Court Computer Says All Hartford Is Dead (1992) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/30/nyregion/court-computer-says-all-hartford-is-dead.html <comment><USER2> If you think "things are different now and this kind of thing would never happen in modern times," keep in mind that in 2014 a Y2K bug resulted in the government mailing 14,000 draft registration notices to men turning 118 [1].

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8020235](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8020235)

</comment><comment><USER3> Article is light on details, but sounds like a fixed length field issue with "d" overflowing into the status field because the city name was included in the wrong field.

I wonder what field it was included in. The city name would have been included on the questionnaire mailer, but those never went out, so I guess the field could have been anything.

<comment><USER4> Was just going to say the same thing. Seems like all data of that era and before was fixed width for efficiency purposes...I wonder what the 7-char field was

<comment><USER5> State + zip? Example: CT06101

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > The problem came to light in a lawsuit challenging the racial makeup of the > grand jury that indicted Luis Colon Osario, a defendant in the $7.1 million > robbery of a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford in 1983.

Gee, it started out as a chuckle but this is scary. Tsk, seems like there should be some sort of check in place. How would we know if our counties had a similar issue? Sure, sure, that was 1992 but we've got plenty of clever bugs hiding in code written in this century too.

</comment><comment><USER7> "In related news the entire town was listed on a single line as the 'd' appeared in column 72 which everyone knows is the "continuation" column on punched cards."

</comment><comment> awinter-py Cool article! Clearest example I know for demonstrating buffer overflow to laypeople.

</comment><comment><USER8> Good for a laugh.

</comment><comment><USER9> Form overflow.</comment>


Why job descriptions are so bad and is there a business opportunity? - <AUTHOR> Job sites are inundated by meaningless job descriptions for software developer jobs. There's usually a list of technologies complemented by a couple of paragraphs of complete bullshit. There's no reference to the product being developed, upcoming challenges, customer base. You can not even deduce it from the company name, because most job descriptions are posted by recruiting agencies and consultancies that go out of their way to hide their client's name.
I was well into my 1st year working with a great team of professionals at a banking institution when I joked at the lunch table about the worst job description I ever read. Suddenly, my manager turned red and mumbled something about mainframes and old farts. He realized that the job description was coming from his own institution.
Millions of software developers spend endless hours reading through bogus job descriptions. Is there a way to change that? Perhaps, a business opportunity? I realize that those posting job descriptions don't usually realize they need help. But they do. How can we make them aware of that? <comment><USER2> After reading your question text, it Sounds like you're already asking the right questions, so you probably don't need my help to think about this. But I was looking for Qs to answer and hey why not.

On reading the title only, what I thought was: Yes, of course there is a business opportunity. And the reason why they are "so bad" is probably something to do with, the "learning function" is very inefficient.

By that I mean, what sort of feedback does one get on a JD? How can you measure a good JD versus a not good JD? How can you "A/B test"? As they say, if you don't measure it, you can't improve it. I think the lack of a tight feedback loop in JD contributes to making their improvement very slow over time.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about this. In my experience, tech job descriptions are _not so bad_ , but _other_ job descriptions ( anything non tech ) are awful. _What are they even talking about?_ Of course, that might be since they just do not apply to me.

Whatever your idea would be -- I have an inkling ( not that I really have any idea, but hey ) that it could not simply just be _another_ job posting board. It would have to be _some other sort of business model_. Maybe "A/B testing" for job posts? Anywhere, that probably already exists.

Finally, what just occurred to me is: HR / recruitment, it's very much "its own industry". They "have a way of doing things", and are sort of "shielded" from outside, by having a "monopoly" of sorts on the service they provide. Making it seem to me like they may be slow to adopt your "new fangled way" of doing their core business activity. Of course, I could have no idea what I'm talking about. Good luck! Sounds promising.

</comment><comment><USER3> How would you write an attractive story about a polynomial equation? It's the same with job descriptions related to software development. We follow a planning, write code, fix bugs and implement features. Same goes for company A, B or C, etc. Dev tasks are fairly boring and JD's are covering that already.

About the extra BS in a job description... Well, it's just the tip of the iceberg. When you apply for a Dev role, the first step is to speak with an HR person. That's when you get the real dose of BS thrown at your face. Same goes for the hiring manager who lies about the project and your tasks during the interview in order to make it look more attractive. Then we move on to the whiteboard BS step where your "coding skills" get extremely well evaluated. Finally, you might get a low-ball offer just in case you endup saying yes without negotiating. At the end of the fiasco, you'll realize how similar your new job is compared to your previous job. You are probably now working for a much better company or product, but guess what, it's BS. You still have to be "productive" and fix critical bugs, write code in XYZ language while dealing with micro-management everyday in an agile environment where you're the doer, the developer. The original JD was actually fairly accurate. But how about culture fit? Did they even mentioned that during the interview process? Nope. All they want is someone who's extremely good at whiteboarding.

To really answer your question, the whole freakin hiring process is a business opportunity and that's why YC has already signed a lot of related startups.

Fixing job descriptions is like patching a tire. You should look at the global picture to find a real value and a lot of people are already trying to fix it.

</comment><comment><USER4> > How can we make them aware of that?

Never ever entrust recruitment to human resources, except for fundamental and rudimentary tasks.

Make recruiting and retention an important aspect of senior executives' bonus calculations, with clear measures of success, and watch the organization improve overnight.

On this subject, Alan Weiss is brilliant > [https://medium.com/@JSeymourATL/book-review-the-talent- advan...](https://medium.com/@JSeymourATL/book-review-the-talent-advantage- how-to-attract-and-retain-the-best-and-the-brightest-dc0923d7ba5a)</comment>


Jim Keller Resigns from Intel, Effective Immediately - <AUTHOR> https://www.anandtech.com/show/15846/jim-keller-resigns-from-intel-effective-immediately <comment><USER2> The Intel press release: [https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/changes- intels-tech...](https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/changes-intels- technology-systems-architecture-client-group/#gs.7ulzbx)

</comment><comment><USER3> Some more comments in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23493046](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23493046)</comment>


Rooftop QR Codes Aim to Infiltrate Google Earth - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2011/10/05/rooftop-qr-codes-google-maps/ <comment><USER2> Why a QR code and not a big freaking advertising banner?

If it is because there are regulations against advertising.. the QR code is still an advertisement, so that shouldn't be a loophole.

<comment><USER3> I own a company that does this, and most advertisers do prefer to put an ad image instead of a QR code. We focus primarily on sites near flight paths at major airports and the Google Earth/Maps aspect is more of just an added bonus for us so there is some difference in target audience but our clients resoundingly prefer actual ads to QR codes. We've tried selling the idea of rooftop QR codes because they are so much easier to paint than e.g. a photorealistic person who is 250ft tall but haven't had any interest from clients so far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> We used to have this happen all of the time in Second Life. People would throw objects either on roofs, or high up into the sky, which when rendered and seen on the overhead world map, would spell out advertisements for whatever was on that region. Worked surprisingly well for catching the eye.

[http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/...](http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/birds_eye_view_advertising_in_second_life/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Seems a little pricey. I'm not sure what dimensions would be visible from space (if that image is any indication, you need about 20x20 feet?). How much would it actually cost to print a weather-proof banner that size (and it doesn't have to all be on one sheet) - my guess a lot less than $8,500 + $200 "support" fee (whatever that is).

<comment><USER6> You'd need a fairly large ad to be visible in satellite imagery. I suspect this service or anything like it would be a better bet in the higher- resolution areas where Google uses aerial imagery.

<comment><USER7> It's hard to find any concrete details on the resolutions used by GE, and it varies massively by area. I recall their recent investment in one of the (GeoEye?) satellites had a theoretical resolution of 40cm, but is restricted by US regulations to provide a maximum (edit: minimum) pixel size of either 50 or 60cm.

Assuming 1m x 1m pixels, a standard[1] QR code could be fitted inside a 25x25m square. You'd probably want to increase pixel size, and maybe use a smaller version (along with a url shortener, if necessary) to increase the chances of a successful decode.

