UVB-76

The situation in London is complicated by a large influx of workers from elsewhere in the EU, who are willing to live in sub-standard conditions (many to a room, sharing beds, sheds in back gardens, etc.) and work for minimum wage, or even less.

Some larger employers pay a "living wage" on principle, but nobody feels the need to raise wages for unskilled workers for lack of supply.

Uber worked because it disrupted and undercut taxi monopolies, and a minicab industry with various usability/availability/safety issues.

Uber is not only more convenient, but cheaper than the established players.

Few other industries are ripe for such disruption.

Shoreditch and Hoxton lost the battle to gentrification a long time ago.

None of the creatives who reinvigorated the area can afford to live there anymore.

Also, London does not have uncontrolled urban sprawl. It is constrained by the Green Belt, which was designed precisely to prevent sprawl. This is one of many reasons property prices are naturally high.

Everything and everyone has a price.

It's only if we don't record the data in the first place, it can't have a price applied to it.

Council tax in the UK is not really comparable to property taxes in other countries like the US.

It's a highly regressive tax, and utterly negligible when considering prime real estate in areas like London.

In the comments the author acknowledges the term is not gender-specific, but claims the term is "generally exclusionary"

A "microaggression" not aimed at excluding anyone in particular. Not even an aggression of any kind.

The mind boggles.

I think your view of car ownership and the suburbs is the wrong way round.

In my experience, people in the suburbs own cars because they have to in order to live in the suburbs. They don't move to the suburbs because they own cars, and want somewhere to store them.

The traditional appeal of the suburb (or the 'countryside') will endure. More space, lower crime rates, fewer neighbors, more privacy, better schools, a stronger sense of community, etc.

If anything, the self-driving car will make the suburbs more attractive, as fewer cars will litter the place, paved-over front gardens can be returned to nature, etc.

I think self-driving cars could more than double road capacity, and almost eliminate congestion. There are so many exciting permutations.

Major causes of congestion could be almost entirely eliminated (breakdowns and accidents)

Vehicles could be routed more efficiently, and dynamic road tolls used to keep traffic flowing on popular routes.

On-street parking could be eliminated, as fewer people will own their own cars, or their cars will be able to park themselves elsewhere.

Meanwhile the absence of human drivers (and exhaust emissions, once we move to all-electric vehicles) will see a step-change in the take-up of cycling and walking in urban centres.

This is just scraping the surface. Self-driving cars are going to change everything.

Exactly. Self-driving cars will be the suburbs' renaissance.

It's down to the retailer if they want you on their property, and that's how it should be.

If they opt for a stricter system (which would cover the edge cases you describe) that loses them some genuine custom, that's their loss.

The target is of course persistent offenders, not the kind you mention.

As long as there are adequate safeguards for incorrect data (as should be provided by the DPA in the UK), I don't see any problem with this.

It's no different to companies choosing not to do business with people based on credit history, financial standing, etc.

I was under the impression we don't have international blacklisting, so there's still money to be made shipping handsets abroad?

Most of what you describe can be subcontracted to a property management company, and you can still make a healthy return.

One of the problems with the rental market in urban centres like London at the moment is that even totally inept landlords can stay in business and make a profit through capital gains alone.

Many of those costs are internalised by vehicle taxes, which were likely taken into account.

It's worth mentioning the source data for this is not a complete record of property transactions [1]

All commercial transactions are excluded, for example, so the massive distortionary effect of speculative overseas investment in London property (properties typically sold to foreign shell companies) is largely unreported.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/about-the-price-paid-data#data-e...

The dynamism of cities is one of their primary draws.

Most people don't want to live in an environment they fully understand. They want to live in one that is constantly developing, progressing, and providing fresh stimuli.

This was the only thing stopping me moving over to FastMail, so delighted to hear this!

More likely is that the Snowden documents have been widely distributed in encrypted form (as one of the Wikileaks insurance releases) and Russia/China have managed to brute force the key.

Indeed; also note that traits like intelligence and motivation are highly heritable, so the lottery metaphor is not as outlandish as it might seem.

More to the point, though, when did we all agree on a single definition of "productivity", and when did we decide to hold it up as the purpose of life? I must have missed that AGM.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner#Incident...

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

A cautionary tale for those espousing the 'If you have nothing to hide...' line on privacy issues.

Mere suspicion of having something to hide is all it takes for prosecutors to file charges, and ruin your life.

Neither of these are true alternatives until they have a critical mass of users.

Unfortunately Twitter has a near complete monopoly in the microblogging market.

Tighter control over the user experience doesn't necessarily benefit the end user, but Twitter don't care about your interests that much.

I disagree. The third party eco-system diluted the brand, restricted monetization potential, and left Twitter with little control over their user experience.

Letting third parties do the hard work of experimenting with user acquisition and engagement, then buying up the best and turning their backs on the rest was a masterful move.

We need an open alternative to Twitter, but as a publicly-traded for-profit organization, Twitter, Inc. will never deliver that.

Certainly not the majority. Scene releases still feature, but they are no longer consistently the first to market, and they are almost universally derided for prioritising speed over quality.

Scene rules are anachronistic and slow to change. The MP3 scene stuck to -V2 VBR for far too long, for example; the change to -V0 VBR in 2011 came as the sharing of FLACs was already ubiquitous outside the scene, and it wasn't until 2012 that the FLAC scene was established. Even now CUE and LOG files are not required from a CD source, which is insane.

I've never understood the cult of Gandi on HN.

They're overpriced, and in my experience, their customer service is disgusting. I would never recommend them.

Namecheap are cheaper, better, and have done more for HN-related causes than Gandi ever will.

Your argument conveniently overlooks the role of force in the establishment and maintenance of property rights.

Without the state (or society, if you prefer) exercising, or threatening, the use of force against people who would otherwise infringe on your property rights, your 'ownership' of your land is worthless.

So it follows the state (or society) expects something in return, as your exclusive use of your land is necessarily a cost to the rest of society.

Hold Cmd when dragging and dropping to move files (i.e. 'Cut and paste', which is a daft name for it)

If the folder you're moving to isn't readily available just Cmd+N to open a new window, etc.

The middle class are damned if they do, damned if they don't by the author's argument.

They are at once chastised for "inoculating" themselves from working class culture, and for embracing it.