bbunix

GalliumOS is beautiful, period... great hardware support

The key here is "refusing help". In the US it's pretty well one of our basic rights unless we're a danger to ourselves or others. There are really only 2 choices, establish enough trust to encourage the person to receive help, or wait until their behavior violates the law, at which point they've forfeited certain rights and treatment of some kind can be mandated.

This process has mostly been used on addicts and alcoholics (treatment or jail, drug courts), and sometimes works.

Here in Key West, you can also get a bus ticket somewhere else, presumably where the person has more of a support system (family, friends)... if you agree not to return. This solves the problem for Key West, anyhow :)

Mail in a box works great... replaced my old sendmail setup - using an external DNS is a bit funky, but a great package.. support multiple domains easily, pop3/imap and web client. Recommend.

Joke theft sucks (if you've ever tried to write standup material, it's hard) "can I steal that" is more akin to asking permission to use a joke than actual theft. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke_theft

Too heavy - if you're looking for expect-like functionality but much simpler - look at empty (worst name in the world and impossible to search for - but great code): http://empty.sourceforge.net/

Hmmmm.... that's the great thing about alcoholism and addiction - there's more than enough blame to go around. For those in the 'moral weakness, pull up yer bootstraps' camp, I find the following analogy helpful: Try willpower when you've got diarrhea. When you've got the runs, nothing else matters... whether it's your fault or not.

The story is sad; the only thing that is sadder is that the wife didn't leave - that might have been the only thing to underline the seriousness of the situation. The other caveat is that he was 'high functioning' - so he could stay in denial about the situation (rent's paid, wife's here, money coming in, everything's fine)... depending on the amount of money coming in, that can fuel really powerful denial.

It's a lot easier to recover when you're broke.

It's a shame that he didn't get the chance to go to a rehab for 30 days - the staff there might have had a chance to help... that one's on the doctor...

So if you think you might have a problem, you probably do. If you want to discuss it with someone hit me up...

Essentially a Canadian version of the Patriot Act.

Could be something as simple as a russian margin call... commodities in general are having a rough time.

atop is an awesome tool.... and the article is from 2010.

"hey have been looking at offering a service/product similar to ours" - that's called a competitor... and they can do whatever they want with your IP - patents or not - you're gonna sue them? Good luck with that, they'll bury you.

I'd finish the product, launch, then talk. Your value isn't going down between now and then, and this is just a distraction.

Just say 'see you on launch day, bring a check".

Background story - we sold our 2 person company (Big Brother) to BigCo (Quest Software)... little did I know that our free product was killing the sales of their $50K a pop product... ohhhh... so that's why they were so interested....

As an expert in the subject, having stopped for 8.5 years, started, stopped again for almost 10, and started, and now stopped for another 8... um, nope.

I'm addicted to substances that haven't been invented yet... and my brain really enjoys being wasted... the Ramones "I wanna be sedated" pretty well sums it up.

So for someone like me, mind altering substances are dangerous because I have no brakes... even after years of being stopped... because I really don't want to "enjoy alcohol responsibly".... I want to enjoy alcohol irresponsibly.

Well done... down to getting to color of an old vt220 right... (that's the orange one)

It's almost 4 am here and I'm still hacking away... minimum distractions in the middle of the night... and reply #2 to a HN post :)

Now it's totally down... Bad SysAdmin day?

Move to Key West.

Verio might be a good match... NTT could afford it... and make them a player.

Corollary - customers look for exit options...

Glad we moved everyone off to AWS... pricing is an issue - everyone is lowering prices dramatically... tough market.

Inevitable... moved off DynDNS earlier this year in favor of Amazon's Route53. DNS bills went down 99%... and Amazon has been great.

The real issue is that he was appointed CEO of a non-profit... dependent on the generosity of others for its survival. Controversy, like this is kryptonite to all non-profits. Eich gets points for stepping down rapidly.

I just can't believe this made it to the front page of hacker news... oh well, Black Friday.

"Outage Prevention Engineer/Manager/Director" sort of a cross between Clint Eastwood and Mr Spock :) - "site reliability" sort of minimizes the intense and adrenaline fueled hacking and debugging when "Bad Things(tm)" are happening, plus the authority to "encourage" changes.

Well, it's Canada.

Sharing sufficient information to demonstrate there's no money here seems pretty sensible to me (hey I'm a student doing this part time and the app's only been downloaded 500 times @ 1.99 each and apple keeps 30%... so I've made $700 so far...), but if you want to sue me, go for it :)

1/10 the size of the US, and the awards for infringement are nowhere near as large as the US (no triple damages, no especially favourable venues, etc)... so this is interesting as it happens so rarely. As for the numbers, 48 trials in 2012 sort of addresses the size of the market.

Nah. Not an efficient way of getting that information. And just in passing, here are some Canadian IP stats... don't know if I believe it - but I see 48 patent trials in Canada in 2012.. http://www.ippractice.ca/litigation-statistics/intellectual-...

tl;dr - Being sued for using a publicly available API is a reach. If there's an issue, it's Nextbus that has a problem as well as everyone, and anything that touches their API.