Aircraft orthoimaging can work at _much_ higher resolutions. An article from 2005[2] shows pictures capable of distinguishing individual faces. I can only assume things have since improved.

[1] of which there are many: <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/QR_code>

[2] [http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2005/09/ultimate_goo...](http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2005/09/ultimate_google.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is pretty cool. I hope someone develops a standard for this.

I imagine putting a QR code on my roof that points to a web service that could be interrogated to obtain information about the physical location. Then, processors could be built to automatically index geographical areas from satellite data.

$8500 is really steep, though. What would be the minimum size of the artifact, to reliably enable current satellite technology to read a URL-sized chuck of information?

<comment><AUTHOR> QR codes are a standard[1] (otherwise they would just be meaningless random dots in a square shape).

[1] <http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/qrstandard-e.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> DIY QrCode driveway: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericrice/5031494545/> But google got to it before he was done.

</comment><comment><USER10> Has anyone here actually ever scanned-and-decoded a QR code?

<comment><USER11> Hell no. Maybe it's childish, but I just assume every one of them is a Goatse link. Probably at least 40% of them actually are.

While I was at SXSW this year, I realized how easy it would be to print up a bunch of QR codes that point to whatever terrible thing you prefer, and then paste them over the QR codes that are present on every single poster, sticker, etc. The QR code itself has no visual indication of what it is or what it links to, as opposed to a URL which does. Even if a URL shortener is used, the people who make the shortener can block redirects to spammy or offensive/illegal URLs.

<comment><USER12> Why don't you look at the data in the QR code first? Most QR code readers show you the URL and make you say "yeah, I want to go there".

<comment><USER10> goo.gl/23nSX doesn't help much.

<comment><USER12> True, but that's more a problem with URL shorteners than QR codes. Anyway most shorteners you can append '+' to get info before visiting (inconvenient, I know) <http://goo.gl/i3wBs+>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I assume these include the obligatory "Hello, World".</comment>


HoweyCoins – An educational tool to alert investors to possible fraud - <AUTHOR> https://www.howeycoins.com/index.html <comment><USER3> I really want to meet the team at the SEC who put this together. The level of trolling the ICO community is incredible.

Not sure if anyone else opened the white paper, but it is acutally better than most of the ICO papers I read in general.

There are gems like:

> "Upon a successful ICO, the nondisclosure agreements terminate and we will > be able to disclose the largest network of travel partners"

> "we expect a bidding war to increase HoweyCoins valuations by severalfold."

<comment><USER4> In its hubris the SEC forgot one thing, the most important thing, the only thing...yes the SEC knows the law well, but this is smart contracts, Case Law/precedent/stare decisis don't apply to ICOs... _the code is the law_

<comment><USER5> Good luck arguing that novel legal theory when in front of a judge on a fraud or tax evasion trial.

<comment><USER4> It's sarcasm, I forgot the doesn't exist on HN. My post history shows from day one I called DAO snake oil, and code is Law bullshit, and shows how much crap I took for that here on HN. But if the SEc can have a sense of humor about it why can't I? They really did miss an opportunity to use the smart contract marketing though...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Probably named after the Howey Test ([https://consumer.findlaw.com/securities- law/what-is-the-howe...](https://consumer.findlaw.com/securities-law/what-is- the-howey-test.html)) which is pretty clever.

<comment><USER7> Isn't it more likely derived from honeypot

<comment><USER8> Then they might have called it _Honey_ Coins. That the SEC named it Howey, after a test that determines if something is a security---thus actually under SEC regulation---seems way more likely.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Pretty great. And complete with a whitepaper that actually makes a seemingly reasonable business argument while ignoring tech.

[https://www.investor.gov/howeycoins](https://www.investor.gov/howeycoins) has the explanation

</comment><comment><USER10> I think it's hilarious that one of their "celebrity promoters" calls the coin a bubble right on their front page:

> I'm all about HoweyCoins – this thing is going to pop at the top!

<comment><USER11> Hey now, @boxingchamp1934 has never led me astray before...

<comment><USER12> I think it's a jab at Floyd Mayweather.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> HoweyCoin is fake, but is it? And, that's how Dogecoin got started.

<comment><USER14> I met the guy who made DOGE at a conference in Portland and he was hilariously apologetic to everyone about having accidentally made (at the time) one of the most popular coins.

<comment><USER15> there's a great npr interview with him. apparently he never owned more than $75 worth of doge at today's value.

<comment><USER16> I made a genuine small profit mining Dogecoin back in the day. Between that and Litecoin I was able to make my two 400$ HD7970s pay for themselves, even after accounting for electricity.

Edit: Wanted to add that the success (Well, maybe not 'success', but popularity) of Dogecoin should highlight the value of making things accessible. Not everything needs to be a silly meme, but making things fun and building a community can make a huge difference.

<comment><USER17> My 3 months of mining back in the day (aka heating my apartment with video cards instead of electric heaters) netted me about $4000 a few months ago. I found it hilarious.

<comment><USER18> All I can say is wow.

<comment><USER19> Such mine. Much electric bill.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Hmm, it seems like this fake ICO will compete with our fake ICO ([https://initialcornoffering.com](https://initialcornoffering.com)) for the same "investors." I guess we need celebrity endorsements to make the front page of HN though?

</comment><comment><USER21> They're going want to optimize those 8k res images down at the bottom of the page if they want to actually sell some of those coins.

<comment><USER8> They're just doing their part to waste energy and bandwidth, in the same vein as a real ICO would.

</comment></comment><comment> a-dub The real question is, who are those people? They are really smirking hard. I bet they're SEC employees, the images have real first names on them (that don't match their fictitious names) which would seem to indicate they're not just stock photos.

I can imagine the email to the office now. That would be the coolest thing ever... "we need volunteers, must be reasonably photogenic and capable of producing a foreboding smirk...."

<comment><USER22> Couldn't find those stock images anywhere else. Some names are unique enough to be mistaken for someone legit.

The site was announced today. The whitepaper was created on 2018-04-11 and the site was registered on 2018-03-08. So they probably spend a few months and 10k's $ on this scam project.

This project only works "PR"-wise, because it is posted on social media. No unsuspecting investor is going to happen upon on this site and change his/her behavior and be "educated". That's a deluded pipe dream by out-of-touch no- coin government employees.

This is 1990's Microsoft level of lame.

<comment><USER23> ok like regardless of whether or not it educated me i had a pretty good chuckle. they're good memes brent.

<comment><USER24> brint

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> So if ICO frauds are so easy why aren't there more of them> The answer is, promoting an ICO is extremely difficult and expensive. The market is not that big

<comment><USER26> A lot of them are combination money-laundering schemes and scams. Someone who stole a bunch of shitcoins wants to "clean them up", so they create an ICO and buy their ICO-coins with stolen shitcoins.

By doing this, they also inflate the "market" value of their ICO, which leads to increased popularity and others notice and throw some money in.

It's not clear to me what proportion of ICOs are money-laundering vs. real purchases, but I suspect it is quite high.

<comment><USER19> Don't forget flight capital from China, Russia, etc.

<comment><USER27> The capital flight occurs when people buy the Ethereum or Bitcoin which they need to purchase the ICO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I just saw and clicked an ad for this ICO and it looks just like Howey Coin's site - [https://icerockmining.io/en.html](https://icerockmining.io/en.html) (I don't know whether this is a scam or not, i don't recommend investing or avoiding it, I just wanted to point out how similar the website looks to the howeycoins website! DYOR) (Being overly neutral for its own sake here, but it seems very questionable)

<comment><USER29> I'm surprised there isn't already a DIY ICO generator on GitHub.

<comment><USER30> I'll do you own better: [https://crapcoin.solutions/](https://crapcoin.solutions/)

Found it on here a couple days, maybe weeks back.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The SEC has missed the point entirely.

Savvy investors want proof that the ICO organizer is running a scam, and that it has legs. The SEC has merely created a playbook, not a fraud deterrent.

