Hacker News: tamalpais

New comment by tamalpais in "Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?"

tamalpais — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 16:01:20 +0000

1. Instead of just looking at the opportunity cost also factor in the actual costs, e.g., Netflix requires a paid subscription in addition to time.

2. You could include affiliate links to services for earning money in free time as an alternative to wasting time with earning estimates given input time and skill level. This could include ride-hail platforms (Lyft, Uber), knowledge work platforms (Fiverr, Upwork), even Mechanical Turk.

New comment by tamalpais in "Tesla Cybertruck"

tamalpais — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 05:13:07 +0000

It was at livestream.tesla.com. Looks like the stream is no longer up.

New comment by tamalpais in "Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?"

tamalpais — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 23:05:41 +0000

You’re definitely on to something here. The comments are half the value. There’s usually someone wanting to know why a given option was excluded or why a conclusion was reached by Wirecutter staff.

New comment by tamalpais in "Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?"

tamalpais — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:16:30 +0000

You’re not wrong that there’s the potential for conflict of interest. Many commenters on Wirecutter articles note that the options they choose are more expensive.

But the articles are well-written and have saved me considerable time. They’ve done much of the work of comprising shopping for the reader. I have no qualms buying through their links when the linked product is the right balance of reliable and economical.

New comment by tamalpais in "Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?"

tamalpais — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:58:47 +0000

https://www.consumerreports.org/printers/why-is-printer-ink-...

New comment by tamalpais in "Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?"

tamalpais — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:56:07 +0000

I recommend checking Wirecutter [0] when making a purchase like this. It’s a site that publishes detailed, well-organized, and well-researched reviews of consumer products. I check anytime I buy anything durable, though I don’t always go with their recommendations.

Their “Affordable and reliable” printer pick is the Brother HL-L2350DW for ~$100 on Amazon [1]. I have a similar model, the HL-L2340DW, for the same reason you’re looking for.

[0] https://thewirecutter.com/

[1] https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-home-printers/

New comment by tamalpais in "Disney, IP, and “Returns to Marginal Affinity”"

tamalpais — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 05:05:01 +0000

I have so much respect for Disney and Bob Iger in particular. But something feels lacking about a single company controlling all the best-loved stories in a culture. It’s like a monopoly on sentiment.

Until the last 100 years or so it’s been the case that a given culture’s stories — folklores, mythologies, and religions — were in the public domain. And while they were at times subject to tight control, e.g., non-vernacular liturgies, they were more typically “owned” by everyone.

I don’t mean this as a criticism of copyright. I support copyright and how it incentivizes cultural creation. But I wonder about whether there’s space for more stories we all own, that can be interpreted by everyone, and, most importantly, that create the same powerful feelings of attachment Disney is so good at creating.

New comment by tamalpais in "The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790"

tamalpais — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 18:32:25 +0000

I enabled the Silence Unknown Callers feature [0] in iOS and haven’t answered a spam call since. The downside is that it sends every call from unknown numbers to voicemail, including legitimate ones. It’s a worthwhile trade-off.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207099

New comment by tamalpais in "I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb"

tamalpais — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 18:48:11 +0000

A solution to this problem, which seems common to many large platform companies, could be third-party verification.

A trusted third-party could subject hosts and guests according to a more stringent vetting process. It could even scan listings for guests eager to book in the same way Fakespot, et al., do for Amazon product listings. [0]

For those interested in online trust in marketplaces, I recommend Planet Money's episode on the subject. [1]

[0] https://www.fakespot.com/

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/06/27/623990036/epis...