Hacker News Reader

galieos_ghoston Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project

Do you consider all the great scientists who helped the US military during WWII evil? Would you have preferred they sat on the sideline for moral reasons and allowed Germany to win?

galieos_ghoston Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project

Idealists on the left would apparently prefer China getting a complete monopoly on military AI and expanding their dictatorship globally instead of being pragmatic.

Reminder, if you work in tech you are collecting blood money because everything we use was initially funded by the military for military application. If you are going to attack Google for this and don't leave the industry you are a hypocrite

galieos_ghoston Report of Active Shooter at YouTube HQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_death_rates_in_the_Uni...

Midwest states have lower gun homicide rates than the many European countries despite having the highest gun ownership rates in the US.

The mass shootings that get media attention are a drop in the bucket compared to daily inner city gang violence that jacks up US gun stats. And taking guns from law abiding citizens isn't going to stop gangs from shooting each other.

galieos_ghoston Report of Active Shooter at YouTube HQ

You apparently ignored when I said control for demographics. Compare midwest gun stats to Europe

galieos_ghoston Report of Active Shooter at YouTube HQ

That includes suicides, so take off around 70% of the US gun deaths.

galieos_ghoston Report of Active Shooter at YouTube HQ

London just passed New York in Homicide rate for the first time ever, doesn't seem to have worked too well.

galieos_ghoston Report of Active Shooter at YouTube HQ

You're falling for the media hysteria. Control for population and demographics and the US has lower gun homicide rates than many European countries. In fact the lowest gun homicide rates are in the midwest where gun ownership is highest.

galieos_ghoston Jeff Dean takes over as Google’s AI chief

Jeff Dean memes

galieos_ghoston Facebook Reveals New Security Settings Amid Privacy Concerns

What's amazing to me is how the media can stir the public into a fever pitch with such ease. I've told people about FB and Google data collection for years and nobody cared, at least not until the talking heads told them to care.

What FB does is innocuous compared to the CIA vault7 leaks, and yet the media shoved that down the memory hole. The real question is why is this being pushed now when literally of this has been public info for years?

galieos_ghoston Uber will not re-apply for self-driving car permit in California

Pretty much, they lose money on every ride. They raised money on the vision that they would be able to cut out the labor cost with self-driving.

galieos_ghoston What if China corners the cobalt market?

Trump tariffed the EU and Canada because they allow China to buy companies in their countries to avoid direct tariffs from the US. It wouldn't have been necessary if our 'allies' valued our relationship more than making billions from the Chinese in exchange for stabbing us in the back.

galieos_ghoston Palantir worked with Cambridge Analytica on the Facebook data it acquired

He literally made a company for the sole purpose of getting her elected.

https://qz.com/520652/groundwork-eric-schmidt-startup-workin...

galieos_ghoston Uber’s Self-Driving Cars Were Struggling Before Arizona Crash

They weren't forced out, they just didn't want to comply because they would have to report incidents which would show how far behind competitors they are, which would kill their valuation

galieos_ghoston Trump Hits China With Stiff Trade Measures

The promise of cheaper goods is a lie. Corporations outsourced labor and then kept the difference as profit instead of passing the savings onto consumers. Hence why corporate profits are at record highs while the average American's buying power continues to drop.

galieos_ghoston YouTube and Reddit roll out new restrictions including channel and sub bans

Mass shootings are a drop in the bucket in terms of gun deaths, vast majority are either suicides or inner city gang violence. Majority of homicides are committed with handguns rather than assault rifles. If you account for demographics the US has lower gun violence than many European countries.

Personally I think it's funny how the left and right are so illogical on their chosen issues. When the right doesn't want to take refugees they stoke fears about Islamic terrorism. When the left wants gun control they stoke fear about mass shootings, despite the relative rarity of both.

Both sides of the aisle prefer emotional manipulation to actual facts when it suites them.

galieos_ghoston Wyoming Passes Forward-Thinking Computer Science Education Bill

All it really takes is awareness. There's a lot of untapped talent in these states where for most most kids CS isn't even on the map as a career path, where I'm from smart kids get told to be doctors or lawyers. I didn't start coding until I was in college and went from nothing to full stack development with some machine learning skills in 12 months through self-teaching. I wish I'd had something like this when I was younger. Even if the implementation is awful some kids will take to it like a sponge and continue learning on their own.

galieos_ghoston China is now home to some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers

yet when the US practices protectionism it's the end of the world. Reality is that our 'allies' get rich by abusing trade agreements to act as middlemen for China

galieos_ghoston Trump Issues Action Blocking Venezuelan Government Cryptocurrencies

It's probably the least shocking statement ever if you know basic history, socialism/communism always fails.

