bernierocks

"google auth, facebook auth, github auth"

So you now have a handful of failure points. I also am against the idea of building my entire user base off of someone else's platform. It's just asking for trouble down the road.

"I find punching in a username + password extremely inconvenient, and this is why I never create new accounts from scratch."

Security is really never convenient. You need to have a good balance between the two. A password manager is pretty convenient, even my non-tech savvy parents can use one.

"So what I am hearing from you is "user authentication" is your greatest security challenge?"

No. I was making a comment about the recent Ring hacks and how if you are a startup and the exact situation happens, there isn't much you can do beyond telling users to use different passwords or forcing a password change.

Even if you have the most secure encryption in place and all the best security procedures, if your users pick terrible passwords (or another site gets hacked and they use the same password), they will get their accounts hacked.

The 1619 Project is a representation what's wrong with our society today: It claims to be facts, but speculates on the intentions of our founding fathers and many other people in history, with no real way to know the actual truth...because we weren't actually there.

Ring was hacked because the victims used the same password across multiple websites and those other websites had data breaches.

You can't really do anything about this, no matter how great your security is.

I suppose Ring could enforce 2FA across the entire platform, but many people wouldn't accept this and they would lose customers.

I use a password manager and don't reuse any password for any site and have 2FA enabled on all of my important accounts. The problem is that most people don't want to be inconvenienced.

" but with a plus of cleverness, strange ways to do things, uncommon hobbies and extravaganza"

You present autistic children like they are all little Sheldons from the Big bang theory, when the reality couldn't be further from the truth.

Autism is a spectrum where a certain percentage of kids are as you say, but many can't do anything without the help of an adult and certainly aren't going to have 'uncommon hobbies' or 'cleverness'.

This looks like spam and I imagine whatever you are doing will no longer work after awhile. Why not just create a legitimate business?

This law won't result in more people with full-time employment. It will result in more job loss.

"The hate-filled vitriol of Trumpism, the barely-hidden hate of Brexit"

Before I got to the end of the article, I knew this was where it was going.

No mention of the left-wing violence on our college campuses, and the conservative speakers that have their freedom of speech violated regularly and their lives threatened with impunity.

No mention of the top tech companies attempting to sway our next election by misleading the general public through blatant censorship of the right.

The doom and gloom about poverty is ridiculous. The current US economy is the best it has been in a decade. Our gas prices are very low because the Trump administration has reduced regulations and opened up local drilling (which means less reliance on oil from the Middle East).

Unemployment rates for everyone are at record lows.

Our society might be dying, but it has nothing to do with what is mentioned in this article.

The ring doorbell camera is very obvious at this point and you can clearly see when it's being used by the logo on the front and the large glowing button.

Just like with the anti-gun zealots, I feel like advocates only want to help criminals and make it more and more difficult for law-abiding citizens from protecting their home and families.

You will not get this opportunity again. Almost nobody will pay you $25/hour for many months, to essentially learn anything at your own pace until work picks up.

Most companies are not busy between the end of November and the end of January due to everyone taking vacations, so you probably won't be getting much work until after the holidays.

We have the lowest unemployment rates in a decade. He has to be doing something right.

With all of the humans emitting CO2 from their bodies right now and population increase that happens every year, dreaming of other planets might be the only alternative.

I really have a hard time believing that after your brother lost his job at Blockbuster (10 years ago?) that he will 'never work again'.

On top of this, Capitalism is what continues to create new jobs, and ensures, for the post part, that you will be able to find another job if you lose your current one.

The secrecy IS deliberate. They want to keep things vague and secret, so it can be used as a weapon against companies that don't fall in line with the EUs political beliefs or when they are running out of money and need some more.

It was really only created for Google and Facebook. They make tons of money and the EU wanted to figure out an excuse for getting some more of it, without it being considered outright theft.

How do you expect all of these free service to actually make money? They are businesses, after all.

If data can't be sold, many people need to prepare to pay for everything.

"It is absolutely beyond the pale for the healthcare access of someone and their family to be linked to their employment. It perverts the freedom of movement between jobs that people have a fundamental right to."

It's not really linked to employment. Employers pay for it, yes, but anyone can go on the open market and get their own insurance. I'm a consultant and have been paying for my own insurance for me and my family for a decade.

