The Joy of Recruiters - <AUTHOR> http://www.earth.li/~noodles/blog/2015/11/recruiters.html <comment><USER2> I don't think recruiters are terrible as a class of people (though I do love making fun of them), but I do want 99% of them out of the equation. It's insane that we're letting 15-25% of first year salary slip through our fingers and go to middlemen who don't give a shit about us or the state of our craft. We're the technologists and we should be controlling AND capturing the value. Which is what I'm working on now..</comment>


The Banality of "Don't be Evil" - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/opinion/sunday/the-banality-of-googles-dont-be-evil.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

<comment><USER2> Already on the front page with lots of comments: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5805460></comment>


Openness to immigration drives economic success - <AUTHOR> http://cityobservatory.org/openness-to-immigration-drives-economic-success/ <comment><USER2> Let's be honest here. Silicon Valley only wants 'openness to immigration' because they can get cheap labor and the H1B Visa makes it very difficult for a person to move to another job when they get here.

It's all about money. Don't let any of these feel-good articles make you think differently.

I also find it ironic that the same people that complain that there needs to be an increase in the minimum wage also want to flood the market with cheap labor from overseas, which will reduce American's wages.

<comment><USER3> > Let's be honest here. Silicon Valley only wants 'openness to immigration' > because they can get cheap labor and the H1B Visa makes it very difficult > for a person to move to another job when they get here.

Silicon Valley would probably be quite happy with a policy which allowed less overhead for visas without any visa-related job mobility restrictions. They fight for more H-1Bs not because they particularly like the H-1B, but because it's what they have, and it's a lot easier to win (or at least avoid a big loss) over quotas than over the fundamental structure of the immigration system.</comment></comment>


Android Loosens iPad's Market Grip - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703439504576116170453163838.html

<comment><USER2> iPad is still where the profit is, as most of the cheap Android tablets don't make much profit.</comment>


Ask HN: Open-Source Tax Software? - <AUTHOR> What is the current state of open-source tax software?
I usually pay the cost of Turbotax premium because it will import all all of my transactions from my broker and generate the 1099 for me. Obviously this saves a lot of time.
Are there good open-source alternatives for filing taxes? <comment><USER2> If you are California resident, you can use CalFile tonfile your taxes for free. If you create a fully authenticated account you can import some of your informations from previous year return and your W2. [https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to- file/online/calfile/inde...](https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to- file/online/calfile/index.asp?WT.mc_id=akCFHome)

</comment><comment><USER3> Been using this: [https://www.waveapps.com](https://www.waveapps.com)

<comment><USER4> Wow! That looks great! I'm going to give it a try for my side project accounting.

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am also searching for the opensource accounting system for SMB but not finding compatible one.</comment>


Bad News Wrapped in Protein: Inside the Coronavirus Genome - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/science/coronavirus-genome-bad-news-wrapped-in-protein.html <comment><USER2> There are many things fascinating here. But two struck me:

 _Viral Proofreader · NSP14

As NSP12 duplicates the coronavirus genome, it sometimes adds a wrong letter to the new copy. NSP14 cuts out these errors, so that the correct letter can be added instead._

 _End of the Line

The coronavirus genome ends with a snippet of RNA that stops the cell's protein-making machinery. It then trails away as a repeating sequence of aaaaaaaaaaaaa_

So this thing has error detection and handling, and an EOF?</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a new breed of moving companies? - <AUTHOR>

I am dealing with a NY -> Bay Area move and it feels icky dealing with the antiquated moving solutions that come up first in a google search. Is there a new wave of sophisticated moving solutions in the spirit of HN? <comment><USER2> I've been following Unpakt ([https://www.unpakt.com/](https://www.unpakt.com/)) for the last couple of months. It's an interesting concept, kind of like the Kayak of the moving industry. Still dealing with the old school moving companies though.</comment>


OECD unveils proposals to curb corporate tax avoidance - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/16/uk-oecd-tax-idUKKBN0HB19F20140916?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews <comment><USER2> This is very good news and about damn time.

While legal, this tax avoidance hurts competition (as smaller companies pay tax normally, while larger ones do not) and also means that some countries can actually lose money while hosting a business (e.g. business uses national infrastructure but doesn't pay towards it).

You often hear companies use their employee's income tax as a way to justify the business's tax avoidance, but that is utter nonsense: employee's individual income tax goes to paying for infrastructure and service that that employee utilises, not the additional infrastructure cost imposed by the business itself.

One thing that does need to happen is that it needs to become easier for SMBs to pay tax to dozens of different countries while operating in the digital space. If they really want things like sales tax/VAT to be paid then they need to make it relatively EASY to do. Otherwise SMBs just might start rejecting customers from smaller countries (as paying the tax for a single transaction is never worth the cost of setting it all up).

<comment><USER3> > employee's individual income tax goes to paying for infrastructure and > service that that employee utilise

With all due respect, that is nonsense. There is nothing magic about the tax dollars I pay to enforce that they go to the things I use. It's all one big bucket of money.

Case in point: The social security surplus the U.S. ran when the baby boomers were young will be really useful as the baby boomer start retiring. That money ended up being spent just like any other tax dollars.

I agree with your point about tax loopholes being easier for large actors to take advantage of. That seems like a good case for simplifying tax codes, though, not a case for adding even more regulations that rich corporations will inevitably circumvent.

And don't get me started on VAT. That stuff is just a big loophole from the get-go (arbitrary tax rates based on arbitrary categorizations, etc.).

<comment><USER2> > With all due respect, that is nonsense. There is nothing magic about the tax > dollars I pay to enforce that they go to the things I use. It's all one big > bucket of money.

Yes, it all goes into a big pot of money. That doesn't preclude the fact that infrastructure and services cost money, companies utilise both, that generates additional expenses (due to wear and tear, etc). The rest of society winds up paying for the company's share.

You don't really even attempt to argue why companies shouldn't pay. Unless the "big pot of money" is your argument then in which case I am not following it.

> I agree with your point about tax loopholes being easier for large actors to > take advantage of. That seems like a good case for simplifying tax codes, > though, not a case for adding even more regulations that rich corporations > will inevitably circumvent.

This just reads like a generic libertarian talking point. Currently the regulations/agreements are: "You shouldn't tax companies twice on the same profits." Getting rid of those regulations wouldn't solve tax avoidance, it would just generate other problems (e.g. over-taxation, double-taxation, etc).

Interestingly I cannot imagine libertarians taking too kindly to double- taxation given their views on taxation in general. But that's what international de-regulation would result in...

Your solution is no solution at all. It is just giving up and hoping the problem solves itself. Which is very naive to say the least.

<comment><USER4> Instead of defending my case I'll ask you this: why not stop taxing profits and instead start taxing consumption? Seems much easier, no? And the incentives would be in the right place.

<comment><USER5> Because in general, consumption drives economic growth which makes life better for everyone, whilst retained earnings allow complacent corporations to avoid innovating because they have big enough war chests to scare potential competition away. I can't fathom why you consider that to be a better alignment of incentives.

<comment><USER6> If there were no tax on capital gains and income, which is the whole point of a consumption tax, businesses would have an incentive to distribute much more of their retained earnings to shareholders. Part of the reason war chests have gotten so big is because dividends are disadvantaged to capital gains in the current tax code for many classes of investors. It's not totally clear that the scenario implied by innguest's comment was one of taxes on capital gains and income being removed, though. Keeping (a) income tax, and (b) tax on capital gains/income, and (c) adding a consumption tax, while removing the corporate tax on profits, doesn't seem like a particularly attractive scenario, especially as compared with moving completely to a consumption tax (which is the most favored tax among a consensus of tax economists).

<comment><USER7> > If there were no tax on capital gains and income, which is the whole point > of a consumption tax, businesses would have an incentive to distribute much > more of their retained earnings to shareholders.

That's kind of a twisted way of looking at it. Insofar as there is a disincentive to distribute retained earnings, its because long-term capital gains are taxed as capital gains, but dividends are taxed both as corporate income and (currently, usually) as long-term capital gains to the recipient.

Simply allowing expensing of distributions would equalize the tax treatment and eliminate the bias in favor of retained earnings, no change in the basic basis of the rest of the tax system is necessary to that purpose.

Sure, eliminating the taxation of income (including corporate income and capital gains) entirely would _also_ eliminate that bias, but its massive overkill if that's your only concern.

<comment><USER6> Allowing expensing of distributions would actually not equalize the tax treatment. If you could expense distributions it would be more favorable to do dividends than to retain earnings, because retained earnings (in the context of companies building up huge war chests rather than reinvesting retained earnings in the business) would still be subject to double-taxation (corporate taxes, then deferred taxes on capital gains), while dividends would be subject only to the tax on capital income, which is less than the combination of the other two taxes. I think.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> To me basically the question is: should the money be spend by private persons and corporations, or by governments. There should be a balance, but there is a long term tendency towards governments. Because in the end they make the rules. And its difficult to control ones powers...

Personally I am not sure the latter spends it better, in terms of good for the future of society. I am very happy with Google search, Gmail, my iPhone, iPad, etc. Looking forward to ever buy a Tesla hopefully ;-)

There are always side effects: a handful of people getting extremely rich or presidents who spend billions on big projects.

Governments should concentrate on lowering taxes (in Europe the taxes go just one way in the long run...) and keeping a very close eye the playing field: misuse of rules. Privacy and net neutrality come to mind. Software patents... As well as banks taking to high risks which are highly rewarded if it works out or payed for by society if not (which is a governmental decision !).

