Maciej Cegłowski's Senate Statement on Privacy Rights and Data Collection [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Ceglowski%20Testimony%205-7-19.pdf <comment><USER2> Had to search to see if there had been any discussion on this piece on HN - what an important testimony. Sobering and unrelenting.

</comment><comment><USER3> Brilliant.</comment>


Need some advice before going "all in" on my start up project - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
My name is Tommy and I'm 24 years old. I've been a hacker since I was 14 and an analyst programmer/software engineer since I was 21. I'm a school drop-out (I was actually studying languages and my passion brought me back to programming). I'll try not to turn this into a wall of text ;-)
[edit: I forgot to mention, I'm from Québec, Canada but I can speak both French and English very well.]
Since about three years, I have in mind to start my own thing but I've been waiting for the right idea, the right people and the right tools. Now I have the right people and the right tools, I have plenty of ideas but none of them are in my opinion "worth of being paid for".
What I'd really like to do is to create an online service that would fix a problem in our world right now, something that people would use to help get their work done (I really LOVE productivity tools). But it seems everytime I find some "good" idea, there's already someone who's already doing it right. (I know I shouldn't block myself because it already exists but I know we could build something really amazing).
We are a two very passionate, skilled, focused, and open minded persons, I really believe in us but I really need lots of advice (I've been asking over and over again about it, I always need more advice). I read a lot of books and blogs about startups and entrepreneurship and I always want more.
Here's some question you could help by answering:
1) Is there any good resources / way / book / movie you could suggest to open my eyes a bit more to find new out-of-the-box ideas?
2) Is there any experiences you could share, do's and dont's that would be useful for a young "entrepreneur" such as me?
3) Who are your idols / who do you think succeeded with his/hers ideas that I could get inspiration from?
I'm open for any suggestions or criticism. I believe criticism is the best way to gain wisdom.
Thanks very much and have a wonderful day!
- Tommy <comment><USER2> I'm 25, and I'm in the same boat kinda. Read the book Rework, it is amazing.

As far as the out of the box ideas, don't think about making ideas to make money, solve problems...sometimes, try to solve problems people don't even know exist yet.

I just quit my job to do...whatever I'm going to do...full time. I've been saving money, and I just decided...I'm smart enough, dedicated enough, it's time. Do I suggest this for everyone? No, not really. I've been working at night on projects for about 9 months and I'm just ...ready.

I suggest more savings, more planning, and more working at night until you really decide its time. Run your own company, on your own time, until you get that ...urge. It may be 3 months from now, or 3 years. Either way, as long as you can pay your bills and eat, either with savings or side jobs. Do what you love, make tools you want, learn as much as you can, and change the world. Email me whenever you feel like. Tyler.Exposure (a) gmail.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha I didn't read Rework yet but I read Getting Things Done which is by Jason Fried & DHH as well, amazing book.

[sometimes, try to solve problems people don't even know exist yet.]

This is an amazing and interesting advice, thanks for pointing it out!

[No, not really. I've been working at night on projects for about 9 months and I'm just ...ready.]

This is where I'm heading, it's been 6 crazy months working at night, with the software engineer job I currently have on the day. But the time is coming soon, I feel more and more ready everyday, I have faith in me and my peers are pushing me to it as well, timing seems excellent I really can't wait! Focusing on my day job is becoming really, really hard hehe.

Thanks a lot, this is very helpful and I'll sure email you soon! Thanks again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> 1 there are many book on creativity techniques, you can find many of them in the web. I can recommend Thinkertoys: a handbook on creative-thinking techniques. Business Model Generation is also a good one.

2 get the idea and start as early as possible. Don't waste much time on idea generation, a month or two will be enough. When you start, you will learn. And knowledge is the most valuable thing in your first product. Be ready to start over with new skills and wisdom. But it may happen that the first idea will bring good revenue. Be ready for that as well :)

3 I like Steve Jobs. From what I read his thinking style is cool.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check those out for sure!

I like Jobs as well, kind of hard on people but he had an idea and followed it to the end and that's remarkable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When I'm trying to come up with new or interesting ideas, I like to turn to Science Fiction. I rewatch a movie or reread a book, thinking about what technology and cool ideas they have, and see if there is anything that could be made.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is very interesting! I never thought of this before, thanks for sharing!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> In general, I'd say you're right that the fact that "some one else already does it" shouldn't stop you from taking on a project. Almost every successful site on the Net was NOT the first to do what they do (Google, Facebook, Basecamp, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, Woofoo, WordPress, etc.) yet they're all pretty amazing. The largest factor of your success/failure will probably be your determination, so just go ahead and pick the thing you'll be most likely to love doing for the next X years.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think you should look for instance where people use tools in a way that their creator did not intend.

I wrote a blog post about this actually: [http://makingideasreal.eu/post/3701390062/how-to-discover- or...](http://makingideasreal.eu/post/3701390062/how-to-discover-or-create- the-next-facebook)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a very nice way of thinking! I always find myself using tools in non- conventional ways to get my work done.

Maybe re-inventing the wheel isn't bad after all, just need to re-invent it for those who weren't using it as a "wheel".

Thanks for sharing! Very good article!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'll address #3. Craig Newmark of Craigslist

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craigslist>

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the best example of someone who fixed a problem at the right time. There was this gap to fill, he filled it and has been living from it since then.

Thanks for sharing!</comment></comment>


The Complete Guide to the Brand New Buffer Web App - <AUTHOR> http://blog.bufferapp.com/new-web

<comment><USER2> This new re-design doesn't work for me, it isn't intuitive and straight forward to use, unlike the previous site. As a paying customer this change is pretty frustrating.

What are some comparable services to time tweets?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have heard good things about hootsuite, looks like they have a decent free plan too: <http://hootsuite.com/plans>

Personally I love the new redesign, although I admit I am not a heavy user.</comment></comment>


Robot learns to recognize itself - <AUTHOR> http://todaystopthing.com/?p=92

<comment><AUTHOR> I imagine it is recognizing the flashing coming from it's own 'mouth' to make it recognize itself.

</comment><comment><USER2> I would be interested in knowing if it could determine a reflection from a duplicate robot</comment>


A Stupid CLI for Fuck Off as a Service - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/palash25/foaas-cli <comment><USER2> When I was a teenager I used to joke that I wanted to set up a phone service: 1-800-FUCK-OFF.

The idea was that when you would call it it would just scream: "FUCK OFF!" at you and hang up, and charge you fifty cents for the privilege.

In my mind I imagined it would spread virally as people dare each other to dial it ("Naw, you're bullshitting, that number doesn't exist!") and that it would have made real money.

<comment><USER3> An 800 number is toll free, so you'd be paying for everyone calling you. Since you'd have a near zero chance of getting people to enter their CC# to bill them, the only way you'd make money is by selling the numbers that call you to telemarketers.

You could set up a 900 number, which would do what you wanted, but I doubt you'd get as many takers.</comment></comment>


Free Online Computer Science Courses - <AUTHOR> http://www.openculture.com/computer_science_free_courses <comment><USER2> This is a big list. I would more suggest:

1\. Teach Yourself Computer Science[0] 2\. Open Source Society[1]

[0]. [https://teachyourselfcs.com/](https://teachyourselfcs.com/) [1]. [https://github.com/open-source-society/computer- science](https://github.com/open-source-society/computer-science)

</comment><comment><USER3> Tangentially: The mission of public universities, in the U.S. at least, is the educate the public (and do research).[1] Inexpensive online courses and resources (library, etc.) seem like ideal ways to accomplish that goal. Are they taking advantage of it?

I know that accessing university library (i.e., research) materials is generally very expensive, online or off, though that has long been true.

[1] Believe it or not, their mission is not to make money.

<comment><USER4> You're asking if universities take advantage of online courses...? They have been for a while, e.g. MIT's Open Courseware.

And there is a lot of evidence that yes, universities' missions is to make money.

<comment><USER3> I am talking about public, not private universities, though I would guess most private U's are non-profits and their missions, at least are publicly stated, are not about money.</comment></comment></comment>


Worth buying a car anymore? - <AUTHOR> Are you avoiding buying a car for you think that car ownership will be soonish irrelevant?
I'm asking whether the already working Carsharing services (e.g. Zipcar, DriveNow, or car2go) plus the upcoming fleets of driverless cars is already stopping some of you in purchasing a new car ?
In my particular case, I live in Munich (where BMW DriveNow began), and besides just loving moving around with my bicycle, whenever I need a car I just look up my phone and find one for rental nearby. Therefore, I'm not seeing myself buying a car soon at all... The only reason why I would buy one is whether I could rent it myself to others (perhaps in a driverless scenario).
What are your thoughts on car ownership in the year 2018 ? <comment><USER3> 1 - nothing compares to a brand new car. The smell, the cleanliness. No one other then to move it from the factory to the dealer has driven it.

2 - cars that have a strong aftermarket (currently driving a Ford Mustang) - <USER2> like to modify them / work on them. Anything to fancy or complex to modify (my Acura RDX) I lease and just leave it be.

3 - Volvo's new lease program interests me - a new car every 2 years just like a phone. I've never really liked the style of Volvo but I can overlook that if the terms look good (and they do to me)

So while I'll take an Uber or Lyft if we're going out for the night and might drink to much, I'll probably always buy or lease a car. I'm a car guy and enjoy taking care of my cars (cleaning / detailing) so buying / leasing is still worth it to me.

