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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

He owns a bar now. His apps are a tip calculator and Dali Clock, an application which spreads over all conceivable computing surfaces like yeast fungi; just leave your device out in the open for awhile, and it'll ferment its own Dali Clock.

I'm not sure jwz is quite the developer draw you're making him out to be.

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He is still has a significant influence, regardless of the usefulness of his apps, as highlighted by the position of this article on Hacker News. Had he written a blog entry called "Developing for WebOS is awesome", the submission would still be wildly popular and quite a few people would be compelled to give WebOS a shot. And of course, he would be much less likely to talk trash about them.

Tip calculators have been best sellers on the apple AppStore. Just sayin'. ;-)

I don't understand tip calculators, and I suck at math. I'd feel like a cheapskate sitting there punching numbers into my phone. I divide by ten then double.

20% tip in your country? Ouch. I’m guessing US: is it true that waiters/waitresses can be paid below the minimum wage on the assumption that tips can bring it up?

There is a separate minimum wage for servers. Last time I saw it (years ago) it was like $2.75USD

Yes, though many states have their own rules http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/state/tipped.htm

Yes, that is the case. I think it's dumb and wrongheaded, but it is what it is.

Officially, you're supposed to tip 15%. 20% is just easier to calculate.

Waitstaff in any restaurant you've heard of are probably not being paid below the minimum wage. I'm pretty sure the waitress we tipped at L2o was making solid money without my gratuity. It's just a social convention.

I'm still under the impression that standard tip in the US is 15%, but I usually tip 20% if the service is good, if only because it makes calculations is easier. Shoddy service that's not bad enough to notice is 15%; anything less jumps a quantum level down to zero.

We've all read this article, it made the front page of HN. I'm sure it's swayed opinions of the Palm app. review process.

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