skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Keeping track of the business rules
I am looking for the best way to keep track of the business rules for both developers and everybody else (support staff / management) in a startup enviroment. The challenge is that our business model requires quite a lot of different business rules, which are created pretty much on the fly and evolving organically after that. After running this project for 3+ years, we have so many of such rules that often the only way to be sure about what the application is supposed to do in a certain situation is to go find the module responsible for that process and analyze its code and comments. That is all fine as long as you have one single developer who created the entire application from the scratch, but every new developer needs to go over pretty much entire codebase in order to understand how the application works. Even bigger problem is that non technical employees don't even have that option and therefore are forced to ask me pretty much every day how some certain case would be handled by the application.

Quick example - we only start charging for our customer campaigns once they have been active for at least 72 hours, but at the same time we stop creating invoices for campaigns that belong to insolvent accounts and close such accounts within a month of the first failed charge. That does not apply to accounts that are set to "non-chargeable" which most commonly belongs to us since we are using the service ourselves.
The invoices are created on the 1st of each month and include charges from the previous month + any current balance that the account might have. However, some customers are charged only 4 days after their invoice has been generated due to issues with their billing department. In addition to that, invoices are also created when customer deactivates his campaign, but that can only be done once the campaign is not longer under mandatory 6 month contract, unless account manager approves early deactivation.

I know, that's quite a lot of rules that need to be taken into account when answering a question "when do we bill our customers", but actually I could still append an asterisk at the end of each sentence in order to disclose some rare exceptions. Of course, it would be easiest just to keep the business rules to the minimum, but we need to adapt to changing marketplace - i.e. less than a year ago we had no contracts whatsoever.

One idea that I had so far was a simplistic wiki with categories corresponding to areas such as "Account activation", "Invoicing", "Collection procedures" and so on.
Another idea would be to have giant interactive flowchart showing the entire customer "life cycle" from prospecting to account deactivation.

What are your experiences / suggestions?
The manpage for screen should tell you how to send commands to the screen session (the -X option, I believe). You just need to create a function/binding in Vim that tells screen to create a new 'window' and run that test suite in that 'window.'

Screen is basically a terminal multiplexer. This would work a little differently if you were using gVim instead of Vim (from within the same screen session that you're sending the test suite command to). If you were using gVim you'd need to use a named screen session (the -S option) and send the screen command to the named session (and possible have logic in the Vim/gVim function to start a named session if one doesn't already exist). Then you'd need a separate terminal window attached to that screen session to view the test suite output.

Do a search for vim and REPL or SLIME for articles like this:
http://technotales.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/like-slime-for-v...

These articles use the vim+screen combo to send commands to an interpreter, but you can use the same concepts to send your test suite to a screen session.
Purchasing stolen property should be a much smaller investigation -- police do it all the time. While they shouldn't do nothing, this is a significantly more expensive reaction.
Intellectual property rights are a perennial issue for hackers, I would say. There are iPhone-related stories on the front page almost every day because that is the commercial platform of choice for many HN members.

What does it teach me about running a start-up?

I'd say quite a lot; core IP can be very hard to keep secure, you should be suspicious of people offering to sell you IP without clear proof of ownership, you can unwittingly incur legal responsibilities at the same time as material benefits, and economic considerations often trump ethical ones.
No doubt, counterfeiting deserves policing. And that's a big part of my point: Gawker posting pictures of a prototype iPhone that Apple lost in the wild isn't counterfeiting. Why, then, should REACT give the case such a high priority to the Gawker case -- and use such aggressive measures -- when it could be out dealing with, as you say, the "quarter-billion dollars a year in lost revenue" from counterfeiting?

The analogy you give about my firm is close, but let's make it exactly on point. Let's presume I have some major class action against Apple and, weeks before a major brief is due, I leave a copy of it on the train and some intrepid blogger posts the whole thing, thereby giving Apple a window into my strategy.

Would this be embarrassing? Of course. Would it prejudice my clients? It could.

Would the police care? Of course not.

The police would tell me that, if I had a problem with it, I should sue the guy. End of story. And, indeed, as I wrote before, if Apple wants to sort out its legal remedies, there is a civil justice system ready and waiting for it.

What's so disturbing here is the aggressive response by criminal law enforcement authorities. If you or me or thousands of other technology companies had complained to the police about an identical incident, we would've been told to seek remedies elsewhere. Apple, however, got the full lawful power of the state and then some in the form of an overly broad and potentially illegal seizure of a journalists' computers.

That's a problem, and its one that deserves some degree of explanation from REACT.
just a note, if you go to the top level of this directory on which the blog sits there's another site, which may of been the 2 days work. As a 23yr old still interested in where the millions came from...
Will the Mobile Web Kill Off the App Store?
Doesn't seem credible to me.

