kalininalex

As far as I understand it doesn't have to be annoying. Simply having the legible text "By clicking the Purchase button you agree to the Terms" should suffice. There'll be just one Purchase button in both cases (of course, getting a legal advice wouldn't be a bad idea).

Because, per Spolsky, Fog Creek wants to achieve a widespread adoption first before they start charging for it (with probably a free tier remaining). Other than that, Trello is very much a commercial app.

Fogbugz IS a commercial app, and at $25/mo (if I remember right) it's in the same category as most other commercial apps, i.e. it's not particularly cheap. It's still down.

Second Verdana. I use it on both Mac and Windows for all languages. It looks and reads better that any of the fixed fonts I've tried. In the first couple of days after I switched it felt a bit weird, but then that feeling went away. I suspect that was due to the fact that I was simply used to fixed fonts and not that there was anything wrong with proportional fonts.

Still QuickTime for me (Chrome on Mac/Lion) and it doesn't work by default (something with permissions).

The first link on the Yahoo Finance page for FB:

"It’s Becoming Clear That No One Actually Read Facebook’s IPO Prospectus or Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter to Shareholders": http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/becoming-clear-n...

Financial industry is strictly regulated. Otherwise, imagine what would happen if banks could freeze your accounts freely, leaving you out without any means to pay for food or housing. Paypal could be that for larger merchants who could have substantial part of their assets tied up at Paypal.

What I find interesting is that Paypal is essentially a bank, yet it's completely unregulated.

My impression is the primary purpose of class action lawsuits is to stop bad behavior, not necessarily to enrich plaintiffs. Lawyers do make quite a bit of money IF they win. They also take all the risks since class members don't pay anything for legal services upfront. So, class actions seem to be an important mechanism for correcting bad behavior of larger entities.

"I had a credit card long before I was 18"

And this is a different problem that also needs to solved.

We need a screenshot.

I'd speculate that's because at the end of the day, for the many people on this board $50 is probably an inconsequential amount given the benefit provided (time saving, ease of use, etc) and the expense profile. After all, someone above just mentioned upgrading Fusion after purchasing MB Retina. That's what, $3k right there? Look at $50 as part of an upgrade.

On the other hand, if some people _just_ bought Fusion 4 it indeed is very annoying to pay $50 again for Fusion 5. VMware should have a free upgrade program for recent purchases of 4.

Personally, after using Fusion for 4 years I switched to Parallels. With Fusion, even when Windows is idle Fusion would use up to 20% CPU (on a 4-core), sometimes triggering fans. Parallels seems less CPU hungry and runs a bit faster (though this is subjective, try it first). It also has interesting features, such as, suspending of Bootcamp installations and the ability to use all attached displays when in full screen mode. I don't think Fusion 4 supported any of those; not sure about 5. And Parallels has a $29 license right now for those switching from VMware, so it was a good deal as well.

With large volumes the real issue is not the storage but the upload speed. I've done some experiments and with the Comcast link (20Mbps down/whatever up), I got 1 Gb/hour upload rate. So, it'll take 11 full days to upload 256 Gb. Or, more realistically, if you do it overnight (8 hours) - the entire month.

"There's not really an inside of a black hole anyway. The black hole it self is nothing but a tiny spot yet massive in weight."

We really don't know that. All our theories fail around black holes so we can only speculate what's going on in there. And even speculation is limited by our current mental capacity, which may be insufficient to understand/explain what's going inside black holes.

Now, one hour later, they're at 11M views with 120K live viewers. This is good TV.

I think the issue is people think they pay $50 for an older version instead of $300 for the latest, thus saving massive 80% or so. In reality, it's $1,970 vs. $2,220 (assuming $80/mo for two years). The difference is only 11%. If people realized that, many could reconsider accepting significantly outdated hardware for 11% savings over 2-year period.

"But even then, our lack of traction is what set the scene for that dumb decision."

But that's exactly what may be the problem with VCs. Sometimes you'd have to go through a dozen of ideas before you find one works. If you're frugal enough and can keep the company afloat for a few years, you're likely to succeed in the end.

But VCs may push the company to burn all cash in the next 4 months pursuing the idea #2. And if it doesn't work - you're down and out.

