mhp

Which part of the quality did you find to be poor? We are a small software development company without a budget or timeline for hiring a production company to create our videos. Given the constraints, I thought it was an awesome video.

You should really try the Trello app on an iPad. I think you'll find that it's a fundamentally different experience than a web app could ever offer.

I'm assuming you are thinking of using Trello as a bug tracking app? We purposefully did not design Trello to be used that way, even though a lot of people do, so it might fall down when you go that route. It is not a replacement for a bug tracking application. There are plenty of those out there (FogBugz, Jira, Pivotal) and there are even kanban type programs like Trello for software development (AgileZen, LeanKit, Sprintly).

Trello is designed for a high level overview of a project. So if you start to get too many items on your board, either it's not the right tool for what you are trying to do, or you need to think more about what you are adding to Trello. For example, you could use Excel to take notes, or make a todo list, but it's not the right tool for that. Trello really shines when you are using it for group collaboration and either focusing on a high level (and leaving the details to something else) or only focusing on the very top level important details.

I know a lot of companies that use Trello in tandem with tracking apps. There's even a nice bookmarklet that integrates with a bunch of them (FogBugz, Jira, Github, Saleforce) so you can hit one button and turn your case into a card in Trello. See https://github.com/danlec/Trello-Bookmarklet But don't make the mistake of trying to duplicate what those programs do in Trello.

I think that's a fair criticism. Point taken.

When you say desktop version, I am guessing you mean the web version? Trello is a cross-platform web app, so it works if you go to trello.com on your iPhone or iPad. Sometimes people just want a native experience though. Try the iPad app each way and you'll probably see why.

"Just use Git. Or Mercurial. It doesn't matter."

Exactly! That's the whole point of Kiln Harmony. Use whatever you want, and let the rest of your team and company do the same.

Allowing developers to use the tools they want to use and the ones that allow them to work the fastest should be your highest priority.

Ah, that's old documentation. We host Kiln on our servers now, so we don't sell on premise versions that you'd have to install which makes this a bit moot. But if we do start to do that again, you would be able to spin them up the same way you'd spin up GitHub enterprise, with a VM: https://enterprise.github.com/faq

No, we have code reviews instead of pull requests, which as you point out is mostly terminology. But that terminology is indicative of assumptions that are baked into how the software operates. The assumptions and workflow of Kiln assumes you are using it inside of a business. I just gave one superficial example of a larger point I was trying to make about our intentions vs. people creating open source solutions and how that translates into defaults/workflows/usability of the software in different areas.

Are you talking about the Kiln servers, or issues with client software? The servers are hosted, so you don't need to worry about any requirements or cross platform issues.

Github's workflow, features and terminology are focused on open source projects and those projects tend to work in a specific way. Kiln is focused on providing features that fit better inside a business environment. For example, the idea of a pull request is a bit foreign in a business environment. Internally, almost all the code written eventually gets shipped, so the social interaction around pull requests doesn't fit exactly right.

Joel explains it better than I can: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/03/11.html

Maybe I'm just cynical, but this seems like the kind of thing they would have patented (not that it deserves a patent, just that they would have applied for one).

Some of the planned business features would be able to meet you in the middle, but like Joel said, we have no plans to ever sell a self hosted version. We understand that means some companies' policies will prevent some people from using Trello, but its a tradeoff we made.

As an aside, I suspect a few of the companies who, in the past, could "never" use software that wasn't installed on their own systems are probably using Salesforce now.

We are in the middle of getting Safe Harbor certified, which allows us to comply with all EU Data Protection laws, so that should no longer be an impediment for you.

Since you are asking on HN, I'm assuming you are not looking for legal advice, just other's opinions. Obviously, you should talk to a lawyer, but here's my free internet advice (I'm not a lawyer). My advice also makes assumptions that Canadian law is very similar to US law, which may not be true.

You have three options: do nothing, settle, fight.

It sounds like you only got an infringement letter. These are normally sent out in bulk by patent trolls to any and all people they think they can extort money from. There is no legal burden to this letter. You don't have to talk to them (and you shouldn't). Don't respond to the letter. Don't take their phone calls. Refuse to talk to them. Regardless of whether you hire a lawyer or not, at this point, there is nothing to be gained by approaching them.

Eventually, they will call you. They have armies of hourly workers who go through the database of people they sent out the letters to and try to get an easy settlement from you. Don't sweat these calls. They'll ratchet up the threats via voicemail (since you are not talking to them). And eventually they'll have to make a decision. Patent trolls are in the business of making money. Lawsuits are expensive. If the cost of a lawsuit is greater than the amount of money they think they can get out of you, they won't sue you. It would be bad business. From your description, I'm guessing it would be a bad idea for them to sue you because you don't really have a lot to offer them. Even if your app makes a couple hundred thousand dollars, they won't bring a suit against you. It's a waste of their time. (They'd happily take a settlement check from you though).

