.

BTW, glad to see you guys moving forward; I check your blog once in a while and haven't seen much lately. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER20> I like the story, I like the website - it's pretty. You don't see so many long-form websites. And based on the principle that improvement happens in discernable, incremental steps forward - the new name is much better than the old one. But what do they do? They're selling the sizzle, but to get to the steak, you've got to sign up - estimate the number of 'learners' you might create, and so on. This sounds more critical than it's meant to be. But what do they do?

</comment><comment><USER21> The most attractive website, with a catchy name, and all the bells and whistles amounts to nothing if your product is nothing to be proud of.

Why not choose a simple name with a different TLD? Basecamp has been basecamphq all these years. Also, read Evan Williams' thoughts on this: [http://evhead.com/2011/06/five-reasons-domains-are-less- impo...](http://evhead.com/2011/06/five-reasons-domains-are-less- important.html)

</comment><comment><USER22> A hack that we used in my previous startup was to come up with a bunch of names, then send out a survey to friends and potential target customers and asking them how much they like the name. You can also randomize the questions so that people can just choose names that they like, then tell them what the service is about, then have them choose again.

Takes the whole, "I like this name" arguments out of the mix.

</comment><comment><USER23> Hi Paul,

how much time / money did it cost you to register your trademark? I've heard from various sources that the time can be from 1 mth to 6 mth, and money from $300 to $2000, so just wanted to check with the person who had first-hand experience.

Also, can you recommend a lawyer for this kind of stuff.

thank you

<comment><USER24> I haven't received the legal bill yet for the trademark work. Expect it to be close to the middle of the range you gave. Time was minimal, a couple emails to our trademark agent was all it took.

We're in Vancouver and our lawyers are Clark Wilson. I'm happy but this is my first time registering a trademark, so I don't have a frame of reference.

email paul at learndot.com if you have other questions. :)

<comment><USER23> Thank you...will do for sure.

So you are Canadians, nice to see the start-up land diversifying a bit. I was in Toronto 14 years ago, loved Canada. Good luck with re-branding! :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I like this post!

Your "three tests of a name" don't mention "does someone else own that name, or something similar, and are they likely to sue?" That could be important for some people.

I'm really relieved that your name is 'learndot', and not 'learn.'.

</comment><comment><USER26> While this comment may not contribute much because I didn't read the article yet I would like to complain on the font size way too big for me to read comfortably without resorting to zoom. Not just the text but the "Stay Updated" area in the bottom too.

</comment><comment><USER27> I like it. I like the business cards. I like all of it!!

</comment><comment><USER28> The ability to fluidly fire off your website address is just as important as the actual name itself. You fumbled twice in a row, my friend.

</comment><comment><USER29> I was thinking about getting "sheeple media", dot com and trademarks but it is a bit condescending if you know what I mean.

</comment><comment><USER30> learndot[dot]com

"how to name your compnay"

nothx</comment>


EC2's most dangerous feature - <AUTHOR> http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2016-10-09-EC2s-most-dangerous-feature.html <comment><USER2> The blog post buries the lead a little bit because it's talking about lots of pain points with the ec2 API and IAM. The important point to take away is that any process with network access running on your instance can contact the EC2 metadata service at [http://169.254.169.254](http://169.254.169.254) and get the instance-specific IAM credentials.

Think about things like services that accept user submitted URLs, crawl them, and display results...

<comment><USER3> This is actually a vulnerability I've seen countless times. If a site accepts a URL which it reads and returns to the user, submit the 169.254.169.254 metadata service. About 1 out of 5 times I've tried it, I'm about to get a response.

<comment><USER4> I think that's another example of bad filtering, same thing that happens if you accept an URL and don't disallow `file:///etc/passwd`.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What I've done for a previous company was to, as one of the very first things done within every EC2 instance, add an iptables owner match rule to only allow packets destined to 169.254.169.254 if they come from uid 0. Any information from that webservice that non-root users might need (for instance, the EC2 instance ID) is fetched on boot by a script running as root and left somewhere in the filesystem.

<comment><USER6> This won't help with IAM roles, since the credentials provided in the metadata expire. Of course, a small tweak to the iptables entry would help there as well.

Mind posting your entry for us iptables impared folks?

<comment><USER5> I don't work there anymore, so I don't have access to the exact rule I used, but IIRC it was something like

iptables -t filter -I OUTPUT -d 169.254.169.254 -m owner \\! --uid-owner 0 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-admin-prohibited

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hopefully the operators using EC2 instance profiles understand and weigh the risks of using that feature. It's good to be cautious, but the feature is only dangerous if you don't take the time to understand it. Running a server on the Internet at all is "dangerous" in the same sense. And for this particular risk, it turns out there's a simple fix.

