Silicon Valley IT Administrator and Friends Charged in Insider Trading Ring - <AUTHOR> https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2019-261 <comment><USER2> The allegation:

> ..A former IT administrator then at Palo Alto Networks Inc., was at the > center of the trading ring, using his IT credentials and work contacts to > obtain highly confidential information about his employer's quarterly > earnings and financial performance.

How they were caught:

> This case highlights [SEC's] use of enhanced data analysis tools to spot > suspicious trading patterns and identify the traders behind them.

Total estimated profit from this scheme, between 2015~17:

> Defendants' trades in advance of the announcement generated profits that > exceeded $3 million.

EDIT: Oops, I found this line from the same source: "At the peak of their scheme in 2017, [the defendants] achieved more than $7 million in illegal trading profits."

(Source: [https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2019/comp- pr2019-2...](https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2019/comp- pr2019-261.pdf))

<comment><USER3> Feel like they were trying to get caught, communicating over text/email for insider trading isn't the brightest move. Then again, criminals usually aren't the smartest.

<comment><USER4> > criminals usually aren't the smartest

Selection bias.

<comment><USER5> I was thinking exactly the same thing. I wonder how much is being made using insider trading and never got caught.

<comment><USER6> Ah, most of it? You know that dark pools of communication exist too right?

They even have code words for the names of well known insider traders, e.g. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the UK politician is known as the "profiteering ghoul" because his massive short on the pound, why else was he pushing Brexit so much? The will of the people? Get real

Which makes sense, do you think that given the financial amounts involved, and the only thing stopping most people is ethics (and knowledge that it's illegal but easy to get away with) that it wouldn't happen??

<comment><USER7> Citation needed. One can accuse anyone of anything without the burden of proof

<comment><USER8> _> Citation needed_

aehm, no it's not.

just google Somerset Capital, e.g. [https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/02/08/2198570/jacob-rees- mo...](https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/02/08/2198570/jacob-rees-moggs-huge- personal-windfall-after-brexit/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > After the FBI interviewed Nellore about the trading in May, he purchased > one-way tickets to India for himself and his family and was arrested at the > airport.

How does the FBI get notified in advance when a suspect buys a plane ticket? You read about it all the time in stories like this. Is the FBI being sent passenger manifests for every commercial flight and are they being cross- referenced against a list of names of potential flight risks?

<comment><USER10> No, they flag a name and then get notified when that person buys a ticket.

<comment><USER9> I wonder if Mexico and Canada notify the FBI as well. Maybe Canada, but I doubt Mexico does. Drive there for the day, fly out of there with minimal luggage/possessions.

<comment><USER11> This is completely wrong.

It's very difficult to drive across the border without passing through US border security. And, being sneaky near the border is a good way to get arrested by either side.

US law enforcement works closely with Mexican law enforcement and both countries have an agreement to extradite to the other people who aren't their own citizens semi-automatically.

[https://mx.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/policy- history/law...](https://mx.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/policy-history/law- enforcement/)

US law enforcement operate much more in Mexico than in Canada. A lot of the time it's DEA agents working with Mexican police and military on operations funded and supported technically by the US, but the FBI also gets involved.

At many levels individuals in the Mexican government will corruptly hide criminals from the US. But you can't just show up and say you want to join the club. That takes connections.

<comment><USER12> >It's very difficult to drive across the border without passing through US border security.

Well that's just not true. Have you ever driven across the border into either country from the US? You pass through Mexico or Canada's customs checkpoint. It's not until your return that you pass through the US' checkpoint.

<comment><USER11> You're right. That part of my answer was dumb.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Baby" has got to be one of the worst insider trading code words of all time. "Enter few baby" is a really weird thing to write in a work email no matter the context.

<comment><USER14> And who's bright idea was it to send anything related to this on a work email. You'd think someone in this space would understand encrypted communication.

<comment><USER15> well the easiest way to not get caught is to not commit crimes. In general, criminals aren't especially smart. Or the ones that get caught at least.

<comment><USER16> "Criminals aren't smart" is the textbook example of anti-survivorship bias.

<comment><USER17> Dumb criminals are dumb, and get caught more readily.

Smart criminals have sophisticated networks, trust funds, art deals and charities to obscure their activities, and do not get caught as frequently.

for ref: Mossack Fonseca.

<comment><USER18> Fucking Epstein had his own Internet network

that is really covering your ass

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> If anyone here has ever prepared earnings reports, how is that process usually handled?

I'm guessing it's just a spreadsheet on some finance person's computer until it's certified for release?

Are there best practices for making sure data doesn't leak ahead of the official earnings report?

<comment><USER20> Take a look at Intralinks and Diligent. They are basically Dropbox + embedded Office 365 but with ultra tight security controls. No SSO, no IT/security access, no local storage. Generally only your head of finance, a few people from legal, and board members will have accounts.

I know of a major investment firm that has a separate GSuite instance that execs from their investments are given accounts on for sharing data.

<comment><USER21> Yeah, The market is called 'board portals' and it's a comparatively niche product offering. There's a couple of other companies beyond Diligent and Interlinks that offer the service. Board Intelligence is probably the best one imho.

<comment><USER22> So you're saying to figure out what stocks employees at Board Portals are trading and jump on board.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> >The SEC's complaint alleges that the defendants sought to evade detection, with Nellore insisting that the ring use the code word "baby" in texts and emails to refer to his employer's stock, and advising they "exit baby," or "enter few baby."

Security through obfuscation. One wonders how good of IT administrators they were.

<comment><USER24> if only they just used something like end-to-end encryption, then there'd be no evidence to charge them with!

<comment><USER25> unless they nabbed literally any participant's phone while unlocked, or ran an exploit that got a client side dump without it being unlocked

<comment><USER26> Signal (or Keybase), with expiring messages.

I've become quite paranoid about my digital communication, I've worked in the field long enough to know all of them are being scanned. I'm not even doing anything illegal, I'm just uncomfortable with it.

Or just never talk digitally, only talk IRL. All these guys lived near each other and worked at the same company, could have easily just dropped by each others desk with a wink or a nod.

<comment><USER25> There was a ring 6 years ago that was run over snapchat - expiring client side but not e2ee - and it got busted by a 50 year old that had a screenshot in his email

For my sensitive communications I've concluded not talking digitally too

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> So an IT admin of an internet security company is caught trading on insider info, and texting with his co-conspirators about it? He should go to jail on the grounds of being totally stupid and incompetent. And so are the people who hired him. I know 3 year olds who have more brains.

</comment><comment><USER28> Just say Palo Alto Networks ...what does Silicon Valley has to do with one company?

<comment><USER29> "Silicon Valley" is used in the title to describe where the IT Administrator that the article is about is located.

Similar to "Florida man"

<comment><USER30> "Florida man" is largely due to Florida's extremely aggressive open records laws making the tawdry details of every nutball's minor arrest instantly public.

What's Silicon Valley's excuse?

<comment><USER29> You misunderstand my comment.

Using a location before the words "man" or "woman" implies that the man or woman is from that location.

When I say "Chicago woman makes thirty pizzas for homeless shelters", you wouldn't ask about the relevance of the word 'Chicago' because it adds to your understanding of the woman.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Curious how SEC decides which of his friends was part of the insider trade? What if they never tipped him anything?

<comment><USER32> The SEC has a few tools for catching insider traders.

1\. They look at suspicious trades that made a lot of money. Putting all your money into shorting a stock, right before earnings come out qualifies. Doing it multiple times gets them very interested in you.

2\. They start asking questions, conducting interviews, and getting search warrants. If nothing suspicious comes up, they drop it. Occasionally, traders get lucky, right?

3\. They get wiretap warrants for their core suspects, and place a few friendly phone calls to those people, to ask a few friendly questions about some stock trades.

At this point, they have two branching options.

4.1. Tap the phone lines, and wait to see who the core suspects call.

4.2. Drop by the core supects' homes, slap some handcuffs on them, pretend to thumb through a seven-hundred page thick binder, and ask them very nicely, if they would be willing to share the names and roles of their accomplices, in exchange for a lesser prison sentence. It would also be great if they could call said accomplices, and inconspicuously get them to chat about the financial crimes that the group has been doing in the past few months. (Admitting to financial crimes over the phone makes the subsequent convictions much easier.)

Repeat, recursively, until step 3 fails to add new nodes to the graph.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> >> _use of enhanced data analysis tools to spot suspicious trading patterns and identify the traders behind them_

Very curious to know about the tools and tech which they use.

Would someone apprise on research paper/ blog where I can read it?

