Suggest PG: Put ads on HN and donate revenue - <AUTHOR>

I think that even a discrete ad on Hacker News home page will result in revenue. This revenue could be used to fund some charity, e.g. related to CS education. Ads data could also be made public and used as a case study. <comment><USER2> I would be very strongly opposed to this idea. Advertising is a distraction, and one of the great things about HN is the lack of distraction. The site layout is simple, the stories are relevant.

The last thing I want from HN is noise. The signal/noise ratio is fantastic here. Let's keep it that way.

It's often the case that people want to get the public (in this case the HN public) to accept some ill in the name of charity. I truly believe that members here should make private donations to charities if they wish to, there's no need for us to become another site covered in ads for charities no matter how closely 'related' they are to the content.

</comment><comment><USER3> We're a tech savvy bunch who know how to use AdBlock. Yes, some of choose not to block ads, but at a lower rate than on the average site.

Why not donate directly to a charity of your choice, instead of asking PG to sell your attention and donate the proceeds to a charity of his choice?

How useful would the ad data be?

Would having ads on HN detract from the usefulness of HN as a marketing tool for YC?

</comment><comment><USER4> People have to click the ads for revenue to be made. This being HN, an aggregator for people who spend most of their day on computers(& the web), I think it's safe to say most of us have become immune to ads, and the effort(however minimal) in setting up\managing ads would ultimately be futile. What HN could possibly do is have an affiliate link when a product is featured; I think most people would make the conscious effort to buy via HN to support it.

<comment><USER5> > _People have to click the ads for revenue to be made._

Is that true? I remember someone saying that ad-blockers were evil because the website got revenue for views, not just clicks, and ad-blockers were killing that revenue.

([http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad- blocking...](http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is- devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars))

> _There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, > then blocking them won't hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, > at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis. If you have > an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume > resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no > revenue. Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad > blockers._

<comment><USER4> OK, my initial post was premature, After some googling, sites can get income using the CPM/CPI model(Cost per thousand impressions). I stand corrected.

<comment><USER6> There's also another way of making money from advertising: flat rate.

While I'm opposed to the idea of ads on HN, if it were to be implemented I can't imagine PG looking at CPI/CPC methods. Rather, I suspect advertising space would be 'rented' on a monthly basis for a much higher fee to technology companies, etc.

But I'll reiterate: I'm against advertising on HN for multiple reasons (poor revenue model for a community like this; there are better alternatives; I don't like them), and I would not be surprised if PG was too (although I've not way of knowing).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Better yet -

Allow reddit-style promoted posts on relevant subjects. Make them behave like those locked "XYZ is hiring" posts - start on top and drop a couple of positions per hour. Except allow the comments too. Limit the number of spots to one or two per day and auction them off.

That should greatly help with launching projects on HN, which seems to be an emerging trend that is not likely to be going anywhere soon.

</comment><comment><USER5> I would pay a small sum to read / post to HN, especially if I can avoid ads. I don't care what they do with that money.

I do not use an ad-blocker. I wouldn't if HN got ads, but it'd be a shame.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Do you think that something like the deck ( the ad network for designers ) would make sense for developers?

Ads are not uninteresting by design.</comment>


Pressure on startups is building with IPOs and sales stalled in a funk - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/silicon-valley-s-overstuffed-startups-risk-messy-blowout <comment><USER2> Tech startups get a sort of alternate financial analysis which is all about growth now, profit later because of network effects. But a lot of companies under the "tech startup" banner just don't seem like tech companies to me. Sprig isn't a tech company, its a food company, same for juicero and other food delivery apps. Uber shares similarities with tech companies and with taxi companies so why does it always get analyzed as a tech company and never as a taxi company? As this boom progresses we're at the point where basically any small company is labeled "startup" and then branded as somehow tech even if they just have a backend database and a flashy javascript website.

<comment><USER3> Its due to the fact that VC's see "software eating the world" and they make a bunch of bets that push that mantra. Also, marketing the business to people and or investors follows the same pattern. News will eat up "this is uber for babies" and market it to people.

<comment><USER4> Uber for babies? The stork will finally be real!

<comment><USER5> Disrupting the fertility treatment industry? I wonder what Musk would do with that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Since this article is getting upvoted; I'd love to hear what HN'ers in SV think about this.

I'm located in the Netherlands far away from it all, and to me this article cofirms exactly what it looks like from the outside. Things I'd be interested in knowng are:

\- Employees and founders, are you afraid you might end up empty-handed? Do you manage to save some of those big SV paychecks in case it does go to shit?

\- People on the investment side, do you see any real worries yet, or is everybody still in full on happy mode?

\- Any remarks in general on what the mood in SV is on this? Do people talk about it, or are they mostly just going on like they have for the past years?

I'd love to get some insights!

<comment><USER7> Live in Silicon Valley. Noticing a lot of startups closing shop and friends finding new jobs.

I'd mention though that the risk was well known. About 1 year ago most people started to realize that startup options are basically worthless, and similar to buying a lotto ticket.

<comment><USER8> But I've seen this exact post every couple of years on HN since 2006(I think?).

You might think things are changing but it sounds like you and your friends are simply growing up and being more realistic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's interesting. Everyone keeps saying how there's this neverending waterfall of cheap money with nowhere to go, but in non-software industries it feels like there's a heavy dearth of capital.

Want to start a new small business as an electrician or plumber? A manufacturing startup? A boutique hardware studio? Those kinds of businesses cannot promise returns orders of magnitudes higher than the investment with a straight face like software companies somehow can, and it seems like they are ignored because of the comparative risk/reward ratio.

But jeez, this is one fairly specific industry hoovering up all of this cheap money in our economy. While vast swaths of our economy remain gated behind enormous barriers of regulatory capture and capital investment.

What's going on?

<comment><USER10> I see it too. Here in Cape Canaveral, we don't have a tech industry. Sure, we build plenty of rockets and electronics, and we have a lot of coders, but you won't see much javascript and we don't have a single VC firm. From a finance perspective, we just aren't tech. If you want to start a rocket company or land a rover on the moon, you'd better know someone on Sand Hill Road.

As far as I can see, the issue is this: the Fed is trying to apply a macroeconomic loosening of the money supply to fight the deflation from the financial crisis. For political reasons, the old school Keynesian method of borrowing for more government spending can't be used. So, they are maintaining low rates to try to jumpstart the economy. Unfortunately, this money has to enter the economy through a financial system which is geographically imbalanced. So, we get inflation in SF, and NY, less inflation in cities with less finance industry, and deflation in much of the rest of the country. This seems to be the big economic issue of our time in the developed world.

Why we have two economies, and the financial system isn't arbitraging this difference away, I'm not sure. I recall reading an economist (Harold Innis maybe?) who warned about the centralizing effects of a Keynesian inflationary theory. Anyone know more about this?

<comment><USER11> I think you're absolutely right about finance being geographically imbalanced. Finance can't operate well at scale, it would seem. Finance can't process "the long tail." And when it attempts to, deployments of capital get riskier, more speculative, frothy, etc. It's a missed opportunity that hurts potential customers as well.

I have to disagree with your take on Keynesian macroeconomics, however. Republican protests against raising the debt limit are for show & they always capitulate. Plus, concerns about inflation from Republicans are not as pressing a problem now that they control the purse strings. :)

I think you could have removed anything about Keynes and had a perfect comment. Your note about Sand Hill Road is spot-on.

<comment><USER12> > finance doesn't scale

Scales well enough for grameeb bank and the micro lending industry. Scales reasonably well enough for p2p lending. Scales beautifully for kickstarter style platforms. If Wall Street and VCs wanted and their HNI clientele were willing, they'd set aside a portion of investment dollars towards these borrower-lender marketplaces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm only citing what I've read, so forgive me if I lack the necessary understanding here, but my general interpretation has been that:

1) Money is still super cheap in the private equities, meaning companies that likely could IPO opt instead to stay private and take on more private cash to avoid public market scrutiny as they grow.

2) Because money is so cheap, it's easy for competition to pop up in any industry piquing venture interest. This is requiring companies to take losses to acquire customers. These fickle customers then have plenty of options to move to a competitor once the company tries to increase prices to hit positive margin. As an anecdote, I have absolutely no loyalty to most services I use these days.

3) This seems to create kind of a vicious cycle of VC-subsidized business operations, never allowing a large portion of these businesses to hit metrics that would appease the public, keeping most of them private, in friendly ecosystems in the short term.

