Hacker News: asr

New comment by asr in "Owed a billion dollars in Nvidia stock"

asr — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:34:11 +0000

Thinking you can only survive a motion to dismiss, where your allegations have to be accepted as true, but that you can’t win the case if you have to go to trial, is thinking that your case has no merit. It’s misconduct.

New comment by asr in "Owed a billion dollars in Nvidia stock"

asr — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:11:11 +0000

Your lawyers told you they were representing you, not because they thought your claim could prevail, but because you might be able to get into discovery, at which point the cost to NVIDIA in time and hassle would force them to settle?

I hope NVIDIA's lawyers are reading this comment and filing a state bar complaint against your attorneys.

New comment by asr in "The risks of AI are real but manageable (2023)"

asr — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 21:10:43 +0000

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/technology/bill-gates-ai-...

New comment by asr in "The Amazon tax"

asr — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:45:38 +0000

Would you, while shopping for a car, decide to buy very expensive concert tickets? Neither would I. So this campaign would have very low CTR and would perform poorly.

It would only perform well if you identified some actual source of latent demand. For example, maybe many people searching for Taylor Swift concert tickets would actually be happy with movie tickets to see a simulcast. At which point, you are providing real information to some searchers.

We can debate and disagree about whether this is something you want in your search results, but it’s not spam. Spam exists because it doesn’t have to compete in an auction.

New comment by asr in "The Amazon tax"

asr — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:28:32 +0000

These are creative, but you haven’t thought them through. Do you really want brands to own trademarks on their keywords? So that when, to pick a random example, you search the internet for “1-800 Contacts,” nobody else is allowed to show an ad that says “Hey Amluto! We sell the same thing cheaper!”[1]

2 is just being bad at business. Which is why I’m skeptical it happens.

3, I hate to break it to you, basically happens in every major store you walk into in America. Google “slotting fees.” If you think customers want an alternative, apply to YC!

[1] The FTC (on your behalf) sued 1-800 contacts for trying this. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2016/08/...

New comment by asr in "I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services"

asr — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:08:09 +0000

I use lights every day, but I know way less about electricity than my grandparents, two of whom who could remember when their town was electrified as children and who therefore treated it as the marvel it truly is. And also because we've worked out a ton of bugs in electricity and it often just works.

My kids will know way less about filesystems than I do, because I had to learn DOS commands to navigate around the operating system if I wanted to play computer games, which led to a lifelong interest in how computers actually work at a level they can (and, so far, do) happily ignore.

New comment by asr in "On loyalty to Your Employer"

asr — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 18:52:25 +0000

Exactly the right attitude. If you're dealing with an employer that thinks everything should be transactional and that it's no issue if they nickle and dime you on small things, it gets tiring (ask me how I know). When your employer acts in ways that value their employees, it's ok to put a value on that, even if you recognize they're not your spouse and they may lay you off or act in other un-loyal ways in the future.

New comment by asr in "FTC takes action against GoDaddy for alleged lax data security"

asr — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 03:23:46 +0000

GoDaddy will have known of this investigation since it began—probably for years. So it’s 90 days from now(ish), but they (should) have gotten a head start.

Ask HN: who are the great new writers about programming and startups?

asr — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 23:15:59 +0000

I just sent two co-workers a link to 2006 article from Joel on Software (this one: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ ) to explain a management style we were observing. Then I thought, I don't know who to follow for great writing about programming and startups anymore! PG, and patio11, and Joel are all great, but they are all... old (with apologies to Patrick, who I think is by far the youngest on this list).

If you appreciate great writing, and you like reading about the business of software and programming, who are you reading these days?

(Note I said READING so, while I love podcasts and Youtube, I'm looking especially for written work work.)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42809044

Points: 6

# Comments: 2

New comment by asr in "The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US"

asr — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 23:53:36 +0000

Hah! But if you say “on holiday,” I would have expected you to know “lift.”

(or is there a region in the US where this is common? Everyone I know would say “on vacation,” but the US is very regional.)

New comment by asr in "Why the CrowdStrike bug hit banks hard"

asr — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:38:05 +0000

Not MSFT’s fault: https://stratechery.com/2024/crashes-and-competition/

New comment by asr in "Google Chrome has an API accesible only from *.google.com"

asr — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 01:46:39 +0000

> in the olden days Microsoft wasn't allowed to add APIs to Windows that could only be used by IE

This is not true.

New comment by asr in "Google Chrome has an API accesible only from *.google.com"

asr — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 02:52:45 +0000

Worth caring about why?? Because you think Google shouldn’t be allowed to make things better for their users? Like I said, you are so concerned about fairness you’re missing the point.

New comment by asr in "Google Chrome has an API accesible only from *.google.com"

asr — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 20:01:29 +0000

So the concern is that Google is making Hangouts better in a way that is hard for competitors to replicate? (And by "hard," I mean, "competitors have to ask users to install something," not hard in any HN-relevant sense of the word.) This forum sure has a lot of wanna-be Handicapper Generals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

New comment by asr in "Sam Altman Was Fired from YC"

asr — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 21:10:24 +0000

Four years ago, Altman’s mentor, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, flew from the United Kingdom to San Francisco to give his protégé the boot, according to three people familiar with the incident, which has not been previously reported.

Sam Altman Was Fired from YC

asr — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 21:10:23 +0000

Article URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-altman-fired-y-combinator-paul-graham/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38385155

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by asr in "Alexa and Google Home expose users to vishing and eavesdropping"

asr — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 00:16:31 +0000

This makes no sense. Phishing comes from phreak + fishing, but the "ph" in phreak is already from the word phone (phone + freak) -- so the ph in "phishing" already comes from the word phone! The telephone version of phishing should be... "phishing."

But thanks for the explanation.

New comment by asr in "Apple Dominates App Store Search Results, Thwarting Competitors"

asr — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 14:32:00 +0000

Your question is worded to suggest you are not actually open to the answer, but I will try anyway: in antitrust law. You cannot create an open App Store ecosystem, invite in outside developers, and then pivot and kill them all off by steering customers to your own app. Closing off your previously-open ecosystem can be illegal. Read Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Servs.

New comment by asr in "New Google and Facebook Inquiries"

asr — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 21:38:34 +0000

Actually the US and the EU both target anticompetitive behavior. The US law is older and so is call antitrust for historical reasons, not because of a legal difference.

New comment by asr in "Elizabeth Warren Came Up with a Plan to Break Up Big Tech"

asr — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 23:04:01 +0000

This is basically how Texas sells electricity.[1] I'm not an expert on it but it makes a ton of sense.

Of course, it may be easier to do this for electricity, where the fundamental technology doesn't change quickly anymore (as far as I know), than for internet connectivity, where we are still undergoing fairly rapid technological change, relatively speaking.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation_of_the_Texas_elec...