In my humble opinion our government leaders are just as human as the leaders of companies. Does anyone of them thinks of society ? Probably. Do either one of them think about their own future ? Definitely.

<comment><USER9> I don't think you can really separate "private persons and corporations" and "governments," because the same people often switch back and forth. Goldman Sachs is the obvious example:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs#Personnel_.22rev...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs#Personnel_.22revolving- door.22_with_US_government)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> tl;dr

If we think your cross-border transactions are moving money mostly to avoid tax, we still tax it.

If we think that small divisions in tax-light countries happen to make all the profit by doing all the purchasing, we will allocate that across the business

And currently just having a warehouse in a country did not make you tax resident. Amazon is nothing but warehouses and that's a trend that will continue. So we will tax you if you have a "significant digital presence"

All seem sensible clear policies. Taken with things like HMRC's new whitelisting rules on tax schemes ("until we approve the scheme assume we will tax it") governments around the world might soon start to balance the equation of multi national companies and single nation citizens. A good thing all round and probably the most important activity of the next few years that will never be on the front pages

</comment><comment><USER11> Won't work. If the choice is pay tax or spend money it will get spent. Earnings may go down but the players will adapt to minimize their tax burden.

<comment><USER12> Better to spend money than hoard it...

<comment><USER13> Time to load up on debt! Good thing interest is tax deductible..

This is more of a game than anything. There will always be ways to reduce the tax burden, and I find that changes are often made without really properly thinking them through.

Closing loopholes is great, but rethinking critical parts of the law can also create a whole set of loopholes if not done properly. Which, considering we're human, is always the case.

<comment><USER14> Many people have suggested removing the tax loophole that is interest on debt. It might have to be coordinated but I would not be surprised if it happens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Other than risk of facing sanctions (lowe-case s), what is the incentive of say an Ireland to comply when their tax code is such an important reason why businesses go there? All else being equal, won't this hurt the development of many emerging markets (not just tax havens but even Asian countries where businesses have chosen not to re-patriot income - incentiving them to invest locally)

<comment><USER2> The concept is that even if Ireland continued to have a low tax rate, the country where the business is making their money could tax them when they try and send the money there.

As the article puts it: If you're ONLY money moving to avoid tax, then it can be taxed.

So if a company made tons in the US but then tried to ship it to Ireland, they would just get taxed by the US government at the normal rates instead of Ireland.

<comment><USER9> But they don't just "ship" the money. They set up subsidiaries to provide services to the parent company. And then the services in low-tax jurisdictions just happen to have high margins. So now is government going to examine internal processes to ensure that margins are "fair?" Seems incredibly unworkable.

<comment><USER16> They already do examine margins. Its called "transfer pricing". Information sharing is a key part of the proposals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> While internationally supported and implemented tax avoidance rules are generally the right way, I would like to see all these new rules balances with real transparency and accountability for how this (additional) tax income of countries / governments is spend.

What we have as transparency rules today is at best a good show - take the UK for example (considered as one of the best with regards to open data): DFID - the UK's development aid department publishes every £500 spent but with many 100s of millions they spend p.a. the only thing we know is that it disappeared in some opaque gov. shops in Geneva that have zero accountability, spend money on themselves as if there is no tomorrow and - when someone has a closer look - have "lost" billions or fostered corruption and organised crime globally.

And the OECD - like most international organisations - is not exactly a light when it comes to efficient use of (tax) funding.

First governments have to demonstrate and assure that they use the funds entrusted in an efficient way that is best for their citizens and not only for special interest groups. There must be rules to hold those in Government accountable and not only £5000 fines if someone "lost" or wasted £1Billion+ funds, and afterwards (s)he is moved to another senior post or receives a large consultancy contract from where they funds have disappeared.

In the moment this looks more like trying to threaten or milk successful companies or to make them compromise e.g. on the participation in dubious spy programs on citizens.

At the same time don't forget who is "running" the biggest tax heavens on this planet - its the UK and the US plus a series of "independent" island states where dozens of trillions of dollars have found a home (including for some of the largest multinational players mentioned here).

</comment><comment><USER4> > Amazon and Google say they pay all the taxes they should. Analysts say > competitive pressures force companies to seek to minimise all costs, > including tax.

Amazon and Google do not have competition. They seek to minimize all costs because that's how they can free the most resources to invest in the product they're offering to consumers. Also, there's no competition when a company gets big and starts lobbying.

This is really bad news for everyone; we all lose when bankers steal money from those that provide us goods and services.

<comment><USER18> Amazon and Google are in fact direct competitors in a number of areas. There's also all kinds of competitors. Ebay, Barnes & Noble, MS, Yahoo, etc.

It's about time companies start paying their fair share of taxes. Not only that, it's about time to start raising their tax rates since they don't care about paying employees a living wage.

<comment><USER19> > It's about time companies start paying their fair share of taxes.

Why should companies even pay tax in the first place? The owners should pay tax on profits, but why should the corporation itself pay tax?

> Not only that, it's about time to start raising their tax rates since they > don't care about paying employees a living wage.

How can you possibly not realize that if you increase their tax burden they will lower salaries? Do you think there is a magic pot of money that corporations can draw from to pay the tax?

<comment><USER18> > Do you think there is a magic pot of money that corporations can draw from > to pay the tax?

Yes it's called the CEO's 30,000x higher salary.

> Why should companies even pay tax in the first place? The owners should pay > tax on profits, but why should the corporation itself pay tax?

Because a corporation's losses cannot harm the owner's personal wealth. A corporation therefore should pay taxes in order to cover that particular expense to society.

<comment><USER19> > Yes it's called the CEO's 30,000x higher salary.

That wouldn't work. The CEO would just go to another company, and it's REALLY hard to find good CEO - there's a reason they are paid so much.

Also, with the kinds of companies affected by this the CEO doesn't get paid at all. The owner only earns any profits, but draws no separate salary.

> Because a corporation's losses cannot harm the owner's personal wealth.

That's a surprisingly good answer.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How many displays do you work with? - <AUTHOR>

On your main computer - the one you use most of the time - how many displays do you have? When designing tools for the HN community (like the chat just being discussed), could you just assume everyone on HN has at least two displays? <comment><USER2> This isn't a very useful way of doing a poll now that the number of comment votes is hidden.

<comment><USER3> Not to the rest of us, it's not. But it's a not-so-sneaky way for the OP to get karma votes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hehe... honestly I'm even less sneaky and didn't realize that comment upvotes give you karma as well. Now I'll have to craft more submissions of this kind (e.g. "Should larelli get the karma? Yes/No?").

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> 1 display

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> 3 displays

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> 2 displays

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> 4 or more displays</comment>


Virtual Software Appliances: Why They Could End Deployment Hell - <AUTHOR> http://www.cio.com/article/170051 <comment><USER2> I've been using rPath linux images on EC2 built with rBuilder Online.

As long as you don't try anything interesting it works pretty well, but beware: there's a steep learning curve when you get to conary, cvc, groups, shadows, changesets, recipes and builds.

It's also nice that conary is open source. Unfortunately it has some pretty hairy linux/elf dependencies which prevent me from using it on OSX.

<comment><USER3> Yes rPath takes some getting used to. Some old notes I have on it are here: <http://www.taylors.org/cim/rbnotes></comment></comment>


General Motors says it owns your car's software - <AUTHOR> http://www.autoblog.com/2015/05/20/general-motors-says-owns-your-car-software/

<comment><USER2> I think this is a reasonable position to take. GM takes on a long-term responsibility to maintain the software in your car, including pushing updates to it. I don't _want_ to own the software that runs my car; I consider a service that the manufacturer maintains for me.

I can see the other side (being a long-time FOSS user) but I still license software and don't consider it to be owned by me.</comment>


My Bloody Valentine's New Album Now Available - <AUTHOR> http://www.mybloodyvalentine.org/ <comment><USER2> Surprised this isn't a bigger thing on Hacker News.</comment>


Code Reviews: A Layered Workflow - <AUTHOR> https://charcoalbin.com/posts/code-review.html <comment><USER2> The article makes some good points. Here are my thoughts:

> 1\. Preliminary Checks

+1 for this, but I would also add that you need to add as much formatting/linting into this step as possible. You shouldn't be pointing out formatting issues in your code review.

> 2\. Understanding

This is super important! Pull requests that do not explain their purpose in the description should not be reviewed.

The PR description is also really important when git bisect leads you to the PR when debugging a new bug.

> 3\. Usability Test

A lot of debate regarding this, but I believe this is extremely important if not the most important part of your code review. For details read this section[0]

> 4\. Code Review

A few good tips in the article, I'd just add that you should be polite and try not to waste people's time.

[0] [https://blog.codereview.chat/2019/06/27/code-reviews-and- you...](https://blog.codereview.chat/2019/06/27/code-reviews-and-your-company- goal.html#1-catch-code-defects-before-the-code-is-shipped-to-qa-or-prod)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback!

> you need to add as much formatting/linting into [step 1] as possible

Yes, project formatting is a whole other topic but this assumes the project already has the team's linting/formatting rules baked into the build. As a reviewer, we are pointing out failing builds here, whatever they may be. If there are deeper issues/disagreements with the build tasks, that would be a separate issue.

Thanks for the link by the way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> IMHO, #3 - Usability Test should never be part of the code review, the author of the PR should make sure that changes do what they are supposed to do _BEFORE_ opening a PR.

Developers should be responsible for their own QA. QA is not what code reviews are about _.

