skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It almost sounds like what happens in sexual harassment cases. The victim will often not give a straightforward refusal, because they're trying to avoid the consequences confrontation may lead to. It's not particularly admirable, but it is totally understandable.
Yeah, you made some mistakes, but don't be too hard on yourself. That kind of situation is unexpected and when you're in the moment, it's hard to know how to respond. Good on you for doing the right thing in the end, and for coming clean about everything publicly now. In the end, a person's character is less about never making mistakes than how you handle the mistakes you do make.
You want one of the routers that can run a third party Linux router distribution. Take a look at:

http://www.myopenrouter.com/

The Netgear WNR3500L with DD-WRT firmware is as close as you're going to get for a reasonable price (about $100 USD).

Edit: The feature list for DD-WRT is here:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F#Featu...
Sorry for the offtopic, but jakarta, would you mind if I ask for your email? I had a few questions regarding analyst work. (My contact is in my profile). I'd appreciate your feedback if you have some time.
To be honest, I had no idea what Picnik was. Is it very popular?
Yup, and that works okay for me, but I think "print to iPad" would be appealingly simple not just for me but for lots of less-savvy users. "Print to Kindle DX" (or other large-screen e-ink reader) would be good too.
Calacanis does not seem worth trusting based on this.
are there any design studios that also deal with programing?
I feel for Divvyshot, the actual event seems way beyond their control and this has brought a whole new angle. It just makes me wonder how many other eager startups may have/will/could be put in this kind of situation for 'positive coverage', when they have a lot at stake in their business.
postalservice@gmail.com
Looking for Case Studies of People who built their website from ground
Looking for Case Studies of People who built simple website from ground up using only outsourcing for design & programming. Anyone care to share?
I've got an iPhone sheet music reader coming out next week: http://www.wonderwarp.com/etude

I'm rushing to get the iPad version ready too. Don't think I'll apply to YC though since they hate single founders.
We do this exactly for large companies with many small offices that they don't want to manage individually. We limit the number of offices in a minimum order to 10. This was a hard lesson. We started off dreamy-eyed with onesies and twosies but were rapidly buried under a sea of "and it also has to...".

We'll do smaller numbers if a customer really wants it but the price per month of any number of units 10 and under is $950/month. (So we bill for 10, even if they only use 2)

The shocking truth we discovered about this market is that it doesn't matter if its one location or a thousand, one computer or 10k, each customer requires about the same amount of work on a monthly basis. If you control the router, you are the defacto first-call for any trouble in the office/home. They've outsourced their IT, and its you.

For the curious, we deploy a custom baked read-only Centos distro on compact flash running on Soekris boards. When more oomf is needed, we move up to lanners. Wireless radios are 'CM9" A/B/G atheros.

If you want to make a go of it, you can fully kit out at http://www.netgate.com (1)

Its not really a "startup" in our classical HN definition as it scales most linearly and only works as well as your best engineer, but I'd be happy to answer any questions from people who are interested in working this type of angle, or even doing some development for your own particular flavor. (2)

(1) I don't have any affiliation with netgate beyond getting to know the guys down there and really appreciating all they did to help us get going.

(2) I've been kicking around the idea of a home version coupled with a distributed VNC powered helpdesk for several years now but haven't found the right group of people/motivations to make a go of it yet. The numbers are hard (very), but the market would be limitless.
I don’t know about amazing; this just seems depressing.
Daniel recognizes his mistake and is simply trying to put this issue behind him. I regret that this post might make it more difficult for Daniel to do that.

Why the hell does everyone seem to tiptoe around this guy? Asking for bribes isn't some sort of youthful indiscretion, its indicative of a fundamental personality trait that won't change as he gets older.

The more I learn about Jason and Loren, the clearer their malicious intent becomes.

Its unfortunate that he didn't do his homework on this one before contacting Calcanis.