<comment><USER34> HMRC (UK equivalent of the IRS) has an interesting system called "Connect" which pulls together a myriad of data both that held by government, to corporate data, bank data and more to spot anomolous patterns. Could be something similar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> This is just one that got caught. Wonder how much insider trading happens.

</comment><comment><USER18> I believe you have my stapler.

</comment><comment><USER22> enter baby

</comment><comment><USER36> I thought they were insider trading the stock of Ring, the doorbell company, by sniffing their traffic if they were using Palo Alto Networks security systems. Now THAT would be a big fucking scandal.

</comment><comment><USER37> Not much of a scandal since they were only profiting off their own company's stock value by analyzing the financial reports.

Could have surmised a similar trend by monitoring purchase and shipment orders versus staffing headcount, quarter to quarter, month to month, etc.

What I'm getting at is that if they are trading on their own company stock, what's the big deal? Stock markets are volatile anyway.

<comment><USER38> Not legal advice. IMNAL.

The test for inside information is that it is "material, non-public information used to inform the trade decision."

This is supposed to mean that the information is not available to normal market investors (nonpublic) and if it were published, eg via stock exchange announcement, it would move the market price more than "noise" (material) so you buy (inform a trade decision).

e.g. we just closed a billion dollar deal with recurring revenue that nobody trading our securities knows about increasing our expected after tax profit by 300%. You work as a lawyer on that deal and buy short dated out of the money call options you're doing an illegal thing.

Hiring is up by 5% this year, some of them were logistics experts. From this and other pieces of small knowledge none of which are by themselves marke moving you infer things are going well and buy. This is ok. The material information was inferred not provided. This is what good investors are supposed to do.

You probably need to be pretty careful trading the stock of a company you work for. Definitely get legal advice.

<comment><USER39> My employer sends out a notice about 35 days before quarterly results are expected to be out reminding us about Germany's Capital Markets Law, advising all of us against trading shares in our company within 30 days before the earnings are published just to make sure we don't get into trouble.

I'm in Germany, so insider trading rules are different from the US.</comment></comment></comment>


AngelList, a curated list of angel investors - <AUTHOR> http://venturehacks.com/articles/angellist?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+venturehacks+%28Venture+Hacks%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> Awesome! We have been considering getting funding to market our product and this list may prove useful. Being in Canada makes this much harder since most investors are looking for people within a reasonable distance of themselves.

</comment><comment><USER3> Added myself finally. Thanks!

<comment><USER4> Just curious -- how many investments do you make in a year? and what kinda stuff are you looking to invest in?

<comment><USER3> 10ish?

I like market-shaped and network-shaped businesses. I dislike entrants into uneven playing fields (music, video.) I dislike secondary franchises (if your business has Twit or Tweet or something in its name and you aren't Twitter, that is a problem.)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do you use for clearing search highlighting in vim? - <AUTHOR>

Sometimes I write notes to myself like "/why are you working at this hour, go to sleep already" <comment><USER2> Knowing the people I work with, a comment like that might actually exist in the code..

Typically I use /^$^

I believe the proper way to do it is :noh

<comment><AUTHOR> Aha! Didn't know there was dedicated command for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> :noh

</comment><comment><USER4> :noh

</comment><comment><USER5> i used do similar; but not the notes; just random banging followed by an enter/escape.

        /daljfdlkja <enter><escape>

now i don't use highlighting by default

from: [http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlight_all_search_pattern_match...](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlight_all_search_pattern_matches)

        " Press Space to turn off highlighting and clear any message already displayed.
        :nnoremap <silent> <Space> :nohlsearch<Bar>:echo<CR></comment>


Mark Zuckerberg has more friends on Google+ then Larry Page - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/posts <comment><USER2> then Larry Page what ?</comment>


Anti-Adblock Killer – helps you keep your ad blocker active - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer <comment><USER2> Url changed from [http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/02/11/around-and-around- we-g...](http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/02/11/around-and-around-we-go/), which points to this.</comment>


Ask HN: What's a good general seed list for a web crawler - <AUTHOR> I'm developing a web crawler on top of a large distributed computer.  As part of the testing process, I want to keep a background job running to keep crawling the web over and over.  I was wondering if anyone had some ideas of a general seed list from which the crawler could reach a wide variety of links.  It would be great if the links it traversed were a good representation of the Internet as a whole, taking into account content variety, frequency of updates, and other variables. <comment><USER2> Wikipedia provides dumps of it's link table: <http://download.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> I've never done something like this myself, but what about using something like <http://www.dmoz.org/>?

</comment><comment><USER4> DMOZ, Wikipedia, Yahoo Directory are the classic broad starting points. You could also begin with the top 100, 500, 1000, etc. sites from some ranking service (like Alexa), or top N results from major search engines on queries of special interest.

Depending on how you order discovered URLs and sites for crawling, it may not make too much of a difference where you start a truly web-wide crawl: you'll quickly reach major hubs, and everything else, after a short period. Then it's a matter of where the crawler chooses to spend its attention: which paths, how deep.

If you keep crawling 'over and over' you may want to pick what you revisit based on your own followup analysis, not the seeds of your first crawl(s).

</comment><comment><USER5> dmoz

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha, why didn't I think of this.. probably the one link I need - thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Yahoo directory is a good start.

</comment><comment><USER7> could you google the dictionary and use top 10 results from each? i don't know if this is decent idea or not. maybe someone will tell me :)</comment>


Ask HN: Who has quit a job for an extended trip? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking to complete a thru hike next year. For those who have quit, was it worth it? How was finding a job afterwards? <comment><USER2> Won't say I quit but I did make sure my job won't come in my way of perusing oassions that I have. I am self employed on purpose</comment>


Ask HN: Tips on how to get started with an open source project? - <AUTHOR> I am interested in launching my open source project. <comment><USER2> That's not really how this is supposed to work. No one "launches an open source project" except clueless executives obsessed with OKRs and KPIs or junior developers in desperate need of stuffing their GitHub profile.

People build things to solve problems and, when they figure out others might benefit from their work, decide how to make it available. It's only then that your "project" _may_ _also_ become "an open source project".

</comment><comment><USER3> Make a GitHub project and push code.

What do you want to create and share?</comment>


The myth of the "modern browser" - <AUTHOR> http://christianheilmann.com/2012/08/03/the-myth-of-the-modern-browser/

<comment><USER2> > I think it is time we stopped thinking in browser versions and instead check > for availability of features.

Great. How? Detecting features can be _really_ difficult, it's why we need libraries like Modernizr. Some are outright impossible: try detecting touch support. I know you think you can but you can't without UA sniffing.

Even harder, try detecting _mouse_ support.

I don't know what the history is behind document.implementation.hasFeature but I know that it doesn't work for anything but SVG today. Not sure if that's the way to go but we definitely need a better way that the try/catch and complicated loops we currently employ.

<comment><USER3> I cannot detect mouse support, except on the assumption of no touch support.

But to check for touch support, all you have to do is test for the existence of ontouchstarted on the window object.

<comment><USER2> > I cannot detect mouse support, except on the assumption of no touch support.

Bad assumption, you can have a desktop with a touch screen monitor, or a tablet with a bluetooth mouse.

> But to check for touch support, all you have to do is test for the existence > of ontouchstarted on the window object.

Firefox uses the same codebase for desktop and mobile, so you'll get false positives on laptops and desktops.

It's silly the hoops we jump through to get to 75% certainty on a feature.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _End users should always have the newest browser without having to work on it and thus get new features when they are ready and hotfixes and security fixes in the fastest way possible._

People chasing the chimera of the browser as universal app platform have lost the forest for the trees. Do you really expect me to take a dev platform seriously that can't be versioned and is constantly being changed out from underneath users?

I don't envy QA teams working on web apps.

<comment><USER5> In a word: yes.

Features are being added, but not removed - at least, not unprefixed ones, even if the vendor prefix process seems to be a little broken. If your app breaks, it's probably either your fault for trying to manually detect browsers or use unsupported features, or a bug that can be fixed relatively quickly (and in the meantime, you can always advise switching browsers, as ugly as that is). If it doesn't work because the user's browser is too old, the advice should just be to use a browser that keeps itself up to date.

<comment><USER4> This seems like a very handwavy dismissal of the difficult problem of backwards compatibility.

It's hardly a secret that building an acceptably performant web app today requires all kinds of browser-specific tweaks and workarounds. Can I really expect that nobody's going to "fix" the code that made them necessary in some future update to browser X?