This is in Western NY where we have some metro rail / bus system but not as strong as say NYC.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for giving your input! Yes, I totally understand you. You are a car enthusiast who wants to own the whole experience. I appreciate you giving that hobby/love side to my question.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As an American business owner with two kids, not only is "a" car needed, we actually need two. I don't see this changing for other Americans, unless you live in the city.

<comment><AUTHOR> Certainly, I understand countryside or city peripherals are a completely different story. May I ask in which state or nearby-city you live?

<comment><USER4> I live about 1.5 hours from Boston, in a small town less than 10K residents. While I _could_ bike or walk to work I could not manage our busy schedule with one car, let alone no cars. Also, one of my _cars_ is a truck, which we use to pull a large travel trailer when we travel (among other truck things). To my knowledge, that simply isn't an option for ride-sharing and rentals.</comment></comment></comment>


A Letter from Congress to Tim Cook - <AUTHOR> http://dcurt.is/a-letter-from-congress-to-tim-cook <comment><USER2> What's really ridiculous about this whole thing is that I could, right now, write an application for any version of Windows, OS X, or Linux that uploaded your address book without a single prompt. Hell, I could do this with any file owned by your user. I could log your keystrokes and upload them too.

I'm not saying it's ok to do any of this. I'm not saying Apple shouldn't have better controls on what apps access your personal information. I'm saying that members of Congress have demonstrated that they haven't even an inkling of a clue as to what the fuck goes on inside a computer, and should probably stay out of this while these companies figure out better ways to protect consumers, then fill in the shortfalls.

<comment><USER3> I think this letter is silly, but it is a partly a problem that Apple helped create.

The closed nature of the App store leads people to think that apps purchased through it can never be malicious, they probably think Apple check every line of code (if they think about it at all).

I am not suggesting that it is Apples fault, but in a closed ecosystem higher security is expected.

Basically this is the same problem we have been dealing with since the rise of Windows, users have no clue about security.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Totally ridiculous letter. Instead the DOJ should be going after the companies that are illegally stealing user data, and take them down hard.

This letter to Apple is pathetic. Congressman obviously is a tool of the corporations that steal data and is working on their behalf to distract attention from their crimes.

</comment><comment><USER5> A better title to the post would be "A Letter from a Congressman...". It is not all of Congress, it is one person.

</comment><comment><USER6> I read this and think, Why is this congressman sticking his head in this business? I think I would ignore his request.

<comment><USER7> How do you think a member of Congress, accustomed to getting what he wants, is going to feel about getting blown off? It's easier to respond and do a better job of regulating yourself than it is to have Congress regulate for you. These people are completely out of touch with reality and are clueless when it comes to technology.

Besides, what Waxman is asking for isn't unreasonable nor is it anything many users aren't also asking for. Apple will let this bozo have his little moment, make some changes, send a letter back and he'll buzz off. There's no point in drawing the ire of lawmakers when it's not even something worth fighting over.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Under what authority are they demanding this response? And what happens if Apple just ignores the letter?

<comment><USER9> If Apple doesn't respond, Congress can begin an investigation into Apple and/or write a law regulating the matter.

<comment><USER10> Is this letter "from Congress", or merely from a Congressman? If it's the latter, it's less "Congress can begin an investigation" as much as "this one Congressman can try to convince the other members of his subcommittee that it's worth launching such an investigation, if he thinks it's sufficiently worth exercising the political capital".

<comment><USER9> Your description is more accurate, I was just trying to articulate the possible consequences of thumbing your nose at a member or members of Congress.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> On one hand, I'd like to see Apple get better at this. On the other, I'd like to see Congress get better at basically everything, including paying attention to things much more important than this.

<comment><USER12> Upvotes for you, sir.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'll take congress's concern for privacy seriously when they start applying it to themselves. For instance, in the draft of the so-called "stimulus" bill I read, it called for centralizing all medical records under federal control. The federal government doesn't respect americans privacy in anything- even in much more private areas of their lives, such as financial dealings. (You're compelled to reveal these to the IRS every year, and all the banks give individual transaction data to the government upon request, they don't even need a court order.)</comment>


Argentinian security researcher arrested after tweeting about government hack - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/argentinian-security-researcher-arrested-after-tweeting-about-government-hack/ <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21235238](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21235238)

</comment><comment> ga-vu When did Argentina turn into Turkey and we didn't realize?

<comment><USER2> When people fell into the believe that neoliberalism politics, conservative politicians and deniers of the genocide during the last dictatorship were right.</comment></comment>


Old School Matrix Theme – Hacker News.ca - <AUTHOR> http://hackernews.ca <comment><AUTHOR> Earlier today i noticed some 3rd party scripts were failing. Decided to make a few tweaks to the site. Saw a post that matrix 4 is happening... Hmmm... :)</comment>


Risky business: linking Toxoplasma infection and entrepreneurship behavior - <AUTHOR> https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2018.0822 <comment><USER2> This is just p-hacking. It's really sad that in 2018 researchers are still pumping out garbage like this. All of these toxo behavior studies have been very poor quality. For example, there's been a few studies purporting that folks infected with toxo have significantly higher rates of schizophrenia. However, this is false, because toxo rates differ by 2-3x between first-world countries but yet the schizophrenia rate is mostly consistent.

<comment><USER3> Can someone explain the math behind the 'p hacking' for this study?

<comment><USER4> I think the best way to explain it is with this link: [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/p-hacking/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/p-hacking/)

<comment><USER5> Thank you, this is both awesome and terrible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's so much BS around toxoplasmosis online. Here's corrections for two common misconceptions:

1) Almost everyone who has it got it from eating undercooked meat, not from cats. France has the highest rate of toxoplasmosis in the world because of their propensity for rare meats: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312802/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312802/).

2) Unless your cat lived a long part of it's life as an outdoor cat, it is very unlikely to have the parasite (like any parasite).

<comment><USER7> This second point really surprised me. I've had 5 indoor cats over the course of more than 20 years and cleaned all of their litter boxes. All were adopted as stray kittens, so presumably they spent some time outdoors. And yet I tested negative for toxoplasmosis. As I understand it, you basically have to ingest the stool of a cat who recently hunted a rodent with the disease. If your cat stays indoors and you wash your hands after cleaning the litter box, that's unlikely. In fact, you're more likely to get it from gardening because cats will pee in the soil and you're probably more likely to touch your face if you have touched soil than if you've just cleaned a litter box.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Somewhere there now has to be a person thinking "Hmm, I've been eating cat poop for a month now and have not seen any increase in business revenue - am I not eating enough?"

<comment><USER9> This new product is certainly entrepreneurial:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2yWAD5OzhM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2yWAD5OzhM)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This trait and disease was discussed at length on the Joe Rogan podcast with Mcauley Culkin.

Apparently rats which catch toxoplasmosis are attracted to cat urine, which is an evolutionary reason for its development.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyb1xz7waY8](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyb1xz7waY8)

<comment><USER11> Toxoplasmosis is smart enough to spread through the Internet as well: [https://vimeo.com/69181785](https://vimeo.com/69181785)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> [https://medium.com/@andrewhayes/correlation-does-not- imply-c...](https://medium.com/@andrewhayes/correlation-does-not-imply- causation-21472b85630f)

</comment><comment><USER13> Can we extract the prasite and sell it as entrepreneur drink now?

<comment><USER14> I thought this was the concept behind raw water? Expose yourself to all of nature's risky and risk-taking-inducing fecal transmitted parasites!

<comment><USER15> i got water poisoning in the backcountry... the delusion is not that dissimilar to a psychedelic experience, and actually intensified by the pervasive and unavoidable actual fear of death.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> So saying you have the entrepreneurial bug is a real thing? Seems like correlation without causation, to me.

</comment><comment><USER17> is this site almost unusable for anyone else? hmm just seems to be in chrome.. smooth in ff

</comment><comment><USER18> The only thing I have to say about this is, _meow!_

</comment><comment><USER19> The "jokes" in this thread really underscore how painfully humourless tech people are

<comment><USER20> It's a fair tradeoff. You can't have everything.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What's a practical way to learn microeconomis? - <AUTHOR> What I mean by "a practical way": a good balance between how much time I have to dedicate for learning and how much I learn. <comment><USER2> I only found one book that I could actually get through, but it is written by a controversial guy who many people consider an out-of-touch war hawk.

[https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas- Sowell/dp/0465...](https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas- Sowell/dp/0465060730/)

But the book itself was written before he became controversial, is VERY readable and approachable, and I would particularly recommend it if you have already tried to learn economics before and stopped because you could not stand the sheer tedium.

Also, the other commenters are right about how the stuff you read in microeconomics simply wouldn't scale to macro (so don't expect it to help you invest and stuff).

</comment><comment><USER3> I would argue that the answer depends on your reasons for learning. If you want to study microeconomics for the sake of 'knowing'/studying microeconomics in the academic sense, take one the standard textbooks (i.e. Intermediate Microeconomics by Hal Varian) and work it from cover to cover. Afterwards, dive into the topics that you found most interesting. Also, a fairly strong background in calculus helps with the more advanced concepts.

If you are interested in microeconomics for the sake of understanding something more about the (economic) world, ignore the math/simplistic models at first and try to grasp the theoretical concepts and, more importantly, the ideological/epistemological concepts behind microeconomics as a sub- discipline. Understanding the assumptions behind microeconomics (i.e. the idea of a fully rational human being) will probably give you something to think about.