_ There are always exceptions, of course. Use of the common sense should be highly encouraged, e.g. if proposed change is complex or reviewer want to visually confirm this change, feel free to checkout this branch, but it is _NOT_ a requirement for a good review.

<comment><USER4> I once worked in an environment that I liked a lot where after review, the reviewer would deploy the code out. I think this enforced some nice ideas like -- code reviews are point of collectivizing the code in the team (so now this is the teams code, and I'm deploying it, so I'm incentivized to not phone it in on the review). It also made sure that the reviewer understood the impacts of code changes as they verified/promoted through staging environment.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input. I plan on creating a version for authors too.

If it's possible in your organization or release strategy, self-deployment is good for the reasons you say, and it corroborates Larry Wall's virtue of hubris [0].

The PR author is like a salesman. You should be making the lives of your customers easier and incentivizing them to look at your product in order to move things forward. That being said, you should prioritize team profit and not your own (i.e. don't be a _crooked_ salesman).

[0]: [http://threevirtues.com/](http://threevirtues.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'd add to the "Understand" part: should include samples (screenshots, logs, output files, etc), where appropriate.

This helps with understanding for the review, and also if it's referenced again in the future (eg, someone is coming back to fix a bug that's later found to be introduced by the change). It takes only a minute or two extra to do this, while saving the reviewer a lot of time (checking out and running) and/or mental gymnastics (reasoning about what CSS/html changes will actually look like).

Obvious example of where this is useful is for a UI change (with before+after and/or annotated screenshots), but I've also found this useful for timing bugs (eg logs), and data-driven code (eg where output depends heavily on data).</comment>


How Mint Founder hacked TC40  - <AUTHOR> http://www.pluggd.in/mint-story-aaron-patzer-interview-297/

<comment><USER2> insightful

</comment><comment><USER3> nice one.</comment>


Simple Anonymous Photo Sharing Site - <AUTHOR> http://www.Melonpix.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Still being built but the main functions work.</comment>


I'm Working 12 Hours a Day. How I'm Getting Through It. - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupceo.co.za/2010/01/13/im-working-12-hours-a-day-here-are-5-ways-im-getting-through-it/

<comment><USER2> _I'm also on flax seed oil, nature's highest source of Omega 3's which are vital for brain function._

My understanding is that flax seed oil contains omega-3s in a form that's not immediately usable by the body (linolenic acid), and the conversion process is inefficient. Check out this post from the excellent Heart Scan Blog:

[http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/omega-3-must-be- fr...](http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/omega-3-must-be-from-fish- oil.html)

He's talking mostly in terms of heart health, and notes that flax oil may have other anti-inflammatory benefits, but it seems that if your goal is getting the most omega-3s for your buck, fish oil is a better source.

</comment><comment><USER3> Here's how I get through 12-hour days: I don't do 12-hour days.

<comment><USER4> Degenerate cases are often not as interesting.

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry, I have to ask: Who is the degenerate case here?

<comment><USER4> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degeneracy_(mathematics)>

<comment><USER3> That doesn't help. I'm not a mathematical figure, nor is the author of the article. The non-mathematical meaning of "degenerate", which I was already familiar with, also failed to make it clear to me. I still do not know what your comment means.

<comment><USER4> I'm not referring to you, I'm referring to your comment that you get through a 12 hour day by not working a 12 hour day. It may be a technically valid statement but it's completely uninteresting. It's like saying that the best way to become a millionaire is to have a million dollars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _I'm staying away from pretty much anything thats not directly from the ground. I am also taking several brain helper pills to increase the uptake of seratonin, improve concentration and memory and keep me feeling alert 24/7._

What is a brain helper pill? The author says he is 'staying away from pretty much anything thats not directly from the ground' so I guess that rules out Adderall, etc.

<comment><USER6> Thats struck me as odd too - he's avoiding anything unnatural and man-made, but feels no issue with popping a bunch of pharmaceutical chemicals?

No offense to the author, and I'm glad if the above strategies are working out for him, but this smells a little like too much new-age health food mania. I too know people who swear by organic foods and will spend hours lecturing you on the dangers of industrialized food production... and have a row of pharmaceuticals they pop daily.

This reminds me altogether of the Jonathan Coulton song: "I Feel Fantastic" (look up lyrics if you don't know it).

<comment><USER7> Caffeine's the obvious guess, but Vinpocetine is a nootropic made from periwinkles, and there may be others.

<comment><USER8> He says "no coffee". Apparently it's neither natural enough nor "pure brain- food" enough.

Piracetam is another popular nootropic. It's cheap, well-studied (as nootropics go, anyway), and probably pretty benign.

My unrequested advice is that if you're thinking about taking nootropics, you should probably make sure you're eating reasonably well and getting enough sleep and exercise first. _Then_ consider the trade-offs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This article made me hate this guy. It's not his fault. I'm being unreasonable and I know it. But when I read this all I can think is "Does this guy realize that Poor people have been managing 12 hour days without a problem even without all this new age junk"

Again, I'm being unreasonably rough on him it just feels like he's denigrating all those hard working people who have to work 12 hours a day to survive and don't have the hundreds of dollars to spend on spiffy pills and organic food.

<comment><USER10> i think that _all_ such blog posts operate under the assumption that you're a reasonably-educated middle-class person who doesn't have to work extreme hours or in poor conditions just to survive and put food on the table. i think if you're worrying about putting food on the table, you probably aren't the target audience for HN.

<comment><USER11> I'd kind of disagree in terms of people that are working on there start up only which is profitable yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Pishh pashhhh....those aren't even real hours. 12 hours days (and at least 30% of the weekend) is pretty much expected in an average corporate world management job these days.

I don't think I've even worked less than 10 hour days in the last 6 years, and once burned through about 2000 hours in 4 months (if you want to absolutely and completely loose track of time, those are the kind of hours to work, when 2-weeks _feel_ like 2 days, you know you are working too much).

That being said, maintaining a healthy diet and sticking to some kind of exercise routine is really critical to keeping stress levels down.

<comment><USER13> _I don't think I've even worked less than 10 hour days in the last 6 years, and once burned through about 2000 hours in 4 months_

I hope you're getting paid a fortune, or better yet are working for yourself, because 2000 hours in 4 months is 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. I cannot think of a single corporate job that would be worth that kind of hell.

<comment><USER12> It was on one particular contract for that period about a year before I went to work at my present startup company.

It _was_ crazy I'll admit, I'm unlikely to want to do that kind of compressed work schedule again.

I actually didn't see daylight for most of that time and ran mostly on something I think was an adrenaline high. The sense of accomplishment at the end of it was enormous.

It was a crazy rewarding experience both in terms of self-satisfaction and in the wallet. I made a year's salary + about another 20% in bonus pay + a few other interesting compensation pieces.

More importantly, for that 12 month work year I managed to accrue the equivalent of 2.5 years of experience by hours and in terms of total output with that contract and some other long hour work, likely more since I had 100% focus on that work with absolutely no room for interruption, it's had a amazing impact on my career trajectory because I can point to that remarkable output and all of the spin-off developments that came from that body of work. In addition, I probably learned more in that 4 months that I had in my previous 4 years of work. It also landed me my current position as employee #(some single digit) with my company and put me immediately into a position of significant responsibility.

It's also given me good perspective on how much I'm worth when negotiating salary as well as how abysmally few hours are in a 9-5 40 hour week and how little work I can get done in that time by comparison.

I wouldn't recommend it for most people though, it was a pretty big sacrifice, but I'd wager that if I were to become employee #0 and startup my own company with my own $$$'s I'd work about those hours to see it off the ground.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I find that the key to going through long work days is to have a routine.

Out of my 16.5 hours of being awake, 14 hours go towards my startup.

Come to think of it, I think I'll write up a post about it. Since it'd be a wall of text on HN otherwise.

Ok here it is: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1051217>

</comment><comment><USER15> 1) Writing blog posts instead of going home early

</comment><comment><USER16> _What are some of your secrets for combating work overload?_

My single biggest secret for continuing to get things done, often working 12 hour days and 6 day weeks, is to love what I do.

I do not think of it as "work", as something to "get through", or as something difficult, unusual, "overload", or temporary. Quite simply, I sit at my computer 12 hours per day, every day, because _I want to_ , I love what I do, and I can't imagine doing anything else. I have been working like this for years.

In fact, I feel sorry for anyone else who doesn't feel this way. What a sad life to be spending so much time doing something that you have to force yourself to do.

Some of the things I have arranged in my life to enable me to do what I love:

I eat similarly to you. It's a great idea no matter what your circumstances are.

I also exercise regularly, 20 minutes, 3 to 6 times per week. I mix it up and only do things I love: 5 rites, pushups & pullups, jogging, swimming, heavyhands, shovelglove, bodyweight exercises, and even a day or 2 at the gym on their machines.

Breakfast at my desk, lunch away from my desk, dinner and Jeopardy with my SO every night without exception.

At least one date night per week, with an extra beer or two just in case it's a chick flick.

I never text, tweet, blog, IM, or facebook. I do respond to voicemail and email regularly. Everyone I know understands this.

Ipod, radio, and 3 cats keep me company. Occasionally I bring a small TV into the office for football games (I'm getting more work done now that the Steelers have been eliminated :-(. )

I like to work in 48 minute bursts, with a 12 minute break each hour for email, internet, snack, or anything else.