<comment><USER5> Yeah, it's a bit handwavey (I'm a little tired)... but your claim that the web platform can't be taken seriously is exaggerated in turn. Unless you're using unstable features (or possibly writing for mobile devices - but that's a separate issue), you really don't need "all kinds of browser-specific tweaks and workarounds". The definition of "unstable features" is a bit nebulous, and it depends on whether you're trying to support all browsers - WebKit is apparently dragging their feet on unprefixing, say, CSS transitions, but Internet Explorer doesn't support them at all - but for most of the relatively old features like that, the spec is settled, so a combination of shims for existing browsers, which libraries can and do provide, and preferred use of the unprefixed feature should pretty much work forever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I, for one, am looking forward to post-modern browsers.

</comment><comment><USER7> I am thinking the "HTML5" buzzword is misleading: [http://yuhongbao.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-html5-buzzword- is-...](http://yuhongbao.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-html5-buzzword-is- misnomer.html)

IMO "modern browser" isn't too bad if used properly and definitely better than "HTML5".

<comment><USER8> I agree it's misleading, but some companies have spent a lot of money on the HTML5 brand, so expect to see a lot more of it.

<comment><USER7> Yea, I know it is not going to disappear overnight. tantek suggested on whatwg IRC to do a CSS-style modularization of HTML, with HTML5 being the CSS 2.1.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Browser versions are more useful to the end-user who need to upgrade their browser to support your application, but I agree in actual code features should be checked.

"The web is full of outdated tutorials and bad advice and the largest part of those happened because a snapshot of browser functionality at that time was considered state of the art and "modern browser" stuff. "

This can happen with anything on the web and the reason why I always pay attention to the date of each article.

</comment><comment><USER9> Let's suppose that a browser vendor claims that they support a feature, when in fact it's broken (either small but annoying bugs, or "horribly"). Therefore you can't trust a browser's self-reported feature set. So, an obvious solution is to create a similar client-side table of features. Why can't we do that now instead?

</comment><comment><USER10> > I think it is time we stopped thinking in browser versions and instead check > for availability of features.

This is the pythonic way, right? Instead of trying to determine the class taxonomy of the object you have, you query it for the method you want to use. I could be thinking of something else, though...

<comment><USER11> Yeah, and really it doesn't even look like that. Instead of asking whether the object has the member in question, you just go for it and catch AttributeErrors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It doesn't matter how you call it but you can't just stop "thinking in browser versions", that's a stupid meta-discussion without much practical impact. It's browser versions the end customer uses, it's browser versions selenium tests run on and it's browser versions that are in every contract for a serious website.

The point is: In the end the customer doesn't care if you call it modern browser or html5 or interwob2.0, it has to work. The basic notion is that the customer uses a browser and not a feature in some standard called HTML5.

<comment><USER13> I don't think the author says versions are useless.. yes they are handy to indicate, well, what version you use, but from a code point of view he is totally right imo. Look at it like this: there's the choice between a) writing a huge if/then/else for every version you can possibly encounter and b) checkig for features. I'd pick b).

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> What does it even mean to "have" a feature? Suppose a particular browser implements a feature poorly, or with certain known bugs; you may still need to be able to work around actual behavior.

</comment><comment><USER15> Welcome to the world of technical writing.</comment>


Finding gravitational n-body choreographies - <AUTHOR> http://gminton.org/#choreo <comment><USER2> Very interesting and a topic I have been very interested in (see e.g. N-Body on iOS or nbodyphysics.com).

Is there some minimal stability criteria for a curve to considered a choreography or is it enough that the path is an extrema of the action? Will e.g. the bodies make even one traversal of the path before going "off into the wild"?

I'd love a feature to extract positions and velocities for further study.

Awesome site.

<comment><USER3> From my former department: [http://www.maia.ub.es/dsg/nbody.html](http://www.maia.ub.es/dsg/nbody.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The 3-body problem never ceases to amaze me. I've had so much fun playing with choreographies over the last few years, and detecting chaos. Despite the N-body problem being age-old, there's still so much cutting edge work being done on figuring out where various patterns and (sub)structures come from. The Kepler dataset [1] has provided a brilliant starting point to probe a lot of seemingly insane planet configurations.

One of the most fascinating restricted problems I've worked on is the Sitnikov problem [2].

[1] [http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/KeplerMission....](http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/KeplerMission.html)

[2] [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Sitnikov_problem](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Sitnikov_problem)

</comment><comment><USER5> It'd be interesting (but difficult) that the program can recognize the known choreographies (and rotated versions) and show the data.

It' difficult to find a choreography that is not a circle. I found the circle- with-hearth choreography and I was very happy until I saw (3-planets, position (6,1)).

And another feature request. I'd like to link to a choreography, at least to a well known choreography and perhaps to a user generated choreography.

</comment><comment> da-bacon Cris Moore and coworkers found a bunch of these [http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~moore/gallery.html](http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~moore/gallery.html) Including this awesome 28-mass one [http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~moore/cubic28.loop.gif](http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~moore/cubic28.loop.gif)

</comment><comment><USER6> Very cool! I can't wait until we become a type III civilisation and have animated constellations to look up at.

It would be interesting to know how fast they need to move and close you would need to place them to your home planet for the animation to be fast enough so you can observe a full loop in a couple of minutes.

</comment><comment><USER7> It seems to me these choreographies are of theoretical interest, but in practice it would be hard to get a real choreography like those between planets

(Especially because of mass differences and the exact speeds they need to form those)

Which doesn't mean they might not form a different choreography

</comment><comment><USER8> This is fabulous! I had heard there were figure-8 stable 3-body configurations but had never modeled one. Just sketch a figure-8 as the starting orbit and you'll see immediately how it works. Really beautiful work!

</comment><comment><USER9> Would the symmetry groups (point groups?) be different for 3D?

</comment><comment><USER10> Fantastic, but dangerous for your productivity ;)

<comment><USER8> Oh yeah. I'd love to see some indication of how stable these configurations are. A lot of them look pretty wobbly.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What commission to give a sales person for selling SaaS? - <AUTHOR> To boost start my SaaS sales, I am considering using sales people on a purely commission basis, since I have no budget to pay them yet unless there's a sale.
Is that a good idea?
What's the going commission rate for a sales person at a starting SaaS?
For what period on should I pay them a share of the monthly subscription revenue? <comment><USER2> I have a standing offer to anybody to pay them 100% of the profits off of anything they create for 12 months for my product.

I've offered higher amounts as well (200% of profits, 120% of sales) in order to incentivize people to try.

In my experience it's really hard to find qualified sales people and the time investment in finding good people is expensive so by being too cheap, you end up spinning wheels, making no money, AND wasting your time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks ezl. What do you consider profits though? I have no costs except for a cheap Linode VPS (and my own salary?).

<comment><USER2> For the deals I've offered, it was always sales - variable cost of sales.

I sell credit reports. So just take out the vendor cost of the reports.

I am happy to eat credit card fees, server fees, any other fixed costs for running the business, salaries etc. to test candidates if it helps me find good people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> My first thought is you don't want to incentivize sales that cancel their subscription quickly. So maybe some percentage of average customer value at sign up + a recurring bit each month the customer stays a subscriber.

</comment><comment><USER4> When it comes to SaaS sales, I recommend reading SaaStr from Jason Lemkin, ex- Echosign founder (grew business from $0 to $50,000,000, then sold to Adobe). His advice is pure gold.

Here is an initial comp plan. Visit his blog for more

Competitive Base Salary — But You Cover it (Including Benefits) Before Any Bonus. Whatever you base is each month – $4k, $6k, $10k, whatever … you first have to bring in the revenue to cover it before you get any bonus. I.e., no commission at all until you pay off your base salary + benefits, or say 125% of that month's base. It's similar to a draw, but not a true draw — your base salary is a salary. (True draws are not competitive.) But then, Pay 2x as Much in Commission. You'll have to figure your own exact model out, but basically for us, I figured if reps paid their base first, and the losers then didn't suck up a lot of cash — I could push the full 20-22% of ACV straight to the rep as commission. And even more if 80%+ of them all hit their plan. It's what you'd end up paying in the BigCo plan anyway. So instead of a 10-11% commission, I paid ~25%. But only once you paid back your base. (The exact % may vary for you based on your unit economics). One Accelerator: Cash Up Front. Paying 25% instead of 10-12%, but only once you pay for your base salary, is itself an inherent accelerator. The sky is the limit once you've paid your base back. But there was one thing that mattered when I wanted to be cash-flow positive: cash. So I paid more for cash-up front deals. Less for the rest (this may not matter for you if you don't do monthly or quarterly options). And I paid a partial-to-full commission on any Year 2 cash, upfront. That cash now was very valuable. Payment Upon Receipt of Cash, Not Contract E-Signing. Later, once we were past $15m or so, this didn't matter so much. But until then, it was my way of aligning interests. I'll pay you a lot. If you perform. But only once you take care of business and take care of the company. And get the cash in the door. Reps hate this. But if they are going to stay 12+ months … it doesn't matter. They'll see that. Especially if the top reps are driving M6 convertibles.