<comment><USER14> Fundamentally, there is too much money (interest rates are too low, money is too cheap) chasing too few returns (too many startups are ultimately just bad business ideas).

Remember when everyone was talking about a bubble in '14? It wasn't a bubble in the end-point of these startups, it was a bubble in their initial creation and funding, and this is the consequence of that bubble: decreased returns, illiquid assets, the end of the 3-year cycle time without the values that were expected.

The biggest threat is your third point, as it makes the inevitable bust far more painful if you're able to paper over the long-term issues with short-term money. And the secondary threat is that there is no bust but this just continues on as a slow death, which slowly drains VCs of investment funds from other funds (pensions, etc.), which makes their money more expensive, which sucks out more money, repeat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> _But sales of young companies and initial public offerings haven 't been keeping pace with the surge of money going into tech startups since 2014. The cash waterfall that is supposed to rush to venture capital firms and their big moneybags investors is more like a calm stream. This hasn't been a disaster yet, and it may still turn out fine. But pressure is building._

they have been saying this for years.

 _With Silicon Valley under pressure to make cash back from prior startup investments, more young tech companies will run out of money and die. Already this year, more than a billion dollars of investor money has been wiped out in the closing of tech startups like fitness hardware company Jawbone, food- delivery startup Sprig and messaging app Yik Yak. Expect to hear the colorful term "unicorpse" \-- that's a dead startup unicorn -- much more in 2017._

Never even heard of Sprig and Yik Yak. From what I gather, neither were valued above $1 billion.

Instead of the media constantly trying to front-run the crash, why not just wait for it. If it's as obvious and inevitable as the media says it is, we shouldn't have to wait too long.

</comment><comment><USER16> A part of me thinks that the VC industry will see a flight-to-quality type of event sometime in the near future. In this scenario, I think it'll be increasingly hard to raise a series A (and later) round. Instead, firms will back more big, promising startups (e.g. series C,D,E) that have paying customers, a defensible position, cash flow, and are still growing or a path to growth.

On the other hand, I think there are several "unicorns" that are still private that will do well as public companies -- Dropbox, Lyft, Stripe, and Airbnb. The success of these in the public markets will help the startup ecosystem and encourage venture capital funding.

With that said, I find the case of Blue Apron interesting. I have a hunch that it may have thought its best chance to go public and cash in was now -- that the environment for "unicorns" like itself (one that faces substantial competition, a weak product, fickle customer behavior, lack of customer retention and unstable cash flow) will only get worse.

<comment><USER17> > A part of me thinks that the VC industry will see a flight-to-quality type > of event sometime in the near future.

Logic would make you hope this is true but never forget.. someone funded an umbrella sharing startup.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> They say best time to build a business is during a downturn because you are truly forced to deliver real value to people.

<comment><USER19> Being forced to do something is not something I generally consider to be a favorable circumstance.

<comment><USER20> Growing up in adversity trains a system to get stronger and leaner.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The author is afraid about all the money that is being put into startups that is not coming back again into the markets.

"...most tech startups that survive are sold rather than become public companies. "

The article then explains that "The value of U.S. technology company acquisitions fell by 66 percent in the first six months of 2017 compared with the same stretch a year ago".

All this analysis is interesting but unfortunately there is no mention of the tech startups that _don 't_ survive. I believe that might be the key factor for this.

It would also be nice to survey how many silicon valley startups are considering ICO's instead of IPO's and try to reason if that might bring new impact into the scene.

<comment><USER22> on ICO vs IPO, how does that work? Are there really non-blockchain companies making cryptocoins for the sole purpose of raising capital to spend on entirely orthogonal concerns?

<comment><USER21> I am also not sure, given the current state of the hype i believe that most companies working on products that depend on network effect might at least be considering making their own tokens.

Away from the hype there is also the tax problem (the elephant in the room in most cryptocurrency/ICO articles). The country where the company is based and how it implements rules to tax and control such money might influence this at lot. A company is arguably starting with the wrong foot by thinking that it can get away from taxation with such money.

But besides money isn't a lot of the startup scene also about disruption ?

 _edited: typo and final question_

<comment><USER22> So the notion that _any_ non-crypto company is considering an ICO in lieu of an IPO is pure speculation?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I am fairly convinced at this point that the recent cryptocurrency selloff is an indicator of the start of a tech stock decline.

</comment><comment><USER24> [http://templatesection.com/](http://templatesection.com/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Unicorpse, what a great term!

</comment><comment><USER26> As a wise man once said "Hang on to your butts"

</comment><comment><USER27> Ooo fancy unicorpse.

</comment><comment><USER28> This is a bit alarmist.

Money is not created or lost it just changes hands.

If the VC funds don't get their money back it's because it's been spent on developers, offices, parties, bowls of fruit.

The main issue is that perhaps the money could have been better spent, perhaps charitably.

<comment><USER29> Money actually is created (at least here in America), that's part of the problem. When you hear the term "cheap money" its referring to money that is created by the Federal Reserve, which gives the money to US banks, to lend to US companies and consumer. The more money you create, the more banks have to lend, the cheaper it is, the lower the interest rate, the lower the bar for investments, which leads to more investments. The idea is to stimulate the market.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: B2B software, state of the art? - <AUTHOR> I am trying to develop an app for my clients to use (small business) but inmediately got surrounded by terms like:  microservices, SaaS  PaaS, IaaS, etc... Now i dont know where to start, or what is the state of the art.  Tried searching a course i remember from edx (SaaS on ruby on rails) but its archived.  got the feel that this business model is a bit outdated or something new is trending. Is there any place to start? <comment><USER2> State of the art {what}? SaaS PaaS, IaaS, etc are delivery models so it depends highly on what your app _does_ , how will small businesses consume it? _What_ are you building?</comment>


Find images on chrome cache files (or any other file) - <AUTHOR> https://www.matbra.com/2018/08/20/find-images-on-chrome-cache-files-and-any-other.html <comment><USER2> The actual title of the post is "Find images on chrome cache files (or any other file!)".

Also, referring to these images as "JPG" is incorrect. The actual name for the compression scheme is "JPEG". "JPG" is merely a common file extension.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I read the guidelines but I missed the part "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. Don't editorialize."

I updated the title.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What did you do today to grow your startup? - <AUTHOR>

I'm helping product-focused peepz on www.traction.vc form a habit of working on growth (since they (hackers, developers, designers) mostly spend their time tweaking their product instead of growing their business)<p>Curious to know what you did today to grow your startup? <comment><AUTHOR> My startup: www.traction.vc Thing I did to grow today: add "Pay per tweet" to see if it increases traffic by increasing sharing.</comment>


ASK HN: Tell me about tech in Detroit - <AUTHOR>

Detroit is a fascinating subject to me. This isn't the first time I've asked a Detroit-related question. But it's the first time I'm asking with enough curiosity that I might end up moving there.
So tell me about tech in Detroit.
1) Is there a tech scene there at all? 2) Given all the talk about how the city needs to abandon the auto industry and start something new, is there any reason that new thing can't be tech? 3) Is there any reason that implanting a bit of tech culture couldn't serve as a spark that gets people to start heading back to the city? 4) Is there any reason I can't go buy a warehouse on the water for pennies, fill it with a bunch of cool shit, and spend all day building, hacking, and creating awesome things?
I must know. Tell me ALL THE THINGS. <comment><USER2> really following this</comment>


I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal? Part 1. - <AUTHOR> http://venturehacks.com/articles/job-offer <comment><USER2> Any advice for if the company has not received outside investment and has no plans to seek it?

The best I've been able to come up with is to make a guess as to how much I think the company might one day be worth and then estimate my stock's value based as a percentage of the issued stock. I know my stock can be diluted, but I'm not really sure how to take that into account at this point.

<comment><USER3> That sounds like a good approach.

You should also include unallocated options in the calculation of your percentage. For example, how many options does the company plan to issue in the next 12-18 months?

This is like including unallocated options in a fully diluted basis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't understand how you calculate an acquisition share price without knowing the size of the pool of shares.

Which leads you back to the fully dilute share question.

<comment><USER3> Setting the acquisition share price to the preferred share price of the last round is a good start.

<comment><USER5> If I understand correctly, here's what this means:

\- Last round, the investors bought in at, say, $10/share. They got preferred stock, which gives them access to more of the company's assets in the case of failure and certain other rights (like maybe they have a say as to whether a certain acquisition can go through), but otherwise represent the same portion of equity as shares held by any other stockholder.

