aferreira

You don't have to be an activity at all, your service can do that. But the comment where someone might just be browsing their contact list makes sense too.

Actually, I don't think you need it.

If you can request permission to read the list of activities and do so when your activity is paused, you can search for the phone application (or even similar ones, such as Skype) and pause your audio playback?

Just a thought.

Regarding the question of knowing what percentage of total equity your stock grant represents, most companies that are not incredibly early stage will simply not tell you.

Pushing the subject further will make you look like you're nosing around where you shouldn't, often leading to the offer being dropped (this has happened to me).

Not to say it wasn't a not-so-great company to start with, but a dropped offer is a dropped offer.

How about instead of trying to circumvent the problem, we could address the original issue? Namely, that your employer single handedly has enough power to send you back to your country?

The whole concept of H1-B is broken because, besides being an actual lottery, it gives the employer too much authority and control, which is why some scare tactics are in place (and sadly generally accepted).

> gave up when it required me to use my Linkedin account

Exactly.

Congratulations, you have successfully determined that scumbags are everywhere.

The behavior of these people should not be directly correlated with bitcoin/tech/startups/whateveryouwanttocallit.

To be honest there's a lot more that factors in when you're buying a computer for business. It's not just the CPU and GPU that come with it, there's a plethora of other factors that may be important to the buyer, such as:

* Maximum ram upgrade amount (most consumer laptops max out at 8 GB or 16 GB)

* Screen quality (IPS vs TN, glare vs anti-glare, etc)

* Keyboard layout and quality (yes, this matter A LOT if you type all day on the computer)

* Driver compatibility (since Linux is mentioned)

* Weight, roughness (or beat-up factor), portability factors, battery life, modularity, expansion ports... the list goes on.

It's not just "this machine which has a top end Intel i7 CPU and an SSD" for everyone.

Just fyi, this is exactly the type of situation they hope to induce and, to be quite honest, I would happily do the same, even if only to avoid the hassle.

> but anyone else based in the US

Why US only? Are there significant challenges into opening this platform to internationals? I always thought it was simpler (less taxes to deal with, etc).

Would just like to add to this answer that, as of Android 4.4, the WebView is based off of Chromium, enabling you to perform remote debugging with your chrome web developer tools (basically everything you can do on a website you can now do on a WebView).

I'd still pick native any day. Control > ease.

> These root certificates are managed by a small number of companies designated by some agency who decides on these things

You're trying to explain how SSL is secure, that everyone implicitly trusts the root certificates and then there's this. I immediately lost complete interest in your explanation (because you probably don't understand it yourself) and hence in whatever product and/or solution you're trying to offer.

I'm actually more interested in the US-EU negotiations, I wonder how long that one's going to take :)

Always always _always_ use git push <remote> <branch>. Always. Did I mention always? :)

I can see where he's coming from, my company is actually at fault on this exact point.

The initial target was iOS and then clients requested Android compatibility as well. Designs for iOS are completed and implemented and are then re-used for Android. The excuse is 'consistent user experience' but really they just don't want to do the same job twice for a platform that generally has less usage and provides less profit (in our case at least).

I took matters into my own hands and there are noticeable differences between the two applications. There was of course some backlash (I flat out refused to put a 'back' button on the action bar for example or move the sliding menu to the right side) but in general the look and feel is consistent across the two platforms.

That doesn't (and won't) stop me from using native controls such as text inputs and dialogs that users on Android are quite familiar with.

In case someone has no clue what the hell I'm talking about I'd be happy to share some screenshots via pm.

One thing that I like about Android is that developers can choose to minimally style buttons and similar UI elements and these differences will be applied to whatever the base device theme is.

This means that users will get a consistent user experience throughout various applications and won't have to run around trying to figure out what's a button and what's a text input.

Sadly, this project essentially destroys all of that work and something tells me it won't work correctly on the most customized devices (like the old Motorola RAZR running 2.3 for example).

Nice idea but I don't think it makes much sense in it's current state.

If you're looking to go be a bit away from the city (~1hr by metro), there's two cities called Povoa de Varzim (where I am) / Vila do Conde that have just about everything and are even cheaper.

This actually sounds quite interesting. I might just go and do it. The question is, will SO approve?

Edit: I'm guessing SO probably won't have an issue with it.

I can personally attest that it is incredibly hard to land a solid remote based job, even if you're very good at it. I have worked remotely most of my career (with frequent visits to the office) but I still see a constant stream of people who prefer to have someone much less skilled and/or capable on site rather than take the chance and hire remotely.

Time zones, contractual arrangements and/or agreements, distance and track record mean nothing if employers are simply not willing to give you the chance. Worse, some do and require you to keep track of every small thing you do (TPS reports, etc), destroying the employer/employee trust and leaving us with painful processes that no one likes to go through.

The other side of the coin is that remote workers often request US-like salaries to companies in much different economies, which leads to an even smaller rate of success ...

Finally, from my own experience, I would never hire someone who would tell me that they would never be able to come to the office at least a few times per year (3-4, a week at a time). Just one week of in-person collaboration can bring drastic improvements and/or discoveries that lead to better products overall.

Hey I can blow things out of proportion and create unreasonable expectations just like the author does :)

But adding this as a requirement is perfectly reasonable? How about the fact that this is completely out of the developer's control (apps are sometimes rejected for no reason whatsoever)? Let's hold out on payment until someone at Apple says it's alright.

Next time I buy some bananas at the supermarket, I'm going to tell the cashier that if my clients don't like them, they won't get paid and that they have to come with me to convince my clients that the bananas are perfectly fine.

I find it hilarious that people think it's just gathering some pieces, applying glue and add pretty graphics.

What's that old saying? You get what you pay for. What did you expect for $800?

"Oh but it's a simple app" - Well, so is the electrical grid! I delivers power to your house, simple right? Oh wait. NOPE.

Additionally, I do agree that once you've accepted to pay the final fees once development ends, you should pay them then and not when the app is 'accepted onto app store and 10 days have passed so users can report bugs'. What on earth were you thinking? That's not the developer's problem. That's YOUR problem.

I find it nice that he even offered to fix any bugs found on the review process or after the store's release, most developers could charge you extra for this.

Please get this right once and for all: You pay consultants / freelancers a combination of time spent + expertise. Never for a finished product.

That Twitter popup every time you select some text is incredibly annoying, I wish they'd disable it.

I like to select paragraphs of text due to the higher contrast but here it's impossible since the 3rd click will actually try and select whatever box the Twitter button is placed in.

While I commend the team at MongoHQ for detailing the attack, the strategy used to restrict any further damage and implementing new processes and additional security, I've heard this story one too many times.

When are companies going to realize that security is a critical aspect of their business? Why are people only acting when there's some big security breach, using trivial systems before this?

It is working but the US store seems to be down for maintenance.

Odd, I've been making releases of my product at least twice a month for the last year, and it's been increasing steadily lately too. I always thought it was a good thing?