luso_brazilian
Joined 11 years ago
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1,793
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184
Member since
Mar 23
Recent submissions
Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
Same here, made a print screen of the error message
It says
> There's a problem at our end.
> Please try again. If the problem persists, please let us know using the "Send Feedback" link below. Thanks!
Comment · 7 years ago
Interesting tidbit in another source [1]
> Apple boss Tim Cook has blamed the US-China trade war as he warned of lower than expected quarterly sales for the iPhone maker.
Seems like the US-China trade war is taking its toll on Chinese economy, particularly on the high end.
[1] https://news.sky.com/story/apple-cuts-sales-forecast-as-chin...
Comment · 8 years ago
"Need" is too of a strong word. People doesn't need a $80,000 car that can go from 0-60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds in a country whose max highway speed is around 75mph but they buy it anyway when they can afford it.
Comment · 8 years ago
> But it doesn't mean you get to harass people, send death threats, post people's private information (doxxing), and spread nude photos that were never supposed to be released.
That is accurate and there are legal remedies for that. For instance, Kurt Eichenwald, a person on the receiving end of most of the activities you mentioned, collected the evidence and used the justice system to secure a Grand Jury indictment against his harasser [1], [2]
Here is the abridged transcript of the indictment:
> CRIMINAL COMPLAINT I,
> On or about December 15, 2016, in the Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere, defendant John Rayne Rivello, with the intent to kill, injure, harass, and intimidate, did knowingly and intentionally use an interactive computer service and an electronic communication service to engage in a course of conduct that placed a person in reasonable fear of the death of and serious bodily injury to that person and caused, attempted to cause, and would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to that person;
> in that Rivello posed as Twitter user Ari Goldstein and used his Twitter account @jew _goldstein to post an animated Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) on the victim's Twitter feed, knowing that the victim was an epileptic and knowing that the animated GIF was a strobe bearing the message "YOU DESERVE A SEIZURE FOR YOUR POSTS."
And here is the central point
> In violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2)(A) and (B), and 18 U .S.C. § 226l(b)(3). This criminal complaint is based on the facts set out in the attached affidavit.
Most of the activities you describe, online or whatnot, are already in the US Code as actual crimes. I do not believe private companies should take over the role of the government in policing speech through prior restraint simply out of the possibility of potential criminal activities. It creates a chilling effect on legitimate speech and a dangerous precedent of private companies (potentially in collusion with the government) being in position to stifle speech.
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kurt-eichenwald-case-te...
[2] https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/949676/downlo... (pdf)
Comment · 8 years ago
From the image itself, it seems Stripe was compelled instead of acting on their own volition
> Please know, Richard, that it would be our absolute preference to continue working with your business, and this decision is in no way a reflection of our feelings towards your business, from either a moral or legal standpoint.
> Rather, this is a restriction imposed upon us directly from our financial partners, who use have an archaic and frankly antiquated view of non-traditional businesses. As such, our hands are truly tied here, I hope that you can appreciate that.
These financial partners, I assume, are the same forces that engaged in a blockade against Wikileaks back in 2010 [1], except in this case the motivation are not as cut and clear as they were back then
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/07/visa-m...
Comment · 8 years ago
> But is Pony doing something unsound? Absolutely not. It is totally fine to define 1/0 = 0. Nothing breaks
It actually does break something, the symmetry between division and multiplication and the many pieces of code that assume that (x / y) * y equals x. Here is a naive and non practical example, but it is not impossible to find a real world example where this simplified code manifests itself accidentally or by design
function do_something_with_x(x, y) {
let ratio = x / y;
if (do_something_with_ratio(ratio)) {
return x * y;
}
else return null;
}
Comment · 8 years ago
Context for the significance of this article
> Barack Obama's re-election team are building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before.
> Digital analysts predict this will be the first election cycle in which Facebook could become a dominant political force. The social media giant has grown exponentially since the last presidential election, rendering it for the first time a major campaigning tool that has the potential to transform friendship into a political weapon.
> Facebook is also being seen as a source of invaluable data on voters. The re-election team, Obama for America, will be inviting its supporters to log on to the campaign website via Facebook, thus allowing the campaign to access their personal data and add it to the central data store – the largest, most detailed and potentially most powerful in the history of political campaigns. If 2008 was all about social media, 2012 is destined to become the "data election".
Comment · 8 years ago
> Revenue in the recent period rose 2 percent from a year earlier to $731.6 million, buoyed by data-licensing sales and video advertising.
I understand video advertising and if Twitter turns their attention to this area (after dipping their toes on Vine and Periscope) Youtube and Twitch may get a competitor. Now what does "data-licensing sales" means in this context? User data?
Comment · 9 years ago
It is unfortunate that the course can't be taken anonymously and requires either a github login or an email and password.
I understand the general motivation for that (a quid pro quo, an exchange of a bit of information for a valuable resource) but even then it is a disappointing trend to require personal identification for such type of valuable resources.
Comment · 9 years ago
This had the potential of being a positive development brought by Trump's election: many behaviors by the US three letter agencies that were glossed over for the past 8 years (due to the party in power being "on the right side of history") are again reprehensible and deemed a threat to be fought by the tech community.
> Today, we're taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.
If they apply this rule to every instance of allegation of superiority (regardless of age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status) it is a very sensible rule and not censorship at all.
The problem is when there is some "asymmetry" in what kind of (otherwise identical) behaviour is allowed and what is forbidden based on the exact characteristics they outlined above. Then it just becomes "picking favourites" and, yes, full blown censorship (which, to preempt the usual retort, can yes be practiced by private corporations, as opposed to "violations of first amendment rights" that, yes, can only be done by US jurisdictional governments)
[1] https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/06/our-ongoing-work-to-t...