dodedo's comments

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Yahoo Crosses The Line

Absolutely. I should make it clear: I am not defending Yahoo's behavior here. Just trying to keep the facts factual.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Yahoo Crosses The Line

No, they didn't. Your memory of history is incorrect.

Overture, a completely different company, sued Google in 2002, two years before their IPO.

Yahoo purchased Overture in 2003. After this, Google settled.

Google's IPO wasn't until 2004.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Yahoo Sues Facebook for Patent Infringement

No, this is not accurate.

Overture sued Google in 2002. Yahoo bought Overture in 2003, at which point Google settled. Google's IPO was in 2004.

Yahoo did not initiate the lawsuit against Google, and it was two years prior to their IPO.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Square Register

VISA merchant rules generally guarantee that the plastic price will match the cash price. It's true that the merchant raises prices to compensate, but paying cash doesn't avoid that charge -- everyone pays the CC tax regardless of payment method. So you might as well get some of it back.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Square Register

With 1% cash back, no less. I try to funnel all my expenses through a card -- and pay in full each billing cycle naturally.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Why I Don't Do Unpaid Overtime and Neither Should You

And a difference of opinion:

I want to see the exchange as work for time, because I work much more effectively than many other people. An hourly-rate job is simply not attractive to me, because the hourly-rate will not effectively capture my value.

As explained by grellas above, overtime in the US is typically applied to replaceable workers who's hourly value is a more or less quantifiable resource. If I'm flipping burgers, painting a house, or banging out simple webapps based on someone else's design then it's fairly easy to quantify the value of my time.

However, if I'm working in an industry where force multipliers abound, for example software engineering, or any sufficiently advanced executive/management position, I would much rather capture the value of what I produce -- there simply cannot be a good fit with shoehorning me into an hourly value rate. It simply isn't an accurate way to represent my value.

This is best exemplified by jobs which supply equity stakes. If you give me a chunk of your company I'm no longer working for free, when I work overtime.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Tesla responds to "bricking" issue

"That's a bad deal for Tesla. It could mean financial ruin if there are too many irresponsible owners."

On the contrary, if there are too many irresponsible owners then Tesla is ruined if they DON'T cover it. Imagine what "too many Tesla bricked cars" would do to their product image.

Look, this is very simple. Warranty systems are underwritten like insurance policies. It's little risk to Tesla -- the question is the underwriter's risk assessment. If the underwriter won't cover it on affordable terms, it suggests the risk is too high and the product is poorly designed. At that point, the path of failure is chosen (expensive underwriting policy vs expensive PR debacle) is irrelevant. The only issue is whether the risk assessment is accurate -- it becomes a gamble.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: US Appeals Court: Forced Decryption Is Self-Incrimination

This is covered by 18 USC 6002: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/6002

In short, a judge will grant a person legal immunity from prosecution. This removes the fifth amendment argument, as you cannot be prosecuted for the child porn, and you can be compelled to testify.

For example, an accomplice to a crime might be offered immunity -- after which the accomplice cannot refuse to testify under the fifth amendment. Remember, the fifth only guarantees that you will not be compelled to serve as a witness against yourself -- it does NOT grant you the right to remain silent at all times, contrary to popular belief.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Tesla: Not so easily bricked

Yes, I mentioned the gas/rust/coagulation issue in the post you replied to. I should mention that I have been through this process myself and I am well aware of the steps necessary to restore a long-sitting gas vehicle to service.

If a car is left to sit for a year the gas will be bad, but there will likely be no further repair necessary other than flushing the fuel system. This is relatively cheap. Even if one mistakenly tries to start it and gets water in the engine, the repairs are far less costly than the $40,000 battery price tag on the tesla.

I had mentioned a decade specifically in regard to engine seizure -- you will not have this problem over a shorter time period such as one year. Nor will you have dry-rot of your hosing or any other major mechanical malfunction. Ruined gas and a dead battery are about the limits of damage in the one year period -- possibly a tire may go flat.

