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iamandrus

403 karma · joined November 2, 2011

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iamandrus··on The next SOPA
Of course you can argue that, but you'd be wrong. Ask anyone on the street what they think of Apple locking down their products and not allowing you to modify them, and you'd get mostly positive responses about Apple. Now ask them about DRM (in an understandable way, of course), like how they might buy a song on one music store and not be able to listen to it on their iPod. You'd get negative responses, guaranteed. I don't mean to say that artists don't care about the product they created. Artists deserve a lot for the stuff they make. But the MPAA just uses these artists to make money. Has their ever been an MPAA album, or has the MPAA itself (not the artists) released a single? The executives just care about money, not the music or the culture behind the music. If they actually cared about the audience, they wouldn't use DRM and lawsuits to make people pay for their product.
iamandrus··on The next SOPA
I never said that Apple was right. There are a lot of things I disagree with in regard to Apple (I hated the first iPhone, I really did). I said that you're comparing two completely different models and range of products.

You're also assuming that everyone who uses a computer knows how to modify it and not break it. Understand that a lot of Apple users want a device that just works. They don't want to have to mess around with the operating system or type a lot of intimidating commands into a terminal just to change something. They want to go on Facebook, play some games, listen to music, or type term papers. DRM does nothing but prevent things from "just working." It locks down where you can watch DVDs, how you can watch them, how you can use things, and can even lock you out of something if there's a problem on the developer's end (example: Assassin's Creed 2 included a DRM that needed an internet connection whenever you played the game, so if Ubisoft's servers went down or you don't have access to Internet, you can't play the game). To say that DRM is for the user's benefit and totally not for the developer's is insane.

Comparing the MPAA's restrictions with Apple is a bit unfair, and their success is only due to almost a complete monopoly in that area. The MPAA executives look at their audience with dollar signs in their eyes. Apple looks at them with those same dollar signs, but also with care and pride for the products they push out. They want to get a good product out. They adopted new business models like iTunes, iCloud, and even Siri. The MPAA is the antithesis of innovation and doesn't care about the products it pushes out, it just wants money.

Sorry for the long rant, but I needed to do it.

iamandrus··on The next SOPA
Apple has draconian restrictions on stuff like iOS for the user's sake (and for Apple's partially), and with the huge amount of users they obviously got that right. I'm not entirely sure what Apple's stance on SOPA is (I heard they supported it, but then I heard they didn't), but I don't think it would matter to them. They don't need to sue for piracy because they have the iTunes Store, which only distributes content. Apple even removed the DRM from their iTunes Store media a few years ago. They don't limit your freedom in the way that SOPA or PIPA will. You're comparing two completely different industries.
iamandrus··on DOJ Didn't Need SOPA to Shutdown "rogue site" MegaUpload
The US had jurisdiction since MU rented about 500 (?) servers in Virginia. If all of their servers were outside the US, they couldn't have done much about it.
iamandrus··on Senator Harry Reid Caves: PIPA Postponed
I became critical when he said issues with the bill "[can] be resolved." No, no they can't.

These bills (SOPA and PIPA) are broken and are unfixable. The only way to "fix" them is to scrap them and rewrite them.

He also implies that PIPA will generate jobs in the industries most troubled by piracy, and again I have to disagree. The problem is with these companies pushing outdated, annoying business models instead of embracing the hundreds of amazing startups trying to fix the problems these companies have. Jobs won't be created by passing these bills. That's just the sugarcoating that the lobbyists use to make the bills look feasible to the Senate.

And I agree fully, creators deserve compensation for their work. As an entrepeneur, I know the feeling of getting something in return for creating. But these bills will open Pandora's box and unleash all hell on the Internet and American citizens. No more fixing. Kill these bills once and for all.

iamandrus··on Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
They apparently rented servers in Virginia, which gave the US jurisdiction.
iamandrus··on Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
>I am also astounded that people on HN are calling this a legitimate business. What was its business? Was it being used to distribute Wikipedia archives? To host videos of people's kids singing? No - it was hosting pirated content. Not torrents, not links. AVI files of films. AND THEN CHARGING FOR ACCESS.

So by your definition, Dropbox is an illegitimate business because I stuck my (purchased) copy of The Dark Knight on there and they didn't remove it?

