When Tenure Never Comes
Academia has become a high-stakes gamble—and the losers can barely afford pants
Hasnain says:
"Then I asked if she could substantiate rumors that the position would eventually translate into tenure-track position. This answer was more troubling. “Universities aren’t really looking to make thirty-year commitments anymore,” says the beneficiary of such a sinecure. In the space of five minutes this Dean had summarized my plight: because I’ve never held a tenure-track position, my decade of productivity put me in no greater standing for a job than someone fresh out of grad school; and those tenure-track positions—the only means to vindicate that work—aren’t in the interests of higher-education administrators."
Posted on 2016-07-31T16:27:37+0000
High frequency security bug hunting: 120 days, 120 bugs
1) Intro & Motivations 2) Findings 3) Analysis 4) Methodology 5) Advice 6) Notable bug I: Second order subdomain/page takeovers 7) Notable bug II: DOM Based XSS via subtitle tracks 1) Intro & Motivations At the start of of this year, I set myself a personal goal of finding
The chip card transition in the US has been a disaster
They're confusing to use, painstakingly slow, and aren't even the best solution for consumers. And banks had every chance to do it right.
Hasnain says:
"Critics have told me that banks opted for a signature versus a PIN code because it saves them large amounts of money by not having to store PIN codes for everyone. Banks, on the other hand, say they feared that their customers would have a difficult time remembering a four digit code. (This, despite millions of people already using check cards and other access cards with PIN codes.)"
Posted on 2016-07-31T16:17:46+0000
Random notes on improving the Redis LRU algorithm - <antirez>
antirez 53 seconds ago. 8 views. Redis is often used for caching, in a setup where a fixed maximum memory to use is specified. When new data arrives, we need to make space by removing old data. The efficiency of Redis as a cache is related to how good decision it makes about what data to evict: dele...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-31T16:14:57+0000
The law depends on compute power
In 2011 Sony sued George Hotz and his friends for jailbreaking the Playstation 3. One of the main complaints was that Hotz published an…
Hasnain says:
"The only real conclusion I can draw from this is the observation that the law necessarily depends on current computational power, but the law doesn’t make that explicit in any document or court opinion I’ve heard of."
Posted on 2016-07-31T16:01:30+0000
We Should Not Accept Scientific Results That Have Not Been Repeated - Facts So Romantic - Nautilus
A few years ago, I became aware of serious problem in science: the irreproducibility crisis. A group of researchers at Amgen, an American…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-31T14:45:14+0000
Habits of highly mathematical people
The most common question students have about mathematics is “when will I ever use this?” Many math teachers would probably struggle to give…
Hasnain says:
"And while Devlin’s particular example is very specialized, a consultant for defense intelligence, his technique is universal. It’s one of the foundations of the wishy-washy term “critical thinking.” So now an average citizen who might discard the idea of mathematics is listening to the news and hears a politician say, “We have strong evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” If they had a good mathematics education they will ask, “What exactly do you mean by strong evidence and weapons of mass destruction?” And, the crucial follow-up question, does the definition provided justify the proposed response, starting a war? If you don’t understand the definition you can’t make an informed voting decision. (Of course, if you watch the news for entertainment and to be part of a political tribe, the truth is irrelevant)"
Posted on 2016-07-31T14:39:24+0000
Pakistan's shameful denial of male rape - The Express Tribune
No catharsis for survivors as talking about sexual abuse remains a taboo
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-31T03:25:36+0000
Is It Just Me, Or Is the World Going Crazy?
By nearly every objective measure, the world is a better place than it has ever been in modern history. So why doesn't it feel that way?
Hasnain says:
"But people have seemed to conveniently forget that freedom is earned through internal sacrifices as well. Freedom can only exist when you are willing to tolerate views that oppose your own, when you’re willing to give up some of your desires for the sake of a safe and healthy community, when you’re willing to compromise and accept that sometimes things don’t go your way and that’s fine."
Posted on 2016-07-31T03:19:40+0000
A Worry if Hillary Clinton Wins: What to Do With Bill
Clinton aides are addressing a potentially thorny problem: Historically, when Mr. Clinton has time on his hands, he can create dangerous distractions for his wife.
Hasnain says:
I don't even know where to begin ...
