skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So I run a luxury car rental company and one of the most common questions I get from folks these days (especially those in the tech community) is: "When are you guys getting a Tesla?"

This article is _exactly_ why we're not getting one for the fleet anytime soon, and it's basically the answer I've been giving people since the Roadster came out (and the questions started).

Tesla is an awesome, awesome company. I'm a fan. I'm thinking of getting a Model S for myself. I think (and hope) they're going to be huge.

But they're not ready for the truly mass-market quite yet - and car rental customer (even luxury car rental customers) are the mass market.

I could see the exact scenario outlined in the article happening to renters constantly - except for one difference: We would be yelled at by the customers, not Tesla ;) ("Why is my car saying 'battery dead'? I did nothing wrong. Send a truck to pick me up or I'm writing a bad review about you guys.") Sigh.

Anyway, I'm still a fan despite the headaches - and I know they'll grow out of it.
Seattle resident battling cancer makes plea to drive Knight Rider car
And timely!
Knowing nothing about heaters, I'm curious: why does electric heat make no sense? My intuition would be that an electric heater would require far fewer components (especially considering the battery is already in place), be less dangerous, and require less maintenance. What is the relative efficiency of electric heaters to propane heaters?
Concur with javajosh's recommendation to find a California/USA-based lawyer for help. Advice from semi-anonymous strangers in internet forums is worth what you pay for it.

Generally, in the search for a lawyer, you get to talk to many (without charge) for 15-45 minutes each. You may be surprised how widely their estimations of the issues vary -- the law is the law, right? -- but you'll learn something from each conversation, and perhaps find someone you trust with your concerns. Also, legal confidentiality means that even if you've messed up on some tax/immigration/work-authorization/business things, talking with them honestly doesn't mean you've made any admissions that get back to the authorities (unless and until with their advice you decide that's the best course).

If a student in the US, your educational institution may also have a legal aid clinic.

You can probably get an 'ITIN', the equivalent to a Social Security Number for non-domestic individuals/entities who need an SSN-like number for tax/financial reporting purposes. See...

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

...and the related IRS pages. And again, just getting the number isn't admitting to anything or any tax liability. However, it then will be used by financial institutions (like PayPal) to maintain their internal and government-required reporting requirements. Separate from just tax issues, amounts in the tens-of-thousands (and sometimes less) are subject to reporting to control money-laundering from large-scale illegal activities.
This may be a non-starter for this gentleman. Both Stripe and WePay have SSN requirement of sorts:

https://stripe.com/us/help/faq#do-i-need-an-SSN

https://support.wepay.com/entries/313535-why-are-you-asking-...
I'm unclear as to whether you mean "Flabbergasted" that it's worth more, or flabbergasted that it's a good amount?

If you mean "worth more" - well, maybe, but at the same time, you can only make as much as the market will yield.

If you mean "worth less" - $200K over six months is OK, but not great if you realize that there will be likely six month period (one year periods?) where revenue will be very low.

It's very boom/bust, and the $200K made here needs to go a long, long way. All in all, you would probably (more than 50% of the time) make more money providing desktop support than trying to sell software (or games) as an independent entrepreneur.

Of course, some times, you hit it big, and it makes all the sweat and toil worthwhile.
Space waste happens because(1) ego, which means buying big and snarly cars to look like an action hero, (2) over-provision of car space, because you sit in one seat of a five-seat car on the off chance you might have passengers or cargo (3) cars parked, idle.

Robo-taxis have an economic attractor at the "runs forever, gets good mileage" end of the design scale, because energy and maintenance are the biggest ongoing costs. There would be incentives to make them small and efficient, maybe sized for one occupant. And they would not sit around idle, so they would need a long MTBF, which rules out designing for speed or beefiness and suggests electric (it's got fewer moving parts).

All of which means, fewer, smaller, cleaner, slower, simpler, vehicles. Aesthetes will pine for the days of muscle cars. In terms of green-ness, they may come to eclipse buses etc, while retaining the advantages of cars (goes where you want, when you want, and is not full of strangers).
Linus Torvalds: Linux and git.
High profile companies outside of tech circles.
An International Student is unlikely to have a visa that allows them to start a company in the US.
Skateboarder Backflips Down 6 Stairs
Really sorry for your loss. One of my childhood friends passed away and another friend started a Facebook Group (not Page) that has been a really nice way to have a memorial for him. All of his friends and family and teachers and everyone was invited. Every once in a while a random friend or family member will post about a dream they had, or about being near his grave, or about re-reading one of his favorite books, or just a picture of him as a kid. It's been a really good way to remember him with the whole group participating.
I used to be excited about electric cars, but lately I've been wondering if it wouldn't be better to use the power source to manufacture fossil fuels using an environmental source of carbon and ship that to customers. That would make the fuel carbon neutral.