From my interactions with Sam, he seems like a good guy trying to do right by others by making something useful for them. He shouldn't be in any way apologetic to these leeches.
Loren Feldman's threats against Divvyshot:

> "If I were ipodrip and divvyshot, Id be be starting to think about damage control. Arrington cant hide you forever."

> "Divvyshot. you have 24 hrs."

Veiled threats via Twitter? Come on. Unnecessarily dramatic and threatening, childish even.
I'm not proposing a tool, I'm proposing an approach. We shouldn't have to build custom GUIs over and over again. We should use the same approach that Cocoa does (reusable GUI components)
> There are two kinds of people. Those who like to fiddle around with technology per se, and those who use it as a means to an end. Just because most of your friends are in the former category doesn't mean most young people are.
I'm not even talking about all my friends. (I'm not even a CS major.) I'm talking about pretty much all the people in my high school. And all the kids which the media portrays as technically savvier than their parents. So unless my high school was somehow unusually technically capable, I don't think I've been a victim to selection.

But I do understand what you're saying. Obviously there will be people who will be more technically savvy than others, but the overall trend will be towards more new technology in our lives. What seems new and complicated now will just be pencils and erasers to the next generation. So while I do believe that technology will become more transparent (more natural), I don't think it should/will become dumbed down.

> This is a classic geek fallacy. This is the reason smart phones were so godawfully unusable before the iPhone came out. Ask any designer—removing things can dramatically improve a user experience because it decreases the cognitive load.

Yea I'm well aware of that. I don't think good design and power are mutually exclusive. But I was specifically referring to the general idea that simplifying things naturally results in less power. The trick is to simplify it without sacrificing power, in which you'll result with what we call design. But I think it's important to realize that simplifying without sacrificing any power is probably impossible. You'll undoubtedly lose some degree of power. Closing the app platform results in a simplified experience, but we can all agree it takes some power away from developers too. I probably shouldn't have used the word "experience." I meant experience to describe the capabilities of the system.
Really? I don't think the kid got what he deserved to be honest.
REGISTER DOMAIN | REGISTRATION OF DOMAIN | DOMAIN REGISTERATION
"On February 5th, Jason Calacanis posted some thoughts on the Techcrunch "extortion" story. I found his article insightful and well written. Wanting to reach out to someone about the issues I've been struggling with, I emailed him and confessed my involvement."

This is the first time I have actually performed a real facepalm.
or this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074168

or this: http://www.seobook.com/black-hat-seo-case-study

...
Sadly, a lot of people need to be bribed to get work done. Even if they may not ask directly, its written all over their face.

Thats the way the world works.
Apple iPod Nano | Apple iPod Nano 5th Generation Review
The Great Wall of Google
For what it's worth, I just signed up for Divvyshot. I had to fight hard not to say "giving it a shot."
I must be missing something (I haven't followed this story), but how is this an issue at all for anyone except TC and their journalistic integrity? Am I supposed to feel morally outraged that a tiny startup even just entertained the idea of giving someone a gift in exchange for blog coverage? Is there actually something here or just self-important silicon valley pundit drama? (god I'm glad I unsubscribed from TC long ago)
I don't think it's a fundamental personality trait. Bribery is common in certain countries. Do you think it's because the people in such countries have different fundamental personality traits? Seems more likely this sort of thing is largely determined by the situation. The kid may have just gotten carried away by the power he suddenly found himself holding.
I'm surprised the 'ask' was as blatant as it was; I thought it would have been a sort of roundabout quid pro quo, "my project needs this, friends help me with hardware, I make sure my friends get good TC coverage." But, Brusilovsky was young and unsubtle!
Web Designing & Developing
Yeah, this especially:

X: How long are the golden handcuffs on you? (Sposato has told us before about his desire not to work for The Man.)

