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

Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 223 posts

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#171

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

aguyfromnb wrote: post #126
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...or that he's incompetent to the point of not being able to receive, process and relay information with any degree of reliability. Pick your poison I guess.

Last time I was reprimanded for making this point on these forums, but I'll say it again: If you think a guy with a 40+ year career in the cut-throat New York real estate world, then in in media and entertainment world, culminating in the Presidency of the USA, can't "process or transmit information", it might be you with the issue. You can mock "Art of the Deal" all you want, but it's not possible to be that "lucky"…

I wasn't mocking anything and do not consider him lucky.

The guy clearly has some skill sets that are useful at least to him personally.

I'm not convinced that all the falsehoods he spreads are spoken with any intention / a deep understanding of what the inaccuracies are.

AFAICT, he seems to have developed a strategy in which attention to detail, accuracy, honesty, utility, fairness, integrity, etc. simply have little bearing on his getting what he wants.

I would posit that if you spend your entire life this way, your ability to pay attention to things of true value would seriously atrophy.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#172

Post by cultus »

76543210 wrote: post #153
tootie wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They maybe could. But so could the federal government and it's their actual job.

If I didn't pay taxes my mortgage would be paid off, I could quit/work from home for a decade. How much abundance would we have without the federal government?

This is certainly a difficult time to be a libertarian.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#173

Post by KirinDave »

zaroth wrote: post #160

Google made the following statement on Twitter; Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information. This is _in addition_ (emphasis added) to other measures we are taking, including: - A Google “home page promotion” to promote greater awareness of simple measures citizens can take to prevent the spread of the d…

I mean, I thought the media was right and I work at Google. I knew the Verily site existed (a member of my team helped with a production readiness review last week).

So if they went and looked for Googlers who knew about the national effort and came up bank, and then didn't get immediate confirmation from Google, then they ran with a story.

Obviously I am but a small part of this massive machine and even though I am in a lot of the COVID-19 chats and have been engaged with various technical readiness efforts since we'll before US took it seriously, so maybe I missed it. But also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Executive has just recently enlisted Google to do this.

The "1700 engineers" number is super weird. That's much too high to be any one reasonably sized team, but it's definitely smaller than the impact footprint I infer at Google.

So my prediction is Trump said nonsense but the Executive decided to try and make it reality afterwards. Google as a company would definitely jump on doing this sort of thing for free.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#174

Post by KirinDave »

axaxs wrote: post #167
zaroth wrote: post #160

Google made the following statement on Twitter; Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information. This is _in addition_ (emphasis added) to other measures we are taking, including: - A Google “home page promotion” to promote greater awareness of simple measures citizens can take to prevent the spread of the d…

I'm betting on the former. As dangerous as it is to basically blanket call the media liars as Trump has done, there are just enough cases of it being correct to keep you scratching your head. Journalism of today is little more than Gawker-esque trash. I feel sorry for the remaining good journalists, having their industry muddied so much.

Manufacturing Consent is a good book and I believe most of what's in it, but you should read the parts about the mechanics of it as opposed to assuming there is any unity or conformity in the production of News.

It'd also a bit rich to be cursing at "the Media" for lying as the Executive and his most friendly media outlets just got done trying to play off the global pandemic as a liberal conspiracy nat CPAC.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#175

Post by brown9-2 »

iamleppert wrote: post #131

Google, with their enormous warchest of money could be providing free test kits for everyone, not developing some chinch web site locator that could be built in an afternoon by a single developer. They have clearly seized upon the moment for PR.

You are right, perhaps we should look at taxing those war chests so that the companies can financially contribute and the experts (the government) can produce and distribute the vaccine.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#176

Post by Reedx »

vikinghckr wrote: post #3

Found it strange that some parts of media decided to focus on the semantics of Google and Verily being different subsidiaries of Alphabet. This is an almost meaningless detail.

It's so disingenuous. Almost everyone refers to Alphabet as Google, even on HN. We all know this, right? You can find endless examples if not. And most people outside of HN or tech don't even know what Alphabet is.

It's very much thought of as "Google". Ridiculous that people are suddenly pretending otherwise.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#177

Post by Der_Einzige »

appleshore wrote: post #161
foobarbecue wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not live in my part of CA!

As Tim Pool said, California is the king of greed. A lot of rich people secretly support him and working class people who have to deal with the societal breakdown that is California politics. 4.5 million people or 32% of the voters in CA voted for President Trump in 2016. Democracies of uneducated masses (on both sides) don’t make any one side intrinsically right. Cue Socrates.

That's why Socrates tells you that you become valid to run society when you become dialectically educated enough, and that the unwashed masses do not see reality for how it is as a result of a lack of dialectical education and therefore should not rule.

Sounds pretty much like authoritarian rationalism to me. I'd like a pass on platonic republicanism but unfortunately it's found within all forms of Western philosophy these days

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#178

Post by KirinDave »

76543210 wrote: post #153
tootie wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They maybe could. But so could the federal government and it's their actual job.

If I didn't pay taxes my mortgage would be paid off, I could quit/work from home for a decade. How much abundance would we have without the federal government?

That strategy only works because other people are paying taxes and mortgages.

I'm actually a big fan of a Stateless, decentralized society. But you can't reach that place just by Galting your way there. You need at least a modern city to go with you.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#179

Post by paulie_a »

KirinDave wrote: post #173
zaroth wrote: post #160

Google made the following statement on Twitter; Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information. This is _in addition_ (emphasis added) to other measures we are taking, including: - A Google “home page promotion” to promote greater awareness of simple measures citizens can take to prevent the spread of the d…

I mean, I thought the media was right and I work at Google. I knew the Verily site existed (a member of my team helped with a production readiness review last week). So if they went and looked for Googlers who knew about the national effort and came up bank, and then didn't get immediate confirmation from Google, then they ran with a story. Obviously I am but a small part of this massive machine and even though I am…

The 1700 number is just replies then mistated in the speech.

That wouldn't be the actual size of the team I bet.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#180

Post by KirinDave »

paulie_a wrote: post #179
KirinDave wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I thought the media was right and I work at Google. I knew the Verily site existed (a member of my team helped with a production readiness review last week). So if they went and looked for Googlers who knew about the national effort and came up bank, and then didn't get immediate confirmation from Google, then they ran with a story. Obviously I am but a small part of this massive machine and even though I am…

The 1700 number is just replies then mistated in the speech. That wouldn't be the actual size of the team I bet.

Source?
Post reply on HN