Besides the sources already mentioned (especially Khan Academy), I can recommend Jodi Beggs ([http://www.economistsdoitwithmodels.com](http://www.economistsdoitwithmodels.com)) video series.

</comment><comment><USER4> Just read. One book that has stayed constantly on my bookcase, in my suitcase, under my bed, [alternate preposition location + noun location] is Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect.

It is quite fantastic.

<comment><USER5> Blaug is a history of economic though and is far from "practical way". Moreover what concerns me is that Blaug wrote the book way before I was born i.e. over 30 years ago[1]. There are things we simply know better today, a lot of things happened even since 1997 when the book was published in a new edition, there is a lot of new data concerning the recent crisis and measures applied by governments to mitigate the problem.

But nevertheless a great read!

[1] - no startups, no long-tail, no hi-tech hype, no big data, no Zuckerberg... the list is long...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't know how good it is but MITx has an upcoming course:

[https://www.edx.org/course/microeconomics- mitx-14-100x](https://www.edx.org/course/microeconomics-mitx-14-100x)

and UIUC has another that just started and is supposed to be really good:

[https://www.edx.org/course/microeconomics- mitx-14-100x](https://www.edx.org/course/microeconomics-mitx-14-100x)

</comment><comment><USER7> Is that _microeconomics_ ? If the answer is _yes_ , can I ask why are you interested? It's a set of broken theorems based on a extremely simplistic perception of reality.

<comment><USER8> All models are wrong, some are useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Whatever you read, you should keep a healthy dose of skepticism. Many economic theories are great as mathematical models, but humans don't always act as you might expect.

</comment><comment><USER10> Sal Khan is a former finance guy and the economics lectures on KhanAcademy are pretty good, definitely worth checking out.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not sure what you mean by "practical way", but for starters I'd recommend Harvard professor N. Gregory Mankiw's "Principles of Microeconomics" which is a standard university textbook translated to many languages (I am not associated with the book in any way). It's very accessable, colourful, well explained. He's also authored "Macroeconomics" if you're interested.

Back to learning the "practical way" \- I would recommend reading the Mankiw book fast and then just start looking around your world and asking questions as if you were an economist.

I'll tell you how I did it.

My practical training in economics happened when I worked in a bottling plant at a conveyor belt. Dull phisical work, but leaves you with plenty of time to think. We were able to fill about 10000 bottles a day. Whenever a bottle broke on the belt or someone was late for work we had to stop the machinery. Every minute when we did not work calculated to specific loss expressed in concrete money. We were paid by hours, if we had to stay longer at work the company made less money (because they had to pay us more).

The bottles were bought in Italy and travelled about 2000 kilometers to our plant. The product was made in North America and was imported by bulk to the plant in huge 1-ton plastic containers. While the final product costs about 5-7 euros in Germany or Austria, the cost of the liquid itself was just a tiny fraction of the final price. Even the bottles (including transport) were more expensive than the product itself.

Now start asking questions:

\- Why it pays off to have a world wide operation from a country with very high labour cost, import the materials coming from thousands of kilometers away and then sell it with profit to countries such as South Africa and Argentina? If you were to invest in a new machine that would make my job at a conveyor belt redundant, how much it would have to cost to make the investment profitable? Would it enable the company to lower the final cost (more efficiency, less interruptions, more reliable than a human)? Would the quality increase? Would your investment enable you to invest even more in expanding to new markets? And if you kept me at the company, what other useful work could I perform?

If you were to build your own bottling plant like this one, how much would you have to invest? Who would buy your product? What would be your price? What would be the additional cost for you if you wanted to increase the production by 10% (i.e. what are your margin costs). What can you do with your staff and machines when you are using only a fraction of your production potential, i.e. what else could you produce and sell with profit based on your fixed costs?

Who buys a luxury product like that, how is it affected buy the seasons (holidays? vacations?)? In time of economic crisis would people still buy your luxury product or would they wait for better times? How to optimise you supply chain? Should you invest in storehouses so that your product is not waiting at the plant but rather closer to the clients (supermarket chains)?

Questions like this, when you have to make choices and predict the output are the essence of "applied" microeconomics. These questions go on and on and I believe that answering them is what you mean by "learning economics the practical way". Look around you and keep wondering.

===

p.s. in search for good questions to ask and training your economic thinking have a look at the famous S. Levitt's "Freakonomics".

===

p.s.2: I am not sure how to learn economics as an academical discipline the practical way. You would have to learn the modern models and assumptions from books and test them against the specific detailed data (tax office data would be nice or a supermarket sales stats), but those are very difficult to obtain if you are an outsider. Adam Smith was a very good observer, but nevertheless he was a moral philosopher rather than a big data analyst. But you can still test certain assertions asking yourself questions like: I pay 2 euros for a loaf of bread and I go to the same supermarket every day. How much would have the price of the bread to increase so that you would stop buying bread or change the store?</comment>


VW engineer sentenced to 40-month prison term in diesel case - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-sentencing/vw-engineer-sentenced-to-40-month-prison-term-in-diesel-case-idUSKCN1B51YP?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=59a05e9b04d301050bce8161&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter <comment><USER3> Okay, so it's okay to go after an engineer at VW for gaming the system, and causing higher emissions than everyone thought, but not okay to go after bankers for fraud which screwed the world economy?

I'm not saying that the engineer shouldn't be responsible - he should - <USER2> it's an extreme double standard.

<comment> ju-st Banks are too big to fail in the US. German car companies are not too big to fail in the US.

<comment><USER4> I'm starting to think that the measure of "too big to fail" is campaign donations, not percentage of GDP or something.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Fantastic precedent. When your boss tells you to do something unethical and possibly illegal, you now have a great reason to say no.

<comment><USER6> Is it a good enough reason though? That would depend on the likelihood of losing your job by refusing, the ease of finding a different job, the seriousness of the unethical request, and the likelihood of getting caught.

<comment><USER7> When asked why you were fired, being able to say "I was asked to do something illegal or unethical" is a strong response. That certainly helps with the "find a new job" part.

<comment><USER8> I could easily see the interviewer twist this to ask the next question "But does that mean you won't be loyal to us??"

<comment><USER9> On the other hand, you could always respond by saying: I expect not to be asked to do something illegal; I have no interest in working for such a company. However, I have high expectations of you, and that's why I believe I can be fully loyal to you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> While the article does mention one more guy (Oliver Schmidt), it's a shame they just put the whole thing on this Engineer, when in reality there is no way this could have been pulled off by two people without the rest of management's knowledge/approval.

Are you seriously telling me that only this single guy was responsible for all the emissions that were found in the TDI range of diesels, all the way from A3 to A8? Sorry, I'm not buying it.

<comment><USER11> This is a common sentiment here on HN, and it is entirely devoid of factual grounding.

This is one guy who happened to travel to the USA (stupid move: asking US authorities before travelling "hey, are you going to arrest me?" and taking their word that no, they don't plan to…). Another American VW guy has already been sentenced.

The "real culprits" are all living in Germany. And the investigation in Germany is ongoing. It may not make a splash in the US press, but there have been raids at VW offices and in managers' private homes.

Former CEO Martin Winterkorn is amongst the now thirty-seven people investigated (so it is certainly not the case that German prosecutors focus on a few lowly engineers as "fall guys", as HN commenteers love to claim).

The investigation is ongoing, and it is generally expected that there will be criminal charges. But this takes time.

Press release by the public prosecutor: [http://www.staatsanwaltschaften.niedersachsen.de/startseite/...](http://www.staatsanwaltschaften.niedersachsen.de/startseite/staatsanwaltschaften/braunschweig/presseinformationen/zahl- der-beschuldigten-steigt-150570.html)

<comment><USER12> So, in short, these guys are being charged because they can. They're a victim of circumstances. Scape goats. Political/power pawns if you will.

Understand the reasons why, but it does feel like justice.

<comment><USER13> "everybody who has anything to do with this affront to the EPA shall burn at the stake"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Executives need to be punished - not just lowly engineers who followed orders under the duress of losing employment

<comment><USER15> He moved to the US specifically to lie to federal authorities.

Lowly?

<comment><USER14> Who was the boss who suggested this be done?

<comment><USER16> Who said it was his job on the line if he didn't? Quite frankly, it was his choice to engineer the cheat, whether he was ordered to by threat of employment or not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Good.

For context, air pollution kills 200,000 in the US and 40,000 in UK every year.

You have to consider ethics in your work as an Engineer. Refusing an unethical task is your moral duty.

<comment><USER18> >You have to consider ethics in your work as an Engineer. Refusing an unethical task is your moral duty.

It's easy to say, but ethics isn´t always so black and white. What about yourself. Do you drive a car? Then you are guilty of contributing to the air pollution that kills 200,000 in the US ever year, and you also endanger others' life by participating in traffic and making it more dangerous. You are also contributing to sponsoring the salaries of the car industry overall, which means you are indirectly sponsoring the development of more lethal machines, which also by the way enables murderers to transport themselves more rapidly to their victims.

Did you post a helpful comment on HN or stackoverflow, and this comment helped a programmer in North Korea to develop their nuclear weapons just a little bit further, is that ethical?

You have to consider ethics, but an "unethical task" depends so much on context.

<comment><USER17> The context was pretty clear here. This particular engineer got asked to do something he knew was unethical and he did it anyway. That is pretty black on white to me.

Consumer behaviour is an entirely different thing.

