hnmonkey

Totally understood. Just wanted to make it obvious that if something is bad, a bigger bad doesn't make the other less bad. I think we're on the same page here.

Appreciate your clarification.

You know, I was going to respond to you by saying that there will always be Amazon business without a new HQ in a place. However, I thought about it and it is certainly possible that they would test new and interesting things in markets around their HQs, potentially providing unforeseen benefits for the residents around them and markets around them. While the whole package deal still seems like a net negative and shady to me, that certainly does fall into a potential (though very not proven) positive category.

Perhaps they've seen how well this practice works on a subset of the American population and decided to emulate it because it was their best and least worst idea? While a bad approach it certainly seems to resonate with some portion of the populace.

The word 'opinion' doesn't appear anywhere in the article, much less the whole page. You seem to be implying strongly that this article is fraudulent/biased with no evidence of that. I hope you do realize that news outlets (especially at the size of CNBC) fact-check and try to make sure their stories are vetted. They're not 100% perfect at that for sure, but you seem to be ascribing almost malice to them.

'People read it like the news being reported factually' because it is. That's literally what this is. There shouldn't be emphasis on 'opinion' because it's not an opinion piece.

Your take on this news article is however straight up opinion.

Just because there are other and potentially better/easier ways to graft and siphon money out of the system (such as those you listed) doesn't mean that this person isn't allowed to think this 'lesser' one is just as morally bankrupt and from a business standpoint a foolish decision.

Super valid concern. I imagine it will raise the price considerably and there will be 'safe!' 3d printers that cost a ton because they've been certified and have filaments and suction/vacuum/air pushing systems that have been tested and show no ill effects towards humans. It seems inevitable, but I'd imagine price will come down in a while as things scale.

It also does open the door for someone to come in and make a vent/hood system that works for many types of 3d printers so I guess there's that...

Agreed 100%. Them blowing this off because they don't feel like it has enough data or teeth I think is a big mistake. There's a distinct possibility that there will be a 3d printer in every classroom/office/home at some point in the future (just like regular printers eventually graduated to be everywhere). Discussing that there might actually be some toxic issues with these printers now can head off a potential future where tons of people including children are getting sick due to something that we didn't test enough or look at with enough skepticism before it gained mass acceptance. It's win/win really... they become safer if they are found to be emiting toxic fumes and people can feel more comfortable having a safer 3d printer around them. I just don't see the downside...

Much like how there are wall paints that have low or no VOCs I imagine we'd want these printers to head in the same direction. Why would anyone say... oh yeah these paints have a variety of VOCs they emit. Sounds alarmist and I don't see enough evidence so we shouldn't explore further and come up with ones that don't potentially harm people.

Just so you know... creepypasta is fiction and they've even had to come out and say so multiple times. So whatever recording you listened to is probably also fiction...

You seem very pleasant. While I guess asking other people questions on here is beneath you, I (and seemingly tons of other people) like to ask other people information when they say they know information and have a conversation. Did anyone anywhere ever claim HN is a courtroom? Even so... I'm pretty sure questions are allowed in a courtroom.

Your statement doesn't match up at all with what they said nor even make sense. What's the point of a business if you only have a test environment but rarely have a production environment?

You seem to be assuming to know what their development process and infrastructure is like.

Can you describe what you guys do and your infrastructure? Is there a need to test in production or has it just not been important enough to prevent it?

Seems like a better phrase is 'I find this hard to believe. Do you have a source?'

I certainly doubted the 'most' part of that statement but after looking into it, it really does seem like there is a problem with steroids and the police. Potentially still not 'most' police but certainly enough that it's an issue.

Hey, sorry for the slow reply. Generally, no you'll probably be fine with non-stick pans. The precursor chemicals used for making teflon are definitely not good, but once it gets into your pan it's mostly ok. That said, if you get the pan too hot (think no food in it and its just sitting on a hot fire) then I believe the teflon can offgas which is bad for you. Also, you should use bamboo/wood/silicon utensils on non-stick pans. Anything else can scratch it and take off some of the teflon. Once it's been scratched it becomes very easy for bits of teflon to come off in your food and parts of the layers to continue to peel off. If you scratch it you should either see if the manufacturer will replace/fix it or probably toss it. You don't want to be eating the stuff that flakes off the scratched areas. While teflon is I think technically inert (which is why it's used everywhere) I don't think it's healthy to have that passing through your system.

