Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#251

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

vetinari wrote: post #152

readarticle wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never been nor kept up with SEA, but this is still surprising to hear! I would have assumed WeChat type mobile payments situations were well in place, is cash really that dominant or are there other factors?

One reason is, that cashless transfers costs money; e.g. the card processing companies in their contracts disallow the vendors to increase the prices for customers using their payment system, compared to other means of payments. So effectively all the cash paying customers subsidy the electronic payments systems, while not having the convenience of not using cash. This part of the contract is not followed in SEA coun…

>One reason is, that cashless transfers costs money; e.g. the card processing companies in their contracts disallow the vendors to increase the prices for customers using their payment system, compared to other means of payments. So effectively all the cash paying customers subsidy the electronic payments systems, while not having the convenience of not using cash.

In the US, credit card surcharges have been legal for many years:

https://www.thebalance.com/credit-card-surcharges-315423

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#252

Post by Razengan » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

I specifically opened HN just now to see if there were any negative posts about Apple, given that WWDC is in a few days, and like clockwork, there it is.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#253

Post by wayneftw » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

noch wrote: post #33

AsyncAwait wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I've ditched all of my Apple hardware and went 100% FLOSS years ago. The experience is polished enough for me as a developer to do what I need to do and after I set it up just the way I wanted it, no other setup can touch how productive I am on my Arch setup. I've recently got the PinePhone in and while actual Linux on smartphones is very early, it's also an opportunity to have some real impact. I'll never…

> That's why I've ditched all of my Apple hardware and went 100% FLOSS years ago. The experience is polished enough for me as a developer to do what I need to do and after I set it up just the way I wanted it, no other setup can touch how productive I am on my Arch setup. For the majority of users, this is irrelevant because linux is unusable for them. And they are the customers. To have a sustainable business, we ha…

You haven't tried using Manjaro Linux as your workstation.

I'm very lazy and I don't want to tinker with shit to get it running or maintain it. So, I stuck with Windows for the longest time. It was the easy path for a long time because a lot of my work was doing .NET. However, once I switched full-time to doing Node.js Windows got in the way more and more. I spent a lot of time investigating issues. I have a couple of Macs and I tried using macOS as my main, but honestly I can't stand anything about the way Apple does things. I just hate the bad window management, the shitty finder, the stupid global menu bar and the lack of a coherent hotkey system.

I had been trying out Linux desktop distros for honestly decades, out of pure interest. Every single one of my experiments ended in a failure to boot one day after an update. Then one day I read about Manjaro and I decided to give it a shot. 2 years later, I'm still running it as my main work OS on 3 different workstations (home desktop, work desktop and a laptop). Not one of them has ever eaten itself due to a bad update. I've had to fix minor issues after a couple of updates, but that's nothing compared to the shit I've gone through to make Windows or macOS usable.

If you're new to Linux, skip Debian, Ubuntu and all that crap and go straight to Manjaro. Installing software in Manjaro is way, way, way easier than any other distro and the stability for me on 2 desktops and a laptop has been nothing less than stellar.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#254

Post by mcv » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:09 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #159

andy_ppp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this horrible feeling that you'll soon buy the government you want; Amazon or Facebook Gov is a terrifying idea: "do you want to add on the international development budget for £14.99 per month". I wonder if it would be better than what we currently have?

Representative democracy doesn't really represent me. I want to go online and fill out a long, myers briggs like personality test that judges my political leanings, and then have that data fed to a script that votes on all the issues for me directly, skipping the middlemen. Collectively those scripts would be a far better representation than any human. Replace all politicians with tiny shell scripts.

How will those shell scripts discuss the merits of various proposals? Discussion and compromise are vital aspects of political decision making.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#255

Post by wayneftw » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:12 PM UTC

franze wrote: post #86

paganel wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case they should ban browsers, too (which in a way they do, there's a de-facto WebKit monopoly on iOS).

Honeslty if the browser would be invented in 2020 they prop. would.

prop? What does that mean?

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#256

Post by mcv » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

rbecker wrote: post #242

TheHypnotist wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States government called them criminal. My guess is Visa took the easy road on this.

> called them That's exactly right - there was no trial or conviction. Just the word of the administration was enough for Visa and other payment providers.

It turns credit card companies into the extra-legal enforcers of the government, bypassing various laws, courts, and any reasonable appeals process.

People should boycott Visa, Mastercard and Paypal over this.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#257

Post by mcv » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

dnh44 wrote: post #203

dijit wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the issues people have with apple can be applied to most corporations. Don't get me wrong, I think it's abhorrent, but it's something you should think about. I once tried to open a new bank account with my bank of 10y, and set up direct debit to it. The point was that I was going to pay my rent from that new account (both me and a roommate would pay into the account, and a direct-debit would go to the landlord).…

About 10 years ago HSBC got caught helping drug cartels launder money and they got massively fined for it. In the subsequent years they made it really difficult to open an account, but they wouldn't tell people what the hold up was because it's illegal for UK banks to tell customers that they are performing an anti money laundering investigation. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-probe/hsbc-to-pay-1-...

> "About 10 years ago HSBC got caught helping drug cartels launder money and they got massively fined for it."

From what I understand, the fine was much less than what they made from that money laundering. People should have gone to prison for it. The fine was only a slap on the wrist.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#258

Post by aspenmayer » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:26 PM UTC

stevehawk wrote: post #222

kungato wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's better than both Wondows and Mac experience now?

according to linus tech tips the answer to that is surprising... on the other hand i just updated Windows 10 to v2004 and my microsft xbox controllers no longer work in Windows and they f'd up my resolution/scaling so i think i'm gonna go download Pop

Major version updates like 2004 frequently break drivers and basic functionality on first boot; a reboot usually restores majority of functionality automatically. Maybe try unplugging and replugging your controllers and manually check for Windows updates. There was a cumulative update for 2004 recently which may fix your issues.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#259

Post by zepto » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:26 PM UTC

We do need legislation here.

I would suggest requiring cause to be stated for account termination or threatened termination, and a formal right of appeal to request evidence.

Of course this would be onerous for the smallest businesses, so we’d need some threshold for when it kicks in. E.g. 2 years, or $1,000 of transactions.

This wouldn’t make any particular kind of termination illegal. It would simply force transparency, so that then if there really are abuses or patterns of abuse taking place, we can expose them.

It would also apply to all businesses - Google, Banks, Gyms, whatever.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#260

Post by mcv » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

chooseaname wrote: post #248

mcv wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't digital cash, the problem is having payment infrastructure that's controlled by only one or two companies (like Visa and Mastercard). Payment infrastructure needs to be neutral with multiple payment providers on it, so when a bank is being unreasonable, you can just switch to another. Of course this is also an area that requires government regulation in order to prevent banks from taking advantage o…

> The problem isn't digital cash, the problem is having payment infrastructure that's controlled by only one or two companies (like Visa and Mastercard). Payment infrastructure needs to be neutral with multiple payment providers on it, so when a bank is being unreasonable, you can just switch to another. But we know this isn't going to happen. At least not in the US. We have seen a massive consolidation of power in n…

Not until the people rise up against their government and demand better payment infrastructure.

I mean, it's finally working with police brutality after a century of protesting it. If enough people care about this, you might actually get it in a century or so.