[http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2006/09/the-power- of...](http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2006/09/the-power- of-48-minutes/)</comment>


Gearbest Data Leak - <AUTHOR> https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/gearbest-hack/ <comment><USER2> I feel like this wasn't in any way a responsible disclosure, even if the company didn't respond.</comment>


Chirply Raises $1.1 Million, Launches Redesign - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/07/crowd-sourced-design-startup-chirply-raises-1-1-million-launches-redesign/

<comment><USER2> Is the potential to win 300 dollars and make 10 cents per sale competitive with other relatively easy ways designers can make money with their art? That's a 2.5% commission on a $4 greeting card!

CafePress Shops offers 10% commission and RedBubble lets the artist set their own markup over the base cost of the item. I'm sure there other similar stores out there, right? How does Chirply intend to compete?

<comment><USER3> Our up-front payment of $300 is more than most make with a 10% commission (cafe press & redbubble), and we plan to increase it over time as our sales numbers go up.

The community aspect of Chirply also drives more views and sales, versus the silo'd store aspect of the others you mentioned - where you are responsible for driving your own traffic.

In the end, we'll be a much better place for designers as our payments increase over time, and the level of exposure for not only your Chirply products, but also your portfolio.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> 30% off your order with the code "hackernews" - use it on checkout :)</comment>


Twitter client in 3 bash lines - <AUTHOR> http://walkingsmarts.com/twitter-client-in-3-bash-lines/

<comment><USER2> I'm guessing this won't work now. Since mid 2010 you've needed to OAuth to update your status.

<comment><USER3> Actually, HTTP Auth worked up until April 13th of this year if you used source=twitterandroid as one of the GET parameters -- they _finally_ closed that backdoor. I know because that's the day all my code broke and I had to bite the bullet and implement OAUTH.

I'm now using twurl, which a twitter-specific OAUTH enabled command line twitter client that is just about a drop in a replacement for curl in the places you'd use curl to access twitter. <https://github.com/marcel/twurl></comment></comment>


Show HN: Swift Programming Playground in Browser - <AUTHOR> http://bananaide.com/ <comment><USER2> "Sorry! Something is wrong in the code. Will be back online shortly :("</comment>


MessageBird (YC S16), Twilio rival from Europe, introduces support for chat apps - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/08/a-rare-bird-indeed/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN community, my name is Robert and I'm the founder of MessageBird. MessageBird is an API for sending Text, Voice & Chat messages to your customers globally.

Today we launched our API to connect to different chat platforms: FB Messenger, WeChat, Line and Telegram using one single API. You can play around with it in our dashboard and have some chats with yourself before integrating the API.

We would love feedback from the community on our Chat API and/or Text & Voice API's. Let me know if you have any questions. [https://www.messagebird.com/en- us/chat-api](https://www.messagebird.com/en-us/chat-api)

<comment><USER2> Not trolling, the title says you are a rival to Twilio. What do you feel you offer that they don't, or why should an existing Twilio customer use MessageBird instead?

<comment><AUTHOR> We are cheaper than Twilio in almost all countries including US. But price is not everything.

In terms of our strenghts (not sure how this relates to Twilio):

We have a direct-to-carrier strategy, most focussed on Europe & Asia. This ensures reliable and fast delivery. If you are a high volume text message customer we have global experience working for some of the most needy and security sensitive companies including banks & governments.

<comment><USER3> He wasn't kidding .005 vs .0075 USD cents per message and reviving messages is free unlike Twilio. Twilio also charges $1.00 a month for the number itself. I will be giving your service a try in the future sir.

<comment><AUTHOR> We'd love to help you out with this especially because we are newer to the US - really looking for customer experiences- email me please and we can setup a demo account: firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> >The company has been profitable since its first year

Something to learn from ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx :) Climate is different in Europe, you need profitability to survive.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, you guys being profitable made me very happy. It's good to know that not all companies are just crazy burn for growth machines. Congrats!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I'm not persé against burning money for growth, it is just different in Europe than here. We are also Dutch, and you know the saying "going dutch" so maybe a bit cheap haha

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For the uninitated: MeesageBird is super cheap compared to twilio.

<comment><USER7> Not always.

A Virtual Mobile Number for Spain on Twilio costs $1 while on MessageBird it costs $30.

[https://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing/es](https://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing/es) [https://www.messagebird.com/en-us/virtual-mobile- number](https://www.messagebird.com/en-us/virtual-mobile-number)

<comment><AUTHOR> We will look into this asap!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> As a happy customer I get slightly concerned when relatively small, successful companies get (too) ambitious for rapid expansion. Luckily in this case, while MessageBird works very well, the product is not unique and quite easy to substitute may the need arise. I'd rather not see that happen, though. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Happy to hear you are happy. We are a very lean company and most of our expansion will be in scaling technology - not people or products. However, if you ever feel the need to leave, can we agree you write me an e-mail first? email@example.com</comment></comment>


Criticisms of EU plans for copyright censorship machines removed from Google - <AUTHOR> https://juliareda.eu/2018/08/censorship-machines-gonna-censor/ <comment><USER2> [https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/16954705](https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/16954705) err, how is this even legal, doesn't DMCA have provisions for punishing false claims?

<comment><USER3> Among the press articles and misc pages lies [https://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/useful- links/eu-l...](https://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/useful-links/eu- links_en), a page from the European Commission web site that sports tiny logos from the companies they link to. Isn't that considered fair use?

<comment><USER4> "Fair use" isn't a thing in most jurisdictions.

<comment><USER3> The DMCA is a US law, and fair use is a thing in the US. There are AFAIK specific provisions in that law regarding fair use, actually.

<comment><USER4> Right, if we use this particular DMCA request as the context. But this appears to be alleging that the EU road safety page contains a copyright infringement of "Gamble Breaux-This Time (feat. Jason Singh)", which it plainly does not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yeah, I'm sure it was "just an accident"

Aren't DMCA requests done under penalty of perjury if incorrect? Might be interesting to subpoena some records.

It wouldn't be the first dirty trick of "big-copyright", they had/have some fake twitter profiles engaging in pro-reform conversation.

<comment><USER6> Wikipedia says there's a _" lack of consequences for perjury in claims"_ ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmca)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is sad state of matters that I have to fallback more often to DuckDuckGo and Russian Yandex to discover public information which is censored by Google and big Co-s. Forbidden bits?

(I know Yandex may be in the other side of censorship spectrum too).

Isn't it a high time for a decentralized federated search-engine?

<comment><USER8> > Isn't it a high time for a decentralized federated search-engine?

Check out YaCy: [https://yacy.net/en/index.html](https://yacy.net/en/index.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The article doesn't mention anything about filing a counter-notice [1] to get her content relisted, which the law requires be processed just as blindly as the takedown. While I'm all for shedding light on abuses of the current system, the implication that she has no recourse is simply false.

In fact, I'm surprised that the widespread DMCA claim abuse hasn't spawned some quick-and-easy counter-notice services to help people get their content reinstated.

[1] [http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/responding-dmca-takedown- not...](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/responding-dmca-takedown-notice- targeting-your-content)

<comment><USER10> She does refer to this here:

> Each individual author must actively put up a fight to restore the > findability of their free speech.

That's still an unacceptable system. Apart from shifting the burden of proof, you're not even notified when your pages are de-listed, so how are you supposed to know when to send such a notice?

Also, from your link:

> sending a counter-notice makes non-U.S. residents give up a powerful > argument they would otherwise have -- namely, that a U.S. court does not > have the authority to render a judgment against them. For these reasons, > non-U.S. residents may not want to send a counter-notice

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Well, this is a very effective strategy for blacklisting links in Google via DMCA requests. Truly remarkable.

</comment><comment><USER12> FALSE ALARM!!!! The Blog post is live, indexed and searchable - see below.

Tested on [http://Google.com](http://Google.com) / .de / .co.uk

E.g: [https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&ei=qpN4W_vLDcPgkgXe_...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&ei=qpN4W_vLDcPgkgXe_aO4BA&q=inurl%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fjuliareda.eu%2F2018%2F05%2Fcensorship- machines-link-tax-finish- line%2F&oq=inurl%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fjuliareda.eu%2F2018%2F05%2Fcensorship- machines-link-tax-finish-line%2F&gs_l=psy- ab.3...7419.7419.0.78184.108.40.206.0.0.0.85.220.127.116.11....0...1c.1.64.psy- ab..0.0.0....0.y3e5HP890fI) … No need to #SaveYourInternet it's a Red Herring, with no #censorshipmachines here or #uploadfilters either.

<comment><USER13> From TFA:

>After the EFF uncovered further fraudulent removals by Topple Track and TorrentFreak covered the story, Google reportedly terminated its trusted partnership with the company. But still, as of this writing, my blog post remains unlisted on Google Search. Incredibly, not even when a company is exposed for issuing abusive takedowns are the websites they've previously ordered removed reinstated. Each individual author must actively put up a fight to restore the findability of their free speech. (Update: The page seems to be back in the Google index now.)

>(Update: The page seems to be back in the Google index now.)

So, no, not "FALSE ALARM", but you, ironically, did in fact just cry wolf, and you in fact insinuated this as a "Red Herring", this, combined with your strangely inappropriate use of hashtags and your suspiciously monotonous submission & comment history makes me suspect that you have an undisclosed agenda.

Are you Per Strömbäck, or in any other way associated with netopia.eu?

If (n)either [doesn't really matter, after all], please stop making false claims, it seems rather ironic.

<comment><USER13> Oh and, perhaps we should mention who funds Netopia.eu:

* European Publishers Council

* Federation of European Publishers / Fédération des Éditeurs européens

* International Federation of Film Producers Associations

* International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

* International Union of Cinemas

* International Video Federation

* ISFE – Representing the European Videogame Industry

* Motion Picture Association

* Premier League

* UNI MEI

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Can this work the other way, too, with individuals making the complaints?

