This is exactly the argument that the lawyer for LSL guitars is making - who happens to be the same lawyer that beat Fender back in 2009 on behalf of the USPTO and cost them the copyright in the US :)
Setting up a business in the UK is a breeze. It takes 30 minutes, costs 20 quid and it's all done online. I'd go so far as to say the UK is the friendliest place in the world for small businesses (as long as you don't have a physical location, because business rates are incredibly regressive and backwards)
A friend of mine in Iceland literally just set up a UK ltd company today - I'm a shareholder, took 5 minutes to verify my identity - by linking it to my existing companies house account.
Sorry but as someone who has a Shopify store and also sells via Amazon - you are dead wrong.
I have much more freedom with Shopify, it's not even comparable. It's not even apples to oranges, it's apples to calculators.
Amazon places a lot more restrictions on everything, from products, product descriptions, images, it's quite difficult to list original products on Amazon (took me 2 weeks of work to register our product backlog when I started selling via Amazon, despite having GTINs and everything already in place). Cashflow etc is not comparable in ANY way.
Just wanted to call out a blatantly wrong comment.
Reaper has been growing MASSIVELY in popularity in recent years. It's actively on course to topple Pro Tools as the de factory standard for recording studios. It was considered "the little guy" and a niche product just a few years ago but industry professionals have been discovering it and it's popularity is going exponential.
Try this as a reply; "hello everyone. This seems to have all gotten out of hand. We want to continue selling teensy units, We've made a lot of sales working together and I want to salvage this working relationship and ensure we continue to do business together and sell as many Teensy units as possible. Why don't I, sparkfun and Paul Stoffregen get together for a zoom meeting next Monday and discuss this. At the end of the day I'm sure Paul S would prefer his product to be as widely available as possible and we want to help with that. Best regards - ptorrone".
That would be the mature and professional response which ensures continued sales for you, sparkfun and PJRC.
And for Christ's sake stop arguing business issues on social media and messaging boards. What are you doing, man?! :)
> if someone has deliberately hidden their identity online, knowingly disclosing that is malicious
That argument breaks down if the person hiding their identity is doing malicious things. If you hide behind anonymity and you're harassing people and sending threatening or hateful messages, disclosing their real identity is a public service.
Or could I set up an anonymous account, doxx people all day long for the lulz, and then cry wolf when you doxx me for being a prick? :)
I missed a parcel delivery because a computer server in Virginia, USA went down, and now the doorbell on my house in England doesn't work. What. The. Fork.
How the hell did Ring/Amazon not include a radio-frequency transmitter for the doorbell and chime? This is absurd.
To top it off, I'm trying to do my quarterly VAT return, and Xero is still completely borked, nearly 20 hours after the initial outage.
You're way, way better off finding a small outfit of motivated people to join if you want to work in this field.
Success rate for newly formed hedge funds is probably something like 50% over a 5 year horizon. For solo traders, it's probably closer to 1%.
There is WAY too much stuff you need to be on top of, if you want to be successful, than a single person can manage. It's about as feasible as starting a one man (coal) mining operation, where you must dig the tunnel, extract the coal, process it, sell it, manage the business operation and retain your sanity. You need at least a handful of people to be effective, all with different specialties.
...not to mention that if you're successful as a solo trader, you could be making 10x more with proper financial backing. If your strategy is returning 25% annually on a personal 1 mil investment, there's a good chance it'll still be returning >20% on a 10 mil investment (once you get to 100 mil or into the billions, your returns start to diminish due to market impact). Find a good backer, they'll literally give you money and a support team for a piece of the profit.
I just flat out refuse to use it if I feel the subscription is rent-seeking. So far I don't feel like I've missed out on any must-haves because of this policy.
One thing I'd like to pay for but won't because of rent-seeking subscription is Roland's VST audio plugins. I'd happily pay hundreds of dollars for them if I could BUY them, but that's not an option. Instead, I'm holding on to my Roland XV5080 hardware synthesizer module, instead of replacing it with the software alternative, which I'd very much want.
The current silicon chip shortage is showing just how dependent we are on chips, and while Arm doesn't have their own fabs, they are an important part of that ecosystem. There's a good chance that the current drought may play a role in US decisions on dealing with the China/Taiwan issue, if China shows aggression there is now a clear national security incentive for the US (and other countries, for that matter) to intervene and protect Taiwan, just like they did with oil for the last 40 years.
given that, it's entirely reasonable that the UK doesn't want ARM gutted and the IP shipped out of the country.
I found All About Circuits to be a great resource when I was a teenager. after skimming this site, I'd say it's too focused on math fundamentals, and not enough on "yeah but how does it ACTUALLY work?". I feel like All About Circuits does a good job of skimming over details that are not going to be important until you've built up some more knowledge.
Anyway, it's a great resource, and was a big part of why I decided to do EE instead of CS. It's also got pictures; lots of pictures!
(Absolutely baller move for LSL to hire that guy)