aneth

You should never lie to a border agent about whether you or your friend can decrypt a device. You can decline to answer any question, and you do NOT have to provide passwords or keys. Only a judge can compell you to decrypt your drive. That said, border agents can make your life miserable so it's advisable to avoid confrontation.

This advice is based on the EFF document. IANAL.

https://www.eff.org/document/defending-privacy-us-border-gui...

This is an example of the chilling effect you get when you hold service providers liable for users' behavior.

Are there any other examples of this post Megaupload?

Minimalism is a just a word which could have many contexts. Having a minimal number of possessions is minimalism. Having a sparsely decorated penthouse overlooking Central Park is minimalism. A black canvas on a white wall is minimalism. Living the life of a Buddhist monk is minimalist, although they too depend on an infrastructure to support them.

The guy is just writing about his choice to minimize possessions, not to live an empty life devoid of the benefits of modern society.

Indeed. Self-righteous, ill-humored, unconsidered, and mean.

Hopefully it's just a phase.

Her philosophy in more "adult" language:

http://www.doitmotherfucker.com/

Anyone else confused by Microsoft slithering their way into this press release? I can imagine they find this to be a PR coup, and worked very hard to be a "part" of the announcement - perhaps even paying their way in. I find it ... "classless."

What is this, Wikipedia?

Many folks would be happy to allow their photos to be used just for "exposure" or even for fun. Likewise many writers would happily allow their writing to be published for free. This is the case for both aspiring professionals and amateurs who never intend to make significant money with their hobby.

Unions often successfully pressure major players not to deal with these "scabs." There are some good arguements for maintaining a market for professional services by setting a minimum price through collective bargaining.

In a pure market economy, professionals must either demonstrate they are that much better than free or cheap amateur work. Clearly in this case the photographer is much more skilled than a typical amateur and produces stellar work. Unfortunately, in most cases, a publication can easily settle for an inferior free work without any impact on sales.

The marginal cost of a photograph these days is almost zero. Professionals are under a lot of pressure to demonstrate value. I think the good ones can, although many hobbyists produce professional quality work.

In my opinion, a respectable publication should set a minimum price for a work and pay, even of they do not have to. This improves their relationship with their suppliers and encourages better work down the line. Sadly, the economics of publishing may make such generosity infeasible.

The 21st amendment "overrides" the 18th amendment not because it comes later, but because it specifically repeals the 18th amendment:

"The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed."

If there is any precedent for the statement that "a later amendment supersedes earlier text of the constitution" this is not an example.

A better argument, unfortunately rejected by SCOTUS, is that unlimited extensions to copyrights as currently allowed are not permitted by the copyright clause, which authorizes exclusive rights to authors for "limited Times." Unlimited extensions should not be allowed any more than should one million years be allowed as copyright term.

In case you haven't watched the video, this article completely misrepresents what actually happened. The author takes things a bit too literally, and lacks a sense of humor and sarcasm. It's pretty clear the presenter intended to reveal his brief deception and was only pretending to play.

While I'm sure others can address all of the many advantages of git, it's one of those things you don't realize how much you "need" it until you have it, then you take its power for granted until you are stuck using svn. Think iPad, running water, the wheel, a spreadsheet application, or any variety of things.

This is a great point. Seems even legally questionable to make people bid against "fake" money although I'm not sure what law is being violated. Is it legal as the seller in an auction to give out money to certain bidders, with the obvious effect of raising the price at almost no cost to the seller?

Given that most equity is worth nothing in the end I don't think you're correct. The beautiful thing about equity is that its future value can not be determined and it's not possible to limit the upside fairly. If employers start putting a cap on the upside, it undermines the shoot-for-the-moon lets make this a $100 billion dollar company spirit that equity otherwise engenders. Had Google had a $1B exit, or a $100M exit - both far more likely scenarios when the chef joined - the grant would have seemed perfectly reason.

This has nothing to do with risk and all to do with incentive. Whether your grant is on top of a full salary or not is irrelevant.

I think this is illustrative of a fundamental difference in philosophy between employment in the USA versus elsewhere, and one which favors economic growth and innovation over social stability.

Requiring cause to fire someone is business-hostile at best. Business can not improve efficiency, pivot, or generally adapt to changing markets if they are not free to hire and fire at will.

The one major point most "liberals" (in the American sense) miss regarding employment security is that employers are far less likely to take risks on hiring - whether in quantity, salary, or experience - when they can not fire at-will. This leads to less employment overall, not more.

The arguments are similar to other well intentioned, but seriously deleterious policies, such as rent control and Calfornia's "Prop 13."

That said, ethics and treating people well are very important. I find Zynga's actions unethical and think there is a good chance they should be held civilly liable.

