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pmikal

999 karma · joined June 18, 2008

Finance & Payments Executive, Early Stage Startup Guy, Music Lover, Cool Hunter:

I've been to the end of the Internet and tied off a rope to find my way back.

http://mikal.org http://twitter.com/pmikal http://www.quora.com/Philip-Mikal

DM me on Twitter or Quora to get in touch. Happy to answer any questions.

submissionscomments
pmikal··on Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
Website shows they've shut it down.

"The experiment is over. We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this."

pmikal··on Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For
It'd likely cause a more dangerous condition as the jammed drivers would be fussing with their phones trying to figure out what happened to their signal.
pmikal··on Stripe: instant payment processing for developers
Most merchant acquirers, as well as the US Government, will interpret sections 312 and 326 of the US Patriot Act to require a Social Security Number to positively identify a merchant application and to check the applicant against various financial crimes and terrorist lists. This essentially prohibits non-US companies. There are some exceptions, but this is generally the rule.

Many of the card acceptance solutions that do not require this information are not actually issuing merchant accounts or are otherwise performing what is known as aggregration or is opening a merchant account on your behalf that they own. Some are also issuing merchant accounts in non-US banks. Others are in violation of US law.

pmikal··on Beware of Asshole VCs
You can find this type of candid commentary here: http://www.thefunded.com/
pmikal··on IE team sends a cupcake for FireFox 5
IE team loves to poke shots at other browsers. Anyone remember the giant E placed on the lawn of Netscape's office in Mountain View? I think it was ~1997. They then dominated the browser market for the next few years.
pmikal··on Colourlovers Raises $1 Million To Make Everyone An Artist
Kuler has been around since November of 2006 if I remember correctly....
pmikal··on Colourlovers Raises $1 Million To Make Everyone An Artist
So quickly people forget Adobe's free Kuler:

http://kuler.adobe.com

pmikal··on Mark Bao tracks down his stolen laptop and has the last laugh
I tracked down a stolen laptop using Prey (http://preyproject.com/) and Live Mesh's remote desktop. Upon having the laptop stolen, Prey notified my it was online. I remote connected, installed a keylogger and used that along with Prey's camera images to identify the thief and have the person arrested.
pmikal··on And suddenly, you're hip
Hip or un-hip, ChargeSmart loves perl - developers looking for work at a San Francisco based funded payments start-up should email me their details, pmikal [at] ChargeSmart.com.
pmikal··on Online privacy: what’s at stake
Privacy is the new sharing.
pmikal··on What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency is the most common medical condition in the world. A majority of persons that live above the 33rd parallel north, San Francisco for example, are deficient.

If you are at all interested, a must read is The Vitamin D Solution.

pmikal··on Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.
I recently recovered a laptop because I had installed Prey on it (http://preyproject.com/). It's free, sends you the IP, a webcam snap, desktop grab and attempts a geo-location.

I also always install Microsoft's Live Mesh on my machines, which is helpful for remote login if one has gone missing. Free. (https://www.mesh.com/)

pmikal··on Save My Life - help a fellow HN'er
Mostly for people who already know what they have, not really diagnostic or symptom based.

There is some interesting talks from one of the founders on Stanford's EC Corner:

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=2...

pmikal··on Save My Life - help a fellow HN'er
I love this idea. Send me a message.
pmikal··on Ask HN: Would you sell your future earnings for cash today?
So if I offered you 1 million for 3% of your future earnings, you wouldn't at all be tempted? What if the 1 million is tax free, cash in your account today?
pmikal··on How Privacy Vanishes Online, a Bit at a Time
Privacy is the new sharing.
pmikal··on A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed
Privacy is the new sharing.
pmikal··on Alex Payne, a Twitter engineer, is shutting down his personal blog
I shut down my blog Jan 1. Privacy is the new sharing.
pmikal··on VCs that use checklists are more effective
Would be great if you shared the "Idea Sieve"!
pmikal··on Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
Related:

CEO's without college education http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/766831.html

Wanted: CEO, no Ivy required http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-04-06-cover-ceos_x....

...seems like a bachelor's degree is a requirement for big company management.

pmikal··on Ask HN: What are you working on?
Woo-hoo. Go perl!
pmikal··on Another major Rackspace outage. (I'm moving my servers)
"Network issue, not power, you can remote desktop into device. Not sure what the problem is yet." According to phone support.
pmikal··on Another major Rackspace outage. (I'm moving my servers)
philip: when is rackspace going to be back up?

Anarka F: looks like we just lost connection to a server in Dallas I do not have details since it just happened can I have your name and email address and I will send you details as soon as everything is back up

Anarka F: our engineers are on top of things! hang tight!

pmikal··on Another major Rackspace outage. (I'm moving my servers)
Realtime twitter updates in search, cool: http://www.google.com/search?q=twitter+rackspace
pmikal··on Another major Rackspace outage. (I'm moving my servers)
http://status.apps.rackspace.com/
pmikal··on Another major Rackspace outage. (I'm moving my servers)
Rackspace is down, support not answering phone.
pmikal··on What's the Deal with Fish Oil?
Not so much in the long term, but in higher quantities and when oxidized.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fish-oil-health-benefits/

pmikal··on VeriFone launches iPhone card acceptance hardware
You think a card reader in a headphone jack is going to last long in a retail environment?
pmikal··on VeriFone launches iPhone card acceptance hardware
This is what Square should have designed....
pmikal··on Squareup
Wireless terminals have been available for a long time. Verifone has sold thousands of wireless terminals with a built-in GPRS and ethernet. You can easily find them for less then $200 and are purpose built for retail.

http://www.verifone.com/countertop/vx510.aspx

The last thing I want to do is to hand my $699 iPhone over to a customer, especially with a usb attachment or delicate accessory in it's headphone jack....

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