"Mr. Clinton is not likely to shoulder many of the traditional duties of first ladies, advisers say, like selecting White House china and floral arrangements and presiding as the host in the national home and arranging state dinners. Some of that is expected to fall to the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea. Mr. Clinton also has not given thought to using the role of first gentleman to redefine images and ideas about American masculinity and patriarchy, nor has he decided if he might draw on his personal interests — like veganism — for a healthy-eating initiative the way Michelle Obama did, his advisers say."
Posted on 2016-07-27T00:19:18+0000
Programmers imagine the most ridiculous ways to enter a phone number into a form
Programmers have been trying to make phone number entry forms that are as terrible and hilariously difficult to use as possible. And, so far, they've been succeeding.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-26T22:15:46+0000
Driverless Cars Threaten to Crash Insurers’ Earnings
Driverless cars threaten to crash insurers’ earnings
Hasnain says:
"While many in the insurance industry expect the new technologies to improve and proliferate, “we are still operating in an era when car makers are recalling millions of vehicles for the simplest of technology failures: ignition switches, floor mats and air bags,” said Robert Hartwig, president of trade group Insurance Information Institute.
He said many prognosticators with speedy timetables for driverless-car adoption “have drunk too much of the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid.”"
Posted on 2016-07-26T17:49:50+0000
World of Warcraft: one simple line of code can cost you dearly
A few days ago, a new type of gold/item scam made the rounds. Usually scamming in MMORPGs is done using social engineering techniques, e.g. an attacker sells a fake item code for alleged in-game items like mounts to a potential victim for in-game currency. But this most recent kind of attack...
Hasnain says:
Sure, let's make it easy for users to shoot themselves in the foot.
Posted on 2016-07-26T01:45:14+0000
Log Structured Merge Trees - ben stopford
A detailed look at the interesting LSM file organisation seen in BigTable, Cassandra and most recently MongoDB
Hasnain says:
A pretty good read on LSMs, why they're useful, and where they're needed. I still think it's unfortunate that I haven't seen them covered in databases classes
Posted on 2016-07-26T00:52:22+0000
Kashmir, and the Inheritance of Loss
Indian troops have responded to protests in Kashmir with a brutality rare even by their grim standards.
Hasnain says:
This was tough to read. A few snippets below.
"A single shot from a pellet gun sprays more than a hundred pellets. A pellet is a high-velocity projectile 2mm to 4mm around and with sharp edges. It doesn’t simply penetrate an eye; it ricochets inside it, tearing the retina and the optic nerves, scooping out flesh and bone."
"Omar Nazir, a reed-thin boy of 12, barely filled one corner of his bed. A thick swathe of bandages formed a cross across his chest and belly. He had black, adult-size glasses. “He’s lost both his eyes,” Dr. Shafi said. Doctors had yet to deliver the news to Nazir Ahmad, the boy’s father, a day laborer in Pulwama, a district in southern Kashmir, but he already seemed to know. Mr. Ahmad, tall and wiry, looked at the doctor, his eyes liquid with entreaty: “Dr. Sahib, we own one-fifth of an acre of land in the village. I will sell all my land, but please make him see.”"
"A few days later, the police raided the offices of Greater Kashmir, the daily that had run that story about Insha, as well as several other local newspapers, and shut down the printing presses. The authorities’ familiar silencing routine had begun again. Indian officials and thought leaders fell back on tired rituals of obfuscation and denial. But already one line of graffiti had appeared on every other wall throughout the entire valley: “Go India, Go Back!”
Posted on 2016-07-25T23:49:52+0000
Humans once opposed coffee and refrigeration. Here’s why we often hate new stuff.
Over the past 600 years, humans have had a rocky relationship with innovation.
Nintendo shares plummet after investors realize it doesn't actually make Pokémon Go
Nintendo shares have skyrocketed since Pokémon Go's release and instant transformation into global cultural phenomenon, but they fell dramatically today after investors realized that Nintendo...
Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » My biology paper in Science (really)
Well, you can see the paper right here (“Synthetic recombinase-based state machines in living cells,” by Nathaniel Roquet, Ava P. Soleimany, Alyssa C. Ferris, Scott Aaronson, and Timothy K. Lu). Unfortunately there’s a paywall, but I think we’ll be able to post our own version before long (will che...
Hasnain says:
This is a super cool look into hardcore mathematical biology
Posted on 2016-07-24T19:27:32+0000
Japanese 'rent men' who are paid just to listen
From lonely pensioners to Japanese schoolgirls with shattered dreams, Takanobu Nishimoto and his crew of middle-aged men will lend an ear to clients who would never dream of spilling their guts to a therapist or worse, their families. "For me, the service is a hobby more than anything," says
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-23T20:52:53+0000
That time a bunch of journalists confused an opinion piece for a study
Pile of neglected research gets passed off as new data by reporters.