Because the world understands completely how to store and handle and deal with liquid fossil fuels.
Great story, thanks for sharing. Shows that dedication and hard work make a business and that overnight success is like winning the lottery!
Do you or your parents have bank accounts in the US or in your home country? I would suggest working with PayPal to switch your account to your original country and seeing if you can then get the funds withdrawn.
That's gotta be a good feeling. One I may never feel in 1000 lifetimes, but I sure would love to know that feel.
Crooks steal security firm’s crypto key, use it to sign malware
This "free as in speech" == "free as in beer" shtick has become weird. When you're more fundamentalist than RMS it's time to step back and introspect.
Exact same issue here! I moved to England and there's no way I can change my Country. So, my address is correct but not the Country! Paypal just sucks really!

I just wonder why don't you Emmanuel provide more information.
Also /r/scholar on Reddit. Some very helpful folks there.
Apply for a TIN - taxpayer identification number. PayPal can use it in lieu of an SSN. This will take you six weeks. In the alternative, consult a local lawyer and have them nastygram Paypal for you.
It makes it easier, but it could also be said that you should have checked the Terms and Services contract with Paypal.
Should you buy Microsoft Surface Pro?
From your comments, you had multiple PayPal accounts (disallowed), were in Venezuela, using a US PayPal account, then transferring the funds to a PayPal account in Venezuela, and can't provide a tax ID for the US account. At the same time, you went from zero to hundreds of thousands in payments in just a few months. To PayPal, you likely appear to be a criminal involved in some type of money laundering or tax evasion scheme. I don't know enough about student Visas and international tax agreements to say you aren't actually engaging in tax evasion, perhaps unknowingly.

It's not surprising they locked the account and asked for documentation. The tax code pretty much guarantees they would within a year in order to file the 1099-K on your account. This stuff is serious to them, both from a financial (the potential losses if this money disappears because it's not been moving legally) and regulatory fronts (US Patriot Act among others requires banks, like those underwriting your US PayPal account, to be able to accurately identify their customers). This might not be easy to fix.
How should I explain dynamic programming to a 4-year-old?
I still disagree on the technical sense. 35 years is within the ability of the judge to assign. Of course the judge wouldn't, and if the judge did it would be reduced on appeal. But they claimed that that was the statutory maximum, and if you read the statute you can readily confirm that.
It never hurts to try to get an interview anyway. Was just wondering... I guess we'll for sure apply then.
If you're staying somewhere, plug it in. Even a 110V will be able to keep the battery warm enough to avoid these losses.

No, its not perfect. Neither is the choke on your motorcycle or the people in siberia waking up every 2 hours to start their combustion engines because blowing up what was generated in thousands of years refuses to happen in a cold engine block.

But I guess everyone with a modicum of knowledge has by now realized that a) we can't keep blowing up that stuff and b) there won't be another magic energy material like oil, ever again.
Very sorry to hear about your loss. I'm a founder of Weebly.com and think our service would be great for your needs -- very easy interface with multiple editor support so friends and family can contribute to the site.

Shoot me an email to dan@weebly.com and I'll give you a free Pro account.
Come on guys, this is definitely a fake message used to promote his widget on HN. What do you mean by "I do not know how I made $200,000?"

This does not make any sense at all. You get email notifications from PayPal once you are paid, you have definitely received emails from customers regarding technical support and/or presales questions. Also - you say you do not have any money at the moment, yet for 6 months you have tens of thousands of dollars in PayPal and you make no effort to actually claim them? What were you waiting for - to get to 1 million in PayPal before actually getting the money, while you stay penniless and hungry? Sorry, this is bullshit.

Sorry, I do not buy it and I find this method of "promotion" lame. At least next time try to make this a bit more believable, cause now it's hilariously stupid and I am wondering how many people here fell for this cheap trick.
Yeah, as someone who has held an F1 in the past, the US authorities take a very dim view of getting income while you are here without authorization. I think actually committing misdemeanor crime is of less consequence to your legal status than taking money. We were warned about it very specifically.

I heard of someone who was deported because he was painting fences for some disposable income. My guess is that the OP actually needs an immigration lawyer, not a civil claims lawyer (or whatever they are called).

