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> The data they process and what they do with it is worth more to society than any number of petabytes crunched to target ads. No it isn't. You are getting def
by qubax 8y ago
> The data they process and what they do with it is worth more to society than any number of petabytes crunched to target ads.
No it isn't. You are getting defensive for no reason. If propublica ceases to exist or never existed, it wouldn't matter a single bit to the world. You could even argue the world would be better off.
> Processing petty petabytes is not praiseworthy.
From a technical point and many other ways, it is.
I don't get why you are getting offended by people making a jab at the scant amount of data. Last I checked, hacker news is a technology oriented site. And from a technology point of view, what pro publica is doing is a joke. It's a toy amount of data.
Why not just say pro publica is not a technology company and hence people shouldn't expect technological feats of wonder?
> The point is they used open source technology to process public data for reporting once the government stopped updating its own tools.
Which is something I could have done on a lazy afternoon all by myself. It isn't anything to be impressed about. But good for them anyways.
- LMYahooTFY 8y agoSo people can't make a point about any aspects of accomplishment that are not engineering feats? Whether or not Propublica has produced something of value for society seems, at an absolute minimum, highly debatable. Your comment is the one that seems defensive....
- mc92nxk 8y agoThe way qubax sees the world is as important as qubax makes propublica’s view out to be You’re being too literal. Yes if nothing exists it doesn’t matter Look in the mirror and realize you’re just one of thousands that could do this in an afternoon Given the “big picture” context, your personal computer skills aren’t much to brag about either. Literally good with computers. Get in line. Were they being defensive? Or offering a context to consider the value from?
- danso 8y agoProPublica is not a technology company, it's a non-profit investigative journalism outlet. They and countless other journalism/civic orgs would likely be happy for you to show them up by whipping up usable ETL scripts relevant in their respective domains. Since it all involves public open data you don't have to wait for anyone's permission.