Hacker News: imbur

New comment by imbur in "Justice Department Sues to Stop California Net Neutrality Law"

imbur — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 04:28:26 +0000

Wickard v. Filburn is the landmark case here. A farmer growing wheat on his own land, to feed to animals on his own land, all in the same state, is considered interstate commerce. The supreme court decided that the test is not about whether it is really interstate commerce, but if the activity exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce.

New comment by imbur in "Questions"

imbur — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:02:03 +0000

The premise that people will die if the hospital takes longer to build is false. The same work can be done in another building

New comment by imbur in "EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’"

imbur — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 05:39:40 +0000

Why should Google be able to profit off of others content without compensating them? Compulsory licenses are standard in the music industry, and in theory the same could work well for journalism. But the devil is in the details.

New comment by imbur in "Sony Releases Stacked CMOS Sensor for Smartphones with 48 Effective Megapixels"

imbur — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 08:04:04 +0000

There are fundamental physical limits at play. Smaller sensors, with smaller pixel size are diffraction limited more quickly. This new sensor has a pixel pitch about one eighth of what a modern APS-C DSLR has. That sensor would be diffraction limited at around f1.4. Most camera systems are more limited by lens resolution than diffraction. Fast lenses like those found on smart phones often have issues with optical aberrations. The lens quality issue is both a financial and technological one. It is possible to create a lens that is diffraction limited, but even for a small sensor it is very expensive in practice.

New comment by imbur in "Post Office owes $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty on a stamp"

imbur — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 06:54:22 +0000

Normally Getty and other stock image sites require a photo release or other relevant releases before selling images for commercial use. Other images will be for editorial use only, or more commonly they will not accept them on the site at all.

Getty made a mistake, and notified USPS a few years before the lawsuit. This was four months after the image was licensed. USPS continued to use the image from 2011 through 2014 knowing that there was no property release and that one was needed.

What is interesting about this case is the artist was not aware of the infringement, did not register the copyright and did not file suit until 2013, and the court is still considering a royalty for unused stamps from before the copyright registration. The court case is far from over though, given the size of the settlement it will be appealed.

New comment by imbur in "Post Office owes $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty on a stamp"

imbur — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 06:42:31 +0000

In the US buildings are covered under freedom of panorama and photographs of buildings taken from public areas are not copyright infringement. Sculptures are not covered under freedom of panorama in the US, and generally photographs of sculptures or other works of art are derivative works.

Second there is a major distinction between commercial use and fine art. Selling an image on a stock photo site to be used in an advertisement requires a release from any models, or from the sculptures copyright owner in this case. If they were selling a limited number of fine art prints they would not need a release.

New comment by imbur in "Taxation of Carried Interest"

imbur — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 05:03:20 +0000

Isn't this accounted for with the standard deduction and marginal tax brackets?

New comment by imbur in "The New Yorker has formed a union"

imbur — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 17:08:17 +0000

It is possible to get paid above the union negotiated rate, called above scale, or to start out at a higher than entry level pay step. It depends on the specific circumstances and collective bargaining agreement.

New comment by imbur in "Facebook Tools Are Used to Screen Out Older Job Seekers, Lawsuit Claims"

imbur — Tue, 29 May 2018 17:15:32 +0000

Going out of your way to recruit and have older applicants apply is not discrimination as long as you treat all applicants equally once they apply.

New comment by imbur in "I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare"

imbur — Tue, 29 May 2018 16:45:27 +0000

Many lawyers will take anti-slapp cases on contingency so you don't have to pay up front either

New comment by imbur in "Renting is Throwing Money Away, Right? (2015)"

imbur — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 03:40:31 +0000

Home buyers often overlook the cost of selling their home when considering if renting is cheaper. That is 6% in realtors fees and another 2-3% in closing costs. Renting is a great deal if you are not going to live somewhere for 5+ years before moving

New comment by imbur in "Facebook Container for Firefox"

imbur — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:40:25 +0000

They fixed the big ones but there are still a bunch of edge cases where you have to log out, like one account is from US and one is from Canada.

New comment by imbur in "How to sell a $300 chocolate bar"

imbur — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 09:09:01 +0000

There is often a large discrepancy between what something costs to produce, and what a consumer is willing to pay.

New comment by imbur in "Dropbox S-1"

imbur — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 06:13:17 +0000

If you start your own company you can distribute equity as you see fit

New comment by imbur in "California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold Mine"

imbur — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 22:19:57 +0000

Was it $180 per month or $180 per quarter?

New comment by imbur in "Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank"

imbur — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 07:18:55 +0000

You can run a gasifier out of almost any biomass, coffee grounds, wood, leaves, corn husks. Then with minor modification you can run most cars on the resulting syngas.

New comment by imbur in "Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank"

imbur — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 07:16:15 +0000

Gasifiers can run off of many types of biomass. Corn husks and other agricultural waste is a big source besides wood.

New comment by imbur in "A Type of Road Junction that Kills Cyclists"

imbur — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 07:43:02 +0000

Look at what they have in Berkeley. It addresses exactly this situation

New comment by imbur in "Where Pot Entrepreneurs Go When the Banks Say No"

imbur — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 07:03:41 +0000

No, what Sessions specifically said is it will be up to the state attorneys. In most cases their goals are aligned with the citizens who voted these laws into place.

New comment by imbur in "NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg"

imbur — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 08:29:36 +0000

It is not to say that the private sector is without problems completely. These rules around promotions and hiring in the public sector prevent certain other problems like favoritism, sexism, nepotism.