skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Not true.

Google is Simply nudging developers to use App Bundles to reduce the app size while providing same experience to end user.
Its a win - win - win situation.

Win for Google: Reduces Bandwidth requirements for Android app downloads.

Win for Developers: Reduces uninstall rates due to reduced app size and increase in install rate (completion) due to faster downloads.

Win for End User: Reduced App download size resulting in reduced phone bill.

And somehow we find a way to make it look bad?
Every time I pay for TurboTax I hate them even more for lobbying for this type of legislation.
Cloud Run on GKE is Knative (which relies on Istio) installed on your GKE cluster, and updated by us. So yes, you can go and muck around with lower level Istio/K8s primitives, but only to a point (there are places where you can break Cloud Run on GKE if you configure things particular ways). Over time we're working on making those actions more clear and ensuring that you get all the benefits of the Istio mesh built in, plus the ability to reconfigure to suit your needs (e.g. adding Istio RBAC like we have with Cloud IAM on Cloud Run).
Thanks for the update. I hope you guys win for the sake of all of us, but for the sake of your startup I hope you don’t have to spend time in court. Laws shouldn’t be copyrightable not only for reasons of public access, but IMO also to specifically deter commercial interests from writing the codes, and to deter companies from making profits off of publically funded labor.
Precisely what set those thoughts in motion for me a few decades ago.
> The Ways and Means chair, Neal, received $16,000 in contributions from the two companies in the last two election cycles, according to the ProPublica report.

When companies make contributions like this, why don't politicians just take the money and then do whatever they want anyway? The companies have no recourse to complain or get the money back do they? How does this work?
"If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it."
I think this is a great idea. The risk of the IRS totally screwing up is just too high. And having an outside contractor do it is potentially even worse.

E.g. the State of Oregon contracted with Oracle to create a health insurance marketplace. $200 million dollars later there was nothing but lawsuits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_Oregon

Let that sink in. Two hundred million dollars and they couldn't get a fucking website working. Two hundred million dollars!

Anyone who has played with TurboTax or H&R Block software knows that the software is at least pretty good. There are plenty of nuances in the tax laws, and the software at least attempts to cover those. Sure, a good tax accountant probably can do a lot better, but for 98% of people the software is good enough.

Does anyone seriously believe that the IRS would do better? Why waste taxpayer money to find out?
No. But if you need to change your directions, or search for something in the GPS, your eyes won't be on the road and you should pull over. If anything you're doing in your car is taking your focus away from operating a multi ton killing machine, then be an adult and stop it.
Plutus Smart Contracts: Pay $10 in Ada
There is still one important scenario that benefits from supporting a fallback to "classic" HTML for web sites (and apps): Bandwidth constrained environments. GMail's plain HTML version is an existing example (a link to it shows up if the JS version takes too long to load).

Anyway, for public facing sites and apps, you may already be doing most of the necessary work for SEO purposes. Letting humans access the version that you're showing to search engine spiders shouldn't be a huge burden.
I strongly disagree. People will always find something to complain about, and something so quantifiably "unfair" as income/wealth inequality will always be among them.

Even if 99% of people earned 200k and 1% earned 250k, there would be talk about how unfair the elite class is and how we need to tax those rich people so much more.
http://disq.us/p/21153z5
Wanted to drop in and say that I've seen this and am looking for any data that we're willing/able to share on our internal benchmarks.
How often: entirely depends. Hard to put a number on this.

How I do it/when I do it: easier to answer. I primarily ask for help when I've tried a handful of things first. Also, when I do ask for help, I bring my findings/efforts with me!
No lie. His description sounds like he's a better visualizer than I am, but not really different in kind, just intensity. I could probably do that if I practiced more often. When I was under 15 or so it was easier and closer to what he described. But still, if I'm reading the right book I essentially cannot see the page anymore because the visualization is so strong and intense that I'm in that other world, not in ours anymore.

I recently read Clarke's The City and the Stars. His description of the city of Diaspar is so strong that I feel like I have literally been there in exactly the same way as I have been to Yellowstone. I know I can't get on a plane to go back there, but if I open the book again I will be there again.

Another favorite book of mine is The Good Earth. I have experienced Wang Lung's life in almost the exact same way as Picard experienced another man's life in The Inner Light. I read that book in a single uninterrupted sitting because the experience of living someone else's life from beginning to end was so enthralling that I could not stop.

If you want to know why Harry Potter fans are so obsessive, it's because the books are very easy to visualize. Millions of people have a "lived experience" of being Harry throughout 7 years of wizard school and that experience leaves a mark on you. When I saw the movies it was a bit odd because I'd already seen a different set of "movies" in my mind and they got some details wrong.
I’m the same with music. I can “hear” music played back in my head with every detail as though I’m listening to a recording. I can get the same rush as I do when listening to the actual recording, and I assume this massive reward I get from music has something to do with why I can remember it in such detail. No surprise that I’m also a musician.
> was forced to land by PLA fighters

I won't necessarily say the landing was forced by PLA fighters; that would imply PLA intentionally did this (to obtain tech?) while in fact that J-8 crashed and its pilot was killed/missing. US recon planes fly near China's (and other countries') coastal line with PLA's fighter near by all the time.