\- If you're getting incentive stock options, you'll be getting common stock. This is worth much less than preferred stock, say $1 instead of $10, because in the worst-case it is worth nothing whereas the preferred stock might be worth a gently used Aeron or two.

\- If the company is doing well and on track to an acquisition, the acquirer will buy all the stock. They'll pay at least $10/share, since that's what it'll take to prevent the last round of investors from losing money.

In the acquisition, does the acquirer pay the same price for a share of stock, whether preferred or common? If yes, then I think this all makes sense; if no, I've clearly missed something important.

<comment><USER3> In an acquisition, the preferred stock is converted to common and the acquirer pays the same price for every share of common stock.

<comment><USER6> What if the preferred stock has a liquidation preference and the amount is smaller than their investment? There are some cases where the preferred shareholders can get paid and not the common right?

Obviously you weren't talking about that sort of acquisition, but it does highlight the point that common stock would be worth somewhat less than preferred due to that potential unless I misunderstand something.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. We'll cover liquidation preferences in Part 2.

In general, I like to look at the "lottery ticket" value of the options. What are the options worth if everything works out?

Especially when the startup can afford to pay a reasonable salary, I think of the options as a free lottery ticket.

<comment><USER6> I'd like to hear more about exercising options early. I had no idea that could be done. Not that I'll ever be in that situation, but I'm just curious how that happens. Sounds like a bit of a legal hack. Did you mean with the 83b form?

<comment><USER3> You exercise the options before they vest and the company maintains a right to repurchase the options that expires over time.

From the perspective of the company, it is like reverse vesting.

Talk to a lawyer for the myriad details but if you ever hire someone who knows his stuff, he will want to exercise his options immediately.

<comment><USER7> I did exactly this when I joined justin.tv - it's not very difficult to arrange. The hardest part was actually finding a CPA who had any availability to work with me, and who I felt I could trust (he came recommended by a friend).

It's obviously important to keep in mind that to exercise your options you'll need some cash. If your share is big and the company has been well funded already, you might need a lot of cash. And you need to be prepared to lose it all if the company fails.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > 5\. Can I exercise my unvested options early?

Your answer here is completely unclear to me. I understand you don't want to give out legal/money advice, but can you at least explain the capital gains thing you were talking about.

I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, so I don't know what the tax/legal issues are with cashing out and/or capital gains, nor it's "clock". But I do have stock options that are vesting and I do have to decide if I want to exercise them early, or not. When this issue first came up, no one knew or seemed to think there was any difference between exercising the options and not exercising the options. I did it because everyone else did it. Probably a bad idea, huh?

<comment><USER4> I'm not a lawyer, but I can help to answer this. Culled from:

<http://www.efmoody.com/planning/options.html>

Here's the deal: you want the gain in stock value to be taxed as "long term capital gains", which is a much lower tax rate (~15%) than as income tax (~30%).

To do this, you need to sell the stock that you purchased with the options at least 2 years after you _received_ the options and at least one year after you _exercised_ the option.

What many people do is purchase options to 'start the clock' on that one year window.

A much more complex way of doing this, which I've been on the receiving end of, is to grant your employees their options _immediately_ upon them joining and have an agreement where the company can _repurchase_ them (at no cost to the company). The amount that the company can repurchase is reduced each month.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> What I don't understand is why your interest in the company isn't mentioned at all on this "advice" page.

<comment><USER3> Hi Randy, can you elaborate? Thanks!</comment></comment>


Don't Create Chaos - <AUTHOR> https://staysaasy.com/management/2020/07/07/dont-create-chaos.html <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23906172](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23906172).</comment>


Reddit Plans Cryptocurrency to Give Back to Its Users After $50M Raise - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/30/reddit-scoops-up-50m-series-b-from-sam-altman-a16z-sequoia-at-500m-valuation/?ncid=rss <comment><USER2> This seems like an interesting but risky experiment if Reddit really does tie something like this to user contributions.

First it seems like a massive regulatory headache. From Reddit's perspective, are they going to send out 1099s to their users? Will they require them to have real names and addresses on file? From a user perspective, will I need to worry about my Reddit activity when filling out my tax returns.

It is also a gamble for Reddit as there is a psychological principle know as the overjustification effect [1] that is at play here. Once a person is paid for a habit they previously only did for enjoyment, the habit will generally become less enjoyable. Reddit turns from a hobby to a job.

Finally there is the issue of "circle jerking". Reddit is already notorious for its annoying and dangerous group think. Can you imagine if people could actually turn their karma into straight cash? The incentive will be even higher to simply echo back to the group what you think it wants to hear.

[1] - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect)

<comment><USER3> I have to ask, how notorious? Is this a documented effect (on Reddit, not in general) or just the noise that people on the site are repeating much like any other meme?

Most accusations of "circle jerking" I hear there consist of shock and horror that certain communities seem to have certain beliefs/thoughts/ideas in common and that they were dared to be disagreed with. (I.e, you really should not be all that surprised when you try to float progressive ideas in /r/republican, or vice versa, and find your comments downvoted)

It's to the point where I almost reflexively downvote anyone on Reddit who brings it up, since 99 out of 100 times, it's a complaint that they were disagreed with, rather than anything that adds to the discussion at hand. (Which, IMO, is the explicit purpose of downvotes)

<comment><USER4> _I have to ask, how notorious? Is this a documented effect (on Reddit, not in general) or just the noise that people on the site are repeating much like any other meme?_

I think there have been some incidents which were dangerous and notorious. In particular, the misidentification of the Boston Bomber was one case that attracted mainstream attention[1].

[1] [http://www.cnet.com/news/reddit-regrets-role-in-online- witch...](http://www.cnet.com/news/reddit-regrets-role-in-online-witch-hunt- for-misidentified-suspect/)

<comment><USER5> Funny, since i find that to be the best example of communal remorse and reflection that i can dredge up for reddit. Compare reddit's turnaround to how quickly and thorough redactions take place in establishment in-groups of journalists or business leaders or politicians. The fact that an amorphous group of humans can come to have reddit's institutional memory and remorse is astounding imho. The boston bombing error is known and passed down like folklore from old members to new, keeping similar actions on check.

<comment><USER6> Feeling remorse about being so wrong is not laudable, it's just normal. The problem is that they got it wrong in the first place.

> The boston bombing error is known and passed down like folklore from old > members to new, keeping similar actions on check.

No it's not. The Boston bombing thing was just the most high-profile example in a long line of similar problems. Here's one from before the Boston Bombing:

[http://gawker.com/5751581/misguided-internet-vigilantes- atta...](http://gawker.com/5751581/misguided-internet-vigilantes-attack- college-students-cancer-fundraiser)

And here's one from after:

[http://www.theawl.com/2013/09/i-was-a-hated-hipster-meme- and...](http://www.theawl.com/2013/09/i-was-a-hated-hipster-meme-and-then-it- got-worse)

<comment><USER7> There's a hilariously sad _current_ bandwagon effect going on about the user Unidan, a "reddit-famous" biologist who, after a petty argument with another user, turned out to have less credentials than he claimed and to have manipulated votes using sockpuppets.

 _This_ is possibly the most hated guy on Reddit right now. Not whoever started the whole boston bombing witchhunt. Not someone who actually did anything harmful. Just a guy who got "unfair karma". And unlike with the boston bombing, there is zero self-awareness about how idiotic this whole thing is (and how common it is for anyone remotely popular on that site to manipulate votes in some way). It's a sad display, and I cannot imagine what this would turn into with more concrete monetary incentives.

<comment><USER3> If you think it's about the karma, you are _seriously_ misinformed.

Voting accomplishes two things - giving/taking meaningless points, and determining where (and if) your posts are ranked on the board.

The problem with Unidan is that he used a botnet to cheat the system. When you're on the new queue or have just commented in a large thread, a single vote or two can be the difference between ending up at the top of the thread (or board) or never being seen _at all_.

It's not about the points, it's about the fact that the voting system is pretty damned sacred to Reddit. By breaking pretty much one of the only global rules, he cheated people out of a chance to have their own posts/comments seen. We can only speculate as to how long it was going on.

Creating "useful content" is not a valid excuse for usurping community for your own self-aggrandizement. Even HN has a voting ring detector. Why do you think that is?

