skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>Sure, he might be innocent, but he really needs to put out a statement clarifying what his involvement was and what he knew.

Why does he need to do that? What benefit will it be to him? If he said he was unaware of any underhandedness would you believe him? Do you think that if he was aware that he wouldn't have signed NDAs about these things?
> This is the whole 'eminent domain' debate in a nutshell.

Not quite--eminent domain is also used to take property from people who ARE using it. And I think that is where that debate gets very thorny, because the compensation is not always worth the costs of uprooting someone from their home.
Ones that aren't exact copies that offer little to no difference than a game that is #1 on the charts. Look at all the clones for 2048 now, they have the exact same colors / name with nothing different about them. At least flappy bird clones used different artwork for the most part.
> Knowing your login information

I'm not sure how much more clear I can be. Turtl doesn't know your login information, and doesn't know any of the keys derived from your login information. That's the point of the login...it's a familiar way people use to authenticate themselves with a service, but with the added benefit that it's actually generating a master key for them.

Also, not sure how many files there are floating around the internet (and off of it) but it's quite a bit, so comparing file sizes isn't going to give any real information (at least in regards to copyright protection).
I call BS.

First, I purchased Threes only after becoming aware of it because of 2048. I bet there are hundreds of people who can claim the same thing.

Second, if you've spent any time playing both, the term 'clone' does both games a dis-service... its like calling Checkers a 'clone' of Chess because they are both played on the ame type of gameboard. The gameplay between the two games is completely different, and I find I think about each one differently. 2048 (and my favorite variant the hexagon-based 16384) are 'fast twitch' games. Threes is a slow thinker with more strategy. let run down some differences:

- in 2048, the numbers slide all the way in the direction you move. in Threes they only move one space.

- in 2048, a number '2' (or occasionally a number '4') appears in a random position on the board. With Threes, the piece always appears in one of the positions that opens up with your 'slide'.

- in Threes, you get to know (roughly) what piece is coming next, and have an active choice in where it appears... in 2048, you don't.

All of these might seem like subtle changes, but they make a dramatic difference in the mental exercise of the gameplay.

To call these clones makes as much sense to me as calling them all clones of the classic '15-puzzle'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_puzzle
What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Writing and You Have Nothing to Say
what kind of lens? should it zoom? should it be pannable and zoomable over the internet?

what resolution? VGA? full HD? 2.5K?

motion detection?

microphone?

two-way microphone? (i.e. you can yell at the intruder in your kitchen from the comfort of your office)
Tesla has a 400 mile battery for the Model S, but it costs too much
Kind of frustrating, really. I just bought 2 reserved instances about 6 weeks ago. Would have saved a nice penny if I waited.

It's definitely nice to see the pricing become more affordable over time though. Before this cut I really struggled going with AWS, but wouldn't even need to think about choosing them after this reduction.
They sort of can with flashed orders.
> Others rifled off that they thought 2048 was a better game than Threes. That all stung pretty bad. We know Threes is a better game, we spent over a year on it. And obviously, Threes is the reason 2048 exists.”

Isn't this a bad road to travel down? People are saying 2048 is better, but the authors are rejecting them only because they spent a year and a half on the project?

Maybe that's an indicator why 2048 was more popular.
LinkedIn Launches New Small Business Site
I mentioned two different problems. One of them was that there is not enough diversity in 3D software. If you say that Rhythm and Hues used their own software, now that they are no more this means that there is even less diversity. So what does not apply here? I'm not sure you got what I meant and if that's so then I don't understand what you thought that I meant.
What a gorgeous site
Is Apple Anti-Social?
Thanks, that's indeed the plan! We're working on a Learning Path on Data Analysis, should be ready soon!

Checked out your profile. I'll be in touch if/when we decide to expand to marketing.
Gist of the thing:

As a Rails developer, I've become tired of messing with
ruby versions, gem dependencies, bundle installations,
deploy-time asset precompilation on my servers,
etc. ... Basically, what I wanted was a Heroku-like
workflow that generates and hosts debian packages,
which is what exactly what PKGR provides.

As a customer of Heroku's excellent but rather expensive services, and a fan of deployment via package management, I'm certainly intrigued.
The actual analysis is available here: http://dualec.org/

I don't see much cryptographically new here; authors stretched what is a simple attack into 17 pages, and noticed that some non-standard TLS extensions that increase the amount of random data on wire make the attack easier.
> "Read between the lines" - give me a break.

"Everyone's" first perspective is not what should matter to you if you're evaluating legal risk; which is the context of the advise being offered here. When a civil suit is brought against, you, the standards of proof are entirely different than criminal, and these standards are ignored to the author's peril when constructing a message like the one linked here.

