4 ms·

How's this related to tech?

Latteland 8y ago
It is on a website? Hacker news isn't limited to technology discussions anyway. NFL, dating challenges, depression, politics, it's all here.
- cobrabyte 8y ago
  Usually some sort of ancillary connection to tech, startups, programming, etc. Oh well, guess HN is becoming more like /r/politics every day.
  - Latteland 8y ago
    Well, the way it's kind of connected is that most people here are programmers or connected to tech.
mikece 8y ago
Missing records in a database? That's about as close as I can see a connection, but that's more of a problem with the humans operating the system than the system itself.
THE_PUN_STOPS 8y ago
In addition to what other commentators have said, this website is chock full of people who like to solve meaningful problems. Gun violence in America is a meaningful problem.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
candu 8y ago
...because tech isn't conceived, designed, or implemented in a vacuum, but rather as part of human society? There's a growing sense of a disconnect between "tech" (whatever we take that to mean) and, well, just about everyone else on some of these squishy ethical / legal matters like privacy, accessibility, "fair" taxation (whatever that means), etc. In a less hand-wavy sense, you could also see this particular story as a failure of technology to account for fallible human systems with limited resources, or for the complexity of real-world legal / political contexts. This in turn leads into discussions of the flaws with government contract procurement processes, as well as meaningful discussions of the importance of a solid UI / UX design process. Moreover, this article itself is an excellent working example of how to diagnose, drill down into, and present user-facing problems. If more of us who write software understood our users' problems this clearly, we'd build much better software.
ColinWright 8y ago
If you think it doesn't belong then flag it. If you don't want to see it, hide it. Having acted, and move on.

It is on a website? Hacker news isn't limited to technology discussions anyway. NFL, dating challenges, depression, politics, it's all here.

cobrabyte 8y ago
Usually some sort of ancillary connection to tech, startups, programming, etc. Oh well, guess HN is becoming more like /r/politics every day.
- Latteland 8y ago
  Well, the way it's kind of connected is that most people here are programmers or connected to tech.

mikece 8y ago

Missing records in a database? That's about as close as I can see a connection, but that's more of a problem with the humans operating the system than the system itself.

THE_PUN_STOPS 8y ago

In addition to what other commentators have said, this website is chock full of people who like to solve meaningful problems. Gun violence in America is a meaningful problem.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

candu 8y ago

...because tech isn't conceived, designed, or implemented in a vacuum, but rather as part of human society? There's a growing sense of a disconnect between "tech" (whatever we take that to mean) and, well, just about everyone else on some of these squishy ethical / legal matters like privacy, accessibility, "fair" taxation (whatever that means), etc. In a less hand-wavy sense, you could also see this particular story as a failure of technology to account for fallible human systems with limited resources, or for the complexity of real-world legal / political contexts. This in turn leads into discussions of the flaws with government contract procurement processes, as well as meaningful discussions of the importance of a solid UI / UX design process. Moreover, this article itself is an excellent working example of how to diagnose, drill down into, and present user-facing problems. If more of us who write software understood our users' problems this clearly, we'd build much better software.

ColinWright 8y ago

If you think it doesn't belong then flag it. If you don't want to see it, hide it. Having acted, and move on.