Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/08/amazons-chinese-counterfeit-problem-is-getting-worse.html <comment><USER2> This has become a frustrating part of shopping on Amazon, to the point that I typically filter to only show things sold by Amazon themselves. Too many of the marketplace items are fake crap with paid-for reviews. Since they're mixed in together by default, the effort in trying to discern good from bad makes for a pretty crummy experience overall.

<comment><USER3> This will not always save you. If a company uses the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service they ship their stuff to amazon and it is co mingled with all of the other SKU's purporting to be the same item, including Amazons own stock

<comment><USER4> Exactly this. The article mentions that they basically take all the same products and put them together. So seller B's fake item may be sold as seller A's real item and seller A gets blamed for their fake stuff.

It's gotten so bad with certain groups of items I don't even try. Sunglasses, handbags, all the usual stuff you'd expect.

My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens. The two stores near me didn't have them in stock, I couldn't find my old pair and I was leaving for a week long motorcycle ride in two days. I ordered them up and immediately knew they were fake. They were too light, the nose pads weren't right, all the usual tells. I returned them 3 different times until I just cancelled.

<comment><USER5> I understand the frustration, you can easily end up buying from a chinese seller if you aren't playing attention. But I have a hard time understanding how you were fooled three times.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer- listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_ol...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer- listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new)

Buy from Amazon - the second choice. Pretty sure that is the default purchase option on the main page as well.

<comment><USER3> Clearly you do not understand how Amazon Warehouses work

Just because you buy someing from Seller A, even if Seller A is Amazon LLC, you may not be getting stock from Seller A

If I am A retailer selling SuperWidget 55, and I ship Amazon 100 Genuine SuperWidget's to store in their warehouse for amazon to ship to my customers (aka Amazon Fulfillment Service) . Then another competitor ship 100 Fake SuperWidgets to amazons warehouse. All Amazon records is they have 200 SuperWidgets.

When a Customer orders a SuperWidget, they will get what ever SuperWidget is closest to their location, and a random one from that location, it may not be my SuperWidget but one of the 100 fake ones, even though the customer selected to order from me.

So then the next question is why would a retailer use Amazon Fulfillment, well if you want to get any Prime buyers you must, as if you do not use Amazon Fulfillment your orders are not "Prime Eligible" which eliminates a huge number of consumers.

<comment><USER6> You can choose whether to turn on comingling when using FBA.

<comment><USER7> That only matters if you can choose to exclude comingling when buying.

<comment><USER6> "So then the next question is why would a retailer use Amazon Fulfillment"

You implied that sellers are required to use it.

Edit: it's a different user that replied to me, my mistake.

Also, Amazon tracks which order came from whose inventory, so if it's reported as fake they can punish the right seller. Any system of that size is going to have some slip through, but Amazon does a lot to vet sellers for specific products, categories, and so on. Just recently certain iPads were restricted, and I couldn't get approved with retail receipts, they wanted invoices from authorized distributors, for example.

As a buyer you can't do much about comingling, but that shouldn't be relevant except for products with an abnormally high counterfeit rate. And you will get your money back with very little hassle when buying FBA (they refund you immediately and then require you to return it), and it helps hurt the bad seller. The fact is the vast majority of purchases on Amazon are legitimate. I agree Amazon needs to do something about their image, but it doesn't seem to be hurting their sales. And who else are you going to go to? eBay is even worse, and retailers are more expensive most if the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I get the feeling that Chinese businesses (who are making the real products as well) are shouting to the American consumer "you are getting ripped off, here's how much these products cost without a _huge_ profit margin."

There are plenty of low quality fakes, but as Jack Ma said, some are better than the licenced versions.

<comment><USER9> Some system of clamps and shock cords for holding down a fitted bed sheets can hardly _be_ fake. Anyone's implementation is likely as good as anyone else's.

Though Whalley has a patent on it, the article claims, prior art for the basic idea can be seen on any truck that has a tarp tied down over a bunch of cargo.

<comment><USER10> The knockoff razor blades, however, are not nearly as sharp as the real ones.

<comment><USER11> I've purchased Feather and Derby blades on Amazon and they're stupid sharp. Which brands have you had bad luck with? Assuming DESR here.

<comment><USER10> I mean actual counterfeits. Like the packaging _says_ Schick but they are much worse quality and clearly not authentic if you look closely. I got my money back easily, but still an unpleasant experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The book _The Everything Store_ talks about how Amazon uses counterfeit goods to sort-of blackmail high-end goods to letting them sell.