The ICO scam is a genre of investor literature. As such certain obligatory signs and conventions will be present:

\- the countdown (made its first big appearance with the Ethereum crowdsale)

\- use of the term "blockchain technology" in the opening paragraph

\- combining "blockchain technology" with a secondary domain (e.g. Travel)

\- the more non-obvious the match between "blockchain technology" and the secondary domain, the better

\- focus on benefits, not features

\- describe a problem everyone recognizes (travel is expensive)

\- state the size of the market for solutions ($1.5 trillion)

\- management team headshots

\- appeal to authority/celebrity

\- ROI forecast

\- a whitepaper that carefully avoids revealing how the token fulfills the promises made in the marketing material

Ticking all the boxes lets the ICO operator reassure the prospective investor that all steps have been taken to ensure future buyers of the token.

Think of it as proof-of-future-bagholder (PoFB). A rinky-dink ICO that can't bring itself to lay the fertilizer sufficiently high will be in no position to keep investors coming in after the crowdsale ends.

<comment><USER32> I think the site is supposed to be more of a PSA for non-savvy investors rather than a fraud deterrent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> So, I think what the SEC is doing, is forcing me to actually create HoweyCoins...

</comment><comment><USER34> FYI: At Bits & Blocks Press I've also put together educational booklets to alert invstors. See Best of Bitcoin Maximalist - Scammers, Morons, Clowns, Shills & BagHODLers - Inside The New New Crypto Ponzi Economics [1] or Crypto Facts - Decentralize Payments - Efficient, Low Cost, Fair, Clean - True or False? [2] or Get Rich Quick "Business Blockchain" Bible - The Secrets of Free Easy Money [3]

[1]: [https://bitsblocks.github.io/bitcoin- maximalist](https://bitsblocks.github.io/bitcoin-maximalist) [2]: [https://bitsblocks.github.io/crypto- facts](https://bitsblocks.github.io/crypto-facts) [3]: [https://bitsblocks.github.io/get-rich-quick- bible](https://bitsblocks.github.io/get-rich-quick-bible)

</comment><comment><USER35> Don't make pages like this.

Just go after existing ICOs. Arrest people, prosecute people, go after people.

If it's China or whatever, collaborate with China. Chinese citizens are scammed as much as US ones.

Just arrest all the ICO scammers. Arrest the ERC token pumpers, arrest the exchanges.

<comment><USER36> The effort it takes to make a site like this is a tiny fraction of that involved in "going after" dozens of dodgy ICOs.

Making this site couldn't possibly have impeded them in that task in any way that isn't grossly outweighed by the public good of its educational value.

<comment><USER35> True.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> It's a nice idea, but the meat of the site ([https://www.investor.gov/howeycoins](https://www.investor.gov/howeycoins)) is far too complicated for an ICO investor to read and understand.

<comment><USER38> If that's the case, then perhaps they shouldn't be investing in ICOs?

<comment><USER39> yeah, that's what they want to achieve

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Very similar concept as the scam Bitair (and many others of course) - [https://bitair.io/](https://bitair.io/)

</comment><comment><USER41> Fake ICOs are a great way to teach people about financial scams, including the one's run by the existing central banking system:

[https://medium.com/@stevedekorte/fiatcoin-pre-sale- announcem...](https://medium.com/@stevedekorte/fiatcoin-pre-sale- announcement-e2cf5a361629)

</comment><comment><USER42> Related: PonzICO [https://ponzico.win/](https://ponzico.win/)

<comment><USER43> Also related: PonziCoin: [https://ponzicoin.co/home.html](https://ponzicoin.co/home.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> This wasn't that great; no ICO accepts credit card purchases because that would imply buyer protections

<comment><USER45> They explain this as a red flag on the SEC page. [https://www.investor.gov/howeycoins](https://www.investor.gov/howeycoins)

> Investors should understand that most licensed and registered investment > firms do not allow their customers to use credit cards to buy investments or > to fund an investment account. We urge investors to work only with a > licensed or registered investment professional or firm and not attempt to > use a credit card to fund investments.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Cached

[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jJBx3M...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jJBx3MPekKcJ:https://www.howeycoins.com/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

</comment><comment><USER47> We already did something similar - [http://securitiesandexchangecoin.tech/](http://securitiesandexchangecoin.tech/)! SECS token - the first attempt by the government to bring blockchains to regulation!

</comment><comment><USER48> The problem (of overvaluations) is that there aren't enough ICOs. When there's more of them inflation will naturally devalue the scammiest of them. The best days for (scam-)ICOs are already over.

</comment><comment><USER49> I'm curious that they used Hover as a domain registrar, and Heroku to host the site. I have to wonder how much hell someone had to go through to get those two as approved vendors.

<comment><USER50> Having worked in government in the past, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Heroku and Hover _aren 't_ approved vendors. Somebody is probably just paying for it out of pocket. Not worth the bureaucratic headache to get them to pay for $20 worth of stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Downloaded the whitepaper hoping it would involve oranges. It didn't - <USER2> awesome!

</comment><comment><USER52> Andddd... crashed. Hope this comes back soon -- curious to see it!

<comment><USER53> Still timing out at 1:05 PM PDT. I guess they weren't ready for the HN front page treatment...

<comment><USER54> 40mb per user session.. that could add up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> > Investors can purchase HoweyCoins with any major credit card

Either this is a major fraud risk, or this isn't really a cryptocurrency. Is the HoweyCoin ledger reversible and centralized?

EDIT: derp, it's a joke

</comment><comment><USER56> Now we just need one for pyramid schemes.

</comment><comment><USER54> Much wow only 2.7 mins to load at 38.2MB transfer. Feel sorry for whoever paying for bandwidth

<comment><USER57> It's a .gov, so US taxpayers are paying for the bandwidth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> This is a joke right?

<comment><USER59> Yes - the SEC (government agency that regulates securities) is behind it. It's supposed to teach people a lesson.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> I feel confused.

</comment><comment><USER61> We anticipate returns of 1% a day? How can you try and anticipate the price of a cryptocurrency. Any investor who knows what they're doing turned around and ran away when they read that line.

<comment><USER62> > Any investor who knows what they're doing

But they're not the intended audience, right?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> To be fair to many ICOs they don't make most of these claims. They are cherry picking the worst of the worst and presenting a straw man. I agree the crypto currency space is messed up but I think this could be done better.

<comment><USER63> > To be fair to many ICOs they don't make most of these claims.

"Many" == 99%. There are no non-scam ICO's.... even the ones that aren't intentionally run as scams are, ultimately, scams.

ICO's don't invest in a company, they "invest" in a brand new "currency" that somehow magically reflects the value of the "company" that created them. Why anybody would buy into this is beyond me...

<comment><USER64> There are security token ICOs which are not utility token ICOs.

<comment><USER63> > There are security token ICOs which are not utility token ICOs.

Ah so securities fraud instead of just plan vanilla fraud?

<comment><USER64> It depends on jurisdiction, but yes, as I understand unregistered security offering is illegal in US.

<comment><USER63> It's illegal in every country with a developed system of securities law for a good reason.

All ICO's are scams. Period.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Libra is targeted at developing countries - <AUTHOR> https://www.iafrikan.com/2019/06/27/facebooks-libra-may-be-quite-attractive-in-developing-countries/ <comment><USER2> Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India is a highly scalable (800million transactions per month) mobile payment method with 160+ banks participating with numerous mobile apps (example: Bhim, PhonePe) that is free of charge for merchant payments and up to 30 person to person payments per month. Subsequent P2P transactions are charged at flat ₹2.5 for < ₹1000 and ₹5 for greater than ₹1000 (highly unlikely anyone would cross the free quota per month and actually pay this fee).

Please see statistics published by various agencies: NPCI - National Payment Corporation of India is the organization responsible for administering UPI. [https://www.npci.org.in/product-statistics/upi-product- stati...](https://www.npci.org.in/product-statistics/upi-product-statistics)

RBI - Reserve Bank of India is the central/federal bank. [https://rbi.org.in/scripts/Statistics.aspx](https://rbi.org.in/scripts/Statistics.aspx)

I don't think anyone _needs_ Libra in India. Thank you.

<comment><USER3> Is it "free" from a customers's perspective, or from a merchant's perspective?

From a customer's perspective, credit cards are also "free". However, from a merchant's perspective, the cost is 2-3% plus a constant hassle with prospective fraud.