<comment><USER7> I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be banned and what not. I'm saying it is stupid and pathetic that he is _despised to the core_ more than a pedophile strangling kittens would be on that site.

<comment><USER3> Know any pedo-kitten-stranglers that made the front page via one of the default subreddits? You seem to be very quick to disparage a lot of people who are mad for very understandable reasons.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This seems incredibly strange. Personally, I don't see how it's going to add value to Reddit and help build the community. Mixing money into the site is going to complicate things, bring forward a lot of challenges, and it's going to be a large time sink.

I think Reddit has more important things to focus on, and I don't find this to be a good use of resources. Reddit is also slow to roll out changes, so if this has a negative impact, it'll take them a long time to pivot back on track.

Perhaps it's going to be a minor feature that the majority of users never know exists, and things will continue as they do now. If it's a major feature, I think it'll be a flop, and open up room for competition.

Edit: To expand a little more, what's the best case scenario they're hoping for here? They think the community is going to grow and more people will flock to the site because of this change? Reddit is anti-corporate, the community likes to feel small, even though it's one of the largest communities on the internet. When they associate money with the site, people will look at it as more of a business, and I think that'll drive more people away than it brings in.

Why doesn't Reddit just launch an image hosting platform? Why do they send all this traffic to imgur and gfycat, when they could roll out their own solution for the community? They can spin it off into a separate service to attract non-Redditors, and with all the incoming visitors from other sources, they can refer more people back to Reddit. To me, this seems like a no-brainer, since a large portion of their site revolves around images, and they're giving that traffic and monetization away to third parties at the moment.

<comment><USER9> Not to mention it sort of defeats one of the main value propositions of cryptocurrencies - their decentralized nature. If reddit created such a currency you would need to trust reddit to trust its value. And if it's backed by reddit shares, then it seems like a proxy for allowing public trading of the shares of a private company. I wonder what the SEC would think of that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "as well as individual investors like ... Calvin Broadus Jr. AKA Snoop Dog [sic] (also randomly)"

Snoop Dogg is actually a pretty active reddit user: [http://reddit.com/u/Here_Comes_The_King](http://reddit.com/u/Here_Comes_The_King) \- especially in a certain..err.."plant-based" subreddit.

He's done several AMAs that are actually amazingly fun to read. In some ways, AMAs can provide a better "celeb-to-fan" interaction than Twitter so I can see why they got a few celebs in this round.

<comment><USER11> I dislike being cynical, but I don't see many posts by Snoop that aren't in an article without his name in the title... or that aren't promoting one of his products. I'm smelling good PR work here, not an authentic interest in reddit.

<comment><USER12> It is depressingly rare nowadays to see AMAs of celebrities that are not purely for advertising $upcomingthing and low on content.

<comment><USER13> I haven't looked too deep in that sub, but maybe there are some going on that just don't make the front page? There are some weird ones occasionally, mostly people who've had some sort of surgery or health problem, from what I've seen. But really, can we just focus on Rampart?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Well, that explains why they were looking for a Cryptocurrency Engineer.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/redditjobs/comments/2c9d61/cryptocur...](http://www.reddit.com/r/redditjobs/comments/2c9d61/cryptocurrency_engineer_redditcom_san_francisco/)

<comment><USER15> That is a neat profession

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> They shouldn't use a new cryptocurrency, instead, [https://medium.com/@barisser/an-open-letter-to-reddit-why- yo...](https://medium.com/@barisser/an-open-letter-to-reddit-why-you-should- build-on-bitcoin-e52705bc87c5)

</comment><comment><USER17> They will probably be using colored coins (assets issued and exchanged on the Bitcoin blockchain), not their own blockchain/altcoin. Otherwise, they would have to worry about keeping enough miners to make their blockchain secure.

Colored coins also offer some cool features, such as trustless trading. It's possible to construct a transaction that sends Alice's Reddit shares to Bob, and also send's Bob's Bitcoins to Alice. Since they are in the same transaction, either both sides of the trade happens, or neither do.

<comment><USER18> Or you could just not use a blockchain. I think some guy named Chaum is rolling in his grave.

<comment><USER19> Chaum's alive.

<comment><USER18> You wouldn't know it based on the blockchain frenzy these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Seeing as the Dogecoin community is so active on Reddit, this could be an interesting use case for Dogeparty.

Dogeparty is an crypto-token (e.g. securities) application layer built on top of the Dogecoin blockchain. Now that Dogecoin is merged with Litecoin's asic hashrate, the network is pretty secure against attack.

There are other options built on top of Bitcoin (such as Mastercoin, Colored Coins & Counterparty), but certain Bitcoiners have been worried about blockchain bloat, so Dogeparty could be a decent shout on top of another secure blockchain. Other options exist on new blockchains, but I think these are too unproven this point.

Dogeparty: [http://www.dogeparty.io](http://www.dogeparty.io)

Web wallet: [https://wallet.dogeparty.io](https://wallet.dogeparty.io) (note: I do not endorse this, it's beta and as with anything in cryptocurrency be careful!)

<comment><USER21> So you just copy/pasted Counterparty's code too? Do you have any plans on providing something of value, or only copycats?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I´ts interesting, however the idea of Reddit to allocate 10% of their shares back to the Reddit community for me it´s more than something "cool" as Sam Altman said, and beyond the "a new way to think about community ownership".

From another perspective, It´s just a good strategy to do your own IPO (go public) without the legal/bureaucratic way. It´s creating your own NY Stock Exchange with the idea to increase your value based on what your users are doing now (because it will be possible to buy, sell and trade between users).

So, beyond the message that it´s for "giving back to the community", Is it more a clever strategy to increase the company value, and even more the stockholders value? or I´m incorrect?

<comment><USER23> Everything you said is totally true, which is why the SEC will block it. The most they could do is set aside 10% of the shares and let users proxy vote them, but I don't think that using them to back a cryptocurrency is going to fly with the SEC. I know a lot of people like Bitcoin because it's magical internet money with no rules, but financial markets are regulated for a reason.

I don't think the SEC would have a problem with the method (using a cryptocurrency) but rather the reason (using a cryptocurrency to avoid SEC IPO/ownership rules). If Reddit were public, I don't see a problem with using their stock to back a cryptocurrency. But it's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, so the SEC needs to close it before the con men descend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> As long as they don't tie this to imaginary internet points I can't see a problem. If karma is involved they better have a pretty advanced anti-gaming algorithm.

</comment><comment><USER25> That is an interesting move to empower users with a feeling of ownership. Although, it would be more interesting, to me, if they tried to push towards a distributed autonomous corporation instead. The type and amount of operations that could be fully automated is up for debate, but the attempt would be very interesting.

</comment><comment><USER26> Dogecoin is already the cryptocurrency of Reddit... why not just buy a bunch of Doge?

<comment> vertex-four The point is that this cryptocurrency will be exchangeable for (backed by) shares of reddit, which is rather unlike current cryptocurrencies.

<comment><USER27> The fun thing is that as soon as I saw the plans to distribute ownership earlier today, I figured why not use their own cryptocurrency? I guess I'm starting to predict the future, albeit only a few hours in advance

<comment><USER21> Because it's stupid? Why peg millions of dollars to a currency with no security?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Just what we need! Another Cryptocurrency!

</comment><comment><USER29> I find it very unlikely this will happen, for legal reasons- They want to link their currency to shares in reddit corp and the SEC isn't going to be happy about that. (Though if they can pull it off that would be positive development in my book.)

</comment><comment><USER30> The last person who tried a bitcoin based IPO outside of established legal frameworks and existing stock exchanges ended up having to renounce his citizenship, move to panama and was fined by the SEC

[http://www.satoshidice.com](http://www.satoshidice.com) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Voorhees](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Voorhees) [https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/33-9592.pdf](https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/33-9592.pdf)

</comment><comment> mkr-hn ITT: Rich people finding ways to avoid giving money to people directly.

I'd love some extra money. I would use it to fix up the emissions system on my car so I don't spend twice as much as I have to on gas. Then I'd use that to drive to where the jobs are and _get one._

I might write fewer comments on Reddit once gainfully employed, but is that such a bad thing? It seems like half the problems on Reddit are from people having too much free time to troll and make low-effort comments.

</comment><comment><USER31> I think it's a great idea. I think redditcoin failed because of copyright issues. Myself I had the idea for "hoinz" but never really pursued it, although I'd like to.

"Embracing the new spirit of cryptocurrency. Obtain hoinz from your reputations and contributions on various websites. Because you owe it to yourself."