So, if you take good care of your non-stick pans you'll mostly be ok. Basically just baby them and make sure they're in good condition and you should be fine.

Stainless steel doesn't have this problem but of course isn't as non-stick as teflon or the teflon-similar materials out there and can be much more expensive depending on quality levels.

I wouldn't throw them out if I were you, but would invest in some high quality utensils to use with them (silicon on the end and bamboo for the handle part) so you never scratch them. Oh, and of course when cleaning don't use anything metallic like steel wool/mesh on them. Even barkeepers friend has potential to be too abrasive and take off some of the layers. Soap and water when it's still hot is a great way to make cleaning the pots/pans easier.

Hope that helps!

It's a great read. It really goes super quickly and flows well. It's just a shame that the subject is so unfortunate. When I finished the whole series I was honestly amazed at how much I'd read through because I didn't even notice it. Almost like a thriller that you just can't put down. Enjoy!

Can anyone speak to whether MySQL is comparable to Postgres in this area? With how quickly Postgres has been getting improvements I can't seem to tell anymore if they have feature parity or one is way out ahead of the other.

That's certainly a fair perspective that I can't argue with at all. I can't guess on specific #s but I'd bet there are lots of single men that would though at the chance of snagging an Amazon job. That number is probably relatively high and would make you a part of the outlier group. Working for Amazon might have stigma on HN but I think generally people have a great impression of them and would love to work for them.

Yes, they themselves produce alternatives but they have the same issues generally speaking as the original chemicals. As noted above they'll usually move to the new one because they've exhausted what they can get from the original and the new one isn't tainted by regulation/lawsuits/studies yet. The EPA isn't proactive about testing these things so it then takes time for people to study them and determine that they're not healthy for people and the cycle continues.

Generally speaking though, things like teflon and such and the chemicals that make them up are probably always going to be bad for the endocrine system. I'm hopeful I'm wrong and we can find alternatives that aren't but the human body doesn't seem to do well with chemicals that make things hydrophobic/slippery/nonstick.

I came here to post the exact same link. It was a fantastic and well researched article with tons of details and left me feeling sad at the situation but happy that there was someone who fought for helping people out.

Here's another that's in a very similar vein that had some solid research behind it. It'll probably leave you in the same state the NY Times article above will but it's a must-read. I don't think enough people will see it or your link unfortunately. https://theintercept.com/2015/08/11/dupont-chemistry-decepti...

Great comment and insightful. That makes sense.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that often the deck is stacked against a company that could really bring some massive benefit to people, but you're right that they've done surprisingly well against that anti-momentum.

As someone that has used VSCode, thank you for the work and effort you've put into this. Extension creators often don't get the thanks they deserve for the labor they put into these things that they're passionate about and also help lots of people.

Keep up the great work!

You should check out The Wire Cutter and Consumer Reports. Both of them test things to provide you with best bang for your buck and it seems like they both really care that they do a good job. Consumer Reports even takes it to the next level buy I think buying things themselves secretly so they don't get specially tweaked items or take ad money from the organizations whose stuff they test. Really valuable when researching a purchase!

What guarantees are in place with your users preventing you guys from selling your company after you've gained users and then that new company storing everyone's emails and digging through them for juicy details, IP, insider trading info, prescriptions, 2FA info, financial info, medical info, blackmail info, nudes, passwords, or anything else some people might not want a company to have? Or partnering with a company that has a data-sharing agreement with you so technically your company isn't reading emails but theirs is.

I'd imagine this is a concern for some people with this type of service similar to how in the past Chrome extensions have proceeded down this path without anyone being the wiser.

It really seems like people don't realize the potential pandora's box that they can open by sharing their emails with someone or an organization, even if that organization is currently trustworthy.