In addition to this, there's something called cobra, that allows you to pay for health insurance for awhile after you leave an employer. Unless the person in this article went over a year between jobs and never even tried to buy his own insurance, his lack of coverage is an exaggeration.

"I'm sure there are an assortment of remedies, but the fact that access to healthcare _EVER_ factors in to your career is manifestly wrong."

It really doesn't. The majority of companies provide healthcare for their employees. I've even worked for a company of 10 people and had fantastic healthcare.

"Have you ever decided _not_ to take a risk starting your own small business because of loss of healthcare coverage?"

No. You can pay for your own insurance, which includes doctor prescription, checkups, and you won't go bankrupt in an emergency (or paying for the insurance).

"Have you ever had a family crisis and through it been forced to continue working in order to keep healthcare coverage?"

Even if you have 0 coverage, a hospital will be forced to take you. If you get bills, you can negotiate with the hospital and you can get your bill down 90%. There are some nonprofits that will actually pay your bills for you if you really have no money.

Most of these articles are FUD to push everyone to go to Universal healthcare. Sure our system has problems, but a government takeover will not solve the issues.

Insurance was never meant to be used for everything. We need to get rid of the insurance companies and allow hospitals to actually charge patients the true value of things (which would immediately bring the costs of most things down).

Surgeries and procedures that happen often would be brought down due to competition and the ones that don't happen that often could be covered under some sort of insurance.

Platic surgery and Lasik eye surgery are good examples of this in action. A decade ago, they were both very expensive. Competition has brought the costs down considerably. My parents both got Lasik surgery without insurance and paid under $1000. 10 years ago, it was $10,000.

I also really never got the 'not being able to start a business' mentality. Sure you have more risk, but it will take you much longer to actually have a running business if you have an increased amount of taxes due to universal healthcare.

In most European countries, you need to involve the unions after a certain amount of employees. This combined with large amounts of taxes impedes growth.

I would be interested to see how many larger companies in Europe actually started and grew there or grew large in another country and then opened up an office/location there. I'm guessing more of the latter than the former.

in 2012, I can remember seeing so many bot accounts on Reddit helping Obama. No investigations and nobody cared. It was business as usual.

It's scary to think that if a Democrat is in power again, most of these investigations and interest in Russia will stop...because people don't really care if it helps their candidate win.

I keep hearing about China adopting 'clean energy' yet they are building more C02 emitting coal plants faster than ever.

"An anonymous teenager writes about his brief infatuation with the alt-right, which made him critical of how big tech platforms influence the way we think."

I find it interesting that a very small minority group that isn't really taken seriously by anyone on the right is the catalyst for being 'critical of how big tech platforms influence the way we think' when the vast majority of Reddit, including the many subreddits that appear on the front page are very hard left and comments that regularly promote violence against conservatives, republicans, and anyone that disagrees with the current leftist narrative.

There is no alt-left, because it's considered mainstream. Domestic terrorist groups like Antifa are accepted by the mainstream left and the very real violence happening in major cities like Portland and Seattle isn't denounced by any Democrat or left-leaning politician in the US. Hell, it's barely covered by anyone in the press.

This is the real problem.

ditching scrum.

"Profiting nakedly off of the threat of it is.. well, unusual."

We aren't talking about profiting from terrorists. We are talking about the idea of increased security making you safer from terrorists.

I suppose by this thinking, we should get rid of most firewalls, 2FA, and password managers because it won't actually make you safer.

Good safety practices are generally not convenient. It sounds like most people don't want the hassle of dealing with inconveniences at the airport, which will make them safer.

"Remember that the people selling you security are not reliable indicators of truth. They are profiteers - and you are the one they profit from."

I installed cameras because there were breakins in my neighborhood..and it paid off. Not only did I catch thieves in my house, I was able to give the footage to the police. Many of my neighbors have caught people breaking into cars and people trespassing on their property after midnight.

"but you can't choose if their cameras record you or if your facial profile gets added to their services. You don't get to object when the fed subpeonas AWS for that info because you don't get standing. You are not the consumer, you are the product."

You can trot out this cliche, but it doesn't make it true. I'm the consumer..and it's not like any of these other ring cameras (besides the ones I installed myself) are pointing inside my house. My neighbors all have cameras and it only records public space.

I have no problem with this. I have no expectation of privacy when I'm out in public and neither should you.

"shift away from liberty."

We have the freedom to choose a company like Ring/Amazon. It's not forced on us by the government.

