ecdavis

> blocking handsets because they can't access 000 anymore

As the article explains, many handsets which can access 000 are being blocked.

My iPhone XR can't make calls anymore, for example.

I think this comment oversimplifies gambling addiction. Yes, chasing losses is a behaviour common to many gamblers, and yes, winning money provides an incentive to gamble in the first place, but many (most?) gambling addicts have different motivations.

Here are some quotes from _Addiction by Design_, by Natasha Dow Shüll -- a book I highly recommend if you're interested in this subject:

> Julie explains: "If it's a moderate day - win, lose, win, lose - you keep the same pace. But if you win big, it can prevent you from staying in the zone." [...] "You're not playing for money," says Julie, "you're playing for credit -- credit so you can sit there longer, which is the goal. It's not about winning, it's about continuing to play."

> [Pete says:] After sitting at the machine for fourteen hours, so tired I can barely keep my eyes open, no money in my pocket, no gas in my car, and no groceries at home, I still can't leave because I have four hundred credits in the machine. So I sit there for another hour until it's all gone, praying for me to lose: "Please God take this money so I can get up and go home." You might ask, "Why didn't you hit the cash out button?" That never occurred to me -- that was not an option.

I don't think the importance of the monetary payout is particularly clear-cut. The payin is what does the financial damage, by moving money out of the player's control. The incentives and reinforcement are what get the player hooked -- but perhaps those don't have to be financial? I won't discount the importance of the payout entirely; maybe it's critical to get hooked in the first place? But I also wouldn't be surprised if gambling addiction can arise in games which don't provide to ability to cash out.

What you're arguing for are more accessible immigrant visas ("green cards").

AFAIK there is nothing currently stopping a US company from hiring a person, sponsoring them for an immigrant visa, and then waiting for that immigrant visa to be issued before the person relocates to the US. The main issue with this approach is that it takes many years for immigrant visas to be issued and companies want people to relocate right away. If an individual could use a current I-140 to get an infinitely-renewable non-immigrant visa I feel like that would resolve most complaints that we see about the H-1B here on HN.

If the H-1B visa was changed like you describe above I think it would leave a gap in available US non-immigrant visas. I think that gap would end up being filled by a new type of non-immigrant visa functionally very similar to the current H-1B. The H-1B visa serves an important purpose[0] which has been wildly distorted by tech companies using them for permanent employees on the pathway to permanent residency.

[0] Its intention was to provide US firms unable to find specialist workers locally with a means to fill vacancies with temporary workers.

I agree with the parent and grandparent comments.

That said, when I was sponsored for an E-3 visa by a US company the recruiters made it clear that my position was permanent (subject to performance) and that the company would sponsor me for a Green Card.

These representations were contradicted by the legal documents I presented in my interview at the US consulate.

Nonetheless, I can imagine some employees on these sorts of visas might take their employer at their word and plan their lives accordingly.

> Companies should only collect data that they really need.

Collecting and keeping this data is a regulatory requirement for Optus.

The problems with this breach have their roots in how identity is proven and verified in Australia. Far too much relies on possession of a physical document.

> Whidbey Island

Great ice cream there.

> So far this has led to $8.9m in service costs saved by the South Australian Government.

> The Aspire SIB is a $9 million bond which has a life of 7 years.

Extraordinary that in addition to the social impact, this program appears to be heading towards profitability.

Ah, yeah, "restart the process" was not the right description of what was happening in the cases I was thinking of - they'd exec themselves to hot reload code which I see is the first suggestion on the SA answer you linked.