mcherm

They are busy assisting ICE with hunting down immigrants.

Discussing the truth or falsity of some vague accusations of misconduct against a public figure is not an appropriate topic for Hacker News.

But the way in which social media can be used for baseless character assassination (and perhaps a discussion of what could be done to change that) absolutely IS an appropriate topic.

Nice solution! Google, can we get that on Android by default to reach the masses? Apple... you too: you built a reputation for protecting privacy.

> The real take away is that the Robotaxis don't really exist

More accurately, the real takeaway is that Tesla's robo-taxis don't really exist.

It doesn't need to!

If the winner, instead of paying what they bid, pays what the second-highest bidder bid (and bids are secret until someone exceeds them) then the incentives change. Everyone is incented to bid what it is worth to them, safely knowing (1) they won't pay more than that, (2) they will win the auction if no one outbids them, and (3) they won't pay more than necessary to win the auction.

eBay works this way (more-or-less), so you CAN (if you choose to) simply place your bid any time that is convenient and then ignore the timing of the end of the auction and all the sniping bots.

Ever driven a vehicle with an automatic transmission rather than a manual gearshift with a clutch? Then you almost certainly used a fluid coupling: basically two fans in a can with oil so turning one turns the other.

The article is so full of hype it doesn't bother to explain how this is different from the "fluid gears" invented in 1905.

My blog, which is only rarely maintained these days: https://www.mcherm.com

I agree. My own suspicion for the resolution of the fermi paradox is that there are 4 steps that we have seen occur only once (or zero times) so it is difficult to measure their probability. If some of those probabilities are significantly lower than we think it could resolve the "paradox".

Those 4 steps are: (1) Formation of life (2) Formation of multicellular life (3) Formation of "runaway intelligence", where a species evolves enough intelligence to manipulate their environment in ways that supercede evolution. Parrots and dolphins, for instance, are both quite smart, but don't look close to getting a runaway benefit from that which would allow them to invent technology like agriculture and overpower all other species. (4) Technical civilization manages to manipulate their planet or spread beyond one star system in a way that would be detectable from elsewhere in the galaxy. (Hasn't happened yet.)

> if it's democratic like that I'm mostly OK with it

One thing to keep in mind. It might be that it's "democratic" in that all the homeowners are allowed to vote for or against the zoning policy (or for or against the local leaders who set zoning policy) but ONLY the local homeowners are allowed to vote. Those who rent (or who can't even afford to rent) live in a different district and aren't allowed to participate in the election.

If that's the case, then voting doesn't represent "the will of the people", just the will of those people permitted to participate.

It's been a long time since I kept current on games.

Reading these descriptions, I have only one comment:

What the *HELL*?!!?!!!

Where are you getting that implication? I didn't see anything in the article suggesting that neutrons were simple and I would share your skepticism if someone claimed they were. The fact that neutrons can spontaneously decay into protons (plus other stuff) suggests otherwise.

No, because the black needs to cover up other shapes (up until the final step of rendering).

When the behavior is not only something something you "don't like" but is also (as this woman perceives it) a professional threat (she makes a living out of carefully choosing her words; she felt this attributed to her words she would never have said) and furthermore is unexpected, to simply quietly leave the platform seems insufficient. One ought to warn other users about the unexpected dangerous practice -- which is precisely what this article accomplishes!

What is the alternative to announcing a divorce? Keeping it secret? Not using social media to communicate?

In this case she explicitly did NOT make any mention of the divorce on social media when her husband first sprung it on her, nor during the process. She wrote this piece after it had been finalized.

> I don't think the laws are dictating Apple to completely turn off the accounts, but instead dictate that Apple should take measures against it.

You misunderstand the nature of financial regulation. The laws on things like money laundering are intentionally vague, they say things like "Apple should take measures against it". And financial regulators will not come out and say (especially in writing) that you MUST do any particular thing (like ban customers entirely on suspicion).

What they WILL do is ask probing questions, frown a lot, and make suggestions. Which the company had better take seriously. Because the financial regulators have the ability to simply close down your business, and if you cross enough of the unclear lines they will do so.

Personally, I find lots of reasons to prefer an orders Dict to an unordered one. Even small effects like "the debugging output will appear in a consistent order making it easier to compare" can be motivation enough in many use cases.

It doesn't work that way. Paying users would discover product-market fit for the "market" of people who want to be paid to use it. Working with paying users (even if they are incredibly hard to acquire) will discover product -market fit for a market that might actually pay for your service.

No, it is carrying out a highly effective asymmetric war. Russia has vastly more resources, but proportionately, Ukraine's forces are being far more effective than Russia's.

Which is more likely, a DDOS attack on your site or a Cloudflare outage?

I think that for most sites the DDOS attack is more likely.

To me, those sound like meaningful pros and cons, not a reason to completely dismiss it.

I receive all my SMS messages through a separate app, because my SMS provider is not my TelCo. Please propose solutions that will not harm people like me.

Great! Based on this, I would like to sign up to get early access to Android Developer Console (to distribute apps ONLY outside the Play store). The article explains that they will start sending out invitations to people on the waiting list.

But it does not say (or I can't find it) how to JOIN the waiting list. Does anyone know how?

Please explain what kind of magic your solution uses to ensure that reports always come in at a perfectly even pace without any peaks or valleys. Because without that, your proposed approach will not work.

Odd that your experience would be so different from mine. I routinely experience denials.

To give an example, about 60 to 80% of the time, when I visit the dentist for a regular cleaning the charge is denied and I have to submit additional paperwork to convince them to pay it. I can't think of any more simple and basic procedure than that.

I have no idea why your experience with healthcare in the US is so much better, but I can assure you that there are many people whose experience is more like mine.

> Posted to HN yesterday [...] No comments.

I wonder if that is partially because many (like myself) aren't subscribers and can't read the article.

Interesting. I wonder how you even manage to utilize the modern web.

Yes. Just like C++ "const" is a type system construct that assumes all other code is C++ (or at least cooperates with the C++ code by not going around changing random bytes).

As far as I can tell, ANY guarantee provided by ANY language is "just a language construct" that fails if we assume there is other code executing which is ill-behaved.

Because it is (or was it the time this article was written) against the law. The company that owned the tax preparation software lobby to Congress to pass a law requiring that the IRS not provide a free and easy way for people to submit their taxes.

And does it allow "side loading"? Privacy might not be the only draw!

> I’m just surprised someone decided to bankroll them for so long.

When you are PROFITABLE (but not as profitable as your investors would like) you can run FOREVER without anyone "bankrolling" you. It's a foreign concept in the AI world (and sometimes it feels like it's foreign to the tech startup world) but quite effective.