How many HN readers actually answer their phones anymore?
Personally, I pretty much never answer calls from unknown numbers, unless I am specifically expecting a call (eg: from a service company coming to the house, or calling back about an inquiry I made).
It's really rare I even get a call from someone in my contact list - even for something "urgent" most people just send a text ("call me - urgent!" is serious). Anything for work is scheduled, and even then it's been years since it was anything but zoom/teams/etc.
Part of this I think is a shift in the way people operate with technology: texting is faster and better than voicemail. Slack, zoom, etc dominate workplaces. Part is it's been ruined by spam.
I don't know if society as a whole is there yet, but I think it's basically rude to expect you can just interrupt someone at any point and demand their direct attention to have a synchronous voice conversation with you. Had the PSTN not existed and you were to try to launch "Telephone" as an app today, it would almost certainly fail. "You get a unique 10 digit number and if anyone types it in, it makes your device ring loudly, 24/7, no matter what else you're doing, and you're instantly placed in a two-way audio call with them!"
I think the opposite is more likely to be true. This sounds creepy because it is creepy and the only place it seems reasonable is in the increasingly disconnected culture of Silicon Valley.
> We are supportive of the preliminary approval of a North Bay Shore precise plan which includes 9,850 units of housing, 1,600 of which would be affordable...
I know exactly what they mean by “affordable”, but how the hell are we ok getting to a point where affordable housing only refers to housing that is affordable because it’s being subsidized?
As an American who likes to travel to Europe, this is a godsend. I can buy a pre-paid SIM before I leave America and then use it all over Europe. Getting a TIM (Italy, 35 Euro for one month) SIM was a real pain in the ass and I would love to have found somewhere else to make the process much easier and cheaper.
> If California wants to lower their housing prices
That's the rub, after you've constrained supply and inflated prices, there's a vested interest of those who've seen their values increase and those who bought at high values to not let them drop.
This is especially important for those that bought at a high value, as if the worth of their house drops, then they can find themselves in a position where they owe much more than the house is worth. We've seen this situation before, not too long ago. It's not pretty.
AFAICT, the trick is to manage growth effectively in an area through restrictions and incentives so that you try to stabilize house prices as much as possible (like the economy), such as tracking inflation and/or some other indicators. If you enact regulations that suppress new housing when demographics call for more of it, you need to offset that with incentives.
The worst thing that can happen is that a group will wrest disproportionate control over housing policy for an extended period, and then the policies they enact through self interest spiral out of control and make the situation worse for everyone.
Personally, I pretty much never answer calls from unknown numbers, unless I am specifically expecting a call (eg: from a service company coming to the house, or calling back about an inquiry I made).
It's really rare I even get a call from someone in my contact list - even for something "urgent" most people just send a text ("call me - urgent!" is serious). Anything for work is scheduled, and even then it's been years since it was anything but zoom/teams/etc.
Part of this I think is a shift in the way people operate with technology: texting is faster and better than voicemail. Slack, zoom, etc dominate workplaces. Part is it's been ruined by spam.
I don't know if society as a whole is there yet, but I think it's basically rude to expect you can just interrupt someone at any point and demand their direct attention to have a synchronous voice conversation with you. Had the PSTN not existed and you were to try to launch "Telephone" as an app today, it would almost certainly fail. "You get a unique 10 digit number and if anyone types it in, it makes your device ring loudly, 24/7, no matter what else you're doing, and you're instantly placed in a two-way audio call with them!"