JS: I wouldn’t put it that way. I, and everyone on the team, are very interested in giving Google a really, really great deal. The kinds of exciting things that Picnik and Google both bring to the table are going to be pretty darn amazing. I can’t think of a better synergy here....
I guess duty was a poor word choice. Would you agree with this line of reasoning?: The world would be a better place if the most intelligent people worked to solve problems that cause the most harm to humanity. If an exceptionally intelligent person doesn't work on these problems, more people will die and/or suffer. This is bad, so exceptionally intelligent people should work on these problems even if they find more personal satisfaction in less important problems.

That's basically what I meant by "duty." Now to address the specific points in your post:

Nobody asks in advance to be born intelligent.

Correct. Currently life is very very unfair. Nobody asks to be born into poverty and ignorance either.

Can you think of any other trait one could be born with which you would say bestows someone with a duty to lead their life in a certain way?

These aren't genetic traits but they can be inherited: Wealth. Power, such as in a monarchy.

...aren't they squandering all their hard-earned experience and knowledge in X?

There are a couple of differences in your example. First, not all degrees are equally useful. A Ph.D. in Russian literature isn't going to be very useful in curing disease or engineering hardier crops. Second, education can't fully substitute for fluid intelligence.

I also think it's absolutely absurd to say someone's squandering their talents and not "aiding humanity" when they have a Ph.D. in physics, they're a civil engineer, and they've published ninety academic papers.

Compared to most people, yes, he has helped a lot. But if this guy really is the smartest person on the earth, he is wasting his potential. Bad things are happening -bad things will happen- that wouldn't have happened if he worked in biotech or physics or cognitive neuroscience.

Here's a silly but analogous situation: If Superman was a social worker, wouldn't you be frustrated that he wasn't doing superhero stuff? Sure, social worker Superman has helped more than most individuals, but he could do so much more.

The fact is that we all aren't born equal, but we all hurt; we get sick; we die. It's completely unfair. We need to fix it. The more great minds we have devoted to these problems, the sooner they'll be in the history books instead of the nightly news.
My team has a game that's doing well on the quality side (~100 reviews and 4.74 average rating), but the marketing is pretty tough. We've got a near-perfect substitute for a massively popular game that's missing from Android - if we could only put it in front of the casual gamers who only look at the featured and top ranked list, I'm sure it would be a bigger hit than most of the games currently featured. I'm hopeful that the great feedback and very good sales relative to our position that we receive will eventually catch someone at Google's notice, but until then we'll just keep making the game better.

On a down note, the recent rating reorganization seems to make it tougher for newer apps in our position to move up the list - a lot of poorly rated and abandoned junk from early in the Android platform's life is above us again now that the ranking algorithm seems to value raw sales above all else.

Still, things are worlds better than they were 6 months ago. We'll continue to bet on Android for the future.
Yahoo Wins Walmart's Biggest Online Ad Campaign
This account contradicts what Daniel Brusilovsky said during his Mixergy interview (http://mixergy.com/daniel-brusilovsky/).

From the interview transcript:

Interviewee: I mean, so there were conversations that I had with this company and both in jokingly in manner and that they may have perceived as the real thing.

Andrew: I see so you and I are sitting and talking and I might want you to write about Mixergy for Tech crunch and I say listen Dan. Why don’t you write for Mixergy? Why don’t you write about Mixergy on Tech crunch? No there’s nothing, there’s no loops here. I say what if I give you this Mac book pro that I’m writing? That kind of joke.

Interviewee: Exactly!

Andrew: We’re not giving you the Mac book pro but we’re kidding around.

Interviewee: Yeah
Does anyone else find the font on this site almost illegible in Chrome? Maybe I'm going crazy...
Physicists look for the arrow of time, biologists find it
I agree with this, and would like to expand on it a bit. For me personally, I do not mind that the iPad is "simple" or even single tasking. The problem is that the software that is run on it is controlled. Worse, it is controlled by a company who has already demonstrated that they are happy to deny applications based on money interests or the opinions of their primarily US market.