He _is_ right in his first criticism that the IAM access controls available for much of the AWS API are entirely inadequate. In the case of EC2 in particular, it's all or nothing--either your credentials can call the TerminateInstances API or they can't. I'm sure Amazon is working on improving things, but for now it's pretty terrible. But in practice it just means you have to take care in different ways than you would if his tag-based authz solution were implemented.

That said, while it's certainly frustrating to an implementor, it's not "dangerous" that limitations exist in these APIs. We're talking about decade- old APIs from the earliest days of AWS, and while things have been added, the core APIs are still the same. That's an amazing success story. But like any piece of software, there are issues that experienced users learn how to work around.

You can bet that the EC2 API code is hard and scary to deal with for its maintainers. Adding a huge new permissions scheme is likely nearly impossible without a total rewrite... I don't envy them their task.

<comment><USER8> It's _impossible_ to limit access to any part of the instance metadata in any way w/o firewalling (which has its own issues) or even to expire access to any part of it. Since instance profiles have keys (even though automatically rotated), _any_ process on the system, owned by _any_ user, can access anything exposed via the instance role. This makes embedding IAM keys into your instance and protecting it by root-only or ACL's MUCH MUCH safer... but AWS specifically states that instance profiles are preferred. In fact, for our Userify AWS instances (ssh key management), we are _required_ to use instance roles and not allowed to offer the option. (This is why we do not offer S3 bucket storage on our AWS instances but we do on Pro and Enterprise self- hosted.)

The biggest issue with the IAM instance profiles is that they trade security for convenience.. and it's not a good trade.

<comment><USER9> For the most part EC2 instances should be single-purpose. Use tiny instances that do _one job_. Your IAM role describes the permissions that should be granted to that _one job_. It's absolutely true that you cannot isolate permissions at the process level, but by using single-job-type instances, you can easily isolate permissions on a per-job (in this model, per-instance) basis.

<comment><USER10> What? Why should EC2 instances be single-purpose? Amazon offers a wide variety of massive instance sizes with 160+gb of RAM and 30+ cores. It's extremely common to run software like mesos, kubernetes, docker, etc on these. Dedicating an instance per app is extremely cost-ineffective.

<comment><USER9> EC2 instances should be single-purpose (Or, if you want to mux containers onto the instance and retain per-container/job IAM role isolation, use ECS) if you're developing for AWS as a platform. I'm a huge fan of k8s, and have respect for Mesos, but these are largely alternatives to the model provided by EC2/ECS/IAM.

In a perfect world, any service would cleanly interoperate with any other service. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world. If you want to take advantage of `advanced` features in a given platform, you have to understand the drawbacks and limitations of those features, and what it means when they aren't available on another platform.

To me, the greatest tragedy in the way EC2 operates is that it looks/tastes/smells like a `server`, but it's far more akin to a process.

<comment><USER8> Well.. an EC2 instance running Linux is not a process or even a container, even if functionally it's easier to treat it like one.

It is a full virtual server with its own Linux kernel and operating system: it has to be updated, secured, and maintained just like any other Linux server. Most Linux distributions on an EC2 instance have dozens of processes already running out of the box.

I understand your point -- that ideally a single instance can be treated as a single functional point from the point of view of the application, and I agree, but not from a point of view of security. As you know, in any larger environment, there are likely many additional support applications running on that server: things like app server monitoring, file integrity, logging, management, security checks, remote data access or local databases, etc. Those must not all be treated with the same levels of security and access. (i.e., why would rsyslog or systemd need access to all objects in our S3 bucket or be able to delete instances or any of the other rights that might legitimately be granted to an instance via an IAM instance role?)

To treat security for all of these processes as if they're all part of the same app tosses out decades of operating system development and security principles and places your single function app, as well as that of your entire environment, at grave risk. I.e., there's a reason why a typical Linux distribution has about 50 accounts right out of the box and everything doesn't just run as root.

If you are developing or deploying microservices or containers and don't want to be burdened by the security requirements, then there are alternatives at AWS like ECS and Lambda that you should seriously consider.

<comment><USER9> Amusing examples, systemd/rsyslog, as both at least briefly execute as root, with rsyslog being relied upon to willingly drop its own privs (Not to mention being slowly replaced by systemd-journald, which runs as root), and systemd always running as root (ya know, since it's init, and all).

