skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My ZipCar experience: I rented a car for a full weekend last October, and returned it several hours before it was due back. I forgot to "tap out", though, and ZipCar sent me a late return notification and charged my credit card. No big deal, just a simple mix-up, so I called customer service.

Unbelievably, they couldn't do anything about it from the national help line, and when I was redirected to the NY office, I got more runaround. It got to the point where I called my credit card company to do a stop payment, as it was clear that I wasn't going to get help from ZipCar.

Then I tweeted about it. Someone at ZipCar saw the tweet, and the whole problem got fixed pretty much immediately - I got an email saying my case had been reviewed, that the computer showed I did in fact return the car on time, and that if I could cancel the stop-payment, I'd get my money back (which I did).

It was awesome to get the problem fixed with just a simple tweet, but I wasted hours on the phone and would have wasted hours more dealing with the stop-payment fallout, when they already had the information that I hadn't actually returned the car late. I'm still a member, but I think I've used them only once or twice since. The whole experience left me pretty soured on them.

The takeaway is: if you're only giving good customer service to the people who complain publicly, you're doing it wrong.
another very important point in your graduate studies is to get regular feedback on your draft thesis and research, all to often have i heard of the stories where a prof would finally take the time to review the work properly and the feedback to the student would be that they did something incorrectly which invalidates months sometimes years of research!!!!
From http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-non-denial-denial-w...

"...no one actually thinks Facebook is building an ACTUAL phone, or that it's manufacturing anything.

What people are saying is that Facebook is doing some major work with Android software to make it a Facebook-flavored platform, so Facebook could have much more control over the mobile industry than it does today. This is probably being done entirely inside Facebook, without any help from Google, which is the enemy.

And I don't see any denial of that in Facebook's statement -- just that the company admitting that Facebook is "integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems," which is the story in the first place."

So yeah, seems plausible that the PR spokesperson was just putting up interference.
The whole "an eye for an eye" thing doesn't exactly scale terribly well.
Everyday Mathematics, a "reform math" curriculum, is taking California by storm. You should check out a speech on reform math by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd expressing his incredulity at what passes for math instruction today. Byrd calls it "rainforest math". It's in the official Congressional Record (1997-June-09) here:

http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/PDFgate.cgi?WAISdoc...

While American 5th graders (to use your example) get one homework assignment after another requiring them to cut, paste, draw, and color, their equivalents in Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc. are grinding away at difficult, real math. The Asian American students you describe are not exempt from this nonsense if they're in the public schools.

You can find the reason for all this described in the article I link to in my post above. If you don't believe this is going on, here's an example article from an academic journal describing the difficulty the education schools are having "breaking down the resistance" of math teachers to the social justice agenda:

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/1045476611-60265133/content...

Here's how the abstract begins. It sounds like something from a dystopian future science fiction story:

"This paper reports on an action research project designed to explore the complexities of pre-service mathematics teacher resistance to social justice issues. Research on equity and mathematics education has indicated that such resistance seems particularly strong for mathematics teachers."
I dont know (or care) if they are making a phone but I think it makes sense for them to. In the new yorker article Zuckerberg said he "imagines Facebook as, eventually, a layer underneath almost every electronic device." and phones are and will probably remain the most dominant communication / social device.
risk aversion is a rational strategy when you have a lot to lose.
Good luck with that, Africa is hopeless.
Do we have a shared understanding now that the $/hour cost of a table at a coffee shop is far more than that of a coworking space? I pointed out that the coffee shop:

(1) Pays for commercial retail space, which is (in many cases) more than 3x more expensive than commercial office space (which is far more plentiful).

(2) Pays for multiple people's fully loaded headcount cost to staff the shop.

I didn't point out, but should have, that the shop also:

(3) Pays the wholesale price for the coffee (which is cheap but not free) and food (which is extremely expensive) and so has worse margins than the coworking space.
I would say that every rule has exceptions. And the degree of exceptions to each rule may vary from rule to rule. But if one were to eliminate all rules that has at least one scenario where it could be considered as an exception, this world would have no rules at all.

If one were to make a list of all scenarios where a one line rule has exceptions, one would have long documents like 'Terms and conditions' instead of easy to comprehend one line rules that would provide reasonable guidance in a majority of situations.

Thats why it is good to apply a bit of wisdom in applying a rule/advice to a scenario and see if that rule applies to that situation or not, irrespective of from whom that advice comes from and not follow them blindly.
I'm not the OP, and I don't follow phoronix regularly, but it seems sensationalist at times.
Yes. And so did google.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1706814
And a lot broken to fill the existential void with meaningless drone labor because we accepted that's the best we can do in life.
So it turns out the guy hasn't actually built any of this upgrade circumvention software/firmware yet, so I'm not exactly sure what he's asking Intel to sue him for.