[http://www.reddit.com/r/hoinz](http://www.reddit.com/r/hoinz) (nothing there)

Things like moderation tasks can be paid in hoinz.

</comment><comment><USER32> So, what kind of crypto currency would this be? Does anyone know if there are plans for a mining operation like bit/lite/doge coin that one could participate in, or is it just a block chain that is allocated to reddit "shareholders" by some other means? (all of this is assuming that "considering a cryptocurrency" == "planning to implement a cryptocurrency")

<comment><USER18> It sounds more like a "cryptosecurity" than a currency.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> If reddit figures out how to get past the legal and technical hurdles this brings, I'm very excited to see what comes of it and if other online communities will do something similar. Communities which produce a lot of content/value for free such as open source developers can begin getting equity in the companies they are helping.

</comment><comment><USER34> I'll be "that guy." My guess: Reddit releases a small fraction of a new crypto currency (likely a simple BitCoin clone) to its users. Reddit recipient interest in the currency then supports a large price for what Reddit retains and Reddit ends up net-profiting from the transaction.

</comment><comment><USER35> I wonder if they've been planning this for a while? [https://twitter.com/redditcoin/status/428947176002056192](https://twitter.com/redditcoin/status/428947176002056192)

</comment><comment><USER36> I was hoping Reddit would create some sort of Reddit Trust that would re- invest it's earnings based on what the Reddit community thought best.

That is of course not without it's own problems, but still, I prefer my idea.

</comment><comment><USER37> Hope they use existing systems to issue their currency and don't try to create a new currency. Stellar could do the job perfectly IMHO!

<comment><USER21> Stellar? What kind of joke is this? Why go with some small, centralized currency created by a private company (and owned by it to some degree), instead of going with the most adopted, most secure, most serious of all, and decentralized: Bitcoin.

<comment><USER37> Cause bitcoin does not let you issue your own currency + Stellar is a not for profit.

<comment><USER38> Not true. [https://coins.assembly.com](https://coins.assembly.com)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> What will happen to reddit gold?

</comment><comment><USER40> If they don't call them creddits they've missed a trick.

</comment><comment><USER41> so "Thinking about" == "plans to"? Nice journalism.

<comment><USER24> "The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms."

So the investors have it in their contract and the actually talked to an ex- SEC lawyer, pretty sure that constitutes intent.

<comment><USER41> They have agreed to give up 10%, not to do the crypto thing.

"We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Maybe they can use an existing coin like Karma...

[http://karmacoin.me/](http://karmacoin.me/)</comment>


Apple Commits Over 100 Workers to New Electric Car, "Project Titan" - <AUTHOR> http://shiftinglanes.com/2015/07/project-titan-lovechild-of-bmw-apple/ <comment><USER2> So the rumors appear to be a little more true. Major market shift for Apple.

Less seriously: queue the jokes about it only having 1 pedal, or needing charge station adapters.

<comment><USER3> _Aftermarket-only_ charge station adapters _that cost $45_.

<comment><USER4> Maybe add a few zeroes since we're talking about an automotive product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So that's where Blizzard's devs went.

</comment><comment><USER6> It will have rounded corners and four wheels!... It will be ... revolutionary.

<comment><USER7> :( if steve were around it would have rounded corners and _no_ wheels. figure it out!!!

<comment><USER8> _Steve drops prototype car in swimming pool. Bubbles come out._

Those are air bubbles. That means there's space in there. Make it smaller!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wonder if Apple is going to try to extend their closed eco-system concept to their electric car. That would be interesting to watch.

<comment><USER10> Yep. Using only apple electricity, driving only on apple roads unless you root your car. And when a part costing 0.02$ burns you will have to buy a new one.

<comment><USER9> I mean more along the lines of closed tech approach (compared to the automotive industry as a whole which has historically been open tech). I don't think the sarcasm is warranted. Given the recent Chrysler hacks it's quite possible that the closed ecosystem approach is what the market wants.

<comment><USER10> Even better idea - airgap the real electronics and the smart idiocies from each other.

<comment><USER9> That's the approach that I imagine a tech company with a closed philosophy will take (e.g. Apple). I strongly suspect Tesla hasn't taken this approach, making me worried that a widespread brand-damaging hack is inevitable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Will it be priced aggressively to compete with the Tesla's Model 3's $30K range?" Since when did Apple ever compete on price?

Then again, Tesla isn't actually selling a car for $30k yet and reports are that they are losing over $10k for every car sold.

<comment><USER8> Tesla's profit margin on their cars is something like 28%. I don't understand how this "they lose money on every car they sell" myth got started or how it sticks around. Where would all the money come from to be able to waste it like that?

<comment><USER12> Marginal costs isn't something you can take out of a financial report (COGS may not be enough), while average cost is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Sure Titan might become fantasy car, but I bet Titan 2 will be faster, thinner and will have slightly larger wheel radius. #AppleRevolution

<comment><USER14> if you sit in it awkwardly, though, the window will pop right out.</comment></comment>


Following Adobe user forum breach, hacker claims he has access to Yahoo servers - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/16/following-adobe-user-forum-breach-hacker-claims-he-has-access-to-some-yahoo-servers/?fromcat=all

<comment><USER2> Something doesn't look quite right about this Yahoo hack. Yahoo doesn't store MySQL passwords in PHP source code like that. Maybe he pulled these out of something else and wrote that file himself as an odd way to show he got the passwords?

Also, the apparent SQL injection is on a yahoo.net domain which Yahoo uses for untrusted third-party stuff mostly. The fact that the error seems to be from ASP is further evidence that this is very likely some third-party hosted app that doesn't actually have much to do with Yahoo and likely poses no danger to Yahoo users beyond the ones using this particular third-party service, whatever it is.

<comment><USER3> I'm pretty sure the code shown is the "hacker"'s code, for demo's sake. That said, the server address redacted out doesn't appear to be a Yahoo domain from what I can see. That tells me that it's a third-party that was broken into.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Something doesn't add up here, or at least there's pieces missing:

1) Source code show (presumably the attacker's?) shows MySQL usernames/passwords (as implied by variable names)

2) SQL injection attack screen shows errors in System.Data.SqlClient namespace - this is SQL Server: [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.data.sqlclien...](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.data.sqlclient.aspx)

Might mean nothing. Article says the attacker had access to 12 databases, so maybe it's a mix of different platforms. Still, the 2 screenshots really don't corroborate one another.

</comment><comment><USER4> See also [http://blog.forwardbias.in/2012/12/my-xsrf-exploit-of- build-...](http://blog.forwardbias.in/2012/12/my-xsrf-exploit-of-build- phonegap-com.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is not the first time i have heard of people having full access to yahoo servers for a substantial amount of time.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's reassuring that every company keeps (.*) very seriously.</comment>


Ask HN: Has anyone here run a contest before? - <AUTHOR>

I'm doing some pre-launch marketing for a project that won't be complete for another couple months.  In addition to a typical content marketing strategy, I want to try running a simple giveaway contest with the goal of building a mailing list and eventually a community around the startup.
I know I'm not the first person to try this so I'd love to hear from anyone who's already gone down this path. Here's a few questions that I'm sure anyone else thinking of running a contest would find useful.
What startup was your contest for? What did you give away? How did you get the word out? How long did it run for? What were the results?
Our contest is for a project called Shadenut (http://shadenut.com). It's an app to help professional and DIY mechanics look up the technical details of any car. I'm think of giving away a fancy torque wrench[1] since it's something that every person in our market needs and will put to good use.
I'll be sure to recap the details of my own contest here when it's complete.
[1] https://store.snapon.com/TechAngle-174-Models-Ratcheting-Flex-Head-Torque-Wrench-Electronic-TechAngle-174-Flex-Ratchet-12-5-to-250-ft-lbs-1-2-drive-P760213.aspx <comment><USER2> Here's a good resources that helps you identify what to give away. [http://blog.videofruit.com/marketing- giveaway/](http://blog.videofruit.com/marketing-giveaway/) Good luck with everything, let us know how it goes.</comment>


… And I Show You How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes - <AUTHOR> http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/02/and-i-show-you-how-deep-the-rabbit-hole-goes/

<comment><USER2> For the curious, it's a fiction story about folks that eat pills granting super powers, and the ensuing comedy.</comment>


$1500 Google Glass actually a $80 device? - <AUTHOR> http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/1500-google-glass-actually-a-80-device/article5973943.ece?homepage=true

<comment><USER2> Looking forward to spend $0.50 to buy a potato? This information may shock you that it takes sunlight worth absolutely nothing to grow one of those spuds!

