throwaway13456

Funnily enough, there's another post on HN's front page that (self) explains why JS is a flawed language:

https://blog.bitsrc.io/11-javascript-utility-libraries-you-s...

It's too big for a TLDR;

But, just #1 in that list - You need to use a utility library to work with data types in a normalized form? In 2018?? Let that sink in. I hadn't had to do this with any other language.

Have you ever used a language like Elixir? After using Elixir, my first thought was "why the f would anyone even use JS in 2018?" That's how poor the design choices of JavaScript are. Not to mention that the name itself is trademarked by the biggest troll (Oracle corporation).

After using something like Elixir, you'll even wish if Javascript could be permanently banned from the Software industry for ever.

I use Elixir + Ruby + Coffeescript and I still wish JS was never invented.

https://twitter.com/bendhalpern/status/578925947245633536?la...

> doesn't...mining your data

This is my point. You simply don't know that. You have no idea what's happening on their servers. It's all proprietary. You have absolutely no evidence to claim that.

>alternatives like Apple

I would never trust Apple because they have consistently lied and cheated me - For instance, they throttled the speed on my iPhone, they hid the fact that my iPhone has more probability to bend and finally, as a cherry on top, they refused to honor warranty for a design flaw of theirs.

When they realized they fault, instead of making a free replacement, they charged me $30 for it.

Given all these experienced with Apple, to my eyes, Apple is no different than Google and I wouldn't trust any word of theirs as they've consistently been exposed time and again lying to consumers. So, I don't know where you got the idea of Apple being "entitled" to be in that list, but I'd say it's the right thing that they aren't.

>pro-privacy alternatives like Apple

I don't believe this. There is no evidence to support this as Apple runs on proprietary code. And you and I don't have access to the source code, so we have no idea what's going on on their servers. Ever wondered how Apple gets its data for its Apple maps? For all you know, they could be collecting your location information to build their database. Isn't that a privacy violation? I work in the Analytics industry, inside an iPhone, using Charles proxy, you'll be able to see random requests hit Apple's servers from time to time. For all you know, this could be info about you. You can't prove it nor disprove it.

I would never dare put all my trust into a single for-profit corporation whose sole goal is to maximize revenues and has been consistently exposed for unethical practices to its customers.

So, hope that answers why Apple isn't exactly a consideration.

[1] http://bgr.com/2017/12/28/iphone-battery-apple-apology-lette...

[2] https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/5/24/17389220/a...

[3] https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/07/class-action-lawsuit-apple-wa...

I don't understand American law. Why isn't Elizabeth Holmes behind bars yet? She's been accused of massive fraud by SEC and yet, she's still serving her role in Theranos?

"Sorry, this site is for non-EU users only" something to that effect. A HTML can execute scripts (ie., collect data) while a text file does not, atleast that's my understanding.

I've said it many times, GDPR is such a waste of time and resources for startups unless your market is really EU.

GDPR is super expensive to remain compliant, simply because of the broadness of the terms used, leading to undefined scope of liability.

The cheapest way to stay compliant with GDPR is to completely block access to EU customers. In fact, this is what I did with my business. I redirect to a generic text file (not even a HTML that could trigger a GDPR clause by itself) explaining my stance.

I'm surprised no one has brought this up (yet). GDPR is super expensive to remain compliant, simply because of the broadness of the terms used, leading to undefined scope of liability.

As one other HNer previously mentioned, the cheapest way to stay compliant with GDPR is to completely block access to EU customers. In fact, this is what I did with my business. I redirect to a generic text file (not even a HTML that could trigger a GDPR clause by itself) explaining my stance.

Don't worry about false equivalence that many will raise "So, you don't care about our data HUH?". The intentions behind GDPR may be good. But, the roadmap seems completely stupid. Many think blocking EU customers is an arrogant move. No, it's not. Not everyone has the finance and time to comply with GDPR. A typical re-implementation of our web application will cost us weeks if not months, for example. That could be time spent building features customers want, not fighting some vague elitist law (comply with us or else you're doomed!). If enough business owners block access to EU customers, then, EU will lose a lot of business and that will trigger them to hopefully do something about the vagueness of GDPR. I don't even live in EU, for instance, yet this re-implementation will cost me tens of thousands of dollars (translating my time) that the EU isn't going to pay me for their vagueness.

I've had enough of GDPR. I know many EU HNers will not agree, but please consider putting yourself in a solo founder's shoes.

Tell me about it. Probably going to be down voted, but this is SO true: https://twitter.com/thomasfuchs/status/810885087214637057

It doesn't work that way. I learned it the hard way.

I run a successful s/w company that was recently under targeted attacks by one of these hashtag campaigns. The gist was we wrote something about why we refused to hire women simply to improve the % of females in tech and why we want to hire the best people for the job irrespective of their gender. The goal of the post was to help people correctly contribute to gender ratio problems instead of blanket hiring, which is sexism by itself.

However, this backfired and a lot of feminist groups targeted us with hashtags and some even accusing us of things we never said/done (the blog post has been removed since). They created memes, fake citations of stuff me and my company staff didn't say and they revolted heavily.

At first I was really shocked as this was my first time experiencing something like this and I almost thought my company and brand name was doomed. However, I decided to take control and published a follow up post of things we said, we did, we didn't do and we decided to stand by our words. The hashtags multiplied, some even threatened us legal action. Many created fake accounts on our blogs and commented bad stuff about us everywhere. Some of them even sent emails directly to our customers!

But, I didn't give in. A week went by and things started looking better. The hashtags dropped, but the good thing was, from those hashtags, we got a LOT of new page-views and signups. We lost two customers who didn't want to be associated with our controversy, but we got 8 new ones after this campaign.

The biggest take away -

1) If you believe in something, don't give in to threats and disrespectful demands. It's almost like supporting extortion.

2) Any free marketing is good marketing.

I suppose this was no different for Facebook.