I write a free auction/marketplace WordPress plugin (called Prospress) that could be used to set up a working prototype in a couple of hours.

- not requiring a 37 step signup process

- not requiring a user to choose between a dozen different monthly plans before being able to sign-up

- not requiring a monthly subscription just to test and send the odd fax

It's been a while since I looked at the available options, but the few I previously evaluated required far too much overhead to make them effective.

Melbourne AU - also good for tech and culture, though it is closer to what you're used to (I'm assuming American)

New York US - hard to beat as a city

Important tips:

- live only in cities where you speak the local language, but visit countries where you don't.

- expect your productivty to be reduced by about half. Learning to live in a new country is surprisingly time consuming and the simplest of things can take hours.

- make sure you have at least a small social group (2+ people) or way to break into a social group in the new city.

I've lived in 4 cities across 3 countries in the last 2 years and in my opinion, moving to a foreign country while beginning a startup is like trying to swim while juggling.

I still say go for it, it'll be an experience, but starting a business is hard enough without having to learn to live in a new city, so if that is your ultimate goal, stay close to what you're familiar with.

It seems surprising to me that potential damages would not be taken into account. By doing so, the accussed would essentially be rewarded based on chance - at least in this case.

Looking at the actual indictment, I think he was charged with just violating Section 1030 (a)(5)(A)(i) of the U.S. Code. I don't think the other two sections mentioned are separate charges.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_0...

If you've never read section 1030, it's surprisingly clumsy and vague to us non-lawyers. Two important things for most cases are that generally any computer that is (or even 'can be') connected to the internet is considered to be 'protected' as it may potentially be involved in interstate commerce. The second this is that for this section to apply, there must be at least $5000 in damages involved.

Then you can go look up sentencing guidelines. It's important to realize that these 'guidelines' are a lot more than just suggestions for federal judges. They can go outside of these guidelines but rarely do. http://www.sentencing.us has a great calculator. That quickly tells us to use section 2B1.1(a)(2) of the guidelines.

http://www.ussc.gov/Guidelines/2010_guidelines/Manual_HTML/2...

If you go look at those guidelines, there's a chart in (b)(1) that shows how much his base offense level would be increased depending on the damages. From the descriptions I've read, I would think the damage amount would be less than $120,000 (lost time, hours it took to clean up) so that's a +8 level increase.

Then there are a number of special modifiers that can increase the 'level' of the sentence guideline. It looks like (b)(14)(B) might apply due to the financial institution aspect, so that would be a +4, except if I read the awkward combination of (C) and (D) correctly, this automatically pushes him to a level 24.

So then you need to look at the sentencing table: http://www.ussc.gov/Guidelines/2010_guidelines/Manual_HTML/5...

The table takes his criminal history into account, which was likely none. Then we need to look at his level, which we still don't know.

If he caused under $120,000 in damages, his level should be a base of 6 plus 8 for the dollar amount. He could reduce this by 1 or 2 levels by accepting responsibility or other things. But if he was at a level 14, his sentence guideline should be 15-21 months. I would think that the damage amount could be even lower than that, especially if it had to be proved in trial. This is why I made my original statement that I thought it sounded quite high.

So they must have applied the (b)(14)(B) part to push him to level 24 for a range of 51-63. In which case his sentence of 41 months is then too low. So if he "accepted responsibility" he could reduce his 24 to a 22, getting him right at the 41-51 month range. Judges would almost always apply the lowest end of the range to a first time offender.

I think his 41 months can be split into two phases so he could spend half of it in an actual prison and then the rest on 'supervised release' - either monitored home detention or in a halfway house. He might even be able to spend the entire time on 'supervised release'. I couldn't find it but section 1030 offenses used to have a clause about mandatory 6 months 'imprisonment'.

Due to his offense level, he could have gotten 5 years probation, but 3 is typical. He will be required to make restitution to the victim for the damage amount. There's also a fine table that shows him with a $7,500 to $75,000 fine range. He'll have to make his best effort to pay those.

So that's the mechanics of federal sentencing.

This is something I wish they covered in every school program. It's amazing to realize that one angry act by a programmer or IT person could result in very severe consequences. So few people in our field realize how stiff the penalties can be, so this law isn't much of a deterrent.

Edit: also in reference to this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2054679

Every once in awhile, I'll look through them and try to emulate something that is within my reach.

Here's a few recent ones:

http://dustincurtis.com/press_on.html

http://nerdcommunications.com/

http://www.thecleanestline.com/

http://letteringjs.com/

I started learning Photoshop & Illustrator about a week ago. Youtube is great for tutorials on specific things such as tool usage, colors.

Just found this one for Illustrator: http://www.ndesign-studio.com/tutorials

Fonts are also quite important to catch people's eye. I'm dabbling in the free stuff now, but I think TypeKit is also quite nice.

http://code.google.com/webfonts

If you have nothing to show for it, you haven't actually started a startup. You may not get a 7 figure bank balance to show for it, but you'll get something out it. Be it a website you can show off, better anecdotes for job interviews & parties or a network of new friends.

That's kinda how I feel about corporate gigs. You have stuff to show for it, but there comes a time when you realize most stuff doesn't really have lasting value.

And to those who suffer a bad gig to have money to do the things they really love: well, it's funny how little money most of those things really require.

I'm surprised we don't hear more about them though. I was surprised they'd been around for so long (03/2008 [1]) before I first heard of them a month or so ago.

1. http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/startuply