Hasnain says:
"Here's hoping that, in future, scientists like Dr. Boobis will be taken more seriously."
Posted on 2016-07-23T20:45:51+0000
How we broke PHP, hacked Pornhub and earned 20.000$ | Bug Bounties - Evonide
We audited Pornhub, then PHP and broke both. In particular, we have gained remote code execution on pornhub.com and have earned a 20.000$ bug bounty.
Rich Countries Often Fail to Bolster Well-Being, Boston Consulting Says
Sub-Saharan Africa and Emerging Asia lead the pack over an 8-year term in improving its citizens lives, while Western Europe remains at the top of the current index
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-23T17:02:03+0000
The man hired to have sex with children - BBC News
In some remote regions of Malawi, girls are made to have sex with a paid sex worker when they reach puberty - but the tradition has the potential to spread disease.
Bullet that struck caregiver was meant to protect him, police union prez says
The Miami-Dade police union president said the North Miami cop who shot Charles Kinsey, an unarmed healthcare worker, was aiming at the autistic man sitting next to him, who was playing with a toy truck in the street.
Hasnain says:
After watching the video and then reading this, I don't even know where to begin, from the fact that they say they tried to shoot an autistic person, to leaving their "accidental" gunshot victim handcuffed and bleeding, to the fact that they never went close enough to de-escalate, or to the SWAT officer's skills for hitting the wrong person at 50 yards (and missing two shots too)
Posted on 2016-07-22T06:45:48+0000
What if There Just Aren’t Enough Jobs to Go Around?
A new study examines earnings data to link declining job mobility to lower overall demand for workers, suggesting the focus on supply-side factors such as occupational licensing is misguided.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-22T00:03:53+0000
Police Asked This 3D Printing Lab to Recreate a Dead Man's Fingers to Unlock His Phone
The future is weird.
Hasnain says:
Don't most phones ask for a password after a certain amount of time anyway?
Posted on 2016-07-22T00:00:56+0000
Outage Postmortem - July 20, 2016
Overview On July 20, 2016 we experienced a 34 minute outage starting at 14:44 UTC. It took 10 minutes to identify the cause, 14 minutes to write the code to fix it, and 10 minutes to roll out the fix...
Hasnain says:
"This regular expression has been replaced with a substring function."
Posted on 2016-07-21T06:42:20+0000
Braid Code Cleanup (part 1)
I am still puzzling through the right way to think about some ideas in compression, so let’s take a break from that and talk about generally cleaning up the ...
DeepMind AI reduces energy used for cooling Google data centers by 40%
googlegreenblog.blogspot.com
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-21T06:23:25+0000
Stealing Facebook access_tokens using CSRF in device login flow
I enjoy breaking websites.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-20T05:00:23+0000
Is Sushi ‘Healthy’? What About Granola? Where Americans and Nutritionists Disagree
We surveyed Americans and a panel of nutrition experts about which foods they thought were good or bad for you.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-19T23:11:33+0000
Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X' - BBC News
Millennials could become the first generation to earn less than their predecessors, wiping out generational pay progress, new research concludes.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-19T03:50:49+0000
How I Could Steal Money from Instagram, Google and Microsoft – Arne Swinnen's Security Blog
1 How I Could Steal Money from Instagram, Google and Microsoft Posted on July 15, 2016 by Arne TL;DR: Instagram ($2000), Google ($0) and Microsoft ($500) were vulnerable to direct money theft via premium phone number calls. They all offer services to supply users with a token via a computer-voiced p...
I Teach Seniors How to Use Technology — Code Like A Girl
I have always loved tech. I even code with it. But, I decided it was time to expand technology’s target audience to include seniors.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-18T06:28:04+0000
www.playingwithpointers.com
www.playingwithpointers.com
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-18T06:26:18+0000
The Fake Factory That Pumped Out Real Money
Making high-quality biodiesel is hard. Getting paid $100 million to not make it was kind of a snap
Hasnain says:
"In the early going, sellers sent the EPA spreadsheets listing RINs sold, strictly for record keeping. Skeptics wondered whether this system would work in the real world. Michael Hubbard, a former EPA special agent for criminal enforcement in Boston, says, “Folks like me would sit in the room with senior leadership, and they’d be saying people are going to self-report, and we would be rolling our eyes.”"