<comment><USER4> It's _free_ from both perspectives. No additional overhead charges are levied.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> India has no need for Libra, the government owned payment gateway allows for zero transaction fee, instantaneous payments and transfers. BHIM is a consumer wallet/app launched and maintained by the government for the same

<comment><USER3> Perhaps, but can Indian expats also send money to India via this gateway? Can you use it to order something online from another country? What about the relative weakness of the Rupee vs a mix of reserve currencies?

Libra still makes sense as an "international" currency, even if it doesn't make sense nationally.

<comment><USER6> > can Indian expats also send money to India via this gateway?

Not yet, but I've heard that this is in the works. The hardest part of trying to use UPI right now as an Indian expat is that you need an Indian phone number and your bank account should be linked to it.

<comment><USER7> You are vastly overestimating the sophistication of the US banking system. Integrating with it is incredibly difficult since so many steps rely heavily on trust between parties. For example, information sufficient for direct depositing into someone's account is sufficient for direct depositing OUT of said account as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> One factor to consider especially in a country like Zimbabwe where most transactions are done through mobile phones is that electronic transactions are now a cash cow. Traceable and taxable. 2c for every dollar transferred in Zim goes to the government for transactions above 10 dollars. The government is not going to let someone steal their lunch.

</comment><comment><USER9> Isn't the USA the country where instant bank transfers dont exist? Where you get charged to withdraw cash from an ATM (unless its your banks ATM)?

Most other countries have this infrastructure already, because technically it's trivial.

<comment><USER3> What is "most other countries"? As far as I'm aware, at least in the Eurozone ATMs also have fees (unless it's the same bank) and bank wires (SEPA) aren't instant either.

Operating ATMs may be "trivial", but it costs money, so why would you serve your competitor's customers cash for free?

<comment><USER10> Obviously it varies between counties, but here in the UK I can transfer money between my three banks essentially instantly (normally less than 15 seconds), for free. And we were late to the game. The only time I pay to use an ATM is at ones in small corner ships. Bank ones are almost always free, and you can use any bank's machine.

Planet Money did a good episode on why the US system is so bad compared to most other developed countries. Mostly seems to come down to the huge number of small bank's you have, it massively complicates any attempt to roll out a new tech platform.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Until every Facebook employee is payed in Libra, including Zucks's shares, I know where they stand on the purpose of Libra.

</comment><comment><USER12> Looks interesting on a light skim. However, one key point that is always missing, how will people buy/cash-out this libra currency? Most developing countries have transactions going on in cash(unless it is happening in few hundred thousands). You'd be lucky if you see a card-payment machine anywhere except on exotic shops like car-dealership/real-estate/big brand electronics(apple). ATMs are for rich/wealthy class only. There are no debit cards, banks don't give out credit cards to anyone unless they have HUGE middle-class+ transactions/income in bank history. So, how are people going to use these fancy currencies? I have lived and visited developing countries, no paypal, no credit-card, no debit card, no bank transfer, only paper-bills accepted :)

<comment><USER8> Developing countries use a good deal of mobile banking. Anecdotally mobile payments make up as much as 50% of all transactions. I am typing this on mobile so can't really post links. Search Mpesa and Ecocash for more information. Card processing machines are also becoming pretty common and it is easy to transfer money from you mobile banking account to a card.

<comment><USER13> Agree. Check out China where even beggars are using QR code payment methods (though possibly as a means by payment companies and 'others' to collect data on donators?) [https://www.businesstoday.in/current/world/beggars-in- china-...](https://www.businesstoday.in/current/world/beggars-in-china-go- cashless-but-there-is-more-than-what-meets-the-eye/story/279773.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Libra may be blocked in India. The Indian government is already showing its tough face on existing cryotocurrencies

</comment><comment><USER15> Yea, the narrative in mainstream circles keep saying this is another data grab. It's understandable given Facebook's history, but it's ignoring the fact that they don't need more data to make this venture worthwhile. It's a _massive_ opportunity all on its own, on the face of it.

<comment><USER3> Anybody who uses VISA or PayPal but then wouldn't use Libra because of "privacy concerns" probably doesn't realize how invasive these other companies are.

Libra will not require a Facebook account and will supposedly not be tied to a Facebook account, so the danger should be about the same.

<comment><USER16> If this product brings us from a world of venmo, paypal, facebook payments, wechat etc to one where I can use any of their clients to send money to any of the other clients, I consider it a huge win. It's so silly that my friends and I have to agree on the same money app to send money to each other. Imagine if I had to convince every person to use firefox before I could send them a url, or if they needed hotmail and gmail to receive messages.

Calibra vs Zelle here we come.

<comment><USER17> What's wrong with cash?

<comment><USER3> Nothing, besides the fact that you have to physically carry it around to transfer it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Most people are missing the fact that the population of the developing countries will be more interested in the convertability of the Libra coin and its potential stability than the day to day transactions.

Most people in developing countries don't have access to USD, online transactions or crypto (because of the knowledge barrier).

</comment><comment><USER19> serious question: which is more trustworthy - facebook or the government of a developing country?

Because corruption has been shown to keep some countries from ever getting anywhere.

</comment><comment><USER20> Like tobacco.</comment>


Facebook App Ad Experiment Results - <AUTHOR> http://txt.jazzychad.net/gist/7634378

<comment><USER2> Here are the problems with only spending $30 on ads.

#1. Ads are experiments both is where they're located but also the text, target, etc. IE: you didn't spend nearly enough and try enough possible ads to get anywhere.

#2. You're only charging $.99 - This just flat out doesn't work as a model unless you're a novelty that goes viral. Even then though, the majority of apps that achieve this are running at a $.99 price point in order maximize downloads and not revenues because they capture an audience to their brand or via social networks and eventually market expansions, in app purchases, or other materials (the moron test is a great example of this).

Like another user said your purchase rate isn't going to drop horribly when doubling to $1.99. Once a user has made the decision to purchase an application, by which I mean spend any amount of money, the difference of a dollar in the mind is minimal. It's the hurdle between free and paid that creates a huge barrier in conversions.

Example: Currently you have ~4% conversion rate (with that demographic at least). This means that at $1 price point (and because of apple fees, $.70 profit) you'll need to spend less than $.027 per click to the page to break even.

Now under the assumption that you drop down to a 3% conversion rate when doubling your price. You'll make $1.39 per purchase, meaning you can spend $.042 per click to break even.

Lastly, while still on this note... you're unable to ever offer a 'sale' unless you'd like to go temporarily free. Sales, while not a huge deal for applications that no one has really heard of... they do still drive people to purchase through impulse if they were already thinking about it.

Warning: While I say this and it tends to be true... test it... always test it! Play with different prices and see what happens.

#3. Offer upgrades/in app purchases. If someone has already come to pay $1 for the application, they're likely to invest more into the game.

</comment><comment><USER3> So now you know your effective CPA for the ad you ran. You can count on a 3.7% install rate. Your app costs $1 For every 100 people who click your ad, 3.7 of them buy it - Making you $3.70 You need to pay less than $3.70 per 100 clicks

So set your CPC for that ad at 0.036 and write another, better ad. Want to cut down on spurious clicks? Make sure it's obvious it's a paid app before they click, and make sure you're talking right at what they need/care about

</comment><comment><USER4> The one guy I know with an app, who directly makes more money from ads than they cost, has an expensive outdoor GPS app, not IAP. One thing I've noticed is that web apps are ridiculously cheaper than mobile ads. So even if your conversion sending people to a web site instead of an app store was only 10% as much, it is still more cost effective. Personally, I've only bought ads whenever I'm trending in app stores and want to stay in the trending category, which nets a lot of users. Although I often do ad exchanges/trades/or market in other apps of mine.

<comment><USER5> I've heard the ad exchange/trade/etc before, but I'm curious how others actually implement this. Do you make an iAd-esque banner and advertise your other apps? Do you use an existing system/framework?