I did a little digging and this site and TalkBurst.com share the same owner. I'd hardly call TalkBurst a success from what I've dugg up. 4 twitter followers. Hasn't been around for more than a few months.

A WHOIS on TalkBurst and SinkFloat returns someone registered as TalkBurst based in China. Names don't match (domains are registered under TalkBurst), but the address matches:

Mr. Ma Lincong
Secretary-General
China Association for Standardization (CAS)
P.O. Box 820
No. 2 Yue Tan Bei Xiao Jei
Beijing, Beijing 100837
CHINA, PRC
Anyone have any info on this guy?

I'm interested in following his blog if he's telling the truth, but I'd like to see if anyone in the HN community can vouch for him.
I should point out, this is the biggest problem that people have. We're really just trying to encourage good comments. We'd take a better way if there was one.
It can yield a lot more useful evidence though. You can't get the guy for the iPhone thing - but you now have:

Every website he has visited (are all those boys/girls/sheep over 18?)

Every book/dvd/toy he has bought - did he declare state tax on all the stuff from Amazon.

All his tax and business records.

Everywhere he has been, everyone he has phoned,emailed,
texted tweeted.

The police could get all this from other sources - but imagine going to a judge and saying "we can't prove the phone was stolen - so can we check all tax records for 10years in the hope of getting him for something else?"

But by getting a warrant for computers they have a fishing expedition for his whole life.
I don't know if really is size causing something to get lost. My guess would be that people really don't bother looking at anything beyond the front page.
Considering how complex it is to figure out what works and what doesn't in that lambda slot, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

I am a C++ programmer, and that's exactly the conclusion I came to regarding Boost's lambda. I use Boost's bind library all the time, though.

But! C++0x has real lambdas, so we won't have to resort to this trickery much longer.
This assumes that it's actually "the company" laying down this directive, which isn't clear from the post -- it could just as easily be something his manager came up with on his own.

Having said that, I wouldn't expend too much energy on trying to get them to change their minds...
This is wonderful. I've "been thinking" forever about trying to write a book to teach children (in particular) how to program in python. But among other problems, I had never come up with an approach that made sense. (That is, one that didn't start with something stupid like "data types".)

So, I really like the approach here, and I really like the tone.
It bothers the heck out of me that there is a corporate sponsored, multi-state police force out there (REACT) that jumps at their whim.

Apple is a high level advisor to REACT, serving on their steering committee. There is no coincidence here.

Just try getting that kind of personal law enforcement reaction if your cellphone was lost and then sold on craigslist.
I would actually. I honestly would. I'd evaluate what they have to say according to my own sense of what seems sensible and reasonable, but I'd listen to them. I'd listen to anyone. Maybe that's just me. I treat everybody as someone I can learn from. If nothing else, they have experiences I can learn from.

More generally, people are very happy to listen to people who aren't successful, but are trying hard to be, and sharing the wisdom they accumulate along the way. Plenty of great bloggers share just such wisdom. Steve Pavlina is a good example. He started off blogging what he learned, sharing his experiences (including his own low point in prison, if I recall rightly). Then he became successful, partly because of some very popular articles, but also because by the time he wrote those articles he already had a library of other good stuff for people to read and enjoy. He didn't lie to begin with to get people to listen. People listened because he wrote really great articles. (They've gone a bit odd and spiritual the last few years, but that's a different story).

Here's the advice: people listen to people who are passionate, who are trying hard, and who are honest, more than people who are 'successful' but none of these other things. Think I'm wrong? Try it both ways and see how far you get.
Arrogant: Someone who is arrogant behaves in a proud, unpleasant way towards other people because they believe that they are more important than others.

I wouldn't say that quote demonstrates arrogance, because the tone is matter-of-fact, not condescending or superior. I think word you're looking for is, perhaps, gauche.
I think that is correct with the caveat that the article assumes that Chen would be considered a journalist.

The article says that "Federal and California law both protect reporters against police searches aimed at uncovering confidential sources or seizing other information developed during newsgathering activities." The commentary discusses the author's opinion that Chen's equipment should not have been taken under sections of the Federal Privacy Protection Act and the California constitution designed to protect journalists. The article does not discuss whether Chen would be a journalist under those laws though it appears to tacitly assume that he would be.
> People who actually have been that successful tend not to be so bluntly, hideously arrogant about it.

...because they tend to be older, wiser, and more mature. People new into success can be kind of grating if you let it grate you, or you can just smile and be happy for them and understand they'll almost certainly grow to be a little more gracious and humble later. People only brag when they're still impressed with themselves about something and aren't taking it as a given. It can be grating if you let it, but it's probably better to just smile if someone is still really impressed with the money they made or winning a marksmanship competition or coding up their iPhone App or whatever.