It's a sticky situation, and likely depends on whether the money was being posted to a PayPal account with a US or Venezuelan address/bank account, and whether he actually performed any work on turn.js while in the US. My guess is that if PayPal are asking for the SSN, he tied it to the USA, which is going to be a problem.
Nope. What's more important is that he spent the money on humanitarian causes, to try and better the world. He could have just bought islands for himself.
The top result for Paypal Triangle is Paypal Here, so maybe Paypal reconsidered that brand.

https://www.google.com/search?q=paypal+triangle
He wouldn't have tried running the vehicle to the edges of its optimal-condition performance in non-optimal conditions. Or he would have been expecting trouble and reacted early enough to avoid being towed. Or, most of all, he would have emphasized in his writing that his experience is unusual and that the article will be obsolete in a year. An average consumer with one of these cars will be able to draw on years of wisdom and infrastructure that the early-adopters had to develop for them.
Quite bitter.
If we're applying with an app already in the App Store, should we include a link to iTunes or make a demo video?
You do not have to have a visa to start a company in US. Actually, you can start one without even being in US. Opening bank account for such company - is what tricky without being physically in US.
Your claim is that he would have faced a maximum of 2 years, which differs substantially from what Swartz's own defence have claimed.

Now, if these sources of yours had provided their opinions before Aaron's suicide then I'd be more inclined to believe them. That they presumably only developed these opinions after the suicide seems a little convenient to me.
Apply for a TIN. That's equivalent to a SSN for tax purposes.
I just think that very much depends on the field and the problem domain. Taverna seems like it's more targeted towards academics that don't know how to code, and that most people that use it are comfortable staying within its limits. I mean, you definitely are going to have a level of project specificity that is much higher than say, that found in the web development world. In science, many people are searching for the existence of new problems, not just the answers. Why build a gem for email integration if the next best method of communication will likely come out next week? The problem with this thinking is that it perpetuates itself. I don't write the library that only you would find useful because I don't think it's worth my time. In return, I never receive anything useful because everyone else has adopted that same mindset. As some others pointed out, I think the problem rests in the lack of best practices and poor comp sci education among researchers. Teach proper library construction and test-driven philosophy, and I think you'll see a lot more people become comfortable writing and publishing libraries. Cobble together some basic documentation, keep an eye on its use, and contribute more accordingly. You're never going to escape writing custom scripts, but there are more well-defined problems out there that could use standard solutions.
That's meaningless. I wish I could be more sympathetic, but the reality is, you're expecting them to open up loopholes in their system that could be easily exploited.
Honestly I'm just blown away at how decent this article is. I feel like most NYT articles I read on internet-ish companies come totally miss the point but this hit Kickstarter perfectly. After rounds of negative press for Kickstarter, it is nice to see a big old media company write something that at least kind of "gets" Kickstarter.
In a rational world, every one of the gas stations he passed would have had a rack of fully charged swappable batteries, ready for installation in less time than it would have taken to fill a conventional gas tank.

Why nobody seems to understand how stupid charging an EV in real time is, is something that I find astonishing.

(To clarify: I can understand why most people don't understand why non-swappable batteries are stupid, but I can't understand why someone like Elon Musk doesn't understand that. I'll admit that it makes me wonder if I'm missing something.)
Announcing a Deal I’ve Wanted to Talk About for a Year
Stanislav nails it again, best Bitcoin-related writeup I've seen.

"Bitcoin is an elegant jewel of mathematical engineering because, for the first time in the entire history of money, it makes it possible to conduct commerce without trusting anyone. [...] By rejecting the seemingly-irrelevant world of human trust-building (beyond strict adherence to promises) one asks to be thought of as a mechanism. That is, to be reasoned about game-theoretically. And reasonable people will sit around and try to predict exactly when and in what manner you, the master of reasoned thought, will betray them. To his credit, Popescu appears to be making this tradeoff consciously."
A monoid is anything with an associative append and an identity operation. A monad is a form of monoid (in the category of endofunctors; what's the problem?), but monoids are not necessarily monads.
I didn't downvote it, but I was just going to skip that comment and continue reading.

The comment is too short, apparently slightly off-topic, looks like self promotion and give no reason to look to the linked content. But as you said, this is a good comment!

How I would rewrite this comment (with some parts stolen from the abstract and some parts just invented):

I love copy & paste! I think that the use of programming abstractions like functions and macros has inherent cognitive costs. A few years ago, as part of my research we proposed "Linked Editing": A technique for managing duplicated source code with the help of the text editor. We implemented it in a prototype editor as a XEmacs extension. More details in this article: http://harmonia.cs.berkeley.edu/papers/toomim-linked-editing... and we made a video of the editor: http://youtu.be/1wo_7MTdWWI .

P.S.1 I still prefer refactoring to this kind of multiple edition. I use Racket, so I love functions and macros. But sometime they are very complex to edit, so perhaps sometimes this multiple edition can be a good idea.

P.S.2 Another possibility is that some users are too eager to downvote. I saw many good comments downvoted, but usually they bounce later.
Disclaimer: I have a love hate relationship with Paypal. My organization runs most of our payment processes through Paypal.

