I recently discovered an old chemistry book that is supposedly banned from publication, but since it's not under any copyright anymore we can download it with breaking any rules : http://openmaterials.org/2010/03/18/banned-the-golden-book-o... -- I am finding it really cool to read and learn from.
I haven't used airbnb but after reading some of the comments here, I looked up the airbnb site to check if they have tools/features which try to address the "I am renting to a total stranger/I am renting a strange place" issue - http://www.airbnb.com/safety#reputation - I guess these tools could be improved/enhanced.
But, just because something doesn't follow an established pattern, doesn't mean its illegal. It would make sense if a community decided to add a "no airbnb" clause to their bylaws/rules - but the govt picking and deciding what is abuse of resources and what is not doesn't sound practical - esp when the resource usage of an airbnb unit is no different when it is rented out versus the owner(s) occupying it themselves.
If there can be things like credit-default-swaps, I don't see why the insurance industry should not come up with instruments for this kind of a market - where there is a market, there must be a way.
The issue isn't that an unconventional pattern is illegal. The issue is that the risk models of residential mortgages, many apartment leases and insurance are designed for people living in a home.
That distinction is important, because people generally treat their home with more care. And insurance/mortgages are priced accordingly.
An apartment tenant generally doesn't leave the door open or unlocked -- they don't want their stuff to be stolen or destroyed. But a hotel guest or AirBNB renter has no skin in the game. Have you ever worked at a hotel? People routinely leave patio doors open or prop entry doors when they leave the room.
For me FB is the proverbial ghost town - because I am no longer interested in the contents of activity feed I get on FB :-p . I am sure my opinions don't matter much, after all, I don't have thousands of friends on either of the two services.
But for whatever its worth, I've started to really like G+ since I've started to follow Linus Torvalds and Stephen Kinsella on G+. I like the drag-drop UI that "Circles" tab/widget implements and I love the posts that Linus shares with the public. I don't know if Linus has/uses FB too, but I don't care.
I think that if Google runs G+ long enough and has cool & intelligent people using/developing it, G+ will not do too bad.
I am from India and I am pretty concerned about terrorism, but I am assuming that the people/businesses who will end up following such rules would most probably be the people who aren't planning any thing nefarious.
Meanwhile, the real bad guys are going to find a way around it - and will the govt of India pay me damages if my private key ended up on piratebay because someone stole it from their servers? Nope, don't think so.
Most Indian's have been brainwashed into accepting flaws/weaknesses in (big)governance, kind of like - "its a feature, not a bug"
You're on HN. This puts you far above the "average person". You probably have critical thinking, and problem solving abilities that not many people have.
My guess is that once tech. penetration reaches a critical mass where the rewards for breaking into a low security server outweighs the hassle for the poor or smart people, only then will the government policies be upgraded.
==> Is it implied that since the average American doesn't like some work, America is being afforded a chance to uplift "Chinese farmers" and whole bunch of other poor people? Is it?
==> Isn't such a thought ridiculous? Such a thought, I think implies that the global economy is a kind of a neo-socialist+charitable-capitalistic kitchen whose main aim is to feed the poor and in the process fatten some of them more than the others. Is it?
==> I think that the right question to ask is not if - Amazon Can Make A Kindle In the USA? The right question should be - Is the Amazon Kindle manufacturing ecosystem truly balanced? - If not, then in the long run some parts of the ecosystem will be eliminated, so that the ecosystem finds a balance.
==> Different regions have different geographic/social/economic environments and will be better suited for some kind of work than other regions. One can not ignore these facts.
But, does amazon have a real stake in the companies that make the Kindle China/Korea? I think not. Isn't there an imbalance between what these companies gain, in terms of ability, from this ecosystem and what the rest of the ecosystem (Amazon/American) gets back?
I dont think american companies have a stake in the Chinese/Korean companies/economies that they outsource to. In return they give you low cost electronics - in process building the largest reserves of dollars in the world and building the ability to innovate themselves in the long run.
==> There is no point in being crazy nationalist. But I don't understand why a nation with such a huge continent can't find a place where it can build a manufacturing hub that can participate in the global manufacturing industry.
The country has enough people to enable a volunteer military, but for some reason can't find people who can build a manufacturing hub? even if this was the case - haven't immigrants signed up before?
I don't consider myself a "real" assembly programmer. I can, however, try to debug compiled c code via gdb disassemble and not get totally lost.
I managed to pick up this ability after getting to know assembly programming, and the subsequent "higher level manifestations" in C/C++, from Paul Carter's open source ebook: http://www.drpaulcarter.com/pcasm/
When I first downloaded this book in 2002, I was fairly comfortable with the linux command line, gcc and emacs, but I knew nothing about assembly and computer architecture (registers/interrupts etc).
Whereas other books on assembly were somehow tied to DOS, this was a free book that wasn't tied to any OS and was easy to understand.
Here in India, I was able to get an Android smart phone for half the price of an iPhone. I can also build Android apps on my Debian Linux machine without incurring any additional costs.
The fact that the devices cost lesser(even before the phone company subsidizes it) and yet have GPS and an accelerometer enables me to at least attempt certain kinds of applications that target the mass market here in India.
Also, the ability to read the source code allows me to learn about a smartphone operating system in the same way I got know about a PC operating system by reading Linux's source code.
I would never want Android to be like OLPC. Android is more like a free market. OLPC was charity.
Apple has every right to protect its intellectual property. I think it is equally important for Americans to debate about, and review, the American patent system (where required).
Overall, if HTC can pay royalties to MS, then I guess they can do the same with Apple.
What's it got to do with people being white? Long before the existence of the east India company Pusyamitra Sunga did more than his bit to undo all that Ashoka did to create a united India. While the British did not rule India for the sake of Indians, haven't individuals like Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton helped in creating a modern/self-reliant and Scientific India? Indians Blaming the mughals/Brit rulers is like blaming Google for indexing your mysqldump backup (with plain text passwords) after storing it in public_html/