> And they don't care if you're a millionaire.

Actually, people do care if you're a millionaire. Especially when you're giving business advice. Track record matters. A lot.
I believe so, yes. It needs to be part of the contract.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=809493
ARCO gas is negligibly cheaper and less convenient.

AM-PM hot dogs are considerable cheaper, and more convenient.
So a journalist may go to jail for breaking news over a technicality and a law that barely no one knows about and that never gets applies to anyone except when corporations are in the game. Great.
I think a bigger question is whether the warrant would have been issued/executed against his home if he didn't work from home. Somehow I doubt the DA would have had the balls to raid Gawker's offices over this.
Real-time server visualization with canvas and processing.js
Listening to the song now... http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Lust+for+Life/2C5QwY
I can verify that Infochimps has had this in the pipeline for well over a year. I met with Flip Kromer a long while ago and he was excited about it then.
Is it true that 80% of YC startups use Rails?
Journalists to Other Journalists: Call Out Windows
The only number I want to see from Android is app sales. Until then, it will always be second banana because nobody develops for a platform just because its users see a lot of AdMob ads.
Quite, but Gizmodo/Gawker are in the business of getting attention. It's not as if they normally toil in obscurity and suddenly found themselves singled out for publicity.
I agree with your general sentiment, as we've seen with HFCS, Margarine, etc.

However, I think this piece is something entirely different. It's not a salt substitute -- they're essentially increasing the surface area of the salt.
Fair enough, I'm largely talking about Gruber doing things like comparing Darbyshire unfavorably to a drunk character from the Simpsons when the analysis I've seen from people who actually practice and teach law for a living has been far more moderate in its assessment of whether Gawker's arguments will fly or not.

http://twitter.com/gruber/status/12909814399
I understand where you are coming from , i like the idea of what you guys are doing but i am not on Facebook and will not join FB to be able to comment on newstilt, hence my point about its not for me.
My diet soda already says "very low sodium" so why can't regular drinks also be very low?

Or is salt a preservative for the sugar drinks?
I wish there was a link to searchyc on HN, I don't feel like typing it in every time I need to search.
i just don't want to see and think about facebook's brand everywhere i go on the web. it's one thing to actively choose to post something to facebook, even if from another site...or retweet or digg etc. but that "like" thing ... there's no action there, or sharing of the thought of the user clicking. it's so banal, and so vague, that to see it spread to every site - keeping up with the joneses - just bums me out like seeing a gap show up on valencia street ...or somesuch.
MSG is an essential nutrient. Glutamate (the G in MSG) is a component of protein rich foods, which we absolutely need to survive.

That's why we have taste buds for it.
Provided Chen qualifies as a "journalist" under state law, as both criticisms regarding the issuing of the warrant were specific to journalists. (The criticisms regarding the way it was carried out are a separate issue.)

A link posted on HN the other day noted that, in the state of New Jersey, bloggers aren't considered journalists. Depending on context, editors may or may not be considered journalists. I don't know the relevant California state laws or court decisions.
I've had usb drives that looked like watches, cigarette lighters, flashlights, and even socks. My car has memory too.

There are whole computers now that look like wall wart power supplies for other devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_computer

They should probably (just to be on the safe side) confiscate all personal property, even for the most limited of warrants, juuust in case it might have some flash in it somewhere. I'm trying to think of a reason to grab all of the money in their bank accounts too, in case there's some hidden code in the account numbers and quantities as well...
Cloudkick (YC W09) visualization with canvas and processing.js
Good move for Discover, making it harder to support one of the least popular card types. Real smart business move.
IANAL but I don't think they can compel you to give your truecrypt passwords as they're in your head. There was an ongoing court case (involving child pornography) about this topic.
More than any added fancy gradient, shadow, etc. property, I look forward to progress on the CSS syntax. Supposedly it is so simple as to allow non-programmers to use it, but I honestly have never met a non-programmer who found CSS easy to use. It would be nice if we can keep the old syntax around, but have shortcuts like these added for those who wanted to use them.
>Comcast tried to block bit torrent connections

That's exactly the sort of thing that is fine with me. Bit torrent isn't http traffic. Comcast also blocks port 25... It's their network, and I simply go around it anyway.

If Comcast does end up blocking torrents on their network, perhaps my connection will be faster and/or cheaper for it. Torrent fans can go to another provider, it's called choice.

This isn't a case of favoring one website over another, it's about blocking non-http traffic vs a totally open network. If they blocked youtube, then I'd be looking for another provider, but they're not going to do that.
Apple reported iPhone 4G stolen, not lost
Do you have any sort of specific criteria for what is considered a journalist? It seems like the discussion here tends to equate journalists with reporters and then speculate to what extent Chen should be considered a reporter. The problem is that reporters are actually a proper subset of journalists.
> "A true friend is discerned during an uncertain matter"

--Cicero
This analysis hinges on some large assumptions.

