thailandstartup

Because I'm in Thailand, Paypal freezes my account regularly, and for CCs many places won't ship to a different address, let alone a foreign address because of the risk of CC fraud. Online shopping is set up to protect the consumer and so merchants are cautious and prefer to deal with the 90% low-risk transactions and turn away the 10% risky ones.

When you're in the 10% though - you want to just say - 'I trust you to ship. I'll take the risk. Here's the money. Ship it.'

A decent server side SWF->HTML5 would enable existing websites to offer the first class experience (the SWF) to Flash enabled browsers, and push a HTML5 conversion for non-Flash browsers (Apple mobile devices). It would shaft Apple (Why does this run so slow on the iPad?) and slow the move away from Flash (Adobe could still make a credible 'runs everywhere' argument).

It's great to have Flash there when you need it. So many sites still have integral Flash content.

Humankind is mis-allocating some of its most talented labour to what is essentially an arms race in financial market predictive algorithms. It provides some benefit for humankind - increased liquidity in markets, but the value of the marginal liquidity is small compared to the talent that is wasted.

Salman Khan is an excellent example - he left his job as a hedge fund analyst to start Khan Academy. How many new Khan Academies would we have if the incentives were right to have talented people working on useful projects instead of the financial arms race?

Sure, the incentives are right for an individual or country to specialize in financial markets. Think bigger - an alien looking at what we're doing here on planet earth would say we're wasting a lot of our talent on stuff that just re-arranges the pie instead of making it bigger.

If the shopkeeper says the loaf of bread was worth $200K and the the court doesn't question the amount because the shopkeeper has been billed $200K for replacement of said loaf according to a contract with the bakery, the shopkeeper and the bakery have legislated the punishment for the crime.

The position you're advocating is that a contract between two private companies should be used to calculate damages for a criminal act. That's a very bad idea - it makes those companies legislators.

This is a horrendous miscarriage of justice. 4 months internet access = approx $80.

Having only a .com for a business feels a lot like having all your eggs in one basket now.

Number one is that it is an uneven distribution. Some hackers might make millions, some will make nothing.

Number two is that hackers may focus too much on doing the work they understand and enjoy, when all parts of a business need attention (like sales and networking).

Number three is that 3 million just sounds a bit on the high side.

But my bet - they'll fail to understand Location.

The next big thing is Location, Location, Location!

As I tackled the problem, my understanding grew that the Google's Adwords support staff didn't have any additional information than what was already published online. That kind of support is fine for maybe 50% of your users who don't read the online docs. Probably not of use to HN readers.

I suspect that Google doesn't provide information about recent changes to algorithms to the support staff that would help them understand what's going on. I can understand why they might not want to, but it reduces the quality of support that can be provided.

Qualified services may achieve a precision of down to 50 meters in urban areas where mobile traffic and density of antenna towers (base stations) is sufficiently high. Rural and desolate areas may see miles between base stations and therefore determine locations less precisely.

>"Wallaby" is the codename for an experimental technology that converts the artwork and animation contained in Adobe® Flash® Professional (FLA) files into HTML.

Not quite as exciting as a SWF -> HTML5 converter. I wonder about the feasability of that.

It makes good sense for Apple - an iPad owner is a customer for maybe 3 years, but get the same user locked into iTunes, and that's a multi-decade revenue stream. Media distribution is the real game for Apple.

Whatever about the law on what he was doing, they was clearly wrong to be harassing the videographer, and DHS appear to have paid out $5000 in settlement. http://blogofbile.com/2010/10/18/settlement-with-department-...

I'm not sure its a good idea that they can hand out tax-payer money to avoid judgement against them for their illegal acts.

It might be moot point though - Ironically, I have read that he is not likely to get a jury for his trial.

The purpose of the hospital visits is to perform what is euphemistically referred to as extraordinary rendition. In each incident, the hospitals, ambulance personnel and the police knew that I had no medical problem. The hospitals are in collusion with the police to perform torture. At the hospitals, I have been sodomized, had a plug driven up my left nostril (extremely painful), had my corneas “dusted” with a brush, beaten black and blue on my chest, and forcefully injected with thorazine on two occasions against my expressed wishes. Two days after one of these hospital visits, I saw my physician, who looked at my chest and exclaimed: “Did the police do that to you?” I answered: “No, it was not the police. It was the hospital personnel.”