Hacker News: zader

Entrepreneurs: Staying alert against Leviathan

zader — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:16:18 +0000

Article URL: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/alertness-against-leviathan#axzz2Jw6LrvxQ

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5166786

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by zader in "What to do when someone copies your startup"

zader — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:31:32 +0000

Good catch. I figured HN would reject it if it had already been posted. Was surprised when it went through, actually.

What to do when someone copies your startup

zader — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:35:28 +0000

Article URL: http://pandodaily.com/2012/07/05/what-to-do-when-someone-copies-your-startup/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4321954

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

Skype makes chats and user data more available to governments

zader — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:26:41 +0000

Article URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/skype-makes-chats-and-user-data-more-available-to-police/2012/07/25/gJQAobI39W_story.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4297325

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by zader in "Google Talk is down"

zader — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:48:11 +0000

Estonia down.

New comment by zader in "[dead]"

zader — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:40:08 +0000

What are the "big issues" that would be caused by forcing SSL? It sounds like visitors from Iran (and other countries that block SSL sites) might be unable to access HN. What else?

(To clarify, I'm interested in the general topic of whether it's a good idea to have all-SSL websites.)

Who really invented the internet?

zader — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:08:07 +0000

Article URL: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577539063008406518.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4280044

Points: 18

# Comments: 7

New comment by zader in "How did we come to believe saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for us?"

zader — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:37:07 +0000

Site appears to be down. The Google cache is here:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tAI5zmC...

But the meat of his presentation appears to be this video, available on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/45485034

New comment by zader in "Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks"

zader — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:23:55 +0000

For anyone who wants to download the Nightly build for Firefox 15:

Windows version http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/download.html?product=...

Mac version http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/download.html?product=...

New comment by zader in "Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks"

zader — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:21:50 +0000

OSX version:

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/download.html?product=...

The audacity of Udacity: Google's Sebastian Thrun vs. elite university diplomas

zader — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:09:25 +0000

Article URL: http://www.radicalsocialentreps.org/2012/07/the-audacity-of-udacity-democratizing-higher-education/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4219837

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

CryptAByte.com: Making cryptography (more) accessible to non-hackers

zader — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 11:48:28 +0000

Article URL: http://lfb.org/today/cryptography-for-the-rest-of-us/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4181396

Points: 5

# Comments: 7

New comment by zader in "Why multi-armed bandit algorithm is not "better" than A/B testing"

zader — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 20:09:51 +0000

Helpfully, the final paragraph of the article seems to contain its takeaway message:

"So, comparing A/B testing and multi-armed bandit algorithms head to head is wrong because they are clearly meant for different purposes. A/B testing is meant for strict experiments where focus is on statistical significance, whereas multi-armed bandit algorithms are meant for continuous optimization where focus is on maintaining higher average conversion rate."

Like any business owner, at the end of the day I care more about conversion rates than about statistical significance.

I'm not a scientist trying to advance the sum of humanity's knowledge. I'm a business owner trying to find the shortest path between what my customers need and what I can profitably offer them.

In a way, statistical significance strikes me as a bit of a fool's errand, because significant results in one context may not be generalizable to another, which means even if we know for a near certainty what worked best, it's hard to apply that knowledge reliably in the future.

Of course, with MAB we could still wait for statistical significance if we want it, before turning off variations that are performing worse. And we can certainly still try to draw conceptually useful conclusions by designing our test variations in ways that facilitate easy comparison.

But with MAB and Myna it sounds like we can pretty well count on higher conversion rates at the end of the day, as well, and that counts for a lot in a business context.

I'm grateful to the VWO team for writing up their analysis and findings, and being so frank about the relative advantages of A/B and MAB. Their summary above tells me what I need to know.

New comment by zader in "20 lines of code that beat A/B testing every time"

zader — Wed, 30 May 2012 08:59:24 +0000

What do you think of Myna, in these respects? Does it suffer from the same disadvantages as other bandit optimization approaches?

http://mynaweb.com/docs/

Taking the Law Online: Judge.me’s plan to build the future of legal systems.

zader — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Article URL: http://www.radicalsocialentreps.org/2012/05/taking-the-law-online-judge-mes-plan-to-build-the-future-of-legal-systems/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4038017

Points: 7

# Comments: 4

New comment by zader in "Buying Adobe Photoshop CS6"

zader — Mon, 28 May 2012 09:34:20 +0000

Interesting story.

For anyone else wondering what a "poison pill" is, in this context:

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/poisonpill.asp

New comment by zader in "Who Wants To Buy Honduras?"

zader — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:22:10 +0000

Yes, Nicaragua would be the protectorate, but the terms of the contract for the economic zone ultimately can only be enforced by someone with a large enough military to impose justice of the last resort -- or at least have the opportunity to do so. Cities can't do that. Legal clout comes from military cloud. Cities have no military clout. Therefore, they have no legal clout, except as provided for by some country.

Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.

zader — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:59:26 +0000

Article URL: http://www.radicalsocialentreps.org/2012/05/physicist-richard-feynmans-science-lesson-for-entrepreneurs-challenge-authority/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4004900

Points: 63

# Comments: 23

New comment by zader in "Who Wants To Buy Honduras?"

zader — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:30:18 +0000

Countries have military forces that can ensure the settlement of international disputes.

Want more than poverty Band-Aids? Discover RADICAL social entrepreneurship.

zader — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:43:40 +0000

Article URL: http://www.radicalsocialentreps.org/radical-social-entrepreneur-definition/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3945471

Points: 4

# Comments: 0