skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
First of all, this is terribly hard to decipher with only one side of the story present (although it seems you have a presented a reasonably unbiased argument). But in my opinion if the idea is truly worth what you think it is I would consider a proposition to start out 50/50 and as revenue comes into the company he will have the option to buy out your equity (only up to his requested 60/40) at x number of dollars per share.

This ensures for him that he will get that ownership he wants, and although you will ultimately end up with less in the end if the company is a huge success being the technical founder of any startup leaves many more doors open for your future in the end. And the possibility that it will not succeed entirely yet you would still get a (presumably) significant amount of money from the initial windfall would seem like a win/win to me.

Again, that is just IMHO so take it for what its worth, but as someone who has out significant amount of time into several projects and seen some pay off both big and small that is an awful lot of time to just let it go to waste.

That said, whatever you do, do NOT agree to go separate ways AND sign a NDA. The situation you are in now holds up much better in a suit than one where you sign an NDA then decide to launch any way. With one man's word against another it is hard to decipher how that lawsuit would turn out, but I am willing to bet it is significantly more likely to be better for you without that particular paper trail.
I also don't have 20 karma, but brian.ww.com CNAME briancloutier.com would be amazing if you could. Thanks for your generosity!
I didn't missed the point of the article, its always the same iSheeps posting about every time steve jobs farts, retards.
Apple level of standars? a glass phone that you cant browse or make calls when you hold it "wrong" ?
Well, this is less like evil science and more like evil engineering. The idea that certain types of knowledge should not be pursued is controversial, but the idea that certain types of things should not be built is less so.

There is a scene in the Simpsons where Professor Frink shows off his death ray prototype and is forced to admit that "Well, to be honest, the ray only has evil applications..." This is one of those things, like a poisoned candy bar or a combination baby-rattle-mini-chainsaw, that only has evil applications. It should not be built (not the same thing as saying that you shouldn't be allowed to build it, btw), and if you build it you bear a partial moral (not necessarily legal) responsibility for its use which can't be waved away by saying "I am not responsible for evil uses".
Could I have drew -> www.drewtaylor.com? Thanks a ton!
Pennsylvania Lottery - Benefits Older Pennsylvanians. Every Day.
I'll agree with the common sentiment that Carlos Slim's general advice is worthless.

But, I think he's on to something here. From the article:

It is the 21st century billionaire version of the old adage, “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime

I think all he's saying is that one can't throw money at problems and expect them to be fixed. That's an opinion I'll agree with.

If we want to spend money and give to charities, that's valid...but if we're really looking for long-term fixes (see: ending poverty, world hunger, etc) then that's not the way to go about it. We'd need to really create a system behind the charities; when you give money, that should go into investing for the future and creating future solutions to fix problems, rather than simply repairing something in the now and here.

Look at natural disasters. A typhoon occurs and the world pitches in and sends hundreds of millions to the troubled country. That's fine. But what we tend to forget a month after the hurricane is that the reason the countries got hit so hard might just be because of poor infrastructure or inadequate technology or systems. Those things still stay in place long after the world sends money; if they tragically get hit again, nothing has changed and the world will (yet again) be expected to simply send more money.

My favorite example of "throwing money at a problem" is something that happened a few years ago:

Some clothing company (Gap, I think, but I'm not 100% sure) had a huge surplus one year that they decided to give away to some village/s in an impoverished South Asian country. All they did was take their extra clothes [money] and throw it at the problem of horrible poverty in the place.

What ended up happening? It was an amazing two year fix. The clothes were so much (in quantity) that they lasted for a few years before running out. During that time, the fact that Gap sent all these free clothes made the entire industry that used to make clothes for these parts go out of business. At the end of the two years, they were in a position that's worse off than what they were a few years back. No local clothes makers; no free Gap.

"Charity doesn't solve anything" might be a bit strong. But he's on to something. Throwing money at a problem doesn't fix anything in the long-term; the way to do it is to invest in the future, not throw money at the present.