Posted on 2016-07-18T05:51:30+0000
degoes.net
degoes.net
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-16T20:35:09+0000
One striking chart shows why pharma companies are fighting legal marijuana
New research shows a dramatic drop in painkiller prescriptions after medical marijuana laws are passed.
Hasnain says:
Interesting data, albeit with a click bait headline.
"In medical-marijuana states, the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication.
But most strikingly, the typical physician in a medical-marijuana state prescribed 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year."
Posted on 2016-07-16T17:13:41+0000
Up to 70% of people in developed countries 'have seen incomes stagnate'
New report calculates that earnings did not rise for more than half a billion people between 2005 and 2014
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-16T05:36:09+0000
Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem — BestTech.io
For as long as I can remember there have been two Microsofts: Microsoft Sales and everyone else. It’s a split that exists in most tech…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-16T05:32:10+0000
Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others: A Theory
The future is high-end Chinese food.
Hasnain says:
"Consider the cases of steak frites and carne asada. They both involve cooking a fairly high-quality cut of meat over high heat, and they’re both dishes whose origins are foreign to America. But they’re often listed on American menus at vastly different prices. Why?"
Posted on 2016-07-16T05:26:02+0000
Three Puzzles Inspired by Ramanujan | Quanta Magazine
Insights from the mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan give us a number of ways to explore the infinite.
Interviewing my mother, a mainframe COBOL programmer
My mother has been working for one of the largest banks in the EU since before I was born and I’ve always been fascinated by her line of…
So Many Research Scientists, So Few Openings as Professors
There is such a surplus of Ph.D.s that in the most popular fields, like biomedicine, fewer than one in six reach their goal in academia.
Hasnain says:
"Now, as a new crop of graduate students receives Ph.D.s in science, researchers worry over the future of some of these dedicated people; they’re trained to be academics and are often led to believe that anything else is an admission of failure."
Posted on 2016-07-14T21:37:17+0000
The Fight for the "Right to Repair"
Manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult for individuals or independent repair people to fix electronics. A growing movement is fighting back
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-14T18:43:53+0000
About Prof. A. Z. Al Hafi | Sir Aurangzeb International
About Prof. A. Z. Al Hafi A Brief Citation for the Arch-Researcher Prof. A.Z. Al-Hafi: Over the itinerary-course of the new century rising years, the ‘epitome watchword’ Prof. Al Hafi has iconically emerged as a colossal-authority figure, in multi-disciplinary, as well as inter-disciplinary spheres…
Race conditions on the web
I enjoy breaking websites.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-13T06:00:44+0000
Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
Virtually all smartphones have FM chipsets inside, but you're probably locked out of using it.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-13T05:30:23+0000
The Conjoined Triangles of Senior-Level Development
The Frontside is an Ember software consultancy based in Austin, TX. We use Ember.js to build dynamic, rich web applications that make people happy.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-13T05:23:27+0000
Google, LinkedIn announce massive land swap
Google and LinkedIn officials on Tuesday announced a surprise deal for a massive property swap that would trade real estate and development rights, consolidating Google's presence in Mountain View and effectively sending LinkedIn out of North Bayshore and over to the Sunnyvale border.
Armin Ronacher on Twitter
“The axle count of trains in Switzerland must not be a multiple of 2^8 of the system does not detect a train. https://t.co/f5wKS55don”
My Nephew Brought Home This Menacing Maths Problem — Bright
What happened next is a sad indictment of school maths.
Hasnain says:
"School mathematics is presented as a collection of immutable truths. Problems are binary: there is a right answer and you’re damned if you can’t find it. Curriculum standards do not reflect the rich, exploratory forms of problem solving that underpin mathematical thinking."
Posted on 2016-07-11T03:54:21+0000
How Uber secretly investigated its legal foes — and got caught
When a young labor lawyer named Andrew Schmidt first filed suit against Uber in December of last year, he couldn’t have predicted it would make him a target. Schmidt’s suit was a legal longshot,...
Amazon's counterfeit problem is getting worse and sellers are enraged
Amazon sellers have long dealt with counterfeiters, but with Chinese goods flooding the marketplace the problem is exploding.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-10T22:15:28+0000
A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline
The leading killers — cancer, heart disease and stroke – are coming later in life in wealthy countries as people in general live longer in good health.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-10T21:53:54+0000
Using a Bomb Robot to Kill a Suspect Is an Unprecedented Shift in Policing
What Dallas authorities did on Thursday raises concerns about due process and the use of remotely triggered lethal force by law enforcement.