To get specific, when someone brings a civil suit against you, the first bar they must pass is relatively low. Once they have passed this bar, they can wrap you up in a very expensive lawsuit for a very long time. I know because I've been in this circumstance for the last four years. Before an actual trial, you get the opportunity to challenge the suit in a variety of ways. A judge gets to decide whether the plaintiff's complaint passes the tests for your challenge. If they do, the trial proceeds, and ultimately you end up in front of a jury.

This is the part where you're gambling -- with huge sums of money at stake -- when it comes to copyright. It doesn't matter if "everyone" decides to read between the lines; it only matters if the selected jury does. That is a gamble of epic proportions. Both lawyers are jockying to select a jury that they feel will fall on their side of the case, but keep in mind that the standard of proof in civil trials is a "preponderance of evidence", not "beyond reasonable doubt".
You argued that game designs should not be protected, because they are easy to clone. I attempted to point out how a game design is very different from the design of a manufactured article: There are no "patents" for games because games are already "patent" (i.e. open, obvious, transparent)

The seeds of a game's destruction (easy cloning) are planted inside it from its inception (an understandable and compelling gameplay concept)
Content marketing simplified
As far as I've seen, the reason it doesn't pay to create a good game is because not enough people are willing to pay for them, not because they get shut out by clones.

The world would be vastly poorer if we limited every game mechanic to a single game that was allowed to express it. Can you imagine shutting down FPS clones after Wolfenstein 3D, or RTS clones after Dune? Despite not doing so, these categories are immensely profitable for game creators.

If Threes is so simple and so easily cloned then I would like to know two things:

1. Why do they deserve to profit from it and nobody else is?

2. How does giving the creators of Threes more money help produce more fun games with simple mechanics that are simple to make and easily cloned?
You should contact support. I hear aws is really nice about offering price reductions in situations like yours.
The idea that video game clones has gone from "being the exception to being the rule" is cute. The author clearly didn't grow up in the 80s/early 90s when cloning video games WAS the norm. How many pong, breakout, asteroids, space invaders, zaniac etc. etc. clones did we see?

Even when it comes to the world of AAA FPS titles everything is essentially a high budget clone of previously established paradigms.

The fact of the matter is: Almost everything in gaming is a clone. Yes, once in a while a developer will be able to establish a new genre and that is great. What is even better is other developers following in his footsteps and trying to improve upon the original in terms of mechanics, cost, design, accessibility, etc. in a free competing marketplace of ideas.

The only reason gaming has advanced as far as it has is because developers were never stifled by fearing imitation. Instead, game developers have embraced imitation.
Threes and 2048 are different games. The differences are pretty substantial. Yes, Threes is almost certainly a better game. 2048 is a game that takes hundreds of turns and the "meta-game" is about knowing when to play fast (spamming into a corner) and when not. Threes gets around the tedious aspect by allowing larger numbers to spawn, and having more strategic depth in general.

What made 2048 go viral was that it was open-source, so people could modify it or write AI or analyze it, and that it's really simple. The interface is spartan, to its benefit. At each turn, there are only 4 options. The rich, 40-hour J-RPGs of the '90s and new German-style board games just aren't going to come about in the mobile space.

The Gresham's Law factors in game virality used to piss me off (ask a Googler who was there in 2011) but I'm sort of resigned on that issue, at least at this point. You occasionally get a casual gem like Angry Birds or Threes or 2048. That's about the best that space can do. And that's OK. To its credit, 2048 probably brought exposure and more users to Threes, once people got bored with the simpler, free game.
2048 is fairly different, so either the specifics were not that important, or the creator of 2048 just got incredibly lucky to hit on a variation that was also great.

Edit: OK downvoters, you need to reply and explain what you think is wrong here. It seems pretty straightforward to me. You can't have it both ways. If the details matter so much that Threes required a year to develop to get everything right, then how did 2048 become so successful when it changes so many details?
> "director of the NSA's defensive Information Assurance Directorate"

Now how many of you think dividing the NSA into defensive and offensive parts will do anything to restore trust?
Would you mind elaborating? Is "attacking Iraq" a metaphor/figure of speech that I'm not aware of? If so, wouldn't that imply the project is based on completely false grounds (ie, "WMDs" that don't exist)? It's been shown pretty clearly that mass surveillance exists and is a part of our every day lives now.
We do from time to time invoke a draft, forcing men to fight for their lives using tools they do not own and do not understand because they are prohibited from owning & practicing with them in peacetime. Skills with large expensive crew-served equipment is understandably hard to come by and justify a standing army, but small arms are affordable for most (if new models were legal, M16s would cost about $700) and would better prepare prospective draftees. When (not if) the next draft occurs, we face calling up & sending men who not only couldn't own & practice with internationally standard front-line soldier's weapons (M16 or AK47) but would be severely punished if they tried, and will rely totally on the government supplying what they could have brought.