It really sounds like we have vastly different ideas about what kinds of processes belong in an EC2 instance, as well as the ideal life-cycle of an EC2 instance. I tend to adopt a strategy of relatively short-lived EC2 instances that get killed and replaced frequently. Persistence that depends on a single instance surviving is avoided at all costs, in favor of persistence distributed across a number of instances (or punted out to Dynamo/S3/RDS).

You're absolutely right that there is a reason why the typical Linux distro has 50 accounts out of the box -- it was built with traditional multi-user system security models in mind. I sure as hell appreciate it on workstations and traditional stateful hosts. That said, eschewing the traditional security model in favor of an alternative model does not make your environment inherently more or less safe -- there are going to be pros and cons to both approaches (in terms of both security and functionality).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> tl;dr:

1) IAM instance roles have _no_ security mechanisms to protect them from being read from any process on the instance, thus completely eliminating them from all Linux/UNIX/Windows permission systems. (The real reason for this is that instance metadata was a convenient semi-public information store for things like instance ID, but it was extended to also provide secret material, which was, at best, an idiotic move.) As the author points out, Xen already provided a great filesystem alternative that could be mounted as another drive (or network drive) to be managed with the regular OS filesystem permission system. (reading an instance ID is just a matter of reading a "file")... for some reason, AWS didn't leverage this and instead just added the secret material to its local instance metadata webserver.

2) the API calls are not fine grained enough and/or there are big holes in their coverage -- so, for instance, if you want to use some other AWS services, you can end up exposing much more than you intended.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is interesting! Can this be abused with AWS-hosted services that reach out to fetch URLs? For example, image hosts that allow specifying an URL to retrieve, or OAuth callbacks, etc? Are there any tricks to be played if someone were to register a random domain and point it to 169.254.169.254 (or worse, flux between 169.254.169.254 and a public IP in case there is blacklisting application code that first checks to resolve the hostname but then passes the whole URL into a library that resolves again?)

<comment><USER13> That's a fairly common vulnerability. A good approach for services that need to fetch arbitrary URLs is roughly:

1\. Resolve hostname and remember the response

2\. Verify that the response does not contain any addresses in a private IP space, or any other IP that is only accessible to you

3\. Use the IP from step 1 when establishing a connection

With other solutions, you might end up being vulnerable to DNS rebinding attacks.

Bonus points for doing all your URL fetching in some sort of sandbox that enforces these access rules.

<comment><USER8> This is accurate.

Remember that even ELB's in AWS have IP's that change all the time, and this itself is actually a source of vulnerabilities from apps that don't respect DNS TTL's (as has been seen in the forums repeatedly -- apps get connected to the previous IP instead of the new one). It's probably safer to retrieve and verify the IP for each request, and just cache if the IP is 'safe'. (And just doing IP subnet calculations is non-trivial in most less-common languages.)

Also, request throttling should be maintained and HTTP verb checking, to prevent being turned into a proxy for other attacks.

Actually, _any_ decision to accept an arbitrary URL should be carefully examined in light of how hard it is to do safely.

<comment><USER14> What if we just check whether target host is 169.254.169.254 before allowing an HTTP call?

<comment><USER15> As long as you manually get the IP for every domain. I.e. if they ask for "blah.com" you have to get the IP, check it, then turn it into "curl -H 'Host: blah.com' [http://IP"](http://IP"). (Otherwise, it may be a race condition that allows the DNS server to resolve to a different IP address the 2nd time. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_check_to_time_of_use](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_check_to_time_of_use) )

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is an interesting attack that I must confess I hadn't thought of, but surely any service that accepts an arbitrary URL has a list of IP ranges to avoid. However, to harden a role in the event of instance role credentials leaking, you could use an IAM Condition [0].

There is actually an example of this in the IAM documentation [1], although the source VPC parameter doesn't work for all services, and I can't see a list of services that support this parameter. This would ensure that the requests actually came from instances within your VPC.

[0] [http://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_po...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements.html#Condition)

[1] [http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/example- bucke...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/example-bucket- policies-vpc-endpoint.html#example-bucket-policies-restrict-access-vpc)

<comment><USER8> The point is not requests that originate elsewhere. The point is that this system is not protected in any way from any other process on your system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > almost as trivial for EC2 instances to expose XenStore as a filesystem to > which standard UNIX permissions could be applied, providing IAM Role > credentials with the full range of access control functionality which UNIX > affords to files stored on disk.

Doesn't this become more complicated when you think about EC2 offering Windows instances? Even with straight UNIX file writing, what writes this? Where does it write this? Which user has read permissions?

