The security of wired.com is bad because User Enumeration is possible - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/potherca/status/663835146387365888 <comment><USER2> This is a WordPress specific problem... Not really that big of a deal. Sure it could be useful for a bad actor to use this method to define a username to initiate brute force attacks against..but it's a WordPress problem -- not specific to just Wired.</comment>


Ask YC: Divvying up Equity - <AUTHOR>

This question is regarding equity division within a very young startup. I will try to explain the situation as best as I can in this short text. I am an undergraduate computer science student at a well-known public university.
I have worked for two startups in the past which didn't end up going anywhere but this was usually due to mismanagement. I used multiple platforms at these at both of those jobs for web development and was a major contributer to the code-base.
When I started looking for a new startup, I came into contact with a computer science professor at my college who was starting a company co-founding it with a business guy who was privately funding it during these early stages.
I was hired by them a year and a few months ago as the only "consistent contributer" in the company. I primarily started out on mostly development but quickly started participating in the meetings to help work out requirements, design and business aspects regarding where the company was going. We have up to this point currently still retained the same situation.
In a nutshell, two co-founders (one a professor, one business) and me as a key player in designing and implementing the database, the design flow, the architecture, and all other aspects of the site. The professor is primarily serving as programming the mathematical models and algorithms of the site (part of the core competency). We have contractors which have done aspects of the overall service such as create a photoshop view of the site, worked on other extensions which are thin layers on top of the infrastructure and api that I partially designed and also implemented.
The actual site as far as the data back-end, the integration of all the parts, working with the contractors on technical details, was worked out by me and the professor co-founder. I would say it is mutually agreed upon by all parties that through my contributions, I have played a variety of roles. Most of what we have today to show for the company was either designed and implemented or integrated into the overall service by me (through collaboration with the founders). I was there since virtually day one as far as when the product began to actually be designed and developed.
I graduate this year from the university and I have thinking long and hard of what's to come in the future. I am really invested in this startup both through lots of time and effort but also just that I like the idea and I would love to work with them for the foreseeable future. However, I am graduating and I have had several job offers in addition to having my own company that I co-founded in which my time could also be spent. The startup in question has been giving me a salary per hour which as a student is competitive but certainly not quite near market rate for a similar developer who has about 5 years of relevant work experience and just chose not to go to college.
I began negotiating with them about getting equity over time because I feel I have been a key force in the success of the company thus far. The company is also not generating any revenue at this point but there is a plan to make some in the recent foreseeable future. As far as funding, we have not yet achieved any angel or VC funding but are currently being privately funded. Sorry this is long setup, but can anyone give me advice as to what's in the ballpark of "fair" given the situation. What recommendations do you have helping us negotiate to a reasonable amount of equity for me? <comment><USER2> Long post. Suggest you cut it down and use a different title. The current title doesn't inspire people to click.

From what you've said so far, you are the first hire in a startup with a technical founder. There are factors that we're missing here like are you a full-time or part-time hire? What's the role of the mathematical models? How "replaceable" are you? Could the technical founder have done this without you, or with a different hire? How much of an impact will it be to the company if you walk away?

It's impossible for anyone to tell you how much is "fair" in your situation since every situation is different. But for what it's worth, 1%-3% with competitive salary is pretty good for a non-founding first hire in my experience. YMMV depending on how you answer the questions I mentioned above.

I think a good way to calculate equity compensation is via "opportunity cost". Will you be working for reduced salary after graduation for this startup? If you're going to be getting reduced salary, then the equity compensation should match the salary that you'll be missing out on.

Here are some old threads about this topic.

[http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.416439.2...](http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.416439.21) <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=185882> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=79952> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28465>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yeah I suspected that I fail as a yc poster. Bad title + long narrative means few replies. Still, I appreciate the response.

I work part-time for this company at a salary of about 65% less than market value amortized over my entire work period.

The mathematical models serve as predictions based on data collected. This is one of the main competencies of the service. However without the integration and infrastructure this wouldn't be too useful. I am probably replaceable in the sense that they could have found someone else but if that person was willing to work for cheap as me for no equity from the beginning and do same quality work is unlikely.

If I were to walk away, since I have pretty much designed and implemented most of the code base and infrastructure, this would probably be quite a bad position to leave them in as we have no other coders right now and we have looked to hire for several months with no avail.

The idea is I would continue working for a reduced salary after graduation. Probably reduced about 40-50% below market value.

I appreciate any additional comments.

<comment><USER2> You said in your post you were paid competitive salary. Why is it 65% less now? What are you basing your salary on?

From what you've said, it sounds like the mathematical models play a pretty significant role. If the product is like Digg, then the algorithms are 90% of the company (in fact I think K. Rose outsourced the site). If the product is like Myspace, however, then your contribution will be the other way around.

In your situation, the best bet is to negotiate your equity compensation based on opportunity cost. I recommend getting the negotiation finalized before the company does find a hire, since this gives you more leverage. I say start with 3% and negotiate downward.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> None of us can say too much without more info (which paradoxically wouldn't help b/c we'd all "tl;dr") but let me ask this: if you were to quit, what is the chance they would succeed without you?

I also think you messed up by doing the hard work up front and then asking for equity. As it sounds to me, you were paid for the work you did therefore you get no equity; you were "hired" as you put it with a competitive salary for your position/experience so I don't see why you feel you deserve any equity TBH. If you get no equity, then mark it as a lesson learned and go work for another company out of school or your other startup.

Just an outsider looking in though. Good luck :)

</comment><comment> puzzle-out Ask for 5%. See what they say. You can base this on staying at the company for a year - they can ask you to sign something saying you will return the equity if you leave before then.</comment>


An iPhone Lover's Take On The Nexus S - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/31/nexus-s-iphone-review/

<comment><USER2> I wrote about this when the N1 came out; what it came down to was that fit and finish were significant issues (why won't apps move aside when re-arranging them on the screen?), but for me, the dealbreaker was that you really can't take advantage of Android without buying into the whole Google ecosystem, and I'd recently opted _out_ of the Google ecosystem.

I use my phone as an extension of my computer, not a portal into the cloud, so the metaphor was never a good fit for me. I certainly think that there were plenty of good things about the N1 and Froyo (although I _hated_ that stupid trackball, the notifications and maps on Froyo were enormously better then their equivalents on iOS), and if you're not already locked into a way of interacting with your phone, that there's not a lot of _functional_ daylight between vanilla Android and iOS at this point.

I am curious to see what WP7 turns into. They have some wiggle room and may just surprise.

 _EDIT_ : On the off chance anybody's interested:

<http://homonculus.net/tags/phones.html>

<comment><USER3> Well, that's actually true for all major smartphones - Android is an extension of Google's cloud, iPhone is an extension of your PC's iTunes, BlackBerry is an extension of your corporate BES/Outlook server etc.

Android, while incomplete, is the model which all others will have to switch to eventually. I mean, imagine using iTunes v15 on your PC as your personal email/contacts/media hub in 2016. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. In fact, it seems ridiculous to me in 2011.

The interesting thing about Android (the Nexus lines in particular) is that it is the only major OS that gives you the option of using it _without_ any attachments through ASOP. CyanogenMod and others let you use Android without any google things, something which none of the others will let you do.

<comment><USER2> "I mean, imagine using iTunes v15 on your PC as your personal email/contacts/media hub in 2016. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. In fact, it seems ridiculous to me in 2011."

No argument here. And I think you're right about the convergence -- holdouts like me will just have to learn to cope. All I want is someone to sell me the service, not rely on data mining and ad impressions.

<comment><USER3> Well, there are options out there now. If you want an unattached smartphone, a Nexus S with CyanogenMod will get you a great smartphone with a modern OS and no googly attachments.

OTOH, if you're distrustful of Google's ad model, you can get a blackberry and sign up for a hosted BES, which will give you all the benefits corp users have for like $10/month.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _Having said that, I still prefer the build quality of the Nexus One (HTC- built) a bit more than the Nexus S (Samsung-built). Like the Windows Phone model I used (a Samsung Focus), the Nexus S feels a bit too plastic-y for my taste._

Yes. This. I'd buy a Nexus S in a heartbeat if it felt anything like the Nexus One. I have a hard time rationalizing intangibles like this, but something about a phone is deeply personal (always on you, handles communication, etc), and the aesthetics matter.

Polyester underwear, anyone?

<comment><USER5> I had a Captivate for a while and loved the build. Very solid, it just was light. I don't tend to conflate weight with quality.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The obvious come-from-behing strategy for Windows phones: Look at how is market leader (Apple) is beating everyone else (RIM/Android) and emulate their success. I think they're trying to do this: use tighter control over the platform to ensure superior UI/UX and seamless integration with their desktop products. If Microsoft can pull this off, they will take a big bite out of the 2nd/3rd place competitors and threaten Apple. If they can't, Windows Phone 7 will be an also-ran like Zune.

