skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
All it took to curb his inner price gouging criminal and bring out the philanthropist was a teeny weeny criminal investigation. What a model citizen!
Perhaps. Around here this isn't something unusual when a hurricane or crazy weather event is in the forecast.

Call it naive optimism, but hopefully in the next few days people will calm down and things might sort-of go back to normal.
> it MUST be because it's not getting replenished.

I don't think that follows.

All that needs to happen in order for the him to sell at a markup is that demand continues to outpace supply, it's not necessary that supply stops.

So, from that perspective, his argument holds.
> just before the shutdown of the north, a lot of people fled the north

Part of the North had already been in shutdown for a week or so. Unfortunately, a plan to greatly expand the quarantined zone was leaked to the press by a shady journalist-spy-henchman. This resulted in thousands of Milanese rushing to "escape" before the plan had officially been announced. At that point, instead of going ahead with that plan, the government shut down the whole country and instructed local authorities in the South to control and monitor the stream of "escapees".

> less willing to socially isolate their elderly

I think that's a bit of a stereotype - in reality there are plenty of socially-isolated elderly in any major Italian city. It's just that the average age is so high over there, "the elderly" as a category includes __a lot__ of people, very often still working in their 60s or 70s in key roles (or nominally retired but, say, running amateur football clubs or volunteering in other third-sector activities that end up being essential to local life). Socially isolating all of them is simply unfeasible - you'd end up paralizing most regional assemblies and even the national Parliament, for example.
I have been considering the following business thought-experiment:

Price Gougers: a company whose goal is explicit in its name. What you need will always be in stock, but it will always be expensive. It is the kind of company that could ensure that, in situations like this, there might be more N95 masks and hand sanitizer in global inventory.

Could such a company get enough social buy-in to survive in the face of anti-price-gouging laws that appear with every crisis?

If a person/company had stockpiled N95s a year ago, with intent to sell them at a markup in the event of a pandemic, could that entity ever hope to be repaid for its beneficial risk-taking?

(I'll also point out that I'm considering donating most of our few household N95s to our nearby medical center, and am angling to get our research laboratory to do the same. This thought-experiment arises from the fact that investors won't deploy capital to do this kind of thing at scale unless they expect to see a return.)
The downvotes are because millions of people will die because of this attitude.
He thought the stores could easily restock, and he would profit from online sale. Possible?
A Smaller, More Powerful Battery Begins to Charge Devices
Probably closer to several million if stricter measures aren't taken, because the severe cases will overload hospitals and there won't be enough ventilation equipment and doctors to go around.
Is there a specific name for this general phenomenon?
Lessons in Managing a Remote, Distributed Team
I beg to disagree, and here's why: (Not saying the guy isn't scum, but I think his statement is plausible...)

He didn't just start doing this last week. This so-called "retail arbitrage" is a normal thing throughout online marketplaces, and has been for years.

Sometimes, someone (like me, as a consumer) won't feel like going to the store, and will happily pay ten bucks for what's usually a three-dollar item, because it's shipped to my door. FedEx is the real winner, but guys like this are making a living enabling my laziness.

In other situations, a product will be weirdly short in one part of the country, but available elsewhere. For instance, in a hurricane, a bunch of unprepared people suddenly decide they want some product, but the local stores are sold out. There's lots of that product _already sitting on shelves_ elsewhere in the country. Those retailers aren't going to pull it themselves and shove it backwards up the distribution chain to be redistributed to storm country -- that's just not how distribution works.

So, folks like this will go buy it, off the shelf, and offer it online. Where again, someone decides it's a better option than going to the store. And the guy doing the shipping is doing real work, I don't see anything wrong with him putting food on his table with it.

In all these cases, the retail-arbitrage folks aren't depriving anyone of anything. They're not clearing out the last of anything, and the stores they shop usually do restock the next day, because their local distributor has plenty of product.

This time was different, and that's obvious to everyone now.

But I do find it at least half-plausible that this guy might not have been thinking of it as different. It looked, from his view, just like every other opportunity where he's been making money the last several years, and which hurt nobody.
Citizens that are given Helicopter Money or UBI will then spend it at their discretion. This kind of free money is a complement to, not a failure of, capitalism.
A key hallmark of Python is readability - which this cheat sheet has managed to royally screw up.

It looks more like an XML cheatsheet at first glance.