<comment><USER8> In UNIX, the same way that EBS volumes are mounted... think of the /proc or /sys virtual filesystems.

In Windows, I'm guessing that this would be exposed as a network drive.

<comment><USER17> My point is that these type of solutions create a lot more overhead, inconsistency and variation compared to a HTTP request; granted, less security.

<comment><USER18> I'm sure that's why they went with HTTP -- it is universal and will work the same way everywhere.

I still think they should just disable it by default, so you have to "opt-in" to the potential security risk and plan accordingly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've used firewall rules in the past to scope the metadata store to admin users.

<comment><USER20> That's better than nothing, but runs into problems if you have different users who need to be able to access different subsets of the metadata store.

<comment><USER5> An admin user could fetch these subsets of the metadata and leave a copy of them in the local filesystem.

<comment><USER20> That doesn't work for IAM Roles, because (a) AWS library code expects to get the keys out of the metadata store, and (b) IAM Role credentials are periodically rotated, so the keys you downloaded in advance would expire.

<comment><USER21> It's true that instance profile roles today supply credentials to the entire server. One benefit of virtualization is that it's reasonable to run small, single-purpose VMs. However if you do wish to restrict role credentials to certain processes, there are ways of doing it, such as using EC2 Container Service with task-level IAM Roles [1]:

> Credential Isolation: A container can only retrieve credentials for the IAM > role that is defined in the task definition to which it belongs; a container > never has access to credentials that are intended for another container that > belongs to another task.

If you do firewall the instance metadata service and want to get credentials into individual processes, then you could do that using one of the credential providers in the AWS SDK. I haven't worked with every language SDK, but service clients in the SDK for Java take an AWSCredentialsProvider as input, and you can pick from a number of standard implementations [2] or define a custom one.

> An admin user could fetch these subsets of the metadata and leave a copy of > them in the local filesystem.

So if you wanted to take this approach, an admin agent could periodically copy the role credentials as property files into the home directories of users that need them, and then applications could load them by configuring the SDK with ProfileCredentialsProvider (which can refresh credentials periodically). The admin agent could perhaps be a shell script run by cron that `curl`s from the instance metadata service and writes the output to designated files.

[1] [http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/t...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/task- iam-roles.html) [2] See ProfileCredentialsProvider and DefaultAWSCredentialsProviderChain

<comment><USER20> _One benefit of virtualization is that it 's reasonable to run small, single- purpose VMs._

Single-purpose doesn't mean single-user. Lots of services divide their code into "privileged" and "unprivileged" components in order to reduce the impact of a vulnerability in the code which does not require privileges. As far as I'm aware, there's no way to have an sshd process which is divided between two EC2 Containers...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> EC2 instances are designed to enforce isolation between instances, not processes. Presumably there would only be one primary service running on each.

Use AWS be pushed towards an architecture based on containers and services. AWS is the OS, not any individual machine.

</comment><comment><USER8> Until AWS fixes this (which, as the article points out, may never happen), a chmod'ed 600 file (only readable by root) is actually much safer, even when STS auto-rotation is taken into account.

</comment><comment><USER23> If users can issue arbitrary commands on an instance then that instance should have zero Iam roles and should delegate actions to services running on separate instances.

The instances hosting our users go a step further and null route Metadata service requests via iptables.

<comment><USER24> It isn't just about users, its also about malicious software you may accidentally install, if for example a library you use is compromised as has happened before with Ruby gems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> It's much like the same Problem with the Google Cloud. Even worse there I'd say.

<comment><USER26> I just double checked, and the most similar thing we expose is the token's for each service-account in the instance metadata. As pointed out in the article, any uid on the box can read that. But, you can create instances with a zero- permission service account (the equivalent of nobody?) and just avoid it.

This does mean that everywhere else you'd have to have explicit service accounts and such, but that seems like a reasonable "workaround" until or unless we make metadata access more granular (I like the block device idea! Would you want entirely different paths for JSON versus "plain" though?)

<comment><USER27> Google Cloud does seem better here. The exception is GKE — Kubernetes nodes are associated with service accounts which have permissions that, if abused by a malicious Docker container, could be disasterous for your entire cluster.

Considering the amount of unpatched Docker containers out there, that's a bit scary. It also effectively prevents GKE from being usable in any scenario where you want to schedule containers on behalf of third-party actors (think PaaS). (GKE also doesn't let you disable privileged Docker containers, but that's another story.)

On AWS you can run a metadata proxy to prevent pods from getting the credentials, but I don't know of a clean way to accomplish the same thing on GKE.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you're sharing the same instance for multiple users, trying to achieve security among the users is almost impossible anyway. That's why physical separation/virtualization is one of the first thing to focus on when talking about security.