Hasnain says:
"The ability for police to remotely kill suspects raises due process concerns. If a shooter is holed up and alone, can they be qualified as an imminent threat to life? Are there clear protocols about when a robot can be used to engage a suspect versus when a human needs to engage him or her? When can the use of lethal force be administered remotely?"
Posted on 2016-07-10T18:04:20+0000
Do You Really Need a Dedicated Graphics Card to Play Your Favorite Games?
I played today’s popular PC games with no dedicated video card, and I kinda liked it.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-10T17:58:17+0000
Has Physics Gotten Something Really Important Really Wrong?
It's possible that string theory or the multiverse may find strong links with data, but a recent book provides a view of what a truly different philosophical approach would look like, says Adam Frank.
I, Racist — THOSE PEOPLE
Why I don’t talk about race with White people
Hasnain says:
This is an amazing piece of writing, clearly a must read. So difficult to pick out any one single quote.
"But here is the irony, here’s the thing that all the angry Black people know, and no calmly debating White people want to admit: The entire discussion of race in America centers around the protection of White feelings.
Ask any Black person and they'll tell you the same thing. The reality of thousands of innocent people raped, shot, imprisoned, and systematically disenfranchised are less important than the suggestion that a single White person might be complicit in a racist system.
This is the country we live in. Millions of Black lives are valued less than a single White person’s hurt feelings."
Posted on 2016-07-09T02:44:59+0000
Daddies, “Dates,” and the Girlfriend Experience: Welcome to the New Prostitution Economy
A growing number of young people are selling their bodies online to pay student loans, make the rent, or afford designer labels. Is it just an unorthodox way to make ends meet or a new kind of exploitation? Nancy Jo Sales investigates.
Hasnain says:
Super engrossing human interest story
"The most surprising thing about Miranda’s story is how unsurprising it is to many of her peers. “Almost all of my friends do some sort of sex work,” says Katie, 23, a visual artist in New York. “It’s super-common. It’s almost trendy to say you do it—or that you would.”
“It’s become like a thing people say when they can’t make their rent,” says Jenna, 22, a New York video-game designer. “ ‘Well, I could always just get a sugar daddy,’ ‘I guess I could just start camming,’ ” or doing sexual performances in front of a Webcam for money on sites like Chaturbate. “And it’s kind of a joke, but it’s also not because you actually could. It’s not like you need a pimp anymore. You just need a computer.”"
Posted on 2016-07-08T20:59:04+0000
Celebrated humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi passes away in Karachi
Edhi created a charitable empire out of nothing, masterminding Pakistan’s largest welfare organisation.
How Trees Calm Us Down - The New Yorker
How a leafy sidewalk or a forest scene can make us feel richer, younger, and more focussed.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-08T19:57:24+0000
African wildlife officials appalled as EU opposes a total ban on ivory trade
European commissions’ opposition to a continued global ban will spell the beginning of a mass extinction of African elephants, warn officials from 29 African states
Venezuela Refuses to Default. Few People Seem to Understand Why.
It’s been almost two years now since the renowned Harvard economist Ricardo Hausmann caused a stir in his native Venezuela by posing an uncomfortable question.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-08T19:47:04+0000
NASA Images Show Toxic Air Challenge Choking Indian Subcontinent
The mega-city of New Delhi has tried everything from banning diesel guzzling SUVs to taking about half the city’s cars off the streets in a fight against air pollution. Officials may yet have to do much, much more, based on National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite research.
Go’s march to low-latency GC — Twitch Blog
We use Go at Twitch for many of our busiest systems. Its simplicity, safety, performance, and readability make it a good tool for the…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-07T06:39:14+0000
F.B.I. Recommends No Charges Against Hillary Clinton for Use of Personal Email
The F.B.I.’s recommendation will have an enormous impact on the presidential election.
Hasnain says:
""To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.""
Posted on 2016-07-06T07:55:38+0000
Illinois Man Charged With Desecrating American Flag After Posting Photos On Facebook
A 22-year-old Illinois man has been charged with desecrating the American flag after he posted photos on Facebook along with messages decrying the state of violence and race in the U.S. This is the first time the Urbana Police Department has seen the flag desecration statute used in 27 years. Bryton...