And a couple of questions for you about your infrastructure security. What is your infrastructure security and when you get breached what will you do about it? I'm assuming given your company's ability to access emails someone will find you a juicy enough target and if you get big potentially even criminal organizations and state actors would. If that's the case you will almost certainly be breached to some extent because you have a juicy treasure trove.

To pile on, gmail is also well-known to have fantastic spam and phishing prevention abilities compared to most other email solutions, something you could literally never do at home yourself without some incredible software that you run yourself (and even then probably not). That's a huge value-add for a ton of users I'd imagine.

'Nothing to gain' is incredibly hyperbolic I think or this person has never read about gmail/used gmail before.

So you're right (and I forgot about it), cities have fought against Tesla but it was my understanding that the push for that was lobbying from the old-school car dealerships and car companies to keep things from changing that would negatively impact their businesses. I don't think most cities have a real dog in the fight and many would welcome new electric car service/business since it's mostly positives for them.

Am I wildly off here?

Agreed. It certainly seems like this is the case and the end result would be both cities lurching towards becoming massively under Amazon's powerful thumb and dependent on it in the long run (think the Walmart method of dealing with businesses but... slightly bigger).

Crystal City and Newark are next door to massive tech areas. In VA there are tons of DoD/Military tech organizations and NYC is right next door to Newark. It's probably cheaper to plant themselves next to those hubs than inside of them.

* Added: Especially if you factor in all the people that would normally commute into NYC or DC/Arlington from the surrounding areas now commuting to a potentially closer office location. Could be really big for lots of people (and of course Amazon).

You're saying they get enough money so we should give large amounts of money to corporations? That seems wild and like corporate welfare for the sake of portioning out some money to corporations. Why give corporations a fast-lane to government money because school's are getting some money?

To be clear, is your argument really that schools have lots of money so corporations deserve to get some too?

Do you have any examples of "many of these governments operate against their companies?" I'm intrigued by this because this isn't how government generally works at all at a local level. They usually work with these companies and give them sweetheart deals knowing that the money will not really come back to the city and the effect will happen years down the road. All the positives for them of working with the company and someone else deals with the issues later that are caused from tax breaks and other deals.

I'd like proof of the connection to which you are implying happened in your original statement. And I don't think corollary means what you think it means. A corollary is something that is a natural progression from one thing to another. Two things that go hand in hand and what you said does not in any way match that. It couldn't be farther from a corollary. What you said is an absurd conspiracy theory that invents a connection out of whole-cloth and discussing it without calling it out as such (as you did in your first comment, and as you appear to be ignoring in this comment with a laugh) is extremely dangerous.

It's the same as saying 'Lot's of people are saying X' where X is a crazy thing and then just going on about your way. You are basically stating the X and giving it credence but pretending not to with a 'FWIW.'

Just because there's only 1 type of buyer doesn't mean the industry is regulated at all. It just means capitalism is at work. I'm not sure how you can conflate the two. The government is massive so you can't just say because the same entity as a whole is the one purchasing the machines that they're essentially also regulating it.

To be even more clear there are almost no regulations in this space other than what the companies themselves say they regulate/control/test. That's not regulation, but government simply buying from the only options that are out there who currently poorly regulate things themselves.

You're basically saying that building a perfect voting machine is impossible so they're all faulty so we should be okay with faulty ones. You seem to be an engineer from your twitter, which is somewhat shocking for me. In engineering (mechanical, electrical, software) if you said to your boss "hey, we can't make this thing perfect so we shouldn't even bother because someone will complain about it" I'd imagine your boss would fire you and find someone that wasn't so black and white who would actually try to implement something and then make it better.

Also, your comparison to spam-free email doesn't actually help your case at all. If you went to google years ago before they created gmail and said 'I heard you were going to try and make a secure and spam-free email system, but that in doing so you'll make tradeoffs and some people will be angry with it' I imagine they'd laugh you out of the room. Moreso today if you said that to them since they have built that system and generally most people like it.

Out of curiosity, where are the 'violently angry responses from some group' happening? All I see are people fighting regulation and the use of better systems and people who are dismayed by that and are trying to make things right.