</comment><comment><USER3> Any comparison with the cost of components and the total product cost is totally ridiculous. Its not like Google engineers woke up one day and just bought $80 components and just assembled to make them Google glass. What happens to the Engineering costs? And what happens to other costs that surround a product?

This is unfortunately very common to Indians. Not sure if this is the case with other cultures too. The tendency to clone and produce rip offs things is so much people only take a miniscule cloning cost plus mass manufacturing costs into account, with regards to anything. I remember the days of assembled desktops, cloned rado watches, TV's and the FM radios sold on foot paths. This is just that all over again.</comment>


Without Apple the publicly traded tech sector is kind of sucking  - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-what-tech-sector-earnings-would-look-like-without-apple-2012-3

<comment><USER2> Be sure to note the caveat FTA:

"Of course, you can never perfectly remove Apple, since Apple helps take earnings away from other companies, so presumably a fair number of their competitors would be more profitable if Apple ceased to exist."

but interesting, nonetheless.</comment>


Any first-time, solo entrepreneurs that got seed funding? - <AUTHOR>

It seems like an impossible task, but if there are any out there, would love to hear from you (or ping me at firstname.lastname@example.com). Thanks! <comment><USER2> I got seed funding from my employers. I presented an investment proposal based on a streamlined business plan. It helped that they knew what I was capable of. I'm currently working full-time on this new venture.

<comment><USER3> Would you mind discussing your idea a bit more? Curious...</comment></comment>


What are you avoiding working on? - <AUTHOR> https://openhatch.org/blog/2010/what-are-you-avoiding-working-on

<comment> barry-cotter That econometrics project that's due next Friday mostly. Also a past examination paper I want to have done in same as practice and a Macroeconomics paper. I iz _lazy_.

<comment><USER2> No you don't. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1138716>

You aren't working on it for a good reason, part of you doesn't want to. Stop describing yourself as lazy and you open up the option of finding which bit(s) of you doesn't want to work on it and why, and addressing that.

<comment> barry-cotter Akrasia for the win! I don't want to work on it because I can't see how to apply it now, and I'm not being paid to do it. Man, I miss getting paid.

<comment><USER2> Akrasia for the lose! Or at least, which type of akrasia?

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/1tu/improving_the_akrasia_hypothesis...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/1tu/improving_the_akrasia_hypothesis/)

You're on HN Reading plenty of things you can't apply immediately, and aren't getting paid for, so those reasons are possibly present but not sufficient.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> _When I talked to my teammate George, he mentioned off-handedly that he had fixed it. He didn't feel any of the anguish I felt or assign me the blame I thought I deserved_

Quoted for suspicion of harbouring some deep and meaningful information.

</comment><comment><USER3> knowtu - tricky concurrency and indexing problems. Still fun though ;)

</comment><comment><USER4> taxes

oh, I thought this was an "Ask HN"</comment>


Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel's Management Engine - mike-cardwell https://puri.sm/posts/purism-librem-laptops-completely-disable-intel-management-engine/ <comment><AUTHOR> There's a blog post on their site that goes into detail on how this is done: [https://puri.sm/posts/deep-dive-into-intel-me- disablement/](https://puri.sm/posts/deep-dive-into-intel-me-disablement/)

<comment><USER2> That's a fun article. Thanks. The best part was the wifi breaking randomly. This is why I could never be a hardware guy:

> Therefore, I started progressively whitelisting more modules so me_cleaner > wouldn't remove them, and testing if it affected the wifi module. This was > annoying to test because I'd have to change me_cleaner, neutralize the ME > firmware, then copy the image from my main PC to the Librem then flash the > new image, poweroff, then restart the machine, and if the Wifi wasn't > working, which was 99% of the time, I had to copy the files through a USB > drive.

Sounds painful. We've all had debugging experiences like that once in our lives.

I appreciate their effort and public documentation!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Call me cynic, but it wouldn't surprise me if the NSA intercepted those in their hardware interception program[1] and install spyware on them whenever they are delivered to an address outside the US.

[1] [https://www.extremetech.com/computing/173721-the-nsa- regular...](https://www.extremetech.com/computing/173721-the-nsa-regularly- intercepts-laptop-shipments-to-implant-malware-report-says)

<comment><USER2> That's why the OS should check to make sure the ME is still disabled and not boot otherwise, or signature check it somehow, create a hardware indicator, etc. But then there's still the harddrive firmware and who knows what else.

Still, this is upping the bar quite a bit if you're security conscious. In security all you can do is make the attackers lives harder, you can't fool proof it.

Plus they mentioned two different open source tools to disable it yourself (via software, not hardware as they do here). So you can buy a laptop with cash off craigslist and do it yourself if you're super paranoid.

<comment><USER4> "But then there's still the harddrive firmware and who knows what else."

Graphics card blobs, wifi cards blobs, etc. Just about every vital subsystem on a modern PC/phone/tablet etc. has been compromised by design through closed device drivers so that someone with enough skills and access to those information (such as some 3 letter agencies) can create a sort of covert channel where data can be computed, read or stored and transmitted without any means of intercepting that by any applications, because every part it's going to pass through contains some closed code that can be instructed to encrypt and tunnel the data from one place to another.

This came to mind years ago when I was struggling with a network card requiring a firmware blob that refused to load. I started wondering why were they making things so complicated for users and admins by keeping drivers closed; that blob could have contained just about every possible malware in existence and I would never have noticed it. Then I had a flash: disk drives also contain closed firmware, and video cards too. I recall having thought "heh, if they had a blob into the CPU as well they could close the circle and build a system where they can move information inside the machine or receive/transmit them from/to the external world completely unbeknown to the user. Then years later I read about Intel ME and got a thousand flashes because I almost saw that coming.

To me there is no such thing as a trustworthy system anywhere in the world, at least not until every single line of its software, firmware and hardware has been opened for public scrutiny. There is too much at stake, and surveillance is a damn rich business both for companies and people in power.

<comment><USER5> I think you may be interested in a development of a stateless laptop [1] by Joanna Rutkowska. They are trying to prevent any data storage outside of the user knowledge and control.

[1] [https://blog.invisiblethings.org/papers/2015/state_harmful.p...](https://blog.invisiblethings.org/papers/2015/state_harmful.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I really want one of these, but the ergonomics look awful.

Is there a technical reason they only come with low resolution (1080p) screens? ("Linux" is not a valid reason...)

Also, as much as I would like a 15" screen, the off center keyboard is a deal- breaker. It's just asking for RSI.

Does anyone own one? How is the trackpad / keyboard / battery life / fan noise? Maybe I can deal with 1080p in exchange for a reasonable OS and security.

<comment><USER7> 1080p is considered low res! Crazy the times we live in. There are still laptop manufacturers making 1366x768 displays, the worst resolution ever invented.

I understand pixel density is nice, but for the vast majority of workflows you do _not_ need anything better than 1080p on a 15" display.

<comment><USER8> No _you_ don't need better than 1080p but most developers need crisp text and I would like to go further and 4k 15inch displays would be perfect for me as it would allow me to have smaller text without a loss of quality.

<comment><USER9> It's a bit absurd to argue that you _need_ a high pixel density to code. It's no longer an insane luxury, but even being a relatively younger programmer I remember 640x480 being the highest resolution my first personal computer could display. What fundamentally changed about programming that now we can't even do it without 200 PPI displays?

Obviously, nothing. High resolution for most people is still just a 'nice to have.' But even 1080p@15" will produce relatively crisp text. I'd argue East Asian languages are the only ones to significantly improve in legibility, as sub-pixel rendering pretty much does what it needs to do for English nowadays.

That being said, I absolutely will always go for high DPI and everything, I just don't think it's sane to argue it's an absolute must for what amounts to typing and reading text.

<comment><USER10> > _I remember 640x480 being the highest resolution my first personal computer > could display_

<FourYorkshiremen> Eeee, you were lucky. My first personal computer maxed out at 320x256, or 160x256 if you wanted more than 4 colours. </FourYorkshiremen>

<comment><USER11> > 320x256

LUXURY. We had 32x24 b&w characters and we were glad of them.

(ZX81, nominally 256x192 pixels but only accessible as 8x8 character cells.)

