skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Physics says if I don’t have my own car I’ll have to wait for one. The rideshare could leave a ton in the parking lot but that negates all the projected cost savings from higher utilization.
> The sooner they go under, the sooner drivers start making livable incomes again.

Have you actually been a driver? I can assure you that having been one, in the Bay area, even, the income was quite livable.
Last flu season (2017-2018) 80,000 people in the US died of influenza. It's a real public health problem, not just an inconvenience.
Holy crap - that's totally what happened. Fascinating...

"[Killer whale nicknamed] Old Tom's role was commonly to alert the human whalers to the presence of a baleen whale in the bay by breaching or tailslapping at the mouth of the Kiah River, which is one of the smallest rivers... This role endeared him to the whalers and led to the idea that he was “leader of the pack,” although such a role was more likely taken by a female (as is typical among killer whales)".
> Snap had a good product and plenty of customers but was crushed by Facebook. What competitor will tower over Lyft like that?

Well Lyft ha a good product and plenty of customers and is currently being crushed in terms of market share.

Wait till you hear about this company call Uber. They are 5x the size of Lyft and are capable of outspending Lfyt until Lyft is bankrupt.
In the US, I can walk into a store and pay cash for a $30 flip phone without any ID, and unlimited talk and text. 15 years ago it was $150 and 200 minutes talk, 20 texts.
The more I think about this the more I focus on the Amazon case.

Amazon's core competency is logistics. They would not exist at anything like their current scale if they couldn't do 2-day delivery. That's what really gives them a leg up vs doing a Google search, finding a small e-commerce ship that sells what you want, and getting the product.

Breaking that into an independent service-- if it's possible at all-- would have far more impact, and possibly more positive impact, than anything involving house brands or an ec2 split.
Discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17388144
It's not necessarily hypocritical. You need to look at net carbon output. Perhaps that first-class passenger is buying carbon credits, maybe they own clean-energy companies and are travelling to expand their market.
Lyft has plenty of revenue to be sure. It also has lots of fixed costs. You can't just "dial back" paying drivers.

I also get the impression that the costs of rides are artificially low right now. Lyft is subsidizing them to encourage use. If the true cost of a Lyft is about the same as a cab, I can say personally I'd be more inclined to take public transit or a cab than I am now.
1. On keeping up with new technologies

There are a lot of skills churn in this industry, and even as someone still on the young side, I'm rather leery of this trend. I imagine much of this trend has to do with the fact that the population of programmers is still increasing at a significant rate. I heard somewhere that the population of programmers has doubled roughly every 5 years for many decades. Add to that the fact that (as pointed out in this article) more and more programmers move into non-dev roles as they get older. It's not too surprising that employers are going to tailor their hiring process to younger engineers if that's what the hiring pool looks like.

My focus has tended to be on developing proficiency with older technologies that have stood the test of time (Unix, RDBMs, Erlang, etc.). The fact is that when it comes to technology, the longer it has been used, the longer it will likely continue to be used - this applies as much to COBOL as it does to LISP. It's not that I don't get excited about new technology, but when I do I tend to be more excited about tech that builds on the great ideas of the past rather than tech that purports to be radically new.

I don't know how this strategy is going to play out. I certainly do enjoy learning new things (that part of why I got into this business in the first place) but I also want to know that I am increasing my value in the market place by developing mastery in skills that are going to have lasting value.

2. On the weaknesses of promotional tracks for ICs

When I was working at HP, I was told explicitly: "We promote people in the management track to see if they can do the job, we promote people in the technical track if they're already doing the job". I'm not sure if this is the right approach, but it definitely does make it more difficult to stay technical.

There are many valuable qualities that generally only come from seasoned engineers: qualities like leadership, expertise, communication skills, project management skills, and strong professional networks. The problem is that while time is a necessary ingredient to cultivating those qualities, it is not sufficient. We have to be intentional about shoring up our weaknesses in these areas. This is something I've heard from some of the most respected scientists and technologists - people who are arguably at the pinnacle of success and reputation - say that they wished they had done better in.
There are no single foods that humans can live on, due to nutritional requirements. At least some desire for variety is necessary for basic survival.
Israeli Moon Lander 'On the Right Path' Despite Recent Glitch
I don't know about the origin story, although frankly I hope it's true.

Personally, I think Go is terrible. However, I can't imagine Google is even remotely considering scrapping Go. It is massively popular. It is used all over the place both externally and internally. It's a huge branding asset, community outreach tool, recruiting tool and provides leverage in the form of first party libraries over the direction that software development as a whole is going.
The beginning of Public-key cryptography (1874)
The issue comes with the monopoly status. If a company controls a certain % of marketshare, that behavior crosses into anti-competitive.

