As with most things, the truly terrible stuff is a minority of users. There are lots of areas on 4chan that are completely harmless and people just discussing mundane, boring stuff that they deem interesting.
Lay off the "all you liberals" crap. If I want zealotry mixed with stereotyping I can go read the comments on any CNN or FOX news article. Leave that crap off of HN please.
I have plenty of app ideas I don't pursue because I know the second I make more than a few dollars all sorts of billionaire-backed NPE's will be up my ass in a heartbeat. It's not even worth it anymore.
You've just described almost every modern Internet-enabled convenience built on decades-old protocols. I suppose if people followed your line of thinking we'd still be doing command-line everything. I'm not very excited by that prospect and glad that not everyone shares your viewpoint on what's valuable and what's not.
As someone who occasionally has business ideas, I've spent the past few years passing on ideas because I really don't feel like having patent trolls bleed me dry, both big and small. There's no incentive in my mind to try and fight these huge entrenched dynasties because they will just bleed you dry in the courts the second you show any promise.
I was doing servlets and JSP in the mid 2000's when Rails came on the scene. I remember how Rails was the new hotness and Java was said to be slow, stupid and for idiots. I'll burn some karma to say I'm slightly vindicated watching those same Rails people get beat up by kids drinking the node.js koolaid these days ;)
This completely ignores the fact that Twitter has more than a small amount of its success owed to the vibrant third party ecosystem early on. They're not slowly opening up from a closed position. They're trying to stuff the genie back in the bottle and in the long run, I don't think it will work out well for them.
There are two types of people commenting on this. Those that obviously understand what it takes to become a payment processor in foreign countries, and those that can't fathom that there's more involved than just opening a bank account in said country.
Yeah, I thought I had seen it. I reposted it as more of an intellectual exercise. Note that I do not have my tinfoil hat on, the whole thing is pretty meta.
Or pragmatism borne out of watching Oracle be a slimy, evil steaming pile of douchebaggery that has only been recently surpassed by Apple in the corporate warmongering department. It's like CentOS, with a heaping helping of evil in every bite.
Do you have a better idea? Signature-based malware scanning is a joke and a half. I know CA"s can be gamed but unless you're proposing a better solution then don't complain.
Most people are going to donate less than $200 and the people that will donate will do it because they love the site, not because they're looking for swag. I've been reading PA since 2001 and aside from buying a t-shirt, have been entertained 3 times a week for over a decade for free, aside from the inherent value of my eyeballs. If I toss them some cash it will be because I love the site and because I want to support what I regard as a really awesome company, not because I demand they give me more stuff.
Sadly though now users have had years of poor memory management burned into their memories. Regardless of if it was FF or the addons, it's associated with FF now and will take time to shed.
This case, had it gone to trial, would have had very grave repercussions for anyone who makes a living on the Internet. The fact that it is being dropped is (A) good news for the people that like Oatmeal and (B) good news for anyone who tries to make a dime online. Since I would wager the bulk of the people that frequent Hacker News fall into one or both of those camps, I would think that this story would be relevant.
Because the MPAA and RIAA represent the owners and executives of the movie and record companies. "Hollywood" is also comprised of moneyed actors, musicians and artists that generally tend to lean to the left politically. There is definitely a difference between the two "camps"