If it was me, I'd reply with a certified letter explaining your situation as a developer, how much revenue the app has made to date in downloads and ads. Then nicely explain that you would never knowling violate anyone IP rights, and having reviewed their patent do not believe you are practicing any of the steps laid out in their patents. You are, simply using information published via publicly available Nextbus API.

Then wait.

Lawsuits cost money - no contingency in Canada, so by demonstrating poverty, it's really not worth suing you... period. If they come back with a real legal filing, you can always just shut down the app, or find a lawyer to help you fight.

However, I'm not a lawyer, just saying what I'd do... you situation may be different - and getting a lawyer never hurts (except the pocketbook).

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My situation; inventor, lived in Canada for years... now in the US. Your app doesn't appear to be infringing (it's not doing all the stuff laid out in the claims, but the API provider most likely would be, which is why they settled)... however...

1. Canada doesn't do contingency for legal stuff, you will need to find a lawyer and need to pay up front. Get a lawyer (if you want a suggestion ping me at sean@maclawran.ca)

2. I'd talk to NextBus about their API and license. I'd also look carefully at whatever agreement you have with NextBus about the use of their API (free/paid). If anything, Nextbus may be infringing on their license by publishing the data. Alternatively, there may be language in the contract indemnifying you. Look at all the contracts, period.

3. Look carefully at the document you were sent. It will have valuable clues; have they actually filed anything, etc.

If you're using their public XML feed/API, here's the agreement: http://www.nextbus.com/xmlFeedDocs/NextBusXMLFeed.pdf.

Good luck.

I'm 50. Made millions. Lost millions. Regrets? Sure.

But it's really a question of perspective. A friend of mine needs 2 kidneys and a liver (try having the "regrets" discussion with them). When I look around, really look around and see the situation a lot of people are in, I get grateful. And gratitude is the answer to that situation. Make a list of all the things you have to be grateful for. You're on HN, you're educated, a bunch of people here care.

Go help someone else. Volunteer at a homeless shelter. Visit the sick in a hospital. Go to the SPCA and pet the animals. Take action.

It's also the middle of winter. I used to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder living in Canada. Fish oil + vitamin D + exercise helps. Moving to Key West helped more :)

Finally, I had to accept that I was exactly where I wanted to be. I took all the actions to get me here. I take the blame. I own it. Mine. Figure out where you want to go, big goals, small goals - and take daily steps to get there... you're either getting better or getting sicker... make the choice to take the actions to get better.

And this may involve asking for help. You've made a good start here, but there might be underlying depression as others have mentioned... therapy of some sort... meditation (my favorite)... stopping drinking or drugging...

This too will pass. Hang in there. Use this situation as the impetus you need to change some shit that needs changing. And I want to see the next post from you as "Tell HN: Feeling Better, here's why"

Good luck!

I wrote Big Brother (http://bb4.com), and it was 99.5% free (until we sold out to Quest/Dell). Originally a lot of our revenue came from support.

We just offered 3 tiers of support. For $250 a year we'd answer emails. For $500 we promised an answer within a day. For $750, within 4 hours, and for $1000 a month I'd take your phone call.

So, people are paying for your time, and for access... I was shocked my how many people opted for $1000 a month phone support (direct access to the developer/author).

Otherwise, support continues to be provided by a mailing list, group or other mechanism.

Good luck!

Well, managing to stay alive for 3 years is something... ultimately when you're doing a startup, either you believe in the product (and by proxy, the management), or you don't.

And you should be asking them these questions.

The Risks Digest is great http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet - The Risks Digest - http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks

See just how wrong things can, and do, go.

Make.Progress.Every.Day.

I've found that the first 80% I can generally get done pretty quickly; most of the design and architecture is in my head and always running as a background task. I use Evernote to organize TODO's (always at the top of the list), and have little discussions with myself about stuff like features, UI's etc.

Life.Gets.In.The.Way.Restart. Arrrrgh. Inevitably. Back to Evernote and pick up where I left off. It gets much harder during that last 20% (which usually takes me more than that first 80%), because the jump from Proof of Concept to Product is brutal.

Do.The.Worst.First. A friend of mine, Sid the Sailor, used to talk about "painting the windowsills when the whole house needed cleaning"... especially combined with that last 20%, I have a tendency to go down rabbitholes (hey maybe I'll use RabbitMQ for this)... so, back to Evernote, and add the TODAY list - what's most important to get done. Then, suck it up, and do it. These often require very long late night sessions since it can often take hours for me to get started and get the momentum up to deal with the pile of poo. (Cause if it was fun it woulda been done).

Invite.Others.to.the.Party During the process, unless it's Top Secret(tm), invite others to take a look at what you're doing. Early on it's nice to get some approval, later on, it's nice to get some feedback about usability. Be careful to avoid party poopers since you don't need to be discouraged - this shit is hard enough already.

Launch.the.fucker. I have trouble with this one, because it's scary. It also generally means I'm going to end up with a pile of feedback (or bug reports) from a bunch of pissed off strangers. I really don't like it because it means work, and lots of it. It's the chasm between a brain fart and reality. And I get faced with the ultimate reality of "Hey maybe this sucks and I've just wasted a huge amount of time".

Now, in "practice what I preach mode", you might want to check out xlogs - http://xlo.gs - it provides logfiles for Amazon AWS and more. and i'm just launching it now :)