Just my (albeit a bit long) $0.02
I can understand trying to write it. I can understand announcing that you succeeded. But releasing it crosses over the line in my opinion. I'm on my phone so the forum link isn't working. Did he actually release it?
The blog post mentions how he fixes the issue (at least for repeated runs)
Hey Brian,

Ok, you've got it.
Cool, thankyou!

timf.ww.com -> www.peakscale.com
If he had a business, instead of "99% complete and ready to launch", you might think about offering him more optimistic advice. Diving headfirst into the drama swamps with no users up front seems like a bad business call.
>so I'll grant you the point

Nice verbiage. You should definitely try politics - you appear to accede graciously whilst acceding to something completely ridiculous thus belying your contempt of the result of the argument. I don't want your offered point, I'll take my sensible one instead. Thanks.
Yes, that one was in use until 2003 so I think the old owner won't mind too much :)
Yeah, it's existed for quite some time (over a year.)
Hey Tim, you've got it.
It's not just Apple that does this (with great effect).

Look at things like the Nintendo DSi, which is being released in a range of new colors. Simply adding a few different colors to a device means a big surge in orders I'm sure.

But yeah, I don't really care if the iPhone is black or white too much.
If you don't mind, could I have zoink.ww.com point to zoink.com? Thanks!!
That one is free, so that's yours now.
Then don't be "excited". However, it's douchey to mock others' work just because they're not on your timetable.
What do you mean by lack of support for naked domains? You can host your AppEngine app at yourdomain.com via Google Apps, as described here: http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/domain.html

I haven't heard of any limitations on using custom domains for commercial use, cf. http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/browse_threa...
Some people can't see beyond their own bullshit. Welcome to your reality.
> minimal savings

For me this isn't about saving money, it's about load time.
duncanspencer.ww.com -> duncanspencer.com (174.133.21.104/web74.webfaction.com)

I Appreciate it.
Too bad Baydin is moving to Cali. I learned a lot from the public pitch they did a few weeks ago at Capitalize. Guess the pitch was good practice for the west coast. :)

Wish these guys good luck in SV.
It was a question. I didn't imply anything, I said straight out it was not meant to be disparaging. And it has nothing to do with sitting around twiddling thumbs at Microsoft, it has to do with cultural fit - the guy has not worked anywhere else, at all. So easy with the 'doing things for me', much as the thought is appreciated.
Agreed. Along the same lines, Halting State by Charles Stross.
I would love to accept it, would you like to trade for Rework, Just for Fun, Getting Real, or any of my numerous books on Java/Linux/C/Game development/AI/3D game development?
Top Spirits to Sneak Into a Football Game in Your Flask
Folksy Update From Carol Bartz, Massive Outage Relegated to “PS”
You think we would have worse computer hardware now (for the price) if Microsoft had been less successful? Why do you think that? I don't believe that without MS/Intel we'd have only a bunch of Apple-model hardware manufacturers.
I'd love Code Complete, however I have no web dev books, anything in graphics or AI interest you?
Very cool offer - thank you. I'm probably begging for a karma hit here, but any chance I could get seo.ww.com? It resolves, but you mentioned that many accounts are abandoned, so figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

CNAME to 8020seo.com if possible - thanks!

Added note: site is still under construction at the moment, but is a web service company and will be not at all spammy.
Oh, you're right. Shame on me there for not looking carefully enough.
I had to sound out Snapalytics the first time, but other than that I like it.

AppThrob sounds like it'd be better for an app review website. "AppThrob, Apps You Love".
That one is free, so that was easy :)
Congrats! Does this hardware work with more meter types than the beta hardware? My meter was not one of those that it initially worked with, so I sent in a picture of it, and I would very much like to get this working.
Your email is not visible to others unless you list it again in your "about" section.
Haha should have checked my bad.
There are two places you can put your email. Put it in both if you want it to show up to others.
Very cool, zack.ww.com ==> hm.zackham.com?