<comment><USER19> I agree with you that the unethical nature of what he did was black and white. But why is consumer behavior any different?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Let this be a lesson to all that refusing unethical Management decisions might get you fired but at least you won't go to prison.

<comment><USER21> Unfortunately I think most people will conclude that this kind of enforcement only applies to non-US companies. I guess people from the US might start worrying about travel to the EU though.

<comment><USER22> I'd love for that to happen but it probably won't. US companies routinely break EU laws and get away with it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> And all this, while the VW share just reached new record highs...

<comment><USER24> ... which is kind of weird, considering they promised low emission cars since the 1980s and have not been able to deliver on that.

And now all of a sudden the invest marginal sums (lower than what gets invested for new car models usually) to make electric cars work, and suddenly bankers think they'll make it work?

I seriously doubt it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The problem I find with the whole episode is that it would be incredibly naive to think that only VW cheats the emission tests (as apparently also evidenced by the recent news that Fiat Chrysler also did it, with likely many other carmakers doing it as well. There was also news about Samsung cheating the emission tests on their electronic products, but that made no splash whatsoever). Though all the provisions for fining VW and sentencing those guys are theoretically sound in legal terms, I can't help but feel it highly political, just like the EU's crackdown and fines on Google, Microsoft etc. There's basically an implicit trade war and accompanying trade protectionism going on.

</comment><comment><USER26> The astonishing thing for me is, that this is not at all new:

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

Yet everybody involved acts totally surprised.

So good, that they do strong punishments, but maybe don't stop with VW, as others apparently do the same now (or working on it to put it silently under the carpet). Which makes me wonder if there is some backdoor agreement, that VW gets the public shame now, but recieves funding/legal aid, etc. from other companies as they are all involved in this and they don't want VW do the aggressive defense, of "everybody else is doing it as well" ...

<comment><USER27> This is a baseless conspiracy theory. Cheating is not par for the course, it was shocking to the emissions compliance community that VW had blatently lied and cheated.

The history of defeat devices is... complicated. Keep in mind the EPA chief is a political appointment. Their own interpretations of their own regulations can vary significantly from one administration to the next.

<comment><USER26> Erm, do you count the wikipedia article as a conspiracy theory as well?

edit: which is the base of my "baseless" theory which I clearly stated as a possible theory, not a fact

edit2: and maybe mark your edits, as edits? Otherwise it looks like manipulative arguing.

And to me defeat devices seem not so complicated. Simply cheating. VW just took it to a new level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Setting aside the environmental impact of the false emissions claims -- deceiving millions of customers about a big ticket product should have a commensurate punishment.

I hope this isn't the last VW conviction.

</comment><comment><USER29> Not enough, and I have a feeling that he should've been one of the dozens, if not hundreds.

Fraud in the case is commuted upon the buyers and everyone that breathes that air (cancers, asthma...etc). You're talking tens of billions. Go rob a store and you get a lot more jail time. Yeah the store owner and 3 customer were traumatized but so were the thousands or millions of people that suffered (directly or indirectly) from your fraud.

<comment><USER13> I think the re-calibrated software that hurt performance and fuel economy caused customers to suffer a lot more than the pollution did.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Of course, who else would be responsible but an engineer?

</comment><comment><USER31> Domestic companies get a free pass even if their cars literally kill people. But rules are different for foreign companies.

</comment><comment><USER32> Punish one engineer and leave manager and __other companies __alone?</comment>


Crytocurrency chart widgets (dasboard): real-time, configurable, draggable - <AUTHOR> http://dadamba.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Site now mobile friendly

<comment><AUTHOR> Added Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations page - [http://dadamba.com/capitalizations](http://dadamba.com/capitalizations)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Added Coins Correlation Chart - [http://dadamba.com/coins- correlation/](http://dadamba.com/coins-correlation/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Crytocurrency chart widgets (dasboard): real-time, configurable, draggable. Three widget types.

Crypto Forecast this is platform for crytocurrency analytics, charts and informations. Without registration and authentication. Data stored in the browser LocalStorage, so you can configure different set of charts for separate browsers or devices. Using Websockets, charts information live updated.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Guys, any comments?

Anybody use it?</comment>


a redirect service for Common Lisp documentation - <AUTHOR> http://l1sp.org/html/ <comment><AUTHOR> By way of <http://xach.livejournal.com/243101.html></comment>


Ask HN: If you could work anywhere for a year, where would it be? - <AUTHOR> I'm currently in London and mulling over the idea of going and working somewhere for a year. What are some nice places? <comment><USER2> I'm thinking maybe Thailand.</comment>


Ask HN: Can I use TensorFlow without knowing even Elementary Algebra? - <AUTHOR> I'm fascinated by Machine Learning World of possibilities, But whenever I want to start studying the topic, I always hit a wall with the Math prerequisites. E.G: Probability, Linear Algebra, Etc.
I've been been programming for a while without understanding of Turing Machines and/or Lambda Calculus.
Do you think it is feasible at all that someone could use a library like TensorFlow and do some meaninful programs without knowing the Math I've just mentioned.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> You could. At some point you will hit a limit, but you could go pretty far solving known problems out there solely by following tutorials.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm sure you could, if needed pick up specific things as you go from the web or a used copy of a good basic linalg textbook.</comment>


Anti-Facebook Startup Diaspora Promises to "Go Faster" - B-Scan http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/anti-facebook_startup_diaspora_promises_to_go_faster.php

<comment><AUTHOR> I was about to impulsively donate when I first saw the Kickstarter page but decided to watch the video to get more info. Watching these guys talk made me realize they had no idea what they were doing (the thought in my mind was "have they ever coded anything?"). Diaspora: shitty engineering with great web design (not unlike most social startups today). Luckily this leaves the playing field open for people who actually know their shit.

<comment><USER2> I don't understand why the Diaspora folks decided to do their own engineering in the first place. Why not just use the money to fund development on Appleseed/OneSocialWeb, then box up the result (with support et al.) under the brand "Diaspora"? In est, do what Apple did with Mach/BSD, and later did again with Webkit/KHTML.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think it's clear that they didn't really know what they were getting into. Much like GNU freebeards designing a core system and "throwing on a GUI" ends with a terrible mess, a bunch of UI guys inexperienced in systems software yields a beautiful failure. Think of that 'programmer hierarchy' poster: "Ruby programmers consider themselves superior to everybody but are not aware of the existence of non-web languages." You need to have different backgrounds or really deep experience to come out with something great.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I have a founders account from early contributions that I have never used. I logged in, setup the account, asked a few people if they wanted invites (nobody did) and haven't touched it, since. I don't care for other social networking sites (though I use LinkedIn), but supported Diaspora for principal.

I'm not expecting much, anymore. I hope otherwise, though.

</comment><comment><USER4> The idea had so much potential; the execution was flawed though. Too much time has passed and yet Diaspora has yet to make much of an impact on the social network scene. Perhaps it is time to give it a rest, and let some other social network ideas bloom.

</comment><comment><USER5> Diaspora is already dead. The masses won't use it because they already use Facebook, which fits their needs perfectly. Diaspora tried to appeal to the tech crowd, but they failed miserably with that by not having any idea what they're doing.

</comment><comment><USER6> Chicken and egg to the max. Unfortunately, I just don't see this gaining any sort of significant traction (which it requires to be remotely useful).

Kudos to the team though for seeing their (great in theory) idea to fruition!

</comment><comment><USER7> What does "go faster" mean? I have little hope for Diaspora, it seems to be on kerfluffle after the next.

</comment><comment><USER8> ...must every headline be this inflammatory? Must everything be "Anti- Facebook", "Anti-Google", or an "iPhone Killer"??

They're just promoting a new idea. No Anti-Facebook. Just a thought and innovation.

For the love of god, Zuck invested $1k in them.

<comment><USER9> I am all for less inflammatory headlines, but Diaspora was 100% created and funded due to certain intense period of Facebook backlash. The fact that Zuck invested some pocket change supports that Diaspora is the anti-Facebook, as it was a PR move (that apparently worked).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> We're headed off a cliff!

Go faster!

</comment><comment><USER11> I wonder how much of their capital they've run through.

<comment><USER12> Approximately 2 millicolors, I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is there any place to actually see Diaspora in action?

Marcin / linkfindr.com

<comment><USER14> You can try it out at <https://joindiaspora.com/> but eventually you will be able to choose or host your own federated server.

Also, it's against etiquette to have a sig on this site. <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> Not a big deal, just kind of annoying.

<comment><USER13> oh, and you can't check it on joindiaspora, unless they sent you an invite - that is precisely why I asked the question

<comment><USER14> Ah, I see. There is a list of servers with notes here: [https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/wiki/Community- supporte...](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/wiki/Community-supported- pods)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> PogoPlug (<http://www.pogoplug.com/>) and Dropbox (<https://www.dropbox.com/>) are more popular than Diaspora, methinks. Maybe they could rename themselves to "Diaspora Cloud" or similar.</comment>


Interview with Salvatore Sanfilippo - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fogcreek.com/dev-life-interview-with-salvatore-sanfilippo

<comment><USER2> >I don't see Go as something that is going to serve as a "better C", so I'm waiting for something new.

This surprised me a bit. I think most people who tried Go would agree that it is, in fact, a better version of the C programming language. It follows many of the same UNIX-y principles and it's a pleasure to work with, mostly because the syntax just gets out of the way. I'd like to know more about his point of view if he's reading here :)

And while I'm at it, I want to thank Salvatore for giving us redis, which is also a pleasure to work with.