<comment><USER7> Microsoft probably loves the leeway that Apple's position gives them right now to act the way they love to act.

<comment><USER8> Microsoft needs competition to create awesome products. Without it they don't ever seem to have any direction.

<comment><USER6> Sort of a large-scale corporate procrastination.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is why the iPhone still dominates the market more than any other Android phone does.

" _Sure, I'm more accustomed to the iPhone, but I could switch [to the Nexus S] anytime I wanted to. But that's the thing, I don't want to. The iPhone experience is still overall a better one in my mind. It's that simple._ "

<comment><USER10> One question : If you had bought an Android phone before your iPhone and you were accustomed and comfortable with it, do you think you would say the same thing ?

<comment><USER11> Yes.

I've been playing with a g1 for quite some time (got it in september). Did a bit of development with it (nothing I'd ever release to the public, unfortunately). I did get quite a bit used to it. I had it rooted and was running android 2.2 on it, which was rather fast.

Then, I got an iphone 4 for christmas and holy shit, this is a much better experience. My only complaint about the iphone is that the bar you swipe to unlock the phone is lower than what I'm used to. Low enough that if I'm not looking at the phone, I'll still have my thumb high enough to miss the bar completely.

<comment><USER12> G1? That would be like iPhone 1G prototype! The phone was too weak hardware wise. The difference between newer Android phones like the Galaxy S or G2 and iPhone has greatly narrowed to the point where it is mostly an individual preference / needs for specific features that dictate if you will buy one or the other.

<comment><USER11> the g1, in terms of processor speed, was probably on par with as much as the iphone 3g.

I've played with the droid x, and other than the screen size, didn't really see that much of a difference between it and the g1.

Edit: After a quick browse of wikipedia, the g1, on paper, looks to be faster than the iphone 3g.

<comment><USER12> Your G1 is probably not everyone else's G1 ;) Seriously - no difference between Droid X and G1 - you might want to rethink about that!

<comment><USER11> Ok, maybe I was wrong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does anyone else think Android phone desktops look vaguely like Windows 3.1?

<comment><USER3> Yeah, like totally! I fondly remember downloading and arranging the widgets on my windows 3.1, and the cool parallax-effect when you scroll through the 5 home screens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> i consider stuff that lacks GPU acceleration to be so unbelievably retarded that I question the core competence of the engineers and company behind it. android and flash have been the two biggest offenders recently. I despise adobe (well, for lots of reasons besides this as well) and am starting to hate google. (is flash fixed yet BTW?)

</comment><comment><USER15> >A couple of the apps I use the most on my iPhone: Twitter and Foursquare, still lack to polish of their iOS counterparts.

Twitter's Android app is crap, and strangely mine is locked so I'll have to root to remove it. Twidroyd, however, works well.

<comment><USER16> Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon MP3 are "built-in" apps in many Android images (e.g. Nexus One 2.2), at most allowing you to uninstall updates to them.

It's a major irritation, really. Google needs to stop that nonsense.

<comment><USER17> On Nexus S/Android 2.3, you can completely uninstall Facebook and Twitter.

<comment><USER16> This is fantastic to hear.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Google sent out phones to both Gruber and Siegler. What were they thinking? Neither are fair actors, and neither have any credibility outside of the core Apple base.

They are lost causes. There is no value in courting them: Let the product diminish their relevance, which is _exactly what has already happened_.

Siegler's review pretends that he gave it a fair shake, yet like all Apple reviews it only notes where Android fails, in his opinion, relative to the iPhone. Where, for instance, is any comment on the superior Android notification system (which to me is a dealbreaker of the iPhone), the power of widgets, the granular app permissions, etc.

As much as he doth protest, his conclusion was predetermined. There is no scenario where he would consider it a superior device.

<comment><USER18> While true, I don't necessarily think that the opinion should be discounted.

I have been looking to buy a Nexus S this week, I went to Best Buy, $530 in hand, but I vowed to play with it first. The demo unit was not good. Google have let themselves fall behind, particuarly that the GPU still isn't accelerating graphics (leading to a jerky experience) and little things being to irritate (double-tap to zoom in Browser results in a jerky 3 fps zoom, whereas the iPhone does it wonderfully). It all adds up to say "I'm not ready yet." Unfortunately, Android hasn't been ready yet for a long time.

They need to stop hiring engineers and start hiring UX guys. All the apps from Google are great. The technical underpinnings are great. The UX is pretty poor; the only win over iOS are widgets and notifications. It blows my mind that Apple hasn't emulated those yet. Windows Phone 7 is providing a better UX than Android on version 1, and it doesn't strongly emulate iOS like Android does.

<comment><USER12> I can take your same argument and claim that iOS is not ready yet for a long time and there are no signs that it will ever be. You focus on the few things that it doesn't do and claim it's not ready. Let me do the same thing with the disclaimer that it is wrong -

The iOS browser doesn't adjust text to the screen like the Android browser does. The notification system is horrid. There are no OTA updates leaving many people who don't use iTunes running old versions of software. The UI is not flexible at all - widgets simplify so many things. Sync is pathetic on iOS - on Android picasa photos, contacts, apps and settings are there in the cloud and all I need to do is sign in to my google account and everything is right there. Has Auto Correct been added to iOS keyboard yet? There is no chance for things such as Swype on iOS. There is no back button. Etc. Thus iOS is not ready yet.

<comment><USER18> Well sure, if you want to take it that way :)

I just meant "Does this _OS_ feel like it is fully baked?" and it sort of doesn't, because the jerkiness makes you feel like you're interacting with an OS, not a physical item. You have to sit and think a little bit about how your finger movement is going to translate. Graphical acceleration ala iOS and WP7 means you don't have to do that. Notifications, sync, etc etc are all features built on top of that UX foundation, and that's where _I_ (and I think, consumers in general) feel that is the first hurdle you have to overcome. Everything else is gravy.

But I do agree about Swype... that's awesome.

<comment><USER19> This is still a really terrible argument. The Nexus S I have is far, far smoother and responsive than an iphone 3gs and you saw no "half baked" comments about the previous iphones.

Not to mention that you don't have to think at all about how your finger will translate: despite a bit of chop occasionally, it still ends up exactly where it should, just like all the previous iphones.

As far as I can tell, android is getting a lot of criticism for no reason other than iphones are popular. It's ridiculous, both the nexus s and iphone 4 are extremely advanced, amazing pieces of technology and people argue over some minute perceived jitter or other non-objective observation. From this, they jump to over the top criticism like "half baked," "inferior device," and "second rate."

Your Lamborghini sure is half baked compared to my Ferrari. Consumers will never like Lamborghini until they fix the feel of the steering wheel material!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


It's Time to Get Personal - <AUTHOR> https://24ways.org/2019/its-time-to-get-personal/ <comment><USER2> I have a personal tech blog that probably nobody reads, but I am so proud of not having tracking on it. I don't even point out that fact, but maybe I should. That sounds stupid, I know, but I feel like you have to be the change you want to see in the world. Even if my blog is relatively meaningless, I don't want my visitors caught up in the mix. I don't care about how many people come to come to my blog because I primarily care about the free exchange of ideas worth discussing.

Like the author, I'm not giving up. And I hope you don't too.</comment>


Ask HN: Ad blockers and HN - <AUTHOR> ive got both Adblock fast and purify enabled. When enabled, comments on HN show the user/comment structure, but no text.<p>What is it in the ad blockers triggering this? Or some other issue? <comment><USER2> purify specifically has a "comments" blocking option. Check if its on in Purify -> Preferences -> Enable/Disable Blocking Of: Comments. Remember to head to settings -> safari -> content blockers, and switch off/on the content blocker when you modify it, also.

</comment><comment><USER3> Try disabling both and turning only one on to see which is the culprit first?</comment>


A text editor that only allows the top 1000 most common words in English - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mortenjust/cleartext-mac <comment><USER2> I use [http://hemingwayapp.com/](http://hemingwayapp.com/) to help me make my writing clear.

</comment><comment><USER3> Although I find "Thing Explainer" funny, the idea that the problem with English is just that it has a lot of words is misguided. In the 1930s when artificial languages were big there was one called "Basic English" that was based on the top 800 English words. The problem is that even with a small vocabulary you can get very complicated sentences and idioms, and those are more confusing to language learners than just words (which after all, can be looked up or figured out from context).

</comment><comment><USER4> I like the editor. There's obviously interest in this after XKCD.