Thank you!
Best startup alternative to MS project?
i've seen some great posts w/ tools other HN people have used for their startups.

at my startup, we're currently trying to scope out and schedule resources for a really big project coming up. i've used MS project in the past, but would like to move on from it since i'm on a mac now.

any recommendations?

thanks in advance!
You're getting downmodded because of that last sentence.

With regards to the non-silly part of your argument: I actually agree with everything but the last sentence of your first graf. The poster here has "a good case". Would probably even win. The problem is: if the "other founder" wants to, he can trivially drag this out over ~18 months. During that time period:

* The business is going to suffer as this guy wades through pointless legal drama

* He's going to hemorrhage money --- money that could be plowed into company development --- on legal fees

* Under normal circumstances, nobody is going to consider investing in a company that is embroiled in legal drama over its ownership

* Even if he gets a favorable outcome in court (the odds favor this outcome but do not strictly require it), he'll probably still end up conceding some degree of ownership

He's been dealt 7 - 2. He's paid the blind. I'm saying that going all in on 7 - 2 is a stupid play. If he invests 18 months in developing a new company, his odds are almost certainly better.

He doesn't have to let the other guy "win"; he has the same axe hovering over the other guy's neck. The business is tainted; maybe they can do a buyout, but otherwise, they're both going to have to walk.
i own a couple that haven't gone anywhere, currently i used them to teach myself various things (PHP, JQuery, etc.)

post2coast.com/posttocoast.com - was supposed to be a local site for rentals or classifieds

groovenine.com - for a buddy who likes house music, not much going on there right now

nostradumbus.com - currently teaching myself PHP on this one, i hope to set up something like onesentence.org, but for predictions of the future.

chugandgrub.com - hope to set up some kind of happy- hour/dinner/lunch/breakfast notification system
The opening words of Strunk & White were never more applicable: vigorous writing is concise.

Keep it short and to the point. Test it on readers. Do they understand? Great writing is produced by great editing. An iterative process.

The $10-15k comment sounds wacky to me. You can hire a decent editor off your local craigslist for 25-50 an hour. But you probably need to bring it in-house; you'll need to pivot your prose points pretty phrequently.

PS:

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=the+element...
I would think that would lead to the OP being sidelined completely and screwed out of his 40% after a while anyway.

If you can't get to an agreement based on a 1200 hour chunk of input then you have a problem. No point in going further with this person.
Ask HN: Is a security focused Android App Market a good idea?
One of the major concerns for one of my iPhone friends who I am trying to convert to Android is the security that comes from the more open platform, and I explained the current security level.

So I began considering the idea of an App market that is heavily security focused. Each app is auto-reviewed by a system which looks for obvious threats to security. Then there would also be paid app-reviewers who go into the code and trace, explore, etc.

App inclusion in the market would be based off submissions by app authors, it would include a questionnaire (like the apple market), as well as an application fee (once per application, no matter number of rejections) etc. This is a clearly defined system, the apps permitted in this market are only "apps" and not "games" and no wallpapers, etc.

Customers would be able to subscribe to it and have access to the reviews, as well as subscribe to reviews by various reviewers.

So - what do you guys think? Is this feasible? Is there a business in this idea?
Anti-pattern
Of the two choices, Id go with the Snapalytics.

How about using the word fever instead of throb? Or perhaps incorporating the suffix -ality or -ity to represent "the state of" the app?
Depending on what state you live in, your apartment building is required to give you access to the meter that measures your apartment (to verify that you're getting charged correctly). If you ask nicely you might be able to convince your landlord to let you hang one of these (especially if the meter is indoors). I proposed such a thing to my landlord and they were interested in knowing more.
Tough to say. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't have ended up with a market fragmented between Apple, Commodore, Atari, IBM, TI, Sinclair, Radio Shack, and twenty other companies all selling essentially similar hardware with mutually quirky chipsets and incompatible OSes.

