Hacker News: andrewhillman

New comment by andrewhillman in "MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style"

andrewhillman — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 06:28:00 +0000

I was reading an old history of law book last year and the reason was that lawyers got paid by the word back in the day. Then they were paid by the sentence, paragraph and page.

New comment by andrewhillman in "MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style"

andrewhillman — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 06:24:55 +0000

I was reading old law school book last year and it literally said it’s written the way it is because lawyers were being paid by the word way back when.

Ask HN: Home schooled boys got elective approval to work on crypto

andrewhillman — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:05:50 +0000

Really frustrated. We home school our boys. They will be in 6th grade next sept. The school believes they are 2 grades ahead of their peers in math and science. They are bored. We submitted a proposal to teach the basics of crypto and stock trading. They wrote a paper for the school for why they should be able to study what they have interest in. We were denied 3x, but finally got approved after a recent school committee hearing... provided I follow guideline which are basically meaningless. My boys know php+ python, Go, rust, obj-c and learning solidity. Their first assignment is to create an Erc20 SMART CONTRACT to do whatever they want. FROM STEP 1. Does YouTube have a step by step tutorial on how a basic contract is made so they can learn with hacking which is what the do or do I need to buy a book on Amazon. I’ve been in crypto since 2012. I own crypto but I need to be supportive of their elective. Any tips links resources.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26642056

Points: 3

# Comments: 4

Ask HN: When will the ‘we use cookies’ popover end? It’s insane

andrewhillman — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 20:39:19 +0000

I can’t take it anymore. On mobile, it’s insanity. On desktop it’s annoying. On mobile, I can’t read an article until I remove [x] the useless disclaimer. Then I need to remove [x] the excessive amount of ads to get to the content. Is the “we use cookies,” a law that’s here to stay? Honestly, seems like a major annoyance on my tiny little screen as it takes up too much real estate. Does every site need this or can we tell the little sites to chill with that plugin?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23825322

Points: 6

# Comments: 3

New comment by andrewhillman in "Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?"

andrewhillman — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 18:50:42 +0000

I have the same fear of the moments preceding. My anxiety goes through the roof when I think about the environment I am in at 35,000 feet. I keep my mind occupied by mentally removing myself from the environment. I fire up my laptop with headphones and work as if I am in the office. This works for a portion of the flight. Sadly, for the remainder, I typically dose myself with something to put me under until someone taps my shoulder to put my seat up for landing (the worst part). FML

New comment by andrewhillman in "Ask HN: Is going back to college worth it if you already have experience?"

andrewhillman — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 04:47:30 +0000

Depends but NO. After running 2 successful companies I was thinking about going back to school and I asked myself the same question but more importantly the staff as me why I would want to go back to school with my real life experienced. They knew of my endeavors. I was applying to get into Boston's most well-known entrepreneurial schools. I sat in on two classes to see what it was all about. I felt like I was in a room with high schoolers. It was total cake. I answered the questions that most couldn't. Felt bad because I had to set the teacher straight a couple of times as you could tell he wasn't doing much outside reading textbooks. At the end of the course, the professor asked if I'd like to give lectures during the semester. I said not right now. But I got the answer to my initial question.

New comment by andrewhillman in "Justice Department suing AT&T to block $85B bid for Time Warner"

andrewhillman — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 04:58:36 +0000

Economics of scale in this instance are not applicable. But they do lower the providers cost. They never pass along the savings. Media companies like this do not decrease prices as output increases. If this were true cable boxes would be free in 2017. Looking around my house I pay for 1 Hub, 1 router, 3 boxes and 4 remotes. My provider just did an “upgrade” now all homes use 1 hub and 1 router per house and x number of “child” boxes. This means the provider is benefiting not the consumer. In fact, if my hub goes out, all my child boxes go out by design. I asked for 4 hubs and no “child” boxes and they said this upgrade is to reduce their cost, not mine. I’m not the only one complaining. My monthly fee is higher than before the upgrade. All these companies care about is power, control and profits. While this deal is considered a “vertical acquisition” it is not bc the media landscape is changing and the lines are more blurred than ever.

New comment by andrewhillman in "Justice Department suing AT&T to block $85B bid for Time Warner"

andrewhillman — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 03:54:21 +0000

Everyone is quick to bring up President Trump. If you don’t think about the media landscape (big scary picture) and are quick to say this is lawsuit is a political move you are naive and uninformed. If this isn’t blocked overtime you will see companies like Google and FB attempting to gain more power and control in the same way. The DOJ had no other choice. They had to sue to protect the interest of consumers. They see where things are heading and its not good.

These deals are never good for consumers. When a few companies have too much power and control their only goal is to get more at the expense of the consumer. This is dangerous and should not be taken lightly.

Ethereum Wallet Co Knew About Critical Flaw That Let a User Lock Up Millions

andrewhillman — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:11:01 +0000

Article URL: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3djwj/ethereum-wallet-parity-knew-about-critical-flaw-that-let-user-devops199-lock-up-millions

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15708329

Points: 5

# Comments: 4

New comment by andrewhillman in "Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You"

andrewhillman — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:55:26 +0000

"These days they have streamlined online applications for writing to them, but I suggest that you only send them paper letters. This is a really weird thing for a technologist to suggest, but when you send paper letters, you can establish and own a “paper trail.” When you type words into their godawful web applications and hit submit, you will likely fail to retain a copy of those words and fail to retain records about what they told you (exactly) and when. This will complicate your resolution with them. Communicate with them only over postal mail. Keep a log of every mail you send (including what you said) and when it was sent; keep a copy of every letter they send to you and when it was sent. You don’t need physical copies; digital is fine. I like organizing all of mine on a per-incident basis in Dropbox."