It'd be really cool if people had a look at "Easy Read", and how to make it easier to translate stuff into easy read. Easy Read is a system aimed at people with a learning disability (UK definition), but it's used by more people.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs- ouch-26836091](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-26836091)

[http://www.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/article.asp?page=252](http://www.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/article.asp?page=252)

[https://www.mencap.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2008...](https://www.mencap.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2008-04/make%20it%20clear%20apr09.pdf)

[http://www.effortmark.co.uk/wp- content/uploads/2015/03/4008_...](http://www.effortmark.co.uk/wp- content/uploads/2015/03/4008_286_Easy-read-DRC-How-to-use-easy-words-and- pictures.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER5> I think that an editor that didn't _allow_ any term but the magic 1000 words would be utterly useless (crashing on proper names, tech acronyms, etc.) At least there's an option to highlight rather than disallow.

<comment><USER6> The concept is very powerful. Disney's MMO tried a variation, which was only preapproved conversational phrases. Solving forum trolling could be brutally curbed by this method and would probably be effective with an extensible whitelist.

Simplewriter includes "ostensibly" but omits "is" and "for". So good luck with that.

<comment><USER7> >Solving forum trolling could be brutally curbed by this method and would probably be effective with an extensible whitelist.

Sounds like a recipe for a forum full of sarcasm and passive-aggression.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is similar to xkcd simple writer: [https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/](https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/) .

<comment><USER9> Not sure why he got down voted. It is very similar. Perhaps people think he is linking to a XKCD comic but he is actually linking to a web app hosted on the XKCD website. I found this comment interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Wow, this is double plus good!</comment>


Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes - <AUTHOR> https://bennettfeely.com/usacss/ <comment><USER2> Feels strange to have single decimal places in your inch figures. I'd have expected something like eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds of inches, even though the decimal representation of them is unwieldy (1⁄32″ becomes 0.03125in). That also helps you avoid fractional pixels, which is worth doing if convenient: 1⁄32″ is 3px, because 1in is defined as 96px.

(As an Australian, the main place I've ever seen fractions of inches is old tools like spanners from before the adoption of the metric system, and that's all fractions with powers-of-two denominators. But maybe Americans use decimal fractions of inches? I suppose I have seen laptop screens described in that way, e.g. 13.1″, 15.4″ and 15.6″, though people typically truncate to the inch.)

<comment><USER3> All small measurements in the US are done in power-of-two fractions of an inch. In fact, much of the initial opposition to the metric system here was led by the construction industry, who has found from experience that 1/2" 1/4" 1/8" 1/16" etc. measurements are too convenient to ever give up.

<comment><USER4> How this that convenient when you then have to use something like 13/16?

Just look at the standard wrench sizes ([https://www.cnm.edu/programs-of- study/programs-a-z/automotiv...](https://www.cnm.edu/programs-of- study/programs-a-z/automotive-technology/tool-list)):

* Standard Combination Wrenches: 1/4, 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1.

* Metric Combination Wrenches: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Measured in millimeters.

<comment><USER5> Perfectly convenient.

The standard system excels when doing actual work. If you have a rod with 1" diameter and you need to take it down to 13/16", you can use a lathe to make 3/32" cut. Or if you need to divide up 13/16 into 4 parts, for example, 13/64.

The metric system's strength is teaching in elementary schools where skills with fractions are not as strong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Weirdly, bennettfeely had 1776 karma when I clicked their profile. Conspiracy? Coincidence?

<comment><USER7> And 1812 when I clicked just now.

This must mean something!

<comment><USER8> 1812 – that's when Napoleon invaded Russia.

<comment><USER9> I think they were referring to the War of 1812. A war the US lost, and where the song "The Star Bangled Banner" comes from.

<comment><USER10> > I think they were referring to the War of 1812. A war the US lost

The outcome of history indicates the US won that war. Technically it was considered a stalemate. The US lost no territory, repelled a malevolent empire again, kept its economy & trade fully intact, and won numerous major battles throughout the war. In the following decades the US became an economic juggernaut, while the British Empire began to fade into the history books.

A supposedly mighty empire failed twice in less than 40 years to bring a small nation to its knees. Quite humiliating.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812)

\- "In 1813, the US won the Battle of Lake Erie, gaining control of the lake, and they defeated Tecumseh's Confederacy at the Battle of the Thames, defeating Britain's largest Native American ally, a primary war goal."

\- "In 1814, the British burned Washington, but the US later repulsed British attempts to invade New York and Maryland, ending invasions from Canada into the northern and mid-Atlantic states."

\- "Attempts to smother American maritime trade failed, however, and soon both sides began to desire peace."

\- "In early 1815, after a peace treaty had been signed, but before this news had reached the Americas, the US defeated the British Army near New Orleans, Louisiana."

\- "Peace negotiations began in August 1814, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814. News of the peace finally reached America in February 1815 about the same time as news of the victory at New Orleans. The Americans triumphantly celebrated the restoration of their national honor, leading to the collapse of anti-war sentiment and the beginning of the Era of Good Feelings, a period of national unity. The treaty was unanimously ratified by the US Senate on February 17, 1815, ending the war with no boundary changes"

<comment><USER11> > repelled a malevolent empire again

That's just straight up wrong. The US started the war when they invaded Canada. The British Empire did not want to fight the war. To them, the United States was just a sideshow of the much larger and much more important Napoleonic Wars.

If anything, it was the British and Canada that repelled a malevolent United States, who had had eyes on annexing Canada since independence.

> In the following decades the US became an economic juggernaut, while the > British Empire began to fade into the history books.

Uh, what. The 19th century was the golden age of the British Empire, whilst the US remained a small player on the world stage. You must be confusing the War of 1812 to the first or second world wars.

I know its the Fourth of July for you yanks, but this comment is just straight up propaganda.

And quoting Wikipedia to prove that it was a victory for the US is ironic given that Wikipedia states that the war resulted in stalemate and status quo ante bellum. The only real losers were the Native Americans.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Metric inches or survey inches?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit)#International_foot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_\(unit\)#International_foot))

<comment><USER13> Huh, I didn't know about this, that feet and inches used to differ across the world. If only they'd done pints, fluid ounces, and cups, etc. too!

(Cups are particularly annoying: there's British, US, US Legal, and metric. The best recipe-following advice is that it's never going to matter. But it's annoying.)

<comment><USER14> I thought the whole point of cups was that the actual quantity didn't matter, so long as your ratios were consistent.

<comment><USER15> Measuring by volume was from a time period before we had reliable digital scales. These days all baking measuring should be done by weight since it is far more accurate. I won't even consider a recipe that goes by volume. Fortunately those are all written by amateurs.

<comment><USER16> For where precision matters, 100% agree. For people like me who just want something halfway tasty but also quickly, the convenience of volumetric scoops is compelling.

<comment><USER17> I have a lot of junk in my kitchen drawers (admittedly a personal problem) and will opt for measuring directly from the bag into the bowl on a scale over digging around for that quarter cup every time.

<comment><USER18> Replace "convenience" with "low cost of equipping the kitchen" then.

<comment><USER19> A set of measuring cups and a digital kitchen scale probably cost about the same.

Just checked this with a quick search on Amazon -- most results are in the $15-20 range, with some available for $10 or less.

(I dare say there are probably very cheap measuring cups available, and for a scale you'll have to fork out occasionally for batteries, if you want to split hairs.)

<comment><USER20> Mechanical scales were normal in the UK for most of the 20th century. Everyone I knew had one in the 1990s, from around 2000 people started buying digital scales, and I took my mum's mechanical scale when I left for university.

Measuring ingredients by weight has a long history on Britain. The old, Victorian cookbooks use weights.

[https://archive.org/details/b20392758/page/698/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/b20392758/page/698/mode/2up)

<comment><USER19> I'm generally a fan of simple mechanical devices over electronics, but I think digital scales are a good example where electronics really do makes things simpler; and as it's a commodity (like calculators and digital watches) the electronic version is amazingly cheap too.

The ability to zero the count as you add each ingredient to a single bowl is very useful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> [https://designsystem.digital.gov](https://designsystem.digital.gov)

<comment><USER22> I think its really great that this exists. Bonus points for it being a public project on GitHub that any American can contribute to. It's also really hard to argue with the licensing terms.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I didn't even know you could set inches!

Happy 4th!

<comment><USER24> Mostly useful for print stylesheets. On screens it seems to be defined as a constant 96px[1], which means it has no correspondence to physical inches.

[1]: [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/09/css-length- explained/](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/09/css-length-explained/)

<comment><USER25> Welcome back to HNC News. Tonight's top story: US law makers have introduced a new bill that would require all digital displays in the United States to feature a pixel density of 96 ppi. White house officials say the new bill represents "the first step on the march to bring freedom to the cyber world". More on this after the break.

<comment><USER26> I would scream from my office. Almost no one would understand my pain.