That's certainly an accurate portrayal of the state of things in the era before MS-DOS. What would be some arguments to the contrary?
I need a plane.

I've a door that sticks, the hinges haven't moved, it seems the door has swelled or warped somehow. I can't trim it with the jigsaw, it's too fine a cut. Hammer and chisel is too rough, I'm not a carpenter by a long stretch. I could sand it for a couple of hours but again it wouldn't be straight and even.

Any suggestions that avoid me buying a plane for this one job?
I've had some success with Tracks - http://www.getontracks.org/ You can even get a turnkeylinux version with it and run it ASAP in VM http://www.turnkeylinux.org/tracks (that's how I run it). Sure, it's not MS Project, but I like it.
george.ww.com looks taken, but perhaps abandoned? If so, I'd love to have it point to georgehuger.com

If that's not possible, qeorge.ww.com -> georgehuger.com would be cool too.

Thanks, jacques!
Just to round it out...

There is also the logical fallacy known as "Appeal to Authority" in @maxawaytoolong's comment.

But we should not be logic nazis I suppose.

My own opinion is that both Slim and Gates can be right at the same time. Lots of businesses provide for lots of people...but not all.
Ok, my $0.02:

Take your code, rip out the front end and the design, keep the back end and any business logic. Stick a new face on it and find a niche not directly related to your original target and pivot with yourself as the 100% owner of the new project.

Your co-founder at this point contributed nothing but the idea, let him take his idea and reboot with someone else but reserve the right to use your code for projects not related to the market he wants to go after.

Make up a document that details the split and have an independent party witness the agreement and give a copy of the contract to your co-founder.

In dutch we call this an 'akte van finale kwijting', I have no idea what it's called in your jurisdiction but supposedly your friendly neighbourhood Grellas will be able to tell you and probably has a boilerplate piece of text for you.

It shouldn't cost you more than a few hundred bucks.

After that you both walk away with your original contribution.

best of luck.
> This comment makes no sense

I think tptacek is correct concerning the legal issues here. In any case, I didn't say the "friend" would prevail in his claim that the OP was an employee of his LLC, nor that he wouldn't suffer unintended consequences as a result of making the claim.
Funny, I didn't realize yahoo was down (had a busy week, minimal time to get online). How was the yahoo outage coverage compared to say, Twitter?

As the article implies, her spin on this is HUGE.
That comment is in response to the parent comment's worry of "being trapped". By definition, Distributed Version Control solves the "being trapped problem" by being distributed.
Except when they are out of stock, the N1 has always been available in the developer store.
Oracle to Buy Out The Virtualization Market Leader EMC & VMware
First thing that comes to my mind when I read AppThrob is male genitalia. Snapalytics sounds great tho!
I was thinking it was fallacy friday too.

I think when people debate things like Charity, they take leave of logic.
It's been idle since 2004, so it's yours now.
The sales guys would agree that reliability and scalability affect

1) The ability to take on new business (a big problem if you're kicking ass and growing fast.)

2) The cost of delivering service to those customers.

3) The ability to deliver new features because developers aren't spending their time fixing existing ones or helping operations fight fires caused by the existing ones.

Sales will agree about all of that. However, when it comes time to argue over priorities, they'll fight tooth and nail to get resources devoted to new development instead of scalability and reliability -- until stuff is broken, customers are angry, and their reputation is going into the toilet. At that point they'll rightly pin the blame on you, though. They want you to be responsible and do your job. They just won't reward you for it with "visibility."

Actually, the best way to get sales guys on the side of reliability and scalability is when they're told to stop selling a product because your systems or operations staff can barely support currently provisioned customers, but good luck making that happen without having a report of SLA penalties already paid and a convincing projection of large penalties in the future. Also, at that point, you'll already have signed or nearly-signed deals that haven't been deployed yet.

