Props on paying it forward. It’s not a systems fix, but we underestimate how impactful culture is & in a future where the wealth distribution is going to be even more lopsided, benevolence & sense might be a good stopgap.
I just bought your book based on the post above. Maybe it’s marketing? Your book is also aimed a small niche(I’m on your target market!), maybe that’s it?
Marketing requires a huge budget in the VC age since you're competing with ever increasing ad prices. I have spent a lot of money on advertising regardless.
One thing that has been a major sticking point for me however, ist hat distribution has been a huge issue. I wouldn't say my target market is that small. Most of the Middle East and Asia is quite ripe for my book but amazon doest operate it's self-publishing arm out there and the alternatives have not been that enticing.
And yet the free source of marketing (your twitter account) doesn't have a link to the book.
Neither does your HN bio.
Your website is broken (expired SSL certificate).
As far as I can tell you don't have a single page that tries to sell the book. A link to amazon is a bare minimum.
https://writeusefulbooks.com/ is an example of a master class of marketing a book. It describes what the book is about and why one should buy it. It established the author as successful writer and therefore authority on the subject.
He also wrote an article good enough to hit HN and be a driver to the website. That required 0 budget.
Maybe your failure at marketing are a result of you being bad at it, not a universal truth that you can only be successful with "huge budget".
Thanks! I agree that our marketing is good as the CMO. Just kidding.
Strongly agree with this:
>not a universal truth that you can only be successful with "huge budget".
That quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The true GOATS of advertising and marketing, like for example Dave Trott, beat the point that you should play games you can win into your head over and over.
If one can't compete buying a ton of ads, don't try. But making a book that's useful to a small group of people, by making a clear promise, specifying who it is and isn't for, and then aggressively iterate with beta-readers until you start to get word of mouth, changes the equation more from needing lots of money to putting in a lot of the right kind of effort.
> Marketing requires a huge budget in the VC age since you're competing with ever increasing ad prices.
This is a mental trap that is super easy to fall into. The author of the article is writing a marketing guide. Marketing encompasses the entire product and go to market design, of which advertising is just a tiny part. Notice in his table of contents that advertising is only mentioned in one chapter very late in the book.
Try Livescribe. I've been using it for years & I can sort of CTRL-F (CMD-F) my notes. I usually export notes to people. I'm surprise more technologies like livescribe doesn't exist.
OMG, I can't believe I forgot about these smart pens! I remember reading about one ~15 years ago and thinking "who would ever need this?". And somehow I never came across them again, wow.
It might actually be a game changer for my notes/sketches!
We’re building the future of business communications that AI first. Lots of fun NLP and applied AI. Our tech stack is a little complex(By necessity and sometimes due to the inherent shortcomings of a fast moving startup), but a fun challenge for those looking to sink their teeth into fun technical challenges.
Our team is highly motivated and while we have a presence in Silicon Valley (South Bay), we’re a remote-first company.
Our Backend stack is Python, Postgres based Dokerized microservices
Our FrontEnd comprises Vue.js, Angular 2+ and we have a desktop client in C#
We’re a very small and scrappy team (<20) with a solid business model with a software engineer turned serial entrepreneur at the helm.
I’m wondering if this isn’t satirical. English is my third language & this word in particular confounded me & still does to some
Degree. In my head I’m always trying to translate between languages & cultures & the word “huh” to me seems uniquely western.
Another giveaway is the awarding of the Ig Nobel Prize & then citation of that fact as evidence of the study’s credibility & importance at the end (masterful comedic move if it was intentional)
I was amused at how quickly sprinklr picked up my tweet with the word amazon in it, I got a canned response in minutes & actual human contact within a day.
Update: FYI, my qualm wasn’t about AmazonFCs, but seeing the business end of Amazon try to put a distressed driver back on the road immediately after a very serious accident. The person who contacted me from Amazon told me that the driver was not put back on driving duty that day (so at least someone paid attention). So it’s not all negative.
Wow, this was an amusing read. I actually helped architect part of the system that was bypassed at LiveTV (now Thales).
We had some serious hackers on the team and discussed how much probing & prodding it would take to find vulnerabilities like this, but made the conclusion anyone doing this should be worried about more serious consequences. I for one, wouldn’t attempt this myself on the aircraft. The hacker side of me finds this Amusing, but I hope the author doesn’t face more serious consequences, primarily for having made this public knowledge. I have a sense the defense company that now owns the system being bypassed/broken will not find it amusing in the least bit.
Disclaimer: opinions above are my own. I do not speak for or on behalf of any party in the article.
We shouldn't let defense companies push around the general public. I'm glad that the author is willing to shoulder that risk, we need more people like them.
I agree with the sentiment. As a fellow geek & rebel, I can empathize. But if the author were my friend, I would point to past examples of how these things typically don’t end well for us. Not worth upending your life for karma or likes or whatever. The world needs more geeks that love what they do and can contribute significantly to society. That does not happen if you’re fighting court cases or on the run from authorities. General Public will rarely, if ever, stand up for you.
It’s relevant because it effects their “brand” and also culture plays a role in how they may perceive the situation. I have no idea if this even registers on their radar and it’s pure speculation on my part. Certainly not a sleeping bear I would poke.
I absolutely hope that’s the outcome of this whole thing. Unfortunately beyond the actual security vulnerability, companies often view these things as a “brand” or “PR” issue. I sincerely wish Kevin the best & hope this results positively as an internship or bug bounty.
Definitely, but it's worth for them to defend against or go after the few people willing to use this method to get free Wi-Fi on planes? IMHO they'll spend more than what they'll gain.
I fear that this would be viewed thru the lens of “PR” & “brand”, thing companies are rightfully keen in protecting. Unfortunately there’s a legal component to all this also. The knowledge itself is cool & even actual instances of a handful of people getting “free” internet probably wouldn’t register on their radar. But the publicity from being on the top of HN... that might be of significant concern
This is a level of probing anyone with a good understanding of HTTPS could do. It's not like mac spoofing or or setting up a honeypot (have fun stopping those). I think you set your bar one or two notches too low for what someone in tech can do. Practically, though, your bar is fine because this isn't actually a "security" vulnerability in the sense that something was leaked (worry more about honeypots), just that one or two people per flight might be mooching, and that's not worth engineering for.
It's interesting that you and your team thought of legal consequences before asking if this is an edge case that's not worth engineering for.
Someone in tech can do a lot. But anonymity of the web vs being 1/~120 on an aircraft where you gave your name and other vital info before boarding is a little different. Anyone going to extremes (like using fake travel docs) likely has far more nefarious intent than getting a little free WiFi.
That’s because you’re traveling in airspace covered by different Satellite than the one that covers The American continent. Top speed should actually be ~74MBps.
I was one of the people who helped build the system (not at Viasat)
Apparently it’s been benchmarked doing even better speeds. There was supposed to be new satellites launched over Europe and Asia, but at the time, this was the fastest one.