I think the book gave the example of a high-end kitchen knife brand, maybe Wüsthof, that would not allow Amazon to sell their knives. Before you know it, cheap knockoffs appeared claiming to be Wüsthof knives. When they let Amazon sell the real deal, suddenly the knockoffs disappeared from the store.

I have a feeling the same thing is happening with the high-end perfumeries, like Creed. Everything sold on Amazon is a knockoff because the company doesn't sell there. I bet if they did, the fake stuff would magically disappear...

<comment><USER13> I don't think it's blackmail. I wonder if brands like Wüsthof got exclusive agreements as part of selling on Amazon so that nobody else is allowed to list their product, therefore eliminating the knockoffs. But without an official listing then Amazon would have to sort through every reseller to see if they are selling legitimate products or not, and what incentive would Amazon have to do that?

<comment><USER14> Amazon does make deals like that. GoPro, Sony, Samsung, Nest and tons of other brands are (for the most part, at least) locked down.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Every time I see counterfeit power adapters/chargers on Amazon I wonder why the original maker–e.g. Apple–doesn't lean on Amazon to stop the sale of those. Additionally, if someone dies or a house burns down[0], couldn't that open Amazon to lawsuits? [0] [http://www.righto.com/2014/05/a-look-inside- ipad-chargers-pr...](http://www.righto.com/2014/05/a-look-inside-ipad- chargers-pricey.html)

<comment><USER16> Because there's no easy way of telling if they are fake. What if they bought a bunch at the Apple store and are selling them at a lower price to get rid of the inventory?

<comment><USER15> Sometimes it is very easy to tell but Amazon will ship it to customers anyway. Imagine you are looking for a "85W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter" for a MacBook Pro at Amazon.com. First link after search for "apple power adapter for macbook pro" goes to:

[https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MagSafe-Adapter-MacBook- Display...](https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MagSafe-Adapter-MacBook- Display/dp/B008ALAAV0/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468194829&sr=1-2&keywords=apple+power+adapter+for+macbook+pro)

Now read this review (verified purchase):

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer- reviews/RNA9AYHGA5JG0/ref...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer- reviews/RNA9AYHGA5JG0/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B008ALAAV0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Chinese counterfeit Magic cards are a disruptor.

Wizards of the Coast, Magic's parent company, maintains a reversed list of historic cards. Listed cards can never be reprinted to protect their prices on the secondary market for collectors. Many players complain this is a bad for the game. As the counterfeits are getting better, more players buy them, pressuring Wizard to act. Maybe Wizards will abolish the reserved list.

Reserved list: [http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/official- reprin...](http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/official-reprint- policy-2010-03-10)

More links: [http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27693_Counterfeit- Cards...](http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27693_Counterfeit-Cards.html)

[http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-to-dismantle- the...](http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-to-dismantle-the-reserved- list/)

<comment><USER18> The argument could be made that players are simply trying to play with cards they can't normally obtain. Obvious counterfeits have often been allowed in unofficial games "by proxy" \- allowing players to construct more powerful decks than they could afford.

It would then come down to how much the counterfeit is worth to the player. So long as these aren't being passed off as legitimate cards, I don't see an issue.

<comment><USER19> Do most places allow this proxy card without owning the actual card these days? Back when I played in 93-97 you could use proxy cards, but it was usually a land card marked with an indicator of the real card, and the person had to pull out their real card (usually in a plastic case) to show they actually had it (and show the stats).

I had a friend with a color printer that tried to make counterfeit cards to use as proxies (not to try and sell, the printer he had back then was not very good), he got caught at a game night at a shop (unofficial tournament) and was actually banned from there.

<comment><USER20> Sometimes a store will hold proxy tournaments for certain formats, but not for the standard format, and they can't be officially sanctioned events.

There was a big deal about it recently with relation to counterfeiting. [http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/proxies- po...](http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/proxies-policy-and- communication-2016-01-14)

<comment><USER11> I don't play any card games, but what's honestly the big deal? Is the game about card-collecting skills, or deck-building and play strategy? It's hard to argue the latter and ban people for not having an original version of a card. I guess I don't really "get it", or I had way too much fun playing ridiculous mods (where it was fair because everyone had equally ridiculous stuff) for games (Mr. Pants Excessive Overkill for Quake 3 comes to mind). IMO it'd be fun to play some Magic tournament with all fake cards, so everyone could build their dream decks, then see who was better at building the best deck and better with play strategy.

<comment><USER21> This. In addition to card games that intentionally reward skilled counterfeiters, there should be MMO games designed to reward the best hackers and botmakers. Also, there should be an "unlimited" category in real-life events like the Olympics and Tour de France, where the team with the best drug lab wins.