Perhaps he should go play with the cracked HDCP crypto key instead; Intel says it will sue anyone who uses that (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/intel-threatens-con...)
I don't have an app in the store yet, but from what I've read of the reviews of apps I've downloaded, I must conclude that a huge fraction of the people who post reviews are idiots.

Seriously, idiots. If there is an app named "Foo App", which does Foo, and the description says that it does Foo and only Foo, it is not uncommon to find a review that says "This app does Foo. It does Foo perfectly, but it does not do Bar. I want Bar too" and that reviewer gives the app 1 star. Bar is something big enough that it would logically be an app of its own.
I did some googling and it seems that on a lot of the reptile boards they say that the only safe way to feed your snake is with dead mice.
Interesting that he reads Slashdot, and not one of the more modern news sites.

Also, ugh eugh Papyrus in the site header, argh.
Autonomous Audi TTS Ascends Pikes Peak
best advice I ever had on time mgmt was to read 'how to live on 24 hours a day ' www.gutenberg.org/etext/2274 - excellent advice even though written over 100 years ago.

only other thing would be to see how a VA would work to make your life better

but like all things in life you will reach a plateau, you can only refine something so far!

good luck, sounds like you are doing well!
"Do you own Google?"
hmm ...
mirror: http://enimages.websnapr.com/?size=l&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fsclient%3Dpsy%26hl%3Den%26q%3Dsite%3AGoogle
mirror: http://enimages.websnapr.com/?size=l&url=http%3A%2F%2Fww...
and that's the whole point!

I don't agree with this either, but it's only happening because the MPAA did it first. And they're supposed to be the "good guys".

If/when this hits mainstream media, I think this is the important thing to point out. The people have to be informed how these companies operate (I'm too cynical to think this enlightenment will ever happen, but it's a nice thought).
I know Google did, e.g. here's a 2007 story on that: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/108490/google-denies-...

I can't find any explicit denials by Apple, though. Digging through some 2005-2006 news archives, I find Apple denying some specific rumors, but neither confirming nor denying whether they would come out with a phone in general.
Sorry, but this bothers me.

<pedantry>

In the culture of the day (middle-east, thousands of years ago) many arguments - even little ones - would escalate, sometimes into generations-long blood feuds. The "eye for an eye" law was a law of peace! Even if someone did something incredibly painful, disfiguring, and debilitating as gouging out your eye, you weren't allowed to extract revenge on their family or property, or even to torture or kill the guy. The most you were entitled to was his eye. No more blood feuds allowed.

</pedantry>
Now I'm curious. What have you done that people believed couldn't be done at all?
The linked article is from 2009, but apparently they actually performed the test last Friday (September 17, 2010). They had a helicopter filming it, but the helicopter crashed.. while filming the autonomous car ascending Pikes Peak! See http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gRMF4BctY0... for details.
No way did Whitman say that.
No video iPod: http://www.engadget.com/2004/04/29/steve-jobs-says-it-again-...

"People don't read anymore": http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/01/steve-jobs-peop/

I'm pretty sure Jobs was quoted at some point shooting down the idea of an Apple phone, but it's nearly impossible to Google for that amid the Antennagate results.
Ask HN: Is this the right paid?
Hi,
I've been working for this company almost 4 years. Starting pay was 70K. I got raises a twice (about 2-2.5% each) so now I am at about 75K. I've been doing java for server side most my life. I've been also coding/leading .NET for thick client app for about 3 years (Office plugin and WinForm mostly). Always get the jobs done and hear good praises from management but I feel like the pay sucks. Now with base + bonus it's about 80 - 85K. Am I starting to wonder if I get ripped off for staying here and not asking for a big raise. Or is it the right pay here in Houston?
This is just getting stupid. This wasn't a "little fight". It was a dismissal.

I'm a small time guy running a tiny little company that is just trying to get by, and honestly, I don't have time to reply to every person that emails me. Unfortunately, we are so reachable today that one must consider a non-response a negative. As in, "no". Apple's primary responsibility is to customers in honoring their purchase and providing a quality, reliable product that meets their expectations, and to their shareholders in delivering value on their investment.

Ms. Isaacs is rude in her presumption that anyone at Apple is in any way obligated to reply to her. People wonder why those of us who have graduated and are well in to our working careers rant about the sense of entitlement we see in today's youth. This is a great example. "Leave us alone" is exactly the sentiment I would feel were I in Jobs' position.
I'm shocked, shocked! that capitalist corporations charge what the market will bear for their products.
At one time there was a stigma to changing jobs too often. Well, that's still true, but whereas people look at you funny for changing jobs every few months in 2010, in 1970 people who changed jobs every four or five years were regarded with suspicion.

