Hacker News Reader

ComteDeLaFereon The $50,000 San Francisco Home

I like this, although one thing that I've recently learned is that Silicon Valley has a number of large trailer parks, and you can often purchase a home in one of them for about $70-90K. Many of the trailers are actually quite retro cool. I believe Tony Hsieh still lives in a trailer, in Vegas.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/191-E-El-Camino-Real-SPC-2...

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2150-Almaden-Rd-SPC-125-Sa...

ComteDeLaFereon Fully Autonomous Robots: The Warehouse Workers of the Near Future

Actually, paying robots a salary sounds like an equitable way to fund a basic income.

ComteDeLaFereon Integromat – A tool for automating manual processes

This seems very well executed, at least the interface UX. I'll spend more time playing with it tonight to test the rest.

ComteDeLaFereon WikiLeaks offers $20,000 for information on former DNC staffer's murder

Based on your two points, I'm kind of leaning toward the question having some meaning.

ComteDeLaFereon WikiLeaks offers $20,000 for information on former DNC staffer's murder

I'm not sure this is accurate. In fact, conventional wisdom says that Assange is pursuing this as revenge against HRC, who has historically been a major opponent of his. If he isn't pursuing revenge against her, then why isn't he going after the RNC?

ComteDeLaFereon CuratedAI: A literary magazine written by machines, for people

The code behind this is probably more poetic than the output. Perhaps the union of technology and culture is farther than we think.

Although, this really shines a light on the fact that it probably isn't necessary for technology to attempt to optimize every human experience.

ComteDeLaFereon Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

I've often wondered about this. Each time I've compared Jet against prices from other retailers, the results have been underwhelming. Occasionally someone mentions a slightly better deal on Jet, but nothing that would rationalize the hype around this company. I'm assuming that Jet was just intended to be a short term play, ending with a float to an established retailer.

ComteDeLaFereon Bee Bread

Wait, so upvotes from readers are secondary to mod upvotes in some cases? Not that I immediately disagree, but it's an interesting feature.

ComteDeLaFereon You're Gonna Need a License for That

Since many of us fully expect AI to accomplish all programming in the future, I don't think so. Unless a licensing regime is humankind's last stand against AI.

ComteDeLaFereon Amazon Proves Infertile Soil for Unions, So Far

Or are forced to donate your liver to your boss?

http://time.com/money/4317132/boss-wants-liver-donor-for-bro...

ComteDeLaFereon Bay Area attracts the most startups – but NYC, Boston, and LA are catching up

Not sure the college degree chart is correct. Roughly 1/3 of the 25-34 age group nationwide has a college degree, but according to this, D.C. leads the list with 8.1% of the total city population aged 25-34 with a degree. Am I reading this wrong?

See https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=27

ComteDeLaFereon The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

Yes, it scales like this -> "That's a handicappped-access point, I should park somewhere else." See? Easy.

ComteDeLaFereon The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

Yeah, this. NYC issues ~$500 mil in parking tickets per year. If this were a rational issue, someone would look at that and say "Wow. We must be doing something wrong, this is way too many tickets written. Are the street signs clear enough?"

I'm kind of making fun, but they don't want to fix the problem because those tickets are a genuine revenue stream for the city. When the revenue from parking tickets goes down, everyone panics.

See http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/06/news/economy/nypd-tickets/

ComteDeLaFereon Cinema audiences reproducibly vary the chemical composition of air during films

I know, it's a play on words on my part. But it is, let's say, "culturally" invasive.

ComteDeLaFereon Cinema audiences reproducibly vary the chemical composition of air during films

These event-type synchronous, broadcasted human chemosignals open the possibility for objective and non-invasive assessment of a human group response to stimuli by continuous measurement of chemicals in air.

I don't agree that this isn't invasive. In fact, based on the current heated discussions going on regarding societal and corporate responsibilities around privacy, I don't believe I'm in the minority on this one.

ComteDeLaFereon Medical error is third biggest cause of death in the US, experts say

True, Hackensack Medical Center is actually one of the best hospitals in NJ, so I wouldn't be surprised that people who might experience complications would go there.

See http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/nj

ComteDeLaFereon A Basic Income Should Be the Next Big Thing

A basic income fails on the same point as increasing the minimum wage - neither provides much additional opportunity in life, both simply make being poor and disenfranchised more palatable.

ComteDeLaFereon Microsoft stops Google being used for Cortana searches

"Many Cortana users have previously preferred to carry out searches with Google rather than Bing."