It worked great for me. There were automatic accelerators. The sky was the limit for the A+ reps. There was no need to "ratchet up" the plan. It rewarded the hungry. We still had quotas, of course. Our initial annual ACV quotas varied from $380k or so to about $550k, and we continued to refine this over time as we got better at sales. But quotas just weren't as important, because the plan created the right incentives to hit these numbers and exceed them -- irrespective of what quotas were set.

Source: [http://saastr.quora.com/An-Initial-Sales-Rep-Comp-Plan-to- Lo...](http://saastr.quora.com/An-Initial-Sales-Rep-Comp-Plan-to-Lower-Your- Stress-Level-Increase-Cash-and-Make-Everyone-a-Lot-of-Money)</comment>


The Noonday Demon - <AUTHOR> https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/find-your-next-read/extracts/clippings/2016/jan/the-noonday-demon-by-andrew-solomon/ <comment><USER2> I did a search on the incomplete URL fragment that was posted, and the intended URL may have been:

[https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/find-your-next- read/extra...](https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/find-your-next- read/extracts/clippings/2016/jan/the-noonday-demon-by-andrew-solomon/)

<comment><USER3> Thanks! We changed the URL to that from [http://2016/jan/the-noonday-demon-by- andrew-solomon](http://2016/jan/the-noonday-demon-by-andrew-solomon). Probably just a copy-paste slip-up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> ?</comment>


Worlds thinnest display using a soap bubble - <AUTHOR> http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/02/worlds-thinnest-3d-display-created-using-a-soap-bubble/

<comment><USER2> Non-blogspam source: [http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/2/3131606/thin-soap- bubble-di...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/2/3131606/thin-soap-bubble- display)

<comment><USER3> actually,

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18671061>

and REAL source:

<http://96ochiai.ws/colloidaldisplay>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> um, how is colour possible?

<comment><USER5> The images are being projected by the light source, they are not being produced by the film itself via the sound generator.

The frequencies alter the opacity and reflective properties at various points on the surface, so you might be able to have an almost opaque block of color next to an almost transparent section.

It's not a 700nm "screen" like your monitor. It's a 700nm "screen" like you might have for a projector (but with some other cool properties).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if they can get the resolution high enough to do proper interference patterns. It would be a cool way to do digital holography.</comment>


Tutanota: GPLv3-licensed, end-to-end encrypted email - <AUTHOR> https://tutanota.de <comment> mike-cardwell Loads external images. By Default. With no option to turn off.

Not a viable webmail client for anyone who expects privacy.

[edit] The email that it sends to external addresses does not have a text/plain part, only html

[edit] Stores your email address in session storage and then pre-fills next time you log in. Does not let you opt in or out and doesn't warn you that this will happen. Unsuitable for a "public" machine.

[edit] Nice, they support DANE. When I email a Tutanota user, or a Tutanota user emails me (@grepular.com), SMTP is _forced_ to use SSL or fail, and the certificate is _forced_ to verify with the fingerprint published in our DNSSEC secured DNS zones. No SMTP MITM's here.

<comment><USER2> I'd say these things are fixable so far [1].

\- Image loading: I'd assume that this is possible to implement, given the current implementation?

\- text/plain & multipart mails: I'd expect the same, really. Doesn't sound too bad to build it.

\- same for session storage

I agree with all your points, but these are things that are conceptually quite viable, imo. I'd expect these to be valid issues on Github [1] and reasonably easy fixes, no?

1: [https://github.com/tutao/tutanota](https://github.com/tutao/tutanota)

<comment> mike-cardwell Yeah, they can be fixed. FWIW, I used their feedback form to mention the automatic image loading privacy leak.

<comment><USER3> I am one of the founders. Thanks for your feedback. We will fix this early next year!

<comment> mike-cardwell FWIW, I discovered the image loading problem by using [https://emailprivacytester.com/](https://emailprivacytester.com/) with a test account. Might be worth testing any such changes that you make there. (I am the author of that website).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'd be wary about potential lock-in. The service seems to rely on everyone using their product. I'd like to see an end goal where they can communicate with other clients that support PGP or S/MIME.

I do like how their approach avoids ever having an email sent from Tutanota in plain text other than when either the sender or receiver views it. Of course the main issue is the receiver has to jump through hoops if they don't use Tutanota. I imagine most people will not enjoy the hoop jumping.

<comment><AUTHOR> In their FAQ they say: "We are planning on making Tutanota interoperable with pgp"

<comment><USER4> Ah yes, I missed that (the FAQ is quite long). It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The statements about german law are wrong or at least very misleading, and that might be important here.

Mail Providers of a specific size here are obliged to implement Lawful Interception interfaces. It is quite obvious that in the current climate, there is no guarantee at all that those won't be used by the german intelligence and then transported to the NSA.

Note also that their source-link in that paragraph is not working.

However, the situation might actually work. If they have a true zero knowledge system, it could indeed be very hard in Germany to force them to produce additional data, and what they can't have they can't deliver. That is however not as clear-cut as they make it look like.

That is comparable to the Vorratsdatenspeicherung, ISPs saving the traffic metadata. While the effort to force them to do that failed, all ISPs still save those data - meaning that Germany is not the described data heaven.

<comment><USER6> I doubt any system designed in such a way that the provider simply _can 't_ access the information, could be forced by authorities to provide some kind of backdoor into it, if it's a somewhat lawful country, and not one such as North Korea or whatever. Whether companies can be _intimidated_ into doing it is a whole other story, but legally, I doubt any democratic government should be able to force them to do that.

<comment><USER7> Here's an example of that for PrivateSky: [http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/gchq- forced-privatesky-secure-email...](http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/gchq-forced- privatesky-secure-email-service-offline-529392)

<comment><USER4> PrivateSky looks like it had the same failing as LavaBit in that the service provider actually had access to the decryption key for your email. So encryption in these services was vulnerable to a court order imposed on the service provider to use or share the key.

I'm not saying Tutanota don't have an issue like this but their main selling point appears to be that this isn't the case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've just signed up for this. It looks like exactly what we want from 'secure' email:

(0) you can send unencrypted email just like any other webmail service.

PLUS

(1) end-to-end encrypted if sender&receiver use tutanova.

(2) if receiver does not use tutanova, you can still send them encrypted email if you want to: they get an email saying - 'you have an encrypted mail, click this link to view it' \- on clicking the link, they decrypt the mail by entering a pre-agreed password.

(3) it is free. they seem to be making money from the 'enhanced features' in their 'Outlook Addin' package.

<comment><USER9> I don't know, it's missing (4) "Host your own (encrypted or not) email" ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Even GMail could launch end-to-end encrypted email if they wanted to do so for all GMail users. They own the entire infrastructure end-to-end; that's not the hard part.

The hard part is encrypting email for _anyone_ \-- even if they don't use your service.

<comment><USER11> Well the hardest part is to persuade most users that end to end encryption is something they actually want.

If GMail would launch an integration with PGP (or similar), call it "Secure GMail - now extra private" or something and start to refer to unencrypted Mail as "unsafe", "untrusted" or something like this much would have been won.

<comment><USER12> The problem with GMail launching browser-encrypted email is that you have two groups of people:

(a) People that don't care about encryption. Unlikely to get any signifacant amount of adoption. (b) People who do. This group of people know that browser- based encryption can't be done in a trusted manner, hence, won't want to use such a product.

<comment><USER13> Luckily Google's thought of that. They're working on an extension: [https://code.google.com/p/end-to-end/](https://code.google.com/p/end-to-end/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm waiting for someone respected in the crypto circles reviewing their crypto soundness before even considering using this.

Being GPL is a good point but it doesn't mean they don't have a fatal flaw in their code.

I wish I had the skills to review the crypto I use.

<comment><USER15> It's hosted web mail that does crypto in Javascript. How closely do you expect crypto engineers to look at it?

Don't use web mail for secure messaging.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Don't use web mail for secure messaging.

<comment><USER8> I'd like to send email messages to people without them being routinely read, stored and indexed by my govt, other govts, the hosting company, etc. Naively, this sounds simple enough to do, and you'd imagine that everyone would want&use such a system.

