Hacker News Reader

patrickg-zillon Amazon auctions computing power: Clouds under the hammer

XenServer (the version from Citrix/XenSource) has the ability to convert OVF; natively, they use the Microsoft-derived VHD format.

patrickg-zillon Design notebook suggestions?

Thanks for the snco link, that looks exactly like what I was looking for!

patrickg-zillon Design notebook suggestions?

Go to Borders, get the Moleskine knock-offs made by Piccadilly. I found myself migrating to the larger size instead of the roughly 3x5 inch small ones.

patrickg-zillon Differences in the Windows and Unix cultures

Decent article, but I think that Joel should have worked in a reference to Neal Stephenson's "In the Beginning Was the Command Line" as well.

patrickg-zillon Imagine Pot Was Legal. How Would You Brand It?

A related thought: I guess Coca-Cola, with their "Coke is it!" ad campaigns, might begin to re-brand themselves...

patrickg-zillon 10 Big U.S. Businesses That Have Moved Their HQ Abroad to Pay Less Taxes

Yes it is unfair.

As an example, consider that no matter what interpretation of any tax law you get from an IRS employee, it will not hold up in court - if an IRS agent tells you to do A, then the IRS decides later to disallow A and that you should have done B, they will hit you up with taxes and penalties and you have no recourse.

UNLESS, you pay money for an IRS administrative ruling; then, you can use that response in tax court. The key is that the cost for such rulings are $50K. Each.

See: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=151979,00.html

patrickg-zillon The Funemployment Phenomenon

Actually I viewed the original "funemployment" article as a propaganda piece, focused on putting a happy face on what are pretty bad numbers.

patrickg-zillon 'Shanghai to promote two-child families'

They have to inflate the population at all costs, otherwise the new money they are printing will lead to currency debasement.

Not trying to make a joke here about sex and inflation, it is just that they realize that adding more population is a requirement.

patrickg-zillon A Radical New Router

This is more like an ad than an article. Flow-based routers have been developed in the past, and the reason they are not prevalent is due to performance issues of one kind or another.

If they truly have solved the problem(s) that other flow-based routers had, great, but this can only be determined in the real world.

patrickg-zillon GM hopes to sell its cars through eBay

Prediction: "Reserve not met"

patrickg-zillon Entrepreneurs Win Tax Case Versus IRS

My understanding was that in order to avoid the "hobby" classification you have to make money in 2 out of 5 years (this ratio might be different from what I remember).

patrickg-zillon Hammer filesystem Linux port

Hammer looks interesting, would be nice if I could find some nice reviews of how it performs on DragonFlyBSD however.

patrickg-zillon Death of Kodachrome belies technological leap it represented

Sad too is that Kodachrome was something that Kodak could have exploited as a market differentiator, but didn't. No other slide film had the same process or the same archival quality. Supposedly someone had invented a one-hour K-14 process or machine, but Kodak would not license it to be used.

patrickg-zillon Why cheap airlines are so cheap

You mean Northwest Airlines in the USA, which has the oldest fleet of any carrier? They are a "regular" airline. In a study a few years back their fleet had an average age of 18.1 years.

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/02/21_ap...

How would you like to be in your 30s and flying on a plane older than you are?

patrickg-zillon Erik Naggum (1965-2009) RIP

Is there any other confirmation of Erik's death?

patrickg-zillon Calif unemployment climbs to record 11.5 percent

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

Has the relevant charts. More detailed info does cost, but the summary info is free.

patrickg-zillon Calif unemployment climbs to record 11.5 percent

It is probably higher - have a look at shadowstats.com to see the difference between the stated national rates, and the rates if computed using the old method.

patrickg-zillon U.S. (finally) Says Treasury Bonds Seized in Italy Are Fakes

Somewhat related but not exactly the same is this scan of a paper document described as a "Safe Keeping Receipt" from the Federal Reserve:

http://etleboro.com/documents/copy-title.pdf

Note Page 2 phrase: "This ... is an operative instrument, and it is confirmed, irrevocable, unconditional, divisible, transferable and assignable without presentation to us."

