一個害我嗆到的故事... (Netlify 帳單的故事?)

故事本身其實還蠻普通的,只是我的閱讀順序害我嗆到...

首先是在 Hacker Newsbest 頁上看到「Netlify just sent me a $104k bill for a simple static site (reddit.com)」這篇,點進去以後是 Reddit 的「Netlify just sent me a $104K bill for a simple static site」這篇,看了一下作者的敘述,是個用 Netlify 的服務,上面有個 3.44MB 的音檔被針對攻擊,造成 190TB 的流量,以及 $104K 的帳單 (十萬多美金),之後 Netlify 的客服同意這是 DDoS 攻擊,給他 95% discount,也就是還是要付 $5K 左右...

Reddit 下面最高分的回應是:

[–]thankyoufatmember 2262 points 14 hours ago
Don't pay, post the story to Hackernews!

Okay,我想說我就是從 Hacker News 上看到點過來的... 回去看一下好了,結果在 Hacker News 的留言最上方是:

bobfunk 10 hours ago | next [–]

Netlify CEO here.

Our support team has reached out to the user from the thread to let them know they're not getting charged for this.

It's currently our policy to not shut down free sites during traffic spikes that doesn't match attack patterns, but instead forgiving any bills from legitimate mistakes after the fact.

Apologies that this didn't come through in the initial support reply.

然後我剛好在喝茶,就嗆到了...

人家常說 Ptt 的電蝦板 (PC_Shopping) 是全台灣最大的客服中心,遇到各種不公不義的問題貼上去就會解決了... 這點倒是頗像的。

Adobe 與 Figma 併購破局

剛剛打開 Hacker News 看到這篇掛在 top 1,Figma 官方宣佈終止與 Adobe 合併的計畫:「Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger (figma.com)」,原文「Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger」。

翻了一下維基百科,與壟斷相關的報導有兩個,一個是美國在去年十一月報導的:「DOJ takes aim at Adobe’s $20 billion deal」,另外一個是歐盟在今年二月報導的:「EU regulators to assess Adobe’s $20bn acquisition of Figma」,但這些消息在這種併購案還蠻常見的,這個結果頗意外的...

這樣的話 Figma 會打算上市嗎?

Nextcloud 吃下 Roundcube

Nextcloud 官方的公告在「Open source email pioneer Roundcube joins the Nextcloud family」這邊,然後有新聞整理:「Roundcube Open-Source Webmail Software Merges With Nextcloud」,以及 Hacker News 上對應的討論:「Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud (phoronix.com)」。

居然看到 Roundcube 的新聞,這是個用 PHP 寫的,頗老牌的 Webmail 系統了,翻了 Wikipedia 上的資料,第一個 stable 居然是 2008 年?我以為應該更早,因為印象中當年交大的 D2 E-mail 系統在後來有用到...?

後來的情況有點微妙,2015/2016 年的時候 Roundcube 搞了 crowdfunding 結果變成一場災難:

On 3 May 2015, Roundcube announced, in partnership with Kolab Systems AG, that they planned to completely rewrite Roundcube and create Roundcube Next. A crowdfunding campaign was set up to finance the project. The goal of $80,000 was reached on June 24. The final amount raised was US$103,541.

Roundcube Next was intended to include additional features like calendar, chat and file management. This was to be implemented using WebRTC and connectors from popular services like Dropbox and OwnCloud.

However, Kolab Systems and Roundcube stopped development on the project in 2016, with no information or refunds provided to project backers, leading to a failed crowdfund. A Roundcube developer later claimed Roundcube had no ownership over the Roundcube Next campaign,[10] despite its public engagement and ownership on the crowdfund page.

這次的情況從 Hacker News 上的討論也看得出來,大家對 Nextcloud 沒什麼好感,而且 Nextcloud 本身有個 Nextcloud Mail,沒看懂到底是怎麼一回事...

