82776949
submission
reifman writes:
Amazon announced this week that it will commit one of its buildings to housing 200 Seattle homeless for the next year allowing a nonprofit organization to oversee the facilities. The former Travelodge motel faces demolition as part of the company's tremendous growth in the city's South Lake Union neighborhood. It's finally time to applaud the company and CEO Jeff Bezos, traditionally a libertarian, for stepping up to help address this enormous problem. You may remember last month's Seattle #manintree who gained national notoriety — he was homeless. The mayor has declared a homelessness emergency. More than 45 people died on the streets in 2015. Heroine related deaths in King County are at a 20 year high. Neighborhoods are up in arms about homeless drug use, crime and people living in cars. Amazon's efforts won't solve the problem on their own. Should the government require developers to offer a portion of new units to lower and middle income families? Should it institute emergency rent controls? Should it require successful corporate titans like Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing, notable state tax dodgers, to contribute even more?
82214527
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reifman writes:
As posted earlier, Amazon's growth and predominantly male hiring has made dating in Seattle incredibly difficult for everyone. Two Amazon employees, Becca Goldman and Mahvish Gazipura, recently launched DateADev to help coworkers optimize their dating profiles: 'at Amazon [we're] surrounded by software developers and project managers all the time, we just noticed their need. We talk to them all the time about their frustrations with dating.' Goldman's gone on more than 500 dates in the past three years. 'Her experience ... helps her quickly assess an online profile of a potential partner.' Rather than drive its employees into moonlighting, Amazon could just start hiring more women.
80671125
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reifman writes:
As revolving door of Twitter executives makes headlines and its $100+ million quarterly losses continue, it's not clear the company will survive the year without being acquired for a quarter of its offering price. The solution for Twitter's business challenges could be to adopt an engaging feature rich subscriber model that reaffirms its status as the platform of a global democratic communication hub. Here are fifteen ideas for Twitter to transform into a profitable user-centered business including integration of open source Signal for secure phone calls and direct messaging, Stellar for payments and domain mapping and blog hosting with your feed front and center.
79140193
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reifman writes:
Lisa Rein, is raising funds on KickStarter for a an important documentary about supporting whistleblowers with technology: From DeadDrop to SecureDrop tells the story of how 'SecureDrop' was created to help protect sources — individuals who might not come forward otherwise due the prospect of relentless government persecution and being penalized for telling the truth. Through the film's simplified format, the intent of this film is both to educate and to inspire potential whistleblowers to take action the next time they encounter corruption they don't wish to condone and be a part of. The film suggests that SecureDrop could potentially usher in a new generation of whistleblower: One that won't necessarily have to put their whole life at risk, in order to 'do the right thing.' This is such a no brainer for the tech community to fund.
79090499
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HughPickens.com writes:
Jesse Eisinger writes in the NYT that if you heard that Mark Zuckerberg donated $45 billion to charity, you are wrong. Here’s what really happened: Zuckerberg did not set up a charitable foundation, which has nonprofit status. Instead Zuckerberg created an investment vehicle called a limited liability company (LLC) that can invest in for-profit companies, make political donations, and lobby for changes in the law. What's more an LLC can donate appreciated shares to charity, which will generate a deduction at fair market value of the stock without triggering any tax. "He remains completely free to do as he wishes with his money," writes Eisinger. "That’s what America is all about. But as a society, we don’t generally call these types of activities “charity.”"
A charitable foundation is subject to rules and oversight. It has to allocate a certain percentage of its assets every year. The new Zuckerberg LLC won’t be subject to those rules and won’t have any transparency requirements. According to Eisinger what this means is that Zuckerberg has amassed one of the greatest fortunes in the world — and is likely never to pay any taxes on it. "Instead of lavishing praise on Mr. Zuckerberg for having issued a news release with a promise, this should be an occasion to mull what kind of society we want to live in," concludes Eisinger. "The point is that we are turning into a society of oligarchs. And I am not as excited as some to welcome the new Silicon Valley overlords."
79088005
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reifman writes:
On June 3rd, I had brain surgery to treat a benign tumor called a meningioma. I knew ahead of time that the surgeon wouldn’t be able to remove the entire tumor – its geography extended from my cavernous sinus to the pituitary gland to the left hemisphere of the brain and to my brain stem. I also needed CyberKnife radiation therapy to attempt to mutate the remaining tumor’s DNA to stop its growth. Come meet Lenore, my robotic radiosurgeon.