If you thought there was a good chance they were going to sue you (which I don't), and you were located in the US (which you are not), and it looked like they were going to bring suit in that horrible district in Eastern Texas, you could decide to file suit against them first in another venue to avoid having your suit take place there. It doesn't look like Canada has this same issue (patent troll friendly district where most cases go for the patent trolls).

In essence, at this point, if you go to a lawyer and have them draw up a defense that says your tech doesn't infringe, you'll end up spending between $5,000 and $10,000. I don't think it's really worth it right now. My advice would be to wait until you get some sort of actual legal notification of a suit. Before that point, it's all just posturing and bluffing. Plus, you can still settle at that point (you might have to pay a bit more though to cover the added costs they've spent).

How can credit card fraud lead to bounced checks?

What are the downsides of making the CVV on your card have to come from a txt message to your phone? It seems like this could piggyback on the existing system that exists and would work with all current implementations. (It doesn't solve the subscription stored card problem I guess...)

Can you elaborate on how you had to pay in the case when you were a consumer and suffered fraud? As a consumer and merchant, I've only ever had to pay when I'm a merchant.

This is true, although I think most people generally assume the "victim" in the case of credit card fraud is the individual whose card number is stolen.

Updated: Apologies, I see now that the original comment specifically states there are no victims, period... even merchant victims.

Incorrect. There are no serious consequences for the victims of credit card fraud (unless you consider the victims to be the merchants).

When fraud takes place, the credit card company removes the bill from your statement. Then they take the money back that they sent to the merchant. The merchant is left holding the bag. Whatever they sold is now gone, and they have no money to cover the cost of that good. The merchants bear the entire risk of credit card fraud.

This is why it makes no sense that credit card companies even threaten to charge merchants higher rates if they have more fraud. Merchants with high chargebacks get beaten down in multiple ways. First there's a chargeback fee. Then they raise your processing rates. AND you still lose out on your goods that were stolen.

(Technically I suppose if the fraud is big enough, the merchant could be insolvent in which case the credit card companies bear the burden, but this is certainly an exception).

One thing Fog Creek did was we hunted harder for qualified women applicants, which meant we actually had to go to female tech recruiting events.

The problem is that there are few female developers to start with, and they are all heavily recruited by large software companies (Google, Microsoft, etc) already. The larger companies have big budgets to devote to this and encourage the very small number of women developers to go work there.

If you just sit back and wait for more women to apply, they are going to get picked up by the bigger companies before you even get a chance to interview them.

It's also difficult to attract that small group of women devs to apply to work at your company when there are no women developers there currently. The larger companies already have a bunch of women developers, so it can suggest to future candidates that these companies are great places for them to work (i.e. they won't be discriminated against at these companies). It may be that your small company is also a great place, it's just that you don't have any women to vouch for that.

So in Fog Creek's case, we increased the number of women applicants by making it our goal to get more women to apply. That's the only thing we changed. Our interview process stayed exactly the same.

Because in a C-Corp, the earnings don't pass through to you personally. They belong to the corporation. So you pay tax on them at the corporate tax rate. Then when you personally want the money, you have to pay it to yourself as income. It gets taxed AGAIN. That's basically the only way for you to get the money. The idea is that with a C-Corp, if you want cash you earn in the corp to ever become your personal money, you have to take it out the year you earn it, otherwise those dollars will be taxed twice.

But that's exactly what their product is trying to do! They are saying you can use their tech to comment and explain anything, not just song lyrics. I like that their eating their own dog food. (I can't say the same for their color choices).

Doesn't Morae do all of the things you listed as well? (Built specifically for the role you mention)

We were only offline for a few hours. Self-imposed (and turned out it wasn't necessary but in the fog of war at that moment, was the decision we made).

So what do you do if your gym only has a smith machine and dumbbells? It's dangerous and hard to bench without spotter.

We do the same thing at Stack Overflow Careers. Except it's a lot more companies.

I really like this part: "our Talent Team will review your submission and if you're a fit, we'll follow up directly and connect you with relevant companies". They step in and do the work to connect you with relevant companies which is a great value add opportunity for a VC.

I think the design is great, and from a business perspective I like their desire to do it on a subscription basis (like Proactiv for example). As a consumer, that annoys me a bit, but I guess they'll see how it turns out.

HOWEVER, the United States has pretty awesome water coming right out of the tap. And charcoal based filters are mostly taste filters. They aren't going to remove most pollutants (you'd need a reverse osmosis filter for that). It's an aside to this product discussion, but I really don't know how we've been duped into buying products that support a whole industry of bottled water and water purification. I say that as I look at my dumb brita filter on the counter...

Any chance of making the source available for learning purposes?

In this case, I think you are correct. Need lots of exhaust so have to be on the roof. One police plaza just tore the side of their building off to make room for generator exhaust. It's a warzone in lower manhattan right now.

When I was carrying buckets of diesel up the stairs, I did notice that it was a lot lighter than water. Still not great after 17 flights, but a lot lighter than a bucket full of water.