
Facebook cancels in-person portion of F8 due to Coronavirus - gabea
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2020/02/27/important-f8-2020-update/
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spking
This morning I was scoffing at my mother-in-law's suggestion to
cancel/postpone our 4-year-old's upcoming birthday party as a precaution. Then
I see stuff like this and wonder if she's right.

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woofie11
Turning 4 or turning 5? If turning 4, canceling is reasonable. The kid won't
really know what a birthday is and won't realize anything is missing or
changed. The parties are almost more for the adults.

If turning 5, I'd probably keep it. On the other hand, you can scale back how
you do it. The kid won't really know the difference. Besides, at that age,
bigger isn't better. More friends is just overwhelming.

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nsxwolf
Postponing is better than cancelling.

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agumonkey
a 12 month postpone is in order

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handedness
Better to postpone until summer. There's no indication that next winter won't
be a much worse repeat of what we're seeing now.

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throwqwerty
I have a funny question. I have a FB internship this summer at the Menlo Park
office. I know interns get health insurance but if I get Coronavirus while I'm
doing the internship will they cover my treatment for the duration? I don't
think my University provided health insurance will cover me while I'm in
California...

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ahupp
This is a great question for your recruiter.

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throwqwerty
ah right right

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ghiculescu
Has anyone been able to get flights to a conference changed / refunded as a
result of cancellations like this?

I got an email the other day from the Ruby Kaigi team, they are thinking of
cancelling too which means I may have to do something about those flights to
Japan I booked :(

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sjg007
If the airline suspends flights you will get your money back. Apart from that,
trip insurance? Maybe your credit card offers it.

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andrewmunsell
You have to be very careful with trip insurance and read the documentation to
make sure it covers this case. Some insurance won’t necessarily cover
pandemics, etc.

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AndrewKemendo
FB/Oculus has been pushing remote events via VR heavily since day one.

Seems like a good opportunity to send each attendee an Oculus Go and do the
whole event in VR.

Sure would save a lot of carbon, also.

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dickeytk
Not sure if you’re serious, but would constructing a device really save carbon
vs a round trip flight?

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smileysteve
Yes, constructing a device (that is ~ 1L in volume) is definitely more carbon
friendly than burning 3-4 liters of fuel per person per 100km for a passenger
flight.

If you count shipping (some on air) it's less likely (though boxes are more
space efficient than humans).

And, an Oculus can be reused hundreds of times.

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joezydeco
Looks like GDC is falling apart as well.

And I was going to book tickets to the Qt conference, I’ve changed my mind on
that one.

~~~
ghaff
Some conferences are going ahead even with highly visible companies/sponsors
pulling out. That seems to be the case with GDC at this point though who knows
what another week will bring.

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joezydeco
Postponed.

[https://gdconf.com/news/important-
gdc-2020-update](https://gdconf.com/news/important-gdc-2020-update)

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agumonkey
for once remote video and collab will have first class value