If its your own implementation, how do you manage/track impressions?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> As your first campaign you should try to catch a large audience like people in US over 18.. that's it ! and test your ad copy first... then base on your data you can decide the perfect demography for your app.. Are you going to blow money on the first second and third iteration ... the answer is yes but at least you will know exactly what's work best for your app on facebook...Ad campaign optimization is not easy. My best advice is to use a great ad tracking tool... you must track everything... no guessing game here... Finally a small variation is you copy and/or app presentation could have drive better results with the same $30.....don't give up :)

<comment><USER7> Can you recommend which ad tracking tool to use for Facebook Ads?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I would be interested to hear the results with the free/IAP app. I've read in a few places that even a $.99 app loses 90% of potential installs right off the bat, so I wouldn't expect much with a $30 campaign.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, running ads with a paid app is a losing battle it seems like. Even with a free app, it's going to be tough because your app has to then make more per user than you spend on ads (this is the whole Zynga, Clash of Clans, etc model). And they do mass ad buys with crazy optimization and marketing teams...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've always heard that the CPI with Facebook Ads was ridiculously high. Thank you for posting the results of your experiment. 0.009% installs is amazingly low to me, but I'm not too familiar with ad-based installs for iOS apps.

I've weighed heavily on word-of-mouth and just "quality" (website, app, reviews, etc) instead of CPIs.

Could you elaborate on how you chose your demographic?

</comment><comment><USER10> $6/install is high, but _could_ be made to work if your app had a viral component that encouraged more than 9 installs (of course, realistically you'll need a free version to have anything like that level of viral installs.)

Also, what happens if you raise your price? Some experiments have shown that the install rate doesn't decrease dramatically between $0.99 & $1.99

</comment><comment><USER11> any reason on why did you choose Women in the United States Aged 35 and older? would be nice (and more expensive) to compare results with other target audiences

<comment><USER12> Probably the reason why: He has a word puzzle game, and that's the typical demographic for those games.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Flagged for broken link...</comment>


Vladimir Arnold Dies at 72; Pioneering Mathematician - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/science/11arnold.html?hpw

<comment><USER2> Everyone has their own approach to problem solving:

"Like his thesis adviser Dr. Kolmogorov, Dr. Arnold had an unusual approach when he got stuck on a problem. Writing in the Russian online newspaper Gazeta.ru, his former students Askold Khovanskii and Yuli Ilyashenko recalled that Dr. Arnold would ski for 25 miles or more, wearing nothing more than swim trunks."

</comment><comment><USER3> I knew him only through his books, but both 'Ordinary Differential Equations' and 'Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics' were highly influential - the use of geometric methods was a breath of fresh air at the time I read them.</comment>


Weekend Project: Qitika Sage - <AUTHOR>

I was watching some security lectures the other weekend with a friend and the conversation came up about encrypting messages over third party sites like Facebook and Twitter, when you only want to message one or a few people.
Not wanting to go through all the hassle of using another program to encrypt the message I started looking around for a bookmarklet but couldn't find one, so I wrote one myself.
Hopefully some of you guys can benefit from this as well.
http://sage.qitika.com/ <comment><USER2> Clicky: <http://sage.qitika.com/></comment>


Show HN: aws_public_ips, a tool to fetch all public IPs tied to an AWS account - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/arkadiyt/aws_public_ips <comment><USER2> Note that these IP addresses will almost certainly change. Don't go hard coding these anywhere or you'll be in for a shock.

I deal with a number of more traditional/large financial firms and when they inevitably ask me what my public IP addresses are so that they can white list them on their firewall, I have to send them a large number of ranges covering various cloud services ... kind of renders the exercise pointless.

</comment><comment><USER3> Caveat: it needs to be _your_ AWS account. You can't use this to fetch all public IPs from somebody else's AWS account.

<comment><USER4> How is this a caveat? If the owner of the other account gave you correct credentials, it will work.

<comment><USER3> Based on the submitted title, I thought it was a vulnerability, allowing you to find out all of somebody else's IP addresses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> doesn't this functionality builtin with awscli?

sth like this

        aws ec2 describe-instances --query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].[PublicIpAddress]"

</comment><comment><USER6> I understand what it's retrieving but what's the use case for this?

Listing out all your internet routable interfaces presumably to lock down the unintentional ones?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's for security teams to find infrastructure that shouldn't be exposed / put together a list of IPs for a network vulnerability scan / etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Doesn't AWS console list those Elastic IPs?

<comment><USER8> Yes, but it's not practical to copy/paste them.

I did something similar here[0] when I wanted all the internal hostnames I had to resolve locally via dnsmasq:

[https://github.com/winks/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/ec2-dns.py](https://github.com/winks/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/ec2-dns.py)</comment></comment>


MIT Students Battle State's Demand for Their Bitcoin Miner's Source Code - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2014/09/mit-students-face-aggressive-subpoena-demanding-source-code-bitcoin-mining-tool/ <comment><USER2> There is a lot of confusion in this thread regarding basic concepts of the law.

1\. The NJAG is not prosecuting the MIT student(s) (at least not yet). Therefore, this is not similar to the alleged overzealous prosecutors in the Swartz case.

2\. A subpoena is a writ compelling testimony or evidence. A subpoena is not synonymous with being a defendant.

3\. NJAG served one MIT student with a subpoena to turn over documentation (source code, downloads, users, ect...)for a program which maybe being used by third party websites in a way that violates the rights of NJ residents vis-a- vis unauthorized access to computer systems.

4\. It seems there is an issue raised arguing NJAG does not have jurisdiction over the MIT student(s). Personally I would find this analysis the most compelling because it is at the intersection of where facts and law meet.

5\. EFF is arguing that complying with the subpoena may violate the students right against self-incrimination. I think this is a losing argument where one's right against self-incrimination is rather limited, generally to information contained within their mind and not typically extended to documentation and records.

6\. Though this is not at issue, it would be almost impossible for the MIT student(s) to have committed a crime, as the crime would require intent. It would be nearly impossible to prove the student(s) _intended that their code be downloaded by third-party websites for the specific purpose of running on the end users computers without their knowledge_. It would be on par with charging a gun manufacturer criminally for intending that their guns be manufactured and sold for the exclusive purpose of committing crimes.

<comment><USER3> Have you read the subpoena? It's definitely aimed at incriminating the student. I don't disagree with your take on their lack of protection by the 5th amendment, but I think you're just wrong about who they're going after. Excerpts:

3\. All documents and correspondence concerning all breaches of security and/or unauthorized access to computers by you.

10\. All documents concerning complaints against you...concerning the unauthorized access of computers and/or Bitcoin code.

Items 11 - 14 are also aimed at finding evidence that they've done something wrong.

Source: [https://www.eff.org/document/subpoena-jeremy-rubin-dba- tidbi...](https://www.eff.org/document/subpoena-jeremy-rubin-dba-tidbit)

Edit: trying to cut down on tone

<comment><USER4> From "New Jersey's Further Reply," this part caught my eye:

"For example, Mr. Fakhoury's Certification describes how Plaintiff discovered that the Division issued subpoenas to the New Jersey Coded Websites, Plaintiff's state of mind upon discovering this information, and Plaintiff's decision to send an email to its entire list of users."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That article describes a though experiment that would A. remove an ad, and B. should (but doesn't) trigger a BitCoin miner. It's clearly marketed as an illustration to an idea. I'm failing to see the consumer fraud. Is this like accusing a car-manufacturer of manslaugher because they latest concept-car didn't have seat-belts?

I would like to know if that's selective reporting from Wired, or spectacular fishing from NJ state atorney.

Also, neither the hackathon, nor MIT appear to be in NJ: what is their jurisdiction? Those two issues should be clarified in any basic coverage of the incident: at this point, it is plain bad reporting.

<comment><USER6> It's been in the news before.

It's spectacular fishing from NJ state attorney, it could in theory violate the law as written if deployed on a website and mined bitcoins without implied consent by the client (but then again I could argue the same for flash ads), but the whole thing took place in MA and as far as anyone is aware only in lab environments in MA as part of the competition. The code could be used maliciously, but wasn't and there is no evidence it ever was, its NJ overreaching, pure and simple.