As a result, your employer was much more confident he could see a return on his training efforts. In 2010 we expect people to jump ship when they find a better situation - why would would I invest money in someone's career when they may be working for my competitor next week?
Already have a VA :)

Thanks for the book recommendation!
Overidentification with the cognitive apparatus combined with a propensity for binary thinking.
> you just loose your no claims bonus but surely that's reasonable?

Unfortunately not. In my experience, the slightest break in insurance coverage is an excuse to push you into the highest-risk pool. It's completely ridiculous. Perhaps the policy made sense before every piece of information relevant to insurance was tracked by computers, but now it seems like something that only exists to punish people who want to go car-free for awhile.
(OP link is worth a read btw despite how heavy it is presented, btw)

This post articulates a bug-bear I've had throughout my career which is the pedantic "RTFM" culture in software - where no one wants to help anyone and instead gives them a pointer to a document (the 'Descriptive Process" as the author describes it).

Proscriptive Process, actually sitting down with someone(s), not only is valuable for the reasons the author suggests (re-examining process, updating, refining, improving) but often new issues and idea and opportunities emerge from going over something together or in a small group.

Sure, you can't do it all the time but there are loads of examples when it is valuable and should be considered part of the cost of development.

I think it's sad when you enter a workplace where everyone just wants to tell you to RTFM all the time and no one has the time to sit down and go over anything. Ultimately, I don't believe its how good product/software is made.
Not being able to torture, maim or murder someone is a good thing. Really. If you're not sure about this, you'll just have to take my word on it.

But, thats pretty far off-topic. The essence of my point still stands, even if you disagree with the wording of it. Just because someone else did something wrong doesn't give you a license to do the same.
Mea culpa. I should have been more clear about that :)

Jenny McCarthy was on MTV back in the day. Also in Playboy. Her son is on the spectrum and she believes it was caused by vaccinations. She doesn't like when people refer to people with autism as "autistic" because she thinks it's the equivalent of calling someone with cancer "cancerous". I respect her passion for helping her son, but I disagree with her. It's a fine balance: parents of small children with autism want to fight for their children's rights and protect them... but sometimes it's the parents themselves who are placing these kids in a tight box that's very limiting. Try to avoid that with your kids (yeah, easy peasy, right?).

Labels are indeed a necessary evil in order to talk about anything, really. In an ideal world, I'd like it to be a label that was mutually agreed upon, not forced on me. But, I think my vote should count for a bit more ;)

Please feel free to contact me if there's anything I can shed light on regarding your kids and ASD :)
Michael Turner is safe and injury is mild
It's much older than that. The tale is told, at least, that in the 1960s, IBM sold a model of 360 that could be upgraded to a faster model by flipping a single switch. They charged many thousands of dollars to send out a tech to flip the switch (if you did it yourself, I presume it would void the warranty).
Guess this stuff comes more easily to your mom than it does to mine. Trust me, I was there -- she's learning how to use it very slowly, over a period of many months.
Insurance companies often use missed payments to cancel contracts, although there are usually specific legal provisions for notification, coverage, and fees associated with late renewals.

On an unrelated note, I once had an auto-renewing contract for $2/year renew at $40. It was interesting because the $2 subscription was on a now expired credit card from one bank and the $40 subscription appeared on a different card with a different number from a different bank. The transaction was considered illegal by MasterCard.
Yes, it really is me. Thanks for asking! :-)
Let's reverse that, instead of writing what someone might do, I'll offer $250 for the person that cracks this upgrade scheme first and provides an easy to use piece of software to do the unlocking.

Anybody else want to chip in to increase the prize?
I don't see how a C&D could possibly achieve this unless GOG was too broke to afford any legal representation at all. Even the scariest C&D letter from a single publisher shouldn't be enough to suspend GOG's agreements with other publishers, and for all the publishers to collude to shut down GOG wouldn't make much sense (why did they make agreements with GOG in the first place?), and ought to run afoul of antitrust laws anyways.
I had Thanksgiving dinner with a brain surgeon once. I said "Wow, your work must be really challenging." He laughed and said, "Yeah, people think that." He went on to tell me that although he was one of the rising stars in his specialty, the truth was his work was mind-numbingly repetitive, he was bored and wanted to find something else to do in life. The surgeries he did required a great deal of precision but zero creativity. He was envious of people who write software.

Your comment is indicative in one interesting way. The challenge of programming is incongruent with its social status. This explains a lot of dysfunction in the software world (e.g. programmers having to choose between going into management or staying low-pay/low-status), but that's another story.
I guess it depends who you are but wouldn't porn sites be overuse and undersubscription?
I've been annoyed at Intel for awhile, and I've been happily voting with my pocketbook by only buying AMD powered laptops. Latest Intel annoyance: consumer grade "Pentium Dual-Core" chips, which are basically Core 2 Duos without VT-x instructions, so they are 64 bit processors that can't run 64-bit VM's. OK, that's old news, but annoying nonetheless when you've got one you are trying to get work done on.
How to output the server’s status on the desktop using Zabbix
I see.