<comment><USER27> But it would make screens great again! Especially retina screens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Definitely only tested on chrome. The .usa-conic item doesn't render at all in firefox :)

</comment><comment><USER29> I'm no web dev, so feel free to improve upon it. Think I got the proportions right though.

</comment><comment><USER30> Coming to US after living in UK for a few years, what astonished me was not the fact that US is using the imperial system, but the US Gallon is different to the UK Gallon...!

</comment><comment><USER31> Cool! This is the kind of things that I love to see on HN.

</comment><comment><USER32> This is fantastic. Happy Independence Day!

</comment><comment><USER33> Beautiful!

</comment><comment><USER34> As an European this is really cool and unlike others self-loathing Americans here in the comments I understand the idea, humor and originality. Happy 4th USA, you are great today due to the greatness of your forefathers and the men that built this nation.

<comment><USER35> Given your previous comments, this looks like trolling. Please stop posting like this to HN.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Good to see some patriotism in a time when American patriotism has become faux pas. We live in a great country that doesn't need to be completely deconstructed in order to get better

<comment><USER37> Patriotism is about fighting for the principles and values espoused in the constitution, and working towards improving an imperfect republic, not worshiping the flag.

It's a fun project and I like the colors, but let's not pretend that the flag and the idea of 'patriotism' are anything other than distractions from the work that needs to be done.

<comment><USER38> Interestingly, everytime I hear this I feel like the constitution is treated like the bible, some holy book holding the truth. That is very dangerous imo

<comment><USER39> The Constitution is THE Supreme Law of the land. It literally is the 'bible' in how America is to be governed. The difference is that The Constitution has mechanisms within itself for change. This is the opposite of dangerous. It is the reason slavery was abolished, women have the vote, etc. It is a living document and it serves the people.

<comment><USER40> I would say one of the tenet of the Bible and other holy books is that there are immutable. It's the words of God, and he doesn't make mistakes. (In theory at least, I've heard the Bible's translations haven't always been kind to the original text.)

That's a huge difference with the constitution, a fundamental one I'd say. And, most of the time, the people I see treating the constitution as gospel denies this very important mutability. The founding fathers were right and will always be right. The constitution must not be ammended, it is already perfect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> What are some reasons to use inch units in screen-based CSS, aside from this kind of project?

Edit: Removed all sentiment to my profile, leaving a beautifully rational shell of a comment.

<comment><USER6> If you need to rive a 5cm length in twain and you don't like fractions. Or if you're making a website devoted to larval geometer moths.

<comment><USER42> > If you need to rive a 5cm length in twain and you don't like fractions

125/127 is as much of a fraction as 1/2.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> It's cute that this library is 1776 bytes, but that's quickly going to change as bugs are found and new features need to get added. It seems like coupling a product's name to something that will likely change very shortly is just bad product naming.

<comment><USER44> meh, call it done. it's modifiable by the user, so leave it alone and let the user mess with it. i have no idea what the author's intentions are/were for the project, but it seems like 'mission accomplished'.

<comment><USER43> FWIW I'm not saying I dislike the project, I love when people post quirky projects like this to HN for fun. I'm just saying that even the smallest change to this project would cause the author to lose the "1776 USA" marketing strategy. One could say it's an unstable strategy at a local maximum.

<comment><USER44> What name are you concerned about? The file is called 'usa.css'. The file size is specifically listed right next to the download link. Not unusual. If the file size does change, it'll just be another number, yet the name of the file/project is still 'usa.css'.

<comment><USER43> I'm talking about the cute fact that the library is 1776 bytes. It was obvious that author deliberately tweaked the file size to be 1776 bytes, to aid in the marketing of the library, and that expecting to keep the file size at 1776 bytes is an unrealistic goal if the author wishes to iterate on the code. I don't get why this is being made into a huge issue. It's a simple observation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I can't tell if this is intended to be serious or a parody? "All units set in inches" makes it sound like a parody, but the "God bless America" footer makes it sound serious? Hmmm

<comment><USER46> It's just a bit of fun. Not everything has to be some sort of statement.

<comment><USER45> I guess ... but "God Bless America!" seems like a statement to me.

<comment> kube-system It's Independence Day in the US. Patriotism is the theme of the day. This is just a humorous holiday-themed style sheet with a readme to match. It is not a serious style sheet that the author expects anyone to use.

<comment><USER45> Perhaps this is a cultural difference, but the entire thing just seems strange from my own (European) perspective. Only in the US do people seem to take pride in their measurement system as some sort of patriotic symbol, which is why I originally thought it was a parody _shrug_

I'm not even going to get started with all the problems I see with "God bless America", which would be long, tedious, probably inflammatory, and fairly off- topic.

<comment><USER46> You're reading way too into this. Someone just decided to have some fun and share it with HN. It isn't really serious, but parody isn't the right description. People aren't taking pride in the measurement system, that's somewhat of a joke. "God bless America" is a common cheer taken from a popular song. The UK has something similar with "God save the queen".

<comment><USER47> Yeah, maybe. Probably. I'm just not a fan of this kind of stuff _shrug_.

I also don't like "God save the Queen" by the way, or "God be with us" (short for "If God is with us, who shall be against us?" from Romans) we have on the Dutch Euro coins :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Trying to imagine someone from France, Australia or Brazil to do something similar and failing.

<comment><USER49> _Système international_? We already use french units

<comment><USER48> No, 'international' does not mean 'French'. Yes, the French came up with it but since it now has international adoption it is the international standard with the United States as one of the last hold-outs. That's what you get when you have a country run by lawyers with very limited input from science.

<comment><USER50> Inches are in fact an international standard to which multiple nations have formally agreed

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

<comment><USER48> You'll notice that they are defined in terms of SI units.

<comment><USER50> I do notice

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> [https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311330/twitter- engineers...](https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311330/twitter-engineers- master-slave-github-programming-racism)

</comment><comment><USER52> Only a true American patriot who is deeply devoted to the nation's ideals would zealously protect a system of units that has been thrown in the dustbin of history by the rest of humanity.

<comment><USER53> Was your point against the user, the concept, the measurement standard, or just triggered by any vague mentioning of the United States?

It's difficult to sort through the negative sentiments to get to real point. Be more clear with your hostility and anger next time, would'ya?

<comment><USER52> > Be more clear with your hostility and anger next time, would'ya?

You're projecting.

<comment><USER53> I'm projecting?

But I haven't even thrown out 'true', 'devoted', or 'zealot' yet!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why your business needs SEO - <AUTHOR> https://prakashravichandran.com/why-your-business-needs-seo-and-why-it-doesnt/ <comment><USER2> Feels like spammy bullshit. You don't need SEO. You can add some metadata tags and some opengraph stuff to make it easier for people to share your website pages and blog posts, but you can learn that from just looking stuff up.

You know how to get to the top of search results? Become popular. That needs to happen outside your website for it to matter. No amount of tagging/metadata is going to change that.

Also, different people get totally different results. There is no standard result set form any major search engine. It's all optometrist for your geographic region, web browser, operating system and past history if you're logged in (and sometimes even if you're not logged in).</comment>


Can Anyone Actually Tap the $100 Billion Potential of Hyperlocal News? - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/get-me-rewrite-hyperlocals-lost.html <comment><USER2> _"Why is a media titan like The New York Times Co. -- already stretched thin by the challenges of a faltering business model -- dabbling in community news, traditionally the bottom of the journalistic food chain? Call it the Google Effect. The search giant's model, described by author John Battelle as "a billion dollars, one nickel at a time," is a perfect description of how media companies hope to take tiny sources of local revenue and roll them up into big money."_

I think the New York times is missing the point of how Google makes money and how their income model works. The reason Google makes obscene amounts of money even though they only make a nickel per customer is twofold: They have _lots_ of customers, and their expenses per customer is less than a nickel.

While I agree that local advertising is a great potential untapped revenue stream that can be harnessed through local news I think they have a bad business model. It appears that they try to set up an old-fashioned news outfit complete with editors, journalists et al. This adds substantial cost to the venture, and all of a sudden you need to make more than a nickel per customer to cover your costs.

In short it looks like an old media empire misunderstanding online businessmodels, namely create a service that might cost you a lot in initial effort but will scale (almost) effortlessly to millions of users, thus making your cost per customer approach zero. An editor and a few journalists for every community isn't cheap and doesn't scale.

<comment><USER3> I agree that this business model has little in common with that of Google or other online businesses, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wouldn't work. I think a better analogy would be a Subway or a Starbucks in which you have a small staff at each location. By standardizing business processes and sharing expenses (advertising, accounting, etc) across many small locations, they can generally outcompete the local, independent operations and, in aggregate, generate a large amount of revenue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Okay, how do they get from a nickel per customer [ed, they're claiming google style revenues of ~$0.05 per user], to hundred-billion dollars. Perhaps their hiring policy should include the ability to use a calculator. 6 billion x 0.05 /= $100 billion. Unless some fucktard divided instead of multiplied (hello, that's a grade #1 fuck up).

