Several years ago at this point, Congress passed a bill, and that bill was signed into law by the President. What that law says, is that TikTok cannot continue under Chinese ownership. Byte Dance either have to sell the American video app business so that it is controlled by Americans, or they have to shutdown Tiktok.

Byte Dance did not sell the business, so under the law TikTok has to shutdown. This law was lawyered all the way to the supreme court, and the court said it’s a valid law, and must be followed.

Despite all of these facts, the law is not actually being followed. And Tiktok is still operating in the United States. There is no legally valid reason for it to do so. President Trump has issued extension after extension, even though he has no legal authority to do so.

The latest here is the top law enforcement officer in the US telling the app stores, “yes we know it’s illegal to keep Tiktok in your app store, but I am pinky promising we won’t go after you.”

At the least, it’s reasonable to expect someone who claims to be an “armed peacekeeper” to check their background before shooting. I don’t know if that firearms sin is worth criminal charges or not, but it’s bad practice.

If you want top speed, Fortran is faster than C.

The source character set is implementation defined.

You could even choose the name this.

To be fair, that’s a total banger.

Reverse Hackintosh.

I remember back in the days of the Commodore 64, games still took 2-3 minutes to load.

I am not a lawyer, and I am not your lawyer.

Off the top of my head, I can’t really see where or how this is illegal in most US jurisdictions. In “at will” states you can be hired or fired at any time for any reason* or no reason. And likewise you can quit at any time for any reason or no reason. If you can be hired or fired based on this scam, you can be promoted or held back based on it.

Having said that, this is really scammy, and I would not want to work there.

*except discrimination based on: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (>40), or genetics. Likewise, retaliation for unlawful sexual harassment.

Don’t even have to build new buildings in a lot of towns. Just renovate the Carnegie buildings that are still there.

I work in engineering, sometimes with startup types that want to develop a “product”. I’m also a coinventor on some patent applications. This response will be based on US perspective and economics.

1. First before all, do a patent search. This is to find out if someone already patented your ideas. If so, you either need to pay them royalties to license the patent(s) or rework your product to avoid the patents. Google Patents is highly accessible for this.
2. Then, if you think you have original, patentable ideas, engage a patent attorney to do a “real” search and to work on filings. This will take money (at least 10s of thousands US) for the initial work. All the major legal jurisdictions are “first to file,” so it no longer helps to mail your notebooks to yourself for proof of date of invention. You have to at least file a provisional application to get a patent priority date. Keep everything top secret until you have that application. Execute non disclosure agreements (NDAs) with any outside firm or individual you talk with. 2b. As an aside, software is not generally patentable any more, on the grounds that math formulas are also not patentable. There may still be some ability to patent software-oriented ideas as business methods or the like. Just because the patent office issued a software patent doesn’t mean it’s enforceable. Courts hold patents to be invalid all the time.
3. I want to impress upon you some view of the real costs of prototype design and what is known as “nonrecurring engineering” (NRE) in the biz. You don’t say, but it sounds like you want some amount of custom electronics coupled with some backend software. Costs can vary considerably depending on circumstance, but I would typically see 100k-300k USD in design and prototype build costs to get initial prototypes with some limited functionality for these components. It could very well take 1 million USD or more to get a more complete product design. This also depends a lot on how you engage engineering talent: turnkey consultants can be the most expensive, or you could save a bunch of up front labor cost by offering equity to a key designer. 3b. I don’t know how complicated this app is, but it’s not unusual for software engineering costs to overshadow the hardware engineering costs, and sometimes by a lot. This might be something to keep in mind if you’re contemplating app development up front paired with virtual hardware plans.
4. A “virtual design” for hardware that is just drawings could be done for cheaper than the prototype quote I gave. I see common prices for that kind of work at least 10k and up to 50k depending on how much initial design work you want or need done (and how the talent is engaged, etc, etc).
5. Manufacturing. Depends of course on what is going into your gadget and how many units you plan to build.
   5a. Custom PCBs can commonly be run in low volumes for relatively cheap. It’s more expensive to solder the components on than just to etch the boards. There are many board houses that let you turn in your design files and get a quote online. 5b. For startup that wants a low volume (~100) of some gadget, you might want to look into contract manufacturers. These will assemble your product per drawings, typically in a non-automated or low-automation fashion. For example, they might have pick and place machines and expensive wave flow solder machines to assemble PCBs, but then the boards are screwed into enclosures by hand. These places might run double or triple the per unit cost of a more automated setup, but it can still be the best option for low numbers of units. 5c. Overseas manufacturing can cut costs through reduced labor bills. The traditional hurdles in the startup environment are long shipping lead times (particularly by sea, 10-12 weeks not uncommon) and the added hassle and complexity of international business dealings. In the US particularly, the recent tariff situation is throwing a monkey wrench right in the middle of this, and I will not attempt to analyze the impact. 5d. A commonly surprising manufacturing cost: if using injection molded plastic for enclosures or the like, the custom molds can cost several 10s of thousands to build and store. This is a fixed cost, so it doesn’t impact the per unit for large volumes, but it is often an expensive hurdle in the total manufacturing process for small startups.
6. Regulatory. It’s highly likely that any consumer facing gadget will need at least some regulatory testing, probably from a dedicated contract test house For example in the US, Underwriters Laboratory (UL) demands safety testing, and the FCC can require “part 15” testing and separate testing if you have a radio (such as WiFi or Bluetooth). As an exercise you could try looking up all of the various logos on the bottom of your favorite gizmo or in the fine print in the manual.