<comment><USER12> I seem to recall that there were characters made up of all the options of quarter squares, so you could have a pixellated display of 64x48 at least

edit: seems like HN doesn't support these characters but see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_Elements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_Elements)

I made a 'zooming through a tunnel' program in assembler once, using them

<comment><USER11> You are, indeed, correct - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81_character_set](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81_character_set)

Although in the context of developing on small screens, they're not very helpful.

(And if you redefined the character set on the fly, you could make things like Forty-Niner. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTTWMIQVznM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTTWMIQVznM) )

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For website of a purist software freedom company I was surprised to see Privacy Badger show up with a red 5:

ajax.googleapis.com fonts.googleapis.com secure.gravatar.com fonts.gstatic.com code.jquery.com

<comment><USER14> Can someone explain why you would want to link to fonts/js libraries rather than have a copy on the server and server that yourself?

<comment><USER15> One reason would be that the browser will cache them if they are used in multiple sites, so loading will be much faster on subsequent sites using the same resources. Another might be that such resources load faster off a CDN than your own server.

<comment><USER16> In practice, this never happens. The value is certainly less than the data you're selling about your users to Google.

<comment><USER15> What data are you giving to Google (or another CDN) by loading jQuery or a font from them? What does the ToS say? Genuine question.

Edit: here's the ToS: [https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/terms](https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/terms) If you believe Google, they're not collecting anything.

<comment><USER16> Don't be naive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What do the security experts think about Librem products? Does it live up to what's promised? Any gotchas users need to be aware of? I have not come across their comments on this topic, so links to the same would be appreciated if I missed them.

<comment><USER18> They have a track record of lying about their product, though disabling IME is a big step towards living up to their marketing.

<comment><USER19> Examples?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there any other new hardware other than Purism and Chromebooks that uses Coreboot/Libreboot?

EDIT: A list from coreboot site [1] does not look comprehensive as it is not mentioning Chromebooks or Purism.

[1] [https://www.coreboot.org/Products](https://www.coreboot.org/Products)

<comment><USER21> PC Engines uses coreboot for their APU boards (usually used as routers or firewalls).

The price/performance & energy efficiency isn't too compelling in my opinion, but if you like the idea of running your router, firewall or other network appliance on x86 with an open source BIOS and OS, its worth looking into.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> > The Management Engine (ME), part of Intel AMT

Not hugely consequential, but Intel's product line is confusing enough without any help. AMT for years has been an application that runs on ME (unless something has changed). From the authoritative book, _Platform Embedded Security Technology Revealed: Safeguarding the Future of Computing with Intel Embedded Security and Management Engine_ by Xiaoyu Ruan, a security researcher with the Platform Engineering Group at Intel (2014)

 _The list of old inventions finding new applications in new domains goes on. The new applications benefit a much wider population and improve more people's quality of life.

When Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) first appeared in 2005, it was marketed as an advanced system management feature for Intel 82573E series gigabit Ethernet controllers. In 2007, a new embedded coprocessor, namely the management engine, was introduced. Originally, the management engine was designed primarily for implementing the AMT rather than running security applications. At that time, the main problem that was supposed to be resolved by the embedded engine and AMT was the high expense and difficulty of system management by network administrators. The management engine was a component of Intel chipsets with vPro technology. The Intel AMT implementation was moved from gigabit Ethernet controllers to the management engine and became a feature of vPro.

Intel AMT is not the only application on the management engine. The first security application on the engine was the integrated TPM ..._

</comment><comment><USER23> You can also order Dell machines with ME disabled. Additionally, most current Dell systems can disable Intel ME in the BIOS settings as well. This is a trap door setting - once disabled, there is no way to turn it back on.

From what I've heard, this disabling is done through the Intel HAM (high assurance mode), but I have no idea what the differences between the Dell and Purism approaches are.

<comment><USER24> Could you provide sources for this? I have never heard of such a Dell machine... My understanding was that there are currently no real options to run an Intel CPU laptop without ME.

<comment><USER25> Probably Optiplex given its use in high-security defense sector which, combined with Separation Kernel Protection Profile, would have all kinds of security/hardening requirements:

[https://gdmissionsystems.com/cyber/products/trusted- computin...](https://gdmissionsystems.com/cyber/products/trusted-computing- cross-domain/trusted-multilevel-computing-solution)

[http://www.integrityglobalsecurity.com/pages/solutions.html](http://www.integrityglobalsecurity.com/pages/solutions.html)

[https://www.ghs.com/products/safety_critical/integrity- do-17...](https://www.ghs.com/products/safety_critical/integrity-do-178b.html)

Warning: These companies' marketing folks like to go overboard. Sharing for the technical data and Dell references but not endorsing every claim you see. ;)

<comment><USER23> It was indeed an Optiplex system. You can find reference to it in this KB article[1] about replacement system boards.

[1] [http://www.dell.com/support/article/be/nl/bebsdt1/sln145409/...](http://www.dell.com/support/article/be/nl/bebsdt1/sln145409/manageability- mode-options-on-replacement-system-boards-for-the-dell--optiplex--755---kb- article---327359?lang=en)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> On a side note I liked reading about a phone campaign by the same group. This post introduced me to it.

Librem 5 – A Security and Privacy Focused Phone [https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/](https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/)

</comment><comment><USER27> Great news!

Does anyone know of any efforts to remove the ME equivalent from AMD's processors?

</comment><comment><USER28> I've been looking at librem laptops, as I'd kinda like a dedicated linux laptop. But as with many of these kinds of projects, i18n concerns are secondary, and in this case, there is no scandinavian/nordic keyboard options :/ (And I do appreciate that it might not be quite simple to have all kinds of keyboard configurations available)

<comment><USER29> It's surprisingly easy to switch to the English layout. As a programmer, it was refreshing to leave behind the convoluted key combinations while coding. (I'm looking at you, `tilde`, on a Hungarian keyboard)

On Linux, writing accents using a compose key isn't much slower than typing the letters directly either.

<comment><USER30> I've considered a few times switching to a qwerty (from french azerty), but there are two things that made me pull back:

1\. french people I know who use qwerty tend to not write any accentuated characters anymore. I'm ready to accept compose keys are usable, but it clearly seems to encourage incorrect spelling when you use a language with a lot of accentuated characters in a sentence

2\. vim. I really don't see myself fighting to remap my habits and workflows, given what I perceive as very few benefits switching layout would provide

<comment><USER31> Hello, I'm living in France and I made the switch to qwerty and it was one of my best work-hacks in my live (after learning touch typing). It took around 3 weeks to get used. The advantage is soo huge! Just to take your fears - I'm a heavy VI user and I have to say after switching to qwerty you will get to love VI even more. Not even talking about programming.

Regarding your concern with accents: Under Linux I am using English (International with AltGr dead keys) which allows me to compose accents by pressing AltGr then the key(s) that represent the accent and then the base character. So for à I press AltGr+Backtick and then 'a'. The advantage is that it gives me all of the accents that I need in Europe - there is no problem in writing German äÄöÖüÜß, and even for French you can easily have a œ in cœur - I would not even know how to get this one on an azerty keyboard.

For Windows there is as well a possibility to install this layout.

The other advantage is, that if you work a lot with different countries - I am remotely often on customer's computers via different remote sessions - then no matter what country, you always have qwerty - on Windows it's normally just one Alt+Shift away.

Definitely good investment and I will not go back (by the way I had to learn 3 layouts in my life - German, then French and now I am so happy with qwerty.

<comment><USER32> Has nobody made a kind of autocorrect that just adds accents and such? Of course you'd sometimes have to fix them yourself, but my experience so far learning French on an iPad (coming from English and not wanting to learn a new keyboard too) has been that this ought to be a reasonable approach.

<comment><USER30> I like the idea, actually. But I can guarantee that given how teachers/parents/old people always complain that young french people can't write french properly, they would brutally yell at this idea :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> What about the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseband_processor#Security_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseband_processor#Security_concerns) in Purism 5 phone?

<comment><USER34> The Purism 5 is going to be using a baseband processor that's similar to ones used in car infotainment systems. It won't share RAM with the CPU and will be isolated from the rest of the phone. It'll even have a hardware kill switch, where you can physically sever the circuit, if you're that paranoid!

