Aramis posted:

I really wish there was a good Hacker News alternative out there.

As a news/blog aggregator, it's the only one that I know of that hits just the right level of technical depth and news coverage for me, but the comment sections are some of the worst out there. To make matters worse, there's regularly some insightful information by actual knowledgeable people to complement/counteract whatever is posted. I keep glancing at that drat techbro cesspit because there's a 50/50 chance of it being either worthwhile or infuriating.

quote:

Weeks earlier, in a companywide email, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk had dumped on the concept of corporate hierarchy. Find “the fastest way to solve a problem to the benefit of the whole company” and don’t worry about your boss, he told them. Go straight to the top, if need be.

Balan took him up on it. An automotive engineer at the electric car maker’s Fremont, Calif., assembly plant, she was motivated by Tesla’s save-the-planet mission and wanted it to succeed, she said.

So she was bothered to see what she believed were contracts awarded based on friendships more than quality and price. She had also been raising concerns about floor mats installed in the then-new Model S that tended to curl up under the pedals, a potential safety hazard. Defective mats have caused crashes in other automakers’ vehicles.

She sent Musk an email and asked for a meeting.

A few days later, the HR manager appeared at her desk and said, “So you want to talk to Elon, right? Well, let’s go.” But as soon as Balan saw the dark room with the plastic drapes, “I knew I should have returned to my desk,” she said. “This is weird, I thought. This is not going to be a meeting with Elon.”
...
Defamation is the main claim in Balan’s suit against Tesla — the company accused her of criminal behavior on a popular online news site but provided no evidence to back up the charge. Balan says her professional reputation suffered damage so severe she can’t find a company willing to hire her. “They tell me, ‘We’d like to hire you, but we can’t afford to be on Musk’s blacklist,’” she said.
...
The success of the Model S project was the top priority at Tesla in April 2014, when Balan was walked into that security office. According to Balan’s recollection, the HR manager strongly suggested she drop her complaints about the supplier contracts. Balan said no. “OK, this is your exit interview,” Balan recalls being told. She was handed resignation papers and asked to sign them. When she protested, she said, a Tesla official threatened to have her led outside in handcuffs and told her, “This is what happens if you don’t know how to keep your mouth shut.”

Balan felt intimidated and wanted to get out of there, she said. Even so, she insisted on adding a line to the documents: “I’m resigning for the position that I was put in a month ago bc I dare to speak up to the Sr management, also bc people that had the chance to speak up were threatened...” she wrote. The security guards escorted her from the building and into the parking lot.

But Tesla wasn’t through with her yet. After she filed an arbitration claim against the company, the Huffington Post ran a 2017 story about her case. After it ran, Tesla communications executive Dave Arnold demanded that the online publication run a 600-word Tesla response in full. In part, it read, “Ms. Balan spent company time working on a ‘secret project’ without her manager’s approval and booked an unapproved trip to New York at Tesla’s expense to visit a potential supplier for her own personally-created project. She also illegally recorded internal conversations within Tesla without anyone’s permission, which is clearly criminal conduct.”

Aramis posted:

I really wish there was a good Hacker News alternative out there.

As a news/blog aggregator, it's the only one that I know of that hits just the right level of technical depth and news coverage for me, but the comment sections are some of the worst out there.

Aramis posted:

I really wish there was a good Hacker News alternative out there.

As a news/blog aggregator, it's the only one that I know of that hits just the right level of technical depth and news coverage for me, but the comment sections are some of the worst out there. To make matters worse, there's regularly some insightful information by actual knowledgeable people to complement/counteract whatever is posted. I keep glancing at that drat techbro cesspit because there's a 50/50 chance of it being either worthwhile or infuriating.

Aramis posted:

I really wish there was a good Hacker News alternative out there.

As a news/blog aggregator, it's the only one that I know of that hits just the right level of technical depth and news coverage for me, but the comment sections are some of the worst out there. To make matters worse, there's regularly some insightful information by actual knowledgeable people to complement/counteract whatever is posted. I keep glancing at that drat techbro cesspit because there's a 50/50 chance of it being either worthwhile or infuriating.

Sagacity posted:

Whenever there's something that's genuinely cool and techy, the top comments are typically bitching about the homepage using 30k of js or alternatively some vague rant against microsoft

at least there's n-gate

enki42 posted:

it's slashdot but everyone makes $400,000 at a FAANG company or pretends that they do and assume that this makes them superior to normal people.

ShoeFly posted:

I had a colleague at a former tech support job who posted on hacker news religiously.

He was a 45-year-old “IT professional” who never seemed to be able to move higher than a 1st level support role, despite his years of “experience”.

He was as insufferable as you can imagine.

Volmarias posted:

Doordash Presents: Publik Policy Kids Korner

Pleasant Friend posted:

Question - I know its illegal in America to record peoples conversations without consent,

Pleasant Friend posted:

Question - I know its illegal in America to record peoples conversations without consent, but is it illegal to digitally transcribe a conversation into writing automatically?

xtal posted:

How are you going to do that without listening to it?

Motronic posted:

xtal posted:

How are you going to do that without listening to it?

Motronic posted:

That's not actually correct. A bunch of this is all state-level. And consent isn't the only potential standard - notification (signage) may be all that's required depending on where you are.

You're asking a very jurisdiction-specific question that likely has several answers just in conus.

blunt posted:

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/google-recorder-is-a-real-time-transcription-app-that-even-works-when-youre-offline

Platystemon posted:

Even in places with two party consent laws, there are often exceptions when one party has reason to believe that certain crimes will be discussed.

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

adoration for none posted:

I think there should be a law that bans corporations from pushing or encouraging their employees to support or oppose legislation, candidates, or other political positions.

Pleasant Friend posted:

Question - I know its illegal in America to record peoples conversations without consent, but is it illegal to digitally transcribe a conversation into writing automatically?

adoration for none posted:

I think there should be a law that bans corporations from pushing or encouraging their employees to support or oppose legislation, candidates, or other political positions.

VVV yeah, but this just feels like some kind of illegal.

Strawberry Pyramid posted:

If my experience with people and doorbell cameras is any indication, middle class Americans will decry government and corporations spying on them, but will also fight to the death for the right to surveil their neighbors themselves.

Kaal posted:

I mean nearly 1.5 million American women are raped, sexually assaulted, or stalked each year. In some demographics, such as young low-income Native Americans, the incidence rate is more than 90%. While men might be focused on worries about property crime, that insecurity definitely plays into it for women. When my neighbor had an ex-boyfriend hammering on her door at 1am until the cops showed up, with her dog barking the whole time, she installed a doorbell camera the next day. When my friend received death threats this week from her longtime stalker, police told her that she needed to install a doorbell camera with video storage in order to obtain evidence to be used to protect her. And her social media was filled with women sharing advice about it.

Sextro posted:

Police and courts aren’t there to help women. Hope this helps

TheScott2K posted:

good job seeing the word "police" and just spitting this out like a reflex in response to a pretty compelling reason to have a doorbell cam that isn't "property crime"

Sextro posted:

Restraining orders don’t work and aren’t enforced proactively in a way that protects anyone.

TheScott2K posted:

Guess there's just no use whatsoever for video of some rear end in a top hat who won't stop showing up at your house, then.

Sextro posted:

lovely ain’t it?