I used MegaUpload. A LOT. For legitimate content. It's very useful because I don't have to worry about hosting it on my own server and potentially going over my bandwidth cap (I send RAR files with large images for graphic design, totally legitimate need for MU).

iamandrus··on Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
No, I think he was joking because Swizz Beats is/was the CEO of MU.
iamandrus··on Facebook Timeline is too awful to be an accident
The problem I have with Timeline is the awful way that it organizes posts. The two column format is awkward and it makes it hard to search or even casually read posts as you scroll down, because your eyes are darting between the two columns rather than one. The grouping is pretty crap, too.
iamandrus··on Poll: How much sleep do you get per night?
4-6 hours on weekdays with a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. On the weekends, maybe 10-13 hours.
iamandrus··on 4chan "blacking out" (or, "spoilering") all comments as SOPA protest
/co/ is fine for work.
iamandrus··on The Pirate Bay Will Stop Serving Torrents
They announced that they were planning on doing this right when magnet links came out. I haven't used .torrent files since I discovered magnet links and I actually find they more convenient than downloading a torrent file.
iamandrus··on Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish
I don't even have it installed on my iPhone. I use the mobile site.
iamandrus··on Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA
If I remember correctly, over 83k calls.
iamandrus··on All Major Labels Are Suing Grooveshark
>The other labels are contending that Grooveshark employees uploaded the songs and were asked to by management. They claim to have leaked internal documents to prove it.

Didn't Viacom claim something similar?

iamandrus··on Ask HN: What do you think of our new iOS app? Promo codes inside
I used the first code.

I agree that the UI needs to be more streamlined. The "Add Reminder" screen is iffy to use. Other than that, great idea for an app!

iamandrus··on Reddit traffic doubles in less than a year, to 2 billion monthly pageviews
Reddit's growth has been amazing. It gets a lot of hate because of users reposting content without giving credit, but it really is an amazing site. I used to search Google endlessly for sites to get, for example, help on video games or services for video games, but now I think, "Well, I'll just check out their subreddit and see if anyone else has this problem." It's great for news and breaking stories. Sometimes I see it on reddit before I even see it breaking on Twitter.

I think Conde Nast did a good job as well in not fucking it up for the site. They let the owners do their own thing and let the site grow (an action I really wish other large companies would take when acquiring startups) instead of forcing them to put annoying ads all over or other stupid things.

However, I wish reddit would make it easier for users to find features and generally understand the site. I'm still finding useful features that have been hidden in the software.

I thank the reddit staff for their amazing work and hope that they keep it up. :)

iamandrus··on Nobody Goes to Facebook Anymore. It’s Too Crowded.
A ton of my real life friends are starting to use Twitter more than Facebook because Facebook "isn't cool anymore."
iamandrus··on Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (January 2012)
SEEKING WORK -- Remote or Las Vegas, NV

My website: http://www.arcfeed.com (still in development)

My LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/iamandrus

I'm strong in PHP, Javascript, HTML(5), CSS(3), MySQL, some Python, some Obj-C, Node.js, and Perl.

Contact if interested: [my hacker news username]@me.com.

iamandrus··on [dead]
Agreed. Beyond all the terrible things they've done, they suck as a registrar. I'm never using them again in favor of Name.com.
iamandrus··on Godaddy No Longer Just Doesn’t Support But Actually “Opposes” SOPA
Exactly. If we say we're going to boycott a company and don't do it because they claim to have changed, that makes us look stupid.
iamandrus··on Godaddy No Longer Just Doesn’t Support But Actually “Opposes” SOPA
It's too late for sorry, GoDaddy. Take your medicine.
iamandrus··on Poll: Will you move your domains from GoDaddy today?
Uh, yeah. A boycott isn't a boycott if nobody knows about it. If you don't want to join us, then don't. Nobody is making you move your domains away.
iamandrus··on Poll: Will you move your domains from GoDaddy today?
> If you don't like GoDaddy, or disagree with some of their policies, don't use them.

... that's exactly what we're doing. What, do you think we're firebombing GoDaddy's headquarters and killing its executives?

iamandrus··on Poll: Will you move your domains from GoDaddy today?
Namecheap. They're running a promotion right now, use promo code "SOPASUCKS". Have fun!
iamandrus··on [dead]
Oh boy, here come the spambots...
iamandrus··on Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It's a really good book for starting entrepreneurs.
iamandrus··on The Facebook Platform Is A Trainwreck
> If they've maintained some Java or Python stuff, that's right nice of them but it's not their main job.

Because, you know, nobody programs in languages like Java or Python anymore, am I right? /sarcasm

> If you are complaining about particular SDKs offered by Facebook, you aren't complaining about "The Facebook Platform", you're just complaining.

Wait, what? Those SDKs are a part of the Facebook platform... we kinda need them to integrate FB into our apps.

iamandrus··on The Facebook Platform Is A Trainwreck
The Javascript SDK is atrocious. I was writing a small score submitter for an HTML5 game I made (for testing, mostly), and they clearly don't care about their developers at all as the documentation is completely unorganized. I end up having to Google "site:developers.facebook.com x" just to find a function that fits what I want my app to do. Also, they refuse to update broken links to older pages and like you said, refuse to fix certain bugs that are clearly bugs.
iamandrus··on Christmas tree made out of form elements (webkit)
That's awesome! Keep up the great work. :D
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