"We didn't have a major terror attack in the US using airplanes before 9/11 either"

We also didn't have the terrorists with that level of sophistication. We still do today. Increased security definitely has a role in a decrease of terror attacks, but how much or how little would be needed to maintain this level? That much is unknown.

'You can surrender all of your liberties, and not actually end up any safer."

You mean giving up my ability to defend myself with a gun (many want to remove the rights of law abiding citizens) or use a camera to catch potential criminals (what you are proposing here in your comments)?

Like I said, I have cameras in my house and have already prevented at least a couple of crimes. It has made me safer for sure.

"well that all feels like doing something. Of course, it's not really, it's theater."

We haven't had a major attack in the US since 9/11. It's really almost impossible to prove what someone would have done without the security and decided against it.

Many don't realize that we really only have two options for protecting yourself and your family:

1) A weapon, like a gun 2) a camera

Sure, we have the police, but by the time they arrive, it's usually after the fact and not easy to actually catch the person that did it.

Many countries, like Australia and England, have terrible gun rights, but essentially have turned into a surveillance state in its place, with the number cameras. It puts the fear into thieves because they know they will most likely be caught.

If you reject both, it will only result in more innocent people getting hurt or killed and crimes going unsolved.

I have ring cameras inside and outside my house. A group of 3 people broke into my house while I was on vacation. They saw the camera inside, and ran out of the window they broke through.

Nothing was taken, but if I didn't have the cameras, something would have been taken. On top of everything, this all happened about 5 minutes before my brother-in-law came back home for the night.

Cameras have also shown us all sorts of crime we would never have known: package thieves, trespassing, and just a better general awareness we never had before.

I was was on jury duty about 10 years ago and any white union members or anyone affiliated with a union were sent home by the prosecuting attorney.

This article is trying to make it seem like it's only done out of racism, when in reality, it's done to potentially help an attorney's client..and a person with any gender, skin color, political affiliation, or other bias can be eliminated.

"simply not having to worry about healthcare and medicine costs as a freelancer makes a huge, obvious differences the length and viability of their careers"

I've been a freelancer for 10 years and have always purchased my own health insurance in the US. When I was single, it was only around $150/month (even only a few years ago). This included Doctor visits, prescriptions, and if I had an emergency..I wouldn't go bankrupt.

If Canada and Europe are great places for startups, why do they lag so far behind the US? The reason is because while it seems great that you get free healthcare, as your company grows, it's many more times difficult survive because of the taxes and regulations imposed on you.

An increase in taxes and regulations only helps large companies because they have the attorneys and employees to handle all of the paperwork and can still survive when a large percentage of their revenue is given to the government.

The dirty secret is that for profit healthcare runs the rest of the world. The majority of new drugs are created in the US and nations that have government-run healthcare create generics by ripping off/taking the IP and creating cheap alternatives. This is the only reason drugs are cheaper in other parts of the world.

The R&D, which costs millions (and sometimes billions) still needs to be paid for by someone..and the government just isn't efficient enough to do this effectively and within a decent time frame.

The problem isn't for-profit healthcare. The problem is the insurance companies. They create an un-needed middleman that inflates the cost of everything. A better alternative would be to get rid of insurance for most things, allow doctors and hospitals to charge directly to consumers (which would bring the costs way down).

Surgeries would also come down in cost because of competition. The ones that don't come down are most likely because they are rare and have little competition. These can be covered under insurance.

Judging from what I see on social media, it's not only not that difficult, but politicians are making laws based on their ramblings and behavior.

It's tough. Last year, after one of my contracts ended, I was looking for work. It took about a week before Thanksgiving to almost Christmas day to find work for the following January.

Lots of hiring managers were on vacation and just the amount of jobs available was a fraction of their normal levels.

Well, I'm the reverse. I'm an American that dated a foreigner. While my friends didn't actively joke about it, I had many conversations from concerned friends and family.

"It is humiliating and wrong"

While I don't think it's right, I can understand why it might cross a person's mind.

Many cultures have a different idea about marriage. If you are living in a country where there is no future because the economy is horrible and there are no jobs, and all you need to do is marry an American to not only get out of this situation, but also help your family. Wouldn't you do it?

Many choose to do this and because it's so prevalent from some countries, it becomes the rule, not the exception.

You can't really blame someone for wondering about this when it happens so often.