<comment><USER8> Isolation is definitely important, but not all parts of the system running a single function need the same levels of access, and in fact it may be possible to target those components separately. Take a look at the wikipedia articles for 'defense in depth' or 'privilege separation' to see how important it is _inside_ a system to treat each component isolated to itself as much as possible. (This is also why you don't want to rely on only a perimeter firewall for access control.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> IAM instance roles are still an improvement over how it was typically done in the past: hard-coding the same key in a configuration file and deploying it everywhere.

It's a balance between security and convenience.

</comment><comment><USER30> I wonder how many services on Amazon allow user-configurable webhooks that can be pointed to [http://169.254.169.254](http://169.254.169.254) ...

</comment><comment><USER31> Same happens with metadata access in Openstack.

The access is controlled by source IP (and namespace). I wonder if it's possible to spoof the IP and access Metadata of other servers/users.

</comment><comment><USER32> It has been the case for 10 years, anyone knows that, I don't see the problem. If you're not happy with it just use API keys.

<comment><USER33> IAM instance roles were only added in 2012: [https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/iam-roles-for- ec2-instances...](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/iam-roles-for- ec2-instances-simplified-secure-access-to-aws-service-apis-from-ec2/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> OK, dwaxe, I have to ask: Are you a robot? Because I uploaded this blog post, tweeted it, and then came straight over here to submit it and you _still_ got here first.

Not that I mind, but getting your HN submission in within 30 seconds of my blog post going up is very impressive if you're _not_ a robot.

<comment><USER34> Assuming dwaxe replies claiming to not be a robot, how would we go about verifying? :P

<comment><USER35> I heard robots float on water

<comment><USER36> What also floats on water?

<comment><USER37> Ducks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> The number of people in this thread not merely nodding their heads and mmhmm- ing (or the internet equivalent) is a concern.</comment>


Internet-Draft: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Version 3 (HTTP/3) - <AUTHOR> https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-quic-http-17 <comment><USER2> Some recent discussions about the proposed HTTP/3 standard:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427795](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427795)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18517047](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18517047)

</comment><comment><USER3> Still no SRV record support. Of course.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15906664#15908696](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15906664#15908696)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549348#8550133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549348#8550133)

<comment><USER4> Have any of the people wanting SRV record support in HTTP/3 gone to the working group and proposed it? I searched the working group mailing list and couldn't find any discussion of this topic.

<comment><USER5> [http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http- wg/2015AprJun/...](http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http- wg/2015AprJun/0674.html)

That's the final answer for HTTP2. They note as well that, were they to have proceeded, that the SRV record type would be inappropriate regardless and some new type would be needed.

Therefore, proposing "SRV" to the HTTP working group for HTTP3 will not succeed. Proposing a new DNS record type might succeed, but it would no longer be called SRV.

Based on their reply, I warn you to set your expectations low: proposing a new DNS record type to address their stated concerns would likely take enough time itself that it cannot ship a final RFC in time to be considered for HTTP/3.

<comment><USER4> From Mark Nottingham's email:

> the unfortunate limitations of some DNS gateways/proxies

With growth in public DNS services like 188.8.131.52 and 22.214.171.124, plus the advent of DNS-over-HTTPS, I wonder for how much longer that will be a problem.

<comment><USER5> TLS 1.3 (2006) was held up for months-to-years by the "unfortunate limitations of some TLS gateways/proxies", and PCI compliance only requires TLS 1.1 as of this year (2018 — 12 years later).

What solution is available that avoids high-latency additional round-trip requests and would be compatible with today's "unfortunate" gateways and proxies?

DNS-over-HTTPS failed for me constantly while traveling, due to captive wifi portals that try to force you into your browser so they can get your Facebook cookie.

DNS-over-HTTPS does not necessarily address the round-trip concerns, as it is simply a transport layer for DNS requests and does not guarantee the browser's ability to coalesce plural DNS requests prior to sending them up for resolution.

So in light of TLS slowness and DoH unfamiliarity to the marketplace, I personally would expect Mark's described limitations to remain applicable for at least another ten years.

