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KeithBrinkon Careless People

I was interested in this anecdote about the board games, but it seems like there's at least some dispute about how true or inflated this story is:

https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-board-game-c...

I think it's easy to believe a narrative like this about someone generally disliked, but the reality about basically everyone is that we have good moments and bad moments. People that are famous are constantly being watched and evaluated.

Given the inevitability of those bad moments being observed and reported, I don't think it's a good foundation for evaluating someone's character. In this case, it's mostly useful for confirming an already negative point of view.

KeithBrinkon US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

Bad example. Most dairy imports from US -> Canada are not subject to the tariffs.

This video goes over the details of the thresholds and how those dairy tariffs work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lURdVBCBo8

In short, nobody is paying 200% tariffs.

KeithBrinkon Carlos Slim cancels Starlink orders

https://archive.is/JwEcG

The $22B number comes from the stock market downturn leading to a loss of wealth of $7B for Musk that happened to be on the same day that Slim said they will cancel contracts for an unspecified amount with Starlink and invest $22B into developing their own infrastructure.

So, the headline is completely false.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: Do the tarrifs impact software/SaaS? If so, how?

This is not how tariffs work - the US company is responsible for the tariff, not the Canadian company.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: Do the tarrifs impact software/SaaS? If so, how?

Not any kind of expert, but from my research, Article 19.3 of the USMCA says that tariffs can't be imposed on digital products:

1. No Party shall impose customs duties, fees, or other charges on or in connection with the importation or exportation of digital products transmitted electronically, between a person of one Party and a person of another Party.

The full chapter on digital trade: https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/agreements/FTA/US...

KeithBrinkon Launch HN: MinusX (YC S24) – AI assistant for data tools like Jupyter/Metabase

Any chance of a Firefox extension?

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: How do you fairly split donations among an open source team?

Yes, if everyone isn't involved in arriving at the decision about what is fair, they won't feel that it's fair even if you come up with some brilliant objective measurement of contribution impact.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: Advice for turning my side project into a real business

I would find a way to validate that there is a path to $1m/year. Perhaps talking to some of the folks to see if they would commit to paying if you're able to deliver what you're building.

If you can get some written commitments in place, it will be a lot easier to pitch to investors if you decide to go that route, and you'll get a better valuation.

It doesn't sound like you are able to bear a worst case scenario at the moment since you have dependents, so you want to be as sure as possible before you lose your income stream.

KeithBrinkon Losing my son

Thank you for writing this. They say that you don't know what you have until it's gone, but reading experiences like this reminds me how precious and fragile life is, so that I can more deeply appreciate the time I do have with my loved ones.

KeithBrinkon Losing my son

The author's other writings on the four magic words helped me understand his point of view at visceral level. He is not clinging to preserving his son, he believes that his son's life is sacred, even in its diminished state.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: Visual interfaces for editing markdown-based static sites?

You can look into a Git-based CMS, such as https://github.com/decaporg/decap-cms

These typically are designed to support static site generators.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: Are there downsides to making all our source code publicly available?

I disagree, there's nothing wrong with a business owner doing things because it makes them happy.

KeithBrinkon Logic Lab

Another good one: https://nandgame.com/

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: How small startups deal with long security questionnaires from clients?

Ah their pricing was different when I was using them, but I recommend reaching out, they were very flexible and easy to work with they might do something custom for you.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: How small startups deal with long security questionnaires from clients?

I had a great experience with Stacksi, they helped both created the policies and answer the questionaires semi automatically based on the policies.

KeithBrinkon Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

Making money based on statistics is what the insurance company does. The whole point of insurance is paying extra money to the insurance company in case I'm personally on the wrong side of the statistic.

KeithBrinkon Developer marketing for early-stage startups – what we’ve learned

Did you think about having the saleswoman continue to visit that one customer on contract? Pay a few thousand for the day, land the sale, then back to the MBA.

KeithBrinkon How they filmed The Last of Us arcade scene

Here's the comment: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/last-of-us-arcade-s...

KeithBrinkon My fifth year as a bootstrapped founder

You could account for your inventory as an asset and then expense it once sold. That would make you much more profitable on paper right away! :)

KeithBrinkon My fifth year as a bootstrapped founder

One overlooked factor in these numbers is that the founder now has more levers to pull. For example, they are paying $206k in payroll, and in an emergency situation, could let some staff go and take over those functions themselves.

I've experienced the same thing with my bootstrapped startup; I'm not paying myself any more money than I did 3 years ago, but if I need money, I can double or triple my own salary within a month or two.

The reason the founder isn't doing that now is likely exactly the same reason Uber or other VC startups consistently lose money; they are optimizing for growth, not profit/salary.

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: What gift worked for your child well?

My three year old loves playing with a marble race puzzle inside a plastic ball, called a Perplexus. He can play with it for hours on end.

KeithBrinkon Show HN: I built a no-BS recipe search engine

In addition to the other suggestions, a Firefox extension that does this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/recipe-filter

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: AWS account expires in 2 weeks. Can't login, but they keep asking me to

Any chance you’re using a VOIP service for your phone number? If AWS is sending their verification codes on a short code, they often don’t deliver unless you’re using an actual mobile carrier. This has been an issue for me on other services.

KeithBrinkon Show HN: Trade stocks from the command line with no commission

Nice to see you on here, big fan of Passiv!

KeithBrinkon Uber’s self-driving car could not detect pedestrians outside of a crosswalk

The interview with the driver by the NTSB is interesting if you want more details from the driver's side of the story:

https://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/document.cfm?docID=477745...

You can also see the detailed report from the NTSB which will go through about everything you would want to know about the actual driver and her reaction:

https://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/document.cfm?docID=477743...

Particularly of note is that Hulu was streaming video on her phone until about 1 minute after the crash (page 11 of the report).

KeithBrinkon Google search takes 7 seconds on certain queries

Have you tried using verbatim mode? I have that as my default search mode in Firefox, and it always searches for your exact phrase, spelling mistakes and all.

Still has its problems, but better than the default search mode.

KeithBrinkon Puffer – Stream live TV in the browser

Apparently Puffer is actually a study that is testing streaming algorithms:

https://puffer.stanford.edu/terms/

KeithBrinkon Show HN: Instantly make any Netlify form PCI DSS compliant

Stripe supports migrating your customer data to another processor:

https://stripe.com/docs/security/data-migrations/exports

And it looks like they also support importing data from other providers:

https://stripe.com/docs/recipes/switching-to-stripe#migratio...

KeithBrinkon Ask HN: What are the some passive income strategies you do beside your IT job?

Like some others here, I have an Amazon FBA business but I treat it as my full-time job, even though I've automated a lot of the grunt work and employ a VA for the things that can't be automated.

I did, however, find a little unsolved problem on Amazon that sucks up seller's time, so I built a solution[0] for it with about a month of work, and now it generates >$2k/m with 1-2 hours of customer support work every month.

[0] https://azlabels.com

KeithBrinkon VCG has acquired 500px

Looks like that is for photographers protecting their images, not companies avoiding copyright violations, no?