_nedR

You missed the key point of the article you linked to:

That IS is not really a group of religious fundamentalists (at least in the higher levels) - rather they are a bunch of Baathists including intelligence people, who are masquerading as religous fundamentalists and exploiting fundamentalists to get back into power.

The correct question is : Which company belongs to him?

I don't think this is a bad time to revisit an old chinese proverb :

https://sivers.org/horses

>The continuous start-stop wears out the engine faster, so it won't last as long as an identical model with the same engine that hasn't that feature.

Yes, that too. Although I imagine it would wear out certain components of the engine (such as starter-motor, and crankshaft?) and battery rather than the engine as a whole.

Total-Cost-of-Ownership-wise, a stop-start might save more in fuel than it would cost in increased repairs (Or it may not, depending on make and model among other things).

True. stop-start might have not been the best example in this case. But still, i would be quite apprehensive of buying a 10-year old european car that has stop-start built in - Much more than an equivalent toyota. Japanese are quite slow to follow in implementing new features and as a result (IMO) their implementations seem to be more reliable. I have experienced European cars to develop serious electrical issues over the years. Couple that with a stop-start system, and you are looking at an undrivable car.

edit: In the past couple of years things seemed to have mixed up a bit in the industry (for example American cars have quite improved in quality). So who knows, maybe today's cars might hold up much better 10 years into their life , than their predecessors. But increasing incorporation of software and electronics into these probably will not help them get there.

Honestly, everytime I hear about the latest new-and-shiny that car manufacturers try to put in new cars (such as stop-start, keyless ignition) I can't help but roll my eyes at the inevitable fail that this is going to bring. Sure these knick-knacks might look cool now, but what happens eight years down the line, when your electric system goes belly up in middle of the highway or at a traffic signal? VW is one of the worst offenders in this regard. They are quick to implement useless features without giving any regard to reliability or the idea of graceful failure. The greatest achievement of VW marketing has been in perpetuating the myth about the infallibility of German Engineering. German cars seem to have some of the worst electrical problems which is at least in part due to all the electric and electronic equipment they cram into their cars. I would put greater confidence in the reliability of Japanese or even Korean engineering over them (although even the usually conservative Japs have been tempted to follow these fads of late). One less button on the dash of your bland Toyota, means one less thing that is going to break five years down the line.

My personal opinion: Because there are very few if any leaky abstractions waiting to blow up in your face. True WYSIWYG.

Wait, Wait. Hold a second. I am not sure I read that correctly.

Are you telling me that until 2012, for every confidential hearing that American congressman could attend, every budget proposal or allocation they had to vote on, every bill (say on the environment, or regarding corporate or financial regulation) they had to pass, or every declaration of war they had to approve, they were allowed to choose the outcome and personally profit from it?

For windows there is a Sandboxie. http://www.sandboxie.com/

Sandboxie has gotten very good over the years. You can sandbox programs that even run with admin privileges.

edit: Don't think sandboxie can load drivers.

Maybe the need is not for God but for us?

Typing this from a cheap Acer Aspire V5-471G (the cheapest make and model for given specs). Remember you get what you pay for.

The laptop looks sleek, but build quality is very flimsy with issues like paint-peeling, scratches, and malfunctioning hinges causing display to flicker/black-out. Also Acer support sucks and traveller's warranty is not international warranty.

Beware of cheap thinner laptops. They may look nice in the store but poor construction and cheap materials will come to bite you later. IMO Budget laptops have regressed in this matter compared to older bulkier models (including Dell Inspirons and XPSes in my experience).

Can't speak for more expensive models though.

Really? IMHO, I found the article quite level-headed and analytical and the author seemed to have actual knowledge of the situation at the ground level.

>>There's an important qualifier: loser pays reasonable costs of prevailing party,

I remember a comment a while back on HN or somewhere which suggested an approximate solution to this : the loser must pay the costs equal to its or the winners fees- whichever is lower.

Is this in the realm of feasibility for modern crypto? And what about past/current transmissions using older crypto.

That's what airport cabbies near where i live in India now do. The queue is really long (such that they may only get 1 or 2 rides the whole day), but now they take Uber/Olacab rides while waiting for their slot.

>But the worst part was that every freaking time the cab driver would give me attitude for the short fare (ostensibly because they have to wait in that long line).

Woah. I thought that only happened in India. Didn't know it was the same story elsewhere. But now, lot of the airport cabbies have decided to join 'the enemy' rather than try and beat it. Lot of them do Uber pick-ups while waiting for their turn at the airports (from what they tell me its a very long queue and they usually get only 1 ride per day).

Its a much worse situation in India, except here as far I know there is no difficulty in obtaining badges/medallion (they hand them out like candy). Instead we have to deal with unionism/thuggery, terrible service and exorbitant rates. Tuk-tuks in most cities ignore meter pricing.

I am scared by the prospect of Uber becoming entrenched, but I think that is a risk we have to take, to break the current status quo. Uber really is a life-changer here. This industry needs to be disrupted, and if Uber has to bend/ignore a few rules (which the existing taxis in India ignore anyway), I think that is a worth-while cost.