I think we'll start to see more and more games like this emerge over the next few years/decades, as the possibilities of traditional sports and games (and the humans who play them) are exhausted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> A coworker just spent three days debugging a new server build, and it turned out to be a fake Xeon processor purchased from Amazon. Absolutely unbelievably executed fake, but the machine wouldn't even POST.

</comment><comment><USER23> Ironic anicdote: I order a cheap ($50) generic waterproof jacket from Amazon and got what was obviously a counterfit Northface (with branding and everything). Thankfully they sold and priced it as a generic so I knew what I was getting. Overall a reasonable coat but the detail elements (velcro and straps) were of poor quality.

<comment><USER24> You ordered a cheap jacket and the quality of the jacket you received was commensurate with the price and met your expectations. What is the irony?

<comment><USER23> the irony is that I ordered a cheap __generic __jacket and got a cheap __counterfeit __jacket.

meaning I was OK with generic Chinese merchandise, but it is more convenient for them to supply counterfeits than to produce something actually white- labeled.

<comment><USER24> Why would it be cheaper to design, make and sell two different jackets versus one?

<comment><USER25> Well Yes. That's the irony. If you had even minimal trademark enforcement, the risk ratio would encourage you to manufacture and sell white label and counterfeit jackets as separate firewalled vendors. So one could be shut down without effecting the other. Here the risk is clearly so low they don't even bother... or maybe they have firewalled vendors and the cost of setting up a generic vendor is so low that its less than the dual manufacturing pipeline... either way that's the irony.

<comment><USER24> Irony != Counter intuitive

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This can be solved by requiring higher-risk merchants to put money in escrow for a while (maybe an initial amount plus some fraction of revenue). If they turn out to be selling counterfeits, amazon could use the money to set things right. Otherwise the merchant gets the money.

<comment><USER27> Don't Amazon already do this? IIRC from the few things I have sold on Amazon, I had to wait 2-4 weeks after an order for the money to be paid into my bank account.

<comment><USER6> Yes. For the first six months after you start selling there's a two week reserve (plus the standard settlement wait). Every time you have a significant increase in sales they'll apply a reserve and monitor your metrics before removing it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> It's infuriatingly difficult to buy anything of quality on Amazon. I really hope they improve the situation.

<comment><USER29> Their EC2 servers are pretty good quality.

<comment><USER30> This reminds of something I read - apparently, for whatever reason, not all EC2 instances of the same class perform the same. So, some large AWS customers (like Netflix) keep spawning instance, run some benchmarks on them, then if the instance is in top X% as far as performance goes, they keep it; otherwise they drop it. Which means that, what a regular customer gets, is an instance that someone (or multiple someones) found not good enough and dropped ;]

<comment><USER31> Do we have reason to believe low performance is an enduring property of the instance, or could it just be that instance performance varies over time (i.e. when neighbors are hungrier)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> My problem with Amazon is not that it sells cheap low-quality stuff, it's that the cheap products are not really cheap. I buy off-brand Chinese stuff on AliExpress and could not be more happy with them; the prices on Amazon can easily reach 10x those of Ali.

<comment><USER33> But there is more bad sellers on aliexpress... so you have to make sure that you check sellers reviews...

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> The biggest problem with Amazon reviews is that they'll _let you post a review of something you never bought!_ Sure, they do add the "verified purchase" tag for things you bought; but for calculating the aggregate stats, etc. Amazon will cleverly ignore the fact that you could just be talking out your ass (or selling reviews). I find this very dirty on their part, and it's something that can be fixed with 1 line of code.

<comment><USER35> This seems like the most sensible solution and would easily weed out 99% of these fake paid for reviews. Is there a way to filter ratings by verified purchasers?

Why don't they do this by default?

<comment><USER36> This isn't automatically a good thing. Let me give you an example. I had a very persistent Amazon Marketplace seller who kept deleting and re-posting a listing for a specific mobile phone dock I was trying to find. They were selling a fake phone dock using the image and details of a hard to find one I really wanted. I ordered it several times and they shipped a completely different product - different look, color, brand, it was the cheapest garbage ever. Amazon refunded all my costs each time, and because the seller was a punk and refused to pay return shipping I threw them all away. No money out of my pocket.

The reason they would keep deleting and re-listing the item is because I would leave bad (but factually correct) reviews when I kept trying to find the phone dock and seeing their new listing in Amazon's search results. Their re-listing action caused my reviews to disappear because it was a 'new' product listing with their same fake photo every time. I flagged this repeatedly to Amazon as fraud via chat, email, and telephone and they never took any action. This went on for months, and Amazon never addressed it.