I've only held a license in the US for 2.5 years so that's probably why I pay $200/month for insurance!
You're not saying how much "most of your life" is - are you 20? 60? How much experience do you have with the technologies you're working with (and other related tech)? How much outside tech stuff do you do?

I don't know Houston specifically, but that doesn't sound too out of place for a server side java dev with 4 years of experience in the midwest.

A couple things bother me - 2 raises in 4 years. Also, dual Java and .Net work. As much as I'm a 'play in all camps' advocate, you may never get truly deep skills to justify higher pay (in future jobs) if you're doing jumping between tech.

Overall, it's not the worst pay I've ever heard of for someone with multiple years of experience in Java and .Net.

Indeed shows:

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=.net&l1=houston&tm=1 = $85k
http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=java&l1=houston&tm=1 = $91k

Obviously just a rough ballpark, but you're near average it seems.
There are firmware locks on a lot of IBM hardware still, unlocked with the right amount of $$ paid to IBM.
It would probably cost them more to make a CPU with less L3 when they already have a design and production line for CPUs with larger L3.
I agree that the rent per square foot is higher in a coffeeshop than in a coworking space. OTOH, if I rent a desk at a coworking space, I expect to get 40-70 sq ft of semi-private space. At a coffee shop, I'm liable to be working at a 2-top that's barely large enough to fit both my laptop and my coffee and having the ass-or-crotch debate with my neighbors if I need to get out of my chair for some reason.

As for headcount, coworking spaces need to employ office managers. A single barista can serve hundreds of customers in a day. Per customer, a coworking space might actually need more employees.
Yep. At this point, I'm not assuming anything. I'll just wait it out to see what gets announced.
Facebook Bootcamp
Whether or not the shell is good depends (like everything) on what you are trying to do with it.

For an interactive console, I find bash (with the completion package and a custom prompt) better than anything I have ever used (and I keep trying to find a replacement).

For programming, sh is great at matching and moving files en masse depending on a few parameters, or wrapping cron jobs, and the like. For this it is downright delicious, but for things outside its domain, it rather sucks just like any programming language.
This is his own fault. Zipcar could have done a better job handling it, but please note how he says letters became increasingly more menacing. Why did he not attempt to do anything about this until they were trying to send him to collections?

Come on. you arent a victim. If i start to get calls about something, im going to return them, and figure out what is going on here.

If he would have simply called them he could have avoided this. Zipcar saw that he "owed" 50 bucks, they saw him not returning their calls, and finally they sent his ass to collections. Pretty straight forward to me. Its his fault for making sure that they wernt trying to bill him any longer, and to have done something PRIOR to them sending him to collections. Sit back a moment and ask yourself how Zipcar makes money.. hint: its not on the mileage

I use zipcar, and ive never had any issues.
What if the guy's blind?

Edit: the point here is that sometimes it's not possible to get directly equivalent reparations, so you have to come up with something else like a $5000 fine or a blood feud...
Hole in Linux kernel provides root rights
Good call. I skipped over that, but you're right: it will come in very handy (for example, my local development DB).
It's interesting that you point that out, I'll probably contact my bank about it tomorrow.

This isn't the place for discussion of my personal credit record, but it may be interesting for someone. I had a charge of 237 GBP on 11th April (the one that pushed the balance into debit at all), and the bill on 12th April, with a due date of 11th May (according to the credit card website). The next payment was when I noticed (thought) it had been missed - but was on the 10th of May, 1000GBP pushing the account a few hundred back into credit (i.e. negative balance). So judging by what appears on their website, it was actually before the due date. Yet it showed up in a credit report (Experian's creditexpert.co.uk free trial)...
Got well. (Or at least healthier. There is still room for improvement, which I am working on. I waffle between how I refer to it.)

http://www.healthgazelle.com
"Failing to pay the fee doesn't automatically break that contract."

IANAL, but aren't contracts only valid if there is consideration for both parties? If they're still letting him use their cars then the contract is probably legally binding, but if they've already cut him off then he can probably argue that the contract is invalid and he doesn't have to pay off the debt.
I was shocked at how nasty users were in the Shoes mailing list. I wasn't surprised when _why quit.
Discussion on places like Fatwallet suggests that most companies report payments that are 30+ days late, with additional badness tiers at 60+ and 120+ days late.

Yes. Also, credit reports focus on currently delinquent accounts -- a missed credit card payment a few years ago almost certainly won't show up if the account is currently not delinquent.
Anonymous aren't the "good guys" if anything they most closely resemble a "chaotic neutral" character from D&D.
Everyone's such an expert on my policies – you break into my filing cabinet or something?

I forget what it's called, but the policy has a provision to protect me for exactly this issue. And, again, I have already made a claim on it once for a boneheaded accident. Everything was great and I didn't get screwed.