Or are DMCA complaints reserved for companies only?

<comment><USER15> Individuals can file DMCA takedown requests.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Correct link to the article: [https://juliareda.eu/2018/08/censorship- machines-gonna-censo...](https://juliareda.eu/2018/08/censorship-machines- gonna-censor/)

</comment><comment><USER17> > on whether to force internet platforms to install upload filters.

Then stop using "internet platforms". Put a web server on your router and get sharing. And only share stuff you make.

> Check SaveYourInternet.today

That's not my Internet you're saving, it's a centralised corpnet. If you only use corporate platforms then of course you're at their whim.

I'm feeling bloody-minded enough to hope that these laws are passed. A shock to the system seems to be the only way to stop the Internet coalescing around FANGAM or whomever.

Maybe the FidoNet guys had the right idea all along.</comment>


How I wrote a technical book in under 200 hours - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@robaboukhalil/how-i-wrote-a-technical-book-in-under-200-hours-911d5e4f9e8c <comment><USER2> Thanks for this write-up! It's very inspiring, especially to those of us who are considering writing their own technical book. Would you mind doing another post-mortem but with sales figures (total revenue, hourly rate, etc.) and marketing ideas (what worked, what didn't work, how you planned the launch)? It's cool if you want to keep this information a trade secret though. Thank you for what you've shared so far.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! Yes I'm definitely planning on writing a post-mortem with details about sales figures in a few months.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to move into engineering management? - <AUTHOR> I'm a decent (but not senior) developer but I don't really like writing code all day every day, and I would much prefer to be handling operational and people issues.<p>Anyone have any advice on how to move over? I'm only 27 and I have something sort of like impostor syndrome where I feel like I don't really deserve to be an engineering manager at this point, like I need to be good enough developer to be a team lead first. What do you think? <comment> daffodil-11 I look at it as follows:

Developers have the following core competencies: project management, ui/ux, distributed architecture, programming (including programming tests and devops), security, and data management (sql, back-ups, etc). Obviously people are going to specialize at some point, and some systems need entirely different skills, and I'm leaving out SAs, DBAs, UX designers, Product owners, but for most work you need a team that can cover all that, and imo, senior developers should have a pretty good handle on all of that even if they specialize in one area. (By project management, i don't expect them to be project managers, but they should know how projects go down from start to finish)

As an engineering manager your core competencies are vision (do you know what needs to be done), leadership (can you sell a vision and get buy-in), administration (follow sdlc, do all the HR stuff), and mentor both junior and senior people in all of their core competencies. Your main job is to deliver in the short term but also build a more capable team. If your senior staff know more than you, that's awesome, as long as you can tell when they are getting off-track.

It's a big space to operate in. Few do it well and most dev managers get by ok for decades basically sucking by this criteria, so don't be scared to just jump in.

Most days, I'm not sure I do it well, but that is the framework I use to guide myself and evaluate other managers. The vision/mentoring comes pretty easily to me (i have a very strong dev and architecture background), the leadership, especially up and across the org chart? Well, let's just say I'm working on it.

</comment><comment><USER2> Engineering management is more than just operational and people issues. If you don't think you could contribute to design discussions, code reviews, and broader architecture discussions at the same level as a team lead you probably aren't ready to manage engineers. That isn't impostor syndrome; it's a recognition of the fact that as an EM you'll have to do that.

</comment><comment><USER3> Becoming an engineering manager is not an escape from coding. It's the opposite. To get there you need to be a top performer, which involves being really good at coding and all the other tasks you'd like to move away from. And then, you get promoted and they take it away from you. The best individual contributors become great managers. You should look into project manager roles instead. This will he a better option for you.

<comment><USER4> I sort of experienced this. I was getting consistently good feedback as an IC, and my TD and line manager asked me to try out a lead role of a very small team. The idea was that I'd still have time to code as well, but in reality it involved way too much dealing with people and JIRA for my liking. I gave it a shot for 3 months, but really all I wanted to do was focus more on programming and growing as an individual contributor. In a 1-on-1 with my TD where I opted out of the role I told him there was no shortage of people who would love to be in a lead role, so they should just pick someone else. He commented that it's kind of a Catch-22, and that unfortunately most people who want a lead role aren't the same people that would be suitable for that role, and that people who tend to be good at those positions are ICs who naturally may not be that interested in them.

Luckily my company has a TD progression track for the more manager-y types and an SSE track for ICs, so that conversation was a great checkpoint of sorts where it became very clear which track was right for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think statistically managers start at about 28 for smaller companies.

I have a huge breadth of experience with projects both big and small. Also where I live, fluent English isn't so common. Also have some professional training experience.

I do blog a lot of stuff on management on Facebbook. Crazy theories and books to read, to the point of obsession, because I'm frustrated at how many projects are managed. A lot of people recruit me from there.

<comment><USER6> Curious where you get that statistic from? I would hesitate to trust a 28 year old engineering manager in most circumstances short of being an extreme outlier in terms of abilities and career. At 28 that would mean they have around 6 (at best) years experience assuming they have just a bachelors level education.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> A manager requires the tech chops of a lead PLUS people skills. If you're not ready to be a lead, then you're likely to be a terrible manager.

<comment> UK-Al05 I've worked at a lot of larger companies. Our managers we're almost never technical, or they were only developers for 1-2 years.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Using custom linux kernel on a recent laptop (haswell and up)? - <AUTHOR> I haven't done it in while and i am wondering if there are any advantage to customize and compile my own Linux kernel instead of using whatever ships with my distro (ubuntu 15.10 in this case).I am particularly hoping for better battery life <comment><USER2> Well, I won't recommend it to you unless you have a specific reason to do it (but just for fun... counts).

As a haswell user the only thing I have to say is, before Linux 4.4, the new P-state driver was awful specially for the powersave preset.

Other than that, probably won't worth it. Sure you can make it boot fast and use less memory, but in general is marginal. I used to have a linux-ck kernel and for some reason it stabilized my gaming in wine. Skyrim didn't crash/freeze as often, other than that... with my i3 I only squeezed 1-2 fps in my bad 20 something fps. But now wine got better, and I didn't rebuild the linux-ck anymore.</comment>


Feds ordered Google location dragnet to solve Wisconsin bank robbery - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/28/20836855/reverse-location-search-warrant-dragnet-bank-robbery-fbi <comment><USER2> Wonder if someone suspected Feds would do this, they could ask their accomplice to take their phone and walk around with it in a different part of town. They would then have a alibi and be discarded as a potential suspect.

<comment><USER3> Just FYI, you would have to have an exceedingly clever accomplice. They would need to walk around in a part of town where there are no cameras, and preferably very few witnesses. (If someone remembers seeing him alone, or cameras verify he was alone, or God forbid, if one of his buddies sees him and strikes up a conversation, the gig is up.)

Your accomplice would have to take possession of the phone at a comfortable distance from the target bank. (Again, in a place that no one, and no camera can observe the arrival of either party.) And the co-conspirator actually robbing the bank would have to make his/her way to said bank without being observed leaving the phone drop site. (And without being observed traveling in a direction inconsistent with his/her phone's location data.)

All of that is not as easy as it sounds. One traffic camera on a stoplight and they got you, in your car, heading towards the bank, in the opposite direction of your phone. Now your co-conspirator is in trouble too. (Aiding and Abetting at minimum.)

We're creeping towards an age of ubiquitous gaze, and only people who are way smarter than I really know if there's any averting it at this point. I think the only real defense against ubiquitous, 24/7 surveillance right now is to live life in a remarkably unremarkable fashion.

<comment><USER4> The point is to exclude you from suspicion in the first place, not verify your alibi.

You've got it all back to front. They won't check the CCTV _outside_ the robbery area against non-suspects _outside_ the robbery area.

You're basically saying they'll check the whole of the world that they weren't in Wisconsin.

<comment> munk-a It's possible (especially if you're in a criminal database) that this might actually paint a bigger target on your back - if a traffic camera caught you going toward the bank and facial recognition picked it up in an automated sweep... then the fact that your phone was broadcasting as being in a different location might be a red flag on it's own.

While humans are doing the piecing together this tactic will probably be pretty decent, but it wouldn't be super hard to marry those datasets after you've seen it happen a time or two.

<comment><USER5> And now everyone who forgets their phone on their way to work gets flagged.

I'm not even disagreeing with you. It makes me sad, however, that this sort of automated surveillance is mostly accepted by wider society. We will force everyone into a Brave New World styled life, where being entirely unremarkable is the only way to avoid suspicion, no matter how innocuous the behaviour.

<comment><USER6> I bet hardly anyone travels without their phone on them. Even in a large city...maybe tens or hundreds of people.

<comment><USER7> You forget all the senior citizens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Governments serve Google with over-broad search warrants frequently, but there is not information in this article stating or implying that Google responded to this or other similar warrants. Google has a whole department of attorneys dedicated to evaluating search warrants. They claim they won't comply with vague and overbroad warrants.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeKKHxcJfh0&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeKKHxcJfh0&feature=youtu.be&t=72)

<comment><USER9> > They claim they won't comply with vague and overbroad warrants.

Assumably it's the judge's opinion on this that matters, right? In the case of a national security letter this fight wouldn't even be public. Assume the worst.

<comment><USER10> A judge would review the warrant before issuing it hopefully. I think Google can basically say "Look, this is a bad warrant and you'd be better off narrowing it a bit" and that would work in most cases.