If 90% of retail stores were Walmart because they owned a significant percentage of real-estate in key markets (thus, preventing other retailers from moving in), then their Great Value offerings would also be anti-competitive.

Amazon's behavior is a textbook anti-competition. They literally build copies of products offered by other merchants on their site, then rank them higher in search results, often times, driving the merchants out of business.
Waymo keeps plugging away. Each year, for the last few years, the number of miles between disconnects they report to the CA DMV has doubled. Three more doublings, and that number will be bigger than average miles between accidents for human drivers. Then they can ship a product.

Nobody else is even close.

This problem is slowly being solved, by normal engineering practices. The "fake it til you make it" players are being left behind. Uber has been shown to be totally incompetent. Tesla really just has a good lane follower and an mediocre car follower. Apple has been trying to hand-wave by talking about "significant disconnects" vs. the all disconnects DMV requires them to report.

The LIDAR industry is struggling, but there is progress. Quanergy seems to have been mostly hype.[1] Continental, the big European auto parts maker, bought Advanced Scientific Concepts, which makes and sells a good but expensive flash LIDAR used in DoD and space applications. They packaged it up for automotive use, and are waiting for the self driving industry to catch up. That technology uses exotic indium-gallium-arsenide sensor ICs, which are expensive in small quantities but would probably be affordable if they could sell a few million a year.

This looks like a problem that's being solved. Just not fast enough for startups used to quick payoffs in software.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-08-13/how-a-bil...
It's worth remembering that the career antitrust officials at the FTC felt that Google should face antitrust action back in 2012.

It was the political appointees (from both parties) who shut the investigation down.

>The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday faced renewed questions about its handling of its antitrust investigation into Google, after documents revealed that an internal report had recommended stronger action.

The 2012 report, from the agency’s bureau of competition, said that the agency should sue the Internet search company for anticompetitive practices…

In early 2013, the agency unanimously voted not to bring charges after an investigation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/20/technology/take-google-to...

Google's lobbying investment levels appear to have been quite adequate.

However, I would agree that the telecomm companies are also ripe for antitrust action.
A fully expect this administration's agency executives to do whatever it takes to take profit over people. We saw what another agency head in the FCC did for net neutrality at the behest of companies desire for profit over people. The administrations policies here will be similar. Comments to the USPTO will be ignored unless they favor of the position the politics demand.
The Intellectual Death of Conservatism
I have lived in NYC and Austin and I grew up in southern Alabama. Austin is much hotter in the summer. It's nearly as humid as Mobile but tack on 10 degrees.

Average humidity during the summer:
Austin: 90%
Mobile: 100%
Miami: 100%
NYC: 54%

It's not even close.

Maybe its because people are outside more in NYC and don't have a car readily available with AC torqued to full blast? Or less buildings have AC / the subway is oppressive?
> A company that is not profitable now that is going to make a profit down the road is a good investment, since you'll be buying it at a discount on the market now.

This line of thinking is the reason a lot of people lose money investing. If investors are confident a company will one day be profitable, the price will trade at a value that is very close to what it will be when it hits those numbers. The market takes into account future cash flows.

In order to beat the market, you have to either know, or guess correctly, something that the rest of the market doesn't know. So, usually, you need luck or insider trading.
According to the USPTO, today is the last day to submit comments, if you don't like how patents are often used to squash small companies and entrepreneurs, please consider submitting a letter at the link: https://act.eff.org/action/save-alice-tell-the-patent-office...
> Why is everyone in this damn country in a rush?

Time is money, the average American has little of either.
Is the article incorrect then when it says the marine life found on the debris was inconsistent with the amount of time the plane has been gone?
Figuring out where to eat lunch causes you stress? Much easier than figuring out where your pregnant wife wants to eat. Now that is stressful!

Glad you were able to stick to bringing lunch. I always end up being too lazy and enjoy the break from the office or home office. If I don’t have variety I will become pretty cranky.
It depends on the context assumed about the audience that is supposed to understand the definitions.

Do they have the experiences relevant to the word being defined? If not, what experiences do they have in common with the person providing the definition?

How intelligent are they? Can they understand complex concepts through logic, through examples or both?

How much do they know about English (besides the few words assumed known)?
I think the meta-point is that betting on intellectual ideas is an underused tool in the toolbox of decision making. Endless academic journal debates don't seem to help much in moving people across ideological divides.

For all of those that disagree with his methodology or conclusions, if you can reach him, I recommend putting your money where your mouth is and proposing a different bet with Dr. Caplan.

