systematical

I worked for a "CTO" who didn't allow us to use version control either. This was from 2007-2010. I am surprised there is a company TODAY that does this, but I guess I shouldn't be.

The reasoning behind not using VC was that it "caused more problems than it solved." His solution? Code directly on the production server. Yep. You heard me right. Let me say that one more time. Code directly on the production server. We eventually finally won a development server and wrote some bash scripts to deploy from there, but we never actually got SVN or anything. Imagine working on five person development team with no version control.

The guy was a serious joke. The VC issue is just one of many. A serious despot. The guy was hated by all. We laughed at him. Why would I stick that out for three years? I had zero experience when hired. All of us were very green. We were all just putting in our time to hit that magic three years experience checkbox we needed for the next level gig. The CTO was more concerned with appearing to have a large department and having developers working on lots of different things, than actual quality. We wrote some pretty terrible code back in those days and we did a lot of it on a production server during business hours.

We all left at or around the three-year mark. Month by month the "CTO" lost developers faster than he could replace them. The "CTO" was eventually fired and we laughed from afar.

You are being taken advantage of like I was when I first started. You are cheap labor. Your CEO doesn't care about the product. Your CEO likely doesn't care about your career development. The sooner you leave, the more you will learn and grow. That was my experience.

I'm not good at getting fired. I am personable and don't slack off. Those positive qualities are having a negative impact on my dream. I've wanted to collect unemployment for years.

Thank you

I do! I work at a failing startup. I find the direction and strategy of the company lacking. My advice is often ignored or they wait years and then claim it as their own. Sluggish sales. Sluggish revenue. Haven't been profitable in the 5 years I've been there.

I'm looking for a job but I rather just be laid off and collect unemployment for a while. I've been working for 17 years with no employment gaps. I'm tired.

What is the protestors' end game here? Hasn't the extradition bill been killed? What do they need to end the protests and return to normal? I am genuinely curious.

The New York robots make a better pizza.

Yes these lingering discussions tend to get buried. I'm actually surprised you responded given the nature of HN. I'm surprised I decided to check my comment history as well.

We disagree. I view rate parity as a form of price-fixing. I don't doubt the value OTAs provide to the consumer, but their value isn't sufficient enough to stand on its own without price fixing. Expedia knows this, and therefor uses its market position to fix prices and thus maintain is position. When challenged, which it has been numerous times, its legal team has been effective in arguing their point. I can't deny that. Perhaps my view is overly simplistic. I view someone telling me, if you want to sell your product on my site you have to sell it for the same price everywhere as price-fixing. Yes, its voluntary, but in practical terms its not because the hotel cannot survive without the OTAs. I won't weep too many tears, because the hotels could use their sufficient capital to address the problem. But, lets at least call a spade a spade here. If it looks, walks, and quacks. Well...

You brought up Amazon as an example of market indermediaries, otherwise known as middlemen. Are they engaging in price-fixing? What about ebay, are they engaging in price fixing? I'm actually interested if we can find a similar example to what OTAs do in another industry. I don't think we can.

"Voluntary" give me a break. Do you actually believe what you're typing? If so, that is an impressive spell you've placed yourself under. The large OTAs have such a large share of the market that there is nothing voluntary about using them. It's list your hotel with us or go out of business. And when you have that clout, you can then say, and don't try listing prices on your website that are lower than ours or we will de-list you.

Explain how that is not price-fixing at worst, and not shady at best?

It's in Russia's best interest to make him complicit in espionage. They then hold dirt on him. A potential vicious cycle for an otherwise patriotic individual. I'm team snowden.

I was heavy Airbnb, I'm now 50/50. If traveling solo I prefer hostels, they are cheaper and I get to meet people from all walks of life. Some of the best experiences of my life have come from being in a hostel. I once nabbed a cheap ticket to Tomorrow Land while at a hostel in Belgium, the person's friend couldn't make it. That's just one of many.

A junior-level developer could do this. You don't need any serious brainpower to pull this off. They have all the pricing already. They omit the fees purposefully.

Source: I've worked as a Sr. Engineer at an OTA for the last 5 years.

Working for an OTA for the last 5 years I can confirm this. Also, stay away from travel insurance, cancellation protection, or whatever else they call it. It's a scam.

And yes, as a previous user stated, it's very easy for us developers to include the fees and taxes in the average rate display. Fees are either fixed dollar amounts or a percentage of the room charge. It's trivial to add this into the average rate per night. Our corporate overlords instruct/force us not to.

Furthermore, my advice is to avoid the major OTAs such as Expedia. First, they engage in price-fixing. Hotels are not allowed to display prices cheaper than they appear in Expedia, otherwise they are threatened with delisting. Expedia calls this their "rate parity" policy. They should be taken to court by the DOJ. Second, they take a massive percentage from hotels as commission. Use Expedia to find availability, but then go direct to the hotel. Also, because hotels know they are getting absolutely FUCKED by Expedia. They will not put inventory on Expedia during peak seasons. They know they can get max occupancy without being charged a 30% by Expedia. Ski resort hotels are a prime example, but there are several other cases. In short fuck Expedia and probably AirBnB too.

Just google "expedia price fixing" and the list goes on, here is the most recent one: https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2019/05/09/29082...

The article cites low-tech raw resources like timber, paper, nickel, and gold (okay this can be hiigh-tech) being used less in advanced economies. What about ones like rare earth minerals used in high-tech? It would have been nice for the article to touch on that. I would love if someone could find that information. A quick Google search didn't yield much.

