411–420 of 488 posts
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I've seen birds left around private property around campuses (e.g. businesses). Why would a business complain about a bike leaning against their wall but not a bird? They are both foreign objects leaning up against their wall. Is size really important here?
Shouldn't a business like having a signal attracting someone to their store?
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I must be in a bit of a minority but my main objection to these would be the installation of an app to use them - I am perhaps too privacy-conscious and admit I haven't attempted the signup process but even with a throwaway email address, I'm not comfortable installing it on a device I take with me when I leave the house; I even Uber via the web interface and would probably stop using the service if they hamstrung th…
Isn't it exhausting to live like that? Will convenience ever win out for you? This is a serious question.
If I need them, I use their web interface. If that is shitty, it makes me use them less, which is a desired outcome.
Although, I admit I read too much HN than I'd like to spend time everyday because it feels like time spent on HN is some form of learning.
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I think you are being a little unfair to say ALL car parkers feel they own all space next to roads. I am sure some do, but I am a car driver who is happy to give up some space for other forms of transportation. I think there is a happy balance to be found.
You are totally right to say this, but local government is the rule of the vocal NIMBY that actually shows up to council meetings, and makes headaches for government officials not working to their beck and call. Local government exists to appease these ignorant few because no one else votes in the elections.
Would you care to list any city and meeting date in which you have observed this? I'd like to pull the tape and see.
These scooters and scooter companies seem pretty divisive, especially on HN. I understand they're operating in grey areas, I guess kinda like Uber before them, but they are causing (I think) positive disruption. I personally love these scooters. I'm living in Australia now where we don't have them. But last month I took a 3 week road trip from LAX to DC and back so I could hit cities I hadn't been to before. And in m…
Helmets are important (I always wear one,) however, government ought not force people to wear them. Freedom still should matter. Grown adults should be able to make their own decisions. I support helmet laws for the under 18 crowd, but for grown adults? Too much nanny state for my liking.
Society shouldn't have to spend any money on medical bills stemming from not wearing proper protection while riding any vehicle and injuries are usually very serious. Not sure how it works in the US but here in the EU society does basically cover those bills.
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Curious thought: Disincentivize bad behavior. Scooter companies know who the last user was, so they could develop techniques to apply "parking violations." Whether that means GPS-enabled (sufficient resolution?) or crowdsourced (next rider taking picture) doesn't really matter. But this is like the automobile equivalent of a parking ticket.
Skip in SF is sort of doing that. The app makes you take a picture of the scooter in its parking spot when you leave it.
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I must be in a bit of a minority but my main objection to these would be the installation of an app to use them - I am perhaps too privacy-conscious and admit I haven't attempted the signup process but even with a throwaway email address, I'm not comfortable installing it on a device I take with me when I leave the house; I even Uber via the web interface and would probably stop using the service if they hamstrung th…
Isn't it exhausting to live like that? Will convenience ever win out for you? This is a serious question.
My smartphone went bonkers and now only shows half of the screen, which makes it less than smart.
I replaced it with a Nokia 8110 (the 4G model) and so far it's an intersting experience.
While it might be a smidgeon less convenient it's far less attractive to immerse yourself into your phone while, for example, using public transport. The browser is fine for very basic things and you can get basic email to run. But in terms of distraction Snake can only give you so much.
In essence I seem to gain a lot of time to observe my fellow citizens, read books or just stare out of the window and think some idle thoughts. In short: It seems I'm gaining a lot of time back by not being constantly distracted by what is essentially a slot machine with never ending possibilities.
I'm sure it helps that I don't do social media. None!
The phone provides a 4G hot spot in case I really need to connect a laptop if I must. Having dual sims it seems like quite an ideal thing to take on vacation. (It does GPS and Google Maps)
How well will this work? I don't know yet. Right now I'm really not inclined to replace it, but time will tell.
Is it exhausting?
Well, no. Quite the opposite since there's no temptation for permanent distraction.
Will convenience ever win out for you?
I really don't feel too much inconvenienced. The acid test will probably checking in for flights (which should work with the minimal browser) or comparable tasks. Not being able to hire a scooter or use an Uber (which I anyway don't since I consider it a totally despicable company and there's no way I would ever trust them with my personal -, let alone location data) is pretty much a non-issue.
So yeah, I tried to give you a serious answer.
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One reason people might disagree is that you're pushing the externality of your own safety onto others. An example of an externality: those who don't wear helmets and crash are much more likely to have a brain injury (or death). This means that we all have to pay for your care now. In death (lack of taxes) or in financial damage. And in some cases like safety standards, people will also argue for emotional safety as…
>This means that we all have to pay for your care now I'm not convinced. By that logic, we should also ban unhealthy foods, limit how many calories each person can eat, and mandate them to exercise for n hours per week. I'm sure that some of those will have a higher ROI than putting on helmets. >In death (lack of taxes) so we should ban emigration then? it has the exact same effects from a tax perspective.
To make it worse, people who don't wear a helmet aren't the best riders either and thus more likely to be involved in an accident.
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> old grumps I'm 22 and privacy-conscious. I also love tech, but I really enjoy my personal privacy and knowing that I'm not being surveiled all the time. I am also a FSF supporter and try to run libre code wherever possible. Convince me: why should I give up my privacy to use products that will inevitably treat my data irresponsibly?
Define irresponsibly. Your plaintext passwords, ID scans and physical address getting leaked is one thing. Using your basic demographic data for advertising is something else. An obvious solution is just to use bogus data: name, email, dob, address, burner phone. Only thing you can't fake is your credit card but I'm sure a lot of companies do actually accept payments where the name of the card differs from the name o…
If you buy your cards in cash, they're about as private as the security cameras are in whichever convenience store you pay for them in.
Based on what we know about Target's shopper surveillance and behavioral identification efforts being capable of targeting pregnant women with pregnancy products, who didn't even know they were pregnant yet, themselves, even seemingly benign store locations can be pretty lacking in actual privacy.
Between electronic survellance of mobile device identifiers, blue tooth signatures, free wi-fi usage, versus brute force video analysis yeilding facial recognition results for targeted ads on flatscreen monitors as you pass by bus stops, the status of tracking in public spaces is weird, although you really can ditch credit card tracking.
The only problem is, the truly huge companies have assuredly been routing around that idea for years, by diversifying their information channels.
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I could not be more upset that people who have stated progressive goals such as cutting down on fuel and providing cheap public transportation are against these. They are an absolutely great alternative that makes these goals possible without having to completely overhaul city designs. The only externality really seems to be they are parked in random places - but I don't see how that is any different than cars parked…
Cars park in designated spots on streets, they are (generally) not randomly dropped onto sidewalks and parks. The issue for me is the co-opting of public space for private enterprise in the least considerate way possible. People leave these scooters like litter in parks, sidewalks, and lakes. You could object that this is an overly precious perspective, but I would counter that similar startups (ZipCar most notably)…
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That’s a pretty shortsighted opinion. The big problem here is that our cities are structured so that you have to move several tons of metal around to go more than a few blocks. Being angry about a better alternative instead of the lack of infrastructure is just crotchety.
I put in my disclaimer out of sense of honesty. I'm a bike rider, I don't like cars either. As you can see however, my question is whether electric scooters with a three month lifespan can come out ahead in environmental savings.
A bicycle (or a scooter) weighs a fraction of a car, so even if I replace it frequently, it uses much less raw materials per mile, especially if you include the fossil fuels consumed.
I never rode a bird, but I was sad when I saw the cops banning them from Venice beach in August. Hopefully the city will embrace the new technology and build enough (shared) infrastructure (bike lanes / sidewalks).