Of course I understand the sentiment that everyone wants their site to look fully custom and not like it came from any particular framework, but it's hard to resist the irony that the first thing they have to say is "Hardly looks like a ‘Bootstrap site’ at all."

Thank you for showing us that clarity and brilliance isn't always as easy as the final product makes it appear.

Apple would not exist had Jobs not had the insight to turn Wozniak's hobby into a marketable product. Indeed he had much help to grow the company, but that help is a commodity far easier to find than a man like Jobs who could spy potential and lead those resources toward his vision.

In his early days, Jobs was a terrible manager, a tedious perfectionist, a narcissistic autocrat, and an emotional child - yet he had the passion, charisma, and vision to see potential and make it happen. Because of that, all his negative qualities become charming quirks instead of causing him to be kicked to the curb for good at 20. He was probably rightfully booted from Apple for those characteristics, and it was far easier for him to tame those demons than it would have been for Wozniak to take on Jobs' charm.

There's a reason there is only one Jobs and one Apple, yet thousands of Wozniaks and still one Apple - Jobs is a rarer and more essential talent. Wozniak was quickly replaced when he became disengaged - Jobs still can't be.

I agree overcoming "approach anxiety" is key to just about any goal that requires someone else to be attracted to you in one way or another - dating, investing, friendship, ordering a drink in a crowded bar, ....

However, the key to ultimate success in all of these is that the person needs to like you and respect you. Girls don't like guys that approach them and rattle off about how funny they are, how much money they make, and what a great lover they are. Girls respect guys who are confident and layered, not guys who throw all their cards on the table in a 30 second pitch in a desperate attempt to be liked. Bartenders will first serve patient, confident, respectful customers, not eager, aggressive douchebags flashing twenties and snapping fingers.

Not being a super-experienced investor or fundraiser, I'll leave the translation to investment pitches up to others, but I have a mixed reaction to this post. For most people, the hardest part of reaching out to others is shutting down the the internal chatter that talks them out of opening the door. How you conduct yourself afterwards though, is also incredibly important.

I suspect investors as a class try to grit their teeth and discount awkwardness and narcissism in the hopes of finding the next Mark Zuckerberg, however I also think being a genuine and likable person - which for the most part means genuinely liking other people - is a great path to a good relationship in this and any other circumstance.

According to this pricing, 1, 1.5, and 2 Tb drives are all within $5 of each other - $140, $139.50, and $144 respectively.

Shall we compare new users of TextEdit to new users of vi?

Precisely. While I'm sure Steve communicated with Cook the day before he died (he knew he was dying - the PA police had been notified), and I don't doubt he expressed his last ideas for the future of Apple, I'm sure he was far more concerned with more transcendent things than the pixel density of the iPhone 5. Steve was not a shallow man.

Given that Cook no doubt knew Steve was about to die, I don't think it's reasonable to think he would tell the truth. Just imagine what he might have said if he had.

Ok, why would you pay for Dropbox of you didn't have to and they didn't ask you to? They clearly are not going out of business, at least until something better comes along.

Why would you pay for what they happily offer for free?

I've noticed a lot of crap e-books in Amazon lately that are comprised of Wikipedia or about.com style articles and selling for a few dollars. Some of them appear to be computer generated scrapings from PDFs, or some other unreliable method.

Make a killing publishing individual Wikipedia articles as ebooks...check.

I'm wondering:

1) Does the publisher have a right to this material, and to charge for it?

2) Is this material available elsewhere on the web?

3) Does Paul Graham or anyone else get compensated?

I would encourage anyone considering buying this sort of thing to know the answers to these questions before their purchase.

Failing loudly and often is going out of style from overexposure.

There is nothing wrong with this either. It's trading based on research of publicly available information - exactly what you should be doing.

The lesson to be learned here is to make things happen - to find a way from A to B - to not take no for an answer.

It is not that breaking the rules is a good thing, only that sometimes it is acceptable.

Groupon is handing all the money and keeping it for a significant period of time. A broker doesn't touch the transaction price.

"Saying you can cover liabilities from notional future profits is illegal"

Almost every business does this, so I suppose they should all be prosecuted and we should send our financial system back to the Middle Ages. If I take out $1M loan and invest it in my business, my intent is to pay that liability with notional future profits. If I purchase something Net 90 and don't have the money in the bank, I'm apparently violating the law. Off to jail I go.

This is the government fishing for a law to prosecute unrelated behavior that is insufficiently regulated or completely legal. This was not a ponzi scheme as many others have commented. They kept enough cash to pay more than enough of the anticipated withdrawals, and had an operating business that could quickly earn any need for more funds should withdrawals spike. This is standard practice in banking and insurance. I hear Warren Buffet heads a big ponzi scheme too.

If FTP did not segregate finds as advertised, perhaps they committed some sort of fraud, but theft and ponzi this is not.