78969679
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reifman writes:
Amazon released new video of its futuristic drones (honestly the though of them buzzing around is the only thing that makes me want to join the NRA) but there's some hopefulness here. Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated 'sense and avoid' technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more. 'It looks like science fiction, but it's real: One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road. ' Amazon said its drones fly under 400 feet and weigh less than 55 pounds.
78404329
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reifman writes:
All of the former Amazon employees who spoke to the New York Times on the record placed their future careers at risk. The stories from some of the women brave enough to speak out were chilling and reflect evidence of misogyny within Amazon. Bezos had asked Amazon employees to immediately report any such behavior and suggested that there would be zero tolerance for it. Yet, shortly after, his spokesman Jay Carney publicly attacked those brave enough to speak to reporters, which only underscored their point. One commentator wrote that Carney's actual intent was to intimidate remaining employees from speaking up, an echo of the initial attacks on Bill Cosby's accusers. Here are seven ways Bezos can encourage women to join Amazon.
78354829
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reifman writes:
Doctors aren't always right and increasingly shorter visits don't leave time enough for exploring symptoms. Raising the issue of declining libido, I was left unexamined, untested and sent home with a bag of Viagra, Cialis and Stendra and a bill for $302. It would be four months before we'd find my brain tumor.
78270263
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reifman writes:
Amazon is warning employees not to wear clothing with company logos, and telling them to keep their badges out of sight as hundreds of people loyal to the hacktivist group Anonymous plan to march on the tech giant’s Seattle headquarters this afternoon. A Facebook message from the Seattle-based group reads, “On November 5th, we will be rallying at Westlake Park in Seattle at 2pm, and then marching to the Federal Courthouse at 3pm, and from there, we shall march to Amazon for some serious lulz!. Teach-ins and rallies will continue throughout the remainder of the day.”
77026291
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reifman writes:
On Sunday, Capital One declined a $280 travel reservation I charged at India-based ClearTrip.com and immediately shut off my card for all transactions until I contacted them by phone. It wasn’t the first time that CapitalOne had shut off my card after a single suspect transaction. But, I’d actually purchased from ClearTrip.com using my CapitalOne card on two prior occasions. It was an example of very poor fraud detection and led me on a tour of their pathetic customer service. The banks want to cut their losses regardless of how it impacts their customers.
77023281
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reifman writes:
T-Mobile said today that the data of about 15 million credit applicants was stolen from credit reporting agency Experian. Applicants who had their credit checked for T-Mobile phone plans and financing between Sept. 1, 2013 through Sept. 16, 2015 may have had their sensitive personal data revealed in the hack. While data like Social Security numbers and ID numbers were encrypted, Experian said that the encryption may have been broken. T-Mobile is offering customers two years of identity theft protection through ... Experian ... If you're willing to give your e-mail, social security number and security questions to the company yet again in your identity theft protection application.
76972445
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reifman writes:
I spent Saturday taking panoramas and photos of Seattle's massive array of construction cranes. GeekWire just hired pilots to shoot images of Amazon's coming biodomes from the sky: 'The ornate spheres will sit in the shadow the Space Needle and will almost certainly become some of the city’s most recognizable structures. The largest of the three spheres will sit 95 feet tall and 130 feet in diameter. That’s about the equivalent of an eight-story building.' The first floor and neighboring dog park will allow local women a place to meet busy Amazon men.
76697867
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reifman writes:
I've been trying to explain to Seattle residents how Amazon's rapid growth is driving out artists and homogenizing the culture but have not been able to anywhere near as well as Adrian Weckler describes the death of San Francisco by tech firms: 'Gone are many artists, artisans and tradespeople. Instead, the lofts, townhouses and studios are being populated with content curators, engineers and infrastructure architects. They're young, they're rich and they're dull as dishwater. The city that once identified with The Grateful Dead now hums along to Hootie and the Blowfish.'
76693661
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reifman writes:
Washington State's been investigating complaints by Amazon men about long waits for the restroom in company offices. Public records requests revealed floors with 150 men and as few as four toilets. Amazon refuses to release diversity numbers for its Seattle workforce but soon most of these will be able to walk to their nearby apartment units for bathroom breaks.