<comment><USER7> This is where I am as well, why is the NJ AG in such a snit? I get they may have _thought_ there was crime here, but once they got the facts they should have just gone on about their merry way, especially when the university tells them this. Now they look stupid, they have to know they look stupid, and so what or who is pulling so hard that they are willing to look stupid to fulfill that request. Very very strange.

<comment><USER8> Could just be sunk cost. They think they wont look stupid if they 'win', so are willing to look a lot more stupid yet in the hope they can do someone for something, as otherwise the whole affair is a huge waste of time and money and they can't have that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> They want source code for a client side javascript miner that they saw on a website. Was their right mouse button broken?

<comment><USER6> They aren't the brightest people, they think this is some deep web evil hackers and probably think they have some secret code that hacks the DoD or something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The EFF has the actual documents in the case posted [https://www.eff.org/cases/rubin-v-new-jersey- tidbit](https://www.eff.org/cases/rubin-v-new-jersey-tidbit)

Based on a quick skim, this is the closest NJ comes to making a case: [https://www.eff.org/document/nj-attorney-general-response- ef...](https://www.eff.org/document/nj-attorney-general-response-eff-letter)

<comment><USER10> It sounds like the NJ AG is saying, "Someone in NJ may have downloaded and run the code written by Tidbit and said code may have done things which are not allowed in NJ, hence Tidbit must provide said code to the NJ AG."

But it doesn't sound like the AG has much evidence (or simply isn't providing such evidence) that anyone in NJ ever actually downloaded or ran the code.

Is this a normal ask for Attorneys General to make in any circumstance regarding software?

<comment><USER11> There is evidence that the code was present on websites, but, the code was never functional, that is, it never mined bitcoins. Therefore it never breached any laws.

As such, one has to wonder either whether the cyber fraud unit of the state department has basic understanding of programming or whether the state department is willfully taking this action to send some sort of message.

<comment><USER12> Is intent to break a law good enough? If I buy a gun and try to shoot someone, it's still a crime even if the gun never worked. If someone signed up to receive the code and put it on their website with the intent of mining bitcoins on user's computers (which the NJAG is saying is illegal, I have no idea), is that not also a crime?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I feel like this article is a bit one sided. It doesn't ever state NJ's case against the students and draws strong parallels to Aaron Swartz (a hero to many people). A lot of the time these parallels seem to be weak, the student who did this is an MIT student who built a piece of software at a hackathon, this has almost nothing to do with Aaron Swartz's situation except it involves a young programmer and MIT.

<comment><USER14> > It doesn't ever state NJ's case against the students

That's because NJ literally doesn't have a case against the students -- there have been no charges filed. This is an unconstitutional fishing expedition that I suspect is intended to intimidate and create an atmosphere of fear, not just among Bitcoiners but all tinkerers and hackers (in the MIT/HN sense of the word).

<comment><USER15> > hackers (in the MIT/HN sense of the word).

As someone at Berkeley who's been to many events at MIT, I feel like the definition of Silicon Valley/West Coast "hacker" is very different from the MIT hacker.

<comment><USER6> The original term hacker came from the MIT Model Railroad Club. It came from when they "hacked" together some phone switching equipment to control the relays on their model railroad. Someone who used something other than its original intended or imagined purpose for some cool new innovative purpose.

SV/West Coast has largely adopted the same term, albeit in a much looser sense.

<comment><USER16> MIT "hack" comes from the pranks and unauthorized adventuring that many undergraduates came to enjoy on campus. (eg. [http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/misc/best_of.html](http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/misc/best_of.html))

Hack was then used by MIT's TMRC of which many members became involved with/helped build the AI-lab. The first third of Hackers ([http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution- Anniversar...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary- Edition/dp/1449388396)) gives a good perspective on the evolution.

<comment><USER6> Yes, I've actually read the book, that's why I thought it came originally from the TMRC as one of the many slang terms or jargon they came up with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Tidbit inspired me to write my own web-miner, which I open sourced. It's hacked together as I was really just trying to learn how the cryptocoin&mining stuff worked. The mining rate you get with straight javascript is truly abysmal, even with web workers (much worse than the standard cpuminer).

I found a couple examples that do the scrypt part with GPU in browser, but your browser has to support custom shaders, I think (I forget the details), and the version most browsers support doesn't allow this (again, my memory is sketchy about the details).

Anyway Here you go, NJ! [https://github.com/borlak/cryptocoin_scrypt_stratum](https://github.com/borlak/cryptocoin_scrypt_stratum)

</comment><comment><USER18> There is an option in all browsers to disable javascript. That, combined with the fact that you are _requesting_ files from a website (as opposed to them being surreptitiously forced onto your machine) implies consent to execute the code sent to you. Finally, the code made no attempt to go beyond user-granted access limits (in this case the ability to run javascript in the browser, a decision which is entirely under the control of the user).

I cannot see how a fraud or hacking case of any kind could be made here, even if they got the code.

</comment><comment><USER19> Don't users implicitly consent to a website using their CPU and bandwidth for arbitrary tasks while the website is open, by using a browser that downloads and runs arbitrary JavaScript and allows it to XMLHTTPRequest?

Even if the code in question was being run on a publicly accessible website, was used by a New Jersey consumer, and was fully functional and actually mined Bitcoins (all of those points are disputed by the students' counsel)...The only thing that's being taken by the website operators would be users' CPU cycles and bandwidth. And if the users have implicitly consented to the website's arbitrary use of those resources, how is anyone being harmed?

<comment><USER20> I think there's an argument for the users having consented to the use of CPU and bandwidth _for the purposes of displaying the website_. That the website can technically use that allowance for unrelated purposes doesn't imply consent, any more than you'd be giving a parket valet permission to take a ride with your car just because you handed him/her the keys without an express agreement.

In an implied contract, it's the expectations of a "reasonable person" that count.

<comment><USER21> > for the purposes of displaying the website.

What about analytics tools ?

<comment><USER20> It's an edge case, I'm not sure. But I'd say it's still part of the website tooling made to improve it, not an unrelated appendix, even if I'd prefer people stopped using them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> What law did they supposedly break?

<comment><USER23> Was wondering the same thing, the only thing I could find (and its vague) was:

"Officials claimed that Rubin's project, which allowed people to replace advertisements on websites with Bitcoin mining capabilities, had the potential to breach computer security through unauthorized access and possibly violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act."

[http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2014/09/22/mit- stude...](http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2014/09/22/mit-students- head-court-bitcoin-hackathon-project/)

<comment><USER24> Under that definition a lot of things are too dangerous to own. That libc you're packing? You're heading for jail for that, you potential criminal.

<comment><USER8> _the potential to breach computer security through unauthorized access_

never mind code, it covers everything from soldering irons to telephones

<comment><USER24> The purchasing of this product presents a high risk of potential thought- crime.

<comment><USER25> Being hyperbolic helps the opposition.

<comment><USER26> It's not hyperbole when it's accurate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> This seems insane to me. What law was broken? What could even be considered remotely criminal about this? Seems like a gross over reach by the gov.

<comment><USER28> Think like the NJ AG, it's not about what law was broken, it's about what law could have been broken.

<comment><USER29> You can use a hacksaw to: (a) cut a lock that you have permission to cut (b) cut a lock illegally

You can use the code to: (a) legally mine bitcoins on visitors' computers (b) illegally mine bitcoins on visitors' computers

Potential for a law to be broken is a stupid basis for a subpoena.

<comment><USER28> You unwillingness to base your thought on a broken and stupid basis is preventing you from thinking like the NJ AG.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'd curious to find out why NJ AG would get so paranoid about this? I couldnt really find a link to their side of the story.

The Natinal Science Foundation did discipline a researcher who did some mining on their computers.

<comment><USER11> They say that the code could "hijack" a computer like some hackers have "hijacked" some computers to mine bitcoins.

Their concerns aren't completely unfounded in that it is granted it is quite possible to use any piece of code for ill. However, their complete failure to understand that this wasn't a case of "hijacking" computers by black hackers, but a potentially innovative business revenue generating project says to me that the cyber unit of the state department has no understanding whatever of programming. If that is the case, these 19 year olds should be awarded damages so that this reckless behaviour can be discouraged.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> It sounds to me like NJ wants to start mining bitcoin. Nothing is sacred when you're running a deficit I guess.

