dlss

62 ms·

541.
by dlss 15y ago
"Skin in the game" is percent ownership. YC had to invest in a lot of startups that didn't get as far as AirBnB to end up owning ~6% of an AirBnB.
542.
by dlss 15y ago
There's also commenter on HN who rented an illegally listed home http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820644 And the statements from Roomarama that they have encountered similar problems in the article linked from http://news.ycombinator
543.
by dlss 15y ago
On its own it could have been innocent, but there are too many of these too close together in the press release to believe that
544.
by dlss 15y ago
I think as long as they follow something similar to the guidelines in [1] they will be fine -- having good reputation information is too valuable to make illegal. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Reporting_Act
545.
by dlss 15y ago
Right. She explained that in her blog post because she wanted us to actually understand what is going on. To you it might not matter as long as a suspect is in jail, but I'm sure that having an investigation paused while you wait on neigh
546.
by dlss 15y ago
I know this isn't the place for this, but I wanted to make sure you saw this... For me, your Mono_Dyslexic font is life changing. That is all.
547.
by dlss 15y ago
Interesting. I read her post as responses to AirBnB's word twisting in the TC press release -- most of what you call being "disingenuous" is her refuting impressions people might have gotten from the press release and telling her side (inst
548.
by dlss 15y ago
With respect, I don't see how this answers estel's question. Is she crazy? Did she stop checking email, SMS, and phone? (or maybe change number post break in?) Did you misinterpret what the AirBnB guys told you? How can these two drastical
549.
by dlss 15y ago
> Let's assume that Brian's quoted 2 million nights of rentals is accurate. The reason they haven't done anything is that 1 in 2 million isn't accurate. 1 in 50,000 is probably stretching it. Consider the accidental AirBnB trespassing/s
550.
by dlss 15y ago
> because someone did not understand the inherent risks of using a service does not make it AirBnB's fault. If these are the risks then almost no one should be an AirBnB landlord. YC companies aren't supposed to profit by tricking peopl
551.
by dlss 15y ago
Right -- I'm pointing out that experiences like yours are probably fairly common. In the comments to the other story, people kept talking about how it is safe to rent using AirBnB. If the owner here had been less understanding, I'm guessing
552.
by dlss 15y ago
Exactly. Based on EJ's description of AirBnB customer service, and the 2,000,000 bookings the founders cited earlier today, we'd be fools to think this was the first time someone broke the law using AirBnB -- I'm guessing the others just
553.
by dlss 15y ago
hahaha... judging by the IQ score, only the Opera devs are still using Opera :p
554.
by dlss 15y ago
Until one of them stops doing so well with customers...
555.
by dlss 15y ago
Just a buy now button with no license? Could I use this on a webpage?
556.
by dlss 15y ago
I think the answer is "quite paranoid" -- here are a couple possibilities I think are more likely than yours: - Early adopters were less likely to vandalize apartments, so as AirBnB becomes more mainstream we will see an increase in vandals
557.
by dlss 15y ago
Well, since no one else is wading in here's what look like the usual suspects to me: - obvious digital connection (forgot to use tor / ipredator / hacked vpn) - timing attacks (keeping normal waking hours for his home country, using a vpn i
558.
by dlss 15y ago
It's very easy for younger smart people to be anarcho-capitalists (which I take it you are), but IMHO becomes progressively harder as you age. The basic problem is that a "people know what's best for themselves" policy screws over dumb peop
559.
by dlss 15y ago
Are you against requiring car insurance to drive? (another situation with a small chance of a large loss that most people can't afford) If yes, please explain why. If not, please tell me what's different here. I'm genuinely confused why you
560.
by dlss 15y ago
At the very least requiring theft/fire/vandalism insurance for people renting out their home. Also interesting: limiting vacation rentals to accredited investors. (edit: and requiring places like AirBnB to verify those requirements before y
561.
by dlss 15y ago
I hope this happens soon. The risk/reward trade-offs don't seem to be understood by most AirBnB landlords (99.99% chance of earning $100, 0.01% chance of losing $50k+). Even though this is strongly positive expected value, for a family that
562.
by dlss 15y ago
Interesting point -- I wonder if people who enjoy breaking things are more likely to use AirBnB, since they're destroying something that really matters to someone.
563.
by dlss 15y ago
So if you register and book via AirBnB you will see that much of that information is required (email, credit card, and billing info specifically). The attacker in the story must have somehow gotten stolen credit card information...
564.
by dlss 15y ago
You said "can be used without issues". I agree identity validation, and being there to hear loud noises/odd behavior makes it harder / less fun for an attacker -- but this is not what allows hotels to operate effectively. Some percentage of
565.
by dlss 15y ago
1. Sounds like a fairly thorough email screening happened 2. Locked closet
566.
by dlss 15y ago
Um, this is incorrect. Hotels are vandalized all the time... having a "reception-like place from where you can monitor the situation", and "inspect[ing] the place when they leave" doesn't prevent people from trashing your room/apt. It sound
567.
by dlss 15y ago
tl;dr "we believe our naming policy was right, but the way we enforced it was wrong"
568.
by dlss 15y ago
> There's a very simple business reason why Google cares if they have your real name. It means it's possible to cross-relate your account with your buying behavior with their partners. The idea that google somehow wants track your behav
569.
by dlss 15y ago
re: proportions: If Google+ was only for Chinese plumbers, the percentage of "problem" names (and the kinds of problems those names posed to the G+ DB schema) would obviously be different -- hence the usefulness of the term "web scale" when
570.
by dlss 15y ago
"Web scale" refers to dealing with the problems and issues that occur when you have hundreds of millions of global users. This includes performance and availability, but also security issues, social/cultural issues, and business/tax/legal i

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