<comment><USER6> TLS 1.3 was finalized in August 2018, the first draft is from 2014. [1]

[1]: [https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls- tls13/00/](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-tls13/00/)

<comment><USER5> Ugh, too late to fix, but thanks for pointing out the error. It should say TLS 1.1, not 1.3, there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For "why not SCTP" please see prior discussions [0]

0\. [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22quic%22%20%22sctp%22&type=a...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22quic%22%20%22sctp%22&type=all&dateRange=all&prefix&page=0&sort=byDate)

<comment><USER8> Odd that (AFAICT) nobody mentions the most obvious and _useful_ feature of SCTP compared to QUIC: SCTP preserves message boundaries. That's immensely useful in almost every scenario other than existing protocols (like HTTP) that reinvent chunking.

Building on that, SCTP also supports optional unordered delivery--so reliable but unordered message delivery. I didn't know about this before confirming message boundary preservation with the RFC.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Note that this is draft 17, not a finalized outcome.

<comment> e-m-p Exactly. This is still a work-in-progress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wow, just reading this RFC makes my more comfortable compare to reading RFC7540. Possibly because they hided a huge portion of technical details under the keyword QUIC.

I'm not sure I should continue to implement my HTTP/2 server now, as HTTP/3 will overlay almost (as far as I can tell) all the benefit that provided by HTTP/2.

One thing makes me confused though, since:

> The QUIC version being used MUST use TLS version 1.3 or greater as its > handshake protocol.

And most TLS 1.3 implementation supports RFC6066, then why:

> .... This may be done using the Server Name Indication (SNI) [RFC6066] > extension to TLS <bold>or using some other mechanism</bold>.

? I mean, why include any other mechanism while SNI can do the job?

<comment><USER10> Encrypted SNI?

<comment><USER9> I will be happy if by "some other mechanism" they meant "Encrypted SNI".

The thing I really don't like to see is that they might eventually keep using the "Host" header and thus potentially creating ambiguity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does anyone know where I could find numbers on how widespread the usage of HTTP2 is?

<comment><USER12> About 30% of all sites have HTTP/2 support. I don't remember where I saw this. I'm curious why the number is so small because nginx has HTTP/2 out of the box. But if your primary users are using Microsoft IE/Edge I have bad news, this browser has worst HTTP/2 implementation. When we do research on streams prioritization Edge showed that it works like ordinary HTTP/1.1. Safari implementation is based on SPDY, so It has priorities but they never been used in our experiments.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> What typesetting system is this? Is this available somewhere? I love it

<comment><USER14> [https://pypi.org/project/xml2rfc/](https://pypi.org/project/xml2rfc/)</comment></comment>


What you learn in college - <AUTHOR> http://recoding.blogspot.com/2013/01/college-heck-yes.html

<comment><USER2> Half of what you learn in your first year is obsolete by the time you finish? Absolutely patent nonsense.

What do you do in the first year of a CS degree? Probably discrete maths, logic, calculus, certainly a couple of languages like Java, C, ML, computer architecture, some basic software engineering.

Explain to me how any of that could be obsolete within ten years, let alone four. And then explain to me where you got the "half" figure from.

The maths hasn't changed in thirty years, and that's when you include the advanced stuff like category theory. The languages are all twenty years old plus. Architecture is all the same apart from some new buses and multicore.

Just maybe some of the software engineering principles won't be fashionable when you come to graduate, but you're on a CS degree aren't you? Software engineering is a means to an end, not the topic of your study.</comment>


How to Become an Astronaut 101 - <AUTHOR> http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/outreach/jobsinfo/astronaut101.html <comment><USER2> When I started my doolie (freshman) year at the USAF Academy, one of my classmates stated that his mission in life was to become an astronaut. He had been planning it out since he was like 10 years old.

He told us that this was his plan: First he had to get into the Academy, then major in engineering - ideally aeronautical engineering, then become a fighter pilot then become a test pilot and finally apply and become a NASA astronaut. I challenged him to be the first one in space, except I said that I would pay for a ride there as a tourist.

He ended up being the #1 grad from our class with his degree in aero engineering, went on to get his doctorate from Oxford and is now flying the B-1B. Still a few steps to go.

HOWEVER - there is almost no chance of him ever piloting a US spacecraft based largely on where the manned space program is. So while I am a little sad for him, given how hard he has been trying - it also makes our wager look more promising in my favor!

<comment><USER3> Once travel into space is viable for average tourists (not only tourists willing to pay 100 million dollars) it'll probably also require more pilots than today, so I'll say that he still has a better chance being there before you.

<comment><USER2> When I made the bet with my friends, predators/reapers were just starting to come online and it was clear to me that they would be the wave of the future and eventually pilots would be out of the loop.

We certainly aren't there yet but my long term bet is that humans will be pushed further out of the loop for all things transportation - space travel being one of the main ones I would expect to transition first as it's basically there today anyway.