</comment><comment><USER32> Perhaps most interesting in my reading of the documents provided by the EFF is the correspondence regarding the counter-sue made by Rubin against the NJAG.

In it NJAG lay out exactly what they think Rubin did:

 _...Plaintiffs development, use and deployment of the Tidbit Code which, by plaintiffs own description, strongly suggests the code was designed to hijack consumer 's computers to mine for bitcoins, including the computers of New Jersey consumers. Further, prior to the issuance of the Subpoena and Interrogatories, the Division determined that the Tidbit Code was present and active on the websites of entities located in New Jersey and Plaintiff affirmatively sent the Tidbit Code to the New Jersey based entities._

They posit that the code was

1\. Designed to hijack a consumer's computer for the purpose of mining bitcoins

2\. The computers targeted for hacking (implicitly the entire internet) include those of New Jersey consumers

3\. The code was found on websites owned by New Jersey entities

4\. Rubin sent the code "affirmatively" to those New Jersey entities

I think 1. is the weakest point, but that weakness is based on my understanding of the definition of 'hijack'. 2. and 3. seem to follow easily from assumptions, or could be easily shown as fact. 4. seems like it would be harder to prove, but I don't know the implications of the term affirmatively used here.

</comment><comment><USER33> How is surreptitious use of compute resource any different than the surreptitious accumulation and analysis of data exhaust? If this moves forward to prosecution, I'd argue it will actually open up an avenue of attack against Facebook, Google, et al.

</comment><comment><USER34> This sounds like some trivial code, not even fully functioning, that was written during a hackathon. Why does New Jersey care?

It wouldn't even make sense as a business model anymore, because asic miners are so much more efficient than GPUs, but I heard many people talking about building this kind of service years ago.

NJ could pay a software developer to write them code to let people generate small amounts of bitcoin in a browser. Why would they possibly want this MIT student's code so badly?

</comment><comment><USER35> I don't understand how their javascript based miner is feasible.

Mining bitcoins with a CPU is an extremely futile endeavor, and on top of that, it is implemented in asm.js.

Even with thousands of workers, GPU and ASIC mining is anywhere from hundreds to over a MILLION MH/S while modern cpus top out at 20 with most around 5.

[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison)

<comment><USER36> It seems more like a proof of concept, not something meant to be feasible.

<comment><USER35> Then it seems strange that they would be subpoenaed for something that didn't really do anything.

<comment><USER36> Yes. That's one reason people are so angered here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I don't understand how it could be considered consumer fraud or computer fraud and abuse if it was clearly indicated to the visitor that their browser would be used as a BitCoin miner in lieu of being displayed Ads. Assuming they weren't told, I could see the issue but it didn't seem like they were trying to dupe visitors.

</comment><comment><USER38> Funny how voting machine companies won't release their source code, but MIT must for Bitcoin? Just a thought.

</comment><comment><USER39> New Jersey's Position is laid out in their 3/7/2014 filing. [https://www.eff.org/files/2014/03/07/njs_memo_in_opposition_...](https://www.eff.org/files/2014/03/07/njs_memo_in_opposition_to_motion_to_quash.pdf)

Here's the relevant parts (lightly edited):

The Division issued the Subpoena and Interrogatories in furtherance of its investigation into an entity called Tidbit. Tidbit is a group of students who developed a software code that may have hijacked the computer resources of consumers within the State of New Jersey and improperly accessed and/or used such computer resources to mine for bitcoins for the benefit of Tidbit and its customers and without any notice to, or obtaining consent from, New Jersey consumers, in possible violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act ("CFA") and Computer Related Offenses Act ("CROA"). Bitcoins are a digital medium of exchange that can be traded on online exchanges for a dollar value. Bitcoins are "mined" through the use of computer resources to solve complex algorithms. Many times, consumers' computer resources are unknowingly accessed by entities through software code or otherwise in order to mine for Bitcoins.

Plaintiff's own description of its services strongly suggests that the code it developed is, in fact, designed to hijack consumer's computers. .... Further, contrary to Plaintiffs allegations in its brief, the Division specifically found Plaintiff's code on the websites of entities located in New Jersey. Furthermore, the Division determined that the code was active.

The following representations, among other things, are made on the Tidbit Website: "Monetize without ads"; "Let your visitors help you mine for Bitcoins;" and "Built on the bleeding edge." The Tidbit Website further provides: "How does it work? ... [1] Make an account - Sign up with your Bitcoin wallet ... [2] Paste the code - we'll give you a snippet to put in your website ... [3] Cash Out! - We'll send a transaction to your Bitcoin wallet." ...

E. The Division's Undercover Investigation

On February 7,2014, the Division re-accessed the Tidbit Website and "Sign up" button. While on the Tidbit 'Website, the Division submitted Sign-up Information to Tidbit using an undercover e-mail address and an undercover bitcoin wallet id. In response to receiving the Division's undercover Sign-up information, Tidbit sent the Tidbit Code to the Division's investigator via a confirmation page on the Tidbit website ("Confirmation Page"). The Tidbit Code that the Division received includes the Division's undercover bitcoin wallet id. Additionally, among other things, the Confirmation Page states: " _Your embed code_ \- Paste this at the bottom of your HTML page, and your visitors will start mining Bitcoins for you!" (emphasis in original).)

<comment><USER39> tl;dr: NJ thinks the tidbit code hijacks computers for a bitcoin-mining bot- net.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> they need to bring in a couple of seasoned enterprise developers who can hand off any project in such a state that it would be easy to rewrite it from scratch than to even just successfully build it, less run/debug/understand...

</comment><comment><USER41> HACKERS!!! WONT SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!?

<comment><USER42> LAWYERS! WON"T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE STARTUPS!?

...etc.

I see your point but few of the comments here are responsive to any of the legal issues, and indeed the EFF's briefs are not (IMHO) very responsive to NJ AG's legal arguments, offering some quite fallacious arguments in rebuttal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> They could just, you know, give it to them?

<comment><USER44> Cause, you know, they can't do "View Page Source".

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> We're lucky to have an organization like the EFF that fights this nonsense. It's a good time to support their work.

[https://supporters.eff.org/donate](https://supporters.eff.org/donate)

<comment><USER46> Additionally if you're in the US and use Amazon at all you can donate for "free" (via orders to Amazon) by just using:

[https://smile.Amazon.com](https://smile.Amazon.com)

And selecting the EFF as your charity of choice. Note that only orders made via smile.amazon.com are counted, not orders made on normal amazon.com.

How this works: On normal Amazon.com third parties can earn referer fees if you click on an ad to Amazon and purchase something. With smile.amazon.com referer fees don't exist, and the money is instead given to the chosen charities.

Note: As far as I know this isn't tax deductible from your perspective since Amazon themselves are the ones doing the "donating." You're just ordering something like you normally would (which might be tax deductible in its own right, but not as a charitable contribution).

This has no real downsides to users except remembering to use smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com(!).

<comment><USER45> There's actually a nice Chrome extension that will automatically redirect you to the smile subdomain every time you visit Amazon.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smile- always/jgpmh...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smile- always/jgpmhnmjbhgkhpbgelalfpplebgfjmbf)

<comment><USER47> Similar extension for firefox:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/amazonsmilere...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/amazonsmileredirector/?src=search)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Is there another website other than wired with this article?