<comment><USER3> My impression (and I wish I could find the article I'm thinking of that talks about why this is) is that Go has largely failed at being a better C, but has convinced some people that it's a better Python.

<comment><USER4> As a Python developer, I don't think many Python people consider it a "better Python". It's _much_ less expressive than Python. Python developers are sacrificing a lot of things, but they're keeping simplicity and extreme readability, and gaining massive performance gains.

A "Python-y modern C" would be a better description.

<comment><USER3> Fair enough. I think that, as Pike says, a lot of Go users are coming from Python. That doesn't mean that a lot of Python users are going to Go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Antirez listens to venetian snares :D

Have you ever seen him live? It's quite something. I've never seen CDJs subjected to such abuse!

EDIT: snares that is, not Salvatore. I'm sure he takes great care of his CD players.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, I googled CDJ and then assumed antirez was part time DJ :)

Also interesting that he did all that great work in a MBA 11"!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> > I'm not a fan of Best Practices, so I don't like a lot of books like Design > Patterns.

Interesting. I wonder how many senior programmers have the same perspective.

</comment><comment><USER8> I often wonder why neither Pivotal nor Pivotal Labs have sued the other over use of the name.

<comment><USER9> Same company

<comment><USER8> Okay turns out I'm an idiot.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Good books on Clickstream Analysis? - <AUTHOR> Struggling to find any books using Google Books or Goodreads - perhaps the title is something other than "Clickstream" or it's embedded as a chapter of a general analytics book. Has anyone come across anything on the topic? <comment><USER2> What are you hoping to learn?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know what I don't know about Clickstream analysis.</comment></comment>


Fairphone 3+, now with 48/16MP cameras and 40% recycled plastics - <AUTHOR> https://shop.fairphone.com/gb_en/fairphone-3-plus <comment><USER2> I just broke my Oneplus 7T. What I wouldn't give for a phone with 10/10 repair score.

<comment><USER3> I remember being able to smash my old Blackberry Bold around and fix it myself with inexpensive parts. The good old days ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sigh! --another company which makes a thing of being European, but then uses US English throughout their interface and website.

I'll pass.

<comment><USER5> They're clearly using British English (check the top-right corner), plus you can change the language to whatever you like.

<comment><USER4> Just on the front page of their site: "optimized", "colors", "color", "organization", "awesome"

And someone complaining on their support forum that, even though he's set the phone language to UK English, various apps keep displaying the date in MM/DD/YYYY format.

I've heard before European companies make the argument that they use American English on their sites and products because that is the most used version [not true, but hey ho!]. But Fairphone don't even sell their phones in the US, yet still use American English on their website and in their software.

Sorry. It might seem a minor issue but it really winds me up how so many companies claiming to be "Proudly European" nonetheless present this sycophantic 'pretendy American' public image.

<comment><USER6> What does UK English have to do with EU? Most of the EU doesn't speak english natively so if a company brands itself as European it doesn't make sense to choose British English over US English or vice versa. That would only make sense if it identifies itself as a British company.

<comment><USER4> Ever heard of a country called Ireland? Last time I checked, it was in the EU. And they speak English.

Anyway, my point had nothing to do with the political grouping of the EU. It was a geographical & marketing one. The UK is still part of Europe [even if not for much longer part of the EU]. So, given Fairphone DO sell their phones in UK [and Ireland] but DO NOT sell them in the USA, why have they adopted the US version of English, rather than the version used by people in the market they actually sell into?

Is Fairphone's Spanish documentation & software written in Latin American Spanish? Is their Portuguese documentation & software written in Brasilian Portuguese? Is their French documentation & software written in Québécois?

...or is it only the European variants of English that are habitually eschewed in favour of their transatlantic counterparts?

<comment><USER6> > Anyway, my point had nothing to do with the political grouping of the EU. It > was a geographical & marketing one. The UK is still part of Europe [even if > not for much longer part of the EU]. So, given Fairphone DO sell their > phones in UK [and Ireland] but DO NOT sell them in the USA, why have they > adopted the US version of English, rather than the version used by people in > the market they actually sell into?

Probably because as you say it is more commonly used. Why cater to small minority of UK(or Irish) users?

> Is Fairphone's Spanish documentation & software written in Latin American > Spanish? Is their Portuguese documentation & software written in Brasilian > Portuguese? Is their French documentation & software written in Québécois?

This a false equivalence. The target is the entire EU not just UK. If they where only selling in the UK then you would have a point.

> ...or is it only the European variants of English that are habitually > eschewed in favour of their transatlantic counterparts?

To be completely honest US English is more of a European variant of English then British English. The US English spelling is just way more common in Europe then in the British Spelling.

Anyway for me this discussion has gone on long enough. It doesn't matter to me, I just was completely flabbergasted by someone getting so mad about it.

<comment><USER4> >I just was completely flabbergasted by someone getting so mad about it.

Because, to me, having been brought up and educated in British English, reading American English is like reading text which is full of typos and illogical grammar. I can tolerate it when I'm reading American writing, but it irritates the hell out of me when it's put out by British, Irish, European, Australian, Indian, etc. English speakers.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Writing Juju Charms in Rust - <AUTHOR> http://cholcombe973.github.io/Juju/juju/index.html

<comment><AUTHOR> For anyone developing charms in Rust I would love to hear your feedback on the library. Pull requests are welcome of course ;)</comment>


How to get featured in VentureBeat with no connections [podcast] - <AUTHOR> http://howtobuildarocketship.com/podcast/ep-41-conrad-egusa/

<comment><USER2> Conrad Egusa is not a VB writer. He contributed a couple guest posts in recent years, and he may have done some other writing for us, but it was more than 3 years ago.

Look, if you REALLY want to get featured on VB (or any other site), connections are almost beside the point, anyhow. It all comes down to your product (is it important? does it work?) and your story (is it interesting? are you available to talk about yourself and your company?). There's no special trick to getting press other than being press-worthy, press-ready, and respectful.

<comment><USER3> Did you listen to the episode...?

Your description _exactly_ matches what Conrad pushed listeners to do.

Product + Story = Connections not necessarily needed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It was wonderful speaking to Conrad, his PR-resources are a great start for anyone looking to get started with this kind of work</comment>


Hollingsworth for US Senate 2014, implementing direct democracy - <AUTHOR> http://digitaldemocracy.us <comment><USER2> This is the wrong soution to this problem. The _right_ solution is to quadrouple the number of senators and house members. This effort shows that yes via technology we can have more people voting on the important business of the country , but it doesn't mean we should ignore the benefits of representative democracy and pretend everyone will know everything about everything. The right solution is to water down congress, it amazes me that we have allowed the voice of so many people to be condensed into so few representatives. My parents had twice as much representation ( in terms of votes / constitutant ) then I do. My grandparents had almost four times as much [0]

As a fun by-product you would completely eliminate the effect of large donors on the government. Lets see the Koch brothers or George Soros donate $1 Million dollars to ~1600 Congressmen every two years.

0\. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_app...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment#House_size)

<comment><USER3> Let me make an alternate proposal. Suppose that we want 600 congresscritters and the population of voters is 300M. Dividing A into B, we get a simple ratio of 500K to one. Let's allow them to sign up directly. No reason for it to be limited geographically. If you like Representative Archie, sign up with him. When Archie gets 500,000 registrations, he gets a seat. Even better, we'll let more people sign up -- if Archie is so popular that a million people sign up for him, then he gets two votes. We'll stop there to prevent too much power concentration -- more people can sign up for him if they like, but he doesn't get extra votes.

Once per period, all of Archie's constituents are surveyed to determine if they still like what he's doing. They can change registration at any time, but this is the most convenient time to do it.

If Archie drops below 1M at any time, he goes back to one vote. If he drops below 500K at a survey point, he's no longer a Representative.

<comment><USER2> I think we could come together with both Ideas and make a system that works. I like some aspects of your plan , but I would want to see a few modifications. Your extending into voting systems as well and I don't necessarily think your doing it the best way , but i _love_ the idea your putting forth.

Edit:

So i realise why I like aspects of your proposal. Because it has a few of the principles of the Mixed-Member proportional [0] System mixed into it. I like MMP I really like it. I think that combined with a radical expansion of the number of representatives ( I think we should be closer to 100k then 500k, maybe as low as 50k ) would allow us to do many amazing things as a country. Also I would toss this wrinkle in. MMP is done at a state level and only state level political parties are recognized, and they are now official. They must follow rules to elect their leadership.

0\. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU&feature=share...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU&feature=share&list=PLqs5ohhass_TpkWBnZrgA-71yOvdbchdE)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea? Normal people don't have the time to vote on every single issue; we have our own jobs to do. A system like this just means he'll be voting with the loudest minority for everything that comes up.

<comment><USER5>
        > Normal people don't have the time to vote on every single issue

It's really easy to have both direct democracy and the convenience of not having to vote on any given issue. You could grant the use of your vote to another citizen or a group of citizens. If you don't like how they vote you could instantly revoke their right to cast your vote on your behalf and go back to voting on every single issue.

You could also grant use of your vote to different parties depending on the subject matter, maybe you like Bob to cast votes for you on environmental issues, but prefer Susan to do it if it has to do with foreign policy. Which bucket an issue falls into could be handled similarly, a third-party you op-it to trust to categorize issues before your vote is handed off to other parties that are voting on your behalf.

