Hacker News Reader

gabaixon How Eduardo Saverin sold Facebook ads in 2004 (2012)

Slide 5 “The College Addiction” talks about the addictive nature of Facebook.

Using the word addiction must have been a sound sales pitch in the early days. An expression that has quickly been replaced by technical terms like ‘engagement’ and ‘retention’.

gabaixon Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

Facebook internal memo by Andrew Bosworth, VP June 18, 2016

The Ugly

We talk about the good and the bad of our work often. I want to talk about the ugly.

We connect people.

That can be good if they make it positive. Maybe someone finds love. Maybe it even saves the life of someone on the brink of suicide.

So we connect more people

That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.

And still we connect people.

The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.

That isn’t something we are doing for ourselves. Or for our stock price (ha!). It is literally just what we do. We connect people. Period.

That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it.

The natural state of the world is not connected. It is not unified. It is fragmented by borders, languages, and increasingly by different products. The best products don’t win. The ones everyone use win.

I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this. Most of us have the luxury of working in the warm glow of building products consumers love. But make no mistake, growth tactics are how we got here. If you joined the company because it is doing great work, that’s why we get to do that great work. We do have great products but we still wouldn’t be half our size without pushing the envelope on growth. Nothing makes Facebook as valuable as having your friends on it, and no product decisions have gotten as many friends on as the ones made in growth. Not photo tagging. Not news feed. Not messenger. Nothing.

In almost all of our work, we have to answer hard questions about what we believe. We have to justify the metrics and make sure they aren’t losing out on a bigger picture. But connecting people. That’s our imperative. Because that’s what we do. We connect people.

Shortly after the leak Bosworth distanced himself from the post. https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/29/17178086/facebook-growth-...

gabaixon The Ainu, Japan’s Indigenous People

I came across Ainu culture while driving through Kuchiro in Hokkaido. We stayed one night in the city, unbeknown to us it was the night of their yearly Marimo festival [1].

Marimo is an extremely odd moss ball that only grows in their lake [2]. Once to the brink of extinction, the Ainu celebrates every year by strolling around the city with the prettiest marimo. They celebrate through the night with traditional dances. It was a unique experience.

[1] https://ohmatsuri.com/en/articles/hokkaido-marimo-matsuri

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo

gabaixon Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

Youtube is in a tough spot. They will be blamed:

- if they don't take down speech some consider hateful

- if they take down speech some do not consider hateful

共匪 is seen as an insult by a group, but others do not. If Youtube bans nothing, then hate speech thrives and they get bad PR. If Youtube bans anything anyone flags as hate speech, then they become de facto as censorship agents for foreign powers. Anything critical can be seen as offensive and taken down by CCP or Russia.

Youtube is more and more siding towards removing content. I wonder, can US regulators do something about it?

gabaixon Legendary Paris bookshop reveals reading habits of illustrious clientele

The Before trilogy is a gem of modern cinema.

gabaixon Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

Thanks! I am in California (Bay Area)

gabaixon Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

Can you elaborate? I am interested in knowing about these programs for my son.

gabaixon California’s Roadmap to Modify the Stay-at-Home Order [pdf]

Hospitals around me are at half capacity. San Mateo is at 56% capacity in ICU beds.[1]

Covid cases were doubling every 3 days (up to 5).

Would it be correct to say that had we waited another week, hospitals would have been overrun?

If that's the case then I understand why health authorities are cautious.

[1] https://www.smchealth.org/post/san-mateo-county-covid-19-dat...

gabaixon China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted pages suggest

Thanks for using Bayes theorem. Although it does not provide evidence, it should guide us to where we should look for evidence.

I am also very surprised at people throwing probabilistic equivalence between foreign-agent conspiracy, and an accident in a lab. It seems that the latter is so much more probable.

gabaixon Detection of novel coronaviruses in bats in Myanmar

Lack of evidence isn’t sufficient to label a theory as conspiracy.

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

gabaixon I’m Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

After the 2008 financial crisis, and for 3 years, applications did not reach the quota. Requests for evidence were frequent, as each application was carefully reviewed. Once approved, the H1-B was granted.

gabaixon Britain knows it’s selling out its national security to Huawei

Why are there no US vendors?

It is rare to see a cutting-edge sector without the US.

gabaixon Uber's chief of scooters, bikes to depart

In Paris scooters need to be parked in small designated areas. The apps won’t allow you to park unless you stop in one of them.

gabaixon Facebook, Google Drop Out of Top ‘Best Places to Work’ List

Thank you for sharing! Fulfillment at work is about many intangibles beyond pay.

gabaixon Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

What radical changes would you like to see?

I don't live in Paris but I may be living there in the years to come.

gabaixon Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

Thanks for pointing this out.

Their first argument is that because state laws exist, there should not be a federal reform. I thought federal laws were there to set a default law for states. If they don't agree with the abuse they should work and reforming the federal law first.

Their second argument is that it 'let businesses get out of becoming fully compliant'. I don't understand. A 120-day heads-up isn't a way to get away with penalties.

And what is missing (and maybe they did say it but it is not mentioned in the article) is what they suggest as an alternative. Surely if you vow to block a reform but agree on the problem they should come up with solutions. There should be a way to both make more businesses compliant and prevent ADA shakedowns.

