barretts's comments

barretts | 2 years ago | on: Sunday service suspended at all NYPL locations

NYC has a "right to housing" law that requires the government to provide a roof for anyone who needs it, including migrants. With the recent influx of migrants this is causing unforeseen spending that will total $5bn in 2023.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/nyregion/adams-nyc-migran...

barretts | 5 years ago | on: Modeling a Wealth Tax

For a guy who's always railing about the value of honest, rational discourse, he's unbelievably misleading and political in this post. He ignores asset growth and the fact that all the wealth tax proposals have a very high floor for the tax.

Saying the government will take 45% of your wealth above $100M is very different than saying the government will take 45% of your wealth.

barretts | 5 years ago | on: An American Uprising

We talk about the lessons of 1968. What does that period of unrest really teach us? It led to the election of Nixon.

barretts | 6 years ago | on: CDC declined to test new coronavirus patient for days, California hospital says

You're focused on the trees, not the forest. The prior commenter is right: Unless you are very poor (and get Medicaid) or old (and get Medicare), most Americans receive no government assistance for healthcare.

barretts | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: A bookmarklet to remove clickgates on New York Times, Medium, etc.

I'm sorry for your indentured servitude.

barretts | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: A bookmarklet to remove clickgates on New York Times, Medium, etc.

And evading paywalls disproportionately impacts the journalists creating the stories you seem to value, though for some reason refuse to pay for.

barretts | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: A bookmarklet to remove clickgates on New York Times, Medium, etc.

Do you think the 1,600 journalists at The New York Times, many of whom work in difficult environments (including the White House, lol), should work for free? Quite the Scrooge move.

barretts | 6 years ago | on: Tesla Cybertruck

It's not just amount of snow but terrain. A fair bit of snow on a flat surface might be fine, but even a little bit on a slope can quickly become problematic if you don't have 4x4.

barretts | 8 years ago | on: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

Wow. If accurate, you've done a better job explaining the situation in 250 words than the entire NYT article did.

barretts | 8 years ago | on: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

Finding, downloading, and using those apps is a whole exercise in pain tolerance. Took me an hour-plus to download the timelapse app.

barretts | 8 years ago | on: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

I am also a Sony Alpha user and the interface seems anti-designed. Like, willfully obtuse and user-hostile. I know UI is not easy, but relative to the scope/scale of Sony, how hard would it really be for them to cop even a few best practices in software design?

barretts | 8 years ago | on: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

One important factor unmentioned so far: Federalism. The US has very strong state and municipal governments compared to France and Japan. In many cases, any one of the three can veto a project. A new commuter rail line under the Hudson River connecting NYC and NJ was begun in 2009 and NJ Gov Chris Christie killed it in 2010 (citing cost overruns), after $600m had already been spent.

barretts | 9 years ago | on: I’m a Coastal Elite from the Midwest: The Real Bubble Is Rural America

Don't be obtuse. College students painting banners is a far cry from a presidential candidate refusing to concede an election over imagined vote fraud. And there is a strong chance that's what Trump would have done.

barretts | 9 years ago | on: GreatAgain.gov

Yes, Obama also opened up a jobs portal on his transition site.

barretts | 10 years ago | on: Forbes Site, After Begging You Turn Off Adblocker, Serves Up Malware 'Ads'

Forbes' "Please turn off your adblocker" interstitial is a great reminder not to read Forbes' clickbait bullshit pseudo-journalism.

barretts | 10 years ago | on: Foursquare Gets $45M and a New CEO to Build Out Enterprise Business

> Is this the same trend data Google is showing in location search engine results?

Very similar idea, but different source (4SQ app versus Android/Google apps). Also I'd imagine the 4SQ enterprise offering has a lot more ways to slice and dice the data so that it's useful for business.

barretts | 10 years ago | on: Foursquare Gets $45M and a New CEO to Build Out Enterprise Business

They're selling location trend data to anyone who will buy it. Retail operators (like Apple) may buy it, but the more typical customers for these types of services are hedge funds and other traders who want an edge. They'll correlate check-in volume with iPhone sales, for instance, to more accurately estimate Apple's quarterly revenues before they're announced.

barretts | 10 years ago | on: Foursquare Gets $45M and a New CEO to Build Out Enterprise Business

I think the scary thing is that it doesn't depend on people using the app - merely having it installed. Pilgrim passively tracks your location whether or not you check in (or even open the app).

barretts | 10 years ago | on: Foursquare Gets $45M and a New CEO to Build Out Enterprise Business

Not at all true. Employee option prices are not based on market (e.g. VC) valuation. They're based on 409A valuations which are usually much, much lower.

barretts | 10 years ago | on: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

Any reason I shouldn't see this as a complicated tax dodge? Simply more multinational pilfering from public coffers? Why shouldn't the Alibaba capital gains be taxed?