I see a lot of people in the comments offended by his tone. I see his tone as analogous to a soccer player celebrating after a goal. We should socially encourage such behavior for those who win fair intellectual bets. (Although there is such a thing as unsportsmanly gloating, although I don't think this is such an example.)
An investment thesis for Lyft is if you expect Lyft to get acquired. If profitability is nowhere in sight, then the end-game is acquisition. Companies that might want to get into ridesharing is long, and Lyft is the fastest (and probably cheapest if the stock tanks) path towards competing against Uber in the US market.

Any company that is working on self-driving cars will want to acquire Lyft: Google, Apple, Tesla, GM, etc

Any company that is in logistics space will want to acquire Lyft: Amazon, DoorDash, Grubhub, etc.

Any ridesharing company will want to acquire Lyft: Uber (defensively), Didi, Ola, probably not Grab, etc.

There will likely be a bidding war for Lyft because that's the only reasonable path towards competing against Uber unless you think self-driving car is < 5 years away.
I completely agree with these points....

Also... if you bought full self driving you're going to get the new v3 hardware retrofit... that's what you paid for and it's going to be better... probably a lot better.

(edit: removed link... just google it)
For the same exact reason VC's fund 10 companies and expect only 1 to succeed.

Also, clicks.
>the IC path is short-lived in almost any profession (not just SWE), no?

Depends on where you work. If R&D is core to the business, there will be a non-management ladder and plenty of near-retirement greybeards around the office.

Note: many fashionable names in "tech" don't fit that bill.
The Z-80 computer I had the the 80's had an entire K-7 tape of games from Microsoft.
Yes, but you can't install a LIDAR over a software update. They've been promising full self-driving mode and getting closer by updating the software - the owners that already have the current car won't be to thrilled if they get cut-off from the state-of-the-art in Tesla's self-driving tech.
Don't domains managed by Microsoft Active Directory do the same thing? E.g. If git is hosted on git.contoso.com and my workstation is part of contoso.com, I can just go to https://git
SEEKING WORK
Experienced Android developer

Where: Turkey, Konya
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: Yes
Projects:
http://rodoapp.net
Others: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Raptiye

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enesdokuz
GitHub:
http://github.com/enesdokuz

Email: enesdokuz@gmail.com
Ah yes, the CTA transit cards can also act as (predatory) debit cards.
That's correct.

The Framers said "No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."

They could just as easily have said "No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness." But they did not.
> might not exhibit ANY radiation

That would be against thermodynamics. Every object that has a temperature (above 0K) emits radiation.
I remember that. I was running Slackware at the time and I had an eventful couple of months...
From the article:

> By now, some 30 pieces have been found. Investigators assumed that after more than a year these would be covered in rich colonies of marine organisms, whose makeup would shed light on the path the pieces had taken through the ocean. To their surprise, they found none of them hosted organisms more than a couple of months old.

That gives some plausibility to "people moved debris to the ocean later", though also to "marine growth is weird sometimes". It doesn't support the statement "we have evidence confirming that MH370 crashed into the ocean at approximately the time it disappeared".
Yikes, how strange it must be to be so completely convinced about something so indiscernible.
I just made upper management aware at Equifax. Let's see how long this takes until they require the FUCKING PIN number to unfreeze your credit on their website. What a joke.
In most cases, having your own car will mean driving it too.

I have been asking people about this. Many will just build the wait into what they do, and will count on software minimizing that with predictive behavior.

Personally, I have zero desire to own a self driving car. I could potentially own one with that option, but the expense will get in the way. Just not worth it.

Younger people will just adapt, meaning longer term ownership trends will not be good.

Except for classic, you drive cars. Demand and value will grow nicely as people maintain them.

Frankly, they will have to be legislated off the road.

Well off people will own, but that will be a minority case.
Common Lisp: Why Quickutil
This is precisely why I avoid any articles published by El Reg. They're essentially the The Daily Mail of the tech scene. You're far better off reading about this stuff from other sources.
The US also broke up Ma Bell in 1956, forcing the spinoff of Bell Canada and Caribbean operations, and before that in 1925, breaking off other international operations into ITT.
I wondered the same thing (how do so many people buy lunch daily) but concluded - at the time and the context I was observing it - that there were two main factors.

Number 1 was social. People went out for lunch in groups, and it was an "enforced" break in the day. It's a cultural issue that can be hard to replicate for "lunch bringers" in some places. Not so fun to eat alone in a drab lunch room if your friends and peers are down the street having pizza, I guess.

Number 2 was time, or at least the perception of time. Tech people (in my context) tend to work long hours and whether you are trying to maintain a social life or bring up a couple of kids, once you add that to work hours there isn't a ton left. More than one person I know had commented that they didn't find the time to make and bring lunches that didn't leave them feeling left out. It's easy to bring a crappy sandwich, harder to bring something you really enjoy. At least for them.
Three words: Ads, ads, and ads.

