geebee

71 ms·

511.
by geebee 9y ago
So, what should have happened here? Not this. OK, ok, you're asking, what should have happened, not what shouldn't have happened. I can't say it's a totally unfair question. It probably would be worth thinking this th
512.
by geebee 9y ago
I think it was owned by something similar to a HOA. Because the HOA didn't pay a minuscule property tax bill, the private street went up for auction, and a private citizen purchased it. That private citizen now has the ability to cha
513.
by geebee 9y ago
It's clear that we disagree about the nature of this tax bill, why it wasn't paid, and whether it's appropriate for the government auction off private property under these circumstances. The strongest argument I've read
514.
by geebee 9y ago
This was a situation where a speculator saw an opportunity to get rich off an oversight, and it didn't work out. Hard to be too sorrowful about that. Wouldn't mind seeing more of a penalty for the rich landowners, though.
515.
by geebee 9y ago
Patent trolls generally follow all laws. There are all kinds of legal ways to make money that I find extremely distasteful.
516.
by geebee 9y ago
I'm ok with some karma for the deliquent homeowners, but I see no reason why this should turn into a giant cash prize for a private citizen. I have noticed that people who support the buyers tend to point out the problem with wealthy a
517.
by geebee 9y ago
I'd like to see computer science taught at a slower pace, especially in the beginning. I know, I know, standards. And they do matter! But when I was a grad student at Berkeley (not in CS, I just knew someone taking the course), I saw
518.
by geebee 9y ago
I use facebook to keep up with events. I follow the feeds of organizations, not individuals (I hide almost all personal feeds). I follow SFJazz, symphony and opera, various music groups, theater companies, a few outdoors/ecology orga
519.
by geebee 9y ago
I read accounts of people responding with hostility to google glass (there was a time when it was considered bad etiquette to take someone's picture without asking, and plenty of people feel this way now. I honestly don't really
520.
by geebee 9y ago
depending on the circumstances, I do think a prosecutor can play a pivotal role. There are examples of misconduct where a prosecutor fails to turn over exculpatory evidence that is so convincing as to make prosecution essentially impossibl
521.
by geebee 9y ago
There are also various combinations of coursework that qualify (x semester hours of physics, y semester hours of engineering or chemistry, etc...). It's in the patent exam application docs. One interesting and controversial one is tha
522.
by geebee 9y ago
I don't think it's fascistic at all. Think about it this way - I would like to trade my right to bring a cell phone into group event in exchange for the benefits I receive from participating in a group event without cell phones.
523.
by geebee 9y ago
Fortunately, SF does have quite a few boulevards and other urban areas that are like this, so the enjoyable experience you mentioned can be had here. A few are mentioned in the article. They tend to be commercial "Main Street" ty
524.
by geebee 9y ago
Another important factor not mentioned here is the practice of "curb cuts" http://www.spur.org/publications/urbanist-article/2008-06-01... I recommend the article (not just posting for a cite, it's
525.
by geebee 9y ago
Jazz is just really, really hard. Good improvisation is incredibly demanding on both a mechanical and cognitive level. A jazz pianist needs the physical dexterity and skill of a classical pianist, but they also need to think like an arrang
526.
by geebee 9y ago
This isn't a bad point. If you purchased a house in SF for $1m in 2009, there's a good chance it would sell for $1.8 mil today[1]. Rents have varied over time. I'd say the rent on a place like this would be $3k a month in 2
527.
by geebee 9y ago
I agree with you that as a term “low six figures” is odd. 300k should mean low six figures. In the vernacular, with regards to salary, it is used to describe a range between 100 and 200k. So low six figures tends to mean closer to 100k.
528.
by geebee 9y ago
I’ve been coming around to this as well. I don’t object to an industry wide exam based on data structures, algorithms binary operations, and design. My main objection is that the exam is taken repeatedly at each interview and scored under
529.
by geebee 9y ago
Yes thank you, it was the economist not the nytimes.
530.
by geebee 9y ago
Like Joel, I was close to quitting Facebook, largely because of politics. And for similar reasons, the political posts were making me unhappy. So, what I do now is hide pretty much all personal feeds, and subscribe to groups. Most of my
531.
by geebee 9y ago
One factor here is that people spend much more time with their kids than they used to. There was an article recently, I think on the NYTimes, and my comment would be much better if I could find the link with the data, but here goes. I am
532.
by geebee 9y ago
There's been a decent amount of change on the backend, too. I hesitate to call it churn because not all of it deserves to be characterized this way. I started working with backend technologies in the late 90s, and there was a lot o
533.
by geebee 9y ago
It's a big mistake for engineers to think that their jobs and the tools they use are significantly harder than in other fields. Hmmm... ok, I'd agree it's a mistake to simply assume this. But I'm not going to dismis
534.
by geebee 9y ago
It's fascinating, and kind of horrifying too. I've of course been a patient, and I saw the initial bill for a neck injury that led to no treatment other than Tylenol - $16,000. My HMO paid about half that, I believe. I was not o
535.
by geebee 9y ago
I’ve wondered about this. I was keenly interested in programming as a kid, but I was never into hardware or operating systems. I wanted to write text based d&d style games, as well as simulate outcomes from dice games like risk (or kn
536.
by geebee 9y ago
There's a difference between behavior and speech, though it can become a fuzzy line (is a large donation behavior or speech?). One thing some of the comments have touched on is the notion of "beyond the pale" - a term that so
537.
by geebee 9y ago
Sorry, IANAL. My guess is that there are probably some legal protections in that situation, but not enough to shield you from criminal charges or lawsuits. But I don't really know.
538.
by geebee 9y ago
I'd be very careful about doing this - it appears illegal and could lead to civil and criminal sanctions against the person who left the blank-filled package. This concern is confirmed by statements from the police in this article. Th
539.
by geebee 9y ago
Arg. Well thank you for posting. The hn title lacked that word and I didn’t catch it in the study but it is indeed there.
540.
by geebee 9y ago
I just read this. Here's my biggest objection: "In both sets of photographs, the subjects' faces were obscured. See figure 1 for sample photographs. Set 1 photos included both front and side views; Set 2 photos had only fron

More ›