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jbronn

334 karma · joined December 17, 2008

I'm an IP attorney, entrepreneur, and computer scientist. I'm also a core developer of the Django web framework; specifically, I lead development of GeoDjango -- the world's most advanced web framework for developing location-based applications.
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jbronn··on How to Hide $400M
Put into any bank or brokerage account in your name only now. Don't commingle with community funds when you get married. Separate property remains separate -- it's what you acquire and earn during the marriage that's considered community property. If still worried, get a pre-nuptial agreement before taking the plunge.
jbronn··on OpenBSD on PC Engines APU2
Other highlights:

* High quality Intel NICs (3x i210AT)

* AES-NI instructions

* SIM socket (for 3G cellular modem in PCIe slot)

jbronn··on FiB – A Facebook newsfeed accuracy verification Chrome extension
Pretending that facts don't exist is a shitty meme that needs to stop.

For example, it's definitely false to claim that Donald Trump won the popular vote yet there are a multitude of fake stories on FB that claim as much.

jbronn··on Ask HN: What is your favorite YouTube channel for developers?
I had no idea that Mark Lewis was on YouTube! He was one of my favorite professors at Trinity and I'm grateful to know he's still at it and reaching others outside of San Antonio.
jbronn··on Vulnerabilities Induced by Migrating to 64-Bit Platforms [pdf]
This is also why Elasticsearch recommends using nodes with a max of 32gb RAM. [1]

[1] https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/...

jbronn··on How difficult is it to preserve metadata when moving a file?
I'm a big fan of fsarchiver (https://www.fsarchiver.org/). I've successfully used it for restoring full Windows 7 systems (NTFS), which implicitly requires getting all the metadata correct (e.g., alternate data streams).
jbronn··on The Typical Home in San Jose Now Costs More Than $1M
And every employer insists on local employees, just because it's trendy. Salaries have not kept pace with housing costs.
jbronn··on Guide to User Data Security
It's also possible to craft a fine-grained sudo policy instead of allowing carte blanche access.
jbronn··on Taking legal action against the most active sellers of viewbot services
Although technically in the criminal code, 18 U.S.C. §1030(g) allows a civil cause of action.
jbronn··on Freedom of speech is in retreat
There's a glaring omission in the Economist's articles on free speech: the effort to criminalize BDS activism. [1]

[1] https://theintercept.com/2016/02/16/greatest-threat-to-free-...

jbronn··on Legal Weed is Hurting San Francisco's Hippies
Meth is legal, the pharmaceutical name is Desoxyn.
jbronn··on Only Nixon Harmed a Free Press More
He was served a search warrant alleging he was part of a criminal conspiracy. This is a prelude to criminal charges. Stop your semantic hysterics.
jbronn··on A.C.L.U. Files Suit Over Phone Surveillance Program
Ok then, then what about his 16 year old son? Another American citizen (born in Denver), killed two weeks later in a drone strike. Does killing teens jive with your idea of due process?
jbronn··on You cannot have a digital copy of the DC Code
Although it's absurd, it's been claimed many times before. For example, municipalities incorporate model building codes as law, which publishers objected to being placed online. In 2002 this issue bubbled up to the 5th circuit which held that the laws were not subject to copyright protection. The case is Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress, 293 F.3d 791:

https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/293/293.F3d.791.99...

This is compelling precedent if the copyright dispute ever reaches the federal district court in DC.

jbronn··on College was my biggest mistake
As someone who started law school in 2005, this hits close to home -- and is unfortunately true. Unless you were an engineer beforehand and went into IP law, probably the only field in the profession that's still hiring now. But then you'd end up writing patents, which sucks your soul and why I still work in tech at a startup now.

