The broken by design thing is something that's always bothered me. I posted a draft of our company's Privacy Policy to github a while back as an experiment.

https://github.com/wetalky/privacy-policy/blob/master/POLICY...

We're trying to be completely open with updates to this document, and we welcome outside commits. We intend to do the same with our ToS.

I'm not sure anyone has tried this before, so I'm really excited to see where this experiment goes.

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Why I do not want to work at Google 15 years ago

Much of Kragen's vision for the future is in line with where I think our world is heading.

It actually inspired me to draft up a blog post: http://blog.matthewghudson.com/post/9497957290/the-public-an...

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Best hacks in your .bash_profile and .bashrc? 15 years ago

This is great for showing/hiding files on OSX:

    alias show='defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder'
    alias hide='defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder'

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Ask HN: To delay or not delay, that is the question? 15 years ago

Having faced the same situation in the past, I encourage you to simply release it. No need to spend months upon months improving the backend while no one is using the damn thing.

How long has the refactor been on your mind? Has it been at least a month or two? Has your mental picture of the rebuild been consistent, or does it change week-to-week?

Here's my advice to get you going: Write down your general refactor plan in detail. Next, create a todo list / timeline that gets you to production deployment as quickly as possible based on your current codebase. Focus on other things a bit. Launch, marketing, etc.

Once this thing has been out in the wild for a bit, reassess that refactoring plan you wrote down and see if it still makes sense based on your application's performance - both as a product, and as a piece of software.

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DontEat.at: Check into a NYC restaurant, get texted of health code violations 15 years ago

To my way of thinking, this is exactly the kind of stuff that makes mobile computing so exciting: Choice and control.

Imagine when folks are able to be just as discerning when they are shopping for clothes (was this made in a sweat shop? is it american-made?) or grocery shopping (were these chickens treated humanly?).

Good work man! The digital democracy is coming.

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Markup validation of http://www.google.com 16 years ago

I have to imagine that Google.com is the most bandwidth optimized page EVER.

Big picture, the W3C spec is not what matters here. What matters is making the same HTML document render exactly across different browsers. So maybe they could drop <html><head> according to W3C, but does that break the document in other browsers?

My guess is that Google doesn't care about the W3C spec in this specific regard. What matters is delivering the smallest document possible that can be rendered by as many browsers as possible.

*Grammar edit.

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Ask HN: Who Plays Go? 16 years ago

I was working on this for a while: yayforgo.com.

I got a new job and just couldn't focus on it. Bummer!

Anyone want the source code?

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Ask HN: What this fact means about Twitter (and web-startups in general) 16 years ago

I think this goes hand in hand with the mantra, "Do a few things, and do them right."

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Ask HN: Movies that motivate you? 16 years ago

Pirates of Silicon Valley

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Ask HN: How to be a responsible single founder? 16 years ago

It would be awesome to get even more in-depth perspective. I'll keep a lookout for your post.

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Ask HN: How to be a responsible single founder? 16 years ago

Something like pingdom is exactly what I was looking for. I'm loosely familiar with such services, but never given one a shot myself - so I really don't know which ones are considered the best.

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Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he's from the future 16 years ago

The internet is nearly useless every April 1st. It'd be annoying if it wasn't so damn entertaining.

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Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt Spotted Together Again: Photos 16 years ago

This reminds me of how celebrities often meet up at the Ivy when they want to attract buzz/speculation about potential projects or simply to make at statement.

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HTML5 Canvas based fast painting app 16 years ago

Well, I think it's more that the mugtug developers have much more they can do - if that's what the want to do.

Don't say that HTML5 (canvas) has a long way to go. It does - but the basis for your argument is wrong. Don't compare two different projects - with different goals, and in different stages of development - and then say one is weaker based on its current phase of development.

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Immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks 16 years ago

Adam Curtis made a great documentary about Henrietta Lacks 10 years ago called "The Way of All Flesh."

I definitely recommend it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8448974573505946013

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Tell HN: Public apology to dcurtis 17 years ago

Logical impossibility.

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Snipd is testing Stripd.com (sexy version of Snipd) for private or very public groups 17 years ago

Haha. I had created something fairly similar to Snipd a while back called CommonplaceLog.com (a commonplace is basically a 15th century scrapbook).

I've since abandoned the project but it's still online. Cool to see someone pick up the banner though.

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Ask YC: Your ugliest hacks. 18 years ago

Ok, mission accomplished methinks:

>>> x = re.compile("[\\?&](seller|item|hr)=([^&#]*)")

>>> x.findall(url)

[('item', '290277158797'), ('seller', 'la-wheel-and-tire'), ('hr', 'http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40')]

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Ask YC: Your ugliest hacks. 18 years ago

The particular hangup I faced when using regex was with this URL: http://vi.ebaydesc.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemD...

>>> x = re.compile('(?:(item|t|hr)=(\d+))')

>>> x.findall(url)

[('item', '290277158797'), ('t', '1227377775000')]

I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the hr value. I started messing around with regex again, but no luck so far.

I can do the same with Python's string methods:

>>> hr_start = url.find('hr=')

>>> hr_end = url.find('&',url.find('hr='),len(url))

>>> url[hr_start:hr_end]

'hr=http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40'

It's just messy as hell, it'd be nice to do everything in one swoop.

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Adam Smith, Disproved? How ants may have disproven the importance of specialization. 18 years ago

You live in a collective. Your tunnels are highways, and you do in fact have a job to perform. Back to work!

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Ask HN: iPhone released: discouraged as I am? 18 years ago

I want Apple pie.

Nothing to be "depressed" about. Happens all the time.

"Happens all the time" is a reason not to be depressed? I think "landscape changes" take place because someone/some group got tired of being depressed and actively sought some sort of change.

OTOH, this is an excellent example of the advantages of being small and nimble - you can adapt quickly while the big boys are stuck struggling.

What? The big boys are eating Apple pie because they, I assume, had an easier time getting to the table than the small and nimble.

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Xobni: Our Path from ‘Wrong Product’ to Killer App 18 years ago

I noticed that as well... And yet, I remain more concerned about Natalie.

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Xobni: Our Path from ‘Wrong Product’ to Killer App 18 years ago

Matt is friends with Natalie Portman? Is this an Easter Egg? ;-)

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Happy Pi Day! 18 years ago

The Fountain is a great film. Clint Mansell's score is even better.

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