andrewhillman

I was reading an old history of law book last year and the reason was that lawyers got paid by the word back in the day. Then they were paid by the sentence, paragraph and page.

I was reading old law school book last year and it literally said it’s written the way it is because lawyers were being paid by the word way back when.

I have the same fear of the moments preceding. My anxiety goes through the roof when I think about the environment I am in at 35,000 feet. I keep my mind occupied by mentally removing myself from the environment. I fire up my laptop with headphones and work as if I am in the office. This works for a portion of the flight. Sadly, for the remainder, I typically dose myself with something to put me under until someone taps my shoulder to put my seat up for landing (the worst part). FML

Depends but NO. After running 2 successful companies I was thinking about going back to school and I asked myself the same question but more importantly the staff as me why I would want to go back to school with my real life experienced. They knew of my endeavors. I was applying to get into Boston's most well-known entrepreneurial schools. I sat in on two classes to see what it was all about. I felt like I was in a room with high schoolers. It was total cake. I answered the questions that most couldn't. Felt bad because I had to set the teacher straight a couple of times as you could tell he wasn't doing much outside reading textbooks. At the end of the course, the professor asked if I'd like to give lectures during the semester. I said not right now. But I got the answer to my initial question.

Economics of scale in this instance are not applicable. But they do lower the providers cost. They never pass along the savings. Media companies like this do not decrease prices as output increases. If this were true cable boxes would be free in 2017. Looking around my house I pay for 1 Hub, 1 router, 3 boxes and 4 remotes. My provider just did an “upgrade” now all homes use 1 hub and 1 router per house and x number of “child” boxes. This means the provider is benefiting not the consumer. In fact, if my hub goes out, all my child boxes go out by design. I asked for 4 hubs and no “child” boxes and they said this upgrade is to reduce their cost, not mine. I’m not the only one complaining. My monthly fee is higher than before the upgrade. All these companies care about is power, control and profits. While this deal is considered a “vertical acquisition” it is not bc the media landscape is changing and the lines are more blurred than ever.

Everyone is quick to bring up President Trump. If you don’t think about the media landscape (big scary picture) and are quick to say this is lawsuit is a political move you are naive and uninformed. If this isn’t blocked overtime you will see companies like Google and FB attempting to gain more power and control in the same way. The DOJ had no other choice. They had to sue to protect the interest of consumers. They see where things are heading and its not good.

These deals are never good for consumers. When a few companies have too much power and control their only goal is to get more at the expense of the consumer. This is dangerous and should not be taken lightly.

"These days they have streamlined online applications for writing to them, but I suggest that you only send them paper letters. This is a really weird thing for a technologist to suggest, but when you send paper letters, you can establish and own a “paper trail.” When you type words into their godawful web applications and hit submit, you will likely fail to retain a copy of those words and fail to retain records about what they told you (exactly) and when. This will complicate your resolution with them. Communicate with them only over postal mail. Keep a log of every mail you send (including what you said) and when it was sent; keep a copy of every letter they send to you and when it was sent. You don’t need physical copies; digital is fine. I like organizing all of mine on a per-incident basis in Dropbox."

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SEND LETTERS WITH 'USPS RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.' (It's the green card you get at the post office and once the recipient receives your letter, you will get a green card in the mail serving as proof of delivery and acceptance.) This is the lowest costing form of legal proof for a paper trail. Well worth it. I use it all the time and I learned this from my dad who has spent his life practicing law.

FB buys a shitload of data to 'connect the world' but they don't have to disclose sources unless related to serving ads. They obviously use data sources to make both personal connections and targeted advertising work. While I agree that FB shouldn't tell this user how they figured her family secrets out, they really should let users opt out of all data sources with a button. Currently, in order to opt out you need to go to the sources but nobody will ever know all the sources. This person didn't do much research. Perhaps, rather than contact FB she should have spent time creating her recommended list for a while then opted out from the data providers discussed https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830 then she could have done a comparison. Opting out takes a lot of time and I assume it takes a while for these systems to update the opt out information.