My point is that incident looks more like an accident to me even though China may have gained some tech out of it while losing one pilot and plane.
What is the big deal with phone use at a red light? It will, at worst, hold up traffic slightly.
I think a free demo should be available, or at least some clear evidence of what information this app provides that a traditional one doesn’t. You have mentioned some of the shortcomings of traditional apps, but you have not demonstrated solving those. As of now, this app seems more of a beautiful art project than a pragmatic weather app, to me.
Yup, it's 380 now, so it's either a interactive counter or the author just keeps updating it.
>The companies have no recourse to complain or get the money back do they? How does this work?

They'll back your opponent in the primaries/elections, and run smear campaigns on you.
The one time I've been in any sort of accident was when I was fumbling around with maps on my old Nokia C5. The front tire grazed the sidewalk, and the tire basically disintegrated after a few kilometers. Since then, I'm very particular about not using the phone at all. I've tried to use Google assistant to do things like change tracks, or start navigation, but it's not reliable enough yet.
a sinecure is always nice?
I've often read headlines noting that the tax-prep lobby spends huge sums to preserve the status quo. But the numbers quoted in the article as evidence don't appear to support that claim. $6.6m seems low relative to these figures https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2018&inde... *

*I can't vouch for this site or its data

Relevant quote from the Tech Crunch article:
"One reason why folks Congress could be pushing this through is all of the money that H&R Block and Intuit spent to lobby Senators and Representatives. ProPublica estimates that the tax prep industry has spent $6.6 million to advocate for the IRS filing deal. The Ways and Means chair, Neal, received $16,000 in contributions from the two companies in the last two election cycles, according to the ProPublica report."
A feature to the small handful of people who still use IRC. Look around though. Everyone else expects basic features like being able to send someone a message even though that person went through a tunnel.
iPad disabled for 25,536,442 minutes
Hey I don't have a dog in this fight, but I think this is the link you're looking for.

https://github.com/fivethirtyeight/checking-our-work-data
Meanwhile, in my little country (NZ), as a regular salaried worker, I only had to interact with the IRD in the years that I had a few side gigs in addition to my regular employment.

Most years I don't interact with them at all. Don't even have to file.

I guess in the USA they are worried the IRS will get it wrong, so on the chance they will, everyone has to follow really complicated processes, even if their tax affairs are simple...Am I wrong?
Uhg, how do we stop this? Is it too late?
> Whenever I read about this phenomenon, there doesn't seem to be a good quasi-objective metric of this subjective capability to visualize -- there's no test or questionnaire I can use to see how my abilities rate against others'.

There certainly is. The Vividness of Visual Imagery questionnaire, or VVIQ [1]. It's been referenced in most of the recent aphantasia research I've looked at.

[1] https://wh.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=148940557153
The IRS would basically tell you what they already know. You still could file a return if you chose to do so. You could also buy TurboTax if you wanted to.

I can’t see any downside to the taxpayer, only upside.
E
House Representatives have 2 year terms. If you'd like to hold onto that job for longer than 2 years, you have to campaign again, which means raising money again. Do you think TurboTax is going to keep investing in a congressperson who isn't doing what they want?
Exactly.
Just leaving this here:
Do tasks, get paid.
Check it out in the CoinCircle website
https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3
That's right all the codes are freely accessible. Users have to pay if they want to use our search engine and collaboration tools.

We started UpCodes for a couple reasons: one is to make money and build a business, another is because it seemed fun and interesting work, another is because we think this was important that no one was tackling (simplifying compliance, not the lawsuit which was unexpected and very unfortunate).

> their idea is that people will pay them instead of ICC

No, that's not right. Although, I admit I am pretty upset with them, they caused me a lot of personal anxiety of the last 19 months.

But ICC makes most of their revenue from program services, including consulting, certification, and training[1]. We haven't every thought about doing any of that, so their primary revenue stream is very much safe. The also have membership dues which are quite significant too.

[1] page 52 here: http://media.iccsafe.org/AnnualReports/2015/2015AnnualReport...
$16k to sell out? Don't these people raise millions?
Also add to that: I suspect most people in Congress would need to hire an accountant anyway so it would benefit them in the least
Yes, but if the US tax code weren't so darn complicated wouldn't that reduce the chances of the IRS totally screwing up?

