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The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

danielcompton.net

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Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#471

Post by goodplay »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #446
Spooky23 wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have that: https://usnews.newsvine.com/_news/2011/12/07/9272989-firefig... Modern conservatism is a cancer.

No sympathy from me. I pay for fire protection as part of my property taxes. In this case, it's a separate item that must be purchased separately. That's what makes it "a cancer"? As the morons in the article said: Bell and her boyfriend said they were aware of the policy, but thought a fire would never happen to them.

Yeah, I agree. I also move to let sick people die if we can't verify that they have insurance coverage, and bar children from education if their parents can't pay (or if they are orphaned). I mean, screw poor people! Right?

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#472

Post by darpa_escapee »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #446
Spooky23 wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have that: https://usnews.newsvine.com/_news/2011/12/07/9272989-firefig... Modern conservatism is a cancer.

No sympathy from me. I pay for fire protection as part of my property taxes. In this case, it's a separate item that must be purchased separately. That's what makes it "a cancer"? As the morons in the article said: Bell and her boyfriend said they were aware of the policy, but thought a fire would never happen to them.

> No sympathy from me.

No sympathy for people who lost their home and possessions over a $75 fee?

I had a friend who had no sympathy for another friend who was diagnosed with throat cancer, because he smoked cigarettes. Didn't matter that the person had cancer, what mattered is that they smoked cigarettes and knew the risks. It was forgivable on the first friend's part because he was also heavily medicated for a psychiatric illness.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#473

Post by pfarnsworth »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #456
pfarnsworth wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said "I think they have him dead to rights". Unless you are not a native English speaker and you don't understand the words that you're typing, it means you think that the accused is guilty. If that's not what you meant then I suggest using different words. Of course you think they have a good case. All you've heard is their side.

It's weird being the guy who has lobbied for discretion and waiting for the other side in these cases on Hacker News before, and then being told I don't understand the words I am typing. The evidence basically indicts him, outright. Full stop. I'm sorry, and I know it offends you, but I'm acknowledging that fact. He is pretty much red-handed, and the evidence basically amounts to "we found the defendant standing over…

Your understanding of English must be very poor, because you said above that "I didn't say he was guilty." and now you're saying "The evidence basically indicts him, outright. Full stop." So yes, you are absolutely saying he's guilty after hearing one side of the story. Which only very stupid people do.

So, at least acknowledge that you have no idea what you're talking about. If you think he's guilty, that's well within your rights, but understand you're making a completely premature declaration of guilt by hearing one side of the evidence. Full stop.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#475

Post by kirrent »

londons_explore wrote: post #383
_audakel wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i can't believe someone as smart as he is would just blatantly stick in a usb. With how much money he was going to make he could have researched some more annomous ways to get it. Not the least would be to intercept a team members auth/pw and use that to access the data.

He had a Windows laptop according to the filing. Engineers rarely use windows. He was also a manager at Google. Very techy folk don't take on manager responsibilities because it quickly saps time. Both those things tell me he was more of a people person than a technical person.

Not to mention that he had to look up how to use SVN.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#476

Post by PhantomGremlin »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #472
PhantomGremlin wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sympathy from me. I pay for fire protection as part of my property taxes. In this case, it's a separate item that must be purchased separately. That's what makes it "a cancer"? As the morons in the article said: Bell and her boyfriend said they were aware of the policy, but thought a fire would never happen to them.

> No sympathy from me. No sympathy for people who lost their home and possessions over a $75 fee? I had a friend who had no sympathy for another friend who was diagnosed with throat cancer, because he smoked cigarettes. Didn't matter that the person had cancer, what mattered is that they smoked cigarettes and knew the risks. It was forgivable on the first friend's part because he was also heavily medicated for a psyc…

No sympathy for people who lost their home and possessions over a $75 fee?

Well, yes, sympathy from me as in "sucks to be them". But they were adults and made a voluntary decision to forego paying for fire protection. They made a bet and they lost.

As for cancer, when I was in high school some 40 years ago, I knew a US Army Major (i.e. Gung-ho military) who smoked. Even then, smoking was starting to be frowned upon. So he used to say "any fool can quit smoking. It takes a man to face cancer."

At a personal level, if I ran into that person now and it turned out he indeed had cancer, I would of course have sympathy for him. But perhaps he and I would both agree that adults sometimes make bad decisions, and they then should accept the consequences of those bad decisions.

As Niven and Pournelle explained it back in 1981: "think of it as evolution in action".

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#477

Post by uptownfunk »

harryh wrote: post #29

Uber passengers only pay 41% of the cost of trips, with investor capital making up the difference FWIW this assertion (which isn't really core to the central thesis of the post, but still) is wrong. That number comes from https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/12/01/2180647/the-taxi-unic... but the author of that story misread the data. Uber only counts their cut as revenue not the full cost of the ride. Despite this repet…

You know what, I may get downvoted for this, but my take is you just can't stop these guys. They'll do whatever it takes to win. I probably spend around $2,000 USD on uber trips per month. And frankly, as much disturbing stuff I hear about these guys, Uber beats the heck out of renting a car in a snowy area (especially after having taken a red-eye to a client site). It also beats the crap out of taking a cab in most places, I usually have to navigate to where I want to go and the taxis aren't as clean or the drivers as friendly. They could double the price, and as long as my company reimbursed it, I'd still take it, because they've just got it down so well. Lyft and the other competitors suffer from availability issues, and the average time it takes for a driver to get to me on Uber is much less than the other ride shares. They've got their product down pat, it's so well designed. What I don't support however is their workplace attitude towards women (whom I applaud for coming out about it, takes guts.) It's made me rethink using the service a few times, but when you've got a product that good and such a demanding schedule, the (sad?) truth is that you'll take whatever little comforts you can that make your life that much easier.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#478

Post by wavefunction »

eco wrote: post #269
wavefunction wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"accidentally copied" Thank god for the honest among us.

It could have also been a simple mistake. Several Otto employees came from Waymo. Not hard to send email to John Smith instead of John Smith by mistake if you were in regular contact with that person as part of their role at a previous job doing largely the same thing.

It was a Waymo employee accidentally copied on the email rather than the other directional operation.

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#479

Post by randyrand »

c_r_w wrote: post #339
randyrand wrote: post #329

I still love Uber and will continue to use them. They provide a great service: point A to B at a good price and no hassles. That's why I use them. I don't care at all about the rest of the drama. It's hard to even keep up with it. I suspect most people are the same.

It is easy to love a company that is tossing free money at you to use their service. It will be harder to love them if/when they are a de facto monopoly on public transportation and are limiting service and raising fees to recoup their years of investor subsidies. Enjoy your cheap rides!

thanks!

Re: The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

#480

Post by wavefunction »

thomasrognon wrote: post #335
wavefunction wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with your "tax grab" angle since there is no evidence of that. Unless you mean that the city of Austin was somehow going to make money off fingerprinting?

"(A) Each TNC operating in the City of Austin shall pay an annual fee calculated by the department based on one of the following methods of that TNCs choosing: (1) The total of the permit fee paid by taxicab companies times the number of persons driving for the TNC; (2) One (1) percent of the TNCs annual local gross revenues, or a comparable percentage of a TNCs portion of driver fares; or (3) Based on total miles dr…

It seems like the money was going to be used to administer the industry, which seems fair?

A tax grab for me implies taking some money from some entity for a completely different reason. Like, paying for a civic ice rink with the money.

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