The CEO of purism did an interview where he went to a moderate degree of depth on the technical side, you can watch it here if you're curious. He mentions all of the above features in it, and more!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwE9W8JasA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwE9W8JasA)

<comment><USER34> Just noticed I said Purism 5. It's called the Librem 5--and of course I see this after it's too late to edit! :'(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm still waiting for them to ship a Librem 15 I ordered exactly 2 weeks ago. The product page still says "Available to ship from inventory (1-2 weeks ETA), while quantities last" so I don't know why that hasn't shipped or why they haven't responded to my email about an update of status.

</comment><comment><USER36> Intel is going to screw them over soon with a hardware revision.

</comment><comment><USER37> Question: how would one ensure that such systems aren't interdicted, presuming that concern falls within your threat model?

[http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses- power...](http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful- toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html)

</comment><comment><USER38> How do you verify it's disabled? It's like saying "it's open source, it has no backdoors!"

</comment><comment><USER39> I love the concept but not the prices. In comparing their 13" to the Macbook Pro 13" I found the prices are about the same. The Macbook has a much better screen, a better touchpad, and the resale value will be much higher so its lifetime cost will be lower.

<comment><USER40> Except for the long run you're pretty much guaranteed a brick when apple drops hardware support if you plan on running MacOS..

Not sure if these have replaceable battery which is another gotcha, so it might be a moot point in the 'disposable hardware' era..

That said, lack of replaceable battery on macs will change the resale value picture.. don't think that's really hit things yet..

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Does disabling the IME have implications for performance or energy consumption?

<comment><USER41> Probably no implications on performance or energy consumption. Disabling it will prevent many remote management capabilities which are desirable in corporate environments.

Some details: [https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/misc- devices/mei/me...](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/misc- devices/mei/mei.txt)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> How much do they cost and where can I buy them?

<comment><USER43> The products page of the linked article: [https://puri.sm/products/](https://puri.sm/products/) . That Librem 11 looks tempting...

<comment><USER35> Librem 11 looks tempting, but important to note that "To be announced (prototyping and supplier negotiations phase)" which probably means several more months...

<comment><USER7> and now they have a phone to build.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> I want to see the layout in that chip, i want to see the dissasembly that ran on it. Playing dead with a clock signal still going into it- thats not enough.

</comment><comment><USER45> If in doubt act correctly and in due accordance with all applicable law and regulation: all will then be fine.

If you can't follow our rules then you deserve to be persecuted, surveilled and imprisoned at our whim but always know that you are being watched and your past will be used against you.

Luddite time?</comment>


I Invented the World Wide Web. Here's How We Can Fix It - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/opinion/world-wide-web.html <comment><USER2> More enlightened conversation seems to be happening on this thread - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21624316#21625154](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21624316#21625154)

</comment><comment><USER3> > In my view, governments should impose an immediate ban on targeted political > advertising to restore trust in our public discourse.

I hope this happens really quickly. It's truly critically important.

<comment><USER4> When you read "government should" that means it's fairly unlikely to happen let alone quick. When you read "government_s_ should" it's next to impossible. Not going to happen. Lee should know better than this. Technological solutions are far more agile and robust then relying on governments all over the world to have a consenses in doing something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Here's how we can fix it

> Immediately hit by paywall

The irony is astounding.

<comment><USER6> In Firefox, you can read NY Times if you hit reader view as soon as the icon appears.

That works for many paywalled sites.

<comment><USER7> can confirm.</comment></comment></comment>


Polish Gov. to forbid private sites banning users posting "factual messages" - <AUTHOR> https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=pl&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.money.pl%2Fgospodarka%2Fwiadomosci%2Fartykul%2Fpis-chce-rewolucji-w-internecie-mamy-pelen%2C38%2C0%2C2357798.html&edit-text= <comment><AUTHOR> Key highlights:

> Service providers will be subject to Polish law no matter where they are > located. And it's not just news portals but also foreign social networking > sites. Facebook and Twitter will be subject to national regulations.

> Services will not be able to block anyone or otherwise restrict access to > the services offered. If the leading portal clears a comment, its author can > go to court. And within 24 hours he will have to decide whether to restore > the content or not. The document does not specify precisely what to do with > comments and posts that explicitly call for eg racism and violate the rules > of the site.

> The changes go even further. It seems that the Internet users will now > decide what is true and what is not. How? For example, by voting or > commenting on a form. This way they can mark the material as untrue. This > includes comments, posts, articles. However, there are no words in the > legislation to verify such an assessment. And already in the Polish network > there are paid Internet users. Secondly, it is notorious to cross certain > groups to vote in a specific way in polls. Do not you believe Just have a > look at Twitter. It's a daily bread. The ostentatious form of how the given > material is to be determined is decided by the leading portals themselves.

<comment><USER2> Well, for once I can be proud(ish) of my government.</comment></comment>


Why you need more margin in your life - <AUTHOR> http://www.sean-johnson.com/2013/01/22/why-you-need-more-margin-in-your-life/

<comment><USER2> I skimmed through most of the article, and agree to many points the author raised.

However, I find it not convincing, despite the fact I already agree to much of it. It's full of "I think this makes my life better, so it should to yours", with no definition of "better" or concrete example of achieving that "better".

This is unfortunate, I'd also like to believe that one should be able to achieve greatness without working themselves to death, and I wish there is evidence of that. Then I'll be able to enjoy my procrastination guilty-free.

<comment><USER3> I think this applies to many of the "self improvement" articles I've read.

I think these articles are definitely worthwhile, I just believe they need to be read as they are: about someone else's life. If your goals and life situation align with the author's, then I'd consider it pseudo-advice. If not, it should be read as an interesting personal success story, which are still valuable pieces.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow... Great reminder to not lose focus of what's really important. Good stuff Sean!

</comment><comment><USER5> Great article Sean. Excellent insight into a constant challenge.</comment>


My Lisp Experiences and the Development of GNU Emacs (2002) - <AUTHOR> https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.html

<comment><USER2> «...programming new editing commands was so convenient that even the secretaries in his office started learning how to use it. They used a manual someone had written which showed how to extend Emacs, but didn't say it was a programming. So the secretaries, who believed they couldn't do programming, weren't scared off.»

<comment><USER3> This is very similar to the path many people take using Excel and diving into VBA via macros.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8433945](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8433945)</comment>


Ask HN: learn about quantitative finance?  - <AUTHOR>

Hey,
I was wondering if some people with experience in finance could recommend some (preferably free) resources for a beginner looking to get into finance.
I'm looking to learn about things like options, swaps, futures, interest rate derivatives, currency swaps, etc (basically just listed a bunch of buzz-words I know are related to the field).
I have been trying Wikipedia but it's pretty tough to get into, I really need to start with something "dumbed down" for the layman like me.
Thanks. <comment><USER2> This may be of interest to you. I think this was recently on HN but don't have the link.

DIY Masters in Financial Engineering - [http://blog.hiremebecauseimsmart.com/post/2860511335/design-...](http://blog.hiremebecauseimsmart.com/post/2860511335/design- your-own-mfe)

Edit: Here it is - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2130508>

</comment><comment><USER3> try this book: I loved it. Just the right balance of deep stuff with great explanation. Later you can go onto something more esoteric.

Principles of Finance with Excel: Includes CD [http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Finance-Excel-Simon- Benning...](http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Finance-Excel-Simon- Benninga/dp/0195301501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296852548&sr=8-1)</comment>


Show HN: My first iPhone app - Family Matters (using Parse) - <AUTHOR>

The app is a simple Form builder for collaborative private group tasks. It includes some sample Templates useful for a family. For e.g., Shopping List, Family Radar, Travel Journal, Football Scorecard, Weight Tracker, etc.
The user can create such Forms or customize existing ones with the Builder.
My idea was rejected by YC last year, but I went ahead a built it anyway. Let me know your thoughts.
Check the website at http://ellarum.com AppStore link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/family-matters-from-ellarum/id514754911?mt=8
I have made the app free (otherwise $1.99) for a day to let everybody review it. <comment><USER2> Good luck! Clickable: <http://ellarum.com> App Store link: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/family-matters-from- ellarum/i...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/family-matters-from- ellarum/id514754911?mt=8)

</comment><comment><USER3> An iPhone app with Steve Urkel? Sign me up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Originally I planned to name it ellarum - means "everybody" in Malayalam. But then I changed it to Family Matters to attract the target users when they search.

<comment><USER4> Good luck abeymm. Nice to see a reference to Malayalam here

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Awesome! My extended family will love it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. For now it is available only for the iPhone. Will soon release the Android version.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> pretty cool. has a lot of potential</comment>