<comment><USER49> As mentioned elsewhere on this page: [https://www.eff.org/cases/rubin-v-new- jersey-tidbit](https://www.eff.org/cases/rubin-v-new-jersey-tidbit)

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Fuck New Jersey.</comment>


Ask HN: Co-Founder is lacking leadership and self-management abilities - <AUTHOR> My two co-founders and me founded a B2B marketplace startup at the beginning of the year. I am the technical co-founder / product designer. Co-founder A, which is also CEO, has experience in software project management as well as managing and leading companies. Co-founder B had the idea, has lots of experience and expertise in the industry of our marketplace. Each of them is handling the sales effort of one side of the marketplace.
The problem we face right now is that co-founder B lacks self-management abilities such as:
* setting goals * breaking down problems/goals into smaller parts * splitting his sales efforts into clear processes/stages * seeing problems as problems with the process and not just individual problems
At the same time he is an excellent at sales but his sales efforts also require some degree of change management, for which he lacks leadership abilities. He has many good product and he has already improved many of the mentioned skills since the beginning of the year. At the same time he also has ongoing personal problems, which are in no way his fault but still burden him.
We have no employees and plan to close our first round of funding at the beginning of the next year.
Co-founder A and I agree that B is essential to our company's success, due to his sales skill, product ideas and industry knowledge.
Co-founder A feels that co-founder B is not pulling his weight. He is putting in more than enough time, but lacks some skills. If co-founder B does not get better over the next few months, A's proposition is to get a fourth person on board, who gets some of B's shares and will support him.
While I understand A's standpoint I believe that finding somebody capable will take more time and effort than helping and coaching co-founder B. Co-founder A is extremely upset about the situation and wants to see co-founder B improve during the next months or else take action. I see the problem as very manageable.
What do I do? <comment><USER2> If A is the CEO, shouldn't they be managing B (as the CMO?).

CEO can help them set goals, break down and clearing stage gates.

You could help with the ECR, like, each gets a ticket that you work through.

A will have to manage B for sales process, you will manage on ECR. Together you will help B improve.

Make sure your own measure of performance is understood going in and what metrics factor success.

And if B don't cut it, after N months, well, you have to make the choice that's best for the Ship, not the Sailor

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your reply! The help you describe is definitely an idea I can get behind. Just one question: What do you mean by ECR?

<comment><USER2> Engineering Change Request. Generally features or big changes</comment></comment></comment>


Modern C++ for C Programmers - <AUTHOR> https://ds9a.nl/articles/posts/cpp-intro/ <comment><USER2> I really like this list as it seems to cover the core aspects of what makes C++ a good language. But the one issue I have with resource such as these, is the lack of covering how to build real work projects. The list itself seems really good and after giving the topics a light skim, I really want to dive right into it and read everything.

But the biggest thing that I struggled with (and still have no idea about) when learning C++ was trying to learn how to build real projects. This includes things like, how do you use an external library? How do you set up a build system? Which build system to use in the first place? The last time I was trying to learn C++ (about two years ago I think?) I couldn't find answers to these questions, which was pretty discouraging as I thought C++ was a really useful language to learn. I wish this article covered some of these topics for beginners looking to build something more than a simple program.

<comment><USER3> If you're on a Linux system, learn how to use Makefiles for building since they're generally useful for lots of things. Cmake is becoming more common and does some good things, but I find it very hard to use/debug (and you might find yourself debugging the Makefiles it generates anyway). It helps if you already know how to compile/link C programs...

How to incorporate external libraries depends on if they're header-only, shared libraries, or static libraries (do people still use static libraries?). pkg-config is your friend!

<comment><USER4> Most embedded systems do not support dynamic linking.

Plus unless you are doing plugins, dynamic linking is an attack vector.

<comment><USER3> Fair enough! Although the tooling for embedded systems is usually some crazy black art! (I only have experience with mbed and energia systems).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not a bad list.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> the code snippets used have c++17 and c++20 features, my clion only supports up to c++14 with very limited c++17 support, not to mention c++20.

clang++ does have good c++17 support but g++ only supports full set of c++14

<comment><USER5> Which g++ are you talking about? g++-8 defaults to C++17. g++-9 supports many C++20 features.

<comment><AUTHOR> using default g++7 on ubuntu 18.04, but you're correct that 8/9 has c++17/c++2a support, i need upgrade my toolchain now

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you are not already using C++, learn Rust instead.

<comment><USER7> Coincidentally, the author already has a response for you: [https://ds9a.nl/articles/posts/cpp-rust- go/](https://ds9a.nl/articles/posts/cpp-rust-go/)

<comment><USER8> This post makes the mistake of assuming that anybody in industry writes secure C or C++ code.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is tech making our lives better or worse overall? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> How do you define tech? Did the invention of printed paper improve our lives? Did the invention of the pen improve our lives? Did the invention of penicillin improve our lives? etc....

I think it makes our lives easier, but anything can be misused.

Planes can drop bombs, they can also rescue hurricane victims.

Books can educate, they can also spread propaganda.

It all depends on the motivation behind the use of the tech.

</comment><comment><USER3> Depends on what standards you judge by, and whether you use it responsibly or not. It's hard to talk about "technology" as a whole, but I would say it has definitely made our lives easier (not necessarily better or worse).

</comment><comment><USER4> Better, we are healthier, more informed (even with the advent of increasingly common misinformation), more socially conscious, more equally pervasive, and happier as a society.

Our education rates have skyrocketed and literacy is higher than ever.

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes.</comment>


15 Startup Commandments - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupping.com/forums/showthread.php?t=347 <comment><USER2> 16\. Any advice given by others has a huge potential to harm you and your plans.

<comment><USER3> Does that include this submission as well?

<comment><USER2> Everything that's truly true is recursive in nature, my friend :)</comment></comment></comment>


An Open Letter to Ann Coulter - <AUTHOR> http://specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/an-open-letter-to-ann-coulter/ <comment><USER2> An eloquent and needed response to her tweet:

<https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/260581147493412865>

</comment><comment><USER3> stop posting political issues.</comment>


Show HN: HTML5/WebGL/WebSocket MMO tanks – Server in  C++ - <AUTHOR> http://fintank.ru <comment><USER2> Hi, I have been building a bit (X: 1048908, Y: 1212564) and found two small bugs:

1\. Sometimes when i press for a tile its not drawn on screen but the collider box is there because I can bounce other blocks against it. 2\. Sometimes it creates a block ontop of another block, and then the second block does not complete. If i shoot at the spot, there are tiles under that are destroyed, and I can pass under the "under-construction" block.

Also as robertelder mentioned, i also thought i was teleported when shooting the bombs. Maybe add a small effect of the tank exploding or a small pause with a message. The instant restart feels like i was teleported strait into a battle zone :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for spotting the bugs!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I pickup up 2 red balls and got teleported somewhere. What do red balls do?

<comment><AUTHOR> It is a bomb. So you killed and re-spawned somwehere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can only see a blank page.. I'm on an iPad, though..

</comment><comment><USER5> Is there github for this? Its very cool.</comment>


LVM thin volume explained - <AUTHOR> http://www.ilsistemista.net/index.php/linux-a-unix/46-lvm-thin-volume-explained.html

<comment><USER2> Nice article! Really helped me understanding thin snapshots much better. Would have liked to read more about performance.

Does not include the commands though, but working with lvm is quite trivial.

</comment><comment><USER3> Tangentially related - [https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2014/06/28/database- perfor...](https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2014/06/28/database-performance- lvm-snapshots-golang-and-sqlite3/)

<comment><USER4> If you have JS disabled, just disable all CSS stylesheets to quickly get a usable view.</comment></comment>


New York Times pop up add says your computer is infected, download malware fix - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/business/media/13note.html?_r=2

<comment><USER2> These kinds of popups always humor me. They put so much effort into making them look EXACTLY like a Windows program or dialog box. And I'm using OS X, they stand out like a sore thumb.

<comment><USER3> They could see your OS from your browser and send a different image...

<comment><AUTHOR> They could, but they don't. Why would they go through all that effort to snare an extra 5% of computers

<comment><USER4> Well, for one reason, that 5% is strongly correlated with people who could afford a more expensive computer...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> More details here

<http://troy.yort.com/anatomy-of-a-malware-ad-on-nytimes-com>

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a downside for media sites which use ad networks running low-quality, unvetted ad programs.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I got this on my home computer yesterday. I had a bunch of sites from hacker news open and I couldn't tell which one spawned it. Now I know. Kind of scary, it looked fairly authentic, certainly authentic enough to fool someone like my mother.

<comment><USER7> They do fool my mother, who sees things like this constantly (constantly enough to ask me about them a lot). The sad thing is that they're completely obvious to me (an XP-based picture on her Vista laptop). If not for people like my mother, I'd be completely ignorant of this matter given my linux box at home and browsing habits.</comment></comment>