With that said, some questions:

1) How were you able to process 30k/month through Paypal out of the gate without providing a government ID?

2) How much of the 200K were you able to withdrawal? If any? Do you have any of it in cash?

3) Did you experience an abnormal amount of chargebacks?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.....
It's worth noting that YC requires you to come out to San Francisco for the three-month duration and to work on your startup full-time. It's non-optional (and well worth it), as far as I know.
The Tesla isn't just a "new car" - it's new technology. It doesn't have the years of accumulated wisdom and infrastructure that support normal new cars. The same way that you understand that cold weather means you have to let your car warm up before you can drive off, it will be common knowledge that electric vehicles lose a quarter or a half of their range in cold weather. This article will be completely obsolete in a year, but because the author failed to convey that point it will sit around people's minds for years.
Hi, I'm not a expert on US laws, but given how it mostly works, yeah you are in the wrong, if they say so. But all is not lost I suppose.

You must find a lawyer in any case, a good one! though there is no guarantee it will work, but if something would work, it would be this or a clear provision/flaw you may find on your own (I take it that you won't be able to)

Three legal courses might work on broader terms, leave the actual litigation to the lawyer.

1. The lawyer may prove that someone, who is a US citizen, a family member preferably, or a family friend, is the real owner of the product, and you mis-stated your facts. (meaning, you didn't say under oath, that the said service/product was your and yours ALONE)

The lawyer would take his cut in all cases, and if anything, you should give your family member a cut as well, in this case. Its better than nothing out of 200k$!

2. You may establish a US company, preferably in a state where tax is low and norms are lax, based on strong advice of your lawyer, with preferably the same name as your product. The lawyer in this case would prove (or try to)
that the company would receive the money (being a separate legal identity), and a friend of yours who is a US citizen, would be the trustee of the company.

Similarly to above, lawyer will get his cut, your friend would do as well (unless he is the nicest guy on the planet, if he does not take any money, do PM about it on reddit@rikacomet).

3. The lawyer, may establish, that there was an error in your understanding of the US laws (which is clearly so), and since paypal allows for you to be a member of any country, you shall recieve it upon changing the credentials of yours, to your native one's. The lawyer, shall argue, that the payment made by your customers, would hold true, despite you changing ONLY your address details.

Alternatively, if all your payments were made by credit card (which might be the case), you may contact, all your customers, to initiate a cash back (where they will legally call back money from their bank, after stating that a huge flaw was made, and the original deal holds untrue) the bank would know its way with paypal, so no worries there, but what you need to worry about is bank making a case against you. So you would need a lawyer again over here.

Disclaimer: Always, talk to a professional lawyer about legal matters, mine is only mildly suggestive in nature based on laws existing in my country.

NOTE: Please be very careful, while finding a good lawyer, while you do, make sure to make it clear to him, that the payment, would be only a cut out of the 200k in question here, and not out of your pocket.

Take this on a legal document in WRITING, with his signature and official stamp heads, in presence of 2-4 witnesses etc. You really don't want to lose 200k, and then also pay a American lawyer out of your pocket!
Give us a demo video, but also include a link to iTunes because if the app looks promising some of us may want to try it.
Maybe they have issue with the fact that you are from Venezuela? I've sen multiple venezuelan PayPal accounts being blocked because they know sometimes they are used for getting around CADIVI (currency exchange restrictions). Maybe your nationality and the fact that you made that much money triggered some flags.

From a fellow venezuelan, hope you get your money back. And congratulations on your success even in this unpleasant situation.
Quite right.

Just like TSLA is going to beat the big car companies at electric cars, so too will GOOG beat them at self-driving ones.

The electro-mechanical and mechanical aspect of a self-driving car is the easy part; it is the software that will be where the real innovation occurs, and Google has arguably more software expertise than any other organization on the planet, and much, much more than any car company.

If anyone can win that race, it's Google.
Find two different ways of explaining it to a 2 year old and then use both.
Also, the idea that recharging stations spaced 200 miles apart are in any way adequate for a 265-mile trip is just... weird.

Would you trust your laptop or cell phone's battery life estimate to that extent?
I think the lesson learned in all of these cases is don't leave tons of money sitting in your PayPal account. Link it to a bank account, turn on auto-sweep, and don't amass a huge balance that ultimately seems rather suspicious (whether it is or not doesn't matter).
It's not secret, just not very well known.
As I said, you can usually find it in mountain view committee meeting minutes (for Google), cupertino council minutes (for Apple), etc.
Paypal is nowadays, what IE6 is for browsers!
If you have to use PayPal: regularly transfer any money to an actual bank with actual responsibilities, not some fake holding bank registered in Ireland or whatever PayPal is using today to evade tax and consumer laws.

You are not getting interest by letting that money sit with PayPal.