How to I persuade other non-technical people to use something that is moderately secure? Tutanota seems like something I might be able to persuade people to use - 'hey, sign up for this, it is free, it is just like your current webmail _plus_ if we both use it, our mail is encrypted.' That is an improvement on what they currently use, no?

Do you know of any 'good' (or just 'good enough' (or even just 'better')) options?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wow! This is new "encrypted email" service is just like good old encrypted email (eg: GPG), but with user lock-in!

</comment><comment><USER16> When reading these things you can save a lot of time by just skimming the front page to see what standard protocols they implement. In the case of this thing time was saved...

</comment><comment><USER17> I don't know what people think when they put their code under GPL (especially v3) when they want to make a better version of an already open standard.

One reason why tcp ip was so successful was that everybody could copy the implementation from BSD into their product.

<comment><USER18> Probably because they want people to use their own systems and apps.</comment></comment>


OS X Yosemite Design Fail – Eye Candy vs. Usability - <AUTHOR> http://revelry.co/2014/10/28/os-x-yosemite-design-usability-vs-visual/

<comment><USER2> It is a bad design. You can somewhat work around it by replacing the icon with nothing by doing this:

[https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/131834/how-to- hide...](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/131834/how-to-hide-audio- volume-pop-over)</comment>


Sublime Text 3 - Build 3059 released - <AUTHOR> http://www.sublimetext.com/3?3059

<comment><AUTHOR> Significant changes are adding image previews, tab scrolling, and a personal pet peeve - windows are now closed if you drag the last tab away.

<comment><USER2> Is it a pet peeve that they close, or that they don't close? While I could totally see the justification for both, I'll be secretly cheering about the fact that they close now because that has driven me slightly crazy in the past

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, the pet peeve was that it didn't close. It just left an empty window. This update fixes that and I'm really pleased about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Vintage: A block caret is now used

Yeah, finally :-)

</comment><comment><USER4> Also be sure to check out the dev channel: [http://www.sublimetext.com/3dev](http://www.sublimetext.com/3dev)

More frequent releases, and quite stable.

You do need a Sublime text 2 license though.

</comment><comment><USER5> Any clue on when will the final version come out?

</comment><comment><USER6> anyone herd of vim - MILES away better AND it doesn't annoy you to REGISTER ERYtime you wanna hack

if you're not cool enough use Geany again MILES away better than this wanna-be

<comment><USER7> [http://xkcd.com/378/](http://xkcd.com/378/)

<comment><USER6> am not one of those guys - i just HATE the idea that you have to "pay" to get a piece of mind - that's their "market plan" right?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is standard practice around issuing company laptops at a startup? - <AUTHOR> New, used, refurb? Outright purchase or a lease program?
USA, not a remote company but WFH during COVID.
Engineers just use their own?
Thank you <comment><USER2> Do you suppose if that if they had you use your own laptop, you wouldn't have to worry about "working on company hardware" for IP purposes i.e. they couldn't claim your ideas unless you were working on company time.

Clarification: The company owns anything you make on company time or on the company laptop.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting point to consider.

If the company is distributed, the idea of company time becomes even more vague, unless hours are explicitly defined.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Every place I know of issues laptops to employees. Might differ from city to city (I am based in SF)

EDIT: At my company we lease them new. Most places give new ones, and I think a lot of people lease.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the insight</comment></comment>


Has Intelligence Been Rising? - <AUTHOR> http://www.psychometrics.sps.cam.ac.uk/news.13.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> Following the internal link in the submitted page lays out the researcher's argument. A subsequent book he wrote

[http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=978...](http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521741477)

gives a longer version of the argument. I find the sheer diversity of researchers who suggest reading the book quite remarkable.</comment>


'Too inconvenient': Trump goes rogue on phone security - <AUTHOR> https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/trump-phone-security-risk-hackers-601903 <comment><USER2> I think this story is a bit inaccurate. Take this quote: "Trump's call-capable cellphone has a camera and microphone, unlike the White House-issued cellphones used by Obama."

How did Obama use his cellphone without a microphone?

<comment><USER3> Apparently, Obama only got a smartphone after 8 years in office: [http://fortune.com/2016/06/10/president-obamas-new- smartphon...](http://fortune.com/2016/06/10/president-obamas-new-smartphone- is-more-like-a-toddler-phone/)

Interesting how times are changing...

<comment><USER2> Just to clarify, both smartphones and cellphones must have a microphone to actually be able to work as a phone. The only difference is that smartphones are easier to penetrate using software flaws. But on things like featurephones or blackberries it's still technically possible to penetrate using software.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _President Donald Trump uses a White House cellphone that isn't equipped with sophisticated security features ... a departure from the practice of his predecessors that potentially exposes him to hacking or surveillance._

The understatement of the year? How could his phone NOT get hacked?</comment>


Ask HN: What are you reading? - <AUTHOR> Going to be asking this every few weeks. It's the unofficial HN book club/reading list! If you feel willing, please leave 3 titles: one you've read, one you are reading, and one you plan to read. <comment><USER2> Currently: Rereading Game of Thrones before the upcoming season starts

Recently finished: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, HIGHLY recommend it. He details the work he and his team at the Equal Justice Initiative have been doing for death row inmates without proper representation, many wrongly imprisoned for decades. Depressing but inspiring. Never go to Alabama.

Next up: Amory Lovins' Reinventing Fire, which has been on my list for a while. Saw him speak a few years back and got inspired. (I've no connection outside sharing the same name)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> OP: Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson. It was excellent and very inspiring. Currently reading Markets Not Capitalism, a collection of essays by multiple authors on the necessity of markets and the interference of central control on said markets, which is obviously heavy but very informative. My next book is The Known World by Edward P. Jones. It is about slaves. It is supposed to be rough on the emotions but well done.

</comment><comment><USER3> Finished: Where I Belong, Alan Doyle. Light Christmas reading written by the lead singer of Great Big Sea. I recommend it to anyone who grew up in a small town!

Reading: Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, Martin Fowler So far so good. The first bit is overview, good contrasting examples of when to use what pattern. I've slowed down now that I've hit the actual patterns.

Planning: Clean Code, Robert Martin. Recommended by a coworker.

</comment><comment><USER4> Finished: a collection of Kafka short stories

Reading: Dover's abstract algebra paperback

Planning: Cambridge's Demosthenes Selected Private Speeches

</comment><comment><USER5> In progress (sitting next to me as I type):

Getting More by Stuart Diamond

Classic Myths to Read Aloud by William Russell

The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller

</comment><comment><USER6> Daily rituals; how artists work. Really liking it so far.</comment>


Edit: nvm - <AUTHOR> Dang could you delete this if you're reading? Didn't see your comment linked below before. <comment><USER2> There was a discussion two weeks ago. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22887346](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22887346)

Also note the comment by a moderator "this thread ended up making a poor case for having threads like this on HN. Most of it was off topic, and a lot of it went into low-quality rage and even outright flamewar." [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22892615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22892615)</comment>


Anatomy of the Great Adderall Drought - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/2/16/anatomy-of-the-great-adderall-drought

<comment><USER3> I find this absolutely startling: "It's well known that many college students use Adderall to give themselves an extra edge for getting work done whether they're prescribed or not ... Furthermore, a 2009 study on non-medical use (defined as use of a prescription drug without a doctor's order) of Adderall among full-time college students showed that subjects aged 18 to 22 were twice as likely as their counterparts, who were not full-time college students, to have used Adderall."

Along with: "Stephanie Lee found her freshman year of college unusually difficult. She had trouble adjusting to the levels of stress she encountered." And: "Without Adderall, you might feel bored by your math homework or unable to focus on the multiple steps needed to reach a solution, but on Adderall you might literally feel like you're in love with math."

So many people are taking this drug to deal with the fact that they cannot handle the type of work, or the stress. I find it fascinating that people have come to assume that the problem is with them because they find the work uninteresting, or they find school stressful, and not because that is how the systems (colleges) and the work (math, science) are designed. Instead of telling people how they are not designed properly for the work, perhaps we should take some time to reflect on how the work is repetitive and not creative, and not fulfilling, and that is perhaps the issue.

Note: I do think math and science and intellectual work can be creative when at a high level. But at a learning level you're treated more like a machine designed to learn and repeat.

I was recently chatting with another student about how classes here are just becoming increasingly demanding. In looking at computer science classes as an example, the complexity of even the basic computer science classes has grown with time, and nothing has been removed. Every one of our professors expects us to spend 10-15 hours per week just on their class. And it's obviously not possible. Instead of trying to find ways to optimize time, people are trying to optimize their minds to be something that is not creative, but rather very much like a machine. College is not designed around passionate work, it is designed to be a grind on you and force you to do a lot of work you hate. Every four months you take all the previous work you did and throw it out and start over. How is any part of that designed to be gratifying? I don't necessarily share entirely positive views of college. It's an institution designed to meld and mold people to fit into our economic model.

