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og1on Ask HN: Obtain a domain from a squatter by trademarking

You can use whois to see when the domain was registered. Since all the other extensions weren't registered I'd assume this is more of a brand style name and was registered fairly recently. It is hard to assign value of a domain without knowing what it is. Also, most people who sell domains are looking for the sales to compensate for the rest of their portfolio that don't sell. So registration fees + 10% wouldn't likely work as an offer.

og1on Instagram is "worth" more than the New York Times

I guess it is also worth slightly less than 800 AOL patents. I think it is just how much someone will pay for it vs "worth". How can you really arrive at an estimate that NY Times ~ Instagram ~ 800 Patents anyway?

og1on Instagram for Android — Available Now.

Think it's the filters. Some are purely an algorithm, but I assume other filters work by merging the photo with a template image. Maybe this has to be stored in high res in the app.

og1on Things You Should Never Do, Part I

While I mostly agree with this, I think over time you can see some reasons for re-write. Two of the errors used as examples as bug fixes may no longer be relevant with current hardware progress. "Another one fixes that bug that occurs in low memory conditions. Another one fixes that bug that occurred when the file is on a floppy disk and the user yanks out the disk in the middle."

Were the low memory issues due to the limitations of current hardware at the time and no longer relevant? Do many computers still have floppy disks, and would you still want to have to support that?

I think re-writes should be avoided unless you have a full understanding of the reasons for all the one-off patches. You should also have an idea of what you will lose/gain by getting rid of them.

og1on "I've isolated the bug to a database query"

Agree with this as well. Forgot exactly what one was and googled it to make sure. The example that is used here would indicate orphaned records.

http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_join_right.asp

og1on Why the QR code is failing

I don't think the qr code is failing, but actually just becoming mainstream.

Seems to be trending up pretty well. http://www.google.com/trends?q=qr+code

Whether it is due to marketers putting the codes everywhere or actual value is yet to be said, but certainly don't think the technology itself is failing.

og1on Ask HN: Have you been offered money for a disguised ad on your website?

I've gotten a few of these. When I did some research on the company it sounded like some of these links could be about gambling and herbal pills. That could have some implications for search engine ranking because you are now promoting a questionable site. Also, wasn't too keen about the annual agreement; term seemed too long. Ultimately, I decided not to do it.

og1on $4.5 B. Nortel Bid Shows the Disastrous State of Software Patents

Probably coincidental, but the math lines up where Google could retroactively buy into the group at the price of it's 900M bid. After that the 4.5 Billion would be split evenly between the five companies.

Edit: Looks the BetaBeat article excluded EMC and Ericsson, so the split wouldn't work so nicely.

og1on Fake job reference service

And in some cases even pets have been granted diplomas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colby_Nolan

og1on Kevin Smith’s Secrets To A Successful Life

Well, I think it depends on what you define as a success. To become celebrity filmmaker, probably so. But to "start over" and just find a better job like the guy in the tweet is asking should be reasonable to accomplish.

og1on Software Patents Shut Down RunwayFinder

The thing is it is actually worse than that. It is 100% conversion with the assumption that every single visitor would instead use accusing site instead of going to any of the other alternatives.

og1on How to detect a toxic customer

I understand your goal is to get the best deal for your client but I think the way you test potential vendors may be a little removed to give you adequate information. Consider this company has a lot more information on the recommended path to properly learning their product. Through experience with other customers they may know ahead of time that the basic version is all that is really needed for a non-commercial user.

og1on Lessons learned from wikipedia's fundraising banner design

I know it's Wikipedia, but it's still impressive that they can get 50k donations in an hour.

og1on The Times UK Lost 4 Million Readers To Its Paywall Experiment

Also, which I think was not mentioned is they get to pay less operational expenses because the bandwidth used is lower.

og1on Ask HN: Simple little business - what should I call it?

Like the idea. Here are a couple names that came to mind

hoardsale, hoardbox, tidycrate, shipsold, sendsold, auctionboxx

og1on Sex.com sells for $13m

The mixergy was also very interesting: http://mixergy.com/gary-kremen-interview/

og1on Apple Has $51 Billion and a Shopping List. Is Facebook On It?

Fun to speculate, maybe clearwire? Or enter a new market and buy whirlpool and make iMicrowaves?

og1on My Weekend Project: Not A New Yorker (Feedback Requested)

Just one suggestion for your timeline. I would suggest "decided on domain name" and "bought a domain" appear one after the other. I just don't trust sitting on domain ideas if they are available for hand registration.

og1on Ask HN: Feedback on a couple of startup ideas

I also don't think they would want to encourage their patrons to take their phones out during meals. Think this is still considered poor form, could be wrong though.

Think idea number one is the better one.

og1on Challenge: Make a game, sell 1 copy by Oct 31st

This is timely. I just thought of a really simple game that I want to make to learn iOS development. Definitely doing this.

og1on Chunking & Gridding - Why parents can't do math today

I was taught with the older techniques, but I like the new chunking and gridding system better. I think it is a lot closer to how you would break the problem down if you couldn't use pen and paper and had to do everything in your head.

og1on Ask HN: Is there any hacker who is also movie/TV actor?

http://www.imdb.com/search/text?realm=name&field=bio&...

Also, Ashton Kutcher was a biochemical engineering student before acting. Kinda close.

og1on Depression-era color photos

Photo number 6 is Twitter circa 1940.

og1on Top organizations in CS research

I don't know what conclusions you can really draw from this, but the underlying service (Microsoft Academic Search) is pretty interesting. I've been checking out publications from my school for the last hour.

og1on A Case Study of “Designed By Developers:” Stack Overflow

I agree, there is something in the design that feels more balanced and makes the page elements work well together.

However, Stack Overflow is a business and I think moving the ad banner like that would have some big implications in terms of conversions. Also, the tagging system, which is a key navigational element as well as potential revenue source (sponsored tags) is removed.

Also, another thing I disagree with is the change in proximity of the user image to the voting icon. I think psychologically this has some implications because it now looks like you are upvoting the user vs. the information presented.

og1on Segway by Honda

They didn't invent the omni wheel, been around for a while. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_wheel

I'm sure Honda tuned it up a bit though.

Also, there have been some wheelchairs made with omni-directional wheels, although I'm not sure if they are only a prototypes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanum_wheel

og1on Win a soccer game by more than five points and you lose

I can understand this rule for elementary school ages. To have it for the entire league which goes up through high school age sounds like a little much to me though.

og1on My exercise bike to xbox hardware project is ready for factory production.

Would you need to buy all the controllers ahead of time? I think you may be able to just buy a dozen or so and then buy more as needed. They are a part you can buy basically anywhere so I dont think you would need to keep inventory of it.

og1on Ask HN: Help me rename my startup

I'll take a stab at it. Two that are made up words

playerlytics.com

gamerlytics.com

Since you are like Business intelligence but for gaming maybe?

gamerintelligence.com