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SEND LETTERS WITH 'USPS RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.' (It's the green card you get at the post office and once the recipient receives your letter, you will get a green card in the mail serving as proof of delivery and acceptance.) This is the lowest costing form of legal proof for a paper trail. Well worth it. I use it all the time and I learned this from my dad who has spent his life practicing law.

New comment by andrewhillman in "Facebook Figured Out a Family Secret and Won't Tell Me How"

andrewhillman — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 18:58:15 +0000

FB buys a shitload of data to 'connect the world' but they don't have to disclose sources unless related to serving ads. They obviously use data sources to make both personal connections and targeted advertising work. While I agree that FB shouldn't tell this user how they figured her family secrets out, they really should let users opt out of all data sources with a button. Currently, in order to opt out you need to go to the sources but nobody will ever know all the sources. This person didn't do much research. Perhaps, rather than contact FB she should have spent time creating her recommended list for a while then opted out from the data providers discussed https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830 then she could have done a comparison. Opting out takes a lot of time and I assume it takes a while for these systems to update the opt out information.

I strongly believe that when online companies have a lot of personal information like FB they should not assume users will have a better overall user experience if the service uses offline data that the user doesn't explicitly authorize to be used in conjunction with their online account/profile.

New comment by andrewhillman in "How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?"

andrewhillman — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 04:10:58 +0000

I was scratching my head because I didn't recall reading this. After dinner, I grabbed a glass of wine and I went back and read beyond the first 5 paragraphs plus the embedded tweets.You gotta do what you good do but don't get caught.

New comment by andrewhillman in "How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?"

andrewhillman — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 19:45:12 +0000

I believe NYT has a bookstore list for reporting orders. This is how the best selling books make it on this list. The buyer (someone tied to the book) probably knew the store was on the NYT list and made a massive order. The NYT will need to tweak things going forward. Any store telling people they are on the NYT Best Seller reporting list should be removed from the list.

New comment by andrewhillman in "Ask HN: Allowance for kids?"

andrewhillman — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 04:11:47 +0000

Allowance for doing nothing works pretty well. When you go to stores make sure they bring their money. They ask for less if they are holding their money. When you tell them they can buy anything they want with their money. Suddenly the crap items that said they wanted are long forgotten. The moral of the story is always go shopping with them but make sure they have their allowance on them. This helps them learn the value of a dollar. They become really cheap.

New comment by andrewhillman in "Real estate site Redfin files for IPO"

andrewhillman — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 22:01:26 +0000

Coming from a background in real estate as an active broker who has worked with Redfin agents, I'd like to point out a few things. Redfin's biggest asset is their website. It's a good user experience and grabs them a lot of leads. However, Redfin agents tend to be subpar agents when representing sellers and or buyers. Most wouldn't survive in a regular brokerage setting. If I am hiring an agent, I want a hungry service oriented agents, not someone who is fine with receiving a salary. Discounts are enticing to consumers, but from what I have noticed these discounts come at a cost to their clients. Rather than list a bunch of examples, from what I have witnessed, Redfin agents are not all that skilled in negotiating. They are actually horrible. Redfin needs to train better but training is a multi-faceted issue. They need experienced brokers who have been beaten up and have seen it all. I was lucky to have a mentor who played a significant role in redefining the industry back in 2001. Let's just say, nobody knew what the concept of Exclusive Buyer Agency was during the late 90s. Anyway, in order to have great agents, they need to learn from smarter battle tested agents in the office. An agent needs good instincts to represent clients well. This takes time - 10,000 hours easy and they need to see a lot of deal flow. You learn from the ugly deals, not the smooth ones. Fortunately, for Redfin most Redfin buyers/sellers won't realize how good their agent is until they have something to compare it to. Redfin does not have top agents nor can the attract high-quality agents. In order for them to succeed in the public market, they will need to increase fees because the cost of maintaining and attracting talent isn't cheap. Discounting gives companies a good chance to obtain market share. But market share will go down once they raise fees. Historically speaking, discount real estate companies don't do well in public markets. Let's look at one example of a company associated with discounts, Zip Realty. I think they did an IPO in 2004 or so. Over the years things didn't go well so they were forced to merge. Now, you might say, REDFIN is different. This is somewhat true but I am sure if you read the Redfin S1, you will see some of the concerns I have addressed.

This is coming from a non-traditional broker. I have always gone against the grain. I believe Redfin will need to evolve a lot to get the public market to embrace them. If I had to guess they will become a little more "traditional" overtime.

I hope Redfin trains better and figures things out. Otherwise, they will need to merge post-IPO.

Sorry for the long comment. I could write forever on this topic. I may do this on my site when I have a couple of hours.

New comment by andrewhillman in "George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’"

andrewhillman — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 21:03:12 +0000

I agree. I love how he thinks NHTSA should take a test drive. This is delusional thinking. It's going to be nearly impossible for an SV startup to create aftermarket parts for automobiles because the US dept of transportation is not interested in beta releases. Him being known as an "iphone hacker" probably doesn't help his cause. One accident induced bug could cripple the driver and startup. Sure, SV loves disruption, but the US dept isn't delusional.