6 ms·
Haraldur Þorleifsson sweeps person of the year awards
- zeristor 4y agoI am not sure what proportion of people use wheel chairs, but I do notice that I rarely see them in commercial centres. I look forward to seeing more of them in the future as more and more accommodations for mobility are put in place.
- hgsgm 4y agoThe USA has ADA law mandating accomodations for access, and it's so strong (at least in CA variant/extension) that even trolls can use it to extort money from facilities that have no practical need for it.
- runarberg 4y agoEverybody deserves access. And if a regulation has this unintended side-effect (I need see some examples before I believe this has happened in real life) the overall effect of better accessibility is a net positive. Our society is better when it accommodates people with different needs. On the plus side—since this submission is about Halli—Halli has been using his personal wealth to build 1500 wheelchair ramps in Reykjavík. His efforts have been quite successful. I wonder if there are people or organizations in California that are engaging in similar actions.
- triceratops 4y agoYou are correct that everyone deserves access. At the same time it's a better outcome if businesses are allowed (or forced) to spend money on accessibility upgrades instead of paying out to lawyers. https://sanjosespotlight.com/access-v-abuse-crema-coffee-in-san-jose-closes-due-to-ada-lawsuit/ https://sanjosespotlight.com/access-v-abuse-crema-coffee-in-...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- simonsarris 4y agoIf you searched "ADA abuse" you'd find hundreds of examples, many of which have brought thousands of cases, especially to small restaurants and small business websites eg https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/10/spate-of-ada-lawsuits-hits-hundreds-of-local-businesses-still-reeling-from-pandemic https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/10/spate-of-ada-... or: > Conservatively assuming an average settlement figure of $10,000 per case, Defendants have extracted over $5,000,000 from California’s small businesses from the cases filed on behalf of just one of their serial filers in just over two years,” the complaint says. The district attorneys believe the firm has systematically drained California businesses, many owned by immigrants who do not speak English or fully understand the vagaries of the American legal system, out of millions of dollars over the past four years. https://www.courthousenews.com/law-firm-accused-of-ada-shakedown-of-small-businesses/ https://www.courthousenews.com/law-firm-accused-of-ada-shake...
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- ipqk 4y agoIt's not about facilities that don't need it (though I'd argue all facilities need it), it's about abusing specific details like the height of signage to extort money.(https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/parking-lot-trolls-lawsuit-happy-ada-defenders-are-officially-enemies-of-the-state-8586200 https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/parking-lot-trolls-laws...) If they actually cared about accessibility, they'd just tell the owner to fix it. Instead they sue them extracting thousands in settlements.
- Karawebnetwork 4y agoIt is important to note that mobility accommodations are not only useful for people who require a wheelchair, but also for anyone who cannot use the stairs.
- Ozzie_osman 4y agoIf you're wondering why this is on the front page now, it's because of these exchanges with Elon Musk which went viral on Twitter https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705?t=rkk0LHCuBvlsFy4SzA5CkA&s=19 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705?t...
- tonetheman 4y ago[dead]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bakhy 4y agoThe same site has an article about all this from today: https://www.icelandreview.com/business/elon-musk-and-halli-spar-over-termination-at-twitter/ https://www.icelandreview.com/business/elon-musk-and-halli-s...
- hgsgm 4y ago> I'm typing this on my phone btw. It's easier for because I only need to use one finger. I wonder if he also has voclaization difficulties that interfere with voice typing, and/or if he was socialized against "talking to himself" like I was. (Or if Twitter has the same problem as HN+Android+Firefox+? where the keyboard microphone and swipe goes inexplicably missing sometimes, like now for me.)
- rideontime 4y agoElon never misses an opportunity to humiliate one of his subordinates. It’s a pretty consistent pattern since he took over twitter.
- hgsgm 4y agoIt's incredible. It's quite possible that an acquisition CEO might no longer be needed at the company 2 years later, and that his deteriorating health might interfere with productivity. But holy moly the horrific way Elon/NewTwitter went about the whole thing. Question: if every US citizen/permanent resident refuses to work for Twitter because of how horrific it is and the pay isn't worth it, is that sufficient basis to get approval to hire H1Bs with lower standards?
- runarberg 4y agoHaraldur Þorleifsson is the founder and CEO of Ueno which was acquired by Twitter a couple of years ago. Yesterday he was really publicly fired from Twitter after a bizarre exchange with Elon Musk. The gist of it is that he had been locked out of his workstation for 9 days, and after failing to get a response from Twitter’s HR, he resorted to asking Elon on Twitter. You can see the thread here: https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481
- rideontime 4y agoHe wasn’t even fired yesterday, he’d been cut as part of the recent layoffs of acquired founders that also included Esther Crawford and Leah Culver. He was just trying to get ahold of HR!