So if you just go along with the sales guys, they'll drive you into a freakin' ditch. The sales guys do not have a balanced view of the business any more than the developers do. Everybody has to contribute their piece of the picture and fight for the priorities that they understand.

When the engineers stop sticking up for what they understand better than anybody else, things get out of balance, your technical assets start to crumble, and eventually you're technically bankrupt. But throwing engineering priorities under the boat and doing anything necessary to please the sales guys in the short term can make you very popular. "Visibility" means making people who drive revenue happy, and abdicating your responsibility to deliver bad news is the easiest way to achieve it.

But the worst aspect of "visibility" is that from outside engineering, the applications that are chronically broken are perceived as the vital core of ongoing feature development, and the developers who work on those applications get the most visibility. If you asked a sales guy to write a list of the most valuable developers in the company, that's who they would name. Can you imagine a more perverse incentive?
I was wondering whether the sugar number included things like high-fructose corn syrup and the like and indeed it does. From the source "All forms of sugar and sweeteners, expressed in kilograms per capita per year."
photos and img are both free, you can have either one.
> It wasn't the normal people who paid 400k for some lawyers. That was the bank's legal fee.

I realise that it's the big organisation fees we're talking about, but please understand that even here in the UK, it is not automatic that the loser pays, it is just the default result most of the time. Please see my other post.

> So if you have loser pays, and you're a megacorp, spending 6-figures defending every lawsuit becomes a great move.

Only if you permit unlimited and arbitrarily disproportionate costs. No-one says you have to do that, even if you require or default to the loser paying.
At least nintendo doesnt make defective overpriced products and then lie to its costumers about it.
Neither do blogs owned by fanboys report any move that apple makes like a "revolution", OMFG A PHONE WITH A CAMERA TO MAKE VIDEOCALLS FUCK YESSS IS THE NEXT BIG THING A REVOLUTIONNNNNNNNN!!!! AND OVER WIFIIIIIII OMFG YESSS IM WET RIGHT NOW OH STEVE JOBS I WANT YOU INSIDE ME
Jacquesm, I'm intrigued are you thinking this will give you domain authority (in SEO terms)? I can well imagine it would with a links in coming from these users.

I'm not at all saying this is a bad thing, you're giving away a free service, just wondered if it was part of your considerations.
the.ww.com => w-ll.org
Dank vriend, goede karma aan u!
I'd like 'tst.ww.com' but I can't tell if it's free (seems parked/squatted, but maybe not). My domain is www.tstw.co.uk - don't know my dns off hand but can find it if needed & will email you this post.
Sure he could be sidelined if the paperwork is poorly drafted, it would all depend on how strong that 40% agreement is.

Really if he wants to get something for all that work, 40% of a project that exists is better than 50% of one that doesn't. Yes it sucks, but it is better than walking away. Whatever he does, I think the OP needs to paper up in a way to ensure the partner cannot dilute the OP at a greater rate than himself.
I'd love to have bqb.ww.com -> bitquabit.com
At Columbia there are numerous women in the mathematics department. They do not seem to be doing any worse than their male peers at handling complex work. I'm inclined to say that women probably aren't interested in formal systems in exactly the same way as men, but that lack of interest doesn't somehow mean they can't handle it or find their own way to it.
Was wondering what would happen to Yehuda's Jquery involvement when joining the SproutCore team, see: http://yehudakatz.com/2010/09/14/heres-to-the-next-3-years/

I guess this is the answer! :-)
Two weeks ago I gave up all forms of sugary drinks and cut down my calorie intake to under 2000 a day.

It's amazing how much better I feel.
You're spot on with your hammer comments. In my experience, people who have trouble with hammers are swinging from the elbow or wrist, rather than the shoulder. For optimal hammering, hold the handle as far down as you can, and put your index finger along the spine. It's satisfying to drive 12d nails!

I highly recommend Estwing hammers. (http://www.estwing.com/product.php?product_id=400) The 16" 22oz. drives like a 2x4 was built of butter!