$100 billion dollars in local advertising assumes $16.6 per person on the planet, or over $333 per American citizen. I _highly_ doubt someone did their math right, I'd guess more $100 million, not billion.

</comment><comment><USER5> Blah blah blah

Hyperlocal is the most awful buzzword I've ever seen. Out of all of them, ever.

I was just reading some "Hyperlocal" news in a paper printed often enough that I see a new one each time I pick up dinner from the same restaurant. Just because "The Observer" isn't online with ajax 5.7 pushed heavily by a startup into a first round blah blah blah

The market is tapped already and anyone who cares is already getting their news. No one younger than 55 gives a shit about hyperlocal.

<comment><USER6> _"... No one younger than 55 gives a shit about hyperlocal. ..."_

maybe (Adrian Holovaty) but it is having an impact ~ <http://www.holovaty.com/writing/everyblock-acquisition/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Honest question: is "hyperlocal news" such a novel idea that no one tried it in the .com/web 1.0 days? It's not as if local news and an advertising business model are new concepts.

"$100 Billion Potential" ... not sure about that

<comment><USER8> The difference between now and then is that we didn't have so many out of work journalists then. Any "news startup" that uses actual journalists to do original reporting will get coverage from journalists for, um, obvious reasons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> My side project, wikifieldtrip.org, is trying to approach this problem.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'll say this. The academics won't be the ones to figure this out.</comment>


Lean startups: Find the business' core, then build the periphery - <AUTHOR> http://www.whitegloveapps.com/2010/07/10/lean-startups-find-business-core-build-periphery/

<comment><USER2> Good metaphor. This sounds like when I was in high school and built a whole fantasy around a boy I only went out with once!</comment>


Apple provides credit to people who have reported security issues - k-mcgrady http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1318

<comment><AUTHOR> I think what's more relevant here is that there were two remote code execution vulnerabilities found which were responsible for the dev center being taken down. So it wasn't a result of Ibrahim Balic's "information disclosure issue"

</comment><comment> k-mcgrady >> "An information disclosure issue was addressed. We would like to acknowledge Ibrahim BALIC (Balich IT - www.balicbilisim.com) for reporting this issue.

This was the guy who posted the YouTube video claiming he found the flaw that forced Apple to take the developer center down for one week.

</comment><comment><USER2> It's interesting how the names of all of the security specialists and other discoverers of flaws in this list appear to be non-Anglo-American in origin. Very international.

<comment><USER3> It might also be "interesting" to you the number of monolingual people born and raised in the US who have "non-Anglo-American" origins.

It always puzzles me to see statements like this... Maybe I'm biased by the fact that I am American but don't have a western european surname and a good number of Americans I interact with do not either. In what part of the country does it seem remarkable for someone to have a "non-Anglo-American" name?

<comment><USER4> I would say that nowhere in America would a "non-Anglo-American" surname be remarkable. In some areas the distribution of "non-Anglo-American" names and "Anglo-American" names may be considered remarkable though. Basically, I think he is seeing a trend that he finds interesting, which is a different than finding a particular instance interesting.

Put it this way, if I ran into somebody named "Lutz", I wouldn't think anything of it. If I ran across _many_ people with Germanic names though, I might wonder if I were in somewhere like south-central PA (an area notable for a large number of German descendants: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch)). The distribution would catch my eye, not the particular name itself.

(Personally, I'm not really seeing any interesting trends with those names.)

<comment><USER3> Yes, I was thinking specifically about "pockets" which have long history of this.. Germans in places like PA or OH, Irish and Italians in basically any northeastern city, Polish and other Slavs in Chicago, Nordic in the upper midwest, Ashkenazi in New York, Dutch in New York, French in Louisiana, Spanish in the west but increasingly everywhere... Even taking 20th and 21st century immigration as "rounding error", I don't think there's very many places you can go without being surrounded with non-English names.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It still amazes me that Apple responded to a responsible disclosure of an exploit by taking their system down for weeks. Can you imagine someone like Facebook or Amazon having to do that?

<comment><USER6> I'm not exactly sure why you would equate Apple taking down their developer support subsystem with all of Facebook or Amazon coming down. Apple.com didn't go down. 99.99% of their customers never knew the difference.

<comment><USER7> Whereas, on the other side of the coin if Amazon.com goes down, it takes 20% of global ecommerce down with it.

The scales of impact aren't even on the same register.

<comment><USER8> This outage would be equivalent to an outage of Amazon's merchant APIs for adding new products. Even if that happened, normal Amazon.com commerce would continue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The acknowledgement appears to be gone now, unless I'm missing something.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, it's still there.

2013-07-22 iadworkbench.apple.com

An information disclosure issue was addressed. We would like to acknowledge Ibrahim BALIC (Balich IT - www.balicbilisim.com) for reporting this issue.

<comment><USER9> Odd, must have been some caching thing. Changing the language caused it to show up.

<comment><USER10> The message apparently is and isn't there. If I go to [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1318](http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1318) , it's not shown. But if I go to [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1318?viewlocale=en_US](http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1318?viewlocale=en_US) , then it (and several other recent updates) are shown. Cache/translation/backlog issue?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > We would like to acknowledge Narendra Bhati (R00t Sh3ll The Untraceable) of > Cyber Octet Pvt.Ltd for reporting this issue.

hah, some of these are entertaining.

</comment><comment><USER12> The only credits I need are the ones on Full-Disclosure.

</comment><comment><USER13> Is this the same issue that was discussed on the This Week in Tech podcast about a month ago?

</comment><comment><USER14> > Apple acknowledges Ibrahim Balic for discovering security flaw in dev center

This title is inaccurate - the linked pages credits 7dscan.com and SCANV for reporting the developer centre issue.

Ibrahim BALIC is credited with reporting an apparently unrelated issue in iAd Workbench.

<comment><USER15> Yup, the title is flawed and is obviously a failed attempt at making it seem somehow related to the recent FB security team issue.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Intro to Programming Resources for Beginners - <AUTHOR> My wife is planning to do a bootcamp programming course.  She's currently taking some prep course offered by the company and is progressing along doing various problems on a daily basis.  This course is mostly independent studies where the instructor assigns problems with some lectures but you're expected to figure it most of it out on your own.  You can ask questions and request help via a ticketing system but it's a little bulky to walk through.  As I look through some of her solutions, I noticed she's a little deficient on some fundamentals (eg scoping, by value/reference concepts, etc.).  They're learning programming using Javascript.
Obviously I can help her but I work during the day and she's taking some time off to focus exclusively on this pivot so I don't want her to sit around waiting on me.
Does anyone have any good resources (authors/books, bloggers, youtube instructors) that they like that has an easy to understand teaching style for beginners?
TIA <comment><USER2> There are good introductory courses on coursera.org, edx.org and KhanAcademy. The most notables are CS50 from Harvard ([https://cs50.harvard.edu](https://cs50.harvard.edu)) and "The Beauty and Joy of Computing" from Berkeley ([https://bjc.berkeley.edu](https://bjc.berkeley.edu)).</comment>


Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Be a Leader in Self-Driving Cars - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/elon-musk-says-tesla-will-be-the-leader-in-autonomous-cars/

<comment><USER2> Just tested the p85d. Cruise control is very automated and it's not a stretch to think the steering will go the same route.

</comment><comment><USER3> Musk will say anything to stop the stock from slipping.

<comment><USER4> I don't think it's an extreme statement. They already have advanced software, are located in Silicon Valley and have lots of great software engineers. And this is with pretty limited resources, it won't get easier to compete with them as they grow.

Btw, he doesn't seem to be afraid slipping prices, based on these previous statements:

        "I think our stock price is kind of high right now,
        to be totally honest." -- Elon Musk, Nov. 2014

        "The stock price that we have is more than we have
        any right to deserve" -- Elon Musk, Oct. 2013 [2]

[1] [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/05/elon-musk-tesla- sto...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/05/elon-musk-tesla- stock_n_5771826.html)

[2] [http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/25/investing/tesla-netflix- mome...](http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/25/investing/tesla-netflix-momentum- stocks/)</comment></comment>


Best web host for a startup? - <AUTHOR>

What do you think? <comment><AUTHOR> Also are DO's $10 a month servers underpowered for a site with medium traffic lots of pages and a mySQL database or two?

</comment><comment><USER2> Digital Ocean or Amazon EC2. Now get back to work.

