
Show HN: Never wait for Paypal again - abuella
http://slowpal.com
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anu_gupta
The problem I have with this (and I don't know whether it's just me, or if
it's more common) is that I'm now innately distrustful of any third party
service that wants to connect to of my banking or bank-like accounts and
services.

I don't know these guys, I don't know how secure they are, and more
importantly, I'm fairly sure PayPal would disown any responsibility if the
data they would be able to access was used for nefarious purposes.

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abuella
its using official paypal apis. read only access. no funny business. no
nefarious purposes. just trying to make life a little easier for fellow
developers.

~~~
anu_gupta
Thanks for the reply - this wasn't a knock against you guys per se, just my
sense of distrusting anything that wants to connect to banking details.

For example, transaction knowledge is often used as a verification system by
banks, and in general the more knowledge a phisher/scammer has about you the
more able they are to socially engineer their way into your life.

I'm perfectly prepared to believe that I'm being far too paranoid about this
kind of thing, and that many (or even most) other people wouldn't be as
concerned as I am

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magoon
My first concern is security. I see that you say you import "via SSL" into a
"secure Slowpal account".

Can you elaborate on what makes the Slowpal account secure?

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rolleiflex
Nice idea. Your logo is a lawsuit waiting to happen, though.

~~~
mblake
Agreed. Change the colors at least. Colors + the fact that he italicized the
logo make it way too similar to PayPal's logo. Really not a good move.

~~~
true_religion
I seriously doubt they will sue on the basis that his name has "Pal", uses
italics, and has blue like the PayPal logo.

They may however, just cut off access through Paypal API.

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Benferhat
He might get a letter like this [0]:

We are intellectual property counsel to PayPal, Inc. of Palo Alto, California.
As you are well aware, PayPal provides financial services under the PAYPAL
name and service mark and owns and operates the website at . Our client's
name, service mark and website are among its most valuable assets.

We have recently been made aware of your operation of two websites, and , that
infringe our client's service mark rights in the PAYPAL mark. Printouts of
your websites are attached to the confirmation copy of this letter. We further
understand that these websites provide a forum to criticize PayPal, Inc. Our
client respects your right to do so--provided your websites do not contain any
false, disparaging or defamatory statements. We must remind you that any such
statements contained on your websites are actionable and can subject you to
liability.

Regardless of your purported mission, your use of our client's PAYPAL mark in
connection with the operation of websites and in domain names constitutes
trademark infringement. Quite simply, use of the PAYPAL mark in a commercial
manner is not protected free speech. It is quite evident from your websites
that you are profiting off of the PAYPAL mark by selling banner
advertisements, offering competing financial services, and using your site to
attract PayPal's customers for your own commercial gain. For such
infringement, you can be held liable for monetary damages (tripled), an
injunction and our client's attorneys' fees.

On behalf of our client, we must insist that you immediately cease all further
use of the PAYPAL mark and transfer the domain names to our client. We further
demand that you provide an accounting of the profits that you have received in
connection with your operation of these websites.

Your swift and full cooperation would enable us to resolve this matter quickly
and on an amicable basis. Please contact me as soon as possible, and no later
than June 7, 2002, so that we may facilitate a prompt resolution of this
matter.

Very truly yours,

Anthony J. Malutta TOWNSEND and TOWNSEND and CREW LLP Two Embarcadero Center,
8th Floor San Francisco, CA 94111-3834 Tel: 415.576.0200 Fax: 415.576.0300

[0] <http://www.paypalsucks.com/domain-name-disputes.shtml>

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x03
It looks great and all that, but wouldn't 'FastPal' have made for a better
name?

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wodow
fastpal.com isn't available, but fasterpal.com is.

~~~
muratmutlu
nice! I've signed up for slowpal, just in time to do my taxes so needed this

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blantonl
Am I the only one that thinks the name and branding choice is misguided?

How is this any different from providing a valued added service for Paypal and
naming it FuckPaypal.com?

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gabemart
My first thought was to do with the name - is 'SlowPal' at all at risk for
trademark infringement?

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RKearney
So every name that ends with Pal is off limits?

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saurik
... _sigh_. If you want to name a laundromat SuitPal that is a drastically
different situation than building a service designed as a frontend for a
service called PayPal, naming your service with the same naming pattern as the
service you rely on, and then building a logo using the same font, styling,
and color scheme.

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Smrchy
It is just so sad that Paypal themselves don't feel the need to update their
10 year old interface and make it fresh and snappy to use.

Oh well, all the best to your project. I'm sure i will give it a try the next
time i try to find a 3 month old transaction.

~~~
saurik
Why not just use the TransactionSearch API? I only visit PayPal's website when
I need to change an account setting.

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drinchev
I think it's a very nice idea! I even didn't know that PayPal have 3rd party
authorization.

I'm working in legal and you should change your logo at least!

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citricsquid
This is a great idea (and I know of people that would love this) but I can't
_any_ information on your privacy controls. Doesn't this potentially break
data protection laws if a company imports their users payment data and you're
not protecting it properly?

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yuchi
In the screenshot tagline:

    
    
        "useR one or more..." --> "use one or more..."
    

And they should remove this (it breaks at a lot of mid widths):

    
    
        .navbar-fixed-top .container, .navbar-fixed-bottom .container {
          width: 1170px;
        }

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demosquared
Great Idea. However, I would have preferred the name "FastPal",
"HassleFreePal", or something to that tone instead of a slower Pal.

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happywolf
Appreciate the kind gesture, but I still don't feel comfortable to let third
party to handle my purchasing records.

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tobydeh
I've been using this for a while, the graphing is a bit limited but has loads
of potential!

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dexterbt1
This has potential. Shouldn't currency decimals be displayed right-aligned?

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jumpbug
it would be awesome if the code behind this was open-sourced. I like most
people have a hard time letting a third party handle sensitive information
like this.

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program
As a side note: who is sick of the Bootstrap #0088CC color?

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drinchev
I'm also sick of Bootstrap startups with the same colored-buttons ...

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3825
I, for once, welcome the consistency across the web

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gotrythis
This is hilarious.

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rodrigoavie
awesome. please tell us what you're doing to ensure the data is safe?