I’m pretty sure nobody registers their personal smartphone and laptop every time they leave the US for a vacation.

I agree with you on this, but CBP is certainly within their legal rights to interrogate you on the origins of your personal electronics, and they can make a determination that your stuff is subject to duty if it’s over the limit and they don’t believe you are reimporting.

For residents of the United States the duty free limit when returning is 800 dollars worth of stuff. I believe that’s every thirty days. You usually have to answer whether you exceed this limit in the declaration.

So you just go to Canada, buy the thing, unpack it from the packaging, and pretend like its just personal items. Just like a smartphone.

If tariffs become a big thing, this will definitely happen more, but it will also get a lot more scrutiny from customs as well.

AFIAK, border agents usually don’t ask if you bought your phone in the US or from outside, they shouldn’t ask about other personal electronics, right?

Stuff that you exported and reimported for personal or business use, but not for resale, is exempt from duty with no dollar limits. If you want documented proof that you are reimporting, you can register the stuff at a customs office in the United States before you leave.

Xkcd comics are published under one of the CC licenses (forget which one). It’s arguable this kind of thing may be an intended reuse.

So anything that NASA produces alone with public money is for the public by default ?

Anything that NASA civil servants produce and publish is in the public domain by default. NASA can spend public money on contracts that don’t result in public domain information.

In this case, if NASA spends public money to buy (license) a commercially available compiler from PGI, that compiler doesn’t magically become open source just because NASA is a paying customer.

Works, reports, and software that NASA produces itself are “works of the United States”, so they are in the public domain by law.

However, not everything NASA does is a published work, such as the classified GPS encryption modules on the shuttle or private medical conferences with ISS crewmembers. Additionally, a lot of stuff is actually done by contractors, such as SpaceX or Boeing, and those may or may not be required by contract to release various amounts of data to the public.

I did a quick Google search, and I was unable to find anything contemporary where NASA is maintaining or developing an in house Fortran compiler.

Central Texas barbecue places will usually do them in 8 hours, which is a lot faster than the brisket (26 hours).

Within section 2.1 choose only one subsection to follow. Those are all alternative bootloader options.

The bootloader subsection chosen in 2.1 on this page should match what is done in Configuring the Bootloader. The default path on that page is GRUB, which does not require any systemd components.

If following the GRUB path, follow instructions in 2.1.1 and skip the rest of 2.1. This is not at all clear in the handbook.

I believe that sys-kernel/installkernel is a utility script internal to the Gentoo project that can be configured to work with various bootloader solutions, including (optionally) systemd, and that is what this section 2.1 is talking about.

This appears to be an out of order dependency in the handbook

Companies used to (and some still) transfer profits to shareholders by paying periodic dividends. The stock buyback transfers profits to shareholders by raising the stock price. It became popular because capital gains are taxed at a lower flat rate than dividends.

Also, dividends are taxed when they are paid, but gains are taxed when the stock gets sold. Wealthy shareholders can sit on unrealised capital gains for years or decades, pay no taxes, and still access the wealth by putting the shares up as collateral for personal loans.

Stock buybacks are certainly popular with big and wealthy investors.

The two words by themselves are not very good English, or any slang idiom I know about.

I agree this sounds threatening, however.