<comment><USER3> Did DO address their security problems with data being left over after from prior instances? I admit I am not up to date on that.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Alright, how's reliability on DO?</comment>


Three CS students and a tablet - <AUTHOR> http://smotko.si/three-cs-students-and-a-tablet/

<comment><USER2> I still can't believe someone can make a contest, promise you a shiny new gizmo, and then say "you'll get that after milions of people touch it and do who knows what with it."

I know I shouldn't complain about "free stuff" but we did work our butts off.

<comment><AUTHOR> They even failed to mention this little bit of information before we started working.

<comment><USER3> That is pretty lame. I know students rarely value their time appropriately, but it's not right for a large company to take advantage of the fact.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What a beautiful git commit history on the their github account[1]. The punchcard graph is very revealing as well. Interesting that there are almost no commits on Saturdays.

[1] <https://github.com/zidarsk8/galaxyCar>

<comment><AUTHOR> The allnighter on Wednesday was fun and we tried to have a social life on Saturdays!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm also working on an Android group project (3 students) backed by a repo (svn in our case). We're sharing 1 tablet and relying on the emulator a lot. We actually have planned prototyping to Android phones similarly as you did. Can you say more about how this worked out for you?

<comment><AUTHOR> We had a library project that we shared between the tablet and the phone app. The only problem we faced was that eclipse didn't always update the lib correctly and we had to clean the projects every time we added a new public function/class to the library.

Apart from that it worked out great. Writing a simple Activity for the phone took less than 5 minutes and we could work on the OpenGl part without the tablet. But it all depends on the application that you are trying to build.

Also I hear you can run a x86 version of android inside virtual box, which is way faster than the emulator, check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Really cool project!

It was fun looking at you guys chat about it all the time on IRC and I _still_ haven't seen the app in action. That's not nice!

By the way, are you just plotting data as it comes in raw, or is there some mechanism to take care of any fuzziness from the sensors?

<comment><AUTHOR> You will see the app once we get the tablets :)

We used two kinds of filters for the sensor data - a simple alpha filter and rolling averages. Both of them can be adjusted by the slider on the left.</comment></comment>


Wall Street Journal on the OLPC (3000 words) - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119586754115002717.html

<comment><USER2> _...participants peppered Mr. Negroponte and other project officials with questions about teacher training and software bugs. "It will always have bugs in it and it will never be perfect," Mr. Negroponte told them..._

Which goes to show that being a professor at MIT doesn't automatically make you good at sales. Bragging about only using $1 on overhead is nice, but if they could sell 10 times as many laptops by charging twice as much for them and spending half of that money on marketing/sales, they'd still be getting more laptops to children...

</comment><comment><USER3> Microsoft, Intel, et al are really acting in a despicably greedy manner here. That being said, they're all just trying to be good capitalists. It's a depressing situation.

<comment><USER4> <http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071125113058548>

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Intel is more successful than OLPC so far, measured in numbers of sales. The competition was bitter. Intel recently donated millions of dollars to OLPC, joined the board, and the companies signed a "non-disparagement" clause. The next version of the OLPC will use an Intel processor instead of an AMD processor.

<comment><USER2> _The next version of the OLPC will use an Intel processor instead of an AMD processor._

Quote, please?

<comment><AUTHOR> >Mr. Negroponte says he complained to Intel's chief executive two weeks ago, then "made peace." Intel and the One Laptop project, he says, have agreed to work together to design by early January a new "Intel-based" One Laptop device. An Intel spokeswoman confirmed Mr. Negroponte's account, but said any comment would be "premature." AMD, whose chips are used in One Laptop's current machines, declined to comment.

I could also see Intel releasing a version of their Classmate that runs the OLPC OS.</comment></comment></comment>


AusCERT arrest - yes, "arrest" - <AUTHOR> http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/grubbs-story-privacy-news-and-the-strong-arm-of-the-law-20110518-1esn9.html <comment><USER2> It doesn't matter what country you are in - there is no such thing as a "friendly conversation" with any level of law enforcement - there are so many laws about everything and anything and you can be contributing to your own arrest and prosecution without even realizing it, doesn't matter if you are actually not guilty, why set yourself up?

Laws aren't necessarily logical or fair and you might never grasp the danger of that until you are on the wrong side of one. Unless you are purposely trying to get arrested to make a protest, stop chatting with cops! Their policy is typically "arrest anyway, get them in the system, let the courts sort it out later".

Cops know they can get more out of you by being non-confrontational and mirandizing you well after you've told them everything they need to know to make up a very damning arrest report - you'll never get a warning.

What's really surprising in this case is only that this particular person didn't grasp the concept. He probably got to walk away only because they knew the ipad data could make much better evidence to arrest others than forced testimony. But they obviously used his arrest to leverage him giving it up without a fight.

<comment><USER3> That may be true, but it's not a solution. Personally, I want to live in a world where law enforcement is the ally, not the enemy. And if this is not possible, that's the bigger problem.

<comment><USER4> The job of law enforcement is to prevent crime, to detain criminal suspects and to gather evidence.

If the police are talking to you then by definition they are trying to incriminate someone, that's their job. Police officers are obliged to use any legal means available to obtain evidence - anything less would be negligence. As they are obliged by law to tell you, anything you say or do can be held against you in a court of law. You have a legal right not to incriminate yourself, but you don't have the right to un-incriminate yourself in hindsight, even if you incriminated yourself only inadvertently. If you have evidence that proves you did not commit a criminal offence, then it is in your best interest to use your right to legal representation to ensure that you give that evidence as clearly as possible and do not say anything that could undermine that evidence.

Not talking to cops is a basic principle of privacy, like shredding your credit card bills or using a password on your e-mail account. Once information is out there, you can't get it back, so it's your duty to preserve it at all costs.

If talking to the cops made sense, the cops would be doing a lousy job.

<comment><USER5> >If talking to the cops made sense, the cops would be doing a lousy job.

This is a poor attitude and probably explains why dealing with police in the US is such a big deal. It doesn't have to be like this, and isn't in a lot of other countries.

<comment><USER4> It's like that in _every country on earth_ , more so in most countries other than the US. Much of South America still operates under Napoleonic law in which there is a presumption of guilt. I'm British and would never dream of speaking to a police officer anywhere in Europe without legal representation. American police are slightly more corrupt than the first-world average and sentencing is unusually punitive (especially for drug offences), but by global standards the US legal system isn't exceptionally bad.

How could we possibly architect a legal system in which it doesn't make sense to speak to a lawyer before giving evidence? Unless we massively simplify the law _and_ train every single citizen in the law to a fairly high standard, the benefit of representation will persist. The system recognises this and enshrines the right to legal representation.

<comment><USER5> >It's like that in every country on earth, more so in most countries other than the US.

This claim is even more extraordinary than the first. I'm living in Switzerland and I can tell you dealing with the cops is not a problem here because they use their heads (instead of just trying to close a case). Of course if they think you're a scum bag then you won't get the benefit of the doubt, but I can understand that.

>but by global standards the US legal system isn't exceptionally bad.

To be honest, I would trust the US system more than I would the UK system because at least if something stupid happens I would expect to be able to sue someone for lots of cash. The UK could just D-notice me away.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a very good example of why you should never, under any circumstances, use a proprietary computing device that cannot be fully encrypted where you alone hold the decryption key.

The convenience these devices provide comes at the cost of your personal privacy and security. You basically give up control of your data when you decide to use an iPad. Most people just don't realize it.

I really wish the device manufactures would allow, open-source, transparent whole device encryption that can be externally validated (Droids may have the capability already thanks to Linux and dm-crypt). In general, user's don't demand it, so the Apples of the world have no incentive to do it. All the while, they provide full access to the device's secret/undocumented data recovery/snooping features to governments leaving their user's private, personal data easily accessible.

<comment><USER7> Apple has had FileVault for a while, and Lion will have whole disk encryption when it's released. Corporations of the world demand these things and you'll start seeing them once they can start dictating feature demands more and more. Apple does add encryption here and there, but only in small bits unfortunately.

<comment><USER8> A few years ago Rio Tinto (a massive mining company) flat out _banned_ staff from using iPhones because they weren't encryptable. This came about because an executive based in China was arrested and his iPhone taken.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The Queensland police have form for overzealous prosecution. A couple of years ago they arrested and charged a man with publishing child-abuse material after passing on a viral video that had already been shown on national TV: [http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/net-video- crime-e...](http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/net-video-crime- epidemic/2008/12/11/1228584982919.html)

Moral of the story: don't use the Internet in Queensland.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm just posting this recount because discussion on the previous article (and assertions by the tweeting police) suggested he wasn't arrested.

and I read here [http://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-story-arrest- disp...](http://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-story-arrest-disputed-on- twitter/story-e6frfro0-1226057758607) that the queensland police thismorning tweeted again: "Our bad @bengrubb was arrested for questioning briefly Our tweet last night was based on information provided at the time Apologies,"

<comment><USER10> > Our bad @bengrubb was arrested ...

its absolutely infuriating that cops can be so drunk with power that they can be so publicly blasé with the fact that they are fucking with someone's life and liberty.