Those are just some that come to mind, you could do much better. But the point is that with modern technology it would be easy for everyone to choose where they want to side on the direct democracy v.s. representative democracy spectrum, and they could do so on an issue-by-issue basis.

The problem isn't that it's infeasible, it's just that nobody's tried because it would take power away from those that are currently holding it.

<comment><USER6> > You could grant the use of your vote to another citizen or a group of > citizens.

This idea is common in a lot of new ideas about representation (eg the German Pirate Party's Liquid Democracy <http://liquidfeedback.org/>) yet I'd argue it is also a really bad idea.

One of the key values of any democracy, and direct democracy in particular, is that it values and promotes human autonomy. Instead of being subject to arbitrary powers, the 'people' rule themselves - we are only subject to laws that we ourselves have authored (or delegated to others to author in our current cases). But allowing everyone to vote on everything violates autonomy.

Most people recognise that autonomy requires having some/equal say in matters that materially affect them. Yet few realise that giving others a say in matters that don't affect them undermines the autonomy of those affected. So while laws apply relatively equally to all those in a jurisdiction, the distribution of effect is far from equal.

Proxy voting allows those with little skin in the game to drown out those significantly affected by proposed laws. The fact that people don't have the time to vote on every issue, and so will only likely vote on matters important to them, is one of the major strengths of direct democracy.

<comment><USER5> That's a very good point, and thanks for the link to liquidfeedback. It's very interesting, especially how it seems to do almost all of the logic needed in PostgreSQL.

        > Proxy voting allows those with little skin in the
        > game to drown out those significantly affected
        > by proposed laws.

But that's exactly what you'd get today in a representative democracy. If there's a fringe issue that 1% of the population really cares about they'll have to convince their representatives to vote their way on it. Since the representatives go for the popular vote they'll probably vote with what the 99% wants 100% of the time.

You'll only get minority issues through if the minority cares enough about it and it doesn't negatively impact everyone else, or if the negative impact from not giving the minority what they want would be greater than just giving them what they want.

I think you'd be more likely to reach a consensus like that using proxy voting than you would be in a direct democracy. With proxy voting any fringe issue will by default go to some general issues political party of your choice, which is likely to have a reasonable position on miscellaneous issues like this.

With direct democracy where 1% really cares about some issue but the 99% doesn't care either way (so much that they can't be bothered to vote either way) you might never end up passing it because you have another 1.5% population of voters that just votes "no" on everything out of general principle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hollingsworth would be running against Jeff Merkley, considered one of the more liberal members of the Senate, who won in 2008 by just 3 points. Essentially, he'd be running as a spoiler for the GOP.

<comment><USER8> An interesting example from the last election, and worth the read despite eh frothy prose at the outset: <https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/gary-johnson- swindle>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Direct democracy enables citizens to vote for every service imaginable and vote to pay no taxes for them.

<comment><USER6> Except in the real world.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/9138137/Swiss- vote-against-taking-more-holiday.html)

But the US government seems to be doing a pretty good job of just that.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBO_- _Revenues_and_Outlays...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBO_- _Revenues_and_Outlays_as_percent_GDP.png)

<comment><USER10> California might be considered a counter-counter-example: <http://www.economist.com/node/18586520>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Well this is just polling, it still is a stupid idea even from just poling point of view.

To tell the truth I would like to see the 17th Amendment repealed, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution)

if there is interest I am willing to write up why, but now I need to make coffee

<comment><USER12> I'm curious to hear why you dislike the 17th amendment. If you find time, do come back and write it up.

<comment><USER11> As was stated by jrs235 it takes the state governments out of the picture at the federal level. This has lead to a much more powerful and invasive federal government for internal matters in America.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I heartily support this idea; however, the problem I see is that the secret ballot is not enforced, either in the process, or through the threat of legal enforcement.

If I can reliably observe someone voting, even with their consent, votes can be influenced through purchase or coercion. And unless new laws get passed to cover online pseudo-voting, such things wouldn't even be illegal, and I could roll around poor-income neighborhoods with a bullhorn advertising $10 per vote.

It's a solvable problem, and maybe I'm overstating the risk, but I think it's a problem worth paying attention to while pursuing these (worthwhile) experiments.

<comment><USER14> Plenty of places let you vote by post, which has this problem. And with people taking their camera phones into voting booths, arguably manual voting does too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Really defeats the purpose of the Senate. It is bad enough we have direct election of Senators when the Senate was supposed to be the way the states kept the federal government in check.

At this point given technology and travel times, I would be more apt to support an amendment to replace the two Senators with the state's Governor. At least some fiscal control and concequences for state budgets would be discussed.

</comment><comment><USER16> I think this is a brilliant idea! Elect officials should be like secretaries -- the public decides the course of action (though informal discussion, debates real-world and online forums) and after the decision is taken the senator is told what to do.

The key idea is to have a public debate in which all issues can be thoroughly considered, conflicting interest groups can have their say until an agreement is reached.

The beauty of the "senators as secretaries" ideas is that we can measure their performance in much more detail. Did they implement each of the decisions the people chose? If not, then they get the boot.

Democracy works when the citizens care. We might not care about all things, but we care about the things that concern us. Discussion and debates + project development by interested volunteers is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than some stupid polarizing vote.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is precisely the direction I would love to see politics go. Cut out the middle-people layer!

</comment><comment><USER18> Sounds like a great idea. The senators wouldn't be forced to vote based on the population's "feedback" in all cases, so you'd still have a republic, not a real "direct democracy", and in the same time they'd get much better and more accurate information about what their constituents really want, compared to how they get it now through the "experts" (lobbyists).

</comment><comment><USER19> I see a great opportunity in this for some sort of voting mill mechanical turk like system for people who aren't political and need money to sell their vote to some fascist with an agenda.

</comment><comment><USER20> Wow, I had this exact idea few months ago. I figured the founding fathers would be against it though.

</comment><comment><USER21> If every senator and representative did this, we could abstract away Congress.

</comment><comment><USER22> Hmmm ... what if there were someone doing this in every state?</comment>


How Killers Bought Guns They Weren't Supposed to Get - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/graphics/how-killers-bought-guns/ <comment><USER2> WSJ has a paywall, the "web" link under the title in this page does not solve that issue.

How long before we'll add an "Outline" link to use that decluttering service?

</comment><comment><USER3> How's this related to tech?

<comment><USER4> In addition to what other commentators have said, this website is chock full of people who like to solve meaningful problems.

Gun violence in America is a meaningful problem.</comment></comment>


Kanye West caught using Pirate Bay to download music software - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2016/03/kanye-west-caught-using-pirate-bay-to-download-music-software/ <comment><USER2> Xfer records is very small, its just 2 people really (Steve and I). It's nice seeing this get so much attention. We are a very small company (if you can even call it that, I'm not even full time). Every sale is a big deal for Xfer, and piracy definitely hurts us. We don't have the resources to combat it, and we don't put restrictive copy protection on our software because we don't believe in hurting paying customers to slow down piracy.

It's always a sad reminder for us when we see people (who can obviously afford our software) stealing it :(

<comment><USER3> As someone who has purchased most of your products, I just wanted to say thank you!

I admit I've pirated a lot of software in order to try it over time, but I end up buying what I start using in my workflow. I don't make money producing music (yet!), so I definitely use trials or pirate expensive plugins (I'll often try to re-trial something if my trial lapses and I haven't yet used it enough).

Serum? I downloaded the trial, used it, then bought it. The same with LFO Tool. It is a complete steal at its price point, and an absolute beautiful piece of software. I hope Kanye gets more flac for this.

Keep up the great work! I'm constantly blown away at the work you and Steve do.

<comment><USER4> _> I hope Kanye gets more flac for this._

I see him as more of a 128 kinda guy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Meh, "people in glass houses...":

> @deadmau5

> I used a pirated copy of sylenth on my last 4 albums. #TrueReveal

[https://twitter.com/deadmau5/status/367265601640603648](https://twitter.com/deadmau5/status/367265601640603648)

Steve Aoki was also caught using the above software in a music video with Linkin Park, though he proved that he had bought the software but his assistants installed a pirated version on his road laptop. [http://stoneyroads.com/2013/08/steve-aoki-responds-to- claims...](http://stoneyroads.com/2013/08/steve-aoki-responds-to-claims-of- pirated-synth-wear)

I think this all comes down to effort and usability. To purchase the software you have to go through a bunch of screens, enter payment info, download, install, and then enter a serial number. For pirating software you just search for it and it's usually easier to install, with some cracks even bypassing steps. What's interesting to me is that people don't question their own ethics before doing this, especially music producers like Kanye who don't like pirates. Then again we've seen similar backlash against people using adblockers, but most would sympathize with them instead for other reasons.

<comment><USER6> The most amusing situation to me was when Carnage made a god-awful tutorial for Razer Music, in which he used a pirated version of Sylenth. Once he got called out by the public, he said[1] in a tweet:

> "lmaooo wtf why does it matter?"

LennarDigital (the company behind Sylenth) decided to reply to his tweet and said that they "are happy to make it a matter".

He later on went and accused Razer that it was their laptop in the video, which resulted in them canceling the contract with him and removing that god- awful tutorial from their website. I laughed so hard as the accusations went on and on.

[1] [http://www.youredm.com/2015/10/22/sylenth-threatens-to- sue-c...](http://www.youredm.com/2015/10/22/sylenth-threatens-to-sue-carnage- after-using-cracked-version-of-software-in-808-tutorial/)

<comment><USER7> It's not actually true that you can "lose the copyrights to your music" if you use pirated software to produce it, is it? That doesn't sound at all true.

