skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The things the parties champion are what they can always most easily intrude upon because their bases ignore it (they buy the jargon and assume their party stands for what they claim).

For example, it wasn't Clinton that doubled the size of the government, it was Bush and Reagan both. It was the Bush spending increases that have really sanctioned Obama's spending increases. Bush would say he was for lower taxes, but his spending forces long term tax rates to skyrocket.

But it was Clinton that set new records on pot busts. It was the Democrats that tried to restrict freedom of speech with the fairness doctrine (nice name). The Democrats have had no problem with the Patriot Act thus far. It was a supposedly civil liberties loving President that just wiped out habeas corpus and the right to due process (NDAA bill).

The Democrats champion civil liberties and hammer you on them all day long. The Republicans champion free markets, yet they've acted the like the anti-free-market party (including creating the Federal Reserve in secret).
I'd love to see how much the RIAA/MPAA claim that megaupload was costing them in piracy. Surely we'll see that money just come flying in now that megaupload has been shut down?
The suicide rate for Foxconn workers is actually less than China at large which is telling about how life is over there for most people.
I wonder how he tests for IE related issues
Ask HN: Cybersquatting a startup domain, how to protect?
I'm the founder of a small Italian startup. In 2010 we developed a simple web app called http://urli.st/, in 2011 we got founded and we established a company (an italian SRL, similar to an American LLC). We worked a lot on the new webapp and we are almost ready to deploy it.

In 2010 the guy who owns urlist.com wrote me to "put the two together in some manner" (his domain was empty), I answered "no", he published on his domain a fake urlist page with our "about" in it. Now urlist.com il just a redirect to his "personal" delicious page.

It would be great for us to have the urlist.com domain but I don't know how much the guy will charge us. We do not have much money. I just do not want urlist.com to redirect to a delicious page.

Is there anything we can do to protect us?
It's interesting to revisit events like this in the present-day US. One can only wonder what sort of change might take place if rather than giving up 50% of what we make, we were allowed to reinvest it into our homes, businesses, and communities. Perhaps states like Texas and New Hampshire could be held up as the poster-children for a new direction in US policy? Unlikely, but one can dream, I suppose.
> 5. Any tips on where to find a great freelance designer for a startup logo?

Most designers these days seem to hang on http://dribbble.com/. That's a good way to find people.

I also looked for blog posts like this one about "logo designers you should follow on twitter", by a fellow logo designer:

http://www.brandclay.com/blog/people-you-have-to-be-followin...

Just go through people's portfolios and find work that you like.

For the record, my logo was done by http://www.tywilkins.com/
Is it just me, or is the petition broken in Chrome? It wouldn't enable the "Sign this Petition" button even when the footer said I was logged in. Safari worked, but they bound the "enter" key so that it reloads the page without actually logging you in. Thus one must click on the button. blergh.
The usual assumption about politicians and lawmaking goes something like this:

A lawmaker receives large contributions from certain moneyed groups with an agenda, and will introduce legislation favorable to that group. The only way to prevent this from happening is to either contribute more money to the opposing side or more directly by ensuring that passage of the legislation will anger so much of the populace that no amount of money will save the incumbent come election time.

That doesn't seem to make sense in this case. The same technologically clueless people who introduced SOPA aren't of their own accord going to decide that ISP's need to keep a year of DHCP logs in case that information is useful later.

It looks like the only entity to benefit from this would be the U.S. Attorney General, as it ostensibly will prevent the circumstance where the evidence of a case hinges on tying a person/household to an IP address but the logs are missing or overwritten.

Creepy. If this involved real-world monitoring and logging it would be the biggest news story of the day, but since it's the Internet it's just tech stuff.
"I may have ripped an AVI from a legit DVD"

Ripping a DVD is, I believe, a criminal act in the US and a number of other countries (including the UK).

http://www.audiostream.com/content/ripping-crime
The scary part is that I don't imagine any politician actually wanting this.

Or am I just too naive?
Obama's State of the Union: Jobs, re-election time
Turning Javascript off (or at least manually whitelisting via NoScript) also can give a quite big performance boost, by simply turning off many useless effects.

Making CPU-hungry CSS3 kind of defeats that purpose, of course.
"There's a downside in that PLoS journals tend to ask for contributions from publishing authors to help cover costs."

If you look at libraries and academics (and their expenses) under the umbrella of the university as a whole, I have to wonder (and have no way of knowing) what the totals costs to the university would be, in comparing:

- The current model where the library (university) pays large money for publications they don't want.