<comment><USER11> If you think that's bad then there's this:

Detective Superintendent Brian Hay today likened the issue to receiving stolen goods, but refused to go into details of Fairfax journalist Ben Grubb's case.

"Let me give you an analogy. Someone breaks into a house and they steal a TV and they give that TV to you, and you know that TV is stolen, and you apply it to your own use ... that's receiving stolen property," he said. [0]

[0] <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/18/3220071.htm>

<comment><USER12> And that's EXACTLY why talking to the police about IP cases in particular is such a catastrophically bad idea.

Most of these guys have absolutely no understanding of the law, which is hardly their fault. After all, IP law was established decades ago, in the pre- digital world. For most of its evolution, it functioned as a highly obscure branch of industrial law, used almost exclusively to govern relations between corporate publishers with large legal and clearance departments. It was manifestly NOT designed to govern the conduct of private individuals.

In other words, police are as well-equipped to deal with this as they are to handle international trade disputes, which is why 'additional training' isn't the solution, since no amount of training can turn a blue collar union guy into the kind of highly educated corporate lawyer whose domain this really is.

I agree with every other poster here - if you really want to balance your desire to be a good citizen with a measure of intelligent self-preservation, say you're happy to help with their investigation. Ask them to leave a number where they can reach you, and let them know that your legal representative will be contacting them there. Your lawyer can start by insisting that your cooperation is contingent upon a grant of total immunity. If there's any hesitation here, you'll know that actually, their request wasn't so friendly after all, and that they were, in fact, viewing you as a possible suspect the whole time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's a great lecture by a law professor on YouTube called "Don't Talk to Police". Watch it for some great insight on this.

A key concept to understand is the phrase "Anything that you say can be used against you." That's a key phrase because of what isn't stated -- that words you say will be not be used to help you. A prosecutor has broad discretion to prosecute, and can (and will) cherry-pick information to use against you.

Most cops and prosecutors are great people to have a beer with, and are not corrupt. But sometimes their position gives them a myopia and they see things or make connections are convenient or expedient. They are also invested with powers that make them extremely dangerous to interact with in many scenarios.

</comment><comment><USER14> Lots of advice about stonewalling police. Then you get robbed, and imagine your frustration when the neighbors, who witnessed the van pull up while you were away and empty your house, turn their backs and walk back into their houses.

You get the world you're willing to participate in. Enlightened self-interest may be in play here.

<comment><USER15> To some extent, yes; but in that case the neighbours have much better reasons to think that they are not a suspect than when a police officer starts chatting to them for no apparent reason.

[EDIT: make it clear that I'm referring to the neighbours, was "To some extent, yes; but in that case it's a much more reasonable assumption that you're not a suspect."]

<comment><USER14> Missed the point: the neighbors are ignoring the police, and you suffer. Now you are frustrated at the advice "don't talk to the police for any reason". Just an example.

<comment><USER12> Unless, of course, your neighbors consider themselves potential victims as well, and cooperate based on a sense of self-interest, rather than concern for your well-being.

<comment><USER16> This would _also_ make sense, and just goes to show how the "never talk to the police for any reason" meme is just plain silly, not to mention antisocial and dickish (if nobody ever talked to the police for any reason, then no criminals would ever get locked up). It's just part of a paranoid mindset which gets you karma on the internet but probably doesn't do you any good in the real world.

By all means have your wits around you when talking to the police, especially if you think they suspect you of something, but the police are _not_ out to get their jollies by locking up innocent folks for no reason, and your chance of winding up in prison for a crime you didn't commit based on a random off- hand innocent remark to a police officer is... much lower than other things you hardly ever think about.

Hey, did you know that you have a one in eight hundred chance of getting multiple sclerosis? Go worry about that for a while instead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder if it's legal to remote wipe your iPad with MobileMe after they've taken possession of it. Or what about "Oh, you're going to arrest me? Can I have one second before you read my rights?" and then wipe it?

<comment><USER18> Or you can make sure nobody can access your data. Truecrypt, anyone ?

<comment> mike-cardwell This is why my next phone will be compatible with Whispercore (<http://whispersys.com/whispercore.html>) and hopefully my next Tablet too.

This is also why I automatically encrypt all of my incoming email with my public pgp key on the mail server. So any mail sat on my phone/laptop/server is encrypted with my password protected private pgp key ([https://grepular.com/Automatically_Encrypting_all_Incoming_E...](https://grepular.com/Automatically_Encrypting_all_Incoming_Email))

I'm in the UK, so unfortunately they can demand that I give up my encryption keys and passwords and charge me if I choose to refuse, but at least it will slow them down enough so I can get a lawyer involved. And at least I have the choice of refusing.

<comment><USER19> >I'm in the UK, so unfortunately they can demand that I give up my encryption keys and passwords and charge me if I choose to refuse

do they have the right to scan your brain if you forgot the password or produce the wrong one under the stress of the arrest (my hands shake, heart races and i have hard time finding insurance card lying in plain view in glove compartment even when i'm having a traffic stop, less hard to imagine how i'd feel when/if i'd be "arrested for questioning")?

<comment><USER20> No but they will send someone to jail if they refuse to give up the password. Think of it as a contempt charge. If they still can't remember after a few weeks or months, they can be charged again, go back to jail, and then repeat the process until they don't feel like dealing with the situation anymore (theoretically, it could turn into a life sentence composed of multiple smaller sentences).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Since I was one of the ones doubting that he'd really been arrested in the previous thread I should throw in a _mea culpa_ at this point.

It seems like they arrested him primarily because they wanted the evidence on that iPad to charge the other guy. I assume that the actual one-on-one demonstration had taken place _on_ that iPad? The details aren't given, but it kinda makes sense.

The justification they used to arrest him is iffy, and I suspect they know it, but it's _just_ strong enough that it doesn't count as a false arrest (though they're certainly not going to bother to charge him with receiving stolen goods).

While some people are using this as an opportunity to spread the "don't talk to police" meme, I'd like to use it as an opportunity to spread the "don't do illegal stuff with your computer _or_ let other people do illegal stuff with your computer" meme, as this seems to be an easier way to avoid running afoul of the law.

<comment><USER21> You seem pretty determined to give the police the benefit of the doubt; why? It's a lot easier to believe that someone at Facebook called them up and made a lot of scary noises about "information about the commission of a crime" and "threat to the personal safety of our customers" and "possible dissemination of proprietary data and trade secrets in the form of illegal hacking techniques." (Maybe that's not impressive, but I'm just an amateur; a lawyer could sound much more scary while being a lot less specific.) Maybe whoever was in charge of the investigation was too easily cowed, too scared of bad PR, too easily panicked by vague specters of anarchy, or simply too trusting of a successful and established business. That seems pretty believable to me, and I haven't heard an equally plausible explanation.

(I agree its a little silly that "don't talk to the police" dominates this page so much it's a pain to find the posts about the actual article.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> More evidence that the police (and the governments behind them) are out of control. Makes me think you should never answer questions without a lawyer of your own present. Of course, that presents serious problems for the poor.

<comment><USER19> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning> :

"the person must be clearly informed that he or she has the right to consult with an attorney and to have that attorney present during questioning, and that, if he or she is indigent, an attorney will be provided at no cost to represent her or him."

<comment><USER22> Fair enough. In the last month I was part of an attempt to empanel a jury (in Texas) for a misdemeanor. We were told that the defendent was defending himself and that in Texas there was no right to an attorney in such cases (I think because the maximum punishment was a fine).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> It's been said, but it bears repeating: NEVER talk to police without a lawyer present. Ever. The fact is that the the people interviewing know you law better than you do and know how to gain information they can use against you without you being aware of what's happening. There are people who contend that "if you're innocent you have nothing to hide" but frankly, the risk is too high of having something I said misconstrued. I'd rather look guilty and be free, than know I'm innocent and be in jail.

</comment><comment><USER24> How long have Australian police been in the habit of reading suspects their Miranda rights (or are they required to)? I'm really curious how that made it from our law to theirs.

<comment><USER11> Miranda rights only exist in USA. Here's Australia equivalent, it's pretty loose: [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Miranda_right...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Miranda_rights#Australia)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I wonder if AusCERT will be held in Queensland ever again. If I was one of the organisers, I would be having a long hard think about that.

</comment><comment><USER26> Here is some interesting information about the Arresting officer Senior Constable Errol Coultis. Seems he may have a penchant for bittorrents. lol.

