Hacker News: marltod

New comment by marltod in "'Top kill' method 'slows BP oil leak' in Gulf of Mexico"

marltod — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:26:56 +0000

queue Fox News to say that Obama should have insisted that this be done 4 weeks ago.

New comment by marltod in "[dead]"

marltod — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:26:47 +0000

Old News. That was the first thing anyone did when they got the game genie.

New comment by marltod in "Making Control Simple"

marltod — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:59:18 +0000

I didn't disagree with that statement. I'm just explaining why Facebook wants users to "share" more data.

What is your explanation for why facebook removed the ability to make your profile picture private to non-friends?

New comment by marltod in "Making Control Simple"

marltod — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:03:10 +0000

The more content is private the fewer pages of targeted advertising Facebook will serve. So if everything was private facebook would make less money.

By tricking users into making more information public they get more hits and get more opportunities to 'share' your data with 3rd parties.

New comment by marltod in "Plummeting Marijuana Prices Create A Panic In California"

marltod — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:09:44 +0000

The most effective argument is that it is a "Gateway Drug". There is no proof that weed makes people use crack or heroin but it is a good way to scare the public.

New comment by marltod in "Plummeting Marijuana Prices Create A Panic In California"

marltod — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:56:56 +0000

In the article they explain it is more like wine than a standard commodity. After legalization you will end up with everything from cheap mass produced quality up to artisan award winning products with a wide range of prices.

New comment by marltod in "Facebook's Culture Problem May Be Fatal"

marltod — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:05:46 +0000

Someone needs to create a standardized Social Network file. Then users could "download their facebook" then upload it to another social network.

New comment by marltod in "Taking the awkwardness out of a Prenup - A Game Theoretic solution"

marltod — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:28:06 +0000

Interesting, However I trust my wife way more than I trust a 'company' that may or may not get bought by someone that wants to reinterpret my pre-nup to determine if it is iron clad enough to invalidate their right to half my stuff

New comment by marltod in "Zuckerberg responds to privacy concerns"

marltod — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:20:13 +0000

I randomly had an OK magazine app installed. I don't remember going to that page, it must have been a link off of Google news.

New comment by marltod in "Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance in Adolescents"

marltod — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:57:05 +0000

They controlled for IQ, but they didn't control for desire. Some people want to make good grades for pride, to impress their parents, etc.. Others would rather do something other than the busy work required to be in the 94th percentile as shown in the graph. There is no difference between getting As and Bs in 8th grade. Colleges mainly look at grades in 9-12.

New comment by marltod in "A 13-Year-Old Takes On Everest, and Sets Off a Debate"

marltod — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:55:49 +0000

"Into thin Air" showed how easy it can be if everything goes well. He talks about people who were out of shape making it. But if one or two things go wrong, you're dead.

New comment by marltod in "Ask HN: Is Google cataloging my girlfriends?"

marltod — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:35:41 +0000

Clearly this is an automated process. No one at Google has done research to determine who you have dated. It is possible that your parent, or friend or neighbor has done searches about both of them.

For example, an old friend may be curious if you are married so they search for you and your old GF names to see if you have a wedding website. Then by talking to a mutual friend at a later date they get your new girlfriends name and do a search for your new girlfriend.

And that is all it takes to make the connection.

New comment by marltod in "State's bad teachers rarely get fired"

marltod — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:11:19 +0000

Interesting rant, however you have not explained why you think Union Teachers are better than non union teachers at educating children? Tax payers pay taxes so that children in their communities get a good education. Why would tax payers pay a teacher 80k a year when there are qualified unemployeed people willing to do the job at 40k.

New comment by marltod in "Yelp Security Hole Puts Facebook User Data At Risk"

marltod — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:49:49 +0000

FB will get a share of ad revenue from a 3rd party application that Bob installs. That application will have access to my picture that I set to "only Bob".

You can blame Bob for being the middle man, or me for not reading the fine print in the privacy policy, but at the end of the day FB is making money from "selling my private data"

New comment by marltod in "Yelp Security Hole Puts Facebook User Data At Risk"

marltod — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:56:47 +0000

By private I mean when I upload a picture and set the privacy to "only Bob" It makes me think that Bob is the only person who has access to this picture.

New comment by marltod in "Yelp Security Hole Puts Facebook User Data At Risk"

marltod — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:18:21 +0000

From FB point of view they have 2 options.

1. Go back to the 2007 FB and keep most people happy, and lose the ability to sell private data.

2. Lose 10-25% of users and monetize everyone else's data.

New comment by marltod in "Goldman Sachs Has First Perfect Quarter With Zero Trading Loss "

marltod — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:22:08 +0000

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/goldman-executi...

New comment by marltod in "Goldman Sachs Has First Perfect Quarter With Zero Trading Loss "

marltod — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:55:30 +0000

There is more than one exchange. If you see a Bid of 10$ come up on the NYSE you can put in a bid of 9.99 on another exchange and if that order gets filled you can then turn around and try to match that bid of $10 on the NYSE if you are fast enough.

New comment by marltod in "Goldman Sachs Has First Perfect Quarter With Zero Trading Loss "

marltod — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:15:47 +0000

Front-Running is currently a legal tactic in trading. GS seems to be very efficient at it. And the 1/8th point higher you have to pay when you buy a stock isn't that much anyways.

New comment by marltod in "Getting Real About Office Hours"

marltod — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:04:43 +0000

Good article, I WFH and I think my peak productivity would be if I was going into the office 1-3 days a week.

One benefit to the employer he didn't mention is lower salary. I have had opportunities to move to jobs with 20% more pay but it hasn't been worth giving up the flexibility of my current job.