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auctiontheoryon Technichi: Macbook Subscription Service

I'm trying to make a point about technology and the rate at which it improves.

Make whatever point you want, but TFA is about an MBP subscription service. People buy MBPs for usability and reliability, not for hardware specs. Always have.

When you claim that one computer is "leagues better" than some other computer, I say "prove it - according to MY criteria as the purchaser and consumer - not your criteria as a chip overclocker."

auctiontheoryon Technichi: Macbook Subscription Service

Did you read the article? These guys are leasing MBPs, not Dell Inspirons. Your MBP depreciation numbers ($2000->$500 in 5 years) are also wrong.

auctiontheoryon Technichi: Macbook Subscription Service

Regardless of how you slice it, computers depreciate significantly faster than cars.

Actually an MBP [1] holds its value better than many Detroit products[2].

[1] See eBay. [2] http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/27/cars-resale-value-lifestyle...

auctiontheoryon Technichi: Macbook Subscription Service

You were downvoted for saying exactly what I was about to say: for most consumer use, my 2009 MBP does everything I need. It beats me at chess. A/V transcoding could be faster, but that's really an edge use case for me, and probably most people, even on HN.

What I do care about is ergonomics, specifically the keyboard, and I have yet to find a $300 (or $600) Windows or Android machine with a keyboard comparable to a Mac. If it exists, I hope someone will let me know in the comments.

auctiontheoryon Technichi: Macbook Subscription Service

I occasionally wonder whether to replace my 2009 MBP (upgraded to SSD and 8GB, naturally). What software finally vanquished your laptop?

auctiontheoryon Technichi: Macbook Subscription Service

You need capital to buy the machines to give out and slowly collect $60 on

That is a very generic argument that applies to (against) any leasing business - but clearly many such businesses exist, across many industries.

auctiontheoryon The value of an engineering degree

Even in Silicon Valley, Caltech is often confused with Cal Poly. I agree that you can't assume your interviewer has a clue.

auctiontheoryon Toward a Pill That Helps Us Learn as Fast as Kids

I don't have one. In fact, I appreciate the precise technical explanation. I guess I just needed to be reminded that humor is wasted on HN.

auctiontheoryon Toward a Pill That Helps Us Learn as Fast as Kids

Don't give up - there is help. Reach out to your local chapter of Sesquipedalians Anonymous.

auctiontheoryon Tamil Nadu state departments asked to switch over to open source software

It's about time. In fact, it's way past time. But don't expect Microsoft to give up without a great deal more fight, a legal challenge or two, and other tactics from their vast playbook.

auctiontheoryon Satellite photos of possible crash site of MH370

Even if you're not interested in planes or the souls on them, the technology deployed to find this needle in a large haystack is quite Hacker News-worthy.

auctiontheoryon Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

> It's pretty well accepted that the first person to give a number loses

Accepted but not necessarily true. In this market where the candidate often has very good salary data, s/he can also win by anchoring very high.

auctiontheoryon When Carl Icahn Ran a Company: The Story of TWA

I was just about to post exactly this. Anyone interested in what Wall Street actually does needs to watch this movie.

I have an MBA. I have nothing against making money. But while it's possible to make money by creating something of value, it's unfortunately possible to make even more money while doing the opposite.

auctiontheoryon Nick Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto, the Inventor of Bitcoin

"Those who know don't tell. Those who tell don't know." -Onngh Yanngh

auctiontheoryon 2003 Boeing 727-223 disappearance

What a fascinating story. It's like the difference between startup life and working for IBM or someplace.

auctiontheoryon How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

I so 100% relate to your post that it makes me feel very old. "The kids these days" don't know about metal in microwaves?!

auctiontheoryon How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

This gives "cooking the books" a whole new meaning.

auctiontheoryon Why I use non-American English voices in my text to speech

I use South African "Tessa" on my Mac. Until now, I'd never understood why I preferred her - this explanation makes so much sense!

auctiontheoryon Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s

Upvoted for the elegant use of "BFG."

auctiontheoryon Engineers Allege Hiring Collusion in Silicon Valley

"Santa Clara County, in the heart of Silicon Valley, has the highest average wage in the country, ... It would be a mistake to think of these plaintiffs as an oppressed set of victims."

In addition, I very much doubt Silicon Valley has the cost-of-living-adjusted highest average wage.

auctiontheoryon Silicon Valley Loves Alex Karp and Elon Musk - Piazza Recruiting Data

Would be interesting to see more analysis of what these numbers mean. Is it salary? Benefits? Work environment? Interesting work? (Big companies do not offer the most interesting work, in my experience.) Long-term stock upside? Or just ... brand?

[Edit: I mean why do students choose the way they do?]

auctiontheoryon The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable.

Every religion has elaborate rules to oppress woman. FYI, the Hebrew Bible has all the same stuff. (So I read in The Year of Living Biblically.)

It's a question of "how literally does society obey those rules?" Will Americans who use the Bible to justify their bigotry against gay people ... also agree to lock up Sarah Palin for five days/month? Not so far.

auctiontheoryon Engineer's Guide to US Visas

> My girlfriend uses Obama Care and pays $21 for basic insurance.

I used Obamacare for the month of January. My plan cost $507, I received the card on the 30th of the month (so the plan was unusable before then), and they (Blue Shield) were impossible to reach. They have a very understaffed phone line for Obamacare users, separate from their "regular" service for group plans.

auctiontheoryon Goodbye Academia

The financial situation in CS is not at all typical of academia. I'm not sure what your point is. Surely you're not suggesting that all academics should become CS academics?

auctiontheoryon What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD

This Menlo Park police officer makes $133K in base salary, i.e. before overtime: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_22382095/menlo-park-police-off...

That is significantly higher than the per-capita income in Menlo Park: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0646870.html

auctiontheoryon What Are the Dangers of Using an Untrusted USB Drive?

I once gave a presentation at a USAF base overseas.

IIRC almost anything I wanted to bring for the presentation was allowed (I wasn't searched - no TSA), but USB drives were forbidden.

The disk burner on my MBP failed (weird foreign current issues), so I ended up using Dropbox and my iPhone.

auctiontheoryon We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It

> we should consider modestly affluent lifestyles to be the norm

That is a very interesting statement. I wish I could agree with you, but neither history nor the current state of the world support the idea that affluence is "normal."

auctiontheoryon We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It

Despite the name, "middle class" does not mean "around median income." This is more apparent in countries like India and Brazil, but it's increasingly true in the US. "Upper class" definitely does not mean "top third by income."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class

auctiontheoryon Why I stopped being a voluntourist

I used to donate through Kiva until I discovered that the whole "directing" story was just marketing. That doesn't make Kiva evil, but it does remove much of the feel-good motivation of supporting a named project.

auctiontheoryon Why I stopped being a voluntourist

I am certainly less snarky about kids going to do unskilled construction labor.

Most middle-class Americans could find a neighborhood within 15-minutes drive that could really use their help. But "my adventures in East Palo Alto" just isn't as exciting on a law school application, or a date, as "tales of Eritrea."