Broadcom 在併購 VMware 後裁員

Hacker News 上看到「Broadcom lays off many VMware employees after closing acquisition (businessinsider.com)」這篇,前幾天 Broadcom 買下 VMware 的消息才公告出來 (參考「Broadcom 買下 VMware」),馬上就有裁員的消息了... 原始報導在「Broadcom lays off many VMware employees after closing its $69 billion acquisition of the company」,不過因為 paywall 的關係,可以看參考 archive.today 上面的頁面:「Broadcom lays off many VMware employees after closing its $69 billion acquisition of the company」。

報導裡面有提到,在併購前 VMware 自己就有在砍人了,不過併購完馬上就再砍,不太好看...

還是如同之前提到的,看不太懂這個併購案的目的,看起來只是單純往軟體產業投資?因為 VMware 跟先前併購的 CA TechnologiesSymantec 好像是沒有太直接可以拼湊起來的感覺...

美國成立公司的成本

前幾天在 Hacker News 上看到這則:「Is Delaware the cheapest place to incorporate?」,當初只是瞄過去,但突然注意到提到 Taiwan:

I am living in Taiwan and want to create a startup. The business will be mostly open source and likely to have low to no revenue.

I see that US states like Colorado have no franchise tax. But I also saw posts here that Delaware is usually ultimately cheaper.

What is the recommendation for a company to manage an open source project? Sure it might be worth money, but likely not, so I would like to keep money tight.

thanks!

翻了使用者資料,似乎是在台灣的美國人問的問題,希望在美國成立一個公司...

然後目前最上面的留言給的答案給了很多 if-else 條件告訴你怎麼選:

I'm an attorney.

Delaware is definitely not the cheapest or even in contention for the cheapest.

Still, if you want to raise capital, the correct answer is DE C Corp. If you're not looking for external funding, any state will do. If you care about anonymity, do Nevada or Wyoming. If you don't care about anonymity, Colorado is actually a very good choice. Very simple, intuitive online filing system that accepts filings instantaneously. Filing fees as cheap as anywhere in the country. No need for an attorney (or LegalZoom or some other random service) unless you just don't feel like dealing with it.

Costs will likely be $50 to file, Registered Agent (as cheap as $30 per annum), and $10 periodic report fee annually every year you're in business. Colorado is even nice enough to send plenty of reminders on when to file that report if you give them an email address.

Since you're a US citizen, my instinct would be LLC taxed as an S corp. But confirm with your accountant!

Good luck!

下面其他的留言也差不多,另外剛好也有人問這位律師為什麼打算要募資的話,會選擇 Delaware:

It's just industry standard for capital raises. All corporate attorneys learn DE law when they go to law school and are expected to know it if they practice corporate law. A Colorado attorney doesn't know California law and a California attorney doesn't know New York law, but if they do corporate legal work, they're all expected to know how to deal with DE law.

因為學校裡教過,大家都知道要怎麼搞 XDDD

另外維基百科也有提到因為對企業友善,有很多公司是掛在 DE,甚至連 NYSE 都掛在 DE:

66% of the Fortune 500, including Walmart and Apple (two of the world's largest companies by revenue) are incorporated (and therefore have their domiciles for service of process purposes) in the state. Over half of all publicly traded corporations listed in the New York Stock Exchange (including its owner, Intercontinental Exchange) are incorporated in Delaware.

算是個有趣的知識...

Broadcom 買下 VMware

看到「Broadcom announces successful acquisition of VMware」這則公告,想要找 VMware 發的新聞稿但沒找到,反倒是 Broadcom 這邊還有一篇「Broadcom Completes Acquisition of VMware」。

不知道要說什麼... 有種當年 Intel 買下 McAfee 的感覺?到底會有什麼想法?

Hacker News 上的討論蠻有趣的:「VMware is now part of Broadcom (broadcom.com)」。

[...] Broadcom will get blood from the stone, rest assured. They will continue to raise maintenance and licensing fees until they very last customer turns off their last ESXi box. If you think IBM and mainframe is bad, you've never lived with a technology that Broadcom has acquired.