(Yes, some M16s et al are legal, but they're at least 28 years old, cost >20x what new retail price would be without prohibition, supply is extremely limited (hence the price increase), and are smothered in regulative "red tape".)

Ya know, it's kinda like making healthy youth pay into a healthcare system that they likely won't benefit from for a long time to come (if ever; most will put more in than they'll get out): giving people access to products (physical or financial) designed to save their lives in short-notice crises is arguably so important as to be compulsory.
It's the same old story of RMS and Symbolics, played out again as farce.
No, it just prevents other scripts linked from the same page from working via sneaky, nefarious means that make it hard to debug.
I'll go with Occam's Razor: Amazon just responded to Google's newly announced pricing. To believe they guessed correctly or they have a "mole" is pretty far fetched.
There is something to be said about books that are so easily reproduced. I'm not really sure what exactly, but it seems silly that I could make a simple book and then when someone else reproduced it in a day to call them out on it. Kind of like not being able to patent things that are too simple and obvious.
So, if I get this right, you're saying, you don't care for 2048, because you do not care for the game's original idea being developed in the first place?
Let No Light Bulb Appear: Innovation’s Best When It’s Invisible
Threes, clones and cornflakes: A view on 'casual games'
I don't understand where you get the idea that I "don't care for 2048" when I explicitly called it a "gem".
Apple can't innovate any more because Apple are too busy fighting a legal battle with Samsung.

I think this statement is the biggest problem with the article. I can't reasonably see how the innovators within Apple would be too bothered by what the legal team are up to.
If the medium itself lends itself so easily to cloning and there is no protection for the mechanics of a game, the game should be combined with protectable assets, e.g. graphics.

Look at Chutes and Ladders. Stunning dumb game mechanic, but the graphics are an asset that makes the game into an asset.

The video game medium doesn't allow one to compete on game mechanics alone.
You lost $2000 in stolen goods. Someone defrauded you by knowingly using fake cards. Your police department should see you as a victim as well. If they don't you might want to think about talking to a lawyer to get things moving.

Actually- just go talk to a lawyer about getting the wheels of justice moving for you.
IMO, you would probably be best speaking to an attorney. They may also be able to get more cooperativeness from the FBI.
If you have the resources to self-insure, you don't need to pay an insurance company.

http://healthjournalism.org/resources-tips-details.php?id=65...
The very first post of 2048 made the #1 spot on HN, before people started modding it.

My son has 2048 on his Ipod without me mentioning it to him, and he never ever gave one hoot about being able to modify it.
Funny you should mention Dune and Wolfenstein: both of those games had console releases, and neither was the only example of the genre on their consoles.

It is possible to limit boring clones while retaining a vibrant software market.

This is not a question of who deserves what. This is a matter of building a great software market for games, so that we can all play great mobile games at reasonable prices.
As does purchased order flow, internal matching, preferred routing agreements, dark pools etc.

But given the simplistic nature of the discussion it is more accurate to say that in general HFT don't see your order before it hits the market than it is to say they do.
CrashPlan. Works well on all major OSes but it does use a lot of memory since it's Java. You can use it to backup to their own online service or you can do peer-to-peer between systems with CP installed.
Good call! We built this one first because my co-founder taught herself Python-Django, so this was easiest for us to create. But we'd love to branch it out to RoR, etc.
The best defense is a strong offense!
Show HN: Sparkle (Mac app), my visual website builder
Maybe not super useful to HN readers. But your parents? They could build a website with Sparkle.
Thanks, will check these out!
"that's just how it works" is not necessarily "what's best in the long term" or "what promotes the healthiest games market".
Really cool idea! This scheme also facilitates a immutable-centric engine.
Oh! OK. cool.
That kind of lying is even more powerful in stressing yourself out and breaking your own spirit. The more time goes the worst it gets.

You fool yourself everytime you fool others, and the lies do catch up to you, that was the point of the article.
The country is on it's arse. Now would be the perfect time to make them an offer.
Ink prices are high for end consumers, I bet the US gov does not use an HP-xx for printing but rather big systems where ink price is less than paper.

I have been visiting a newspaper printing factory and they said the ink price was a LOT LOT cheapear than the paper which cost a lot to them.

Ink is expensive for end-user consumers, not for big printing systems.
It's also very concerning that are least 2 NSA employees working within IETF groups as far as I know, and they don't want to get rid of them. One is the one Trevor Perrin called out from the CFRG, but I remember someone else calling out another on a security blog, either months before the Snowden leaks came out or soon after.

NSA is not to be trusted in terms of security anymore, when by far their main priority these days is to undermine the security of protocols. If certain organizations don't want to get rid of them, then I can't trust that organization either. And I don't care how much of a "good guy" he is within the organization. It's probably his job to play the good guy.
My argument goes as follows:

1. If you invent something, a larger company has the opportunity to copy you. This is inevitable: as an independent inventor, IP law (as it exists) does not help you because you typically would not have the resources to use it effectively against a lawyer-readied corporation.