So my point is that by allowing anyone to post a review, you give consumers one more tool to warn each other about fraud and unethical sellers. Yes there are a lot of fake reviews, but there are also legit buyers out there too and we are willing to pester fake sellers for months and cost them a fair amount of losses (postage, abandoned fakes because they don't want them back).

Sellers know they can delete & re-list fakes all day long to disassociate negative feedback for an item , and they know Amazon will never ban them.

<comment><USER37> > and because the seller was a punk and refused to pay return shipping I threw > them all away

That's not "punk" \-- the seller doesn't want the garbage anymore than you do. Most vendors of inexpensive products don't want you to mail back returns. It's not worth it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> AliExpress is increasing serving more US customers for looking for bargain price. I guess that Amazon is aware of that so they take blind eye for the low priced counterfeits.

</comment><comment><USER39> For some categories where Amazon sells its own brand (which keeps growing), I wonder if this benefits Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER40> I bought a new "Sony" universal remote from Amazon. It came wrapped in a clear plastic baggie with no box or instructions. It worked and looks legit, so more likely this item was stolen or sold as new when it wasn't more so than a fake from China. But maybe it was a fake, just a very good one probably made at the same factory that makes the "real" Sony remotes.

As Brexit has shown us, there are plenty of downsides to Globalization. Amazon needs to get better at KYC, but Jeff's growth at any cost mantra just won't embrace that and his lieutenants will find it's hard to argue with results. Until this sort of stuff makes a dent in Amazon's top line, I believe they won't really crack down on this.

</comment><comment><USER41> My anecdote: more than a few times I was asked by small Chinese sellers on Amazon and Ebay (introduced by mutual acquaintances) to help them write emails to press unhappy customers to remove their negative reviews left on Amazon or Ebay, in exchange for freebies and credit. The sellers would ask me to write all sorts of fake sad stories like some poor girl would lose her job or the company had to shut down if the negative review was not turned into a positive one. I was really disgusted and turned them down each time. The moral: in most cases don't believe those fake stories. The review system needs to be protected for everyone's benefit.

</comment><comment><USER42> Firms should start using serial numbers for their products that can be verifiable on the web and in fact could be registered with the manufacturer.

A totally different and important problem is counterfeit drugs. There are ways to battle counterfeit drugs.

<comment><USER6> Most items aren't expensive enough to be worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Its interesting how much sympathy is expected for these people who make a silly little product and have foreign competition, but would a reaction be similar if it was an Amazon Basics product?

<comment><USER43> Not sure I understand the downvoting here but fine. perhaps clarifying my question would help.

Today:

Brand 1 makes product and sells on Amazon. Files IP to try and prevent others from copying their idea.

Brand 2 (Chinese company) makes similar product and sells through amazon - results in headlines like - Amazon has a Chinese problem.

Brand 3 (Amazon Basics) - makes similar products and has Chinese supplier add logo to their generic product. Even though brand 1 has the same problem (arguably worse), because Amazon does it instead of a Chinese company it is seen as less problematic.

<comment><USER44> Are there Amazon Basics products where IP is an issue? I only know them from USB chargers, cables, rechargeable batteries, …, stuff where there is little innovation.

<comment><USER43> [http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the- bes...](http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-best- products-on-amazon-and-selling-them-for-less-1652879/)

They had a design patent (basically meaningless) and amazon just modded and started owning them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> It sounds like what the real issue is, is a lack of designers. Counterfeiting is what you do when you are great at making things, but don't know how to make something that people want to use. A good designer (and a little marketing) could fix this.

</comment><comment><USER46> Amazon sellers could stand to look at their collective bargaining power.

</comment><comment><USER9> And of course Jamie Whalley has nothing Made in China in her home. Just "real" stuff.

> _Her patented product called BedBand consists of a set of shock cords, > clamps and locks designed to keep fitted bed sheets in place._

All these parts made in USA?

<comment><USER47> People are downvoting, but if her product is manufactured in China that's pretty much the reason her product was copied in such short order.

<comment><USER5> It isn't manufactured in China, that's one of their main selling points.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> The product I've seen crash and burn in quality on Amazon UK is Koss PortaPro headphones. Loved those for many years, but the last few broke inside weeks.

I am wondering if I should try to buy a last pair directly from the manufacturer. I am quite happy with my new Sennheiser, but they don't feel right...

Anyone in the US with recent experience?

<comment><USER49> I bought a small "SanDisk" branded USB-storage device, I plugged it in, and started transferring files to it while I went to lunch.

When I came back, the transfer was complete, I unplugged the device, and I burned my fingers!