I am discovering how hard it is to make our laws evolve :)

gabaixon Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

According the restaurant owner the lawyer was suing hundreds of small restaurants in the Bay Area. Also they didn't seem to care about the restaurant at all, and were only interested in finding out all violations.

There was a bipartisan bill that passed the House 2 years ago (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/620/...) that aimed at closing drive-by ADA shakedowns. The bill required claimants to give 120 days to business to fix issue. It seems the bill hasn't been signed by the Senate (not sure why, if anyone knows more let me know). This is a good bill, hopefully it will pass.

edit: Found why it didn't pass the Senate. Democrats in Senate promised to filibuster any attempt to bring the bill to the floor. https://rewire.news/article/2018/04/03/sen-tammy-duckworth-s....

gabaixon Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

did you end up settling?

gabaixon Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren't accessible

I have met a restaurant owner who had exactly the same issue. A lawyer came into his restaurant alongside someone in a wheelchair. They noticed paper rolls were not at a correct height, threatened to sue, and let them settle for less. For the restaurant owner, it didn't seem that they genuinely cared about the accessibility problem, but rather making money off using ADA.

gabaixon Libra White Paper

“When Facebook notified the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, it informed the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp users' accounts. It stated this both in the notification form and in a reply to a request of information from the Commission. However, in August 2016, WhatsApp announced updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, including the possibility of linking WhatsApp users' phone numbers with Facebook users' identities.”

European Commission, 2017

gabaixon Bird Acquires Scoot

I ride every day in SF and I gave up on Scoot. There are too few of them. A lot of them are out of service. It’s not even worth checking the app.

I would like to see more scooters. There is a shortage of scooters and ebikes in the popular Caltrain <> downtown route.

gabaixon Huawei’s Yearslong Rise Is Littered with Accusations of Theft and Dubious Ethics

Trying to confirm your point: because the company was careless in letting an employee walk out, this was a lesser theft?

I haven’t heard a case where a burglar gets a reduced sentence because the house was left unlocked.

The fact that this comes from a Huawei senior exec speaks a lot about their company culture.

gabaixon A Cult Japanese Retailer Making Billions Breaking All the Rules

I visited a Don Quijote for my first night in Japan. I went for a stroll at 3am as I was jetlagged. I stumbled upon one Don Quijote. The music was playing very loud among the empty aisles. I stayed there for a while, completely bemused by the sheer level of noise and lighting.

gabaixon The Notre Dame fire and the future of history

Thank you for the perspective. As someone who grew up in France I find solace in witnessing a new chapter.

gabaixon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2018)

Redbooth | Frontend, Backend, Android Engineers | San Francisco | Onsite or Remote (US/Canada only) | Full-Time

We help companies organize their work. We provide tasks, chat, video, file share, and timeline. More than 3,000 organizations use us!

We're funded by Andreessen, Initialized, and others.

We currently hire for:

## Back-end Engineer (remote or San Francisco)

Our tech stack is Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, DynamoDB, Memcached https://boards.greenhouse.io/redbooth/jobs/1201201

## Front-end Engineer (San Francisco)

Our tech stack is React.js, Backbone.js

## Android (San Francisco)

We are a fun team! We offer all the perks you might expect (healthcare, 401k, sport). We like you already :)

Check out our positions at https://boards.greenhouse.io/redbooth (mention 'talked with John on HN' on "How did you hear about this job?")

-John, CEO

gabaixon Remains of the murdered Romanovs 'authentic'

In Yekaterinburg lies the “Church on the blood”, an impressive edifice with portraits of the Romanov. The museum beneath the church has many details of their lives and how they got executed. It is a place not to miss and a traumatic experience, for who wants to understand Russian history.

gabaixon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2018)

Redbooth | Frontend, Backend, Android, Software Engineers | San Francisco | Onsite or Remote (US/Canada only) | Full-Time

https://www.redbooth.com is a collaboration platform providing tasks, chat, video, file share, and timeline. More than 3,000 organizations organize their work through Redbooth.

Tech: Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, DynamoDB, Memcached, React.js, Backbone.js

Check out the positions at https://boards.greenhouse.io/redbooth (mention HN on "How did you hear about this job?")

gabaixon Internal Facebook posts of employees discussing leaked memo

It seems you are both correct, and the disagreement lies on the meaning 'personal':

- They use 'personal' as 'private', or 'information about you'. e.g. I have a fetish, I wish no one to know, it's 'personal'.

- You seem to use 'personal' as 'personally identifiable information'. e.g. if I have this data, I can know trace back to its originator.

The ambiguity can be found in many places around. Most people don't make the distinction. Rather, they think anything private is personal. At the same time, the definition you use can be found in official documents, like GDPR, the new EU Privacy Law (https://gdpr-info.eu/art-4-gdpr/).

gabaixon The Superfund Sites of Silicon Valley

I also lived in College Terrace in Palo Alto, where one of the superfund is. At the time very few residents knew about the issue. I believe it is the same today.

My neighbor Aaron Greenspan (also known for fighting his classmate Mark Zuckerberg on trademark issues) asked local authorities to do more to inform residents. It did not go anywhere. He eventually moved out, and so did I.

Here's one of his blog posts from back in 2013: http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-...

gabaixon 'Zombie ant' brains left intact by fungal parasite

There is a 3-minute video from BBC Planet Earth showing an infected ant and its demise. https://youtu.be/XuKjBIBBAL8

It is like watching the Alien scene, except this is real.