Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Monday, January 2, 2023
New best story on Hacker News: Airbnb removed my negative review
Airbnb removed my negative review
511 by luminaobscura | 298 comments on Hacker News.
I recently had a bad airbnb experience. During check in the host requested a cash deposit. this wasn't explained in the listing or prior to arrival. i couldn't check in and went elsewhere. Then i posted a review* giving these details. Airbnb removed my below review because "The review didn’t have enough relevant information to help the Airbnb community make informed booking or hosting decisions." The rating of the place went back up after removal. The host still have "superhost" status. Needless to say, i no longer trust airbnb reviews. *my full review was: I wasn't able to check in because [Host] requested 300 USD security deposit during check in. I told her - I don't have that much cash on me. - That is against AirBnB rules. - This should have been explained in airbnb listing. She can't just surprise guests with this at the last minute. She didn't listen. She said: "my house my rules", "you can't tell me how to run my business", "if you don't like it, you can cancel". I told her if i cancel, i don't get full refund so she should cancel. she said she won't cancel and me not getting refund is not her problem. I think she counts on the fact that guests typically wouldn't want to cancel in the last minute. you can see in some other reviews people had to agree to paying her this deposit. But i didn't want to cave in and called AirBnB. Thankfully, airbnb fully refunded the payment and i was able to find another accomodation in the last minute. I don't recommend this host unless you want a stressful start for your vacation.
511 by luminaobscura | 298 comments on Hacker News.
I recently had a bad airbnb experience. During check in the host requested a cash deposit. this wasn't explained in the listing or prior to arrival. i couldn't check in and went elsewhere. Then i posted a review* giving these details. Airbnb removed my below review because "The review didn’t have enough relevant information to help the Airbnb community make informed booking or hosting decisions." The rating of the place went back up after removal. The host still have "superhost" status. Needless to say, i no longer trust airbnb reviews. *my full review was: I wasn't able to check in because [Host] requested 300 USD security deposit during check in. I told her - I don't have that much cash on me. - That is against AirBnB rules. - This should have been explained in airbnb listing. She can't just surprise guests with this at the last minute. She didn't listen. She said: "my house my rules", "you can't tell me how to run my business", "if you don't like it, you can cancel". I told her if i cancel, i don't get full refund so she should cancel. she said she won't cancel and me not getting refund is not her problem. I think she counts on the fact that guests typically wouldn't want to cancel in the last minute. you can see in some other reviews people had to agree to paying her this deposit. But i didn't want to cave in and called AirBnB. Thankfully, airbnb fully refunded the payment and i was able to find another accomodation in the last minute. I don't recommend this host unless you want a stressful start for your vacation.
Sunday, January 1, 2023
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?
Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?
452 by luuuzeta | 669 comments on Hacker News.
I'm reading Petzold's Code [1], and it dawned on me that I didn't understand logic gates intuitively until now. I took a Computer Architecture course back in college, and I understood what logic gates meant in boolean algebra but not empirically. Petzold clarified this for me by going from the empirical to the theoretical using a lightbulb, a battery, wires, and relays (which he introduces when he talks about the telegraph as a way to amplify a signal). Another concept is the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance. For example, I always failed to understand why longer wires mean more resistance while thicker wires mean less resistance. [1]: https://ift.tt/GxN52sM
452 by luuuzeta | 669 comments on Hacker News.
I'm reading Petzold's Code [1], and it dawned on me that I didn't understand logic gates intuitively until now. I took a Computer Architecture course back in college, and I understood what logic gates meant in boolean algebra but not empirically. Petzold clarified this for me by going from the empirical to the theoretical using a lightbulb, a battery, wires, and relays (which he introduces when he talks about the telegraph as a way to amplify a signal). Another concept is the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance. For example, I always failed to understand why longer wires mean more resistance while thicker wires mean less resistance. [1]: https://ift.tt/GxN52sM
Saturday, December 31, 2022
New best story on Hacker News: It's easier and faster to pirate an e-book, than it is to buy it
It's easier and faster to pirate an e-book, than it is to buy it
572 by leoff | 464 comments on Hacker News.
The end of the year is coming, and I have some funds left from my company learning budget. I wanted to give it back to some of the authors that still help me in my developer journey, by buying some of their work online and hopefully contributing to their income, but the following happened: 1. I went to Amazon, since I have a kindle and didn't want to buy physical books. Amazon doesn't have a shopping card for kindle books, so I started buying them one by one. My company uses Spendesk for managing funds, so for each of the purchase I created a new virtual card and bought them. After a few minutes my Amazon account is blocked for suspicious activity, and ALL my kindle library is wiped, and the funds are returned to my company. 2. Not wanting to give up, I go to a different online store, Thalia, to buy the books again. After buying them, I download the files, which are in an .acsm format, and can only be opened on the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software. Once opened, an .epub file is downloaded, and even though I can't transfer the files to my kindle on ADE, I download Calibre to transfer them. Once I try opening them on Calibre, I get an error message saying the files are protected by DRM. Funnily enough, it's possible to remove this DRM protection, but it's also not something completely legal, and makes me question why did I decide to legally buy the e-books in the first place. After spending hours trying to buy e-books, having my Amazon account blocked, and downloading files that can't be transferred to my Kindle, the only conclusion I come to, is that I'm never buying e-books again.
572 by leoff | 464 comments on Hacker News.
The end of the year is coming, and I have some funds left from my company learning budget. I wanted to give it back to some of the authors that still help me in my developer journey, by buying some of their work online and hopefully contributing to their income, but the following happened: 1. I went to Amazon, since I have a kindle and didn't want to buy physical books. Amazon doesn't have a shopping card for kindle books, so I started buying them one by one. My company uses Spendesk for managing funds, so for each of the purchase I created a new virtual card and bought them. After a few minutes my Amazon account is blocked for suspicious activity, and ALL my kindle library is wiped, and the funds are returned to my company. 2. Not wanting to give up, I go to a different online store, Thalia, to buy the books again. After buying them, I download the files, which are in an .acsm format, and can only be opened on the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software. Once opened, an .epub file is downloaded, and even though I can't transfer the files to my kindle on ADE, I download Calibre to transfer them. Once I try opening them on Calibre, I get an error message saying the files are protected by DRM. Funnily enough, it's possible to remove this DRM protection, but it's also not something completely legal, and makes me question why did I decide to legally buy the e-books in the first place. After spending hours trying to buy e-books, having my Amazon account blocked, and downloading files that can't be transferred to my Kindle, the only conclusion I come to, is that I'm never buying e-books again.
Friday, December 30, 2022
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Monday, December 26, 2022
Sunday, December 25, 2022
New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Tell HN: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
530 by graderjs | 109 comments on Hacker News.
Hope your 2023’s great. I’m sorry for all of you that were laid off or affected by the virus or lockdowns. Next year will be better! Keep the faith!
530 by graderjs | 109 comments on Hacker News.
Hope your 2023’s great. I’m sorry for all of you that were laid off or affected by the virus or lockdowns. Next year will be better! Keep the faith!
