We were asked for something quick and easy, but decided to put the effort in to make it the correct way for the Exchange architecture.
The bulk of that code is still there 30 years later.
668 karma · joined August 12, 2009
Previously, co-founder and Chief Engineer of Offbeat Creations, sold to Playdom in early 2010.
Earlier: 10 years at Microsoft, then various Seattle area startups until I started Offbeat Creations in 2008
http://blog.craz8.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/craz8 email: tom at craz8 dot com
We were asked for something quick and easy, but decided to put the effort in to make it the correct way for the Exchange architecture.
The bulk of that code is still there 30 years later.
The lanes are quite narrow, and the outer curb is deceptive - there’s a 1” edge with a curved curb behind it making it look wider than it actually is. Scraping along that edge will push cars into the center of the road. There will be a lot of minor accidents here due to the road design.
One other second order effect - people are getting used to roundabouts here now, but nearby are ‘traffic circles’ that are roundabouts with stop signs on some entrances. People are now ignoring those stop signs (because it’s a roundabout!). I almost hit 3 cars in 2 intersections as people ignored their stop sign.
Thanks
When I left my last employer, I had the same company plan under COBRA. It started at ~$1000, and then went to ~$1300 at the next new year. It had lower out of pocket expenses, but those came at the cost of more monthly payment.
My current Gold medical plan (2 years later) is $820, plus dental at $120 or so. ~$950 for Gold plan, vs $1300 for my COBRA plan (in between, I had a really crappy personal plan that covered almost nothing for ~$600)
People who have employer payed medical have no idea how expensive their plans actually are
Also, there is extra cost because insurers now need to cover existing conditions - allowing you to change providers if you are already sick.
All of these extra things make it more expensive for some, but a better overall coverage - if you have catastrophic illness, you may have not been covered at the top end for all of these costs on your old plan.
Younger people tend not to think about catastrophic issues like 3+ years of cancer treatment, because new treatments are a) expensive and b) may extend your life significantly, so you may actually hit your $2M lifetime maximum, and then you are on your own, until you're bankrupt, and then the state (i.e. taxpayers) would help you out.
So, taken over 50+ years (not just this year's numbers) these new plans actually provide much better coverage, and may even take pressure off the Taxpayers for those that are under covered for their medical issues.
Remitly https://www.remitly.com/ provides a service to send cash overseas to the families of immigrants who now work in the US
Sending cash has a lot of regulatory hurdles, so they picked 1 US state (WA) and one overseas country (the Philippines) to start their business, and then expanding their reach, first to other US states, and eventually to other countries. Focusing on exactly one set of regulations at each end vastly simplifies the legal issues (and costs)
The reason some of these fees is large is due to governments trying to control the import process, not due to any inherent costs associated with the items, so where these fees apply can not be guessed without having knowledge of the specific laws and treaties involved. As an individual, you've never needed to know these laws and fees
Also, your legal costs to import random things over random borders is going to be quite large. Most importer companies start with one set of items into a single country to defray the legal costs for that one set of items over many items sold. i.e. It's as much legal effort to commerically import 10 cases of wine into the US from France as it is to import 10,000 cases. But importing Cheese from France to the US is a completely different set of laws, and could cost the same as the legal costs for the wine.
Since you are operating a business service, you need to ensure that a) it is legal to take that item across that border, and b) The relevant fees are paid for an import business (not for personal use)
It doesn't take a lawyer to see that you'd be in trouble for not following the laws of the land your couriers are traveling to. But you do need to run this past a lawyer (and probably a set of lawyers, one for each jurisdiction) before you get one of your couriers thrown in jail.
It is possible to run this legally, but then the process won't be as cheap as I think you're expecting it to be.
Clearly anything on Hacker News and other news outlets isn't an actual secret!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t31/1...
I have a lot of friends working at Amazon now, and my projection is that everyone I know will work there by 2016
One thing to note is that there is a hospital at the location he was evacuated from, so if it was a true emergency, they could have operated right there.
They flew him from the harbor of the main town in the Galapagos, to the airport on the other side of the island to avoid a long drive or boat ride. It's not like he was out in the wilderness - of which there is a lot in that area.
Somehow, this has shown to be a cure, but the doctors that came up with it don't yet know why - the treatment is ahead of the knowledge in this case.
Edit: Here's the story I read: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Ottawa+doctors+behind+br...
The IBM PS/2 only came with the smaller disk, so bigger wasn't necessary
There is an argument that allowing companies these tax breaks brings jobs to your country instead of somewhere else, and this brings prosperity. Certainly Ireland worked this way in the 90s to get their tech scene started. Locally, cities do this too - X year tax breaks to put your factory here instead of there is a common thing.
Is the social contract satisfied by just the generation of good paying jobs where there were none previously?
Not saying this is right, but this is the way the law works right now.
You are breaking the law if you do not pay what you owe.
Google is using the various laws of these countries, and treaty agreements, to avoid taxes in one place to pay them at a different (much lower) rate in another.
Google is not breaking the law.
They even mention that there's a support post about this, but not a lot of people complaining about it.
I fell for their link bait
* Better being subjective based on the direction you want your career to go
Not a core source of revenue, but possible for someone needing to travel without using planes.
You are traveling on a working ship, with a very small crew, and not a lot of provided entertainment,(or internet access), so be prepared to look after yourself during these passages