So at least until 2006, the Fed did issue paper instruments.

patrickg-zillon [dead]

It should not take a week to determine the certificates' authenticity. So something weird is going on.

patrickg-zillon Why Mono doesn't suck

Mono comes from the same makes-Linux-slow team as the people who "gifted" us with Gnome. Who are these guys really working for?

patrickg-zillon [dead]

I think it is important to point out that there may not be a correlation between the exploit and his hanging himself; some other members of his immediate family also committed suicide in years past.

patrickg-zillon Ballmer: Microsoft Will Move Jobs Offshore If Taxes Rise

My suggestion: the US should create a class of corporate trusts similar to the "canroys" that Canada has.

Under this setup, as long as a certain high percentage of the profits are distributed to the shareholders each year, the corporate taxes are non-existent or very low.

In this case, Microsoft would not pay much US taxes, but the individual investors would be the ones paying tax on the dividends received. End of problem.

patrickg-zillon A 12-Foot Raised Floor?

The air under the floor is pressurized, so convection won't play much part in how the air moves.

patrickg-zillon Ask HN: Why do airlines still use "black boxes" ?

Parachute use at high altitudes means you have to either depressurize the entire cabin, or else create some sort of airlock which allows you to get into an unpressurized space so that you can open a door to the outside; which would add a large amount of weight and take up expensive space.

The reality is, that you are in fact utterly helpless in the event of a crash.

patrickg-zillon [dead]

I have not read "The Forgotten Man", may read it in the future.

Actually I thought the article was trying for an easy to understand "hook" with the tax info, since it is unlikely that the top 1% of earners are the bulk of those buying the $7.99 (or whatever it is) paperback edition at the local Barnes and Noble.

patrickg-zillon [dead]

Not mentioned: Amity Shlaes (the author of the article) also wrote a book about the Great Depression, called "The Forgotten Man". It is no surprise she would write about Atlas Shrugged.

From the blurb about the book on her site:

"Franklin Roosevelt systematically established the modern political constituency, from unions to artists, to senior citizens. Roosevelt's solution was to spend for these groups, so extensively that federal spending that year outpaced state and local spending, for the first time ever in peacetime. The consequence was the Roosevelt landslide of 1936 --but also the modern entitlement trap. Roosevelt often spoke of the Forgotten Man, the man "at the bottom of the economic pyramid." Yet, Miss Shlaes shows, his New Deal created a new forgotten man, the man who subsidizes the funding of other constituencies -- and who haunts politics in all developed nations today."

patrickg-zillon Oracle's Ellison considers netbook market foray

Actually a netbook package with just enough smarts to connect to Wifi, plus VPN + Sun Ray software, would be great at expanding their Sun Ray installed base. Sun Ray users who use them at home say everything is zippy even over 256kbps connections.

patrickg-zillon City of SF now accepting complaints via Twitter

Why? I mean, this is stupid... wouldn't you want more info about a problem than 140 characters?

patrickg-zillon Given the odds, is taking venture capital the best way to get rich?

The Millionaire Next Door was somewhat interesting. However the follow-on book, "The Millionaire Mind" was packed with statistics instead of anecdotes and for me at least, had a number of ideas and changes to my perspective to offer.

patrickg-zillon Vidoop Is Dead, Employees Getting Computers In Lieu Of Wages

You are mis-interpreting my point: it is not officers being responsible for contractual obligations in general, it is (or at least was) an exception carved out for wages owed employees.

There seems to be a lot of debate over when/if an officer can become an "employer" as defined in the law.

Here are some URLs that cover what I am talking about:

WA: http://www.turnaround.org/Publications/Articles.aspx?objectI...

PDF with more discussion of the issue, includes discussion of the Federal FLSA and the case of CA: http://web.omm.com/files/upload/D&O%20Liability-WARN%20A...

NY (10 largest shareholders of non-public company held liable): http://www.eminutesonline.com/why-in-the-world-would-anyone-...

Federal law (FLSA): http://www.klehr.com/?t=11&la=690&format=xml

Since the company that is not paying is often headed for bankruptcy, these situations often spill over to bankruptcy court, where the judge has a great amount of leeway to determine who gets paid and when.