[http://www.zgeek.com/showthread.php/101079-Article- Queenslan...](http://www.zgeek.com/showthread.php/101079-Article-Queensland- cops-now-say-they-didn-t-arrest-Ben-Grubb?p=1669346&viewfull=1#post1669346)

</comment><comment><USER27> Rules when dealing with police:

1\. Always assume that police and computers are a disaster waiting to happen and thus that law officers are often overwhelmed by complexities of computers.

2\. Always fight any request to impound any computer device. Its taking control of your property under somewhat shady if not illegal circumstances.

3\. Have a business card with someone reachable 24-7 that will go to bat for you and claim that the device in question if company property and cannot be confiscated or impounded.

4\. Be a little less naive, as breaking into two FB accounts that I won or control is not illegal, breaking into someone else's is somewhat illegal even for demo purposes. However, what saves this journalist's ass is its just a photo that does not have large company copyrights attached to it.

<comment><USER28> > 4\. Be a little less naive, as breaking into two FB accounts that I own[sic] > or control is not illegal, breaking into someone else's is somewhat illegal > even for demo purposes.

FaceBook's TOS specifically states that anything uploaded onto their site, including the text of a status update, pictures, videos and comment text, is the irrevocable ownership of FaceBook. This gives them the ability to use your friend's pictures inside targeted ads, as well as take general screenshots of the site that may contain your comments or pictures as marketing tools for their own benefit and not yours.

I wonder if unauthorized access to a FaceBook account is deemed theft of stolen property with the owner of the account as the victim, or if this was to go to court, would FaceBook be in the prosecution chair claiming their property was stolen†. If the latter, does anyone besides FaceBook have any say on how an unauthorized entry to some account should be treated?

†Stolen in this context just means the "downloading" of page assets that occurs when one visits a web page.

<comment><USER12> Not totally correct. FB wouldn't be able to legally republish your photos on your friend's profiles were it not for a legal grant permitting them to do so. While you are giving them the unrestricted right to do pretty much anything they want with material uploaded to their site, they are not going so far as to claim that you're transferring clear title as well. You remain the copyright holder, they remain a (very privileged) licensee.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Tesla electric cars: is the business in the battery? - <AUTHOR> Noticing that Musk dropped the swappable battery model with a very weak reasoning ("people don't care about pack swap" [0]), and sealed the battery in - like Apple (and others) do with their iPhones - a friend of mine stated that in his opinion the real business was obviously in the batteries. Considering that having a swappable battery may resolve what I consider the main inconvenience of an electric car, namely the charging time, dismissing so lightly the swappable option seems quite odd. What does HN think? Can the total control of the batteries be the real business in electric cars? Thank you<p>[0] https://insideevs.com/elon-musk-comments-failed-tesla-battery-swap/ <comment><USER2> Not figured in to your analysis is the fact that the battery pack assembly has become a structural element of the car design in many cases now. It's providing stiffness and strength, and making it removable would take away the benefits of that, which would be a high price to pay because some replacement structure would be required, adding more weight and bulk to the car design.

<comment><AUTHOR> Isn't that the stiffness is given by the battery pack _enclosure_? This means that in a swappable option you may not need it. (Genuine question).

<comment><USER2> Good question... I'm sure there would be some extra weight with effectively two enclosures in that case but maybe it could be made to work... would be nice imho.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Comparison with smartphones doesn't stand: swapping a phone battery means shelling out cash for a brand new one, done once in several years. Quick- swapping the EV battery means getting another, used one, in a questionable state. Car owners aren't willing to pay dear cash for their own battery, treat it carefully, only to hand it over to a stranger. Batteries, due to their delicate makeup, just aren't a fungible commodity like that.

<comment><AUTHOR> What about not owning the battery but just paying for its usage? ( Please do not read my reply as aggressive / arrogant as I am genuinely interested in hearing your opinion). Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

<comment><USER3> Yes, as I wrote the previous comment that stood out as the "obvious fix". However, there are many other hurdles to this model, like handling all the logistics behind the batteries: charging them up, shipping them around as demand requires, manning each station because the physical process of battery swapping is not 100% reliable, and so on. This would cause the costs to rise and there would be far fewer such stations compared to supercharging stations. And people just don't have a problem with stopping for a 20-minute charge.

Then there's the huge showstopper issue of the tragedy of the commons. People would lose the incentive to care for their batteries, they'd charge them to 100%, wouldn't care about their temperature, would do all kinds of abuse and then go for a replacement. This goes back to the initial argument of batteries not being as fungible as, say, gas.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank for sharing your opinion, really appreciated.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Your product is like a sandwich: most will buy it without the pickles - <AUTHOR> http://blog.darwinapps.com/post/46262508125/your-product-is-like-a-sandwich-most-will-buy-it

<comment><USER2> Yeah you are right. But it's so good to have 'Pickles' in products. And you can't stop adding more and more.

<comment><AUTHOR> You CAN stop, it's just very difficult to hold back and deny your product the latest and greatest when you're already at full-speed :)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Presentation on giving presentations? - <AUTHOR>

I'm pretty sure I saw this on HN but my search-fu is weak today. It was a presentation (on slideshare I think) on how to give presentations. It emphasised bold use of images and colour, and minimal use of text. If anyone has any idea which one I'm talking about, I'd appreciate a link very much :) <comment><AUTHOR> Nevermind, I did eventually stumble upon it! It's "Steal this presentation" by jessedee. Slides: [http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/steal-this- presentation-5...](http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/steal-this- presentation-5038209) HN discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1939272>

<comment><USER2> Another useful presentation on giving presentations is <http://perl.plover.com/yak/presentation/>.

It is somewhat idiosyncratic, but it is good advice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, thanks!</comment></comment></comment>


California Bill Would Require Licenses for Porn Actors, Strippers, Cam Girls - <AUTHOR> https://reason.com/2020/02/20/california-bill-would-require-occupational-licenses-for-porn-actors-strippers-cam-girls/ <comment><USER2> I wonder how well it would fare against first ammendment challenges given legal standards and whatever rationale they can claim. Editorially narrow laws targetting speech are looked upon dimly. Limiting the number of hours minors can work in any film is fair. Limiting it only for say horror movies wouldn't be.

</comment><comment><USER3> What happens when AI takes over this job?

I recall recently some animated thing was on a top of a Cam site and the girls were up in arms upset that people were watching a cartoon over them.

Would it fall on the creator of the cartoon? What is the creator of the cartoon is literally an advanced A.I.? Would it then fall on the creators of the AI?

<comment><USER4> It's actually interesting to talk about AI "taking over this job", because porn's legal solely because it's "artistic expression" protected by the first amendment. There's not a fit quota of work to be done, it's a matter of people deciding what art they want to pay for (or not pay for, as the case usually is). Some people may prefer AI-generated art over human-generated art someday.

But I would have to imagine AI would change this more than you'd expect. One might think AI would give you deepfake-like "performers" that could film 24/7 and have potentially superhuman traits. Celebrity and personality probably plays into areas an AI performer may not excel though, there's still probably room for a narrower field of celebrities in the space, even if there was a large mix of AI-generated content. (I also wonder if people would sell rights to their 3D scans for this, which could provide revenue long after the industry considered them "too old" or they moved on to other careers.)

But one wonders why, in an AI-generated world, you'd have video performers at all, when you could have a completely personalized one? Think about stuff you may have seen about people having "virtual girlfriends" and the like. Add in AR/VR technologies and the world for lonely people has a bright future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If all the "Adult" actors need a licence, is there a practical test like a driving test?

If so, jobs at the DMV are going to get much more popular.

</comment><comment><USER6> Who does this benefit though? Who are they people they need to keep out with a licensing structure?

<comment><USER4> A huge example/problem is the recent case against Girls Do Porn, where it turned out a huge number of performers had been lied to about whether or not their videos would go on the Internet, pressured into staying through shoots that fell outside the bounds of what they'd been agreed to, and in at least a few instances, raped.

It's likely a big part of the interest in requiring education/licensing prior to entering the business would be to make sure everyone knows the rules and what they can do about companies falling outside it. Sites based on getting first-time performers would have a much harder time sticking around without proving they were meeting all expectations.

So it's probably less about keeping women out of the industry than ensuring they're not taken advantage of. It's the same reason legalizing and then regulating prostitution would be safer for prostitutes than what we have now. Adult filmmaking isn't illegal (solely because of first amendment decisions), but it's also pretty poorly regulated.

(This comment is meant to add context, it's not support of the bill. There's huge privacy concerns, because government databases tend to not be super private, and a lot of families pretty much disown adult performers if they find out. But I wouldn't assume this bill has malicious intent, there's good reasons to add regulation too.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Coming soon, DOX your favorite model for only $25: FOIA.gov

</comment><comment><USER8> How about requiring them to pay their taxes?</comment>