I work in python full-time for a living, and found myself having to re-examine several times to make sense of this wacky, non-standard notation.

-------

Edit:

Keep in mind there's a standard way to represent these options in a clear, consistent manner (lists, sequences, optional args).

No need to re-invent something that's hard to read and understand.

See: https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#sequence-typ...
I’m not sure what the hubbub is about that. The US President’s job description is literally to put America first.
Annoyance or Armageddon?
Yes, fare classes is the likely explanation. One could say at a cursory glance "but look, they are both Basic Economy!" I would counter with https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/booking/flight/fare-cla...

> Basic Economy tickets may be booked in various fare classes.
> if the economy shrinks by 30%, that means we have to spend 30% less on everything

Doesn't ring true. If my salary drops by 30%, my expenses would not all drop by that percentage. Things like food and medicine would drop a little, not close to 30%. Things like vacation spending may drop by 100%.
I'm a Cloudflare employee, so obviously biased (shilling incoming).

Cloudflare Access is worth having on the list (and it's free right now [1]). It is a pretty flexible identity aware proxy, and ssh gateway. We use it internally for those two things for basically all of our infrastructure and internal applications.

If it works for you that's awesome, if not (or you have just general questions) I'd love to hear feedback about why not / what else you might be interested in. I work on our security team but work really closely with the access team, so would be happy to pass on feedback to them.

1 - https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-during-the-coronaviru...
Respectfully I don’t think that was particularly shallow. Those are a lot of shaky numbers. They are not convincing of much.
What about something like charging $500 per month for insulin?
Don't think there's a best yet:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/worl...

https://sneezemap.com

https://bing.com/covid
Yeah - it expires tomorrow
Supreme count precedent only matters once a court case makes it to court.

Until then, the President of the United States can make an order, and if it is enforced by local authorities, it's defacto legal for the duration.
Sometimes good to use for cron jobs so that the previous one won't keep running on top of the current run.

You should debug for it to not happen though but probably better than seeing your system choke with dozens of instances even slowing the jobs more.

There's also "run-one" that allows you to control which job should survive instead of just killing the old one.

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/run-one.1.ht...
Just need a root CA cert installed on the machines. Plenty of companies do this already
Oh cmon now, how hard can it be to get a user to install a cert? ;)
I don't think a random guy hoarding bootleg hand sanitizer qualifies as a "retailer" under the law.

If anything, normal penalties for operating without a business license should apply.
By what yardstick?
Yes, it was terrible precedent but it also has no relevance here. If you could abrogate fundamental rights with the commerce clause then those rights effectively don't exist and the Supreme Court has consistently ruled on this. You can't use the commerce clause to infringe on the right of free speech, the right to bear arms, etc. This has been argued in the court many times and the outcomes have been one-sided in favor of the individual right.

Freedom of travel -- what we are talking about with a "lockdown" -- is a thoroughly adjudicated fundamental right per the Supreme Court. Using the commerce clause to restrict travel in various ways has already been rejected by the Supreme Court, repeatedly.
This sounds apocryphal. If setting the date forward triggered a maintenance warning, it sounds like the date system was working correctly.

More importantly, lift systems are not sensitive to long duration dates. They do not need to be.

This story reflects one of the myths that emerged from the media. Around 1997 they started discovering the topic of embedded systems and that many devices, including lifts, contained "computers." Not understanding the restricted and specialized nature of embedded systems, they then claimed all these systems were vulnerable to Y2K, and that the whole world was about to crash.

Most embedded systems, in lifts and other devices, had been designed in the 1990s. If they used dates, they did not use mistakes from the 1960s.
I keep hearing this is the UK policy on HN but it’s been repeatedly denied by the authorities? The UK’s reactive containment policy is also what almost every country is doing as well, even in Europe, besides a few exceptions like Italy and Spain who have way higher rates. For one thing the UK has already announced harsher law enforcement policies than what we have here in Canada.

> Matt Hancock insists 'herd immunity' not part of government's plan for tackling coronavirus

> Mr Hancock added: "Herd immunity is not a part of it. That is a scientific concept, not a goal or a strategy. Our goal is to protect life from this virus, our strategy is to protect the most vulnerable and protect the NHS through contain, delay, research and mitigate."

https://politicshome.com/news/uk/health-and-care/illnesstrea...
> However, Colvin and his brother bought the products before Gov. Bill Lee (R) declared a state of emergency on March 12, which put the price gauging law into place. Colvin also did not sell anything after the state of emergency was declared, the Times reported.