The author does mention the energy usage rate is leveling out. Not believing this, I did a basic search on electricity usage and it does appear to be true: https://www.statista.com/statistics/201794/us-electricity-co.... I did not check total energy usage though (petrol, natural gas, etc.)

This confirms my belief that has been derided a bit here on HN. That is, I believe Capitalism one-day, in the far distant future, will end or at the least mitigate resource scarcity. When Capitalism achieves that, it in effect nearly goes away or is at least greatly reduced. Humanity will then reap the benefits of abundance. Hopefully moving beyond Capitalism, thanks to Capitalism.

I wish I lived in California. I'd be requesting the deletion of my data ALL OVER the internet.

Still waiting on two-factor authentication from my bank. Even just basic SMS with a 4 or 5 digit code like Vanguard does would be nice.

Recently had an x-ray and an MRI done on my leg. My out of pocket cost was at least around $600. I'm not exactly sure what my health "insurance" covered. You never know what your insurance will cover until the bill arrives. What are my options? I don't have free choice. I have two plans offered by my employer. Shit and Shitty. Worse, they found nothing wrong with my ligaments. The x-ray was a waste. I was told to keep a "pain journal" of any specific movements and positions that cause discomfort.

Tear it down. I rather have the peace of mind that I am just covered no matter what, even if it means I pay a bit more in taxes. Let me focus on work and life. Not healthcare.

I do understand the problems this creates for a healthcare system organized around private insurance. I get this will have a negative impact on the economy by putting those companies out of work, but I'm deeply unsatisfied with this system. Even finding a doctor on my plan can be difficult.

So the government increased the cost of college by getting involved?

I remember the supposed mas-exodus that would occur when Github was acquired by Microsoft.

Humans aren't very good at managing things. Just take a look around your co-workers some time and you'll see mismanagement. We're really bad at managing! You could say, scarcity is a management issue. If systems are managed by inefficient beings, well then the system doesn't really matter be it socialism or capitalism. I'll take my chances with capitalism and hope the best managers naturally rise to the top.

Maybe AI can remove the mismanagers from the problem one day. Or maybe, even with our woeful mismanagement, if two hundred governments weren't pitted against one another and we had a single world government, there would be plenty to go around even with humans mismanaging everything.

That's where we need to police it. Now maybe thats cap/trade, carbon tax, or whatever. Maybe its geoengineering. Remember this isn't just a capitalism problem, the Soviet Unions centralized economy wasn't exactly environmentally friendly. This is a humanity problem. Not many people share my optimism, but humans have been pretty good about surviving so far.

I guess I "outgrew" it. It's fun when you are in high school. I think capitalism works well so long as people can keep it honest. The invisible hand needs a visible hand because two hands are better than one. I also believe capitalism will eat itself and deliver us a pretty awesome world a hundred or so years from now (assuming we police it in the interim). Eliminate borders, then eliminate around one trillion a year in needless defense spending, and all the sudden this capitalist system we've built has plenty of resources to provide for the many. Nations are the problem, not capitalism.

The Spanish Civil War happens to be one of my favorite historical events. In no small part because I once was really into anarcho-syndicalist beliefs. Not so much anymore, but I still enjoy it from a historical perspective.

I highly recommend the Spanish Civil War tour in Barcelona by Nick Lloyd (https://twitter.com/Civil_War_Spain). Unfortunately, the war is still a touchy subject in Spain, so his tour is the best you'll get until Spain builds a proper museum.

Do you ever find it odd that the "bad guys" always seem to subvert these movements? It seems to me that socialism has a 100% failure rate.

Capitalism will reach its end one day, long after we are gone, but that will be because of its own technologic achievements and not because of 19th-century socialist philosophy. Capitalism will become so efficient at some point that in its quest for more and more efficiency, it will end resource scarcity. Once scarcity is eliminated, capitalism "withers" away.

That's my hope anyway. In the short-term, I'd like to see free markets begin erasing more borders and reducing the number of nations. Hopefully, the recent nationalist fad is just that and we can get to more EU style setups, more globalism, and more cooperation. A disgusting amount of resources is spent on the military. Capitalism has the ability to solve our problems. Borders are in the way.

Edit: Is it the socialists, anarchists, or capitalists downvoting me? Hard to say. My ideas definitely don't have many friends.

Cigarettes kill a lot of people per year, but they take decades to do it. Not many lifelong smokers in their 20s, 30s, or even 40s are dying from cigarettes.

With that said. Vaping has been around for about ten years and this appears to be the first thing we've seen like this. Some of the victims are 18 or 19. I've been vaping on and off for 6 years. I only feel better when I vape vs smoking. Of course, that is purely based on my feel for cardio, lung capacity, and how my chest feels. Who knows under the hood at a cellular or other level. I've never been a big cloud guy, but I know big cloud people who have vaped twice as much as I have and they are still alive. The whole situation is very confusing. I'm hoping science prevails here.

If the FDA wants to outlaw vaping, so be it, but please be even-handed and outlaw plant-based nicotine products as well.

And mostly in my free-time.

I coded a plugin for use in our back-end in my sparetime. Its not industry specific or anything. Its just a GUI around an ORM that lets us spin up nice search pages quick.

I think that's the trick there.

I encountered the MLB.tv one the other day. I think they are a no special characters site.

Yes, who are these people eating fresh/wet mushrooms?

As Roger Murtaugh would say, "I'm getting too old for this shit."