You, as a defendant, can also challenge the warrant as part of your trial if you are caught, potentially getting the results of the search thrown out.

<comment><USER11> Can you if there's a national security "concern"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> \- Why asking Google? (My GPS is allways off) \- Why not ask the phone providers? \- Even the dumbest criminal does know today, don't carry your phone with you, if you do something like this.

I switzerland was a murder an rape case close to one of most busy highway. The police asked the phone providers for phones in this area (highway included). The first bill from the providers was 860'000CHF, they reduced it later to 200'000CHF.

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nzz.ch/amp/schweiz/teure- ue...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nzz.ch/amp/schweiz/teure- ueberwachungen-kantone-sollen-kuenftig-pauschale-bezahlen-ld.1446017)

<comment><USER13> I wonder, is Google even compensated by US feds in the article story?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> 2010 - 2030 This kind of thing happens with lots of alarming stories in the news. People are kind of worried that they will get dragged in as a crime suspect simple because they were driving by the area when a crime was being committed nearby.

2030 - 2040 This kind of investigation becomes so common that the independent news outlets just stop finding instances of it. People are kind of relaxing about it.

2040 - 2050 It turns out that, like DNA evidence, there's now an entire innocence project started dedicated to getting people out of incarceration for any crime where the totality of evidence was GPS data and some made up stories.

2050 -> Oh sorry that new energy source blew up, earth is gone.

<comment><USER15> You're assuming this will wind up being like DNA.

Given the history of every other technique the cops have ever used to solve crime I'm betting it's gonna wind up somewhere between forensic bite mark analysis and eyewitness testimony (i.e. not worth shit unless you've got a lot of other stuff to corroborate it). Of course a generation of prosecutors will get to make their careers on this kind of crap before it gets debunked.

<comment><USER14> Well beyond suggesting that, as stated in other threads, as the criminals get smarter they will simply leave the phone at home and yes, innocent people that have a digital footprint near (and when) the crime will be caught instead. Once the police have identified a potential fall guy and they are black, or an immigrant or some other disadvantage, we'll see eyewitnesses come forward to "help" the police officer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> That's why you do crime in airplane mode

<comment><USER17> Google really needs to release a dedicated "Crime Mode" so we don't need to keep using this airplane mode workaround.

<comment><USER18> I can see the mental gymnastics now:

"Criminals deserve just as much privacy and safety as anyone else. If the government violates the criminal's rights to solve, prevent, or preempt crimes, even more crimes have occurred (privacy violations, killing of the criminal, etc.)

There should be explicit modes for phones and browsers available to criminals that allow them to safely commit crimes without risk of their rights being infringed upon."

<comment><USER10> I know you were being facetious, but a mode somewhere in between "track me" (data enabled) and "remove my phone from the network" (airplane mode) would be nice.

Maybe "for the next hour, don't do the normal location-tracking/biometrics monitoring/reporting". I get that Google has no incentive to make that feature but maybe Apple does?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "If you do the crime, leave the phone behind."

Criminals will adapt, they always do.

Because this was a bank robbery, it's a Federal warrant which is harder for Google to fight or procrastinate on (if for some reason they chose to).

<comment><USER5> Most criminals I knew over a decade ago knew this already. Phones were left behind as much as possible, batteries pulled out when discussions happened, and so on. I'm long away from that world (been clean for 7 years), but I would be surprised if they've not adapted even further

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Can't Feds ask mobile phone servers providers(there are only couple of them in US) for phones registered at specific base station? I think police have been doing this for ages.

<comment><USER21> They can but that could pick up way more people and not be accurate enough for location tracking. Cell sites can have a range of multiple miles.

Phones have a much more accurate location history since they can localize using AGPS. And with google location history turned on it stores that location to googles cloud.

<comment><USER22> I thought the cell sites triangulate the location of customers for better analytics. It's not AGPS level, but it isn't single cell site range either.

<comment><USER3> If you were a cop, would you want the AGPS range data? or some triangulated range of phones?

Cops are only doing what makes sense. You can't really blame them. There needs to be a law that prevents them from doing it. Absent that, people need to stop being so liberal with their information.

This was a bank robbery, but the principle certainly applies to other activities as well. I mean really, do you really need your phone on you if you're going to see your mistress? I don't think you do.

<comment><USER23> Not receiving/responding to messages from family and/or friends can be a signal in itself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> There's probably a market for bank cameras with image recognition that automatically set a silent alarm if they spot a gun. Several cameras inside and out could track the individuals.

<comment><USER25> I don't think you understand the problem scope. Guns are hidden behind clothing and you're going to have a _lot_ of false positives.

<comment><USER24> In this instance, it certainly would have worked.

"One man jumped onto the teller counter and pulled out a handgun, throwing down a garbage bag for the tellers to fill with money"

Outside cameras could have tracked them into a car, if it was reasonably close.

A security firm can monitor for false positive.

This would probably work for your average convenience store robbery too. In the US, we have a large market for security.

<comment><USER26> Perhaps you would be suprused by the number of people who carry guns 24/7\. This would be very hard to implement.

<comment><USER27> Perhaps you'd be surprised that some countries with banks have very few guns in private possession.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Isn't this a blatant constitutional violation? Maybe while they are at it they can search through everyone's house as they "might be there".

Granted the fusion center already have access to this information - alot of times they have to make it official to be admissible in court. So there might be something foul in play here(besides the blatant 4th amendment violation).

</comment><comment><USER29> Why does the article say they got "every Android phone in the area" \- are iPhones using Google Maps not going to get picked up as well?

<comment><USER30> Google maps is not on all the time.

<comment><USER31> IIRC, Google Maps is still opt-in (opposed to "Maps"), at least it was when I got my phone ~3 years ago

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> > With nearly a year elapsed since the warrant was served, that suggests this > particular reverse location search may not have been as fruitful as > investigators hoped.

They did not find anything. But God help you if you have a prior record and happen to be black or match the description of the assailants... and just happened to be around the bank at the time.

<comment><USER33> >But God help you if you have a prior record and happen to be black or match the description of the assailants... and just happened to be around the bank at the time

Seems reasonable that you would be approached by investigators if you were present at the scene and matched a witness description.

<comment><USER32> It would be fine if they simply approached people and tried to rule them out, but due to the psychopathy in the justice department they often try to paint the people they find into the perp often hiding evidence that exonerates them.. in other cases photo-shopping their face to cover up tattoos to make them look more like the assailant.

The issue is that prosecutors don't act in good faith... and because of that legitimate exercises maybe used against people in illegitimate ways.

<comment><USER33> Yes that sort of thing happens, but "often"? How often are we talking here? You make it sound like a common occurrence and I'm not convinced that's the case.

<comment><USER34> Happened to me, so I can speak about this first hand.

I fit the description: I was between 5'3" and 5'11" and my skin color can be described as "coffee with a touch of milk."

Video evidence that showed, fifteen minutes before it happened, that I was 13km away at a wedding having dinner wasn't enough since I could have left immediately after the footage was taken and driven down.

I still have video evidence of the senior detective basically instructing the witness to select me out of a lineup. They also whispered to each other throughout which I only managed to hear thanks to some expensive headphones I had.

I made fake Facebook accounts and befriended all of the "witnesses" and victims. Beat the case on a technicality thanks to a post I found on Facebook by a eye witness.

I'd still be in jail right now 9.5 years later.

I'd say it happens extremely frequently, it's just that the people it happens to aren't as lucky as I am.

<comment><USER35> Wow. Have you written about this anywhere else? Glad you're free!

<comment><USER34> Thank you.

It's not something I'm particularly proud of or something I talk about - outside of my immediate family no one really knows all of the details, and only a handful of people outside of my immediate family know about it. It's the most traumatic experience of my life and had significant consequences on my mental health that still affect me daily.

My blind optimism helped me through it, but it had really hurt my family too.

<comment><USER35> Understandable, it must've had a big impact.

Good luck and I'm glad the optimism paid off!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Slightly misleading title. "In an attempt to solve" would be better, since the case is still unsolved.

</comment><comment><USER37> This is particularly relevant with the recent discussion around Amazon's Ring partnership with law enforcement. "We will always ask you for permission" gets a bit thin when warrants like this can be issued.

<comment><USER36> Well of course. Warrants are warrants, it doesn't matter whether Amazon has a partnership or not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Like straight out of movie Hell or high water

</comment><comment><USER39> Most criminals tend to use burner phones of the non-smart variation.</comment>


Why Outsourcing Your Information Technology Might Make Sense - <AUTHOR> https://steemit.com/business/@jacknight/why-outsourcing-your-information-technology-might-make-sense <comment><USER2> Outsourcing IT is a terrible idea. So many of our customers have done that, and are fighting to get out of their contracts because the outsourced IT has been so poor and incompetent.</comment>


IBM announces plan to hire 25K ahead of Trump meeting - <AUTHOR> http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/310312-ibm-ceo-announces-plan-to-hire-25000-workers-ahead-of-trump <comment><AUTHOR> Besides IBM's Ginni Rometty, the list of tech execs due to meet the President- elect today includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Facebook COO Sheryl Sanddberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Oracle CEO Safra Catz and Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins. [1]

List of "invited, but not going": Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (currently out of the country), Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. [2]

Announced a few minutes ago however is that Travis Kalanick and SpaceX's Elon Musk are due to become members of the Presidential advisory council. [3]

[1] [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-top-tech-executives- larry...](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-top-tech-executives-larry-page- tim-cook-sheryl-sandberg-to-attend-summit-at-trump-tower/)

[2] [http://www.recode.net/2016/12/10/13908492/trump-tech- summit-...](http://www.recode.net/2016/12/10/13908492/trump-tech-summit-tim- cook-apple-larry-page-google-sheryl-sandberg-facebook-nadella-microsoft)

[3] [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-forum- idUSKBN143...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-forum- idUSKBN1431KU)

<comment><USER2> I don't see a Zuck. What gives?

