vintageseltzer
Joined 10 years ago
Karma
549
Submissions
63
Member since
May 18
Recent submissions
Comment · 9 years ago
Can you share some links please? I'm morbidly curious.
Comment · 9 years ago
In America, justice is only available to those who can afford it. If you can't afford months or years of lawyer's fees and don't have the ability to take time away from your job, family and other daily obligations, you're simply out of luck.
Comment · 9 years ago
It does! It's called "rubber ducking" when applied to software engineering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
Comment · 9 years ago
"Representatives" in the U.S. government no longer represent the citizens at all — they represent the lobbyists that pay for their votes.
Logically, this behavior should result in the representatives being voted out of office.
However, the two party system combined with the unbelievably high cost of running for office makes it nearly impossible for representatives who don't fall in line with the status quo to receive the campaign financing necessary to be elected.
It's a rotten system and won't go away until campaign finance laws are reformed.
Comment · 9 years ago
Even if manufacturers behave nicely, there is still the possibility that the devices are eventually somehow compromised by bad actors and used nefariously.
For example, the CIA developed and deployed a program to use the built-in microphone on Samsung "smart" TVs to spy on targets, even when it looks like it's off: https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/7/14841556/wikileaks-cia-hac...
Comment · 9 years ago
The Lightning Network is meant to address this: https://lightning.network/
Comment · 9 years ago
Spoken like someone who truly knows nothing about scaling.
Comment · 9 years ago
Corporations are enjoying record profits for years but wages have been stagnant since the 90s. The idea that when corporations receive more money they pass on a proportional value of benefits to their employees or customers is a laughable fiction. In fact, they will proudly say that this is a good thing, as their only responsibility is to the shareholder.
Comment · 9 years ago
An uneducated society is easy to manipulate — easy to convince that climate change isn't real, that evolution is a conspiracy against religion, that creating a social safety net and investing in public education, health care and modern infrastructure is a bad thing.
I hate to turn social issues into black and white, partisan debates. But anti-intellectualism and the denigration of education is a uniquely right-wing phenomenon in the U.S. It's used often by the Republican party here to criticize "elites" and is employed by a long list of other power-hungry demagogues throughout world history [1].
Isaac Asimov wrote a column in January 1980 in Newsweek that describes this phenomenon in the U.S.:
> There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
I encourage everyone to read the full column [2].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism [2]: https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ASIMOV_1980_C...
Comment · 9 years ago
Are there any examples of class-action lawsuits or legal consequences against companies that expose sensitive data like this in the U.S.?
Comment · 9 years ago
Perhaps it's not the biggest factor, but it is likely to reduce employee benefits like education stipends, relocation stipends and dependent care FSAs.
Previously, employers were able to deduct the costs of these benefits from their tax bill, saving them money. The new tax plan eliminates these benefits (https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pa...).
Now that these benefits are much more expensive, you can except these benefits to reduced or eliminated, and the remaining costs to be take from your future salary.
Comment · 9 years ago
My firm has been grappling with outsourcing the transcription of sensitive internal communications for years.
Our weekly sales calls are done over teleconference, but not everyone can attend. Obviously, a lot of information that we don't want to be public is shared during these calls, like sales figures and client status reports. The calls can last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.
Right now, our copywriters in marketing transcribe these calls, which they are not happy about. It can take half a day or more to transcribe one call, and it's not the best use of their time. Although they rotate each week, it still takes up a significant amount of time and is not really part of their job description.
Our COO does not want to use an external service to outsource this, as she is concerned about leaks. The fact that many transcription services exist where an NDA must be signed does not mitigate her concern. However, she also does not feel like hiring a full-time transcriber is worth the cost.
The copywriters have tried automated transcription tools but they are not good enough.
I have no idea how this can be solved except for hiring a full-time transcriber ...
Comment · 9 years ago
Oatmeal is a savior. I can’t think of a breakfast food that is more satisfying and filling. 1/3 cup of instant oats, 2/3 cup water. Microwave for three minutes on half power. Add cinnamon, a dash of salt and berries. Tasty and full till lunch.
Comment · 9 years ago
It’s obviously a mixed bag (and sometimes dreadful), but IMO it’s a lot more fulfilling to live and travel in the real world among real people than some aseptic Uber-only lifestyle (which many of my friends unfortunately prefer).