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

Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

insouciant.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 169 posts

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#101

Post by simoncion »

angersock wrote: post #93
timr wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so tired of the thoughtless repetition of this talking-point. Yes, some technologies developed serendipitously for luxury products. But when you take a broader view than the latter half of the 20th century, most of the technological progress that actually made our lives better were the results of targeted effort: wastewater treatment, antibiotics, essentially all medications. We didn't get to these things acciden…

Penicillin was discovered by complete accident, actually. Also, the jury is still rather out on the long-term impact of medications...it sure made a bunch of rich folks richer, though! EDIT: Also, most of those solutions came through private industry working on .gov contracts. A better example you might want to use is the innovations out of Bell Labs, all done basically to further solidify the telephone monopoly. Tha…

> Also, the jury is still rather out on the long-term impact of medications.

I can't speak to your experience, but I would have died as an infant without modern medications and modern medical procedures. I speak to you today as a healthy, relatively happy, productive member of society.

Moreover, I think we can point to the innumerable treated cases of snakebite, lockjaw, rabies, polio, cancer, syphilis, etc. as strong evidence for the positive long-term impact of medication and medical care.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#102

Post by simoncion »

jchrisa wrote: post #91
timr wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so tired of the thoughtless repetition of this talking-point. Yes, some technologies developed serendipitously for luxury products. But when you take a broader view than the latter half of the 20th century, most of the technological progress that actually made our lives better were the results of targeted effort: wastewater treatment, antibiotics, essentially all medications. We didn't get to these things acciden…

I've been working on p2p sync since 2008 or so. Now we have a real deployed base. I feel lucky because I chose the tech for it's political possibilities. This keeps me on track on the days when it'd be hard to focus otherwise.

What's the p2p sync software that you've been working on for the past seven years? (This is a part/spare-time project, yes?)

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#103

Post by simoncion »

codeonfire wrote: post #88
dnautics wrote: post #6

"Helping rich people get taxis easier". As a Lyft and Uber driver, I count among my rides: getting a rough looking fellow (who has spent years in prison after accidentally killing someone in a bar fight) get to the only job that would take him - affordably and on-time (he would have been fired otherwise). I've given an enlisted navy family from Oklahoma (husband was deployed) get home from a late night run to a dista…

Ride sharing is helping lots of not-rich people in small and medium sized towns who can't find jobs but have a car. I can go to my hometown and probably would request an Uber or Lyft. I never once took a taxi living in the same area for 20 years. I for one think technology should help the living. The goal should not be to maximize human population on Earth. If we could reduce the birthrate, fewer children would die f…

Overpop is sometimes the cause of disease. Compared to the effects of ignorance, poor education, or systemic corruption, overpop is never the cause of widespread disease in contemporary human society.

If one is actually concerned about population control, sterilization is an easy, simple, relatively safe, and well understood solution.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#104

Post by pagingdraltman »

benihana wrote: post #90
pagingdraltman wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey @dang and @altman: if you two are remotely serious about trying to make HN a decent place, then you need to ban this shit and ensure that anybody who upvoted it can never vote again. That's not a joke. I get that you two tend to ban only people who are personally rude, but sophistifunk was just INCREDIBLY rude to anybody who is an essentially decent human being. Ridiculously rude. Unforgivably rude. HN used to be…

Way to take the bait. five seconds to write a throwaway troll line versus fifteen minutes of outraged huffing and puffing and demands of bans over someone saying something stupid on the internet. Good work.

That's my point. HN is now filled with passive-aggressive assholes baiting each other.

Hell, just read what you wrote to me and convince yourself that you're something other than an asshole, and that your comment is something other than rude.

Nice job being a pointless, non-contributing dick as well.

Thank you for the additional datapoint that HN is now totally infested by useless cunts.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#105

Post by woodman »

timr wrote: post #72
nostrademons wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's often how technological progress works: it's developed to solve either a pressing-but-not-so-noble problem and then someone adapts it so the average person can benefit, or it's developed to solve a trivial and useless problem and someone improves it so it's useful to the average person. We built radar so we could detect German bombers; we got microwave ovens from it. We built GPS so we could guide missiles and…

I'm so tired of the thoughtless repetition of this talking-point. Yes, some technologies developed serendipitously for luxury products. But when you take a broader view than the latter half of the 20th century, most of the technological progress that actually made our lives better were the results of targeted effort: wastewater treatment, antibiotics, essentially all medications. We didn't get to these things acciden…

Since we're complaining - I'm so tired of the (hopefully) thoughtless use of "we". It is incredibly presumptuous. Every time I hear it I'm reminded of the artificially simplified narrative portrayed by WWII propaganda posters - where if you do your part, Rosie the riveter, then we'll save the world†!