Last year they decided joke political apps were "not worth offending their user base" for and banned them. This year they ban all applications related to sexuality for the same reason. Web browsers and email clients are banned for money interests. It goes without saying that apps like itunes are banned.

What is next? Apps related to evolution and science? Any 3rd party apps related to music? Who knows. Maybe nothing, maybe all those things.

This sets a FAR more dangerous precedent than Microsoft's monopoly on the OS market. And as this article correctly points out, very few people outside of IT will care. For them it will be "why isn't there app X, guess IT people are just boring/uncreative/didn't think of it, oh well."

This level of control is enough for me to buy an alternative product, even if it may not be quite as good.
I agreed with you at first, but as the article progressed I think the personal life was an extremely important aspect for connecting with him. Personally I really enjoyed it.
> From what I know, the US has Medicaid (means-tested), Medicare (>65), and other ones like Veterans, but nothing that covers the bulk of the population.

"means tested" means "poor people are eligible". A huge fraction of the supposedly uninsured are eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, and/or other programs but don't bother to sign up until they seek care. In other words, they look like they're uninsured but they're not.

In addition, everyone is eligible for free care at the local county or city medical center. They often try to send bills, but you're free to ignore them. That's the free program to which I referred. I mention it because most folks "forget it", concentrating only on the big federal programs. (It's a federal mandate but paid for by local govts.)

What? Your sources didn't mention those things? Oops. (Do you always believe politicians or only the ones that say things consistent with your world view?)

The US' health care problems come from lifestyle choices. Medical care can't address smoking or obesity, for example. (Yes, US doctors tell folks "don't smoke and lose weight".)

Here's are some questions for you. Why do Canadian politicans come to the US for health care? (Often paid for by Canadian tax payers....) Do US politicans go out of the country for health care? If your favorite national health care system didn't provide a treatment that you needed, where would you go?

As to the money - we have it. What would you have us spend it on instead? (It doesn't much matter to us if others couldn't afford it.)

Also, there's no reason to believe that the US govt can do better. It already provides health care to a huge fraction of the population yet doesn't do so more efficiently.

That said, I've always been willing to let the US govt experiment wrt health care for the folks it already covers. (Including govt employees, this is roughly half the US population.) Yes, free rein to try anything. All that I ask is that the per-person budget get cut by 5% per year for years 2-6. For some reason, govt healthcare advocates are unwilling to take this deal even though they claim that they can get 30% from the whole population.
Angels vs. VCs
Yeah, I think Sam is being far too generous in thinking Daniel has recognized his mistake. Going back to the Mixergy interview Daniel did, he claimed the suggestion of a Mac Book air was intended as a joke but it seems very clear that from Sam's point of view that it was not. Also, he uses the alleged "Birthday Present" cover story when talking about the iMac he received.
For what it's worth, Daniel told me who turned him into TC, but I agreed not to say.

And these two accounts of the conversations contradict each other. What you excerpted here is pretty much what he told me before the interview.

A few lines down from your excerpt:

Interviewee: There are IMs. They’re not made public and hopefully they won't be made public.
Payday loans no credit check: free credit checks
When did Calacanis ever seem to be worth trusting? He'll do anything to get attention.
Have you ever played around with DD-WRT? http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

Grab yourself a WRT54G (or WRT54GL, L for LINUX) and you won't regret the combination :D
I think he's worth trusting as much as it's worth it to trust anybody else in business; that is, not that much. Jason Calacanis is not your friend, unless he's actually your friend. If you have a juicy story you want kept secret, why would you tell one of the most loud people in your industry?
I'd honestly say exactly what you did above in your post and not provide them at the first part. Or just write "Small company, stealth job search"
something positive for yahoo :)
"And some flows through so-called dark networks, private channels created to move information more cheaply and efficiently within a business or any kind of organization. For instance, Google has privately built such a network so that video and search data need not pass through so many points to get to customers."

Can someone please clarify exactly what this means? What exactly do companies like Google do to move the data more efficiently within their own network?
I realize this contradicts the details Daniel's story.

