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ScottBev

45 karma · joined June 12, 2009

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ScottBev··on How Hertz’s bet on Teslas went sideways
My second hand experience is not from Hertz, but another rental company.

The company bought a mixture of Teslas and misc. other EVs. In addition, they ignored installing any charging infrastructure at their smaller locations. The EV can't be rented below 80%, and the operator does not have the ability to charge the EV onsite. This takes the EV out of the fleet until either the company sends a driver to pick up the EV or the local operator takes the car somewhere to charge it. The location that I am very familiar with just let most returned EVs just sat unused.

At one point this local operator had 10 EVs waiting to be charged. Eventually the company sent a driver to pick most of them up.

This isn't the only problem with rental EVs, but the lack of forethought in deployment cost this rental company a fortune.

ScottBev··on U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
Heavy push to go from WFH to in office in the last six months.

Decrease in productivity in the last six months.

It must be all the remote workers!

Ignore the return to office push, inflation, burnout, and every other possible factor.

ScottBev··on Texas Roofer Arrested in Florida for Helping Hurricane Victims
Unfortunately, it is a matter of deterrence.

A C&D will not get anyone's attention, outside of the recipient.

Someone being charged with a felony carrying up to 5 years in jail, will hopefully deter some of the con artists from coming in after a storm. The hordes of "helpers" that come into the state after a storm is ridiculously large. Any deterrence is a good thing.

ScottBev··on Cannabis poisoning in young children increased nine times after legalization
So the ED visits increased by nine times, but what about usage and availability? Did they scale at the same rate?

There still needs to be a look at the packaging, safety systems, etc., but ignoring the scaling of usage and availability skews the number.

ScottBev··on iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means for Mobile Forensics
A determined individual can remove epoxy without damaging the electronics.
ScottBev··on Equifax C.E.O. Richard Smith Retires After Huge Data Breach
Depends on what they accomplish during their tenure.

I've seen non-founder CEOs take a $100M business to $4B, and others take a $4B to $500M. $100M to $4B deserves the reward.

ScottBev··on Oracle’s Cloud Licensing Change
I have a MYSQL and MSSQL background. I never understood everyone's fear of using CLOB/BLOB data types. Then I started working Oracle.
ScottBev··on US man pays tax bill using five wheelbarrows of coins
Its required by US law
ScottBev··on Jack Dorsey giving up 30% of his stake in Square to help underserved communities
Part of helping underserved communities would be to move some of the business outside the Valley and major metro areas. Find the mid to small cities and spread the wealth.
ScottBev··on Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight
Turing only acquired the US marketing rights. Someone else is making the drug. So that doesn't change the FDA licensing, but they get to increase the price in the US.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/turing-pharmaceutica...

ScottBev··on Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight
The cost to setup a process and maintain it according to FDA requirements.

The market size is likely just under the cost to establish the manufacturing capacity for the US market.

ScottBev··on 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School
So true. We allocate lots of money to education. Just it goes to administrative, consulting and testing expenses, rather than to improving the education provided.
ScottBev··on Somebody please, for the love of god, fix shipping/couriers
I like the idea behind the Swedish system, but then I think about what would happen in the US. Wal-Mart would get the exclusive contract for services. After that you would be happy to actually receive a package, most likely not your package.

I hate Wal-Mart a lot more then the delivery services.

ScottBev··on University of Florida shutting down research in Computer Science department
Also, the $6-8 million given to the University is after the UAA pays for all of the expenses of the non revenue producing sports teams.
ScottBev··on University of Florida shutting down research in Computer Science department
Affiliated? Yes. Two separate entities though. They do not receive any funding from the University. In fact the UAA has made a profit consistently for quite a while and has returned $6-8 million/year to the University.

So, yes the UAA gives ridiculous amounts of money to coaches, but they are making a decent ROI.

ScottBev··on What Would The End Of Football Look Like?
Parents have been signing indemnify clauses for years. I know my parents did when I played in high school in the early 90's.
ScottBev··on What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation
How will this change OSS development? Do we need additional patent lawyers filing patents for every open source idea? What happens when someone makes a commit today and then mega-patent troll notices this tomorrow? They certainly will beat me to filing the patent.
ScottBev··on My life in Accenture before startups
If you are employee, work with Accenture consultants, and want to see them pull their hair out then work long hours. They'll try to maintain the work longer deal until they give up.