Citation? The author of the article writes this directly after referencing a Microsoft blog post that doesn't contain that statement.

ComteDeLaFereon Sites that block adblockers seem to be suffering

I don't see how it had an impact on revenue if ads weren't displaying, which would mean that this article is missing a key point. Not sure that each of these down-slope ranking charts are associated with an equivalent down-slope revenue chart.

ComteDeLaFereon How we built Facebook Lite for every Android phone and network

Actually, Android users surpassed iPhone users on Facebook back at the end of 2012. I haven't heard that they're not displaying ads on the Lite version, so that shouldn't have an impact. That said, I've noticed that the battery drain doesn't seem to be as bad on an iPhone when compared to the drain in Android (which is why I uninstalled that app a while ago).

ComteDeLaFereon If you're alive in 30 years you might be in 1000 years too

I feel like these types of articles always miss a key point, which can easily be corrected by adding the phrase "If You're Filthy Rich" to the end of any headline.

"Cure for Cancer Around the Corner, If You're Filthy Rich"

And...

If You're Alive in 30 Years You Might be in 1000 Years Too, If You're Filthy Rich"

See? Clarity is king.

ComteDeLaFereon Verizon fined $1.3M for supercookie header injection [pdf]

Agreed on all points, however -

the guy who was forced to write the code didn't speak to their managers about potential implications

That isn't really the way things work in an agency/Fortune 500 relationship. What really happens is something like:

-> the development manager attempts to translate the implications of said software to an account manager who is directly responsible for client communication -> the account manager has little idea of what the development manager is talking about, which does not stop them from attempting to translate in turn to the client's marketing team -> the one tech representative from the client company listens to the translation in abject horror, knowing that any questions they ask will never be adequately answered -> everyone goes out for drinks on the agency's tab

This isn't a raging critique of the process, it's just what normally happens.

That said, Verizon got fined for a good reason.

ComteDeLaFereon Verizon fined $1.3M for supercookie header injection [pdf]

Despite all the outrage against Verizon, a small part of me feels sorry for them. Having consulted with large corporations in the past, I know that most (all) of them don't generally have expertise in this kind of thing, and usually outsource it to a variety of digital agencies. My guess is that they will be having a very hard conversation with one or more of their vendors.

ComteDeLaFereon Twitter's missing manual

Me. By the way, it's 2:57 PM 2/26/2016.

ComteDeLaFereon What Does It Take to Be a ‘Best-Selling Author’? $3 and 5 Minutes

I actually agree, and when I'm considering an Amazon purchase I find myself browsing all of the reviews for a particular reviewer, just to see how thoughtful they are.

Even so, Amazon's flavor of content curation has been a major part of their success story, and they mark their top 500 reviewers with a special tag for a reason - customers derive value from it (it's a badge of trust, in a way).

ComteDeLaFereon What Does It Take to Be a ‘Best-Selling Author’? $3 and 5 Minutes

Amazon has this problem with their "Top 500 Reviewer" category as well. I recently stumbled upon one of these whose reviews were all 5 stars, and all began with the same sentence. A quick look through that list also shows a few Top 500 Reviewers with zero reviews.

"Amazon Bestseller" and "Top 500 Reviewer" are concepts that form a large part of Amazon's brand and value proposition. Regardless of whether this is a bug that can be quickly patched, they should pay more attention to things like this IMHO.

ComteDeLaFereon Scientists track down the source of mysterious radio bursts

The article is good, but am I the only person who noticed the bizarre poll that's slapped into the middle of it?

ComteDeLaFereon 'Flash Boys' Exchange Isn't About the Little Guy

I've started reading through the 388 comment letters to IEX's application, and this one in particular is basically a free lecture on the relevant issues by a professor at the University of Chicago -

https://www.sec.gov/comments/10-222/10222-371.pdf

ComteDeLaFereon Facebook Reactions, the Redesigned Like Button, Is Here

There's a back story somewhere in here, in that they tested two Happy faces early on, and eventually opted to replace one of them with Anger.

ComteDeLaFereon Airbnb purged 1,000 "entire home" listings days before preparing data snapshot

My building in a popular area of NYC does not allow sublet, and specifically calls out AirBnB as well. Given that, I would estimate 15-20% of the units in the building are now full-time AirBnB rentals. The suspicion I've had in the back of my head, that AirBnB "businesses" are driving up rents, is gaining momentum.