So now I have a broken USB-port in my Macbook, because I trusted Amazon to not sell me a fake product. I wrote a review, and rated it poorly, but they are still selling it[0], and most reviews are positive. They even write "by Sandisk", and "Dispatched from and sold by Amazon".

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005FYNSZA/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005FYNSZA/)</comment></comment>


Protip for salary seekers pt 2: Results from some mining of the H1-B database - <AUTHOR> http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/136-Data-mining-H-1B-salary-data.html <comment><USER2> The website in the OP is mine, so far all people who are interested in the uncropped lists, you can get it at <http://www.the- interweb.com/bdump/misc/salaries.xlsx>

The first sheet inside the Excel file is probably the most interesting one, showing software/computer/engineer salaries for nearly 3500 jobs.

</comment><comment><USER3> I love programming but seeing that first list I can't help but wonder what it takes to be a Director or if the Anesthesiologist route is a more sure way to 300k a year. Trading 6 years for a sure thing doesn't seem like too bad a deal.

<comment><USER4> A lot of these high-paying jobs seem a lot less interesting to someone who has the hacker mindset. To me, they certainly do.

Also, you're guaranteed a nicely paying job, but there's no opportunity for massive wealth like there is in the riskier world of startups. Here, I may make 20k next year, or I may make 2 million. Anything's possible. More risk == more reward. This holds true.

<comment><USER5> There are jobs that pay 500+k / year for 30 years with little risk. The number of start up founders that make 15+ million in their lifetime is vary small. So, going into startup's to maximize lifetime earnings is probably not a great piece of advice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Some of these positions can be personally identified. I just picked Physic Ventures to start and with some not too hard logic was able to figure who's salary was listed on the site.

<comment><USER7> That's true for almost all of the startups (and in one case, a company that just filed for IPO). It wasn't too hard to match this data to LinkedIn for quite a few people I know :)

Doesn't this violate some kind of privacy laws, anyway? (Edit: I mean the fact that the US Government is releasing data, not the fact that it can be mined)

<comment><USER4> No. It's public data. It would actually be illegal for the government not to release it.

<comment><USER8> Is every US Citizen's salary data released publically too (or in a format that it can be mined)?

If No, then why the distinction (did not want to use discrimination).

<comment><USER9> The legislative purpose of H1B is to preserve the ability of companies to hire professionals who cannot be found at any price in America. There are a few safeguards designed to promote this: a requirement to advertise for the position in the US, for example, and the publication process.

A frequent criticism made of H1B is that it is used as an end-run around our (typically fairly strict) immigration procedures to bring in modern-day indentured servants who do jobs many Americans can do at wages which are markedly lower than the prevailing US wages. You'll frequently see this in e.g. Slashdot criticism, with tales of H1Bs hired by Infosys or whomever paid to do systems engineering for $20k ~ $30k, which (if substantially accurate) is an abuse of the program.

FWIW, I am in Japan by the grace of a status of residence very similar to the H1B, and that would be yanked instantly if I was not earning more than the prevailing wage for similarly situated Japanese engineers. (Though there is another status here -- trainee -- which is widely abused to that purpose.)

<comment><USER10> For all intents and purposes, the "trainee" visa in Japan is borderline slavery and is used to bring in extremely cheap labor from China and SE Asia.

Japan is actually pretty relaxed about immigration considering the xenophobic image. All you need is a job offer from a company willing to do the paperwork, (normally) a Bachelors degree in the field you will work in and a salary offer that is at least what a Japanese hire would get. No quotas or H1B hire-in- Japan-first requirements. You aren't trapped in your job - once you get a work visa, you can change to another company in the same field with no repercussions. Get married and you have full rights to work, not work or start a business as you please with a spousal visa.

Don't want to work for someone else or get married? 5 million yen in the bank (about $60k) and a business plan gets you an "Investors" visa.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This should make it clear that if you want to start a startup without funding, you should move to manhattan, get a job in financial services and share an apt in queens. Do this for 3 years and you could have $100k in da bank. Then u quit and then startup.

<comment><USER12> It seems like a good way to make a good chunk of change to fund your startup, but as someone living in NYC I don't see it actually done that much. I think once you start working for the large bank you get used to all of the perks and it gets hard to leave.

It's probably technically possible to do, but would require lots of willpower and determination that you could put into actually starting your startup instead. There's also momentum to consider; not doing something entrepreneurial right now decreases the odds that you'll start doing something entrepreneurial soon.

<comment><USER13> I'm doing it this year but in London. I believe it all goes down to this: are you really working on this to get some money for your startup or are you just making money for yourself?