- The possible model where the journals are free to the world, and the university pays the donation or fee for publication of specific papers.
The tech industry is harmed by piracy a zillion times greater than Hollywood ever has been or ever could be. Microsoft alone is pirated more than Hollywood in dollar terms. Yet the tech industry hasn't spent the last ten years trying to get vile bills like this passed. It's clearly because Hollywood is in trouble that they're scrambling. Same thing the recording industry did when they saw their own tombstone. Unfortunately Hollywood is even more powerful.
You can either buy the .com or not worry about it.

By starting your company with a .st domain, you were making an implied statement that you weren't concerned with being mistaken for the .com version of your site. You were always going to leak a substantial portion of your traffic to urlist.com because that's the first thing anybody would think to type in to their browser when they heard your name. That's the world you set up for yourself.

Until this guy wrote you, you were (presumably) perfectly happy with that situation. Why then is it a concern today? That is, why is it suddenly worrying you that you don't control urlist.com, when it was never your intention to control it?
I know what you're talking about. But you know, the real problem is human nature, and its selfishness and greed. It's those two that cause all of the problems you've listed. Basically, human nature is an intractable problem.
As a side note, Google Plus is clearly still in beta - the page crashes using Safari on my iPad.
When a 10% corporate tax and 10% income taxes for individuals were introduced in Bulgaria, government ministries and agencies started increasing their indirect taxes to balance their budgets. Suddenly if you are running a business you'll have to pay weird registration fees and if you are fined the fine will be huge too.

Also, If everyone paid 15% (in total) I doubt it would appear fair. Wealthier people may benefit more from government policy, why should they pay the same amount?

A low flat tax rate isn't realistic. Maybe if it was higher it might have worked, but you'll have to have welfare spending to offset taxing people into poverty. Which practically the same as having a progressive tax rate in the end.
And based on my reading of the terms, you're likely free to sell that PDF anywhere you want (and likely the standard epub output also). What it looks like is Apple took the epub3 format and added some simple modifications to make it do the iBooks interactivity. Those modifications is what they don't want other stores selling, ie a Kindle update that works with Apples iBook format.

My guess is there will be some clarification from Apple if there hasn't been already.
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Catching predators is (still) a matter of law enforcement (and IMHO that's a useful safeguard, even if flawed in some instances).

Providing law enforcement with better tools might be a worthwhile geek venture (and given the tools they are sold by megacorps, "better" might not even be hard), but with the existing procurement rules (etc etc) it's probably hard for a startup to enter that market.

Alternative route: Build tools to optimize other public office work, and then use the political process to request that freed money (and headcount) is retargetted to supporting the police ("think of the children!").
While there is still a procurement problem, there might be areas covered in less red tape than police work.
They're not scrutinized at the border.
Quote from the article:

>because SoundScan data is markedly incomplete when it comes to the releases by indie artists who have benefited most from the rise of digital distribution.

And that, right there, is the actual reason for the push by the big media giants. Piracy is simply the straw man used to get what they want past an unsuspecting public. What they fear most is the ability of the internet to allow artists to create and then __distribute__ without needing them (the existing media giants) to be gatekeepers and middlemen collecting their share of the revenue along the way.

Watch this (14 minutes): http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/defend_our_freedom_to_share...

What they fear most is that you, the little guy, will be creative and distribute your creativity without involving them as the middlemen.
Joel, why don't you and other Internet personalities start something and we all will join. Setup a website, get donation from every developer, hire lobbyists or whatever is needed. You and people you know have the reach and get things in motion. We will follow the lead.
I would much rather see a completely consumption based tax system. The mortgage interest and charity reductions could easily be left in.
Mr.Rao, I don't know about your interest in Zoho. There is no lie in what I had said. You will not understand the feelings until you are one among them or gone through the same. This has affected the morale and overall performance.
I agree that there are other means to share the wealth, has it really happened at Zoho?, you need to understand that the compensation at Zoho is at par or less with other technology companies in India. In fact services companies has better perks and onsite opportunities to make quick money and they too have stock options. People at CTS or Infosys with 10+ exp. are millionaires. Facebook has 24% for employees.

You need to understand that for any organisation for long term success and to be world class, one need to have people who has enthusiasm, hope and imagination to live a prosperous life and can do anything for his/her leader and not those who just stick around because they are forced for survival with shattered dreams. People needs to have immense faith (it was thus far) in its leader for any organisation for long term successes. We live in a capitalistic world and money plays a important role in every way, you understand it and so Mr.vembu. And I am really doubtful, if monkeys can bring all successes which Zoho can but happy people do.
I think the issue is getting them to look under the rug to see what has been swept under there. That's the reason why an investigation is needed.