First, Chen must be considered a professional journalist, and securing journalist protections for bloggers seems to be actively pursued by the EFF (a conflict of interest to keep in mind).

Second, he must not have directly committed a crime himself, and receiving stolen goods is a crime. The claim that this was "lost" property may be the argument of the defense, but any case based on this seizure will surely claim that the phone was stolen. The evidence will be searched to determine Chen's knowledge of the phone's procurement.
Play with java and scala web apps
I'm beginning to have some doubts:

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=pinksoda
This is assuming you keep unencrypted stuff on the cloud. If you're TrueCrypting your entire drive, you probably won't leave anything unencrypted elsewhere unless it's totally innocuous.
The only point I was trying to make, which may have been missed, is that it's much easier to keep what you're doing anonymous than it has been in the past, by:

1 - using encrypted volumes
2 - putting stuff in the cloud (encrypted where possible)
3 - using the anonymous browsing mode (which most popular browsers support)
Several sites that rank in Alexa's Top 50 and Top 500. I'm not sure if I want to reveal them at this point, for various reasons.
My comment was not scientific, but it served to counter-balance the lack of hypothesis from the other comments at the time, where basically nobody read more into it and the consensus was "oh well, shit happens". Sure, it's from my personal bias / experience - but all I was saying is that nobody pointed out that there's a strong likelihood / probability that <hypothesis> the girl had some issues </hypothesis> - which could <hypothesis> be independent of the whole startup drama </hypothesis> to begin with.

So "girl ran of with my co-founder" without any analysis on the girl herself, only serves to sensationalize the startup drama more, as opposed to asking "did the drama have anything to do with girl running off with co-founder, or vice versa"

And my tangential point to the post about the startup drama is, aside from watching out for the co-founder dynamics gotchas / pot holes, watch out for girls with issues. Hypothetically, what I'm also saying is, if you were the other co-founder (the one that "got the girl"), don't be too quick to think you've won everything (meaning, you may not want that girl). The statement that you just read is also a hypothesis, just in case.

http://blog.daryn.net/post/32264049/paul-buchheit-limited-li...

I can't edit the comment I originally posted - by I now wish I started it with, "anybody who's been burned like this before knows exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, feel free to pooh pooh my comment and disregard - I apologize for wasting your time."

p.s. the remark I made about this being a pattern can be argued that it's not just a personal bias - if there's anyone who's familiar with family therapy / psychiatry here - you'll know what I'm talking about.
Past 200 it doesn't matter. There is no extra functionality that gets enabled, so it only is an odometer telling you how much work you could have done.
The nice thing is, unlike what we've done with many other things, we're not substituting something even less healthy for the problem we're trying to cure. (ie. margarine full of transfats for butter, HFCS for sugar.)

It's just getting the same taste benefit with less sodium. Pretty much win-win (assuming it's not costly).
EFF is biased too.
Even then, I think TrueCrypt lets you create a second volume within the initial volume, and leaves no trace that the second volume even exists.
No more than we must conclude two HN comments from different posters represent yCombinator's corporate viewpoint.
IANAL but have you considered operating under a pseudonym? How hard could it be to do open-source iPhone development that way? After all, _why was one of the most prolific open-source coders of a generation, and his identity is, AFAIK, unknown.
As I said, chess is a beautiful game - but I can totally understand why players are deciding not to devote their life to the study of the game, when computers are much better.
I think instead of your running analogy, it is more similar to devoting your life to the study of tic-tac-toe. Or even checkers, which computers have already solved.
Yeah Wall Street's been using sneaky 'algos' for a few years now. They are quite lucrative apparently.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_16/b3929113_...

To answer to person posting the topic, I've seen web design (not programming) in a large, well-established (non-investment) bank. It was laughable. To use the term in this context is an insult to the profession. Those with IT skills certainly weren't given any special status.

Another guy on my team was able to demonstrate that by the bank's IT unit embedding Google JavaScript into the bank's homepage, he could exploit this into showing a competitors homepage over the original one. Absolute joke. He got torn a new asshole for not going through "the proper channels."
Powell doesn't "admit" that he was drunk, or that he left the phone at the bar, at any point in that story.
Researchers Probe Whether, Why, 'Free Will' Exists
yeah agreed

1, His latest "website" is using a gmail account for his old website talkburst@gmail.com....you'd think a millionaire entrepreneur would have his own email account

2. His old website only has a PR of 1 and doesn't even rank for it's own name on Google.

3. No other sites that he is connected with
Deadly New Russian Weapon Hides In Shipping Container