annapurna

I was surprised (even though I should not be) when I saw how conveniently all my Amazon purchases and travel plans (flight reservations, check-in, rentals etc.) were neatly organized when I went to remove all my personal information. I understand the convenience (with Amazon - being able to track the delivery, flights - automatic calendar scheduling etc.) but oh boy does Google like to gather all the data forever.

I cannot find the link but no surprises when there was a report (from one of the EU organizations) that we pay the highest cell phone fees.

  Deceptive click flow
  Hidden default settings
  Misleading and unbalanced information
  Repeated nudging
  Bundling of services and lack of granular choices*

Hidden Default settings is [when] setting up a Google account, the Web & App activity settings are hidden behind extra clicks and enabled by default.

Third one is users not given sufficient information when presented with choices, and are misled about what data is collected and how it is used.

Repeated nudging is users being repeatedly asked to turn on “Location History” when using different Google services even if they decided against this feature when setting up their phone.

And finally, bundling services when for example if the user wants features such as Google Assistant and photos sorted by location, Google turns on invasive location tracking.

I would believe most of us HN crowd are fully aware of the pros and cons of such tracking and make our choices accordingly (using these tools/software/devices). However, for the majority (yes, they may not appear to be interested in privacy as yesterday's FB quarterly report shows), are they aware of how much data is being collected, how it could be misused, etc.? We, as a society, should do our part in pushing back against such indiscriminate tracking. No specific call to action. For my older parents, I have switched them to iPhone 6S and have gradually gotten older family relatives to do the same as well.

You will be at the mercy of these platforms when (not if) they decide to change their rules but until then, it can be a good source of side income.

Some interesting thoughts from Perry Chen (Kickstarter Co-founder and Chairman): “If you look at a lot of companies, it’s COO, CMO, blah, blah, blah,” Chen said. “But look at a museum. You might have a CEO or director, but then you might have a curator. There is a very specific articulation of roles and lanes, and I think that’s really necessary for Kickstarter, trying to be a different kind of company over a long period of time. If you have operators coming with the classic business playbook, I don’t think we’ll be able to sustain our focus on our mission.”

As for comments regarding the name, you get an idea of why they might have leaned towards drip. On one of the artist's page [1], you see there are different tiers for supporting his project:

1. Dripper [$3/month]

2. Drizzler [$7/month]

3. Sprayer [$15/month]

[1]https://d.rip/peter

> John Zimmer, Lyft’s president and co-founder says 5,000 Torontonians downloaded the app this year with no service available.

> Uber has become part of Toronto’s transportation scene, with almost 50,000 drivers — many part-time — and new services including food delivery.

> Kristine Hubbard, Beck Taxi’s operations manager, expects Lyft’s entry to worsen Toronto gridlock. “It’s another reason to encourage cars to cruise the streets of our city — many of them who come from outside it — who otherwise wouldn’t be there.”

Site: https://jigdel.github.io/projects/meteorites/index.html

It was a choice that set [Nepal's] clocks 10 minutes ahead of India, which at the time used the longitude that passed through Calcutta. When [India] switched their meridian to Hyderabad in 1971, [Nepal] officially had four degrees of separation, and presto, found ourselves a further five minutes ahead of the Indians."

[1]http://web.archive.org/web/20110725100005/http://www.nepalit...

We live in this amazing world and yet we have all these geopolitical issues (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Tibet, Kashmir, etc.) caused by various factors we vehemently believe/oppose (we humans have an brilliant capacity to rationalize any of our actions/beliefs). This past summer, I traveled across Kashmir with my two high school friends to visit the areas where the Indo-Pakistani[3] and Sino-Indian[4] wars took place. The landscape was beautiful, especially in the Ladakh regions. But overall, these regions are occupied by villages and small towns dwarfed by the huge military bases. Why can't these local people live by themselves without the fear of another war? Most of you already know, it's the same textbook example: a new ruler comes in town, finds the need to distract/rally his or her country - what better than a war (this "war" could be extended to politics/tech/biz, not just the old Roman wars)? History is littered with the similar plots and it works every single time.

Sometimes, I wonder if an ET contact would be good for our world so we could put down our differences and realize we are all in this together so we could take care of each other, our neighbors, and our amazing planet! Also, solving Fermi's paradox [5] would be icing on the cake!

[1]http://freetibet.org/news-media/na/full-list-self-immolation... [2]http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/26/uk-china-tibet-idUK... [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_wars_and_confli... [4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_War [5]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8796270

Leap Motion is already developing a product similar to Nimble VR. Control VR intrigues me but my gut feeling is it'll be a while before their products are available on the market (see Myo band for example, it took a while for them to fulfill the orders and the product still has some issues based on the last hackathon I attended)[2]. Regardless, it's an exciting area (bit niche) but hopefully there will be a solution soon.

[1]http://www.breqlabs.com

[2]http://www.betakit.com/team-raisins-wins-sportshack-2014-tor...

I thought previous landing accuracy was more than 10km. Regardless, it's highly impressive that they are working to improve the accuracy by 1000x. I'm curious if this accuracy improvement is a combination of the grid fins and the autonomous spaceport drone ship (with the ship constantly communicating with the Falcon to be an "easier" target).