2. If you execute your invention in a way which the larger company cannot easily copy, you can become independently successful.

3. In cases where (2) takes profits away from the larger company, they will use IP law to prevent you from doing so. This is the primary use case of IP law.

So we're agreed that the little guy gets screwed either way, but I think IP law gives the big guy an extra round of ammunition.
Scientists Convince People Their Hands Are Rocks
I hate to say it and I hope I am wrong, but this situation is exactly what it is and you have to pay the consequences, fair or not. And that is your company is on the line for a $2000 mistake. No other way I can see around it.
Does the existence of Diablo mean that we don't want Torchlight?

Does the existence of Modern Warfare 2 mean we don't want Spec Ops: The Line?

Games can be very similar to previous ones but still offer a new experience.
I don't think the gist is that there aren't problems with these languages, but that with a little carefully placed construction tape, you can avoid falling into the large holes.
Someone will say, "use bitcoin instead!" So follow the directions here to help your situation:

1) Set up an exchange.
2) Wait for people to deposit >$2000 worth of bitcoin.
3) Run away.

Problem solved.

More seriously, I think you're more or less in a very unhappy place without good options. Chalk it up to experience and consider yourself lucky that you only lost $2k.

Though, a question for the legally-minded: if this project had been done in a corporate structure, could the poster just walk away from it and be insulated from the loss?
I agree with you--it's an oversimplification to make my point in this one extreme example, but that's why we have courts to decide the grey areas--hopefully fairly.

A good example of current use of eminent domain is highlighted in this article from HuffPost about border properties on Texas/Mexico land. The gov't is paying a lot of money, but only if you have the sense/resources to hire a lawyer and fight for more.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/landowners-seized-b...
And on the same page of HN we have a post asking to abolish software patents....
I thought it's weapon against Russia's gas was shale gas.

There has even been talk to buy more shale gas from America (in the NATO top of Europe).. So we wouldn't be so dependant on Russia.

(And Ukraine was Russia's secret pawn in raising prices, as the Russian gas is delivered through pipelines (through Ukrain, see a map here : http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-20/ukraine-situation-e...).
I don't know who the author is chastising- the maker of three's or the maker or 2048, or the clones of 2048.

I don't really sympathize with the maker of three's. In the business world, one of the key metrics for determining the lasting value of a business are the barriers to entry in that market. If you make a video game for a smartphone, you must realize that you are entering a wildly-competitive marketplace with few-to-zero barriers to entry, at least monetarily.

I guess I can understand the frustration of the makers of threes when seeing clones being played instead of theirs but if it is so easy for other programmers to make successful clones, the game that they produced couldn't have been that special. Otherwise people would still be playing it.
While I can understand their pain, I hadn't heard of Threes before this happened. So I'm not fully convinced that this has been strictly bad for them.

That said, I couldn't buy Threes even if I wanted to, because I don't have an iPhone.
This sort of HFT gaming is very common. Some of it skirts around the regulations, some of it blatantly breaks them assuming (correctly) that it is more profitable to deal with the consequences than to change the trade.

Just remember that this is happening at very fast speeds, by participants that have mind bogglingly high risk levels.
Does this only work for Ruby projects?
I know this is not what you want to hear right now but this is where the importance of KYC requirements for any company dealing with financial transactions comes in. I imagine you made a trade-off between providing a frictionless service and best practice, but that's a trade-off you need to pay for eventually.

EDIT: I would also like to add that typically those who dabble in credit card fraud are sophisticated enough NOT to link their own bank details to the cards. What they will do is either buy some unknowing person's account for a few hundred dollars or steal details of an otherwise inactive account. Then all they have to do is use any ATM to withdraw the money, and it can be nearly impossible to catch the culprit without committing significant police resources.
>> 2000 was basically the year of fraud, where we were just losing more and more money every month. At one point we were losing over $10 million per month in fraud. It was crazy.

—Max Levchin, founder of PayPal
I have news pal; everything is a copy of a copy, the tires on cars are a copy of the tires on carriages; your blog design use buttons of the platform in one line and subcategories on the next line, something I sow more than a decade ago before your website even existed, just as the idea of having a ranking-list-with-availability on the right side of the template.

This is a universal truth, including cult movies who are indeed a copy of older (sometimes not so famous) movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaA8DMVOYhg
You said best offer was 1133.90. If buy order is placed at $1134 with HFT firm they must either fill the order at 1133.90 (the NBBO) or pass it on to an exchange that has NBBO.

If you are arguing something else happens then you need to explain it clearly step by step in a timeline.
In the end a developer has to pay her or his rent and food. It's sad to see many hackers in berlin wasting their true skills in unpaid hobby work and sitting in some bozo-driven copycat startups from 9-5 coding in a crappy $language.