<comment><USER8> No, that is trademark, and that is only when trademarks are in open consideration for having become "part of the common culture".

<comment><USER9> That's got nothing to do with trademark one way or the other. The question is whether you can maintain a proprietary interest in something created with tools appropriated form others.

<comment><USER7> I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the answer is "of course you can".

<comment><USER10> [Moved my comment to the top level -- [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11212642](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11212642) ]

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you opened some of the built in audio files in Windows XP with a hex editor, you could see that they were created with a cracked version of SoundForge.

[http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pirated-software-used-to- creat...](http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pirated-software-used-to-create-help- content-in-microsofts-windows-xp,news-14167.html)

<comment><USER12> Vaguely related, Windows 95's iconic _The Microsoft Sound_ was composed on a Mac.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you look at the YouTube user thumbnail, it's actually producer Mike Dean who's logged in. Kanye and Dean work closely together, and it very well might be a photo of Dean's computer.

Speculative and sensationalist reporting by Ars.

[1] [https://m.youtube.com/user/deanslistproductions](https://m.youtube.com/user/deanslistproductions)

<comment><USER14> Thank you, finally someone who actually looks at the photo rather than the headline

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Not defending him here, he's a professional millionaire musician and should just buy it...

But music software is a HUGE pain in the ass to purchase. Pro Tools, for example, is tied to a dongle. It's 2016, and that's still the security method they choose to use. Lose the dongle? You're fucked. It's unfathomably frustrating.

<comment><USER16> Not even the majority of major music production suites - Ableton Live, FL Studio, Propellerhead Reason are all incredibly easy to license, download, and install and all three have easy-to-use market places to purchase and download third party plug-ins. Pro Tools is really more of an exception than the rule. To be honest, I'm not sure why people are still using it extensively other than legacy purchases and lock-in with some hardware vendors.

<comment><USER17> People still use Pro Tools?

I can't think of a single popular commercial DAW that's worse to use. Pretty much the only people I see use it are all aspiring rappers. I guess it has hip hop cred.

Tangentially, I can't think of a single piece of Avid software that isn't a flaming piece of shit.

Full disclosure: I used to have to support Avid.

<comment><USER18> Unfortunately, there are no DAW applications that are really reliable, not buggy, and lightweight. The Open Source attempts are largely laughable, even though JACK represents the most sophisticated audio connection suite/API out there.

Pro Tools _is_ shit, I agree, but because of Avid's dominance in the film/TV worlds, Pro Tools is the "professional" choice for audio in support of these industries. I imagine that most music houses have moved on to the Apple or Steinberg offerings. Personally, I've always really liked Steinberg's products, especially WaveLab and Cubase.

As bad as Pro Tools is, don't even get me started on Ableton Live. It's like someone just barely made it out of their first Code Academy lesson alive, and then attempted to reverse engineer Nuendo. Utterly horrifying application development standards over at Ableton.

<comment><USER19> I don't really know much about Nuendo, but it looks like it's more of a traditional DAW and has specific features aimed at post production, which doesn't seem to be Ableton Live's goal. I might try to get you started on Ableton Live, why do you think Ableton has such "horrifying application development standards"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Might seem trite but one of the reasons I attribute my rather good PC music laptop experience over the past 10 years is not using any pirate/suspect downloads. Be it software or music itself by others. Sticking with what I could purchase (or demo) meant relatively stable installs. A couple versions of Ableton Live were shaky, but along the way things have been patched and I am a happy customer. Lots of free VSTs as well, it doesn't take a lot of research.

Whether it's him doing it or a member of his 'team' \- the guy has a writer stable of 14 known artists[1] and brings in others like he was giving away free studio time and Yeezy shoes - it just smacks of lazy. Certainly it happens in the industry. Lots of various approaches are easy or time consuming type difficult[2], I guess it kind of depends on the producer and the goal.

Personally I just like using great new tools[3] that cost very little but allow for a lot of creative expressiveness. YMMV.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOOD_Music#Current_acts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOOD_Music#Current_acts)

[2] [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-little-known- recording-...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-little-known-recording- trick-that-makes-singers-sound-perfect)

[3] [https://www.propellerheads.se/figure](https://www.propellerheads.se/figure)

</comment><comment><USER21> Just because he had a tab with ThePirateBay open doesn't mean he downloaded a pirated copy of the software.

He really should install an ad blocker though, to get rid of those "Mac Keeper" and "Attention" tabs.

<comment><USER22> Amen. He could well be seeding his own indie tracks.

<comment><USER23> Not sure if you are joking, but the tab title ends with Xfe[...], so it seems pretty likely that it's about Xfer Records Serum.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Hate to hijack what I am sure is a mind expanding discussion on software distribution, the law of karma, and modern celebrity. But I am curious about something and was hoping to get an opinion from some of the music production experts on here. Of which there appear to be legion. Which is awesome :)

How difficult is it to duplicate Serum-esque wavetable generation using ChucK or CSound? It seems in my uninformed opinion you would have a lot more freedom using raw math over visual gui. Do you have the same range of available osc's and filters as you have in commercial packages? Or would they be relatively easy to implement if missing out of the box?

<comment><USER4> _> How difficult is it to duplicate Serum-esque wavetable generation using ChucK or CSound?_

Serum-esque? Sure, selecting waveforms from a lookup table isn't difficult. However implementing clean sounding alias-free oscillators that can themselves be modulated at audio rate and so on requires years of accumulated domain knowledge. On top of that serum has all kinds of fancy features, such as the ability to import wave files and generate good-sounding wavetables from them, high quality filters, (look up zero-delay-feedback filters) complex modulation routing and most importantly, a GUI that lets you navigate all this complexity and actually compose music with it.

 _> you would have a lot more freedom using raw math over visual gui._

Exactly. Freedom is the enemy of creativity. Hence why the majority of max/msp users don't actually make music with it. The more layers of abstraction and choices there are standing between your musical idea and making actual sounds, the harder it is to ever realise those ideas. By the time you've finished messing around with all the technical stuff and making endless choices, you've lost the idea. Hence the endless appeal of the acoustic guitar and human voice combo.

It's certainly possible to make music the other way around, where you let the machines have the ideas and you simply guide them, but it's a very different thing. Using pure math and code really shines here, as well as modular synthesis equipment.

EDIT: talking of modular, Waldorf, the german company who pioneered wavetable synths in the 90s (you'll take my uWave XT from my cold dead hands!) have just released a wavetable-based eurorack module, and it's pretty extra-crunchy, no anti aliasing here ;)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEL50hCEj7Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEL50hCEj7Q)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssk_0mg6N6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssk_0mg6N6k)

<comment><USER24> Thanks for the thoughtful reply and timeless wisdom that seems to apply not just to music, but life as well ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Did he search Google for "Pirate bay torrent xfer"? Because the page title on pirate bay seems to be static no matter what you search for (unlike in the pic)

edit: someone posted above that he was on this site (might not have been on this specific page though) [http://www.pirate-baytorrent.com/xfer-records- serum-1-07b4-v...](http://www.pirate-baytorrent.com/xfer-records- serum-1-07b4-vsti-aax-x86x64-extras.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> KW only does a thing with the intention that people talk about the thing, and by extension KW. I never thought I'd see a KW thing on hacker news.

</comment><comment><USER10> First: While I'm definitely not a Kanye fan, I think it's appropriate to withhold judgment on these allegations until more facts are available.

Second: Unauthorized use of a copyrighted tool (e.g., music-editing software) to create a copyrighted work of authorship --- a song and a sound recording of the song, let's say --- normally wouldn't result in loss of the copyright in either the song or the sound recording.

 _(This is a different situation than creating a_ derivative work _without authorization.)_

But such unauthorized use of the music-editing software could result in the author of the song and sound recording having to pay the owner of the copyright in the music-editing software for the former's "indirect profits" arising from the infringement. That can be a remedy with real teeth.

The case I usually teach to illustrate this point is _Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc._ [0], 886 F.2d 1545 (9th Cir. 1989) (Frank Music II). In that case:

\+ The MGM Grand Hotel had a floor show called Hallelujah Hollywood!, which included 'tributes' to various MGM movies. The floor show incorporated significant portions of the Broadway musical _Kismet_ , which years earlier had been made into an MGM movie.

\+ The court found that MGM's use of the _Kismet_ material in its floor show went beyond its 'movie rights' license and therefore infringed the copyright in the underlying Broadway musical.

\+ As a result, MGM had to pay not just a portion of profits from the Hallelujah Hollywood! floor show itself (such as profits from sales of tickets to the show), but also 2% of the profits from the MGM Grand's overall hotel operations — _including 2% of the casino profits_ — which, the court found, were indirectly attributable to the promotional value of the floor show. [1]

It didn't help MGM's case that its annual report had boasted about how great the floor show was as a draw for the casino, thus helping the copyright owner prove up its case for indirect profits.

[0] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=169034711262654...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16903471126265449346)

[1] The above description is copied essentially verbatim from my piece, [http://www.oncontracts.com/a-better-way-to-handle-a- breach-o...](http://www.oncontracts.com/a-better-way-to-handle-a-breach-of- contract-at-least-in-some-cases/)

</comment><comment><USER27> That's not his YouTube account logged in. There's a pic that shows more out there, and seemingly Kanye took a pic of someone's computer.

</comment><comment><USER28> The Serum team should be pleased with all of the exposure they get from this.