<comment><USER3> Because their COO is there instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _" CEO Ginni Rometty announced that the new jobs will come over the span of four years"_

That's roughly 6000 per year. I'm curious what the definition of "new jobs" is. Since they have 300,000+ employees, I would think they already hire 6000+ a year just to cover natural turnover.

<comment><USER5> I wondered the same thing, but I believe the announcement is more intended to curry favor with Trump.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The conclusion of the article:

> Rometty, the sole Silicon Valley leader on the advisory

> council, may be trying to show Trump that IBM is working

> to keep jobs inside the country.

Is directly at odds with the implications of the CEO's words in the same article (emphasis added):

> We are hiring because the nature of work is evolving –

> _and that is also why so many of these jobs remain hard to fill_

That reads a lot like the language used by $everyone to convince legislators that more H1B visas are required.

In addition, I saw nothing in the statement that indicated the hiring would be in the US, or of US citizens.

<comment><USER7> Exactly. And where is Trumps plan to meet with organizations that represent the interests of the American tech worker?

All these executives see is the bottom line, and to them it looks like a bunch of overpaid nerds and there is a nice solution to that problem and all they have to do is repeat over and over "we can't find the skills we need". They've done a fantastic job of all getting on the same page, I just wish the american tech worker did the same to at least counterbalance their narrative.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wtf is "new collar"? Some bullshit IBM-talk for hiring back the 20k skilled workers they fired earlier this year for less money/benefits?

<comment><USER4> If you search around for other places where she uses the term, it means jobs that require only vocational training. Handy that these "new collar" workers will be less expensive, right?

Edit: The letter she wrote to Trump outlining what "new collar" means: [http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/files/201...](http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/files/2016/11/15/IBM_LETTER_PG1.png)

<comment><USER9> Do we know that those new collar jobs will be less paid? In the resource you linked, security and data analysts are included. The could be vocational. They could be degree bearing. They could be advanced degree bearing. If they are paid less, it's probably do ease of entry.

<comment><USER4> I posted a link in another comment in this thread that gives some idea. Their pilot program (6 year high schools) is targeting entry level jobs that pay $40k/year. They are definitely not degreed.

I can't, of course, prove that this is displacing a job with a higher entry level salary, though I highly suspect it is.

If it were a normal white collar opportunity, why call it new collar? That term obviously implies she's trying to shoehorn something in-between blue collar / white collar.

Edit: I assume the $40k jobs are mostly in New York State, since the pilot school is in Brooklyn. I have no idea if $40k is a reasonable salary for say, Poughkeepsie.

<comment><USER9> I think a lot of tech jobs are vocational. I know they don't require a college degree.

I have one. I'm good at what I do. I've worked with several people who didn't have one, only a HS diploma, and they were good. This is part of the meritocracy that is tech.

As to the entry level. While that is low from a SF perspective, in Florida, that's pretty good, especially in a semi-rural area. If IBM is putting data centers and the like in similar areas, the price for the employee is a good fit.

Edit: don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge fan of IBM. I have a love/hate relationship (15000 red book pages under my belt). I also call their self- checkouts Nazi Clerks given their past.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> IBM is a Silicon Valley company? I thought they were headquartered in some combination of Armonk, NY and whatever country has the cheapest workers that week.

<comment><USER11> Silicon Valley has become a general reference to the Tech industry the same way Wall Street is for the Finance industry. That's just the way it is in the public consciousness now, no point in fighting it too much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Given Trump's propensity to publicly denounce individual organisations, including threats of withdrawing government business, it's hardly surprising that companies are now lining up to court Trump's favour in the same vein as Carrier. The only thing that does surprise is just how quickly companies are adapting to the new game and lining up to present King Trump some kind of offering.

The most recent Economist cover story provides some interesting perspective on this [http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21711314-president- ele...](http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21711314-president-elect-has- new-approach-dealing-corporate-america-it-not-all-good)

<comment><USER7> Indeed. My bet is they will announce a "great deal" that will "create 1000's of tech jobs" and all the Trump had to give up was an increase to the H1B cap, another OPT extension and maybe even a tax break.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> What does the term "new collar" mean? I understand the distinction between blue and white, but i don't get what could be new

<comment><USER14> Judging from the context, I suspect it mean hiring former blue collar people to fill what would traditionally be professional roles (IT).

Basically, they laid off a bunch of expensive, educated and experienced people and are now looking to backfill the areas they cut too deeply in with cheap labor that they can boot camp to a minimum level of proficiency and then charge the same prices for.

<comment><USER4> >with cheap labor that they can boot camp to a minimum level of proficiency

That does indeed seem to be the case. There's a Huff Post article where IBM execs talk about their pilot program that's tied to this "new collar" business:

 _According to an interview with an IBM official, "The objective is to prepare students for entry-level technology jobs paying around $40,000 a year "_[1]

[1][http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/what-does-the-p- in...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/what-does-the-p-in-ptech- _b_6244690.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I don't trust this at all. IBM promised to create jobs in my town (Columbia, MO) in order to receive tax credits, and after they received those tax credits, they cut their workforce. The city has since suspended those tax credits. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but I see this as nothing more than a facade to gain leverage with Trump.

[http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/ibm-s-columbia- emp...](http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/ibm-s-columbia-employment- numbers-drop-again/article_6b5f6867-dd99-5c44-b401-cc4ec7e2d7dd.html)

</comment><comment><USER16> To give some perspective on IBM's contracting relationship with the various agencies of the US government, here is a broad search: [https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?sub=y&...](https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?sub=y&ST=C,G,L,O&FY=2017,2016,2015,2014,2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&A=0&SS=USA&RN=international%20business%20machine)

</comment><comment><USER17> Quick question:

What is IBM doing and selling nowadays? Did they become a consultancy or something?

They have 300k employees. That's a lot for a company I thought was dying.

<comment><USER18> [http://www.geek.com/apps/tsa-paid-1-4-million-for- randomizer...](http://www.geek.com/apps/tsa-paid-1-4-million-for-randomizer- app-that-chooses-left-or-right-1651337/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Note that it's the announcement that's "ahead of the meeting," not the actual hiring.

<comment><USER20> Yeah, the structure of the sentence tripped me up. I get that headline-writers sometimes get teased for their dependent clauses, but they do serve a purpose.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> You mean the same company that this year, laid off over 20,000 positions? Get the hell out IBM, you're acting like a bunch of sycophants.

P.S. Bluemix is bad and you should feel bad.

EDIT: I normally try to approach my commenting with a rational calm way, but I can't, not with I.B-fucking.-M.

<comment><USER22> Can any of us approach the behemoth calmly?

It seems that wherever I go, everyone has something terrible to say about them, but they still keep getting huge contracts that they fail to deliver on.

Is there someone here who can reasonably explain why they like IBM?

Because I can't understand it.

And I congratulate Queensland, Australia for banning future contracts with them for the next fifty years. (QLD can't contract to them for 50 years).

<comment><USER23> No CTO ever got fired for buying IBM.

<comment><USER24> No longer true. When IBM borked the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control software upgrade (1993), they very publicly lost the contract and many heads rolled. Mitre (their very stable FFRDC) lost a third of their FAA support staff in the blood-letting that ensued.

IMHO, the only remaining golden boys of business are consultants like Bain and BCG, who tell the C-suiters what to think.

Of course, the great secret is that these opt-shops will be the first companies to be fully automated, but invisibly. Then for decades thereafter, human CEOs will blithely continue to follow the lead of their precious Bain- bots, not realizing they've become a bot too (which they always were, of course).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I think the "ahead of Trump meeting" makes what is effectively almost a tech story into a political one.</comment>


China defaults hit record in 2018, and the 2019 pace is triple that - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/china-defaults-hit-record-in-2018-the-2019-pace-is-triple-that <comment><USER2> So I'm doing an MBA right now. Yeah, I know, I know. Anyway, it's a world- ranked program, located in Hong Kong. I will say that I actually have learned a lot, if that makes the below easier to believe.

One of my classmates is a senior finance manager or something for a Chinese real estate company. Just finished a macro economics class where the professor identified various issues and risks around the world and particularly identified corporate debt and real estate prices (among other things) as being a really big risk in China. He also happens to get invited to advise the top of the top levels of the Chinese government on their economic planning, so he very much has a horse in this race.

So my real estate finance manager classmate objected to real estate prices being a risk. She told the professor in front of the class that if things ever get bad, the Chinese government will step in and take care of everyone. This prof advises the government about their economic risks and she's telling him there's no risk.

I have no idea what to think anymore. The world is crazy.

<comment><USER3> Conspiracy idea: The Chinese government wants everyone to default on loans because then they'll get to claim ownership of all the assets. So everything will become state owned once again, communist dream?

<comment> em-bee ownership in china is time limited anyways, i think to 75 years. at that point properties go back to the government no matter what. so this wouldn't make much difference

<comment><USER4> What's the difference between owning a 75 year lease on a property, and owning a property, where every year, you have to pay a ~1.33% property tax on the value of said property?

It's not like China is the first country in the world that has fixed-year leases on housing. I know for a fact that you can find such properties in both Canada, and the United Kingdom.