Then he didn’t engage in price gouging.
OK, so for some surfaces 4 hours wouldn't be good enough, but for things like letterboxes, door handles & light switches that aren't used too frequently, it could make a difference, and for minimal cost.
For example, a postman has to touch many letterboxes on his/her daily rounds, but only once per day.
There is no war and the vulnerable demographic is the elderly who are all housed in group assisted living, but whatever.
This is why governments should admit Covid19 is a problem that requires strong coordination at EU level. Going alone, as we've done until now, is not going to work - the continent is too small and too joined-up nowadays. Von der Leyen seems to understand this better than most, certainly better than Macron and Merkel.
As morbid as it is to consider, one must note that about 3% of total fatalities from the virus are people 60 and under, while about 97% are people 60 and older.

Or, to put it another way, somebody 60 and under who catches it has about a 0.06% chance of dying, while somebody over 60 has about a 1.94% chance of dying.

Of course, this is before considering the effects of overloaded hospitals, which would be likely to skew those numbers, as younger people would have a better chance of surviving without proper medical care than older people.
Younger people die from the flu too. This is several times more dangerous.
Survival > happiness > money. You can argue about the order of the first two.

Remember about this and don't leave your home, people!
Obligatory defense of “gouging”:

https://mises.org/wire/3-good-things-about-price-gouging
Because people wouldn't want to go out, yeah. Possible.
Yeah, and it doesn't, except now they have two crimes, trafficking and destruction of evidence.
No. IPFS cannot replace real-time network protocols like the Minecraft client/server protocol.
Sunsetting OpenCouchSurfing (2012)
His post is basically saying "I'm better at spending money than any organization focusing on COVID-19". While exceptionally cocky, he might also be right.
Markets coopted free software’s most powerful weapon (2018)
I've been looking for people to make the connection of how this is a great example of the emotional behavioral reality of actually exercising classical economic models and how people aren't just completely atomized rational agents devoid of collective cultural expectation, but you're the first to make the connection.

It's a clear narrative for people who are looking for it who are deeply suspicious of how real world humans interact in alignment with the hypothesis of the traditional mathematical models, but to those who don't share the suspicion, you'd have to spell it out.

I've had to, it's been painful. People have been penalized for thinking in sociological terms about economic culture all throughout school, because such considerations lead to dramatically conflicting answers.

For instance, the more extreme example is private property markets require buy-in from the participants. If a group decides the rules are simply unfair, the game is called off. As a producer of physical assets I've always been keenly aware of theft and sabotage possibilities and prices are kept fair to keep people from doing such things.
You support going about your daily lives instead of social distancing to reduce the spread?
>technology leaches the soul of an environment

If you read Plutarch (iirc, not a classicist) you get to read probably the first example of this kind of mororse and reactionary bitching - he too was afraid that the times (they are a' changin') were leaching the soul from the natural rural order. It was probably not a new thought then.

The problem with reading all the hottest and most fashionable thinkers is you don't notice when you're just repeating an argument that has been done ad-nauseum, a sort of philosophical smudge through the years that starts off sharp, has some interesting turns, but ends up just grey and greasy.

Why not take the opposite route? Why not explore the new, subtle, perceptual possibilities of 'cheap' recording technology - instead of doing this tired old harking back to the pure innnocence of an imagined prior experience? I think it would be a more interesting line of thought. I think it's more relevant to our time - we are, after all, encountering the biggest sense organ ever devised, the internet. Seems a bit more interesting than some seriously hackneyed oppositions between raw natural experience and technologically mediated illusion.
Old world managers would freak.
You now need to compare against the fare offer you receive if you try to change an existing booking made during the waiver period. If the two prices aren’t identical, something is wrong.
I sort of love this idea. It'd be the perfect test of some free-market ideals.

Similarly, sometimes the government buys product above the lowest market price, because it's produced domestically and it's strategic to prop up the production in case of an event like this. They failed in this case, sadly.
That says more about Larry King than Dave Rubin.
This advice should go without saying:

"Re-format the random SD cards you get from Amazon specifically on the device you're gonna use them."