</comment><comment><USER29> And here I am, stuck with LMMS... Honestly, LMMS is rather cool once you get used to it.

<comment><USER30> LMMS is pretty awesome actually. I used it to write all of my last album:

        https://kruhft.bandcamp.com/album/listener

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Begin #KanyeWestHatesProgrammers

<comment><USER32> He recently tweeted that "San Francisco" software execs listen to rap but shamefully weren't lining up for to "invest 1 billion dollars in kanye ideas" [sic]

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I am wondering whether he did that on purpose just to get attention. But then again I saw many video interviews of famous artists who were using a pirated copy of Sylenth1. Many people probably really are that cheap.

<comment><USER34> He'll probably take credit for making Serum famous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Wait -- what's his net worth again?

</comment><comment><USER36> Straight up false headline from Ars, which is sadly becoming more and more of a problem there.

Kanye West was not caught doing a damn thing. A screenshot of a computer that _may or may not be his_ has a Pirate Bay tab open in the background.

That's a far cry from "caught using to download".

</comment><comment><USER37> Publicity stunt

</comment><comment><USER38> Perhaps just like everyone else he's realised that pirating is easier than buying, no matter how much money you have.

<comment><USER39> It's dead simple to buy Serum (first-hand experience) and you don't have to worry about malware, I don't buy this premise. They also actively support and develop their products and you get free updates and support for years. I don't see why it's so hard to buy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> "Browsing and posting like a Gay Fish!"

</comment><comment><USER41> Jeez what a knob this guy...

</comment><comment><USER42> It could have been worse, he could have had a tab open with midget porn ;P

Seriously, guys, sanitize your screenshots. Every screenshot I take, I crop down as much as possible and check for stuff like that thoroughly. Bookmarks, tabs, windows, system tray, notification, they all could potentially contain very private or even incriminating information.

<comment><USER43> Edit: This is about taking screenshots of a device fro the same device. I see in another comment that the screenshot here was a photo taken by a smartphone (which is a different topic).

This is really an issue most people aren't aware of. People somehow learn how to take screenshots of their entire desktop on computers and share them, but also somehow fail to learn how to take screenshots of a window or crop/blur them appropriately. Or perhaps they're always in a hurry and don't have the time to look up how to deal with it.

I have learned which banks some people use (online banking tab open), which browser they use, which programs are running on their system (from the task bar), which Facebook pages they have open, whom they're messaging with on Facebook, which other articles around the web they're reading, and so many other details just by looking at screenshots. It may not be an issue that _I_ got to know these, but it's an information leak that should've been avoided.

Since people aren't going to change quickly, the only solution I can think of is having the screenshot feature or software on all platforms ask the user with a simple UI what they would like to black/blur out and then save that. Dear Apple, here's a cue to build this right into iOS and OS X to continue with the "privacy matters" motto for users (of course, it would be great if Google and MS also embrace this across all their platforms).

<comment><USER44> In windows, try snipping tool. Comes stock with 7 and up, lets you select a window, or a rectangular area, or even a free form "draw a circle around what you want" mode. And then you can save it or copy and paste it somewhere. So yeah, MS has had this handled for years, just people don't know about it.

<comment><USER43> Well, I wasn't really looking for solutions myself since I know how to get screenshots and crop/blur/mask them appropriately on different platforms. My comment was more about people not knowing how to do these.

On Windows though, I use Greenshot [0] to capture the screen or a window or a specific region of the screen, with options to send the capture to one of several programs directly. Paint.NET [1] is what I normally use for cropping/annotations/masking, etc.

[0]: [http://getgreenshot.org/](http://getgreenshot.org/)

[1]: [http://getpaint.net/](http://getpaint.net/)

<comment><USER44> I was just saying that windows does have this stock, it's just not many people know about it. It's extremely handy, cause you can save directly (no going through paint or other hacks) or copy and paste it into Word/Outlook and other stuff, already trimmed to exactly what you need. Average week, I use Snipping Tool like 20~30 times.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Hey Kenji, just FYI, I find something a little off-putting in using "midget porn" as the example of something worse.

Maybe I've become overly sensitive to possibly hurtful language in this era of codes of conduct, microaggressions, trigger words, etc. But I think it's marginalizing to use the sexuality of a segment of people (consenting adults, let's assume) as something shameful. I've also read that midget is considered a derogatory slur by many in that community.

Anyway, I'm not trying to condemn you, because I know you didn't mean anything hurtful or negative. You're just using the phrase as a generic example of sexual deviancy. And sexual deviancy is inherently embarrassing in our Puritanical culture – and worse from a PR perspective.

And like I said, I might be way off base here. I might be that annoying guy in the conversation who isn't actually offended but thinks someone else might possibly be offended. But since we're all focused on being more inclusive these days, I thought it was worth saying something. I say accidentally- possibly-exclusionary shit like this all the time – part of the reason I'm more vigilant about it lately, trying to improve my own behavior. :)

<comment><USER46> We detached this subthread from [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11209917](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11209917) and marked it off-topic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Let's start a Kickstarter to help kanye west afford a copy of Serum.

<comment><USER48> Source: [https://twitter.com/deadmau5/status/704878038937243648](https://twitter.com/deadmau5/status/704878038937243648)

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> I understand that what Kanye did was as wrong as any other pirating. However, as a result of that screenshot that software got a free endorsement from Kanye West. I imagine that guy is going to wake up surprised this morning when he looks at total sales from last night.

<comment><USER2> It's not about that one missed sale, but think about all the (even high profile/rich) people who steal the software

<comment><USER49> I definitely understand, I'm not saying pirating is good. I'm especially not saying "Once you hit a certain level of success, you should pirate!" Just suggesting that due to this incident the creators made quite a few sales.

I think pirating is wrong and I pay for my software/music.

Edit: Whoa! You're one of the creators. Congrats on getting this kind of exposure. It's unfortunate it has to be because wealthy people don't pay for your product. :(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> its a publicity stunt, this is so freaking obvious. kanye west knows the dangers in the public more than enough, to know what he's posting. anyone agree?

<comment><USER51> Not likely in my opinion. This is not without precedent, there's been several EDM artists who have not thought twice of doing a studio shot with some cracked plugin exposed.

This includes some big EDM names that really should have known better, given that anything like that is bound to generate many articles (Martin Garrix, Avicii, and Steve Aoki were the previous "big name offenders" exposed for showing pirate copies of Sylenth1 in videos). More to the point, several less known DJs have done things (like say a demo for Future Music) where eagle eyes will spot pirated synths there too.

It's pretty clear that Kanye didn't install a popup blocker while visiting The Pirate Bay; if he actually knew what he was doing, surely he'd at least do that, right? :)</comment></comment>


Anonymous calls off outing of cartel after release of kidnapped member - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/anonymous-calls-off-outing-of-narco-cartel-after-release-of-kidnapped-member.ars

<comment><USER2> Many aspects of this story sound too good (too narratively neat, that is) to be true.

Is there any evidence that this is anything other than a big hoax orchestrated by Anonymous for publicity and/or lulz? Any third-party confirmation that any part of this story is true, or are we just basing everything off what Anonymous has told us?

I mean, any evidence that this unnamed guy was ever kidnapped, that he was ever released, or that Anonymous ever actually had any information about Los Zetas in the first place? Just wondering, not accusing anyone of lying, just not entirely confident that "Anonymous" is a trustworthy source.

<comment><USER3> Well, unless this was done by someone posing as Anonymous.

The hostage returned with a message claiming that the kidnappers said any exposure of information resulting in the outing of a gangster would result in the demise of Anonymous 10-fold.

I.e. why would Anonymous tell themselves to shut up in such a convoluted way?

<comment><USER2> _The hostage returned with a message claiming that the kidnappers said any exposure of information resulting in the outing of a gangster would result in the demise of Anonymous 10-fold._

Where's the evidence that there ever _was_ a hostage?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a good learning experience for Anonymous. They've never faced an organization that has no qualms about kidnapping and brutally murdering them. Maybe there will be a change in their tactics?

<comment><USER5> This assumes anonymous is a unified collective, when they are really much closer to a flag of convenience.

<comment><USER6> A good way of putting it. So many people don't seem to get this.

There is no "anonymous". Everyone is "anonymous".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I am surprised this threat could silence Anonymous. I was expecting some twisted counter threat from them along the lines of: 'you kill about 10 people every week anyway so for every 10 people that are killed we will release 100 more names'. So if Anonymous release 1 name, then the Zetas kill 10, then Anonymous release 100 names, then the Zetas have obligated themselves to kill 1000 people, then Anonymous release 10000. Now, in quite short order the Zetas have to kill 100,000 people. Which is a lot, even for them.

<comment><USER8> You are assuming that anonymous have information on 10, 100 and 10000 people belonging to the zetas. If that was the case, this could have unfolded quite differently.

(by this I don't mean that the claim by anonymous that they have information regarding the identity of Zeta members is a lie - I just mean that the information that they do have probably doesn't warrant a move such as the one you suggest)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This whole thing sounded so strange and unlike the MO of anyone associated with anonymous. I don't think I will speculate about what really happened (hoax, anon copycats, whatever) but I really doubt that there was much behind these claims.

It's amusing though, because they will still get credit for it, and that will further contribute to their mystique.

</comment><comment><USER9> Wait I thought they called it off for a different reason about a week ago. EDIT: RTFA! Sorry.

The Zetas actually released the guy? Wow!</comment>