The key word here is innovation. Lot of the stuff you described (except perhaps debt securitization) is old and tested. To an outsider like me, it looks like a lot of financial innovation today (the kind that Wall Street does by hiring Physics and Math Phds)is primarily aimed at making a few rich people even richer at the expense of everybody else and provide zero or negative value to society. Why should we encourage that behaviour? Then there is the good kind of innovation like Micro-financing that is done in places like Bangladesh, and that you know, actually is designed to help the common man. Even crowd-funding (is that financial innovation?) could be considered good (although caution and regulatory oversight should be built in). This is kind of innovation seems to be the exception rather than the rule though.

I say financial innovation should treated by govt. with greater caution and suspicion especially when the effects of such innovation has consequences on the wider economy or when it involve other people's money.(Who's bright idea was it anyway, to allow banks and funds to gamble with people's pensions and deposits?)

If you can provide a counter-example to this, that would be much welcome.

edit: And no, I don't think a world without debt securitization would be such a bad thing.

>Financial innovation make our lives more predictable and less sensitive to chance.

lol.

I still found the exchange, informative/insightful and apropos.

To borrow from a comment on another article, The question you ask is uncomfortably related to a bigger question "If you don’t really need competitive maneuverability, than why do we need a fighter at all?"

It is a genuine question.

You are overestimating the competitiveness of these markets. In many(perhaps most) parts of India, these operate as unions/ price cartels. The tuk-tuks in particularly ignore meter pricing, in most parts of India, and may resort to violence/harassment to protect themselves from competition. Also most taxis/tuk tuks are independent and do not belong to any company. As such, I imagine they don't enjoy the benefits of economies of scale, efficiencies, and technology that Uber can afford. The quality of service is very poor, which makes Uber something of a Godsend. All these are points on which Uber can and is currently exploiting to gain a foothold, although they face strong challenges.

I use Privacy Badger by EFF for blocking third-party cookies(https://www.eff.org/privacybadge). It works incredibly well but does have a whitelist which includes lot of CDNs (https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerchrome/blob/master/do...) to prevent websites from breaking.

If you are on Windows, an additional layer of security might be to install Sandboxie (http://sandboxie.com) and run Firefox from within a dedicated sandbox. Additional brownie points for editing the file/folder access. (making confidential folders inaccessible/write-only)

Indeed the second-highest voted comment is this :

"Freelance taxi's? There must be taxi laws that requires special transportation permits to allow such activity. Taxi companies will not like this and will try to stop drop dime drivers from popping up everywhere. Bandwagon Boy VC investments are the first signs of a sketchy product. "

Quite prophetic words. Uber has been called out several times over the years for its questionable ethics. France banning of UberPop today after severe protests from licensed cabbies, is also rather timely.

Oh God. This is sounds like the cruelest prank in the world.

From the wikipedia article is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651

" It requires no battery or other power source; its manufacturer claimed that it is powered solely by the user's static electricity. To use the device, the operator must walk for a few moments to "charge" it before holding it at right angles to the body... According to Husam Muhammad, an Iraqi police officer and user of the ADE 651, using the device properly is more of an art than a science: 'If we are tense, the device doesn't work correctly. I start slow, and relax my body, and I try to clear my mind.' In one promotional video McCormick claimed that the device could detect elephants from 48 kilometres (30 mi) away."

They should be charging this guy with murder. Not fraud.

Well, not just HN but i get the point.

That does raise a lot of interesting questions. How did they get into the trade ? - This is usually where the primary exploitation happens. After that, it is not uncommon for women to stay within the industry by choice, (because they don't know how to do anything else, they have debts to pay, shame/stigma and trouble reintegrating with society and family after being outcast). Who are the fathers of the children - Are they from an actual relationship or are they consequences of the trade? Of course, all my statements are primarily from media coverage or anecdotal in nature. I don't know how things are in the Phillipines. Could you share a link to the paper? Might be a good counter-point on the matter which people can cite.

edit : typos

Oh, In that case, its that PR stunt thing :)

Ok. I have read the letter. But my original point still stands. The only reason Apple bothered to do anything was because Taylor Swift said it.

To come to your point. I don't completely buy the whole "Think about the indie artists!" angle either. She herself says that pretty much everyone she spoke to in the industry (she used the word "social circle") was displeased with Apple's system. I am pretty sure there is self-interest involved. I am also positive her record label is happy with the new arrangement as well.

>>human slavery does happen, but its not the default case.

Which country are you talking about? I can imagine this being true in countries like the Netherlands, where state and police actively regulates and monitors it (instead of simple allowing it and ignoring it), but from the preponderance of media coverage and anecdotes i do indeed think that the majority of women in this industry worldwide are exploited in some form or the other to do this job.

I am pretty sure that the SVP was on a conference call with a dozen Record company SVPs, one of whom said "You wanna go nuclear on this! There you go, We sent a tweet through Taylor's account"

edit : typos

What is sad here, is that in this case the "struggling artist" is Taylor Swift (more likely the record company she is associated with), and that was probably the only reason why Apple actually bothered to do anything about it. Based on Apple's treatment of developers I can imagine how Indie artist's concerns fare in Apple's consideration. Here is an article about this same issue which was raised by an indie artist a couple of days ago (http://www.macrumors.com/2015/06/19/apple-not-coercing-indie...)

But yes that is part of the brilliance of Apple PR.