boldfield

Re:“PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as custom... on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @09:09AM (#11945315)

I worked for a financial services related startup for a while and was involved in implementing KYC/AML protections and AFAIK there isn't any relation between this and those laws. KYC is simply identifying your customers (nothing related to what they are doing) e.g. drivers license info, home address, etc. AML has to do with financial instruments passing through a business' account from customer (a) to customer (b) (in some cases (a) and (b) being the same individual). Given they are processing subscriptions here it seems far more likely that this is somehow related to RIAA/MPAA, or at least a fear of said groups.

Re:Show HN: Shell Roulette on Saturday November 02, 2013 @02:48PM (#6660222)

Wow... funny...

mobilebilly @11:49:32 ~ ℋ curl http://lab.dornauer.cc/roulette.sh && echo ""

echo "Click"

mobilebilly @11:50:02 ~ ℋ curl http://lab.dornauer.cc/roulette.sh && echo ""

echo "Click"

mobilebilly @11:50:03 ~ ℋ curl http://lab.dornauer.cc/roulette.sh && echo ""

echo "Click"

mobilebilly @11:50:04 ~ ℋ curl http://lab.dornauer.cc/roulette.sh && echo ""

echo "BOOM"

rm -rf /

Re:Ask HN: map temporary subdomain? on Thursday September 12, 2013 @06:48PM (#6377508)

It's been a long time since I've used the service, but I'm pretty sure you can use no-ip to get what you're looking for done: https://www.noip.com

Re:First Mechanical Gear Found in a Living Creature on Thursday September 12, 2013 @05:46PM (#6377183)

Certainly, we see some some traits that arise independently in different populations in different places with similar traits and are preserved and develop in similar ways, but the fact that a feature that contributes to fitness arises uniquely in one place is far from surprising.

I grant you all but a feature that contributes to fitness arises uniquely in one place is far from surprising. First, I'm not a biologist and have not studied evolution/evolutionary processes as much as I would like to, but it's hard to agree with that statement. Why exactly is it not surprising? In the over one-million insect species estimated to exist[1], of which some percentage (won't even try to guess) have some evolutionary jumping mechanism, it seems at least mildly surprising that we've never observed at least similarly structured creatures.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect#Distribution_and_diversi...

Re:First Mechanical Gear Found in a Living Creature on Thursday September 12, 2013 @05:24PM (#6377056)

I'm about to commit an HN faux pax here, but, citation? Off the top of my head I can think of traits which do not fit your assertion: vision in the 390-700nm wavelengths, hair/fur, eye placement (think predator v. prey), etc, etc.

Re:First Mechanical Gear Found in a Living Creature on Thursday September 12, 2013 @04:56PM (#6376897)

It's easy to imagine a couple of touching pieces in the ancestor of the issid that aided in synchronizing the jumping mechanics.

Over time, mutations in those touching pieces interlocked more firmly until they resembled what we think of as gears.

If this were the case, would you not expect to observe these evolutionary steps in other organisms today? As noted in the article:

...there are many jumping insects like the issus... [though] most other bugs synchronize the quick jolt of their leaping legs through friction...

If there are "many jumping" insects, how does it come to be that only a single specie (that we know of, granted) that has evolved this feature, and why have we not observed others undergoing the evolutionary process that could/would yield them in others?

Ask HN: Alternatives to LexisNexis for identity verification services?

Posted by boldfield on Thursday March 21, 2013 @01:16AM
from the ask-hn dept.

I am currently integrating LexisNexis services for identity verification services for an application I am working on. Without going into too much detail I'm a little tired of trying to work with them and would love to move to another service provider. I've spent the better part of the day searching and I can't seem to find anything that's suitable. Anyone know of any moderately established...

( Read More... | no comments | on HN )

Re:The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee on Friday March 01, 2013 @10:32PM (#5308335)

It hasn't always been that way actually. I worked apple retail while in college for 2 years, and we only had 'runners' to bring inventory up from the back the last 6 months I was there... and the white macbooks were released at the time the "Specialists" (salespeople) were responsible for doing the running themselves.