I have spent some time thinking about this trend and have come to the conclusion that it could be a real damage to creativity and individuality when you can medicate your mind into a machine.

<comment><USER4> I'm also surprised that they're taking adderall for an off-label use, when there's not much research supporting that use, and that they're not taking anti-anxiety medication (diazepam, lorazepam, etc (but addictive potential is worrying)) or taking a known placebo such as homeopathic tablets. Why aren't dealers pushing homeopathic pills as "street adderall"?

<comment><USER5> Because Adderall is cheap, easy to get, amphetamine works, and it's worlds different from things that are not amphetamine (homeopathic pills?!).

<comment><USER4> > _easy to get_

In response to something titled _"the drought"_ ?

> _amphetamine works, and it's worlds different from things that are not > amphetamine (homeopathic pills?!)._

I would love to see placebo controlled trials for this particular use case (students needing a bit of help to concentrate).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm against drug prohibition. I'm also against telling people they have a medical disorder and need to take a recreational drug for it.

And damn right Adderall is a recreational drug, it makes stuff that is boring fun. I've also watched people working while using it, they are easily distracted and then focus 100% of their attention on the distraction. Makes for a good illusion of productivity.

<comment><USER7> I think a lot of people, for either environment or genetic reasons, just have crappy brain chemistry for succeeding in our modern, deep-focus oriented world.

Back in the day, you work on the farm, you chat with people, you do your regular business. You didn't have to sit still in a large box for 70% of the day, and so it wasn't such a big deal if you were a little "light headed".

I have a wee cousin who has ADHD and she's a problem child from hell. We know this 'cos her father was also a problem child from hell. She literally has an immense problem sitting still.

Once she takes her meds though… it's hard to describe the feeling I had when I realized she had spent the last half an hour quietly colouring a book.

So yeah. Some people pop it to do all nighters; for a lot of other people it's necessary in order for them to achieve the neuronormativity expected of them in say, an office job or 12 years of mandatory schooling.

<comment><USER8> "in order for them to achieve the neuronormativity expected of them in say, an office job or 12 years of mandatory schooling."

And there are a lot of fields a person might want to enter, entirely on their own initiative (not teacher-imposed), that inherently require you to spend a lot of time doing 'boring' or repetitive things. And if you don't, you'll fail. Or give up painting/piano/whatever early out of frustration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> One of the greatest coups corporatism can pull in modern times is to get a patent on something and then get the government to mandate its use and restrict all substitutes. Its 100%, grade A, screw society, corporate win.

<comment><USER10> I'm curious as to the pricing structure in less corporatist countries, especially in places with public health care where (unlike the US), the government has the legal right to bargain prices and doesn't just satisfy any arbitrary price set by a manufacturer.

<comment><USER11> It's flatter, but patients are given their medicine and told to take it rather than being invited to select from a menu. Pharmaceutical companies don't advertise direct to the public and doctors make all the decisions about which version of a drug patients should be taking, based on the clinical outcome (eg whether the side effects of a generic are well-tolerated or problematic). In the US you have to be a lot more knowledgeable about what you're taking and the information is much more available, so in that sense the patient has more control, and arguably more freedom; on the other hand most of us are not doctors and spending time becoming expert on the finer points of your meds is perhaps like becoming an expert on the difference between Coke and Pepsi - <USER2> may strongly prefer one over the other, but is it really making any difference to your nutritional outcome?

In other countries the win for the drug companies is predictability; the government will negotiate far more aggressively but will then contract to purchase a certain amount for the next x years, providing the drug companies with a predictable revenue stream. Where public healthcare is the norm, the government also absorbs a lot of the insurance/liability costs; if a drug is approved for sale but later turns out to have problematic side-effects, the government will compensate or support the affected patients, on the theory that since it approved the medicine for sale it accepted the potential risks as well. Obviously, there are exceptions, such as if a manufacturer had data on clinical risks that it concealed to get approval, but those cases are a minority.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Another great example of a gov't regulation that isn't in sync with the marketplace.

If you are a company that produces product A and product B, and the gov't says you can only produce a limited amount of A+B, why wouldn't you automatically shift all of your production to the product with the highest profit margin. This is economics 101!

<comment><USER13> Assuming that Shire has a patent on Vyvanse, then this is more like limit production of A+B and create product C that is more expensive and has an artificial monopoly (patent). This will then drive everyone that needs products A or B to your new product C. Profit!

<comment><USER12> I didn't get a sense from reading the article that Shire is limiting production of their branded amphetamine salts. However, you do have a point in that having more patients on a branded therapy makes a move to Vyvanse more likely.

<comment><USER13> I was going off of this:

      Luckily, Shire had magically possessed enough amphetamines from
      their DEA quota to produce plenty of their new ADHD medication,
      Vyvanse. In fact, Shire doubled its third quarter profits from 2010
      to 2011, with most of that increase resulting from Vyvanse sales.
      During this time, coinciding nicely with the Adderall shortage,
      Shire hiked the price of Vyvanse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The government centrally controls the production of narcotics, and people are wondering why there are shortages? It is obvious the purpose of their central control is not working, people who need the drug can't get it, and people who want to "abuse" it are still able to acquire the drug. I doubt we will see the sane solution of just stopping control on the production of these drugs.

<comment><USER15> Technically, "narcotic" means "opiate" (or more generally, a sleep-inducing drug), which Adderall is not. I think you meant "schedule II controlled substance", or something.

<comment><USER16> The legal and medical definitions of narcotic are not the same, unfortunately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This article ignores an important point about Vyvanse. It's a pro-drug: it's metabolized into one of the components of Adderall, but at a constant rate. That means you can't crush and snort it (well, you can, but the constant rate of conversion does not change).

As such, it has less abuse potential than Adderall XR (though not zero abuse potential). In states like Florida where there has been more scrutiny on prescription of controlled substances, these details can be important.

</comment><comment><USER18> I live in Turkey and I am using concerta for about 5 years now, if you have ADHD the drug calms you and makes focusing and completing tasks easy, it also unfortunately makes you immune to coffee no matter how much coffee you drink, you can still drink more :).

When somone without ADHD uses the drug it causes tachycardia, high blood pressure, restlessness and sometimes paranoia, not all of them though, it migth be a recreational drug to someone but I need it to function in my daily life and I'm not using it to have fun in any way, I had periods ( at most 6 months) which, I had not taken any concerta of methylphenidate derivative and results were not good for my productivity.

It is also a type II controlled substance here in Turkey You are prescribed one pill for one day and you cannot have more even if you want to, but we dont have any quotas on the precursors and drug use in Turkey is very low considering Europe and US.

<comment><USER10> How much money is a 30 day supply?

<comment><USER18> 85$

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Yet again the government tramples it's citizens freedom and desires and tells THEM how to live. Doesn't matter if this drug helps countless people across the country function in their day-to-day.

</comment><comment><USER20> Have any of you been diagnosed with ADHD? How dose it get diagnosed? I am really wondering how much is known about this ailment.

<comment><USER21> Attention deficit is a conduct disorder, which means that its diagnosis relies entirely on assessment of patient's behavioural patterns. Since it's next to impossible to keep a patient under 24/7 observation, secondary sources have to be used. In most cases, the diagnostic process reduces to an "intake session" interview with a patient and a few multiple-choice diagnostic questionnaires.

So an AD* diagnosis is trivial to hack. Moreover, it's impossible to design a diagnostic process that's not easily hackable because, ultimately, everything will boil down to a subjective assessment of patient's behaviour, i.e. a "doctor's call". Furthermore, the more you restrict prescriptions and tighten the diagnostic criteria, the more you increase the risk of denying medication to "legitimate" sufferers. Since the guiding philosophy of the medical community prioritizes "helping people" over "prescription security", the problem of how to keep people from getting "illegitimate" prescriptions is ultimately intractable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> What a scam. People don't even understand how these drugs work in the first place, and now the government, insurance, and pharm industries combine to screw people out of the things they're convinced they need for their brains to work. Gross.</comment>


SQL in CockroachDB: Mapping Table Data to Key-Value Storage (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/sql-in-cockroachdb-mapping-table-data-to-key-value-storage/ <comment><USER2> From 2017: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14728489](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14728489)

Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10227516](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10227516)

</comment><comment><USER3> I am surprised that they have a way to serialize compound keys but they don't serialize the non-primary fields into a single value. Why wouldn't that be obviously easier?