I just finished my taxes and filing taxes in the US is such a stshow. But where do we start? We want to simplify filing, but that might depend on simplifying the tax code, which might be orders of magnitude more difficult. Sigh!
Just wanted to say thanks to you and the rest of the GCP crew for being all over this thread. Most appreciated!
If they ban all dark patterns but also prevent the federal government from providing free digital filling of tax returns, I am ok with it...
Does this apply then to telcoms too I wonder?
Kind of a toothless "many" when this isn't even built into Freenode. I have to wonder if any IRC server I've ever connected to supported it and why I've never seen this feature.
Sounds kind of eating disorder-y. Orthorexia? Manorexia?
If the marginal cost is zero of raising, raise all the amounts
Would be even nicer if taxpayers would have to remit taxes on their own, instead of automatic deductions by the employer.

Preferably, they'd have to count paper bills with their own hands, savoring each one for just a moment, before handing it over to the government.
I think you (and probably most of the people upvoting this story) have misunderstood this change. It's just a simplification on how instant apps are created. Instead of using the feature plugin, you can use the simpler and newer app bundles, which you would want to use regardless.
yeah but what happens when they're up for re-election and they need money again? Maybe corporate donors back a rival who they know will "play ball".
> Where are they? Five different posters have claimed this, but zero have been able to link to the historical predictions.

They are literally charted on the page with the current prediction, e.g., for the 2016 Presidential race (which is locked on the last forecast):

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/ , under “How the forecast has changed”, it charts the forecast (by default, the win probability) for the entire time the race was being forecast.
She's not successful, she's wealthy. There's a difference. She got a lottery ticket at Google and cashed in, then proceeded to run Yahoo into the ground. She's widely considered a failure in tech and business circles, and for good reason (I was with her at Yahoo and can testify to her strategic incompetence). If Marissa is the role model you want - stylish but incompetent - then I feel bad for you. Much like Elizabeth Holmes (another destroyer of billions), Marissa should be considered an anti-hero for women in business.
> their privacy scandals and mismanagement of Firefox

Explain further? Haven't heard of these
The IRS already does your taxes based on the information they already have. Ever had the IRS helpfully "correct" your filed taxes and send you more money or send you a bill?

You can dispute it, but in the multiple times it has happened to me, they were right, and refunded or charged me sometimes modest sometimes small amounts.

They could've just done that and saved me the $$ spent on Intuit (do it yourself) or accountant services.
I’m wondering if these aren’t the same people. The ones that, if not texting, are driving while putting on makeup, ogling every lady in a dress, turning into oncoming traffic, popping ambien, or driving drunk.

It seems like a personality type that’s generally careless and self important. Texting isn’t much more distracting than the thousands of other unsafe things people do.
The title can be a bit misleading. I'm guessing most people thought this means Instant apps themselves are deprecated, whereas it's just an older plugin being replaced by a better and newer way.
Most people do not think like that logically.

In addition, I believe the effective penalty for vehicular manslaughter is probably ten thousand times worse because of the psychological cost of being responsible for someone's death.
It's in the referenced contracts.

That statute states IRS should continue the program (67 Fed. Reg. 67247), "including any subsequent agreements and governing rules established pursuant thereto."

In 67 Fed. Reg. 67247: "During the term of this Agreement, the IRS will not compete with the Consortium in providing free, on-line tax return preparation and filing services to taxpayers."
How does this work?

The definition of an honest politician is one who stays bought.

Nobody in politics receives a single "campaign contribution" aka "bribe". Instead, it's an ongoing revenue stream.

Lobbyists frequently lobby on behalf of a number of companies, on a number of issues. The lobbyists know which politicians can be trusted. The politicians know which lobbyists can be trusted.

That does seem somewhat cynical, and the whole business does seem a bit seedy if not sordid. But what is the alternative? Our republic seems bad, but it functions better than most other countries out there.
The point is not that one can/can't do it elsewhere, but Netlify makes it easy. You are less likely to run into that one frustrating problem that takes you hours to solve (like writing a build and deploy tool in bash) - Netlify does it for you.

I've done a static site from Terraform, and I've done it more recently in Netlify - Terraform was exponentially harder, end to end.
Not really, no! Most national elections sure, but I think most congressional races aren't nearly as expensive.
This sort of argument comes up all the time, claiming governments somehow screw everything up but private industry has some sort of amazing track record at producing value.

There’s a continuous stream of evidence to the contrary, particularly if you’ve ever worked for large companies and seen the kind of wasted resources that go toward pet projects and other high value items that fail miserably.