Other than that, they team that I worked with was great. It helped by having a great Associate Partner managing the project, but most of the team was very knowledgeable. I was able to watch several projects from a distance, and I know this wasn't the norm.

ScottBev··on Ask HN: ______ is to Python as K&R is to C?
I end up going back to "Dive Into Python" for reference. http://diveintopython.org/

My other two references are the Python Standard Library Docs (http://docs.python.org/library/index.html) and StackOverflow.

ScottBev··on I wanna work at Instagram
I just finished interviewing 12 grad students from the same school. I wish someone would have come in and given me such a clear reason to place them above the rest.

Very nice idea with great execution surely that is worth something.

ScottBev··on New Facebook Feature Empowers the Dangerous "Comment Nazis"
I have more of an issue with the lack of control that I have between my friends, family, coworkers and their social networks.

I had a coworker arrested on some very serious and character destroying charges. It was hard enough to having to relay that privately to our executives. I couldn't imagine that spiraling out on my network and remaining there forever.

A former coworker now has a very interesting business, that isn't very PC. Should I screen her because of what that will look like to business and/or community contacts?

No, in both contexts I wish to shape how others reflect on my identity. I shouldn't be constrained to one very public identity.

And concerning Zuckerberg, how does a billionaire, twenty something have a clue about a normal user of his system? And besides does he really sounds like a press release to his friends in real life?

ScottBev··on Deploying FogBugz 8 and Kiln 2
My team has been using FogBugz for over a year now. Huge improvement over the various systems I've used in the past. I never tried Redmine, but you couldn't get me to switch away from it now. FB8+Kiln is an amazing combo. Plus the upgrade from FB7 to 8 was painless.
ScottBev··on Xobni (YC S06) launches 2nd business model in 3 months - Xobni Enterprise
Interesting to see their growth. I absolutely love the xobni free client. I'd have Plus if Corporate would pay for it. Enterprise could probably be sold to them easily.
ScottBev··on The Kindle problem
This hits home right now. I'm traveling more and reading less, because I hate carrying books in my bags. I love the idea, but I can't get over the cost for a limited use device. Especially when you can get a netbook for the same price. Is the netbook as convenient for reading - no, but it can do the job.

At $300, I can't convince myself to take the plunge. $200 I could probably convince myself, and at <$150 I'd have the Kindle already.

ScottBev··on Ask HN: Am I crazy?
You sound like you have nothing holding you down and a great trip ahead of you. Once the job and bills start rolling in it becomes more difficult to break away and do it. Not impossible, just more difficult.

Just do it! I'd recommend doing the west coast bit if you leaning that way.

My way would be Chicago -> Seattle -> San Fran.If time and money and/or your desire permit then swing down the south for Austin -> New Orleans -> NY -> Boston.

ScottBev··on 'Reading Rainbow' Reaches Its Final Chapter
Going through school I attended two high schools growing up: one was the one of the best public high schools in the nation, the other was one of the worst. The biggest differences between the two schools were not the teachers, facilities or funding. It was hands down the parents and students motivation and commitment to learning. Schools and teachers can only motivate their students so much. The parents and the students themselves must be the ones that drive the commitment and motivation to learn, regardless of the age of the child. When attending the "bad" school teachers devoted significant and resources to the minority of students that were motivated to learn because they were allowed to do so.

Now being a parent with Every Child Held Behind (ECHB), teachers can't afford to spend time with the motivated students to push them even higher. They must dedicate all their time to the kids and parents that have no commitment. My daughter has been in two elementary schools and both have treated her similarly; she can pass the test without help so she's a low priority student. I can't imagine where I would be without extra time spent by my teachers to push me further.

Both of my sister-in-laws are elementary teachers and both have considered leaving the field because of the constraints of ECHB. They can't teach the kids that want to learn, because they need to spend any time they have with "Johnny". When his parents actually bother to show up to a teacher conference, they accuse the teacher of not educating their kid. Ignore the fact that Johnny randomly shows up, is disruptive, is high on sugar and god only knows what else, and exhausted -- that’s not their fault. Johnny can't be moved to a special school or class, because that would hold him behind the rest of the class.

Does Johnny deserve to have access to education and assistance to address his issues - definitely. Does the rest of Johnny's class deserve to be held behind because of Johnny's issues, no they don't. Please can eliminate the failed policies of Every Child Held Behind.

PS - Any failings in my English are my own fault, not the teachers that I had as a kid.