They have the primary key fields serialized in the key so they need code to make a match pattern against it etc. If the value contained the entire non- primary fields in the exact same format then that same pattern code could be used to evaluate where clauses on those fields too etc.

I would anticipate it also being massively massively faster and dramatically reduce write amplification etc.

<comment><USER4> CockroachDB no longer stores each non-primary-key column in a separate value by default - you're right that that's less efficient than necessary.

You can now explicitly specify the layout of your table data across keys via CockroachDB _column familes_ : [https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/column- families.ht...](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/column- families.html)

By default, since several years ago, all data in a table is stored in the same column family.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "CockroachDB is the only database in the world that enables you to attach 'location' to your data at the row level"

^ this statement is so false

<comment><USER6> Was it false in 2015?</comment></comment>


Parable of the missing legal.  Advice? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a cofounder (coder, not a business guy) of a site that's currently filtering thru a few first round offers that will put our valuation somewhere between 5 and 10m.  We're less than a year old and we're not live yet.  I'm being vague here for obvious reasons.  The original founder, a friend, asked me to come on and do the backend work for 10% equity and a very low initial draw.  He's subsequently decided to cut my equity down to 5% to accomodate bringing on a CEO who will be getting 20%.  My dilution was out of proportion to all the other equity holders.  I don't have a signed equity agreement - everything I've done was under a contracting agreement of which I've been paid for approx 1 month of the 7.  A few months ago I cut my salary to zero to help float our offshore UI dev.  None of the principals are being paid.  I've written somewhere around 90% of the system - everything but the front end.  My buddy, the original cofounder, is dawdling on bringing the formal agreements up to speed, and he's behaving like a power hungry jerk.  The strange equity dilution punishment didn't help things.  A lawyer I spoke with said I would have ownership of all the work I did that was unpaid.  And I've brought along a personal library I've been working on for a few years that's a core piece of the system.  We don't have legal on that either.  How do I deal with this?  I have a personal rule about not working with jerks and my trust level is very low.  And if it weren't for the potential I'd have left already.  Your advice and thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. <comment><USER2> A few thoughts: (1) you're using the words "friend" and "buddy" to describe someone who is nothing close to being either of those, (2) your equity position should be at least 20% given the way you describe your contribution to the product, (3) your team is doomed if they have 3/4 senior positions (and want to hire a CEO) and yet you are the only competent developer with experience in the area....

I'd take your code and go home, but not before letting your friend know you'll be suing for copyright infringement and breach of contract. Your friend is legally obliged to report the lawsuit to any investors and that alone should tank their prospects of getting funding. So you have a tremendous amount of leverage if you choose to use it. And there is no reason not to use it.

The more fundamental question is why do business with these people at all? They have already signaled that they consider you the least important member of the founding team. And even if you get this stuff resolved, unless the trust issues are solved you're just setting yourself up to be screwed over the next time around. I'd look for a way to explicitly license your code to them (especially the core library) for cash up-front and a small but non-diluting equity position for your previous contribution. Then leave and do something with people who are more worth your time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I tend to agree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I am an IP/startup lawyer and I know the startup world intimately, having worked for/in one. You might want to arrange a deal with the other members of the startup to buy you out, since you no longer want to be part of the team. Also, Do you have any emails/voicemails/texts memorializing your 5% equity? The reason I ask is bc sometimes formal written agreements aren't necessary in some cases.

From an IP standpoint, if your initial agreement did NOT give all the ownership of the code you've written to the company, then you ARE the rightful owner of the code, doesn't matter how much you were paid/not paid.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm in Canada if that changes anything. I do have records stating the equity position, but nothing formal. I am listed as a cofounder in various media we have floating around, from presentation vids to the biz plan, investor sheets and social media presence. The IP lawyer I talked to told me that since I'm under a contracting agreement and I haven't been paid the code is mine. The law regarding this may be different in the states. And yeah I am thinking of getting some non-dilution clauses in place for the likely possibility of an exit. Negotiating this and a licensing agreement for my library is what I think my fuzzy plan is at the moment. My concern is going down a litigation path against a much larger wallet, but I think my case is pretty strong.

<comment><AUTHOR> To put a frame around this. We're expecting to be profitable within the 1st year. We think we won't need any money after this, unless it's a more strategic play and then we'll think of VCs. Our hosting/infrastructure costs are zero. (I'd give away too much info if I said how). We have several LOIs with potential customers. The CEO to be brought his last company to 500m sales (not sure of the time frame on this). We anticipate getting in this range in about 3 or 4 years barring an earlier exit. So that's the playground. Way, way out of my league.

<comment><USER3> To be honest, I am surprised that your co-founder dares to do this before you guys go live... Everyone knows you do NOT mess with the tech co-founder, especially not pre-launch. To echo the first comment, it sounds like a toxic environment. You gotta get yourself outta there!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure what the time limits are for deleting posts but you might want to consider doing that if you have some sort of pending negotiating/legal troubles. There are not that many 5-10m range startups in Canada and someone might be able to identify you eh.

Good luck! Hopefully things will work out well and you'll get a nice chunk of the money on the table.</comment>


Ask HN: Please review my project - <AUTHOR>

Hi Everyone,
This is the first time that I've submitted anything here, but I read HN daily. I just launched a website that helps people organize plans, post events and share experiences.
http://www.plangr.com
Briefly: I am a web developer and designer. The website came from a personal needs, I remember when I went to visit my uncle in Frankfurt and I wanted to play basketball but I couldn't, I didn't know anybody their beside my uncle. At that time I thought about a website that could help people, not only organize their own plans, but also share and experience them with other people having same tastes.
So, after several months of work, time to get some feedbacks just arrived, and this is why i am sending you this post.
As excited as I am about finally getting to share plans ans events in my city and new cities, I am even more excited to see what our friends on HN can do!
Mourad <comment><USER2> Hi Mourad,

\- make the text on home pagereal text, not images \- Get someone to review the copy, there are a few mistakes and weird wordings \- Maybe show some different places on the maps \- when I search for something when notlogged in, I arrive at some sort of empty results page. Maybe hide the search box when I'm not logged in?

<comment><USER3> Relatedly, don't underestimate the contribution that quality typography makes to a sites perceived professionalism. I'd play around with some non-user-agent typefaces (using @font-face) for you homepage copy and links. Off the top of my head, looking at the site, maybe a Museo font (see: <http://www.trybloc.com> \-- no affiliation, but they use the font for their heading).

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you for your comment, I will try to look for a more convenient font.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The activation email said:

        Activate account at example.com:
        http://example.com/accounts/activate/xxxx

Instead of something like

       Activate account at plangr.com:
       http://www.plangr.com/accounts/activate/xxxx

<comment><AUTHOR> done. thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It won't let me sign up. It has a banner at the top saying "Enter valid information" and "full name:" is red, but I have no idea what's wrong with my name.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi iamds,

The error message isn't enough clear, the name should be at least 4 characters. Sorry again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The left and right arrows feel too low. I expected them to be more in line with the Feedback tab on the right.

<comment><AUTHOR> done, thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> clickable: <http://www.plangr.com></comment>


When to use classes vs. when to use structs - <AUTHOR> http://somethingdoneright.net/2015/07/30/when-object-orientation-works-a-rule-of-thumb.html

<comment><USER2> The Mike Ash blog post linked near the top of this one is IMO more interesting: [https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2015-07-17-when- to-...](https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2015-07-17-when-to-use-swift- structs-and-classes.html)

The title also matches the submission better. Maybe this was the intended submission?</comment>


Ask HN: Someone published an app that publishes their expenses - <AUTHOR> It was a blog that they published on hackernews it was sometime in the past 60 days where they published everything they've purchased in daily expenses. <comment><USER2> My friend runs this.

[https://watchmespendmoney.com](https://watchmespendmoney.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23773329](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23773329)

</comment><comment><USER3> Isn't that Venmo?</comment>


Peter Thiel bought his NZ citizenship, documents show - <AUTHOR> https://theintercept.com/2017/02/01/billionaire-trump-adviser-peter-thiel-bought-his-new-zealand-citizenship-documents-show/ <comment><USER2> This just feels nasty. It feels like left-leaning media outlets (note: I'm left leaning) are scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to discredit anyone who has the gall to disagree with their narrative that Trump is a disaster (note: I think Trump is a disaster, so far).

I don't much care for Peter Thiel. I didn't exactly mind that he funded legal action against Gawker in itself, what bothers me there is the same thing that bothers me about this:

Money should not affect the outcomes of legal actions, directly or indirectly. Similarly, money should not allow you to become a citizen of a country you've never lived in, on a whim.