Very few businesses have the very first idea paying off handsomely. This may make VC's capital a very high-risk proposition: you either hit the jackpot with your first idea or you end up with nothing.

This approach most likely requires that the script runs within the same trusted local network, correct? So, technically you'd still have to "ssh" into at least one box, and run all admin scripts from it.

$4,752 of extra savings a year is an absolutely MASSIVE amount for a middle class person. For example, if you're already saving $20k a year, that will bump up savings to almost $25k.

Then, this is just one source of additional savings. Cut further on services you don't really need (coffee at $4 a pop, $150/mo cable TV bill, etc.) and now we're talking some serious money.

You are right, MVC means different things to different people, so whenever someone says "MVC" I try to stop them right there and ask to explain what exactly they mean before proceeding any further.

Martin Fowler has an excellent write up on the history of MVC and related patterns (and resulting confusion) in http://martinfowler.com/eaaDev/uiArchs.html.

What have you been using instead?

I agree that method_names_like_this is more readable, even (or, especially) after many years of .NET programming. I used the_style_like_this back in C++ days and, honestly, miss it. Perhaps, the renaissance of C++ in the form of C++11 will bring it back :)

I recommend watching Money as Debt (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2550156453790090544). This fascinating video explains the roots and consequences of the crisis in the very visual way. For a more scientific approach take a look at The Debt Deflation Theory (http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/meltzer/fisdeb33.pdf).

Network effect. Sellers go to CL because that's where the buyers are, and buyers go to CL because that's where the sellers are. Other features come in play after that. Once the network effect sets in it's almost impossible to unseat the incumbent: eBay, Linked-in, Facebook, Craigslist, etc. The dominant company has 90%+ share, and can stay that way forever doing very little.

eBay, for example, hasn't changed its (rather mediocre) interface in years, and managed to alienate at least some sellers with their policies. And yet, no one managed to make a dent in eBay's position.

Network effect is the reason there is funding for a million social network start-ups. Everyone wants to capture it. But the odds of success, on the other hand, are also one in a million.

I believe there was a post recently on HN where someone pointed out how these things work - one day it just takes off. Some combination of factors (three out of 100, perhaps) gets right and people flock to the site. And then the fate is sealed. Even in retrospect it's often impossible to say what factors were the key. So, I wouldn't be surprised if founders of Craigslist have little clue as to why it worked.

I'd be really really interested to see what it takes for someone to unseat Craigslist (or eBay, or any other major network).

Any info on how and why so many were cracked? Passwords too simple?

After Apple, Jobs didn't sit on his hands, but went on to found two companies - Pixar and NEXT. Pixar alone would have made him famous, again. And, NEXT assured his return to Apple, because of Apple's failure to innovate in early 90s and the need of something, anything to restart its OS line. NEXT and Jobs were their best bets.

Even without Apple Jobs would have accomplished many things. That's just the kind of person he was. So, luck has nothing to do with this.

Interesting. It's seem to be the issue with capturing mouse events. If you move the mouse out of the image quickly, it'll lose it and the resize will stop. But if you move the mouse slowly so that it always stays over the image, it'll resize it. It's a workaround to use for now (but sure, it's a problem with the implementation).

LOL, yes we have.

Setting up a company to shield one's assets is perfectly lawful. In fact, many entities out there exist for this very purpose. However, to accomplish it, one must follow certain rules. Simply filing the paperwork is not sufficient. The intent is not important. Either the entity is properly setup and run and shields personal assets, or it's not.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a single-member LLC. The only issue with it is it's a relatively new entity and the body of legal precedents is not large, so it's hard to predict how a court would rule in any particular case.

Instead, you could use an S-corporation with the same result, but much better legal visibility.

The issue is, however, that you're now operating your own rental company. You'd need to capitalize it, buy commercial insurance, purchase various licenses, etc. This is probably not what clients of RelayRides had in mind.

Simply setting up LLC (or any other type of entity) is not sufficient. To shield your personal assets LLC needs to be properly capitalized and be managed like a proper business. Essentially, it will at least require carrying some kind of commercial insurance, plus having extra money in the bank for operating expenses (how much - depends on the business). This sort of defeats the idea of effortless car sharing.

GEICO is by far the most favorite company of Warren Buffett (with probably Ajit Jain's National Idemnity close second). I think this is more of an expression of sentiment rather than real advertising.