- doomleika 4y agoCopying my post from other thread: Feels more like to gut Musk. Dude had a firm aquired to Twitter in '21. and is one of largest tax entity in Iceland. He got Musk saying he's terminated due to disability[1]. He deliberately asked HR repeatly that his JD is correct and his manager if he’s doing the task he was assigned while he was employed[2]. No one will ever do this unless he’s preparing for lawsuits. He’s likely to be in the period of his acquisitions and termination like this gonna be very expensive Dude is out for blood and Musk falls for it. It's going to be a very expensive tweet for Musk. [1] https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1633096176219160584 https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1633096176219160584 [2] https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082731172069379 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082731172069379
- masklinn 4y ago> Dude is out for blood and Musk falls for it. I'm not sure he's even out for blood, doesn't really seem to be the MO of someone who sells a company for millions and decides to take wages instead of stock just so he'd pay more taxes (he was one of the top icelandic taxpayers in 2021, but much further down the list of top incomes). More likely wants to know where he's standing (figuratively, sadly) as he's apparently been spending weeks of the little time he still has trying to get answers from HR. I like that he got Musk to basically admit publicly he's being fired because he's disabled and they won't accommodate him, though. Only thing I wonder about is whether Halli likely working under Icelandic law makes it worse or better than if he'd been covered by ADA.
- aranke 4y ago[flagged]
- ABNW 4y agoExcept they weren't on payroll, as they weren't being paid.
- mschuster91 4y ago> 1. Called out their boss (Elon, of all people) publicly on Twitter instead of quietly remaining on payroll. It's not exactly known if he actually still is on Twitter's payroll. Besides even if he still were, it keeps him from pursuing actual productive work, alone from non-compete clauses.
- aniforprez 4y agoTo add context to point 1, they said they'd repeatedly reached out to Twitter HR multiple times and contacted multiple people but they couldn't get any answers on if they were still hired or being paid so decided to publicly reach out. I assume HR couldn't give answers because it's probably running on fumes with a skeleton team
- DSMan195276 4y agoYeah I'd say if HR for a week was really "not able to confirm if [he is] an employee" that's a pretty bad sign. How do they even know everybody is getting paid if they don't know for sure who works there?
- rideontime 4y agoWhat is the relevance of #2?
- delecti 4y agoIt's mentioned in TFA. When he sold his company to Twitter, he chose to receive payment in cash rather than stock, partly to "pay back" the system in the form of higher taxes on the proceeds.
- joseph_grobbles 4y agoBizarre to see this submission flagged. Not only is it directly related to technology, it is a fascinating discourse on what "work" is, at least in Elon Musk's incompetent vision. That this is flagged is completely unsurprising. Musk's pathetic army of supplicants have reached the stage they hit with Trump where they are so incredibly embarrassed by his antics, yet think they've painted themselves in a corner supporting him, that they try to even suppress the whole topic. That to talk about them is some sort of derangement syndrome, lest people actually note how utterly insane, incompetent if not criminal their heroes are. To be an Elon Musk apologists now betrays that someone is just a horrendous human being. Absolutely used toilet paper levels of humanity.
- JeremyNT 4y agoAnother post on the Twitter thread about this issue was also flagged [0] despite having over 300 points. The charitable view is that the flaggers are tired of reading more examples of Twitter's now well-known mismanagement (at this point, really, nobody should be surprised). HN is exclusively my source for tech news, and this flagging almost caused me to miss the story entirely. I don't necessarily want to see a million threads about Elon's incompetence either, but this feels newsworthy to me and it seems like it should rise above the general "Elon does something dumb" background noise. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35055839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35055839
- archagon 4y agoThis is why I treat https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active as the real frontpage.
- dang 4y agoFar from bizarre, it follows directly from the intended use of this site, and the users who flagged it were correct to do so. More at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35060935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35060935.
- insane_dreamer 4y agowhy was this flagged?
- joseph_grobbles 4y ago[dead]
- iLoveOncall 4y agoProbably because it's not news at all, it's 3 months old and nobody cares about the Person of the Year in Iceland. Instead it feels just like astroturfing to show how good this guy is (he seems to be, not denying that) VS how bad Musk is (he definitely is). If this was shared the day the article had been published, would it have received any upvotes? No.
- runarberg 4y agoI think this was posted now because of the public firing yesterday, and perhaps OP didn’t find a link. As this was happening yesterday, I posted a link to the twitter thread, but it didn’t catch on. @dang Perhaps the link should change to a news story about the actual incident people are talking about
- sigmar 4y ago>If this was shared the day the article had been published, would it have received any upvotes? No. Right, it gained relevance because of current events. Lots of articles posted to HN are months old. I found the story interesting because I had no idea who this person was until yesterday, opting to pay 4.2 million usd in taxes is certainly unique, and he seems to be the 'main character' on twitter today because of his convo with Elon.
- insane_dreamer 4y agoIf no one cares, then no one needs to upvote it. Flagging is for inappropriate or irrelevant, and this is neither given the recent Elon Twitter spat HN thread.
- dang 4y ago