I strongly believe that when online companies have a lot of personal information like FB they should not assume users will have a better overall user experience if the service uses offline data that the user doesn't explicitly authorize to be used in conjunction with their online account/profile.

I was scratching my head because I didn't recall reading this. After dinner, I grabbed a glass of wine and I went back and read beyond the first 5 paragraphs plus the embedded tweets.You gotta do what you good do but don't get caught.

I believe NYT has a bookstore list for reporting orders. This is how the best selling books make it on this list. The buyer (someone tied to the book) probably knew the store was on the NYT list and made a massive order. The NYT will need to tweak things going forward. Any store telling people they are on the NYT Best Seller reporting list should be removed from the list.

Allowance for doing nothing works pretty well. When you go to stores make sure they bring their money. They ask for less if they are holding their money. When you tell them they can buy anything they want with their money. Suddenly the crap items that said they wanted are long forgotten. The moral of the story is always go shopping with them but make sure they have their allowance on them. This helps them learn the value of a dollar. They become really cheap.

Coming from a background in real estate as an active broker who has worked with Redfin agents, I'd like to point out a few things. Redfin's biggest asset is their website. It's a good user experience and grabs them a lot of leads. However, Redfin agents tend to be subpar agents when representing sellers and or buyers. Most wouldn't survive in a regular brokerage setting. If I am hiring an agent, I want a hungry service oriented agents, not someone who is fine with receiving a salary. Discounts are enticing to consumers, but from what I have noticed these discounts come at a cost to their clients. Rather than list a bunch of examples, from what I have witnessed, Redfin agents are not all that skilled in negotiating. They are actually horrible. Redfin needs to train better but training is a multi-faceted issue. They need experienced brokers who have been beaten up and have seen it all. I was lucky to have a mentor who played a significant role in redefining the industry back in 2001. Let's just say, nobody knew what the concept of Exclusive Buyer Agency was during the late 90s. Anyway, in order to have great agents, they need to learn from smarter battle tested agents in the office. An agent needs good instincts to represent clients well. This takes time - 10,000 hours easy and they need to see a lot of deal flow. You learn from the ugly deals, not the smooth ones. Fortunately, for Redfin most Redfin buyers/sellers won't realize how good their agent is until they have something to compare it to. Redfin does not have top agents nor can the attract high-quality agents. In order for them to succeed in the public market, they will need to increase fees because the cost of maintaining and attracting talent isn't cheap. Discounting gives companies a good chance to obtain market share. But market share will go down once they raise fees. Historically speaking, discount real estate companies don't do well in public markets. Let's look at one example of a company associated with discounts, Zip Realty. I think they did an IPO in 2004 or so. Over the years things didn't go well so they were forced to merge. Now, you might say, REDFIN is different. This is somewhat true but I am sure if you read the Redfin S1, you will see some of the concerns I have addressed.

This is coming from a non-traditional broker. I have always gone against the grain. I believe Redfin will need to evolve a lot to get the public market to embrace them. If I had to guess they will become a little more "traditional" overtime.

I hope Redfin trains better and figures things out. Otherwise, they will need to merge post-IPO.

Sorry for the long comment. I could write forever on this topic. I may do this on my site when I have a couple of hours.

I agree. I love how he thinks NHTSA should take a test drive. This is delusional thinking. It's going to be nearly impossible for an SV startup to create aftermarket parts for automobiles because the US dept of transportation is not interested in beta releases. Him being known as an "iphone hacker" probably doesn't help his cause. One accident induced bug could cripple the driver and startup. Sure, SV loves disruption, but the US dept isn't delusional.

"Life is short, have an affair." Apparently, those affairs made life a lot shorter. The irony of a tag line.

