I need help integrating Lucene/Solr (a search indexer with a REST API) into WikiPaper (http://wikipaper.org). You can do the backend in whatever language you like. It's an independent project so you don't need to read a ton of code to get up to speed.
I'm not sure how long it will take, probably some number of weekends. Any help is appreciated!
There are many, many disadvantages of incorporating here. For example, if you are an atheist, or have any other ideas that are anti-mainstream (eg. are critical of dogmatic feminism or runaway capitalism) you may be targeted by the surveillance state, which in my case has already happened.
The added stress compounds the existing stress of running a startup.
If YC opened an international branch, I would leave in a heartbeat. I'm also looking into Techstars, which seems to have some international presence. I really hope YC takes some leadership here.
- Add an upper bound to the number of investment properties someone can own. Owning more than one or two is clearly parasitic behavior. Banning this parasitic behavior allows breathing room for minorities to get onto the property ladder.
- Add tax subsidies to encourage employees working from home. This will help stop gentrification, etc, since developers can work from unconventional neighborhoods more easily, and also means that employees don't have to pay extortionary rent/interest for housing.
This attitude is so defeatist. It's not hard for executives to look at companies in free countries vs companies in oppressive countries and see which ones are doing better. It makes business sense for them to try to maintain at least some freedom.
If people want to see these features implemented, find someone at Google and, let them know! Eventually it will happen.
Although I agree with using your own stuff instead of theirs.
Their purpose is to make money. Therefore, entities that make it harder to make money (eg an oppressive government) will be seen as threats. Therefore, they take actions like convincing the entire internet to use https.
It's not as simple as "invade privacy" = "profit!". They sell advertising, that's their actual business model.
I would imagine they haven't done it simply because the execs haven't thought about it or don't understand end-to-end encryption. If you know someone at google, give them a prod to do it.
Adding end-to-end encryption to the gmail app would not be difficult. It would work similarly to end-to-end encryption in whatsapp, and would be massive boon for freedom worldwide.
Google is not pro-NSA spying, not by a long shot, despite common belief. They are the ones who convinced the entire web to turn to HTTPS, for instance. Check out: http://www.google.com/takeaction.
Additionally Sergey Brin grew up in the Soviet Union until the age of 6, his father was marginalized, he knows the cost of a dysfunctional society.
Turning the USA into 1984 isn't good business sense, so even for that reason alone Google would do it (that is, add end-to-end encryption, etc).
I'm not sure how long it will take, probably some number of weekends. Any help is appreciated!