You don't lobby that much money over that length of time without breaking a zillion laws. As it is, nobody has wanted to look because it's obvious what will be found. Hollywood has probably broken a lot of laws; far more than Megaupload ever did I'd wager.
> Umm no, they were arrested in New Zealand by New Zealand authorities.

At the behest of the US entertainment industry.
> Industry bodies complain that their companies are 'losing' money. That is a nonsensical use of the word 'losing'. What they mean is they are not making as much as they think they should.

The above is such an important point that I felt it deserved it's own quote. The "loss" put forth by the entrenched media is not a "loss". Unfortunately, not enough people recognize their slight of hand in calling piracy a "loss"
Solution: Encrypted data is indistinguishable from random data. Use TrueCrypt (or similar) hidden volumes: http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume
Why is Snooki trying to sell me headphones?
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi (http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2776)

SPOA/PIPA seem to very firmly place the tech world into the "then they fight you" arena.
TrueCrypt hidden volumes are one solution: http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume
Yeah, it's right up there with _Soul of a New Machine_, as far as I'm concerned.
Here you are supposed to give up commercial exclusivity merely for the ability to use a piece of software. And there really isn't anything special or expensive about that software either, there are plenty of free ebook creation software options.

Then USE THOSE. The only exclusivity you give is of the file output you made with that software.

Not of your literary work itself.
Wouldn't a flat tax with a nice high threshold be as non-regressive as you could get? Say X% of everything you make over $30k? Poor people pay roughly zero. Rich people like us pay almost exactly X%.

Sorted.

Extra points if the government looks at everybody's W-2s & 1099s, decides how much it needs and calculates an X accordingly for that year. Then sends me a bill.
"He was not born poor; he had a forest full of food. The police made him poor."

No, the forest is NOT full of food all year long. The roman empire knew that people in the forest will go down to the cities several times a year to loot the agriculture and cattle raising people because they STARVED(they will have too much food in spring, nothing in winter), so they will force this people to settle.

That was more than 2000 years old. Now human population is x600 bigger, and there is no way forest could sustain all of us without artificial fertilizers, and land planning.

"Note that the superrich or even the middle class are not born in poverty. Rather they are born with silver spoons in their mouth. How is that justice? These wealthy families then engage in nepotism to ensure the wealth of their offspring at the expense of the poor. This is deeply unmeritocratic and is injustice. "

This is deeply meritocratic, if I'm the best at something and make enough money I decide witch person or people receive the money, including my descendants, especially when I already pay over 60% of what I earn in taxes so other people could have opportunities.
$115 per day per person? wtf I spend about 20 eur / day for food, I cant believe prices are sooo much higher in the valley.
2012 Official Countdown
Yeah, and they still can get their text out of the program, and format it again in some other program.

Nobody demands or will demand the literary rights of the content of people writing primarily in iBooks Author.

Just that they don't use the output file of that program for selling it elsewhere.
Fred Wilson chooses non representative numbers to make his point: But there is a bigger issue here and that is whether it is good policy for someone of Mitt Romney's or my wealth to pay a lower tax rate than the average hard working american citizen.

Mitt Romney and Fred Wilson are atypical cases.

The bottom quintile pays 4.3% of income in tax, assuming they have any income. The middle quintile pays 14.2%, the nation as a whole pays 20.7%, and the top quintile pays 25.8%. The top 1% pays 31.2% [1].

The difference between the CBO and Fred Wilson's analysis is corporate income taxes.

Suppose Fred Wilson buys 1 share of twitter worth $100. Twitter then makes $10 of profits, which it does not distributed as dividends [2]. This is taxed at the rate of 15-35%, so twitters balance sheet expands by $8.5/share, i.e. Fred Wilson's 1 share is now worth $108.5. He then sells, and pays 15% cap gains, earning back $107.22. To me that looks like a 27.8% tax rate.

So yeah, go ahead and tax cap gains at individual income rates. But eliminate the corporate income tax while you are at it.

[1] http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10068/effective_tax_rate...

http://www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/tax/2010/graphic... (Graphs are for 2007 data, not 2006 data. Not much difference though.)

[2] Dividends are taxed at individual income tax rates, except sometimes.
I think the key takeaway here is that complexity is a completely different thing than policy.

We've had all sorts of politicians make all kinds of great speeches about various policies to implement with the tax code.