Ads is how you make money. All lyft needs to do is incorporate ads into its platform and it will start printing money.
Is it any surprise?

I don't want to be accused of being a racist so I can't move into affordable urban neighborhoods with too many 'underrepresented minorities'. I like peace and quiet, you don't find that in the city. I like driving more than walking/bicycling/taking the bus so I live in a place that makes it less of a hassle to own the cars. And I care for my safety and my property, I'd be an idiot to move to the cities near me that care more about being nice to criminals than protecting property owned by the working class.

And yeah, the suburbs are advantaged. I saved money to live there, I want my kids to have the most advantages possible, I've instilled enough discipline in them that they're able to learn and grow at school. I've been in city schools, they're full of kids pissing away the opportunity to learn and interfering with the learning of other students, how can someone succeed when their classmates are cranking that soulja boy?
A decent amount of countries offer point based immigration visas, where a degree certainly helps, but is not a hard requirement.

For example, Japan's Highly Skilled Worker visa can be pretty easily achieved without a degree.
Note that holding onto a dream and making public statements to sucker investors are not necessarily the same thing.

I agree with your basic point, especially in the areas dense enough to make taxi-like services work well.
SpaceX Dragon demo capsule returns to Earth
Why is Apple not part of this? The most valuable company!! What apple does with integration of software, hardware, dongle, accessory and walled garden is nothing but a monopoly! The killing of iMessage if you switch etc. Maybe Amazon, Google, FB didn't pay enough money to Warren's election fund.
It seems like you are just repeating the same specious point that OP was refuting.

Right now, it feels like companies like Google are mostly silencing hate speech, violent extremists, and pornography, but there is no guarantee that their censorship will remain that way in the future. In a not-so-hypothetical future where a single private company has taken almost whole control over online media and starts imposing heavy censorship over non-offensive speech, are we going to continue saying "it's a private company, and if you don't like it, you can just share your opinions on this platform that nobody reads"?
IIRC that can even be done in Linux, but the main source of my lamentation in the first place is that I can't just close the app and forget about it, because of an occasional message in a couple months.

(Though, now that I think of it, Skype API on the desktop was there before version 8―and since they've broken the app quite thoroughly in version 8, I'd be surprised if the API survived.)
I'll be 30 fairly soon and am I the only one who doesn't find learning new technologies all that hard? Is it going to get harder soon?

In my experience a database is a database, even if you call it something else. Really a database isn't too different from flat files with some helper functions to make rooting around them easier. In turn that's not to different from storing the information in RAM. Different ways to get at them but in the end you have the same bits in that string.

Same with programming languages, I don't know the specific one you use perhaps but I move between C, Python, Javascript and Go without much friction (Jetbrains IDE's are helpful for when you forget specifics of syntax after a time away from a language). Sure I have to look up some how something is done in the standard library of one language vs another but I've gotten pretty quick at that. If I'm working on a existing codebase I can look how similar problems are solved and replicate that style.

Containerization, Lamdba, serverless. It's the same old code running in new ways. I don't know what value to edit in the config file but that's just a google search away. At the end of the day its "I need to hit this endpoint and get this back" same story, different cast of characters.

I don't mean to humblebrag or anything but it seems like a non-issue to me. I understand how computing systems work generally and the laws of physics impose some hard limitations that sort of massage any solution to look similar enough to any other that it isn't that hard to figure out what is going on. Sure I'll lack some of the deep knowledge that someone who has focused solely on these set of technologies may have but honestly most of the programmers I meet don't have that to begin with.
If you follow the Swedish vaccination programme you get your 4th shot at the age of 14 and you should refill it every 20 years.
I went through this recently with a family member, there were robots allowing specialists to review chart. There is always a hospitalist (doctor) on staff. The most appropriate way for the hospital to approach this topic is for the robot to consult with the hospitalist outside the room, and then have the hospitalist with end of care professionals have that discussion.
That is unfortunately exactly what is happening, as an example here's an article from back in 2018 about the 650mil being independently raised on GoFundMe to address inflated costs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynmcclanahan/2018/08/13/us...
'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams: Trump has had 'one of the best first years'
This is great because it starts a conversation about monopoly power that's long been needed.

This I think is one of the understated values of primaries and presidential elections. Even if Warren is elected and unable to get legislation passed, she has moved this particular conversation forward.
hdajackretask on Linux does that, part of alsa-tools.

Blog post by author from 2011: http://voices.canonical.com/david.henningsson/2011/11/29/tur...

I believe similar utilities exist on Windows at least with some cards.