†Saving the world means unwittingly working to further the military industrial complex, undermining your long term interests, terms and conditions may apply, see reverse side of poster for eligibility and placement in the new power superstructure.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#106

Post by pagingdraltman »

afarrell wrote: post #95
pagingdraltman wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey @dang and @altman: if you two are remotely serious about trying to make HN a decent place, then you need to ban this shit and ensure that anybody who upvoted it can never vote again. That's not a joke. I get that you two tend to ban only people who are personally rude, but sophistifunk was just INCREDIBLY rude to anybody who is an essentially decent human being. Ridiculously rude. Unforgivably rude. HN used to be…

This is an ineffective comment for a few reasons: 1) The person you are responding to is advocating a course of action (funding work to end malaria) which helps poor people. They are responding to advocacy of a course of inaction (not developing taxi apps). The comment thus has some value, even if you disagree with it's conclusion. 2) You are advocating banning people for saying things. This puts a burden on you to m…

No. You are wrong on so many levels:

1) the comment I responded to was a broad-based insult lobbed at anybody who believed that malaria research is more important than Uber. Calling it 'teen angst' showed it wasn't a serious suggestion, it was just a way to insult people who disagree with him.

That comment made INCREDIBLY clear that he wasn't here for discussion, he was here to shit on people who hold a different worldview.

Fuck you for pretending it was a real comment. It's disgusting that you're pretending it was a real comment. Losers like you are the reason HN is a piece of shit now.

2) I am advocating banning people for being rude. Being rude is against HN's approach to comments. I am advocating that we either adhere to those rules, or we admit that they don't exist. Either is fine.

2b) read the fucking guidelines. They're linked right under the comment box that you used to spew your gibberish. They talk about rudeness.

My point is that dang and altman only ban rudeness like calling somebody an asshole. But they ignore far more pernicious forms of rudeness, like lobbing insults at people out of left field because they think malaria is more important than Uber.

HN would be a better place if they started banning people who are shitty towards others, even if those people don't use profanity.

Have a nice day.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#107

Post by wwweston »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #55

Standard liberal guilt. If you're a programmer and you feel like curing malaria is more important than Uber, you should make a shit-ton of money and give it to Bill Gates. Without the teen angst.

So... the real obstacle between Bill Gates and curing malaria is more money.

And it's one that'll be solved if enough of us start/sell businesses at a level of profit that'll move the needle on the amount of money Bill has.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#108

Post by timr »

angersock wrote: post #93
timr wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so tired of the thoughtless repetition of this talking-point. Yes, some technologies developed serendipitously for luxury products. But when you take a broader view than the latter half of the 20th century, most of the technological progress that actually made our lives better were the results of targeted effort: wastewater treatment, antibiotics, essentially all medications. We didn't get to these things acciden…

Penicillin was discovered by complete accident, actually. Also, the jury is still rather out on the long-term impact of medications...it sure made a bunch of rich folks richer, though! EDIT: Also, most of those solutions came through private industry working on .gov contracts. A better example you might want to use is the innovations out of Bell Labs, all done basically to further solidify the telephone monopoly. Tha…

Fleming discovered Penicillin accidentally, but he was a bacteriologist, and he was doing research into antiseptics. It was a discovery that was entirely related to his work.

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#109

Post by worldadventurer »

deepdiver16 wrote: post #97

What would be a good way to find companies that try to address more "pressing needs" and need strong technical help? I am currently in Indonesia, on a break after 20y in Silicon Valley, and would have time to help. I've thought about NGOs but I suspect these may be hard to navigate? Thanks in advance for any pointers and ideas

If you're interested in working in beautiful Cebu, Philippines, to build products that improve the lives of the poor worldwide, check out www.engageSPARK.com . We're recruiting for 6+ month Fellows as well as Permanent hires. We have a talented international team and are looking for more passionate people who want to leverage their tech skills to do good and help change lives. We're a not-for-profit business/startup building a challenging distributed platform that enables NGOs and governments to improve the lives of millions of people in poverty around the world.

For example, a large international NGO (Mercy Corps) used our platform to do a financial education program using voice calls & sms soap operas with quizzes (to reinforce and test comprehension) for 20,000 people affected by a natural disaster: http://solutionscenter.nethope.org/blog/view/hitting-it-home...

And Cebu is a great place to live. If you're a diver, you can be diving in warm tropical waters in less than an hour from the office!

Re: Back to SF After the U.S. Digital Service

#110

Post by acdha »

steven777400 wrote: post #14
acdha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone reading this is looking for a more permanent job working for the government, check out https://18f.gsa.gov/ which is trying to build up a modern software group which provides services for the rest of the government. Ben Balter, Github's Government evangelist, summarized the difference between the two here: http://ben.balter.com/2015/04/22/the-difference-between-18f-... (Disclaimer: I don't work there but kn…

Interestingly, they say 18F jobs are capped at four years. I wonder if this is a harbinger of change overall in government employment from being "lifers" to a more mobile workforce where people perform "civil service" at all levels as a more temporary thing (like elected positions are intended to be). On the other hand, it also strikes me a possible way to select for younger (less encumbered/tied down) applicants wit…

I think it's simply a sign of how difficult it is to hire permanent staff which are seen as long-term commitments in a way that NTE (Not-To-Exceed) staff are not.

My impression from the outside is that people are working on a more permanent system to keep people around indefinitely without losing a way to jettison the retire-in-place types and are working to get something in place by the time it starts to matter. I don't think age discrimination is a goal – the people I know value experience and most of them are 30-somethings, mid-career and looking for something more sustainable than death-marches, churning institutional knowledge, etc.

Post reply on HN