This brings me to my new motto I tell those considering the profession: "law school is never the answer."

jbronn··on James Dyson reinvented the vacuum. Now he wants to remake the economy
You're not alone -- in the latest Consumer Reports the Dyson vacuums got some of the worst reviews.
jbronn··on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 arrives for testing
Installs fine on ESXi 4 -- should be no problem on 5.
jbronn··on Tens of millions of HP LaserJet printers vulnerable to hacking
Coincidentally, I was updating HP LaserJet firmware last week and when the update tool was running, I was surprised to see it sent the firmware as a 'normal' job to the printer. My guess is this is how the exploit works -- simply disassemble existing firmware and make sure your malicious job looks like said update.
jbronn··on SSH productivity tips
Your comment about the mysterious `-l` option got me interested and I did some investigation. It looks like a custom option added by Apple to indicate it was started by `launchd`. Here's a link to the relevant patch on their opensource site:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/OpenSSH/OpenSSH-95.1....

jbronn··on Accuracy takes power: one man's 3GHz quest to build a perfect SNES emulator
Sony thought servers would be easy to manage.
jbronn··on US claims all .com and .net websites are in its jurisdiction
Verisign is operator of the authoritative domain name registry for the .com and .net top-level domains. Verisign is headquartered in Virginia, and as such, the "property" of the domain is located in the United States and is subject to the jurisdiction of our courts.

This isn't new, and it's why anti-cybersquatting legislation (15 U.S.C. §1125) can be enforced.

jbronn··on 5 ways to reboot a PC. None of them reliable.
PR#6
jbronn··on How can you program if you're blind?
I suggest the person asking this question to watch "Sneakers."
jbronn··on Elaborate fake Chevron PR campaign created by subversive ad group
The stunt also created publicity and attracted press to an issue that otherwise wouldn't have existed. Would you prefer the Bhopal victims suffer in silence?
jbronn··on Apple's attention to detail
iTunes needs some of this attention
jbronn··on FreeBSD 8.1 released
Because I'm concerned about the future of OpenSolaris, I downloaded 8.1 and attempted to get a ZFS boot install going -- I was unsuccessful. The process is extremely complex, and the best doc you're going to get is a wiki page with incomplete and complex instructions:

http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot

Moreover, there's no support for ZFS boot in the installer (sidebar: the installer has barely changed since when I first tried FreeBSD 2.2 in 1998).

I'd say stick to OpenSolaris if you require ZFS boot; alternatively keep boot on UFS and use ZFS for your data filesystems.

jbronn··on Native port of ZFS for Linux
ZFS is released under the CDDL 1.0. The terms of the CDDL (§2.1) grant a "a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license" for any patent claims "infringed by the making, using or selling of" ZFS now owned or later aqcuired by Sun/Oracle.

Thus, typical ZFS users cannot be sued for infringing on the patents that Oracle holds on ZFS technology. However, this does not preclude third-parties (e.g., NetApp) from pursuing patent claims that they believe are infringed by ZFS -- but this is just as true with any other technology (think MS suing Garmin over FAT in Linux).

Liability for infringement on Oracle's ZFS patents is possible if a user does not comply with the terms of the CDDL. For example, modifying the ZFS source code and distributing it using a license other than the CDDL would be a breach of the license terms (§3.1), and thus forgo any patent license. The Apache 2.0 license has similar terms regarding patent rights.

jbronn··on If Version Control Systems were Airlines
A long time ago I had to use some legacy scientific code stored in SCCS repos on a Solaris server. It's even more arcane than RCS.
jbronn··on Yehuda Katz Talks Rails 3.0
Besides the misspelling of "Rials" in the first question, I was also put off by Yehuda's nonsensical criticisms about Django and Python -- doesn't sound like he's used either.
jbronn··on SF Mayor on why open source is the new software policy in San Francisco
"The underlying source code is not copyrighted and therefore available free of charge to read, modify, and build upon."

This is a serious misconception as open source code is copyrighted -- it's just licensed to end users with terms that may allow modification and creation of derivative works. If you don't abide by terms of the particular open source license, then it's still copyright infringement.

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