The big deal is that if I leave my $80k gasoline car in a garage for a year it will take very little to get it running again. Probably a few hundred bucks. Perhaps up to several thousand dollars if I foolishly try to start it and get very unlucky. But you can't reasonably construct a scenario where a garaged gasoline car is likely to sustain $40,000 in damages just from safely sitting out of the elements. It's just not possible, period.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: US Appeals Court: Forced Decryption Is Self-Incrimination

You said: "Actively impeding the prosecution, in the form of refusing to decrypt a drive known to contain inculpatory evidence, is in many ways tantamount to destroying that evidence."

But it isn't /actively/ impeding, it's passive. One is refraining from taking an action.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Should All Web Traffic Be Encrypted?

No, there is no such requirement. Fair Use is judged on a four prong test, none of which involve crediting the author:

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Fair_use_under_United_...

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Tesla: Not so easily bricked

Yes, it isn't recommended as it may cause the tires to fail. But, this is very, very rare. The manual recommends all manner of preventative measures and while they're all good ideas they're also not at all necessary.

My personal experience says otherwise.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Tesla: Not so easily bricked

I've run down the battery on my car, motorcycle, mower, or other vehicles I don't often use. It is not an expensive ($40,000) fix -- often it just takes a recharge because lead-acid batteries are not as easily damaged as lithium-ion. Replacement is relatively cheap too.

When you talk about tire deformation, this is rare and would not happen before many years of disuse. And engine seizure? Again, unlikely to happen even if left to sit for a decade. You're more likely to have issues with rust in the gas tank and bad, coagulated gas, than a seized engine.

The point is that it is relatively safe to leave a vehicle unattended in a garage for long periods of time. The vast majority of its value will remain undamaged. Contrast to the Tesla, where if left for a year with a low charge it is alleged that it's likely to lose fully half of the car's value ($40,000).

This is a big deal.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Reddit: a necessary change in policy

It's irrelevant what the people here or elsewhere think -- as you say there are many dissenting opinions but very few professional legal opinions.

Rather than dally with opinions, let's stick to facts: The authorities will shut down sites with illegal activities and the authorities are aware of these subreddits. The authorities did not intervene.

Regarding your comfort with blanket bans, you may want to read this other article recently posted to HN which offers a much more insightful analysis: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3585997

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Build a house for less than $5000

It seems your issue is with the concept of single family homes and urban sprawl, not this particular method of building. That's a bit of a different issue -- many people don't want to live in the middle of a city (such as myself: I'm on a rather large lot in a 4 bedroom home)

It's true that high density housing is efficient, but if you are going to build a single family home, strawbale is a great way to do it.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Build a house for less than $5000

As I said, I have people in my family who have built strawbale houses to code (California code including earthquake provisions, no less). The stylized aspect is distinct from the strawbale and inset-in-land aspect.

Regarding logs, I'm currently sitting in a house with wood framing in the suburbs, and every house around me as far as I can see is also framed with wood.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Build a house for less than $5000

anthonyb is saying that logs and stray bales are available in large quantities. And he's right, there's no issue of scale here, other than labor. I have family who have built straw houses and they're cheap, straw is very plentiful, and you really can't tell the difference from a traditional drywall/fiberglass insulation home (it wasn't stylized like this one).

The only thing I see being an issue with the house from the article is the composting toilet. However, running a sewer to this style of house is no different than running a sewer to a traditional house.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Reddit: a necessary change in policy

This is quite simply false. Reddit has always banned child pornography. The post we're discussing is quite clear on this point. There would be absolutely no outage if this was about banning child pornography.

Your statements here seem to come from a place of rage and hate moreso than rational analysis, so let's not continue this.

dodedo | 14 years ago | on: Reddit: a necessary change in policy

Indeed, it is quite clear this content is not illegal -- and does anyone think the authorities are not aware of these subreddits? Anderson Cooper mentioned this stuff on television, for crying out loud.

Today the reddit staff censored some unpopular content purely because it was unpopular and made them look bad.

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