For me it's definitely the first option, couldn't care less about making more or less money right now.

<comment><USER11> Exactly! People will be buying houses and fancy cars and bottles of liquor at clubs for $250 - but you need to realize that what your doing is more important.

It's hard though. People will tell u that real estate s a much better option etc... Just keep your eye on the prize.

<comment><USER13> I'm on this journey with two friends and they just waste all the money on expensive restaurants and wine, it's crazy. Then they will say something like "Yeah but this bill is only x hours of work!" but then you end up with almost no money because when you don't know how to save then it's really easy to waste it all that way.

Now I'm just the opposite, I have a really hard time wasting money. By now I never had so much money in my life and still I'm completely unable to buy a Macbook Air* or something similar... I've been having some hard time trying to make my brain understand that it is quite okay to pay $30 for some dinner every once in a while. Does anyone else have this "problem"?

* Which, by my friends' reasoning, is just three days of work, at most.

<comment><USER14> _Does anyone else have this "problem"?_

Yes, or at least used to: I outgrew it. I think part of it came from being raised by a single mom and being very aware of how important money was. Once I had more of it than I needed, I simply didn't know what else to do besides bank it or invest it and the thought of spending made me break out in hives.

At some point, though, you realize that having nice things doesn't mean you're wasting your money or that you're going to be homeless next week. Life is about balance. Be good to yourself, but be careful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm curious why the OP thinks the first five entries on the list are "obviously faulty entries". They do seem like a lot of money, but I am sure there can be edge cases, after all, the sample size for each of them is really small. The titles do seem rather general, but perhaps they are top positions?

<comment><AUTHOR> For the record, I am the OP, but this isn't my blog. I previously linked to the databases on HN, and just saw now that the owner of this blog did some analysis on it.

But I do agree that there seemed to be some faulty entries. This was the case for all of the previous years I looked at.

<comment><USER16> I was just approved for an H1B for next October, and received a bit more 25% raise after the immigration lawyers had already finished all the paperwork. I highly doubt they refactored it. It's likely that some of these are just estimates, and do not include bonus figures either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> In the movie ID4, the president is told by his military command that there are aliens and that there are artifacts. This is after the spaceships arrive. When the president asks why wasn't I told this (about the aliens), his advisors answer: "Two words. Plausible deniability"

When you look at the H1-B database, you lose plausible deniability.

If you want to take this further (for those of you who are university graduates), look at your alumni/class notes. Feel free to feel envious about the weddings/birth announcements/job promotions/degrees earned. Or maybe even feel condescension. And realize that it all doesn't matter. A person's life isn't just a set of facts, it is their personal impact on the ones they choose to love. The reason why baseball players make millions and why teachers make puny salaries is a question of financial impact. A baseball player through multiple channels (marketing, tickets, television, news) can indirectly affect many orders of magnitude people more than the teacher in their lone classroom teaching twenty kids. (This is why the Khan Academy is so powerful, it scales personal directed learning). If you want to get a more shallow sense, keep reading your class notes until you get to the deaths. Reading about people who are summed up in a paragraph. Life is not a guarantee.

Anyway, realize that salary is just a number and that true wealth is not how much you earn but how long you can maintain your preferred lifestyle _without_ working (savings, ideally mostly passive income). The meaning of life is up to you to define it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Should someone expect the salaries of H1-B employees to be comparable to resident employees? This is very interesting data but I'm wondering what all can be inferred from it.

<comment><USER19> Yes, Under the law, H1B workers must be paid the higher of the prevailing wage or the actual wage.

This gets messy because for H1Bs it is difficult to move between jobs, so it is harder for them to get raises, etc, but thats another whole story.

<comment><USER20> The law appears to be designed to ensure that foreign workers aren't hired for cheap to undercut the wages of US workers.

If visa paperwork lives up to its reputation, however, a rational company would only hire foreign workers if they are talented enough to be worth the hassle or have skills that cannot be found elsewhere. Presumably these people would be paid well. These numbers may be higher than the true average.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I am not sure how this works on CA, etc. My father came to the US on an H1-B in 1999. He was hired as a contractor by an agency that specialized in bringing H1-B software developers from the former USSR and India. He then had to go look for an actual job, since this company was simply a middle man.

After he found a job, he got his salary: about 1/3 of the reported number. The rest was cleaned up by the agency that brought him here. Eventually, he got his green card and left the agency, but what this implies to me is that an H1-B worker may not get that much of the salaries reported on this list. However, as I mentioned, I have no idea what percentage of H1-Bs are hired through thrid-party middle men.