Automattic 重整 Tumblr 團隊的內部消息

waxpancake這邊看到的,是一個從內部洩漏的 screenshot,後來 Automattic 的 CEO,Matt Mullenweg,在 Tumblr 上面把完整的內容都放出來,並且加上他的一些說明 (包括了一些內部的 team name 以及他的想法):「Translation of Internalspeak to Externalspeak」。

官方的說法主要就是不賺錢,所以除了客服團隊 (下面提到的 Happiness) 與 Trust & Safety 團隊 (下面提到的 T&S) 外,其他的成員將會被轉移到內部其他的計畫上:

This plan is happening now: the majority of the 139 people in Bumblr will switch to other divisions. No plans for any switches in Happiness or T&S.

"Happiness" is our term for customer support, and "T&S" means trust and safety, which is the team that works on fighting bots, spam, dealing with illegal stuff, etc.

接著有大致提到轉移的過程會是怎麼樣,另外後面提到時間表:

The switchovers will happen on December 31, so we start 2024 completely fresh.

另外在 The Verge 上面的「What is going on with Tumblr?」有另外的說法,不是所有人都有換團隊的權利,很多就直接 layoff 了:

"The majority of the 139 people in Bumblr will switch to other divisions"

This is not what is happening. Many people have been let go (under the guise of performance) and in the past week the pace picked up from individuals to entire teams. Automattic seems adamant these are not layoffs, but people dissapear instantly without being offered alternative teams.

先回到 Tumblr 的情況來看,之後應該就是維護模式了。

Kagi 又恢復 $10/mo 的 Unlimited Search Plan 了

Kagi 公告 $10/mo 的 Unlimited Search Plan:「Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month」。

今天公告以後可以看到有個比較抖一點的成長,但要再觀察看看是不是持續的:

翻了一下文章,還是沒看到為什麼要這樣做,尤其是財務上的理由... 最早從 $10/mo 漲到 $25/mo 就是成本問題,我的猜測是現在有量了所以 discount 比較好談 (從 9/6 的「Kagi Search Stats」的 8034 與現在的相比,的確可以看到一直在成長),然後談完 discount 後重算成本結構,發現有機會衝一波?

也有可能是 VC 那邊有進展?像是找到比較願意放手讓 Kagi 執行這樣的理念的 VC?

Anyway,$10/mo 又回來了...

Cisco 併購 Splunk

Hacker News 上看到的消息,CiscoSplunk:「Cisco Acquires Splunk (splunk.com)」,對應的新聞稿:「Splunk and Cisco Unite To Accelerate Digital Resilience as One of the Leading Global Software Companies」。

看不太出來為什麼 Cisco 要買 Splunk 這家公司,不知道戰略是什麼...

另外在 Hacker News 上的討論整片都有提到 Splunk 貴到哭爸的事情... 剛好前公司也有用,那個價錢的確是很哭爸,也因此有了後續 migrate 到 Prometheus 上的計畫,不過這也是過去式了...

That's staff, the building, equipment, power, water, everything...the estimated Splunk cost was more than that.

The joke used to be 'splunk is amazing until the first invoice comes in', it's funny because it's true. Note Datadog is very similar in that regard.

現在已經比起 Splunk 出來的年代,多了很多 open source 的方案可以選擇,Splunk 的吸引力低很多了。

IPv6 Excuse Bingo (IPv6 理由伯賓果?)

在「AWS IPv4 Estate Now Worth $4.5B (toonk.io)」這邊的討論意外的看到「IPv6 Excuse Bingo」這個網站...

這個 bingo 是動態的,每次 reload 都會有不同的版本出來,理由超多...

不過實際用 IPv6 network 後會發現各種鳥問題真的多,之前 (到現在) 最經典的就是 HECogent 的 IPv6 network 因為錢的問題談不攏而不通的問題,在維基百科上面就有提到從 2009 年開始就不通了:

There is a long-running dispute between the provider Cogent Communications and Hurricane Electric. Cogent has been refusing to peer settlement-free with Hurricane Electric since 2009.

所以夠大的服務如果要弄 IPv6 都得注意到這點,像是 CDN 或是 GeoIP-based load balancer 就不能把 Cogent 的用戶導到 HE 的位置上面,反之亦然。

不過話說 AWS 手上有 128M 個 IPv4 address,整個 IPv4 address 的空間也才 4.29B,也就是說光 AWS 手上就有大約 3% 的 IPv4 address 空間,如果扣掉不可用的區段的話就更高了...