<comment><USER3> At some point in the future: Yes. But there's no way that this will start without at least human backup pilots on board.

And then there's the testing phase where many pilots will be needed to validate the safety of such flights.

Even when you look at various private space travel companies you'll find that they plan to use human pilots. (Virgin Galactic and others)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is decades old. Look at the date. It's about someone who was selected in 1992. "With the space station currently under construction...". This dates from the early Shuttle era.

NASA has far too many astronauts now; they've been laying them off. They're now down to 42 active astronauts[1], from a peak of around 130. One ex- astronaut was grumbling publicly that his pass to NASA Houston had been pulled. Ex-astronauts used to be allowed in for life. Not any more.

After all, NASA has nothing for them to pilot.

Space-X, though...

[1] [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio.html](http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> TL;DR: School > Air Force > 'selected' by NASA.

I thought this was going to be an inspiring 'to do' list of candidates & application processes. Just being selected with no mention of reasoning or criteria was kind of a let down.

<comment><USER6> Have you read "An Astronaut's guide to life on earth"[1] by Chris Hadfield?

Its written in a little more informal context than a to-do list, but it does describe what he (and his family!!!) had to go through.

Brilliant read!

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Astronauts-Guide-Life-Earth- Determinat...](http://www.amazon.com/Astronauts-Guide-Life-Earth- Determination/dp/0316253030)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I applied to ESA Astronaut selection 6 or 7 years ago. I´m airline pilot but with no military or engineering experience, only reading quite a lot about the space race all my live (great resume huh?). I knew I didn't have a chance, because they mostly were asking for a scientific curriculum, Ph.D.'s that had a good number of publications under their belts, that and a good public speaking capacity were the more important characteristics. Piloting skills were in the nice to have but not important by any means zone.

I guess that astronauts this days are mostly researchers in a very high and fast laboratory, but above all they are PR's for the 95% of their career, at least in Europe.

Obviously with my laughable resume I was weeded out in the first screening.

</comment><comment><USER8> Seems to me one's most probable mean to get into space is to get rich and buy yourself a seat. Getting rich is something much more into your control than getting selected and having the will of a government decide of your faith.

<comment><USER9> Don't both situations boil down to win the genetic lottery, be born to the correct parents, be born in a good school district, get accepted into an ivy (not necessarily graduate, but at least get in), by survivorship bias be the lucky one who rises up the management ranks/levels the fastest, operate in the system in a government controlled org, either economic like our highly regulated centrally controlled economy or join the .mil... Its pretty much the same path with some minor scenery differences.

<comment><USER10> Not really a genetic lottery, though some places in the world make it a lot easier to succeed and become rich. Being born or move to any of the western nations will greatly increase your chances. But the person also has to have a will to do so too.

<comment><USER11> _But the person also has to have a will to do so too._

Unless they inherit wealth or connections. My understanding is it's about a 50:50 split between make or inherit worldwide depending on what you call weath.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Its fun to see Cady on here. She lives in my little village of Shelburne Falls, MA and sometimes plays in a free Sunday morning celtic jam session in a town.

Here is Cady doing a duet in space with a member of Jethro Tull:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeC4nqBB5BM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeC4nqBB5BM)

</comment><comment> drew-y I find it easier to just play Kerbal Space Program.

</comment><comment><USER13> Also, don't be a midget (<5'2") or a giant (>6'3"). [1]

[1][http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/featu...](http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Astronaut_Requirements.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> Step 1: get into MIT...

Looks like that train has sailed. :-)</comment>


Today we're launching a new Twitter.com - <AUTHOR> http://twitter.com/ev/status/24518030016 <comment><USER2> I'm excited to see what their value proposition is with this one, but I for one won't really be affected - desktop and mobile Twitter clients are where it's at.

<comment><AUTHOR> According to their stats most usage is on their normal site, not apps. I remember this being different when they were smaller (and less mainstream?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looks like the iPad version of the site. I thought it worked for the iPad, but I'm not sure about the web.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you survive a leap in your career? - <AUTHOR> If you skip 2 or 3 levels and end up in a position in which you have to lead and manage people more experienced or smarter than yourself while also managing a ton of projects and priorities. How should one prepare? I believe a lot of founders of somewhat successful companies had to do it. I am curious on how people successfully do this. <comment><USER2> Delegation is usually the biggest problem for new manager. Second place is probably trusting people to do their work, they will do it in their own way. In our field there are so many ways to solve the problems we have as long as they are solving the problem along guidelines you set, then that is good. Be wary of wanting people to solve problems the way you would solve it.