Sadly we're not close to removing money from the equation in either of those areas (and many more), and we probably never will be.

All of that aside, Thiel's use of his money to get a leg up is a symptom of the problem, not the cause. It's one example among a sea of examples. And the only reason it's getting this level of scrutiny is because Thiel has taken "unpopular" stances.

<comment><AUTHOR> _And the only reason it 's getting this level of scrutiny is because Thiel has taken "unpopular" stances._

It's not because of his "stances", or because they're "unpopular." It's because he's very close to the new administration, and was instrumental in allowing it to come into power (in fact, crucially so).

<comment><USER2> > was instrumental in allowing it to come into power (in fact, crucially so).

This is vague supposition. No one can quantify how much/how little Thiel had to do with Trump winning. If dollars spent on a campaign = being president, then Trump would not be president. If this election proved one good thing, it's that money can't buy you a general election in the United States.

> It's not because of his "stances", or because they're "unpopular." It's > because he's very close to the new administration

It doesn't matter if this scrutiny is because "he's close to the new administration." I don't want to only read about corruption of people "close to X administration that I dislike." I'd like to read about corruption regardless of which narrative, party, worldview, etc the people involved in the corruption subscribe to.

To put it another way, the fact that Thiel likes Trump does not make this valid news.

<comment><AUTHOR> _No one can quantify how much /how little Thiel had to do with Trump winning._

Right, it isn't quantifiable; it require qualitative analysis. Like most significant events and forces in history.

In brief response to what you (and the other commenter) were saying: yes, even at $1.25m, Thiel's donation to the campaign wasn't a game changer (or even close to one). But his strategic significance (serving on the Executive Committee of Trump's transition team, and as one of his top financial advisors), in addition to his (perceived) intellectual "gravitas", far outstripped the significance of his cash donation.

<comment><USER2> Sure, you're free to offer your opinion on which factors tilted the election. But I would urge you to qualify that opinion with an introduction like "in my opinion..." I say this because, to me, it's not obvious at all that Thiel had a significant impact in the election and you stated it so matter-of-factly that I smiled to myself.

To me, claims like "X individual was crucial to Y historical event in some vague way that involves 'intellectual gravitas'" seem absurd. That doesn't square with my view on how humans make decisions. It's difficult for me to imagine a human whose decision to vote for Donald Trump hinged on Peter Thiel's endorsement of Donald Trump.

I'd also bet money that most Americans who know who Peter Thiel is, and have strong feelings about him, live in CA and voted for Clinton.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's fundamentally hypocritical of Thiel to stick America with a maniac from whom the vast majority of citizens can't escape, while he has a perfect backup plan. One of his many hypocrisies.

<comment><USER4> Thiel had veto powers on the electoral college? Did I miss something?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Peter Thiel has demonstrated a willingness to use his money to influence politics in the US. If he now does the same in NZ, is that now not a "foreign influence" on their country? Just because he did some paperwork and bought himself citizenship?

<comment><USER6> It is clearly. That is kinda the point of the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "In the first seven days after Donald Trump's election, 13,401 Americans registered with New Zealand's immigration authorities, the first official step toward seeking residency—more than seventeen times the usual rate. "

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday- prep-f...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the- super-rich)

</comment><comment><USER8> As a born NZ citizen I welcome people like Thiel. He may have bought his citizenship, but we could do with more like him.

<comment><USER9> As a born NZ citizen as well, are you serious? More rich people that are - generally speaking - racist, sexist, anti-democracy and have tendencies to sue news organizations into the ground while calling it "charity"? He can ultimately do what he wants, but I don't think we need more of these types of people.

<comment><USER10> What makes you believe Thiel is racist or sexist?

Also, the idea of rich people/foundations/etc supporting lawsuits for ideological reasons is hardly new. Do you similarly oppose the Southern Poverty Law Center, who successfully filed (valid) lawsuits against the Aryan Nations with the goal of shutting them down? Or the Conservation Law Foundation, and all their donors?

[https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case- docket/keenan...](https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case- docket/keenan-v-aryan-nations)

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/exxonmobil-lawsuit- conse...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/exxonmobil-lawsuit-conservation- law-foundation-climate-change_us_57ec1512e4b024a52d2c5ae5)

<comment><USER9> It's good to see HN's "whataboutism" is alive and well [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism)

<comment><USER10> Whataboutism is a perfectly valid argumentation technique. If you argue against person X for doing Z, but not against person Y who does the same thing, it suggests you might actually just have a grudge against X.

I'm asking whether you actually object to funding valid lawsuits against people due to speech you object to, or whether that's simply a cheap attack line.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Well, today is Check your Backups day ([http://checkyourbackups.work](http://checkyourbackups.work)). Everyone should have a backup, Peter Thiel is no exception ( _)

So what if he "bought" his citizenship? Is that illegal? If not, that "makes him smart". There are plenty of places that will grant you, if not citizenship, then permanent residency, as long as you bring in cash. Or will at least have a fast-track path.

On that note, if you are young, try to get citizenship in more than one country. Or, if you have kids, do that for them. That way, you limit the amount of influence a given government can have on you. If things go south, you have a backup plan.

(_) Disclaimer: I dislike the guy, but I feel this piece of news is weak.

</comment><comment><USER12> As a New Zealand citizen who is a dual national of a country that I've never visited, I'm not necessarily opposed to non-residents becoming citizens.

I am concerned though, about people who are well known for using their giant stack of cash to influence politics and legal cases being given citizenship.

I do think that the outcome of the Hulk Hogan vs Gawker case was a good thing, but I don't think that Theil funding it was a good thing. Billionaires funding legal cases of unrelated people based on a personal vendetta isn't a road I want society to go down, especially such a target approach. If he was giving aid to various people suing various yellow journalism outlets for slander/libel, I'd be inclined to believe that he was being at least slightly altruistic.

And then there's the amount of money he's put into politics. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter if he supported Clinton, Sanders, or Trump, it's the amount of money he gave.

I get the impression from the man that all he cares about is himself, and he'll just throw money at things to get what he wants.

</comment><comment><USER13> lol, that oath though! Doesn't matter, still rich. Everyone aspires to have that flexibility when they find out about it and see it within their grasp. And its great - for the individual - how the rules disappear.

<comment><USER14> The oath appears funny, in modern times.

Are you familiar with the US naturalisation oath? It goes like this:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

[https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/naturalization- test/nat...](https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/naturalization- test/naturalization-oath-allegiance-united-states-america)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> _NEWS FLASH: Billionaire gets what they want by spending millions of dollars_

I think it helps to imagine Peter Thiel as a comic book supervillain. He wants to live forever, so _of course_ he's going to have a remote HQ to flee to in an emergency.

He may or not be a bad guy, but I think it's pretty clear that he has one standard for himself and another standard for others.

</comment><comment><USER16>
      in the wake of public outrage in that country shows that
      Thiel would have been denied citizenship on the self-
      admitted fact that he has never lived in the country and
      has no plans to do so

pieter theil bought himself a novelty post-appocalypse passport for $700m.

</comment><comment><USER17> Just wonder how much to buy the NZ citizenship? So I could start saving!

</comment><comment><USER18> Peter Thiel is a young Mr. Burns. Young, rich, and alone.

</comment><comment><USER19> Who cares?

<comment><USER20> I agree. If NZ let him buy his way to citizenship, then what's the problem? He didn't break any laws, he followed the rules, and he got his citizenship legally. What's the story here?

<comment><USER9> It isn't legal - he was granted an exception to the rules after being denied because he had a change of heart and donated $700m - for the first time ever - to the disaster fund, then applied again immediately. In NZ you must actually live there to gain citizenship, even if you pay.

<comment><USER21> > _It isn 't legal_

It appears the Internal Affairs Department may legally approve citizenship under "exceptional circumstances". And he is not alone: "one to two dozen [applicants] a year...are approved for citizenship by the minister of internal affairs under 'exceptional' circumstances" [1].

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/business/peter-thiel- new-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/business/peter-thiel-new-zealand- citizenship.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_dk_20170201&nl=dealbook&nl_art=20&nlid=65508833&ref=headline&te=1)

<comment><USER22> Even if technically legal, that's still really quite dodgy.

<comment><USER21> I agree. But the proper response shouldn't be "that's illegal," but instead, that the interior minister should be stripped of that power.

<comment><USER23> Why? That minister got the NZ public $700m USD in disaster relief in an exchange that cost them virtually nothing. If anything he should be given an award for outstanding excellence in the field of defrauding rich yanks.

EDIT: 700k, not 700m. Still, not a bad deal.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>