I'm trying to respect Daniel's wishes by not releasing transcipts of our conversations.

However if Daniel feels that I wasn't fair or accurate then i'll release transcripts. I'll leave it up to him.
Let's say honesty is a fundamental personality trait. One can be honest and bribe in a country where bribery is accepted. That same person wouldn't in a country where bribery is illegal. It's not the act of bribing that determines one's personality trait - it's the honesty.
Mac OS X North American installed base almost 11%
This is one of those stories that I can't read without thinking "The Valley is a wacky, wacky place".
How do you suggest that you'd write an article about someone if they give you a laptop in a 'joking' manner. If I asked my secretary to suck my cock 'in a joking manner' it's still sexual fucking harassment, this is juvenile bullshit he's 17 and clearly displaying it.

Regardless of his intention, it was gross professional misconduct and he fully deserved being dismissed.
+1. Reaching out to someone? Not a horrible idea. Reaching out to Calacanis? What in the hell was he (not) thinking? He's the nosy watercooler gossip lady of the blogosphere.
Trolls Target Patent Markings with a Trillion Dollar Lawsuit
I don't think that respecting his wishes is a virtuous thing to do in this situation. If what you've said is true, first he extorted you and then he lied about extorting you. In effect, he slandered you by saying that you got him fired over a misunderstanding.

Protecting him from a isolated indiscretion of youth is fine, but he's revealed his true character with a series of immoral acts.

Not releasing the transcripts also prevents people from knowing whether what you've said is really true. By protecting him, you're actually harming yourself.
White Spots on Skin
Appearance of white patches on skin have become a serious skin problem. In most of the cases these occurs due to the loss of pigmentation in skin.
So bribery is okay in 'certain' countries, so it's okay in this one where there's well established laws dating back centuries that outlaw it? Bullshit, the guys a criminal. He took bribes and he should be driven out of the industry like the parasite he is.

He's young, I'll give him that. He should have been working harder than anyone to maintain his integrity and an image of maturity, but he wasn't he was trying to take advantage of people. He's a rat, through and through. It's so clear by his mixergy interview that he has no intent to admit his behavior was abhorrent.
I'm with you, but it's likely that he won't ever be taken seriously again. That is the sort of thing that IS just punishment, so long as it plays out that way.
Congrats on the success.

Btw you mention that your app averaged 20$/day when it was first released. It looks like winning a spot Google's ADC contest, getting featured on the Android market etc. has increased app revenue by a huge factor

At this stage, do you see this as a one-off or do you see it as a sustainable business for yourself. IOW would you quit your day-job to work fulltime on Android apps ?
"We have no time to go below surfaces" (1891)
Seems like its a small start-up founder trying to protect his baby from PR hungry wolves.
It's great that this guy has a gift but let's call what he does for what it is: exploitation. Countless pension funds and state budgets are in shambles because of people like him.
Agreed, who gives a damn about this guys 'stature' for working at Tech Crunch.

Last time I checked extortion was a serious crime, he should be exposed and the authorities should be investigating how wrong his actions were or weren't. Beyond that the transcripts should be released so everyone in the industry knows EXACTLY the type of person he is and whether they want to deal with him.

Bribery and extortion kills political careers, and it should kill journalistic careers too.
I don't really think honesty is a fundamental personality trait either. Consider that in polite adult society, there're many times that you are expected to lie, and it's considered rude if you don't. If a women asks, "Do I look fat?", do you say yes? If someone asks you "How are you?", do you go on about how your life sucks and you wish you had their job?

It's more that there are certain culturally-dependent rules of behavior, and considerate people eventually learn and conform to those rules. Oftentimes the rules make zero sense in logical terms; they evolved through long years of accumulated customs.

Most teenagers are still learning those rules, and part of learning them involves breaking them. Didn't you ever push the boundaries as a teenager? Do something that perhaps your parents and other authority figures disapproved of?