<comment> em-bee the main concern i'd have is that they are looked as being the same without people being aware that there is a difference.

people are saying stuff like: buying an apartment in the US or in singapore is better than buying one in china, not realizing that they are effectively different models. calling it "ownership of a longterm lease" is a very good name that much better describes the reality. (it's the first time i see that term, but it just makes sense)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> China's goal is to eliminate social upheaval, mostly centered on the concept of full employment. Without it, the country risks social upheaval.

Their second goal is a growing economy, so that the people can be richer, on the thinking that richer people have more to lose, and less like to cause social upheaval.

The end result of this is that China will continue to contort itself to satisfy its goal. Just like the Thanksgiving Turkey, this works great...right up until it doesn't.

What I hope HN people are doing in the background is contemplating what happens on that Day of Reckoning, and how it impacts them and their lives.

If that day happened tomorrow, commodity prices would drop across the board. Oil would drop, as would gas, coal, grains, livestock. That would be great (unless you are employed in those industries).

Then, real estate prices will drop, as the Chinese trying to get money out of the country won't be able to (it likely will be devalued, and possibly near worthless). Vancouver, and Canadian real estate in general will have price collapses. This will cause Canadian bank failures, and dry up credit in Canada.

Meanwhile, companies with significant exposure in China will see their stock drop. Cash flow will be reduced, and for some, significantly. Assets may have to be marked-down to lower book values.

Further, the companies that depend on the aforementioned firms will endure hardships of product logistics - manufacturing, inventory, and quality control will all go a little haywire.

Firms that can move their supply chains out of China quickly will do so, helping various other countries.

But countries that have significant percentages of their GDP devoted to raw materials production (such as Africa, the Arabian peninsula, Russia, and Australia) will go into recession, and some into depression.

That will result in a drying up of global capital (probably quickly, as bankers run faster than most when they hear canaries chirp), and global shipping.

I could go on, but you get the idea. So much of our lives (wherever we live) depend on supply chains that either run through China, or are significantly affected by China (like concrete and steel), that we are all going to be effected, and economically speaking, it won't be pretty for the world.

<comment><USER6> What's the time line on this getting started?

What's the best strategy for investing? Asset allocation?

To be specific

Near term: < 6 months Short term: 6 Mos - 2 yrs Midterm: 2 years - 5 yrs Long term: 5 years or more

what you're predicting here is in line with mine, but yours is way more well thought out ... and globally catastrophic.

Where can money be spent right now as an investment?

<comment><USER7> This may never happen

1\. China is converting as much of there funny money Yuan into Gold as possible. This helps bolster the idea that China can pay their debts. [https://bloom.bg/2I5TYME](https://bloom.bg/2I5TYME)

2\. China monetary policy is run through banks. When a bank is to far insolvent they will make bad banks and put all of the insolvent loans into those. [https://reut.rs/2WvG2zb](https://reut.rs/2WvG2zb)

3\. When China has enough gold to give external investors confidence they can sell off half of their Treasury holdings, create the good / bad banks, and re- engineer the economy. Leaving foreigners on the hook. [https://bit.ly/2H7zdxf](https://bit.ly/2H7zdxf), [https://bit.ly/2vOA1li](https://bit.ly/2vOA1li), [https://s.nikkei.com/2WgZRuD](https://s.nikkei.com/2WgZRuD)

4\. The world wants cheap stuff. While foreigners will be unhappy they lost their investments they will keep buying from China and China will have a soft- landing from this upheaval.

5\. China won't at that point be able to afford to buy any treasury bonds. The US Treasury will be forced to print money and inflation will go up along with various problems. This will force investors back into China because the US doesn't look like it is any better off then China is. It is a lot like someone who declares bankruptcy being able to get credit again pretty quickly.

6\. To make sure productive members of China's society work China could make less productive members into caregivers helping to relieve some societal stress.

7\. China's government owns part of a lot of private and public companies along with China Utilities. They can raise money by privatization like France has done. [https://on.ft.com/2lN2x1F](https://on.ft.com/2lN2x1F)

<comment><USER5> Some responses:

#1, China is going to have to buy _a lot more_ gold. They only have about 1/4 as much gold as we do. And if they buy too fast, they'll push up the price, which hurts their currency. Not saying you're wrong, but there are limits here. [https://moneyweek.com/499249/how-much-gold-does-china- have-a...](https://moneyweek.com/499249/how-much-gold-does-china-have-a-lot- more-than-you-think/)

#2 - many ways to deal with this, but it has to be in balance

#3 - I don't understand your - can you elaborate?

#4 - not at the cost of seeing their economies whither up and disappear. An aging demographic curve in most countries is already going to do damage - giving the rest of the country away won't help. We're already seeing increased protectionism around the world in different forms (e.g. the US with tariffs, the EU with regulations, etc.) One example is here: [https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/arcelormittal- idling...](https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/arcelormittal-idling-steel- mills-in-europe/article_e635ff12-b2d1-5380-b67c-18db0cdc099d.html)

5 - Not all bad things are created equal. Check out this and read the text next to the graph titled, "China Population Growth": [http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/china- population/](http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/china-population/)

6 - this doesn't work with an aging population. The demographic curve hurts (see #5 above)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> About the news. Well, that's it. After one guzzles on debt which he has no chance to repay, a bankruptcy usually follows.

A lot of Chinese elites are financially inept, and that is not limited to only ones who were born before seventies.

That twisted version of financial "science" was born during China's nineties, out of numerous "get rich quick" schemes, and is now being taught as "the new truth" in reputable Chinese business schools.

The few companies from that era that managed to miraculously survive and turn into more or less normal profitable enterprises were then labelled as "examples to emulate," to disastrous results...

Lenovo ( _a huge real estate player in China,_ ) HNA, Wanda, Oceanwide- Minsheng, Guotai Junan, Poly, Fosun, Pingan... all built along the same template: ridiculous real estate investments as a collateral for equally ridiculous loans on which the rest of their group companies run.

</comment><comment><USER9> China has estimated 40 trillion yuan of local government debt (no one knows exactly how much), since no one will ever be held accountable for it, cities are essentially borrowing nonstop like there's no tomorrow coz you know free money why not.

贺铿, member of the National People's Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, claims not single one of the cities planned to ever repay. Some even struggle to pay interest.

<comment><USER10> Most of the cities are likely correct, thus they made the correct move. They will be bailed out just as happens everywhere else. Perhaps the central government even likes this arrangement, because it allows them to basically wipe out cities that don't fit into their plans for the future.

<comment><USER11> You can wipe out the city, but somebody still needs to pay the debts.

<comment><USER12> As best as I can tell, the Chinese government's plan is to externalize the effects of all the debts that turn bad. At the end of the day, foreign investment in physical assets (factories, equipment, supply chains, etc) and infrastructure cannot simply be repossessed, especially under the auspices of a fiercely nationalistic and dictatorial Chinese government. If Chinese debt holders are no longer able to meet their obligations, the Chinese government will step in to secure the debts they hold and nationalize/seize whatever valuable assets are held by foreigners, effectively offloading all their financial problems on the rest of the world. What recourse will a company like Apple have against a sovereign nation no longer willing to play by WTO rules since they have grown strong enough to ignore all but the most sincere military threats?

<comment><USER11> Hi China, good luck buying oil without any Dollars.

<comment><USER12> China's recent support for Maduro in Venezuela, condemnation of the US for ending their exemption from Iranian oil sanctions, and their many energy related treaties and contracts they've signed with Russia over the past decade point to their understanding of this weak point. The Chinese have been making all the right moves in positioning themselves as an alternative to American hegemony for these energy-rich countries that have become targets for the American destabilization machine. I doubt there will ever be such a thing as the PetroYuan but the era of the PetroDollar might rapidly come to a close should China goad the Maduro regime into putting their oil industry's infrastructure up as collateral in return for Chinese investment in sorely needed maintenance, upgrades, etc for that industry.

China is the only nation with the financial means (even if it's all funny money as this article implies) to rebuild Venezuela's oil infrastructure that has been massively underfunded to the tune of tens of billions of USD a year for over a decade. The Maduro regime may be desperate enough to sign an agreement similar to the ones China has been offering African nations whereby a loan that will never be repaid is made with the knowledge that China will wind up owning the assets put up as collateral when the country in question eventually fails to meet their obligations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It seems that this is as intended by the government in a bid to shutter the shadow banking market. The government continues to encourage leverage but only through regulated means.

I wonder what defaulting on shadow loans means. What kind of protections are borrowers actually afforded? To what extent will shadow lenders try to recuperate their loans?

</comment><comment><USER14> Some random questions I always wonder:

Do we really have reliable numbers as far as public debt in China AND what the central government has as far as money, and what they could do about it?

Could China now be large enough that they could just ... cancel some debt and tell the world "That's right, we did it, you gonna just not do business in China?"

<comment><USER15> I believe the huge majority of debt in china is held by the chinese themselves, very little is actually held by foreigners, so were they to cancel debt they could easily do so with little knock on contagion to international investors.

<comment><USER16> What effects would them cancelling their own debt that they hold have? Their currency should inflate because of that... right? But it won't?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why China's Bonds Are Defaulting at a Record Pace

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-20/why- china...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-20/why-china-s- bonds-are-defaulting-at-a-record-pace-quicktake)

</comment><comment><USER18> If someone wanted to price this into their models, where should their short and long positions be if they assume a massive financial crisis in China within the next (say) 10 years?

Asking for a friend. :-)</comment>