I believe they will fade away or evolved into more of a VR device (gaming). I have glasses but they are not something I enjoy wearing. I buy glasses that are aesthetically pleasing and I cannot imagine a tech company being able to design something that is somewhat fashionable. I personally feel some things should be unconnected, every day glasses being one of them. I love tech, but my smartphone is all I really need connected. However, if x-ray vision comes to glasses, I'd buy a pair. :)

I may have a few things to learn about how networking works. However, I was just stating the facts. A technician came out to re-configure to see if the issues of speed could be resolved. They did, and technician said... speed test is hitting ~93/120 mbps or so when wired in but the speed over wifi was much less while the specs say it is capable of doing 120 mbps without a problem. The tech actually said it isn't going to reach 120 mbps over wifi. If they don't have control, how is it they can "flip a switch" while on the phone to put you at 25 mbps or less, if you ask to downgrade? I believe when you buy 120 mbps that they are advertising they are claiming you will hit this speed if you are paying for it. I didn't see any disclaimer next to the 120 mbps saying "speed will be substantially less if using wifi router."

I have a NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Router.

I just had comcast to my home last week. I pay for 120 mbps but when connected via cat 5 it only reached 90 max mbps which would fine considering when using a wifi router it only reaches around 30 mbps. I have moved around the wifi router but it doesn't make much of a difference. The technician told me the 120 mbps that I am being charged for is for for direct access and wifi won't reach 120mbps. I complained to customer care saying if I go to the grocery store and pay for 120 items, I expect to get 120 items, not 30 items. I told them they should tell people upfront that 120 mbps is when you are plugged in directly since most people use a wifi router but this still doesn't make sense to me since they can easily downgrade you to, say, 6 mbps without a problem.

Does anyone know if this OpenWRT works? I would love to push my speed to its limits. Comcast pretty much has a monopoly in my city and they are not very helpful.

You should not rely on HN for this. Seriously, seek legal advice.

Well, considering we change the clocks to "spring forward" 2 a.m on March 8, all signs point to some kind of watch being released. The Swiss must be shaking in their boots while frantically clicking through the Android SDK. ;)

Are there ways to get the future beneficiaries of a new b2b product to fund its development, and that don't involve spending 6 month to raise funding?

Sort of... I've been spending my free time learning the ins and outs of retail/distribution. It's not the most transparent industry but 'factoring' plays a pretty big role. If you are pitching/selling a physical product (iphone case) to category buyer from a Big Retail chain and they like your product, then send you a Purchase Order to buy your product, but you don't have the funds to manufacture/package/distribute the product you can find a Factoring Company who will fund the money in exchange for the Purchase Order from the Big Retailer. Some say the rates are too high and terms aren't great, but they can be a good source of backing. A lot of companies use Factoring. Perhaps maybe some Angels will start thinking about doing Factor deals in the near future.

Simply put. I need a vacation but can't take one.

Google Nears $1 Billion Investment in SpaceX Infusion Would Back Push to Provide Internet Access Via Satellites SpaceX delivered cargo to the international space station last week. SpaceX delivered cargo to the international space station last week. NASA/REUTERS By ROLFE WINKLER, EVELYN RUSLI and ANDY PASZTOR Jan. 19, 2015 5:30 p.m. ET