All that got us was a complex mess. Inside that mess was a lot of corruption paid for by lobbiests. You can hide a lot of cronyism in a tax code. I think no matter what you want the tax system to do, as technologists we can ask you to make it do that in a very simple, understandable way. So I support a flat tax, but not because it's "fair." I care about structure, I don't care about fair. Make it understandable, and then we can all decide whether it's fair or not. We'll vote people in and out of office depending on whether it's fair or not. Make it complex and we're stuck just voting on tax code depending on how emotionally somebody's speech appeals to us. We've found that while this will work for a few decades, it's not scalable over longer periods of time.
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Lets take this seriously for a second. Say we're actually trying to catch cyber criminals and child pornographers and we're discussing enacting this law. Someone speaks up and says, "For all the discomfort and trouble we're putting innocent people through, the real criminals will just store their data online and travel with cleaned computers." How do you continue enacting this legislation? I'm trying to be as serious as possible.

How does any legislator look at the people they represent and come to the conclusion that this is a good idea?
The ability to give tax breaks is one of the most powerful things a congressman can do. Take that away and the congressman will have a hard time justifying (or attracting) bribes/campaign donations. I really don't see congress voting to reduce their own power.
I can attempt that one. "Regressive" is bad only in the sense where it's disproportionately affecting the quality of life of lower-income people.

So if I have a flat tax that only affects incomes over a certain income level, and that income level is set high enough so that a reasonable person's food, shelter, and clothing needs are met, it's a lot harder to argue that the tax is unfairly regressive, especially when you consider the flat tax above a certain income level is actually the same progressive tax we have now but with a single rung on the ladder.

The flat tax proposals, being simple and loophole free, make it more difficult (and more financially burdensome) to game, whereas the current system seems to be designed to allow people to gain by paying accountants to find loopholes. The benefits of a simplified version of the current progressive tax we have seem self-evident.

The idea is to reduce or eliminate the incentive to cheat. Fairness really doesn't factor into it much, although it could be seen as a nice side benefit. End of argument.

Personally, I'd posit that the only truly fair tax is a fixed rate, like "everyone pays $2000 annually." Everyone is entitled to the same protection under the law, and therefore should owe the same amount. Laws which don't meet the criteria that they apply to all people equally should therefore be stricken.

The next closest "fair" thing to me is a retail sales tax, provided that everyone is provided a stipend to cover the tax paid on basic living expenses. That prevents the negative effects of the regressive nature of the tax.
Wow, no thanks. I'd prefer they skip the bi-weekly trip to Whole Foods and I'll keep the $20k.
There are advantages, for example having one login for all your comments, better spam control, getter following of comments and stories you have contributed to.

Still, I am not a fan.
If you replaced all taxes with a simple sales tax, it'd be even more regressive, since a gallon of milk (for example) has a higher relative cost to someone who makes $20,000 than someone who makes $2,000,000.

Also, it could have an unintentionally bad effect on our (now very consumer-driven) economy. You don't want to discourage people from spending money.
Only you can read Kindle books on the iPad with the Kindle app, also with the Stanza app and tons of others. Also plain ole PDFs with the built-in viewer.

And iBooks is not bundled, you have to download it.

And even if it was, bundling IE was not what got MS in trouble in respect to antitrust laws. It was things like pushing computer makers in under the table deals and such.

Actually lots of programs are built-in to any modern OS, from browsers to ftp to pdf viewer to text editors. Nothing anti-trust about it.
> Also, If everyone paid 15% (in total) I doubt it would appear fair. Wealthier people may benefit more from government policy, why should they pay the same amount?

They wouldn't pay the same amount. They would pay the same proportion of their income.
I understand that SOPA/PIPA/ACTA are all important topics. But do we really need a full front page of stories related to this topic?
In the furore about Mitt Romney paying 15% tax I have not seen one comment which makes this point in his favour: The tax return does not show all taxes that a person pays, and so it's an inaccurate way to compare tax rates between two people.

In particular: corporation taxes (effectively paid by shareholders) and sales taxes should be added to the mix when talking about tax rates.
When is Lamar Smith's next election? Are there any candidates running who would say they're opposed to this nonsense? Seriously consideing putting together a PAC in New York City.

Update: Ouch, this will be expensive... http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/elections.php?cycle=2...
BOTH parties agree on the important things : getting more control and power for themselves.
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That's a nice way to carve out the middle class.

Why not just have a graduated tax system with a clean base? It's not the tax brackets that make it complicated, it's the byzantine process of calculating "taxable income."
Another problem with how capital gains are taxed is that the social security and medicare taxes are not assessed.
But please do not forget doing actual work and reflecting on it regularly :)
You have to click the mouse - hitting 'enter' doesn't work.

It's impressive, if laggy, in ffx12.
Jpeg mini - Reduce jpg file sizes by up to 5x with no quality loss
>Prove it

Thanks to Wikileaks and other sources we do have evidence of long running pressure and threats by the US to influence or in some cases directly write other countries laws in respect to copyright. One recent example about piracy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/05/us-pressure...