<comment><USER22> That sounds like an all-round illegal scheme. First, in order to get a H-1B you need an actual job offer, and with the application the employer is certifying that they will pay that rate. There is no such thing as a "middle man", you can't simply apply for an H-1B for someone with the intent of them going looking for a job when they get here.

<comment><USER21> It's not quite as crude as you made it sound. The programmer works for company X, with a fixed hourly rate. He has the H1-B with that company, and they are the ones who are sponsoring him. Company X contracts out to Company Y who pays company X for the services provided by the developer on-site. Company Y pays Company X, and Company X in turn pays the developer. On paper this looks legitimate to me.

<comment><USER22> Yeah, that's probably legit, _but_ company X would (I hope) _still_ be required to pay the programmer whatever they said in their H1B application.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Let's take this one:

CITIGROUP GLOBAL MARKETS INC. APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT SENIOR PROGRAMMER ANALYST $457K

What do you have to know to be worth this much to a bank?

<comment><USER24> I believe that row is a mistake too..

Here is the record that seems to be throwing off the average: [http://www.immihelp.com/h1b-sponsoring-companies- database/vi...](http://www.immihelp.com/h1b-sponsoring-companies- database/view-2010-3805002-citigroup_global_markets_inc.html)

The web app mentioned in the article is really great for searching and give you lots more useful information: [http://www.the- interweb.com/serendipity/exit.php?url_id=847&...](http://www.the- interweb.com/serendipity/exit.php?url_id=847&entry_id=136)

EDIT: I work with Citigroup as a consultant on their internal legal applications (including the immigration tracking database). I did a quick search and I can promise, without revealing what is in the database, that the inflated numbers for the Citigroup positions are obvious typos.

We track base wage, prevailing wage, and upto wage. So (as a completely made- up example) if I see a position with a base wage of 95k, prevailing wage of 100k and upto wage of 1.15M, it's pretty obvious that someone just entered an extra zero.

In short, there are no Sr. Programmer Analysts here making $1M/year or even $400k/year. Nothing to see here.

<comment><USER25> you've just shuttered my world _cry_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Is it me or do those company-specific average salaries seem very high (even excluding the top 3)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Note that they are average for _that job title_ , not across the whole company. So on average, these are what Seniors or Principals make at most companies, and not your typical engineer.

The list is cropped, but further down you would see companies like MS have a lower tier engineer (such as "Software Engineer I" or "Associate Software Engineer" title with a lower average.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Does this take into account other types of compensation like stock options? I've accepted a position as an H1-B and the salary I was offered is over 10% lower than what is listed in that data ... would it be prudent to bring it up?

</comment><comment><USER28> > COMPACT SOLUTIONS LLC 4 SOFTWARE ENGINEER _1801250_

> EMORY UNIVERSITY 12 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR _794454_

> COMCAST CABLE COMMUNICATIONS, LLC 3 ENGINEER II _308533_

Does this surprise anyone else? Wow!

<comment><USER29> FTA: "The top 5 can be discarded because of obviously faulty entries in the database (as much as I would like there to be a company that pays the average software engineer 1.8 million USD a year!). The first legit average seems to be the three Citigroup analysts making an average of roughly $450K."

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> anybody up for charting this data?

<comment><USER31> Yeap. I will definitely do something with it and put on salaryshare. Incredibly busy this week, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> So Google has 506 H1B Software Engineers and they all make exactly $106,862?

<comment><USER27> It might be average salary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> There isn't an error with the "screenshot"?

How can avg be > of max? :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Dude this is awesome. Being a H1B myself, I always used to wonder why Americans wouldnt mine this information for themselves.

If Techcrunch gets a hold of this I think your post could snowball into something big!</comment>


Show HN: Clean up images damaged by noise / JPEGing. 100% in-browser - <AUTHOR> https://pixfix.com/ <comment><USER2> I'm the other developer. There is actually some pretty cool math behind this:

The underlying algorithm has not been published. At its core is a color median filter, a block-L1-minimizing generalization of the well-known scalar median filter. Applying such a filter to an image rounds out corners and destroys fine features, so a separate recovery step is needed. Filtered pixels that differ significantly from their original values are iteratively replaced with the distance-minimizing convex combination of neighboring filtered pixels, digging out corners and other destroyed features without re-introducing noise.

</comment><comment><USER3> Cool, polished website. But if it does it 100% in the browser, then I expect to see the result in the browser. Maybe a [1] before/after slider would be a good addition.

[1] [https://codepen.io/nosurprisethere/pen/xrXjYV](https://codepen.io/nosurprisethere/pen/xrXjYV)

<comment><USER2> Just click the "View" button on each result and you get a full featured viewer with pan/zoom, quick toggling from before/after, and even a heat map showing where there are big differences between the two.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I'm one of the authors of this tool, happy to answer any questions.

