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goler

37 karma · joined December 15, 2011

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goler··on Mapping the US healthcare system’s financial flows
Sure, but fighting the impulse to solve problems at the Federal level that could/should be solved at the State level doesn’t preclude individual states from building multi-state solutions together.
goler··on Australian House passes bill to ban children under 16 from social media
If compliance requires that every user provide some form of ID, this policy will be a catastrophe for privacy and a major downgrade in terms of usability. Much more annoying than the pop-ups asking me to acknowledge cookies.
goler··on Tesla will open FSD beta software to owners with a good driving record
Maybe although I don't know how they would identify the "safe" drivers among the folks that are just mindful during the evaluation period. Perhaps they weed people out who seem to drive routes their system doesn't handle well. Still, it seems like the rollout plan would be a good way to collect a training set that is biased toward safer driving habits.

Also, this sort of short evaluation seems like it wouldn't mitigate that much PR risk. It may even increase bad press if things go poorly and people point to it as an indication that they knew it wasn't ready.

goler··on Tesla will open FSD beta software to owners with a good driving record
This rollout plan sounds like a strategy to collect training data for future FSD enhancements.
goler··on PG&E will bury 10k miles of power lines so they don't spark wildfires
Are the associated costs passed to ratepayers at cost or is there some allowance for a positive investment return for PG&E shareholders?
goler··on Robotic harvester plucks an Apple every 7 seconds
Yes. Abundant Robotics has a more developed solution that is better suited to the task, I think. It uses a vacuum effector.

https://youtu.be/-PtqZA2enkQ?t=62

goler··on Facebook Reports First Quarter 2021 Results [pdf]
Not really, but familiarity with accounting terms and some basic investment concepts helps. The course is designed for NYU MBA students and many of them have already taken corporate finance which gives them a head start. Damodaran puts all of the course info online (notes, lectures, emails to students, etc), though, which allows you to go at your own pace. The emails sometimes contain pointers to helpful supplemental materials.

If you check out the email archives [1], you'll see that Damodaran wrote this in the first message: "1. Preclass work: I know that some of you are worried about the class but relax! If you can add, subtract, divide and multiply, you are pretty much home free… In are you have forgotten your accounting, I have added my version (which would probably not be approved of by your accounting professor) of an accounting class to my website: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/New_Home_Page/webcastac... If you want to get a jump on the class, you can go to the class web page: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/New_Home_Page/equity.ht... "

[1] http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/New_Home_Page/eqemail.h...

goler··on Facebook Reports First Quarter 2021 Results [pdf]
I recommend Aswath Damodaran's valuation course: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/webcasteq...

If you don't have time for the full course, I've also heard good things about Damodaran's Little Book of Valuation.

goler··on Ask HN: Which Bay Area companies are bringing s/w engineers back to the office?
Are there any companies that are already back in the office? Have any announced plans to return by the end of May?
goler··on Big tech companies have been at the cutting edge of corporate tax avoidance
Exactly. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Any real discussion needs to get into specifics of which rules of the game are unfair and how they can be improved.
goler··on New York City Is on the Verge of Disaster
I agree and an important question is what is a good strategy to mobilize action in advance of disaster. The news is full of warnings about impending disasters. (Most) people can't evaluate the relative risk of each of these events, so the natural response is to be overwhelmed and assume we will deal with it when/if it occurs. I don't know if it would have much of an effect on how inclined readers would be to act, but articles like this one would be a lot more compelling if they included real data that demonstrates NYC is at a greater risk than it has been in the past or than other similar cities around the world.
goler··on LinkedIn Sent a Notification to My Work Email
redbergy's guess is probably right. It sounds like an invitation to join LinkedIn that doesn't necessarily assume that you already have an account.
goler··on Fractional Shares
I agree. Very incremental and I’d be surprise if it’s a meaningful growth driver. However, it probably has most appeal to new investors who are just starting out which seems on-message for Robinhood. My teenager who got interested in learning about investing this past year has a portfolio comprised almost entirely of single share positions. Fractional shares would interest him.
goler··on LinkedIn Sent a Notification to My Work Email
What type of notification was it?
goler··on Students, Community Groups Sue University of California to Drop Sat, Act
"A UC task force is currently assessing the value of the SAT and ACT in admissions, with recommendations expected before the end of the school year, and the university will make a decision after that, said a spokeswoman from the UC president’s office."

You would hope the UC system would already have a very good understanding of the value of all of the elements they utilize in admissions decisions. If they don't know the value, why are they still using it?

goler··on What Statistics Can't Tell Us in the Fight Over Affirmative Action at Harvard
“Today, according to Harvard, legacy students make up around 14 percent of the undergraduate population.”

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/04/663629750/legacy-admissions-o...

goler··on California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online
Same with Wall Steet Journal if you don’t live in CA. Even for CA residents, the cancellation option is buried in the interface.
goler··on CVS Health Quits U.S. Chamber Over Stance on Smoking
>The second-hand smoke nuisance has been eliminated in public places

Reduced, but not eliminated. People still smoke in far too many public spaces in the US. Try standing at the curb outside baggage claim at SFO or SJC. Or, outside many large office buildings.

The only place smoking should be legal is in the privacy of your own single-family detached home. Even then, only if you don't have any minors living there.

goler··on Re/code removes onsite comments
I'm a re/code fan, but it would be a shame if other sites followed this move. User comments posted in social media are difficult to find after some time has passed, so removing comments from articles makes it difficult for future readers to get sense of the discussion around an article.

While some re/code stories do generate great discussions, most don't. This move is a way for them to avoid reinforcing the feeling that there aren't many readers.

goler··on New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline
and Paste Transpose!
goler··on After working +1200 hours in oDesk
If you're working hourly jobs, payment is guaranteed by oDesk. That said, fixed-price jobs usually pay out, too. Make sure to review the client's work history and feedback which is shown at the bottom of every job post. Equally important, make sure you understand your client's expectations before you do the work - a good practice regardless of where you find clients.

Disclosure - I'm a former oDesk employee.

goler··on [dead]
I agree. It's amazing that Practice Fusion stands by their claim that both doctors and patients have provided genuine consent.

If this, as the article suggests, is the interface where doctors go to opt-out of sending surveys, how can Practice Fusion claim that doctors knew what was happening? The interface seems intentionally designed to obscure what's happening. Note the text reads "[x] Enable follow-up messages" http://b-i.forbesimg.com/kashmirhill/files/2013/10/in-produc...

The patient-facing survey is hardly better. http://b-i.forbesimg.com/kashmirhill/files/2013/10/patient-r...

goler··on Visualizations of the oDesk “oConomy”: Exploring Our World of Work
Really slick. Congrats, John!
goler··on Webfaction app memory quota increased to 256MB for everyone
I couldn't agree more. I'm building my first app and still learning my way around linux, apache, etc. Working with webfaction has been like having a sysadmin on the team. Customer support is amazing.