Hire manager-of-one types of people that don't need hand holding to get their job done. Don't worry that your staff want your job, many of the senior software people do not want management at all.

</comment><comment><USER3> Smarter people are great: you can full-heartedly delegate decisions and say "you are the expert, please decide, I trust you".

See yourself as part of the team with the unique position of gathering information from experts, coordinating and depending on your responsibilities care for the well being of the team and the development of the individuals in it.

About tons of priorities: Here I struggle more myself, because I'm not in the position to delegate much of my own work.

What I do: I write down everything (for me it's org-mode, but that's a matter of taste). This includes tasks of others I delegated (in my system marked as WAIT). ~10% of my tasks are marked as high priority.

This waiting thing however drives me mad. Within my team we use a ticketing system and things get done, but I constantly have to do things with ~7 people outside of my department and have to run after them constantly. Even if they have to-do tools where I make them tickets. I'm at ~30 todo items (that's low for me) and ~70 waiting (that's normal).

</comment><comment><USER4> I got a lot of responsibility quite quickly so I would say I am in this situation. There are a few things I try to do to overcome the problem:

\- You can't do everything and you can't do it perfect every time but you can try your best every time.

\- People you work with are older, smarter and more experienced. So make use of it, ask questions and make it clear that you are willing to learn everything where you lack knowledge.

\- Look out for people who have certain capabilities which you would like to adopt. For example how they interact with a customers or how they organize tasks. Observe how they do that and what their workflow is. Try it and figure out if it fits you too. You can also ask for tips as these people had to figure it out too.

\- Reflect. After some time look back at your work and figure out where things went wrong. Change your workflow to avoid that it happens again.

\- Everyone wings it on an everyday basis, so you can do it too.

</comment><comment><USER5> Just to note, it is usually portrayed as a natural career path, but I think it is a totally different profession. Managing people != engineering. There are lots of veteran coders still doing their jobs as independent contributors even in their 50s and 60s or more.

</comment><comment> q-base Delegate and play other people into strong positions. You cannot do all, and most importantly you shouldn't. Trust other peoples judgement and/or nudge/ask/bait them in the right direction without forcing a solution down their throat.

</comment><comment><USER6> Relax and enjoy the responsibilities. Your day will shift to doing mundane or obvious work that you're now in a position to make better. Listen and ask questions so you can make your position useful and everyone can enjoy and be inspired to keep doing great work!

</comment><comment><USER7> Like preparing for any other new challenge. How would you prepare for using a new tech at work? You would read about it, find a mentor, and possibly take classes. So do the same.

</comment><comment><USER8> Are you founding a startup or did you get promoted in someone else's company? I feel like we need a little bit more context.

</comment><comment><USER9> I am wondering how did you get a leap? Can you give more background?

</comment><comment><USER10> Buckle down and get it done? There's nothing to "survive" here really.</comment>


Government planes mimic cellphone towers to collect user data - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/14/government-planes-mimic-cellphone-towers-to-collect-user-data-report <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8604626](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8604626)

</comment><comment><USER3> This same platform (SHENANIGANS) developed by the NSA that is deployed by the CIA aboard drones to locate individuals for targeted strikes.

I generally support the mission of the US intelligence community, but it seems my greatest fear is coming true: domestic law enforcement wants to play with the cool toys too. As a result the line between foreign intelligence and domestic law enforcement becomes even more blurred.

<comment><USER4> > I generally support the mission of the US intelligence community

We no longer have the freedoms the US intelligence community is supposed to be defending. They have already failed us.

edit: Sure, we have _some_ freedoms, but they are vestigial. In principle, we do not. This is obvious with respect to not being subject to warrantless search and seizure: we officially live in an Orwellian surveillance society. But our freedoms are (less obviously) withering in all other areas as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If government planes are able to mimic industry cell phone towers, I can only assume hackers can do it too.

I'll be paranoid every time my 4G slows down for no reason now.

<comment><USER6> UMTS/LTE (GSMA 3G/4G) has strong mutual authentication, so is generally harder to attack without collaboration from the mobile operator. What should really worry you is when your phone switches over to Edge (GSMA 2G) for no good reason. There's no mutual authentication there(!) so it's trivial for an attacker to impersonate your mobile operator...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Pretty sure they tap into Apple location, Google location and cell phones that registers to fake cells.

</comment><comment><USER8> Have we all given up?</comment>


Trump releases rule requiring hospitals and insurers to disclose rates - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/trump-releases-rule-requiring-hospitals-and-insurers-to-disclose-negotiated-rates.html <comment></comment>