It's basically a little image processing algorithm for restoring rasterized vector art that's been degraded by various forms of abuse (noise, JPEG, print & scan), packaged up in a simple single-page application (sSPA? ;)

There's also a photo mode for de-blocking heavily JPEGed photos.</comment>


Angular It's You, Not Me – A Breakup Letter - <AUTHOR> https://levelup.gitconnected.com/angular-its-you-not-me-9e9232ad3bcd?ref=hn <comment><USER2> TLDR:

        * Angular has too many breaking changes
        * Not a fan of TypeScript
        * Switching to React
        * Enjoys writing cringey posts...

how is this trash on the front page?

<comment><USER3> I flagged this submission. Content like this shouldn't make it on HN.

I think it got voted up without people having read the article.

<comment><USER4> I am the author of the article. Only meant to make people chuckle, not to offend. It's just a silly little one-off article that happened to catch some eyes. Sincere apologies to anyone offended by it. I can see how it is not everyone's cup of tea.

<comment><USER5> I wouldn't let the HN rabblement get to you too much, I thought it was kind of amusing and silly. There's a huge survivorship bias favoring those who are willing to be vocal about not being able to find humor in certain things. Personifying technology isn't allowed to be funny? I don't buy it. I say, loosen up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hey guys, just FYI, don't make sexual analogies between you and technologies in blog posts like this. It's super creepy! Edit: The breakup analogy, while stupid, isn't that creepy, but personifying technologies as sexual relationships sure is. We're technologists, this post can be just as entertaining if the title is "Why I'm No Longer Using Angular"

<comment><USER7> Maybe it's creepy for you or a bunch of others. I find it funny, at least until it's used with caution and in the right contexts. We're adults, sex and technology (along with a lot of other things) are parts of our life, I really don't see the problem here.

<comment><USER6> Why do you think your opinion matters that you think something shitty is funny? Default to listening, not arguing in something that's not an argument.

<comment><USER7> You're just trying to impose _your_ opinion. Speaking about sex or even a love relation is not shitty. If you're triggered with it, all I can do is avoiding to talk about it in front of you in person. In all other cases it's your problem, not mine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not up to speed on all the history.

"Yes, I know the "real" explanation as to why you skipped an entire major version. We both know the truth though, don't we A my sweet. Well I'm not a complete fiend. Your secret is safe with me."

Could someone explain what he's talking about here?

<comment><AUTHOR> It was in order to keep with SEMVER. Everything Angular was version 2 except for Angular Router, which was version 3. So the team decided to make the next major version 4 to keep them all aligned. [http://angularjs.blogspot.com/2016/12/ok-let-me-explain- its-...](http://angularjs.blogspot.com/2016/12/ok-let-me-explain-its-going-to- be.html)

<comment><USER9> That makes perfect sense. Unlike this sexually charged fanboi blog post.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Eh? "I'm moving from angular to react because of jsx"? Am I missing something here between the sexual analogies?

</comment><comment><USER11> You can write Angular 2+ in ES6 (but there are no docs for pure JS). Angular 4 is completely backwards compatible with 2. I upgraded multiple applications at work without changing code. It doesn't seem like the author used Angular 2+ in production much. It just sounds like he was sick of the Angular ecosystem/releases and was ready to move on

</comment><comment><USER12> > And where's your ReactNative sweetheart?

It's called NativeScript [https://www.nativescript.org/](https://www.nativescript.org/)

</comment><comment><USER13> Cringe

</comment><comment><USER14> Earlier:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15821725](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15821725)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15817843](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15817843)</comment>


No more offensive language on Skype, see section 3.a.iv - <AUTHOR> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/upcoming.aspx <comment><AUTHOR> Mirror: [http://archive.is/qOGJo](http://archive.is/qOGJo)</comment>


Show HN: Twilio Game - Mobile Mad Libs - <AUTHOR> http://mobilemadlibs.com

<comment><USER2> Brings back memories of my elementary school days!</comment>


A Mother Is Shot Dead on a Playground, and a Sea of Witnesses Goes Silent - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/nyregion/bronx-new-york-murder-mother-playground.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 <comment><AUTHOR> Not directly on topic for HN, but I submitted it anyway because we do often talk about surveillance, police procedure, drugs, effects of wealth distribution, and similar things. Most here are coming from a world quite removed from the people and neighborhoods that experience the kind of crime covered in the story, so I thought it could be interesting to see what it looks like "on the street".</comment>