HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

__derek__

1,898 karma · joined April 7, 2013

A person in Seattle.
submissionscomments
__derek__··on Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
Airbnb sellers can charge a fixed fee directly by setting minimum stay lengths or by charging different nightly rates based on the length of stay (e.g., weekly and monthly stay discounts).
__derek__··on U.S. is said to open criminal inquiry into Boeing
As Matt Levine says, everything is securities fraud. Boeing defrauded its shareholders (and its public company customers) by saying that it was building safe planes. Even beyond that, the law guarantees protection for whistleblowers within these companies.* These hypothetical engineers would have absolutely been protected.

* If you work for a public company, you've almost certainly had a training about its ethics hotline with information about your protection from retaliation.

__derek__··on My Clients, the Liars
That's not perjury. Trial attorneys are not under oath because that would conflict with their duty to advocate for their clients. Their duty not to lie to the court is a matter of professional ethics.
__derek__··on U.S. is said to open criminal inquiry into Boeing
The US Congress empowered the SEC with strong whistleblower protections to avoid dilemmas like that.[1]

[1]: https://www.sec.gov/whistleblower/retaliation

__derek__··on Icelandic Approved Names – Nordic Names
It looks like there are only 35 in Iceland.[1] It's more popular in the continental Nordic countries, though.

[1]: https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Mohammed

__derek__··on Furious Congress plows forward with TikTok bill after user revolt
That seems to be the committee's takeaway, too:

> “The fact that they used geo-location targeting to go after minor children to call congressional offices with misinformation about the bill caused so many members on the E&C Committee to vote in favor," [Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi] said.

[1]: https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-bytedance-bill-divest-...

__derek__··on Furious Congress plows forward with TikTok bill after user revolt
The protests against SOPA and PIPA.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA

__derek__··on What It's Like to Be a Sociopath
> antisocial = commits crimes and harms society

The GP conflates "tech workers" and "CS" but it's pretty clear that this is the target of the second paragraph: folks who are happy to do work that harms society without doing anything that rises to the level of mandatory treatment. That tendency has been a big part of the so-called "techlash" the last several years.

That said, I don't think this is unique to tech (cf. finance or politics).

__derek__··on High Interest Savings Leaderboard
Post-GFC, that's not a real risk for retail MMFs. They're de facto narrow banks now.
__derek__··on Capital One to buy Discover Financial in $35B stock deal
Lots of ex-Amazon directors and VPs, FWIW.
__derek__··on Seattle ordinance intended to help app delivery workers is 'hurting' them
Anecdotally, some factors I've heard that make YoY comparisons questionable:

1. With RTO, folks are more likely to eat out during the week (especially for places in SLU), so weekend demand is probably lower

2. With commutes, folks are more likely to pick up on their way home, so demand for delivery is probably lower

3. With the poor level of service, folks are more likely to pick up in order to ensure that their food is actually edible

King5's post itself notes another potential confounding variable: more drivers.

__derek__··on A Record $6T in Cash on the Sidelines
The post is an advertisement:

> The following content is sponsored by New York Life Investments

The "content" is just an image with an affiliate link.

__derek__··on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's online rant spurs threats to supes, police reports
There's a Key and Peele sketch in this vein: Rap Album Confessions.[1]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14WE3A0PwVs

__derek__··on Delta Dental says data breach exposed info of 7M people
My info was not leaked because I've never done business with Delta Dental of California. The title omits the essential "of California" context.
__derek__··on Delta Dental says data breach exposed info of 7M people
The title is borderline click-bait: I have had Delta Dental insurance at every employer, so I clicked through to read more, but I've never lived in California or been employed by a California company.
__derek__··on Appeals court denies judicial immunity to judge who personally searched home
Yes, that's a naive view of American law enforcement.
__derek__··on Appeals court denies judicial immunity to judge who personally searched home
FYI: that bill is from the previous Congress, but it's been reintroduced in the current one[1] and in the Senate.[2] But Republicans control the House, so it's not going anywhere. Meanwhile, it looks like a Republican introduced an opposing bill to codify qualified immunity for police.[3]

[1]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2847

[2]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/119...

[3]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/233

__derek__··on Appeals court denies judicial immunity to judge who personally searched home
Appointed judges are just another form of patronage. The process is no less partisan than an election, and arguably more so because of the small coalition that actually needs to be onboard.
__derek__··on Google lays off employees working on its voice assistant
Alexa Let's Chat was announced last month, but not yet launched.[1]

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=118801773011

__derek__··on FTX thief cashes out millions during Bankman-Fried trial
From TFA:

> Some of the stolen Bitcoin successfully laundered last year has been traced to a wallet known to be used by Russian-linked criminal groups. Elliptic says this could point to the involvement of a broker or other intermediary with a link to Russia.

IMO, the most compelling story is that the thief is an attacker who had previously gained access, saw the news, and acted quickly to grab what they could. Security was not exactly a priority for these people.

__derek__··on US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime pass to National Parks
The inter-agency America the Beautiful annual passes cost $80.[1]

[1]: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm

__derek__··on Credit card debt collection
> To change this, we should require some kind of supermajority to confirm judicial appointments at all levels.

That was the de facto situation until 2013 (until 2017 for the Supreme Court).[1] The Republican SCOTUS majority became entrenched when Mitch McConnell refused to allow the Senate to consider Merrick Garland in early 2016, though. That wasn't luck.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option#2013:_Cloture_o...

__derek__··on Ask HN: Why does Google rank the real Python documentation below content farms?
FWIW, DuckDuckGo gives me the same crap results[1], but at least the !bang syntax works.[2]

[1]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=python+endswith

[2]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=!python+endswith

__derek__··on Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show
I don't know. There's no link to the Transunion data set, so it's not possible to dig in. Even the sentence you quote is ambiguous because "maintaining" indicates an ongoing active state. Assuming that the dataset is a point-in-time snapshot, there are probably some repeat buyers classified as investors because of timing.
__derek__··on Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show
I wrote "AFAICT" because that's my inference of a counterintuitive result of this methodology.
__derek__··on Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show
I believe those would be called repeat buyers under the Bank of Canada methodology because the Transunion data should connect their new mortgage with the discharge of their previous mortgage.
__derek__··on Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show
> The central bank defines an investor as a buyer who took out a mortgage to buy the property while maintaining a mortgage on another home.

In the US, a lot has been made about large investment companies buying up houses, but this is something different entirely:

> This category represents homebuyers with multiple mortgaged properties. This means investors are homebuyers who either:

> * purchase an investment property while maintaining their primary residence, or

> * purchase a new residence to live in while converting their existing residence into an investment property

Specifically, "investors" excludes anyone who didn't use a mortgage to purchase (e.g., all-cash buyers, any buyer with alternative financing). AFAICT, it would even exclude someone with a paid-off house who bought a new investment property with a mortgage.

[1]: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2022/01/staff-analytical-note-20...

__derek__··on Flexport is rescinding a bunch of signed offer letters
Hanlon's Razor seems appropriate here.
__derek__··on Amazon Andy Jassy shouldn’t make RTO decisions in echo chamber of CEOs feelings
For anyone familiar with Seattle politics, this is absurd. The city council has been openly antagonistic to Amazon for the better part of a decade.
__derek__··on X plans to collect biometric data, job and school history
> X Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino has said X will include features such as payments and banking.

With an ad exec at the helm?

Page 1 of 32Next →