Putting all power into the hands of the government will always be inefficient and prone to corruption. Coincidentally comrade Chavez's daughter is the richest person in Venezuela.

galieos_ghoston Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

Yes? Why does the US have to fight in the global economy with one armed tied behind our back? And how are trade policy and China's human rights abuses in any way related?

galieos_ghoston Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

Workforce participation remains low, wages are stagnant, buying power accounting for inflation is much lower than it was in decades past, all while corporate profits are at record highs.

The promise that outsourcing didn't matter because goods would be cheaper was a lie, Corporations are instead enjoying record profits on the difference in labor costs.

You can keep spouting the same talking points that economists and politicians have for years but there's a reason people like Trump and Bernie Sanders were able to have so much success, people are hurting. The phrase "Don't piss on my shoe and tell me it's raining" comes to mind.

The only reason people would vote for anti-establishment politicians is because the current establishment isn't doing it's job. If things were great someone like Trump would have never stood a chance.

galieos_ghoston Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

Good for apple, good for the Chinese people working those jobs, bad for American citizens who would have been working those jobs.

What is so wrong about using our leverage as the world's largest economy to protect the interests of our citizen's, just like China does?

galieos_ghoston Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

Germany has been called out many times for boosting trade by manipulating the Euro. They also have stronger unions which plays a roll. They also don't have millions of illegal immigrants with no federal labor protection driving wages down internally.

https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/05/26/trump-right...

galieos_ghoston Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

Not sure why people are shocked by this, it's just the basic principle of diffusion.

As long as america continue to allow free trade our wealth and jobs will flow out of the country as countries seek cheaper labor and sell it right back to America with no restrictions. The standard of living is raising in other countries while lowering in the US. Labor is already getting too expensive in China for cheap goods so companies are beginning to look at other countries for cheap labor, or bring manufacturing back to the US and us automation to make up the difference.

The US really has no incentive to allow this to happen. We have the largest market in the world and could very easily do what China does if other countries want access to it. The US allows anybody into our markets while China bends them over the bargaining table requiring them to give up IP and form joint ventures with Chinese companies. What incentive does the US have to do "fair" trade? We have all the leverage in any negotiation but for years haven't used that leverage. At some point we're going to have to or the citizens are going to either rebel or accept lower standard of living, lower income, and lower life expectancy.

I'm starting to believe that the reason Washington DC does nothing about the opioid crisis is because it benefits them. If thousands of unemployed, heavily armed rust belt men were not strung out and dying from addiction they probably would have organized and marched on DC a long time ago and got payback on the politicians who have sold them out for personal gain.

galieos_ghoston Technology Change Not the Culprit in Wages Falling Behind US Productivity Gains

It's supply and demand 101. We've allowed 15-20 million illegal immigrants into our country who have no labor protection under federal law because they don't exist. End result is depressed wages up the chain.

galieos_ghoston U.S. Charges 13 Russians, 3 Companies for Interfering with Election

Russia is a meme, the only legit threat to the US is China. The fact nobody talks about them shows how deeply they have infiltrated our media and government.

Also interesting that Steele wasn't indicted, the guy is a foreign actor who took money to create a dossier with intent to influence our election. Why not Soros as well? He's a foreigner who donated 10s of millions not only for ads but for astroturfing online communities via Shareblue and Correct the Record and stoking violence and destruction by busing in agitators to protests.

galieos_ghoston Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?

illegal immigrants drive down wages in low skill jobs which depresses wages up the chain because natives have to find more skilled jobs to retain their previous standard of living.

At the same time their children, whether "dreamers" or native born get free education and healthcare the average cost per student in the US is around 15k the highest in the world, which these kids receive for free despite their parents never paying into the system.

The end result is that illegal immigration costs US federal and state governments 85-100 billion a year.

I support highly skilled labor ie top .1% of worldwide talent, not unlimited immigration sponsored by corporations to drive down wages for US citizens, whether that be low skilled manufacturing or software engineering

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/...

https://fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burde...

galieos_ghoston Uber and Waymo Reach Settlement

so you'd be alright with someone stealing something you spent billions to discover through R&D? Who would invest money into R&D if a competitor could just steal it for free?

galieos_ghoston Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?

I'm fine with that, as long as they can positively contribute. I'm not fine with bringing in millions of people who immediately go on benefits while US citizens can't afford health care, college, and military vets are living on the street

galieos_ghoston Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?

The point is that millions of people made sacrifices for themselves and their families which cumulatively created the greatest civilization in history. Why should we feel guilty about reaping the benefits of those sacrifices? Why should we feel obligated to hand over our prosperity to those who contributed nothing to it?

galieos_ghoston Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?

Someone in my family has fought for the US in every war since the civil war. They have fought, bled, and died for this country, paid taxes, and helped build it from a weak country to the most powerful civilization in human history. They did it because they wanted their children and grandchildren to have a better life. Why should I feel guilty about this?