Google Inc. is close to investing roughly $1 billion in Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to support its nascent efforts to deliver Internet access via satellites, according to a person familiar with the matter. The investment would value SpaceX, backed by Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk , at more than $10 billion, according to this person. It isn’t clear what exact stake Google could end up with in the fast-growing space company. If Google completes the deal, it would be the Internet company’s latest effort to use futuristic technology to spread Internet access to remote regions of the world, alongside high-altitude balloons and solar-powered drones. By extending Web access, Google increases the number of people who can use its services. Spokesmen for Google and SpaceX declined to comment. News of Google’s potential investment was reported by tech blog The Information. Google has been considering satellite-based Internet service for more than a year. In late 2013, it hired satellite-industry veteran Greg Wyler, who at one point last year had more than 10 people working for him. Mr. Wyler left Google last summer and is now developing his own satellite-Internet venture. SpaceX builds and launches rockets and spacecraft. Mr. Musk last week described a general concept for SpaceX to launch hundreds of satellites into relatively low orbit to deliver Internet access across the globe. Mr. Musk told BusinessWeek the project could cost $10 billion to build and take at least five years, but gave no details about funding or manufacturing plans. For several months Mr. Musk has been mulling ways to expand SpaceX’s rocket-and-spacecraft manufacturing operations to designing and building satellites, according to aerospace-industry officials who have talked with him. Though short on specifics, his latest comments were the clearest sign yet of a long-term commitment to such expansion plans. It is likely to take years to establish designs and potentially set up a specialized satellite-making facility. But SpaceX already has some important building blocks. Industry officials said the company builds its own navigation and flight-control systems for spacecraft, which could provide some elements for satellites. There also are synergies between parts SpaceX makes today for solar arrays on spacecraft and such devices intended for satellites. One big technical and financial challenge facing the proposed venture is the cost installing ground-based antennas and computer terminals to receive the satellite signals. That issue has bedeviled some earlier Internet-via-satellite projects and threatens to complicate Google’s efforts, satellite industry officials and consultants say. Another unanswered question is how SpaceX plans to transmit Internet signals to Earth. The company isn’t believed to control rights to radio spectrum. Mr. Musk has discussed using optical-laser technology in his satellites, according to a person familiar with the matter. That technology works by beaming information from satellites in space. But lasers wouldn’t be a reliable way to deliver Internet service to Earth because, unlike radio waves, they don’t easily pass through clouds. The talks are somewhat unusual for Mr. Musk, who has resisted most outside investments that could reduce even slightly his control over SpaceX. Industry officials said if problems arise, SpaceX might need additional capital in the next few years to fund new rocket development and more launches. It isn’t clear what terms are under discussion. The Wall Street Journal reported Mr. Musk’s interest in satellite-Internet service in November, saying he was talking with Mr. Wyler. Mr. Wyler last week said his new venture, OneWeb Ltd., had secured funding from Richard Branson ’s Virgin Group and chip company Qualcomm Inc. Mr. Wyler said he hopes to provide Internet service from a constellation of 648 satellites in low-Earth orbit, using a large block of radio spectrum he controls. Mr. Wyler estimated the plan would cost as much as $2 billion. Messrs. Musk and Wyler stopped working together because of disagreements over control of any joint project, according to a person familiar with their discussions.

What? The law is the law. The entire point of a jury is to find the defendant guilty or not guilty of said issue at hand - the law!

"A jury can find you not guilty just because they don't like the law."

This is not really the case. It would be tough to find all jurors didn't LIKE the law. The people sitting on the jury were asked questions during the selection process to make sure they are neutral. The question is, do they understand the law and the issues at hand.

The prosecuting team bears the burden of proof (obviously). The prosecutors are required to prove their version of the actual events. This means that the proposition that is being presented before the judge / jury by the prosecution must be proven to the extent that there could be no reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. The defense needs to convince the criminal jury so they are unable to find beyond a reasonable doubt, that this guy is guilty.

The defense seems to be casting doubt for the jury to consider from the get-go. Well played.

Exercise/ yoga can be really helpful. You wont realize right away but it will get you going again.

Yes. It's been around for years. I have used it but this misses my point or proves it. Either way, sites need to figure out how to power own search.

I don't think so. I just went to their site and the first case study i opened was from theguardian.com. I went to theguardian.com and went to do a search. Guess who they are using to power their search function? Google.

In my opinion which means nothing, sites need to figure out how to power their own search. Using a third party isn't going to work for most. Maybe people need to focus on building custom architecture that indexes the data in a more structured way rather than cobbling systems together that ultimately hinder search efforts when its time to get the user what they want. I don't know the answer but somebody eventually will. Maybe wordpress will create a powerful search for all those wordpress sites.

Yeah, this sounds all well and good in theory, but after visiting thousands of sites over the years, it might be a better idea to help engineers build a search engine for their own site/data first. I can't recall many websites that have amazing search. It's a problem when I have to use google to find what I want on xyz.com because if I go search for what I am looking for on xyz.com I cannot find it even if I know its on that site.

It would be so nice to go to xyz.com and actually find what I am looking for in under 1 second.

"If you’re uncomfortable donating directly to an individual, please consider making a donation to Cancer Society of New Zealand in Steven’s name."

They will need way more money than this. If uncomfortable giving to an individual, you shouldn't feel this way because this is about giving money to a family in need. This money needs to cover a lot of personal expenses and a soon to be born child.