The difference of course is that one costs tax payers whereas the other costs shareholders, and in one case (government and tax payers) there is some hope of oversight and accountability. If shareholders actually knew about this sort of waste I am not sure they would ultimately care because they may chalk it up to the cost of doing business.
> No ads on start page? Nope

You can set your own startpage

> Ad block? Nope

You can easily add an extension for ad block.
People buy crap they don't need all the time. The whole point of advertising is to sell. I believe the OPs are saying that they leverage information about you to bully you in to thinking that something is actually helpful and you should buy it, hence the talk about exploiting self esteem on a much more personal level. While I can't be sure if Google or Facebook actively do this kind of thing or sellers just use these platforms to do this, there's very little question that social media and consumer internet has gone rogue. Unless you've been living under a rock, you just have come across at least a few of those.

I, personally, have no issues with these platforms collecting my data and making money off it in exchange for their services that I use. But when they do the same even when Im not using their services or explicility expressing my disagreement, I'm not cool with that.
I think it's important to realize that you're optimizing for different things. "a, b, a, b" optimizes for, let's say, "attention span", while "B, A" optimizes for some sort of efficiency. Not everyone's attention span or need for efficiency are the same.
Funny that Facebook is for this, but it makes sense. It would stop any startups from having the same advantage as them in regards to sketchy growth practices.
Being your close neighbour - how do you handle work related deductions. ie. IT equipment?
> Does anyone seriously believe that the IRS would do better?

It’s interesting to see the same arguments resurface as they do for healthcare.

Most non-Americans here live in countries where salaried employees have almost zero contact with the country’s ex agency. No returns, no filing, it all just magically happens behind the scenes.

So it’s kinda weird to hear Americans say “that’s impossible! How can you trust government?!”.

The worst thing about American exceptionalism is that it blinkers Americans from things that are not only done better by some other countries, but also the things that literally every other rich country in the world manages.
That’s not A/B testing, or at least not just A/B testing, that’s a full blown psych experiment.
Barcelona wants to build 500 superblocks – what it learned from the first ones
I don't think the IRS or government hires worse people than, say, TurboTax. However, the procurement process for contracting the work is a byzantine nightmare, of which companies who are management and administrative heavy are the only ones who can possibly compete.

The net result is you have systems being put together using objectively bad processes and whose outcomes are guaranteed to be more expensive and less likely to work as intended.

A former employer of mine was a small startup in the intelligence analysis space, and had a product that generated a lot of interest in various government circles, as it solved some problems better than what they were currently using. The red tape to actually get any sort of contract approved was so tough to get through the owner seriously contemplated hiring a company whose sole purpose was helping other companies negotiate said red tape.

In the end, they pivoted to the commercial space.

To bring this back to the original point: I would love to have a super-simple tax system that didn't require paying third parties to file for me to make sure that I filled everything out correctly, and leveraged the tax code to best fit my circumstances. However, I do not have much faith that such a thing will come about anytime soon... once bitten, twice shy, that sort of thing.
I've often lamented a system that makes people feel good about getting back money that was already theirs (without interest) and calling it free money.
Getty images are getting sued for selling public domain images. That photo could be legitimately from the researchers with Getty just doing their thing
My strongest experience of something like this was always when half-asleep on public transit, commuting home in the evening. Those rare times, I was indeed "tricked" by what amounted to a lucid dream.

I knew I was on a bus, because the sounds and feelings maintained continuity with reality. But the details I saw were completely made up. My eyes were closed, I think, but it didn't feel like that was connected to my ability to see. Because of the swaying motion of the bus, I knew where we were, and the scene I was "watching" was based on that. I was able to move, and think normally about my day, and did not notice that I had fallen asleep.

Of course, I eventually woke up. Reality was significantly less pleasant than my dream. The dream bus had been much less crowded, and clean, and generally more atmospheric and warm-toned, even the sunlight.

Does that sound similar to what you meant by trance consciousness?
Have you considered any alternatives? I use taxcut but have used sites in the past like taxbrain.
The easier it is the file taxes, the closer you get to a direct link to your bank account where you "don't have to think about it". Affordances and friction can be good. And if you (actually) believe in equality, those affordances should apply to all.
Not sure how quickly that message is getting out, mobile phone use while driving is very common here. It's _really_ noticeable when you're on a motorbike, your view is clearer, but also being a little higher you can see the phone on people's laps as they drive along looking down at them.
This guy was a huge idiot. He put his name on the lease. He signed a 2 year lease in a place he doesn’t know with a person he doesn’t know. I’m sorry but it has to be said that this guy is a total idiot.
This article from 2016 has good figures. Not much changed since then but could use a refresh with the newer instance types. https://thehftguy.com/2016/11/18/google-cloud-is-50-cheaper-...

The basic instance n1-standard-1 vs c5.large is 80% more expensive on AWS. A shame AWS doesn't provide single core instances.

Google gives 30% discount automatically on instances running for a full month. AWS has no such thing. That's enough to put them in different league.

Anything AWS involving SSD or provisioned IOPS is abusively priced whereas Google simply has better performance on network storage and can attach any amount of local SSD to any instance.
Statistics classes find problems with lottery - again