Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 195 posts

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#111

Post by tptacek »

edw519 wrote: post #80

everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)

It's not just the off-topic stuff. It's groupthink. The needle on that has been buried for months now.

I'll give you a telling example: the insane series of threads where, in essence, an angry mob chased a comp-sci grad student around for nominating Wikipedia articles for deletion. "Here's the main offender!" "You're a drain on Wikipedia, a negative source of knowledge!" "You're an idiot!". An Internet-famous guy chimes in with a comment calling him "a gigantic Nazi asshole" (fun fact: this is after the guy took the time to sign up to talk to HN commenters).

Then HN dutifully mods up a blog post by the same guy that calls the guy out by name for "deciding he's the sole decider of the notability of programming languages". Nice.

Then a triumphal thread on a post about how the guy has stopped nominating articles for deletion on Wikipedia. The system works!

Why do I like this example? No politics. Still bad.

You can see the groupthink everywhere on the site, from the comment on any Amazon post that gets reflexively modded up for pointing out that Amazon removed Wikipedia content, or how Sony once installed a rootkit, or how IP laws are bad for America (I especially liked watching people downmod 'grellas trying to provide context and upmodding someone who, presumably, was not a startup lawyer).

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#112

Post by danssig »

Lewisham wrote: post #95
buro9 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Americans aren't seeing this stuff. When I was married and my American wife got to join me in the queue I was in, and had to go through the same process that I went through. Well she was incredulous that she was being treated that way. Until Americans actually experience this, nothing will be done about it. I've considered that enough to think that a better way to approach it is to subject people to the kind of…

Most Americans aren't seeing this stuff. You mean most foreign-travelling Americans, who are a minority in comparison to the Americans that don't have a passport, as only 37% hold one [1]. Domestic flights are way less of a pain than international, if only because you don't have to go through Customs. [1]: http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/02/17/how-many-americans... EDIT: My American wife (I'm British) was the sam…

You're trying to get a green card? Do you realize that once you get it you're going to be responsible for filing tax returns as long as you have it, no matter where you actually live and work?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#113

Post by retube »

edw519 wrote: post #80

everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)

Does the tech world live in an isolated bubbled insulated from the rest of society?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#114

Post by ugh »

On several occasions I've had expensive gear disappear from my carry-on during security checks and last year a TSA agent dropped my Canon 1D Mk3, smashing both the lens and the camera body. No apology, but more importantly: I was never compensated.

That can’t be, can it? Property damage is property damage. Shouldn’t the TSA have insurance anyway? Is he stretching the truth?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#115

Post by tptacek »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #98
edw519 wrote: post #80

everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)

Working in the tech field often means travelling to the States. More importantly, since many hacker newsers are American, you should be aware that setting up shop in the States makes it more difficult for you to do business internationally, that travelling to visit clients/customers/suppliers is easier for you than it is for them to visit you. So yes, this is relevant. And flagging an article because of a little easi…

Thanks to this article, I now know that it is a gigantic pain to travel internationally with the US, that TSA agents are not good at their jobs, and that people get harassed for taking pictures sometimes. That's good because by trying very hard to express my frustration about these topics eloquently I am solving those problems. The Internet changes everything! Just ask Egypt.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#116

Post by tptacek »

retube wrote: post #113
edw519 wrote: post #80

everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)

Does the tech world live in an isolated bubbled insulated from the rest of society?

Yes why should tech people be deprived of my cat pictures? My cat is delicious!

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#117

Post by a-priori »

die_sekte wrote: post #16

Anybody willing to share how Schengen/EU borders are for foreigners?

In my limited experience, painless. I'm Canadian, and I've been to Switzerland twice: first as a tourist, then on a work visa. Both times I entered the Schengen area via Charles de Gaulle, then flew to Geneva or Zurich respectively.

Both times my passport was checked in Paris... just a "what's the purpose of your visit", a look at the passport and visa, and a wave through. In Geneva, there was no border control (just a "go this way if you have anything to declare" or "go this way to the street" fork). In Zurich, there was another border guard; same deal as in Paris.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#118

Post by forinti »

yardie wrote: post #81
ovi256 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazil has a well-known tit-for-tat policy in foreign matters. They will apply to a country's citizens whatever policy that country applies to Brazilians. So Americans were singled out because they singled out Brazilians. It's called having balls.

Except they weren't singled out. Visa waiver program requires each member be at certain economic and political levels. Countries like Singapore met the requirement and are included, countries like Brazil, China, and India don't. This isn't elementary school anymore, you expect diplomats to act diplomats and get policies enacted, not come up with some stupid scheme even a 10 year old could see through. What the politi…

Americans weren't singled out either. Brazil's policy is the same for all countries: the same hurdles Brazilians have to go through in a given country, citizens of that country will have to go through in Brazil.

EDIT: Would Florida prefer that half a million Brazilians hadn't visited in 2010? It works both ways, you see.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#119

Post by Luc »

gaius wrote: post #99
miked wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'v had border guards in FSRs point guns at me but hey, those guys are just doing their jobs. No one should ever, EVER , point a gun at someone unless they are prepared to shoot.

When a man with a swarthy complexion and a huge beard wearing faded camo gear shows up at your border and shuffles through a selection of passports before deciding which one to try, then hands you one that looks nothing like him, you can be a little suspicious ;-) Then again at another FSR border I was extremely drunk and insisting to the guard that despite what my passport says I was in fact Dutch and they just roll…

Is my imagination running wild, or did you just say you bought a fake passport in Mexico?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#120

Post by lemming »

steveklabnik wrote: post #108
paraschopra wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. How else am I supposed to enter the US?

We don't have some kind of tourist visa? (Ignorant American here)

Only if you come from one of these countries:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#...

or a few miscellaneous others (Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, etc).

Post reply on HN