Adnan Syed, of ‘Serial’ Podcast, Gets a Retrial in Murder Case
The decision came after lawyers for the defendant, who is serving a life sentence, presented new evidence in the 1999 murder.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-07-05T06:40:38+0000
How ‘Advantage Players’ Game the Casinos
They’re not cheaters. Instead, they hone the sharpest (legal) edge they can.
Hasnain says:
"A month later, I met with a woman notorious for having won more than $20 million from casinos in less than five years. Her name was Cheung Yin Sun. Elite Western gamblers and rattled casino bosses know her as Kelly, a fast-talking, sunglasses-wearing advantage player in her 40s. Her father, now deceased, was a wealthy factory owner based in Hong Kong. She says she lost $20 million of his money playing baccarat and slot machines. She claims to be unbothered by having blown a fortune in gambling dens around the world. In fact, she all but brags about her losses."
Posted on 2016-07-05T06:24:58+0000
How Facebook Tries to Prevent Office Politics
Five tactics to keep company culture healthy.
Hasnain says:
"I’ve seen lots of cases where someone goes to their manager to protest a decision — on the direction of a project, resource allocations among teams, or something similar — on the basis that the decision was driven by politics or some other personal factor. More often than not in cases like these, the leadership team and the team’s managers simply haven’t done a good enough job of explaining the decision in the context of the company’s broader priorities. When we dig in and provide that additional context, the notion that the decision was politically driven is dispelled."
Posted on 2016-07-05T05:50:45+0000
Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices
As retailers face consumer lawsuits over discounts, Amazon is changing the way it presents bargains to customers.
Hasnain says:
"The problem with list prices or, as they are sometimes called, manufacturers’ suggested retail prices, is that they are regularly more of a marketing concept than what anyone is actually charging. When Amazon was saying the list price of the Breville Infuser was $800, Breville itself was selling the machine for $500 — about the same as Amazon. Other retailers sell it for $500, too. Breville confirmed the price was $500."
"The shift away from list prices is taking some merchants on Amazon by surprise. A seller named Travis complained in an Amazon forum that the list price on his product — which he did not identify — had disappeared from the site. “I’m well aware that it is bogus but it is a common marketing tactic that works very well at boosting sales,” he wrote."
Posted on 2016-07-05T01:36:02+0000
No grades, no timetable: Berlin school turns teaching upside down
Pupils choose their own subjects and motivate themselves, an approach some say should be rolled out across Germany
UAE warns travelers not to wear traditional dress after Emirati visitor is arrested in Ohio
Police and officials in the Ohio town where the incident occurred later apologized.
Home Computers Connected to the Internet Aren't Private, Court Rules
A judge in Virginia rules that people should have no expectation of privacy on their home PCs because no connected computer "is immune from invasion."
Employee 1: Yahoo · The Macro
A conversation with Tim Brady, Yahoo's first employee and current YC partner. Employee 1 is a series of interviews focused on sharing the often untold stories of early employees at tech companies. Tim was the first employee at Yahoo, its Chief Product Officer for eight years, and is now a partner at...
The Universe of Discourse : Don't tug on that, you never know what it might be attached to
This is a story about a very interesting bug that I tracked down yesterday. It was causing a bad effect very far from where the bug actually was.
The Day I Got My Green Card
A London-born writer never felt he truly belonged in the places he and his family were from: India, Pakistan, Britain. In America, finally, he feels free—and at home.
Hasnain says:
Interesting story about intolerance, nationalism, tolerance, and immigration, by Aatish Taseer.
Though I don't get why anyone would put their green card up on the internet (with the id blurred, which can be reversed)
Posted on 2016-07-03T18:12:08+0000
Syria’s Refugee Children Have Lost All Hope
Young Syrians living in Lebanon are attempting suicide in ever greater numbers.
Hasnain says:
“She was between life and death,” Sanaa says, stroking her daughter’s hair. “I asked her, ‘My daughter, why did you drink the poison?’ She said, ‘Mama, there are seven of us and you work and work to feed us, but you can’t keep up. Without me, there will be one less person to feed.’ When she said that, I couldn’t stop crying.”
Posted on 2016-07-02T07:25:56+0000
Mexican woman dies at age 117 just hours after receiving birth certificate
Trinidad Alvarez Lira had been waiting for years to obtain proof that she had been born in 1898 so she could claim government old age benefits
Hasnain says:
She died without getting a single check from the government because she couldn't prove she was old enough.
Now why anyone didn't just look at her and agree that she's over 60 is beyond me...
Posted on 2016-07-01T11:27:10+0000