Do this also for portable hard drives.
Economic hardship does not kill those under 35. You need to focus on the social good.
Show HN: Anonymous chat app for honest conversations with friends
This also all assumes that the virus won't be quickly mutating. If it is, vaccines and herd immunity will have diminished efficacy.
https://healthmap.org/en/

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594...
> However, if they dont have a 3 to 6 month emergency fund that's on them

> And just because someone is not at risk of dying from COVID-19 doesn't mean they can't catch it and spread it around, thus possibly contributing to someone else dying

By your logic I could say "I feel for the 60+ demographic. However, if they are in a demo thats at risk thats on them."

The impact all these closures will have an hourly workers who dont even make enough money to build a 6 month nest egg is just as serious of an issue as the spread of COVID-19.
Transformative Justice
IMO the severity of the situation and the economic fallout has become more clear over the weekend as more states have issued broad orders regarding school/restaurant/bar closures and limits on public gatherings.

Ultimately the Fed can give a lot of help here, but can't fix the underlying problem. Easing credit for businesses will help get some through to the other side but it won't replace lost revenue.

Things are going to be very volatile for the foreseeable future. Non-Farm Payroll data released in a few weeks time would have had the househould sample conducted last week, so we may not know the full impact on unemployment until May, realistically.
Like any crime or bad ethical activity, let's think about who was hurt and who benefited by his action of buying sanitizer from an area with it and selling it to an area without it.

1. Consumers of sanitizer in his area were harmed (and those people were willing to spend at least $2 per bottle)

2. Consumers of sanitizer in other areas who purchased online benefited (and those people were willing to spend $20+ per bottle)

3. He also benefited financially

Why is it a bad thing to take away the option to purchase sanitizer from someone in his area (presumably from people who don't want it as much - as they had the option to purchase but hadn't yet) and sell it to people who want it (and don't have the option to purchase it)?

I don't understand why the people in his area deserve the sanitizer more than people in another area - or certainly why that should be a crime.

He wasn't dumping the sanitizer into a fire- he was providing the sanitizer to people who really wanted it!
I would also imagine that contract or by-the-box delivery drivers are staying away in times like these. They've established a fund for drivers impacted by this all, but that labor segment is hustle-and-split.
More resources on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformative_justice
Not at all. Violating well-established legal precedent that has already been reviewed by the Supreme Court is an easy basis for the courts to place an immediate injunction of the effects of those orders.

This happens in many other contexts, there is no reason to believe it wouldn't happen here.
Let us say hypothetically the congress approves FED to buy stocks and ETF. Just curious what will they buy: s&p index, total market index or something else.

Let us say if they buy one index, will it be fair for companies who are not in the index?
Meh. What commercial product has the guy ever released? I’ve been involved in many and I can tell you that with each one of them I knew exactly what I would do differently the next time. I didn’t need an old design because I knew what we needed to do without having to refer to the old design. If this guy was so brilliant he wouldn’t have stolen because he’d have known how to make the design better.

Rather I think he stole the designs for expediency out of greed.
https://dota2.gamepedia.com/Low_Violence

https://old.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/49x7m0/chinese_wow_cen...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_China#Content_c...
“Your friends” is a specific group of people already described as owning a restaurant etc.
South Korea's infections have all overwhelmingly come from the same religious group, which tilts heavily towards the 25-35 year old demographic. People in that age group have a very low chance of dying from the disease.
Realistically most people can get by on credit in an emergency such as this.
Sure there are some important details missed in the story, but I really don't like how fuzzy the line is. It's not like you usually buy the stuff from the manufacturer, the whole world of trading is built on the ability to buy cheap and to sell under the conditions where the price can be (always somewhat artificially) made higher. It's what the resellers do, it's the "free market". Yet when a man manages to predict that the demand (and hence the price) of hand sanitizer will rise during the time of pandemic and to "stockpile" some measly 17 700 bottles of it — he can be prosecuted for that. And I mean, seriously, 17 700 bottles is peanuts, it's not like he was short selling US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling during the time of financial collapse (which he majorly contributed to).
I was able to replicate this scenario with another booking. Definitely not just a lone incident. United sucks.
If there is an actual shortage of ventilators, they will almost certainly use medical and nursing students, and technicians to manually ventilate patients using a self-inflating bag (link describes bag mask ventilation, but the process is much easier and requires much less skill once the bag is attached to the breathing circuit after the patient has been intubated by the emergency or ICU doc.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag_valve_mask