smokeyj

> The problem is that Amazon's end of the deal involved a lot of ill-defined promises

For example?

The guy working at the deli may have sold more inventory. New deli shops would have opened up, creating more jobs. Using the deli guy as a pawn for your political agenda.. not cool. Not understanding basic economics and speaking on behalf of deli-guy who probably has a solid grasp of supply and demand. Not cool.

We've all heard of virtue signaling. Meet his ugly brother, "policy shaming".

A few days ago a story hit HN about how ISIS is banning single-use plastics. That was very problematic because my eyes almost rolled into the back of my head.

One of the few US places that actually resembles a developing nation is San Francisco. Whatever economic policy those people employ, the nation should do the exact opposite.

What does a republic get you that a dictatorship couldn't do more efficiently?

I did it guys. I'm finally enlightened.

I've never heard of Proof-of-Publication ledgers. Any resources I should look at?

That's what I thought too! But no - HN is against crypto at the moral level. One day the almighty father Paul Krugman declared crypto as thought-crime, and ever since, progressives have dutifully towed that line. It's tiring.

I think they subconsciously see it as an attack on state-sovereignty or something like that. The ability to tax and redistribute. That's just me reading between the lines.

I don't know if you've realized this, but HN is religiously against crypto and anything that rhymes with it. Like, irrationally mad.

If you want to explore the utility of crypto go check out different online communities that focus on that, some decent ones on reddit. The level of discussion on HN is usually "crypto baaad, centralized goood". As an economist I'm sure you expect more. Unless you want those ideas reinforced, keep the discussion here!

Bro have you looked at the source code for the green paper? There's weird ACL rules, double spending, it's backdoored and pre-mined. Trust me, crypto is wayyy simpler to understand.

Actually Dogecoin was a major hit.

> But the HQ2 deal made a point of giving up that tax revenue....

But the subsidies will largely still be available to the next people to move in right? Meaning, you’ve effectively accomplished nothing, right?

> I'm a strong proponent of a CS university education, as opposed to something like a bootcamp, for this very reason.

The value proposition of a university education is something of a moving goalpost for most people. It's not even about what you learned but how exclusive and prestigious the institution was. Or how uncomfortable and sleep deprived your experience was. If the value of a university degree were based on a skillset that could be proven, then the need for exclusive accreditation could be replaced with a simple unit test - and education would be called "training" and everyone would feel much less smug about not being "blue collar". Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Sounds like the conventional wisdom of a post-communist society. The kind of society where bike mechanics don't invent flying machines.

I guess being against censorship is inherently hypocritical given you're trying to censor the censors. I'll have to live with that hypocrisy.

The principle still stands. Why care about points? Wasn’t that the motivating factor to remove displaying comment points on HN in the first place? Facilitating hive mentality?

If everyone agrees with a comment it probably adds no value. If everyone disagrees it probably adds no value. Maybe interesting discussions should be sorted by controversial, but I don’t think that would be a “safe space”.

> If you disagree, why don't you walk me through your proposal in a less handwavey manner

You could say companies aren't allowed to spend money to intentionally target or influence elected representatives.

Sure it's hardly defined at all, and maybe I spent 30 seconds on it. But if a jury of my peers unanimously think an exec was trying to influence a representative, then why not levy a huge fine? As far as the legality, is there anything interstate commerce doesn't encompass?

> I just try and keep my feed filled with mostly positive/upbeat things

You know Zuck has experimented with making people’s feeds negative to see the impact on their usage?

I get Facebook works for you, but consider the company is run by a truly evil and insidious man. As an organizer consider helping people leave.

If someone invents a tool and sells it for a profit - who was exploited? Is it not possible for everyone to be richer than they started and also create wealth??

The question was really simple. Your answer is the kind that inevitably ends with "you just have to read Das Kapital". That is not an answer.

Honestly I think it's just a meme at this point. Don't fight it. Just mention something about Electron being bloated and rake in that sweet sweet karma.

Hey, has anyone else noticed how bloated Electron is? I bet it's all those rootin tootin NPM packages!

Which is another way to say that Amazon is their competition, considering Twitch's integration with Prime - and Amazons investment into gaming with Lumberyard and AWS. I suspect Unity was acting defensively against AWS with their license change, with Improbable caught up in the middle. Just speculation.

Targeting works the more data you have. You could target “well off iOS user” but that’s less invasive than “searched topics of adoption and abortion. Recommend local abortion clinics”. Ya see what I’m getting at here?

As a DDG user I share your same skepticism. But I also believe that privacy will become a premium feature, even a symbol of status - similar to the iPhone/iMessage today. Poor people will buy devices that are subsidized with "targeted advertisements" and Facebook apps they can't uninstall. The premium market will pay to not deal with this nonsense.

I haven't heard of a single use case that makes me think "diesel engines" are better than manual labor. Think about it, what can an "engine" really do - that a bunch of people couldn't also do? Also take into account the externalities of diesel pollution and the cancer people will get by using diesel. So no, I don't see the value of diesel.

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

Because it's a spying device people are installing in their homes. These are the same people that are going to complain that it was a huge invasion of privacy in 5 years. It's going to be Facebook all over again. People willingly hand all their data over to daddy Bezos and then wonder why Amazon National Healthcare is charging them insane premiums.

Edit: The same people developing facial recognition for the DoD is developing eavesdropping devices for Americans to install in their homes. Why, after the Snowden revelations, would any rational person think the big-brother doesn't have a direct line into your home? Listening to your every word, to your childrens words, to their opinions in formation.. Seems willingly selfish to not only hand over your privacy, but everyone you invite into your life.

Edit 2: Considering the investment being put into a smart-microphone, I can only imagine the market for the device is a skunkworks operation. Selling a perfect surveillance device to the CPC perhaps? Beat Google and their project dragonfly to the punch? Hmm

> or that this is a non-issue

I'd argue non-issue. Attack vectors could be to attempt a double spend (not worth it) or confirming empty blocks (why?).

You see rational disagreement yet every one of my comments is negative.

Rational disagreement isn’t welcomed here :(

Even in purely technical discussions people providing information get downvoted.

HN is a crypto “safe space”. Just don’t talk about it here.

Decentralized isn’t a binary. The courts can’t edit the blockchain but a federation of private keys can. It still allows an alternative to transferring money without Visa or PayPal.

Bitcoin is yesterday but look at Ethereum. You can now trade dollar backed tokens issued by fully regulated banks for the cost of an Ethereum transaction. This lets you use smart contracts backed by US dollars, or write contracts to trade US dollars for other currencies. The writing is on the wall, more regulated tokens are on the way. Public stocks to municipal bonds. Why wouldn't people want to cut out the middle man?

But it’s the same product. Run by the same person.

It’s not like Zuck moved on to a different product besides trading trust for cash. How has he changed? If you’re an engineer and don’t get it then 20 year old Zuck is actually right about you.